NEW
IN
Edited by J, 0, MILL!
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
AT LOS ANGELES
•
THE
NEW ERA IN CANADA
Reproduced by kind permission of the Editor of Punch.
CANADA!
Ypres! April, 1915 Courcelette! September, 1916
Vimy Ridge! April, 1917
THE
ESSAYS DEALING
WITH THE UPBUILDING OF THE
CANADIAN COMMONWEALTH
Edited By
J. O. MILLER
Principal of Ridley College
LONDON
PARIS - TORONTO
J. M. DENT & SONS, LTD.
1917
Copyright, Canada, 1917,
by J. M. DENT & SONS, LIB.
p
1033
INTRODUCTION
THE purpose of this book is two-fold :
1. 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.
2. To urge that the test of national greatness
lies in the willing service to the State by its
citizens and to point out, so far as possible,
opportunities for service.
This is, indeed, a New Era in Canada. The
inspiration and the impetus for the coming years
find their vitality in the unselfish service and
unstinted sacrifice of her sons upon the battle-
fields of France and Flanders. By the shedding
of their blood they have
"brought us for our dearth,
Holiness lacked so long, and Love and Pain.
Honour has come back as a King to earth,
And paid his subjects with a royal wage;
And Nobleness walks in our ways again,
And we have come into our heritage."
Democracy has triumphantly vindicated itself
when brought to the crucial test of war; the
cross is henceforth the symbol of service. But
Democracy has yet to prove its power to survive,
as the ideal of human systems, by meeting the
5
221675
INTRODUCTION
test of peace and prosperity. There are those
who doubt its capacity to endure. Such are not
the contributors to this book.
The strength of the State is in the service of
its citizens, be it forced or voluntary. The final
triumph of Democracy can only be assured by
the willing subordination of the individual to the
State, for the common good. That is the lesson
Canadians have to learn in the New Era, a lesson
made easier for them by the heroic example of
Canadian youth in war and the devotion of those
who willingly gave them to a noble cause. The
chief purpose of this book is to suggest oppor-
tunities for national and civic service.
The writers of these essays are responsible only
for their individual contributions ; but it will be
found that, in spite of diversities of opinion and
belief, there is throughout the book a strong com-
mon bond of unity — the will to serve.
The thanks of the editor are gratefully extended
to those who have graciously granted permission
for the insertion of copyrighted poems, " The
Dead " and " Peace," by permission of the liter-
ary executor and Messrs. Sidgwick & Jackson,
publishers, London.
The profits from the sale of this book are to go
to the Canadian Red Cross Society.
CONTENTS
PAGE
DEMOCEACY AND SOCIAL PROGRESS 13
STEPHEN LEACOCK, M.A., PH.D., Professor of Political
Science, McGill University, Montreal,
The New Era of Democracy — A Discredited Plutocracy
— Weaknesses of Democracy — Origin of Modern Democ-
racy— Primary Conception of Democracy — The Democratic
Structure — Difficulties of Democratic Theory — Reasons
for the Failures of Democracy — Unforeseen Tendencies —
Efforts at Improvement — The Letter Killeth; the Spirit
Giveth Ldf e.
THE FOUNDATIONS OP THE NEW EEA. ... 37
SIR CLIFFORD SIFTON, Chairman, Canadian National
Conservation Commission.
The Franchise and Naturalization — Parliamentary Rep-
resentation— The Patronage Evil — Purity of Elections —
Reform of the Senate — The Right to Amend the Constitu-
tion— Limitations to Legislative Powers of Parliament —
Conclusion.
OUE NATIONAL HERITAGE 61
FRANK D. ADAMS, D.Sc., F.R.S., Dean, Faculty of
Applied Science, McGill University.
The Setting of Our National Life — The Question Plainly
Stated — Illusions — The Natural Resources of the Dominion
— Agriculture — Forests — Mines — Fisheries — Water-powers
— Results and Conclusions.
IMMIGRATION AND SETTLEMENT 103
SIR JOHN WILLISON, LL.D., Chairman, Ontario Unem-
ployment Commission; Editor, Toronto "Daily News."
Tests for Voters — Soldiers and the Land — An Inter-
Imperial Policy — Volume of Immigration — Relation to
Unemployment — Place on the Land — A Duty and a Privi-
lege—^Conditions in Different Provinces — The Cost of
7
CONTENTS
PAGE
Undesirables — American Experience — Value of Good
Advice — Faulty Statistics — Advantages of English — Bet-
ter Regulations — A Definite Imperial Object — General
Recommendations.
EAST AND WEST 131
SIR EDMUND WALKER, LL.D., C.V.O., President Cana-
dian Bank of Commerce.
Build One Great Commonwealth — Matters of Disagree-
ment— The Grievances of the West — Interest Bates and
Credit — Agricultural Loans — The Railroads — Prices and
Distribution of Goods — The Tariff — A United People —
Education.
NATIONAL IDEALS IN INDUSTEY 161
G. FRANK BEER, Member, Ontario Unemployment Com-
mission, Highway Commission, etc.
Development of Our Resources — The Canadian Tariff —
The Effect of the Tariff on Export Trade — Trade Bal-
ances— A Board of Industry — The Importance of Market-
ing Ability — The Coming Problem of Employment —
Palliatives for General Unemployment Worthless — With
Whom Lies Responsibility — Can Present Wage Rates be
Retained? — Production and Marketing National Problems
— Organized Marketing — A Substitute for the Munitions
Board.
CANADIAN NATIONAL UNITY 193
NEIL MCNEIL, M.A., D.D., Archbishop of Toronto.
Religion and Politics — Parties and Races — Present State
of Representative Government— Other Centrifugal Forces.
WOMEN AND THE NATION 211
MARJORY MACMURCHY, Member, Ontario Unemployment
Commission; author of " The Woman — Bless Her''
Paid Workers Not the Chief Concern — Women in Skilled
Employments — Training in Primary Employments — Care
of Children as a National Interest — Primary Employ-
ments are National Service — The Government and the
Work of Women.
8
CONTENTS
PAGE
THE BI-LINGUAL QUESTION 229
GEORGE M. WRONG, M.A., Professor of History, Univer-
sity of Toronto.
The French Language in Ontario — Historical Review —
Defective Teaching of English — The Policy of Using Eng-
lish in All Schools — Antagonism Between Ontario and
Quebec — The Eacial Strife in Ottawa — The Situation in
the West — The Situation in Ottawa — The Judgment of the
Privy Council.
OUE FUTUEE IN THE EMPIEE: CENTEAL
AUTHOEITY 263
A. J. GLAZEBROOK, Canadian Editor, "Sound Table
Magasine."
What is the British Empire! — Centralization — Theories
of Imperial Organization — Canadian Ideals — Foreign
Affairs — The Bound Table Studies.
OUE FUTURE IN THE EMPIBE : ALLIANCE
UNDEE THE CEOWN 279
JOHN W. DAFOE, Editor, Winnipeg " Free Press."
The Future of Canada — Our Nationhood a True Evolu-
tion— The Curtis Plan — Practical Difficulties — The True
Line of Development.
SOME THOUGHTS ON THE SUFFEAGE IN
CANADA 303
MRS. H. P. PLUMPTRE, Secretary, Canadian Bed Cross
Society.
War and Citizenship — War and the Enfranchisement of
Women — A Change of Heart — Influence or the Suffrage?
—Why Should Sex Determine the Suffrage! — The New
" Culture " — The Claim of Democracy — Woman Suffrage
from the Historical Standpoint — Woman a Non-Party
Voter — Suffrage and the Aborigines — Suffrage and the
Immigrant — Importance of the Immigration Official —
Some Considerations and Conclusions — War Has Given a
New Idea of Citizenship.
9
CONTENTS
PAGE
PUBLIC OPINION AND POLITICAL LIFE. . . 333
PETER MCARTHUE, M.A., author of " In Pastures
Green," etc.
The Lordly Voter — The People and the Government —
A New Public Opinion — Moulding Public Opinion — A
Disquieting Prospect — Men Not Policies — The Outlook.
