The birthright : a search for the Canadian Canadian and the larger loyalty

UC-NRLF

^B 72M bOD

HE

ARCH

FORT.

CANADIAN
CANADIAN

AND T

LARGER

ARTHUR

jil II in

iKES

If

Digitized by the Internet Archive

in 2008 with funding from

IVIicrosoft Corporation

http://www.archive.org/details/birthrightsearchOOhawkrich

THE BIRTHRIGHT

PUBLISHER'S NOTE

None will deny the strain of the times. Conflicting interests
are strenuously asserting their respective claims, and sometimes
present them as bare demands. The public must decide the
issues, but has not knowledge of the facts upon which to make
its decision. The publishers present to the public " The
Birthright" by Arthur Hawkes, believing it to be a valuable
contribution to that knowledge. Canada assumed national
responsibility in the Great War and cannot evade it in the
days of reconstruction. The newspapers and magazines are
giving us leadership, but their treatment of the great national
questions is necessarily fragmentary. Only within the covers
of a book may the complete argument on a great national case
be presented; and only by such a presentation will the country
become informed in a manner befitting its national respon-
sibility. It is needless to remind the public that Mr. Hawkes
invariably presents his case in an illuminating way; the public
must for itself decide as to the merit of his argument.

The name of J. M. Dent and Sons has always been associated
with books that have for their object the diffusion of enlighten-
ment, which after all is essential to true education. "Every-
man's Library" illustrates admirably this high mission. Mr.
J. M. Dent, our Principal, convinced that Democracy is still
on trial, believes it to be the publisher's duty to embrace every
opportunity of presenting the differing aspects of the economic
and social questions which Democracy must ultimately deter-
mine for itself. In striving to maintain this tradition of the
House, we hope to win the sympathetic appreciation of the
general public. The generous reception accorded Mr. Moore's
book " The Clash " in all parts of the world, but especially in
Canada, has been a source of much encouragement to our
Principal in this respect. "We believe ourselves free from
prejudice; we have no preconceived theories to exploit; we are
not propagandists; we are publishers seeking to extend the
broadening advantages of education into every period and
activity of life.

THE BIRTHRIGHT

A SEARCH FOR THE CANADIAN CANADIAN
AND THE LARGER LOYALTY

By
ARTHUR HAWKES

With Introductions by Lt.-Col. J. Z. Fraser
and Mrs. G. A. Brodie.

TORONTO
J. M. DENT & SONS, LTD.

• • • • »€ * •

to^YJtidkt, Canada", 1919
BT J. M. Dbnt & Sons, Ltd.

DEDICATED

TO THE

CANADIANS-TO-BE

M157435

INTRODUCTIONS

I

By Lieut.-Colonel Fraser

(2nd Dragoons)

When one is invited to introduce a book to
the public, he wonders whether he is to speak
as a farmer, as a military man of forty years'
standing, as a Conservative, or simply as a
Canadian. The Canadian has it, because every
day's experience makes one more of a Canadian
and causes him to wish that his fellow-citizens
would realize how great their heritage is, and
how much they can do to hand it down to their
children with its lustre increased.

It is not necessary to say very much about
the book itself, because the reader will be his
own judge. Nothing more timely or stimula-
ting could issue from the press at this grave
juncture of our affairs. I know of no book
which gives such a comprehensive insight into
the fundamental conditions of our national life
as " The Birthright '' does. It is a courageous
book; and I am sure many will find it so inter-
esting that they will need to read parts of it a
second time before they realize how deeply it
probes conditions with which we have all been
dissatisfied, but which only a small minority

vii

viii WAY OF ARBITRARY POWER

have thoroughly appreciated. The subjects it
deals with ought to be discussed by organiza-
tions in town and country which aim at social,
intellectual and patriotic improvement; and I
make bold to say that preachers will find much
more reality in the way great questions that are
essentially religious are handled in these pages
than sometimes gets into their discourses.

Arbitrary power, which war, to some extent,
inevitably gives to those in authority, only
makes the old partisan methods more blundering
than they were when some restraint had to be
exercised in the promulgation of orders-in-
council. Perhaps the politicians in office did
not know how despotic they became, or how
patiently the people endured their autocracy,
while remembering that another day is coming.

Those who are in touch with public opinion
are aware that there is in Canada a final
repudiation of the old style of politics and a
deep distrust of the counsels of a press that
clings to partisan habits. This feeling will
become more and more manifest in our political
life. The revolt of the Ontario farmers, which
has cost the Government three seats in the
Legislature within six months; and the asser-
tion of its power by Labour, are only the begin-
nings of the demonstration that government has
passed from the classes which went to the revo-
lutionary lengths described in this book.

Confidence in the sincerity and justice of the

WEAKNESS IS THE FAULT ix

forms and practices of our system of govern-
ment has been undermined. My old friend,
Colonel McCrea, author of " In Flanders
Fields/' wrote magnificently on the sacred duty
of keeping faith. In the business world no
person is so despicable as the man who fails to
keep his word. For the nation that breaks its
pledges there is nothing but loathing and con-
tempt. In my judgment no nation has more
humiliated itself than the Canadian nation did
through the War Times Election Act. So far
as I can learn, the nearest parallel to it in
modern history was furnished by the Diaz
regime in Mexico.

More than five million men laid down their
lives, and millions more have suffered untold
agony, worse than death itself, to resist Prus-
sianism in Europe; and still the world is not
yet safe for democracy. I fear that as ruth-
less and determined an enemy as that personi-
fied by the Kaiser is in evidence in Canada
to-day. I say this advisedly, because the men
who are responsible are not bad men, but weak
men, who have failed to understand the true
perspective of the State. The war has shewn
that they have been altogether unequal to their
job ; it has also shewn that, with wise and far-
seeing leadership the common people of this and
other countries are equal to any occasion.

To the great land-owning class of Canada
this book will prove both instructive and inter-

X HATS OFF TO MOTHERS

esting. With their shrewdness and natural
ability, and an instinct for nationality for which
they seldom receive credit, they are recognized
by all the leading men of business as the class
who must save the country. All thoughtful
eyes are turned to them. They are the only
hope. As a leading financial man in Toronto
said, " If agriculture fails, I do not know what
will happen." Knowing them intimately, as I
have for a lifetime, I am sure they will, if given
half a chance, rise superior to any emergency.

To the mothers of the Native-Born we must
lift our hats. I do not mean the childless, flit-
ting butterflies of fashion with the much-per-
fumed kerchiefs and the cigarette-laden breath,
but the plain, kind, patient mothers, who, with
aching hearts, have borne their grief uncom-
plainingly. What their influence on Canadian
reconstruction will be it is impossible to estimate.
But it is through their example that we must
learn how to establish the freedom of the world ;
and especially freedom from that class in our
midst who have made, and intend to keep, un-
told wealth and social prestige out of a conflict
that has stained the earth with the blood and
tears of millions.

We have got to make a fresh start in Canada.
Before the people can become really and consti-
tutionally self-governing, they need instruction.
They have lost all confidence in politicians.
They see little hope in new parties made out of

UNREST IS NOT UNHEALTHY xi

old materials. They are afraid to trust the
influences which they believe control most of
the . daily press. They are nervous about the
pulpit, which, they fear, has followed too much
the line of least resistance. Happily, some
pulpits are awake to the new conditions, and
here and there voices are raised against the
blindness of the past and the stupidity of the
present. And the religious press is becoming
less creed-bound, more human, and therefore
more Christian. From what one reads and is
told, there is a strong response in the. cities
whenever a preacher deals boldly with the prob-
lems of the day. This shows that unrest is not
the work merely of labour " agitators," and that
the farmers are not alone in their deep dissatis-
faction with the present situation.

I do not believe social unrest is unhealthy,
or that it is possible to relapse into econ-
omic conditions similar to what they were
five years ago. We cannot escape the world-
wide disturbances of the war; and we must
face our own special troubles, the chief of which
have only been made more acute by the war.
I allude to our peculiar racial composition and
the task of welding all the elements of the popu-
lation into a united nation. This situation is
more perilous than it should be, because, before
and during the war, the politicians permitted, if
they did not encourage, misunderstanding and
ill-feeling to grow.

xii NEW LIGHT ON THE FRENCH

Perhaps I may be allowed to say that I am as
proud of my name and ancestry as any Eraser
can be; but that feeling only makes me more
respectful to the pride of others, and more anx-
ious to find with them a common pride in the
Canadian patriotism of our children. It is not
necessary to sacrifice any gratitude to my Scot-
tish forbears in order to be a Canadian, through
and through. Nor is it necessary to ask my
brother-Canadian to forget the people from
whom he came. Respecting each other we can
be equally devoted to our common country.

We need and we must have national unity in
Canada, on a Canadian basis. From that point
of view I am especially grateful that " The
Birthright " has been written. No fair-minded
man can read the chapters on the French with-
out receiving new and invaluable light on the
position of our good friends " down below."
The book will have its critics, and possibly its
bitter assailants. But that it will promote the
desire for national unity; and a better under-
standing of Canadians by Canadians there can
be no doubt ; and unless I misread the evidences
of what is passing in the minds of true Cana-
dians everywhere, when they have read " The
Birthright " they will ask for more.

J. Z. Eraser.
Burford, Ontario,
May, 1919.

II

THE WOMAN'S POINT OF VIEW.
By Mrs. G. A. Brodie.

(President, United Farm Women of Ontario.)

Four years of war, with its social and econ-
omic tragedies, have accomplished more for
democratic freedom than centuries of slow evo-
lution. As of old, sacrifice has purchased lib-
erty, and re-established our citizenship, espe-
cially in the recognition of the status of woman-
kind. Civilization, throughout the ages, has
developed and kept pace with the spirituality
and mentality of its motherhood; and there-
fore, with full appreciation of their equality of
citizenship, the mothers will not only more hap-
pily mould the character of the child, but will
more rapidly elevate the character of the nation.

With three generations of my forbears under
Canadian sod, and my own family stepping into
manhood and womanhood, I feel more keenly
than ever the necessity for a Canadian nation-
ality such as the world does not yet recognize,
and about which far too little is said by Cana-
dians. Our national patriotism has been
starved ; but, in future, when it asks for bread,
it will not accept a stone. I can fully sympa-
thize with the homeless native-born, who are

xiil

xiv FROM HIGHER PLANES

being denied their birthright, and would like to
see kindlier hands held out to them.

Love and loyalty to Canada are indelibly
written in the hearts of all our democratic citi-
zens, who will cordially welcome " The Birth-
right '' because it reflects the aspirations they
have long cherished, and will lead them to
regard their privileges from higher planes than
those upon which the politicians have miscon-
ducted our national affairs. Its appearance at
this time is most opportune, particularly for
women who desire to meet their new responsi-
bilities with knowledge of their country, and
sympathy for those who, like themselves, are
eager for better things in their children's land;
and I am sure the book will be greatly appre-
ciated by all who value the justice, equality and
freedom for which our own boys have died.

(Mrs.) G. a. Brodie.

Newmarket, Ont.,
May, 1919.

FOREFRONT

The primary object of this book is to support
the aspiration that Canada shall receive from
all her children, of whatever origin, as intense a
devotion as that which any other country in-
spires in its citizens. In so far as it is a con-
fession of faith, attained after a Canadian pil-
grimage covering a third of a century, it is
thankfully made, and humbly commended to
those to whom Canada, as yet, is but a secondary
love. It is commended, also, with much diffi-
dence, to those who, as yet, do not realize that
men may unreservedly give their hearts to the
country of their own choice and of their chil-
dren's nativity.

Certain friends have urged suppression of
this book because they say it will be criticized —
such is the grounded fear in a free country of
the consequences of free speech. It is difficult to
refer with restraint to the dread of discussion
which haunts many excellent men and women,
who did not hesitate to urge boys to die for a
country for the magnification of which they
themselves are afraid to speak. The test of the
propriety of what is here written is not '^ Is 'it
agreeable to old notions?" but ''Is it true?''

The future of Canada is surely big enough to
lift critics out of the sloughs of suspicion, and
to warn them that attacks on individuals whose

XV

xvi QUESTIONS HELD OVER

expressions they do not like have never suc-
ceeded in destroying ideas. The author v^ould
rather be judged by what he has written than by
what others may suppose he should have said.*

The feasibility of closer organic union with
other parts of the Empire, and the disadvan-
tages of any fusion with thfe United States
demand a more extended discussion than is
possible here. Very much is held over in con-
nection with the ominous progress of organized
and unorganized Labour. The decisive factors
in future national fiscal policy are too compli-
cated and enormous for brief exposition. What
we must do with our capitalists is a question
which they cannot answer for a free people, but
which free minds must examine without fear
of their shaken power. The place of the zealous
churchman in the twentieth century must be

• Because of the genius for misrepresentation which has pervaded
partisan life, and which still lies in wait, two references to former
writings of the author may be permitted.

In 1911 his pamphlet, " An Appeal to the British-Bom," was
fiercely assailed on the ground that it set the Old-Countryman against
the native Canadian, Nothing could have been wider of the truth,
for normal fathers do not provoke discord in their own homes. The
title of the pamphlet is " An Appeal to the British-Born to Promote
the Sense of Canadian Nationality as an Increasing Power within
the British Empire." Nothing in it is discordant with this book,
or is repugnant to a lengthy article printed in The Monetary Times
of May 18th, 1907 — tw^elve years ago — whose central sentiment is
in this paragraph, which is the author's creed to-day: —

" Primarily, fundamentally, finally, Canada must be first in what-
ever we say, and think, and perform. The dweller within these
borders whoso affections are sot on any other place, people, or polity,
is an alien here, whatever documents he holds. To the newly arrived
immigrant this may be a hard saying. For him, there is the excuse
of the homesick, which soon dies down. But, if there is health and
growth in him, he will come, not to love the land of his fathers less,
but the home of his ambition more."

NO LULLABIES HERE xvii

discussed largely before it can be estimated even
approximately.

Those who think that any treatment of the
French question is unsatisfactory unless it in-
cludes a valuation of the political influence of
the Roman Catholic Church, may be reminded
that a British subject's civil standing is not
determined by his acceptance of any form of
the faith once delivered to the saints.

No solutions of the religious, racial, social,
economic, industrial and international crises
that are approaching with such avalanchic speed
are adumbrated here. There is little wisdom in
members of a family proposing to fill the house
with elegant furniture, if they stimulate ill-
fellowship in the home. The chief confidence
that is beneath, above, and all through this work
is that the people who are building Canada,
being God's children, are good ; and that a broad,
timeous, far-seeing statesmanship will enable
them to consolidate the worthiest nation in the
reconstructed world.

These, indeed, are perilous times. An effort
is made in these pages to gauge some of the
humanities, regard for which is essential to our
national salvation. Those who suppose that
dangers can be overcome by prophesying smooth
things concerning them will find no lullabies
here. If we daren't be frank we had better be
dead.

A.H.

Toronto, May, 1919.

2

THE CHAPTERS

PAGB
I. HANDICAP AND GLOVE 3

II. FATHERS AND— 17

III. —MOTHERS OF THE NATIVE-BORN ... 28

IV. HOI FOR A CHRISTENING .... 46
V. THE OWNER AND HIS BOUT WITH NATURE . 61

VI. GREAT "CANDLE" ON THE SEE-SAW . . 74

VII. GALLANT GENTLEMEN, AND WHAT THEY

HEARD 88

VIII. DISGRACED PARTISANSHIP: NEGLECTED

WARDS . . 104

IX. NEW WORLD LEADERSHIP THAT BAULKED . 121
X. AUTOCRACY'S FOOL TUESDAY . . .136

XI. SMITING THE ROCK 157

XII. ENGLISH-FRENCH MARRIAGE, AND NATIONAL

MANHOOD 179

XIII. ONTARIO SPEAKS FRENCH IN THE COM-

MONS 194

XIV. WHERE STATUS ISN'T— . . * . . .211
XV. —AND LOYALTY IS 226

XVI. PIONEER GLORY AND PART OF THE PRICE . 245
XVII. LANDOWNER OR LABOURER AT THE BALLOT 258
XVin. INTELLECTUAL LIBERTY: COLONIAL SYS-
TEM: ORANGE TIE 277

XIX. WHEN FARMER FINDS FARMER . . .292

XX. FRANCHISE FACTS AND FOLLIES . . .306

XXL VETERAN TAKES UP BONDS AND RAILS . 325

XXII. DAZZLING AND JEOPARDOUS . . . .345

ADDENDA.

THE FARMERS' REMONSTRANCE . . . . . 359

SUPREME COURT OF ALBERTA JUDGMENT . . .370

AN ONTARIO DEALING WITH QUEBEC . . . .375

xix

THE BIRTHRIGHT

CHAPTER I .

HANDICAP AND GLOVE

Stating that a Times specialist found Canada's Imperialism
disappointing, her army undisciplined, and her problems insig-
nificant; that Press and Parliament feared to discuss national
issues of the war, while the Round Table asserted the inferiority
of Dominion citizenship and the necessity for a Government
centralized in London, and taxing Canada in blood and
treasure; and that only a quickened national spirit can defeat
this disruptive doctrine.

During the third winter of the war a fore-
most Canadian newspaper received from a
trusted member of the staff an account of his
conversation in Winnipeg with a special corres-
pondent of The Times, and with a colonel lately
returned from England, who was also a mem-
ber of Parliament. The contribution did not
appear.

The Northcliffean emissary had discovered
that Canada's participation in the war was not
due to her Imperialism, but to her loyalty — the
Canadians he had met did not seem to under-
stand the nature of true Imperialism. He
announced that the initiative, team play, and
impatience of rigid discipline, which distin-

3

'i''' BALKAN PATTERN FOR CANADA

guished the Canadian soldiers, had caused
them to be " no good '' in England. Though
these qualities were advantageous in the fight-
ing hour, they still interfered with military
efficiency, which was primarily a matter of
unquestioning discipline.

The distance of this comprehension of the
Imperial side of Canadian nationality from
Canadian sentiment may be gauged from his
assurance that difficulties like bi-lingualism and
the assimilation of immigrated racial groups
into Canadian life would solve themselves if
only our political existence would revolve
around an Imperial Government in London.
Canada would then develop like the Balkans —
an aggregation of peoples speaking as many
languages as they chose, free to develop as many
racial characteristics as seemed good to them;
happy in a common devotion to a Central Provi-
dence, throned in London, and impartially dis-
pensing its more glorious wisdom to British
subjects throughout the world.

On the military side, The Times' representa-
tive was peculiarly grieved by the Parliament-
ary coloneFs account of how, on the plains of
Manitoba, he had ventured to supersede a
regulation which forbade a private to approach
a commanding officer except in the presence of
a sergeant, and of his own resentment at being
separated from his battalion as soon as it
reached England.

INTELLECTUAL SOVEREIGNTY 5

The third party to the conversation was an
Englishman, with much Canadian experience.
He told the admirer of the Balkans that
Englishmen, domiciled in their native county,
and especially bachelors like himself, could
never grasp the fundamentals of British Im-
perial unity until they knew what it was to
leave England and beget children in one of the
newer countries of the Empire.

This was the most rustic contribution to the
solution of a political problem The Times^ cor-
respondent had ever met. But the Canadian-
ised Englishman persisted in his argument
with so much certitude and passion, born of
blessed experience, that at last the other said,
" Oh ! well, you are going down to the bed-rock
of things. I was talking of the difference
between British Imperialism and Canadian
loyalty.''

The article which uncovered these conflicting
ideas was suppressed by the judicious editor,
not because it failed to mirror two divergent
mentalities, nor because he sympathised with
The Times' representative : but because it would
agitate those excellent newspaper readers who
become very fidgetty when a robust Canadian-
ism is expressed in their hearing; and because
discussion of the domestic realities of Canada's
warfare, while the conflict raged, was too great
an adventure into intellectual sovereignty for a
constituency that had been reared in an atmos-

6 KITCHENER DEFEATED HUGHES

phere of contentment that somebody else should
be willing to think Imperially and internation-
ally for it.

There was a mighty fear of Canadians dis-
cussing their country's status during the war.
But there was welcome for those who came from
abroad with the most disturbing assurances
that Canada must agree to a revolution in her
status within the Empire, or be prepared to
isolate herself from the congeries of Britannic
nations.

It is useless to assail the press for an un-
readiness to expound boldly the nobler attributes
of a self-reliant, unconquerable Canadianism
that is willing to carry all its own responsibili-
ties within the Empire. We have the press and
the Governments we deserve. That no English
daily newspaper in Canada made itself the
interpreter and champion of a militant asser-
tion of Canadian nationality during a war in
which the future of our peace was vitally
involved, was regrettable but not surprising. It
conformed to the silences within Parliament
which the historian will note as the strangest of
Canadian phenomena during the Great War.

It was known, for instance, that the Canadian
War Minister fought strenuously for Canadian
control of the Canadian army while it was in
England; and that the Government refused to
support him. It had accepted Lord Kitchener's
dictum that when the Canadians reached Eng-

POOR NATIONAL ARTICULATION 7

land they passed automatically under the con-
trol of the War Office — just as any vassal army
might have done. No question was ever asked
in the Canadian Parliament about such a
degrading development in self-government.

Similarly, no reports, implying an admission
of military responsibility to the Canadian
people, were ever laid before Parliament of the
battles in which thousands of Canadian lives
were lost. At Passchendaele, the Canadian
casualties exceeded by more than 2,500 the
total casualties of the Allies at the battle of
Waterloo. The only information that reached
Parliament about such a sacrifice of Canadian
life was included in a general enumeration of
casualties, five months later, when an unusual
procedure for obtaining more soldiers was being
urged upon the Houses.

What is the explanation of the almost
unanimous refusal, in press and Parliament,
to explore our most crucial and most tragical
affairs, while there is still time to decide their
course? Something is wrong with the national
articulation. Are we tongue-tied? or brain-
stuck? or don't we care? Are we indifferent
about the present because some unrecognised,
ingrowing defect in the past makes us half-
blind and imperceptive about the future? Has
everything been so satisfactorily done for us
that we need not trouble about doing great
things for ourselves? Are we just drifting now

8 ROUND TABLE PHENOMENA

because we had drifted for so long that, even
when we did cross a bloody sea, it was because
somebody else was making the pace? Who will
say exactly what we are? Who dares proclaim
what we ought to be?

Are we a nation? Are we a state? Are we
altogether self-governing, or are we a dependent
people? For fifty terrible months we waged an
unexampled war. Beyond the ocean sixty thou-
sand of our soldiers sleep in foreign soil. We
led the Americas in the amazing fulfilment of
Canning's great saying that the New World had
come into existence to redress the balance of the
Old. But we wait for those who have neither
past, present nor future in this land to tell us
what we are, and what we must become. We
receive meekly from them language which we
fear to use among ourselves. We seem to
be afraid to challenge their propositions. We
conspire to stop the mouth of Canadian courage.
We collect the multitude to hearken to speech
from strangers who are brought to discourse to
us of our own place and deeds among the
nations.

A thousand Canadians have for years regu-
larly assembled in groups to ponder the future
of their country, especially in its relation to the
Empire. For the most part deep silence has
followed their nocturnal broodings. From the
Round Table in Canada the only notable public
deliverance has come through a public meeting

HIGH QUALITY OF CURTIS 9

in Toronto in 1917. Similar meetings in other
cities were promised, but never held. It was as
though an infant had been p^^ematurely exposed
to the public gaze.

But the Round Table in London has published
" The Problem of the Commonwealth," by
Lionel Curtis (printed in Canada), and "The
Commonwealth of Nations," edited by Mr.
Curtis. The books predicate a central. Im-
perial Government in London (answerable to
the Canadian people to about the same extent
as the Canadian Government is answerable to
the electorate of New Brunswick), which may
make peace and war for Canada, and may
forcibly collect taxes in Canada for foreign
services and for war. The only alternative to
this, it is boldly asserted, is that Canada shall
become an independent republic. The choice
between the two rmist be made soon after
the war. The thousand circumtabular knights
have neither repudiated this alternative nor
suggested another.

Both the Round Table books are worthy of the
momentous questions they discuss. For the
first Mr. Curtis assumes all responsibility, but
as it is in no conflict with the second, it may
fairly be taken as a Round Table Deliverance —
as authoritative for the Group as a Prime
Minister's exposition of policy usually is for the
Cabinet. Mr. Curtis's great ability and intense
patriotism are unquestionable. To many

10 SECOND-CLASS RESPONSIBILITY

nothing is easier than to admire him, nothing
more difficult than to follow him.

Nothing like these books has ever been placed
at the disposal of Britannic citizenship. Their
literary form is faultless. All publicists may
well emulate their candour and fidelity to his-
torical facts. The range of their outlook and
the sincerity of their spirit will no doubt induce
in those who agree with their aims, a glad
conviction that the necessary momentum for
attaining a dazzling Imperial ideal is assured.

The Round Table books give a somewhat new
and disquieting appreciation of the noble word
which described the Cromwellian republic.
They deepen, also, the sense of responsibility
with which those whose love for Canada domin-
ates their love for any other country, as a man's
love for his wife precedes his love for his mother,
will turn from their immediate teaching and
will accept the challenges which are explicitly
and impliedly thrust upon them. How urgent,
one had almost said how threatening, those
challenges are, only becomes apparent when
they are lifted from their literary trenches, and
severally arrayed in the cold, morning light.

What must the answers be to such assertions
as these following, that are pressed upon us by
learned, responsible, earnest and wealthy men
even while the blood was splashing upon our
domestic and national shrines?

WE ARE SIMPLY A DEPENDENCY 11

We know now that the British Commonwealth has
and must always have one Government which can
commit ever}^ one of its citizens, and therefore, every
part of the Commonwealth, to war.

Ministerial responsibility to Parliament and the
people in the first, last and greatest of public inter-
ests exists only in the British Isles and has yet to
be attained by the people of the Dominions.
* * * * *

In matters of peace and war, the first, greatest

and most comprehensive of all public interests,

Canadians are subject, in fact as well as in law, to

a Government which exists, not in Ottawa, but in

London.

« « « « «

The people of Britain and those of the Dominions
have yet, by some solemn and irrevocable act, to
decide whether it is to this mighty Commonwealth
as a whole, or merely to the territory in which they
live, that their final allegiance is due.
*****

This, at any rate, can be prophesied with absolute

certainty, that the British Empire, as at present

established, cannot endure, unless it can realize its

character as a Commonwealth in time, by extending

the burden and control of its extreme functions to

every community which it recognizes as fit for

responsible government. Unless that is done the

self-governing dominions must inevitably follow to

the bitter end the path trodden by the first American

colonies.

*****

The institution of a hereditary president . . .
will work only so long as their (the Dominions')
governments recognize that the Dominion, though a
nation, is not a state, but only a part of one wider
Commonwealth, to' the general government of which,
rather than to themselves, their peoples are amen-
able in questions of peace and war. They may . . .
do anything they please, short of handling for them-
selves the ultimate issues of national life or
death. . . . They are simply dependencies.

12 WEAKNESS PITILESSLY BARED

A state is a community claiming an unlimited
devotion on the part of each and all of its members
to the interest of all its other members, living and
yet to live. One person cannot recognize two such
claims, because, sooner or later, they are bound to
conflict. A Canadian ("South African" is the
word used in the text), for instance, cannot allow a
concurrent right of deciding whether he, individu-
ally is at peace or war, to exist both in the Govern-
ment of Canada and in that of the British
Commonwealth.

The Round Table has rendered an extremely
valuable service in devoting 275 pages of the
first part of " The Commonwealth of Nations "
to an exposition of the American War of Inde-
pendence, and the effects of what it calls the
schism in the Commonwealth. The conditions
of the latter-eighteenth and the early-twentieth
centuries on this continent are vastly different.
But the fundamentals of government are as
enduring as human nature itself.

The history of the Thirteen Colonies and the
United States is expounded for our present
behoof. For Canadians it is more illuminating
than its authors may have apprehended. In
exhibiting the basic defect in the governance of
the Thirteen Colonies the writers have laid bare
with pitiless vividness, the weakness that has
afflicted Canadian national statesmanship. It
is written :

It is true to say that self-government has never
been realized for any portion of this vast Common-
wealth other than the United Kingdom itself.

IMPOSSIBLE COLONIAL SYSTEM 13

In the light of that statement, consider this
paragraph :

Citizens who have actually developed the capacity
for government will tend to lose it unless it is
developed to the full. Their knowledge and sense of
responsibility will not only be wasted, but will lan-
guish for want of exercise. They will not be brought
into touch with the ultimate facts of political life,
nor made to feel that they suffer for political de-
cisions in which they themselves have shared.

There is only one meaning to this. It is that,
politically, the Canadian people are backward —
the victims and examples of an arrested develop-
ment— how backward the writers of the Round
Table very plainly, though inferentially, dis-
close. Again, conditions are not what they were
a hundred and fifty years ago, but the funda-
mentals of government are the same. The
symptoms may vary, but the malady is essen-
tially what it was.

What the authors of the Commonwealth books
say about Canadian political experience and its
resultant capacity to-day is remarkably like
what they say of the Americans' political capa-
city when George the Third thought it was safe
to tax them. The Americans did not thoroughly
realize that making peace and war was the first,
greatest and most comprehensive of public
interests, because the Imperial doctrine then
was that their defence should be directed from
London. Read :

14 WASHINGTON'S DIFFICULTY

Life in the colonies was calculated to produce a
race remarkable for courage, straight shooting and
readiness to take up a quarrel. But the colonists
had never been answerable for the safety of the
commonwealth as a whole. . . . They had never
known what it was to feel that it was they who
must pay the price of national existence. They had
never, in a word, come into contact with the iron facts
of national life and death, the ultimate anvil where
alone commonwealths can be wrought to their true
temper and shape. Hence they had failed to develop
the spirit as well as the organization which enables a
community to call out its full fighting strength and
keep them in the field as long as the public interest
required their service. Such, at any rate, is the con-
clusion to which the most judicious and careful
historian (Lecky) was led by his study of contem

porary records.

* « « » *

Washington saw, from the outset, tha;t the local
resistance of the colonial militia might prolong, but
could never end the war, unless he succeeded in
creating an American army strong enough to face
the British army and crush them, and fh so doing his
greatest difficulty arose from the fact tliat the
colonial system had done nothing to create an
American spirit. ... In seven years he created
the continental army which ended the war at York-
town. But its ranks were recruited less from the
native-born than from the immigrants.
» » » « «

Till the close of the eighteenth century the whole
standard of public life in America had been poisoned
by the system under which it had been developed.
... By nature the colonists were just as capable
of such responsibility as their kinsmen in Britain,
but, except in provincial affairs, they had never been
subjected to the discipline of freedom. That dis-
cipline was never really experienced until after 1778,
when a Commonwealth was established from whose
primary responsibilities no class of citizens were
ever to be excluded, irrespective of their fitness and
merely by reason of the particular locality in which
they dwelt.

UNBORN MUST BE TIED 15

Here, then, is a remarkable background upon
which Canadians are counselled to indite a per-
petual promissory note, solemnly and irrevoc-
ably pledging those who are living and yet to
live upon half a continent. They must decide,
and decide quickly, what the writing is to be.
See:

The Commonwealth cannot continue as it was.
Changed it must be^ and woe betide us if those
changes are not conceived in accordance with the
principle for which the Commonwealth stands.
* « « » «

Imperial ministers will be forced to confess that
they cannot, in future, preserve the Commonwealth
inviolate unless the cost is distributed on some prin-
ciple of equality through all the communities whose
freedom is involved.

■»•»«»«

The claim which a Commonwealth makes on its
citizens is, in its nature, as absolute as that which
a despotism makes on its subjects, and allegiance
can no more be rendered by one citizen to two
commonwealths than homage can be paid by one
subject to two kings.

Could there be more ringing, one had almost
written, more minatory challenges to Canadian
self-determination than these grave deliver-
ances? One could wish that they had been
delivered in some other fashion — that the
Tables of the Law had not been so deeply
engraved before they were brought down from
the Mountain. With the honesty of George the
Third a doctrine of consolidation is preached,
which can only lead to a disruption that would
be calamitous for the world. Its defect is that
it misunderstands the Canadian genius. The

16 THE FIRST INCUMBENCY

people who are so plainly -told that they are
backward in self-government have shown them-
selves to be very forward in war.

Press and Parliament may be singularly
reluctant to promote as brave discussions as
the Round Table so manfully demands. But
the Canadian people have too many inherent
greatnesses to remain much longer where the
Round Table has set them down. The issue is
indubitably here. It cannot be evaded. It is
better to march boldly up to it than to linger
around its fringes.

A key to its settlement must be sought. It
can be found without a tiresome search on some
remote Sinai. It is lying on the Canadian
hearth, beside the cradle of the Canadian child.
It is waiting to be picked up, and inserted into
the heart of the Canadian people. It is called
the Canadian birthright.

The larger salvation for Canada within the
Empire must be achieved through the exaltation
of the Canadian spirit, its permeation of the
Britannic Alliance of free and equal nations,
and its untrammelled operation within the
League of Nations, where the lustre of ten
millions may be as splendid as the magnitude of
ninety millions more.

This is the first incumbency upon Canadians
who desire to see, who are willing to think, who
are not afraid to speak, and who are prepared
to act.

CHAPTER II

FATHERS, AN

Shewing how Sir Robert Borden's dismissal of Kii^g George
as creator of Canadian birthrights calls for an examination of
the bases of citizenship; detailing how an electioneering
exclusionist provoked an immigrant to expound a new equality
of patriotism between parents of Canadian children who under-
stand that birthright derives its glory from the future because
sons and daughters are more important than grandfathers.

The War begot many revolutions, whose har-
vests have not yet been gathered. None of
them was more surprising than the revolution
which the Canadian Government, without wait-
ing for the authority of Parliament, perpetrated
upon King George. By Order-in-Council His
Majesty was told, in extraordinary language,
that he had offended the Canadian people by
conferring hereditary titles of honour on sun-
dry of their fellow-citizens ; that he had better
withdraw the rights he had guaranteed; that
if any Canadians desired openly to acknowledge
His Majesty's right to ennoble their heirs, they
must endure banishment from their native land ;
and that if any baronets or peers of the realm
proposed to settle in Canada, and to maintain
the dignity they enjoyed everywhere else in the
Empire, they would be treated as undesirables.
They could not become Canadians unless they

17

18 KING GEORGE MUST REVOKE

accepted a denial of the most distinguished
birthright that had been secured to them by
letters patent of the King of Great Britain and
Ireland, of the Dominions Beyond the Seas, and
Emperor of India.

No such revolutionary assault upon the royal
prerogative had been committed by the servants
of a Bfitish monarch since the Stuarts were
deposed. It was a repudiation of the theory of
birthright on which the whole political struc-
ture of the British Empire has been builded for
a thousand years. It was literally a Canadian
revolution on the birthright plane — a bold inter-
ference with the most impressive of the rights
of the Crown. It not only said " Never again,"
but it overthrew the venerable doctrine that the
king can do no wrong.

King George was bidden by his servants to
take away what he had solemnly, and in per-
petuity, bestowed. He was requested to pub-
lish to the world that the very principle on
which he held the first place in the state could
safely be set at naught by those who had sworn
to maintain it.

A responsible Government, newly come to
power, with a staid constitutionalist like Sir
Robert Borden at its head, and containing five
knights whose titles were all thankfully received
within the preceding five years, would not make
such an astounding raid upon the most absolute
of the regal powers, and violate the innermost

AN ONTARION WHO HADN'T 19

shrine of the British system, unless it were con-
fident that public opinion would endorse its
unexampled daring.

This Declaration of Independence in Cana-
dian birthright, can only mean that something
new, something vital has entered into the
gl'owth of Canadian citizenship. The King
having been deprived of his power to give to
Canadians their choicest claims to natal honour,
what takes the place of the rejected monarchical
function?

As to birthright, the King is dead. Long live
the King. But what and where is his crown?

• •••••••

"What business have you to talk to Cana-
dians about their affairs?" an indignant par-
tisan demanded of a participant in an Ontario
bye-election. "You aren't a Canadian; you
weren't born here; what do you know about
Canada, anyway?"

" Have you ever been in the West?" was the
unexpected answer.

" No."

" Visited the Maritime Provinces?"

" No."

" Are you familiar with Quebec?"

" I was in Montreal once."

" Have you ever seen Lake Huron or been to
Cobalt?"

" Not yet."

"You ask what I know about Canada,"

20 WHAT ARE THE ACADIANS?

the immigrated citizen went on. " Not as much
as I ought. But, beginning with the year of
the second Riel rebellion, I lived several years
in the West, and went through the troubles of
the pioneer prairie farmer. Later I used to
travel thirty thousand miles a year in Canada
between Yarmouth and Victoria. Probably I
know the Maritime Provinces better than you
know Ontario. I have tried to understand
something about Quebec, by spending weeks at
a time there, and talking with all sorts of
French Canadians. Do you mind telling what
you have learnt about Canada, with your own
eyes and ears?"

" Gee!" was the answer, " I guess youVe got
me there: I haven't been round a great deal,
ril admit."

" Did you ever live for days in Doukhobor
houses?"

" Never saw one, and don't want to."

" Ever been through a German settlement in
your own province — where the people have been
settled anywhere from fifty to a hundred
years?"

" No."

" Or talked with Acadians who have been in
Canada two hundred years?"

" What are they?"

" They are French people in Nova Scotia,
Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick."

" Say, are the French away down there, too?"

BRITISH AND ENGLISH-SPEAKING 21

" Oh, yes, and very interesting people they
are; native-born Canadians for many genera-
tions. They never saw any other country, and
don't want to — they are just Canadians."

" Are there many of them?"

" Fifty thousand in Nova Scotia, th — "

"What's that?"

" Fifty-one thousand in Nova Scotia ; thir — "

" You must be mistaken ; I don't believe
there's fifty-one hundred."

" The census figures say that in 1911 there
were fifty-one thousand in Nova Scotia, thir-
teen thousand in Prince Edward Island, and
ninety-eight thousand in New Brunswick."

" Bless my soul, I wouldn't have believed it.
Are you sure?''

" Quite. I know some of them. Canada's a
remarkable country, isn't it? These fellows
down by the sea, whose existence seems to aston-
ish you, talk French and think French. Sup-
pose one of them were to ask me why I dared to
say anything about Canadian affairs, and what
did I know about Canada, because he was born
in Canada and I wasn't, and he had lived all his
life in his birthplace, while I had only gained a
first-hand knowledge of all nine provinces, what
would you advise me to tell him?"

" I'd mighty soon tell him that this is a Brit-
ish and an English-speaking country, and I
wouldn't let him or any other Frenchman say
where I get off at — no, siree-ee."

22 ON THE DISTAFF SIDE

" But I never find it necessary to talk like
that with the French, either in Nova Scotia or
Quebec. They treat me as if I'm just as good
a Canadian as they are. We get along fine, by
taking another tack." ^

" And what tack's that?"

" Do you mind if I ask two or three personal
questions?"

"All right, as long as you don't get too
darned personal."

" How many children have you?"

" Two."

" You expect them to spend their lives in
Canada?"

"Sure thing."

" You and I are just alike, except that my
wife and I have four children whom we want to
leave in Canada along with yours. You see,
we've thrown four live anchors into the future
of this country."

" And you want me to understand that I've
thrown only two? Don't rub it in too hard."

" My dear fellow, I don't want to rub it in.
All I want is that both of us try to think
it out."

" I get you. What next?"

" How many children had your mother?"

" Three."

" All born in Canada?"

" Yes, about six miles up the river from here.
I'd like you to come out and see the place."

CANADIAN, NEVER SAW CANADA 23

" Thanks. Name the time, and we'll go.
Mother and father dead?''

" Yes."

" How many grandchildren did they leave?"

" Let me see. My two ; Jane has four ; and
Will one — ^seven at present, I guess."

" So your mother gave three children and
seven grandchildren to Canada? Don't you
think she has done more for Canada than the
man who has taken a million dollars out of
Canada and hasn't given a single child to his
country?"

" You bet I do."

"And would you say that as a citizen you
want to be worthy of what your mother has
done for Canada by giving her children and
grandchildren to your country?"

" You're hitting the nail there, all right."

" Because I'm in the same boat with you
again. In all I do as a Canadian citizen I want
to honour what my mother has done for
Canada."

" You don't say ! I didn't know your mother
was a Canadian."

" She never saw Canada, and though she's
still alive she never will. But, by the standard of
people rather than of money, she's a great Cana-
dian, all the same. There are forty-eight people
in Canada this afternoon who wouldn't have
been here but for her — three sons and their
children and grandchildren, and the children

24 THE GREAT LEVELLER

and grandchildren of her two other sons and
two daughters who remain in England. I am
responsible for twelve of the forty-eight being
in Canada. Am I not entitled to say something
about the present and future conditions under
which my mother's descendants and mine must
live? Would you tell my Canadian children
they have no business to speak about Canadian
affairs? No, because they were born here.
But have they Canadian rights, privileges, and
duties which do not belong to their father and
mother who gave them being? Would you tell
them that their father should hold his tongue
about their future?"

" Say, but you sure are putting it all over me.
I wish I hadn't spoken."

" But Fm very glad you did speak, because
it has given us a chance to do some thinking
together. Would you care to hear a little
more?"

" You just go ahead, as long as you've a mind
to. I wish I'd heard this sort of stuff before.
Where do you get these ideas, anyway?"

"Where do they come from? They come
from where you and I are on exactly level terms
— the cradle-side of our Canadian-born children.
That is the place to find out that parentage, and
politics, and religion, and Canadianism are the
same things. Parliament is the place where
the law is made. Love is the fulfilling of the
law, and it should therefore be the mainspring,

EXAMPLE FROM GALILEE 25

the foundation and the structure of the law.
What love is like a mother's for her child? You
go to church?"

" Sometimes/'

" Well, in the New Testament there is a great
story of how Christ showed a crowd of average
people like you and me what the Kingdom of
Heaven is. He began by taking a little child,
and setting him in the midst. He told them
that unless they became like the child they
couldn't inherit the Kingdom. He also said,
' The Kingdom of Heaven is within you.' You
know as well as I do that you didn't really begin
to understand what was within yourself — deep
down, high up, and all over — until your child
began to govern your home, and you saw what
a miserable, starved, inconsequential thing an
old bachelor is. The Nation is only the home
multiplied. It is the child that makes them
both precious, and may make them glorious."

" I guess that's true, too."

" I know it's true. Let me tell you why.
You say you have never seen a Doukhobor. But
you have seen plenty of Italians and other people
from Europe?"

^* Foreigners? Oh, yes; lots of them."

" Do you think ' foreigners ' is the best word
to apply to them? Is it quite like Canadian
hospitality to urge these people to come here
and then always call them ^ foreigners '?"

" What other word is there?"

26 NEW ANGLE OF ANCESTRY

" There is none so easy, but if we use it freely
we may encourage a dangerous levity in Cana-
dian children. YouVe heard of the Irishman,
immigrated to Philadelphia, who married, and
had a son. When the boy was five years old he
displayed excessive capacity for bringing up his
father. At last the father revolted, and began
to chastise the boy.

" * Leave me alone ; let me be !' the youngster
bawled. ^ Don't you dare ! I'll have no cussed
foreigner laying his hands on me.'

" You see what I'm driving at. Because you
are Canadian-born, you claimed something spe-
cial for yourself which you felt like denying to
me. The children of the so-called foreigners
are Canadian children, born as you were.
Every right and privilege, that you and your
children enjoy is theirs, by the same birthright.
When you speak of an Italian as a Dago, or of
a Jew as a Sheeney, you are speaking disdain-
fully of the ancestors of generations of Cana-
dians— citizens who may some day rise up and
confound your descendants with a superior kind
of ability.

" Your mother, by giving living people to
Canada did more for Canada than the richest
bachelor or sonless, daughterless millionaire or
Cabinet Minister has ever done. By the same
token, these men and women have given to
Canada what has been denied to those of the
native-born who are like your childless million-

THE HARMONIOUS TEMPLE 27

aire. The poorest of them can look down the
vista of the future and see the heirs of their
new-found freedom building the prosperity of
Canada. They can say, with pure and unde-
filed exultation : ' I shall live again.' '*

" I guess you're right."

" I know Vm right, because, thank the good
Lord, I have found out by experience that the
cot of my child in Canada is infinitely more
splendid for me than the tomb of my grand-
father in England. I have discovered that
there are two birthrights, and that the one we
have supposed to be the inferior makes the
Canadian temple harmonious in all its parts,
and solid on its foundations — a noble dwelling
for the Canadian spirit.

"We had no choice in our own birth, and
therefore the rights of citizenship that it
brought, noble and indefeasible as they are,
must be second to those which belong to our
having brought other Canadian citizens to birth,
and sustained them into manhood and woman-
hood. There is more responsibility and glory
in being a father than in being a son, in being
a mother than in being a daughter. So, when
you ask what I know about Canada, and why I
venture to speak about Canada, the answer is
that I have received the sacramental birthright
of a father of the native-born."

CHAPTER III

MOTHERS OF THE NATIVE-BORN

Beginning with a bishop and several knights, who dreaded
the feminine advance; pays homage to the pioneering mater-
nity, indicates similarities between some modern notions about
women and the creed of Chief Matonabbee, who said, " They
do everything, and are maintained at trifling expense;" and,
through a sketch of a Doukhobor community in Saskatchewan,
pleads for recognition of the value of the " foreign " mothers of
the native-born.

An eloquent Bishop declared to an Empire
Club that the suffragettes who were throwing
stones in London should be deluged with the
hose or bitten by rats.

Shortly before the war Sir Wilfrid Laurier
answered a friend who urged him to champion
women's full advent to citizenship, that the
proper place for women was in the home.

In the midst of the war, when women had
received the vote in several western provinces,
a publicist told a company of leading Quebec
citizens of what he had found in Winnipeg and
beyond, and enquired how soon feminine suf-
rage would reach the Plains of Abraham. Two
knights earnestly assured him that he would
not live to see women in Quebec degraded from
the holy estate of motherhood to the ignobility
of electioneering.

28

THE SENATORIAL FEMININE 29

The Bishop, who forgot his Lord's example,
died before his advice was taken. Sir Wilfrid
Laurier saw Parliament pass a Dominion-wide
enfranchisement of women without a division.

In less than a year after they had said the
innovation would never afflict their province,
the knights in Quebec saw their feminine neigh-
bours going to the polls.

So do revolutions come and stay, to confound
the wise, and to elevate those who had no
strength to the seats of the mighty. Two
women are members of the Alberta Legislature.
One of them was elected by soldiers overseas.
When Mr. Ralph Smith, the Provincial Trea-
surer of British Columbia, died, his place in the
Assembly was taken by his most able widow.

There will soon be women in every place
where laws are made. They will appear in the
Senate — if the Senate is not marked for speedy
death. No woman would ever bring decrepi-
tude into the Parliamentary sphere — wherein
is a fore-ordained revolution in senatorial
nerve. When women come, doddering old men
will go.

It is an impertinence to say that women
earned the franchise by war-working — as im-
pertinent as it would be to say that the soldier
earned the vote by fighting. To every preceding
war women made the same greatest contribu-
tion which they gave to this war. They bore
every soldier. If they "earned" their citizenship

30 ECHO OF SIR JAMES WHITNEY

in this war time they earned it in preceding
wars. If they did not receive it then they were
kept out of a right. If women are not entitled
to full citizenship by virtue of their humanity
they cannot acquire it by knitting socks. The
right to citizenship has always been part of the
right to bring forth citizens. That this war
had to occur before men could recognize it only
shows how much tragedy is necessary to enable
some of us to identify the elementary justices
of human partnership.

It is not universally apprehended that the
franchise is a right. Sir James Whitney told
a suffragist deputation that the vote was not a
right, even for men. It was a privilege. He
did not say from whom one man acquired the
right to order another man's life, or decree his
death. Sir James was not a conspicuously pro-
found or original thinker. He was akin to the
Toronto broker who avowed with immense con-
fidence that it was the millionaires who had
made Canada. Asked what had made the mil-
lionaires, he said the weather was turning cold.

In the discussions of the Dominion Women's
Suffrage Bill Sir Wilfrid Laurier was disposed
to retain the right of the provinces to settle the
Dominion franchise. There was an echo of Sir
James Whitney in what he said — and Sir James
was neither a Liberal nor a Catholic : — " In
most of the provinces they have universal man-
hood suffrage. Every man has a vote who is

QUEBEC WOMEN ARE FREER 31

twenty-one years of age. In the province of
Quebec the franchise is not given as a right;
but it is made accessible to everybody. Every
man in Quebec is a voter who is a landowner.
The lessee of property of a value of $2 a month
in cities is also a voter. In practice it amounts
to manhood suffrage; but it is not claimed as a
right.''

Parliament handed women the vote because
they are women. In Quebec the vote does not
come to a man because he is a man, but because
he is the voice of property. An organized
demand for women's suffrage was successful in
the five provinces west of the Ottawa River
before the Dominion Parliament created the
feminine vote. There was no demand such as
would impel the Provincial Government to pro-
pose similar legislation in Quebec. The women
of other provinces achieved civic greatness ; the
women of Quebec have had the franchise thrust
upon them. Provincially, the Quebec women
are inferior to the men; nationally they are
more free than the men. If John Knox, and
myriads of other Presbyterians and Methodists
— John Wesley, for instance, whose wife
dragged him around the room by his hair — had
been told that this would occur in a territory
where the celibate priesthood is more powerful
than in any other part of the British Empire,
they would have said that such an age of revolu-
tion would surely portend the Last Things.

32 WHERE BRIBERY MUST HALT

One does not mention electoral machineries
because they are conclusive of anything more
than that something has moved. Nor can it be
assumed that, because women now have the
vote they may be regarded as a separate entity
in the state. If equal franchise makes a dif-
ference to women, it will make a very much
greater difference to men, however character-
istically blind some of us are to what is happen-
ing to ourselves. Much may be said about the
unpreparedness of women for the vote. The
Mail and Empire has facetiously suggested that
candidates who spend much time looking after
the feminine voter will lose their deposits.

It is not seriously contended that, after gen-
erations of the suffrage, all men are thoroughly
qualified to decide the national and provincial
fates. Women are an incalculable factor in
politics, whether they go feebly or furiously to
the polls. The unfixity of their attitude —
whether they will be as blindly devoted to par-
tisan fetishes as the men have been — already
makes the old-time politician more careful,
more amusingly clumsy, in his ways. In con-
stituencies which have been notoriously corrupt,
practitioners of the bribing art are in a bewil-
dered posture. They fear to try the old games
of purchase on women. Money may still talk,
but it is becoming incoherent. It is a little diffi-
dent about insulting women who can hit back.

Gradually the silly misrepresentations, per-

**< ■•• I I 0»' t »\

EQUALITY MAKES MEN GROW 33

sonal bitternesses, and moral indignities which
have been associated with the most serious
function of citizenship, will disappear. Vet-
eran experts of the platform find that their
traditional f ulminations are out-of-date. Their
fawning upon the woman voter will wear away.

They will learn how many superior women,
and how many inferior men, are in the public
arena. They will also learn that many ques-
tions occupy new places in the order of public
importance. In time, they will understand
that women are of inestimable service in public
life, not because they are becoming like men,
but because they will always be blessedly dif-
ferent. It will be an overpowering discovery
for many that politics are more manly when
they become more womanly. It is the sense of
women's equality that causes men to grow. The
spirit of proprietorial condescension depresses
when it seems to exalt. A man is never more
foolish than when he imagines that cowardly
Adam was Eve's superior.

Leaving Yorkton, to visit remote Doukhobor
villages, one passed the farm of a man whose
wife, the driver said, had lately died. Her
grief -stricken husband remarked to a consoling
neighbour, " I would rather have lost a hundred
and fifty dollars than that woman."

In an eastern province the favourite son of
an honest father died, just as he was old enough
to attend school. " It will take me an awful

34 PHILOSOPHY OF MATONABBEE

long time to get over it," the father wailed. " It
wouldn't have been so bad if it had been his
mother : I could have replaced her."

The equal franchise hastens the revision of
values that was proceeding, not only among
those in whom the Indian tradition was daily
exemplified. Men with eyes were seeing that
women's wits are as essential in settling modern
affairs of state as they were to the success of
Samuel Hearne's three-year journey from Fort
Churchill to the Coppermine a hundred and fifty
years ago. Twice he failed. He only succeeded
when Chief Matonabbee took the management,
and insisted that women were essential to the
great trip.

"Women," said Matonabbee, "were made
for labour. One of them can carry or haul as
much as two men can do. They also pitch our
tents, make and mend our clothing, keep us
warm at night; and, in fact, there is no such
thing as travelling any considerable distance,
or for any length of time, in this country, with-
out their assistance. Though they do every-
thing, they are maintained at a trifling expense;
for, as they always stand cook, the very licking
of their fingers, in scarce times, is sufficient for
their subsistence."

Of Matonabbee Hearne says — and he might
have been describing many a modern husband
and father who still dislikes the feminine fran-
chise :

LAST WARFARE IN HUDSON BAY 35

" It was impossible for any man to have been
more punctual in the performance of a promise
than he was. His scrupulous adherence to
truth and honesty would have done honour to
the most enlightened and devout Christian,
while his benevolence and universal humanity
to all the human race, according to his manner
of life, could not be exceeded by the most illus-
trious personage now on record. He was the
only Indian I ever saw, except one, who was not
guilty of backbiting and slandering his neigh-
bours."

Matonabbee gave a remarkable final proof of
greatness of soul — and of his inappreciation of
the higher value of women. The last warfare
between the French and English in Canada was
not in the year following the capture of Quebec,
but in the year before peace was made with the
revolted colonies. Hearne surrendered Fort
Prince of Wales, at the mouth of the Churchill
river, to the French Admiral La Perouse, who
destroyed it and carried off Hearne and the rest
of the Hudson's Bay Company's servants.
When Matonabbee heard of this disgrace of his
old colleague he hanged himself, leaving six
wives and several children to die of starvation
in the succeeding winter.

A re-incarnate3 Matonabbee would hold the
modern view of the indispensability of women
to the state. In a white skin he might have
evolved into the typical Canadian, and shown

36 BOER GENERAL'S TESTIMONY

how futile it is to imagine that we can travel any
distance on the road to progress without women's
fullest co-operation. He would pay constant
tribute to their unnumbered services in trans-
forming solitudes into communities, and in
creating a nation in whose dignities there is
neither male superiority nor female servitude.
He would accord their rightful place to the
mothers of the native-born.

In truth, if we learn most of what is noble at
the maternal knee, we may acquire there also
the most splendid and tenacious attributes of
patriotism. What is the birthplace to a father
compared with what it means to a mother? The
fashion of bringing forth children in hospitals
has its recommendations for those who are
willing to enter the Valley through the abode
of the stranger; and who are glad that their
child's first cries will hallow an unfamiliar
chamber. But there is a sublimity which the
most perfect hygiene cannot attain. " All my
children were born here " — that matronly claim
in homes which are veritable bulwarks of the
state is exceeding good to hear.

Intense love of country may flourish among
those to whom the joys of home have been
denied; but the completest devotion to country
abounds where there has been the closest attach-
ment to the hearth. General Hertzog told me in
Bloemfontein that a remarkable feature of his
three years' campaigning in the Boer war was

MOTHERHOOD CONSECRATES 37

the frequency with which burghers, on the
interminable trek to escape or to entrap the
British, would ask for a few days' leave, prom-
ising to rejoin the commando at some distant
place. They would ride off alone, and after two
or three days, would find a ruined home-
stead, brood awhile amid its desolation, on the
women and children taken away to a concentra-
tion camp, and then cheerfully return to the
commando and the war. What was there in
such a covenant of solitude, but the devotion of
a man to what his womenkind had been and
still were, in making homes and perpetuating
humanity on the boundless veldt?

The tongue of an angel could not describe the
treasures of toil, and sacrifice, and courageous
love with which motherhood has consecrated
Canada.

The pioneer woman still occupies more than
half the front line of our civilization. Life for
her may have become less isolated than it was,
because the printed word abounds; and almost
everywhere the telephone is within reach for
desperate occasions. But, for many, the fre-
quency of their contact with the world makes
their geographical isolation harder to bear.
Loneliness has taken its awful toll in the
insanity of women who would have adorned
complex society. They have left heirs who were
in rude health long before the maternal break-
down came, and who will presently furnish the

38 SOLDIERS OF COLONIZATION

brains and character and driving force for the
communities their mothers may not see. It is
good, indeed, that the children remain. It is a
shame that the mothers' tragedy should have
been. It lies at the masculine door.

When there were no highly organized govern-
ments, and no well equipped centres of popula-
tion ; and when the possibilities of social politics
were not glimpsed even by the farthest-sighted,
there was some excuse for leaving the domestic
frontiers exposed, with so little support from
the crowded centres of ease. That time has
passed. The city becomes rich because the bush
and the prairie are subdued. The soldiers of
colonization are as deserving of support as the
soldiers of devastation. In their warfare the
women perforce are in the midst of action. In
the re-arranging of civic values they must be
moved up; their voices must be welcomed into
civic expression ; their counsel must be heeded ;
their children must be honoured.

