Full text of "Report"
/Y
WINNIPEG
1908-1909
Fifth Annual Report
OF
The Canadian Club
of Winnipeg
W NNIPEG
ORGANIZED 1904
SEASOti OF 1409-19
REV. CHAS. W. GORDON, D.D., LL.D.
(Ralph Connor)
President 1909-10
OFFICERS - 1909-10
President
1st Vice-President . .
2nd Vice-President . .
Literary Secretary . .
Hon. Secretary . .
Hon. Treasurer
. J. B. MITCHELL
. REV. S. G. BLAND, D.D.
. R. T. RILEY
. JOHN APPLETON
. R. H. SMITH
, A. L. CROSSIN
Executive Committee
R. A. RUMSEY W. J. BULMAN R. W. CRAIG
JAMES STUART DR. BJORNSON
HORACE CHEVRIER H. H. SAUNDERSON
Honorary Members of the Canadian Club
of Winnipeg
WILLIAM HENRY DRUMMOND (DECEASED)
His EXCELLENCY EARL GREY, G.C.M.G.
GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH
FIELD MARSHAL EARL ROBERTS, V.C.
LORD STRATHCONA, G.C.M.G.
Minutes of Annual Meeting
Minutes of the annual meeting of the Canadian Club of
Winnipeg, held on the tenth day of November, 1909, Mr.
J. B. Mitchell, President, in the chair.
After thanking Mr. E. D. Martin for his address to the
Club on the subject of the congress of the Chambers of the
Empire, held in Sydney, Australia, to which Mr. Martin
had been delegated by the Winnipeg Board of Trade, the
President called the annual meeting |o( order.
Mr. R. H. Smith moved, seconded by Mr. John Apple-
ton, that the minutes of the last annual meeting be approv-
ed as read. The minutes were accordingly passed.
Mr. R. H. Smith moved that the secretary's report be
approved as read. This was agreed to.
Mr. A. L. Crossin, Honorary Treasurer announced
that the Club had on hand the sum of $1,160 as compared
with $849.00 for the year previous.
Mr. J. B. Mitchell, the retiring president, took occasion
to thank the members of the Club for the honor conferred
upon him in the past year, also to acknowledge the splendid
work of the Secretary in securing such a distinguished list
of gentlemen to address the Winnipeg Club.
CANADIAN CLUB OF WINNIPEG.
Mr. J. A. M. Aikins in submitting the repart of the nom-
inating committee, recommended the following officers for
the year 1909-10:
President Rev. C. W. Gordon,
D.D., L.L.D.
1st Vice-President. ..Mr. A. B. Stovel
2nd Vice-President. .Mr. Theo. A. Hunt
Literary Secretary . ..Mr. Edward W. DuVal
Honorary Secretary.. Mr. H. R. Smith
Honorary Treasurer.. Mr. A. L. Crossin, whose ser-
vices during the past year were acknowledged by the
Committee.
Executive Committee — Arthur Congdon, F. W. Drewry,
D. M. Duncan, A. R. Ford, Dr. J. A. MacArthur, R. H.
Shanks, J. J. Vopni.
The recommendations of the Nominating Committee
were seconded by Mr. A. N. McPherson and unanimously
approved by the Club.
Report of the Honorary Secretary
In conformity with the custom of previous secretaries,
I beg to submit the following- statement of the operations
of the Club for the year ending the first Tuesday in Novem-
ber, 1909.
During this time some twenty-three meetings were
held, and twenty-eight speakers, guests of the Club, gave
valuable and interesting addresses. Chief among these
was His Excellency Earl Grey, Governor-General of Can-
ada. Among the other distinguished guests it will not be
invidious to mention Lord Strathcona, Sir William H.
White, K.C.B., William Jennings Bryan and J. J. Hill. It-
may be interesting here to note that of these twenty-eight
speakers, all of whom gave acceptable and instructive ad-
dresses, eighteen were Canadians and eleven were residents
of our own city.
The membership at the close of the year numbers 1110,
with over 100 applications for admission awaiting approval.
The extent to which the members have interested them-
selves in the meetings may be judged by the fact that on
more than one occasion from 800 to 900 sat down to
luncheon.
The activities of the Club, however, have not been con-
fined to the hearing of addresses and the partaking of
luncheon. The collection for the Quebec Battlefield Fund
was completed and the Club's contribution of one thousand
dollars was forwarded to the Treasurer of the Fund early
in the year. One hundred dollars was also sent to the
Canadian Club of Halifax, as a contribution to the fund
being raised by that Club for the erection of a memorial
tower commemorating the convening at Halifax in 1758
of the first meeting of a representative legislature in any
British colony.
The idea of a centennial celebration in 1912 was
first publicly suggested at a Club luncheon on August 24th,
1906, by Ernest Thompson-Seton, and the Club showed its
sympathy with the movement which is now on foot to-
wards the carrying out of this suggestion by having the
CANADIAN CLUB OF WINNIPEG.
matter formally discussed, when the following resolution
was unanimously approved :
''That the Canadian Club of Winnipeg heartily endorses
the proposed Selkirk Centennial Exposition and pledges
itself to cordially assist in every possible manner in the
furthering of this movement, fraught as it is with such im-
mense importance not only to Western Canada but to the
Dominion as a whole."
A successful attempt was made to interest our citizens
in decorating their residences and places of business on
Dominion Day, so that the large number of strangers from
other lands passing through our country might be impress-
ed with the respect paid to our National holiday.
One of the most interesting incidents of the year was
the unveiling by Lord Strathcona, on August 27th, 1909,
of a brass memorial tablet placed by the Club on Fort
Garry gateway. On this tablet were inscribed the leading
facts connected with the history of Fort Garry. The interest
in this ceremony was heightened by the fact that Lord
Strathcona had himself been so long and so closely connect-
ed with the events the tablet was intended to commemorate.
At the instance of the Canadian Club of Montreal, a con-
vention of representatives of Canadain Clubs was held in
that city on September 16th and 17th. Your Secretary, by
instruction of the Executive of the Club attended this Con-
vention. The meeting resulted in the organization of the
Association of Canadian Clubs of Canada, the object of the
Association being to unify and strengthen the various local
Clubs and make their operations national. Mr. J. B.
Mitchell, the President of your Club, was chosen one of
the Vice-Presidents of the Association.
The general feeling of competent judges is that the Club
is doing a valuable work in stimulating and directing Can-
adian sentiment. Its influence in this direction can be
greatly extended with advantage to our national spirit. The
suggestion that through its agency assistance and encour-
agement could be given to the prosecution of the study of
Canadian history seems worthy of consideration, while it
is entirely feasible to promote the imperial idea by giving
asistance in the way of providing speakers for the cele-
biation of Empire Day in the schools.
ADDRESSES OF THE YEAB.
A complete list of the addresses delivered before the
Club during the past year is as follows : —
Nov. 3, 1908— Annual Meeting.
Nov. 13, 1908— Prof. H. L. Wilson, Ph.D. (Baltimore),
"Archaeological Research."
Dec. 11, 1908 — Mr. Jefferson Myers and Mr. A. D. Richard-
son (Portland, Oregon), "The Financing
of an Exposition" and "The Advertising
Value of an Exposition."
Jan. 20, 1909— Rev. Gilbert Wilson, Ph. D. (City), "Na-
tional Foresight."
Feb. 17, 1909— Mr. J. H. Brock (City), "Life Insurance."
Feb. 26, 1909— Mr. J. J. Kelso (Toronto), "Social Service."
Mar. 11, 1909— Hon. Joseph Martin (Vancouver, B.C.),
"Relations of Canada to the Mother
Country."
Mar. 24, 1909— Dr. J. E. Jones (U.S. Consul-General, Win-
nipeg), "Japan. Some Commercial and
other View-Points."
April 7, 1909— Col. S. B. Steele, C.B., M.V.O., (City),
"Early History of the Royal North-West
Mounted Police."
April 14, 1909— Mr. A. J. Dawson (London, England),
"Mutual Understanding in the Empire."
April 28, 1909— Mr. Abraham Knechtel (Ottawa), "The
Preservation of our Forests."
May 5, 1909— Hon. W. ]. Bryan (Lincoln, Nebraska,)
"Others."
May 19, 1909— Major A. C. Macdonell, D.S.O. (City),
"The Canadian Militia — Our National
Army."
10 CANADIAN CLUB OF WINNIPEG.
May 26, 1909— Mayor W. Sanford Evans (City), Mr. R.
M. Dennistoun, K.C. (City), Mr. H. M.
Belcher (City), Hon. T. Mayne Daly
(City), "Canada's International and Sel-
kirk Centennial Exposition, Winnipeg,
1912."
June 21, 1909— Hon. Chas. Murphy (Ottawa), "The New
National Spirit."
June 30, 1909— Rev. Clarence MacKinnon, D.D. (City),
"The Significance of Canada's National
Holiday."
July 14, 1909 — Rev. Canon H. Hensley Henson (London,
England), "A Cross-bench View of Im-
perial Defence."
Aug. 3, 1909— Prof. James W. Robertson, LL.D., C.M.G.
(St. Anne, Que.), "The Call of the Land."
Aug. 25, 1909 — Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal (Lon-
don, England) and J. J. Hill (St. Paul,
U.S.A.) "Reminiscences of early Win-
nipeg."
Sept. 2, 1909— Sir William White, K.C.B.,. F.R.S. (Lon-
don, England,) "The Imperial Navy."
Sept. 17, 1909 — Major-General Sir George Arthur French,
K.C.M.G. (London, England), "North-
west Mounted Police."
Oct. 13, 1909 — Earl Grey, Governor-General (Ottawa),
"The Empire and the Development of
Western Canada."
Oct. 26, 1909— Hon. A. B. Morine (Toronto), "Newfound-
land."
Respectfully submitted,
R. H. SMITH,
Winnipeg, Nov. 10, 1909. Honorary Secretary.
ADDRESSES OF THE YEAR. ]1
Honorary Treasurer's Report
The Canadian Club of Winnipeg
Financial Statement
For Year ending 31st October, 1909
RECEIPTS.
Balance on hand, 1st November, 1908 $ 849.51
Membership Fees:
1907-1908, 31 members $ 62.00
1908-1909, 1110 members 2220.00 2282.00
Luncheon tickets sold 2280.00
Subscriptions received for Quebec Battlefields'
Fund 907.90
Bank interest 11.90
6331.31
DISBURSEMENTS.
