Annual Report
CANADIAN (Lu
WINNIPEG .
EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT
OF
THE CANADIAN CLUB
OF WINNIPEG.
WINNIPEG ORGANIZED 19O4
SEASON OF 1911-12
OFFICERS
CANADIAN CLUB, WINNIPEG 1911-1912
President
First Vice-President Second Vice-President . Literary Correspondent Honorary Secretary Honorary Treasurer
W. SANFORD EVANS H. M. BELCHER LT.-COLONEL R. M. THOMSON D. C. GOLEM AN R. H. SMITH C. W. ROWLEY
Executive Committee
THEO. A. HUNT F. H. SCHOFIELD DR. FRED A. YOUNG PROFESSOR W. J. BLACK MAX STEINKOI F
J. H. CURLE JOHN A. HART
ISAAC PITBLADO
C. N. BELL, F.R.G.S.
PRESIDENT WINNIPEG CANADIAN CLUB 1912-1913
Honorary Members of the Canadian Club of Winnipeg
FIELD MARSHAL H.R.H. THE DUKE OF CONNAUGHT AND STRATHERN, K.G.
WILLIAM HENRY DRUMMOND (DECEASED)
His EXCELLENCY EARL GREY, G.C.M.G.
GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH (DECEASED)
FIELD MARSHAL EARL ROBERTS, V.C.
LORD MILNER, G.C.B.
LORD STRATHCONA, G.C.M.G.
SIR ERNEST SHACKLETON, K.C.V.O.
LIEUT. GENERAL SIR ROBERT BADEN POWELL, K.C.B., F.R.G.S.
PRESIDENTS
of
THE CANADIAN CLUB OF WINNIPEG
Since Organization
Organized 1904
1904-5
1905-6
1906-7
1907-8
1908-9
1909-10
1910-11
1911-12
. J. S. EWART, K.C. . J. A. M. AIKINS; K.C.
G. R. CROWE
SIR WILLIAM WHYTE
J. B. MITCHELL . REV. C. W. GORDON, D.D.
ISAAC PITBLADO, K.C.
W. SANFORD EVANS
MINUTES OF ANNUAL MEETING
Minutes of the 9th Annual Meeting of the Canadian
Club of Winnipeg, held on November 25th, 1912,
W. Sanford Evans, President, in the Chair
The minutes of last annual meeting were read and con- firmed.
The annual report of the Executive Committee was sub- mitted as follows:
To the Members
Winnipeg Canadian Club.
Gentlemen :
Your Executive Committee beg to submit herewith a brief report of the work of the Club for the year ended November 15th. The year just closed has been a very satisfactory one in every respect: the addresses delivered have been most in- teresting and have maintained the high level of preceding years; the luncheons have been well attended, and there has been a considerable increase in the membership of the Club.
Fifteen luncheons have been held during the past year, at which gatherings the members of the Club have enjoyed the privilege of hearing addresses delivered by prominent men from various parts of the Empire. Special mention might be made of the distinguished honor conferred upon the Club in having as their guest the Governor-General, H.R.H. the Duke of Connaught, who delivered an inspiring address, and who further honored the Club by consenting to become an Honorary Life Member.
A complete list of the addresses delivered is as follows :
Nov. 23rd, 1911 Mayor W. Sanford Evans; Professor E. Brydone-Jack; A. J. Douglas, M.D.; Don. A. Ross, Esq. "Town Planning."
CANADIAN CLUB OF WINNIPEG
Dec. 4th, 1911 Arthur Hawkes (Toronto, Ont.). "How to Canadianize Britain."
Dec. 7th, 1911 Norton Griffiths, M.P. (London, England). "The British View of the Imperial Home Re-union Project."
Jan. 25th, 1912 Prof essor Adam Shortt, F.R.S. (Ottawa, Ont.) "The Taking of the Civil Service out of Politics."
Feb. 14th, 1912 J. H. Worst, LL.D. (Fargo, N.D.). "Diver- sified Farming."
March 1st, 1912 Dr. Sunder Singh (Vancouver, B.C.). "The Sikhs in Canada."
March 15th, 1912 Arthur 0. Wheeler, F.R.G.S. (Banff, Alberta). "The Grand Trunk Pacific in the Rockies."
March 28th, 1912 Rev. Dr. Wm. T. Herridge (Ottawa, Ont.). "Intellectual Life in Canada."
April 10th, 1912 James L. Hughes (Toronto, Ont.). "Modem Tendencies in Education."
May 8th, 1912 Rev. Father Naish. "Personal Reminis- cences of Plague, Famine and Unrest in India."
June 5th, 1912 Rev. Donald MacGillivray, D.D. "British Influence in New China."
July 16th, 1912 H.R.H. The Duke of Connaught, Governor General of Canada.
July 23rd, 1912 Philip H. Kerr (London, England). "The Foreign Relations of the British Empire."
July 29th, 1912 J. S. Willison (Toronto, Ont.). "The Necessity of a Better Understanding between Eastern and Western Canada."
Aug. 27th, 1912 Rt. Hon. Walter H. Long, M.P. (London, England). "Empire Problems."
It will be seen that these subjects covered a wide range of most interesting and timely topics, and we feel sure that the members who attended were amply repaid by the eloquent and valuable addresses delivered.
MINUTES OF ANNUAL MEETING
The activities of the Club, however, have not been confined to the securing of speakers and the arrangement of luncheons, and many matters too numerous to specify have occupied the attention of your Executive during the past year. It might not be out of place to mention some of the more important subjects dealt with. It had been felt by many interested in the Canadian Club movement that it was unfortunate that such an organization should reach only the business and professional men of the community. In order therefore to widen the scope and influence of the movement, your Executive, early in the year, took up the question of the organization of a college Canadian Club, with the result that the " Canadian Club of the University of Manitoba" has been organized. It is confidently expected that the new Club will be eminently successful in the field in which it will operate. It is hoped that the incoming Executive will take early steps to further the extension of this movement in other directions.
Your Executive also assisted in the efforts being made looking towards the preservation of Lower Fort Garry, and laid the views of the Club in this matter before the Directors of the Hudson's Bay Company in London. It is to be hoped that the representations made by this Club, as well as by other organiza- tions, will finally result in the preservation of this historic fort.
Complaints having been made as to the too frequent display of the flags of foreign nations in connection with the moving picture theatres, your Committee made representations to the civic officials responsible for the censorship of films to be displayed, assuring them of the hearty co-operation of the Club in the efforts being made to give our citizens a class of pictures to which no objection could be taken. These officials are to be congratulated not only for the manner in which they have, to a great extent, eliminated the objectionable feature referred to, but also for the strict censorship in general of moving picture films of an undesirable character.
CANADIAN CLUB OF WINNIPEG
The Club was represented at the Fourth Annual Conference of the Association of Canadian Clubs, held in Fredericton, N.B., when matters dealing with the Canadian Club movement were discussed. Two of- the subjects introduced by the Winnipeg Club were "The fostering of Canadian sentiment and ideals through the agency of the schools," and "The extension of the Canadian Club movement by the organization of Clubs in universities and colleges, and also in railway shops and industrial centres where large numbers of men are employed." Both subjects met with enthusiastic approval and resolutions were adopted requesting other Canadian Clubs to discuss and take action on these matters. Among the other questions considered were "The duty of Canadian Clubs to the immigrant," "The too frequent display of foreign -flags in moving picture shows," "Canada's interest in the Panama Canal," "The celebration of the semi-centennial of Confederation." An effort is now being made to render the work of the Association more effective by the employment of a permanent secretary.
A grant of $50 was made to the Winnipeg Branch of the Aberdeen Association to assist in the work of distributing good literature to settlers in isolated districts of Canada. A grant of $25 was also made to the Winnipeg Garden Club as a very slight recognition of the work that organization is doing to beautify the city.
As in former years the Club has assisted the school authori- ties in arranging for a fitting celebration of Empire Day and Dominion Day by the school children, and congratulatory greetings were extended to Sir Charles Tupper on the occasion of the forty-fifth anniversary of Canadian Federation.
The scholarships given by the Club to encourage the study of Canadian history in the colleges and schools were continued, and in order to still further stimulate the students in this direc- tion, an arrangement has been made whereby during the coming year the number of scholarships will be increased.
MINUTES OF ANNUAL MEETING
During the year the membership of the Club has increased to 1244 and about 50 applications for membership are now awaiting approval.
During the year the Club has lost through death some of its most prominent members: General Booth, A. A. Andrews, J. W. Driscoll, Geo. H. Graham, Prof. Thomas Hart, Mark Fortune and J. Hugo Ross. The Club took occasion to give fitting expression to its sense of the loss to the Empire sustained in the death of General Booth, whose work for the uplift of humanity has so profoundly influenced his generation.
It seems fitting that the Club should in this report express its appreciation of the action of the civic authorities in placing a tablet in the City Hall in honor of our fellow-citizens, who, in the tragic scene of the Titanic disaster, maintained the high traditions of the British race.
Respectfully submitted,
W. SANFORD EVANS, President, R. H. SMITH, Honorary Secretary.
The report was unanimously adopted on motion of Messrs. H. M. Belcher and D. M. Duncan.
The Honorary Treasurer, C. W. Rowley, then submitted the following statement of the finances of the Club as at October 31st, 1912, which statement was certified by the Auditors.