That is peculiarly true of those who came to
Canada little enough instructed in the lore of
their native lands, and knowing neither the
speech nor the thought of their children's coun-
try. You have seen them passing through
Winnipeg, and have stayed in their houses on
the plain. It is foolishly easy to dismiss them
with the epithet of *' foreigner " — as we might
have dismissed a Madonna and her Child. But
to look beyond the Dawn of To-morrow, and to

SENATOR NELSON'S CASE 39

behold their progeny to the third and fourth
generation of the native-born, is to wonder
whether you and your kind are qualified to
transform the centuries of middle Europe into
the future of Canada; and to make generations
yet unbegotten glad that their forbears braved
the unknown, formidable Canada.

In the women who have come, with kerchiefed
heads, uncorseted bodies, and high, heavy boots,
there are strange possibilities of leadership in
what we are pleased to call Anglo-Saxon civili-
zation, but which is merely humanity, written
upon as the Lord has permitted us to write in a
country which may be independent of the past,
but is quivering with obligation to the future.
No mothers are despisable, least of all those
whose poverty tells you that they are of a
peasantry which may be ignorant, but is cer-
tainly virile, and waits only opportunity to
climb from its ancient servilities into intellec-
tual, social and political freedom.

Not long ago there was talk of drastically
limiting immigration to the United States. An
opponent of the severest restrictions was
Senator Nelson, who had represented Minnesota
at Washington for thirty years. " If this
restriction had been in force sixty years ago,"
he said, ^' my widowed mother and I would have
been refused admittance to the United States."

This is not a plea for an unrestricted immi-
gration, but for making the best of what the

40 MINOR BETHLEHEMS ABOUND

Government knowingly brought hither, and to
regard wisely the asset of the women who have
given life to thousands of Canadian children.
Motherhood is the same through the wide, wide
world. Always from the humble the great have
sprung. The earth is full of minor Bethlehems.
Mary, of whom it was charitably said that
she was found to be with child, had not a
sublimer love than that which, this very day,
redeems many a Canadian seclusion from
despair.

An earnest Englishman in Vancouver was
discoursing on the evils of ^^ foreign " immigra-
tion in general, and Doukhobor immigration in
particular.

" Have you ever been in a Doukhobor settle-
ment?" was asked of him.

" No," was the answer; " but I have been in
Canada sixteen years, and you must be here a
long time to understand conditions."

" Well," said the recipient of the English-
man's urgent representations, " I have just
come from several Doukhobor villages in Sas-
katchewan. There has been some weird religi-
ous fanaticism in a few places; but perhaps it
was not more weird than you thought the zeal
of some of our countrywomen was when you
first saw the Salvation Army bonnet, and heard
sweet-faced English girls playing tambourines
in the street. You think it will take a hundred
years to assimilate these people to Canadian

THE NEWSPAPER DOUKHOBOR 41

civilization. They are not so slow; and Cana-
dian civilization is not so impotent. You think
they are the most backward of all the people
who have come to us?''

"I certainly do, from what I read in the
papers."

" Ah ! but have you only read in the papers
things that were to their discredit?"

" That's so, too."

" There is a minority of our own people of
whom we read nothing in the papers, except
when they are in the police court. But, if you
were satisfied that, in some things, the Doukho-
bors are our equals ; and in others they are our
superiors, could you think that Canada need
not be punished for a hundred years, unless she
wants to be, for bringing these Russians here?"

" If the hundred years can be reduced, yes."

" The Doukhobors are great workers. They
came to Canada with nothing, and were dumped
on the bare prairie at great distances from the
railway. They detailed a contingent to work
on railroads, while others built houses and pre-
pared against the winter. In a few years they
have made relatively more progress than any
other people who have come here, not excluding
the Americans. They are fine farmers, mar-
vellously good to their beasts. They are not very
literate, and their women are backward from
some points of view — the same point of view
from which our own women were backward

42 MODELS OF POLITENESS

in our fathers' time, compared with what they
are now. Their learning may have been weak,
but their characters were strong.

*^ But there is a Doukhobor trait which prom-
ises as swift a social emergence as there has
been an economic emergence — and that is the
exquisite politeness they practise towards their
women; and which their women practise
towards the stranger. Until you have seen the
average Doukhobor remove his hat in greeting
to his fellows, women and men alike, you have
not learned to what heights courtesy in the
country may attain. In that respect, I think
they are almost as far ahead of the French as
the French are ahead of us. Until you have
received the hospitality of a Doukhobor house-
wife, in a scrupulously clean house, with a gar-
nished floor of clay and a roof of sod, you have
not learnt how splendid the amenities of enter-
tainment, in severely simple surroundings, may
be.

" In her bare feet, and with her head covered,
she sets the table, boils the eggs, fries raw, sliced
potatoes in butter, and waits upon you with
silent assiduity, anxious that you shall enjoy
the best she has. When you have drunk the last
glass of milkless tea, you have not well finished
the meal if you do not rise, bow to her, and say
something neat and sincere in gratitude for the
service. She will bow to you, in return, and
say she is glad to have had the pleasure of

•tt

ROMANCE THEY DO NOT SEE 43

entertaining you. She has as much good will, and
more gravity than you perceive in Connaught ;
and about the house there is nothing to remind
you of the gintleman that pays the rint.

"What is wrong with models of industry,
hospitality, cleanliness, politeness, and physical
strength like these? They know little of the
Caucasia they have left. We have taken little
care that they shall know more of the Canada
to which they have come.

" I have often seen a Doukhobor village which
overlooks the North Saskatchewan river, near
the Canadian Northern bridge at Elbow. Every
time I behold the panorama of that valley, I see
also the first French explorers, forcing their
way to the Rocky Mountains; and Alexander
Mackenzie, who went this route to the Arctic
and Pacific Oceans. I see David Thompson, of
whom J. B. Tyrrell justly says that he was the
greatest land geographer of all time, passing
up and down, on journeys which took him from
Montreal to where the Columbia reaches the
Pacific in Oregon, and from Churchill to the
villages of the Mandans, in the Missouri valley.
I watch Butler with his dogs on the ice, making
for Fort Garry, after visiting Edmonton and
Fort Macleod, and getting the material for his
fascinating * Great Lone Land ' ; and I wonder
whether he camped on the first island below the
bridge, where wood and shelter abound.

" To me the view from the Russo-Canadian

44 GIVE FAIR PLAY A CHANCE

village is full of romance and history. The
cattle lazily coming up the path from the river
remind me of the vast herds of buffalo single-
filing the innumerable furrows that still mark
the grassy slope. Close to the track I observe
a gigantic rubbing stone, with the ground
worn away from its lower side, where they
sought relief from the summer torments; and
around which they made the wallows that
remain like saucers in the soil. These trails
and signs bring back to me the Indian age, the
invasions of the hunters with powder and ball,
the strange extinction of the myriads of beasts
whose bones I used to see whitening the knoll-
tops past thirty years ago.

" But what do the Doukhobors know of things
like these? Who has told them that the Past
has provided, on their homesteads, lore that is
more enduring than a stand of wheat, and more
precious than a herd of kine? Canadian boys
and girls are born in this village, and in fifty
others, whose mothers know nothing of the
great story with which their children's early
and latter days may be nobly infected. The loss
is theirs; but it is infinitely ours. We brought
these wealth creators here. Before we damn
them, it is well to examine ourselves. If we have
made a mistake it is for us to rectify it, but not
at their expense — that wouldn't be British fair
play. If we have not made a mistake; if the
good God has made us of one blood, if ' all ye

TnTf-t — rrti

PRECIOUS TO DIVINE ECONOMY 45

are brethren/ then let us make the most of the
fortune that resides in the people whose men
have so many admirable qualities, and whose
women are so unspotted from the world. That's
what I have learned from contact with the
Doukhobors.''

" You surprise me," the Englishman replied.

" The Doukhobors surprised me,'' was the
response. " Talk about water-powers being
allowed to run to waste in Canadian woods. It
is nothing to the woman-powers that we are
turning to waste in Canadian homes — all kinds
of homes, of all kinds of immigrations. I have
talked about the Doukhobors because they
seemed to be your pet aversion. For excellences
in character, and potentialities of increase, the
other mothers of the school-going generation
who must learn English from their Canadian
children, are just as invaluable to the economy
of God. If we don't know how to make en-
thusiastic, informed and everlasting Canadians
of them we are not half as divinely gifted as we
think we are."

CHAPTER IV
ho! for a christening!

Surveying the Provinces in quest of the Typical Canadian,
and finding him not — the Maritimes connect with New Eng-
land; Quebec is driven in on herself; the Ontarion at home is
decried by the Ontarion in the West; the prairie country is
recent in settlement and heterogeneous in race; British
Columbia is isolated, Pacific and cosmopolitan — there is no
Typical Canadian, because a unifying, compelling ideal has not
been preached to all the people.

Ten thousand dollars is offered the discoverer
of the typical Canadian.

There is no Roosevelt on this side of the line.
Of him it was said, " He was the American —
the express image, the dynamic embodiment of
the Republic.'' There cannot be such a man in
Canada as yet. Nobody will venture to describe
Canada herself. Much less can the person who
most resembles her be pictured.

If a jury from the ten Governments and the
twenty leading universities and colleges of
Canada, were asked to compound a typical
Canadian citizen from the ingredients of the
voters' lists, they could not produce a generally
acceptable specimen. Nobody is to blame for
this monumental indeterminism. A youth is
not to be condemned because he has no certitude
about his vocation. His elders are to blame if

46

^ ... T"---— lorn

ONE PEOPLE OR MANY? 47

they refuse him opportunities for discovering
what he is fitted for.

Only a Kaiser, more foolish than Kaisers
usually are, would dream of denying to a people
the right to live and grow harmoniously with
their birthright. Only a people that has not
appreciated its own greatness would fail to
claim all that its birthright implies. It is essen-
tial to know what that birthright is. Behind
that question is another — Is there one Canadian
people, or are there many Canadian peoples?
Who are we? Whence do we come? Whither
shall we go? Are we a rope of many sands, or
are we being solidified into a nation by a pure
and durable cement? Survey Canada, and what
do you discern between sea and sea?

Where the Atlantic rolls upon Canadian
shores there is as great variation in the Cana-
dians as there is between the tides which, in the
Bay of Fundy, sometimes rise and fall ten feet
an hour, and on the other side of the peninsula
do not exceed ten feet a day.

For hundreds of miles along the Nova Scotian
coast there is hardly a square block of a hundred
arable acres. In parts of the interior, before
the war, the farmer was flourishing who
handled three hundred dollars of real money in
a year.

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
the whole country was Acadia. French people
have been in isolated fishing villages and on

48 FRENCH OUTSTRIP THE ENGLISH

quiet farms nearly three centuries. In Lunen-
burg county there are thousands of Germans
whose forbears came because, when Wolfe was
besieging Quebec, George the Second placarded
his kingdom of Hanover with advertisements
about Nova Scotia. The German accent sur-
vives, as the German style of yoking oxen does
through the province — even in Halifax, most
English of Canadian capitals. Here is a county
predominantly of the Baptist faith. There is
one almost as Scotch as Kirkcaldy, and more
Catholic than Montreal.

In Nova Scotia the last census period saw
considerable increase of population only in the
steel and coal areas. The Nova Scotia French
increased at double the rate of the English. In
Prince Edward Island the French declined only
half as fast as the English-speaking natives. In
New Brunswick the English lost eight thousand,
the French gained nineteen thousand, and be-
came twenty-five per cent, of the whole. If the
English had done as well as the French they
would have increased sixty thousand.

What is the governing principle of the life of
Maritime Canada, which travellers sometimes
call the dead provinces? Dr. Chisholm, Member
of Parliament for Inverness — the north-western
county of Cape Breton Island — speaks English,
Gaelic and French to his patients. The Canada
that Dr. Chisholm meets at Ottawa is indeed a
distant country to his constituents. It has little

<irf" r H

INFLUENCE OF EXODUS AND TRADE 49

relation to the traditions which surround the
early settlement of the island — French or
Scotch.

The Maritimes' sense of unity with Canada is
growing. But for several decades their sons and
daughters emigrated numerously to New Eng-
land, and do so still, though Western Canada
contains many of them. In no Canadian city is
there a counterpart of the Intercolonial Club,
of Boston, the capacious social home of the folk
who have left the three provinces.

The exodus from the Maritime Provinces to
the United States has been the barometer of a
declining agriculture, only now being arrested,
of the depletion of many virile elements of the
population, and of the handicap in Canadianism
which is a partial consequence of the opposition
to Confederation. People down by the sea still
talk of going to Canada. The American market
having been opened to Prince Edward Island
and New Brunswick potatoes, the always abun-
dant trade relations between Maritime Canada
and New England will become more abundant
still.

The maritime Canadians are as fine a people
as those of any similar country. They have a
singularly intense devotion to their own com-
munities, and an equally intense faith in the
quality of their public men. A rare old senator
said to me, " There isn't any question but that
the eighteen ablest men in the House of

50 MOST UNANIMOUS BELLECHASSE

Commons are the eighteen from Nova Scotia/'
Another senator offered this admonition : " Til
tell you what's the matter with you. You have
lived so long in Ontario and so far from salt
water that you have become narrow, and pro-
vincial. You ought to come to New Brunswick,
by the sea, and get broadened out." Obviously,
the big province has much to learn before it
agrees with the small province as to which is
producing the typical Canadian.

If the typical Canadian is in Quebec, does he
belong to a county like Bellechasse, or is he like
the member for Dorchester who lives in Quebec?
The most unanimously Canadian county in
Canada is Bellechasse, judged by the birth test.
It contains 21,114 French, four English, four
Scotch and ten Irish.

The French in Quebec always call themselves
Canadians. They were so described by the gov-
erning classes imported from Paris during the
old regime. Nowhere in Canada is there a com-
munity so wholly and so long rooted in the soil
as the people of Bellechasse. But are they the
typical Canadians? Thousands, perhaps mil-
lions of their native-born countrymen gravely
doubt whether they are Canadians at all.
" Why can't the French become good Cana-
dians?" is frequently asked by Ontario and
other people who ardently desire to be patriotic
and who believe they are never more patriotic
than when they ask a question like that.

CANONS OF CANNON 51

Can Dorchester supply the typical Canadian?
In a bye-election in January, 1917, it returned
a member of the War Government. In Decem-
ber, 1917, it elected a candidate who was de-
nounced all over the country as a disloyalist.
Dorchester is as predominantly French as
23,627 is more than 1,470. Of the 1,470
English-speaking people in the county 1,193 are
of Irish origin. In 1911 there was not a Meth-
odist in the county, and but one Presbyterian.
The components of a specimen Canadian are
scarcely varied enough here.

What sort of a Parliamentarian does Dor-
chester send to Ottawa? He says: "I almost
believe I am the only Canadian in the House of
Commons. I have Irish, French, English and
Scotch blood in me. Two of my great-grand-
fathers were in the first Parliament of the
United Provinces nearly eighty years ago — one
on the French and one on the English side. This
country is good enough for me. I want to be a
Canadian, and I don't want to be anything else."

If Mr. Lucien Cannon were of the United
States and gave this description of himself,
using the word " American '' instead of " Can-
adian," he would be noticed as a worthy
Rooseveltian. How does he express his Can-
adianism in political terms?

*' It takes at least a hundred years to make a
Canadian," he says. " The country is full of
people who, though their ancestors have been

52 WATCH ON THE ST. LAWRENCE

here a century, aren't Canadians yet. They call
themselves English, or Irish, or Scotch. Some of
them think more of countries which they never
saw, than they do of that in which they have
spent all their lives. As it is so difficult to de-
velop Canadians I think we should prohibit
immigration for fifty years, to give these people
a chance to become Canadians and to leave no
doubt in the future immigrant's mind as to
what a Canadian is. Meantime, I would give
the vote to women, just as I would admit women
to the bar in Quebec. My resolution on that in
the Legislature would have carried but for cleri-
cal interference. If women want to join the bar
we should welcome them. The law is not sexual ;
it is intellectual. I am for women's suffrage,
though it might at first strengthen clerical
influence in our province. But justice is justice ;
as I want it for myself I want it for others."

Can you make anything typically Canadian
of this assortment of views? Quebec is not
Canada. The French have necessarily, and for
so long, regarded themselves as compelled to
keep ceaseless watch on the St. Lawrence, that,
though they are for Canada first, last, and all
the time, they feel they have not received the
sympathy from their English fellow-country-
men which alone can enable them unreservedly
to show how deep and abiding, and develop-
mental their all-Canadian patriotism is.

Is the specimen Canadian among the English

ONTARIO CRITICISES ONTARIO 53

of Quebec? The only increases in English-
speaking people are in Montreal and certain
manufacturing centres. You must always get
close to the soil if you want to discover the
genius of a pre-eminently agricultural country.
A generation ago the population of the Eastern
townships, where the English yeomanry were
mainly planted as a barrier between the Can-
adian French and the Republican Yankees, was
two-thirds English and one-third French. Now
there are two-thirds French and one-third Eng-
lish, with the English proportion steadily
diminishing. The Quebec English are more
friendly to the French than the English else-
where, who do not know the French. Their con-
tribution to the sum of the representative
Canadian will be weighty; but they are not
numerous enough to be the representative Cana-
dians.

Ontario is the wealthiest and most populous
province. Its citizens have more plentifully
scattered to the West than the citizens of any
other province, and have done more than others
to stamp their character on Western institu-
tions. Ontario has not overflowed eastwards,
though it has received immigration extensively
from Quebec, and lightly from the Maritime
Provinces. Ontario thinks Ontario is more of
Canada than the other provinces will concede.
Ontario is not popular outside her boundaries.
The last man to accept the Ontarion as the

54 FAMILIES GO: QUALITY STAYS

specimen Canadian is the Ontarion who lives in
the West. He knows he has grown since he left
Ontario. He sometimes feels towards those he
has left behind, much as the expanded English
farm labourer does when, after a few years in
Canada, he visits his old home and tells his
ancient comrades that they are dead and don't
know it. This is not pleasant talking in Ontario,
but Ontario is big enough to receive as well as
dispense truth.

The explanation is simple enough. In the
main, the present Ontario generation dwells
where its fathers and grandfathers dwelt. In a
county like Peterborough you hear that all the
farmers have been there so long that their
families are inter-related, and that, until the
war, they had little or no contact with the out-
side world. A letter from the editor of a Buffalo
paper to a colleague in Detroit, in which he dis-
cusses the methods of sustaining the circulation
of their respective journals across the Canadian
border, says: "We have to be very careful
what sort of Canadian news we give them, for
our Ontario constituency is extraordinarily pro-
vincial.'*

Even if that be true, it does not affect the
essential worth of the population. There has
been a disquieting decline in the rural popula-
tion of Ontario, due partly to refusal to stay on
the farm and partly to refusal to breed as large
families as formerly. The quality of the rural

FARMERS' PICNICS INSPIRE 55

population of Ontario, except in a few poverty-
stricken areas which should never have been
deforested, is unexcelled in any country in the
world.

To attend one of the farmers' picnics which
are becoming an inspiring feature of the rural
revolution, is to receive a baptism in goodwill
and a partial disclosure of the illimitable wealth
of body and mind that abounds in the well-
dressed automobilists who encompass the plat-
form. They are Canadians. They own the soil
which their fathers transformed from forest to
farm. All things are possible to them. But they
are short of the indefinable, unmistakable some-
thing which belongs to a fully developed
national consciousness. They feel its strivings
within them, but no one in authority has shewn
them how magnificent it shall be. They are
advancing to light and strength.

The more you delve into the psychology of
Eastern Canada, and particularly of Ontario,
the more you sense the deprivations that belong
to a strange reluctance in public men to face
what the Round Table calls " the iron facts of
national life and death, the ultimate anvil where
alone commonwealths can be wrought to their
true temper and shape.'' The Ontario West-
erner, in contact with people from many coun-
tries, and impelled to look farther into the
future than he used to look in the East, does not
draw from the East the example which he may

56 RECENCY OF THE PLAINSMAN

commend to his neighbour from Europe who
wants to become as truly Canadian as he knows
his Canadian-born children's children will be.
"Why," says the Western ex-Ontarion, "we
had to send somebody down to help the Ontario
farmers to organize, and we had to help finance
the job as well. And their farms were cleared
when our's were buffalo trails.''

Is the indubitable Canadian a plainsman,
then? Is his vision being widened as he sweeps
the endless horizons somewhere between the
Lake of the Woods and the Rocky Mountains?
When I first lived on the watershed of the
Qu'Appelle there were only sixty thousand white
people where almost two millions now draw
their wealth from the responsive soil. Over
seventy per cent, of the population of Canada
remains east of the Great Lakes. The Canada
which was established while Manitoba, Sas-
katchewan and Alberta were the private domain
of the Hudson's Bay Company, must surely be
the chief stamp of their character, and the
parent of their most distinctive Man. But is it?
Could it be, when it was itself so colonially in-
determinate?

In 1911 there were in the three prairie
provinces 282,684 natives of the five eastern
provinces, including those who migrated as
children. From them the earlier Legislatures
were mainly drawn, and political life of the
West took its colour from the East. Southern

FINANCIAL VASSALAGE A BAR 57

Manitoba, particularly, was chiefly settled by
Ontarions.

During this century an immense change has
come over the West. A hundred and twenty
thousand organized farmers have their own big
businesses. They control, broadly, all the pro-
vincial governments. Together, they are the
most remarkable portents that have appeared in
the Canadian national sky. What is the greatest
common measure of their political conscious-
ness? How does it tally with the greatest com-
mon denominator of all the East or of either of
the three sections of the East — Ontario, Quebec,
and the Maritime Provinces? If, as between
East and West, the note is one of difference
more than it is of identity, is it possible to find,
in either half of the country, a man who is the
embodiment of both?

Authorities like Mr. Dafoe, the able editor of
the Manitoba Free Press, have always asserted
that the defeat of reciprocity in 1911 accentu-
ated the cleavage between JEast and West,
which was already developing with disquieting
speed. The feeling in the West that the East
regards it as a financial vassal, paying tribute
through an inequitable tariff, has not been dis-
sipated by the war. Free trade with Britain is
proclaimed as a close-up objective; free trade
with the States a more or less handy goal.

The organized farmers of Ontario, less than
fifteen per cent, of the whole, support the

58 TOO MIXED FOR INSPIRATION

Western demand. But with an enormously en-
larged necessity for Dominion revenue, because
of the war, the tariff is preached by the manu-
facturers as the one bulwark against economic
disaster. There seems little likelihood of agree-
ment, on national fiscal policy, between East
and West.

The racial composition of the West, with its
lively infusion of American republicanism ; the
exclusion of a large section of the naturalized
electorate from the franchise during the war;
the acerbity with which, partly through Eastern
influence, the language question has been
thrown into the political arena, also make it
evident that the talisman of an all-embracing
Canadianism is not yet a Western jewel.

A sea of mountains must be crossed before
you can adjust your vision to the question
whether the Canadian spirit is yet ideally incar-
nate among those to whom the Pacific is merely
the portal to the ominous Orient, and whose
daily reading is coloured by the prism of Seattle
and the Pacific littoral of the United States.
Victoria is the most English city of this West
which faces the East. It was the capital of a
colony which, a century ago, was more English
than eastern Canada because it was more
remote from England. In the Okanagan Valley
and on Vancouter Island there are English
communities where the Canadian idea is as
strange as it used to be in Pall Mall.

POLYGLOT, PARTI-COLOURED 59

In 1911 there were in the province seventy
thousand natives of Eastern Canada, of whom
nine thousand were French. There were only
eighty-four thousand natives of the province, of
whom twenty thousand were Flatheads and
Siwashes. Only one-third of the total popula-
tion was Canadian-born, exclusive of the
Indians. One hundred and seven thousand came
from the British Isles; thirty-seven thousand
derived from the United States ; nineteen thou-
sand from China ; sixteen thousand from Scan-
dinavia; twelve thousand from Germany; ten
thousand from Italy; eight thousand from
Japan; seven thousand each from Austria and
Russia, and twenty-two hundred from India.

What sort of a composite Canadian could a
jury of statesmen and pedagogues resolve from
this polyglot, parti-coloured host? During the
summer preceding the outbreak of war the
people of Vancouver were occupied in keeping a
shipload of British subjects, many of whom had
fought for the Empire, from landing on British
soil. Their member of Parliament was reported
as leading an effort to employ Japanese cruisers
to drive them out of the harbour — ^most singular
of all attempted abdications of both Britannic
and Canadian responsibility. When they left,
their vessel, the luckless Komagata Mam, was
covered by the trained guns of the first ship of
His Majesty's Canadian Navy to be stationed
in Pacific waters.

60 ONE PEOPLE, OR A STRING

British C!olumbia is in Canada. Who can say
how far it is of Canada when, as the Round
Table avers, Canada has never realized self-
government, and has not been brought into
touch with the ultimate facts of political life?
What is the fervid Canadian patriot in British
Columbia to tell the Americans, the Chinese, the
Russians, the Japanese, the Scandinavians, the
Italians, and the Sikhs, when they ask to whom
their first and final allegiance is due? How
shall he direct them to the high altar of Cana-
dian patriotism?

Is there a Canadian people, or only a string of
peoples whose minds are stayed on other coun-
tries? Whence is our pillar of cloud by day, and
our pillar of fire by night? When these, seeking
to journey with us, ask where the heavenly
beacons are, some may say " Here " and some
may announce " There.'' No man can serve two
masters. No citizen can give two allegiances.
When a man marries he vows to forsake all
others, and cleave only unto her. When the
Scandinavian, the Belgian comes to us, willing
to leave his ancestral past because he sees in the
cradle of his Canadian child the symbol and
guarantee of his own future in Canada, what
are we to proffer for his unlimited devotion?
In what manner shall he be endued with the
Canadian spirit? How shall the patriotism he
absorbed in his father's house be born again?

CHAPTER V

THE OWNER AND HIS BOUT WITH NATURE

Explaining why Parliament Buildings differ from other
business headquarters; the private equation in public magnifi-
cence; the defiance of geography, climate and natural econ-
omics, and the political ambition which inspires the attempt
to create a Canadian nation, the success of which is imperilled
by reckless railway building, and by the war which has com-
pelled vast financial changes.

You remember going through the Parliament
Buildings for the first time? Spacious corri-
dors, imposing portraits, frigid statuary, lofty
Chamber, and confident attendants conspired to
bewilder your imagination. You marvelled
that mortal men could be at home in such sur-
roundings. You almost expected to hear a
voice from the vaulted ceiling directing that the
shoes be removed from off your feet. When
you saw men who hitherto had been names,
speeches, pictures in the paper, and discussions
down town, they appeared to you as trees walk-
ing. You were astonished that ordinary beings
should hold familiar converse with them, and
even call them by their given names. The gen-
tleman at the portal of the House was particu-
larly impressive. He seemed to own the place,
and recalled the Scripture which says, " I had

61

6

62 THE SURPRISING MIRROR

rather be a doorkeeper." If you became cour-
ageous enough to ask him a question, you felt
as though he owned you, in spite of his courtesy.

Suppose one of these strange beings had
said : " Come, and I will show you the owner
and the title deeds of all this magnificence, if
you will be respectful to him." Probably you
would have expected to visit the Prime Minister,
and would certainly have buttoned your coat
and felt your hair. Suppose he had led you
down to the basement, into a little room with a
big tapestry on the wall, and had pulled it aside,
and revealed a full-length mirror. What would
you have said, as you gazed at the startled
image in the glass?

Could anybody have been taken to the Owners'
Room who had a clearer right in the title-deeds
than yourself, the youth from Coboconk or
Gaspe?

Thinking on these things, a peculiar question
comes tapping at your mental door. Why are
Parliament Buildings different fi'om all other
buildings? Why are they in a park, and not
on a street? Before you have answered that
question, this comes after it, in almost shock-
ing haste, " Why am I, who live in a poor little
mortgaged house in the country, told that I am
the owner of the finest building in the land?"

Why do magnitude and magnificence distin-
guish the Parliament Buildings? They are
offices for the transaction of business. The

BUSINESS PROPOSITION, PLUS 63

heads of departments write letters about things
that have to do with the every-day life of aver-
age people, exactly as the managers of offices
down town do. It would be more convenient
for those who have business with the Ontario
Government, for instance, if, instead of having
to go to Queen's Park, and walking some dis-
tance from the street-car, they could find every-
body they wanted in a compact, twelve-story
building at the corner of King and Yonge. The
legislative chamber is supposed to require a
spacious setting; but it would serve its purpose
with a little less area and a great deal less dis-
play than now distinguish it. Government is
a business proposition, the critics say, and
should be conducted in a business-like fashion.

But there we make the big blunder. Govern-
ment is not a business proposition, any more
than religion is. The affairs of government
must be handled with business-like honesty,
accuracy and forethought, just as the affairs
of a church must. But government is very
much more than a business proposition, because
all business propositions are affairs of property-
right; and government is pre-eminently an
affair of birthright.

Every child has an equal right with every
other child to the dignities of citizenship, all
the way from the defence of its infancy against
cruelty and disease, to the exercise of its man-
hood in the exalted offices of the State. Parlia-

64 CHAPEL OF TRANSFIGURATION

ment Buildings are more imposing than ordin-
ary business buildings, because millions of men
and women and children have a birthright in
them, in all that they represent of the past, in
all they may do in the present, and in all that
they may provide for the future. They are
built with architectural amplitude because the
humblest citizen, the least endowed with the
properties which perish, may come to them and
see himself, not at his lowest, as a worker among
mean things, but at his highest as a citizen of
a noble state, in which those who bear his name
may come to imperishable honour. He sees the
Temple of his and of his children's citizenship,
not as though he had already attained to the
larger glories of his birthright, and theirs, but
in order that he may press on towards the mark
of his high calling. If, in that spirit, men could
be taken before the Owner's Mirror in the Par-
liament Buildings, the little room would become
a chapel of Transfiguration, and they would
cease to behold their Canadian birthright as
through a glass darkly.

It is most uncomfortably true that where
there is no vision the people perish. They may
be saved if only a few have the vision. But in
a world that has been redeemed for democracy
there cannot be too many seers. Even when a
people have builded better than they knew, they
should learn all that is to be known about the
structure into which their fathers' and mothers'

COMMON MOTIVE AND ACTION 65

toil has gone and upon which their own moral
wealth is being spent.

Canadian nationality has been founded on a
unique challenge to the forces of nature, and a
unique opportunity to achieve a unique place
in the comity of nations which, with infinite
travail, has been written in the mingled sacri-
ficial blood of millions of men of diverse kin-
dreds and tribes and tongues. Neither chal-
lenge nor opportunity has yet been fully imple-
mented, and cannot be until all on whom the
tasks are laid can find the motive of a common
action in a common birthright ; for in no other
way can they conquer the ultimate facts of poli-
tical life, and achieve the self-government
which has been denied them.

What, then, is the perspective through which
the native-born, and the parents of the native-
born, may look at the past of their country, as
a preparation for helping to shape its future?

Through the story of Canada an increasing
purpose runs. Men and women found them-
selves pitted against a hard climate, a forbid-
ding wilderness, and an economic impossibility,
without experience to guide them or certainty of
success to sustain them. Often they did things
not knowing why they did them, or what the con-
sequences would be. Themselves greater than
they knew, they therefore accomplished greater
deeds than they supposed. They rest from their
labours, and their works do follow them.

66 BEGAN AS GALLIC COUNTRY

This element in Canadian history gives it the
sublime quality which is in all histories of noble
peoples, and which inspires those who inherit
the works of their predecessors with the pas-
sionate patriotism which first creates nations
out of diverse and sometimes mutually hostile
elements, and then insures their endurance
through perilous centuries. Only as nations
that are so brought into being remain faithful
to the genius that is embedded in their evolution
do they deserve to attain lasting honour in the
international roll.

Modern Canada began as a Gallic country.
From the Straits of Belle Isle to the Rocky
Mountains the first explorers were all French.
The French settled in what are now the
Maritime Provinces, and the basin of the St.
Lawrence, as subjects of the king of France.
They were ruled from Paris, by officials who
regarded the colony as primarily a source of
tribute for the monarchy, and the people as its
vassals. When generations of French-speak-
ing people had been born in Canada they were
contemptuously spoken of by their rulers as the
Canadiens, the inhabitants of a country the gov-
ernors of which regarded themselves as suffer-
ing exiles.

There was a long contest between the French
and the English for the control of North Amer-
ica. The French, in possession of all the north-
ern waterways, and of the lower Mississippi,

CHOICE OF THE HABITANTS 67

tried to head the English off from expanding
in what are now western New York, Ohio, and
the territory west and south. They built a
great fort where now Pittsburg stands, and
others at Niagara (on what is now the New
York extremity of Lake Ontario), at Detroit,
and at the junction of Lakes Huron and
Michigan.

While the French regarded Canada as an
appendage of the Crown of France, a similar
attitude towards the English colonies was main-
tained by the King and Government in England.
The two European nations were traditional
enemies. Their offshoots in America kept up
the rivalry. There was fighting between them
for many years, with London and Paris finally
directing the campaigns, as being chiefly Euro-
pean and not North American affairs.

The French hold declined, and was finally
broken in 1759 by the capture of Quebec, which
led to the disappearance of French dominion
from this part of the world. Sixty thousand
French-speaking natives of Canada chose to
remain in their native country, as British sub-
jects, rather than to go to a European country
which they had never seen, and with which they
had no personal contact, except through a gov-
erning class they had every reason to dislike.

A few years after the fear of European dom-
ination was removed from the thirteen English
colonies, all of which abutted on the Atlantic

68 DEBT TO THE FRENCH

ocean, they fulfilled the prediction that had been
often made, and became independent of the
British Empire. Thirteen years later than the
first Declaration of Independence, and seven
years after the war which ended in the British
acknowledgment of defeat, they formed the
Republic of the United States of America, which
has become the most populous democratic nation
in the world.

During the fight for independence the Eng-
lish-speaking colonies endeavoured, first by
blandishments and then by bayonets, to sep-
arate the Canadians from the Crown. But the
British-French refused to break their allegi-
ance, and because they refused, Canada is Brit-
ish and not republican to-day. That truth
should be graven on every British heart, and
commended to every believer that the Canadian
Constitution's guarantee of a duality in official
language should go the way of a German guar-
antee to Belgium.

In those days there was practically no Eng-
lish-speaking settlement in what is now
Ontario. The West was unknown. British
authority remained only in the inhospitable
north. For a long time it was exercised from
London as an overlordship of the Canadian
people. Even when Parliaments were set up
it was decreed that they should be subservient
to the representatives of the monarch, sent from
England. It was an established, inviolate prin-

RIGHT TO GOVERN GOVERNORS 69

ciple of English government that the King
should in all matters be subservient to the Par-
liament. In Canada the servant of the Crown
was given power which the King himself did not
wield in the British Isles. Downing Street set
the servant above his lord.

But the right to govern their governors was
gradually won by the people in Canada, though
not until rebellions occurred in Ontario and
Quebec. In good time the territory in the West
which had been owned by the Hudson's Bay
Company, because Charles II " gave '' it to
them, was handed over to the Canadian people,
and the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific hin-
terland also came into their confederation of
provinces. There was then a Canadian coun-
try from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean.

Mere sections of this territory were occupied
by toiling people, who were separated by vast,
barren, or mountainous areas. The unchange-
able truths of geography and weather, and the
swifter growth of population in the republic,
where the climate was more genial, conspired to
establish north-and-south trade — the Maritime
Provinces with New England, Quebec and
Ontario with their neighbours on the other side
of the St. Lawrence valley ; the prairie country
with the fast-filling prairies below parallel
forty-nine, and the Canadian Pacific slope with
the American Pacific littoral. But, as the
French had saved Canada for the British Crown,

70 NEVER CHALLENGE SO BOLD

so the French and the British in 1867 confeder-
ated to maintain the connection, now that the
Canada of Wolfe and Montcalm's time had
spread from ocean to ocean, and to construct a
nation united with the British Empire, but in
its fiscal policy independent alike of the Empire
and the Republic. This involved the discour-
agement of trade from its natural channels,
and the building of railways to carry traffic
east and west, across unprofitable stretches of
country, and to maintain an interprovincial
commerce in preference to an international
freedom of exchange.

So bold a challenge was never made to the
forces of nature by a few people occupying half
a continent, as this challenge of the Canadians.
It was not sustained by the unanimous confi-
dence of all the people. There were giants in
those days, but all public men are not gigantic
in grasp, courage or resource. Canada had
more than her share of fearful saints. The
East for many years lost a goodly proportion
of its bolder children to the more flourishing
republic. After the prairies began to be settled
there was a long period of doubt as to whether
the plainsman could prosper against frost, and
drought, and distance. Private poverty was
reflected in a chronically straitened public trea-
sury. Investors looked askance at enterprise in
a climate so cool and among a people so sparse.

Occasional outbursts of expansion on inflated

IF C.N.R. WERE IN EUROPE 71

prices were followed by depressions which
frightened those who had lost their money, and,
at times, even the optimists doubted whether
Canada could ever prosper.

Still, the challenge remained; and population
increased, against every handicap. The Cana-
dian Pacific Railway was built, and though for
years it was a languishing adventure, it has
become the premier transportation system of
the world. Its example produced a character-
istically wise-and-reckless cycle of railway
building, of which the discriminating historian
will say that the financiers were daring, the
politicians were prodigal, and the people were
confiding.

In spite of themselves the Canadian people
now own and operate their own railway from
the Atlantic to the Pacific iide. If only one-
fourth of that railway were laid in Europe,
it could start in Spain, invade France, Italy,
Austria, Servia, Bulgaria, Roumania, South
Russia, Hungary, Poland, Germany, Sweden,
Norway, Denmark, Holland, and Belgium, have
its own car ferry across the Channel from
Calais to Dover, and make its terminus in
Scotland.

But what looks like a stupendous implement-
ing of the challenge is not yet a final insurance
of perpetual glory. So much enterprise has
made Canada a debtor country. There are
subtle senses in which the borrower becomes the

72 HOW ENGINE BEATS PLOUGH

servant of the lender. No country has so few
people to support so many railways. Thirty
years ago, when she was poor and her revenue
with difficulty balanced her expenditure, there
were three hundred and forty people to create
the traffic and revenue for each mile of railway.
There are now scarcely more than two hundred
to perform that service — about half as many as
in the United States.

The people carry the railways more than the
railways carry the people. The challenge to
geography and climate demanded that the fun-
damental industries of the country be main-
tained at the highest possible prosperity. But
Canadians developed manufacturing at the ex-
pense of agriculture. Though they built many
thousands of miles of road in the first ten years
of the century, with the avowed object of extend-
ing agriculture, the city population grew nearly
four times as fast as the rural population, until
the Great War came. The country was stag-
gering under a burden of interest for money
borrowed abroad which, in connection with
much railway financing, it could not meet, and
was faced with the terrors which follow the loss
of employment by thousands of men in the
industrial centres.

The Great War threw into lurid relief the
dependence of Canada upon the United States,
not only for essential raw materials for its
manufactures, but also for the finances with

WAR ACCENTUATES DEPENDENCE 73

which to prosecute private and public enter-
prises, the London market having been tempor-
arily destroyed through British obligations as
a borrower herself from the United States. It
cannot be denied that leading men have pri-
vately expressed much fear that the whole basis
on which the structure of Canadian economic
and fiscal independence has been reared may
prove to be unstable, and that a political fusion
with the United States may be involved in the
adjustments which may be postponed, but can-
not be prevented.

But the challenge to the forces of nature
remains, as a part of the aspiration to make,
in this northern half of North America, a nation
which shall have a character of its own, while
it remains within the British Empire and pre-
serves its absolute independence of the United
States. To make it good demands the unity of
all the people who are within Canada, and
particularly of the English and French who
established the Confederation on which the
hopes of nationality are stayed.

CHAPTER VI

GREAT " CANDLE " ON THE SEE-SAW

Asserting that Destiny offered Canadian Nationality a
unique splendour as the decisive factor in the Imperial-
Republican alliance. Having ceased to be regarded as a colony
of England, and as a poor relation of the United States, Canada
led this hemisphere into the fight which called upon the New
World to redress the balance of the Old ; but the Adventure has
rendered her future uncertain.

The unpleasant truths which Canadians have
received from the Round Table were formulated
with so much skill, and communicated in so
soothing a bedside manner, that their value has
been almost entirely missed — as the worth of
taunts often is.

Canadians have not realized self-government.
The powers of a state have been denied them.
They have not touched the ultimate facts of
political life. Their half-developed capacity for
government has tended to disappear. Their
knowledge and sense of responsibility have not
only wasted, but have languished for want of
exercise. They have not been made to feel that
they suffer for their own political decisions.

Canada is simply a dependency. Her equip-
ment is minus the anvil whereon alone common-
wealths are wrought to their true temper and
shape. It would not have been surprising if so
unfortunate a people had been recommended to

74

NATIONALITIES MUST DIFFER 75

secure a duly certified political guardian, and to
bother no more about the larger realities to
which they have hitherto been strangers.

There is a certain compensation for the
melancholy deliverances of the Round Table on
the deadly irresponsibility, the withered imma-
turity of Canadian national life. The Round
Table prophet has said:

Canadians, Australians and South Africans will,
whatever happens, develop distinctive character-
istics in their peoples. Their several individualities
will conform increasingly to their several environ-
ments. Different, and clearly marked nationalities
will develop, and, happily, no power on earth can
now stop the process. . . . The spread of the
British Commonwealth over so large a share of the
vacant territories of the world has not meant, and
cannot mean, the spread of the British nation.

Every sharer in the Canadian birthright may
answer " Amen and Amen ;" and may venture
momentarily to forget the Littlefaiths among
his neighbours who think they are greatly
upholding the British idea when they shiver at
the prospect of a Canadian talking about the
destiny of his own country with the candour
and confidence which citizens of other countries
display when they discuss their station in the
world.

It will not always be counted as a proof of
disloyal tendencies when a Canadian boldly
faces the ultimate facts of his political life;
announces that he will not allow his knowledge
and sense of responsibility to run to waste, or

76 PREPARED UNIQUE PLACE

languish for want of exercise ; and resolves that
his fellow-Britisher shall no longer truthfully
tell him that, in elemental political experience
he is inferior to the immigrated Devonian who
drives his team, and that, though there may be
a Canadian nation, there is no Canadian state,
in the sense that there is a Haytian and a
Montenegrin state.

The Canadian, instead of walking the inter-
national cloisters as timorously as he once trod
his own Parliamentary corridors, will take his
place on the dais of the International Court. He
will at last appropriate the glory that belongs
to the transformation of half a continent from
vacancy into a nation from which the darker
woes of an Old World are excluded, and in
which the citizens reign over themselves in the
knowledge and liberty of unquestionable democ-
racy.

What would he have seen if, from the Owner's
Mirror, he had been led into a high mountain,
and shewn his country as it is; and had then
been given a vision of the Canada That Might
Have Been, and the Canada That Still May Be?

There was prepared for Canada a place
among the nations which the people of any
other land might envy; a place unique among
those for whom the tongue of Shakespeare is
the most capacious vehicle of their thought, and
among whom freedom is embattled behind the
ramparts of Magna Charta, the Petition of

VAST LAND: FINE PEOPLE 77

Right, the Declaration of Right and the Declar-
ation of Independence; a place unique, also, in
the reconstruction of the fellowship between
Occident and Orient, which is the supreme com-
plexity of the Twentieth Century, pre-empted
by her most distinguished son as Canada's own.

Canada for several thousand miles borders
the United States, which were taken from
the side of the Mother of Nations. Her eastern
shores front the islands of the Northern Sea,
whence have gone into the uttermost parts of
the earth, the bagmen of unfettered commerce
and the artificers of the liberty that breathes in
the accountability of the ruler to the ruled.
From her western ports her ships sail straight
to that East in which the British power, more
potent and extensive than the ancient con-
querors knew, has been cast by the Great War
into a fateful and increasing jeopardy.

Into Canada have come, since this century be-
gan, greater multitudes of more various origins
and tongues than have ever sought to share the
heritage of an equal number of Britannic citi-
zens. It was for her to shew that a democracy,
which survived the tempest of the Great Schism
of the eighteenth century could combine, in the
twentieth, the loveliest features of the Old
World with the masculine freshness of the New,
and could be more democratic than a republic
which vaunted itself in an unceasing repudia-
tion of the Old.

7 i

78 BEWILDERED AT FATE'S DOOR

She could have proved that the people who
fronted the Eastern Pacific might serve and be
served by those who for untold centuries had
looked upon the Western Pacific. She was
commissioned to demonstrate to the European
victims of autocratic militarism who sought her
welcome that the more excellent way is in the
goodwill and understanding and civic equality
which belong to the brotherhood of man. She
might, by now, have been crowned with many
crowns ; but, because her outlook only embraced
the foothills, she did not climb the Delectable
Mountains, and she still lingers, bewildered, at
the door of fate, and fears to knock, lest many
should hearken to her self-assertion.

The whole is greater than its part. What,
for lack of a more cosmopolitan word, we must
call the English-minded world, is infinitely
more valuable to civilization than any segment
of it. Long ago two potentialities were vouch-
safed to all whose imaginations could respond to
the vibrations of impending events. A re-
adjustment in the larger governances of the
British Empire was proceeding which would
soon confide the decisive word to the nations
which but yesterday were colonies, only half
aware of their approaching maturity. That
change would be the precursor of a proclaimed
entente of all the Anglo-Celtic commonwealths,
of which the United States was the most popu-
lous and flourishing.

ONE IS MORE THAN THREE 79

It could not be foreseen that Armageddon
itself would engulf mankind, and bring
these things to pass. But it was indubitable
that something mighty was quickening in the
womb of our time. None could predict whether
the inevitable travail, without which there can
be no precious birth, would come soon or late,
would be easy or severe. But in the bones of
Canadians who regarded their destiny with
fearless solicitude this was persistently asser-
tive— that theirs would be a splendid and
imperishable part in this blessed re-fashioning,
if only they would play it like men in whom
courage and vision and progress were enduring
attributes.

If Canada were an Atlantic island her influ-
ence within the British Empire would have
increased more rapidly than her population
could have enlarged. The addition of one to her
citizenry would have counted more than the
addition of three to the British Islanders. The
Old Land was burdened by an excess of popula-
tion. Before the war, John Burns, who as
President of the Local Government Board, was
more intimate with the social condition of
Britain than any other expert, wrote that four
hundred thousand was the fitting quantity of
those who should annually leave the United
Kingdom. A survey of Norwich, the capital of
East Anglia, where the problem of the unem-
ployed each winter compelled a special provision

80 PHYSIQUE FALLS : WANT GROWS

of public works, produced a report that a hun-
dred and twenty thousand people were trying to
exist on an economic base that should carry only
a hundred thousand.

The poverty of millions of the inhabitants of
the Imperial City was a by-word and an endless
tragedy. The average physique of the English
people was so poor, through the massing of
industrialists in overcrowded towns and cities,
that the heavy proportion of rejections of can-
didates for military service gravely distressed
every student of the Imperial fabric. Sir Henry
Campbell-Bannerman became Prime Minister
as the result of a campaign in which his antag-
onists declared that Britain's commercial salva-
tion could not be wrought unless food were
taxed, and in which he asserted, without being
seriously contradicted, that one-third of the
forty-five British millions lived on the verge of
want, while an increasing proportion of the
people joined the deceptive tiers of those who
spent their days in luxury.

In contrast with this awful pressure of
population Canada was scouring Europe for
workers to occupy her vacant lands, and to
justify her commitments in railway and indus-
trial expansion. While England spent public
money to emigrate her sons and daughters,
Canada, like Rachel, cried, " Give me children
or I die." Her own offspring were more vigor-
ous, and the children of her immigrants became

PROBLEM OF BINDING TIES 81

more self-reliant, than those from whom they
sprang. When her Ministers attended the
Imperial Conference there was more anxiety in
Britain lest they should exhibit a tendency to
independence than there was in Canada lest the
statesmen of the Old Land should bewray any
remnants of the ancient superiority to " the
colonies."

Parliamentarians, at Westminster, speaking
freely among themselves, asked what could be
done to "hold Canada." They knew that
Canada could flourish more easily without
Britain than Britain could carry on without
Canada and her sister Dominions. They were
therefore anxious to make the political ties more
binding. They desired naval and military con-
tributions; and acquiesced in defensive auton-
omy because nothing else was possible.

Two illuminating sentences with regard to
this situation are embedded in " The Problem of
the Commonwealth." The first refers to the
assertion of independence in the control of
immigration ; the second to one aspect of " the
first, greatest and most comprehensive of all
public interests " — defence :

The line which divided Imperial from Dominion
functions has now been clearly and firmly drawn
by virtue of the principle which Durham inaugur-
ated, of leaving self-governing colonies to assume
whatever powers they might finally insist on taking.

The demand of Australia and Canada to create
and control navies of their own was expressly
granted.

82 AUSTRALIA ASSERTS HERSELF

So, then, the re-distribution of power within
the Empire was on the side of " the colonies."
The balance was just as heavy on Canada's side
as she chose to make it. That would have been
of prime significance if Canada were a de-
tached island, like Australia. Canada is less
autonomous than Australia, which is much
more English than Canada can ever be. Aus-'
tralia's assertion of her legislative autonomy
was exceedingly unpleasant to Mr. Chamberlain
when the Commonwealth was inaugurated
nearly twenty years ago. But her representa-
tives in London finally insisted on cancelling the
right of the Judicial Committee of the Privy
Council to hear appeals from Australian courts,
except on constitutional questions, and the
Colonial Secretary, recognizing the virtue of
necessity, made the best face he could.

The naval self-government of Canada and
Australia had to be finally insisted on, as exam-
ination of the proceedings of the Imperial Con-
ference shows. For years Australia was induced
to make a monetary contribution to the Admir-
alty, when Canada declined so to do. At last
Australia played the part of national manhood.
She fought Germany with her own ships. The
Round Table says these two nations, includ-
ing nearly twelve millions of free citizens, were
" expressly granted " the right to build ships of
their own. A right " expressly granted '' means
that the grantor had the right to refuse. Up to

NORTH AMERICAN INTEREST 83

ten years ago, then, Canada had no " right " to
have a navy of her own. The spirit of vassalage
could not be more ingenuously expressed. A
self-governing nation does not wait for another
to say what its " rights '' are within the realm
of its own defence.

The essential puissance of Canada is magni-
fied because Canada is not an island, but fron-
tiers the United States from the Bay of Fundy
to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and because
Canadians and their interests are more inti-
mately mingled with Americans and their
interests than is the case with any two
Britannic countries. Canadian relations with
the United States are conducted with expanding
freedom from Foreign Office direction. The
change in disposition as between the United
States and Canada before the war was as
remarkable as the transition from the status of
a shepherded colony to a nation which takes
whatever it insists on taking.

The American notion that Canada was a
frigid wilderness, lighted by the aurora borealis,
had been dissipated by the migration of scores
of thousands of American farmers to the bene-
ficent West, and by the setting up qf American
branch factories in Quebec and Ontario, which
employ hundreds of millions of capital and tens
of thousands of operatives. It became known
that railways were being built at a rate which
outstripped anything that had been attempted

84 DELUSIONS IN THE REPUBLIC

in any similarly distributed population south of
the line. These phenomena were becoming some-
what familiar to a section of the United States
public; but it was to the interest of Canadians
to make them known to all America as evidence
that a nation was at hand; for the tradition of
Canadian inconsequence was as natural to the
American mentality as the popular supposition
that no British statesmen opposed George the
Third.

Ottawa used to go to Washington, supplicat-
ing for commercial blessings, and every time
received a cup of cold water and a few kind
words. The Dominion was regarded as the very
poor relation of the Republic. The Reciprocity
Treaty of 1854 was abrogated in 1866 in the
belief that closing the door of a market would
open the gate of annexation. Americans gener-
ally have assumed that Canada was bound to
fall to them as the unpicked apple drops to the
ground.

The other day an American paper counselled
its readers not to worry about the necessity for
an American naval superiority to Britain,
because, if trouble arose, Canada could easily
be appropriated by the United States.

Ten years ago a Kansas editor asked his hosts
in surprise if we really had elections in Canada.
He thought all Canadian officials were appointed
in London. Myriads of people in the United
States believed that Canada went to war

LED IN MAKING AMERICA SAFE 85

because she was compelled to do so by her Eng-
lish owners.

Washington has long known better. Presi-
dent Taft coveted Canada for an adjunct, and
told his people that a treaty with her was the
most desirable boon they could secure. J. J. Hill
was never tired of pointing out that Canada
was the third biggest customer of the United
States. The war shewed that there was a
virility in the Dominion which might be copied
but could not be excelled by republicans who
assumed that they were the chiefest democratic
example for mankind.

The truthful historian will remark that
Canada led the New World in the fight to make
America safe for its republics; and that the
Canadian lives offered upon that altar exceeded
by thousands those which the United States
spent, though their population was fourteen
times as big, and their outpouring of treasure
scarcely exceeded what they had received from
a Europe which was bleeding to death so that
the light of their democracy might not be
extinguished.

But the balances of war are determined more
by the positions of the belligerents at the finish
than by the heroisms of the beginning. Four
years of European slaughter have made the
American republic, which entered the bloody
theatre forty-three months behind the original
champions of American freedom, almost the

86 TWIXT EMPIRE AND REPUBLIC

arbiter of the world's future. Its President,
who, while the conflict was raging, said he was
too proud to fight, was the chief figure in the
making of peace. He suddenly acquired more
influence in England than the King. His posi-
tion was likened by candid friends to that of a
virtual protector of the British Commonwealth.
Whatever happens, the United States, having
become an overshadowing creditor nation, and
the most evil vestiges of the Schism of 1776 hav-
ing vanished; is the heavy end of the English-
speakers' Alliance. Canada is midway between
the United Kingdom and the United States.
She is not precisely like either country. In
celerity she outdoes the kingdom. In ordered
freedom she excels the republic. Her station is
that of " candle " on the see-saw — the operator
who determines the equilibrium of the entente
on the happy plank.

. That situation is not as comfortable as it was
when last our commercial relations were under
national advisement. Though Canada led the
democracies of the Western Hemisphere in the
stupendous fight, she was driven to Washington
for credits and accommodations, which de-
pressed her exchange to such a degree that it is
no secret that some of the American financiers
expect that what the cancelling of reciprocity
failed to do in 1866, and the offer of reciprocity
in 1911 could not assure, will be attained
through the commercial exigencies of a com-

ECONOMIC CLOUD REMAINS 87

radeship in arms. The newspapers report a
speech in the Saskatchewan Legislature by the
Minister of Municipalities, in which he declared
that only one-tenth of the 1918 wheat crop had
been moved out of the country because, when the
Dominion Government obtained financial help
through Washington in order to redress tem-
porarily a heavy balance of trade against
Canada, it was obliged to pledge the use of
Canadian transportation channels to move
American wheat to the seaboard — a species of
commercial annexation not easily explained
away, and objected to by wakeful Mr. Langley.
The economic war-cloud upon the relations of
Canada with the United States overcasts the
prospect of a more highly exalted dignity in the
relationship of Canada to the United States of
which President Taft's offer in 1911 was the
promise, and the rejection of the offer the ap-
parent seal. Whatever the event, it is clear
that the character of Canada, as a fiscally inde-
pendent nation — as independent of the United
States as, in the making of tariffs, the most
vehement Imperialist confesses she must
always be of Great Britain — must be upheld by
the exercise of the most sturdy Canadian spirit,
rooted and grounded and sustained in a birth-
right that will let nothing slip that has so far
been attained, and will fight against any and
all to whom pottage is the principal thing.

CHAPTER VII

WHAT GALLANT GENTLEMEN HEARD

Recording a conversation in which a colonel, who fell at St.
Julien, was told how his fellow-Englishman grows when he
finds his place in Canada; how England set the example of
political corruption; how Canada has improved on English
conditions: and repeating another conversation in which a
certain aspect of sovereignty was commended to a United
Empire Loyalist by a Canadian who stepped from sovereignty
to subordination.

A gallant gentleman died as he was leading
the Fourth Battalion in a counter-attack at St.
Julien, where his men and their fellow-Cana-
dians saved Calais and the Allies. Colonel
Birchall was an Englishman, and he fell on St.
George's Day.

Two years before, at a St. George's Day ban-
quet in Prince Albert, Colonel Birchall had
advised Englishmen to cling to their traditional
standards. He was followed by another
Englishman who said that, Canada having be-
come their country, the way of life was to
magnify what they had learned in Canada ; and
to think more of the future of their children
than of the past of their grandparents. The
Englishman who knew Canada and England,
he said, was a bigger man than when he knew
only a corner of his native county. Indeed, he

88

ENGLISH VIEW OP GRAFT 89

must go back to England to get his first real
view of England, and to learn how much the
new country had done for him in self-reliance,
in financial well-doing, and in Imperial outlook.