THE BETTER GOVERNMENT OF OUR
CITIES 349
J. O. MILLER, M.A., D.C.L., Principal of Eidley
College.
Present Conditions — Evils of Inefficiency — The Civic
Survey — Civic Exhibitions — Town Planning — Civics as a
Science — Divorce of Administration from Legislation-
Civic Nostrums — A New Profession of Civic Adminis-
trators— Assessment and Taxation — The True Functions
of a City Council — Public Utilities and Municipal Owner-
ship—The City as Land-owner — The Citizen and Civic
Service.
THE OUTLOOK FOR RELIGIOUS FAITH. ... 383
HERBERT SYMONDS, M.A., D.C.L., Vicar of Christ
Church Cathedral, Montreal.
The Church and the New Era — The Nature of Faith —
Faith and Reason — The Meaning of a Religious Revival —
Ideas Involved in Religious Revival — The Message of Love
and Service.
OUR NATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR THE
WAR 409
STEPHEN LEACOCK, M.A., PH.D., Professor of Political
Economy, McGill University.
What are We to Do? — Efforts that Lead Nowhere —
Fruitless Exports — Economy of Real Effort — Real
National Organization — National Taxes and National
Loans — Campaign of Thrift.
10
DEMOCRACY
AND
SOCIAL
PROGRESS
THE AWAKENING
How like a giant stretching in the sun,
We have slept through the ages; even we
Whom the gods moulded for a people free,
And made tremendous for the race not run.
See we have slept a magic cycle round,
And In the dream we have imagined much;
Felt the soft wings of years we did not touch,
Dallied with somnolence that deadens sound.
With untried strength what we have done is done.
The wandering, drowsy brain has vaguely stirred,
As though from out infinitude it heard
A great voice speaking from behind the sun.
Closer and clear the calling, strangely loud,
And the great country, rousing from long sleep,
Murmurs to its own soul, as deep to deep
Beckons a day's new dawn, so sure and proud.
These were the visions of a passing night,
Visions now caught in bugle notes of flame,
And lo, through storms of war we hear our name
Called by an angel, terrible and bright.
Katherine Hale.
DEMOCRACY AND SOCIAL PROGRESS
THE present war carries with it, among other
things, the vindication of democracy and the
final discredit of autocratic monarchy. The
battle-glory of France has hallowed anew the
name of republic. In England the people rule.
The monarchy is a mere form, revered for its
history and its associations, but no longer serv-
ing even to conceal the plain fact of democratic
sovereignty. Russia, in the very travail of the
war, is being born into freedom. In Germany
and in Austria and under the banner of the Turk
the ancient tyranny of a thousand years stands
for its last fight. Out of the wreck and downfall
of it there will arise, somehow, at no great dis-
tance of time, the republics of Central Europe,
that may yet redeem the shame of the Hohen-
zollerns and the Hapsburgs.
Autocratic monarchy stands condemned. It is
a sin against the light. Even on its own ground
and with its own weapons it is beaten. Democ-
racy has proved that it can fight. After the shock
and confusion of the first treacherous onslaught,
there ceased to be any doubt of the final issue.
THE NEW ERA OF DEMOCRACY
We are entering, then, upon an era of demo-
cratic government. The British Empire, whether
in the form of one great commonwealth or as a
18
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
group of allied states, is obviously destined for
democratic rule. It is not likely, indeed, that
any of the British peoples will wish to adopt the
actual form of a republic. Our monarchy, if it
can be shorn of its German affiliations, will wear
us well enough. But of the almost universal
desire in the British countries for popular sov-
ereignty there can be little doubt. Even the
regime of caste and hereditary privilege which
still disfigures British government in the parent
isles is destined to go down. The senseless
anachronism of a house of hereditary lords can
form no part of a truly democratic common-
wealth or a truly united empire.
In France there can be no backward step. In
1913 a royalist revolution was still a possibility
— an imminent one, as some have told us. Such
outlook as it had is eclipsed once and for ever by
the glory of the national defence. France has at
last taken the republic to its heart. The after-
thought harboured against it has vanished. It
can fight. The monarchy lost Sedan. The
republic conquered at the Marne.
The future lies and can only lie with democ-
racy. The time is therefore ripe, at the opening
of the new era that follows the war, for an exam-
ination of the principles of democratic govern-
ment and a review of its past history. It is only
by an appreciation of its peculiar strength and
its peculiar weaknesses that we can be safe-
guarded against future disaster.
14
DEMOCRACY AND SOCIAL PROGRESS
A DISCREDITED PLUTOCRACY
This is all the more needful in so much that in
the era that has just closed popular government
was falling under grave suspicion. Everybody
knows that by the opening of the twentieth cen-
tury many persons both in the United States
and the British countries had grown to distrust
Democracy and all its works. It began to appear
as a mere change of masters. It was the rule of
the plutocrat in place of the rule of the king.
Feudal privilege, it seemed, had vanished only to
give place to the power of money. The old tyranny
was exchanged for the new. An elected legisla-
ture began to seem a mere bundle of crooks; a
city council an associated group of robbers ; popu-
lar government in general to mean nothing but
plunder. The mass of the people appeared as
much enslaved by the great "interests" as they
had been under the by-gone kings. Of democracy
there was nothing but fine phrases. A constitu-
tion was but an empty gourd, sounding hollow.
The whole machinery of popular elections and
legislatures and courts showed itself, in reality,
merely a huge engine of corruption. Worse than
that. The new government of the money power
was without a soul. It knew nothing of the
ancient pride of place and race that dictated a
certain duty towards those below. The creed
that was embodied in the words noblesse oblige
has vanished with the nobility. The plutocrat,
unfettered by responsibility, seemed as rapacious
15
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
and remorseless as the machinery that has made
him.
Thus did many an honest man, in the welter of
our commercial corruption, begin to look back
with a wistful regret to what seems in the soft
haze of retrospect the sturdy, honest government
of a king. Before the war he might even babble
of unseen Germany, as he imagined it, with its
clock-work regularity, its feudal kaiser and its
negation of popular sovereignty.
WEAKNESSES OF DEMOCRACY
Thus there had been drawn up, or at least
framed unspoken in a thousand doubts and after-
thoughts, a sort of general indictment of democ-
racy. The change from autocratic rule to the
rule of the people was viewed as only a change
from the frying-pan to the fire. Few indeed have
had the intellectual hardihood to make an open
denunciation of the rule of the people — few, that
is to say, in the free countries, and apart from
the lip service of the German parasite, ready
with pen and ink to turn the neurotic ravings of
a crack-brained sovereign into a theory of the
state. Here and there a voice was heard. Thomas
Carlyle, Sir Henry Maine, and a few others
denounced democracy as doomed to failure. But
Carlyle's thoughts, volcanic as they were in their
expression, were often little else than a form of
indigestion, and Sir Henry Maine had lived over-
long in the unchanging East. But more and
16
DEMOCRACY AND SOCIAL PROGRESS
more widely had the vague distrust and the
unframed accusation spread from mind to mind
that democracy was being condemned by its
works. The rise of the great trusts, the obvious
and glaring fact of the money power, the shame-
less luxury of the rich, the crude, uncultivated
and boorish mob of vulgar men and over-dressed
women that masqueraded as high society-~-the
substitution, shall we say, of the saloon for the
salon — all this seemed to many an honest
observer of humble place as but the handwriting
on the wall that foretold the coming doom. Many
framed their thoughts — though they could not
have named them so — in terms of the Aristotelian
cycle, as if all human institutions must run their
course in the fashion of an orbit or circle, from
bad to worse and so back to good again: from
king to mob, and from the mob to the deliverer
who made of kingship once again the thing that
it had started with. Thus would modern democ-
racy appear, in the vast sweeping orbit of the
world's history, as a mere phrase, or transit, giv-
ing place of necessity to the old kingship, or at
least the rule of the strong under some newer
name.