10 FINANCIAL STATEMENT
FINANCIAL STATEMENT
For year ending 31st October, 1912
Receipts
Balance Oct. 31st, 1911 $1,422.12
Luncheon tickets sold - 1,217.57
Memberships— 1244 members 2,488.00
Interest on deposit 55.18
$5,182.87 Disbursements
Auto and Cab Hire $ 59.50
Bunting, Shields, Signs, etc., re visit of His Royal
Highness, Duke of Connaught 70.00
Expenses of Delegates attending Convention of
Canadian Clubs, Fredericton, N.B 175.00
Flowers 10.00
Grant to Aberdeen Society 50.00
Grant to Winnipeg Garden Club 25.00
Luncheons 1,454.75
Music at Luncheons 30.00
Postage 310.00
Printing and Stationery 734.90
Prizes for Essays 100.00
Stenographer 130.00
Telegrams 73.63
Verbatim Reports 105.00
Sundry 34.95
Cash in Bank 1,820.14
Current Account $ 14.24
Savings Dept 1,805.90
$5,182.87
We have examined the books and vouchers of the Canadian Club of Winnipeg for the year ending 31st October, 1912, and hereby certify the above to be a true and correct statement of the Receipts and Disbursements for that period.
WM. T. RUTHERFORD, 1 Auditors L. C. HAYES. Auditors.
MINUTES OF ANNUAL MEETING 11
On motion of Messrs. C. W. Rowley and D. W. McKerchar, the report was adopted.
J. T. Haig, Chairman of Committee appointed to nominate the officers of the Club for year 1912-1913, submitted the following report of the Committee:
i President, C. N. Bell; First Vice-President, Daniel Mc-
Intyre, LL.D.; Second Vice-President, John Leslie; Literary Correspondent, F. W. Clark; Honorary Secretary, R. H. Smith; Honorary Treasurer, C. W. Rowley.
Executive Committee: James Manson, D. R. Finkelstein, W. J. Boyd, D. W. McKerchar, W. J. Bulman, A. H. S. Murray, George Munro, W. Sanford Evans.
On motion of Messrs. J. T. Haig and Max Steinkopf, the report was unanimously adopted.
The meeting then adjourned.
Extension of Club Privileges to Visiting Members Transfer of Membership in Case of Change of Residence
The attention of the members of the Club is directed to the following resolutions, which have been adopted by prac- tically every Canadian Club:
"A member of any Club in affiliation with the Association of Canadian Clubs, while visiting any other place in which there exists a Canadian Club, also affiliated with the Association, shall, during such visit, be privileged to attend any meetings or luncheons of such Club, upon presentation of the membership certificate of his home Club, and payment of the same admission fee as is charged for such meeting or luncheon to resident mem-
12 CANADIAN CLUB OF WINNIPEG
bers. This privilege shall not entitle the visiting member to participate in any matter of Club business which may be brought before any such meeting at which he is present."
"Any member of a Canadian Club, in the event of change of residence, on presentation of his membership certificate to the Honorary Secretary, shall be admitted as a member of the Canadian Club of the place to which he has removed, upon payment of the regular membership fee required by such Club. In the event of the Club to which he applies for membership under this regulation, having a waiting list, his name shall be placed on such list in the usual manner, and he shall, in due course, be accepted as a member of such Club."
A hope is expressed that members of the Canadian Club of Winnipeg who may be visiting other cities in which Canadian Clubs are organized, will avail themselves of the facilities thus afforded.
Addresses of the Year 1911-12
In accordance with the established custom, brief outlines appear herein of the addresses given before the Club during the year. Verbatim reports of all the addresses may be perused upon application to the Honorary Secretary.
ADDRESSES OF THE YEAR 13
ADDRESSES BY MEMBERS OF THE WINNIPEG TOWN PLANNING COMMISSION
November 23, 1911
MAYOR W. SANFORD EVANS
"This City of Winnipeg is our home and our workshop. If we can take that position, we have as much to serve in our own interests by having the City of Winnipeg healthful as a whole city; by having it convenient; by having all its trans- portation, its roadways and everything economical, and by having it beautiful, as we can possibly have an interest in having our own individual house and factory economical.
"The object of the Town Planning Commission, then, is to try to secure a sort of common, broad, architectural plan of a city. It would be far better to start before there were any city at all. We didn't start here at that stage. I don't know any city where they did start so entirely. But it is better to begin now to reconstruct if possible and certainly lay out any places where there is no construction.
"In order to accomplish its object of setting forth a plan, the City Council applied to the Legislature at its last session for authority to appoint a Commission to investigate and report. That permission was granted and in due course a Commission was constituted of the City Council. In order to secure representation on that Commission, various bodies were asked to themselves elect representatives. Outside of the representatives of the City Council itself, the Provincial Government, the University, the Board of Trade, the Real Estate Exchange, the Industrial Bureau, the Builders' Exchange, the Architects' Association, and the Trades and Labor Council were each asked to elect representatives. The object is to enlist as far as possible the support of all interests, all ideas and suggestions that can be made, and finally to present a report."
14 CANADIAN CLUB OF WINNIPEG
Mayor Evans concluded by mentioning briefly the various committees into which the Commission had been divided, referring to the Traffic and Transportation Committee, the Social Survey Committee, the Committee on Aesthetical Development, the Dockage and River Frontage Committee, the Committee on the Physical Plan, and finally the Legislative Committee.
PROFESSOR E. BRYDONE-JACK
"I come before you today as Chairman of the Traffic and Transportation Committee of the Town Planning Com- mission and to ask for your sympathy and for your co-operation and for your assistance in this work, because the work needs the co-operation and assistance of every citizen in Winnipeg if it is to be carried out in a proper manner.
"We have to consider that the population of Winnipeg is growing at a tremendous rate, so fast, at any rate, that we can hardly keep pace with the development needed in order to supply traffic and transportation and the means of communica- tion between the different parts of the city. What are the conditions, or the physical conditions as we look upon the map of Winnipeg? Let us see what we have. We have three or four distinct obstacles to overcome — natural obstacles and artificial obstructions. How are we going to get proper communication over these obstacles to the different districts of the city?"
Professor Brydone-Jack then alluded to the various river and railway intersections which separate the districts of the city and reiterated the importance of planning now to provide for proper means of communication between these sections.
Sub-committees had been organized in order to accomplish the work properly. These committees included the Railway Committee, the Street Railway Committee, the Traffic Com- mittee and the Bridge Committee. There was also a committee appointed to deal with traffic arising from river and lake trans- portation.
" Certain data is already available, but certain data has to be secured and it must be collected in convenient form for the committees' work. Maps must be made showing the
ADDRESSES OF THE YEAR 15
present railway locations, the present street railway locations, the present highways in the outlying districts and the present communications with river wharves and docks. These have to be made and drawn up in order to tell what we should do and how we should consider the subject."
MR. D. A. Ross
"Some people may ask what the Aesthetical Development Sub-committee is going to do — what can it hope to accomplish? The prevailing spirit on the North American continent and especially, I think, in the western half of it, has been utilitarian. So long as any building would serve its purpose, it didn't matter what it looked like. It was all right as long as it would keep out the weather and keep in the people and machinery housed in it. That has been due largely to the growth of individualism on this continent.
"In the older countries, where the individual has to bow to the good of the community at large, the art of making buildings beautiful and ornamental as well as useful has reached a much higher stage than in this country. And the same holds good in regard to plans of the cities, parks, boulevards, and all their finest civic buildings. Everything that tends to make a city beautiful has advanced in the older countries as we hope it will advance in our own city here.
"Our city is too full of the possibilities of beauty, if not already in the possession of beauty, to be constructed entirely along utilitarian lines, and it is our hope that when the report of the Town Planning Commission is brought in, provision will be made for the beautification of this city, so that every citizen here will have reason to feel proud of his city, not only as a big city but as a beautiful city.
"In carrying out this work, we will have to be careful not to put all our beauty in one spot. Our beauty spots should be dis- tributed so that the poorest man in the city shall have breathing spaces and parks available to which he and his children can go.
16 CANADIAN CLUB OF WINNIPEG
It is a big order and something which cannot be carried out without the hearty co-operation of the citizens, and we trust that when the report is brought in, it will not be laid on the shelf, but that the citizens of Winnipeg will stand by it and see that it is carried out."
DOCTOR A. J. DOUGLAS
"I propose to say what is meant by the Social Survey Committee, of which I am a member. I consider, in the first place, that the advent of this Town Planning Commission and the work which it will do, is one of the greatest things which has happened to Winnipeg for many years. It is something which will react for the City's good for many years to come.
"To make a social survey means to discover what con- ditions really exist in the community. From that, you can see that it is a large order. We propose to ascertain how many houses and tenements there are in the city, and how many people live in them and under what conditions; how many people inhabit the rooms, the .condition of the streets, etc. We propose to ascertain where congestion exists and how congestion affects the death rates, and the extent of infectious diseases. At present, the City Health Department has certain data along these lines, but it has no data which covers anything like the whole city.
"We know that there is overcrowding in the city, but I am quite certain that when we get the survey completed, we will find overcrowding in places where we did not think it existed. We sometimes come across things in unusual places. It will be necessary to have special maps showing where the deaths for a year occur. In that way we hope to be able to draw certain deductions. Social surveys have been conducted in other cities, notably in Pittsburg, where a very elaborate one was instituted and successfully carried through."
ADDRESSES OF THE YEAR 17
HOW TO CANADIANIZE BRITAIN December 4, 1911
MR. ARTHUR HAWKES, Toronto, Ontario, Special Com- missioner on Immigration for the Canadian Government
Mr. Hawkes prefaced his remarks by commenting on the enormous resources which are open to the enterprise of every Canadian and every immigrant to Canada, and remarked upon the change which experiences in Canada worked upon the spirit of the man whose lot had hitherto been cast in a narrower sphere of operations.
"What is the most remarkable of all assemblies in the civilized world in this century? It is the Imperial Conference. It isn't mentioned in any Act of Parliament I ever heard about. It has no legal status at all, but it is full of the mightiest po- tentialities of any deliberative bodies under the sun. And when it meets in London, what do the British people ask? What Winston Churchill said at the Conference? Do they want to know what Asquith said? Oh, they are used to Mr. Asquith. They want to know what Canada said, and Australia said, and South Africa said, and New Zealand said. When the Imperial Conference is sitting, the whole world is at the keyhole, trying to get a line on what John Bull and his partners are going to do next. And what is the Imperial Conference? It is nothing more nor less than the emigrant come back. That is all it is.