This was something new to Colonel Birchall,
who was on a tour of inspection, as one of the
six officers sent to Canada by the British War
Office, to aid in the military evolution of
Canada, and to balance the sending of half a
dozen Canadian officers to Britain on similar
duty. Next day he sought an exchange of views
with his Canadianized compatriot who had
learned to place Canada first in his mind, and
heart, and political thinking. With excellent
spirit — for he was a sincere, unassuming and
generous man — Colonel Birchall deplored the
prevalence of graft and littleness in Canadian
public life, as he had come to know of it, at
Ottawa and elsewhere. He mourned over the
prospective continuance of that degradation,
and enquired if there was hope that the level of
national service would be raised.

Again the Canadianized Englishman saw
things differently from the Englishman who
looked forward to returning home. He admitted
that Canadian public life was marred by deplor-
able features, against which it was the impera-
tive duty of all patriotic men to protest by word
and act. But there was an explanation which
might mitigate the good colonel's suffering.

Canadian politics largely concerned the de-

i

90 CAMPAIGN FUNDS AND THE KING

velopment of the public domain, the resources
of which were ceded to private individuals or
incorporated companies, on principles which
were imported from England. There was no
wealthy class in Canada corresponding to that
which represented the accumulation of riches
and social privilege in the Old Land. Political
power depended on elections. Political parties
spent money on elections. The exploitation of
natural resources afforded tempting opportuni-
ties for replenishing campaign funds, and
public contracts became a second source of this
kind of levying the sinews of war.

This was very shocking to Colonel Birchall,
who contrasted it with what he regarded as the
higher tone of English public life. Again his
fellow-countryman drew on a somewhat exten-
sive experience of both countries. The king, he
said, was the fountain of honour, from which
nothing turbid could flow. Knighthood was a
royal recognition of chivalry. Baronetcy was
perpetual knighthood, and should therefore
assure a perpetuation of chivalry. The peerage
was a hereditary birthright only less dignified
than the monarchy itself, and was supposed to
be founded upon the inviolable patriotism of
noblesse oblige.

But did not the Colonel know that many
knighthoods, baronetcies and peerages issued
from the Fountain of Honour because the re-
cipients made heavy contributions to campaign

PARTIES NEED THE MONEY 91

funds? Was he not aware that confession of
the origin and destiny of some of the funds
would leave an exceedingly bad taste in the
public mouth?

" Yes/' answered the honest soldier, " what
you say is undoubtedly true ; but there is some
excuse for it."

"Quite so," was the reply; "the parties in
England need the money, just as they do in
Canada, and they take the easiest way of get-
ting it, even if their honour is rooted in dis-
honour. I am willing to make a compact with
you, to go on doing everything one man can do
in Canada to assail corruption in high places
and bribery in low, if, when you go back to
England, you will attack the kindred evils there.

" When you tell your friends of the blots on
public life in Canada will you describe some
other things that are not evil. Will you tell
them that we know nothing of barmaids here ;
that in a province like Ontario, where whiskey
was only fifty cents a gallon within living mem-
ory, more than half the municipalities are clear
of the liquor traffic; that Toronto, which had
four hundred licenses when its population was
fifty thousand, now has only a hundred and ten
with a population of four hundred thousand?

" Will you tell them we have had no social
or religious disabilities in our public seats
of learning, and that it is as natural for the
farmer's son to attend a university in Canada as

92 THE ENGLISH LIKE CANADA

it is for a duke's son to enter Balliol? Will you
tell them that more than half of our Cabinet
Ministers began life as manual workers, and
that their conquest of circumstances, so far
from being held as a reproach against them, is
regarded as proof that they have passed through
an undefiled fountain of honour?

"Will you tell them that Englishmen have
found in Canada a liberty of initiative, and a
readiness to employ their capacities to w^hich
they were strangers in the land of their birth?
And will you say that, though many of them
have returned to what they used to speak of as
'home,' they could not endure the conditions
they forsook, and have found that they must
forever dwell in the New Country, and give to
it their most willing devotion?

" The truth is. Colonel, that, from some points
of view, the Englishman travelling in a Britan-
nic country is less able to judge the country than
he is to judge a foreign country. In Italy we
don't expect the Italians to be like ourselves.
They are different because they are Italians,
and we don't wish them to become English. In
Canada, when the Englishman finds something
new, he instinctively feels that, somehow, it isn't
right, and he straightway wants an English
improvement. Canada should set her mental,
social and political clock by Greenwich time.
That is strictly according to the " colonial "
Cocker. But it is not according to Canadian

NOT ENGLAND LESS, BUT— 93

experience. It is a larger thing to become a
Canadian in Canada than to remain an English-
man. That is the larger loyalty, which enables
you to get inside the surface defects to the core
of a developing nationality, and to know that,
for you, Canada Future is more glorious than
England Past."

Colonel Birchall did not return to England.
He commanded a Canadian regiment in an
immortal battle in Flanders. His blood was
shed on an altar that was no less Canadian than
it was British, within two years and a day of
this conversation in Saskatchewan. The other
participant in the St. George's banquet, and in
its immediate sequel, remains to do what he can
to translate into action the spirit which says:
" Not that we love England less, but that we
love Canada more."

The evils that afflict government and elec-
tions in Canada are the attenuated heirs of sins
that were gross and unashamed in the govern-
ment and elections to which the wealthier and
more cultured settlers in Canada had been accus-
tomed in Britain, and which were presumed to
be as natural to the functioning of the body
politic as a sewer is to the economy of a city.
The political literature of the eighteenth and
early nineteenth centuries portrays a corrup-
tion such as the worst raiders of the Canadian
public treasury and resources might have wished
to emulate, but could never have approached.

94 EVER-RECURRING MENACE

Certain undesirabilities remained in Cana-
dian polities after they were extirpated from
their original habitat. Others have developed
because the soil and temperature of public life
v^ere congenial to them, and because leaders did
not recognize, or were indifferent to, processes
which derived from the system through which
our social and political progress has painfully
been achieved.

The Round Table indictment of the colonial
system, which disrupted the Empire, is that it
did not create an American spirit, and that it
poisoned the public life which developed within
it, and kept the colonists from the final respon-
sibilities of political existence. Probe Cana-
dian conditions in any sector you choose, and
you will meet this ever-recurring menace to the
national health — that a virile people, splendidly
endowed, have been fenced off from the ultimate
facts of political life. The wonder is, not that
public affairs have gone so ill, but that they have
run so well.

A colonial system is imposed from without.
It is bound to develop a temperamental incom-
patibility between those to whom it is an instru-
ment of superiority, and those who accept its
yoke. The difference between the West Indian
Crown colony which submits a municipal ordin-
ance to London for sanction, and the Dominion
which submits to London the judgments of its
courts, is a difference only of degree. It is

WHY UNPOPULAR ENGLISH 95

essentially the difference between the Canadian
Canadian and the English Canadian.

The Englishman in Canada has been unpop-
ular because he was for ever talking about the
Old Country, and the way they do things " at
home." The workman who is said to have
remarked during the unemployment of the
winter of 1907-8 that it was quite right that
the Canadians should give the out-of-works sub-
stantial succour because " We owns 'em," was
only reflecting a sentiment which has been occa-
sionally emitted from better educated, more
reserved, immigrated Britishers. " As owners
of the country," was the phrase with which a
reverend Welshman expressed the right of his
countrymen to attention on a Canadian politi-
cal question in 1911. He was sharply admon-
ished then ; he has since observed the growth of
his Canadian-born children, and has himself
been born again.

But there is something beneath this thought-
less and pitiable arrogance which, if it be pon-
dered in frank goodwill, opens the dopr to better
understanding and whole-hearted co-operation
in promoting a magnificent union in Canadian
citizenship. It is the difference between the
Old Countryman's accustomed exercise of direct
responsibility towards the ultimate facts of
political life, and his fellow-citizen's unfamil-
iarity with that decisive function.

Two friends, between whom there is cordial

96 OF THE THIRD GENERATION

agreement about Canadian nationality, were dis-
cussing the basis and future of their citizenship,
from the point of view of the question, " Who is
the typical Canadian?" Said the First, as gal-
lant a gentleman as the colonel who has paid:

" I think I am the typical Canadian, because
I am of the third generation born here. My
great-grandfather was a United Empire Loyal-
ist, who was a civil engineer on the Rideau
Canal. Our family came to this continent in
1659. But I think this country has lost a great
deal through the United Empire Loyalist idea,
all the same. If it hadn't been for the senti-
ments they brought with them from the United
States — I mean the spirit of submission to
everything that came from across the sea — this
country would have joined the United States,
and would have been much more prosperous
than it is now."

" Do you want to go into the United States?"
asked the Second.

" Not by a jugful," was the quick reply,
" though I suppose I should have become just
like the people over the border, if things had
gone that way. But when Fve seen the con-
glomeration of nationalities that swarm in
cities like New York, Cleveland, Chicago, Min-
neapolis and Seattle, IVe always been mighty
glad I was a Canadian."

" The U. E. Loyalists did something for you,
after all, then?"

TABBING BY GENERATIONS 97

"I suppose they did. But I can't make
out why so many of them even now knuckle
down to the idea that there's bound to be
something second-rate and subordinate about
Canada. Aren't we good enough in this
country to stand on our own feet and do
things in our own way, without saying *By
your leave ' to anybody, never mind how
good they are?"

" Aren't we standing on our own feet now,
then?" queried the Second.

" Well, we are and we aren't. The truth is,
we really don't know where we are, or what we
are doing."

" And you are the typical Canadian because
you have been here for three generations?"

'' Yes."

^' And don't know where you are?"

" Yes."

" Is the man who has been here four genera-
tions so much more of a Canadian than you
are?"

" I should say so — ^yes."

"And the longer people are in Canada the
more Canadian they become?"

" Certainly."

" Maybe you're right. Down in Quebec, in
North Ontario, in Nova Scotia, in New Bruns-
wick, in Prince Edward Island, and in the West
there are over two millions of Canadians who
have been here six, and seven, and some of them

98 WHO ARE TYPICAL?

ten generations. They must be the truly typi-
cal Canadians?"

" The French, you mean?"

" Exactly."

" Oh, no; they aren't the typical Canadians."

"Who are, then? You, who want Canada
to stand on her own feet more than she does
now? your fellow U. E. Loyalists who want to
stand on England's feet? the French, who
want you to get off their feet? the people who,
like me, were brought up in England, where we
knew we stood on our own feet? or the fellows
who come from the less free countries of
Europe, and don't care about any other country
than this?"

" ril be hanged if I know. Have you found
a typical Canadian?"

"Not yet. He is a very dark, and very
elusive horse. Will you be offended if I say
why you aren't the sort of Canadian I should
like my boy to be?"

" Let's have it."

" Because, so far, you are content to be some-
thing less than my boy's father was in England ;
and something less than the Norwegian was in
Norway. If I accept the standard you have
always lived under, I must ask my children to
be something less than their father was, and
their cousins are, in England. So long as we
ask men and women to step down in the
realm of citizenship in order to become Cana-

HARDER TO STEP DOWN 99

dians, we will never produce a typical Canadian
whom the new-comer will be ambitious to live
up to/'

" Pretty hard doctrine, brother."

" It is, and it's harder for me to swallow it
than it is for you."

" How do you make that out?"

" Because it is always harder for a spirited
man to step down than it is to step up. Twen-
ty-five years ago I was voting for a member of
a sovereign Parliament, and I knew my vote
would have an effect all over the world.
Neither you, nor your father, nor your father's
father, nor your father's father's father, has
ever voted for a member of a sovereign Parlia-
ment. Unless your ancestors who came to
America were well-to-do in England, the
chances are that during the thousand years
since the Witanegemote was set up in Saxon
England, not one of your people has ever cast
a vote for a Parliament member who had a word
to say about a declaration of war.

" Tell me now, haven't you been quite content
with that status, which is inferior to that of a
naturalized Chinaman in Buffalo? As far as
I know, you have never asked to vote for a sov-
ereign Parliament. You have seemed content
to act as if your native rights never carried you
into that freedom, as the Norwegian's birth-
right, in Norway, did. You don't even say,
* With a great price obtained I this freedom.'

100 LESS THAN HIS BROTHER

The immigrated Norwegian can say ' I was born
free/

" The hardness of the doctrine for me is that
I have found out that I must say * I have stepped
down from the freedom in which I was born.
I am less than I was, less than my brother, and
less than my nephew.' "

The First Canadian stared quietly at his
friend, who presently resumed : *' If you're not
mad at me, George, Til make a confession to
you. I immigrated to Canada three times, so
that I have had the advantage of looking back
at Canada, during two periods, from the vant-
age ground of English life. Once, during the
second period I was able to regard Canada from
the meridian of South Africa, just after what
was really a civil war as well as an Imperial
war. In South Africa there is a bi-racial,
bi-lingual problem, in some respects like the
bi-racial and bi-lingual problem which is cita-
deled in Quebec. Down there I learned a few
things about racial and linguistic difficulties,
as they present themselves after clamours for
war have been successful, which make me
mighty careful not to be among those who
delight to feed their minds on strife and
racial prejudice in Canada.

" Twenty years ago I began to preach that
the real Empire builder was not the consequen-
tial person who stayed in Downing Street, but
the man who invaded an Ontario forest, or a

FEAR OF THE OUTSPOKEN 101

Saskatchewan prairie, and created a community
out of a waste. Eleven years ago I wrote that
he who, in Canada, puts any other country, or
entity, before his love for Canada is an alien in
Canada, whatever his origin, or faith, or poli-
tical credentials.

" Time and experience, and watching my
children grow up, confirm that conviction, and
impart to It a more glowing passion. You
have heard me express it a hundred times. You
know I have not been backward in telling it
wherever the opportunity arose. I have often
been puzzled at the obvious resentment of some
of my friends like yourself when I have been as
strong in declaring my convictions as I would
have been in England. You have seemed to
distrust my sincerity, and to have few definite
convictions of your own. I couldn't under-
stand why you appeared to be so timid in assert-
ing the inherent prerogatives of Britannic citi-
zenship. If you don't mind my saying so, I
have puzzled over and over again why you
seemed so blind to your own essential dignity,
and to the poverty of our public life and party
issues, and why there has been so little elevation
in the discussion of public affairs.

" It has taken me nearly thirty years to find
a solution of the mystery. The man who never
votes for a sovereign Parliament does not think
in terms of political self-reliance. How can
he? How can he tell what he has missed when

102 ENLARGED AND CRIPPLED TOO

he has been shut out from the prime function
of political manhood? He has political anaemia
and doesn't know it.

" With that discovery has come another. I
lived through my physical and intellectual
maturity until I am a grandfather, without
realizing that, unless there is a change, I shall
go down to my grave less of a citizen of the
world than I was thirty years ago.

" As a man Canada has enlarged me, elevated
me. As a citizen Canada has crippled me.
Nobody is to blame except myself for being so
slow in grasping the truth. Never having
tasted whiskey, I am sometimes pitied for not
knowing the glories I have missed. Never hav-
ing been accustomed to thinking of your Par-
liament as the final arbiter of your political
fate, you don't know what youVe missed. Both
of us must wake up, for the boys' sake.

" When our Parliament wanted to extend its
own life so that it might more thoroughly serve
the cause for which it was sending thousands
of its electors to destruction, it had to go to the
brothers and nephews I left behind me for sanc-
tion. The judges over whom it is supreme are
held to be incapable of finally interpreting the
laws it enacts. The most dignified office in the
land is not open to its tried statesmen ; and the
prime qualification for filling it is a birthright
which the Government has declared to be incon-
gruous to the Canadian people.

ONLY VICTIM CAN CURE 103

" The command of its dauntless army is con-
ferred by an extraneous authority to which it
has surrendered its control. When its casual-
ties in a single battle exceed those incurred in
the fights which have in former times changed
the face of Europe, no report on them is laid
upon its tables. Its soldiers are condemned to
death by courts-martial into whose findings it
has not the right to inquire."

"Suppose you are right," said the First
Canadian, " what must we do to step up instead
of stepping down? You have diagnosed the
disease. Now provide the remedy."

" The medical analogy is imperfect," said the
Second Canadian. " The victim of a political
disease must learn everything about it, because
nobody but himself can furnish the remedy.
If you and I read the symptoms alike, you will
find the cure fast enough."

CHAPTER VIII

FALLEN partisanship: NEGLECTED WARDS

Recounting that war reveals some of the evils political par-
tisanship forces on those whose capacity for self-government
has been harmed by the Colonial System; and that neglect,
before the war, to promote an all-Canadian patriotism, becomes
wofuUy apparent when the distribution of people from Con-
tinental Europe is examined, and the opportunities thrown
away by Government and Opposition are considered.

The old, deformed partisanship has broken
down ; and nothing shapely has yet replaced it.
The ruin deserves the closest examination,
because it must furnish much of the material
for a new edifice. If you do not investigate the
causes of the smash you cannot appraise the
reconstructive worth of the tangled material.
To avoid repeating the blunders of the past you
must know what they were and why they were.

The war was nearly three years old before
many Parliamentarians apprehended that it
would damage the machines on which they had
clattered into fame.

" The war," they said, " is tearing Europe to
pieces. Whoever wins, the world will see great
changes — in Europe. Nothing can disturb the
accustomed channels of our politics. Thrones
may disappear, and democracies be re-fash-
ioned, across the seas ; but Ward Five Associa-
tion never shall be moved."

104

DISTINCTION OF UNION BIRTH 105

Early in the session of 1917 shrewd members
of the Ottawa Press Gallery laughed to scorn a
prediction that within six months Sir Robert
Borden would be forming a bi-partisan govern-
ment. The party revolution came, not merely
because the Prime Minister had been to London
and had learned once more how desperate the
Allied cause was; but because the Canadian
people had long understood that no party was
sufficient for the responsibilities of the imme-
diate future.

One distinction of Sir Robert Borden's Cabi-
net reconstruction has never been paralleled in
British history. The Fates will not be unkind
enough to apportion a repetition of it to a demo-
cracy which has not forgotten the difference
between the quick and the dead. Five months
were consumed in remaking the Cabinet, during
four of which Parliament was in session. Only
a Parliament without the instinct of sover-
eignty could permit such a derogation from
responsible government. Only a people unac-
customed to facing the ultimate facts of political
life could have meekly watched while such an
agony was prolonged.

For a whole summer Ministers walked
through the Parliamentary corridors wearing
fast-soiling shrouds. None was sure whether
the ghostly garment would be taken from him.
None had the boldness to end such a spectacle.
Cabinet posts were practically hawked about

106 A PRICE OF PARTISANSHIP

for any reasonably presentable member of the
Opposition who would choose one for himself.
Several times it was apparent to the public that
the candle of union was so nearly extinguished
that its flame could not have scorched a gos-
samer wing. Government could exercise little
moral authority while such uncertainty per-
meated national affairs.

A condition so astonishing to a student of
British constitutional history could only have
been produced by many antecedent circum-
stances. Parliament was so habituated to
petty partisanship that it refused to direct its
own Committee. Partisanship, being immune
from the more intense responsibilities of war-
fare, had worked its evil will upon the morale
of Parliament while the war proceeded, as it
had done during so many years of peace.

At the outbreak of war there were soldiers
in Canada who had commanded Canadian regi-
ments in the South African war, and were as
well trained in military technique as British
officers whose experience of the field had also
been limited to campaigns on the veldt. But
the Canadian army left Canada without a com-
mander. It was never given a chief, on the
responsibility of the Government of Canada.
Sir Arthur Currie was appointed by the British
War Office, and was congratulated by his own
Government. There could not be a plainer con-
fession of military vassalage.

EXPECTED SIX MONTHS' WAR 107

It was not a vassal army in the ancient sense.
But so many men had never been raised in any
country and sent to war under such a condition,
except by a vassal people.

The war came suddenly in the holiday season.
The Government was scattered. The Prime
Minister was in Muskoka. His Minister of
Elections was in Manitoba. Sir Robert Borden
hastened to the capital, and acted with prompti-
tude and dignity. He committed his country
to participation in whatever the British Govern-
ment might undertake. As soon as the need
was evident he summoned Parliament.

His most potent lieutenant hastened to the
capital to give out an interview in which he
savagely attacked the former Prime Minister
as a disloyal statesman. The most faithful of
the Government organs predicted that the
Opposition would be presented with the Naval
Bill that had been rejected by the Senate eigh-
teen months before, and that if they did not
accept it, an election would be called, when, of
course, the Opposition would be destroyed and
a party Government assured for four years
more — three years and six months longer than
the Minister of Elections expected the war to
last.

In every other belligerent country the first
blast of war brought political opponents into
concert. It was reserved for Canadian par-
tisanship to demonstrate how far unpatriotism

108 CO-OPERATION WAS SPURNED

may be carried by a Minister of the Crown, in
a crisis which threatens the national life. It
was a true adumbration of a succession of
events which a mocking Providence might have
designed to reinforce the Round Table view that
the experience of a Dominion which is not a
self-governing state cannot qualify its states-
men to handle the great issues of peace and war.

The Opposition gave the Government carte
blanche during the brief session of 1914. When
Parliament reassembled during the following
winter the appalling character of the war was
beginning to be suspected. It was proposed
that the Address should be moved by the Prime
Minister and seconded by the Leader of the
Opposition, so that national unity might be
strikingly demonstrated. The suggestion was
spurned by the Government. In England all
political parties had co-operated from the begin-
ning to promote the war. The Chancellor of
the Exchequer frankly asked the advice and
co-operation of his predecessor and opponent.
At Ottawa no counsel was taken of the former
Prime Minister as to the financial or other pro-
visions for the war.

In different sections of the country war mea-
sures were boldly exploited for party advan-
tage. In Britain a Parliamentary Recruiting
Committee was formed, which men of all parties
joined. In Canada many members of Parlia-
ment were deliberately excluded from patriotic

'^-f^'^'^^f-'-'-' ffj-r ■'■■^•**'H-^ • t-~M^ ammtrfm t^i

ELECTIONEERING JOCKEY 109

campaigns in their own ridings. In places
where the organization was most mechanical
this sort of service was placed under the direc-
tion of party organizers. One member of Par-
liament was caught nefariously horse-dealing,
and another lost his seat when he was found
profiteering under a drug-clerk's cloak.

Elaborate preparations were made for an
election, while Parliament had yet a year and
a half of life, and although it had unanimously
voted every credit the Government asked for.
A deaf ear was turned to every plea that avowed
co-operation between the Government and Op-
position was the righteous way to meet the
crises which were bound to occur and recur.
When an extension of the term of Parliament
was sought, the Opposition was asked to ensure
the life of a party Government for at least a
year after the war.

In Quebec the backwardness of recruiting
was not offset by any apostolic leadership from
the French members of the Government. Two
Quebec vacancies in the Cabinet were filled by
the advancement of one of the most vehement
opponents of participation in British wars
which the election of 1911 had thrown into the
Commons; and by the selection of a politician
who was not a member of Parliament, who had
no eminence in the province, and whose sole
claim to preferment was that he was a party
organizer.

9

110 THE INTRACTABLE MINISTER

In 1916, supporters of the Government in
Quebec proposed a joint recruiting campaign
with the Opposition. No answer was given for
several months. The request was then refused,
because, as it was privately intimated, the pre-
vailing Quebec situation would materially help
in the general election which those who believed
they decided such things, intended shortly to
bring on.

The war brought the munitions industry to
Canada. For its beginnings Sir Sam Hughes
is entitled to credit, as he is for trying to retain
Canadian control of the Canadian army in Eng-
land. The munitions industry outgrew the
capabilities of the Shell Committee, through
which Sir Sam Hughes established it. Con-
tracts were placed by the British Government
through Sir Sam Hughes. In appointing the
Shell Committee, the War Office believed Sir
Sam was acting in his capacity as a Minister of
the Crown, amenable to his colleagues, and
responsible to Parliament. Sir Sam considered
he was as independent of the Canadian Cabinet
as Lord Kitchener asserted that he, as British
War Minister, was superior to the Canadian
people and Parliament.

Sir Sam defied the Premier and Cabinet. To
resolve the difficulties of the Committee, the
British Minister of Munitions sent representa-
tives to Canada. The situation demanded
intervention by the Dominion Government,

AN APPEAL TO MR. HICHENS 111

which, having mobilized Canadian manhood,
should also have mobilized Canadian manufac-
tures for the war, and have dealt with a refrac-
tory minister on the well-established principles
of responsible government.

The Cabinet fled from its responsibilities. It
did not even respect the prescribed channels of
communication between the Canadian and the
British Governments. Mr. Lionel Hichens, who
came from London to revise the methods of
securing munitions in Canada, was only the
representative of a department of a department
of a Government. But the Prime Minister of
Canada wrote him a letter, asking the British
Government to relieve the Canadian Govern-
ment of all responsibility for mobilizing Cana-
dian industries to produce the shells which
Canadian soldiers would use in a Canadian war.

There was consequently established in the
Canadian capital a department of an extraneous
government, with more than a thousand em-
ployees over whose operations the Canadian
Government had no more legal control than it
had over a Government department in Wash-
ington. Sir Joseph Flavelle, the marvellously
efficient Canadian who directed it was not an
officer of the Canadian Government. When the
heads of the Trades and Labour Congress of
Canada desired to affect the standard of wages
in several hundred Canadian factories, employ-
ing hundreds of thousands of Canadian work-

112 DID NOT FLY FOR CANADA

people, they were told by the Canadian Prime
Minister that the matter must be referred to
the British Minister of Munitions.

It was in keeping with these abdications of
the elementals of self-government that, when
Canadians were enrolled for aerial service in
support of the Canadian army, they were not
a Canadian but a British force, controlled
in Canada by British officers, and the industry
of manufacturing aeroplanes was placed under
the direction of Canadians who had absolutely
no responsibility to their own Government and
of whose proceedings — the same is true, of the
Imperial Munitions Board — no report was ever
made to the Canadian Parliament. The Brit-
ish War Office had its own Post Office waggons
on the streets of Toronto — strange commen-
tary on the government of a country that raised
an army of half a million men.

The failure of the Cabinet to act like the Gov-
ernment of a conscious nation represented some-
thing more than the laches of a political organ-
ization which mistook a partisan machine for a
national soul. An Opposition, vigilant for the
national repute, both for the present and for that
future in which the historian is judge, would
have compelled the Government to live up to the
qualities of its soldiers at the front. But the
Opposition, not having been trained in the
school of sovereignty, was as defective in vision,
as lacking in courage, and as timid in leader-

FOUR FIELDS OF FAILURE 113

ship as the Government. It assailed the Shell
Committee solely on the ground of improprieties
about cash which were exposed in the manner of
the police court rather than of the national
forum. Nothing was said about the abdication
of self-government, or the incapacity of the
Cabinet to assert itself against a headstrong
member.

The practised observer of Parliamentary
temper recognized more animation of the par-
tisan than grief of the patriot in the assaults
to which the Government was subjected.

There was as marked a lack of courage and
penetration in regard to four other matters of
special interest which should have been dis-
cussed in Parliament, but of which nothing
rememberable was heard. The first was the
position of the foreign-born in Canada ; the sec-
ond was the relation of Canada to the American
attitude to the war ; the third was the flouting
of Parliament in the pledging of forces for the
war; the fourth was the question of Canadian
participation in the peace negotiations.

Assuming that the population on the out-
break of war was the same as at the census of
1911 — and it is the only available method of
comparison — there were 393,320 people of Ger-
man origin in Canada, and 129,103 of Austro-
Hungarian nativity and descent. Those of
English-speaking origin totalled 3,896,985;
and of French (almost entirely Canadien),

114 SOME ONTARIO RIDINGS

2,054,890. For every ten persons of British
origin, and for every five French Canadians,
therefore, there v^as one of enemy derivation,
— including those of the second, third, fourth
and fifth generations of the Canadian-born.
That is equivalent to five millions in the United
Kingdom and ten millions in the United States.
In Ontario, the most British of all the provinces,
there were 85 Dominion constituencies. In 56
there were more than a thousand inhabitants of
German and Austrian origin, divided like this :

25 constituencies between 1,000 and 2,000

14

2,000 and 3,000

7

3,000 and 4,000

2

4,000 and 5,000

1

5,000 and 6,000

1

6,000 and 7,000

1

7,000 and 8,000

2

8,000 and 9,000

1

11,000 and 12,000

1

12,000 and 13,000

1

25,000 and 26,000

In Manitoba there were ten Dominion con-
stituencies. Every one of them had over a
thousand Germans and Austrians. Three con-
tained between one and two thousand, one
between two and three thousand; one between
six and seven thousand; one between ten and
eleven thousand ; two between eleven and twelve
thousand; one between thirteen and fourteen

SASKATCHEWAN TO THE SEA 115

thousand, and one between fourteen and fifteen
thousand.

In Saskatchewan there were also ten constit-
uencies. The smallest number of Germans and
Austrians in any of them was 3,547 in Prince
Albert; and the largest, 17,601 in Mackenzie.
Between these extremes the distribution was:
Assiniboia, 4,706; Battleford, 8,301; Hum-
boldt, 11,870; Moose Jaw, 14,913 ; Qu'Appelle,
6,600; Regina, 12,660; Saltcoats, 10,464; Sas-
katoon, 17,402.

Alberta was divided into seven constit-
uencies; and the range of inhabitants of enemy-
origin was from 4,051 in Macleod to 16,449 in
Victoria, with these intermediate totals: Cal-
gary, 5,343; Edmonton, 7,674; Red Deer,
9,553; Strathcona, 9,558, and Victoria, 16,449.

Only two of seven ridings in British Columbia
each held less than a thousand Germans and
Austrians, and of these Nanaimo was only 33
short. There were 1,973 in Comox-Atlin, 2,357
in New Westminster, 3,634 in Yale-Cariboo,
4,158 in Vancouver and 5,167 in Kootenay.

In old Ontario, then, fifty-two out of eighty-
one constituencies contained at least a thousand
Germans and Austrians. Between Lake Tem-
iskaming, on the Quebec border, and the Pacific
Ocean there were thirty-eight Dominion constit-
uencies— four in Ontario, ten in Manitoba, ten
in Saskatchewan, seven in Alberta and seven in
British Columbia. In only one — Victoria city

116 CERTAIN RACIAL MIXTURES

in British Columbia — were there appreciably
fewer than a thousand (the figure there was
639) people of enemy derivation. In thirty-
three constituencies these elements of the popu-
lation varied from two thousand to seventeen
thousand.

That was not all. When the war came Italy
was still with Germany and Austria in the
Triple Alliance, and the 45,441 Italians were
our possible enemies. Their provincial distri-
bution was : Nova Scotia 960, New Brunswick
384, Prince Edward Island 23, Quebec 9,576,
Ontario 21,265, Manitoba 972, Saskatchewan
310, Alberta 2,139, and British Columbia 9,721.
Leaving aside 5,875 Bulgarians, whose coun-
try joined the enemy in 1915, there were 58,639
Russians, including Finns, 33,365 Poles, and
107,535 Scandinavians (not divided in the
census between Swedes, Norwegians and
Danes) . The Russians were our Allies ; but the
end of the war evoked a deep feeling against
Russians and Finns because they were alleged
to be fomenters of Bolshevism, which also was
asserted to be eruptive among the Poles. At
different times during the war it appeared as
though Sweden might join the Central powers.
In that event this section of the population,
mainly resident in the prairie provinces, would
have been denounced as enemies, whatever their
individual dispositions, and regardless of the
raising of a Scandinavian battalion in the West.

UNLIKE BRITISH POSITION 117

With such a racial composition, and with the
certainty of a long and world-shaking war,
what was the clear dictate to statesmen who
understood the elementary condition of their
vocation — that to govern is to foresee? It was
that all these people, some of them native-born,
and all of them potential fathers and mothers
of the native-born, should be regarded as a
solemn charge upon a wise Canadian patriotism,
which must minimize the risk that they would
regard themselves as enemies of the country to
which they had immigrated in quest of a more
abundant life than they had known in the lands
of their fathers.

The Germans and Austrians in the United
Kingdom were in a vitally different situation
from their kinsmen in Canada. The British
Government had not spent a part of its revenues
to induce them to leave the Continent. They
were not given lands to induce them to settle
on the Thames and the Clyde. Nor were they
told that transference to British soil would give
them a freer citizenship and protect them from
the militarism which they abhorred where they
were born.

If before the war you had broken bread in the
houses of Galicians, Doukhobors and Finns in
the West, and had discussed their future with
Scandinavians who are the best of settlers, you
will know that they wanted to become Cana-
dians, for the very reasons which have been

118 EDUCATION WAS NEGLECTED

inadequately giveii in these pages — that their
children's future was their future, and that
they were willing to undergo any toil, and
endure the disabilities which strangeness of
speech might inflict upon them, if haply their
descendants might live more freely than their
ancestors, in bodily comfort and social self-
reliance.

Some of these folk communicated their faith
to you with inspiring clarity. Others conveyed
it dimly, because they perceived it dimly, though
surely. Their unremitting labour was the pro-
mise that what they saw darkly their children
might achieve in fulness of light. Some, like
the Englishman who has not yet pieced together
the fabric of his past and future, thought more
of their Old Land than they apprehended of the
New.

Our Governments had given no worthy in-
struction in citizenship to these people. It was
enough that they should produce from the
ground, so that railway cars might be filled and
factories saved from idleness. They were delib-
erately incorporated into Canadian life, by a
generous naturalization law which conscience-
less politicians calling themselves British had
often basely prostituted. It was evident that
they might become like so many festers in the
body politic if they were not treated during the
war with wisdom and foresight, and the con-
structive humanity without which statesman-

APPEALS THAT WERE IGNORED 119

ship becomes a farce and politics an abomina-
tion. This was so clearly grasped, in some
quarters, that, before war was declared, the
Government was urged to father a propaganda
to offset the harmful tendencies which slaughter
was bound to unloose, among them and among
us.

The Prime Minister was too busy to consider
such a matter. The appeal was carried to the
Leader of the Opposition, who promised, but did
not perform. In Parliament, where, if any-
where, the internal condition of the country
should have been debated with patriotic courage
and political insight, nothing was said about
preserving internal harmony from which in-
spiration could be drawn, or on which hope for
the future might be grounded. If the Govern-
ment failed the Opposition should not have
failed — not His Majesty's Loyal Opposition,
which could have given intellectual leadership
to the country. The neglect to recognize the
duty to the foreign-born fathers of the native-
born had its sequel in the War Times Election
Act, a partisan measure which put a premium
on disunion, which was opposed in the old-
time partisan way, and which has raised more
devils than it could have laid.

It is futile to attack men because they could
not see, however much they may be blamed be-
cause they would not listen. Everybody knows
the disadvantage of the Opposition. It was led

120 THE PARALYSIS OF FEAR

by a French-Canadian. Its most numerous con-
tingent was from the province which was placed
under suspicion from the first by those for
whom discord is the mother of political success.
If the Opposition criticized the Government it
was itself disloyal. If it spoke kindly for the
so-called foreigner, it was vote-hunting among
the disaffected at the expense of the loyal. But
the numerical strength of the French should not
have paralyzed the tongues of the English Lib-
erals. Leadership is to those who will lead. If
the Government played the partizan, nobody
else was compelled to follow its lead. Fear
paralyzed good men in the place where it is
their paramount duty to declare the Truth as
they see it. That fear was the fruit of the old
partisanship. The old partisanship maintained
its unholy strength because the Canadian Par-
liament, from its beginning, had been shut off
from the iron facts of national life and death —
the ultimate anvil where alone commonwealths
can be wrought to their true temper and shape.

CHAPTER IX

NEW WORLD LEADERSHIP THAT BAULKED

Regretting that the trusteeship for the Allied cause in the
United States was declined by Canada because the Foreign
Office could not speak to the Republic in the accent of North
America; that an unexampled autocracy deprived Parliament
of its right to increase the army; and that Parliament turned
a blind eye and deaf ear to proposals affecting the resources of
Canada and her appearance at the Peace Conference.

The ancient colonial subordination explains
the second failure on the high political side of
the war — ^the refusal to demonstrate the essen-
tial dignities of Canada's relationship to the
United States, and the inability of the Opposi-
tion to originate redemptive action through
debate in the Houses.

No power on earth, as the Round Table con-
cedes, can now stop the development of a
Canadian nationality as clearly marked and
distinct from English nationalism as it is from
the American type, and with an individuality
that will conform increasingly to its own en-
vironment. The environment of Canadian na-
tionality is North American. Its mental texture
and genius will differ from the English as
definitely as the flesh and wool of a Southdown
reared at Dover, on Lake Erie, differ from the
flesh and wool of its cousin fed on the Dover
cliffs that overlook the English Channel.

121

122 REPUBLICAN LIKENESSES

Canada entered the war as a North American
democracy more than as an English dependency.
Her contact with the United States was inti-
mate and multifarious. Several hundred thou-
sand sons and daughters of the United States
live in Canada. Nearly three millions of the
people in the United States derived from
Canada. The accent of Canada is like that of
the United States. The travel of Canada is in
the style of the United States. The periodical
most widely circulated in Canada is printed in
the United States. The amusements of Canada
are imported from the United States. The cur-
rency of Canada is similar in denomination to
the currency of the United States.

If Canada entered a European war because
it was an absolutely free North American
democracy it was evident that Canada was
better qualified than any other country to inter-
pret the war to the principal democracy of the
New World, whose frontier was her own for
several thousand miles.

This was apprehended by Canadians who
were governed neither by the partisanship of
the politician nor the subserviency of the
"colonial." But it was not appreciated by a
Government or an Opposition whose leaders had
not been trained in the full practice of political
self-reliance.

The vast importance of American goodwill to
the Allied cause was reasonably well understood

^^0»

FOREIGN OFFICE FROWNED 123

in England. The right way to secure it was
not. Sundry emissaries from Britain appeared
in the United States to proclaim the justice of
resistance to Germany and Austria. They were
not conspicuously successful. The prevailing
English accent does not enchant the American
ear. The American friend of the Allies found
that the English presentation of the case some-
times aided more pro-Germanism than it hin-
dered. The propaganda was frowned upon by
the Foreign Office, and withdrawn.

There were friends of the Allies in the United
States who were also friends of Canada. Some
of them, before the war, were promoting a cele-
bration of the hundred years of peace between
the Republic and the Empire, especially with
relation to Canada. They besought the Cana-
dian Government to send speakers into their
country to take up the work which the English
from England could not adequately perform.

The Foreign Office, which is proverbially ig-
norant of the Britannic world, had decided that
it was not well for Englishmen to present the
English case to the American people. Where
Englishmen had failed the Foreign Office was
quite sure Canadians could not succeed. There-
fore the Canadian Government decided that it
was not desirable to arrange to present the
Canadian case to the American people. When
the war was nearly four years old an effort was
made; but it followed the English campaign.

124 TRUSTEE FOR THE ALLIES

which was appropriate enough, when the re-
public had entered the war, and the former
prejudices were allayed.

No question could more patriotically have
been raised than this, in the Canadian Parlia-
ment. If the Opposition had exposed the stu-
pidity of putting the Canadian arc under a
bushel because the Foreign Office candles had
sputtered out, the Government would have been
compelled to recognize that the friends of
Canada in New York were better judges than
the Foreign Office of the service to be rendered
the Allies by Canada — the Foreign Office which
knew Canada chiefly through Canadian com-
plaints of its lack of understanding of Britannic
expansion. Canada was the natural Trustee
for the Allied Cause on this continent. Her
Government, not having been accustomed to
deal with the ultimate facts of political life,
turned aside from the duty. For the same
reason, the Opposition did not turn the Govern-
ment to the duty.

It is characteristic of a democracy which, to
quote the Round Table once more, has not
developed to the full its capacity for gov-
ernment, that it permits the most astound-
ing exercise of autocracy in spheres where
democracy should be most zealously asserted.
A monumental example of this was furnished
in the seventeenth month of the war. The
very talisman of the British constitutional

CHECK AGAINST MILITARISM 125

defence against military autocracy is the
military provision enshrined in the statutes
of the Glorious Revolution, which is celebrated
with undiminished fervour by Canadians on
every twelfth of July. In time of peace there is
no standing British army, because a bill author-
izing the army's maintenance must be brought
to Parliament every year. Only Parliament, in
regular session, can increase the military forces
of the Crown by a single drummer.

The monarch's irresponsibility was curbed
by limiting the monetary provision for himself
to a yearly grant. Military impotence against
his people was secured by a similar limita-
tion. Never, since the Stuarts were driven
from the throne, was an army raised in the
British Empire, or increase of it directed, except
by the immediate authority of an Act of Parlia-
ment— until it was done in Canada. It was done
at Ottawa without a resulting murmur in Par-
liament that the citizenry could hear.

When Parliament rose at Easter, 1915, after
the second war session, authority had been
given to increase the army to 150,000 men.
That was so enormously in excess of anything
that had ever been dreamed by statesmen before
the war, that, despite the extraordinary powers
conferred on the Cabinet by the War Measures
Act, it would have been thought that Parlia-
ment would certainly be called together to
authorize, rather than to ratify, any further

10

126 TREBLING OF THE ARMY

increase. But, as Parliament had not come into
contact with the ultimate facts of political life,
and members of the Government, visiting
Europe, had, it was boldly assumed there was
no need to tell Parliament the facts before its
honour was committed to finding the money.

In October the authorized army was increased
from 150,000 to 250,000. That may have been
done without summoning Parliament because of
fear of objections by French members, some of
whose constituents were against unlimited par-
ticipation. Even so, it was a novel use of the
Constitution to decree that because a member of
Parliament might disagree with the Govern-
ment, he should be given no opportunity to say
so in the place which the constitution guaran-
tees to him, as the guardian of his constituents'
freedom. The raise to a quarter of a million
was put through, under cover of the War
Measures Act; and recruiting was correspond-
ingly hastened.

At the end of the year the quarter million was
about 30,000 short. Parliament had been sum-
moned for the twelfth of January. On New
Year's Eve the Prime Minister, on his indi-
vidual authority, announced that the Canadian
army would thenceforth be 500,000 men, and
the country felt that it had been committed be-
yond possibility of revision.

The monarchical character of the act was
scarcely more astonishing than the silence with

IMAGINE ASQUITH OR WILSON! 127

which the Opposition accepted the affront to
Parliament. In ten weeks the army had been
more than trebled, without a word being said to
Parliament. The magnitude of the coup is par-
tially realized by those who know what it is to
elect a sovereign Parliament, when they ask
themselves what would have happened in
Britain, if Mr. Asquith, who was then Prime
Minister, in a personal announcement, on the
eve of the assembling of Parliament, had told the
British taxpayer that he had added two millions
of soldiers to the army. What would occur in
the United States if the President (who has
larger powers than any British monarch has
been permitted to exercise since the Revolution) ,
on his own initiative, and twelve days before
Congress was to convene, had undertaken to
levy four million men for an army which would
be commanded in the field by a general selected
and appointed by some other government than
that of the United States?

There was murmuring among Government
supporters; but the discipline of partisanship
triumphed over Parliamentary responsibility.
On the Opposition side there was a paralysis
of the democratic nerve, by the continual fear
of what would be said if the French made a fuss
— a tribute to the domination of sectionalism,
and the bedevilling of national solidarity which
cannot be avoided when the major functions of
nationality are atrophied.

128 QUESTION ABOUT LADY WHITE

One must live in Ottawa, and mingle daily
with members of Parliament, to realize how
much has been lost, and how little most of the
members apprehend the loss, through the limi-
tation of Parliamentary functions by the col-
onial system. Representatives of great cities
believe that their paramount duty is to secure
the spending of money in their constituencies,
in salaries for jobs, and sums for contracts — the
value of services rendered being secondary to
the value of the prospective votes, which for
them are the ultimate facts of political life.
The party manipulators have often dictated the
election of men in rural constituencies entirely
because they knew many electors, and had
offended none, either by opinion or activity.

One of these, who bears a very great English
name, and who had been several years in Par-
liament, was at the Speaker's reception, at the
opening of the session of 1916. The Minister
of Finance had just been knighted, and was
with his wife in the throng.

"Who is that with Sir Thomas White?"
asked the member with the historic name.

" Lady White," answered his friend.

" Is that so?" replied the Parliamentarian.
" Did she get a title, too?"

An Ontario member, who is invincible in one
of the best counties of the western peninsula,
expatiating on the relative merits of govern-
ment in Canada and the United States, was

THE RANK OF JOHN BURNS 129

astonished to learn that members of the Cabinet
may not sit in either House of Congress, and
may hold their offices regardless of Congres-
sional confidence.

A Cabinet Minister, who was believed to be
the most powerful man in his party, was read-
ing a letter from a British Cabinet Minister,
which one of his officials had included in a
departmental report.

" Have you got this right?'' he asked. " John
Burns isn't a ' Right Honourable,' is he?"

These trivial things are merely so many illus-
trations of what accompanies a political life
which has become tremendously intense in its
local pulling and hauling because it has been
without training in the ampler region of sov-
ereignty. They are inseparable from a system
which encourages politicians to promise at home
what they know can never be fulfilled at Ottawa,
because their main concern is holding jobs, and
they have been taught to believe that the Gov-
ernment's main concern is to see that there are
jobs to hold.

And so it has been a rarity to hear from' the
Government side critical discussion of large
affairs. Premiers return from Imperial Con-
ferences, in which efforts are made to mortgage
the future of Canada, but there is little or no
illuminative debate of the affairs they have
handled there. London is the place of Decision,
even in lawsuits which plaintiff or defendant

130 WHEN LONDON TALKED

chooses to carry thither; London gives the last
word in such things as the increase of senators,
and the extension of Parliamentary life; so
members of Parliament refrain from discussing
what its own servants do in London. Theirs
not to reason why ; theirs but to say " Ay ! Ay !"

During the war the chance of peace-making
by Canada was discussed in sundry places, but
not where it should have been. There is more
elucidation of the Dominions' relation to this
most vital concern in the excellent quarterlies
of the Round Table than in all the volumes of the
Canadian Hansard. It was given out in Lon-
don that when the time for making peace
arrived the Prime Minister of Canada would be
consulted, " if possible, personally."

Never had a country which raised hundreds
of thousands of soldiers been told that when its
sacrifices came to be implemented among the
nations, it would have a secondary representa-
tion at the settlement. The question was never
deliberated in the House of Commons. When
an effort was made to bring it home to the
national consciousness, it was objected that such
things could not be discussed while blood was
being shed. But if it was proper for London to
say that there would be '* consultation," and if
it was permissible for publicists there to write
about it, was it not proper for Ottawa to say
what it thought about the " concession?"

About the time London was saying " If pos-

OTHER PEOPLE'S PLANS 131

sible " to Canada, London was saying " Cer-
tainly " to Roumania. Article six of the secret
treaty under which Roumania joined the Allies
provided specially for Roumanians appearance
at the Peace Conference, in the full panoply of
national sovereignty.

In London, and in the voluminous pages of
the Round Table, various corollaries of peace
were also discussed. At home Canadians were
supposed to be so absorbed in the fighting four
thousand miles from the heart of their country,
that its consequences to themselves could only
be fittingly canvassed by men who were not
Canadians, and who were almost within hear-
ing of the guns. Even when two Canadians
attended the Economic Conference of the Allies
— one of them was the Minister of Commerce —
there was no Parliamentary exposition of what
had been said and done in the Canadian name.

Elaborate plans were mooted in England for
the withdrawal of Canadian natural resources
from Canadian control, so that future wars in
Europe might be more efficiently conducted.
The Canadian Parliament took no notice of
such revolutionary propositions, to support of
which, for all it knew, its creatures might have
committed it.

Some consequences of war must be pre-
empted while the war proceeds, if the maximum
of self-respect is to be preserved. Bismarck
precipitated the Franco-Prussian war to make

132 MARK OF POLITICAL GENIUS

France the anvil on which he could beat out
Germanic unity. He did not wait till after the
war to implement his design. While the war
was on the King of Prussia was crowned Ger-
man Emperor, at Versailles.

A member of the Canadian Union Govern-
ment has said that ninety per cent, of political
genius consists in the ability to create situations
which the other fellow must meet. During a
war the Opposition is just as powerful as its
will chooses, and its brain contrives. If it
has larger vision, higher courage, and more con-
vincing articulation than the Government, it
can compel the Government to do anything it
finally insists upon.

If, when London was discussing what the
position of Canada at the peace would be, and
how the resources of Canada should be Imperi-
ally pooled, the Opposition had proposed a reso-
lution declaring that at the Peace Conference
Canada would take a place commensurate with
the services of the Canadian soldiery, and con-
formable to the Canadian leadership of the
Western Hemisphere in saving its own democ-
racy; and that no tittle of control of Canadian
resources would ever be surrendered to any
authority not exclusively responsible to the
Canadian people, the Government would not
have dared to ask its supporters to vote it down.
It would have tried to ward off criticism by an
order-in-council. Word would have been sent

THE ROAD THAT WAS MISSED 133

to the Allied Governments that Canada (having
honoured her soldiers by assuming a belligerent
identity in their behalf) would appear at the
Peace Conference as a nation that had won its
spurs; and we should have been spared the
unseemly scramble at the door which robbed our
arrival of its dignity.

Where there is no vision Oppositions stumble.
Where there is no courage Oppositions fall —
and fail to convince the nation that there is an
alternative Government worthy of the tremend-
ous times.

One who was in the Cabinet when the war
began has confessed that it was a capital blun-
der not to form then a Union Administration.
A Parliamentarian who held responsible office
after he had seen the war at close range, has
admitted that it was an egregious mistake to
ask the Opposition to extend the life of Parlia-
ment without inviting it to share the responsi-
bility for administration. Every suggestion
for organic unity that was made privately in
Parliamentary circles, in the press, or at public
meetings, was disregarded, until conscription
was inevitable. Why? Because the old par-
tisanship was stronger in its trenches than the
new patriotism was in its temples, and because,
in relation to the sentiment that was growing
among the people against the game that was
being played there, Ottawa had become a vast
Internment Camp.

134 WE NEVER DECLARED WAR

The underlying reason for this partisan igno-
bility was that our share of the war had been
undertaken by statesmen who, not having been
accustomed to dealing with the ultimate facts
of political life, could not estimate the responsi-
bilities which Armageddon thrust upon them.
Canada alone of British countries entered the
fourth year of the war with the same party
Government with which it began the conflict.
Canada was pre-eminently the British country
in which potentialities of disunion abounded.

If formal declarations of war against Ger-
many, against Austria, against Turkey, against
Bulgaria, had been made ; if the control of the
lives of hundreds of thousands of Canadians
had been vested in the Canadian Parliament
as directly as control of the lives of their citizens
was vested in the Parliaments of Britain and of
France, the electioneering manoeuvres which
disgraced Ottawa, while casualty lists were
pouring in, could not have been persisted in.

Could the Quebec situation have become what
it was, to the indefinite affliction of the future,
if the unanimity with which the war was under-
taken had been solidified by placing direction of
affairs in Quebec upon the shoulders that were
most qualified to carry it? The only way to do
that was to have a Union Government at the
time it was first urged upon the party Govern-
ment. It was not done because there had for
so many decades been only a partial exercise of

MISAPPRECIATED CHANCES 135

the functions of political manhood by the Dom-
inion Parliament, and the potentialities of our
belligerent example to the New World had been
wofully misappreciated. The arrested develop-
ment was bound to display itself even when a
Union Government did come into being, as we
shall presently see.

CHAPTER X

autocracy's fool TUESDAY

Discussing strange manifestations of War Governments that
were fighting for Democracy, such as denying Parliamentary
representation to many constituencies, threatening Parliament
with censorship by its servants, and preparing for a secret
session of both Houses by a series of dramatic blunders hitherto
unknown to representative government.

The starving of Parliamentary democracy,
which is inevitable where knowledge, capacity
and responsibility are under-exercised, is not
wholly imputable to the party system. Parties
respond to their environment. The leader
who insists on travelling far ahead of his fol-
lowers soon ceases to lead, unless he combines
a wizard's genius in statesmanship with an
apostle's fervour in propaganda.

The party spirit, chiefly nourished on the
husks of preferment, will intensify its narrow-
ness so long as nothing happens to cleanse it so
as by fire. The pettier the issues on which it is
fed, the more will its devotees try to maintain
their position by charging opponents with all
manner of improprieties, and by intimidating
friends with the penalties of ostracism if they
venture to exhibit an independence of mind
within the party councils, and to disclose an
originality of expression in the public arena.

136

CHAINS OF PARTYISM 137

For one to criticise a party which he has been
known to support on a special issue has long
been an unpardonable sin. Those who call most
piously for political independence are often
foremost in spreading distrust of men who are
bold enough to walk alone. They cannot believe
that their country produces citizens who are
courageous enough to be unpopular because they
have some capacity to foresee, and therefore
declare what they know to be true. To say
*' Ditto '' to the party leader, if he is in office,
or was once in office, is the high sign of political
fidelity. Those who leave him are traitors, and
can never really have been anything else.

The more evidently a man sacrifices the
assurance of partisan prosperity, the more cer-
tain is it that some dark, selfish and perilous
design is in the back of his head. There is none
righteous, no not one. Service of his country
cannot make a compelling appeal to anybody
who has ability enough to earn five thousand a
year in business. Find a man who has produced
political results, in the spirit of service, and
who has given years to studying the road to his
country's progress, and you have found one who
deserves only to be reviled. Nobody is willing
to live for the State — in Canada.

" Oh ! for a Lloyd George !" cry the abhorrers
of " politics," who would not express an unpop-
ular opinion if they feared it would cost them
a rich man's smile or a poor man's custom. If

138 FATE OF DARING MEN

a statesman were to appear, as Lloyd George
appeared, attacking the existing order, and
daring to say and do things that are disliked by
the party pussyfooters, and the wealthy and
powerful, they would call him a demagogue,
and consign him, without benefit of clergy, to
ignominious political sepulture, via the press.
The fact that he stood up under calumny, be-
cause he surely anticipated the coming of a day
when a man's good will not be evil spoken of,
would be proof enough that he was a " faker."
There are only sordid motives in public life, and
nobody touches it except for what he can get
out of it for himself.

It is this spirit which makes men shrink from
criticising a Government they have indepen-
dently supported, or an Opposition with which
they may, in general, sympathize. If there is
a deep-seated disease in the body politic, a con-
dition which prevents the realization of better
public service, the first requisite is fearless
informed, penetrating diagnosis. If all Gov-
ernments are vitiated by disabilities which have
long been common to all parties and rejected
by none, the disabilities must be understood
before they can be overcome. This applies to
a Union Government as well as to a single-party
Government.

The Union which receives so much absent
treatment from its chieftain, has many apolo-
gists and several friends. Its life is thought to

CHARGE NO BASENESS 139

be precarious, but nobody nominates its suc-
cessor. Though there is much unrest in the
land, no trumpet wakes the vale; no beacon
flares upon the hill. How can the Government
be worthily superseded if there is a helpless mis-
understanding of its ailment? If Parliament-
ary democracy has become anaemic it must
find something to invigorate the blood, before
it embarks on a policy of decapitating its
servants who are doing their best, however
clumsily.

Let suggestions of base impropriety in the
formation of the Union Government be dis-
missed as unworthy of the crisis which brought
it forth. It isn't worth while to play the silly
old game of professing that everything that is
done with which you disagree is wickedly
inspired; and that whatever happens on your
side of the fence is dictated by the loftiest self-
sacrifice. There was a national crisis. If it
was not magnificently met it still may have been
honestly faced. To give credit for so much
virtue in others is to preserve one's own honesty,
which is good policy.

Sir Robert Borden never could be an inspir-
ing party or national leader. He has little poli-
tical instinct. He lacks the imagination and
glow which lift men to their own best heights.
He is neither swift in conception nor decisive in
execution. He would adorn the Bench; he
puzzles the Council. When he does what he

140 SIR ROBERT BORDEN'S ROLE

believes to be the strongest thing he frequently
develops more trouble than he dissipates.

For seventeen years he led the Conservative
party. For seven years he had been Prime Min-
ister, when a company of Liberals enabled him
to reconstruct his Cabinet. Nobody who nego-
tiated with him during the summer of 1917
could doubt the sincerity of his desire to break the
shackles of the ancient partyism. He was will-
ing to retire. All he asked was an honourable
discharge. There was nobody to take his place.

Equal tribute may be paid to those who
joined him. They knew that the position of the
country, actually and potentially, was graver
than the multitude understood. Some of them
feared they were committing political suicide
in leaving Sir Wilfrid Laurier. They believed
he was destroying the Liberal party by refusing
to resign the leadership. They took their
course ; and it is decent to give them credit for
going over the top. If they have not enough
ability for the rare crises in which they live, it
is not necessary to treat them as rogues. The
most honest man will do incredible things when
he is out of his depth. As a rule, the more
mistaken his vigour the more honest his inten-
tion. The worst persecutors have been certain
they were rendering to God the most acceptable
service. Oppressors often think they are kind.

Goodwill is also owing to those who, without
hope of personal advantage, earnestly sup-

-T — t^

THE UNION'S ONLY CHANCE 141

ported the change to a Union Government.
They believed that, v^hatever else was risked,
the hidebound devotion to the old partisanship
must be overthrov^n, if Canadians in Canada
were to serve the State as honourably as it was
being served by Canadians in Flanders.