Postage $ 306.00
Printing and stationery 417. 90
Membership card cases 156.00
Telegrams 81 . 67
Stenographer 100.00
Verbatim reports of addresses 142.00
Cab hire 45. 50
Dues to Association of Canadian Clubs 15.00
Rent 25.00
Expenses of Secretary-Delegate to Montreal at-
tending the meeting of Canadian Clubs 150.00
Sundry expenses 47. 12
Payment for various luncheons 2433.00
Expenses — Collection Quebec Battlefields' Fund
subscription 100. 00
Subscription to Quebec Battlefields' Fund 950.00
Subscription to Halifax National Memorial Tower 100.00
Fort Garry Gate — Expenses erection brass tablet
recording historical facts 102. 85
Balance in Molson's Bank 1 159. 27
Total $6331.31
A. L. CROSSIN,
Hon. Treasurer.
12 ADDRESSES OF THE YEAR.
We have examined the books and vouchers of the Can-
adian Club of Winnipeg for year ending October 31st,
1909, and hereby certify the above to be a true and correct
statement of the receipts and disbursements for that period.
H. C. THOMPSON,
R. H. MAINER,
Auditors.
Winnipeg, November 5th, 1909.
Addresses of the Year
Following the precedent established in the annual re-
port for 1906, abstracts of the various addresses delivered
during the year are incorporated in this report. While,
owing to considerations of space, it is impossible to publish
the addresses in full or even in e.vtenso the aim has been
to catch the spirit of the original and to preserve for ref-
erence certain, at least, of the salient points.
It will be seen that the addresses throughout have reach-
ed a high standard and will bear comparison with those of
previous years or with addresses delivered before Canadian
Clubs elesewhere not unfavorably. A special feature of
the past year was that two of the meetings were devoted to
an exposition of the aims and objects of the proposed Sel-
kirk Centennial Exposition and of the best means of secur-
ing these. The visit of the British Association for the Ad-
vancement of Science to Winnipeg in August last afforded
the Club an opportunity to hear addresses from two of the
prominent members of the Association, Sir William White
and Lord Strathcona, the latter being also an honorary
member of this Club.
Verbatim reports of all addresses may be perused upon
application to the Honorary Secretary.
Christmas Greetings
At the Christmas season greetings from the executive
and members of the Winnipeg Canadian Club were extend-
ed to the honorary members of the Club as well as to those
who have honored the Club with addresses, and to all Can-
adian Clubs throughout the Dominion of Canada and the
United States.
ADDRESSES OF THE YEAR. 13
Archaeological Research
November 13th 1908.
Professor H. L. Wilson Ph. D. — Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore
Professor Wilson, after having been introduced by the
President as a Canadian and a^graduate of Queen's Uni-
versity, explained that he had undertaken a lecture tour
of Western American cities on behalf of the Archaeological
Institute of America, and, as a Canadian, his desire had
been strong to enjoy the scenery of the Canadian Rockies,
hence his presence in Winnipeg.
The Archaeological Institute of America, he stated,
had been organized in 1879 by the late Charles Eliot Norton
and President Eliot, of Harvard University. At the present
time it had between twenty and thirty affiliated societies
which made up the Institute of America. This Institute
had for its object the promotion of archaelogical research
and the spread of archaeological knowledge in all the fields
which might be covered by the art. The work was carried
on in a number of sub-divisions, such as the Greek, Orient-
al, Biblical, Medieaeval and Renaissance Art, and American,
fields, the latter being concerned with the primitive civiliz-
ation of the American continent. The aim of the Institute
was largely organization in order to promote research in
these fields, to spread information and thus to create a
love for that which was artistic and that which pertained
to the history of the past. The Institute had furthered ex-
cavation in many parts of the world, it had established
schools of archaelogy in Mexico, in Rome and in Jerusalem,
it had a number of publications, notably the American
Journal of Archaeology, and it maintained lecture courses.
To each society of the Institute three or four, sometimes
five or six, lecturers were sent in the course of the year. In
this way local societies were kept in touch with the pro-
gress of archaeology in all the different fields.
About a year ago the suggestion had been made by
certain citizens of Toronto that the Archaeological Institute
of America should interpret the word America in the larg-
est sense, and that this Institute should have a Canada
Section, a United States Section and a Mexico Section. As
a Canadian he had been asked by the Institute to visit the
14 CANADIAN CLUB OF WINNIPEG.
various cities of Canada and as a result of his visit, societies
had been organized in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa and
Kingston, and these societies would be formally received
into membership in the Institute in the coming annual
meeting to be held in Toronto during December.
The question he wished to put to his hearers was this:
Did they wish to include themselves in the movement which
had already taken root in Ontario? It was important to
effect the organization of a society in Winnipeg, to take the
intellectual leadership of the whole central West in artistic
and archaeological culture. There were in this neighbor-
hood certain deposits of archaeological material which had
to do with the ancient history of this neighborhool. An
organization of this kind would have a strong influence and
practical bearing upon all the intellectual life of this city
and province.
The Financing of an Exposition
December llth, 1908
Mr. Jefferson Myers, President of the Lewis and Clarke Portland
Exposition.
"The Lewis and Clarke Fair originated with the Oregon
Historical Association. After a considerable amount of
preliminary work had been done, the general scope and
size of the exposition well discussed by the citizens of
Oregon, the State by an act of the legislative body authoriz-
ed the holding of this first great western exposition, and
appropriated $500,000 from the treasury, being equal to
one dollar for every man, woman and child within the
State. The legislature further appointed a commission of
eleven members known as the Lewis and Clarke Centennial
Exposition Commission, which had jurisdiction over all
matters pertaining to the Exposition. There was formed
in the City of Portland a corporation to handle all matters
in connection with the Exposition subject to approval of the
State department. This corporation opened stock books
and a subscription of about $400.000 was made within two
days in the city of Portland. This gave the Exposition
$900,000, with which it immediately commenced work on
construction. A committee was formed which immediately
ADDRESSES OF THE YEAR. 15
took up the matter with the Government Department at
Washington, D.C., and obtained an appropriation from the
Government of the United States of about $475,000, which
was used for the construction of a Government building
presenting the exhibits from all the departments of the
Federal Government. A subscription of $100,000 was given
by the railway companies.
There was appropriated by a number of the States a
sum equal to about $300,000 which was used by them in
constructing buildings and in placing therein their exhibits.
The total expense of the Lewis and Clarke Exposition was
about $2,250,000. There was returned to the State Govern-
ment and to the subscribers to the capital stock about 22^2
per cent, of their original investment.
The most important things to consider in the com-
mencement of your exposition are your subscription and an
estimate of the sum you can depend on for your work as
it is impossible to determine the size and scope of same
without first arriving at your financial condition. Next
is the location of your site. The buildings are one of the
largest items of expense which you will have and great
care should be taken not to construct any building which
could in any way be dangerous to your guests during the
exposition. We immediately employed an expert super-
intendent who took charge of the entire construction, and
we then employed a director of works at a small consider-
ation for his services, who assisted the superintendent of
construction in any difficult tasks of his work.
Your exhibits should contain not quantity, but the best
quality that you can get throughout your entire country,
and each province should be encouraged to maintain its
own building and make a complete exhibit of the resources
of that province.
Another very important duty is to take care of the
guests who come to visit your exposition. If you permit
them to be overcharged or crowded out of accommodation
they will soon become greatly dissatisfied and it will work
the greatest injury of anything that could happen to the
success of the enterprise.
The result of the Lewis and Clarke Exposition to the
State of Oregon in the past three years is that at least
16 CANADIAN CLUB OF WINNIPEG.
$150,000,000 in wealth and 200,000 in population have been
added.
"The success of the Lewis and Clarke Exposition was
achieved by creating an enthusiasm among the entire peo-
ple in the community in which it was held. Its success was
due to no man's work, but to that of every man, woman
and child."
"In conclusion I want to go on record as predicting to
your city and province should you decide upon holding an
exposition similar tothe Lewis and Clark Exposition, that
within five years it will return to you a hundred dollars for
every dollar of your investment and that your attendance
from the United States will exceed 250,000."
The Advertising Value or an Exposition
December llth, 1908
Mr. Thomas Richardson, Advertising Manager of the Lewis & Clarke
Exposition, Portland
After paying a tribute to the splendid possibilities of
this western country, Mr. Richardson said in part :
"You talk about discussing the possibilities of an ex-
position. With people like this and a country like this, that
is unnecessary. I am going to talk to you about an ex-
position as an advertisement. How can you better
advertise your country than by inviting the whole world to
come and see what you have actually accomplished. You
have got to have men who will draw, but above that is the
exposition of your actual products displayed to farmers
who visit here by farmers who know what they are talk-
ing about."
"Now, don't undertake an exposition in Winnipeg until
you have brought the project before the people of Western
Canada. Don't commence just because a few railroads or
a few companies are willing to put up a certain amount of
money. Go to the school-houses and tell the children some-
thing about Winnipeg, Manitoba and Canada."
ADDRESSES OF THE YEAR. 17
"My work in Oregon was in charge of nine business
men, nine men who formed a permanent committee and re-
presented 60 per cent, of the City of Portland. They met
whenever it was necessary and not one ever missed a
meeting."
We founded the Oregon Development League to which
were affiliated eighty-four organizations all with a secre-
tary and president and fifteen of these now have paid sec-
retaries and in one town of 10,000 people we pay our sec-
retary $5,000 a year."
"Another thing we did was to organize excursion parties
to every nook and corner in Washington, Idaho, California
and Oregon. We went out with the best business men we
had. We went out and told the people everywhere that
we wanted to see them prosperous. We said to them : 'We
want to see you make a dollar, because we want 60 cents of
it.' And we got sixty cents of it. Now what was the
result of the Lewis and Clarke Exposition? The postal
receipts increased two hundred per cent."
Now if you hold an exposition you will bring to the
surface a number of things that you don't imagine you
possess. * * * You, gentlemen, are here in an area
where you can command everything you please. All the
big cities would have to have buildings and be represented
here. It would be the greatest gathering of farm imple-
ments and machinery that this continent has ever seen."
"I say that after we have the home and the accumula-
tion of money there comes a duty, not a right, but almost a
divine pleasure in giving back to our fellowmen that help,
that uplift, and that sweetest solution of things contained
in the words : — 'My brother, I want you to participate in
these good things. I want the world to come and live in
this fruitful, fertile Manitoba.' "
National Foresight
January 20th, 1909.
Rev. Dr. Gilbert Wilson.
"Scientists tell us that the earliest activities of men
were unreasoned and instinctive. History reminds us that
the earliest movements of men were planless and unpurpos-
18 CANADIAN CLUB OF WINNIPEG.
ed. Later the nation reaches a point where reflection be-
gins, where idealism and criticism take place. When this
point is once passed activities become purposed and de-
liberate. It is not difficult for any student of history to
trace the evidence of foresight in the historical develop-
ment of the nations of the past. * * * Great thinkers
struck out lofty conceptions and great ideals, statesmen
shaped the channel for the current of national activity.