"And it seems to me that if I were in Great Britain I would try to learn that lesson of the emigrant come back, and I would try to see that the twenty thousand Andrew Fishers who remain in Scotland get a little better chance than they have had. What these men need is not charity and advice; it is opportunity. It doesn't matter what kind of a problem you strike in connection with the old land or the new, you strike the problem of the emigrant over there, and here the immigrant, and to both pla<v< the future of the race.
" What has that got to do with the development of Winnipeg and Saskatchewan and Alberta? It has got everything to do
18 CANADIAN CLUB OF WINNIPEG
with it. If it be true that this great land has made up its mind that it shall be developed with all the marks of British institu- tions upon it ; if it is to be the reservoir from which pre-eminently we shall supplement our increase by the cradle method, then it would seem to me, gentlemen, that we may as well begin our work in that reservoir a little further back than we have begun it hitherto, and by telling them what Canada is and what we intend it to be."
Continuing, Mr. Hawkes referred to the good work ac- complished by the Imperial Home Reunion Association, which he thought contained more germs of good in it than probabty any other organization he had come across from sea to sea.
"Let me throw out another possibility. You want people, good people, and here is a man who has made lots of money in this province, while in the village from which he comes there are people who are just as good as he was when he left, and perhaps a good deal better than he is now. Such men would be mar- vellously blessed if they could be transferred to Canada; but, because nobody ever showed them how, or because children have come so fast that savings haven't accumulated, they cannot come, merely because they have not money enough to come with.
" Suppose you, who are so well off, would take just one family from that village and finance them in this country, the way you want the banks sometimes to finance you. What would happen? You know the class I mean — the man who, after a day's toil, goes and gardens and takes prizes at the cottage gardeners' show. Suppose you put him somewhere on the land where he can make something and carry the principle of the Home Reunion Association a little bit further than that."
Concluding, Mr. Hawkes emphasized the value of population to the Dominion of Canada. In the British Isles population was becoming a burden, whereas in Canada it meant the future.
"We must have a great reflex action in Britain. We may do more in the re-creation of Britain than anyone yet dreamed
ADDRESSES OF THE YEAR 19
of by combining the possibilities of this great country and the achievements of the old. In that way we may fulfil justly and magnificently the thing which Milton saw when he said:
"'Methinks I see in my mind a noble and puissant nation, raising herself like a strong man out of sleep and shaking her invincible locks. Methinks I see her as an eagle mewing her mighty youth and kindling her undazzled eye at the full mid-day beam.'"
Sang one of England in his island home:
"Her veins are million, but her heart is one;"
And looked from out his wave-bound homeland isle To us who dwell beyond its western sun.
And we among the northland plains and lakes, We youthful dwellers on a younger land,
Turn eastward to the wide Atlantic waste,
And feel the clasp of England's outstretched hand.
For we are they who wandered far from home To swell the glory of an ancient name;
Who journeyed seaward on an exile long. When fortune's twilight to our island came.
But every keel that cleaves the midway waste Binds with a silent thread our sea-cleft strands,
Till ocean dwindles and the sea- waste shrinks, And England mingles with a hundred lands.
And weaving silently all far-off shores
A thousand singing wires stretch round the earth, Or sleep still vocal in their ocean depths,
Till all lands die to make one glorious birth.
So we remote compatriots reply,
And feel the world-task only half begun: "We are the girders of the ageing earth,
Whose veins are million, but whose heart is one."
20 CANADIAN CLUB OF WINNIPEG
THE BRITISH VIEW OF THE IMPERIAL HOME REUNION PROJECT
December 7, 1911
MR. NORTON GRIFFITHS, M.P. (London, England)
"When we review the first year's work of the Imperial Reunion Association, I think one and all connected with it can be delighted with the results, and I am sure, if I may say so, that great credit is due to those who have done what I call the hard work connected with the movement. I was told before I came in here, by Mr. Bulman, to whom great credit is due, and the council assisting him, and also Mr. Roland, the Com- missioner and the Honorary Secretary, who have done so much good work, that some $27,000 has been repaid inside of two months — the last two months — out of $50,000 that had been advanced. I think those are the figures. However, they will serve my purpose in showing, as I have always stated, that in any movement of this kind when you help those deserving of help they will never let you down; and they will not only repay in time, but will become most active workers on behalf of reunion.
" There is no question in my mind as to the reward to the workers or as to the inestimable good the movement must do. For you have population, and this is particularly notice- able in various parts where I have been — where it is a floating population — which seems to take no active interest in the welfare of the town. I mean the men whose wives and children are separated from them. They feel that they are just here to pick up a few dollars and quit. A citizen of that description doesn't make a good citizen. But if you trace the other side of the picture; if you have a man and his wife and children, the first thing he commences to think of is to build a small house for himself wherever he may be. He begins to take an interest in local politics, in the welfare of the town. He supports the
ADDRESSES OF THE YEAR 21
city in all its various branches. Thus he becomes a really good citizen, and I think from the point of view of the com- munity that it is the duty of any mayor or councillor to support a movement of this description in every possible way, because these men bring considerable benefit to the town and community at large.
"I think the whole scheme is putting immigration on a scientific basis. It is the best form of immigration. You create contented citizens. You make a man feel when he comes here, leaving wife and children behind, that someone is taking an interest in him. And then when he gets his wife and children here, he writes it home, too. He calls it God's country, a white man's country, and writing home as he does, and she does also, encourages their friends to come out here, and it is population that you want."
Mr. Griffiths then referred to the fact that in getting the young children out here they became imbued with national ideas and ideals on which the future of Canada and the Empire depended.
As to the Old Country, any great and good movement was always viewed by them with great joy. They were anxious to have Britons participate in the prosperity of Canada.
"This Reunion Association will help us immensely. It will give us more assistance than any other idea you could devise and we want that British blood to come here. We want it to be Canada's and we want it to become as good Canadian as ever put boot leather on. We want him to come and help in the great work of Empire and realize, as all Canadians realize, that the Empire belongs to Canada. It isn't a question of loyalty to England. It is a question of loyalty to Canada or loyalty, shall I say, to the King, Canada, Flag and Empire."
Continuing, the speaker remarked on the troubled state of Europe, in which connection it was most desirable that the Empire should maintain a solid front. Therefore, any movement such as this was especially to be fostered since it tended to foriiv more strongly Hum ever the bonds of union.
22 CANADIAN CLUB OF WINNIPEG
"In conclusion, your work of reuniting husband and wife is analogous to the unification of the British Empire. You are doing good in uniting husband and wife and we can take an example from that good work and try and do our utmost in Canada. You people in Canada will have a population bigger than that of the British Isles, probably within the time of the younger generation I have referred to. Don't forget that, because it has a direct and important bearing on the work I have suggested, and the care we should take in protecting all our interests. But your work is analogous to our work, which lies before us in trying to do everything we can in our power to bring all the units of the British Empire into line; to solidify in every possible way we can the great heritage that has come to us and to take care that for all time that great * heritage is safe from danger and that, if needs be, we will defy the whole world before we will yield one inch of it."
The Advisory Board of the Winnipeg Home Reunion Association was present on this occasion, as the guests of the Club.
The Imperial Home Reunion Association was first organized in Winnipeg by the Winnipeg Industrial Bureau through the efforts of Mr. W. J. Bulman, president of the Bureau, with whom the idea originated. The object of the Association is to assist deserving men — who come to Winnipeg in advance of their families — to bring out their wives and children from the British Isles.
The money required for this purpose is secured by means of a guarantee fund of $25,000, the leading business men of the city pledging their security to this extent. Through this association a workman of steady habits and good character is able to obtain funds to biing his family to Canada and establish his home at once.
The advantage of this to the immigrant and to the community is evident. The father has the aid and comfort of the family life and associations from the beginning; he is relieved of the anxiety that a man feels for those dear to him when separated by the breadth of the ocean and half a continent: he is more contented in his work, and more interested and therefore more effective as a citizen.
Since its organization a little over two years ago, the Association has brought out to Winnipeg over 1,800 wives and children at a cost in trans- portation exceeding $75,000, without loss to the guarantors. The Winnipeg plan has now been adopted in twenty-eight cities throughout Canada.
ADDRESSES OF THE YEAR 23
THE TAKING OF THE CIVIL SERVICE OUT OF POLITICS
January 25, 1912
PROFESSOR ADAM SHORTT, F.R.S., Ottawa, Chairman of the Civil Service Commission of Canada
"The civil service, of course, is a matter with which you are all acquainted, but the question is: What do we mean by politics? Politics in that connection means a certain thing for British people. It means, under the British system, the party system of government. Now, many distinguished people, distinguished Canadians among others — the late Goldwin Smith was one of the most prominent — condemn the party system in politics. I am not here to condemn it. On the contrary, ever since I have had an opportunity of looking into the workings of the British system, I find the party system of government is absolutely inevitable; is the only reasonable and workable system in connection with British institutions."
Professor Shortt then described briefly the cause and com- position of the present system of government and referred also to the system of party patronage which in practice, he felt bound to say, ended in demoralizing the service. The Government did not get the work done by the best kind of people. The system put a premium on indifference and very little on efficiency. It was of no use, however, to condemn the Government for the system which had been partly the outcome of necessity.