The Borden Government had failed, as it was
bound to fail. The new Government could only
succeed through the refreshing strength that
came into it. The essential requirement of the
New Phase was that leaders should be evolved
who would know how to magnify democracy
here while their fellow citizens were dying for
democracy yonder. If there has been a second
failure, which much good work cannot conceal,
it is highly necessary to find out why.

The Union Government was formed on the
thirteenth of October, 1917. Parliament had ex-
pired a few days before, by the effluxion of time.
Of the eight Liberal members of the re-built
Cabinet, only two had experience of the House
of Commons — Mr. Carvell and Mr. Maclean.
Three had been in provincial legislatures — Mr.
Sifton, Mr. Calder, and Mr. Rowell. Three
were strangers to public life — General Mew-
burn, Mr. Crerar, and Mr. Ballantyne.

The surviving members of the Conservative
Government had been accustomed to exercising
a virtual Cabinet autocracy over Parliament.
For three years they had violated the primary

right of constituencies to be represented in Par-

11

142 DENIAL OF REPRESENTATION

liament. More than twenty seats in the House
of Commons were vacant during its last session.
Every war-time vacancy which occurred in the
British House of Commons was filled promptly
in the constitutional way. For three years the
only vacancies in the Canadian House of Com-
mons that were filled were those which involved
the acceptance of Cabinet offices by Mr. Cas-
grain, Mr. Patenaude, and Mr. Kemp. Hamil-
ton was deprived of a member for three years.
Regina had been unrepresented for two years.
For two sessions London had been without a
member.

If the British House of Commons had been
similarly depleted, more than sixty constitu-
encies would have been dumb in the national
council. Such a negation of Parliamentary
government would never have been attempted
by the most powerful Prime Minister since the
days of Pitt. The denial of Parliamentary
identity to ten per cent, of the Canadian elec-
torates was equivalent to wiping Saskatchewan
and Alberta out of the war, as far as Parlia-
mentary check on a truly autocratic Govern-
ment was concerned. The situation was
accepted without a protest by the Opposition.
The country, never accustomed to the full exer-
cise of political rights, as meekly acquiesced in
a suspension of constitutional guarantees which
nothing could have induced British citizens to
endure.

FORGOT THE COMMONS 143

Was it surprising that a Government, inherit-
ing such an example, boldly emulated it, espe-
cially when it found the new Parliament as sub-
missive to its own creatures as the old had been?
The Union came into power in early October.
The writs for the general election were not
returnable till early March. For five months,
therefore the Cabinet could receive no visit
from a legally elected member of the House of
Commons. It seemed to forget that there would
be a House of Commons. Its unexampled sup-
port in the press offered it scarcely an admoni-
tory word. It was tempted to regard itself as
Chanticleer who roused the sun.

Ministers who had never exercised more
authority than belonged to the service of clients
and the direction of clerks, found themselves
at an altitude of power which might have dis-
arranged more seasoned heads. When they
wanted to do something for which the statutes
afforded no warrant, they made a statute of
their own by requesting the Governor-General
to sign an order-in-council. Zealous for the
war, they wished to marshal more effectively
than had hitherto been done, the forces of volun-
tary devotion to it. So they summoned several
unofficial Parliaments to Ottawa. Labour men
and organized women were taken into open
counsel; their advice solicited, their co-opera-
tion accepted, and news of their deliberations
published.

144 THE NEW CONTROL

In the country there were over two hundred
men, unofficially known, to have been chosen by
the people to control the Cabinet through the
House of Commons, and nearly a hundred others
who had been appointed for life to discharge a
similar duty through the Senate. There is no
record that any of these representative men
were summoned to Ottawa for consultation.
Theirs was the consolation that they also serve
who only stand and wait.

Commissions for this and Committees for
that were formed, some of whose members
despised the checks of popular representation.
Autocracy grows with what it feeds on. There
was a minimum of speech to the country. To
discerning observers it became apparent that
the altars of democracy were being served with
a declining care.

Parliament assembled on the eighteenth of
March. It soon learned how little it counted
for in the New Control. The country had
carte-blanched a Cabinet rather than chosen a
Parliament. The Debate on the Address pro-
ceeded until an ex-Cabinet minister had made
a damaging attack on the President of the Privy
Council, who was not in the House. His col-
leagues allowed the debate to end, rather than
move the adjournment in order that he might
be heard. While an answer on the floor was
waited for daily, the House learned, not by a
communication to itself, but through the press.

BROKE TABLE OF THE LAW 145

that the Cabinet did not think it worth while to
notice the charges that had been made. As a
witty correspondent of a paper supporting the
Government said, " The accused Minister has
pleaded, * On the advice of counsel I reserve my
defence/ " He seemed unconcerned to be the
guardian of his own honour.

Ten days later there were serious riots in the
city of Quebec. Military suppression was util-
ized. Machine-guns were set up in a British city
for use against the populace. A group of mem-
bers of the House of Commons exercised their
right to demand a discussion of the riots. They
were asked to defer the motion for a day. A
few moments before the debate began the Prime
Minister produced an order-in-council intended
to deter the House from using its privilege.

" We have dealt with this matter," said the
Cabinet, in effect, " and why should the House
of Commons bother with it?" The order broke
the table of the ancient law, and transferred
to commanding officers everywhere the right
which for centuries had been vested in the civil
power, of determining when armed suppression
of a popular disorder was desirable.

From time to time there were kindred mani-
festations of the New Control. An order-in-
council was passed, under the nose of Parlia-
ment, creating new offences and adding unusual
punishments to the criminal code for such short-
comings as failing to register particulars of

146 FLOUTING THE PROVINCES

yourself for purposes to be disclosed some time
in the future. Unusual punishments are
expressly prohibited to executive authority by
the Constitution ; but what was the Constitution
between Kaiserets-in-council?

The House discussed an order of the Finance
Minister to provincial governments that they
must not raise loans without his consent — an-
order which was promulgated without consulta-
tion with the Provinces, all of whom had pro-
tested against being treated as though they were
irresponsible children. A fair summary of a
defending minister's answer is : " Well, it was
more convenient to do it that way and let them
protest afterwards." After all, the nine pro-
vincial Governments are Governments of the
King, invested with the dignity and authority
and deserving the respect which all the Govern-
ments of the Empire receive from Majesty.
They are entitled to treatment that is accorded
responsible beings. The archives of the modern
empire will be searched in vain for anything
that equals, the irresponsible scorn for their
position that was poured upon all the provinces
in the speech of the Minister of Customs.*

* The arrogance of " What are you going to do about it " could
not he more nakedly expressed than in these two sentences: —

" I must differ from the Right Honourable the Leader of the
Opposition in regard to what the proper course was, because not one
of those provinces would have felt they would have been justified,
if they had been asked previously, in giving up one jot or tittle of
their provincial authority to the Federal Government. But, it being
an accomplished fact, every one of those provinces, I believe, is pre-
pared to join in, heart and soul, and assist the Minister of Finance
in the getting of the money." — Hon. A. L. Sifton, Hansard, Session
1918. Vol. I. p. 128.

SECRET SESSION PLANNED 147

The German offensive of the twenty-first of
March, with its disastrous sequences, deter-
mined the Government upon drastic measures
to overtake the slow operation of the Military
Service Act. It was proposed to cancel exemp-
tions that had been guaranteed as a means of
winning the election four months previously,
and beginning with the class which included
the largest number of farm workers. A secret
session of both Houses was decided on to ensure
sanction of the order-in-council with which it
was intended to revoke the King's certificates.
The manner of accomplishing this design con-
stituted one of the strangest episodes in British
Parliamentary history.

The Hun had been thundering at the inner
gate for three appalling weeks when the Cabi-
net, on Saturday, April the fifteenth, decided to
call the joint, secret session on the following
Wednesday. In view of the emergency it was
to be expected that the Government would have
instantly ascertained how many legislators
were in the capital, and how many could be
brought in, by telegraph, for a Monday sitting.
But Wednesday was fixed, for reasons which
events were to disclose. It was as if one should
come running to you, saying, " I passed your
house this morning, and saw an awful tragedy
happening inside. I'll tell you all about it next
week."

The Houses had never before deliberated

148 MIRIAM AND NUNC DIMITTIS

together. They were to receive the most
momentous communications. For once the
Canadian Parliament was to function as though
parties had never existed. A caucus of a whole
Parliament could only be summoned because
Parliament was required to authorize action
which might not be sustained through the cus-
tomary procedure. The prospect of so unique
an innovation moved the Toronto Globe to an
allocution which blended the exaltation of the
Song of Miriam with the solemnity of Nunc
Dimittis. The country was bidden to stand
still and see an inspiring deliverance from
faction, a suppression of ignoble strife, a
salvation to better things. The Red Sea
was to be crossed; Egypt was to be left for
ever behind.

The Globe appeared to think that a Parlia-
ment so newly from the people, and placed by
public opinion so far above the tactics of mere
party warfare, could be left to its own instinc-
tive regard for the historicity of its position
and the engulfing peril of the year. But Wis-
dom proposes and Government disposes. The
Cabinet succumbed to a superfluous temptation
to play the old game, in the old way, and to mock
the dignity it desired to display.

To some who lived through it, the day before
the secret session of Parliament is remembered
as Fool Tuesday. A series of movements was
executed which for originality in Parliamentary

MUZZLING THE COMMONS 149

tact surely have no parallels except in the
repeated follies with which the French Court
destroyed the chances of an honourable survival
of the monarchy as the colleague of the National
Assembly.

At eleven o'clock there was a Government
party caucus. It was given in detail the mea-
sure to which it was hoped the meeting of Gov-
ernment and Opposition supporters would
assent on the morrow. If a more provocative
challenge could have been thrown to the Oppo-
sition, no member of the Government was fertile
enough to conceive it.

At three in the afternoon the Opposition
found on the order paper of the Commons a
resolution by the Prime Minister, the effect of
which was to abolish that supremacy of the
House of Commons, for the inviolability of
which Speaker Lenthall defied King Charles in
the most memorable scene in Parliamentary
history, when he refused to answer the King,
saying, " I have neither eyes to see nor a tongue
to speak, except as this House shall command
me."

The Canadian Speaker was to be given un-
checked authority to expunge from the record
any speech which did not please him ; and, in
order to prevent the public from learning what
might have been said against the Government
the press censor was set over the Commons — the
censor being none other than the Gentleman

150 ATTACK ON THE PRESS

Usher of the Black Rod, who comes to the House
and with lowly reverence informs it that His
Excellency waits in another place. If a more
daring offensive on the privileges of the House
of Commons, at a more inopportune time, had
been planned, the most ingenious enemy of Par-
liamentary freedom could not have devised it.

At six o'clock the press was summoned to the
Prime Minister to receive the order-in-council
which had passed the party caucus, and which
was to be the fruit and justification of the im-
pending secret session. Readers of every
newspaper in the land were to know every detail
of the measure, hours before a word of it was
to be communicated to scores of Parliamen-
tarians whose authority for it was to be im-
plored in the gravest assembly in Canadian his-
tory. If a heavier discount could have been put
upon the value of an impending appeal to the
dignity of Parliament and of public respect for
the greatest of all our institutions, no friend of
the Government was competent to strike it.

At seven o'clock the press was again sum-
moned— this time to the Minister of Justice — to
hear an order-in-council that was an appro-
priate concomitant to the threat against candid
speech in the Commons — a new and unprece-
dented attack upon their own freedom. There
had been no impotence under the censorship of
the Conservative Government. A rigorous con-
trol of news channels had been enforced, news-

CHOKING FREE OPINION 151

papers had been confiscated and plants shut
down ; but something more draconian was pos-
sible to an administration several of whose
members were fresh to the manufacture of
decrees, and were believed to have been born in
the wedlock of Liberalism and Freedom.

The very citadel of liberty itself having been
threatened with an unparalleled censorship,
perhaps it was natural to extend the process to
the Fourth Estate of the Realm. The Minister
of Justice read to the Press Gallery an order-in-
council which made it a criminal offence to
refer to any secret session of Parliament except
in the terms handed out by the Government.
If fifty members of either House thought it
necessary to inform the country of what was
happening, their voices were to be entombed in
the Commons, and their words stifled in the
country. To make the seizure of plants more
easy the warrant of the Secretary of State was
rendered specially available. It was the gen-
eral warrant of the Secretary of State which
was used to overawe the press after the Star
Chamber was extinguished, under which the
persecution of Wilkes was instituted, and
which, as the final proof that the Crown had
been worsted in its fight to prevent the people
from learning what took place in Parliament,
was formally abolished by the House of Com-
mons in the year American Independence was
declared.

152 " THIS IS THE WARNING ''

Stringent lines were set beyond which criti-
cism of the Government might not lawfully be
uttered; and the penalties against printed pub-
lication were extended to the spoken word. To
question the infallibility of the Administration
was to apply a new sort of criminality to one-
self. For any of the new offences, the punish-
ment, without trial by jury, might be a fine of
five thousand dollars and five years' imprison-
ment. Petty magistrates, little learned in the
law, were given powers to which judges of the
High Court are strangers.

One of the astonished members of the press
gallery asked if no warning would be given of
the operation of such a surprising decree.
'^ This is the warning," said the Minister of
Justice, flourishing the order. If a more
clumsy expedient could have been devised to
chill the whole-hearted support of the Govern-
ment by the press, it must have been imported
from Russia.*

It was under the inspiration of these follies
of an eight-hour day that the secret session of
the Houses took place. It had been so heavily
discounted beforehand that Sir Sam Hughes,
who had never been accused of unpatriotism,
bluntly told the Prime Minister that he had
given the Houses nothing that could not have

* The head of an Ottawa daily newspaper declined to print a
protest against this order-in-council, with the remark, "We are only
a colony here, and we don't criticize government action as they are
accustomed to do in England."

CABINET INFLUENCE WANED 153

been found in the newspapers, and that the
session was unnecessary.

The order-in-council that had been submitted
to the party caucus was acquiesced in by both
Houses on the following day; but the manner
of its passing, as well as the commentary on
the value of election pledges which it furnished,
produced a revulsion of feeling against the Gov-
ernment whose consequences will be felt after
many years.

It had become obvious to its best friends that
something was wrong with the New Control.
Power which was divorced from the ultimate
responsibilities of making war vaunted itself
upon the institutions which the war was waged
to defend. The influence of the Government
over its supporters waned until the last week of
the session brought a more dramatic and more
astounding maladroitness than the worst foe
of the Cabinet could have asked.

Immediately on the assembling of Parliament
motions appeared on the order paper in the
name of Mr. McMaster, of Brome, and Mr.
Nickle, of Kingston, respectfully desiring His
Majesty to confer no more hereditary titles on
Canadians. This was scarcely an urgent mea-
sure for the prosecution of the war; and would,
hardly have been thought serious enough to
divert the Government's attention- from the
German offensive, which began on the fourth
day of the session. At least the subject might

154 A YORKSHIREMAN'S WAY

have been left to the untrammelled debate of
the Commons, or of the Opposition, who had
no direct responsibility for devising military
measures. But, while the whole country was
engrossed in the sickening tidings of the
destruction of Cough's army, and the rush
to the Channel ports, the Cabinet found time
to anticipate the distant debate and pass
an order-in-council demanding the most re-
markable limitation of the King's prerogative
which has been exacted since the Revolutionary
Convention of 1688-9. When once the order-
in-council habit has been acquired it seems to
become as fascinating as a snake's eye is to a
rabbit. Abnormal power in hands that were
born for smaller things breeds a desire to dis-
play itself.

"Who's t' maister here?" a Yorkshireman
asked his wife, as he came home one night.

" Why, tha art, for sure," she replied, taking
his temper's measure.

" Then I think I'll break a two or three pots,
to show tha," said he, and began a raid on the
kitchen dresser.

He was drunk, with a spirit that made him
play the fool with his destructive authority.

The debate on titles was reached in April.
No word of the Cabinet's attack on the preroga-
tive was breathed until it was seen that the
House was practically unanimous against all
civil titles of honour, including those which

THE HOUSE WAS AMAZED 155

almost half the lately superseded Cabinet had
obtained. Then it was disclosed that the Cabi-
net had demanded of the King, not only that he
give no more baronetcies or peerages to Cana-
dians, but that he disentail those which he had
already bestowed, and that he create no more
knights except on the recommendation of the
Prime Minister. Hitherto most Canadian
knighthoods had been conferred as the result
of a list submitted to the Cabinet by the Gover-
nor-General, who permitted the suggestion of
additions — as to which amusing stories tell of
the distribution of certain honours which never
gratified the public, however wondrously they
glorified their recipients.

A Western amendment, intended to destroy
all knighthoods, led the Premier to ask for an
adjournment with a view to reaching an agree-
ment. The Cabinet was understood to hope
that the matter was shelved, but the democrats
on both sides declined to be soothed.

In May, when the debate was resumed, the
Government asked that its order be accepted,
in preference to the proposals before the House,
which were manifestly agreeable to it. An
amazed audience heard the Prime Minister,
whose Government was sustaining the most
awful crisis of the most awful war, and might
have disregarded the minor mishaps of the
closet, declare that, unless it endorsed his claim
to continue to direct the Crown as to the be-

156 OBEISANCE TO DICTATION

stowal of knighthoods, the Government would
forthwith resign.

The Government supporters, except Mr.
Nickle, Mr. Fielding, and Mr. Thomas Foster,
succumbed to the threat; and autocracy once
more received humble obeisance in the temple
of its foe.*

* The question raised here is not the desirability or otherwise of a
semi-annual crop of titular honours, but the unnecessary anti-
cipation of Parliamentary action by a presumptuous attack on the
prerogative; and the Premier's threat to destroy the Government,
during the most critical period of the war, if he were not vested
with part of the King's prerogative to create knights. It is not
necessary, therefore, to discuss the revised situation with regard to
titles, which arose while this page was in the press, through the
appointment of a House of Commons Committee, following a second
debate on the titles nuisance, in which the temper of 1917 has been
re-exhibited and reinforced.

CHAPTER XI

SMITING THE ROCK

Reviewing the practices of autocracy during recess, mainly
with relation to certain Habeas Corpus proceedings, in Cal-
gary and Ottawa, during which one Supreme Court was met
with armed resistance by His Majesty's Government, all courts
were threatened with military defiance, and two judgments
were rendered which politicians have forgotten, and historians
will remember.

All preceding blunders in the competition in
historical ineptitude were dwarfed by a declara-
tion of war upon a province, by the Dominion
Government, as an incident of the most astound-
ing intimidation of the courts that has been
attempted in any British country since James
the Second failed to secure the conviction of the
Seven Bishops. The spectacle of the Crown
being invoked to order military resistance to
the duly constituted courts of the realm was
offered the Empire at the moment when the
Allies began to turn the tide against the mili-
tarism which had threatened to subjugate free
democracy in two hemispheres. While Foch pre-
pared to hurl the enemy from the Marne the
Dominion Government was ordering its soldiers
on the Bow to treat the Supreme Court of
Alberta as an enemy of the King, and to make a
scrap of paper of a sacred page of the Consti-
tution.

157

12

158 FIRST CIVIL SECURITY

The citizen's right of Habeas Corpus is writ-
ten in the British constitution as surely as the
divine right of kings is written out of it. The
eminent Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of
Canada, discussing it in the judgment to which
reference is to be made, quoted with approval
the saying in Maitland's Constitutional History
of England that it is " unquestionably the first
security of civil liberty/' No subject of the
Crown may be detained without due process of
law. A court which has reason to believe that
one is so held issues its writ, which compels the
parties detaining him to produce him in court.
At the Government caucus which preceded the
secret session, Mr. Fielding and others vainly
opposed the cancelling by order-in-council of
exemptions granted under the Military Service
Act, instead of by a repealing statute. Now
was the time of all times, said Mr. Fielding, to
proceed constitutionally. The event proved the
soundness of this derided advice.

One Lewis, who had been exempted from
military service, was taken, and held at Cal-
gary, under the order-in-council. The whole-
sale reversal of the King's pledged word
inflicted so much discredit upon the major insti-
tutions of government in a province where nat-
uralized Americans abounded, that Mr. R. B.
Bennett took up Lewis's case as a test. Mr.
Bennett had been Conservative member for Cal-
gary. He was a stalwart supporter of the war.

HABEAS CORPUS GRANTED 159

He had visited its theatres with the Prime
Minister. He had been Director-General of
National Service. He had crossed the con-
tinent with Sir Robert Borden, preaching the
gospel of unlimited devotion to the cause. He
took up the Lewis case, not as a lawyer, but as
a patriot. He could see that it was possible,
by the suspension of constitutional guarantees,
to inflict more injury on democracy at home
than on autocracy in Germany.

A majority of the Court, to whom Mr. Ben-
nett applied for a writ of habeas corpus order-
ing LfCwis's delivery by the military, granted
the application, on the ground that the order-
in-council, to which Mr. Fielding in caucus had
objected, and which the Opposition in the Com-
mons had opposed, was ultra vires. Lewis, it
was held, was entitled to his discharge from
military custody. But, so as not to be unrea-
sonable, the issuance of the order was withheld
for two weeks, in order to facilitate an appeal
to the Supreme Court of Canada.

About twenty other soldiers then applied to
the Court under the Habeas Corpus Act, on
grounds similar to those which Mr. Bennett had
urged in behalf of Lewis. The Court issued an
order to Colonel Moore, the local commanding
officer, to produce these men, so that their
cases might be enquired into. He treated the
order with contempt, and refused to appear
before the Court, on instructions from Ottawa.

160 ALL COURTS INTIMIDATED

The Government at Ottawa was not satisfied
with instructing Colonel Moore to defy the
Crown at Calgary, nor with discouraging the
peaceful resort to the highest tribunal in the
land. The Cabinet passed an additional order-
in-council directing the general and other offi-
cers commanding all military districts in
Canada, to retain, on their own conditions, all
the men they already held, " notwithstanding
ANY judgment, or any order that may be made
by ANY court."

The delay in issuing the order for Lewis's dis-
charge, to allow of an appeal to the Supreme
Court of Canada, had brought to the Ottawa
mind the possibility that the highest court in
Canada might uphold the highest court in
Alberta. So the Supreme Court of Canada was
plainly told that if it should presume to uphold
the Supreme Court of Alberta, or any other
court which should decide that the Constitution
was the superior of the Cabinet, the soldiers
all over the country would resist its judgment
with bayonets.

This threat is unique in modern constitu-
tional history. Charles the First tried some-
thing equally daring upon the Commons in
1642, when, with soldiers at the door, he de-
manded that the Five Members be given up to
him. He was refused, in the scene wherein the
Speaker refused to speak without direction of
the House. He tried personally to intimidate

CIVIL WAR FOR CALGARY 161

the City of London, whose protection the Five
had sought. He was refused again. He fled
next day from the capital, and returned seven
years later, a captive, to lay his head upon the
block.

How far Ottawa was prepared to go in its
attempt to overawe the courts was shown by
what happened at Calgary. The Supreme
Court was the highest tribunal in a province
as big as the German Empire. There was no
superior civil authority within two thousand
miles. Ottawa is farther from Calgary than
London is from Constantinople. In the admin-
istration of justice the Supreme Court was as
truly the province and people of Alberta as the
Lieutenant-Governor was the representative of
the King.

It was defied; and the defiance was persisted
in, on orders from Ottawa. It became known
that the Court had the power to send its officers
to the barracks to take the disobedient colonel
into custody; and to call upon all loyal citizens
to assist them in the King's name. The bar-
racks were prepared for offensive defence
against the officers of the law. The citizens
were informed that they might expect to be
called upon to support the civil against the mili-
tary power.

In the Court itself, where great patience was
exercised, and adjournments were granted, to
give time for reasonable counsels to succeed at

V

162 LAWYER-SOLDIER'S EMOTION

Ottawa, two incidents took place which will fur-
nish the historian with his most dramatic proof
of the extremity of the crisis.

While the order-in-council of July 5th was
under discussion by the lawyers, Mr. Justice
Beck intervened to say, " The order has abol-
ished the Supreme Court " ; on which the Chief
Justice remarked, " All the courts " ; and Mr.
Justice Stuart added, " And the Privy Council."

While the conflict between Ottawa and
Alberta was proceeding, Ottawa refused to per-
mit the military officers at Calgary to promise
not to remove from the province the conscripts
in whose behalf writs had been granted, without
giving the Court twenty-four hours' notice.
Some of them were removed from the province.
Major Carson, with obvious distaste for his
task, was representing to the Court the serious-
ness of the situation. He spoke openly of the
likelihood of citizens and soldiers being called
upon to slay one another in a peaceful city. So
affected was the gall^t officer by the gravity
of the prospect that he broke down, and could
not proceed with his speech.

Failing to secure anything from Ottawa but
orders to the soldiers to defy the Courts, the
Supreme Court of Alberta delivered a judg-
ment, ordering the sheriff to secure the men
whom it had ordered Col. Moore to bring to the
Court*

* So that there may be no question as to what happened at
Calgary the judgment of the Alberta Supreme Court is given in
Appendix A.

NIPISSING CASE IS TEST 163

In the end, the military officer on the spot
undertook to do what his Ottawa superiors had
forbidden ; the local crisis was passed, and the
issue was transferred to the Supreme Court of
Canada — the threatened Supreme Court, which,
if it had dared to justify the Alberta Court,
would have seen the military all over Canada
turned like Goths upon the ark and covenant of
civil liberty ; and a new example of Bolshevism
set the world, under the sign manual of King
George.

Though the deep issue that was first taken to
the Alberta tribunal was carried to the Supreme
Court at Ottawa, the Lewis case was not; and
the intimidation of all the Courts was not offi-
cially brought to the attention of the Supreme
Court. The case on which judgment was given
was that of one Gray, of Nipissing. Gray, a
farmer, had been exempted under the Military
Service Act. The exemption was appealed
against by the military authorities to the Cen-
tral Judge; and the appeal was pending, when
Gray was drafted under the order-in-council
of April 20th. Holding himself unlawfully
detained, he refused to wear uniform; and
applied for a writ of habeas corpus. His case
became the test; and, as the essential matter
was the validity of the order-in-council, it cov-
ered that portion of the Calgary issue also.

The Calgary case could have reached the
Supreme Court at Ottawa without the sem-

164 REMINISCENT OF HAMPDEN

blance of a threat of bloodshed in that city, or
of military defiance to the courts throughout
Canada; and the Supreme Court judgment
would have been respected by all. But when
a court has once been threatened with military
resistance by the Executive Power, the virtue
is gone out of it as soon as its judgment is seen
to accord with the threats promulgated against
it. For a Government to threaten any court
is to cast an aspersion on all courts. It is a
profanation of the innermost of our civic altars.
When the guardians of Justice defile Justice,
then is she undone indeed. The Supreme Court
of Canada, by three judges to two, decided that
the Cabinet had full authority, under the War
Measures Act of 1914, to pass the order-in-
council, cancelling exemptions, and that, there-
fore. Gray and Lewis and all other draftees who
had been exempted by due process of law, and
whose exemption was not cancelled through an
Act of Parliament, had no claim to immunity
from military service.

No case so vital as this to civil liberty had
ever come before a Canadian court since Con-
federation. In its peculiar ramifications it was
as important as the suit against John Hampden
to recover twenty shillings' Ship Money, de-
manded by King Charles, during the period
that he governed without a Parliament and was
raising money by orders-in-council. The claim
of Charles to levy taxes regardless of Parlia-

THREATS COMPEL DISTRUST 165

ment has been made in Canada by a collection
of Charleses, and they have been upheld, as their
prototype was. The arbitrary king brought
his influence to bear upon the twelve judges of
the Exchequer Court who tried the historic
cause. It is of interest just now to recall that
one of the twelve was emboldened to brave the
assured royal displeasure by deciding against
taxation by orders-in-council, because his wife
urged him to answer his conscience and let
regal vindictiveness take its course. Hamp-
den was condemned to pay by seven judges to
five. History has vindicated the five. The
Ottawa order-in-council of April 20th was up-
held by three judges to two, after the threat of
military interference with the courts. History
will vindicate the minority, when the day of
final reckoning comes.

It will be denied that Sir Charles Fitzpatrick
and Justices Duff and Anglin were influenced
by the threat, against which the Alberta judges
so manfully fought. Possibly they were not;
but that does not make the threat any the less
heinous an offence against every canon of Can-
adian law, statesmanship and justice. Judges
must be above suspicion. No more effective
method of placing them under suspicion could
be invented than for the King's advisers to
threaten them with bayonets if they should dare
to judge disagreeably to the Government.

The honest observer can only see the facts in

166 POOR RECORD OF TRIAL

their inevitable relation to each other; and
remember that judges are neither gods that
they are infallible, nor salamanders that they
are impervious to the assaults of Unrestrained
Autocracy.

The first strange fact about this trial is that,
though it v^as so superlatively important, the
Government, whose Deputy Minister of Justice
argued its case, did not provide for a steno-
graphic report of the proceedings. Public
knowledge of the arguments is, therefore, incom-
plete. Those who have watched Government
stenographers work on matters of public impor-
tance know that often a small discussion will
produce a big note. But from this great cause
the impeccable notebook was missing. The
official report of the judgments, even, is more
condensed than what purported to be verbatim
extracts in the press on the morrow of their
delivery. Already we are in almost as much
uncertainty as to many important details of this
issue as we are about what happened in the
Hampden trial — as far as the nuances of the
arguments are concerned. But there is no
shadow of doubt about certain crucial aspects
of the case, and of the judgments delivered.

The apparent issue was whether the order-in-
council cancelling exemptions was valid, under
the War Measures Act of 1914, which author-
ized the Governor-General-in-Council to make
regulations to meet the war-time conditions.

THE PARLIAMENTARY LIMIT 167

The decisive section of the War Measures Act is
6, which, while conferring wide powers, enum-
erates, "for greater certainty," the classes of
subjects on which regulations by orders-in-
council may be made.

Sir Charles Fitzpatrick, the Chief Justice, set
in the forefront of his judgment this governing
declaration : " Parliament cannot abdicate its
functions; but within reasonable limits it can
delegate its powers to the Executive Govern-
ment."

If Parliament cannot abdicate its functions,
it is to be presumed that, when it delegates its
powers to the Cabinet, it will give clear indica-
tion as to where it draws the line between dele-
gation, which it may reasonably accomplish,
and abdication, which it dare not perform.
There must be some things which it cannot give
up, and which are so essential to its existence
that it will not even have to mention what they
are. When it hands powers over to the Council
which is its servant, it distinguishes them.

Take a conceivable example. It was possible
that the Speaker of the House of Commons
might come to think that the liberties of the
House and of the people were so imperilled by
orders-in-council, that he should openly protest,
and assert that the Cabinet was helping the
enemy, by its folly. His objection might be
reported in Germany as showing Canadian hos-
tility to further participation in the war.

168 VERY GROSS TRAVESTY

Would the Cabinet undertake to dismiss the
Speaker? Of course not. It would be under-
stood that, Parliament not having expressly
authorized the Cabinet to deal with so remote a
contingency, it would not and could not abdicate
its function of dealing with its officer. The
fact that the contingency was not mentioned
would be proof enough to a sane mind, with any
knowledge of the genius of Parliamentary Gov-
ernment, that the subject, not being included in
a list of matters covered by delegated powers,
was one of those very subjects on which Parlia-
ment, to use the Chief Justice's phrase, " cannot
abdicate its functions."

In August, 1914, could anything have been
more remote from the mind of Parliament than
that the conscription of Canadians to fight in
Europe, after they had once been guaranteed
immunity from military service, should be at
the disposal of an order-in-council, regardless
of whether Parliament were sitting? If there
is one thing magnificently clear in the Con-
stitution it is that the power of raising an army
is reserved absolutely for Parliamentary enact-
ment. To get behind that, on the plea that it
was included in a blanket delegation of powers
from Parliament to a committee of the Privy
Council, operating through orders-in-council, is
surely the grossest possible travesty of the Con-
stitution.

Surely, when the Chief Justice of Canada

UNLIMITED POWER UPHELD 169

lays down principles governing the delegation
of powers, he is in duty bound to elucidate those
principles so thoroughly in his judgment that
there can be no doubt as to the inspirations
from which the judgment is derived. If it
should appear that, despite his declaration that
Parliament cannot abdicate, the Cabinet has
boldly asserted that, in fact, the Parliament
HAS abdicated; and that these claims were
advanced after the Chief Justice's Court has
been informed by the Cabinet that if it delivers
a judgment which denies that, in regard to " the
first security of civil liberty,'' absolute power
has passed to the Cabinet, the judgment will be
set aside by bayonets — in these circumstances,
what value can be attached to a judgment which
is in every letter agreeable to such an intimida-
tion, and does not mention the overhanging
threat which discredits the entire judiciary?

The Chief Justice plainly conceded unlimited
power to the Cabinet — which means that if the
Cabinet has unlimited power. Parliament must
have abdicated — the very thing the Chief Jus-
tice says it cannot do. This sentence in the
Chief Justice's decision makes this astonishingly
clear. He says, " It is said that the enumera-
tion of several matters in Section 6 of the War
Measures Act limits the effect of the power con-
ferred. The answer to this objection, as urged
by Mr. Newcombe, would appear to be that the
statute itself expressly provides otherwise."

170 AUTHORITY WAS DEFINED

How far the majority of the judges kept from
dealing with the real gravamen of the case, as
they themselves set it forth, is further illus-
trated by the judgment written by Justice
Anglin. As to whether Parliamentary Govern-
ment was brought into danger by the Govern-
ment's methods of administration, he says,
" With such a matter of policy we are not con-*
cerned. At all events, all we, as a Court of Jus-
tice, are concerned with is to satisfy ourselves
what powers Parliament intended to confer;
and that it possessed the legislative jurisdiction
requisite to confer them."

How can you determine what Parliament in-
tended without touching the question of the pol-
icy which dictated Parliament's action? While
it would be unfair to say the majority judges
baulked their duty because of the Government's
threat, it is fair to say they acted like fearful
judges, when they refrained from asking the
first and governing question which occurs to an
observant man who reads their judgments.

Section 6 of the War Measures Act, in giving
powers to the Governor-in-Council to deal with
war conditions mentions, in some detail, these
six fields of extra-statutory activity: (1) cen-
sorship, (2) arrest, (3) control of harbours and
shipping, (4) transportation by land, water
and air, (5) exportation, importation, produc-
tion, manufacture of goods, (6) appropriation,
forfeiture and disposition of property.

^k' I - III 'iifriif li

QUESTION ANSWERS ITSELF 171

Justice Anglin's judgment says the Court
"must satisfy itself what powers Parliament
intended to confer.'' He decides that Parlia-
ment intended to confer on the Cabinet the
power to conscript soldiers, regardless of what
may have been clearly laid down in any Act of
Parliament. Neither he nor Chief Justice
Fitzpatrick, nor Justice Duff, so far as the offi-
cial reports show, asked whether in 1914 it had
been Parliament's intention to surrender to the
Cabinet an authority to repeal its own Acts,
passed subsequent to the War Measures Act,
governing military service — the life and death
of citizens — when that function was not even
remotely covered in the lengthy enumeration of
affairs in which discretion was clearly vested
in the Cabinet?

Any plain man, who understands something
of the fundamentals of Parliament, and who
had not been threatened with military punish-
ment if he dared to maintain a view that incon-
venienced the Government, would ask, not only
why enlistment was omitted from the subjects
to which the War Measures Act was intended
to apply, but what would Parliament's answer
have been if, when the Act was passing through
the Houses, the question had been asked : " Does
this Act empower the Cabinet to conscript men
already exempted by Act of Parliament?"

There could be only one reply to the question.
Neither of the majority judges thought fit to

172 THE CABINET CAN TAX!

ask the question, which is glaringly insistent
upon any mind charged, as Justice Anglin says
the Supreme Court was charged, with the duty
of satisfying itself what powers Parliament
intended to confer. They agreed that this
most vital of all war measures was included in
a general blanketing of measures which might
be deemed to be necessary as a consequence of a
state of war, while such things as the moving of
lumber were specifically mentioned in the Act.
Parliament, it seems, intended the less to in-
clude the greater!!

Justice Beck, of Alberta, had stated the con-
trary in Calgary; but his view was set aside
in Ottawa. The intention of Parliament in
1914 was held, by a majority of judges to have
covered the over-riding of the Military Service
Act of 1917 by order-in-council in 1918.

The majority, deciding that it had nothing
to do with the revolutionary policy of quashing
Parliamentary by arbitrary authority, pro-
ceeded to endorse that policy, not only by speci-
fically upholding the order-in-council which
most flagrantly embodied it, but by tacitly
accepting the arguments with which it was
buttressed.

Reports of the argument assert that Govern-
ment counsel expressly claimed that the War
Measures Act authorized the Cabinet to impose
war taxation, whether Parliament was sitting
or not. No such boldly revolutionary claim as

1 1 ■ iiii-iMi I jMBMira^tf^ — ' f-mriir^^titri^^

LICENSE FOR REVOLUTION 173

this would, under any conceivable circum-
stances, be advanced before any Imperial court.
It would be assumed in London that Parliament
could not descend so low as to abdicate the most
vital of all its functions — the function for whose
preservation Parliament had for centuries
fought with a race of arrogant kings, one of
whom lost his head because of his opposition to
the principle of Parliamentary taxation, and
another of whom, for a cognate reason, lost the
most valuable portion of his Empire.

' What can be said when a Cabinet comes into
court and brazenly claims the unlimited autoc-
racy mentioned by the Chief Justice, and the
Chief Justice admits the claim? If the Cabinet
had authority to upset the Constitution, in the
matter of habeas corpus, said by the Chief Jus-
tice to be " unquestionably the first security of
civil liberty, '^ and to impose taxation regard-
less of Parliament, which is the very heart and
soul of tyranny ; what, except its own untram-
melled will, was to prevent it from accomplish-
ing any other revolution it pleased? It might
have deposed the King entirely, instead of
merely telling him to cancel the hereditary
birthrights he had guaranteed. It might have
passed on to the Government in London its own
right, under the War Measures Act, to impose
taxation on the Canadian people for the war,
in blood or treasure.

According to the majority of the Supreme

13

174 EFFRONTERY: INDIFFERENCE

Court, not only would those usurpations have
received Parliamentary sanction in advance,
but the Supreme Court would be unconcerned
with such proceedings. The Cabinet would be
absolutely unfettered for a year less a day
(during which Parliament need not meet) . If,
after the manner of refusing to consult the Pro-
vincial Governments about the abrogation of
their right to raise money in their own way, it
chose to turn everything upside down, no legal
power could restrain it. Having authorized
the military to defy the courts, what could the
people do, short of armed resistance? And
where could they obtain arms? Oh! Liberty!

These are not fanciful reflections. They are
as inherent in the claims pressed upon the
Supreme Court, by direction of the Minister of
Justice, and expressly accepted by a majority of
its members, as surely as the bird is in the fer-
tilized egg. Can any student of the history of
the freedom wherewith we are free contem-
plate these things without marvelling at the
effrontery with which they have been advanced,
and at the seeming indifference with which they
have been accepted? Again, it is not seemly
to charge the Supreme Court with turning its
face from the great issue because it feared, to
use the expression of the Alberta Supreme
Court, that the consequences of the Govern-
ment's threats must be little less than anarchy.
But a threatened court which evades taking

. -■ ; -^>^v - - - ^---^ .^v .^ru^^^-^^^aa^

TWO JUDGES DRAW THE LINE 175

notice of the threat, and also evades what a
minority of its members perceive to be a tran-
scendent issue, so obviously fails to rise to its
rightful exaltation that a shadow is cast upon
the will of justice to repel tyranny.

Happily, the overmastering issue was faced
by two courageous judges, in studiously mod-
erate language. Justice Idington wrote the
minority judgment, with which Justice Brodeur
concurred. It is a plea for constitutional gov-
ernment, fully recognizing that, for the war,
every energy of the people should be made sub-
servient to the success of our endeavours. But
" the several measures required to produce such
results must be enacted by the Parliament of
Canada in a due and lawful method, according
to our constitution and its entire powers.''

But the powers of Parliament " cannot be by
a single stroke of the pen surrendered or trans-
ferred to any body. The delegation of legisla-
tion in the way of regulations may be very well
resorted to in such a way as to be clearly under-
stood as such; but the wholesale surrender of
the will of the people to any autocratic power
is exactly what we are fighting against.

" Not only as a matter of constitutional law,
sanctified by all the past history of our ances-
tors, and prevalent in the legislative enactments
of the Mother Country, but as a matter of expe-
diency, I venture to submit such a view should
be our guide.

176 AN INTOLERABLE STRAIN

" Test the matter of the question raised by-
supposing for a moment the quite conceivable
case of a change of Government having taken
place after the Military Service Act had been
passed; and the new Government had desired to
repeal it, but possibly found the Senate barred
the way. Would the new men have dared to
repeal it by order-in-council, under the War
Measures Act of 1914? And suppose, further,
they tried to do so, and asked us, by a reference,
for a judgment maintaining such an order-in-
council, what could we have said? I should,
in such a case, answer, just as I do now, that
the War Measures Act could not be so stretched,
nor our Constitution stand such a strain as the
repeal of a single line of the Military Service
Act by any such methods/'

Nothing is easier than to fall into thorough-
going denunciation of members of the Govern-
ment for the outrages on Parliamentary and
civil liberty that have been recounted. But
their failure could not have been so magnitudin-
ous if there were not a large body of opinion
consenting to their deeds. It was the duty of
every member of Parliament who understood
what was going on to protest to his constituents.
That Parliamentarians were silent is evidence
that they were uninformed, or indifferent, or
incourageous, and that enlightened sentiment
about civic liberty is dead or dying, or is waiting
to be born.

FOURTEEN CABINET LAWYERS 177

The Government which, above every Govern-
ment that has served the King since James the
Second, has been distinguished by its assaults
on the King's courts, is composed of men who
stood equally high in both political parties.
Though fourteen of them were lawyers, they
reflect with reasonable fidelity the prevailing
temper of the traditional political schools.
Whether their behaviour is to be regarded as an
admonition against allowing lawyers to become
a law unto themselves is a problem half in law
and half in morals which the curious may wish
to solve.

Governments do what they believe peoples
will stand. Poor vision and defective sense of
responsibility were disclosed in war because
they had been so grievously attenuated in peace.
Governmental authority that totters when it
should be vigorous, vigilant, and valiant — as in
controlling the army, and in preserving the
freedom of Parliament — inevitably turns to
excess when it should practise restraint. That is
the incurable tendency of incurable weakness.
This negation of statesmanship has been the
prime distinction of our war-time administra-
tion. The most pertinent prayer for officers of
the law who endeavour to cancel the law is that
they may be forgiven, for they know not what
they do.

In the instances that have been cited the vio-
lence to things that should have been inviolate

178 THE MOSAIC EXAMPLE

brought the immediate results that weye
desired. But power to desecrate freedom, even
on the profession that thereby freedom is saved,
is too dangerous a license to be long entrusted
to more massive and more angelic statesmen
than those v^ho remain upon our stage. A tiger
that has once tasted blood is no more to be dis-
trusted than a politician who has once revelled
in arbitrary authority.

A great lawgiver who disregarded an
injunction to speak with restraint in the pres-
ence of a distressed people, smote the rock.
The waters gushed forth, and his object was
momentarily achieved. But when the urgent
crisis was past he learned that he could not lead
his nation into the Promised Land; and the
place of his burial was not marked.

Instead of speaking to the Canadian people,
the leaders smote the rock of civil defence. It
was their most Mosaic deed. It will ensure for
them a Mosaic exclusion from the place where
they fain would dwell.

CHAPTER XII

ENGLISH-FRENCH MARRIAGE AND NATIONAL
MANHOOD

Telling of a Scotch foreignopliobe's conversion, which sug-
gests that something better than a mariage de convenance is
possible between the French and English of Canada; and dis-
cussing the attitude of several Quebec leaders, including a
iJ^ationalist professor of Laval, who wrote a pamphlet support-
ing conscription, in spite of what he calls a "provincial war
where our French culture and language are at stake."

Dr. Miller, the accomplished Principal of
Ridley College, wrote that the first object of
" The New Era in Canada,'' which he edited,
was " To awaken the interest of Canadians in
problems which confront us as we emerge from
the adolescence of past years into the full man-
hood of national life." Though it might have
been more comforting if he had said " deepen "
the interest of Canadians instead of " awaken,''
he was but reflecting the Curtisian judgment
about the sense of responsibility which lan-
guishes for want of contact with the ultimate
facts of political life. It is worth noting that
all the sixteen essays in the book were contri-
buted by English writers. Not one discussed
French nationality in the New Era.

Individual emergence from adolescence to
full manhood means marriage and fatherhood —

179

180 STORY OF MR. MacNUTT, M.P.

no bachelor enters his ordained kingdom. No
diversified people can emerge from inter-
national adolescence except through certain of
the disciplinary processes of marriage between
their component bodies. They must partake of
a common fatherhood and common motherhood
of the Future. From this point of view the
relations of French and English Canadians have
sadly failed of the goodly content without which
prosperity cannot be. They have kept apart.
They must learn to enjoy the larger communion
of the birthright whose crown of rejoicing must
finally be discovered in a full national manhood.

You have observed marriages between per-
sons of different racial origin and speech.
Properly understood, they are the opening chap-
ters of Revelation — in Canada, the Apocalypse
of a national virility that is nearer than it often
seems. Mr. Thomas MacNutt, originally of
New Brunswick, a surveyor and farmer of the
plains, first Speaker of the Saskatchewan Legis-
lature, and since 1908 M.P. for Saltcoats, tells
stories about the pending unity in diversity of
the illimitable West. Here is one of them :

" While I was a member of the Assembly, and
coroner of the district, there was a lively news-
paper correspondence on the Foreign Peril.
One fellow was always on edge about it. He
was a Scotchman, and you would think he could
scarcely sleep at night for the danger the coun-
try was in, particularly from the Galicians.

AT A GALICIAN INQUEST 181

After awhile the agitation against the people
the Government had brought in died down, and
I lost track of the wrathy Scotchman. Some-
body said he had gone to British Columbia,
where, I supposed, the name of the province
suited him better.

" A boy was killed in a peculiar accident in
a Galician settlement, and it was necessary to
hold an inquest. I drove out there, and was
met by the doctor, who said everything was
ready for us.

" ' How will we handle the witnesses?' I asked
him.

" * Oh ! that's all right,' said he, * I have got
a first-class interpreter. She won't miss any-
thing.'

" Sure enough, he was right. A smart young
woman came to the book to be sworn, and said
her name was Mary McTavish. 'Goodness,'
thinks I, ' you must be pretty clever to pick up
these people's tongue; I suppose you've been a
school teacher.'

" Well, sir, she went through the business like
a house afire. I didn't know which to admire
most — her quick grasp of every shade of the
story the Galician witnesses told, or the speed
with which she translated it into English that
might have been spoken by the Governor-
General. I complimented her afterwards, and
asked where she had got her knowledge of the
language.

182 WILL THAT SUIT TORYONTO?

" ' In Galicia/ she said; and you could have
knocked me down with a feather.

'* Then she said, * I should like to introduce
you to my husband. He's rather in a hurry to
get home because the baby isn't very well —
teething, you know.'

" So she took me to Mr. McTavish. He was
the Scotchman who used to write to the papers
warning us against the Galician peril."

"How'll that suit Toryonto?" asked Mr.
MacNutt, as he finished the story.

The marriage contract between French and
English is given a Scotch-Galician introduction,
not because the French in any wise come after
the Scotch ; or because the English are second to
the Galicians; but because the Scotsman, having
through a Galician girl, conquered his old prides
and prejudices and ignorances, and entered
into his predestinated holy estate of full man-
hood, can the more wisely consider his relation
to the French. He may learn much, as he con-
templates the advent of full national citizenship
of his son, born of a Highland father and a
Galician mother. His Scotch-Galician-Canadian
child and the French-Canadian child are mem-
bers one of another.

The humanities are as far beyond the legali-
ties as the stars are above the mist. Unless
there were respect for treaties, and anchorages
in the law, domestic war would never be far re-
moved from us. But respect is not slavery to a

TREATY IS NOT LAST WORD 183

word. It is the letter that killeth. You may be
able to interpret perfectly what the authors of
the Quebec Act, of 1774, and of the Constitu-
tional Act of 1791, intended, from the point of
view of conquerors, legislating for the " con-
quered,'' three thousand miles away. You may
possess all the mind of the Fathers of Confed-
eration. But you will not then have disposed of
two millions of native-born Canadians, who are
no more prepared to worship solely the dead
hands of their ancestors than you are to accept
guidance from your ancestors who never saw
Canada, and were terrified at the apparitions
of Democracy, Reform Bills, and the Ten Pound
Householder.

To-day is a far greater day than Yesterday.
To-morrow will be nobler than both. No con-
quest was ever permanent. The Almighty has
never yet coniided everlasting domination over
their brethren to any collection of His children.
He disintegrates empires when they have served
His turn. Always, sooner or later, that which is
won by the sword cannot be held by the sword,
despite the fire-eating followers of the Nazarene
who now abound. There must be some political
elasticity in men who interpret the Sermon on
the Mount in the light of their own experience,
and who make the Thirty-nine Articles and the
Westminster Confession fit their minds, con-
sciences and experience more than they force
their reason into moulds that were cast by

184 HUMANITY IS NOT A CRIME

divines who believed in physical torture as an
antidote to spiritual unrest, and in mutilation
as a corrective of spiritual deformity.

As subjugation was understood during the
eighteenth century, the English conquerors in
Canada were more humane than the successive
destroyers of the Palatinate had been. It is not
a crime now to be very far in advance of the
humanity of the destroyers of Belgium four
years ago, any more than it was an offence
against God, in the second half of the eighteenth
century, for the English to be kinder to the
French on the St. Lawrence than the French
had been to the peasantry on the Rhine, when
devastation was the black bulwark of the autoc-
racy of profligate Louises.

The French-Canadians may have much to
learn about us — and they are anxious to learn.
We have very much to learn about them — and
too few of us are willing to begin. Our notions
of superiority have cost us dear. We are not as
skilled in the art of extracting profit from loss
as we think we are. Many of us are as afraid
of the French as a gawky youth is afraid of a
girl. We vow that we will never enter into full
national manhood on level terms with them. We
are like the honest, but marvellously incomplete
young man who says, " Fm always going to stay
with you, mother."

We can never attain full national manhood if
we refuse to arrive. Nobody can grow up

WHO HAS HEARD *'0! CANADA"? 185

nationally in Canada who forgets two millions
of his fellow-countrymen. They were here
before him, and, unless he mends his birthrate,
they may be here after him. In the prime of
civic manhood it is well not to emulate the
gentleman who kicks his daughter's suitor down
the stairs, not because he knows him, or any-
thing against him, or because his daughter dis-
likes him, but because he objects to suitors on
general principles, at that stage of his parental
authority, and especially to one with a little
French in him — and that's all there is to it.
There is as much reason to be afraid of the
French as there is to be afraid of ourselves. Did
you ever hear a company of French-Canadians
sing " 0! Canada "? Did you ever observe the
effect of asking a company of English-Cana-
dians to sing " The Maple Leaf "? The senti-
ment of " 0 ! Canada " may not be all-embracing
enough, possibly because it has too much of the
Cross in it. But it is Canada that the verses
laud. The words may be sung by any Canadian
who venerates the Cross without feeling that he
is a stranger to their throbbing soul. In Quebec
the children and old people sing it with equal
fervour. They know every syllable of it. To
hear them is to receive a kindred thrill to that
which comes when the sons of Wales, among
their immemorial hills, wake the echoes with
" Land of my Fathers," and when the daughters
of Alsace exult in " The Marseillaise."

186 " MAPLE LEAF '' IS COLONIAL

What congregation of English-Canadians can
spontaneously, unanimously, sing all of " The
Maple Leaf '7 It is the best we have; but its
lines are not known to the English as "0!
Canada " is known to the French. It alludes to
the senior Canadians only in a boastful refer-
ence to the conquest. It forgets that Wolfe
appropriated what others had begun. The
shamrock, thistle and rose entwine ; but there is
no historical implication which Canadians who
are neither Irish, Scotch nor English can equally
acclaim. It is a colonial song. It can never be
the truly national anthem for the typical Cana-
dian, when he is announced to his international
brethren.

There, indeed, lies the difference between the
French and English of Canada. While the
English wonder how long they must wait for a
Canadian nationality to which all of their speech
will give unqualified allegiance, the French pro-
claim that for many generations they have had
a nationality that is dearer to them than all else
in the world. It was won by the most honour-
able of conquests — the victory of toil over suffer-
ing. It is consecrated and renewed again and
again by the most sacred of travails — the pangs
of birth and the sorrows of death.

" My interest in the Canadian soil?" says a
member of Parliament. " Come home with me,
and I will shew you the graves of nine genera-
tions of my ancestors in our parish churchyard.

ALIENS, OUTSIDE QUEBEC 187

What is that other fellow's claim to Canadian
citizenship, who wants to tear French out of
Hansard? He took an oath so as to get the
deed of a hundred and sixty acres of prairie,
and if he could sell at a big profit and clear out
to the United States to-morrow, he would go.
He may have sworn allegiance, but he hasn't
become a Canadian. It hits me on the raw when
I hear a man like that say that the language of
the Canadian Parliament and Courts is a for-
eign language in his province, and he will never
let it come there."

The first humanity of the French position in
Canada which touches most sharply the optic
nerve of the student who wishes for light, even
if at first it hurts, is that the French-Canadian
is made to feel like an alien when he leaves
Quebec. He sometimes meets antagonism in
one of his own cities. It is not impossible to
hear in a Montreal street car remarks about
'^ These damned French." It is foolish to con-
temn the French because they are too attached
to Quebec, and then compel them to feel like
foreigners when they remove to Algoma. What
stone can be thrown at a man who says " Quebec
is my mother country," who has known no other
country for three hundred years, and whose
compatriots make it difficult for him to know
another province?

A former Cabinet Minister, whose speeches in
English display a fulness of study and a perf ec-

188 BACK TO THE RESERVE

tion of form which no English-speaking Parlia-
mentarian excels, and who has represented his
country at capitals as far apart as Tokio and
Capetown, said one day, about the attitude of
some of his countrymen to their fellows : " My
dear sir, they think we are Indians. They cry
to us, * Back to the reserve ! back to the blanket
and the wigwam! Enjoy your dance among
yourselves, and speak your barbarous language
— they are good for you. The Governor-General
may speak with you in your own tongue, but we
never will. You must think yourselves lucky if,
in our country, your children can learn it for an
hour a day. You will get your treaty rights, as
the other Indians do ; but more than British jus-
tice you shall not have.'

" British justice,'' quoth the statesman, half
to himself; " Ah-h-h! British justice, and spell
it with a capital J !"

Another, learned in the law, and vnth a liter-
ary gift that John Morley might envy, asked,
during an illuminating, and — it is superfluous
to say it — exquisitely courteous explanation of
his position : " What is this British fair play we
hear so much about?"

One of the most effective speakers in English
in the House of Commons is Mr. Ernest
Lapointe, who could use nothing but French
when first elected in 1904. He tells, with
Homeric laughter — in which also he is gener-
ously gifted — of parting with an Ontario

THE SENTIMENTAL FACTOR 189

lawyer, with whom he had spent an evening
after a day's professional business.

" Good-bye, Mr. Lapointe,'' said his new
friend, " It has been a great pleasure to meet
you. I have enjoyed myself very much — very,
much indeed. Do you know, you are the first
decent Frenchman I have ever met."

It is easy to dismiss contretemps like this with
the remark that they only occur with a small
number of English-speaking people whose edu-
cation cannot conceal their ignorance ; and that
such a question as bi-lingualism is not to be
settled by generous feelings, or appeals to senti-
ment. Sentiment is good to make war with, but
is inferior rubble on which to build a peaceful
state — the reasoning is common, if stupid.

Sentiment makes sentiment. When a country
discovers that a large section of the people is
cold towards its war, it is worth inquiring
whether there is not some predisposing cause,
some sentimental reason, which has been flouted
because it was not understood. He is not wise
who rubs a boil on another's neck ; and when ob-
jection is made, answers, " What are you com-
plaining about? It doesn't hurt me. You have
altogether too much feeling about a little thing
like that."

It doesn't cure another man's inflammation
to tell him he ought to be without it. If he says
you have caused the anger in his flesh, you can
at least inquire into his complaint. If you don't

14

190 L'APPEL AUX ARMES

he will be the more certain that you are to blame.
If the French complaints about the quality of
their freedom were confined to those who find it
advantageous to intensify racial resentment in
Quebec, they might perhaps be negligible. But
there is more than demagoguery in Quebec.