Noble patriots by their self-denying lives made the realiza-
tion of these great ideals possible. Where this was done,
the great mass, fired by their heroism, has fallen into line
and moved forward on toward the predestined goal."
"Among the nations of the world Canadians are already
securing honorable mention and are becoming world-famed
for courage, enterprise, daring, industry, adaptability and
patience. Canada has not yet, however, distinguished her-
self by the exercise of much foresight. So far the noisy
insistent present has crowded out the quiet consideration
of the ideal future. Nevertheless, that is not a natural
condition of things, nor is it a condition that is likely long
to continue."
"There are, it seems to me, at least four ways in which
Canada might legitimately exercise what may be called
'National Foresight.' The first of these is to protect what
we have and may be called 'Defensive Foresight.' The
second is to survey, police and develop that which we al-
ready have, 'Economic Foresight.' The third is to increase
our territory in the one possible direction, 'Diplomatic
Foresight,' and the fourth is to determine slowly, patiently,
and with exceeding care, the question of our ultimate
national status."
"I recognize that there is no direct interest that we can
have in any war of aggression, or in any kind of war, except
a war of defence for our own hearth and home. * * *
I recognize, too, that the Munroe Doctrine, so long scouted
by European and Canadian publicists probably protects us
at the moment more than we have any idea of. * * * I
recognize, too, that the sea-dogs of Great Britain are strong
and powerful and her will as indomitable as ever, and yet
we must consider that in any great war, with her far-flung
Empire she could not send a man or a ship. * * * I
realize further, that we have the longest undefended
ADDRESSES OF THE YEAR. 19
military frontier in the world and our two sea fronts are
likewise exposed. * * * I realize, too, that on the last
resort they only have who can keep, and I believe that we
intend to keep what we have."
"In the first place I hope we shall do as other states
have so well done, institute some form of general military
training for boys. But I trust that we shall not be satisfied
with that but will attempt to give a modicum of military
training, say, at least, six months' drill to every able-bodied
young man in the land. It would give them a greater sense
of responsibility than they at present possess, and many of
our young men do not possess any grave sense of respon-
sibility to this, their native or adopted land."
"The next point is the question of the conservation of
our national resources, or what I have called Economic
Foresight. * * We have lost heavily by destructive forest
fires and there is a deplorable absence in this country of
reforestation or afforestation. We have alienated reckless-
ly our public lands. We have permitted wild speculation
in farm lands and the exploitation of timber lands and
mines largely for the benefit of foreign capital. Happily
these things are beginning to arouse the attention of Can-
adians and they have already occupied the attention of
two governments on this continent."
"I believe that the interests of trade will compel our
country to employ her best consular ability in the countries
with which we trade or within the bounds of which we are
likely to develop trade."
"If we bear in mind that in future heavy transportation
must take place upon water rather than upon steel rails,
we shall wish that some man may arise who shall arouse
Canadian opinion as to the need of a national system of
deep waterways."
"I hope, too, that we shall have a progressive Canadian
industrial policy. As Canadians we believe in keeping Can-
adian youth in our own country and in recalling as many of
them as possible. I hope we shall have home products
and home produce in plenty and home consumption of
both."
"I pass to the consideration of Diplomatic Foresight.
One pauses to think, however, when he speaks of diplo-
20 CANADIAN CLUB OF WINNIPEG.
matic foresight and acquisition of territory of the Canada
that might have been." Dr. Wilson here referred to several
British treaties with the United States whereby Canada had
lost vast tracts of land. "But I am reminded that a spirit
has been growing in this country, a spirit that says that we
have nothing further to give away. We shall do well to
let our lost chances go by and try to deal wisely with our
last chance, and our last territorial chance is the deep-sea
pearl of the St. Lawrence, the ancient and honorable colony
of Newfoundland."
After referring to the natural beauty, the climate and
the products of Newfoundland and reviewing the attitude
of the colony to the Dominion in 1867 when Newfoundland
did not wish to enter into Confederation and again in 1894
when, owing to commercial depression there was a desire
to join this Dominion, a desire which was nullified by the
apathy of the Canadian people who were not awake to the
chance, the speaker continued. "There ought to be no pos-
sibility of future difference between ourselves and New-
foundland. Union would settle the Quebec and Labrador
boundary question. Above all, the union would be
of strategic importance to Canada. * * * Newfound-
land is the key to our front door and we cannot trust it in
any other hands than our own."
"It had been my intention to speak to you of Imperial-
ism in its various forms and manifestations and of our
ultimate destiny but my time has elapsed. In closing I
may perhaps be allowed to quote from a Canadian poet,
Charles G. D. Roberts :—
'Awake, my country, the hours of dreams is done,
Doubt not, nor dread the greatness of thy fate,
Tho' faint souls fear the keen confronting sun
And fain would bid the morn,of splendor wait,
Tho' dreamers rapt in starry visions cry:
'Lo! yon thy future, yon thy faith, thy fame'
And stretch vain hands to stars. Thy fame is nigh,
Here in Canadian hearth and home and name;
This name which yet shall grow till all the nations know
Us for a patriot people, heart and hand,
Loyal to our native hearth, our native land.' ':
ADDRESSES OF THE YEAB. 21
Life Insurance
February 17th, 1909.
Mr. J. H. Brock, Managing Director Great West Life Assurance
Company.
It was not necessary, declared the speaker, to dilate up-
on the importance of life insurance because that had been
recognized as long as written history had said anything.
Modern life insurance was only somewhat different from
life insurance in the early days ; as far back as the time of
Pharaoh life insurance had been considered necessary. The
years of plenty were then made to supply food for the
years of failure, for crop failure occurred in those days just
as it did now.
In Canada the total amount insured in life and in-
dustrial insurance companies at the end of 1907 was $685.-
000,000; in assessment companies, $515,000,000, making a
total for Canada of $1,200,000,000, equal to about $1,000
per family. In 1907 forty-three companies doing business
in Canada wrote $90,382,932 insurance and paid out during
the year to policy holders $14,753,532. These figures would
give an idea of the importance of the insurance business.
The speaker then referred briefly to the different plans
of life insurance, viz, term insurance, all life or ordinary
life insurance, limited payment life and endowment policies.
All rates were fixed by mortality tables. These were
practically invariable, althought from time to time slight
changes were made if there were good reasons for the same.
The difference as to the rate of interest was a very import-
ant difference indeed. Each one per cent, of difference in
the rate of interest made a difference of 15 per cent, on the
average of all the business done by a company. That was
why the life insurance companies laid such stress on their
power to invest their funds.
The old line companies were those that were required
by the government to put up a reserve under government
inspection sufficient to guarantee to policyholders in the
event of the company not being able for any cause to con-
tinue in office or carry out its contracts, the possibility of
any other solvent company taking over the business and
22 CANADIAN CLUB OF WINNIPEG.
having sufficient funds handed over to it to enable it to
carry out the contracts. Therefore, the old line companies
could not fail unless there was thorough dishonesty on the
part of the company and continued carelessness on the
part of a government officials. As a matter of fact, in the
whole history of Canadian life insurance there never had
been a failure of a life insurance company. As to assess-
ment insurance, if the assessment companies would charge
sufficient premiums to enable them to put up this reserve
they would be on all fours with the ordinary life companies
and there would be no difference between them at all. But
the desire of the assessment companies was always to
charge the lowest possible premium. The assessment
company which charged the lowest premium expected to
get the largest business. The consequence was that these
companies had always failed. He was not referring to that
class of fraternal insurance often taken up by societies in
connection with another part of their work. That was a
most commendable thing as it educated the people up to
insurance. There was no rivalry between life insurance
companies and fraternal societies. The latter were learning
not to promise the impossible and to be willing to take
actuaries' advice.
As for government insurance it must be understood
that the profits on insurance were practically represented
by the rate of interest earned. Three per cent, was about
the rate which the government of Canada could earn but
the insurance companies could earn much more than that.
In other words the government would be charging the
community generally for a portion of the cost of insurance
in order to give a rate to policy-holders which could com-
pete with that of private companies. Consequently, the
competition of governments in the life insurance business
was unnecessary and unsatisfactory and the time of gov-
ernments should not be wasted in that way.
The Royal Commission on Insurance appointed by the
Federal Government had found nothing to find fault with
and only suggested that the Government should back up
the reports of the officers of the Department and see that
any abuses were remedied at once. Each company was
required to make a statement showing a thoroughly de-
tailed statement. The latter had to be sworn to by the
officers of the company and was then sent to Ottawa.
ADDRESSES OF THE YEAR. 23
Shortly afterwards an officer of the Department at Ottawa
took possession of the office having an absolute right to ex-
amine any paper or document in the office and to check it
over. When the Government's blue book was published
everyone in the life insurance business was then prepared
to accept its statements as to the position of every life in-
surance company in Canada. The statements of the insur-
ance companies were both inspected and guaranteed. It
was absolutely important that the public should know that
a company was solvent.
The speaker then closed by criticizing some of the
clauses in the bill proposed by the Dominion Government
to regulate life insurance companies and pointed out how
many of the proposed changes would disadvantageously
affect the Canadian life insurance companies.
The Problem of the Young Delinquent
February 26th, 1909.
Mr. J.J. Kelso, Toronto.
"About eight years ago I got into a very interesting
work. Almost accidentally I got a telephone message one
day from our Central Prison warden. He said: — 'I want
you to come out here and see my kindergarten class.' I
went out and found two little fellows of ten and eleven
years of age, who had been convicted and sentenced to five
years each in the reformatory. They had been brought
to Toronto by an officer of the law, handcuffed together in
a smoking car and taken to Central Prison to be detained
there under safeguard until they could be removed to the
provincial reformatory, a considerable distance north. Now
I realized, as any sensible man must realize, that such was
not the proper way to deal with children. Without con-
sulting anybody I took these two little fellows and sent
them off to homes in the country. I did that with a great
deal of apprehension because it was a serious breach of
the law. To my surprise, I found that nobody enquired
what became of the two boys and that I could reasonably
risk doing it some more. I went to work and laid siege to
the various boys being committed to our provincial re-
formatory at Penetang. In two years I had taken over
24 CANADIAN CLUB OF WINNIPEG.
forty boys who had been convicted for five years each and
placed them in situations. It was not necessary, and has
not been necessary to this day, to put any of those boys in
prison.