"Now, that being so, we get a basis and starting point for civil service reform. We look at a country like Britain and say : ' Well, there, of course, under the British system, they avoid that sort of corruption. But then, you know, the British system is superior to ours. They have a better class of people, a people more accustomed to looking at things from a larger point of view' — and so on. That is not true at all. Anyone who has read his British history knows that before the reform days there, over half a century ago that is, if he goes into the
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details of party politics and corruption and examines the system in force during the last twenty or thirty years of the eighteenth century and the first half of the nineteenth century, he will find a revel of corruption compared to which nothing that has occurred on the American continent at all comes up to.
"Without going into any question of why the Act, under which our Commission operates, was introduced, I may simply say that there was a crisis in Canadian history when it was found advisable to adopt a reform, beginning at least with the inside service, but rendering it possible of extension to the outside service. Consequently, the Civil Service Act of 1908 was passed. It isn't a very ideal measure in some of its details, because it was advisedly rushed through the House in order to demonstrate to the public, or incidentally so, that the revelations in connection with the Fisheries Department, or some of those things, didn't contaminate the whole service; and there were people in connection with the Legislature or Parliament who were anxious to see things put on a better basis. The Act came into operation just before the election of 1908. The Government saw fit to ask me, together with my colleague, Mr. LaRochelle, of Montreal, to come up to Ottawa to take charge of the matter. The act provides of necessity for covering all the departments of the inside service, i.e., the service of the departments at Ottawa, not, as yet, the post office, customs house, various land offices and all sorts of things up and down the country. But the Act does provide that by Order-in-Council any or all the parts of the outside service may be brought under the same conditions as the inside service.
"And I may say that preferably we should like to see it extended gradually, because it would involve a good deal of work and, of course, some mistakes and trouble, if we had to tackle business all up and down the country. It would be easier work to take certain sections first, find out by experience how it will work, find out what is necessary in the way of details, and then
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extend. The principle of the situation is this : That all appoint- ments below that of Deputy Minister, in the clerical line, except those of day laborers and people of that sort, in the inside service, shall be made in connection with our Civil Service Commission in one of two ways. Either we shall describe the positions by advertising them and throwing them open to general .competition or, if in a department some technical or professional position has to be filled, the Department or Minister may nominate with the consent of the Government at large some specialist for that position. But it is required of the Commission to investigate the qualifications of such nominee, and if they are not satisfactory, we don't issue a certificate, and without our certificate such person cannot be appointed."
Professor Shortt then remarked that both parties had come to view the provisions of the Act favorably as it enabled them to turn over to the Commission a large number of applications that would have proved very difficult to deal with under a system of patronage.
" Lastly, the question is : How is the Commission working? Now, there is a difficulty, because many people were put into positions in the inside service who never qualified under any conditions. They were simply put in under the old system of party patronage. These people expected that the same influ- ences which put them in would keep them going on up. Now they discover that the influences which put them in have evaporated and that going up depends on themselves, and that is not very palatable to some. The consequences is that the real, strenuous objection to the extension of our powers, or the continuation of them, indeed, is from those who are already in the service and who see — and I have to acknowledge to them quite frankly that they are quite correct — the conditions of promotion hopelessly blocked.
"There is a last point I wish to deal with in speaking of promotion. Promotion with us is a question of efficiency, not of length of service. If two men arc equally efficient, then
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the senior man, the man longest in the service, should go up. But if it is plainly demonstrated that a man below him, no matter how far below him, is the more efficient man, he is the man who goes up. Otherwise, you can see that there is no encouragement to faithful service, to working for the Government in the proper spirit/"
In concluding, Professor Shortt referred to the method of* admitting beginners and experienced men to the service. In the case of the former, technical examinations were set, but when it was necessary to employ an expert from the outside, of recognized ability, the system was sufficiently elastic to permit of his being engaged on probation when, if his services proved satisfactory after a certain length of time, he was automatically transferred to the permanent list. Herein, he considered the Canadian system possessed advantages over the British and American.
Public office is not worth anything if an entirely satisfactory fulfilment of the duties of an office does not entitle a man to consideration for re-appointment. If men are to know that a mere change of administration is to empty an office, no matter how they have deserved to be re-appointed, there is not anything of justice or public right left.
" Public office is not worth anything if an entirely satisfactory fulfilment of the duties of an office does not entitle a man to consideration for re-appointment." We talk of public office as an honor. It ought to be that, but it never can be as long as we treat it as spoil. There is no honor in an appointment made on the basis of "pull," and retained through favoritism.
— President Woodrow Wilson.
ADDRESSES OF THE YEAR 27
DIVERSIFIED FARMING
J. H. WORST, LL.D., Fargo, N.D. February 14, 1912
" Agricultural conditions in Manitoba are quite similar to those in North Dakota, and further west the country corresponds in many respects with the other western States lying contiguous to Canadian territory. Over all this vast region diversified farming must be practised earnestly and systematically if the farmers would insure for themselves continuous prosperity, and if they also are sufficiently patriotic to leave the country a fair heritage for their children. Continuous cropping to any kind of grain or economic plant has ultimately proven a failure wherever practised. For a few years large profits may be realized, but in the end failure will inevitably result.
"It is an accepted fact that soil, sunshine, air and moisture co-operate for the growth of plants of every description and that plant growth is the support of all life on this planet. Farmers need have no concern about air and sunshine. Nature furnishes these in abundance. Furthermore, the soil in its virgin state throughout this vast region is exceptionally fertile. Perhaps no region of equal area on the earth contains such abundant and admirably balanced elements of fertility as may be found here, and all that is necessary, therefore, is to conserve this fertility. So far as plant food is concerned, abundant crops can be grown here for centuries.
"That there is sufficient moisture to produce profitable crops with sufficient regularity, there is no question, provided no considerable portion of it is permitted to needlessly evaporate or run to waste. In its virgin state, the soil is quite retentive of moisture, owing to the abundance of decaying vegetation, or humus, in its composition. The first step, therefore, in the conservation of moisture is to keep the soil well supplied with decaying vegetation. Diversified farming naturally implies
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the keeping of live stock and the growth of coarse grain and forage plants for their existence. This should insure barnyard manure in sufficient quantities to keep up the humus content of the soil, so necessary for the retention of moisture."
Further, the speaker referred to the bad effect of weeds in considerable numbers. Weeds were greedy drinkers and robbed the soil of moisture to a very great extent. Weeds and grain could not be successfully grown at the same time and scientific methods of soil cultivation were necessary to keep the ground clean.
"The strongest argument, perhaps, in favor of diversified farming, is the somewhat recent discovery that fungous diseases are sure to seriously injure the root systems of any plant grown continuously from the same soil. Professor Bolley, of the North Dakota Experiment Station, is working on this problem at the present time. He has conclusively demonstrated that the wheat roots are injured by a fungous disease somewhat similar to flax wilt and that when the humus of the soil becomes filled with these fungous pests a profitable crop of wheat can be secured only during the most favorable seasons. By rotation of crops, however, the root diseases of plants will be reduced to a minimum.
"Diversified farming also implies the breeding of live stock in sufficient numbers to perpetuate the fertility of the farm. The farmers of Canada, therefore, by plowing their ground deep, keeping the lands comparatively free from weeds, selecting only the best and most virile seed grain, giving the land sufficient cultivation to conserve the maximum of moisture and by breed- ing and feeding a reasonable proportion of live stock, will be sure of a fair average annual income, as well as the assurance that they are not robbing future generations of their heritage.
"It has been said that he who makes two blades of grass grow where one grew before is a blessing to mankind; but where a man so farms that he can grow but one bushel of wheat where two grew before, he is a curse to his country."
ADDRESSES OF THE YEAR 29
THE SIKHS IN CANADA March 1, 1912
DR. SUNDER SINGH, Vancouver, B.C.
"The Sikhs, as you know, are from the north of India. Just as there was a reformation in Europe, started by Luther, the reformer, so there was a reformation in India. It began in 1469 with the reformer Nanak. He preached that there was no caste and no superstition; that God could not be attained by asceticism or idol-worship. He was followed by nine more teachers, or gurus, who formulated the same doctrine and who preached it through the whole of India. The Sikhs were re- ceived with hatred and persecuted by the rulers of that time. But the more you persecute a new religion the more it spreads, and it soon spread so far that the whole doctrine of this system was found all over the Punjaub. Two millions of these Sikhs are scattered everywhere in the British Empire. There are 100,000 of them in the British army. They are a great brother- hood who go by the name of 'Singh.' Some of them came over to Canada in 1905, but most of those who are settled now in British Columbia came in the succeeding three years, that is, 1906 to 1908. In 1909, the emigration was stopped and none have come since. Altogether, there are 4,000 Sikhs in Canada, who are most of them farmers, and all of them will eventually settle on the land.
"In our case, our people are much troubled about the law which says that a Hindu who comes to Canada must come by continuous journey from the land of his birth, but, as there is no single steamer running all the way from India to here, he cannot come at all. That law was meant to shut out 5,000 Japanese who came from Honolulu to Canada in 1908. We cannot come direct from India, for we have to tranship at Hong Kong. But the present request we have made to the Canadian Government and which we make to the business men
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and all justice-loving people of this country, is that the wives and children of those Sikhs who have settled here, who are domiciled here, should be allowed to come to this country. We have been here for the last six years and most of our people, un- like the foreigner, have invested all their savings in this country. We have invested about two millions in land. We came right here and have made good and we want to stay here because that was our intention.
"We are British subjects and we have fought for our country. Nearly all of us have medals — you see I am wearing one — for ninety per cent, of us in Vancouver served in the army, one way or another. What we ask for is simple justice and no more. We ask for the right of a husband living in Canada that his wife shall join him. This is a sacred, human instinct. It is against all moral and social law to separate husband and wife. The Sikh religion says the true husband and wife are not those who merely sit and talk together but those whose souls blend into each other as though two forms make one spirit.
"Put yourselves in our position. Put on a turban and you will do exactly as I am doing. You will fight because it is in the cause of humanity. I ask for our young men — and we have many — for the moral welfare of the people of this country, that their just request shall be granted."