There was published in 1917, and translated
into English in 1918, a remarkable pamphlet,
" The Call to Arms and the French-Canadian
Reply," by Professor Ferdinand Roy, a distin-
guished jurist of Laval University, Quebec. Mr.
Roy has been regarded as a Nationalist. He
appealed to his people not only to accept but to
welcome conscription. The pamphlet is worth
deep study. It is a veritable transcript from the
mind and heart of a highly cultured, deeply
patriotic Canadian. The preface to the English
edition was written in February, 1918. It does
not soothe those who suppose there is no double
problem in Canadian nationality. Its conclud-
ing sentence opens a door which Mr. Roy's gen-
eral attitude seemed not to leave ajar. It is:

The writer is most happy to say that he has
among his English-speaking countrymen many
valued friends. Nothing would be more agreeable
to him than to co-operate with them, and with
others of similar liberality, in a sustained effort to
dissolve the misunderstanding which now beclouds
the Canadian outlook.

A few flashing revelations of the basic French
position are given in a review of the scope of the

TWO WARS IN QUEBEC 191

original pamphlet, which precedes this proffer
of goodwill : —

The main causes of the failure of so-called volun-
tary enlistment in Quebec:

(a) The race-hatred which, by making the school
question in Ontario more irritating than ever, has
created, in our minds, the impression that we are
actually carrying the burden of two wars, where our
French language and culture are at stake.

(6) Politics, or rather politicians who, in both
parties, for a score of years enslaved by Imperialism,
have spread the conviction that Canada's interests
must be sacrificed for the benefit of the British Em-
pire, and have utilized the war to promote their

imperialistic object.

* « * »

Plain speaking — not always devoid of passion —
having been used towards the English fanatics who
detract from the general good by presuming upon
their numerical strength — plain speaking was also
used towards Quebec agitators who, under pretence
of combatting English Imperialism or Prussianism,
not only desired to drop the association between
Canadians and their mother countries, but also to

isolate Canada from the rest of the civilized world.

* •» * *

The basis of the appeal to French-Canadians is the

uncontested fact that Canada entered this war with

the unanimous assent and enthusiasm of hoth nation-

alitiesj and of all religions and political parties or

groups.

« « « «

The conclusion of the appeal to the French-Cana-
dian race, therefore, was, whatever might be its
grievances against the other race, not to forget its
mission in this continent, but to realize its true duty,
and to make for the cause the required sacrifices, to
cease a useless agitation that might lead to civil war,
and to shew no inferiority to the other race in the

answer to the country's call to arms.
« * « *

The writer knows his views reflect a deep feeling
among his compatriots, with regard to our partici-

192 FINAL INCOMPATIBILITY?

pation in the war, while maintaining their convic-
tions upon the right of the French, in their native
land, to equality of treatment with the English-
speaking races. Some of his kindliest critics think
his estimate of the incompatibility of the two main
races in Canada is too pessimistic; and that it is a
mistake to believe that, though there is, and must
remain for some time to come, one political confed-
eration, there cannot be an identical English-French-
Canadian sense of nationality. He would fain hope
that they are right ; but he cannot conceive the possi-
bility of such a unity as they appear to anticipate,
until there is a much larger recognition of the French
place in it than the English at present seem disposed
to welcome.

The pivot of these deliverances, surely, is in
the view that we are two nationalities, and
in the author's somewhat lugubrious belief that
there is an essential and enduring incompati-
bility between them. The hope in these sen-
tences is that a working unity may be achieved,
pessimistic as Professor Roy is about its pros-
pects.

On the English side it would seem that little
advance can be made until it is recognized that
the French in Canada have outdistanced their
English brethren in developing a deep and abid-
ing sense of nationality; that it has been done
within the machineries and genius of British
institutions; and that they base their claim to
equality of treatment in their native land — not
in their native province, be it observed — on
what they believe to be the principles of the
justice which was guaranteed to their fathers,
and must not be withheld from their sons.

VAIN SPLUTTER AND FUME 193

They see a birthright written in the marriage
settlements. They have graven it upon their
hearts. They will not permit it to be removed
from their politics. Compared with it the tariff
is a transitory, sordid thing ; railway national-
ization is a matter of account; and the organiza-
tion of labour a question of time.

This problem in self-determination is more
vital and permanent in Canada than those
which have vexed Canadian statesmen in Paris.
It is too momentous to be met by a policy of
splutter and fume. It may be settled by states-
men. It cannot be by unscrupulous politicians
who have been allowed to play with it too long,
and upon whose feeble knees an honest country
dare not cast its future.

CHAPTER XIII

ONTARIO SPEAKS FRENCH IN THE COMMONS

Admitting that the French predominate in a territory into
which several European countries could be deposited; that
their disappearance would be a national calamity; that while a
Provincial Legislature is supreme educationally it is only a
portion of its province; and shewing that amusing events could
happen if the Ontario French were to exercise all their rights
in the Commons.

The French are a national entity in Canada —
not a chain of provincial woes. They are not
distant relations by marriage — they are the
marriage itself. If it has hitherto been a mari-
age de convenance, there is no insuperable
impediment to its becoming a mariage d*affec-
tion. When you have been making an everlast-
ing alliance with your wife's relations in
Europe it is not a wild project to try to develop
more geniality by the home fireside. It will help
the beginning if you discover that your wife is
better off than you thought she was, in her own
right, as well as by consanguineous dower.

It is very hard for some honest souls to realize
that her French children are precious to Canada.
It would be a stricken country if they were to
abandon their mother, and take their belong-
ings with them. Little would be left between
Cochrane, in North Ontario, and the Straits of
Northumberland — a stretch of country in

194

GOD'S GREAT MISTAKE? 195

which you could lay traverses of France, Bel-
gium, Germany, Austria, Roumania, and south-
ern Russia.

If Divine Wisdom selected the St. Lawrence
Valley as the scene of His Great Mistake, and if
He chose Us to be His Great Correction, we
might appropriately affect a punitive regard for
the victims of Divine Error, and seek for a
speedy method of divesting the earth of so much
encumbrance. But we have for so long been
assuring the Almighty that He doeth all things
well, that a more considerate demeanour is due
to our own spiritual perceptions. It may be
better to try to believe that the Father of All is
not displeased by the speech in which millions of
His children daily pray, and that Christian dis-
cretion may be shewn in a forbearing attempt
to live cheerfully with the partners whom He
has permitted to sojourn under the same sky
with us; and who, for all we know, may be des-
tined for a quiet corner in our Heaven.

If the French are neither the pestilence that
walketh in darkness, nor the destruction that
wasteth at noonday, but are one of the deep-
founded walls of the Canadian House, how shall
they be esteemed in the expanding fabric of our
citizenship? Some nervous persons like to
think of them as incurably aggressive, and bent
on submerging a choicer stock ; forgetting that
the cradle is as handy to us as it is to them.

Watching us, the French have come to believe

196 WHY FEAR NORMAN BLOOD?

that they are on the defensive, as they were
when French was prohibited in the United Par-
liament of 1840. They want to preserve a
tongue and culture which they believe to be very
good, but which their neighbours are unwilling
to appreciate. Some of those neighbours, who
do not pay the French the high compliment of
being afraid of them, have begun to read facts
as they are — often enough a disquieting discip-
line. They cannot refuse to like the French-
Canadians whom they know, unless they wish to
dislike themselves.

Your French friends wish nothing better than
to share with you the country which their ances-
tors explored, their clergy Christianized, and
their kindred saved to the Empire. Most of
them came originally from Normandy. They
think that Norman blood, which is so distin-
guished in the British peerage, cannot be so very
repugnant to the society of Ontario. If it be a
sin to multiply human production in the land of
their fathers — a land whose rulers send to all
the corners of the earth for people who will fol-
low the French example — they can but plead
that Holy Scripture with them is still a guide of
domestic conduct. Having life, they desire it
more abundantly. They think that in Canada
there should be room for all Canadians who
believe, with the Psalmist, that children are
from the Lord, and blessed is he whose quiver is
full of them.

FRENCH OUT-PACE ENGLISH 197

If the French are a mistake the census figures
for eastern Canada proclaim a very apotheosis
of blundering. If they are not a mistake, an
admonition to think kindly of Providence is de-
ducible from the statistics. In the ten years
preceding 1911 the French increase from the
Atlantic coast to the Lake of the Woods was
more rapid than the English, despite the unpre-
cedented influx from the British Isles — the
difference was between 21.8 and 8.3 per cent.
The total population of British origin was
2,930,657, and of French 1,971,255. The French
distribution was: — Nova Scotia, 51,746; New
Brunswick, 98,611; Prince Edward Island,
13,117; Quebec, 1,605,339; Ontario, 202,422.

The French question is much more national
than provincial. It is an adult problem, and
not a child asking inconvenient questions, who
can be told to run away and play. National
questions are infinitely more complex than the
teaching of the three R's in provincial schools.
Things are sometimes bigger than they seem.
What many comfortably-minded people desire
to regard as a school affair in Ontario, is a
dominant question in the future of Canada.

Education, it is said, is expressly reserved to
the provinces by the British North America Act.
The Provincial Legislatures are, therefore, su-
preme in the teaching of languages, as in every
other subject. It is presumptuous in the
Dominion Parliament to proffer advice on any

198 THE PROVINCIAL CLAIM

scholastic question. The French language has
absolutely no official status in Ontario. If it is
permitted at all in the public schools it is to meet
the limitations of scholars towards English. Its
use in instruction is a privilege conferred, not a
right confessed.

As a language, the mother tongue of the
French-Canadians had no greater inherent right
in Ontario schools than the language of the
Bolsheviki. The demand for one language in
provincial schools, v^hich is being raised in some
quarters, including political associations which
believe they inherit the vdsdom of Sir John
Macdonald, is perfectly within the Ontario con-
stitution, as it is within the constitution of
every other province except Quebec, wherein
alone bi-lingualism has a valid claim.

For the present one avoids discussion of the
French reply to these contentions. It is ad-
mitted, following the 1916 judgment of the
Privy Council, that the Provincial Legislature
is unquestionable in educational affairs. The
French base their case against the "persecution"
of the language on certain guarantees as in-
alienable as the right to life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness, and firmly embedded in
several statutes, beginning with the Quebec Act
of 1774 and concluding with the British North
America Act of 1867. Those who hold that
there would have been no trouble about the
teaching of French in Ontario if English had

BI-LINGUAL MOTION, 1916 199

not been entirely excluded from many schools,
may be reminded that the Lapointe resolution
proposed to the House of Commons in May,
1916, clearly condemned the ultra-French, anti-
English attitude: —

It has long been the settled policy of Great
Britain, whenever a country passed under the sov-
ereignty of the Crown, by treaty or otherwise, to
respect the religion, usages and language of the in-
habitants who thus became British subjects;

That His Majesty's subjects of French origin in
the Province of Ontario complain that by recent
legislation they have been to a large extent deprived
of the privilege they and their fathers have always
enjoyed since Canada passed under the sovereignty
of the British Crown, of having their children taught
in French ;

That this House, especially at this time of uni-
versal sacrifice and anxiety, when all energies should
be concentrated on the winning of the war, would,
while fully recognizing the principle of provincial
rights, and the necessity of every child being given a
thorough English education, respectfully suggest to
the Legislative Assembly the wisdom of making it
clear that the privilege of the children of French
parentage of being taught in their mother tongue
be not interfered with.

We are here concerned not so much with the
Quebec contention as with a view of the question
which will satisfy what the Quebec savant calls
" this British fair-play we hear so much about."
We owe justice to our own sense of justice. '^ To
thyself be true."

Once more the Round Table furnishes a
jumping-off place for careful feet. In " The
Problem of the Commonwealth " it is written,

200 NATIONAL INSTITUTIONS

" No people can realize nationhood unless they
achieve national institutions, and achieve them
in time." What is a national institution? It is
a house not made with hands. It is a spirit more
than a substance, even though it may dwell in a
physical frame. It may be merely a celebration
— a eucharist of patriotism, as Dingaan's Day
has been with the Boers, as the Fourth of July
is to the United States, and as St. Jean Baptiste
Day is for the French-Canadians. It may be
an engine of government, or it may be the gov-
ernment itself — the monarchy, the presidency,
or the system which king or president incar-
nates.

That is the greatest national institution for
which the greatest number of citizens have the
greatest regard, and in which they have the
greatest common right. There is one such in
Canada. It is the Dominion Parliament. Par-
liament has been the most generally distrusted
of the national institutions; but it is the only
one that periodically gathers all the citizens to-
gether at the ballot box, and brings men from all
over the country face to face with common
duties, to be discharged in a common manner,
for a common end.

An Ontarion, therefore, expresses his Cana-
dian citizenship at its highest, not in the provin-
cial legislature, in which his fellow-Canadians
from Chebucto and Nanaimo are strangers, but
in the Dominion Parliament, where Chebucto

LEGISLATURE OUT-RANKED 201

is the equal of Toronto and Montreal, and
Nanaimo is the equal of either. A citizen is
not fully equipped in patriotism until he is fully
efficient to serve in the chief national institu-
tion. The less efficiency that belongs to that
institution the more will it fall short of its func-
tion in leading the citizens to realize Dr. Miller's
ideal of full national manhood. If Parliament
is defective the nation is defective.

How can a member of Parliament be truly
efficient if he cannot understand all that takes
place in Parliament? In law, the Parliament of
Canada is as bi-lingual as Sir Wilfrid Laurier
was. In capacity to reach intimately all the
people, ninety per cent, of the members of both
houses from eight provinces were as far behind
Sir Wilfrid as they are ahead of their own
children at school. It is impossible to root bi-
lingualism out of Ontario until the Parliament
of Canada is overturned. The single-tongued
Bolsheviki of the Constitution have not yet pro-
posed to do that as an aid to the " One flag, one
language " ideal.

. The bi-lingualism of the Senate, the House of
Commons, all the Departments of the Govern-
ment, the Supreme Court, the Exchequer Court,
and of every tribunal established by the Do-
minion with the status of a court — this bi-
lingualism is not a mischance, to be outgrown
like an infantile cast of the eye. Nor is it a
qancer that can neither be destroyed nor out-

202 BI-LINGUAL CONSTITUTION

lived. It is in the warp and woof of the Consti-
tution. As long as Canadian statesmen retain
their sanity, and the Canadian electorate can
remember the eighth commandment, it will
remain to prove that constitutions do not hon-
ourably become scraps of paper, except by con-
sent of their inheritors.

Has the French language a legal status, in
Ontario, then? If one bears in mind that the
Ontario Legislature is only part of Ontario —
and it is the second part — he cannot truthfully
answer that French has no legal status in the
province. Only one Ontario member of the
House of Commons — Mr. Proulx — is a French-
Canadian. He sits for Prescott. Russell, the
adjoining county, where the French are as three
to two, compared with all the other ethnical
groups, might elect a French-Canadian, but
shews that it has no hard feelings against the
Irish by choosing Mr. Murphy.

According to population, and under propor-
tional representation, the French of Ontario
would be entitled to seven or eight members of
the House of Commons. Assume that, instead
of the solitary Mr. Proulx, there were seven
native sons of Ontario in the Commons, with
French names and French tongues — a frightful
calamity, perhaps, in view of the responsibilities
of a Great Correction ; but a perfectly constitu-
tional calamity all the same, which Providence
seems in no hurry to prevent. Having assumed

WHEN MR. PROULX IS SEVEN 203

so much, it may not be difficult to believe you are
now reading the Toronto News of uncertain
future date — say during the first session of the
Parliament after the next :

" Ottawa, Wednesday. — The corridors are
buzzing with talk this morning about the singu-
lar occurrences of yesterday. It is said that the
adjournment will be moved from the Govern-
ment side to consider the bi-lingual situation
that has so unexpectedly developed, and that the
motion will declare that speeches in French
should be permissible only to members from
Quebec. If this proposal is made it is likely to
cause complications. A Cabinet Minister is un-
derstood to have remarked that it will raise
more trouble than it can abate.

" The Minister of External Affairs, who
represents an Alberta constituency, is the only
member of the Government, from outside Que-
bec, who speaks French fluently. He conducts
some of the business of his department in
French, and has occasionally been requisitioned
by his colleagues to reply in French to speeches
and inquiries from the Opposition side. To
limit speeches in French to Quebec members
would tie the tongue of the Foreign Minister,
just when his colleagues had found it most use-
ful in getting over difficult places. But the one-
flag, one-language brigade say the time for
camouflage has gone by, and that henceforth
they are going to be pro-English intransigeants.

204 NOVEL SORT OF HOLD-UP

" Yesterday's game was carefully planned by
the Ontario French, who deliberately kept their
Quebec and New Brunswick compatriots out of
it, except as spectators. It will almost certainly
be played, with variations, from time to time
during the session. Some Government stalwarts
call it obstruction ; but if so, it is a very novel
sort of Parliamentary hold-up. It is said the
Speaker has privately given his decided opinion
that nothing more can be done against it than
was done yesterday — which was nothing.

" Nobody caught on to what was afoot when
Dansereau, the new man from Temiskaming,
arose, just before the orders of the day were
called, and beginning, * Monsieur L'Orateur,'
asked the Minister of Agriculture if an answer
had been given to the Black River Agricultural
Society's request for a pedigree bull to be sent
into the district next summer. The Minister,
not understanding the question, asked the Min-
ister of External Affairs to translate it. He
began his answer :

" ^ Mr. Speaker, Tm sorry I couldn't person-
ally follow the honourable gentleman, but — '

" That was as far as he got, for Dansereau
was on his feet, saying in French, ' Mr. Speaker,
would the honourable Minister kindly reply in
French? I do not follow him.'

" ' What does he say?' said the Minister of
Agriculture to the Minister of External Affairs.

^' The Foreign Minister told him, and added,

FOREIGN MINISTER'S AID 205

sotto voce, ^ You had better tell me what you
want to answer.'

" So the Minister of External Affairs, having
translated the member for Temiskaming to the
Minister of Agriculture, translated the Minister
of Agriculture to the member for Temiskaming.
Most of the men on the Government side did not
realize what was going on, for Dansereau, being
a comparative stranger, they supposed he was
asking something about Quebec.

" No sooner was Dansereau satisfied than
Robitaille of North Essex sailed across the
Speaker's bows, and held up the orders of the
day. In French, he asked the Minister of Labour
to explain the delay in announcing the award of
the Strike Board on the demand of the Border
Cities Radial Railway's employees for more
wages. The Minister of Labour also had to
resort to the Foreign Minister for knowledge of
the question, and also for an answer that Robi-
taille would accept. This took considerable
time, and the Speaker was getting fidgetty; but
he was still kept on the hook, and found it expe-
dient to send for the Deputy, not feeling sure of
his own French, and wondering how far this
paralyzing innovation would go.

" Robitaille had scarcely finished with the
Minister of Labour before Pressense of Russell
threw a French conundrum at the Minister of
Militia. It was about a Pensions Scandal.
These matters are always given especially

15

206 HELPLESS MILITIA CHIEF

respectful hearing by the Government since the
latest Toronto disturbances. The Minister of
Militia is as innocent of la belle langue as his
other colleagues. When Pressense appeared the
Minister of External Affairs had left his chair,
intending to forsake the Chamber.

" As soon as the questioner said * Ministre de
Milice/ the War Minister whispered loudly to
the Minister of External Affairs:

" * For God's sake, Billy, don't leave me now.^

" The Minister of External Affairs was heard
to reply, as he wearily resumed his seat:

" ^ Yes, but what do I get for making up for
your neglected education, you helpless slob ' —
not very diplomatic language, but it betrayed a
habit which affectionate colleagues develop to-
wards one another.

" Naturally these unofficial courtesies encour-
aged the Opposition to a malicious ribaldry,
which did not abate as the farce played itself
through, till each of the seven Ontario French
members had asked a professedly urgent ques-
tion, and had extracted a reply, in French,
through the interpretation of the Minister of
External Affairs.

" There was much gay laughter in the corri-
dors and wherever the French encountered their
friends — for they have more friends than is
generally known. The episode was thought to
be a flash in the pan ; but there was an enlarge-
ment of it at the evening sitting, when the Min-

ONTARIO FRENCH FARMING 207

ister of Agriculture brought in his estimates.
As was almost invariably the case in previous
years, Quebec members v^ho wanted information
as to what had been done in their ridings since
the last session asked their questions and made
their speeches in English, for which the Minis-
ter thanked them sincerely. Personally he is
very popular with the French. He goes down to
Quebec as often as possible, and the best of good
feeling obtains between them.

"As soon as the Quebec English turn was
over the Ontario French turn was renewed.
Each of the seven members wanted to know
something of importance to his farming voters.
Nothing would do but that his speech should be
made and his questions asked and answered in
French. At first the Minister was amused, but
afterwards betrayed some irritation.

"While this was going on, other Ontario
members flitted in and out of the chamber, hear-
ing a little Ontario French, and then returning
to the lobby and exploding a great deal of
Ontario English. It was understood that so
many Ontario members sought the Prime Min-
ister in his room that an informal Cabinet Coun-
cil was held after the House rose; but every-
body went home with no plan of action decided
on.

"Later. — It is understood that the Ontario
One-Tonguers put a committee to work on the
resolution with which it was intended to move

208 ONE-TONGUERS' COMMITTEE

the adjournment of the House this afternoon.
But the committee has itself adjourned, with-
out settling upon a course. One of its leading
members, who wishes not to be personally
quoted, said to your correspondent:

" ' When we got right down to it, we found
they were as safe as a Grand Master behind a
tyled door. The British North America Act
permits any member to use either language
in the House. There is no limit, whether you
come from Quebec or British Columbia.

" * It doesn't say that any member may com-
pel any other to speak so that he can understand
him. So, possibly, if a Minister refused to
answer one of the Ontario Frenchmen in
French, the aggrieved man might have to wait
for an official translation in Hansard. Right
there the element of courtesy comes in. Our
fellows cannot afford everlastingly to offend the
French. But it got my goat hearing Ontario
business transacted in French. I was that mad
I could have blown my head off with my own
steam. But what can you do? What can you

DO?'

" It is said that despite the failure of the One-
Tonguers' Committee to take up the wampum
to-day, other conferences will be held — and pos-
sibly a special Government caucus — if there is
a renewal of the use of French by Ontario mem-
bers. But whether anything startling happens
in the House or not, we have run into a new and

SCHOOL FOR COMMONERS 209

totally unexpected phase of the Ontario lan-
guage question.

"I have also seen Mr. Robitaille, who was
very affable, and at last consented to make a
statement. He said:

** ^ The last thing in our minds is a desire to
show up the good English Ministers' ignorance
of the languages of their own Parliament. If
they are getting a little more light on the advan-
tages of bi-lingualism, we do not think we should
be blamed. We are so happy as to know both
Parliamentary languages. Is it a great hard-
ship that Ministers of the Crown should be
invited to become as accomplished as the poor
habitants? We have simply shown that the
French language has a standing in Ontario. If
you will not allow it to be thoroughly taught to
the children in the public schools, we must do
what we can to teach it in Parliament, the big-
gest public school of all. Do you condemn us?'

" Pressed as to whether any future plan of
campaign had been decided on by the Ontario
French, Mr. Robitaille could not say. ' But,'
he added, smiling, ' if we can be of any service
to our fellow members by giving them an hour's
private instruction every day in French we will
be most happy to do it, without asking for any
more English instruction in return than we are
gladly getting now. Perhaps you will let me
know if any of your friends would like to take
advantage of this offer.'

210 M.P.'S WOULD TEACH FRENCH

" Altogether a strange and perplexing situa-
tion. It throws an illuminating light upon the
past, and is causing old Parliamentarians to
inquire why something like it never developed
before."

Indeed, the moderation with which the right
to use French in Parliament has been exercised
is a remarkable feature of post-Confederation
history. There is a greater desire to insist on
it now than there has been — a natural desire,
for it is world-wide experience that the more
you try to rub a language out, the more you rub
it in. The French believe their language is
persecuted. They cling to it the more tena-
ciously, and who is foolish enough to be
astonished?

In one of the Parliamentary rooms occupied
by a group of brilliant Quebec members, the
use of French in the Commons was being dis-
cussed, and a visitor said he was somewhat sur-
prised that more had not been heard of it.

" Yes," said a keen lawyer and constitution-
alist. " Perhaps you don't know that there
would have been many a row but for the old
gentleman downstairs."

Sir Wilfrid is still his country's creditor.

CHAPTER XIV

WHERE STATUS ISN'T —

Uncovering two interesting situations, as to tlie use of
French — ^when a law suit is carried from one court in Ontario
to another, and when it becomes apparent that French is both
a domestic and a foreign language in the same city — and
exposing the very human aspect of French-English relations
while a Quebec father talks of his only son who was killed in
France.

It is morally impossible to maintain that a
language has no legal status in Ontario when
the Federal business of any or of all Ontario
constituencies may be conducted in it. There is
nothing in the British North America Act spe-
cifically compelling the business of the Depart-
ments with the French to be carried on in
French ; but some things are so simple that the
law, ass though it be, can comprehend them.
The unlimited right to use French in debate,
the compulsion to print all statutes in it, the
use of both languages by the Governor-General
in opening and proroguing Parliament, and the
bi-lingual constitution of all federal courts —
these things imply the transaction of Depart-
mental affairs in French as well as in English.

It could not be otherwise with the federal
business of Quebec. No statesman, no politician
even, would advocate a denial of the same f acil-

211

212 ONTARIO LAW UNILINGUAL?

ity to French-speaking citizens who live west
of the Ottawa River. If their representative
is free to use French in the Commons, who will
say that they must receive everything in Eng-
lish in the county? A French Hansard is sent
to such Ontarions as desire it. It is said that
if you write in English from Toronto for a copy
of Hansard you are likely to receive the French
revised version.

The line between provincial right and federal
discretion cannot be so rigidly drawn as some
delimiters of frontiers suppose. What is safe
and prudent for the Dominion will be utterly
foolish and harmful for the Province — as soon
as twice two are five.

Can anything be learned from the courses of
jurisprudence? If French has no legal status
in Ontario it surely can have no status in legal
proceedings in Ontario. A French Canadian
who tried to address the fiery magistrates of
Toronto Police Court in French would be extin-
guished with the celerity that is acquired by
passing long-term sentences without the foolish
formality of trial by jury.

If counsel for a Russell County suitor were
to try his French upon judges in Osgoode Hall,
he would be reminded that he was in an Ontario
Court, and asked to speak in the official lan-
guage of the province. His photograph would
adorn the papers as that of a full brother of the
man who toyed with a buzz-saw.

FRENCH CANNOT BE DENIED 213

If this daring lawyer, having failed in the
Ontario Court, appealed to the Supreme Court
of Canada, would his case lose its Ontario char-
acter? It would have become a federal, with-
out ceasing to be an Ontario affair. Would he
be told that, because he came from Ontario, the
Supreme Court could not hear his argument
in French? Not at all. The Supreme Court
is a bi-lingual court. Its own credit demands
that it show no dread of a language which the
law itself speaks every day in the year.

The Supreme Court of Canada is somewhat
higher than the Police Court of Toronto. It is
above the High Court of Ontario. Before it
French is as respectable as it is in the Governor-
General's mouth.

French has no status in Toronto Police Court.
The Police Court is not Ontario, no, not even
though the magistrate feels like a combination
of the Judgment Day in trousers and the
British Empire in a monocle.

French has no status in the Ontario High
Court. The High Court is only a part of
Ontario. Another part of Ontario is the Su-
preme Court of Canada. Until it loses its
status in the Supreme Court of Canada, how can
the French tongue be without an official status
in Ontario?

What is an official language? Is it a lan-
guage that is commonly used for the transaction
of official business? Is official business in

214 IN OTTAWA VALLEY TOWNS

Ontario confined to the debates of a Legislature
and the correspondence of its Departments?
The population of Hawkesbury, in Prescott
County, is about 4,300, of whom 3,600 are
French. Rockf ord, in Russell County, contains
3,030 French people, and only 377 English,
Irish and Scotch. Is all the official business of
those Ontario towns conducted in the only offi-
cial language of Ontario? If some of it is con-
ducted in French, can it be said that French is
without official recognition in provincial spheres
of government? The provincial government
oversees the municipal government. If the
greater includes the less, and the less uses
French, does not the greater use French too, in
the strictly legal sense?*

Admirable public servants, like the Toronto
Globe, think the French-English trouble in
Ontario is primarily a feud between the French

* Mr. Edmond Proulx, M.P. for Prescott, writes: — ^I am a mem-
ber of the County Council of the United Counties of Prescott and
Russell, which is composed of twenty members. This year there are
only two English speaking members. Both languages are used in
the discussion, but the minutes are written in English.

I believe there are a few municipal councils which keep their
minutes in the French language, but most of the municipal councils
keep their minutes in the English language. Both languages are
taught in most of the schools of Prescott County.

Election proclamations are issued only in English. French is
used on most of the school boards, but I am not sure whether the
minutes are kept in French or English.

The evidence given in the French language in the Courts is inter-
preted in English by an official interpreter, except in the Magis-
trates' Courts, or in the Division Courts, when all parties interested
and their solicitors speak French. To save time the evidence is not
interpreted, as both the County Judges have a good knowledge of
French, and some of the English-speaking lawyers practising in the
County have also a knowledge of French.

GASPEAN IN THE CAPITAL 215

and Irish of Ottawa. Heaven forefend that a
peaceable observer should venture a single
remark about religious rivalries which do not
vex a placid soul. There is more in Ottawa
bi-lingualism than the aftermath of the gradual
disappearance of the Irish from a college, or the
merits of a dispute between the Separate School
Board and the Ontario Education Department.
In Ottawa the issue is peculiarly national.

Ottawa is in Ontario ; but it is the capital of
the Confederation. Its local administration
has this difference from the administration of
all other Ontario cities — that a considerable
proportion of its population is there entirely
because it is in the national service.

The State goes to a worthy citizen in the Gaspe
peninsula, lays its hand on his shoulder and
says :

" I require your services in my capital, which
is in the neighbouring province of Ontario.
You must remove thither, with your family,
because I need you all the year. There is much
business to do for your compatriots, and no one
is so well fitted as you to transact it."

" Shall I be allowed to speak my mother's
tongue in Ontario?" the Gaspean asks.

" My son," replies the State, " I want you
because you are French. You will speak and
write French for me every day. You can speak
English, also, and that will be an advantage to
you."

216 CITIZEN AND ALIEN TOO

The Gaspean comes to Ottawa, Ontario,
because he is a French bi-lingualist. He finds
a Parliament Building wherein French and
English are twin tongues. He enters Depart-
ment after Department where English and
French are equally indispensable. He visits the
Supreme Court, and there, too, he hears the
familiar cadences of the Gulf. He sends his
child to school. He is told that he is in Ontario,
and, though French is not excluded, it still has
no inherent right in the classrooms — it cannot
be freely taught in the schools of the same city
in which it is freely spoken in Parliament, De-
partment and Court.

" Ah !" he says, " that is very strange. I am
brought here to speak and write French because
it is a Canadian language, with equal rights to
the English language in the Federal Govern-
ment. But my child must not be taught to
speak and write it as a Canadian language, in
the same way that he is taught to speak and
write English. It is a foreign language in the
schools. That is more than I can understand.
Can a man be a citizen and a stranger in the
same place and at the same moment? There
must be some reason for this which I was not
told in Gaspe. I will find out what it is."

And so the leaven of ill-will begins to work.
Who can wonder that it spreads when it is nour-
ished in the nerve-centre of the State? An
inheritance of prejudice clings to Anglo-French

PREJUDICE NOT ONE-SIDED 217

relations in Canada which will never be sunk in
oblivion until it has first been squarely inven-
toried. Then it will only be got rid of by slow,
painful, and often disappointing courses.

Prejudice is not entirely one-sided. Mis-
understanding does not all lie against the Eng-
lish account. The roots of this trouble are long,
deep and wide-running. They stretch beyond
the Atlantic. They have impregnated Cana-
dian soil which as yet knows little of English or
French. They thicken and tangle because
strange ideas of Canadian unity have long been
propagated. People who come to this land to
find happier livelihoods, and amenities which
submerge the memories of their less spacious
days, find also ancient feuds which they are
invited to adopt, like step-children, for them-
selves, their heirs and assigns for ever. They
marvel why these things should be, and the
riddle is not read for them.

These troubles have become grievous because
energies which, in other countries, have been
expended upon the ultimate issues of political
life have here been left free to cut gaping
chasms in the national garden, into which pes-
tiferous antagonisms are poured, and stirred by
lovers of polluted air.

When the major responsibilities of national
manhood are withholden from the people, they
magnify their fears of one another. The small-
er the co-operation, the larger the suspicion.

218 RECKON WITH THE FIGHTERS

The hostile currents which, during uncounted
centuries, made of the English Channel a Sea
of Provocation have become a Gulf Stream oi
goodwill and mutual understanding. In Can-
ada their counterparts were worsened as the
Fight in Europe proceeded, until cleaning up
Quebec was spoken of as a necessary aftermath
of clearing out the German.

In these days men must be too big to waste
time in nicely apportioning censure for an irre-
coverable past. The Canadian history of the
war is written in honour rolls which tell their
own imperishable story. Those who lost most
are the last to say they paid too great a price
for freedom. Those who lost least must live
with their own praise or regret. There will be
room to rage at the French who did not go when
all the defaulters of other breeds have been
counted, and an honest reckoning has been
attempted with the French who went, and with
those who gladly sustained them.

What respect and hearing are owing a
French-Canadian patriot whose only son lies in
a Flanders field? If you cannot find a common
Canadian sentiment with him, is it worth while
trying to force a hundred other French-Cana-
dians to stand on ground which he declines?
Listen to such an one. He talks only when the
confidence has been established which comes
from the desire to understand :

" I do not want to speak of my son, but, if it

WHOSE SON WAS KILLED 219

be possible, I would like him to speak through
me, as he can never more speak for himself. I
was glad when he went into the army. He did
not have to be urged. Our views about the war
and our country were very much alike — Hon-
ore's and mine. Canada was at war; Cana-
dians were going to the war — and what was
there to do but stand with our country?

" Some said, ^ See, it is the English from
England who enlist.' When we raised our first
companies here — one English and one French —
eighty per cent, of the English were young men
from the Old Country, who would visit their
mothers on the way to the front. In Honore's
company every man was a Canadian, of at least
the sixth generation. There were certain dif-
ferences in the treatment of the two companies ;
but, we said, ^What does that matter? Our
country is at war, and our duty is clear.'

" It is quite true that we soon felt that some-
thing was wrong, under the surface. There
were strange variations in the estimations that
were placed upon Canadians of different ori-
gins. At some places in Quebec volunteers
were asked if they spoke English, and when
they said * No ' they were told, * We don't want
you.'

" I could prove to you many things like that.
You may think they were not important, but
they did much harm.

" Honore did not let them change his mind.

220 DOUBT OF CANADA'S WAR

though they burdened his heart. But every-
body did not see things as we saw them. Our
people were already sore when the war came.
They thought their compatriots in Ontario were
not being fairly treated, and we thought so, too.
They had been taught to believe that under no
circumstances could a war in Europe be their
war, unless it threatened to invade their own
country. Can you wonder that the idea spread
that this was not really Canada's war, but a war
in which the English fought for their mother
country more than they fought for Canada?

" We are not Imperialists here. Do you blame
us for that? We have been British for a hun-
dred and sixty years, but we have never been
invited to share in the government of any coun-
tiy but Canada. Sometimes — ^you don't mind
my telling it? — we have felt that we have been
begrudged living room in our native land. We
occasionally read of our fellow-Canadians say-
ing that our rights are precisely the rights of
any conquered nation.

" Do they claim that we belong to them by
right of conquest? When did those who have
been here three years conquer us who have been
here three hundred years? It seems to me your
compatriot was a true Canadian who said he
had ceased to trade on the reputations of Wolfe
and Pitt.

" Well, as I said, things did not go agreeably,
in French enlistment or in French feeling.

IF THERE WERE A " CLEAN-UP " 221

Honore used to write to me from camp about
it, in much grief. But he kept to his work, and
did all he could to win others to his way of
thinking. In France things were much better.
In his last letter he said, ^ Perhaps they will
listen when I come home.' But he has not
returned, and I sometimes wonder what I should
say if anybody from Ontario would talk to me
about * cleaning up Quebec' I should have to
consider what would Honore say and do. I
think he would stand with his own people — ^yes,
I am quite sure he would.

"What, then, would become of the camara-
derie he enjoyed so much with his English
friends in the army and in civilian life? What
would be the use of Ontario's and Quebec's sons
fighting together in France, if they were to fight
against one another in Canada? Surely that
must not be.

" But, my friend, if there is such shocking
talk on men's lips, it must be because it is first
welcomed in their hearts. We can never be
right unless our hearts beat alike in love for our
dear country. Do you not agree with me?"

If you will have the patience to explore the
reflections of a professional man like this, three
main conclusions will force themselves into
recognition. The first is that there is a deep,
patriotic, all-Canadian sentiment among the
French which, somehow, the English do not
fully comprehend. The second is that it is

16

222 NOT A PERMISSIVE STAKE

folly to determine your attitude towards Quebec
and the French until you have at least tried to
understand the mind of those who have made
the supremest sacrifices for the war. The third
is that, in looking for a standard of loyalty, the
disposition towards Imperialism of the French-
Canadian who has lost his son in the war cannot
longer be treated as a negligible factor in the
national future. The French stake in Canada
has ceased to be merely a permissive quantity.
It is an equation whose weight cannot be finally
appraised in any other scale than that of Cana-
dian interest. If we cannot unite about Can-
ada, in which we live, it is waste of time to
attempt to agree about the Empire, of which we
hear.

The French will never be understood by the
English so long as the English appear to take
it for granted that the French feel as strange
towards Canada as the English feel towards the
French. Glaring at one another across the
currents of the Ottawa River is no prepara-
tion for acquiring a steady, humane and eleva-
ting vision of Canada. We English have a con-
fident reliance upon Divine Favour, and a high
respect for our capacity to rise superior to be-
setting circumstances — especially to the ideas
of the people who happened to be on the spot
before us. We can never entirely lose the belief
that less fortunate beings than ourselves are
sorry because they are not even as we are. If

" so INTANGIBLE A THING '' 223

Providence ever made as fine a people as our-
selves we have never been permitted to inspect
them.

A charming girl who has lived seven years in
Toronto, recently said, with irrepressible con-
viction, " It must be awful not to be English."

An influential business man in a foremost
Ontario city was discussing sympathetically the
French problem — ^an honest, liberal-minded
English Catholic, who constantly regrets that
he did not assure to all his children a colloquial
knowledge of French.

" Of course, I think we should try to meet
them, in every possible way," he remarked;
" but when all's said and done, I can't see why
they should make so much fuss about so intan-
gible a thing as speech."

French was not important to him: why
should it be regarded as vital by those who could
not remember when they first heard it? He
was asked how he would feel if Germany won
the war and the Germans should require him to
substitute German for his maternal English.
Would he then be careless about so intangible
a thing as speech? He replied that the situa-
tion had never struck him that way.

In a province where an Anglican Synod all
but passed a resolution demanding that only
one language should henceforth be official in the
Dominion of Canada, a Forum speaker was
asked whether he did not think French should

224 TAKE FRENCH OFF HANSARD

be removed from Hansard ; and why the French
were not willing to become Canadians in a Brit-
ish country. He inquired in reply whether the
interrogator would agree with the Toronto
divine who said the rights of the French in
Canada were the rights of a conquered nation.

" Certainly," was the answer.

" You think the French-Canadians haven't
done their duty in this war?''

" I certainly do."

" And you believe it has been a mistake to
allow two languages to be spoken in the Cana-
dian Parliament?"

" Yes, that's my opinion."

" You are English?"

" Yes, and proud of it."

" Do you mind telling the audience whether
you would rush to fight for your conqueror,
especially if he had just told you that your lan-
guage ought to be officially extinguished in the
country where your ancestors had spoken it for
three hundred years?"

The French in Quebec and all over Canada
know perfectly well that the " one language "
propaganda goes on, and that politicians who
ought to know better, encourage it, because they
thrive on disunion, on the suppression of his-
torical truth, and on intensifying popular preju-
dices. But when you have met French-Cana-
dians who go, or encourage the flesh and blood
to go, into the Valley, because Canada is at war,

HOW TO FAIL IN ALL 225

when you know that there are thousands of
French-Canadians like these, what is to be the
attitude of their English brethren towards them
and their national views? Surely they must
strive to show as much largeness of vision, and
as much restraint under provocation, as they
find among their friends of the Lower St. Law-
rence, whose love for Canada has offered its
oblations with the sublimest self-denial. To
fail to win their whole-hearted co-operation
after proffering them your own, in fashioning
a new Canada, is to fail in all.

CHAPTER XV

— AND LOYALTY IS

Offering a French view of the choice between Imperial part-
nership and Independence, in which the census is cited as a
preface to a senator's remarks on the problem of being equally
loyal to different countries, the candour and logic of which
disturb a Commoner; with sundry observations on a broken
endeavour to promote better understanding between the two
races, in which the French were not to blame.

The French-Canadians are not Imperialists
— as they understand Imperialism. It is not
unpatriotic to disagree with a correspondent of
The Times, or to think that Lord Beaverbrook
might be improved upon as a self-sacrificing
Canadian. If, as the Round Table avers, im-
placable fate is now forcing Canada to choose
between Imperial partnership and domestic
self-reliance, it cannot be disgraceful to face the
crisis. Who is to declare in advance that it is
disloyal to espouse one of the alternatives which
Fate offers to free agents? It is dangerous to
guess at minorities. To place a stigma on a
preference before it is declared is to offer, not a
choice, but an intimidation, which is tyranny, as
the Supreme Court ought to know.

Foolish persons like to rule out of court wit-
nesses who can tell more than they are willing
to hear. The nation consists of all the citi-
zens ; and not the few who pronounce judgment

226

WHO CAN TAG THE DISLOYAL? 227

oftener than they weigh the facts. Suppose a
referendum were taken on the Round Table
initiative, and 2,000,000 Canadians voted for
Imperial Partnership, involving ultimately the
collection of war taxes at the point of bayonets
directed from London, and 1,750,000 Canadians
voted for bayonet control to be lodged in Ottawa,
would the 1,750,000 be disloyal? Suppose
2,000,000 Canadians voted for unrestricted
self-determination, and 1,750,000 declared for
centralized Imperialism, would the Imperialists
be disloyal?

Choice means liberty — and liberty without
penalties. Anything else would be intolerable
despotism and inevitable destruction of a demo-
cratic state. A few figures shew the sanity of
eliminating stigmas and penalties from Round
Table ramifications. The 1911 census divides
the population, according to origin, into —

English 1,823,150

Irish 1,050,384

Scotch 997,880

Other British 25,571

French 2,054,890

Others 1,254,768

If accentuation of " superiorities " be persisted
in, after the manner of Anglophiles who believe
they are the only Imperialists, it will drive the
" foreigners " into active sympathy with the
French. The political battle array would then

bet-
English, Irish and Scotch 3,896,985

French, and others 3,309,658

228 COUNT TWO ON A DIVISION

This proportion of 39 to 33 is equivalent to
127 to 108 in a House of 235— a majority of 19.
There is no likelihood of such a House being
elected, and the comparison is made solely to
attract attention to the distribution of popula-
tion, and its possible effect on electoral align-
ments if racial antagonisms continue to be
provoked.

Is it not evident that at least a considerable
minority of the English-speaking people would
make sympathetic cause v^ith the other non-
Imperialists? All the Irish are not implacable
Orangemen. A transfer of one vote counts
two on a division. Where the divergence is
between 39 and 33, a change of five makes the
balance 34 to 38. Therefore, if two in fifteen
of the English-speaking people are non-Im-
perialists, and were to agree with the French
and their allies, there would be no Imperial
Partnership such as the Round Table declares
to be the only salvation of the Empire.

It is folly not to heed these potentialities. To
deal with them by stimulating animosities,
through franchise gerrymanders, or other
equally delusive means, is to accumulate trouble
and to multiply Irelands and Alsace-Lorraines
in provinces which merit better fortune.

From the Britannic point of view the French
are an indispensable asset against the very ten-
dencies which vehement critics attribute to
them. They are not Imperialists, but they are

ENGLAND THE PROTECTOR 229

almost pathetically pro-British, paradoxical as
that may sound.

There is no hostility to England in Quebec —
the sort of hostility that was nourished in the
United States by the provocative recital of the
Declaration of Independence; by the inculcation
of the idea that an oppressive monarchy had
survived George the Third; and by the recurrent
twisting of the Lion's tail. London is much
more regarded as a shield and buckler by the
French-Canadian than by the English-Cana-
dian. He is willing to leave his case with the
Imperialist in London. He is afraid to trust it
to the Imperialist in Toronto. There is more
than romance in the saying that the last shot in
defence of British connection in Canada will be
fired by a French-Canadian.

Though the Quebec sentiment towards Eng-
land is the sentiment of the protected, it is
without a semblance of vassalage. You owe
nothing to a man who is simply keeping his con-
tract. Nothing in the relation of French
Canada to English England implies an obliga-
tion to military servitude for European or
Asiatic ends. Defence must be pre-eminently a
Canadian responsibility. Canada does not share
in the government of a square yard of territory
outside Canada. Why should she needlessly
undertake to defend soil upon which her Parlia-
ment has no shadow of authority? It is a very
childlike mistake to suppose that only French-

230 THE CHITRAL EXAMPLE

Canadians hold this view. Those who believed
that Ontario was unanimous for conscription
are unsafe guides when matters like these are
in question. They did not understand Ontario.
They cannot understand Quebec.

When England is at war Canada is at war —
that is an axiom which the cleverest lawyer
would not dispute. But the British Empire has
always been a concourse of technical anomalies.
Some years ago there was a war with the
Chitralis, a tribe on the north-west frontier of
India. Every resource of England was pledged
to the success of that war ; and every part of the
Empire was technically engaged. But the situ-
ation, imperially, was that of a man whose nape
is bothered by a mosquito. His hand is at war
with the insect, and may destroy it without the
slightest movement of his foot. But the mosquito
might have carried the bacillus of yellow fever,
and soon the whole body might have been in a
fight for life.

Canada was technically at war, but not
in conflict, with the Chitralis. But if the
Chitralis' revolt had spread down the Indus,
eastward to Bengal, southward to the Deccan,
and endangered every might and prestige of the
Empire, a capital question of Canada's military
responsibility might have arisen for the Cana-
dian Parliament and people to settle. The
question might have presented itself like this —
Is Canada's interest in the Empire, in the gov-

IF GERMANY HAD WON 231

ernance of which she has had no share, large
enough to induce her to pour out blood and trea-
sure, in order that British dominion over Asiatic
peoples may be unimpaired? Those who said
" No " would have been branded as disloyal by
some who would shed blood on every London call.

Armageddon, so far, leaves Canada where
she was when Armageddon began.* Canada
plunged into a war, wherein her Parliament did
not so much as discuss whether she should com-
mand her own army. If the war had been lost
Germany would have dictated peace to her, not
as to a nation that had raised half a million men
in defence of its own liberty, but as a vassal
which might be governed as a vassal.

As Canada never declared war against Ger-
many, Germany would not have acknowledged
her belligerent identity. There is no shadow of
doubt as to the status which defeat would have
inflicted upon the Dominion. During the war
the status of Canada, so vitally affected by it,
was never considered by the Canadian Parlia-
ment. Canadian soldiers were placed at the
disposal of the British war machine with as
little direct regard for the Canadian Parliament
as if their lives had been forfeit to the Duchy of
Cornwall. Battles in which thousands of Cana-
dians fell were not recounted to the Senate or
Commons — and nobody seemed to care. There
was a peculiar apathy in Parliament towards

* The war has not yet changed the British North America Act, as
to Canadian subordination.

232 UNFAIR COMPARISONS

the ultimate political facts of the war — a mani-
festation of the colonial system, the subjects of
which had never enjoyed the larger British free-
dom in either its trans-Atlantic or trans-Cana-
dian aspects.

While thousands of French-Canadians joined
in the fight in Europe, there was no slackening
of what they believed to be the persecution of
their countrymen at home. According to the
census figures the Old Countrymen in Ontario,
during two years of war, enlisted proportion-
ately about ten times as many as the Canadian-
born. Yet there were members of Parliament
from Ontario who, without qualification, at-
tacked the French-Canadians of Quebec because
they did not, in proportion to the population
enlist as many as the native and immigrated
English in Ontario put together. The threat to
" clean up Quebec '' arose from this gross mis-
representation of the disparity.

See where the humanities lead, when you
inquire into the French attitude to a Canadian
war, for which Canada refuses to take more
than subsidiary responsibilities in the inter-
national region — she does not come into contact
with the ultimate facts of political life. Her
capacity for self-government having been al-
lowed to languish, she governs herself like the
dependency the Round Table says she is. How
does this secondary responsibility work? Take
an individual case. A Quebec Senator, and

QUEBEC SENATOR EXPLAINS 233

chairman of a great recruiting committee is
speaking to a group of Parliamentarians. Ob-
serve how he strikes the same note as the private
man, and how appropriately, from his point of
view, he might have based it on the Round
Table text: "Allegiance can no more be rendered
by one citizen to two commonwealths than hom-
age can be paid by one subject to two kings " : —

" I have no son, so I cannot tell you about the
situation from the point of view of a bereaved
father. Perhaps I may be more calm on that
account, and may reflect not less clearly what is
moving in the hearts and minds of our people. I
have a nephew, who was rejected for military
service; and in the third winter of the war he
spent several months in New York. He is a
graduate of McGill University, and a very
bright, though not exactly a brilliant fellow.
When he had been home from New York about
a month he came to me one Sunday afternoon,
evidently with something on his mind. He told
me he was thinking of leaving Canada for the
United States, and he was afraid I would be
offended.

" He said he had found the atmosphere of
New York so much more agreeable than the
atmosphere of his native city that he wanted to
return to it. When I said I supposed there was
some feminine attraction, he added that there
was something worse — it was a Canadian re-
pulsionT There was no woman in the case — and

234 WHY NEW YORK IS BETTER

he proved it soon after by becoming engaged to
one of our own charming girls.

" In New York, he said, he had been treated
exactly as if he had been there all his life. Of
course he speaks English fluently ; but he speaks
it just as fluently in Montreal as he does in the
United States. He has a very French name ; and .
everybody he met in New York knew that he
was a French-Canadian. But it made not a
particle of difference with people who know that
the world is bigger than a province.

"While he was conscious of the change in
New York, he only fully realized how great it
was when he returned home. Somehow he felt
as though he ought to be explaining why, being
French, he was in Canada at all. In New York
he felt perfectly free. In Montreal he was re-
pressed. He wanted to live where he could be
rid of that feeling, and did I think he was
wrong?

" So much for my nephew : now for his uncle.
The other day I was a few minutes late for a
directors' meeting. My friends were waiting
for me, and as I entered the room, a perfect buzz
of conversation ceased as suddenly as if a cloud
of poison gas had blown in.

" ' Hello !' I said, ' what were you talking
about?'

" None of them answered, and I said, ' Out
with it, for I can see it was something about the
French and the war.'

TALK OF A BOARD ROOM 235

" So they laughed and one of them told me
they were discussing how it was the French-
Canadians in Canada were so reluctant to go to
the war, and had bitterly opposed conscription,
while the French-Canadians in the United
States went as willingly as any other sections of
the population.

** The answer to that was very simple. The
French-Canadians in the United States joined
the army of a sovereign state — their own coun-
try had gone into a war because its honour had
been assaulted. There was no question of where
their loyalty was due, or how much of it. The
United States had all their devotion. Their
country was as much at war with Germany as
Quebec would be at war if an invader were
destroying St. Lawrence towns, and shelling St.
Lawrence farms.

" In the United States every citizen could feel
as the little Londoner felt of whom Sir Thomas
White likes to tell. Sir Thomas saw the man,
with his wife who was heavy with child. He
wanted to know where he could enlist.

" * Why,' Sir Thomas said to him, * you don't
look very strong, and your wife is in no shape
for you to leave her. Why don't you go back to
your work, and leave the fighting to those who
ought to take it up?'

" The little man was impatient with the big
one. He said, * Haven't you heard, sir, that
England's at war?'

236 THE AMERICAN COMPARISON

"I asked my friends whether among the
Canadian-born English of the fifth or sixth
generation there was the same feeling as the
Englishman fresh from England shewed to Sir
Thomas White. I asked them whether we were
on the same footing as the United States; and
whether they were astounded at the difference
between the French-Canadian at home and his
relative who had become an American citizen?
Then I asked them what they proposed to do in
Canada so that French-Canadians would not
have to go to a foreign country to be baptised
into a fighting patriotism.

" * Will you gentlemen tell me/ I said, ' how
to vary the responses to the demands for loyalty
that are made upon us? You tell us to be loyal
to the Empire. You are vexed with us because
we don't put the Empire first. But, as we are
never tired of reminding you, though we have
been in the Empire since 1759, we have no part
in its government. The Empire cannot make
the appeal to our racial pride that it makes to
yours. So far, the Empire only tends to divide
rather than to unite Canadians. We are as
proud to be French as you are to be English.
Do you expect us to equal you in glorification
of the Empire, when so much of it was gained
at the expense of the France from which we
derive?

" ^ In Jacques Cartier Square is the Nelson
monument, put there only fifty years after the

NELSON IN CARTIER'S PLACE 237

conquest, and covered with chiselled representa-
tions of his victories over the French. One
might think that Jacques Cartier himself might
have inspired the monument in the place that
bears his name. Possibly you who see the con-
quest a little differently from us do not realize
as keenly as we do that there is such a thing as
' rubbing it in.'

" ' We haven't the least feeling of animosity
towards you on account of what your ancestors
did and ours didn't. Only you can't expect us
to feel precisely as you do. How can we partake
of the conquering spirit in relation to India, for
instance, so long as we are expected to exhibit
some of the symptoms of the conquered on our
native soil?

" ' We are assailed on the score of disloyalty
because we did not flock to the aid of France
in the same way that the immigrated English
in Canada fl6w to the aid of England. On that
point I ask you to leave with us the account
between us and France. It surely can only
concern you so far as it relates to affairs within
your own knowledge and action. Did you
blame the Americans of English descent — not
only those who were in America before the War
of Independence, but those who have come to
America in your own lifetime — did you blame
them because they didn't rush in millions to the
aid of England on the fourth of August, 1914?
I never heard that you did.

17

238 WHY NOT FIGHT FOR FRANCE?

" ' Is it for you, then, to tell us that we should
have hastened to the succour of France? Let
us see. Was it not a frequent complaint against
us before the war that we were too French? Is
it for our benefit that we have since been told
that we are not French enough? We are urged
to be British, through and through, because this
is a British country. And yet I heard the other
day that the head of the Imperialists in one of
our biggest cities said that the great mistake
that had been made with regard to Quebec was
that fifty thousand dollars had not been spent
on bringing priests from France to exhort the
French-Canadians to fight for France. In
other words, the Canadian Government and the
Canadian Imperialists having utterly failed to
learn how to co-operate with the French on a
Canadian basis, would spend public money to
convert them to European Francofication, and
make them less British than ever.

" ' Suppose this had been done — ^that two
hundred thousand men had gone from Quebec
to fight for France ; and that in ten years' time
England and France had a dispute that threat-
ened to eventuate in war. On which side would
the French-Canadians be told their support
must be given, on pain of being branded as dis-
loyal to their native country?

" * I do not say we ought not to have helped
France, our Mother; but only that you, my
English friends, may wisely be careful how far

" ON THIS ROCK I STAND '' 239

you push the argument of loyalty to French
interests abroad; because it might become a
two-edged sword, cleaving into a certain duality
of interests at home.

" ' So, you see, we are to be loyal to the
Empire ; loyal to France ; and somewhere after
the two, loyal to Canada. Now, I cannot help
it, but I am loyal first, last, and all the time
to Canada ; and I resent being told that because
I put my own country before some other man's
country, I am not only disloyal to his country
but to my own as well. On this rock I stand ;
and, say what you like, I believe that on that
rock Providence means the future of our dear
country to be built, and sooner than you think
you will find yourselves standing with me.' ''

Among the listeners to this discourse was an
Ontario member of the Commons, whose tradi-
tions, for three generations have been grounded
in Canadian autonomy. Intently he watched
the distinguished Canadian as he rehearsed the
scene in a great corporation's board-room. An
hour later he confided to a friend that he was
"completely flabbergasted" by what he had
heard ; and was afraid the outlook was becom-
ing hopeless. He had been told of such ideas,
but had not resized that they could be expressed
with a passion so deep and a logic so clear.
Reading in the newspapers of an attitude of
mind was strangely different from meeting it
in the vibrant flesh. He could not agree with

240 LIVED LONG; LEARNED LITTLE

the senator. He could not feel antagonistic to
him. He did not know where to turn for guid-
ance and light.

Nothing in our present psychology is more
suggestive than the astonishment with which
men and women of culture, experience and
goodwill receive authentic information about
their fellow-citizens of the old province. The
tendency of some is to cover their eyes and stop
their ears. The desire of most is to increase
their knowledge and enlarge their sympathy.
They marvel that they could have lived so long
beside neighbours of whom they learned so little.
They look for help towards a unifying under-
standing between the two races which, working
with fraternal forbearance, may achieve for
their country an enviable place in the court of
nations, but, acting with fratricidal distrust,
will bequeath only wormwood and gall to their
luckless children.