"Now, if one half of these boys had failed two or three
successes would repay all the effort put forth. That ex-
presses what led me to feel a great compassion for boys in
the institution at Penetang. That institution had 260 boys
at one time but these various processes reduced the num-
ber till now there are only about 125 boys there. In a
period of three or four months I took 125 boys out of the
reformatory and placed them in situations and in five years
not over six of these boys have been known to get into
prison. I took hold of them one by one, not in the aggre-
gate, because you cannot do much with a crowd. I first of
all studied their lives and knowing the weak spot I was
able to change the boy from a sullen, defiant, sour-looking
fellow and I had him in a very few months reduced to tears,
softened and broken down as any child could be.
''Many a person has travelled through Africa and has
actually kicked diamonds about and didn't know. It is the
same way with boys in our street. We haven't faith and
confidence in them and yet there are diamonds there which
with a little polishing and a little friendly helpfulness can
be made into the finest men going.
"This old world is not starving for material things, but
it is starving for friendliness and something of affection.
"One of the most modern ideas is the childrens' court.
The idea of this court is entirely educational. It is the
view that all children under sixteen should be classed as
delinquents and not as criminals. The courts would be
valuless if it were not for the personality of the people who
control and direct them. They must be operated by
Christian men with big hearts who have faith in boys.
"All crime especially youthful crime is a manifestation
of social disorder.
"I believe that society is committing a crime against
boys when it allows them to grow up without learning a
trade and without the chance to earn a living for them-
selves and to become industrial factors in the community.
ADDRESSES OF THE YEAB.
''Through carelessness and hastiness men are often man-
ufactured into criminals.
"I would like to urge you in this new city of Winnipeg,
to avoid creating large institutions. I am not opposed to
true charity but I don't believe in institutions. I believe
that when a child is put into an institution it gets institu-
tionalized and a child brought up in that kind of cold stor-
age is done a grave injustice.
"I believe the Almighty intended us to be linked to-
gether by the chain of human brotherhood and that we
should each seek to help those fallen by the wayside to re-
gain their lost positions so that we can all reach the same
haven of safety. If we had more of that kind of service
there would be less need for our prisons, our large
police forces, reformatories and refuges of all kinds that
now constitute such a burden on the community and are
such a reflection upon our Christian civilization."
Relations of Canada to the Mother Country
llth March, 1909.
Hon. Joseph Martin K.C.
It seemed to him that there was a great deal of indefinit-
ness in the discussion that took place upon this question.
This arose to a considerable extent from confusing two
things which in their nature were quite separate and in-
dependent, the question of trade on the one hand and the
question of sentiment on the other. No matter what laws
might be passed- it was surely a rule of political economy
that each individual — and the state was made up of indi-
viduals— naturally did with regard to his own dealings
what he thought best for himself. This was one thing.
There were other things, perhaps not as important ma-
terially as dollars and cents but in their way much more im-
portant; and these things were matters of sentiment.
Let them take the trade question first. Did they sup-
pose that if the farmers of Canada could get five cents more
a bushel if they allowed their wheat to go to Germany
rather than to England they would hesitate about selling
their wheat to Germany?
CANADIAN CLUB OF WINNIPEG.
On the other hand, references were being made in the
press of the old country to the fear that as some benefit
from the revision of the American tariff might come to
Canada there was a likelihood of Canada becoming annexed
to the United States. Now, the trade between the United
States and Canada was much greater than between Canada
and Great Britain, and it was growing greater every year.
That, however, had nothing to do, in his opinion, with the
relations between Canada and the Mother Country. Can-
ada desired to remain a part of the British Empire, not
because any additional dollars would go into its pockets
but because we were a British people. We looked upon
the old country not only as our mother in blood but as our
great exemplar from which we got the principles which to
us, after all, were more important.
We in Canada had nothing to do with what English
people may see fit to decide upon a question of protection
or free trade. In Canada there were practically no poor
people; but, in the old country there were thousands and
hundreds of thousands who did not know when they got
up in the morning whether they would get enough to eat
during the day. Would any one say for a moment that the
farmers of Canada would ask that a single fraction of a cent
be added to the price of wheat to those unfortunate millions
in the old country?
So far as the United States was concerned whatever
trade arrangements Canada might be called upon to make
with it would be entirely on the dollar and cent basis. If
we had a reciprocity treaty tomorrow by which absolute
free trade between Canada and the United States were
established it would not affect in the slightest degree our
feelings towards the United States. We* preferred to be
Canada because to a large extent we were independent so
far as the government was concerned and because we be-
lieved that in every respect our institutions and laws were
superior to the American institutions and laws.
Returning to the subject of trade, there were two ques-
tions under discussion, the question of some change in the
tariff relations between the old country and Canada in the
way of colonial preference, and the question of protection.
Now, these two things were pretty hard to work together.
The proposition which was put forward in the old country
ADDRESSES OF THE YEAR. 27
was that the government should abandon its free
tiade policy, that it should have a tariff such as
we had in Canada and the United States and that
that tariff should be open to a preference from the
colonies. But this was to be a pure question of bargain.
The preference was to be given to any colony willing to
make a bargain that the preference should consist in a
reduction of whatever tariff might be put upon articles
exported from the colony, such as wheat and beef. The
preference to be given to the old country was to consist
almost entirely in a reduction in the tariff upon manufac-
tured articles. Where would the manufacturers of Canada
come in? The stand taken by the Canadian Manufacturers'
Association was that the present Canadian tariff was not
protective enough, that it should be raised to shut out all
manufacturers from any country whatever, and after that
had been done a preference might be given to Great Britain
as against the United States. Of course this was purely
illusory. Where would the British people come in under
an arrangement of that kind? There would be nothing in
it and great difficulties would arise.
He had always been against any scheme of Imperial
federation because such a scheme involved some power in
an Imperial council in which Canada would be in a min-
ority. No matter how great or small that power was, the
people of Canada would never agree to it. It might be
infinitely better that some Imperial council in which Can-
ada might be represented, but would not control, should
govern Canada. It might govern Canada infinitely better
than either of our two parties but that was not the point.
We were quite content to have this bad government so
long as it came from ourselves because we had it in our
power to turn a party out of power. With some Imperial
parliament no matter how deeply we might resent the
government given to us we should be absolutely helpless
unless we could get the whole Empire to agree to our esti-
mate of it.
Certain papers in the old country had said that if this
or that were not done Canada would be lost to the Empire.
What did they think of the intelligence of the people of
Canada? Suppose there were no sentiment at all, it would
still be a matter of simple expediency for Canada to remain
30 CANADIAN CLUB OF WINNIPEG.
As soon as Japan had established her right by force of
arms to consideration as a world power she had lost no
time in preparing for the sterner battle to create for herself
a place as a comercial entity. With vast resources and an
over-population it had been a paramount necessity to
develop her commerce. Japan had what no other nation in
the world possessed, an adequate supply of cheap, con-
centrated, and adaptable labor. The coolie of to-day could
be metamorphosed into the skilled mechanic of a few
months hence. Before 1853 Japan had taken advantage of
her natural isolation and had deliberately adopted a policy
of seclusion in order to be a country without foreign com-
merce. Well might the captains of industry marvel at the
results she had obtained in the profound peace of her own
choosing solving problems unvexed by foreign complica-
tions or competition.
Wonderful increases had taken place since Japan had
dipped deeply into the commerce of the world with her
spirit of enterprise and aptitude for ideas and with her
intimate knowledge of the world's modern intricacies of
business.
The most wonderful thing about Japan's advancement
commercially was that it had taken place under the most
severe moral and social discouragements and they might
find an excuse for many of the unkind things that were
said about Japanese merchants in that connection. In the
early feudal times the merchant, the man who traded for
a living, had been just one remove from the social outcast
and business had been looked upon as something to be
despised. One could not wonder that when commerce
became a vital part of the empire business had not attracted
a better class but the times were changing and had been
in course of reconstruction for the past ten years. The
Japanese merchant was doing all in his power to remove
himself from the obloquy which in the early days had at-
tached to the trader.
The official class of Japan was absolutely free from
graft of any kind. During his stay in Japan he had never
heard of an instance where an official of the government
was convicted or disgraced for grafting.
Dr. Jones closed his address with a personal reference.
In 1902 when he made his first trip to Japan to live in that
ADDRESSES OF THE YEAR. 51
This feeling of unrest and uncertainty as to Canada's
future manifested itself in another movement opposed to
closer trade relations with the United States. At one time
there was an independent party in this country and for
many years a very vigorous campaign was carried on in
favor of Imperial federation. In a word, Sir, there were all
these ill-considered and ill-digested schemes, every one of
which hindered Canada's development as a nation. I say
so for this reason: while they occupied the public mind
the energies of our people lacked direction and concentra-
tion. And what was still worse was that this constant
looking towards the United States directed the attention
of our people toward that country, with the result that at
least one million Canadians took up their homes in the
American Republic.
What is the state of Canadian opinion to-day? We
hear no more of Imperial federation or of any other move-
ment which used to disturb the minds of serious and
honest men. No longer do we reach out for assistance
from the United' States. The tide of emigration which
flowed from our borders is now flowing to our borders.
The feeling of unrest as to our country's future has entire-
ly disappeared and in place of all those movements we find
the mind and energy of the whole Dominion bent upon
developing the resources of this country and making Can-
ada a self-governing nation within the British Empire.
And what, Sir, are the milestones which mark Canadian
progress along the road to nationhood within the British
Empire? First, there was the grant of responsible govern-
ment by her late Majesty, Queen Victoria. Then came the
federation of the Canadian provinces in 1867 and 1870 the
withdrawal of the British troops and the trusting of the
defence of Canada to Canadians themselves. In 1871 there
was the assertion of our right to have a voice in interna-
tional negotiations and the appointment of Sir John Mac-
donald as a member of the joint commission which nego-
tiated the Washington treaty. In the early eighties was
begun the construction of the C.P.R. as a national high-
way from ocean to ocean. Later on came the British pre-
ference, twice repeated, and the sending of the South
African contingents. There must further be mentioned
the participation of Sir Wilfrid Laurier in the Imperial
conferences of 1902 and 1907, the taking over the fortifi-
30 CANADIAN CLUB OF WINNIPEG.
As soon as Japan had established her right by force of
arms to consideration as a world power she had lost no
time in preparing for the sterner battle to create for herself
a place as a comercial entity. With vast resources and an
over-population it had been a paramount necessity to
develop her commerce. Japan had what no other nation in
the world possessed, an adequate supply of cheap, con-
centrated, and adaptable labor. The coolie of to-day could
be metamorphosed into the skilled mechanic of a few
months hence. Before 1853 Japan had taken advantage of
her natural isolation and had deliberately adopted a policy
of seclusion in order to be a country without foreign com-
merce. Well might the captains of industry marvel at the
results she had obtained in the profound peace of her own
choosing solving problems unvexed by foreign complica-
tions or competition.