Ill fares the land, to hast'ning ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates, and men decay; Princes and lords may flourish, or may fade; A breath can make them, as a breath has made; But a bold peasantry, their country's pride, When once destroy'd, can never be supplied.
— Goldsmith.
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THE GRAND TRUNK PACIFIC IN THE ROCKIES March 15, 1912
ARTHUR O. WHEELER, F.R.G.S., Director of the Alpine Club of Canada
Mr. Wheeler introduced his subject by referring to the early history and struggles of his club, which had grown from a membership of 67 to over 700 at the present time, spread over many parts of the world. They had started as a national organization and, without any volition of their own, had become international. It was interesting to record that the income of hotel keepers in Switzerland today was somewhere about $150,000,000 per annum, and the mountain tourist business of the United States was double that amount, so that from a financial standpoint only great things were in store for Canada, which, in the opinion of many authorities fully equalled, if not surpassed, these countries in the possession of mountain scenery.
"What has happened in the past twenty years on the southern section of the mountains? Twenty years ago there were a few scattered chalets along the line of the C.P.R., with accommodation for less than one hundred people. Today there are splendid hotels and large caravanseries each accommodating several hundreds. The same thing is going to take place in the northern section, which is being opened up by the Grand Trunk Pacific.
"My intention today is to tell you something about the Grand Trunk Pacific section that is being opened up by the second of our transcontinental railways. We thought last year that the Alpine Club, being a progressive organization, should go in and see what facilities there were in that part of the world. We got together an expedition. The Dominion Government, the Provincial Government of British Columbia and the Pro- vincial Government of Alberta came to our assistance, likewise the C.P.R., and helped us to finance it. We started in a small party at first to study the topography of that region. Later we extended our scope somewhat and made application to our
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Geological Survey to help us in collecting scientific information on botany, natural history and the like. However, our Geological Survey didn't take the Alpine Club very seriously. Then we went across the line to the Smithsonian Institute at Washington and found the people ready to jump at the chance, and they sent a party of four. They were Ned Hollister, assistant curator of mammals in the United States National Museum, J. E. Riley, also in the National Museum, and two other gentle- men who were sent out to gather big game specimens for the museum. These fellows were all fine workers. They found plenty of work and gathered over 9,000 specimens. They went away tremendously pleased.
"Well, we started from Edmonton and went 200 miles west in order to get at the mountains. At that point the Grand Trunk Pacific is about to erect a fine mammoth hotel, of which I have seen the plans. It will be built at Miette, close to the hot springs of Fiddle Creek. Passing on up the old historic pathway of the fur traders, we went up the Athabasca River to the confluence of the Athabasca and the Miette Rivers, where the two great highways of the fur trade divide, one going southerly to the Athabasca Pass and the other westerly to the Yellow Head Pass.
"We proceeded to the summit of the Yellow Head Pass, two miles from which is Beaver Lake, four miles long. This is a charming little lake with wondrous indentations, timbered islets and waters of a beautiful sap-green color. Then, a mile further on, the Fraser River comes in from the south and we enter the Fraser River Valley. Seventeen miles from the summit a stream, called the Moose River, comes in. This we made our starting point and from there we made a hundred-mile circuit around the massive Mount Robson.
"At the mouth of the Moose River there is a most wonderful canyon with walls some 200 feet high. The stream comes careering through it in a series of falls. There is a deep chamber at the foot of these falls and here at all times you can see a
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combination of rainbows. I counted six myself. It will, I think, in future be known as Rainbow Falls. The canyon will be one of the features of the railway and not unlikely trains will stop there as they do on the southern route in the vicinity of Albert Canyon.
" We proceeded by the Moose River, where a glacial torrent flows between walls of pine. You see at the end of the westerly branch a magnificent glacial torrent, an ice-stream coming down on a slope which is very much disrupted. The glacier is to the west of this new valley, which we have named Resplendent Valley. You have heard of the Valley of the Ten Peaks, but here we discovered a valley of twenty-five peaks, twenty of which are magnificent climbs. There are seven great ice-fields break- ing into this valley with islands of pines reaching out into it most picturesquely.
" There are hundreds of streams in every direction winding through channels in a network of silver. Our guide, Konrad Kain, an Austrian, gazed at one of these peaks rising from the great snow base in a slender rugged finger, and he remarked: 'Ach! That is my peak.' And thereafter we named it 'The Finger of Kain.' Then we took our way up this great glacier, known as the Reef Glacier, which is very much disrupted. The ice fell through from time to time and we had to wend our way from crevasse to crevasse using the rope in case of accident or the ice breaking. On reaching the summit of the ice-field you step without warning from British Columbia into Alberta. The height of land here is the backbone of Canada. It runs right along the crest of this divide, which is a very remarkable one. The peaks form great figure S's and each of these Alps contains a glacier sending its outfall on one side to the Arctic Ocean or the Hudson Bay, and on the other side to the Pacific Ocean.
"On the left of this snow-field, this Reef snow-field, is a high wall a thousand feet high at the crest of it. You stand again on the great divide and right before you you see one of the
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most sublime spectacles that it is possible to behold; before you is a great circle of ice and snow. Below is the Robson Glacier, five miles long and one and three-quarters miles wide, with every crevasse, every moraine and every ice-fall clearly portrayed on a fine day. Snow-clad summits look down upon an amphitheatre with snow-terraces in every direction. Directly opposite is the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies, Mount Robson, rising 13,070 feet above the sea shore, its walls of rock sending down from its summit great masses of snow into this amphitheatre below it. In the amphitheatre above there is a beautiful peak which, when the snow on it, shines in the sun, sheds such glory that Professor Coleman, who had visited that region previously, named it Mount Resplendent, a most suitable name.
"I want to speak just a little of this Robson Glacier. It is a very peculiar one, as it is a glacier of divided ownership. It flows between immense buttresses of rock. You know the ice of these glaciers melts in the summer time. When I was there last summer the main part of the flow from the Robson Glacier went winding to the Pacific Coast through a lake about half a mile away on the Grand Fork River leading to the Fraser. Two years before that explorers found the bulk of this water going in the opposite direction, viz., to the Big Smoky River, and at that time the glacier belonged to Alberta. It will be a question in two years' time to which province it will belong. (Laughter.) Half a mile down the valley into which this ice-stream flows there is a magnificent sky-blue lake a mile and a half long by three-quarters of a mile wide, filling the whole floor of the narrow valley. From high up on the side of Mount Robson the glacier falls sheer 5,000 feet to this lake and buries its nose in its waters. The lake is called Berg Lake on account of the masses of ice which break off and cover the lake with ice. These masses break off with reports like cannon and send up water- spouts from twenty to thirty feet into the air.
"A little further on there is a magnificent waterfall leaping over a crest 150 feet high. Striking a ledge, the waters bound out thirty feet in another spectacular display. It looks as if
ADDRESSES OF THE YEAR 35
giant hands were hurling out some fine substance like rice or bar- ley with giant strength, pouring it forth in great handfuls. This is one of the few waterfalls whose fame will spread through- out the land, such as the Takkawka Falls, or the Twin Falls in the southern section. Further on there is the valley of a thousand falls. Glaciers line the cliffs and the water pours forth in every direction. You can see hundreds of these falls all around you. It is a scene of great magnificence and splendor.
Thanks be to God for mountains! The variety which they impart to the glorious bosom of our planet were no small ad- vantage; the beauty which they spread out to our vision in their woods and waters, their crags and slopes, their clouds and atmospheric hues, were a splendid gift ; the sublimity which they pour into our deepest souls from their majestic aspects; the poetry which breathes from their streams and dells and airy heights, from the sweet abodes, the garbs and manners of their in- habitants, the songs and legends which have awoke in them, were a proud heritage to imaginative minds; but what are all these when the thought comes that without mountains the spirit of man must have bowed to the brutal and the base, and probably have sunk to the monotonous level of the unvaried plain. — Howitt.
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INTELLECTUAL LIFE IN CANADA March 28, 1912
REV. DR. WILLIAM T. HERRIDGE, Ottawa, Ont.
"The prosperity of any land depends in its ultimate analysis upon the quality of those who dwell in it, and while moral worth in my judgment is to be held as of supremest importance, yet that, I think, must be joined to a fine mental discernment if we are ever to reach, as Canadians, the topmost heights of national greatness. Of course, the initial movements of any people in a new land must be prevailingly practical ones . Nature has to be subdued and its resources exploited, and for such pur- pose as this, the hardy digger and delver, no matter how illiterate he may seem to be, is better adapted than the most artistic dreamer.
"It seems to me that the first condition of intellectual advance is some consciousness of our need of it. We must strike the happy mean between a false pride and a false humility, in imagining on the one hand that we have nothing to learn, or, on the other hand, that some handicap of circumstances or natural situation prevents us from ever reaching those Elysian fields where others have walked, not only to their own content, but to the world's enlightenment. If talent consists in part, at least, in receptivity of ideas, I think without boasting that we may claim as Canadians to have a fair share of it, but I am not by any means quite so sure that we have, as yet, put it to the noblest uses."
Continuing, the speaker expressed the opinion that we were somewhat given to light and superficial reading and also that a good deal of the social life of the country tended to direct atrophy of the intellectual powers. There were signs, however, of an intellectual awakening and the state was to be commended for the progress it had made in the establishment of educational institutions.
"The work which is being done in our high schools and public schools finds its continuation in our colleges and univer-
ADDRESSES OF THE YEAR 37
sities. Of course, everyone cannot graduate in our universities, nor does it seem to me desirable that they should do so, but I think we are coming to understand that the broader a man's training, the more efficiently will he be able to do any work that is really worth a man's doing. In fact, I am not sure that even in our highest seats of learning we have not made, perhaps, quite enough concessions to the utilitarian spirit of the age. We" must not ignore the fact that we have practical tasks to do, but, gentlemen, it seems to me that because this is a new land and because there is so much to do in it, that for that very reason we have a greater need of idealism; and idealism which at once beautifies and broadens the pathway of the family and at the same time helps to exchange the narrow content of petty successes for the sublime discontent of larger failures, the sublime discontent which, after all, is the true patent of man's nobility.
