Untitled Document
The Story of Mouseland
as told by Tommy
Douglas, 1944
It's the story of a place
called Mouseland. Mouseland was a place where all the little mice lived and
played, were born and died. And they lived much the same as you and I do.
They even had a parliament.
And every four years they had an election. Used to walk to the polls and cast
their ballots. Some of them even got a ride to the polls. And got a ride for
the next four years afterwards too. Just like you and me. And every time on
election day all the little mice used to go to the ballot box and they used
to elect a government. A government made up of big, fat, black cats.
Now if you think it strange
that mice should elect a government made up of cats, you just look at the history
of Canada for the last 90 years and maybe you'll see that they weren't any stupider
then we are.
Now I'm not saying anything
against the cats. They were nice fellows. They conducted their government with
dignity. They passed good laws -- that is, laws that were good for cats. But
the laws that were good for cats weren't very good for mice. One of the laws
said that mouse holes had to be big enough so a cat could get his paw in. Another
law said that mice could only travel at certain speeds -- so that a cat could
get his breakfast without too much effort.
All the laws were good laws.
For cats. But, oh, they were hard on the mice. And life was getting harder and
harder. And when the mice couldn't put up with it any more, they decided that
something had to be done about it. So they went en masse to the polls. They
voted the black cats out. They put in the white cats.
Now the white cats had put
up a terrific campaign. They said: "All that's Mouseland needs is more
vision." They said: "The trouble with Mouseland is those round mouse
holes we got. If you put us in we'll establish square mouse holes." And
they did. And the square mouse holes were twice as big as the round mouse holes,
and now the cat could get both paws in. And life was tougher then ever.
And when they couldn't take
that anymore, they voted the white cats out and put the black one's in again.
Then they went back to the white cats. Then to the black cats. They even tried
half black and half white cats. And they called that coalition. They even got
one government made up of cats with spots on them: they were cats that tried
to make a noise like a mouse but ate like a cat.
You see, my friends, the
trouble wasn't with the colour of the cat. The trouble was that they were cats.
And because they were cats, they naturally looked after cats instead of mice.
Presently there came along
one little mouse who had an idea. My friends, watch out for the little fellow
with an idea. And he said to the other mice, "Look fellows, why do we keep
electing a government made up of cats? Why don't we elect a government made
up of mice?" "OH," they said, "he's a Bolshevik. Lock him
up!" So they put him in jail.
But I want to remind you:
That you can lock up a mouse or a man but you can't lock up an idea.
--Tommy
Douglas, 1944
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