Such speculations and such forebodings were
nowhere more in place than in Canada. The
nineteenth century had seen us emerge from the
tyranny of stupid kings and wooden governors
into the sunlight of free government. Its close
had witnessed the emergence of the new tyranny
17
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
— the money power, the political " machine," the
interests. One might well have asked before the
war whither we were drifting. To many it
seemed as if the country were falling under the
rule of the great corporations, the railroads and
the banks ; as if our free democratic government,
wrested after so many efforts from those who
ruled us, had given us only the rule of the
capitalist. For bread, a stone.
It is worth while to ask, then, why it has been
that democracy — triumphantly vindicated by the
war and evidently the only hope of the future —
should have developed in the nineteenth century
faults and shortcomings that almost bid fair to
endanger its existence.
Let us turn back to consider briefly its origin
and its history.
ORIGIN OF MODERN DEMOCRACY
Modern democracy as a theory of government
came into the world as a result of the Protestant
Reformation. It was, as the phrase runs in busi-
ness, a by-product. The essential idea of the
Reformation (particular controversies apart)
was the assertion of the right of the individual
to judge for himself the meaning of the Scrip-
tures. This is often wrongly stated as the right
of the individual to judge for himself in matters
of religion. Such a thing was never contem-
plated by the reformers. The right to be an
unbeliever was as abhorrent to Luther and to
18
DEMOCRACY AND SOCIAL PROGRESS
Calvin as it was to Bishop Bonner or to Torque-
mada.
Nor had the leaders of the Reformation the
least idea of applying the right of individual
judgment as against the king and those in
authority. Luther and Calvin knew nothing of
popular sovereignty, of liberty and equality, of
individual right. For both of them, obedience
to the Prince was a cardinal doctrine. "Those
who maintain that restraint accords not with the
Christian law," wrote Calvin, " betray their pride
and arrogate to themselves a perfection of which
they do not possess the one-hundredth part.
Princes must be obeyed, by whatever means they
have become so, and though there is nothing they
less perform than the duty of princes."
But the spiritual side of their creed compelled
the reformers to make one notable exception to
the rule of plenary obedience to the prince. No
man must obey any command that was contrary
to the commands of God. The individual citi-
zens, said Calvin, "are subject to their rulers,
but subject only in the Lord."
Similarly Luther had declared that no obedi-
ence was due to the Pope, " a mad wolf," against
whom the whole world should take up arms,
while all who defended him " must be treated like
robbers, be they kings or Caesars."
PRIMARY CONCEPTION OF DEMOCRACY
But the breach that was made in the solid wall
of authority by this exception proved fatal. It
19
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
widened till it brought down the whole fabric
in ruin. Obviously enough if the subject refuses
obedience to any command that violates his duty
to his God, and if the subject himself must judge
without the interposition of the priest and the
Church, what is and what is not his duty to his
God, then the whole doctrine of obedience falls
to the ground. Every man obeys only as far as
he thinks he should obey. In place of revealed
duty and the sacredness of authority there rises
up the individual, judging, and compelled to
judge, for himself, the primary conception of
Democracy.
John Milton, in his "Tenure of Kings and
Magistrates," carried the dogma of Luther and
Calvin to its plain, logical conclusion. "The
doctrine that kings are accountable to none but
God," he wrote, "overturns all law and govern-
ment. Man is born free and in the image and
resemblance of God Himself. Nothing is more
agreeable to the law of nature than that punish-
ment should be inflicted on tyrants."
It was inevitable that this doctrine once for-
mulated should have demanded and brought
about an entire reconstruction of the general
conception of the state and its relation to the
citizens. The theory of individual rights and the
"social contract" rose naturally out of the wreck
of the older, theological conception of an anointed
king and an obedient subject. Between the time
of Milton and the French Eevolution it ran its
course, changing with each decade till it passed
20
DEMOCRACY AND SOCIAL PROGRESS
from the speculation of the philosopher to the
current creed of the market-place. All the world
knows, or has imbibed unconsciously, its formula-
tion at the hands of Rousseau and its embodiment
in the American Declaration of Independence of
1776, and the Revolutionary " Rights of Man " of
1789.
The outline of the theory of democratic govern-
ment thus formulated is amazingly simple. It
first clears the ground by setting aside entirely
the idea that God has set up kings and princes
and rulers by a special act of divine authority
that must be neither questioned nor examined.
It removes, or does its best to remove, the
" divinity that doth hedge a king." Not that the
democratic theory is necessarily atheistic or anti-
Christian. Many of its exponents of the eight-
eenth century, it is true, were notoriously opposed
to revealed religion of any sort and substituted
for it a "code of nature" as a guide to moral
conduct. Hence there was set up an antithesis
(altogether false) between democracy and Chris-
tianity : an unfortunate fact which helped to lead
the wilder of the French revolutionists into the
wilderness. But there need have been no such
contrast. The American leaders of the democratic
movement — as Washington, Jefferson and Madi-
son— were Christians almost to a man. Tom
Paine, exalted as the author of " The Crisis " and
"The Rights of Man," an apostle of American
freedom and a soldier of the American revolu-
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
tion, fell into poverty and disrepute as the
punishment for his " Age of Reason."
Indeed to the rational mind it is difficult to see
in what possible way democratic theory is antag-
onistic to religious belief. It is just as easy to
believe in a God who commands that all men
shall be equal as in a God who commands
obedience to a witless prince.
THE DEMOCRATIC STRUCTURE
On the ground thus cleared of the debris of
feudalism and divine right, the democratic struc-
ture was erected. As its foundation point it
takes the individual man, equal in political rights
to every other man, each man to count as one and
as one only. "We hold these truths to be self-
evident, that all men are created equal, that
they are endowed by their Creator with certain
inalienable rights, that among these are life, lib-
erty and the pursuit of happiness. To secure
these rights governments are instituted among
men, deriving their just powers from the consent
of the governed." So run the inspiring words
(for whether true or not, there is inspiration in
them) of the Declaration of Independence.
Thirteen years later the French Declaration
of the Rights of Man (1789) strikes the same
note. "All men are born and remain," so it
declares, " free and equal in privilege. The object
of every political association is the preservation
of the natural and inalienable rights of man, and
these rights are liberty, property, security and
22
DEMOCRACY AND SOCIAL PROGRESS
the right to resist oppression. Law is the expres-
sion of the general will, and all citizens have the
right to participate, either in person or by repre-
sentatives, in the making of it."
Thus the government of the commonwealth
and of all the subordinate parts of it is to be
entrusted to the elected representatives of the
people. Vox populi, vox Dei; and the voice of
the elected legislature, or convention, becomes
the very embodiment of the popular will — sover-
eign, incontrovertible, incapable of wrong. Gov-
ernment by the people and for the people becomes
the last word of social wisdom.
DIFFICULTIES OF DEMOCRATIC THEORY
There is no need to point out here in detail the
obvious difficulties and shortcomings of the
theory, nor to indicate the strange political
inconsistencies of those who framed it. We need
not remind ourselves that Jefferson, who penned
the Declaration of Independence announcing the
equality of all men, and Patrick Henry, who
denounced the tyranny of George the Third, were
slave-holders ; that the French constitutionalists
of 1789 carefully limited the right to vote to
people of a certain substance; and that none of
the leaders of the time — a little sect or two apart
— included women in the equality of privilege
allotted to man.
Nor is it necessary to illustrate the extra-
ordinary difficulties of a theoretical character
which surround the doctrine. That all men are
23
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
equal sounds in flat contradiction to the observed
facts of life. Equal in body and brain they cer-
tainly are not — neither by birth nor by equip-
ment. Equal in moral worth, or in physical cour-
age, in capacity for sacrifice — still less. In art
or music and in the scope of the imagination, not
at all. One falls back upon the idea that they
are, or at least should be, equal in political rights.
But is even this an undeniable proposition? In
a community of ten, why should six crooks out-
vote four honest men? Would it not be better in
any state that those men should rule whose worth
and power, whose public virtue and whose private
merits best fit them for the task?
So does the theory of democracy, when be-
sprinkled with the acid of criticism, threaten to
dissolve into mere sediment.