" Every land, it seems to me, and most of all the land in which material interests are dominant, every land needs those who, while affecting no false distaste of things tangible, are able to appreciate the intangible, to go down to the very roots of truth, to separate between things transient and things abiding, and so to order their own lives, and so to inspire the lives of others, that they shall sweep the widest orbit, shall become enamoured of the truth of beauty and the beauty of truth, and shall feel the force of splendid vision, though it be a dim splendor, ever on before.
" Intellectual life, like physical life, is broader than any manifestation of it. At the same time, since silence is incon- clusive, we have reason to rejoice at the growing number of Canadians, both of French and British origin, whose literary work is being appreciated far beyond the bounds of this Do- minion. The names of many will occur to you. One name you certainly would not forget anywhere, all the more because Ralph Connor is sitting so near to me today. We should not be blind to the fact that we, as Canadians, have the opportunity
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of developing a type of culture which is peculiarly our own. We have a better chance than many older lands to illustrate what is meant by liberty, as distinguished from licence, and intellectual endeavors as distinct from morals. We have with us all the materials for romance and song and for the development of culture which has an individual note in it. We have no reason to be ashamed of our past, but I believe that if we remain alert to intellectual impressions of the finest sort, we shall yet have something great to say to the world and something great to do in the march of modern progress.
"No more powerful stimulus, it seems to me, to our intel- lectual life, can be found than in the development of a healthy Canadian public sentiment. We are not mere colonists; we are something more than that. While I cannot believe that the ties that bind us to Britain will ever show signs of weakening, yet we have this thing to remember: we have all the materials of nationhood within ourselves, and the more clearly we recog- nize that fact, the more alert we shall be, not only to discharge our own special tasks, but to assume our full obligations as part of a vast Imperial scheme that shall stand for justice, for truth, and for civil and religious liberty."
The speaker then dwelt on the necessity for the development of a healthy public opinion, of a critical spirit — not in a parochial sense — but of a spirit able to discern beneath minor differences of race and creed.
"If we fall into the fearful mistake of supposing that money is the main affair: if we no longer lift our eyes to the farther horizons: if we lose our enthusiasm for those priceless treasures of art and music and literature which, to some extent at least, are within the reach of everyone who really desires to possess them, then no matter what our material advance may be, we ourselves shall be 'finished and finite clods, untroubled by a spark/ our future, stripped of its fascination and vain, lying at our own door. If, on the other hand, in spite of the mistakes that grow out of inexperience, we aspire to possess the noblest
ADDRESSES OF THE YEAR 39
ideals of national life, to avoid temptations to material greed and mental apathy and moral feebleness, to keep alert to finer visions of truth and broader conceptions of duty, and to show forth our lives in solid service to our fellows, and in unsullied purity in our own character, who shall venture, as he looks upon the night, to forecast the glory of the dawning tomorrow?"
Knowledge is power. — Bacon.
A wise man is strong; yea, a man of knowledge increaseth strength. — Old Testament.
Great deeds cannot die.
They with the sun and moon renew their light
For ever, blessing those who look on them. »
—Tennyson.
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MODERN TENDENCIES IN EDUCATION April 10, 1912
JAMES L. HUGHES, Inspector of Schools, Toronto, Ont.
"All vital education is modern. If all the books ever written about education were burned today but the writings of four men, we would still have everything that is valid in modern education. Barnard and Mann, in America, gave to the world the greatest gift America has ever given to the world, by organizing the free public school system. On the other side, in Europe, Pestolozzi and Froebel gave the world everything that is vital in our modern educational ideal, and yet three of those men were contemporaries of mine. I was the adopted son of the man who first introduced national education to the world. I was Henry Barnard's adopted son twelve years before he died.
" Froebel was the first man since Christ to give out to the world the great thought that every child has an independent individuality, an independent selfhood and soulhood, a definite and distinct image of Christ, a part of God, if you like that better.
"I think the time is coming when physical power will have something to do with degrees, as well as intellectual power. I think that if I were at the head of a university and turned out two boys, one a splendid type physically, and the other the intellectual, round-shouldered type, whose heads are so heavy that they have to hold themselves at the back, but whose bodies are of very little use; I say I don't think the second man would do less for God in the world if he steered right, but I think the first man would do infinitely more. If a university degree means anything, it ought to mean a testimonial to the power of that individual to represent God decently on earth.
"The modern education ideal is threefold: develop in the boy or girl three things: power, skill and character. These three elements are put up against mere book learning.
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"Many boys are driven out because we force them to study books. I don't think God means all boys to study books. You may kindle a few by literature and very nice people they are, male or female, generally, but you can kindle far more by science. You can kindle a few by mathematics, and queer sticks they are generally. You can kindle more by art. But you can kindle infinitely more by manual training than by science and art and mathematics put together, for the simple reason that God meant this race to be creatively productive and constructive."
In answer to the question, How do we develop power, intellectual, spiritual and moral? the speaker affirmed that things were never done without acquiring the power to do eight things: First, more power to do it tomorrow; second, more tendency to do it tomorrow; third, more joy in the execution; fourth, more vision of power; fifth, more revelation of power and of responsibility; sixth, more faith; seventh, more concepts of duty, and eighth, character.
" Canada, with the great resources we have, must train her young men and women to transform these resources into a greater value. By taking a piece of clay and transforming it, a workman may have added four dollars and ninety-five cents to the worth of this country, and by and by he will get his fair share of the value of that work.
"An old preacher, when he was dying, said he was sorry for the things he said about me. He said it was one of the mysteries of his life that the boys he thought were good boys turned out badly and the boys he thought were bad boys turned out well. What did goodness mean in those days? It meant a boy who sat still and did nothing. They were negative boys. We don't take that view now. 'Positive' is the word we take now as the basis of all that.
"Responsibility — what was responsibility supposed to be when I was a boy? The preachers preached thousands of ser- mons to tell me and all of you here that we were responsible for the evil we did. Everyone knew that. There was no
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vitality in that thought. It was a mere negative thing. The new idea of my responsibility is that I am responsible for achiev- ing all the good I can do. We are not here to represent ourselves simply: we are here to represent God among men.
" These are a few of the views of the leaders of today: not book learning simply, but the acquisition of power, greater power to develop the best I can in my life and work and char- acter, to make my power and my skill worth something."
Yea, cast our lives into the ancient slough, And fall we shouting, with uplifted face. Over the spot where mired we struggle now Shall march in triumph a transfigured race. They shall exult where weary we have wept — They shall achieve where we have striven in vain — Leaping in vigor where we faintly crept, Joyous along the road we paved with pain. What though we seem to sink in the morass? Under those unborn feet our dust shall sing, When o'er our failure perfect shall they pass Forth, and make firm a highway for the King.
—Burr.
To prepare us for complete living is the function which educa- tion has to discharge; and the only rational mode of judging of an educational course is to judge in what degree it discharges such function.
— Spencer.
ADDRESSES OF THE YEAR 43
PERSONAL REMINISCENCES OF PLAGUE, FAMINE AND UNREST IN INDIA
May 8, 1912
REV. FATHER NAISH, Xavier College, Calcutta
" Calcutta has been shorn of its grandeur by the trans- ference of the capital to Delhi. I venture to say that just as the Indian Empire has found it necessary to shift its capital one thousand miles west, perhaps the day may come when Canada, with the enormous growth of its west, will find it necessary to shift its capital also to the true centre of Canada.
" During my stay in India, from 1890 to 1903, we had experi- ence with three of the great misfortunes which affect modern India — plague, famine and unrest. The plague broke out a little after 1890. It was the old Black Plague, the same that raged in England so terribly in the reigns of Edward III. and Charles II. That plague came from the East. It is purely a dirt disease; there is scarcely a case of late where a European has died of it in the East. The plague originated with the rats and the Punjaub was the principal seat of its ravages. Nobody among the white population minded it, because, as I say, it seemed to keep at a civil distance from the European. It is very difficult to handle the plague in the case of the natives, owing to their caste restrictions. The more earnest an officer is in carrying out the regulations in regard to the plague, the more he exposes his life. At the very outbreak of the plague of which I have spoken, a British lieutenant-colonel and another official were shot dead because they tried to bring out the articles of furniture and bedding and burn them, in pursuance of the plague regulations.
"My second reminiscence is of the famine. The increase of population in India from 1880 to 1890 was just thirty millions. From 1890 to 1900 the increase was ten millions. This differ- ence was all due to one cause, or rather combination of two
44 CANADIAN CLUB OF WINNIPEG
causes — plague and famine. Now that they are cutting out the plague and famine, the increase, according to the last census figures (1900 to 1910) which I have just received, is twenty millions — so that the net increase in the population of British India in thirty years is just sixty millions. That gives you an idea of the problems that confront the rulers and statesmen of the East."
The speaker then proceeded to outline what in India is known as the famine code, a wonderful example of British wisdom and statesmanship, which worked automatically. The moment there was danger of a shortage of rice, the collec- tion of the land tax ceased and the government began the construction of public works and improvements of all kinds, in order to provide work for the natives. By this, and other methods, adopted by the British Government, the famine danger was gradually being reduced to a minimum.