It may be permissible to diverge shortly from
the course marked out at the beginning of this
task. This book aims to portray conditions,
without propounding remedies, except so far as
diagnosis of a malady indicates the cure.

In Quebec, more than in Ontario, it is gener-
ally known that the writer had a certain
responsibility for the public efforts that were
made in 1916 and 1917 to improve relations
between English and French. That particular
work appears to have ceased. Unhappily the

BONNE ENTENTE FAILURE 241

seeming causes of its cessation have revived, if
they have not deepened distrust, in Quebec, of
Ontario professions, to which the phrase " or-
ganized hypocrisy '' has been applied.

The inner story of so regrettable a failure
is not suitable for these pages. Nothing more
of it need be said than that, while the belief of
the French that they were culpably deceived is
only too well founded, the responsibility for that
calamity does not rest upon that proportion of
Ontario people, whose goodwill, having ante-
ceded the war, is sincere and indestructible.

To the French, perhaps, a word may be said
in a spirit which their natural liberality will
appreciate. It is sometimes asked in Quebec,
" What are you going to do to stop the persecu-
tion of our language in Ontario?" and dis-
appointment is evident when nothing is prom-
ised. One sometimes thinks the French scarcely
grasp the immense distance of the prevailing
Ontario and English point of view from their
own. They are not blameworthy for this. To
them it is incomprehensible that what they feel
is persecution their opponents think is benevo-
lence. Where there is such a chasmal diver-
gence the first requirement is an improvement
in temper — a new readiness to appreciate the
other party's point of view. Till that is gained
nothing is gained, and controversial proposals
from those whose paramount duty it is to reduce
inflammation would be inopportune.

242 WIN-THE-WAR CONVENTION

It may also be said without impropriety that
if the French question is national rather than
provincial, as so many of these pages endeavour
to show, those who strive to cause it to be under-
stood must not allow their effort to be diverted
into provincial feuds. In that connection the
writer may be pardoned for saying that he
sought to have the National Unity and Win-the-
War Convention at Montreal, in May, 1917, dis-
cuss the problem, and to establish a bi-racial
Commission to deal with it on broad, compre-
hensive, informative and far-seeing lines. How
the language question was prevented from
reaching a National Unity Convention, at which
Quebec delegates expected that it would be
frankly discussed, has long been a matter of
record, and would become a matter of disclosure
if the public interest so commanded.*

The English-speaking reader may not resent
an observation, founded on experience, and
designed to facilitate his readiness to advance
the cause of national unity. In all their rela-
tions with the English, for the furtherance of
a better understanding, the good faith of the
French was as transparently unquestionable as
their courtesy and accessibility were unfailing.
Candour forces the admission that the same
cannot be said of elements with which they were
induced to co-operate. Had the French been
without a grievance against Ontario before

* It has been thought well to give in Appendix B certain of the
evidence here alluded to.

LET THE TRUTH BE KNOWN 243

1917, the events of that year furnished one — I
do not refer to the Military Service ^ct, but to
the treatment accorded the pledges and impli-
cations of the Bonne Entente and the National
Unity League (which latter was born at Mont-
real and strangled with its swaddling clothes).
Perhaps the facts of these ill-starred episodes
should have been given the public, but they have
been withheld on Quebec as well as on Ontario
advice. At all events, a wrong has been com-
mitted upon the French, and British fair play
dictates that the fact be known, lest similar
wrongs be attempted and the road to permanent
amity be not only obstructed, as it is now, but
totally estopped.

Let there be no mistaken reading of the
signals. New political alignments may be
effected ; but they will promise more than they
can perform, if they are founded on the idea
that economic adjustments are the most funda-
mental ingredients of national unity. What
has happened in Europe demonstrates that
though outward manifestation of nationality
may be repressed, it will persist from decade
to decade, until an opportunity comes to burst
its bonds and breathe the air of freedom.

To bungle our relations with the French is
to bungle the future of Canada. The war has
taught us nothing if it has not taught us that
the old narrownesses are pitifully impossible
for the new standards by which nationalities,

244 NEW STANDARDS ARE HERE

democracies, liberalities and justices must be
measured. We must take stock, not so much
because we care for the French as because we
love Canada as children love their mother and
as fathers love their children.

The pessimists have much to justify them;
but the optimists have more. Before it was
proposed in 1916 to try to bring the peoples
together, most people thought the idea was im-
practicable. The advance that was made ex-
ceeded all expectations. The failure that fol-
lowed was not inherent in the advance. Men
and women of goodwill are much more numer-
ous to-day than they were supposed to be.
Ways of mutual discovery will be found — they
are being found, as the experience of the Ontario
farmers indicates.

CHAPTER XVI

PIONEER GLORY — ^AND PART OF THE PRICE

Paying tribute to the noble company of the pioneers; inti-
mating that unnecessary disabilities have attached to their
descendants, as evidenced by the comments of a Westerner
upon an Eastern Farmers' Convention, and by the strange
experience of several journalists at a county picnic; and that
a new rural self-determination is proceeding which city folk
cannot ignore.

It is a sharp turn in the social road when the
landed proprietor threatens to lock his barn.
It was reached last summer when Mr. Morrison,
the Secretary of the United Farmers of Ontario
warned the public that the farmers might strike
if the acute antagonisms between town and
country did not abate.

If no produce came to market for a couple of
weeks, where would the supercilious city man
be? If the harvest were secured in barns, how
could it be commandeered? That the mouth-
piece of twenty-five thousand Ontario farmers
should mention a strike was evidence enough
that a rural revolution was afoot. What is it?
Whence comes it? How far is it likely to go?

It is no easier to find the typical Canadian
farmer than to name the province in which
the Canadian spirit most eminently dwells.

245

246 OWN AND WORK THEIR FARMS

Ontario is still the greatest agricultural prov-
ince, in quantity of farmers and value of
produce. But, if organization is a test of lead-
ership, and of ability to mould the community
and direct national life, the wealthiest province
lags behind the youngest.

Ontario agriculture accepted financial help
from the West, to launch its organization. In
political programme-making it has followed its
juniors. But, as it was in Ontario that the first
talk of a farmers' strike was heard; and as
reactions that are slow in beginning are some-
times swift in results, perhaps the surest signs
of to-morrow's Weather may be read in Ontario.

Though the typical Canadian farmer is undis-
coverable, there is a double distinction in Cana-
dian agriculture which applies generally to all
the provinces; and which furnishes a valuable
clue to an appreciation of the farmer and his
industry in the present transition period, and
to their probable consequence in the reconstruc-
tion which may involve an overturn. Speaking
broadly, the Canada we know has been trans-
formed from wilderness to farms within living
memory, and the producing land is owned by
those who crop it. On these two distinctions
hang most of the Canadian law and prophecy.

The epic of the forest pioneers has never been
adequately written. Who, indeed, could render
into the prose of the tractor and movie the
quenchless courage, the incredible labour, the

POLITICS IN GRAY'S ELEGY 247

tragic privation, the unconquerable hope of
the men and women who answered the impulse
which qualifies our kind to subdue the earth —
the impulse that brought the ancient herdsman
from Ur of the Chaldees to the Jordan Valley,
and turned men from comfort in the Old World
to acquire a competence in the New. They
were called emigrants and immigrants, as they
are to-day, and were regarded as half foolish
and half unfortunate. This inspiration might
have been written of their toil :

Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield,
Their harrow oft the stubborn glebe hath broke;

How jocund did they drive their teams afield,

How bowed the woods beneath their sturdy stroke.

Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid

Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire.

Hands that the rod of Empire might have swayed,
Or woke to ecstasy the living lyre.

There you have the achievement and the
deprivation of the pioneer — the achievement in
labour to be honoured, the deprivation in states-
manship and culture to be overcome, by those
who inherit what the pioneers wrought.

In the main, the men who hewed farms out of
forests had one abiding ambition. To some who
have found that riches come quickest to him who
gathers most from other men's sweat, it seems
too circumscribed an ambition ; but, in truth, it
includes all ambitions. To wish to be a master

248 MARTYRS SLEEP IN ONTARIO

of soil is to aspire to be master of all that comes
from the soil — and what besides can kings com-
mand?

While the pioneers lived in France, Eng-
land, Scotland, Ireland or Germany, they did
not theorize about the land— they were sure
they wanted to possess some of it, and knew no
way of satisfying their hunger. There is multi-
tudinous romance in their coming to the un-
peopled hinterlands of the Great River and the
Great Lakes, if it could be searched for with
vision and sympathy. Some of it is so splen-
did that, like the choicest fruits of genius, it was
unnoticed by those who lived beside it. In Mid-
dlesex and Perth there sleep farmers who were
labourers in Dorset at the period of the first
Reform Bill, and receiving wages of seven shil-
lings a week. A trade union movement among
their class began in England. The employers
of Tolpuddle took a shilling off the seven. Led
by George Loveless, six of their " hands "
formed a union, in the hope that it would afford
a partial escape from slavery.

They were betrayed by a cleric who professed
sympathy; and were each sentenced to seven
years' transportation under an Act passed to
deal with mutiny at the Nore. They sailed
away in convict ships and were farmed out to
squatters in Van Diemen's Land.

An agitation arose for their release, and after
a year they received their pardons. Returning

HOMAGE LONG DEFERRED 249

they were welcomed by two hundred thousand
people on Kennington Common, and were set up
on little farms in Essex. But they wanted a
larger freedom, and four of them emigrated to
Ontario, where their heroism and their breed
have passed into the common life.

They warned their children to conceal from
the neighbours that they had been " convicts,''
lest unkindly stigma be cast upon them all. It
was as if Paul had been frightened from telling
that he had been in the stocks. They feared that
what brought honour in London might bring
disgrace in Ontario. Only within the last seven
years, in places where they were known, has
public homage been paid to these pioneers, for
their part in the great fight for emancipation
which has always been carried on by people who
greatly dared to kick against the pricks, and to
suffer, and who have always been despited by
neighbours who were not courageous enough to
do either.

Wherein is, indeed, a parable, with many
teachings. Here were Ontario settlements in
which all were toiling to create free, indepen-
dent, self-governing communities with axe and
plough for their material weapons, but with
limitations and repressions on the civic side,
which were not recognized as such at the time —
the achievement in labour, the deprivation in
statesmanship. Labour and statesmanship are
coming to be understood as interchangeable

250 COST OF NEEDLESS FEAR

terms. There can be no statesmanship without
labour. A statesmanship which undervalues
labour dwarfs itself, and inflicts injustice upon
labour.

If the neighbours of the Lovelesses in London
township, and of the Briens, in Blanshard,
three miles out of St. Mary's, had known that
the farmers who worked so steadily, and did
their duty in local affairs so unobtrusively, had
been first the culprits, and then the heroes of as
noble a warfare for freedom as any that
adorn the annals of Liberty, a blessed infec-
tion could have pervaded the countryside. Fear,
and the sense of humiliation would have been
banished from several most worthy families.
The people roundabout would have understood
what excellent qualities were being incorpor-
ated into their own existence. But there was
something lacking in the general apprehension
of social and public values. There was abun-
dance of labour, there was paucity of states-
manship. The achievement remains, and the
deprivation also. Some great thing has been
lacking in the teaching of the countryside.

There is a strange pathos about a great con-
vention of Ontario farmers, which no social
psychologist seems to have taken the pains to
investigate and expound. It is different from
the distinctions of western conventions only a
minority of whose members have been twenty
years iu that region.

WESTERNER TALKS OF EAST 251

A western leader, who forsook the Huron
bush for the Manitoba prairie nearly forty years
ago, was watching a big Ontario meeting of his
fellow craftsmen.

" What do you think of this crowd?'' he was
asked.

" It's all right," he replied; " but. My! what
a difference from the crowd I saw here eight
years ago. Very few attended then — a couple
of hundred, I should say. Now look at them —
there must be over a thousand. At that time
they were afraid to open their mouths — a more
timid lot of fellows you never saw. They made
me wonder if I was like them when I lived down
here. Their main anxiety seemed to be to get
the railroad certificates for the free ride home.
They wouldn't talk back at you ; but just looked,
and looked, as if they were trying to decide
whether you had travelled fifteen hundred miles
to tell them fairy tales. To come among
Ontario farmers was like coming to another
world — in those days.

" See now what they are like. They are dif-
ferent men. There isn't quite as much freedom
here as there is in the West. On the whole, I
don't think their prominent men are as
experienced as ours are. But they are past the
stage when many of their best friends doubted
whether the Ontario farmers would ever learn
to combine and stay combined. Believe me, this
thing can never go back. It hasn't fairly got

252 TEMPERS OF A CONVENTION

into its stride yet; but it's making speed very-
fast."

The association of diffidence with vehemence
is one of the most striking characteristics of an
Ontario farmers' assembly. You hear the presi-
dent beseeching his auditors to come inside: —
" Don't hang about the door : come right in.
Farmers are always too ready to stay round the
mat instead of coming to the front where they
belong." Another leader tells of his difficulties
in getting a simple motion proposed to a meet-
ing— a motion that everybody was in favour of,
and nobody had the nerve to propose, from sheer
dread of making a blunder.

When an unkind editorial in a city paper is
mentioned a shout arises with resentment, defi-
ance, and punishment in it, and demand for the
ejection of an unoffending reporter for the
offending paper who happens to be in the meet-
ing. He is told he is no gentleman if he stays.
He would be a coward if he fled.

Something is said about the tariff. As long
as the discourse is on theoretical ground there is
quietude, restraint, and evident desire to seize
the speaker's points. But let him refer to
manufacturers, as a collection of individuals
who are out to rob the farmer, and a fierce,
approving tornado sweeps over the audience,
with a whooping accompaniment which shews
that far down in the agricultural consciousness
passionate feelings are smouldering and heaving

CHILL TWIXT TOWN AND FARM 253

which are feebly understood by those who
imagine that the farmer is as willing to-day to
accept what is given him as for many decades
he was presumed to be.

The truth is, of course, that the farmers have
become acutely class-conscious, and their self-
recognition is expressing itself as pugnaciously
as that of the urban workers who range them-
selves in trade unions and socialist organiza-
tions in which ferment is the normal state. If
the feeling seems to carry undue hostility to
other classes, the manifestation is not surpris-
ing to those who have been through the farmers'
mill. There is something very persistent about
the chill that emanates from personalities who
assume that, because they live in town, they are
superior to those in the country whose industry
alone affords them the opportunity of securing
bread and automobiles.

Those who have left the farm, and would as
readily go to jail as they would return to it,
must sometimes ask why people as intelligent as
themselves continue to live a life which they
abandoned. Farmers and their wives do not
stay on the farm because they are not smart
enough to appreciate an existence where there
are no chores, and Sunday is a perfect dream.
Let farmers cease to farm, and everything
ceases. They are the first order in the Divine
Scheme. Theirs is the indispensable social
service. Prudence holds them to it, even

18

254 STRANGE PRESS EPISODE

though they believe they have worked more
than they have been paid. They will not return
to the financial helotage in which they were so
long confined. As they emerge from it they
may be distrustful, but that is a phase, and it
will pass.

Causes of rural distrust are often remote
from the occasion which exhibits it. It was
understood by the promoters of a county farm-
ers' picnic in Western Ontario that the daily
papers of the nearest city would each send a
reporter, and it was arranged to meet them at
the station. From the train three men and a
woman alighted. They told the "farmer who
had brought his automobile, that three of them
represented one paper — a man reporter, a
woman reporter, and a photographer with a
big camera.

The good farmer was astonished. Would a
daily paper, even one that was championing the
farmers' cause, send three reporters to a farm-
ers' picnic? Impossible. These people must
be spies. He drove them to the picnic ground.
Members of the Committee were also sure that
they were spies. No others appeared to claim
representation of the papers with which the
arrangement was made to meet the train; but
the four strangers must certainly be spies, prob-
ably sent out by the Food Board, to see that the
picnickers didn't consume too much.

Even spies must eat ; and they were proffered

ORDER-IN-COUNCIL RESULTS 255

a lunch in the farmhouse. The hostess was
instructed to serve them scantily, and to charge
them fully. The newspaper representatives
knew they were under suspicion, but could not
divine why. If they had asked for an explana-
tion they v/ould not have been told that they
were spies, because that would have put them
on their guard. So the disquieting suspicion
was nourished for three mortal hours, until a
gentleman arrived who knew one of the report-
ers. The picnic was reported as no farmers'
organization picnic had been reported before —
or has been reported since.

This happened during the period of cancella-
tion of exemptions, when rural feeling was
aroused, and a few days after Farmer Cross,
of Brant County, had been fined five hun-
dred dollars for telephoning a neighbour that
recent orders-in-council wore a Prussian look.
It was rumoured that another farmer, who
unwittingly fixed a barn-raising for a porkless
day, had been fined two hundred dollars because
ham was served to the workers, two spotters
having sought the hospitality of the event.

The extreme suspicion of four dutiful report-
ers was symptomatic of something very much
deeper than a passing irritation at an emer-
gency war measure, operated in some places
with a clumsy excess of zeal. It was the expres-
sion of a mentality that has been fostered by
prevailing conditions of farm development, and

256 FARMERS WILLING TO LOOK

of political under-development. It was the con-
sequence of the partial use of the capacity for
government, the ill effects of which, in Canada,
the Round Table would fain believe can be
cured in London.

The special situation in which his ownership
of the land has placed the Ontario farmer does
not seem to have been fully analyzed by him,
or by his candid or his sugar-candied friends.
He appraises himself for what he is and what
he has always been, in the environment he has
always known. He has been given no litera-
ture that tries to explain himself to himself, as
the keel of the ship of Canadian state. His
civic thinking has largely centred in an eco-
nomic controversy in which he is primarily
represented as the victim of soulless, implacable,
wealthy robbers who handle his stuff.

He has worked hard and long for precious
little return. And now, as soon as prices give
him some chance of raising his head above the
ground on which he spends his time, he is spoken
to as if he has become the robber, and should
go back to the old status, and carry the back-
breaking old load in the old poverty-stricken
way. He will not accept that reversion on any
account. He doesn't quite know what he wants,
but things aren't right — he knows that.

The Ontario farmer is very willing to try to
look at himself through other eyes, if he can be
satisfied they are honest eyes. He admits that

NEW SELF-DETERMINATION 257

he is suspicious. When he asks you if he has
not had plenteous cause to be distrustful only
one answer is possible. He will candidly dis-
cuss the bribery evil in elections, and will avow
an unquestionable desire to end it. He wants
to know whether there isn't something more in
that evil than the readiness of a few farmers
to make a little money for once, without sweat-
ing for it. Perhaps nothing more simply opens
up the problem of the new rural self-determina-
tion than a farmer's son's portrayal of this
aspect of social and political life.

CHAPTER XVII

LANDOWNER OR LABOURER AT THE BALLOT

Containing a comparison between British and Canadian
land-owning and land-labouring, by a farmer's son. who asserts
that the Ontario farmer has allowed the politician to treat him
as if he were much nearer the English labourer than land-
owner; and that the degradations of bribery must be cleaned
out of country life; followed by remarks of Sir Robert
Falconer, who attended one Scotch, one English and two
German universities, on the inferiority of our intellectual
liberty.

At a county seat, in west-central Ontario,
two thousand farmers and their wives were lis-
tening to addresses on their rightful place in the
State, and how to secure it. One speaker
frankly discussed the sale of votes ; and another
— a farmer's son who had been a traveller as
well as a student — handled with almost brutal
candour the local electoral situation. He first
asked whether the audience wished to hear some
mighty plain talk about the county's reputation.
" Sure ! " was cried from all over the crowd.
But before the local disease was probed, the
general situation of the farmers was expounded
after this fashion :

** The agitation amongst the farmers this
summer is not merely a protest against boys
being conscripted for the war. To a large
extent it is a revolt against the inferior position
which the politicians think the farmer will

258

FARM IS THE BIG INTEREST 259

accept, whenever an important affair of state
is being decided.

"A pledge was given that farmers' sons
would be exempted. It was signed in the king's
name. But it was arbitrarily cancelled, with-
out any preparation of the minds of those who
were expected to consent tamely to the revolu-
tion. The farmers, when they saw what was
happening said, * Are we of no account?' This
is the year in which the tillers of the soil have
at last realized something of their key position
in the State. They will assert their importance,
and will do it for themselves, by themselves, and
not as haulers of wood and water for political
taskmasters who have hitherto presumed to
rule over them.

" Farmers sometimes talk bitterly of the Big
Interests that are arrayed against them. It is
opportune to inquire what the Big Interest of
Canada is, and how it might exert itself. Some-
times you get a line on your own position by
taking a look at it from a distance.

" What was the Big Interest during the long
fight for British liberty, about which we hear
so much and learn so little? For centuries it
was the Landed Interest. The foundation of
economic, social, political and military power
was the possession of land. The House of Lords
used to be called the House of Landlords.

" The lords not only owned vast estates in the
country ; but many of the towns as well. They

260 IN POLITICAL SERFDOM

used to decide who would represent these towns
in the House of Commons. It was to solidify
their power that seats in the Commons were
allotted to all sorts of little places — Old Sarum,
for instance, only had seven voters. Landlords
owned and sold seats in the Commons just as
openly as you own the seats on your mowing
machines and sell the hay the machines cut.

" Owning the land in the country and the
houses in the towns, the lords had great power
in the county representation, because they
rented their lands to tenants who were expected
to vote as their landlords desired. The tenant
farmer had a vote, but until thirty-three years
ago this fall the men who did the work on the
farm had no vote. They were not citizens in
the full sense of the word, though they had to
provide the soldiers when the country must be
defended. They were welcome to die for their
country but they were not permitted to vote for
it. They were political serfs.

" The man who ploughed and sowed and
reaped and mowed was regarded as the meanest
in the mental and social scale. It was not
thought worth while to teach him to read. His
wages were so small that he was not expected to
get through the winter without receiving ' char-
ity.' The ' charity ' was usually given in the
form of a little coal or a blanket, or a coat for
his child, the style of which told everybody that
it was a ' charity ' coat. The ' charity ' came

LORD SALISBURY'S WAY 261

from the great house, where the lord lived in
luxury out of the rents of the land which didn't
earn a shilling until the recipient of the ' char-
ity' had worked on it. What the labourer
received in ' charity ' he had really earned in
wages — and more also.

" When it was proposed to give the tiller of
the soil a vote, it was said he wouldn't know how
to use it. Lord Salisbury told the House of
Landlords that what the ploughman and cow-
man wanted was not the franchise but a circus.
It was said, too, that the farm worker would be
victimized by every trickster who came along;
and the country would go to the dogs through
wild and wicked legislation, sanctioned by the
ignorant and envious poor. The man who
owned the land was the man who had a real
stake in the country. He should decide national
policy. The place of the waggoner, the har-
vester and the stockman was to go to the Estab-
lished Church (if he became a Methodist or a
Baptist, he was liable to get no ' charity '), and
repeat the catechism which says that it is part
of one's duty ' To order myself lowly and rever-
ently before my betters,' and to pray

God bless the squire and his relations,
And keep us in our proper stations.

" The landowner, then, was the great man in
the state; the landworker was his dependent,
his serf — lowly, reverent, ignorant, and poor.
The owners of the soil governed all that was on

262 BUILT ON LAND HUNGER

it. They lived sumptuously upon what grew
on the land. They despised the cultivator of the
soil because he cultivated it. Measures were
taken so that he would never raise his mind
from the furrows in which his brain was ex-
pected to be buried.

" That was in the Old World, from which our
fathers and some of us came. How does our
share in the New World differ from the share
of our fathers in the Old? In this — that the
man who owns the soil tills it. It was to
acquire land that our fathers came here. For
all generations their fathers had only been
allowed to sojourn on the land of their birth.
It used to be counted a fine exercise in piety to
sing:

No foot of land do I possess.

" To own a hundred acres of land — ah ! that
was an ambition indeed. You know how they
strove to satisfy it; and how many of them
went down to their graves wracked and crippled
by excessive toil. For them life had been a con-
tinual labour, because they wanted to be more
independent than their forbears were. It was
better to own than to be owned. They were
almost happy to live with a mortgage if only
their sons and daughters might be enabled to
live without one.

" While this was going on, what else hap-
pened? The pioneers were also citizens. Hav-
ing come to a colony, they accepted the colonial

GRANDFATHER'S GREAT WORK 263

condition. Their situation developed polities of
its own — often narrow, blind, bitter, vindictive.
You inherited the politics just as you inherited
the land. You have had the franchise ever
since you were old enough to vote. How have
the other interests in the country regarded you?
Have they looked upon you as the landowner has
been regarded in the older country — the natural
governor of the state — or have they treated you
as the labourer on the soil — ^the man whom they
were best qualified to govern, and who should
do as he was told, and receive with meekness
what he was given?

" Have you treated yourself as a landowner
or as a labourer, when it came to voting, and
determining your place in the state? Have you
regarded money given for a vote more or less as
the Old Country labourer was expected to
regard a blanket and a hundredweight of coal
at Christmas? It is time to think this out.

" Your grandfather, who first cleared the
farm, may not have realized how great a thing
he was doing, every time he felled a tree or
pulled a stump. Though he didn't realize it, he
was making a new kind of state within the
British Empire — a state in which the tiller of
the soil could be supreme, and could set the pace
of progress for the remainder of the world — if
he cared to do it. But nobody came along to
show him the noble politics of his creative work.
Nobody has come along to make it clear to his

264 PRICE OF VOTES HAS RISEN

children's children. It is up to us to show that
it is not too late to translate the truth into
action.

** What have we been doing for ourselves?
What have we allowed other people to do for us?
Not having a high ideal of our duty to the State
instilled into us, something else has grown up
as the permissible and not disgraceful thing in
citizenship. A former Parliamentary candi-
date in a county not far from this freely says
that with one exception, this is the most corrupt
riding in Ontario.

" The price of farmers' votes has gone up
from two to twenty dollars apiece in this cen-
tury. In a district west of here it is said that
in 1911 every elector received twenty dollars
for his vote, except the preacher, who only got
fifteen. The victor in that election is the head
of an important Missionary Movement. It is
generally understood at Ottawa that he won the
election because he stacked up thirty thousand
dollars against his opponent's twenty thousand.

" Things like these are notorious. They are
not confined to one county or province. They
are evil legacies of a time when men did not see
as clearly as they do now that as sacred a trust
belongs to the ownership of a ten-acre field of
wheat as belongs to tending ten rods of grave-
yard. The resting-place of the dead is no more
God's acre than the dwelling-place of the living.

" We have fallen into evil ways because we

CHURCHMAN'S VIEW OF BRIBE 265

haven't learned what the more excellent ways
should be. When we find out what we have
missed we may recover what we should never
have lost; and we may learn how to hold fast
to what our fathers secured for us, even though
they could not have told us exactly what it was/'

A veracious landowner in the county where
this frank speech was made, tells of meeting the
right-hand man of the unsuccessful candidate
in the last hotly-contested election for the Com-
mons— the candidate was an official pillar of
the church.

" I hear," he said, " that you have got things
arranged over in " and he mentioned a poll-
ing sub-division.

" Oh, yes. We think we know how it's going
over there, all right."

" Prices about the same as before?"

" Maybe."

" Say, Duncan, can you tell me how your man
squares this business with his religion? I
should like to know his justification for holding
the plate on Sunday and buying votes on Mon-
day. How does he reconcile the two?"

" That's easy. A man has a right to sell his
coat, hasn't he? Sure he has, because it's his
own. His vote's his own, isn't it? He can put
it where he likes on the ballot, can't he? Well,
then, if his vote is his own as much as his coat
is his own, he can sell his vote the same as he
can sell his coat. Isn't that right?"

266 POISON LONG AT WORK

This story faithfully represents a condition —
not a fancy. The explanation given by a Cab-
inet Minister is not satisfying — that there is
bound to be corruption in new countries, and
that the evil v^ill cure itself in good time. If
that were so, the newer the country the more
rampant would be the corruption ; and the older
it grew the less corrupt it would become. In
this Ontario county the price of votes has multi-
plied by ten in the last twenty years. Neither
is it satisfying to recall that in the Old Country
there was far worse corruption not so long ago.
That was the case in boroughs where there were
bad old traditions such as do not obtain in a
young country. The new English constitu-
encies are very large, and vote-buying is vir-
tually unknown in them.

So long as men compete for office the temp-
tation to venality will appear. But when a
whole multitude of well-reputed landowners
make a business of selling their votes there is
a callousness to civic refinement that must be
explained by some poison long established in the
public life which it so ruthlessly drags down.

Is not the explanation to be sought in the
bequests of the colonial system? — the system
whose defective genius made Washington's chief
difficulty in maintaining recruits for the Amer-
can army, because it had poisoned the public
life which it developed. Observe the Ontario
landowner as citizen, and see.

SMALL THINGS: BIG NAMES 267

Owning land either turns him within himself
or gives him a wider conception of his civic duty
than he would otherwise be likely to have. Left
to himself he will become narrower and nar-
rower. There is political wisdom beneath the
Scriptural injunction not to look on your own
things, but on the things of others. Intensive
love of possession drives a man to law about the
minute location of a line fence. A sense of
responsibility helps him to love his neighbour
rather than covet his field, and directs him into
public service.

One cannot become bigger than the biggest
things he thinks about. That is why so many
who are rich in cash are poor in spirit. The
principle is as unfailing in citizenship as it is
in personal interests. Magnify small things
into big importances, and you will have small
politics conducted in a furiously small way.
Give small things big names and teach people
to venerate them, and you will presently throw
everything into a distorted perspective. That
was what the colonial system did, and is still
doing, wherever its remaining institutions dom-
inate private thinking and direct public doing.
Those who have lived many years among the
remains of the English feudal system have un-
forgettable reasons for knowing that the sub-
ordinations of the colonial system were so many
suckers from that venerable tree.

Why are there ten Prime Ministers, and nine

268 MR. CHAMBERLAIN'S PICTURE

Governors appointed by the Dominion Govern-
ment, as there were when the population was
less than half its present magnitude. Prince
Edward Island has had a Prime Minister and
Cabinet for many decades, and never a popu-
lation of one hundred and ten thousand. Brit-
ish Columbia had a Premier when less than fifty
thousand people were within her borders, and
half of them were Indians. Who decided that
there should be Prime Ministers for such popu-
lations? The Colonial Office. But why should
there be a Prime Minister of British Columbia
when the highest dignity that comes to the chief
administrator in an English county with a
population of two millions is that of chairman
of the county council? Why should the title of
Prime Minister — equal in sound with that of
the Parliamentary chieftain of the Empire — be
given, and yet, when a score of Prime Ministers
were photographed with the Colonial Secretary,
a subordinate member of a Government, they
should all stand and he should sit, in token of his
superior dignity? Mr. Chamberlain was a
powerful statesman; but it does not delight you
to see him sitting in a group of statesmen all of
whom, including the Prime Minister of Canada,
stand like servitors about him.

The colonial system assumed that '* the col-
onies " were subject communities, which should
be given as much of the show of government as
they wanted, and as little of its substance as

CABINET CAMOUFLAGES 269

they would accept. The history of responsible
government is the history of a constant fight
against the Downing Street delusion, which is
not yet defunct, that for a " colony " to govern
itself as finally as England governed herself
would mean the break-up of the Empire. In
1895 Lord Kimberley, a Liberal Foreign Secre-
tary, wrote a despatch stating that if Canada's
claim to make her own commercial treaties were
allowed, it " would be equivalent to breaking up
the Empire into a number of independent
states."

Premierships, and all that goes with them,
were given to the provinces as comforters.
They helped to keep the baby quiet; they might
prevent the boy from learning that he was
growing up and would soon need a shave. So,
when you vote for a Legislature which sustains
a Prime Minister and a Government, you help
to operate a certain camouflage of sovereignty,
you are adorned with sundry appurtenances of
dignity, and you are periodically occupied with
an election which is intended to satisfy your
aspiration to handle great affairs.

How well guarded the salients of the old sys-
tem are can be understood from an enumera-
tion of the Cabinet Offices and the titles that go
with them. In seven provinces out of nine,
about one seventh of the members of the legisla-
ture are Ministers of the Crown. If the average
strength of the Government party is sixty per

19

270 ONLY ONE BRITISH HEAD

cent, of the Legislature — three to two — the
" Honourables '' become a pretty heavy per-
centage of the party in power.

The distribution of honours was a cleverly
designed feature of the colonial system ; but it
was the device of a European superiority, as it
is now. The revolt of the House of Commons
against hereditary and all other titles of honour
is striking proof of that. If the life-long and
family-long honour conferred by the King has
become incongruous in Canada, the title of
" Honourable " that has gone with a Cabinet
position in The Island, worth eighteen hundred
dollars a year, must be still more superfluous.

There is only one Prime Minister for Eng-
land, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, the Dependen-
cies and Crown Colonies. How does that limi-
tation affect the mentality of the average citizen
of the United Kingdom? Does he wish he
were able to elect two Prime Ministers — or ten,
if his property were widely enough distributed
— as his relative in Canada does? Not at all:
he elects the Prime Minister ; and he is rather
amused at the idea of " colonials " electing
Prime Ministers for provinces, and then Prime
Ministers for the Dominions, all of which, he
says to himself, are really our provinces. The
fellows overseas are doing very well with such
Governments as they have ; but they really don't
amount to very much, because, as they don't
utilize to the full their ability for government.

HALF-WAY PREMIER 271

the capacity languishes for want of exercise,
they remain dependencies, and we can still
speak of " our " Colonial Empire.

That is the situation. The Canadian land-
owner of the third and fourth generation has
never voted for a member of Parliament who
could call to account a Minister who might sign
away Canada's interest in the Behring Sea, or
disregard her wishes in registering the conse-
quences of a war in which half a million Cana-
dian troops were engaged. But he has always
had a couple of Prime Ministers on his list
whom he could dismiss, but neither of whom
exercised anything like the conclusive functions
of the third Prime Minister, to whom he has
only a submissive relation. The Canadian
interest in the British Prime Ministry is as dif-
ferent from that of the English elector as the
control of a child over his father is different
from the father's control over his office staff.
On the anvil where commonwealths are wrought
to their true temper and shape. Sir Robert
Borden, at Ottawa, rings with an uncertain
sound. In the nature of things he is a half-way
Premier, until Parliament insists that he be-
come something more.

The humblest English elector is free to heckle
his Prime Minister about any department of
home, '* colonial '' or foreign affairs. He may
assail the Government of the day for failures
in foreign policy — he can say they were culp-

272 SMALL PIT: FIERCE FIGHT

ably sacrificing British interests; he can call
upon them to reverse their conduct or be con-
signed to ignominious oblivion. He can do all
this, and nobody dreams of charging him with
unpatriotism. It is his duty; as v^ell as his
right, to say what he thinks, at his own time
and in his own way.

Contrast this with his position when he trans-
fers his British citizenship to Canada. If, dur-
ing an election he believes the Government has
sacrificed Canadian interests, or has too per-
functorily upheld them, as against the assert-
iveness of Downing Street, he fears to say so.
If he uses half as strong language in criticism
of Downing Street as he used in the British
Isles, in common with half or more than half of
his fellows, he is liable to bring upon himself
the stigma of disloyalty. So he holds his
tongue, and reads in the paper that Canada is
the freest country in the world.

The effect of such constrictions of freedom as
this is to make sectional antagonisms more
antagonistic. As they say in Nova Scotia, the
smaller the pit the fiercer the fight. The con-
stitutional limitation of the citizen's responsi-
bility for government always breeds limitations
in the minds of those who accept deprivations
of which their distant kindred know nothing.
This is true, not only of politics, but of the whole
range of public service. A judge who knows
that his decisions may be taken to some other

SIR ROBERT FALCONER SAYS 273

country for revised decisions in which he and
his brethren may bear no part, cannot have the
same sense of responsibility as judges to whom
finality is accorded. Educationalists cannot
impart to students the same confidence in their
country which students in self-reliant countries
receive from their mentors.

On the day that this is written the news-
papers summarize an admirable lecture on
Reconstruction by the President of Toronto
University. Sir Robert Falconer is a brilliant
honour graduate of both Edinburgh and Lon-
don, and a student of Leipzig, Berlin and Mar-
burg Universities. He has been in Europe dur-
ing the last year. He knows whereof he speaks.
Read a few of his reported sentences, and see
whether they support the tenor of what is
argued here :

No one henceforth would question Canada's ability
to organize on a large scale

It could not be doubted that the Canadian people
are able to hold their own with others in what was
called efficiency. . . .

We had the intelligence and the will power . . .
and Canada would move forward, and the people in
this country would enjoy the wealth and comfort
they should enjoy. . . .

There was less intellectual liberty in America than
in Europe. . . .

Some people were afraid to think because they did
not know enough to think for themselves. . . .

In Canada we must find a larger place for con-
templative activities. . . .

The average citizen must think more for him-
self. ...

274 WHO IS INSULTED?

Two of Sir Robert's implications are espe-
cially illuminative. " No one would henceforth
question Canada's ability," " It could not be
doubted that the Canadian people are able to
hold their own " — what do these delusively bold
phrases suggest? That Canada's ability has
been questioned, and the Canadian people have
been doubted. By whom? By themselves.

Why should there ever have been questionings
and doubts and fears? Does anybody assure
an English audience that it could not henceforth
be doubted that the English people could organ-
ize things on a large scale, and that no one
would now question that the English people
were able to hold their own? They would be
insulted by such assurances, as a man would be
by a solemn adjuration to clothe himself before
going outdoors. Are the Canadian people
insulted when they are informed that they are
as good as their kinsfolk? They have accepted
for so long the disabilities which the high priests
of the colonial system, in their pinnacled sim-
plicity, conferred upon those who were creating
Britannic communities out of appalling ob-
stacles, that they receive without displeasure
the assurance that they are not inferior.

Is it only now that a people who have occupied
half a continent, who have connected the two
oceans by three railways, and who have done
more original, creative work than those who
have remained in the Britannic cradle — is it

GLORY OF SEVEN YEARS' WAR 275

only now that they begin to understand that
they can do things on a large scale?

There are a million more people in Canada
than there were in England during the Seven
Years' War, which brought Canada into the
British Empire, and won control of India. Of
that time, John Richard Green, whose Short
History of the English People should be studied
afresh by all who would finally establish the
safety of democracy, wrote :

Never had England played so great a part in the
history of mankind as in the year 1759. It was a
year of triumphs in every quarter of the globe.
. . . With the victory of Plassey the influence of
Europe told for the first time since the days of
Alexander on the nations of the East. The world,
in Burke's gorgeous phrase, " saw one of the races
of the north-west cast into the heart of Asia new
manners, new doctrines, new institutions." . . .
The Seven Years' War is a turning point in our
national history, as it is a turning point in the
history of the world. Till now the relative weight
of the European states had been drawn from their
possessions within Europe itself. But from the
close of the war it mattered little whether England
counted for less or more with the nations rourf^
her. . . . Britain suddenly towered high above
the nations whose position in a single continent
doomed them to comparative insignificance in the
after history of the world. . . . Statesmen and
people alike felt the change in their country's atti-
tude. In the words of Burke, the Parliament of
Britain claimed " an imperial character in which,
as from the throne of heaven, she superintends all
the several inferior legislatures, and guides and
controls them all, without annihilating any."

276 AHEAD, BUT BEHIND

That was accomplished a hundred and sixty
years ago by a few millions of people, three-
fourths of whom could neither read nor write,
and the other fourth of whom were infected by
a social, religious and political corruption from
which the intimate literature of the period con-
ducts a miasma which sickens every cleanly
reader of it to this day. They never needed
assurance that they were capable of organizing
things on a large scale. They have never
waited for another people to declare their status
at the closing exercises of their own wars.

There are in Canada three-quarters of a mil-
lion people who themselves have shared in the
sovereign government which inherits all that
Pitt did, and appropriates all that Green wrote.
They find their kinsmen of the New World gen-
erally ahead of themselves in physical prowess,
in natural initiative, in the assertion of social
equality, in readiness to meet emergency. But
in the public realm they listen with astonish-
ment to deliverances like that of the President
of the great university. They meet honest, able,
timid compatriots whose motto seems to be
"Any country but our own," even while they
herald themselves as heirs of an Empire in
which manly self-reliance in mind and person
have written its title to enduring fame. It
takes years to discover an explanation of the
anomaly, and more years to acquire the courage
to tell what they discover.

CHAPTER XVIII

INTELLECTUAL LIBERTY: COLONIAL SYSTEM:
ORANGE TIE

Connecting the Colonial System with the strange unwilling-
ness of Parliamentary candidates to discuss frankly with
farmers and others the larger public affairs; and analysing the
influence of an Irish feud on Canadian political life, and its
possible continued effect, though the Orangemen who fought
for Canada are more numerous than both armies at the battle
of the Boyne, which has been out-ranked.

" There is less intellectual liberty in America
than in Europe," says Sir Robert Falconer. He
speaks most authoritatively of the country and
the educational standards he knows best. If he
is right, why is he right? There is no law
against freedom of reflection in a province like
Ontario, where the population is largely of
landed proprietors. If there is less liberty in
Canada than in England and France for original
thinking and frank expression, it must be
because there has been inferior exercise of the
liberty to think and speak — or, to put it another
way, there is more punishment for those who, as
they cannot help thinking, are not frightened
from speaking. How is greater intellectual
liberty to be attained? First by .finding out
why it has been crippled; and then by discov-
ering the engine by which the path to the new

277

278 WHICH RE-CREATING CLASS?

liberty may be cleared, and widened, and wid-
ened, and then widened once more.

It will quickly be shewn whether the Canadian
landowners, who have toiled harder and missed
more than their town relatives, will be the
re-creating class, or whether, as is happening
in Europe now, massed, wage-earning Labour
will determine our political courses.

When the penultimate epoch of English feu-
dalism was about to close, through the enfranch-
isement of the manufacturing cities, and the
substitution of commercial for land-owning
power, the middle class became the balance-
wheel of the State, though the territorial aris-
tocracy continued for many years to monopolize
the great offices of power, whichever party was
in office. That stage has finally passed. The
wage-earners are in control. They do not wait
to be informed that they are capable of organ-
izing on a large scale ; that their ability will not
be questioned; or that they are defective in
intellectual liberty.

In our own favoured country the capitalistic
class has until recently decided the national
policies as surely as the feudal classes did in
England before the Reform Bill of 1832. The
most casual glance over railway legislation
establishes that fact beyond dispute. That the
promoter-capitalists were delusive guides is
obvious when the National and Grand Trunk
Railways are mentioned. Political parties

RAILWAYS PAID PARTIES 279

seemed as eager to endorse what the money-
changers put before them, as the member for a
pocket borough was to do his patron's will. A
Liberal leader who was remonstrated with by
a supporter because the party so frequently
belied its name, said it could not be helped,
because elections were not won by prayers, and
money came from railway companies. The
cynic who knows says the custom was for the
railways to give two dollars to the Opposition
campaign fund and three to the Government
managers.

As there are no more transcontinental pro-
grammes in sight, in which the private pro-
moter says to the Government, " Heads, I win ;
tails, you lose," it should soon be determined
whether the middle section of the business world
— the most numerous, and, in essentials, the
wealthiest section — will secure its rightful
recognition from the state. The farming class
in the West has become all but all-powerful. In
the East it is like an old man seeking a new
incarnation — though Nicodemus scarcely seems
its fitting name. Can it be born again, and the
national spirit re-born within it? Or must
there be a re-fashioning of the economic fabric
through an organized, artisan force, deriving
its predominating impulse from its European
origin, and the European examples which now
inflame the world?

It is no exaggeration to say that often enough

280 GIVE GUFF TO FARMERS

the landowner in Canada has been treated by
the politician as contemptuously as the land-
labourer was by the Marquis of Salisbury — and
not by the politicians only. On the way to a
county demonstration a traveller fell in with
the manager of a company which flourishes by
canning tomatoes, peas and corn.

" If you want to make a good speech/' he said,
" you must tell the farmers they are the most
downtrodden class in the country; everybody is
robbing them; nobody wants to give them a
square deal — and guff like that. Give them
plenty of that kind of provender, and they'll be
tickled to death, and think you are the greatest
orator that ever came down the line.''

Of another order of contempt is the attitude
of a member of Parliament for a rural constitu-
ency. Probably his farming electors are worth
on an average fifteen thousand dollars apiece.
He is a great business man, with a manufac-
turer's mind and the economic creed of those
who have never been against organized labour,
but have done their best to keep " agitators "
out of unorganized shops.

While he was a candidate, he was discussing
national conditions with a friend who was
neither a manufacturer nor a farmer. He had
perceived, before 1914, in time to unload certain
western holdings, that the excessive railway
building of the first dozen years of the century
was leading to an absurd expansion of cities,

CANDIDATE FORESAW SLUMP 281

regardless of agricultural production in the
country around them, and a consequent slump
in manufactures as soon as the flood of bor-
rowed money subsided — the condition that
arrived in 1914, months before the war.

He saw, also, that when the war was over the
disparity between the manufacturing and dis-
tributing plants provided to meet boom condi-
tions, and the volume of production from the
soil, would once more become apparent. He
understood that, as the locomotive had run
ahead of the plough before the war, the plough
would have to overtake the locomotive after the
war, especially when the then anticipated fall in
prices came to pass. Government and Parlia-
ment, he said, should prepare against these
times, and not be guilty of ladling out money as
recklessly as they did between 1904 and 1914.

He talked like a patriot and a statesman, and
his friend asked him : —

" Have you laid this situation before the elec-
tors of your riding?''

"Bless your heart, no. Why should I?" he
replied, laughing.

"Well,'' answered the friend, "you are
wealthy, independent and far-seeing, and not
the creature of a party organization. You are
a Parliamentary candidate because of your out-
standing capacity. Nothing would please your
future constituents better than to know you
were saying things to them that other men were

282 REFUSED TO TELL PUBLIC

not big enough to say ; and that you were telling
more than the other fellow because you knew
more. The country has been going the wrong
way, from the point of view of making both ends
meet. I suppose you tell your audiences that
what the country needs is business administra-
tion?"

" We all say that.''

'' Of course. Then why not talk business to
your people?"

"You mean the way you and I are talking
here?"

" Why not?"

" Gee ! it wouldn't be popular. Besides,
what would be the use of speaking like that
publicly? You surely don't suppose the farm-
ers would understand it? If you do, I don't."

" Have you ever tried talking to farmers
about the country's business in the way we've
been talking to-night?"

" Oh, no."

" Then how do you know they wouldn't under-
stand you until you have tried and failed? If
they are intelligent enough to vote for men who
spend the national money and resources, don't
you think they are intelligent enough to receive
an honest account of how their authority and
credit have been used? If the farmers of your
county had spent fifty thousand dollars on a
creamery that only did enough business to earn
half the interest on the cost of the building, do

PLAY UP INSTEAD OF DOWN 283

you think they wouldn't be capable of under-
standing where the business was falling down?''

"Do you mean to say it would make you un-
popular with the farmers if you shewed them
that the National Transcontinental and the
Grand Trunk Pacific can't pay for years to come
because, in the first place, too much money per
mile was spent on their construction ; and in the
second place the population they serve is too
scanty to create the traffic they require to pay
operating expenses, cost of maintenance and
interest on the capital expenditure? Would it
not be a good experiment to find out whether the
prosperous farmers in your county are not more
intellectual than you have taken them to be?
How can you expect the tone of public life to be
raised if you don't raise the tone of your own
speeches? Why not try playing up, instead of
playing down?"

Could there be a more convincing proof that
the colonial system has given the people the
shows of government and has tended to befool
them of its best substances, than the common
assumption by politicians that the electorate is
gullibly deficient in penetrative intelligence— r-
and the free and independent landowners most
gullible of all?

It is in the nature of national affairs that they
carry men's minds beyond the borders of their
own country. A nation that has not become in-
ternational is like a man who is afraid to spend

284 PLACE OF ORANGE ORDER

his own money. It is contact with the big world
which enables men to give breadth, and eleva-
tion and dignity to their domestic concerns.

Go through a factory, learn that the goods
you see changing from raw material to finished
article will soon be deposited on some oriental
shore, and the whole operation immediately has
a touch of romance it lacked before.

There is a corresponding faculty in public
affairs — subtle and unmistakable; and some-
times only appreciated when you look for it, and
find something else. Denied contact with the
ultimate facts of political life, the capacity for
full self-government will find outlets in direc-
tions which produce no advantages abroad, and
intensify difficulties at home. With many of
our people, particularly in Ontario, the place of
foreign affairs is occupied by the Orange Order.

It is not necessary to attack the Orange
Order ; but it is desirable to consider its potency
in a North American democracy. Many miles
from town, and in lonely isolation, you may find
an Orange Hall. A body of zealous men believed
that their most urgent duty was to celebrate
an epoch in Irish history, as the guide and in-
spiration of their Canadian citizenship. They
did not erect their temple for the magnification
of Ireland, as the St. Andrew's Society commem-
orates the genius of Scotland; or as the St.
George's Society celebrates the hegemony of
England; but to commemorate a phase of a

REVOLUTION, 1688: BOYNE, 1690 285

phase of a revolution. If they were taught to
forget the revolution in the phase, they were not
to blame.

An Ontario agricultural leader, who has been
an ardent Orangeman for thirty-five years, was
asked whether the Glorious Revolution was
brought about by the battle of the Boyne.

" Sure," he replied.

" Don't you know that the revolution that put
James the Second off the English and Scottish
thrones took place more than eighteen months
before the battle of the Boyne?"

"Never heard of it," he said.

" What do you think of King William marry-
ing the daughter of a Catholic?" the fervent
Orangeman was asked.

" Never heard of it," he repeated. " Who was
she?"

" James the Second's daughter."

" Never heard of her," he said again.

" Would King William, because of his wife,
be denied membership in an Orange lodge?"

"That's a secret."

The Orange Order stands for civil and religi-
ous liberty. Those who have not been admitted
to its mysteries can only judge from what they
read and hear and see. They understand the
Orangeman is sworn to support Orange candi-
dates for public office. The most potent of the
organized influences exerted upon the city gov-
ernment of Toronto is the Orange Order.

20

286 FOR EXTRA-IRISH LOYALTY

On George the Third's principle that any man
was good enough for any job he could get, no
complaint can be made of that. But a robust
Canadianism may ask, in all good fellowship,
whether the divisions of Ulster are natural to
the Valley of the St. Lawrence.

One may have the best will in the world
towards the stout Presbyterians of Antrim ; the
highest admiration for the heroic and immortal
defence of Londonderry ; the utmost recognition
of the decisiveness of the battle of the Boyne;
and the keenest detestation for the proscriptions
of the Dublin Parliament during the perfidious
James's sojourn there ; and may still believe that
in the great capital of Ontario some Canadian
event might annually evoke the best pageantry
the city can afford. Cannot loyalty to Canada
become sufficiently inspiring without deriving
its major picturesqueness from something that
happened in Ireland two hundred and twenty-
nine years ago? It is a friendly question.

The Orange Order became powerful in On-
tario and other provinces when pride in Cana-
dian history was not generously cultivated. The
champions of the colonial system were pleased
to think that Canada was without a history. No
Canadian history was taught in Upper Canada
College when the editor of the Orange Sentinel
went to school. Canadian patriotism was ex-
pected to look backward in time and eastward
in geography. Men were supposed to think

KHAKI IS MORE LUSTROUS 287

more of the old ties they had broken than of the
new relationships they had formed. There has
been a vast change since then ; though it has not
revolutionized the Orange Order.

More, and farther-reaching changes are at
hand. Elements of history that Canada was
supposed to lack when the English and Irish and
Scotch in Canada were expected to be more Eng-
lish and Irish and Scotch than they had been in
England, Ireland and Scotland, have been fused
into the Canadian entity by four years of appal-
ling war.

The 1914-18 fight for civil liberty (which
includes religious liberty), does not extinguish
the importance of the battle of the Boyne. But
it makes the Boyne less conspicuous in the inter-
national range of the Canadian mind.

To the most excellent, most lasting honour of
the Order, fifty thousand Orangemen joined the
Canadian army. Henceforth they will parade
on the Twelfth of July, as the most worshipful
brethren in all the long defile. Khaki has be-
come more lustrous than orange and true blue.
The banners with Dutch William on his white
charger ; the slogan of *' Derry Walls " emblaz-
oned in purple and gold ; and " Enniskillen " set
forth in simple reverence to men who were the
bravest of the brave — these streaming mem-
orials of 1690 will dip in homage to the march-
ing veterans of Ypres, and Vimy, and Passchen-
daele, and Valenciennes, and the crowning

288 NEW LEAVEN AND TIDE

mercy of Mons. The glory of the Boyne will
bow to a mightier, more immediate fame, a
more homelike and more tremendous valour;
because what Canadians have done for Canada
is more than Ulster can ever do for them, or
they can do for Ulster.

Events are becoming too strong for the most
venerable sectionalisms ; too swift for the tides
which lap the ancient landmarks more than they
fertilize the intervales of to-day. The New Tide
is running in the hearts of men. In the great
farming class of Canada its surge is as obvious
as in any other quarter of the globe ; and in the
steadfast province of Ontario as plainly as in
the effervescent West.

Farmers who went to the war will be a new
and potent leaven in all the awakened country-
side. Because they have seen the world in
travail they will not be content nor will they
permit their kindred to be content with the old,
deadening complacencies. Neither will they
allow super-patriots to cast stones because
fewer soldiers came from the farms than from
the factories.

Going to Europe, they have had an experience
somewhat like that of the Englishman who
returns to England from Canada. They have
inspected their country from afar. As they
fought, and as they mused, they became Cana-
dians in a larger sense than they were when they
only Canada knew. They have appreciated

TRUE SALUTING PHILOSOPHY 289

their birthright afresh. They have seen how
much more precious it may become to them, if
only they will have it so.

The Parliamentary colonel whose unpalatable
discourse to a Times correspondent is mentioned
on an early page of this book, tells of a meeting
of Canadian colonels with one who was sent
from London by the War Office, to admonish
them because their men on leave were failing to
salute British officers. The offence was becom-
ing notorious. It was subversive of discipline.
Its continuation should be prevented. Would
Canadian commanders see to the matter?

The commander with the Parliamentary seat
spoke back. The salute, he, said, is a mutual
courtesy, and is so established in the king's
regulations. It is no more the duty of the
private to salute the colonel than it is the
colonel's duty to salute the private. The reproof
of the gentleman from the War Office should
have first been addressed to a meeting of British
officers, who forgot the king's regulations. The
Canadian soldiers were not serfs but citizens.
Most of his own battalion were farmers who
knew what was due to themselves. They saluted
officers who saluted them. They would always
give courtesy for courtesy.

The spirit of national assertiveness which the
war intensified in the Canadian soldiery while
they were in Europe will produce abundant
fruit when they have returned to Canada. If

290 THE WAR OFFICE NO MORE

another war should draw Canada intx) its vortex,
will the War Office in London appoint the Cana-
dian commander? Never again.

What will have wrought the change? Some-
thing that will occur then, or something that has
happened now? What we will do next time is
already determined by what we have done this
time. The psychology for to-day is to antici-
pate our psychology if Armageddon should
recur. We must be governed now by what we
foresee.

It is this perception which gives the only
sound guidance to the changes that will rapidly
develop in rural Canada, and particularly in
Ontario. The Ontario farmer and his soldier
son, whether he was a volunteer or a draftee,
are not as ready as some of their fellow On-
tarions to hurl stones at Quebec for slowness in
enlisting. They know that if there is to be a
division into classes, it must be confessed that,
speaking generally, the nearer a man's connec-
tion was with Europe, the readier he was to go
to the war — except in cases where the family
tradition was more British than Canadian,
through some regard for public office in days
gone by.

As soon as the Ontario landowner, his wife
and their soldier son think things out they
realize that the slowness of rural Ontario to
apprehend how much the war was Canada's war
was due to the cause which the Round Table

FARMER-SOLDIER CAN SEE 291

drags into the light with such merciless can-
dour. Rural Eastern Canada had never been
brought into contact with the ultimate facts of
its own political life.

When farmers have travelled so far, they
begin to examine what their political life has
been. They see that a revolution is proceeding
— a revolt against the trammels which an out-
worn colonialism devised, and which an un-
worthy partisanship perpetuated. They per-
ceive that in civil government at home the land-
owners have accepted the sort of limitations
which the Canadian Government compelled the
Canadian army to accept abroad. They under-
stand that, just as the military subordination of
Canada to the War Office will never be repeated,
the civil subordinations which have hampered
their own intellectual and political expansion
will also have to be discarded. They will insist
on being Canadians at home as well as abroad.

When that happens questions of tariff, of the
control of education, of the use of languages,
of the relation of provincial to dominion gov-
ernment, will be elevated into an ampler per-
spective. For in that day the splendour of the
Canadian birthright will be honoured in the
land.