Wonderful increases had taken place since Japan had
dipped deeply into the commerce of the world with her
spirit of enterprise and aptitude for ideas and with her
intimate knowledge of the world's modern intricacies of
business.
The most wonderful thing about Japan's advancement
commercially was that it had taken place under the most
severe moral and social discouragements and they might
find an excuse for many of the unkind things that were
said about Japanese merchants in that connection. In the
early feudal times the merchant, the man who traded for
a living, had been just one remove from the social outcast
and business had been looked upon as something to be
despised. One could not wonder that when commerce
became a vital part of the empire business had not attracted
a better class but the times were changing and had been
in course of reconstruction for the past ten years. The
Japanese merchant was doing all in his power to remove
himself from the obloquy which in the early days had at-
tached to the trader.
The official class of Japan was absolutely free from
graft of any kind. During his stay in Japan he had never
heard of an instance where an official of the government
was convicted or disgraced for grafting.
Dr. Jones closed his address with a personal reference.
In 1902 when he made his first trip to Japan to live in that
ADDRESSES OF THE YEAR. 51
This feeling of unrest and uncertainty as to Canada's
future manifested itself in another movement opposed to
closer trade relations with the United States. At one time
there was an independent party in this country and for
many years a very vigorous campaign was carried on in
favor of Imperial federation. In a word, Sir, there were all
these ill-considered and ill-digested schemes, every one of
which hindered Canada's development as a nation. I say
so for this reason: while they occupied the public mind
the energies of our people lacked direction and concentra-
tion. And what was still worse was that this constant
looking towards the United States directed the attention
of our people toward that country, with the result that at
least one million Canadians took up their homes in the
American Republic.
What is the state of Canadian opinion to-day? We
hear no more of Imperial federation or of any other move-
ment which used to disturb the minds of serious and
honest men. No longer do we reach out for assistance
from the United States. The tide of emigration which
flowed from our borders is now flowing to our borders.
The feeling of unrest as to our country's future has entire-
ly disappeared and in place of all those movements we find
the mind and energy of the whole Dominion bent upon
developing the resources of this country and making Can-
ada a self-governing nation within the British Empire.
And what, Sir, are the milestones which mark Canadian
progress along the road to nationhood within the British
Empire? First, there was the grant of responsible govern-
ment by her late Majesty, Queen Victoria. Then came the
federation of the Canadian provinces in 1867 and 1870 the
withdrawal of the British troops and the trusting of the
defence of Canada to Canadians themselves. In 1871 there
was the assertion of our right to have a voice in interna-
tional negotiations and the appointment of Sir John Mac-
donald as a member of the joint commission which nego-
tiated the Washington treaty. In the early eighties was
begun the construction of the C.P.R. as a national high-
way from ocean to ocean. Later on came the British pre-
ference, twice repeated, and the sending of the South
African contingents. There must further be mentioned
the participation of Sir Wilfrid Laurjer in the Imperial
conferences of 1902 and 1907, the taking over the fortifi-
52 CANADIAN CLUB OF WINNIPEG.
cations at Halifax and Esquimault by the Dominion
Government and our voluntary assumption of the burden
of manning them with Canadian soldiers. Then Canada's
right to negotiate the treaties she needed has been
acknowledged and a further concession secured that no
treaties will bind Canada unless they receive her assent.
More important from the national point of view than
any of these features of our country's development is the
success that has attended the work of unifying the different
races and creeds in this Dominion. It is not too much to
say that the better understanding that has been promoted
between the different sections of the Canadian people
forms not only the strongest bond between the provinces
but is, at the same time, the strongest and most enduring
link that binds Canada to the Empire. And to the Can-
adian Club there is the task to forge that link closer still,
because of your cosmopolitan population. You, as citizens
of the Dominion, have to realize the sentiment of the Irish
poet :—
'And, oh it were a gallant deed
To show before mankind,
How every race and every creed
Might be, by love, combined;
Might be combined — yet not forget
The fountains whence they rose,
As, filled by many a rivulet
The stately Shannon flows.' "
The Significance of Canada's National Holiday
June 30th, 1909.
Rev. Clarence Mackinnon, D.D.
" 'There is a land of every land the pride
Beloved by Heaven o'er all the world beside,
Where brighter suns dispense serener light,
And milder moons imparadise the night;
A land of beauty, virtue, valor, truth,
Time-tutored age and love-exalted youth .
O, thou shalt find where'er thy footsteps roam
That land thy country, and that spot thy home.'
"In this practical age when man's genius is exercised in
the erection of great counting houses and the development
ADDRESSES OF THE YEAB. 53
of world-wide commerce, these lines I have quoted, though
familiar, may seem lines worthy to be conned in our educa-
tional institutes, a worthy sentiment, a harmless sentiment,
an idle sentiment, when compared with the stern activities
of business life. ***** A flag, what is it? It is but a
sentiment, and yet this afternoon I would like to impress
this profound truth on you that a sentiment is no idle thing,
and that the flag of a country is no mere silken banner
attached to some flag staff. Your business houses, your
commerce, your institutions, they are nothing, they are of
no service, unless they are bound together by some great
national sentiment and consecrated to some great invisible
purpose.
"The love and veneration of old Ireland has wreathed the
Irish harp with immortal glory, and that harp has become
the soul of the Irish people because of the sentiment that
has gathered around it. I would as lief leap from one of
these windows as say a derogatory word in the presence of
an Irishman about the harp "that once through Tara's halls
the soul of music shed." And those more prosaic Scotch-
men who pride themselves upon being the devotees of
truth, who discount all exaggeration, who among them
would dare discount the story of their hero Sir William
Wallace as a tissue of legend. This man, who was a great
warrior and statesman, had his name immortalized by blind
Harry, and in every Scotchman's home it was found side by
side with the 'Pilgrim's Progress' and the Holy Bible.
Even the Englishman has the most profound sentiment:
'Ay, tear his body limb from limb
Bring axe or cord or flame,
He only knows that not through him
Shall England come to shame/
"I suppose the Mayflower would make a sorry sight com-
pared with the hurricane deck of the Mauretania and its
equipment would not compare very favorably with the
Atlantic greyhounds that plough through the stormy sea.
Nevertheless it brought the Pilgrim Fathers and a great
sentiment is wound around the Mayflower; it is a halo of
romance and glory and these things stand for great ele-
ments in American life. It is impossible for us to discount
the value of sentiment in national life.
54 CANADIAN CLUB OF WINNIPEG.
"It does not cost much to put a flag in the window and
yet I venture to say if all the houses in Winnipeg were
adorned with the national flag on Dominion Day, in years
to come every child would say 'Our fathers loved Canada,
they believed in it. It is a great country.' And if the
strangers coming from afar to the country observed on the
First of July such a display of national sentiment they
would desire to commingle with us and become part of
a great and proud nation.
"We all love the American people; there is no people we
are cjoser allied to in sentiment and community of interests.
******* Nevertheless, there is one thing I would like
to say, if the agreeable friendship is to be maintained bet-
ween fair Miss Canada and big Uncle Sam to the south of
her, the regard must be mutual. If there is to be friendship
there should be reciprocity at the very bottom of it.
"We must, however, in some measure, bear the respon-
sibility. If we will not fly our own flag can we expect
others to do it for us? If we cannot support some of
Canada's greatness and glory, can we be disappointed if
others do not do it for us? I think it right we should
gather together to-day and ask that citizens would show
to the world that they believed in Canada's greatness. If
we do this the foreigner who comes here and becomes a
member of the community will feel we have in our ideals,
our sentiments, and our future, a worthy substitute for any-
thing he has left behind, that we have something better,
we have a touch of imperial glow, we are part of a world
wide empire —
'She stands a thousand-wintered tree
By countless morns impearled ;
Her broad roots coil beneath the sea
Her branches sweep the world.' "
"God bless our wide Dominion,
Our fathers' chosen land,
And bind in lasting union
Each ocean's distant strand."
— Duke of Argyle.
ADDRESSES OF THE YEAB. 55
A Cross-Bench View of the Imperial Defence
July 14th, 1909
Rev. Canon H. Hensley Henson, London, Eng.
"Living at Westminster, within a stone's throw of the
Houses of Parliament, I think I may claim to be singularly
well placed for forming a true opinion of political events
and as rector of the church of the House of Commons, the
most famous parish church in the British Islands, I cannot
be indifferent to the course of political events.
Nothing has impressed me more than the dramatic
change of mind that has passed over serious English poli-
ticians during the last three years. We have passed in that
short interval from the mood of security, of almost peaceful
security, to the mood of intense and deepening anxiety.
This change, I would have you note, is as marked on one
side of politics as on the other. Making reasonable allow-
ances for their position the ministers of the crown are out-
spoken as their political opponents. The speeches of the
Prime Minister, of Mr. McKenna, and of Sir Edward Grey,
did more than any other speeches to awaken the nation as a
whole to a sense of its danger. The most trusted men of
all parties, Mr. Balfour, Lord Roseberry, Lord Cromer, and
Lord Roberts, to name the four men who are not amongst
His Majesty's present ministers, who, of course, have a
constitutional right to claim to be the most authoritative
exponents of English opinion, have combined to warn us
that unless we make a new and greater effort we are in
danger of losing our Imperial security. This is the first
point I wish to impress upon you and everybody who can
come within the reach of my words that this movement in
Great Britain for better security of the Empire, for basing
our defences on a stronger and wider foundation than they
have hitherto rested, is not a partisan, is not a sectional
matter, but that it is guaranteed by the best political judg-
ment of the nation irrespective of party.
"Next I desire to say a word — it must be a very short
and careful word — about our attitude towards the great and
famous neighboring nation, Germany, the attitude which
56 CANADIAN CLUB OF WINNIPEG.
in Great Britain we are taking up. Let no one suppose that
there is, or that there can be, any general hostility between
the German and English nations. How should there be?
Germany and Great Britain have too much in common
lightly to become enemies. In race they are kindred, in
religion they are alike, in the intercourse of the intellect
they are closely linked. We, in England, and you, in
Canada, venerate the thinkers and writers of Germany and
fully acknowledge the debt which we owe to them. * * * *
* * * Moreover, Germans have settled in the British Em-
pire in large numbers. ***** jt woul(i be wholly un-
natural and absurd for Englishmen to say or speak ill of
Germans.