" Unrest in India has been very much exaggerated. It was the famous Lord Macaulay who laid down the principle that all higher education in India should be in English. The boys are taught more than this, too; they are taught the prin- ciples of British fair play and British justice. The vast majority of these boys do clerks' work for their education. There are Hindu boys in the civil service, and a move was made to pro- mote such as were deserving to the degree of sessions judge. Those who know conditions in India, however, know that this is unwise, and that it is much better for the higher posts in India to be held by Europeans, who alone can keep the balance even between the Mohammedans and the Hindus. Our position in India does not depend upon 75,000 British bayonets; it depends upon our power to keep the balance even between 75 millions of Mohammedans and 210 millions of Hindus.
" There is one thing in which all the natives of India are similar, in spite of their thousand clashing castes and creeds. When the personal note is struck, when the personal influence is felt, the native will follow you anywhere. Knowing as I do the nature of these people, I believe that on that recent historic
ADDRESSES OF THE YEAR 45
occasion in Delhi, each man who attended took home to his village the belief that it would be impious and sacrilegious not to give full loyalty to the King-Emperor and his Queen. The final blow to unrest has been that master stroke of states- manship, the visit of the King-Emperor and his gracious consort, to India."
"The princes and people of India desire to take the opportunity afforded by the conclusion of the Royal visit, to convey to the great English nation an expression of their cordial goodwill and fellowship; also an assurance of their warm attachment to the world-wide Empire of which they form a part, and with which their destinies are now indissolubly linked. Their Imperial Majesties' visit to India, so happily conceived and successfully completed, has produced a profound and ineffaceable impression throughout the country.
"Their Imperial Majesties, by their gracious demeanour, their unfailing sympathy, and their deep solicitude for the wel- fare of all classes, have drawn closer the bonds that unite England and India, and have deepened and intensified the traditional feeling of loyalty and devotion to the Throne and person of the Sovereign, which has always characterized the Indian people.
"Conscious of the many blessings which India has derived from the connection with England, the princes and people rejoiced to tender in person their loyal and loving homage to their Imperial Majesties. They are confident that the great and historic event marks the beginning of a new era, ensuring greater happiness, prosperity and progress to the people of India under the aegis of the Crown." — Message sent by the princes and people of India to the Prime Minister upon the day of the King's return to England.
46 CANADIAN CLUB OF WINNIPEG
BRITISH INFLUENCE IN NEW CHINA June 5, 1912
REV. DONALD MACGILLIVRAY, D.D.
"I think we are now beginning to see that the Chinese, realizing that they have much time to make up in the race of progress, stand before the world today as a nation desiring political assistance and moral regeneration. In some minds that have not yet attained to the full stage of enlightenment, China is the Yellow Peril. I do not take any stock in this idea of the Yellow Peril. Are you aware of the fact that China discovered America long before Columbus. Had they been inclined to leave their country, had they possessed the colonizing spirit of the Anglo-Saxon, it might well have been that this continent would have been peopled with the Yellow race.
"They are today realizing that a new era has arrived, making new demands upon them, if they are to hold their place in the competition of nations; and I am proud to think today that the British nation has for one hundred years been putting into China, forces which you behold today in this great national upheaval. There are other countries, it 'is true, that have been doing something in that line, but I think Great Britain has done more than any of them to bring about the revolution that has gone on there. We in China must look more and more to Britain in the future for the necessary help to assist China in solving her many problems."
Dr. MacGillivray then spoke of the acts of bravery in connection with the Titanic disaster. This was but one of many examples of the power of Britain in setting examples of conduct. It was natural that the lesser nations should look to the greatest world power for their standard of action. British books and papers, translated into Chinese, were also having a great influence. In the schools they were endeavoring to get hold of the young men of China and set before them high ideals of national honor, based on British precedents. The
ADDRESSES OF THE YEAR 47
speaker also paid a tribute to the splendid work performed in China by British medical men, while British commercial influence, directed from Hong Kong, was having a strong effect on Chinese development.
"But our best contribution to the East is men. I am proud of your achievements; I am interested in your goods 'Made in Canada,' but your best product is the men that are 'grown' in this land. I pray that many of these men will hear the East a-calling. The Chinese are your next-door neighbors. It was Kipling who said:
1 0, east is east, and west is west, and never the twain shall meet Till earth and sky stand presently at God's great judgment
seat;
But there is neither East nor West, border nor breed nor birth, When two strong men stand face to face, though they come
from the ends of the earth!'
"We must continue to exercise this friendly and beneficent influence of which I have spoken. If we do not do this, we shall simply go on with our purposeless policy of raising barriers which will some day have to be swept away. For all that we can do in behalf of this new republic, we will be richly repaid. Not in material things alone will China repay us. I believe that politically she will teach us something still, as she has done in the past.
"In religion we have some divine writers in China who will see truth from a new angle, and with that strength of spiritual intuition which is so characteristic of the East, will be able to shed a new and clearer light upon these things, and show them as our western thinkers have never been able to present them.
"We believe that the world is moving on, is progressing toward that 'one far-off Divine Event toward which the whole Creation moves' — the Brotherhood of Man. So let us get in line with that purpose — and that is the best I can say for you and for Canada."
48 CANADIAN CLUB OF WINNIPEG
ADDRESS OF HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS,* THE DUKE OF CONNAUGHT, GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF CANADA
July 16, 1912
The address of His Royal Highness constituted a memor- able event in the annals of the history of the Winnipeg Canadian Club. The Royal guest was introduced by Mr. J. A. M. Aikins, K.C., who referred to the constitution of the Canadian Club, in which the fostering of partiotism was stated as one of the main purposes. In this connection, the Club was doing a good work in a land peopled by citizens of many nationalities. In concluding his introduction of the Royal speaker, Mr. Aikins moved that his Royal Highness be offered honorary life member- ship in the Club, to which acceptance was graciously given.
His ROYAL HIGHNESS
"Mr. President of the Canadian Club of Winnipeg, and all Canadians here gathered : I find it difficult to obtain suitable words in which to thank you one and all for the splendid and generous reception you have given me this day. It is no idle expression on my part when I assure you, one and all, of the very great pleasure it gives me to be amongst you today. It is not the first time that I have been at a Canadian Club. I have, on four previous occasions, been at the Canadian Club at Ottawa; and I hope there may be opportunities of being present at many other Canadian Clubs in other parts of the Dominion.
"I do not suppose any Club of this kind has been founded under better conditions, or has produced better results, than the Canadian Clubs. I think that in the Old Country they might take a leaf out of your book. You have set a splendid example, in bringing every class of men together, without any political idea of any sort, but merely to further the interests of the country and to offer a warm welcome to any distinguished man who is able to speak to you of subjects of interest and importance to you all.
"Gentlemen, Mr Sanford Evans has referred to me in too complimentary terms. It is true that now for many years
ADDRESSES OF THE YEAR 49
I have had the honor of serving my country and my sovereign; but I am sure there are many of you who have had the same opportunity that I have had.
"When I look back upon the forty-five years that I have been a servant of my country, I reflect that these have been years of steady progress, not only in England, but in every portion of the Empire; but probably in no portion has this progress been greater than in the great Dominion of Canada. To one, who, in his early days, had the honor of serving in Canada and of taking part in the defence of Canada, it is of great interest and pleasure to renew acquaintance with a country which has always been very near to my heart.
"I spent one of the pleasantest years of my life — from 1869 to 1870 — in Montreal, and I remember how kind and sympathetic everybody was. Therefore, when His Majesty the late King asked me to come here as Governor-General, and this appointment, after his sad death, was again repeated through his successor, I most warmly accepted a position which is important in many ways. It is a position where one can do a great deal to promote closer union between the different parts of the Empire, and to assist Canada in its great development.
"I feel certain that Canada, true to itself, will be equally true to the Empire. After all, you who live in this country, love this country. The country's motto is 'Canada for the Canadians,' and let us hope that all Canadians will be ready to respond to the Imperial call, should it ever come, and that they will support the Crown and Flag in the future, as they have done in the past."
To be prepared for war is one of the most successful means of preserving peace. — Washington.
50 CANADIAN CLUB OF WINNIPEG
THE FOREIGN RELATIONS OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE July 23, 1912
PHILIP H. KERR, Editor of the "Round Table," London,
England
"There are two foci today in the foreign affairs of the British Empire. One I may call the Empire focus and the other the Far Eastern focus. There are others; but these are the two most important ones, and the only ones I shall touch upon today.
"Now, the first focus has to do with that which is attracting world-wide attention today — the rivalry between Great Britain and Germany. How many of you gentlemen realize that, at the date of Canada's confederation, Germany was not in exist- ence. Germany came into existence three years after Canada first became a nation. I think it is perfectly clear to us that the Germans, looking upon their history for the past forty years, find good assurance for the hope that they will progress at least as rapidly in the future as they have done in the past.
"The German government is today an autocracy. The Reichstag, which corresponds to the Dominion parliament or the parliament of Great Britain, has no power over the ministers of the Crown. The Chancellor, who corresponds to our Premier, is not responsible to the Reichstag; and when you come to enquire, you will find that the influences which determine Germany's imperial policy today are these:
"In the first place, the personality of the Monarch. You know the Kaiser believes in the effectiveness and employment of warlike methods. The second influence is the bureaucracy. In the third place, Germany puts more trust in her army than in her diplomatic resources. You know that past history has proven that people whose business it is to think about war, whose vocation in life it is to prepare for war, are naturally most prompt to precipitate that war."
ADDRESSES OF THE YEAR 51
In reference to the policy of Great Britain, Mr. Kerr stated that since Great Britain owned about one quarter of the surface of the earth, there was no motive for further extension. Another advantage was that at present, Great Britain had the stage.