Yet, in spite of all, the obstinate conviction
remains that there is — to state in very simple
language — "something to it." If men are not
equal in body or brain or moral worth, should
they not at least be held equal until proven other-
wise? Is it proper that any man should have as
a birthright — as hundreds of men, some wise and
some foolish, still have in England — the right to
rule over their fellow men? And if the best are
to be selected as the rulers, how can we select
them except by a plain vote of the people, since
otherwise we fall back into the very evil of rank
and privilege that we are seeking to avoid.
And thus the democratic theory thrown out at
the door, flies in again at the window. But the
24
DEMOCRACY AND SOCIAL PROGRESS
discussion is needless. The present war has
shown for ever and ever the potential horrors
that accompany the system of autocratic mon-
archy, of feudal rule and dynastic ambitions. It
ought to inspire every just man with a passion
to rid the world of every vestige of personal
monarchy and hereditary rank and aristocratic
privilege that still encumbers our progress. The
future lies with democracy or it lies nowhere.
REASONS FOR THE FAILURES OF DEMOCRACY
How then are we to account for what seemed
to be the failure, or at least the relative failure,
of democratic government in the nineteenth cen-
tury? There can be no doubt that it did not live
up to the expectations of its founders. Contrast
the optimism of the makers of the Declaration of
Independence, or the generous ardour of the
Wordsworths and the Shelleys who greeted the
rising dawn of freedom in Europe, with the cyni-
cal disillusionment of the ordinary voter of
to-day. It is clear that something must have gone
wrong.
A glance at the successive phases assumed by
popular government during the last century may
help to make clear the nature of the difficulty and
to indicate the direction in which to seek its
solution.
In its early years the supreme embodiment of
free government was found in the elected legisla-
ture or convention. A meeting of all the people,
except in the toy republic of a Swiss canton, was,
25
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
of course, impossible. In any case it seemed
needless. If the people came together and elected
delegates, and if these delegates presently sat
together in deliberation, then their actions,
desires and decisions became those of the people
themselves. Hence the extraordinary confidence
imposed in America, during the first two genera-
tions of the republic, in conventions and legisla-
tures. The executive branch of the government
had been discredited by the tyranny of the crown.
The legislature, or its fellow the convention,
stood for and embodied the will of the people.
The constitution of 1789 was made in a conven-
tion and ratified by conventions. There was no
popular vote. The early state constitutions
heaped power upon the legislature, just as the
state constitutions of to-day as carefully remove
it. Indeed the constitutions were little more than
a gift of power to the legislature. They were
written in few words; that of New Hampshire,
for example, would go nicely into three pages of
print. An " up-to-date " constitution of the pres-
ent time is about twice as long as a four-act play.
It contains an intricate code of regulations all
bearing evidence of the fact that the democratic
legislature has fallen from its high estate. But
in the earlier years confidence was complete. The
only attempts at improving popular government
were made in the direction of carrying to the full
logical extent the principle of democratic rule
by an assembly elected by all the people. The
" Jacksonian" democracy of 1830 differed from
26
DEMOCRACY AND SOCIAL PROGRESS
the democracy of Washington and Jefferson only
by its sweeping suffrage and its removal of the
debris of privilege and class rule that were still
found, in the form of property qualifications and
such, in the structure of American government.
In France the Second Republic of 1848 typified
the same ideas. In England the petition of the
Chartists, calling for the ballot and annual par-
liaments as a remedy for penury and starvation,
voices, not without pathos, the same supreme
faith in the magic of an elected assembly.
UNFORESEEN TENDENCIES
But as the century progressed democracy began
to develop what the late Mr. Godkin so shrewdly
called its unforeseen tendencies. It turned out
that an elected legislature was by no means
impeccable. It could be led astray. It could be
bullied. It could be washed from the moorings
of common sense by the flood-tide of hysteria.
Worse than all, it could be bribed or even, as time
went on, it could be bought outright. It could
be purchased and pocketed just as completely
and effectually as the rotten boroughs of the
unreformed House of Commons in Walpole's
time.
With each decade the situation grew worse.
The progress of modern invention brought into
being the colossus of modern industry, integrat-
ing a hundred little trades and spreading wide
across the map. The stock company rose and
swelled into the corporation, living on legislative
27
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
favours as its daily food. The representative of
the people, with his salary of six hundred dollars,
was called upon to control the corporation with
its six, or sixty, million. The representative was
tempted and he fell. The legislature hired itself
out to the corporation. Business and politics
joined hands. Both of them appeared as parallel
avenues towards pecuniary success.
Meantime, an even worse thing was happening.
The increasing complexity of politics and the
increasing complexity of its industrial back-
ground rendered organization more and more
necessary. Spontaneous effort and voluntary
service was no longer adequate to operate the
cumbrous machinery of a huge democratic repub-
lic. The political parties that had originally
come together by natural agreement were con-
verted into political machines. There arose a
jungle growth of conventions and committees,
platforms and pledges, that were no part of the
original scheme of the fathers. The professional
" politician " appeared, tainting with his impure
motives the very word that named him. He and
his henchmen and subordinates, the men " on the
inside," operated the machine and divided the
spoils. The politician, the government contrac-
tor and the saloon thug who guarded the entrance
to a political "primary," became the Three Graces
of Democracy.
The mass of the people struggled valiantly in
the net or lay inert in its meshes. Then as cor-
ruption grew apace and professional politics
28
DEMOCRACY AND SOCIAL PROGRESS
stole away the birthright of the nation, the
clamour began to rise for an alteration in the
form of democratic government, for some revi-
sion of the system that should render graft and
corruption impossible. The cry was raised for
direct rule by the people, for cutting loose from
the legislative assembly and for relying upon a
popular vote for the ratification, or even the
initiation, of the law. Thus the Referendum and
the Initiative became the twin hopes of modern
Democracy struggling vainly against corruption.
They have formed one of the staple demands of
every popular and radical party that has arisen
in the last forty years. They have appeared in
such varied forms as the English parish meeting,
the Canadian plebiscite of, 1898, the Oregon plen-
ary referendum, and a hundred and one other
general votes of the people, municipal, provincial
or national. The constitutions of South Africa
and Australia, and all of those recently adopted
in the United States, were created after this
fashion. The direct vote bids fair to replace
representative government. The people's dele-
gate, all powerful in 1776, is sinking to the level
of a mere clerk, drafting laws for the electorate
to accept or reject. With the direct law is com-
ing the "direct primary" — the nomination v of
candidates by popular vote without the aid (at
least such is the theory of the matter) of the
political machine. The same tendency is seen in
the setting up of people's magistrates — judges,
that is, whose decisions can be recalled or
29
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
reversed by a vote of the people, and executive
officers who are no longer to be servants of the
legislature, but to stand for the people directly.
These new officers of democracy — under the
name of commissioners, controllers, and such —
are spreading right and left in democratic coun-
tries, as the latest thing in constitution-making.
To them is given great power and great responsi-
bility. They are no longer sheltered, as was the
assemblyman of the bygone days, beside and
behind a hundred of their fellows. They stand
in the white light of responsibility, isolated and
conspicuous. They must walk straight or fall.
To aid them in the effort to be honest, large
salaries are attached to their offices. In the days
of the fathers, assemblymen received about six
hundred dollars a year, and many judges drew
no more than a thousand : an up-to-date commis-
sioner thinks ten thousand dollars small and even
twenty scarcely generous. The new commissioner
is to be put — such is the pathetic purpose of mod-
ern democracy — beyond temptation. He is to be
given so much that he will steal no more. A hun-
dred years ago small salaries were viewed as a
bulwark against political corruption-. Now the
same misguided faith is placed in large salaries.
There can be no doubt of the result. A large
salary can no more in and of itself prevent cor-
ruption than a small one. The new system of
democracy, unless it can be inspired by a better
30
DEMOCRACY AND SOCIAL PROGRESS
civic virtue than the old, will go the same way.