"It is surely unnecessary for me to contradict the silly
and baseless suggestion if I had not within the past few
months repeatedly had my attention called to it, that Great
Britain cherishes any warlike ambitions with regard to
her neighbors. Our Empire, assuredly, is great in all con-
science. We only desire to possess it in peace and develop
it in tranquility. If anyone wants proof of our pacific in-
tentions let him consider the course of our domestic policy.
***** Old age pensions will certainly cost Great Britain
not less than £8,000,000 a year, and that is only one of a
lengthening list of reforms, or so-called reforms, upon which
we are embarked. Is it conceivable that the British people
should thus diminish their financial resources if they were
cherishing an insane and criminal notion of attacking any
of their neighbors? How then is the situation of great
strain between Germany and Great Britain explicable?
"I put aside the fact of commercial rivalry because I
cannot think that in itself can be a cause though no doubt
it may create jealousies. But apart from commercial rival-
ries there are national prejudices and political aspirations,
and, what is too often forgotten, there is still to be reckoned
with the ancient sin of ambition which under the stimulat-
ing and fostering influence of power may well become, even
in the twentieth century, not less militant and aggressive
than it has shown itself to be in every previous century of
human experience. And we, in England, feel reluctantly
but with growing decisiveness, that these tendencies are
present in the policy of our neighbor, that the German
people is not well represented by the German government,
ADDRESSES OF THE YEAR. 57
that, in plain words, we should be insane if we did not ask
ourselves what may be the consequences of the settled
plan of naval expansion to which the German Government
is at present committed if it is carried out into whole effect.
"We cannot surely doubt that the British Empire is
worth defending, worth making sacrifices for, nay, worth
living and dying for. ***** The downfall of the British
Empire, if that should ever happen, would involve immense
disasters to mankind. Of the fall of the ancient Roman
Empire it has been finely and fittingly said that it was the
foundering of a world. The phrase would not be excessive
to describe the downfall of the British Empire. The modern
citizen surely may say of this country with even greater
truth than Wordsworth could say it when he wrote the
line a century ago :
"For dearly must we prize thee;
We who find in thee a bulwark for the cause of men."
The British Empire is not free from fault and it has also
very dark pages of scandal but will any just man of any
nationality deny that it is broadly true that the British
Empire to-day stands for righteous government, for per-
sonal liberty, and for religious tolerance to one fourth of
the citizens of the human race.
"I come then to my final point. This Empire, this pre-
cious heritage, not only to its own citizens but to the human
race, this relatively undefended Empire, can only be main-
tained by the efforts and the sacrifices of all its citizens.
The time is past, it really has passed, when the whole
burden of the defence of this unparalleled Empire should be
allowed to rest upon the weary and over-weighted shoulders
of the people of the island of Great Britain. Not Great
Britain alone, but the Empire as a whole, must sustain that
common burden. Sir, I cannot for one moment indulge the
dishonoring supposition that Canada, the greatest and the
most famous of these British Dominions beyond the seas,
which are the most precious jewels in the crown of His
Majesty the King, will not rally to the side of the mother
country at this juncture and claim her full right to bear a
share in the difficult and honorable task of Imperial
defence.*'
58 CANADIAN CLUB OF WINNIPEG.
The Call of the Land
August 3rd, 1909.
Professor James W. Robertson, Ste Anne de Bellevue, Quebec.
His only wonder when he came to the West, said the
gifted speaker, was not that the men of the West were
doing things, but whether with all the facilities they had
inherited and developed, they were still ambitious to be
a people that quite matched the call of this great West.
To make this a spot of God's earth where a civilization
would have its best chance to have full fruitage, labor for
liberty of the large, generous, lasting kind, for intelligence
everywhere, assumed and transmitted, and for the admin-
istration of justice pure and undefiled, for the poor man
and the rich man alike, for the safety and security of the
rights of property and person : these were the big things
that called to his hearers while they were getting things
under their control.
He was glad to be in the West because he recognized
the immense resources of this part of Canada. Fine soil :
that did not promise greatness and did not predicate per-
manent prosperity. The promise of their domination in
times to come was not by their wealth but by their capacity
for labor; their power to do things and to have them done
in the right way.
Let the people of the West make it attractive and sat-
isfying and a good place for children, because in all civiliz-
ations worth while they came back to this saying, "A
little child shall lead them." Quality of life and its chances :
that was what inspired, that was what counted. He was
glad the West was becoming a spot on the earth that would
have its uplift for all humanity. We were a people with a
history, traditions and aspirations and we hoped they would
be realized because we did not want to diminish our in-
fluence and ideals; we wanted to lift other people to them,
fluence and ideals; we wanted to lift other people up to
them.
This was a good land with four great areas. Begin-
ning at the Atlantic we had a thousand miles fit for fine
homes and varying in width from fifty to between two
hundred and three hundred miles. This was a great part
ADDRESSES OF THE YEAR. 59
of Canada— fragrance of clover blossoms all over the at-
mosphere all summer, apple trees in abundance, and run-
ning streams and broad acres and laughing children
climbing the apple trees, and picking flowers. Then came
a thousand miles of wilderness north of the Great Lakes
but it was worth our while to know that these also were
ours. Let us not say that it did not concern us to conserve
the great natural resources of the country.
Then we had a thousand miles of this plain. He had
seen parts of it improved and parts go back. Wherever
men were lacking in intelligence, the earth took on the look
of man's sin, ignorance, vice and disease, but wherever
man was intelligent and spoke to the earth with intellig-
ence, then he made it part of the new heaven and the new
earth wherein dwelleth this righteousness.
Still further west we had five hundred miles of
mountain scenery, unmatched valleys, with peaches and
wheat equally abundant, mountains bursting with the
common ores and the precious metals, rivers and shores
teeming with fish, and hill-sides bearing trees that would
serve the race in manifold ways.
Wherein dwelleth righteousness ! That was man's
rightful assertion of himself with Nature to make the earth
bring forth her plenteous abundance for his profit, or
pleasure, or service. So he had never seen it go back; it
never could go back if we looked after our schools. They
were the foundation of every nation's permanent greatness
and any people that belittled the teachers thereby com-
mitted a bit of national suicide.
As travellers traversed this land seeing this people
coming to their own with a heritage never equalled before,
when they passed our doors and saw what we did with
railways, warehouses and every other facility, and far more
important than that when they saw what we did for the
children, they would be inoculated, dominated by a dom-
inant people that lifted up and did not crush down.
Youth represented unbounded possiblities. It was
worth while being young at this stage of humanity's pro-
gress and having a chance to be leaders in that war against
ignorance.
60 CANADIAN CLUB OF WINNIPEG.
Our country called for recognition of partnership and
recognition of units. The city man needed the man on the
land, and the man on the land needed all the intelligence
and intellectual power of the man in the city. This land
called, too, for recognition of all that other good people had
brought and all that other bad people had brought us if
there were any bad people. It was a great thing when we
had a stream of foreign blood flowing into our citizenship.
It was a good thing to recognize the good they brought.
Nothing would do this nation greater harm than denounc-
ing the foreigners. For who was there that was ever
encouraged into any sort of usefulness that had not some
deficiency and who was there that had not been improved
by someone recognizing the good in him and bringing it
into full fruition?
This land called for character among its citizens. Agri-
culture in Canada did not call for an answer of degradation.
It was not corn, hogs and money and land and corn and
hogs and money and land in ever increasing sweep. That
wasn't agriculture, that was hoggishness.
Teach the children a knowledge of Nature's ways in the
school and they would learn to read better and learn to
figure with far more comprehension.
Do these things for the children and in doing them for
the children we would do them for the whole race in a
strong and courageous way. It would cost money but we
could not invest anywhere else to more advantage ; we
could not put life or wealth or labor anywhere with the
same result as when we put them into the young child life.
"Where intelligent labor and the fear of God keep
poverty and evil in abatement the land is full of homes
made rich by labor and love. That is the kind of thing
in which I hope you will have tremendous, ever-increasing,
ever-growing success. And that is the call of this land to
you in Manitoba, in Canada, and in the Empire. And if
you listen to that call the earth itself will take on a little
bit of that condition. And may she give you the kindest
of loving rest for your bodies and the uplift for your
never-dying spirit."
KT. HON. THE LORD STRATHCONA AND MOUNT ROYAL
G.C.M.G., G.C.V.O.
ADDRESSES OF THE YEAR. 61
Reminiscences of Early Winnipeg
August 25th, 1909
Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal, London, Eng., James J. Hill, St.
Paul, U.S.A.
Lord Strathcona, who was received with tumultuous
cheering, said: "Less than thirty years ago no one would
for a moment in his wildest dreams have thought that
Winnipeg would be a place today such as to attract the
British Association. It is a credit to the city to have them
here and I am proud to be with you to do that honor to
them which it is assuredly your desire should be done to
them by the whole of the great North West. Many of these
gentlemen I have had the pleasure of knowing personally.
They are distinguished in arts and science, in literature,
and in all that goes to make a nation great and I am sure
that not only with you here in Winnipeg but throughout
the whole of this great North West they will be received
in the most cordial way. And I am equally sure that when
they return from seeing you here, coming face to face with
the people here in this country, they will, no matter what
their appreciation of the Dominion may have been in the
past, from what they have seen here, go home with a con-
viction that they have learned a very great deal indeed, and
convinced that Canada is a country which may be well
thought of, well considered in the Old Country and in
every portion of the Empire.
Coming as I do, an individual who has represented Can-
ada in England for some time, I have, as a matter of duty
and pleasure, put before the people of the Old Country
the advantages of this new country which is the first Do-
minion born within the Empire.
Happily good work has been done from the Canadian
High Commissioner's Office, but also by others in Canada
and by corporate bodies, and I am happy to say that the
Canadian Pacific Railway has been a good and efficient
agent in bringing to the notice of those in the other
country that this is a good place to come to. It is a satis-
faction to know that the Grand Trunk Pacific is progress-
ing with a great road here across the vastness of the Con-
tinent and that they are making active emigration agents
in the Old Country.
62 CANADIAN CLUB OF WINNIPEG.
"You have done me a very great kindness and one
which I appreciate very much in having asked to be with
you here today ; also as one of your guests, my old-time and
present friend and associate Mr. Hill. Looking back now
and remembering coming back from meeting Mr. Hill near
St. Paul and foregathering with perhaps one hundred and
twenty or at the outside, two hundred people, around Fort
Garry, and today coming and seeing, as I have seen, thous-
ands and thousands of people in the streets of Winnipeg
and knowing that you have a population of upwards of
130,000 people, is it not pleasant to all of us to reflect, when
we look back to the great change of less than forty years,
that you may well look forward to the next fifty years and
know that in that time the changes will be infinitely great-
er than they were in the past, and that Winnipeg, today a
great city, will progress and become one of the chiefest
cities on the continent of North America. You are doing
a great work in building up your city, and I am sure you
will never forget that we are one people and that we should
continue, while citizens of Canada, to be as loyal and de-
voted subjects of our Sovereign as any within the Mother
Country.