CHAPTER XIX

WHEN FARMER FINDS FARMER

Recognizing that the new class consciousness of farmers is
marshalling their economic power, terminating the aloofness
of the solitary worker, and bringing into united action men of
differing origins, creeds and political allegiances; and repro-
ducing the testimony of a leader who, meeting Quebec
cuUivateurs at Ottawa, obtained a larger view of his citizen-
ship, which he commends to all his fellow-countrymen.

The campaign against " foreigners " is one
of the most natural aftermaths of the war, if it
is also one of the most natural things in life for
people to be afraid to think. Being of full age
and sound mind, you go to enormous expense to
add from twenty countries twenty hazardous
factors to a national problem that was already
difficult enough. You turn them loose, caring
little what happens to them, so long as they in-
crease dividends and maintain the flow of
watered stock.

One day you discover that while thinking only
of profits you created a conundrum you are
almost disqualified to answer. Instead of meet-
ing the difficulty you whistle for the policeman,
and try to dismiss as a menace the work of your
own hands. You may flatter yourself that you
are thinking Imperially, and that ambitious
moneymakers ought not always to reap what

292

WORK IS CLASS-CONSCIOUS 293

they have sown. Problems are never solved by
calling names. Wisdom does not come by refus-
ing to learn what other people are thinking. It
is not possible to become more British by shout-
ing " foreigner " at the father of Canadian
children.

Arguments are not met by banning the book
in which they are printed. The magi of the
seventeenth century did not halt the earth when
they denied Galileo's assertion that the sun did
not glide under this planet every night.

Before considering what the " foreigner " is
and what he may have to say about the Cana-
dian birthright which kingly authority begged
him to assume, glance at a certain aspect of the
class-consciousness that is expressing itself in
Canada, and will express itself more. Some
good souls who are afraid to think, mourn in-
consolably over the very inconvenient develop-
ment of class consciousness among the people
who work with their hands. They forget that
the most colossal class consciousness that has
ever afflicted long-suffering humanity has been
the class consciousness of the people who don't
work, never intend to work, and despise those
who do.

Class consciousness? In a western city some
sparks survive who used to go in moccasins to
the New Year's receptions of the lieutenant-
governor. One governor's widow also is a sur-
vival of those times. She never liked moccasins,

294 SPEAKING AS LADY TO LADY

especially after her husband was knighted. She
never allows anyone to forget that she supports
the title still. Some years ago a transportation
manager of that city received a knighthood. A
few days afterwards his wife met the relict of
the late Sir Somebody Some.

" Oh ! Lady Rale," said the widow of the gov-
ernor, with boundless cordiality, " I am so glad
to see you. It is so nice to know that you are
now one of US."

The Canadian farmer is coming into his class
consciousness at a speed which outpaces the
crooks of his political shepherds. In a different
spirit he says to the attacker-in-general of the
" foreigner," " Be careful what you say, for he
is one of US."

Nothing is easier than to assume that the
problem of Canada is an urban problem, mainly
because the city people say most about it. South
Africa was plunged into a war which cost the
British people twenty-five thousand lives, and
the British treasury twelve hundred million
dollars, because high steppers of the Colonial
Office and their henchmen in Capetown sup-
posed that the South African question was an
urban affair. When incompetent Horse Guards
generals were futilely chasing Botha, and
Smuts, De Wet and DelaRey over the illimitable
veldt, Downing Street began to understand that
South Africa was very much of a rural proposi-
tion.

FOLLY OF RACIAL CONTEMPT 295

In differing degree that is the Canadian case.
It is not prudent to swear at " foreigners " in
town, before learning something about "for-
eigners " in the country. If you do not dis-
criminate between what is uttered about the
" foreigner '' on the street, and what is accom-
plished by the " foreigner " on the farm, how
can you expect the " foreigner " on the farm to
distinguish between what you say about his
countryman in the street, and what you don't
say about himself, toiling away at the industry
which keeps the towns alive? Is it astonishing
that, when the derogatory epithet is so freely
used, the Canadian of French, German or Scan-
dinavian descent feels that the blast is directed
towards himself, and that he is moved to make
common cause with others to whom a racial un-
popularity is fastened?

Do we want the " foreigner " to become a
Canadian — the father of the native-born? What
has been done to make him feel like a Canadian?
If nothing has been done, is he to blame — or
are we? Here is a Canadian of the fourth gen-
eration. He has never seen any other country.
He has lived all his life within two hours' ride of
the most British city in the western world. He
says he wants to call himself a Canadian because
he wants Canada to be to him all that his ances-
tors' country was to them. But he sees that the
other Canadians have delighted to call them-
selves English, and Scotch, and Irish, more than

296 MARVEL OF PATRIOTISM

they have rejoiced to call themselves Canadians.
Applying their own yardstick to others, they
called their fellow-native a German, and didn't
even honour him with a hyphen.

Here is another Canadian of the seventh gen-
eration, whose ancestors two hundred years ago
were called Canadians. Formerly he never
called himself anything else. But within the
last forty years he has fallen into the habit of
speaking of himself . as a French-Canadian.
Why? Because the English-Canadians called
him so. He believes they regard him as a for-
eigner, more than they think of him as a
brother; and so ?

Is it not a marvel of patriotic practice that we
call our fellow citizens " foreigners " and then
are surprised that they don't feel the same
regard for us that we feel for ourselves? That
breakdown in mutual admiration began long
before the war. If it is not to continue for gen-
erations after the war some bases of our pride
must surely be broadened.

The farmer is beginning to see that his mutual
interest with his fellow-farmer of French and
German and Scandinavian and Austrian origin
is an economic and civic concern — a clasc con-
sciousness which is more potent than an interest
in the price of wheat. It is a birthright interest
that began with the clearing of the bush by
English and French and German neighbours,
and will not end until some new glacial period

A WITNESS FROM PARIS 297

arrives. Let a witness be heard, from Paris,
Ontario :

" My grandfather settled on the farm where
I was born, and still reside. He and my grand-
mother endured all the hardships of clearing the
bush. He was also teacher in the first school
that was started in the settlement, close by
where our lane leaves the concession line. I went
to school there, and all my children, and in a
very few years my grandchildren will be sitting
in the old familiar place. We have always been
Methodists, and tried to do our little bit for the
church that is close to the school. We have four
hundred acres of land and specialize somewhat
in pure bred Belgian horses and Shropshire
sheep. I have been several times to the Old
Country on business, and know something of the
West by personal observation. I mention these
things so you will know what sort of people we
are — keeping our end up, as best we know, and
trying to do our duty in the community where
we have always lived.

" Every time I went to England I saw im-
mense wealth alongside degradation and poverty
such as we never want to see in our country ; and
my respect increased for those who made it
possible for us to live on the good farms we now
enjoy. I always came back to Canada feeling
m.ore of a Canadian than when staying on the
farm. That was so with the men and women
one met going there and coming home, with a

298 KNEW LITTLE OF COUNTRYMEN

few exceptions — I mean people with social am-
bitions and such-like, who were so much in
love with the English aristocracy that they
couldn't see the poverty. It always seemed to
me that the poor were keeping the rich, though
they were taught to believe that it was the other
way about.

" I have always taken an interest in politics,
believing that it is every man's duty to do the
share of public work that comes to him, and to
put the public interest before personal advan-
tage. But it was only during the last year that
I began really to understand what Canadian
politics means.

" Possibly I imagined that all Canadians were
like myself, and all Canada was similar to our
district. I hadn't come in contact with very
many Canadians who were different from my
own neighbours, and maybe should never have
got bigger ideas if I had not gone to Ottawa in
connection with the big deputation on the can-
celled exemptions of farmers' sons. Whether
we were right or wrong in making a protest does
not affect the permanent results that are as-
sured from the visit.

" Until that time I had never met any French-
Canadians, and, in fact, had thought very little
about them. I supposed that scarcely any of
them spoke English, and that they were some-
how very different from the rest of us. With
Mr. St. Clair Fisher, of Niagara-on-the-Lake,

SIDE OF LIFE THAT WAS NEW 299

and others I spent several days at Ottawa pre-
paring for the delegation. We tried to get help
from Ontario members, but they were afraid to
help us. Government men who said they sym-
pathized with our position would not venture to
displease the Government. The Opposition men
told us that if they took up our case, it would
be said we were only playing a party game.

" At last we were taken by an Ontario mem-
ber to Mr. Vien, a French-Canadian who was
willing to help us. He was a surprise. He was
as much at home speaking English as French,
and a great deal better posted about constitu-
tional government and the history of Canada
than many of our own members. Through him
we got an insight into the real political situa-
tion ; and we decided to make a remonstrance to
the House of Commons itself. The farmers may
fairly claim to have rendered a real national
service by this action. We met others from
Quebec, and found them to be very similar to
Mr. Vien. It was a side of Canadian life that
was quite new to us, and it is not too much to
say that it broadened us all.

** When the day of the delegation came there
were about three thousand farmers from On-
tario and as many from Quebec. Scarcely
any of us had ever seen so many French-speak-
ing men together at one time. Certainly we had
never seen so many farmers. We met with them
all day, in the meetings and privately.

300 PROCESSION TO PARLIAMENT

" At the Arena, in the afternoon and evening,
the French and English were all mixed to-
gether, and nobody could have picked them out
one from the other, except when a French speech
was being made, and the applause could only-
come from those who understood it. All the
French speakers were fluent in English. That
was a great eye-opener for our people. Every-
body came away with his prejudice against our
fellow-Canadians removed, altogether or in
great part.

"A committee was left at Ottawa, one of
whose duties it was to get our Remonstrance
placed before the House of Commons. We had
gone in a procession of several thousand to the
Parliament Buildings, to ask that two of our
men be allowed to present personally to the
House our complaint against the way in which
Parliament was being pushed aside by the
Cabinet. We were refused admittance, and
went back to the Arena, where the Remonstrance
was adopted with remarkable enthusiasm by
just about four thousand farmers.

" Those who stayed to see the thing through
had the satisfaction of getting our protest
and appeal to Parliament, and our report to the
Governor-General, who himself gave our Re-
monstrance to the Cabinet, on the Hansards of
both Houses.* We learned once more how much
alike the English and French are. We found

* The Remonstrance and letter to the Governor-General are in
the addenda.

LET US SHORTEN DISTANCES 301

out that great strides are being made in agri-
cultural co-operation in Quebec ; and we came to
the conclusion that there are many more things
to agree about than to fight over.

" That experience has given me a higher and
broader outlook on Canada. For one thing,
it set me thinking about my relation to the
so-called German farmer in Ontario. From
the Canadian of German descent I got to think-
ing about other farmers from other countries,
whose interests are the same as ours, and I saw
clearly that it is no use keeping apart from these
people. We must get together, in a united Can-
adian spirit.

" Going a little further into this question,
I was surprised at the distances Canadians have
kept from one another. It doesn't matter very
much whose fault it has been ; though it seems
to me that we who have been here longest are
the most to blame, for we have always thought
of ourselves as the real leaders of the country,
and it was our duty to lead before we reviled our
fellow-citizens. If there are differences be-
tween our Canadian ideas and the ideas of the
other Canadians, we ought to know what they
are, and try to find the basis for common action.
We don't know how it will be done ; but we do
know it ought to be tried; and the work can't
begin too soon."

If this witness represents a growing disposi-
tion of Ontario farmers towards those of their

21

302 WILL FARMERS' PARTY COME?

fellow-citizens who do not derive from the
British Isles, what may be expected from agri-
cultural statesmanship? The United Farmers
of Ontario at their last convention appointed an
Inter-Provincial Committee whose primary duty
it is to promote better relations between Ontario
and Quebec.

Political parties are in confusion, with the
farmers commanding as many strategical passes
as they choose to occupy. Theirs is the one
interest in which thousands and thousands of
Canadian citizens of differing origins are on
level, proprietorial terms. The landowner's
class consciousness is already bringing them to-
gether.

It is insistently asked whether there will be a
Farmers' Party. Perhaps some Cincinnatus
will appear, who will create a Canadian Party,
as broad-based as the territory the farmers own,
and as inclusive as the multitudes who could not
live in Canada unless the farmers had been here
before them, and who can only continue to
manufacture so long as the farmers continue to
produce.

The majority of the Germans and the " for-
eigners " in Canada, including those who, though
naturalized, are frequently spoken of as aliens,
are farmers. In Ontario there were, in 1911,
more than 192,000 persons of German origin.
The eleven counties where the Germanic ele-
ment is strongest are Waterloo, Welland, Bruce,

GERMANS ARE AMERICANS 303

Renfrew, Lincoln, Perth, Grey, Haldimand,
Essex, Huron and Norfolk. Together they con-
tained 119,037 Germans, of whom 110,115 were
Canadian-born.

One in fifteen of the whole were born in Ger-
many— including those who came as children,
and such old people as the father of Mr. Weichel,
M.P. for North Waterloo during the 1911-17
Parliament, whose pro-war speeches delighted
all those who heard them. Leaving out Ren-
frew and Waterloo, the other nine counties con-
tained 3,739 German Germans, to 73,017 Cana-
dian Germans — or one in twenty.

The Western situation is of intense interest ;
but, as the " foreigners '' are so widespread, an
elaborate analysis of their numerical strength
would involve a bewildering mass of statistics.
But, in view of much that has been written and
spoken, one fact about Saskatchewan, which is
often called the foreign province of Canada, is
specially inducive of reflection. Most of the
Germans brought to the province an experience
of republican institutions, and of freedom from
military autocracy.

The census reported 68,628 Germans in the
province in 1911. Of these only 8,300 were born
in Germany — again including those who left
Germany as children, and as adults, many years
ago. The difference between German Germans
in Saskatchewan and those who were born else-
where, is due to the heavy immigration from the

304 THE FAULT IS OURS ALSO.

United States, some aspects of which will be
examined later.

Nova Scotia, after all, furnishes the most ad-
monitory sample of the German problem in
Canada. The county of Lunenburg, in 1911
contained 33,260 inhabitants, of whom 22,837
were Germans. Of these only nine were born in
Germany. A fair proportion of the remainder
have been longer in Canada than the United
Empire Loyalists.

The moral of these disparities between the
German-born Germans and the North Ameri-
can-born Germans is that if the native-born
German-Canadians are not happily assimilat-
ing with their fellow Canadians, the fault can-
not be theirs alone, unless it be shewn that they
have been hostile to sympathetic advances. If it
be contended that the late Imperial German
Government plotted and spent to make native-
born Canadians as eager for The Day as the
Kaiser himself, the responsibility for ensuring
the failure of that deep design, by a more excel-
lent patriotism, was and is all the heavier upon
those who believe in Canada for the Canadians.

World-wide German military imperialism has
been killed. If native-born Canadians, like those
in Nova Scotia whose ancestors came to Canada
from Hanover when the King of Hanover was
also King of Great Britain and Ireland, and of
Nova Scotia — if these Canadians of the sixth
generation were ever enamoured of the possi-

SUN AND WIND FABLE 305

bility of being junkered over, they can scarcely
be in love with that ideal now. Nobody who
knows them will suspect them of being Social-
ists, Spartacides, or Bolshevists. Now is the
time of times to consolidate their affections for
the only country they know.

The hardiest Hun hater does not propose to
exterminate his fellow-natives of Canada who
happen to speak German as well as English. A
country that suffers from a decreasing popula-
tion of farmers in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick,
Prince Edward Island and Ontario will scarcely
propose to deport tens of thousands of the
thriftiest, most prosperous farmers who do not
forsake the land. A ward association can find
some other occupation than cutting off a nose to
spite a face.

If the native-born German-Canadians are
beyond the goodwill of the native-born English-
Canadians who assail them in the newspapers,
and at political meetings which it is impossible
for them to attend, might it not be worth while
to try other means of promoting an identity of
interest between all the children of this spacious
land? Only fools imagine that the best way to
promote peace is to stimulate a quarrel.

The fable of the competition between the Sun
and the North Wind to remove the traveller's
coat, was written by Aesop for twentieth cen-
tury Canadians who are willing to consider the
essentials of national unity.

CHAPTER XX

FRANCHISE PACTS AND FOLLIES

Contending that it is unstatesmanlike to disfranchise a small
minority of immigrants for a partizan purpose, which encour-
ages disunion among natural-born citizens; that it is unfair to
punish, without specific cause, those whom we have failed to
educate in Canadian patriotism; and that it is folly to stig-
matize American citizenship, and to degrade the Canadianism
of unoffending new-comers when it was most essential to
strengthen it.

One who is sure that in Eden there was enough
original sin to ensure the total depravity of man-
kind and womankind till the earth is consumed
with fervent heat, can readily understand the
itch of so many mortals to throw stones at folks
whom they never met, and do not wish to know.
Nineteen centuries of the Gospel of Love that
casts out fear have not thoroughly taught us
that the natural disposition of a normal man is
friendly to his kind. The champions of hatred,
envy, malice and all uncharitableness have
always been in a minority; but they have fre-
quently bamboozled the majority.

There could be no more eloquent evidence of
that than a film picture of a batch of Hun pris-
oners newly brought within the Canadian lines.
Jack Canuck is invariably seen offering his late
antagonist a cigarette. Philip Gibbs, describing
the advance into Germany, told of flaxen-haired

306

GREATEST IN THE KINGDOM 307

little girls smiling at the victorious soldiers, and
he added this remark, which those who think it
is a Christian virtue to out-hate the haters
would do well to ponder : " It is hard to keep up
your hate towards a little child."

Indeed, and indeed, the immemorial birth-
right of all human beings is there. Men may
disfigure the image in which they were made;
but there is always fresh hope in the cradle.

"At the same time came the disciples unto
Jesus, saying. Who is the greatest in the king-
dom of heaven?

" And Jesus called a little child unto him, and
set him in the midst of them."

There are stalwart, sincere, and able lovers
of their country who think the child is too simple
a force to be a factor in the defence of Canada
against disruption. The truth is the child is
too profound a subject for their political medi-
tation. It is so much easier to attack the father
than to understand the child.

Here is an Austrian — go for him, expel him.
Here is a wee Canadian — take no notice of him ;
he is the Austrian's brat. Turn his Canadian
birthright into gall and bitterness, so that when
he grows up he will feel like a man without a
country, and that he is allowed to remain on
sufferance where he was born. In Austria his
father may have been too ignorant to have poli-
tical opinions. He is not too ignorant to be am-
bitious to achieve in Canada more independence

308 WRONG USE OF THE WAR

than Hapsburg oppression permitted to him.
He may have developed too many opinions to
suit some of those who coaxed him to settle in
Canada. In either case he was a foreigner ; his
wife is a foreigner. Their child must be a for-
eigner, except for the misfortune of his birth-
place, which gives him Canadian citizenship.

In the factory where the young Canadian's
father worked they considered he was no white
man. The ward association saw to it that he
was enfranchised and sweetened for polling
day. When the war came the only safe thing
to do was to cancel his vote. Instead of using
the war to help him understand that his Cana-
dian child was more important to him than the
Austrian count who used to tyrannize over him,
it was decided to make him more of an Austrian
than ever, without enquiring if he was of those
who wished to overthrow the Hapsburgs and
set up republics in place of the Dual Empire.

Don't think about the man — get after him.
Don't trouble about his youngsters — forget that
he has any. Don't ask whether ill-feeling could
have been avoided — it might hurt the party.
Don't peer into the future with spectacles bor-
rowed from the past — you might become too
Christlike. These people should not have been
allowed to come here. Never mind who is
responsible for bringing them. Get rid of them,
kids and all ; get rid of them.

Enlightened Canadian self-interest owes it to

STRANGE TEST OF SINCERITY 309

itself to protest against that temper, which is
worthy the culpable father who disowns his
offspring, and spurns the woman he has dis-
graced. It is utterly unworthy the statesman-
ship of a country which has won high place
among the cosmopolitan mentors of the world;
and which must now demonstrate its capacity
to carry the responsibility it eagerly assumed —
a responsibility which no other country is seek-
ing to take from it, and of which it cannot divest
itself.

The editor of a Toronto daily newspaper
assured a worker for the Union Government
that he could not be sincere unless he supported
the War Times Election Act. He was perfectly,
blindly honest in that belief. He would have
been outraged if he had been told that the War
Times Election Act was the product of the col-
onial spirit which he likes to think has been
eliminated from Canadian national life. But
it is true as the multiplication table that such
a measure was only possible to politicians who
had sacrificed so much to the party that they
had lost the true perspective of a dignified, self-
governing, far-seeing state.

So many immigrated Austrians and Germans
during the war created a real difficulty. Let
it be assumed that some individuals demand the
repeal of the Act for purely partisan reasons.
Lret it be conceded, for the argument's sake,
that the Act was passed entirely to keep faith

310 PREROGATIVE OF STUPIDITY

with the dead, and not at all in order to retain
office for the living. Admit all these things,
and you have no more justified the Act than a
doctor is justified because he unselfishly ordered
a patient to the smallpox hospital when his only
malady was prickly heat. A magistrate who
sent a child to jail for throwing snowballs at a
policeman might be a very honest man, but he
would be very much more of a fool.

It is a prerogative of stupidity to try to
retrieve a small mistake by making a big one.
The " foreign " elements of the West had for
a generation been abandoned by the state to the
party heeler, who practised the most nefarious
arts upon them — arts which were called " poli-
tics,'' in ghastly defamation of that fateful
science. Neither party has monopolized this
wickedness. The Government believed the war
would be over in six months — this was admitted
in the House of Commons by the Hon. Mr. Reid.
A powerful section of the Cabinet intended it
to be an electioneering war. The " foreigners "
were at first regarded as a negligible factor in
that promising situation. The Government
was asked to win these people for the war. It
sent more Mounted Police into certain districts.

Before the war was three years old the party
Government confessed itself unequal to its task.
A Union Government was proposed. One series
of negotiations after another failed. It was
apparent that the life of Parliament could not

NEGOTIATIONS FOR UNION 311

be further lengthened beyond the ensuing Octo-
ber. In view of an election it was proposed to
disfranchise the naturalized Germans and Aus-
trians. But no bill was introduced, pro-union
influences against it being assertive from time
to time.

In August it was understood that certain
Western Liberals, who had been summoned to
Ottawa, were willing to make the Union, on
terms. They were known to be against the dis-
franchisement of Canadian citizens, for elec-
tioneering purposes, and without specific cause.
Their views were respected. When they de-
clared against the continuation of Sir Robert
Borden in the Premiership, negotiations again
failed, because, though Sir Robert was willing
that Sir George Foster should succeed, his party
was not.

It cannot be denied that if the Union Govern-
ment had been constructed then, there would
have been no disfranchisement. If the dis-
franchisement was imperative as a just war
measure, it was as imperative in August, when
the Western Liberals were willing to join a Gov-
ernment under Sir George Foster, as it was in
September, when the Act was passed.

For some weeks it seemed unlikely that a
Union Government could be formed. The Con-
servative party was expecting to go to the coun-
try on the record of the Conservative Govern-
ment— the only party Government that had

312 FRANCHISE NO TRIVIALITY

remained in power in the Allied countries dur-
ing the whole war period. The War Times
Election Act was passed by a party majority,
to secure a party victory.

Its champions say, perhaps with some truth,
that certain Liberals entered the Union Gov-
ernment because the Act destroyed the chances
of a Liberal return to power. We are not here
concerned with party interests, or with the
arguments against the Bill which were offered
in the House by Mr. Carvell and others who are
in the Government or in the House of Commons
as a sequel to the Act. We are inquiring
whether a condition in the body politic is good
or evil ; and, if it be found to be evil, whether
its worsening may be prevented.

The man who has been taught that he can sell
his vote as Christianly as he can barter his coat,
may think it a trivial affair to revoke a fran-
chise. But, to those who have forsworn their
native allegiance a new citizenship, conferred by
royal authority has a vital significance. If they
valued it lightly at first they would value it
highly as soon as it was to be taken from them.
To those who took it away, the deprivation was
a passing incident — as sending a man to jail for
three years is an incident in the life of a magis-
trate. To those from whom it is taken it is an
abiding event, with lifelong consequences, as the
three years' imprisonment is to the man on
whom it is so cheerfully bestowed.

PUT PREMIUM ON EVIL 313

We are not considering this pivotal episode
of the war from the point of view of the
deprivee. A political blunder is worse than a
crime because the blunder inflicts more damage
upon those who commit it than the expected
advantage could ever be worth. Crimes can
be wiped from the record sometimes — blunders
never.

Having neglected to provide for the pre-war
education of the Canadians of enemy origin, a
party majority set about its self-continuation
by measures that were repudiated at the seat
of war, and which put a fresh premium on the
very evils to which the Government, from the
beginning of the war, had compelled the country
to submit — the evils of partisanship, and the
refusal to play up to the international oppor-
tunities of the time.

Why did not the British Parliament practise
disfranchisement in Ireland during the war?
Earnest democrats who would have given the
Kaiser carte blanche, if they could have im-
ported him to Ottawa and given him a Canadian
name, would have refused to allow Irish con-
stituencies to fill vacancies as soon as it was
known that the Sinn Fein was becoming power-
ful. The British Government which is some-
times stupid enough, in spite of its continual
contact with the ultimate facts of political life,
did not try disfranchisement in Ireland because
the freedom of elections is embedded in the Con-

314 MADE SAFE FOR DISUNION

stitution, and because statesmen do not will-
ingly act as though two wrongs make a right.
There are some brands of suppressive statecraft
which are sacred only to colonial system tra-
ditions, and are used by spurious statesmen.

Nobody who knows the truth, and has not lost
his capacity for telling it, denies that the War
Times Election Act was passed when it was
feared that the Liberal Party would hold to-
gether. In order to make the course safe for
disunion as between the partisans whom three
years of war had failed to bring together, as
they were brought together in every other Brit-
ish country, naturalized Germans and Aus-
trians of less than fifteen years' standing, who
had no sons in the war, were to be deprived of
their civic right.

" In order that we may be free to accuse one
another, you shall not be allowed to vote.'' If
that position was inevitable, it was because of
the refusal to seek unity and ensure it, when the
war was young. For that monumental folly,
inexorable Time will exact its price, however
long the payment is deferred.

Examine the situation, and see what the men-
ace of the German and Austrian vote was.
A nation that is really at war should not mis-
take a bogey for a brigade. Figures may not
count for much when passions are aroused ; but
they have a knack of speaking when passions
have died. The census figures of 1911 are not

PERCENTAGES IN ORIGIN 315

a complete guide to the Western racial situation
in 1917. But the balances of 1911 would hold,
roughly, in 1917. Saskatchewan, the " worst "
province, is taken as the example.

Of the total population of 492,000, in 1911,
20.68 per cent, were born in the province, 29.83
per cent, in the other Canadian provinces, 16.47
per cent, in distant parts of the British Empire
— 66.98 per cent., therefore, were British-born.
Only 33.02 per cent, were foreign-born, inclu-
sive of Americans. That looked pretty safe for
native-born Canadianism to-morrow, if the situ-
ation were wisely fore-handled.

But, from an election point of view, the situa-
tion is not as good as the 33 per cent, of foreign
born suggests. The proportion of foreign to
British-born males of over 21 is higher. The
fact to bear in mind about the small proportion
of the foreign born to the whole population is
that the 20 per cent, of the total who were born
in the province includes thousands of children
of foreign-born parents.

For example, one saw a considerable settle-
ment of Hungarians passing through White-
wood over thirty years ago, on the way to a
colony to the north of the Qu'Appelle river. If
the children, and now the children's children,
born in the Esterhazy district have not become
good Canadians by this time, the fault can only
be placed after it is learned what steps the Gov-
ernments concerned have taken to Canadianize

316 FOREIGN-BORN MINORITIES

them. It is the business of statesmen to see
that children born in Canada have a good chance
of being intelligently pro-Canadian when their
native country is at war. If you don't think it
worth while to impart your patriotism it is
hardly fair to expect an alien to imbibe it from
the air of his isolated farm.

The Saskatchewan statistics for men over
twenty-one are illuminating. Those born into
British citizenship totalled 112,148; those of
foreign origin were 65,345. Of the foreign-
born 34,502 were naturalized, and 30,834 were
still aliens. In one riding out of ten — Mac-
kenzie— the foreign-born, naturalized and un-
naturalized, were more numerous than the men
of native British citizenship. In all the others
the foreign-born, both naturalized and unnat-
uralized, were in a minority, Saltcoats, with
632, being the smallest, Humboldt next with
722, and the other seven minorities ranging
from 4,332 in Prince Albert to 10,563 in Moose
Jaw.

No comparison is possible as to the distribu-
tion by constituencies of those foreign-born
men, naturalized and un-naturalized — whether
they are Americans or Austrians, Germans or
Swedes. But the more general returns reveal
some interesting groupings. There were in
1911, in Saskatchewan, 69,628 persons born in
the United States. The increase in ten years
was 66,870. The increase during the same

CAME FROM UNITED STATES 317

period of all the European foreign-born was
only 68,473. The Europeans were 22,631 in
1901 — which means that thousands of families
registered as Austrians, Germans, etc., in 1911,
included Canadian-born children. *' Foreign ''
totals included 68,628 Germans, 41,651 Aus-
trians, 33,991 Scandinavians, and 18,413 Rus-
sians.

The German figure looks more formidable
than it truthfully is. Only 8,300 men, women
and children, out of 68,628, were born in Ger-
many. Where did the other 60,328 come from?
Moose Jaw, for example, gives 13,373 Germans,
but only 1,266 born in Germany. Some, no
doubt, removed from Ontario. They would be
practically all native Canadians, most of them
of the third or fourth generation. The great
majority of the Germans in Saskatchewan im-
migrated from the United States. Become
acquainted with two in whose houses one has
received generous hospitality.

The first is a native of Indiana, but of pure
German stock. There is not a suggestion of any
country but North America about him. His
wife and children are as German in blood and as
North American in spirit as himself. They
came to Saskatchewan with three thousand dol-
lars. In ten years they were worth fifty thou-
sand. He is well known in the Grain Growers'
movement, and has been a candidate for Par-
liament.

22

318 INSURANCE OF BITTERNESS

The second man left Germany more than forty
years ago. He lived in Minnesota twenty-five
years; became naturalized, v^as elected to the
State Senate, and moved to Canada, where he
is in a large way of business. He has been nat-
uralized twelve years, and has held important
provincial office.

What happened to these two neighbours?
The first retained his citizenship, under the
War Times Election Act. The second lost his,
because he had been a Canadian citizen less than
fifteen years. What is the effect of the Act on
the first man? Does it make him rejoice that
he retains his vote while his friend loses his?
He was a Canadian, wealthier than he was in
Indiana, and gladly incorporating his family
into Canadian life and character. The penal-
izing of his friend merely because he was a
native of Germany chills his Canadianism, as
an icy blast through the broken pane of a con-
servatory in mid-February damages the har-
diest plant.

The second man reminds himself that what he
brought to Canada was not a German but an
American citizenship ; and that if he had stayed
in the United States he would not have been
shorn of his vote because he was cradled in Ger-
many. He says that for him Canadian freedom
has become a farce. Parliament robbed him of
his incentive to preach Canadianism to his fel-
lows. Henceforth when his thoughts turn to

WHERE DISGRACE BELONGS 319

the future they will take on a republican tinge.
Is it surprising?

The outcome has clearly shewn that the
non-German Austrians were never strong for
the Hun. The United States knew this; and
when war was declared on the Dual Empire the
Austrians in the republic were not treated as
alien enemies. It is true that in Manitoba
there had been agitation for a Ukrainian repub-
lic, fostered by minions of the late Manitoba
Government, whose debauching of the Aus-
trians was as shameful as anything which has
disgraced the worst autocracies of modern
times. If the Austrians had been treated with
the educational sanity the situation demanded
— if the Dominion Government had heeded the
appeal that was made to it at the beginning of
the war — immense good could have been accom-
plished, and much evil have been prevented.
But, the Government having failed in its ele-
mentary duty, the consequences of the failure
were visited upon citizens who were entitled to
instruction, and received neglect.

There were others whose position statesmen
endowed with insight would have appreciated.
Russians, Finns, Scandinavians and other neu-
trals were not disfranchised. If the spirit of
the War Times Election Act were to be opera-
tive now, the Russians and Finns would prob-
ably be deprived of the franchise.

At different periods Sweden seemed on the

320 SWEDISH GENERAL ELECTION

verge of entering the war in support of Ger-
many. If she had supported Germany, the nat-
uralized Swedes in Canada would have been
treated as enemies. Whether a naturalized
Swede were to be listed as a Canadian or as an
enemy would depend, not on what he had done
in Canada, but on what a Government which he
had forsworn did in Sweden.

The governing classes in Sweden were pro-
German. If they had joined Germany during
the summer of 1916, even the Duke of Con-
naught might have been put under suspicion,
because his daughter was Crown Princess of
Sweden. That would have been several degrees
more foolish than stigmatizing every Swede in
Canada as an enemy, if the aristocrats of
Sweden had had their way. The general elec-
tion of 1917 proved beyond a peradventure that
the Swedish people were with the allies. But
the contest might have gone the other way ; and,
though ninety per cent, of the Swedes in Canada
would have sympathized with the anti-Kaiser
party in Sweden, they would have been treated
as enemies of Canada, without cause shewn.

They are a very admirable people. Most of
them have relatives in the United States. They
knew that if Sweden had joined the Central
Powers the naturalized Swedes in the United
States would not have been penalized, except for
definite, individual cause. Their hearts were
turned from Canada by the disfranchisement of

SOME DAMNING ASSUMPTIONS 321

their neighbours. Instead of stimulating their
Canadianism we attacked it.

What of the former citizens of the United
States, without European ties, who have come
into our Britannic Commonwealth? They per-
ceived that there was something less magnan-
imous about Canadian government than there
was about British government, and about
American administration. They felt that they
had entered a little colony rather than a big
nation. Imperialists are not made that way.

Behind the whole policy of disfranchisement
were certain assumptions which, if they were
justified, cast an odious reflection upon the
quality of Canadian citizenhood; and, if they
were not justified, they cast the most damning
reflection upon the quality of Canadian party
politics. In either case the facts were humiliat-
ing, in view of the unanimous support of
Parliament for every war measure until the
Military Service Act, and in view of the Govern-
ment's discouragement of responsible co-opera-
tion, except from its partisan friends.

The first assumption was not only that there
were enough sympathizers with Germany to
decide the election, but that candidates would be
found to pander to their hostility to Canada.
No German-born German, or other diluted Ger-
man, could become a candidate in the West with
the least hope of success. It was assumed, there-
fore, that Canadian candidates would be base

322 DISAFFECTION NOT SO CURED

enough to betray their country; and that
though the electors of British birth were in a
vast majority over the " enemy aliens," enough
of them would vote disloyally to jeopardise
Canada's continuance in the war, and to dis-
honour the sacrifices she had already made.

If there was justification for that fear, it not
only throws a strange light upon the professions
with which we entered the war; but renders
our future hopeless on any basis that is conson-
ant with the position taken during the last five
years. For nothing is more certain than that,
if this presumed disaffection was real, it could
not be cured by the War Times Election Act. It
could only be driven in, to become more virulent ;
and less resistible when the next crisis arrived.

If this assumption of the depravity of a
majority of Canadian citizens is delusive, the
other assumption remains — that a party in
power is justified in violating solemn cove-
nants, and passing special laws, if it will only
declare that the safety of the State depends upon
its retention of office — a silly pretension, indeed.

The virus of partyism blinds intentionally
honest men, even when they are surrounded by
the graves of thousands of the slain. After all,
Sir Wilfrid Laurier was pledged to a vigorous
war policy, exclusive of conscription, which
Australia had overwhelmingly rejected. He
was pledged also to form a Government that
would be superior to the party complexion of his

SUPPOSE UNIONISTS BEATEN 323

majority, and that must have ignored those of
his few supporters in Quebec who professed that
they would not spend another man or dollar on
the war.

If the Unionists had been defeated they would
not have been helpless. The Canadians in Flan-
ders never thought a repulse was an annihila-
tion. The Unionists would not have dared to
stand idly by, like inferior children, sulking
when the game has gone against them. They
would have been bound to act as an insistent,
driving force behind the Government, which
some of them would have been asked to join.

An Opposition can compel a Government to
heed its desires, if the Opposition is abler at
creating public opinion than the Government is.
A Unionist Opposition could have been as pow-
erful as a Laurier Government, by acting on the
axiom of one of its ablest members — already
cited — that ninety per cent, of political genius
consists in the ability to create situations which
your opponents must meet.

An example of prevision and magnanimity is
found in an episode of Lincoln's second candi-
dature for the Presidency. During the August
preceding the election in November, Lincoln,
like everybody else, became certain that he
would be beaten. He wrote a paper, setting
forth his conviction, and pledging himself to use
all his power during the four months between
the election and Inauguration day, in co-opera-

324 DECISIVE PRINCIPLE AT STAKE

tion with his victorious opponent, to save the
country. He pasted the ends of the paper
together, asked every member of his Cabinet to
sign his name on the back, and did not reveal the
contents until after the victory which his oppo-
nents blundered into giving him.

Lincoln was incomparably more responsible
than the Ottawa Cabinet was for the conduct of
a great war. He was in contact with the ulti-
mate facts of political life, and he faced what
promised to be a disastrous election, like a
patriot, and not like a partisan. If there was
a Lincoln at Ottawa, he was marvellously con-
cealed.

All this may be said to be unnecessarily specu-
lative, too long after the event. But everywhere
it is demanded that the War Times Election Act
be maintained, and the policy behind it extended.
A fundamental, decisive and everlasting prin-
ciple is at stake. The hazard must not be left to
a decision by default.

When we determine what the franchise is
we determine what Canada is going to be.
On the one side are freedom and co-operation,
strengthened by knowledge, insight and con-
fidence. On the other side are domination and
repression, qualified by fear, prejudice and
interest. The side on which men stand is deter-
mined by what they believe to be the inalienable
Canadian birthright.

CHAPTER XXI *

VETERAN TAKES UP BONDS AND RAILS

Revealing something of what is in the Returned Soldier's
mind, about the National Debt he is asked to carry, and the
National Railways he is expected to finance: he baulks at
paying interest on the cost of the shells he fired, the clothes he
wore, and the food he ate; wonders why he should furnish
dividends for water; and talks curiously about going over the
economic top.

The good folk who are bored when they are
invited to think about something Sir John
Macdonald never mentioned, and George Brown
did not expound, have been revelling in misery
since the armistice began.

A near-panic is said to have occurred on a
Toronto street car, when a passenger, who was
ghoulishly hoarse from a cold, whispered loudly
to his vis-a-vis, " The Bolshevik will get you if
you don't watch out.''

It is enough to say of a devout clergyman that
he is half a Socialist to convince some blameless
Christians that Beelzebub and Anti-Christ are
holding a committee in the vestry, probably with
Jimmy Simpson taking the minutes.

The only ready relief for this woe is to mutter
" Foreigner " seven times ; put your blinkers on ;
run to the corner to make sure the bank is still
intact, and buy the right paper.

* This chapter was written in early February. It has not been
changed. The strikes of May more than justify it.

325

326 AN EXCUSE FOR HUMOUR

Probably more terror and more comfort have
been vouchsafed to timorous souls v^hen they
have read that at a meeting where several
original things have been said, eighty per cent,
of the audience were foreigners, than has been
given them since the guns ceased to roar.

How a serious person can allow his sense of
humour to live in the midst of weird excursions
and alarums is more than some heads of the
best regulated families can understand. If an
excuse for a momentary levity is offered, it must
be that The Better 'Ole came straight from the
trenches; and that we are not yet as beset by
perils at home as the boys were abroad. They
fought. We are asked to think.

It isn't necessary to retire into an intellectual
dugout if you want to talk about affairs of state.
After all, a season of previsionary conversation
about our relations to one another is not treason,
though an earnest minority amongst us would
dearly love to have it so ordered-by-council.

The Universities have discussed what a fer-
ment there is in England, and how much good it
is likely to do over there. To transfer some of
the intellectual liberty of Europe to Canada may
not be too perilous an enterprise. A tentative
beginning may be made with a few questions.

If there is more intellectual liberty in Europe
than in Canada, as Sir Robert Falconer says,
does the dreaded " foreigner " bring some of it
to Canada?

CHEER FOR REVOLUTION 327

If the mental liberty he has brought here has
been developed in spite of all sorts of tyranny,
what does that phenomenon mean to Canadians
who exercise less liberty than the " foreigners "
who have endured more oppression?

What mean the newspaper reports of meet-
ings where three-quarters of the audience are
said to be " foreigners "?

A few years ago you never read of a " for-
eigner '' being at a meeting. Occasionally it
was said he had been at a murder — and the
impression that policemen were specially neces-
sary for Poles took root in your mind — notwith-
standing the glamours of Paderewski. But now
— here is a meeting of Trade Unionists at
Massey Hall, said to be nearly all " foreigners,''
who cheer for the Social Revolution. If we
could only shut up, or shut out the ^^ foreigners,''
we shouldn't hear anything about Revolution,
except in Russia, and Germany, and Hungary
and a few other countries where such things
naturally belong.

Wherein we most lavishly deceive ourselves.
Whoso deceiveth himself is not wise. One
recalls the first profound reflection of a five-
year-old mind — that if only the roadside trees
were cut down there would be no howling wind.
For once may the poor " foreigner " be left
alone. Let us see what is going on in the mind
and heart of the world ; and then try to decide
whether Canada is in the world. The "for-

328 USED TO STRAFE LLOYD GEORGE

eigner " may be an alarm clock. When he goes
off it is time for the rest of us to wake up.

The proper study of Canadians is Canada.
" Beginning at Jerusalem " is a phrase which
the colonial system interprets in a different
sense from that which governs real self-govern-
ment. In the Colonial system London is Jeru-
salem. In the Canadian system all Canada is
Jerusalem. We must not be frightened of
words, or refuse to consider our own condition
because one man says we are worse than we
think, and another avers that the woes of dis-
tant countries will not afflict us, and therefore
the remedies that apply to them need not disturb
our peace. We can get along without the
theories of the Old World; why bother about
Socialisms, and Syndicalisms, and Bolshevisms?

Not long ago there was as much strafing of
Lloyd-Georgism among some classes in Canada
as there are now denunciations of other isms.
They now think that disturbers of Complacency
should be squelched immediately and once for
all. These inconvenient persons will be squelched
as soon as a way of prohibiting human reflection
is discovered. They are mostly people who
work. They insist on asking what becomes of
their labour.

The working people have supplied the millions
of men who have risked their lives in order to
save the lives and freedom of their children,
already born, and to be born; and to save the

VETERAN IS NOT A CHILD 329

material things which sustain life. They are
going to have all the say they want as to how
the material things they have preserved will
henceforth be handled. After this, the rights of
people will come before the rights of property.
Property is like the Sabbath. It was made for
people, and not people for property.

Some of the questions these men in Canada as
well as in Europe are putting to those whose
possessions their comrades died to save are as
inconvenient as the questions children ask.
Under which gooseberry tree did you find little
brother? If you got him in the night, how did
you manage not to hurt him? Weren't you
afraid somebody else would find him first?

The difference between the returned soldier
who inquires and the child who puzzles is that
you cannot tell the veteran to go and play with
his gun. He wants to know, and he will not be
satisfied till he does know. When he knows he
will act, having first chosen his commanding
officer.

In Johannesburg, a year after the Peace of
Vereeniging, I talked much with a merchant
who was bitterly opposed to the importation of
Chinese labour for the gold mines. He said the
Government which had succeeded the Boer
republic had become the creature of the capi-
talists, and he was determined to get the British
Government out of the Transvaal — Milner and
his whole bag of tricks.

330 FACE ECONOMIC REVOLUTION

" That's very interesting, Mr. Clark/' I said;
" but if you were to say that in London, it would
be called treason/'

" Treason!" he said, thnmping the table, " By
God, I have a right to talk treason : I fought all
through the war."

We have to face not a theory of Socialism, but
a condition of economic revolution, which
neither governments, newspapers, politicians,
wise men, nor fools will long be able to camou-
flage. One aspect of it is this — that the people
who have long foreseen it, and have considered
methods of meeting it are those who openly
court revolution. It is no more use becoming
furious about these things than it is to get mad
at the weather.

Lately a great English manufacturer, from
Manchester, was guest at a dinner of capitalists
and employers, including the younger Rocke-
feller, in New York. He told of the revolution
of methods in his own works — of committees of
his employees which deal, not only with social
recreations and the hourly conditions of their
work, but also with management policies, and
the markets in which their products are sold.
He said,. among other wise things:

" In Germany the war became a race with
revolution ; and revolution won. In England we
recognize that reconstruction is a race with
revolution. You cannot win a race by running
in the opposite direction to your competitor."

NOT A SOCIALIST, BUT— 331

It is quite appropriate, indeed it is very con-
servative, to listen awhile to one of the many
returned soldiers who did his bit of economic
thinking before he became a warrior, and is
prepared to do his bit of economic acting now
that he has played a lively part upon the inter-
national stage, and has found out what it is to
have his own way with an opponent.

" I am not a Socialist," he says, *^ and the
things I want to know come to me through the
common sense I have inherited and the fiery
furnace I have gone through. So please don't
pretend you can answer me unless you are pre-
pared to deal with my questions on their merits.
I won't play the old soldier on you ; and please
don't try to play the old soldier on me. Old-
fashioned talk about what capital has done,
and the concessions that are being made to
labour, and all that kind of thing, are not
enough ; and Til tell you why.

" In this war I have been born again, in sev-
eral different ways. I can't tell you how many
times I went right into the jaws of death, or how
many men I have seen destroyed. But every
time I escaped, when other fellows, just as good
as I, were killed, I said to myself, * That's an-
other fresh start for you, old man. Now you've
got another clean slate, see that you write the
proper kind of stuff on it.'

" I don't see why the soldier should be the only
one who has had to make one fresh start after

332 TEXT FROM SIR HARRY LAUDER

another because of the war. I've been looking
around, and can see plenty of room for fresh
starts by people who are mighty smug and com-
fortable just now.

" Harry Lauder came to our camp and told
us his brother was worrying about the national
debt. He never spoke a truer word in jest.
There's going to be a lot of worrying about the
national debt. This is the way it looks to me.
I am a taxpayer who was a soldier. While I was
fighting for a dollar ten a day and board, and
furnishing my own dugout, my present em-
ployer was getting rich out of war contracts in
clothing and leather; and his brother was get-
ting rich out of the high markets for farm
produce on account of the war. They both had
shares in munition works which paid hundred
per cent, dividends before the profits tax was
put on, and very fat dividends afterwards.

" Between them they have put two hun-
dred and fifty thousand dollars into Victory
Bonds. At five and a half per cent, interest that
means an income of thirteen thousand seven
hundred and fifty dollars a year from the war.
Whether the bonds are paid off by the Govern-
ment or not, that money, made out of the war, is
expected to yield to all generations of these
men's descendants, that amount of income every
year. There's no dispute about that

" There is no denying, either, that the two
hundred and fifty thousand dollars were made

WHO PAYS THE NATIONAL DEBT? 333

because of the war. Some of it was made out of
shells which I myself fired, and in firing which
I was a thousand times within an ace of being
killed. Some of it was made out of the food
I ate to keep alive and fire the shells. Some of
it was made out of the shells that my Scotch
comrades fired, and the food my English com-
rades ate. Some of it was made out of France,
some out of Italy, and some out of Russia. But
all of the two hundred and fifty thousand has
been added to the Canadian National Debt.
There's no dispute about that.

"What I want to know is. What is the
National Debt? Who are the debtors that have
got to pay it? And to whom must they pay? I
have seen one of these Victory Bonds. It says,
' The Dominion of Canada will pay to the
bearer.' What is the Dominion of Canada? Is
it the Minister of Finance whose name appears
on the bond? Oh, no. He doesn't pay because
he signed his name. He was paid for signing
his name. The Dominion of Canada is the
people of Canada. I am the Dominion of Canada
— ^just as much as the Minister of Finance, or
either of the two clever gentlemen who put up
the two hundred and fifty thousand. When we
were in the firing line they told us we were the
whole Canadian cheese, because if it were not
for us there wouldn't be any Dominion of
Canada — only a German possession. There's
no dispute about that.

23

334 A MORTGAGE ON LABOUR

" So, when it says ^ The Dominion of Canada
will pay/ it means that my comrades, my neigh-
bours and I, will pay. To whom will we pay?
To the men who put up the two hundred and
fifty thousand that they got because they made
the shells and sold the food with which we saved
the Dominion of Canada. Then riches came to
them because sixty thousand of our comrades
lost their lives and because we went on fighting
in the midst of pouring blood, and mutilated
flesh, and smashed bones, and the cries of the
wounded and the stench of the dead. The Min-
ister of Finance has undertaken that my old
comrades and I shall contribute towards this
thirteen thousand seven hundred and fifty dol-
lars every year for so many years ; and that the
two hundred and fifty thousand will still be
owing to our bosses. We haven't got that much
money. But the Minister of Finance has given
a pledge that we will have it. How are we going
to get it?. The Minister of Finance is absolutely
certain that we are going to keep on working for
it. There's no dispute about that.

" We are getting on. The security of the
Dominion of Canada, which is said to be the
best security in the world, is a confiding faith
that the men in the Dominion of Canada will go
on working, everlastingly working, to provide
thirteen thousand seven hundred and fifty dol-
lars a year for two men and their families, who
won't need to work, because they can fare

THANK GOD FOR COUPONS 335

sumptuously on what we are going to earn for
them, having first made for them the " capital "
it represents. There's no dispute about that

" Hold on a minute. This interest on the
national debt is taxes. The debt was incurred
to carry on the war. I fought in the war, and
couldn't possibly get rich at the job. Then I
fought for the privilege of paying taxes to those
who did not fight, and to their children and heirs
for heaven knows how many years. I have got
to pay interest all my life on the cost of the
khaki I wo;*e, the shells I fired, and the bread I
ate. The Victory Bond says there's no dispute
about that.

" I'm not so sure I shall accept the obligation
somebody else entered into for me. Maybe I
shall have something to do besides hearing my
bosses say, as they clip their coupons for thir-
teen thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars a
year, free of income tax : * Thanks be to God and
the soldiers who gave us the Victory Bonds, and
are paying us the interest on the same? There's
no dispute about that.

" In dugouts we used to read of brave de-
mands that were being made at home for the
conscription of wealth. They looked good to me.
Nothing seemed fairer than that the Govern-
ment which came to a young man and said, ^ We
take your life for your country,' should go to a
middle-aged luxurist and say, *We take your
wealth for your country.' But it doesn't seem

336 CONSCRIPTION'S DOUBLE TAX

to have worked out that way. The fellow that
had his life conscripted to save his country is
now to have his labour conscripted to save the
other fellow's riches that came from the con-
scription of his own life. Tax-paying is con-
scription. If you have to work hard for every
nickel you get, it's conscription of your labour.
If a thousand other fellows are working hard,
and you are taking toll of their labour, you
think it's your own wealth that's being con-
scripted. Maybe. But if your wealth comes
from the other fellow's labour, he's being taxed
twice and you only once. I don't know what
doctrine you call that, and don't care. I call it
the truth. There's no dispute about that.

"While I have been turning this situation
over in my half military, half civilian mind, I
have looked into another that has developed
while we were in France. While away I became
a great railway proprietor, in pretty much the
same way as I own the National Debt. The
Government, which is my comrades and myself
multiplied, has taken over the Canadian North-
ern Railways, the National Transcontinental,
the Grand Trunk Pacific, and will soon take
over the old Grand Trunk. Some of these roads
failed to meet their interest obligations, and the
Government, which is me, under another name,
had guaranteed to pay certain interest if the
railroad magnates couldn't pay it. What the
Capitalist Colonels failed to do the plugging

PUBLIC RISK; PRIVATE GAIN 337

privates have got to do. There's no dispute
about that.

" Those railroads were built with the sanc-
tion of Parliament; and most of them under
Government guarantees — that the interest up
to many thousands of dollars a mile would be
paid, so that the magnates might get money to
build their roads at four per cent, instead of
five. The public guaranteed the cost, and a few
men ^ owned ' the road. Parliament undertook
to pay the four per cent, if the magnates
couldn't, or wouldn't. What Parliament was
pledging, then, was labour — it guaranteed that
the farmers and factory men would go on work-
ing, working, and carrying the risk, while the
magnates carried the power and the glory. A
few years ago there was the greatest outcry you
ever heard against the public ownership of rail-
ways from the magnates and their friends — the
gentlemen who had arranged for the public
ownership of the risks which their personal
ambitions incurred, while they secured the
profits. The public is now paying interest which
the magnates assured the public it would never
have to pay. There can be no dispute about that.

" This bit of thinking about my obligations as
a Railway Owner, piled on my obligations as a
National Debt Proprietor, makes me more curi-
ous than I was before the war, about the way
these great enterprises are worked. I know
everything was done according to Act of Parlia-

338 TOLD NOT TO WORRY

ment; that Parliament was just one spendthrift
session after another ; and that, so long as Par-
liament is willing to throw away the national
interest for a campaign fund, or from sheer
ignorance of a few economic facts, selfish men
will take everything that'Parliament hands out.
What Parliament doesn't know about handing
out, capitalists soon teach it. Parliament is
crazy because the people are crazy — that means
me and the other boys who went over the top.
Now we're back we find there's another top or
two to go over if we want fair play. I've an
idea we'll go over. There will soon be no dispute
about that.

" Before the war I used to get a little inquisi-
tive about some of these financial matters, but
was always told it was none of my business to
worry about interest on railway securities and
things like that. The railroads were meeting
their obligations, and it would be time for other
people to worry when they failed to do it. I had
an idea then that some of them were paying
interest out of capital, and wondered how long
you can feed a dog on his tail without the dog
finding out he will soon be at his stomach.

" The annual reports of some of the railways
used to puzzle me. They don't puzzle me now,
and perhaps I can make clear to you what has
become clear to me, by putting on a sheet of
paper the assets and liabilities of a railway in a
very condensed form, with round figures that

PRIME QUESTION OF COST 339

are easily handled, and covering two years. If
you take it to the President of the Canadian
National Railways, he will tell you, on the score
of principle, that there can be no dispute about
that.

Year 1910 — Annual Keport.

Liabilities.

Capital stock 150,000,000

4 per cent, debenture stock 25,000,000

^Mj per cent, guaranteed preference

stock 25,000,000

Assets.
Cost of railway |100,000,000

Year 1913— Annual Report.

Liabilities.

Capital stock 1100,000,000

4 per cent, debenture stock 50,000,000

4% per cent, guaranteed preference

stock 50,000,000

Assets.
Cost of railway $200,000,000

"What is the difference between these two
years? The liabilities are shewn to have
doubled, and the cost of the railway has doubled
also. But have they? The debenture stock and
the preferred stock represent the securities on
which interest must be paid, or the road become
bankrupt. Where the rate of interest is given
in the report, it is guaranteed. No interest is
guaranteed on the " capital stock '' for a reason
I will come to presently.

340 WHAT AN AVERAGE MAN THINKS

" If the magnates can't pay the interest, the
guarantors must — the Government, that is, the
taxpayer (you and I), must pay it. These two
stocks are the securities — and all of the securi-
ties— which the British investors hold, in return
for the cash with which the railway built thou-
sands of miles of line, and stations and equip-
ment.

" The ordinary man, who earns money and
doesn't "make'' it, supposes that the cost of the
railway means the money that has been spent on
it, just as the cost of his coat was what he paid
for it. So, if the debentures and the guaranteed
stock have increased fifty million dollars, and
no other money has been spent on the road, its
actual cost has increased fifty million dollars.

" But look at the item, * Cost of Railway.' It
has gone up to a hundred million dollars — twice
the amount of guaranteed securities that were
sold to get the money to build the line. On the
assets side this increase in ' cost ' — which is the
sheerest financial camouflage — is balanced by
an increase in fifty millions of ' capital stock.'
What is this ' capital stock?' I'll tell you; and
there will be no dispute about that,

" * Capital stock ' is a security created by
authority of Act of Parliament, which repre-
sents no money put into the railway, but is
Parliament's innocent little way of creating a
claim to keep freight and passenger rates up to
a point where dividends can be paid on * capital '

WATERED STOCK WIZARDRY 341

that was only paper. If the road earns more
than the interest on the money actually spent on
it, the extra money is turned into dividends on
the * capital stock.' It represents the ' profit '
of the promoter, for being clever enough to
induce Parliament to make the public pay him
tribute to all generations, if he succeeds, and
relieve him of responsibility if he fails.