For the moment, indeed, the new broom sweeps
clean. Mayors and controllers and commis-
sioners at salaries of ten thousand dollars per
annum are busily at work, large with responsi-
bility and power.
Referendums sweep over the voters in a flood.
Direct democracy is replacing everywhere the
older representative government. But when the
first novelty of public effort has passed we shall
realize that without a change of spirit the new
system is as bad or worse than the old. A ten
thousand dollar crook will replace a six hundred
dollar thief. Corruption will convert itself only
into bigger figures. Responsibility and power
will mean merely greater opportunity to steal.
The people themselves, if devoid of civic virtue,
can be just as completely bribed and bought and
corrupted as their representatives. The last state
of the commonwealth will be worse than the first.
THE LETTER KILLETH ; THE SPIRIT GIVETH LIFE
The truth of the matter is very simple. The
form of government can avail nothing if the
spirit is lacking. Democracy is undoubtedly the
best form of government : it is the only form of
government that consists with enlightenment and
progress. But even democracy is valueless unless
it can be inspired by the public virtue of the
citizen that raises him to the level of the privi-
leges that he enjoys. Crooked voters set good
government at nought. It is an ancient and oft-
31
THE NEW EKA IN CANADA
quoted adage that no spring can rise higher than
its source. It is nowhere more true than when
applied to government. For honest government
we must have honest people. Without that there
is no hope.
Here then is indicated the peculiar task that
lies before us in Canada in the New Era which
is opening, and of which the present volume
voices the opportunities and the aspirations. We
must manage to create as the first requisite of
our commonwealth a different kind of spirit from
that which has hitherto controlled us. We must
bring into being somehow that last and greatest
of national assets, honest public opinion. That
is what we need. That is what we have never
had. Wealth and resources and the incoming of
a vast population, all these are obviously ours.
These do not make a nation. Not out of these
was Athens made, and not with these did Scot-
land engrave its mark deep in the record of the
history of mankind. We have gone astray in the
wilderness on the false estimate that we have
placed upon wealth and mere pecuniary success.
We have tolerated with a smile the bribery
of voters, the corrupting of constituencies, the
swollen profits of favoured contractors, the for-
tunes made in and from political life, the honours
heaped upon men with no other recommendation
to their credit than their bank accounts. Our
whole conception of individual merit and of
national progress has been expressed in dollars
and cents.
32
DEMOCRACY AND SOCIAL PROGRESS
Here then is the opportunity and the task
before us. The democratic nations, and ours
amongst them, will emerge from the present con-
flict with a new faith in the possibilities of free
government if inspired by the spirit of freedom.
Our men who return from the war will come
home to us with eyes that have seen things as
they are, that have looked steadfastly in the face
of death, that have seen and known real great-
ness and cannot be deceived by the tawdry glory
of wealth. We must see to it that we make for
them a future Canada, worthy of their patriotism,
and worthy of the monuments that shall mark in
distant lands the resting-places of those whose
sacrifice is complete and who shall come to us
no more.
Stephen Leacock.
33
THE
FOUNDATIONS
OF THE
NEW ERA
TO A CANADIAN LAD KILLED
IN THE WAR
0 NOBLE youth that held our honour in keeping,
And bore it sacred through the battle flame,
How shall we give lull measure of acclaim
To thy sharp labour, thy immortal reaping?
For though we sowed with doubtful hands, half sleeping,
Thou in thy vivid pride hast reaped a nation,
And brought it in with shouts and exultation,
With drums and trumpets, with flags flashing and leaping.
Let us bring pungent wreaths of balsam, and tender
Tendrils of wild-flowers, lovelier for thy daring,
And deck a sylvan shrine, where the maple parts
The moonlight, with lilac bloom, and the splendour
Of suns unwearied; all unwithered, wearing
Thy valour stainless in our heart of hearts.
Duncan Campbell Scott.
THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE
NEW ERA
THE decade which follows the declaration of
peace will open a New Era for our Dominion.
Though the war has not seriously disturbed our
institutions or laid bare any grave defects in our
national economy, we may rest assured that the
heart-searchings, the sacrifices and the close
encounter with the grimmest realities of exist-
ence will exert a deep influence on our national
development. We have suddenly sprung into
being as a nation, full-orbed, vigorous, self-
reliant and determined. We have been baptized
into nationhood with the blood of our sons, shed
in the greatest struggle the world has ever seen
and in the noblest cause for which men have ever
fought.
There will be a New Era. In it a national super-
structure will be erected. What are to be the
foundations on which this superstructure is to
be built? Upon the answer to this question
depends the future of Canada. Surely we may
hope that a young nation born amidst the shock
of warring peoples, a nation whose sons have
sprung to arms at the call of the oppressed, and
who have made the supreme sacrifice for human
liberty, will not fail to scrutinize closely the
principles of its polity and strive to cast out
everything that threatens its moral health.
The signs are already evident. Province after
province has sought to abolish the liquor evil,
37
221675
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
that fruitful mother of moral and physical degen-
eration. While our sons have been fighting in
Europe the moral leaven has been working at
home. Conventions of earnest-minded citizens
have been held to consider schemes of social
improvement. Men who scoffed a few years ago
are the foremost now to demand reform. Many
of them have given their sons to die a violent
death in battle for a noble ideal, and they will
not readily permit themselves to be influenced by
any except the highest motives. Assuredly these
strivings will be followed by momentous results.
THE FRANCHISE AND NATURALIZATION
The foundation of Democracy is the franchise
law under which its people register their will,
the method in which the franchise is exercised
and the machinery of government by which the
wishes of the people are carried into effect.
Whatever be thought of the wisdom of the
policy the fact is that for good or evil we have
adopted what is practically manhood suffrage.
The principle of property qualification in our
parliamentary elections has been pretty well
eliminated. There seems no reason to doubt that
womanhood suffrage will follow. Already a por-
tion of the Dominion has adopted it, and it seems
inevitable that the remainder, with the possible
exception of Quebec, will do so in the near future.
If the franchise be granted to women it should be
on the same terms as to men. If property qualifi-
cation is not required for men there is no reason
38
THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE NEW ERA
why it should be required for women. Very soon,
therefore, we may look to the adoption of uni-
versal suffrage. As to the effects, it is likely
that they are exaggerated both by advocates and
opponents. It is unlikely that women suffrage
will accomplish all the good predicted by its
advocates, and equally unlikely that it will bring
about all or any considerable part of the woes
predicted by its opponents. On some questions
of a moral and sumptuary character it may
have a decisive influence, and in such cases the
influence is almost certain to be extremely
beneficial.
The question of naturalization of aliens
demands prompt consideration and decisive
action. Experience of the operation of the nat-
uralization law indicates that, in some cases at
least, the provisions are not sufficiently stringent.
Amendments should be made before "after the
war " conditions arise. The law should be framed
to meet these conditions and should be in force
when they arise. A clear distinction should be
made between immigrants who speak English or
French as their mother tongue and those who
speak any other language. In the case of English
and French-speaking immigrants the law might
well be left as it is, but in the case of all others
the applicant for naturalization should be
required to reside at least five years in Canada
and possess a working knowledge of the English
language or (if settling in Quebec) of the French
language.
THE NEW EEA IN CANADA
We should also make strict provision against
any increase in racial strife in the future. While
it is true that on the whole our citizens of Ger-
man and Austrian extraction have been loyal, it
would be the height of folly to admit in the future
people of enemy countries as settlers. The people
of the enemy countries have countenanced an
aggressive war carried on with extreme brutality
and in defiance of the principles of humanity as
recognized by the civilized world. The principles
of humanity, hatred of cruelty and intolerance of
the violation of the sacred rights of the person,
are the most precious principles which have been
evolved by the long struggle which has resulted
in the establishment of what we know as modern
freedom. These are the principles, perhaps the
only principles, that are really worth fighting
for. These are the principles for which our sons
have actually fought and died. They must never
be compromised. Our people cherish a deep and
righteous resentment against the nations that
have deliberately violated them. The story of
Belgium, Serbia and Armenia are written in let-
ters of blood which can never be effaced. It is
most sincerely to be trusted that those primarily
responsible for the inhuman and monstrous viola-
tion of human rights will be brought to punish-
ment. No sentimental nonsense should stand in
the way of stern retribution. In any event, how-
ever, our course is clear. We have no place
within our borders for those who have trodden
underfoot the most sacred ideals of modern
40
THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE NEW ERA
civilization. Canada should bar her doors against
the German, the Austrian, the Turk and the Bul-
garian, and no person of any of these nationali-
ties should be admitted to Canadian citizenship.