Let me again thank you for the great kindness and con-
sideration you have done me, because I look upon it as
such, in having with you here my friend, Mr. Hill. You
know in a measure what he has done for the whole of the
North West of the United States as well as for our own
North-West. But you don't know it to the same extent
as I do, who had the great satisfaction of working with
him, and who knew, even then in the early days, that he
must become a power from his integrity, his determination
to do only that which was right and proper to all alike.
Let me thank you again from the bottom of my heart for
your very great and undeserved welcome."
Mr. Hill, who also received a warm welcome, said : "I
want to assure you that it is a great joy and a great
privilege to be here and to join with you in paying a tribute
of honor, deserved honor and respect to the one man,
fortunately strong and healthy beyond his years, who has
done more for the North-West, more for the Dominion of
Canada than any other man living, or who is likely to live
within a generation. His Lordship has told you that it is
MR. J. J. HILL
ADDRESSES OF THE YEAR. (53
nearly forty years since I had the privilege of knowing him
intimately and during that time I have been closely associ-
ated with him in business matters involving oar mutual
fortunes and I want to say to you that during ali that time
I have never found him for one moment where his interest
ruled his desire to aid the entire country. His was a spirit
of patriotism to his country, of loyalty to his friends and
associates and of unswerving loyalty to the North-West.
"Your growth has been a marvel. Only could it have
happened within the last hundred years, anywhere. But
let me say that, with all your growth, with all your efforts
for the new population, let me ask you, because I do it with
the best intentions, wishing that the measure of your future
prosperity may be as full as can be, should you not consider
always whether the number of your new settlers, the num-
ber of people who are coming to take possession of your
land, is of as much consequence as the quality of your
settleis? * * * Don't be afraid that you won't get
people because there is no other place on the North
American continent where they can go. There will be no
trouble on that score, but don't try to get people who have
to be re-civilized. Those who come from our western States
speak your language, know your institutions, and I am
quite sure they will very rapidly fall into your local muni-
cipal organization, and, as a rule, you can collect a judg-
ment from them for they are people who pay their debts.
"All this work — and I speak whereof I know — all this
growth, all this developement, all this building of railways
and opening up of country, is due more to the gentleman
whom you honor here today than to all the other men in
the world. We all meant well but if it hadn't been for the
confidence and the leadership he gave us we would have
been utterly powerless to have made the start in the be-
ginning. And from that day to this his life has been spent
in unselfish devotion to the services of his whole country
and of his Empire and he leaves to you an example that
every public and every private citizen of the country can
well consider and emulate."
Mr. Hill closed by moving a vote of thanks from the
Canadian Club of Winnipeg to Lord Strathcona, which was
seconded by Mr. William Whyte, and on being put to the
meeting was carried with three cheers and a tiger.
61 CANADIAN CLUB OF WINNIPEG.
The Imperial Navy
Sept. 2nd, 1909.
Sir William White, K.C.B., London, England.
It was a singular thing to find that here in the heart of
this great Dominion, said the speaker, this issue of an
Imperial Navy seemed to awaken a feeling and a desire to
help which could hardly be rivalled in that little island
where he found his home. We gained perspective by be-
ing four thousand miles away from Westminster. In all
the party strife in England, however, when questions of
Imperial concern arose, there was no difference of opinion.
Whatever Government might be in power, whatever party
might hold the reins of office for the time, any Government
that starved the Navy would have short shrift.
In his opinion the so-called German scare was undig-
nified, unnecessary and contrary to the characteristics of
the race because our way was not to whine, but to do. The
people of England, however, would never forget the re-
sponse that came from the Dominion over the seas when
they thought the Motherland was in trouble. This was
not the first time that a rival power acting strictly within
its rights had challenged that supremacy. Whatever we
might think of it on our side we had only to meet what was
done but we must meet it in a way that would leave no
doubt as to the result.
This German competition was not a new thing; it was
only a change in the competitor. He remembered the
time when France was superior to England in the type of
ship most formidable. Coming to a time within his official
career England had stood in a critical position only she
had to do with two powers, France and Russia, who, when
joined were in a position of superiority. What had hap-
pened? The Naval Defence Act of 1889 which involved the
construction of seventy ships costing £22,000,000 had been
the result. But that was not the act of the Government ;
it was the act of the people of England who had said : "Go
op."
This was the doctrine that he wished to preach today
that at all costs, at all hazards, no matter what might be
ADDRESSES OF THE YEAR. 65
involved, we were going to remain supreme at sea. If the
Dominions beyond the seas were disinclined to stretch out
a helping hand, the people of England would still be true
to their trust and would foot the bill and carry on the
Empire until better days should come. But better days had
come. Here, in Canada, the feeling, so far as he could
gather, was as strong as it was at home. There was the
greatest readiness to help and take a proper share in this
great undertaking. There was no desire to draw back. All
that seemed to be wanted was to be told what should be
done, in what way it should be done and Canada, Australia,
South Africa, New Zealand and all the dominions beyond
the seas would stand in and take their share of the burden
of Empire.
What did the Imperial Navy cost the people at home?
In the past ten years the tax-payers of the United King-
dom had provided $1,640,000,000 for the Navy. That lit-
tle island from which we came, that wonderful mother of
nations, wanted to be helped. She did not ask for it, but
she wanted to be helped. The children, while they were
growing up, naturally looked to the motherland for protec-
tion. But they were no longer children; they had passed
through the stage of boyhood. They were coming into
early manhood with all its strength and all its hope of the
future, its optimism and its opportunities. The Motherland
recognized that they had their rights, their independent
rights, that they must have a voice in policy, in methods,
in all that affected the Empire. The group of nations proof
against the world, that was the ideal of the British Empire,
and the way of securing that end was to have an Imperial
Navy common to all, supported by all, organized to carry
out a common plan of Imperial defence, manned and offi-
cered by men of all the nations with one common training,
one common language, one common duty, one common
feeling.
The best missionaries of the Empire we had ever had
were the officers and men of the Royal Navy. No one could
see these men without loving them. They were such
manly, devoted servants of the state that their example was
of the greatest benefit wherever they went. They brought
a sense of home, nearness and kindred to Britishers scat-
tered throughout the world.
66 CANADIAN CLUB OF WINNIPEG.
The spirit that breathed throughout the Dominion was
one of eagerness to secure and maintain an Imperial navy
and to bear a fair share of its cost. Loyalty to the Empire
and determination to maintain our commercial supremacy
were the great moving principles of their brethren in Can-
ada, and he thanked God for it. Tennyson voiced this truth
when he wrote those lines : —
"Britain's myriad voices call
Sons be welded each and all
Into one Imperial whole
One with Britain heart and soul
One life, one flag, one fleet, one throne
Britons, hold your own !"
We love those far-off ocean Isles
Where Britain's Monarch reigns ;
We'll ne'er forget the good old blood
That courses through our veins ;
Proud Scotia's fame, old Erin's name,
And haughty Albion's powers,
Reflect their matchless lustre on
This Canada of ours
— J. D Edgar.
Lord Strathcona Unveiling the Brass Tablet on Old Fort Garry Gateway,
August 27, 1909
FORT GARRY,
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Inscription on Brass Tablet Presented by the Canadian Club of Winnipeg
ADDRESSES OF THE YEAR. 67
The North-West Mounted Police
Sept. 17th, 1909.
Major General Sir George French, London, England.
In 1873 the Government had found it necessary to send
up a police force to the North- West as they had taken the
responsibility of preserving law and order in this great
country. The country to the west at that time was practi-
cally in the hands of desperadoes who demoralized and
slaughtered the Indians. The Government was determined
to put that down with a strong hand. The Mounted Police
had gone out armed and mounted and clad in red for the
sake of their Indian friends and with a couple of guns and
a couple of mortars. They meant business and those des-
paradoes had to leave the country, and they did leave.
The first detachment of the Police consisting of one hun-
dred and seventy men was sent up by the Government in
the fall of 1873. Shortly after their arrival in Manitoba he
had been asked by the Government to organize the whole
of the force. He got up to Manitoba at the end of the year
after a most arduous journey. In February he returned by
the same route and proceeded with the organization of the
force. They had to get waggons and everything that was
wanted and bring them out here and they had to get the
permission of the United States to bring the men right
through from Toronto to the end of the track.
Permission was granted and they all travelled up
through the States in uniform and landed at Fargo. Even
then the excellent discipline of the Mounted Police force
began to show itself. When the people at Fargo thought
the force would be there for a week or two, they stole off,
an officer and thirty men at a time, and on the next day
marched out with waggons complete and everything on
board and made their way down the Red River to Dufferin.
Starting from Dufferin the district had been surveyed
for a little distance but about eighteen miles from the Red
River they saw the last habitation until they got to the
Rocky Mountains and there were not many there. On the
march they could not possibly think of carrying food for
the horses. The whole idea of carrying through that march
was to carry flour in their carts and put oxen in their carts
68 CANADIAN CLUB OF WINNIPEG.
to draw that flour and when they got the two together, cook
them with the cart. For about two hundred and fifty miles
they kept close to the boundary line. After this they went
around the Dakotas and the Missouri and got into a differ-
ent country not nearly so good. The horses had to be at-
tended to but the men had to feed themselves very largely.
Anyway, though sportsmen might object, they hunted the
buffalo. Every buffalo killed saved a bullock and the whole
force fed on buffalo for a month.
The instructions given had been that the forts at the
junction of the Bow and Belly rivers must be taken at all
costs. Hearing of the force coming the whisky traders who
had held the forts elected to clear off and crossed the line.
Colonel Macleod, the second in command, was left out there
with some fine troops. He built forts for his own men,
barracks, accommodation for the horses and so on and es-
tablished a post which existed now and would exist for
all time as Fort Macleod.
The remainder of the force started back on the return
march. The weather had turned cold and the horses suf-
fered greatly. Officers and men alike took off their own
blankets and put them on the horses. Eventually they
reached Qu'Appelle and then pushed on to Swan RiveV
where barracks had been built by Mr. Hugh Sutherland.
Unfortunately it was late in the fall and there was no hay
cut except what was frozen so E troop alone was left at
Swan River barracks while D troop pushed on and arrived
in Winnipeg on November the seventh. From beginning
to end of the march not a man was lost.
In closing General French paid a fine tribute to the old-
timers, notably Archbishop Machray, whose labors in the
cause of education could never be really appreciated, and
his friend, Mr. Ashdown, whose example he commended
to the young men before him. "Don't overwork," said the
General, "do enough and a bit more, but don't kill your-
selves at it."