" There is only one way to protect ourselves against Germany — only one way. That way is, to be so strong that it would be quite useless for Germany to attack us with any prospect of success. I think the history of the Moroccan controversy proves that. Germany had a good deal to say for herself in the Moroccan case. She did, in fact, actually threaten to use force against France if France was not prepared to give way. The British Government did not believe that the German case was completely right, and they were not prepared to see terri- tory wrested from another nation by the use of force. That was the cause of the famous ultimatum delivered by Lloyd- George. People did not realize at the time that it was an ultimatum; but it was. Germany recognized that, and forbore to pursue the line of action upon which she had entered. I do not think she had really intended to go to war. I think she had merely allowed the situation to drift to a crisis, to test what Great Britain would do in face of the menace of war.
" Looking to the future, there is only one way in which this rivalry can be brought to an end. That is the introduction of democracy in Germany. When you have a government in Germany wholly responsible to the people, I believe you will see a great change.
"I must turn briefly to the other focus of which I spoke in the beginning — the Far Eastern focus. Last year the control of affairs in China rested with the Manchu dynasty. This year that ancient government is a thing of the past, and China is a republic. The revolution means that a different class, a class that grew and matured in secret under the Empire, and burst into full flower with the coming of the Republic, is in control of the situation. A man educated in Western civilization is at the head of the Chinese Republic. China, too, has realized
52 CANADIAN CLUB OF WINNIPEG
that military weakness is a hopeless policy for a nation. Dr. Sun Yat Sen is a disciple of the doctrine that the only way to strengthen and fortify the young Republic is to build up a strong army and fleet. That lesson is going to prevail. If China establishes a government which is strong and vigorous, she will establish a government which will believe that strong armed and naval force is the one way of protecting the country's best interests.
"With the opening of the Panama Canal, you have got the whole question of the political future of the Pacific in the melting pot. I wonder if you gentlemen recognize that this is a matter which affects you in Canada more nearly than it affects us on the other side of the Atlantic. Canada is wealthy and is growing wealthier. You all look forward, I know, to the day when Canada will produce five hundred million bushels of wheat. But where are you going to sell it? You are going to face in the Far East competition, one of the greatest wheat- growing countries in the world. In forcing your way in a foreign market, it is sometimes of value to possess strength to support your case. You must think of your army and navy.
"The existence of the British Empire as a whole depends upon its strength. But the British Empire is far-reaching; and Britain alone would not be able to protect the British Empire. If the British Empire is to exist, it must depend upon the co-operation of its units. And you must look farther yet, beyond even national relations. You must consider your relation to the world, your influence upon the continuance of the peace of the world. I have tried to show Britain's relation to this, and to point out that any influences which menace the existence of Great Britain, menace all. Therefore, I do not hesitate to say that upon your co-operation as the largest unit of the British Empire, in the protection of that Empire, the best hope of the peace and safety of the world depends."
ADDRESSES OF THE YEAR 53
THE NECESSITY OF A BETTER UNDERSTANDING BETWEEN EASTERN AND WESTERN CANADA
July 29, 1912
MR. J. S. WILLISON, Toronto, Ontario
"It would be idle to deny that some apprehensions are entertained in Eastern Canada as to the temper of the relations between the older and newer provinces, and as to the per- manent unity and integrity of the Confederation. It is just as true that now and again opinions are expressed in the West which contain a suggestion of menace and indicate a suspicion that there is some desire to exploit the West for the advantage of what are described as 'the Eastern interests.' For myself, I am not greatly impressed either by these apprehensions or by these suspicions, nor am I at all convinced that there will be any ultimate failure of sympathetic and hearty co-operation between older and new Canada.
"No one realizes more clearly than I do that we have had serious difficulties to overcome in the organization and unification of Canada. A wide gap of unsettled territory separates the East from the West. We have had two races and two languages with dual school systems and an almost equal division of the people between two great systems of religion.
"I first came West in 1895 and not a few of those one met said frankly and in the confidence of private intercourses that it was gravely doubtful if agriculture could be successfully prose- cuted over great sections of the country. No such impression, however, was made upon my own mind, for my first visit trans- formed me into an optimist and an optimist I have remained. If I could have my way, although there is perhaps a suggestion of impracticability in the proposal, I would require every member of the Senate and of the House of Commons to visit the West before he could take his seat in either chamber, just as I believe no Imperial statesman is fully equipped for office in a British
54 CANADIAN CLUB OF WINNIPEG
cabinet who lacks personal knowledge of the people who inhabit, and of the conditions which prevail in, the oversea dominions.
" Nothing to my mind is of more vital importance to Canada than that capital invested in railways and other great public enterprises should be fairly treated. Even yet this country is only upon the threshold of its development. For half a cen- tury we will be a heavy borrower in the money markets. Cor- porations must recognize that if trade is to run in east and west courses and if they are to perform the great national function for which they were created and endowed out of the public treasury, they must deserve the advantages which they enjoy under the commercial policy which still commands the support of a majority of the people. It is not surprising that there has been congestion of traffic and inadequate terminal facilities if we recognize frankly that the amazing inflow of immigration, increase in production, and use of machinery in prairie farming, have produced results without a parallel in the history of the world. Here again, however, there is no ground of quarrel between East and West, nor any legitimate reason for attack upon the Eastern interests."
Mr. Willison then referred in detail to the need, in his opinion for adequate protection, which he declared was as necessary to Western as to Eastern Canada. Eventually, he said, the West would be a manufacturing community as well as the East, and would require protection against the highly specialized and heavily capitalized industries in the United States.
"Without protection, no nation ever achieved any con- siderable industrial supremacy. It may be that free trade is the true faith for a perfect world, but either the faith is weakly held or the world is still very imperfect. I submit that pro- tectionist duties were not imposed in Canada and have not been maintained for the special or exclusive benefit of manu- facturers. Protection was established for a great national object, just as certainly as the Canadian Pacific Railway was constructed for a great national object."
ADDRESSES OF THE YEAR 55
Mr. Willison also pronounced for a white Canada. The supreme question for Canadian patriots was the maintenance of British standards of civilization and a high average of human comfort. These were incompatible with any serious admixture of Asiatic races.
"Two nations of the old world met at the far outpost of Quebec. As a flag fell, a regime ended, and the conqueror entered into enduring possession. A new flag was raised to the south and, with the fortunes of war, the old flag, which yet flies to the north, went down and was borne back to the Mother Islands. The years pass. The human tides from the old world pour into the south and north. Great problems in self-government work out through evolution and through revolution. To the south, a mighty republic, threatening to overshadow the world, rises in giant proportions.
"To the north, a new British Confederation takes form, stretches eastward to the Atlantic and westward to the Pacific, and, as I have said, exercises the sovereign powers of a free democracy in intimate alliance with an ancient monarchy. That is our history, our inheritance, our responsibility and our opportunity. We have, therefore, traditions worth cherishing, duties which demand a patriotic and educated citizenship, and obligations as great and solemn as fall upon any other com- munity in the world."
A happy bit hame this auld world would be If men, when they're here, could make shift to agree, An' ilk said to his neighbor, in cottage an' ha', "Come, gi'e me your hand — we are brethren a'."
We love the same simmer day, sunny and fair; Hame! O, how we love it, an' a' that are there! Frae the pure air of heaven the same life we draw- Come, gi'e me your hand — we are brethren a'.
— Nicoll.
56 CANADIAN CLUB OF WINNIPEG
EMPIRE PROBLEMS August 27, 1912
RIGHT HON. WALTER H. LONG, M.P., London, England
"Gentlemen, there are strangers within our walls. Into our various dominions have come men of other nations. They are, many of them, the most progressive and venturesome spirits of the lands which gave them birth. They have come of their own free will to our land, and are living amongst us, taking their share in our burdens, bearing their part in our responsibilities. Can we not feel that to them we can look with equal reliance to help our Great Empire solve the problems of today and tomorrow?
"Our Empire is bound by a golden thread of love, deep- seated in the hearts of our people, wherever they are to be found, for the old Mother-Land — the Mother-Land which today is spoken of in terms of affection by those who have never even seen it — the Mother-Land which, in all its various dominions in different portions of the world, opens a home to those who come and choose to obey her laws, accept her conditions, and take their share in her work. That is the bond which binds our Empire together, and binds it together imperishably."
The speaker then referred to the time when it was whispered that annexation to a neighboring country would be the fate of Canada. The incidents of the Boer war, however, joined with many other tokens of the loyalty of Canada to the Empire, had forever removed this question from any possible programme of the future.
"In addition to Imperial defence, there is our common problem of Imperial trade. Surely our bread and butter is a subject in regard to which the various dominions of the British Empire should take counsel together and formulate some definite plan. We at home are confronted with the difficulty, not only in finding ships and men to man them, and soldiers, but a difficulty in my mind far greater, and that is the possibility
ADDRESSES OF THE YEAR 57
of starvation for our people in case of war. That difficulty could be met, and more than met, by this vast land of yours, capable of growing more corn than we could ever consume."
In concluding, the speaker dwelt briefly on the question of Home Rule in Ireland, to which he was personally opposed, although he recognized that there were two sides to the question.
"I have talked of defence and internal trade. What is the danger with which we are confronted? It is, that there are signs of aggression towards ourselves in certain quarters. It is the existence of the Triple Alliance, to which we might be exposed at any moment in a manner that would threaten our safety, nay, our very future. We want no war, we desire no aggression, we seek to take no man's possessions from him. We ask to be left in peace in our own lands. But we have got to answer the menace which faces us. I have formed an alto- gether false impression of the characteristics, longings and desires of my fellow-countrymen in all parts of the Empire, if I am wrong in believing that the answer we shall give will be: 'We seek no foreign alliance; we look to no strange land to help us; we count on the firm alliance of all the parts of the British Empire; and our answer to our enemies is, that those who will help to defend Britain's possessions are her own sons in every part of the world.'
"If we are true to ourselves, mindful of our own traditions, and appreciative of our own responsibilities, the British Empire will be yet more glorious in its future than it has been in the past, of which we are so justly proud."
We must be free or die, who speak the tongue that Shakespeare spake . — Wordsworth.
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