PARLIAMENTARY REPRESENTATION
We have some patent defects in our representa-
tive system. Among these admittedly is the
gerrymander. The general principle of demo-
cratic rule is that the wish of the majority must
prevail. It is the only practicable principle. Yet
the method of applying the principle may be
improved. It is applied now in about the crudest
possible manner. No fair-minded man, removed
from a heated political atmosphere, defends the
gerrymander. No one can defend a system
whereby a popular minority elects a majority of
the representatives, or by which a very small
popular majority elects an overwhelming major-
ity of the representatives. Still less can anyone
defend a method of arranging constituencies
which is deliberately calculated to bring about
these results. This is a radical defect in our rep-
resentative system, and means should be taken to
get rid of it. There are undoubted difficulties in
the way of reform, but they are not insuperable.
It is perfectly feasible to work out a plan for
grouping members, with recognition of the prin-
ciple of proportional representation, in such a
way as to bring about a much more exact and
just representation of the people. There can be
no doubt of the beneficent effects of such a
41
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
change. It would greatly diminish the personal
bitterness and scandal-mongering in election
campaigns ; it would raise the standard of repre-
sentation and it would permit the entrance into
public life of many men of high character and
notable gifts who at present are hopelessly
excluded. The elaboration of the details of such
a reform is a matter of time and thought, but it
is quite within the realm of possible achievement.
THE PATRONAGE EVIL
Another of the evils which democratic govern-
ment has to encounter is that of political patron-
age. Perhaps there is nothing that makes the
average citizen, who is not an active politician,
so pessimistic in regard to improvement as an
encounter with this peculiar development of
popular government. A public-spirited man takes
an interest in some matter which he regards as
of vital interest to the public. He sees what
ought to be done. Possibly in company with some
associates of like mind he tries to get the right
thing done. He runs up against a stone wall.
The right thing is not done. On the contrary,
something is done which is obviously the wrong
thing. The explanation given is that political
considerations have prevailed.
We can never hope to be entirely free from
political patronage. It is inherent in the popu-
lar and representative system. It is part of the
price that we have to pay for free government.
42
THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE NEW ERA
We may, however, very greatly minimize its
effects.
The effects of the patronage evil are more
directly felt in relation to appointments to the
public service and to contracts let by govern-
ments.
The inside Civil Service at Ottawa is a good
service and is controlled by a good Commission.
The only abuses consist in small jobs perpetrated
by members of the Government, not because they
wish to do so, but because they are induced to do
so by party pressure. These jobs mainly take the
form of securing appointments to the service in
contravention of the principles of the Civil
Service Act, in voting money to civil servants
through favouritism, and in employing officials
payable out of special votes without Civil Service
qualifications. All of these things are evils, and
tend to demoralize the Service. Especially are
they discouraging to honest and competent offi-
cials who ask for no favour and want only that
to which the law entitles them. It is a simple
matter to remedy these evils if anyone were suffi-
ciently interested in the public welfare to take it
in hand. The Civil Service Act should be tight-
ened up so that no appointments could be made
except by the Commission. Provision should also
be made by rule of the House of Commons that
no supply bill should contain a vote of public
money to any official except his legal salary, and
that no supply bill should authorize the employ-
43
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
ment of officials except in pursuance of the terms
of the Civil Service Act.
The case of the outside Civil Service is much
more important. Only a comparatively small
number of the outside service are under the Civil
Service Act. The appointments of all of the
others are controlled directly by the Government.
There is no fixed standard of qualifications and
there are no rules to govern promotion or prefer-
ment. All of these outside officials should be
brought under the Civil Service Act. New
appointments should be made only from persons
qualified by examination. Fixed rules should be
adopted to govern promotions. Appointments
and promotions alike should be made by the Civil
Service Commission. This reform would at once
open up an honourable and useful career to a
large number of young men graduating from our
universities and scientific and technical institu-
tions. Many such young men, whose tastes do
not lie in the direction of commercial or profes-
sional life, would make admirable public ser-
vants. Special courses of study could be provided,
as is now done in the case of the inside service.
In a very few years we should have a specially
trained and educated outside service free from
political interference, and the trials of the unfor-
tunate member of parliament, who is now driven
distracted by applicants for office, would to that
extent be diminished.
As to patronage in connection with the letting
of contracts there is already abundant legisla-
44
THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE NEW EEA
tion. It is sometimes evaded. Public opinion
and a vigilant Opposition are the only thorough
remedies. If, in addition, the editors of our
periodicals would keep a close watch on parlia-
mentary proceedings and be alert vigorously to
criticize every case of flagrant departure from the
principle of the law, it would exercise a salutary
effect.
There are, of course, many miscellaneous
instances of the evils of political patronage. The
most striking case of recent years has just arisen
in the County of Colchester, where the member
for the county has tendered his resignation
because the Minister of Railways refuses to allow
the member to control an important appointment
on the Intercolonial Railway. An official is
required who possesses high qualifications Of a
special character. The general manager of the
railway, said to be an able and competent man,
has nominated a person in whose character and
qualifications he has confidence. The Minister
of Railways has confirmed the general manager's
choice. It is not alleged that the appointee is
not the best available man. What is alleged is
that the member for the County of Colchester, by
virtue of his representation of the county, has the
right to nominate for the appointment. The
member for the county is a capable and energetic
business man, but he has never had anything to
do with the management of a railway. He now
demands that he shall be allowed to over-ride the
general manager of the railway in a matter of
45
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
technical management. It is understood that the
matter is before Sir Robert Borden for decision.
He is put in the cruel dilemma of having to
decide between over-ruling his Minister of Rail-
ways and the general manager of the Intercol-
onial Railway, when they are both right, or, in
the alternative, of losing the support of the mem-
ber, who happens also to be the chief Government
whip, and probably of losing the county to the
Opposition as well.
The matter is mentioned here because it is a
striking illustration of the troubles that arise
when a government undertakes the management
of large business affairs. The patronage diffi-
culty is the real objection to what is called the
nationalization of railways. The pressure of
patronage is exerted constantly in support of
unwise and unnecessary expenditure and against
the application of sound business principles.
PURITY OF ELECTIONS
Intimately connected with the foregoing mat-
ter is the subject of purity of elections. Let us
face the facts. There has grown up in Canada,
the United States and England, to say nothing
of other countries, the practice of using huge
sums of money for political purposes. More or
less of the money is spent corruptly. The evil
tends constantly to grow. The money is not, in
any considerable proportion, subscribed by people
who have in view the benefit of the State by the
advancement of their own political principles.
46
Other motives largely prevail. Neither in Can-
ada nor elsewhere is there distinction in regard
to this matter between the political parties. Gen-
erally speaking, all the parties use all the money
they can get. I know a good deal about the con-
duct of elections in Canada, something about the
United States and England, and a little about
France. There are differences of detail in the
different countries, but the general result is the
same. This evil is the bane of Democracy. It is
the nightmare of every man in public life who is
anxious to give good service to the state.
Why should we wait for any more public scan-
dals before we reform this evil? It exists. Every-
one knows it. Let us put our house in order and
set an example for other countries to follow. If
we adopt the measures in Canada which I advo-
cate, I venture to say that within five years
similar laws would be in force in the United
States, in England, and probably in France.
It is a very simple matter if we really wish to
do it.