"This is our country, strong, and broad and grand.
God guard thee Canada, our native land !"
— lean Blewett.
ADDRESSES OF THE YEAR. 69
The Empire and Development of Western Canada
October 13th, 1900.
His Excellency Lord Grey, Governor General of Canada.
After referring to the pleasure which he had had in
addressing the members of the Canadian Club of Winnipeg
in 1905 and of the pleasure he again felt in standing before
them, His Excellency said in part :
"If I were to select the particular virtues which, so far
as my experience goes, I feel inclined to associate with your
city it is this : a possession of wide tolerance among your
leading men, and the desire of all the people to co-operate
with each other to promote any movement which may tend
to further dignify and beautify your city of Winnipeg and
to sweeten its life. So long as that vigorous and lovely
spirit sits enthroned in the hearts of the people and so long
as that spirit is not corrupted by narrow personal or sec-
tarian rivalries which make all social co-operation impos-
sible, your city may look forward to a future which will
cause every man to be proud of being a citizen of Winnipeg.
I should like to offer you and the city of Winnipeg the
expression of my heart-felt condolence in the great loss you
have sustained through the death of the late Principal Mc-
Dermid. He possessed qualities of heart and mind that if
he had only survived would have enabled him to render
great services not only to Winnipeg, but to Canada and the
Empire. He was much impressed with the desirability of
forming an organization which would enable Canadian
householders to adopt as members of their own families
the majority of the fifty thousand orphan children who have
no homes in the United Kingdom to-day. If my voice
could reach the authorities in England I should like to im-
press upon them from conviction, arrived at after a careful
study of the whole situation, that it would be difficult for
them to obtain elsewhere higher advantages or a better
average chance for the children, of whom they are the
official guardians and trustees, than those now offered by
the Government of Manitoba.
I visited yesterday two of your schools in the northern
part of the city. I don't think I have ever been more inter-
ested, pleased, or delighted. There was a general atmo?-
70 CANADIAN CLUB OF WINNIPEG.
phere of cheerful helpfulness which seemed to pervade the
school and was reflected in the character of the teachers
and the countenances of the children. I was immensely
pleased, I might say, with what I saw of the German, Rus-
sian and Scandinavian children at your schools and with
their work. In order that I might realize the proportions
of the various nationalities I asked that the children might
be separated according to their nationalities of origin. I
was much pleased to hear that several of these foreign chil-
dren who have not been in Canada very long protested
against being asked to label themselves, for even five min-
utes, by any other label than that of a Canadian. That
shows what a grand assimilating work your schools are
doing and how, under .the process of education adopted by
your admirable teachers, you are assimilating all the
strength and variety that may come into Manitoba from
the different parts of the earth and turning it into good,
loyal and patriotic Canadians.
One of the most important problems that can occupy the
attention of a patriotic Canadian is how to link up and con-
solidate ever closer the different parts of the Dominion.
Every moment which enables the East to take an interest,
in the West and the West to participate in the national life
of the East on all occasions /in which they have a common
historic interest' helps ,/tcj >! consolidate the Dominion. In the
next two years there will be two great centennials which
will appeal to the people in every part of Canada: one of
them the celebration of one hundred years of peaceful fel-
lowship of thie two nations on either side of the internation-
al boundary and the other the Selkirk centennial. Both
centennials will I hope be made the occasion of a display
of interest by the people of Canada in great events of
national importance in which people from all parts of Can-
ada will co-operate.
There has undoubtedly been a growth of Imperial spirit
during the past four years. You can see it, you can feel it
growing. I attribute the growth of this spirit to two causes.
First to your own performances in South Africa, which
enabled the Empire to secure equal rights for the people of
South Africa, and as a result of their victory !to secure uni-
fication of South Africa in a new constitution bas»ed; upon
the principal of equal rights. Second, the growing realiza-^
tion of the part which Canada will one day have in the
ADDRESSES OF THE YEAR. 71
British Empire. Nothing can prevent Canada if she only
keeps her judiciary pure, her schools good, her government
honest, and the heart of the '^pa&p'le sound, recognizing
that fair play and freedom are the two wings without which
no community can rise to a higher level of civilization, I
say that if the Canadian people do this nothing on earth
can prevent them from one day becoming the most in-
fluential of the self-governing Dominions, including the
United Kingdom, which together make the British Empire.
It is the people of the United Kingdom who are to-day
guarding the great inheritance into which you, the people
of Canada, will one day enter. They are prepared to main-
tain the British supremacy upon the seas at any sacrifice
until you are strong enough to take your share in Imperial
affairs. They know that you will do what you can when
you can. They want you, the Canadian people, to grow
strong, they want to see your seven millions grow to fifteen
millions, your fifteen millions grow to twenty-one millions
with the improved credit which attaches to an increasing
population of self-respect, of character and efficiency. They
know that when the day comes, you, together with the
other self-governing nations of the Empire, will, in some
way or other not yet defined, be able to maintain the tradi-
tions you have inherited from the past and hand them over
strengthened and fortified to successive generations so that
the work of the British Empire and its influence for good
rule shall, through Canadian strength and Canadian in-
fluence, ever be increased and emphasized."
Land of our Birth, our Faith, our Pride,
-For whose dear sake our fathers died,
O Motherland, we pledge to thee,
Head, heart and hand through the years to be !
Rudyard Kipling.
72 CANADIAN CLUB OF WINNIPEG.
Newfoundland
October 26th, 1909.
Hon. A. B. Morine.
The discovery of Newfoundland took place in 1497 on
St. John's Day, hence the name of the capital city. This
was one hundred and twenty three years before the landing
of the Pilgrim Fathers. The reason that Newfoundland
was at once the oldest and most backward colony lay in the
fact that in those early days colonies were regarded as
places to be used for the benefit of the mother country.
A law made it a crime to remain on the shores of New-
foundland and that law continued for many generations.
In ancient times the Newfoundland fisheries were the
nursery of the Navy. As long as England's ships were
made of wood Newfoundland was a great training ground
for her sailors. It was a remarkable thing, one of which
he was proud of and one with which Newfoundland had a
right to taunt the outlying colonies now, that the first naval
reserve and perhaps the only one established had been
established in 1900 in the Colony of Newfoundland.
The poulation was about 250,000 of English, Irish and
Scotch descent. The men of Bideford and Devon were the
backbone of the population of Newfoundland. They came
from the very same men who went out and carried the
English flag all over the world, the men who met the
Armada, who followed Raleigh, Frobisher, Drake and Rod-
ney. In 1538 Newfoundland was formally annexed to the
British Crown by Sir Humphrey Gilbert in the name of
Queen Elizabeth.
The people were amongst the most intelligent people
he had ever met. Education was common but not high.
The people were famous for their sobriety of character and
for those stirring virtues which made good citizens.
So far as the land was concerned it was high and rocky
and not much good for agriculture but the mineral and
forest wealth was considerable. The forest wealth was
suitable for pulp rather than for lumber. With regard to
the fisheries there were the cod fishery, the seal fishery, and
the whale fishery. The cod fishery was carried on as their
ADDRESSES OF THE YEAR. 73
own fishery and was the most valuable one around the
Island. On the Labrador coast of Canada and the Grand
Bank the fishery was not under the specified control of any
nation. Newfoundland had control and dominion over the
whole eastern coast of Canada from Hudson Strait to the
Strait of Belle Isle.
The trade of Newfoundland was about $25,000,000. Her
imports were half from England, one quarter from Canada
and one quarter from the United States.
In 1869 federation had been proposed to the people and
defeated. It had been defeated by vested rights and ignor-
ance in combination. The people who had business inter-
ests carried on by one means or another, had felt that it
would be well to leave well enough alone. They had said :
"We don't want impudent Canadians sticking their noses
in and interfering with us." The fishermen of that day
were more ignorant than they were to-day. Education was
less common and the people more easily deceived. They
were told that if they came in they would be taxed to death.
The result had been that the timid minded men won out in
the Island to oppose federation.
Another attempt at federation had been made in 1895
following the commercial crash which had taken place in
the Island that year. In desperation a delegation had come
up to Canada to see what could be done. It had interview-
ed the Dominion Government, which, unfortunately, was
itself in a somewhat parlous condition, and they had not
been able to come to terms. If Canada itself had been in a
better condition it might have been prepared to face a big-
ger load than it was prepared to face at that time. Never-
theless it must be said in truth that the load that Canada
had presented the delegates with was a very large and
terrifying one at that time. On the other hand, the Govern-
ment of Canada had not been satisfied that the delegates
from Newfoundland were acting in good faith. They had
felt that some of the delegates were only trying to spy
out the land, get a price, and go back home and oppose it.
It had been a matter of very keen regret to both countries
that the attempt at federation did fail but there was no
occasion for stone throwing on either side. None of them
had the broad vision and if hind sight had only been fore-
sight, things might have been different.
74 CANADIAN CLUB OF WINNIPEG.
The man who proposed federation in Newfoundland as
the leader of the party to-day would be defeated. But he
was disposed to believe that such a man would be returned
in four years.
These were the reasons for federation from a Canadian
standpoint. First, there was the position of Newfoundland
in the matter of defence and in matters of such great im-
portance as lighthouses and steam mail service. Light-
houses were needed for the commerce of Canada. In the
matter of defence it must be remembered that an enemy
controlling Newfoundland would control the whole com-
merce of the Dominion. When we reflected that in time of
trouble the life blood of the nation, all that we had to im-
port and export, must go in and out of the Gulf of St. Law-
rence, we would see the supreme importance to the Domin-
ion of Canada that the country should be under the control
of the Government at Ottawa.
If we had federation the fisheries policy would be direc-
ted from Ottawa. Instead, of two governments being in the
market to offer their wares to the United States there would
only be one which would hold the key to all the fisheries in
North America. That was worth while talking about and
we should then be able to dictate terms to the Government
of the United States.
Another thing was the question of population. The Do-
minion of Canada was spending millions of money every
year to induce people to come into this country. Why not
spend some money to get an addition to the people of
Canada from a stock which was one of the best of the
world? There was also the feeling of sentiment. We said,
"This Dominion of ours" because of the saying "He shall
have Dominion from sea to sea." W^e had only Dominion on
one side and that was cut off by Alaska and on the other
side we had no Dominion at all. Why not round off this
Dominion from side to side? We could do it if we only had
the courage. The people of Canada desired it without
restriction of party. And the politicians at Ottawa on both
sides gave willing assent. It was time the people of Canada
said, "We will round off this Dominion and the Government
of Ottawa must re-cast."
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