" This created ^ money ' is commonly called
v^atered stock, because it enables the clever pro-
moter, under Parliamentary authority, to float
into a fortune in cash, and usurp a throne of
political power. The total amount authorized is
put into ' cost of railway,' — by a stroke of the
pen — so that, whenever freight and passenger
rates come up for readjustment, it may be con-
tended that the railway has an inherent right to
pay interest on its * capital ' ; and when the ' cost
of railway ' is given in the reports and is pub-
lished by the Government as ' Funded Debt ' —
well, the vested right is there ; it is found to have
been sold to widows and orphans; and what
must the public — ^you and I — do about it but
pay, pay, pay. There's no dispute about that

" Another operation in railway building has
been given the sanction of one Parliament after
another. Most railways have received subsidies
from the Government. Some have been at the
rate of $12,000 per mile, and some at $6,000.
The Government has handed cash to the builders
of the railway. While we were in France, it has

342 PAY INTEREST ON OUR MONEY

been found that a road in New Brunswick cost
just about what the Government subsidy
amounted to; but it was owned by the pro-
moters, whose * equity ' for fooling the Govern-
ment is represented by * stock ' which the Par-
liament created for them, and which they ex-
pected would be worth a fortune to them — a
found fortune. There's no dispute about that

" What I want to get over to you is this — that
subsidies go into the ' cost of railway.' They
can be neatly covered up by the * capital stock.'
They go into the printed cost of the road, just
the same ; and they are included in the * capital '
outlay on which freight and passenger earnings
are expected to pay interest. You would think
Parliament would earmark its subsidies, so that,
when dividends come to be reckoned, and the
rates the public must pay for railway service
are fixed, the public contribution to the railway
would be safeguarded. But Capital doesn't do
it that way. Parliament gave the subsidy to the
railway ; and at the same time gave the raihvay
the right in perpetuity to make the public pay
interest on its own money. Believe me, there
can be no dispute about that

" So, here's what we returned soldiers are up
against. We risked our lives in order that we
may pay taxes for the rest of our lives to those
who stayed at home and got rich out of the perils
which we survived, but which put sixty thousand
of our comrades where poppies blow. That's

PERHAPS GERMANY BETTER 343

our share of the National Debt. There's no
dispute about that.

" We return to find ourselves loaded up with
thousands of miles of railways into which hun-
dreds of millions of dollars of public money have
gone, on which the public gets no interest, but
which are used to make the public pay interest
to those who borrowed its credit. That's our
share of the National Railway. There's no dis-
pute about that.

" What are we going to do about it? Frankly,
I can't tell you. But this is very clear — the net
effect of the way the capitalists have induced
Parliament to handle the national resources and
our credit is that we are in a frightful mess —
all through taking the advice of capitalists who
passed for far-seeing patriots. If we don't
quickly bring about some great changes, the four
years' war we have gone through won't have
done as much good to Canada as it has done to
Germany. The Germans have got rid of some
of their most expensive follies. Before we
agree to keep all of ours we'd better learn vastly
more than we know now. When I am abso-
lutely sure about what I want, and see a pretty
clear way of getting it, I won't be scared to act.
And scores of thousands of veterans are like me.
There's no dispute about that.

" No, my friend, I'm not talking about revolu-
tion; I am merely using a little common sense
on the indisputable facts. We've been camou-

344 WILL BE AS FAIR AS CAPITAL

flaged long enough. We're not going to be
camouflaged by the old devices any more. Not
being a Socialist myself, Fm not going to be
frightened by hearing other men called Social-
ists. When I hear a man yelling names at the
top of his voice I suspect him. There were
Socialists in the army. They were a mighty
sight better fighters than the fellows who expect
us soldiers to pay them interest because they got
rich while we got shot. I'm going to concentrate
on the few things that I do know about the way
capital works labour, and works politics, and
works social advancement. I will be just as fair
to capital as it is fair to me. If it presumes to
guarantee that I will work and work, so as to
pay it interest, I will decide how I will work,
and for whom, and for how long. And there's
no dispute about thaV^

This summary of a Returned Soldier's exposi-
tion of his place in the National Scheme of
Reconstruction was transcribed on February
10th. One turned from it to read that the Hon.
J. A. Calder had said that, unless people who
made money during the war and tucked it away
in Victory Bonds loosened some of it — well, un-
pleasant things would happen.

Verily, a New Era has been born. It has a
heart in its body, and a brain in its skull. It
has a tongue, and not a silver spoon in its mouth.

CHAPTER XXI

JEOPARDOUS AND DAZZLING

Enumerating a few of the perils and possibilities on which
the Future hinges; beginning with a two-edged contemplation
of civil war, pointing a moral from the Carson insurrection,
referring to Lord Shaughnessy and Independence, to Senator
Beaubien and Annexation; and prospecting the national
renown that may belong to all who own Canada their Mother.

' A divine, converted into a man of affairs, and
transferred from the extreme East to the Middle
West, was talking in Winnipeg with an Ontario
friend.

" On the way from Ottawa, last week," he
said, " I met a couple of French-Canadians on
the train. They were very nice fellows, though
one could not agree with the views which they
frankly expressed. They argued for bilingual-
ism. Of course, I was as strongly against it.
They said the French language had rights all
over Canada. I denied it. Then they said
there would have been no Confederation if that
had not been distinctly understood ; and that if
their contention were finally denied by the other
provinces, they would have to consider with-
drawing from Confederation.

" ' All right,' I said; ' if you wish to pull out
of Confederation, you get your gun, and I'll get

345

346 MEN CAN AGREE IF THEY WISH

mine ; and we'll see who can shoot the straight-
est: ''

Two mornings afterwards the militant gen-
tleman breakfasted with his friend, and dis-
coursed on another national question, apropos
an address to the Winnipeg Canadian Club by-
former Governor Brown, of Saskatchewan,
which was full of lamentation over the oppres-
sion of the western farmer by the eastern finan-
cier and manufacturer. The ex-divine was as
bitter as the ex-governor against the East and
its pecuniary ways.

"What I want the West to do,'' he said,
vehemently, " is to pull out of this darned Con-
federation."

"All right," replied his friend; "when you
are ready to pull, you get your gun and I'll get
mine, and we'll see who can shoot the straight-
est."

Behold how good and pleasant a thing it is
for brethren to dwell together in unity. Unity
is not so much an agreement about measures to
be placed on statute books, as a harmony of
spirit about the objects to be attained through
statute books. If men want to agree they can
agree. If they don't want to agree they can
draw on centuries of partisan political practice
for devices warranted to prevent unity. Un-
happily, the present perils of Canadian disunion,
against which the preachers fervently pray and
the statesmen meticulously bleat, are what they

MOST VARIOUS DAUGHTERS 347

are because men have abused politics, and godly
citizens have come to believe that if their fellows
shew a devotion to politics they should be
shunned, as heathens and publicans. They
imagined that the politics of the war and the
patriotism of the war were different concerns.
When they discuss the problems which can only
be dealt with through Parliamentary enact-
ment, they speak as though Parliament should
be quarantined, and Parliament men shorn of
the right which it should be their most religious
duty to exercise.

That is a left-over of the colonial system —
a consequence of keeping the ultimate facts of
political life away from the popular conscious-
ness ; and of erecting the highest altar of your
patriotic devotion in a place far removed from
the people, and encompassing it by honours and
dignities which are alien to the democracy
which is expected to pay homage to them.

If you could gather together daughters of the
Nova Scotia Scottish-Canadian, daughters of
the New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island
Acadian-Canadian, daughters of the Quebec
French-Canadian, daughters of the Ontario
English - Canadian and German - Canadian,
daughters of the Manitoba Austrian-Canadian,
daughters of the Saskatchewan Scandinavian-
Canadian and Russian-Canadian, daughters of
the Alberta American-Canadian, and daughters
of the British Columbia Asian-Canadian — what

348 TORONTO AIDS REBELLION

would you ask of them, as a sign of their united
love for the country in which they were born,
and in which they will bear children? If you
could find a Matron for these mothers of Can-
ada, would she not urge them to teach their
children to sing something as simple as this : —

Of all the lands, in East and West,
I love my native land the best;

I seek her good, her glory.
I honour every nation's name,
Respect their fortune and their fame;

But I love the Land that bore me ;

But I love the Land that bore me.

What is the test of loyalty in Canada? It is
no easier to define than it is to discover the typi-
cal Canadian. A few months before the war,
a resident of Toronto dropped into a meeting
that was held to promote the collection of money
with which to buy rifles and ammunition from
Germany for use against the forces of King
George in Ireland. Among the speakers was an
Anglican clergyman, the nature of whose vows
bound him to honour King and Parliament.
The visitor was a consistent upholder of Par-
liamentary authority, and for thirty years a
believer in the political wisdom of Home Rule.

To his astonishment he was asked to speak.
Candidly, but with such tact as he could engage,
and without chiding his hearers for supporting
incipient rebellion three thousand miles away,
he made what was perhaps the first Home Rule
speech ever ventured in a Toronto Orange

MEANING OF GENERAL BOTHA 349

assembly. When he had finished, the chair-
man, a doughty politician in that ward, almost
shed tears, as he admitted that though the audi-
ence could not agree with the speaker, they knew
he was loyal.

Could there be a more perfect illustration of
the piebald quality of loyalty in Canada? The
admirable loyalist was raising Canadian money
for a rebellion in Ireland. In his honest opin-
ion his fellow Canadians would have been dis-
loyal if, when that rebellion came, they had
opposed Sir Edward Carson and supported the
King. If another sort of rebellion arose in Ire-
land a Canadian sympathizer with it would be
charged with disloyalty, and would run risks of
political and social degradation therefor. To
thousands of Canadians, loyalty to Canada
involves loyalty to a party in Ireland. United
States citizens may express what views they
please about Ireland without imperilling their
patriotic reputations.

We assume more burdens in Canada. We ask
the infant Canadianism of those who come to
us to carry more loads than they bore when the
patriotism of their native lands sustained their
manhood, and more than they would be expected
to assume if they joined the United States.

A war in South Africa was followed, in a few
years, by responsible government in what were
called the conquered territories. When the war
with Germany broke out, that confidence proved

24

350 SEVERER TESTS OF LOYALTY

to be the most profitable Imperial assurance
premium of our time. The only British Prime
Minister who, while holding that office, led Brit-
ish armies in the field, and the first British
general to take vast territories from the Ger-
mans by land operations was General Botha,
who twelve years before was fighting against
British armies. A most valued member of the
Imperial War Cabinet was General Smuts, who
was also a Transvaal general in 1902. Respon-
sible Government in the Transvaal and the
Orange Free State was instituted on the strong
advice of Sir Wilfrid Laurier — the full story
of which ought now to be told.

But this wise course was opposed by a British
party, and by the present Colonial Secretary.
It might have led to fierce controversy. Indeed,
Canadian papers like the Toronto News declared
it to be dangerous to the Empire. The many
thousands of Daughters of the Empire, if they
had been polled, would no doubt have supported
Lord Milner's opposition to responsible govern-
ment being given so soon as five years after
the war. The loyalty of statesmen who pro-
claimed their faith in Botha and Smuts was
dubiously regarded by some of their compa-
triots, whose fears of freedom jingo psalms
cannot allay.

Canadian loyalty is liable to be confronted at
any moment by severer tests than obtain in
England. Over there men are not afraid of

PRIVILEGE OF LITTLENESS 351

expressing their views about matters concern-
ing their own Government lest they be called
disloyal. H. G. Wells, for example, is a repub-
lican. He is not accused of disloyalty to Eng-
land. Members of the Privy Council gladly
work with him. His books are not banned by
extreme Canadian Imperialists. They reserve
their literary penalties for writers in Canada
who are anti-republican and pro-Canadian.

Good men constantly refrain from expressing
their convictions, because they may find them-
selves, as well as their views, tabooed by those
who appear to imagine that they are to Cana-
dian loyalty what Worth was to Parisian fash-
ion. The itch for branding people who dare to
think is one of the explanations of Sir Robert
Falconer's lament that there is less intellectual
liberty in Canada than there is in a Europe
which includes Petrograd, Berlin and the Vati-
can. To mistake originality for depravity, and
vision for darkness, is one of the privileges of
opulent and learned littleness.

Timid personal thinking begets a double
timidity in public affairs — such is the law of
deleterious increase. Men fear to speak
frankly what they think about " Imperial '' pro-
ceedings in relation to Canada; and they fear
to speak courageously of distinctly Canadian
affairs in relation to " Imperial '' affairs.

Lord Kitchener decides that Canadians be-
come British soldiers the moment they land in

352 INTELLECTUAL FLUNKEYISM

England. The Canadian Government acqui-
esces, and the matter is never discussed in Par-
liament— for fear of upsetting the nerves of
v^ell-meaning lovers of the Past who are the
political heirs of the patriotic saints who found
deadly disloyalty in Thackeray's lectures on
The Four Georges. Free discussion about Ire-
land or India is checked — lest somebody across
the seas won't like it, or because it may cause
talk of " disloyalty " at home.

Two generations ago, when British provin-
cial cities began to have their own daily press,
the editors uttered no opinions on political
events until they had seen the London editorials.
Such an absurd deference could not last. Bir-
mingham and Manchester found out that no
magic wisdom was derived from proximity to
the Thames. That intellectual flunkeyism has
its counterparts in too many who imagine them-
selves to be Imperialists when they are only
copyists.

It will be denied that Canada depends on
London. But the Round Table is right. Can-
ada is a dependency, and frequently waits on
London rather than relies upon herself. That
is an attribute of the colonial mentality which
must be discarded, little as the truth may be
admitted, and much as it may be resented. An
illustration? Here is a letter from one who
knows : —

" Let any titled Englishman visit us, and he

" GIVEN '' STATUS OF A UNIT 353

is listened to by Canadian Clubs with profound
deference. He is lionized, feted, reported and
editorialized. He can confess — as a newly cre-
ated peer did in Vancouver a few years ago —
that he is much touched by the loyalty of Can-
ada, and we will clasp his kindness to our souls.
He would never talk like that if he made
a journey from London to Cornwall, because,
over there none but the King himself presumes
to speak of the loyalty of subjects in that tone.
The visitor is a little surprised at the hom-
age paid him, and his impression of the Im-
periality of his own Imperialism is enhanced.
But let our eminent Englishman settle in Can-
ada, and be he never so good a Canadian, be he
never so learned, never so familiar with spa-
cious affairs, and never so modest in expressing
himself, we will place him under suspicion,
because we have not learned how to make the
most of the material that comes our way, and
we are afraid to give our confidence."

" Just what was the status given to the over-
seas Dominions of Britain at the Peace Con-
ference it was difficult to determine, but Canada
was now standing as a recognizable unit along-
side of Britain." The speaker is Sir Robert
Falconer; and again he is reflecting the uncer-
tainty of the position of a nation which raised
an army of half a million men and led the New
World in the fight for self-preservation. We
don't know what our position is, but we have

354 BARON, KNIGHT, SENATOR

been " given " the status of a " unit." It may
be magnificent to inherit a birthright far
greater than you realize, but it is not war, or
the fruits of war, to depend on some other power
to tell you how much or how little your inheri-
tance amounts to. There are spheres in which
the beneficent fruitage of war is gathered by
those who, to use once more the Round Table
phrase, insist on taking — and by them only.

Self-determination — which is not permission
— must come to Canada sooner or later. It will
come in accordance with what the birthright of
her peoples really is. No supremer duty is
upon those peoples than to find out what they
are, and where their destiny must lead them,
and to proclaim what they have found.

Lord Shaughnessy said, two years ago, that
the war, instead of ensuring a closer attachment
of Canada to the Empire, was trending towards
independence.

Sir George Perley, the High Commissioner in
London, in the earliest months of the- war,
announced that, henceforth, Canada would
claim a share in all the governances of the Em-
pire. Many in Canada thought that was the
utterance of a statesman. One such, asked
whether he wished to take responsibility for
ruling India, said he had not thought of that.

Senator Beaubien, in a speech in Toronto
during the last year of the war, said that lead-
ing western public men had told him that there

END TO ASIATIC DOCILITY 355

was a marked drift of western opinion in the
direction of fusion with the United States. He
told also of a Quebec judge who, after twenty
years' representation of his county in Parlia-
ment, testified that an overwhelming sentiment
for British connection had changed to a desire
of ninety per cent, of the electorate for annexa-
tion.

What are these variations in tendency but the
signs that th^ hour of free and equal nation-
hood is at hand? Alliance is the only basis on
which such nationhoods can fitly express them-
selves and serve each other. Its form cannot
yet be sharply descried, for peace is a laggard.

A four years' war did not scourge the con-
tinents merely because one nation prepared for
it, and several other nations did not. Arma-
geddon has occurred because there were incal-
culable forces working for it, as liberators
other incalculable forces which our little mach-
inations cannot leash or loose.

The inter-racial balances of mankind have
been changed from what we, in arrogant com-
placency, imagined to be as fixed as the stars.
We must accommodate ourselves to other ideas
than that we alone were destined to drive the
chariot of the sun. Nine hundred millions of
Asiatics will not for ever sit under the hand of
a few score thousand Europeans. India will
come into self-governance when India decides
that her hour has struck. The Pacific Ocean,

356 PEOPLE WE CALLED IN

and not some broom held by Occidental hands,
will determine the coast lines that are laved
from its immeasurable depths. Canada will
perforce take her station among the Pacific
powers. She will not remain a passive appen-
dage when inter-Pacific spheres are delimited.
In the Western Hemisphere Canada must
assume her natural place among Pan-American
democracies.

Canada is not merely the unobserved neigh-
bour of the Republic which now, by a rare com-
bination of force and humanity, promises like
a new Colossus to bestride the world. She has
summoned within her gates a more varied con-
course of kindreds and tribes and tongues than
have ever been assembled in any country within
the Britannic pale. She has promised them
freedom, and prosperity, and love. She must
give them all that the Republic can give — and
more also. She cannot do it unless she draws
them to herself, and, in giving to them, she must
know how to take of them. They are not evil,
but good. To say otherwise is to be self-con-
demned for having brought them in. If we will
have eyes to see, it will appear that diversity
may be the anchorage of strength. Two thou-
sand years' evolution in the Islands of the
Northern Sea have shevm how greatly it may
be so.

If there has been great store of genius in the
race which came to be called Anglo-Saxon, it

CANNOT BAULK THIS GENIUS 357

was becausp of a mingling of Briton and Pict,
Celt and Roman, Viking and Scot, Angle and
Dane, Saxon and Norman. Fate may long ago
have decreed that the face of Britannic civiliza-
tion is to be transformed by the renewing of its
blood in this vast theatre of the Northern Zone.
If that be so, the hegemony of our associated
Commonwealths is to-day in process of trans-
ference to a half -ready land.

As surely as the genius for self-government,
and for all that goes into the noble sum of
human freedom, was British in its unfolding
texture, so certainly will the genius that
declares itself here be a Canadian genius, in
spirit, in substance, and in truth. It may be
stifled presently, if enough dullards be exalted
who mistake repression for statesmanship, and
suppose that intolerance is the mark of size.
But it will strive, without remission, for its ele-
mental right. If it be baulked awhile of the
mastery of its own, it will utterly destroy those
who would deform its hand, starve its mind,
and wither its heart.

The road to glory is the straight and hilly
road to national union; not the easy, sinuous
descent into internecine strife. All that Eng-
land may give; all that Scotland may impart;
every dower that comes from Ireland, whose
riches are glinted with laughter even when they
seem most to be overcast with gloom ; all that
Wales can bestow of poetry and eloquence and

358 FOR CANADA THEIR MOTHER

song; everything that immortalizes France the
heroic, the fraternal, and the free ; all the good
that was in Germany, and that was brought
hither in abundant measure by men and women
whom the faith of Luther impelled to unremit-
ting toil ; all that has made the people of Sweden
and Norway congenial with their invigorating
climate, noble lakes and majestic fjords; all
that is good-willing and ambitious on the Car-
pathian slopes where Austrians and Russians
have lived and contended, and Autocracy has
been overthrown; all that has ripened in cul-
ture and music under Italian that once were
Roman skies; all, too, that has been wrought by
inventive skill and by unconquerable optimism
within the Republic which Washington made
and Lincoln saved — all, all are ours, richly to
enjoy, and wisely to incorporate into the nation-
ality which preserves the best that Wolfe and
Montcalm knew; which honours the labours of
those who made dwelling-places in the wilder-
ness; which magnifies the bequests of unex-
ampled war; and which inscribes the title deeds
of an imperishable concord and prosperity for
those who henceforth will call this Canada their
Mother.

There is a birthright indeed — and, in
these mysterious times, as jeopardous as it is
dazzling.

The End.

ADDENDA

THE FARMERS' REMONSTRANCE

A week before the invasion of Ottawa by Ontario
farmers, to request a modification, in accordance with the
Government's election pledges, of the order-in-council
cancelling exemptions, a paragraph in the London
Advertiser intimated that the farmers might ask to be
heard by the House of Commons on the question of main-
taining Parliamentary control of the Cabinet. No im-
portance was accorded the forecast by public leaders.

On the evening of May 14th, four thousand farmers,
mainly from Ontario and Quebec, marched to the House
of Commons, to request that their spokesmen be heard
at the bar. All but a handful were refused admittance
to the building, the request having been denied.

The farmers returned to the Arena, where the Kemon-
strance their representatives would have read to the
Commons was unanimously adopted and steps taken to
bring it before both Houses of Parliament.

The episode was one of the most remarkable and dra-
matic in modern Parliamentary history, though its sig-
nificance was strangely missed by the newspapers. In
its warning against arbitrary incompetence it was sin-
gularly prophetic, as a perusal of the judgment of the
Supreme Court of Alberta strikingly shews.

What was the Farmers' Remonstrance, which was so
little heeded at the time, which was soon to be amazingly
justified, and which should be a warning beacon to Gov-
ernments that are tempted to forget that they are the
servants of a democratic people?

The Remonstrance is printed here, as well as certain
correspondence, notably a letter to the Governor-General,

359

360 WHAT THE ENVOYS SAW

which marks a new stage in the relations of the viceroy
to the people as well as to the Cabinet.

The Prime Minister, with the Ministers of Agriculture
and Militia, agreed to receive, on May 14th, delegations
of farmers from Ontario, Quebec, and other provinces, in
connection with the wholesale cancellations of exemp-
tions from military service. On behalf of the Ontario
farmers, Mr. C. W. Gurney, of Paris, and Mr. St. Clair
Fisher, of Niagara-on-the-Lake, were at Ottawa preparing
the way for the conference.

They found that a unique situation had developed as
between the Cabinet and the House of Commons, which,
though the absolute master of the Cabinet, had allowed
itself, under our system of party government to become
practically the obedient servant of the servants whom it
exalts, and casts down at its pleasure. The Union Gov-
ernment and the House were drawn from both the old
political parties. Under stress of the war the Cabinet
was excessively using its arbitrary powers, and clearly
regarded the presence of members of Parliament at
Ottawa as inconvenient, and, so far, undesirable.

The Farmers' Envoys saw that the breach of faith
which caused the agitation that was sweeping rural
Canada, was only a part of the breakdown of the parti-
san system which, under the guise of democracy, had
developed a Cabinet autocracy before which the House of
Commons was as dumb as it seemed to be insensitive.

The announcement in the London Advertiser was the
first intimation that the people of Canada were at last
beginning to realize that the Cabinet and the Commons
are not synonymous terms ; and that, when the world was
in dissolution it was time to show that the curses under
which democratic, Parliamentary Government had long
been mocked at Ottawa were known for their real impor-
tance; and that they would be irresistibly assaulted.

Mr. Gurney and Mr. Fisher, of Ontario, and Mr.
Masson, the advance representative of the Quebec dele-
gation, assumed the responsibility of proposing that a
request be made for a hearing at the bar of the Commons,
in order that the House might be remonstrated with

ENGLISH-FRENCH MEETING 361

against further abdication of the essentials of Parlia-
mentary control over its own affairs. They knew it was
a departure from modern practice to endeavour to
address the House of Commons. But the turning over of
arbitrary power to the Cabinet, which could rain orders-
in-council like fire and brimstone, was something new in
modern Parliamentary practice, and only a few days
before the Houses had heard a foreign labour leader.

They feared that so novel a request would be dis-
regarded; but for once, touching a prime matter of
Canadian statesmanship, men were available who knew
that their righteous objective was more important than
the obstacles that might be raised against its attain-
ment, and did not fear criticisms of a seeming inability
to reach their goal. Afterwards, some who reviewed the
Parliamentary session, laughed at the "failure" of the
farmers, and their Kemonstrance. Their laughter has
long been forgotten. The Kemonstrance will be held in
enduring remembrance by the people for whose self-
government it was conceived, was spoken in both Houses,
and was recorded m the archives for the behoof of citi-
zens whose names are not yet on the national roll.

A meeting of English and French-speaking farmers
which out-crowded the Kussell Theatre on the morning
of May 14th, adopted Mr. Gurney's resolution directing
request to be made to the House of Commons, through
the Speaker, for a hearing at the bar. The request was
embodied in a letter of President Halbert, of the United
Farmers of Ontario, and chairman of the meeting, and
was handed to the Speaker immediately on the meeting
of the House for its morning sitting. He would have
ignored it, but for an inquiry by Mr. Vien, which led
him to read it to the House.

The Prime Minister was absent, receiving the farmers,
and Sir George Foster, the Acting Leader, while mani-
festly against granting the request, asked for decision to
be held over till the afternoon. In the afternoon the
Prime Minister, answering Mr. Vien, said there was no
need to receive the farmers at the bar, as he had already
received them in the theatre, but the farmers might

362 MARCH TO THE MUSEUM

speak to members in the Chamber during recess for
dinner. His speech shewed that he had not sensed the
truth that the farmers were differentiating between the
House, which is the true master, and the Cabinet, which
is only its servant, and that something new and vivid
was happening in Canadian politics.

News of the refusal was carried to the Arena, where
several thousand farmers were holding the meeting de-
scribed in chapter nineteen. To the suggestion that they
appoint two of their number to ask to be heard in the
evening, and that the whole body should accompany
them in procession, there was enthusiastic response.

Before the evening sitting of the Commons the Prime
Minister was again asked to aid the project. He referred
the matter to Mr. Sifton, who would lead the House.

The march of the farmers to the Victoria Museum was
a memorable sight. Habitues of the Legislative corridors
were heard to say that " these farmers " would never
hold together long enough to walk the mile from the
Arena to the Museum. But when the host came down
the avenue and gathered before the entrance, a different
face of things was seen.

Meantime Mr. Sifton had made it plain that it would
be useless to press the request for a hearing; and though,
as certain papers said next day, policemen were at the
doors to resist any effort of the citizens to force an
entrance, nothing of the kind was ever contemplated;
and the concourse returned in good order to the Arena,
where the Kemonstrance was adopted in the form which
appears here; and a Committee appointed to fi^et it
before both Houses — Mr. Gurney, Mr. Kernighan, and
Mr. J. J. Morrison, the Secretary of the TTnited Farmers
of Ontario, and Mr. Masson, secretary of Le Comptoir
Co-operatif.

It was not easy to do this in the House of Commons.
The Remonstrance was not a petition within the rules of
the House, and petitions are not allowed to be read or
placed on Hansard. While means were being considered
another step was taken by letter to the Governor-General,
which speaks for itself.

DUKE BORE THE MESSAGE 363

The Farmers' Committee did not approach the Duke
of Devonshire as the administrative superior of the
Cabinet or the House of Commons. They recognized his
constitutional limitations as well as his potentialities.
The Cabinet might refuse to permit its obedient majority
in the House to listen to the farmers' complaint against
its own Kaiserism, but it could not refuse to receive the
same complaint from the hand of the King's representa-
tive, who might ignominiously dismiss them.

The farmers were also aware that the Duke of Devon-
shire, receiving such a communication from thousands of
landowners who represented that grave dissatisfaction
with his advisers was developing in the country, could
not do other than officially inform his Ministers of what
was going on.

The farmers were too, wise to request His Excellency
to take any action — not even so much as to speak with
his Ministers. They gave no possible opportunity for a
reply which might tell them they were asking the
Governor-General to exceed the constitutional pro-
prieties. The Duke received the farmers' letter, and not
merely acknowledged its receipt, but promised that he
would give it to the Cabinet.

The significance of the farmers' handling of a rebuff
is not lost upon the observer of the difference, from the
point of view of diplomatic superiority, between the
Cabinet's refusal and the Viceroy's compliance.

Senatorial rules of procedure are about as elastic as
those of the House of Lords, so that it was not difficult
for Senator Cloran to place on the Senate Hansard the
Eemonstrance and its concomitant correspondence. In
the Commons, it was not till the last hour of the session
— after midnight on May 23rd — that Mr. Vien was able
to read the Remonstrance to an astonished House, as the
result of intimating to Sir George Foster that the House
would be kept sitting, and the Governor-General, who had
come from Eideau Hall for the prorogation, would be
kept waiting till the farmers' wish was complied with.

364 APPROACH AND REPULSE

THE REQUEST

(Hansard, p. 1912.)

Russell Theatre, Ottawa,
May 14th, 1918.
The Hon. E. N. Rhodes,

■ Speaker of the House of Commons.
Sir,—

On behalf of several thousand Ontario farmers I beg to
transmit to you the following resolution just passed, and to
say that, encouraged by the reception recently accorded the
President of the American Federation of Labour, we are con-
fident the request will be granted.

" That this meeting instructs the chairman respectfully to
ask the House of Commons to receive him, and two delegates
he shall name, at the sitting of the House this afternoon, to
hear their address upon the situation in the country, and asking
that democracy be honoured in the prosecution of the war, and
all other matters of government."

The messenger who brings this will respectfully await an
answer.

(Signed) R. H. Halbert,

Chairman.

THE REFUSAL

(Hansard, p. 1937.)

Sir Robert Borden: Under the circumstances, I do not feel
that the House ought to interrupt its proceedings for the pur-
pose referred to. If these gentlemen would like, between the
hours of six and eight o'clock, to address any members of the
House who would wish to be present to hear them, there is not
the slightest objection to it.

DUTY OF BEING CANDID 365

THE REMONSTRANCE *

(Hansard, p. 2551.)

To the Honourable the Speaker

and Members of the House of Commons
of Canada, in Parliament assembled.

Mr. Speaker, and Gentlemen of the House of Commons: —

" On behalf of thousands of farmers assembled in this city
to-day, we warmly thank the House for the proof it has given
that it desires to keep in sympathetic touch with the citizens
from whom it derives its dignity and authority. We believe we
express the sentiments of all thoughtful citizens when we say
that this departure in Canadian Parliamentary practice, follow-
ing so closely upon the speech to this House and the Senate, of
the President of the American Federation of Labour, is an
agreeable recognition of the new relationships which the war
is producing, as between those who govern and those who are
governed by consent.

" The portion of Canadian labour which is so vital to the
prosecution of the war, and which we represent, appreciates to
the full the evidence of loyalty which the House of Commons
gave in August, 1914, to the democracies of the western hemi-
sphere in its instant support of the Motherland in her hour of
need. We trust that the spontaneous action then taken will
be justified by a continuation of those habits of freedom which
it has long been the particular privilege of Canadians to main-
tain. These privileges are all the more appreciated in view of
the long struggle for responsible government which was under-
taken against the opposition of those who exercised arbitrary
authority, and who feared the free expression of opinion, in
the press and by the spoken word.

" We are sure the House will permit us to say also, that the
citizens generally have observed with gratitude that the House
has shown a larger independence of thought and speech than
has been customary under the system of partisan government.
We should fail in the duty of being candid which is cast upon
us by the readiness of the House to hear us, if we did not point
out a tendency that has been observed in the House, where the
public will is believed to be supreme. The increasing frankness
of discussion so noticeable here, has been accompanied by a
tendency to silence on the part of members of the Cabinet, who

* The document is printed as prepared. The event proved that
there was nothing to thank the House for.
25

366 FEAR OF UNBRIDLED CABINET

in reality are, as one of your distinguished members has said,
* Only a Committee of this House/

" The unrest in the country which has brought about the
unexampled spectacle of thousands of farmers leaving the im-
portant work of planting their crops, to come to the capital to
remonstrate with the Government, is known to every member
of the House of Commons. We beg leave to intimate that this
unrest is not related merely to the special matter which was
discussed with the Premier and members of his Cabinet to-day.

"We cannot disguise from the House an apprehension that
the liberties, of which the popularly elected branch of the
Legislature is the bulwark, may be dangerously curtailed during
the period that the House is not sitting. In proof that this
dread is not illusory, we would venture to inform the House
that, in common with our fellow-citizens, here and throughout
the country, we have observed certain innovations, the con-
tinuation of which, we believe, would be fraught with serious
results to the confidence which the subjects of His Majesty
have hitherto reposed in the working of that responsible govern-
ment for whose unimpaired preservation forty thousand Cana-
dian soldiers have laid down their lives..

" Will the House permit us to speak more plainly what is in
our minds? We have never believed that the conditions pro-
duced by the war demanded flagrant departures from the
honoured processes of the law enjoined by the Constitution,
while Parliament is in session or is near assembling. We
believe that reliance upon Parliament, instead of upon arbi-
trary authority, most effectively honours the guarantees of
freedom which are embedded in the Constitution. One con-
siderable departure from sound practice may be accepted, but
repetitions of it may be exceedingly dangerous, especially under
such circumstances as now beset the State.

"We, therefore, beg. leave to remind the House of several
instances in which, it seems to us, the liberties of the people,
and of their representatives, have not been given sufficient
consideration.

" Twelve days before the meeting of Parliament in January,
1916, the authorized Canadian Army was doubled from 250,000
to 500,000 men. No British Army had ever been doubled with-
out recourse to Parliament. That it was done in Canada
caused students of British history to enquire whether anything
had occurred to warrant such a disregard of Parliament.

" Though this House of Commons has inherited some of the
consequences of such an innovation, we desire to confine our
respectful remonstrances to more recent events.

" During this session there were riots in the City of Quebec.
The House desired to discuss the serious situation thus created,
and was entitled to declare what measures might be taken to
prevent a renewal of such unhappy occurrences. It did not

BY ORDERS-IN-COUNCIL 367

escape the notice of the country that, immediately before the
House proceeded to discharge its duty, there was put upon the
Table a completed law, in the form of an Order-in-Council,
which arbitrarily took out of its control the very question which
the House of Commons was about to discuss.

'* Later, there were other departures from the traditional
practice of British law, by equally astonishing proceedings.
An Order-in-Council was given to the House, as a matter of
information, providing for the registration of the human power
of the country, and setting up an entirely new criminal code
in connection therewith, by creating several methods of punish-
ment hitherto unknown to Canadian civilization. Surely such
a departure should not have been attempted in such a manner.
Punishments created without the assent of Parliament natur-
ally tend to provoke hostility. We feel we are performing
a national duty in respectfully calling attention to such
conditions.

" The Order-in-Council, endorsed by both Houses on April
18th, virtually sweeps away the Military Service Act. The
resentment it has created is known to this House, members of
which are known to regret that the elements of the Constitution
were ignored in this proceeding; and that the method of pre-
senting a practically executed decree, while withholding dis-
closure of the facts on which it was based, cannot easily be
justified to the constituents of a newly-elected Parliament.

" The curtailment of the liberty of written and spoken speech,
contained in the Order-in-Council, given to the public on April
16th, has caused especial concern to all who are aware of the
history of free discussion in Canada and other parts of the
British Empire. We are sure we need not beg the House to
examine its provisions, in order to appreciate how a doctrine of
the essential infallibility of the Government may be forced
upon a free people, on pain of a fine of five thousand dollars and
five years' imprisonment.

" The House, to our extreme regret, has been faced with a
notification of the intended curtailment of the privilege of a
member of Parliament to declare his mind, and the right of his
constituents to know what he has uttered. That this unique
warning to a freely-elected British assembly was halted for
several weeks on the order paper, we venture respectfully to
attribute to you, Mr. Speaker, as the appointed guardian of the
liberties of the House, and also of the people. It has been
noted that the Prime Minister, in withdrawing the measure,
viewed with so much apprehension from outside the House,
announced that it is likely to be re-introduced next session.

" Perhaps the House may not be offended to learn that cog-
nizance has also been taken of a notice issued to it, within the
last week, to the effect that it must curtail its discussion of
vital national affairs, and withdraw from its precincts within

368 TO RE-ESTABLISH FREEDOM

a few days, or be summoned hither during the hottest and most
inconvenient month of the year. That such a direction should
be issued without recourse to the judgment of the House causes
reflective citizens to wonder what has happened to the freedom
Canadian institutions have hitherto enjoyed.

"Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen of the House of Commons, —
The disquiet of the country, of which we are the humble and
inadequate exponents, and which demonstrates sadly the in-
creasing dangers to our national unity, which, if we lose it, we
shall have lost all indeed, cannot be allayed by a persistence in
the courses we have so imperfectly sketched.

'* Will the House permit us, with much deference, but much
earnestness, also, to repeat the reminder of one of its members,
that the Government is a Committee of the House vested with
the executive powers of Parliament? The responsibility of
government, therefore, is ultimately upon this House. Nothing
appears to have been done to make the position of members of
Parliament, with regard to the carrying out of the war policy,
correspond to the status which they enjoyed before the practice
crept in of making them subservient to those whom they
created, and whom they may destroy.

" In this prolonged crisis of the national fate, the hour has
arrived to re-establish the inherent freedom of the House of
Commons. We are certain that in that restoration the people of
Canada will sustain you, and that the sacrifices of war will be
justified and honoured in the blessings and progress of peace."

INFORMING HIS EXCELLENCY

(Hansard, p. 2550.)

Windsor Hotel, Ottawa,

May 25th, 1918.
His Excellency the Duke of Devonshire,
Governor-General of Canada.

"Your Excellency: —

" The undersigned, in exercising the immemorial privilege of
British subjects, are confident that Your Excellency will honour
the ancient practice of the highest authority of the realm, of
hearing sympathetically the representations of citizens upon
matters affecting the good government of Canada.

" We are encouraged to transmit to you certain information,
by the knowledge that those who have preceded you as a repre-

GLENGARRY TO LORD ELGIN 369

sentative of the Crown in the working of responsible Govern-
ment in Canada, have been swift to regard any endeavours tio
depart from the constitutional usages by which the freedom
of Parliament, and of the individual citizen, has been estab-
lished.

" Since Your Excellency's arrival among us, we have had
every reason to be assured that Your Excellency is imbued with
the conciliatory, far-seeing and statesmanlike spirit which
animated Lord Elgin, to whom Canada and the Empire will
ever be indebted for a wise and courageous guidance within
the powers confided to him.

" We believe, therefore, that you will welcome this expression
of our trust during the period of unprecedented difficulty
through which the Dominion of Canada is passing.

"It is in harmony with Lord Elgin's reply to an address
from the County of Glengarry, dealing with the unrest at that
time, regarding the administration of public affairs, that we
submit for Your Excellency's consideration the attached cor-
respondence with the Speaker of the House of Commons. Per-
haps Your Excellency will allow us to repeat what Lord Elgin
said to the men of Glengarry, in reply to their address : ' I
recognize in it evidence of that vigorous understanding which
enables men of the stock to which you belong, to prize, as they
ought to be prized, the blessings of well-ordered freedom, and
of that keen sense of principle which prompts them to recoil
from no sacrifice which duty enjoins.'

"Your Excellency will observe that those citizens whom we
represent, are striving to ensure the continuance of what Lord
Elgin described as * well-ordered freedom.'

"We do not ask that Your Excellency will take action out-
side the lines of constitutional practice. At present we desire
only to keep you informed of the increasing difficulties which
appear to affect injuriously the privileges which belong to the
citizens, through the House of Commons.

" We beg to state to Your Excellency that we are aware that
certain objections in connection with prescribed forms of
approach may be cited against the course we have taken. But
we are also well assured that in times like these, it is good
counsel rather than appeals to form which should prevail.

"We beg respectfully to add that, in conveying with all con-
venient speed to those who have authorized us to act, the infor-
mation of our reliance upon Your Excellency's beneficent inten-
tions to all the loyal people of Canada, we are rendering a
service to the unquestionable stability of Parliamentary freedom
which all British citizens must desire to be maintained at home
while it is being defended abroad."

(Signed) C. W. Gurney,

J. N. Kernighan.

APPENDIX A

JUDGMENT OF THE SUPREME COURT OF
ALBERTA

Following is the unanimous judgment of the Supreme
Court of Alberta delivered on July 13th, 1918, by Chief
Justice Harvey, under circumstances described in Chap-
ter XII :—

This court is the highest court of this province. It is
duly and legally constituted for the purpose of protecting
the legal rights of all persons who may come before it.
It has all the powers substantive and incidental of all
the Common Law Courts of England. Those Courts
grew up and acquired their powers not merely by legis-
lation, but through exercise for centuries. During these
centuries, these powers have had to be exercised in times
of turmoil, and in times of stress, as well as in times of
peace and quiet, and more than once in the past, although
happily not in recent years, these courts have had to
exercise those powers in the face of hostile opposition
and even as against hostile force. It would be surpris-
ing, then, if machinery did not exist for such emergency.
Such machinery does exist. The court's officers in car-
rying out the decrees of the court have the legal right
and authority to call upon all able-bodied men within
their jurisdiction to assist in the execution of the court's
orders, and it is not merely the right, but the duty of
everyone so called to furnish such assistance, and what he
does in giving such assistance is legal and justifiable,
while any opposition to the court's officers and those
assisting is illegal and punishable, no matter from whom
it comes.

This court is now confronted by a situation which is
most astounding, arising as it does in this twentieth cen-

370

HELD HAND TWO WEEKS 371

tury. Orders have been issued out of the court directed
to one Lieutenant-Colonel Moore, a military officer, which
orders have been disobeyed : an order for a writ of
attachment against the said Lieiitenant-Colonel Moore
has been granted and a writ issued and the sheriff has
been met by armed military resistance in his effort to
execute the writ. Counsel for the military authorities
of Canada has appeared before us and stated that Lieu-
tenant-Colonel Moore has disobeyed the orders of the
court, and is prepared to use force to resist arrest under
the direct orders of the highest military officer in Canada ;
and it appears that these orders have been issued with
the approval of the executive government of Canada.
This seems to me that the military authorities and the
executive government of Canada have set at defiance the
highest court in this province.

The circumstances out of which this situation arises
are due to a decision of the court given two weeks ago
in re Lewis, 1918, 2 W, W, R, 687, in which it was held
by a majority that a certain Canadian order-in-council
was invalid and that the applicant in that case was
entitled to be discharged from military custody and con-
trol. The court stayed the issuance of the order in that
case for two weeks, pending the consideration of whether
an appeal would be taken. Since that decision several
other persons, about twenty in all, claiming to be in the
same position as Lewis, have applied by habeas corpus
proceedings for their discharge. It is the refusal to obey
an order directed to the said Lieutenant-Colonel Moore
to produce the applicants, so that if so entitled they may
be discharged, that has caused the writ of attachment
to issue against him for his contempt in such refusal.

Since the issue of the order which has been disobeyed,
counsel for the military authorities has produced to us
what purports to be an order-in-council passed by the
Governor-General on the 5th inst., w^hich after reciting
the judgment in re Lewis and the orders-in-council, orders
and directs " that men whose exemptions were cancelled
pursuant to the provisions of the orders-in-council of
April 20th, 1918, above referred to, be dealt with in all

372 MUST COURT ABDICATE?

respects as provided by the said orders-iii-council not-
withstanding the judgment, and notwithstanding any
judgment or any order that may be made by any court,
and that instructions be sent accordingly to the general
and other officers commanding military districts in
Canada."

It is apparent that if, as was held in re Lewis, the
Governor-in-council has not authority to cancel the
exemptions by order-in-council, this order-in-council can
have no greater effect than the earlier ones, and that it,
therefore, can be deemed only a notice that the decision
of the courts of Canada are to be ignored and treated
with contempt, and that the military authorities are to
be so instructed.

Upon this situation two courses are open to this court.
It can either abdicate its authority and functions and
advise applicants to it for a redress of their wrongs and
the protection of their legal rights that it Is powerless,
which, of course, means there is no power except that
of force which can protect their rights, the consequence
of which could scarcely mean anything less than anarchy ;
or it may decide to continue to perform the duties with
which it is entrusted for the purpose of guarding the
rights of the subject and not prove false to the oath of
office which each member of it took when he " solemnly
and sincerely promised and swore that he would duly
and faithfully, and to the best of his skill and knowledge,
exercise the powers and trusts reposed in him as a judge
of the said court."

There can be only one answer to the question. Which
way will this court act? It will continue to perform its
duties as it sees them, and will endeavour, in so far as
lies in its power, to furnish protection to persons who
apply to it to be permitted to exercise their legal rights.

It is apparent that the refusal by Lieutenant-Colonel
Moore and the order against him are only incidents in
this application, and that the substance of the applica-
tion is to obtain the release of the applicants. If the
persons ordered to produce them will not do so, then,
unless the court is to confess impotence, it must send

DEFIANCE OF THE LAW 373

some one to obtain and produce them. It is apparent
that putting Lieutenant-Colonel Moore in jail would be
of no service to the applicants unless it served to caiJse
him to do what he has been ordered to do, and it is for
that purpose primarily, and not because anything he has
done has offended the dignity of the court, that a writ
of attachment was issued against him. But if he were
in jail under the writ it would still be necessary to
obtain the applicants and have them brought before the
court in order that they might be discharged, if so
entitled. The evidence before the court shows that they
are so entitled if the decision in re Lewis be right, and
so long as it remains unreversed it must be deemed to
be the proper expression of the law in this province. It
is admitted by counsel for the military authorities that
he has been informed that some of the applicants have
been removed from the province by the military author-
ities, since the applications were launched, in defiance of
the order of the court that they should not be so removed.

This is confirmed by counsel for the applicants.

This court can now exercise no jurisdiction in respect
of these applicants, though in due time it may possibly
be able to punish those persons who disobeyed its orders.
It is stated that the decision in re Lewis will be reviewed
by the Supreme Court of Canada very promptly, and
under such circumstances it would be right and proper
to allow the applications to stand until after such review,
but from what has been said it is apparent that then it
may be too late to protect any of the applicants who may
be removed from its jurisdiction. The order should
therefore go directing the sheriff to obtain the persons
of the applicants, or such of them as may be within tlie
jurisdiction of the court, and to bring them before the
court, and that then they be discharged from military
custody and control without further order. They will
then be in the province where they can be obtained if it
is held that they are subject to military duty.

In deciding to pursue its proper functions this court
is not unmindful of the fact which the Minister of Justice
desires to press on us, that the need of Canada for

374 MIGHT DESTROY JUDGES

soldiers is very great and urgent, but it is apparent that
to allow such a consideration to be our guiding principle
would be to substitute expediency for law as a basis of
judicial decision. It is also apparent to us that without
doubt there is enough might, though not right, behind
the military authorities to prevent the court's officers
from performing their duty, and even to destroy both
the members of the court and its officers, but while the
court remains it must endeavour to perform its duty as
it sees it.

The court has shown every desire to do nothing that
might hinder the military and executive officers, so far
as could be done consistently with its duty to those
applying to it for a redress of grievances, but has met
with little success. After the applications had been
ignored and the orders disobeyed, counsel for the Minis-
ter of Justice yesterday, in the person of Mr. Muir,
appeared for the first time, when the court was about to
deal finally with the applications, and formally applied
for a stay of all proceedings. The court intimated that
it would be quite ready to grant the stay if its orders
were obeyed and proper provisions made for the protec-
tion of the applicants in the event of the decision in re
Lewis being sustained, and adjourned further considera-
tion until this morning. This morning, no word having
been received from the Minister of Justice, at Mr. Muir's
request a further adjournment was made till this after-
noon, at four p.m., and now, after more than twenty-four
hours, Mr. Muir states that he has just received instruc-
tions from the Minister of Justice to refuse to consent to
any conditions.

Under these circumstances there seems no other proper
course than to make the order as above mentioned.

APPENDIX B

AN ONTARIO DEALING WITH QUEBEC

The following is from a pamphlet issued for the visit
of Quebec Bonne Entente delegates to Toronto, Hamil-
ton and Niagara Falls in January, 1917, following the
pilgrimage through Quebec, in the preceding October, of
an Ontario party: —

During the summer of 1916 it was keenly realized by
several gentlemen in Ontario that unless something were
done to improve the drift of feeling between the two prin-
cipal races in Canada, as affected especially by the rela-
tions of the two largest provinces, national unity in the
Dominion might become endangered and the good feeling
which the opening of the war brought into action might
disappear. . . .

It was clearly recognized that it was no part of
Ontario's function to seek in any way to influence
recruiting or any war work in Quebec — that responsi-
bility remaining absolutely with the citizens there, and
the duty of Ontario being limited to avoiding, as far as
possible, embarrassment of their patriotic efforts.

At the Sherbrooke banquet, during the Quebec visit,
the following resolution was unanimously passed: —

That Sir George Garneau and Mr. John M. Godfrey
be requested to appoint a committee to make arrange-
ments for the return visit to Ontario, and for a per-
manent organization to promote racial good-will along
lines of interchange of public speaking on topics of com-
mon concern, the dissemination of printed matter, and
the spread of inter-provincial information through edu-
cative institutions.

After the Quebec visit to Ontario it was expected by
those who had most closely come into contact with the
French that the Sherbrooke resolution, directing that
educational work be undertaken would be carried into

375

376 THIS IN QUEBEC—

effect. But meetings of the Ontario Bonne Entente, to
this end, were steadily refused, until January, 1918,
by which time the usefulness of the organization had
been dissipated.

Meanwhile a Win-the-War and National Unity Con-
vention was held in Montreal in May, 1917, control of
which was assumed by the most visible members of the
Executive of the Ontario Bonne Entente. Co-operation
in Quebec was secured on the strength of the following
resolution, submitted to a Montreal gathering by the
Ontario chairman, who was also called Organizing Direc-
tor of the Convention : —

Attendu qu'il est propose de tenir prochainement une
Convention d'TJnite Rationale dans la villa de Montreal,
a laquelle toutes les Provinces du Canada seront repre-
sentees, et,

Attendu que Pobjet de cette Convention est de pro-
mouvoir I'Unite Rationale et discuter les problemes
nationaux et economiques issus de la guerre,

II est resolu que cette reunion se forme en Comite dans
le but de co-operer avec d'autres groupes de citoyens dans
cette Province afin de voir a ce que la Province de
Quebec soit, comme le seront les autres Provinces, pleine-
ment representees a ce prochain Congres National.

Translation.

Whereas it is proposed to hold, in the near future, a
National Unity Convention in the City of Montreal, at
which all the Provinces of Canada will be represented,
and

Whereas the object of this Convention is to promote
national unity and to discuss the national and economical
problems arising out of the war,

It is resolved that this meeting do form itself into a
Committee with the purpose of co-operating with other
groups of citizens in this Province, in order to see that
the Province of Quebec shall, as the other Provinces
will, be fully represented at this forthcoming National
Congress.

When this resolution was presented to representative
men in Quebec, the resolution on which the Win-the-War
movement had been launched in Ontario and seven other
provinces was withheld. The Montreal resolution was

—AND THIS IN ONTARIO 377

not communicated by the responsible parties to their
committees in Toronto and other cities. The difference
in scope, motif and tone is apparent as soon as the reso-
lution originally passed in Toronto and adopted else-
where, is read : —

Whereas this meeting is convinced that the patriotism
of Canada needs only to be organized, united and ex-
pressed to become the greatest moving force of the
country for the prosecution of the war; Therefore be it
resolved that in the opinion of this meeting, this purpose
can be effectively promoted by calling a National Win-
the-War Convention, which shall be wholly free from
party or political complexion; that such a Convention
should represent all classes and interests, and should
meet to consider what each part, class and interest can
contribute towards winning this war.

During the preceding summer Quebec had been led to
invite an Ontario delegation to tour that province, as
the result of a journalist's visits to Sherbrooke, Mont-
real, Three Rivers, Quebec and Beauceville, where he was
cordially received. In Quebec city the initiative for a
committee was unofficially taken by the Lieutenant-Gov-
ernor, Sir Evariste LeBlanc, and Sir George Garneau,
Chairman of the National Battlefields Commission, be-
came the Quebec chairman.

This Ontario member of the Bonne Entente was
requested to commend the Win-the-War Convention to
meetings in Three Rivers, Sherbrooke and Quebec. He
found a different situation from that which prevailed in
other Win-the-War centres. Returning to Toronto he
reported that candid action was necessary to keep faith
with Quebec in accordance with the resolution on which
delegates were being procured in that province. The
facts pertaining to the effort thus made are embodied
in documents which would fill fifty pages of " The Birth-
right." If doubt should arise whether responsibility for
a miserable failure rests upon English or French shoul-
ders, they can be published as a warning to those who
may imagine that keeping faith with the French can be
negligently observed and as information for those who

378 EXAMINATION REFUSED

sometimes wonder why Quebec suffers from wounds
which they cannot discern.

At present it is sufficient to say that efforts to cause
the Convention to be informed of the real situation were
unavailing. The main facts could only be communicated
to a small body of Ontario delegates in face of the im-
placable hostility of those who had become responsible
for the movement, and who prevented the following reso-
lution being considered: —

That this Convention, recognizing that a feeling of
disquiet, with regard to the position of the French lan-
guage in Canada, has contributed to a certain unrest in
connection with the war, and realizing that the elimina-
tion of controversy from the relations of the two prin-
cipal foundation stocks of the nation would promote the
unity which is essential to the most effective prosecu-
tion of the war, and the future contentment and pros-
perity of our country, requests the joint Chairmen to
nominate a Commission whose duty it shall be to make
a thorough survey of the historical and actual conditions
surrounding the question, and to present to the country
at large, suggestions looking to the solution of the
national problem inherent in the duality of language,
which distinguishes the proceedings of both Houses of
Parliament and the Federal Courts.

Why was this resolution of faith-keeping with Quebec
destroyed? Responsibility has since been taken for it
on the ground that, because Quebec was opposed to con-
scription, her views about the language aspect of national
unity must be ruled out of consideration. Nothing on
this matter was discussed by an English-speaking dele-
gate in the Convention.

A history of what followed the Montreal Convention
would show that though the Montreal Convention was
believed to have founded a permanent organization to
promote national unity, faith was again broken in
Ontario, whence, indeed, the device arose which produced
the spectacle, during the general election of December,
1917, of soldiers from other provinces being induced to
vote in Quebec on the pretence that they could not say
where they had formerly lived. It would show that
when an appeal was made for action against the impend-

ODIOUS MACHINE POLITICS 379

ing avalanche of vituperation against Quebec, on the
basis laid down by the Bonne Entente, which came into
being for the very purpose of holding far-seeing men
together, it was replied that it was a good thing to have
the racial and religious fight out! It would show that
what single-minded men entered as a purely patriotic
movement, became the victim of a peculiarly odious form
of machine politics.

Unhappily, when individuals touch the relations of
communities, their failings and culpabilities are apt to
be attributed to the communities to which they belong.
In Quebec, the treacheries that are indicated in these
pages have by some been charged against Ontario as a
whole, and have been added to what is felt to be a long
tale of political perfidies. This is a mistake, but, in the
circumstances, not a fault. There is a plenitude of good-
will on both sides of the Ottawa River, waiting for con-
structive expression.

It is useless for sane men and women to allow ill-will
to develop in provincial masses, without regard to the
attitudes of men and women who have learnt to under-
stand each other, and who understand, also, that the
harmony of the State must be founded on the good-will
of the individuals composing it. When men of whose
sincerity, breadth and patriotism you have had abundant
proof take a gloomy view of present conditions, their
views must be heeded.

None of those who had most to do with the French
side of the Bonne Entente has been known to say that
he has lost confidence in the leaders of Quebec — it could
not be said justifiably. But letters from different cities
in Quebec contain expressions which it is impossible to
ignore, and of which well-disposed citizens in Ontario
and other provinces should know. Here are three
extracts : —

" The leaders of the movement in Quebec had lost con-
fidence in the Ontario people, and the only thing we
could do was to let matters drop. . . . Quebec feels
she was bluffed by the Ontario movement."

"We have been so badly deceived by Ontario that

380 THE FRENCH WERE FOOLED

those of us who had believed in the sincerity and honesty
of the Bonne Entente movement felt humiliated at the
fact that we had been caught like a lot of schoolboys."

" It would be impossible to revive the Bonne Entente ;
and if something is to be done it will have to be in some
other way. ... If a rapprochement is to take place,
Ontario will have to do something special. It would be
idle to think that the French people of Quebec, as a
whole, will ever consent or agree to any movement, unless
Ontario gives absolute evidence of conciliation and con-
sideration in a most tangible form."

It will be observed, again, that no conclusions as to
the dispute about the educational administration of
Ontario are attempted in this book ; and that no definite
proposals are offered for mending the broken arch of
concord which it was hoped the Bonne Entente might
erect. The extent to which disclosures are made here
is governed absolutely by the necessity that good-willing
people should learn that the French leaders are free
from blame, and that any future effort at co-operation
must take gravely into account the causes of the break-
down of the first concerted attempt to promote better
relations between the races. The French were fooled.
It is for the English to prove whether they also were
fooled, and whether the former offences can be purged
and a repetition of them avoided.

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY
BERKELEY

Return to desk from which borrowed.
This book is DUE on the last date stamped below.

^ 6Jun'52SA

MAY 2 5 1952 UE

\W

53?>f^

HiAR28t9S3l

f!

LD 21-957n-ll, '50(2877810476

1^

M157435

F 1033

THE UNIVERSITY OF CAUFORNIA UBRARY