Let the Dominion Parliament amend the Crim-
inal Code by making it a criminal offence for any
company holding a charter, under either Domin-
ion or Provincial authority, any public contrac-
tor, Dominion or Provincial, or any civil servant,
to contribute money for political purposes or to
reimburse anyone who has so contributed. Make
it a similar offence for anyone to make a politi-
cal contribution except to the legal agent of a
candidate, or of a party, who shall be required
47
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
forthwith to publish full particulars of the con-
tribution, both in the Canada Gazette and in a
daily newspaper published in the county where
the contributor resides. This will define the law.
Now as to enforcement. Appoint two public
prosecutors with the same tenure of office as a
High Court judge, one to be named by the Prime
Minister and the other to be named by the leader
of the Opposition. These prosecutors will be
sworn to enforce the law and to prosecute for
every offence where evidence can be procured to
warrant it. They should be entirely independent
of each other, having each the power independ-
ently to prosecute to conviction for any offence
against the act. They should be required, under
a penalty, to investigate every case of alleged
infraction of the law brought to their attention
by a statement in writing from anyone whatever,
and they should be required to report the result
of every such investigation to standing commit-
tees of the Senate and of the House of Commons.
Such reports should state the result of the inves-
tigation, the result of the prosecution, if insti-
tuted, and, if prosecution has not been instituted,
the report should state the reason why. Trial
should not be by jury, but by a special tribunal of
three judges.
There may be people who will scoff at the idea
of putting a stop to illicit contributions of money
for political purposes. They will say that it
always has been done, always will be done, and
cannot be prevented. I do not agree. I am cer-
48
THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE NEW EEA
tain that it can be prevented. I am certain that
it can be prevented quite easily. The evil is not
half so deeply rooted as people generally believe.
Such a law as I have outlined above would accom-
plish the purpose. There might be at first a few
cynical violations of the act in the belief that
the offenders would be protected; but, when the
machinery of prosecution was really at work,
and one or two contributors had begun to serve
their terms, collections for political purposes
would come to an abrupt termination. As to the
possibility of securing the enactment of such a
law, it is clear that public sentiment is ripe for it
now. A dozen men of character and position will-
ing to devote some time and attention to the work
can force the enactment of the law within a very
short time. Once enacted it is the kind of law
that will take care of itself.
Apart from the franchise and the question of
overcoming the gerrymander there is little need
for changes with reference to our House of
Commons. A few radical changes in rules and
methods could be made with great advantage.
They must come from the members themselves.
Unfortunately the changes that have been made
of late years have generally been for the worse,
while obvious improvements have been neglected.
The spirit of internal reform is not strong in the
House of Commons. Perhaps some of the new
members may be more alert to the possibility of
improvement. .
49
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
REFORM OF THE SENATE
A good deal of more or less desultory discus-
sion has taken place about the Senate. Such
discussion as has taken place does not impress
one with its depth. Some advocate abolition.
That would be a serious mistake. The science of
government is not new. It has had many pro-
found students among the best minds of the
world. Practically all of them agree as to the
necessity of a second chamber. No nation should
be under unchecked, single-chamber government.
The democracy must rule, but it is expedient that,
in critical cases, it should have an opportunity to
think twice. According to my experience, the
will of the people is very often better expressed
after a check, and after a period of searching and
critical discussion which generally arises from
such a check, than it is in the first instance. It
must also be remembered that, under our system,
the power of the Cabinet tends to grow at the
expense of the House of Commons. In Canada
we do not notice this much, but it has become a
serious problem in England. The Senate is not
so much a check on the House of Commons as it
is upon the Cabinet, and there can be no doubt
that its influence in this respect is salutary. In
twenty years at Ottawa, I have never known a
case in which a Government was anxious to take
the verdict of the people on a bill rejected by the
Senate.
The problem of a second chamber has puzzled
many countries and many statesmen. Widely
50
THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE NEW ERA
different methods of meeting it have been devised,
but all are open to some objection. There is no
counsel of perfection. All we can hope for is an
instrument that, on the whole, will fairly well
answer the purpose. Our Senate, as at present
constituted, is by no means without its virtue and
usefulness. We should strive to improve it. An
elective Senate is open to serious objection. It
is another representative body, a second House of
Commons. Elective Senates are fruitful of dead-
locks. One representative chamber is enough.
Its will should ultimately prevail, because it
directly represents the people.
Some improvements can readily be suggested
in the present constitution of the Canadian
Senate. <
I would fix an age limit not higher than sev-
enty-five years. There are men who at seventy-
five are in full mental vigour. Sir Wilfrid
Laurier is one, Sir Charles Tupper was another.
But these men are exceptions. Legislation should
be based on the rule, not on the exception. The
rule is that in Canada, under our conditions of
life and climate, a man of seventy-five has passed
the period of useful service. As to membership,
it would add greatly to the Senate's dignity and
independence if hereafter all Lieutenant-Gover-
nors of Provinces, all Dominion Cabinet Minis-
ters, all Provincial Premiers who have held office
for three consecutive years, should, on going out
of office, have the right, at their option, to be
called to the Senate. A good deal can also be
51
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
said for permitting the state university in each
province to elect two senators from its govern-
ing body, not for life, but for a term of about six
years. Where there is no state university the
Provincial Legislature should designate the uni-
versity to have the privilege. The appointed
members should be diminished by a number equal
to the number of the ex-officio members, not by
cancellation of existing appointments, but by
refraining from making new appointments when
in the course of nature senators disappear. The
total number would vary slightly, but that is not
a serious objection. By these methods a body of
men would be introduced who would hold their
appointments, as of right, by reason of having
held high administrative and political office, and
who would possess wide experience and a broad
political outlook. It is extremely likely that a
Senate so constituted might be found to give
general satisfaction, especially if certain func-
tions, of a more or less important character, were
committed especially to its charge.
THE RIGHT TO AMEND THE CONSTITUTION
One of the most important subjects for future
consideration is that of constitutional amend-
ments. We should have the power to amend our
own Constitution. The Canadian Constitution
is an Act of the British Parliament passed in
1867. Since that time a few trifling changes of
an uncontroversial character have been made. It
is undoubtedly a good Constitution, but no
52
THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE NEW ERA
human wisdom can devise constitutional provi-
sions to meet every possible need of a complex
and growing social organism.
There are pronounced defects in our Constitu-
tion as it stands.
The law regarding prohibition of the liquor
traffic is in a most unsatisfactory condition.
Jurisdiction is divided between the Dominion
and the Province. It should be all in the Domin-
ion or all in the Province. I believe public
opinion would almost unanimously support an
amendment giving the entire jurisdiction to the
Province.
Even after the late reference to the Privy
Council, the law regarding the incorporation of
companies is far from clear. No lawyer can tell
exactly what is the law. It could be cleared up
by a constitutional amendment of half a dozen
lines.
Not long ago the people of Manitoba decided
that they wished to govern themselves through
the medium, inter alia, of the initiative and the
referendum. Their Legislature passed an act
to give effect to this decision. Now, however,
the Manitoba Court of Appeals has decided that
the act is unconstitutional. I have not had an
opportunity of reading the decision; but, as the
court is a good court and composed of good
lawyers, there is an extreme probability that
their decision is sound in law. If so the Consti-
tution is wrong and ought to be amended. If the
people of any province wish to govern themselves
53
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
with help of the initiative and the referendum,
they should have the power to do so. It is their
business and theirs only. Any state in the Ameri-
can Union could get over this difficulty by con-
stitutional amendment. We cannot.
We have no remedy in these matters unless our
Dominion Government is willing to take up the
matter, and unless it can induce the British
Colonial Secretary to bring in an amendment to
the British North America Act and get it through
the Imperial Parliament. The Colonial Secre-
tary is usually an able and well-informed man,
but he is never versed in our business and social
conditions, and he is therefore unable to decide
these matters on their merits. Being fully aware
of this he does not attempt it. He takes no action
unless the case is obviously one of such necessity
that there can be about it no difference of opinion.
He would never dream of amending the Consti-
tution to meet a case arising out of attack on a
particular statute in the courts. We are there-
fore without a remedy.
We ought not to be in the hands either of the
Colonial Secretary or of the Imperial Parlia-
ment. We should be in the hands of no one but
ourselves. Canada is fully grown up, and its
people are quite as competent to decide how they
wish to be governed as the people of the United
Kingdom are to decide for themselves similar
questions. The question whether a constitutional
amendment should be made concerns no one but
ourselves, and machinery should be provided
54
THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE NEW ERA
whereby any changes desired by the people can
be made. The absence of such machinery keeps
throwing us back continually on the past. It
blocks reform. It sterilizes political thought and
action. Means should be provided whereby the
social and political aspirations of the people may
be crystallized in their Constitution.
LIMITATIONS TO LEGISLATIVE POWERS OF
PARLIAMENT
This subject should not be discussed without
reference to a particular phase which demands
the most careful consideration. One of the defects
of our Constitution is the absence of constitu-
tional limitations on the powers of Parliament
and the Legislatures. The subject has never been
thought out and fully considered in Canada. I
doubt if one in a thousand of our citizens has
ever considered it at all. Not all lawyers by any
means are clear upon it. The fact is, however,
that within their respective spheres Parliament
and the Legislatures are supreme. They can con-
fiscate property without redress or compensation.
No legislative body in a free country should
have such power. I know it will be said that any-
one who advocates constitutional limitations is
acting in the interest of the corporations and the
capitalists. That is mere demagogism. Dis-
honesty is no more defensible when practised by
a parliamentary body than when practised by an
individual. The Democracy of Canada can afford
to be honest, and honesty in this as in all other
cases is the best policy.
55
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
CONCLUSION
The foundations of the New Era should be the
best electorate that we can get, the cleanest elec-
tions that we can get, the best constitution that
we can get, and the freest political thought that
we can get.
Upon these foundations the superstructure
should be reared. It should be a distinctively
Canadian superstructure. We have much to
learn from other and older lands. In art, litera-
ture and science, in the application of scientific
education to the improvement of industry and
agriculture, we are yet in our infancy. We
should seek to gather the world's knowledge and
apply it to our own conditions. It should not,
however, be a process of crude or slavish imita-
tion, but of intelligent digestion and adaptation.
Canada should set up a new ideal. We have the
greatest opportunity of the ages. Practically
every great modern nation is a failure in essen-
tial features. It is not successful nation-building
to create a cultivated and comfortable class,
while the masses struggle for the barest neces-
saries of life, under conditions which prohibit
moral and physical development. Every one of
the great nations has failed. Of all perhaps
France has come nearest to success. But all,
without exception, have slums, poverty and breed-
ing-grounds of vice and degeneration. The
growth of a proletariat goes on. It is regarded
as a step in advance when the state pensions its
aged citizens. Let us have a state where old-age
pensions and charity doles are not necessary.
56
THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE NEW ERA
Will it be a matter of pride for us to boast that
we are manufacturing for the world, if at home
we allow conditions to arise which breed unem-
ployment, poverty and vice? The ideal State is
that in which all the citizens, without exception,
have the opportunity of living a sane, clean and
civilized life, partaking of at least all the neces-
sary comforts provided by modern science, and
enjoying the opportunity of spiritual and intel-
lectual improvement. To build such a state
should be the ambition of the young men of
Canada. To achieve success there must be will-
ingness to abandon out-of-date prejudice and to
face and grapple with facts as they are. There
must be sober and earnest combat with every
false economic standard which militates against
the ideal. There must be a determination to
force political parties to get out of the ruts of
the past forty years and initiate constructive
legislation. None of the evils which afflict older
countries has, as yet, secured a firm hold upon
Canada. They can all be uprooted and destroyed.
We are still the masters of our own destiny. May
that destiny be a great and noble one.
" Thou too sail on, oh ship of state,
Sail on, O union strong and great.
Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee,
Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears,
Our faith, triumphant o'er our fears,
Are all with thee,
Are all with thee."
Clifford Sifton.
57
OUR
NATIONAL
HERITAGE
IT IS NOT TO BE THOUGHT OF
IT is not to be thought of that the Flood
Of British freedom, which, to the open sea
Of the world's praise, from dark antiquity
Hath flowed, " with pomp of waters, unwithstood,"
Roused though it be full often to a mood
Which spurns the check of salutary bands,
That this most famous Stream in bogs and sands
iShould perish; and to evil and to good
Be lost for ever. In our halls is hung
Armoury of the invincible Knights of old :
We must be free or die, who speak the tongue
That Shakspeare spake; the faith and morals hold
Which Milton held. — In everything we are sprung
Of Earth's first blood, have titles manifold.
— W. Wordsworth.
OUR NATIONAL HERITAGE
THE SETTING OF OUR NATIONAL LIFE
IN these days, when the light of natural science
penetrates into most departments of human
thought and knowledge, the far-reaching influ-
ence of the physical environment of a people
upon its character and history is coming to be
more generally recognized.
If we take the wings of the morning and the
Barcan desert pierce, we shall not find among
the inhabitants of the Garden of Allah those
qualities which are developed in the nations
which, going down to the sea in ships and occupy-
ing their business in great waters, see the works
of the same Lord and His wonders in the deep.
Nor is to be expected that there will arise among
our northern compatriots — the Esquimaux —
wandering about in the Arctic snow fields, any
notable school of the fine arts. They find that
their surroundings compel them to concentrate
their whole energy upon the cultivation of the
fine art of keeping alive, and even in this, at the
best, they achieve but an indifferent success. And
even if it be not possible to go so far as Buckle
in giving to environment the importance which
he assigns to it in his " History of Civilization,"
it is impossible to escape from the fact that the
slow and continuous pressure of environment, as
represented by the physical conformation of a
country, must, in the long run, be a very important
61
THE NEW EKA IN CANADA
factor, not only in determining the history of the
country, but also in moulding the character of its
people. It is, therefore, of importance to glance
briefly at the physical features of the Dominion
which form the setting of the national life.
The Dominion of Canada stretches from the
Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the boundary
of the United States to the North Pole, having
an area of 3,729,665 square miles. The land,
therefore, is one of great size, enormous distances,
wide expanses and boundless vistas.
The country, however, naturally falls into cer-
tain divisions. The salient physical features
determining these are two great belts of moun-
tains, which in a general way follow, respectively,
the shores of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and
a great rocky plateau — the Laurentian Peneplain
— which lies between them in the middle of the
country.
The eastern mountain range, which is rela-
tively low in average elevation, is a northward
continuation of the Green Mountains of New
Hampshire. From the boundary line of the
United States it passes in a north-easterly direc-
tion through the Province of Quebec to the
extremity of the Gaspe Peninsula, being known
in different portions of its extent as the Notre
Dame and the Shickshock Mountains.
The great western mountain belt, which is
much higher and more precipitous in character,
consists — where crossed by the Canadian Pacific
Eailway — of four subordinate parallel ranges
63
OUR NATIONAL HERITAGE
known, if enumerated from east to west, as the
Rocky Mountains, the Selkirks, the Gold Ranges
and the Coast Ranges. Between the two latter
there intervenes the Interior Plateau, a belt of
high but comparatively level country about five
hundred miles long and one hundred miles wide.
The remnants of a fifth mountain range, which
has, for the most part, disappeared beneath the
waters of the Pacific, are represented by Van-
couver Island and the Queen Charlotte Islands.
This belt of mountains, with its intervening val-
leys, speaking generally, constitutes the Province
of British Columbia, which has been not inappro-
priately designated as a Sea of Mountains.
While these two mountain systems give a
marked accentuation to the marginal portions
of the Dominion, the great Laurentian plateau is
the dominant feature of the interior of Canada.
It underlies more than one-half of the whole
Dominion, having an area of about 2,000,000
square miles. It forms a great part of northern
Canada and, narrowing toward the south, is
thrust through central Canada in the form of a
great blunt wedge whose thin edge occupies the
country between the Georgian Bay and the Lake
of the Woods, and to the south, passing just over
the border into the United States, ends in the
States of Michigan and Minnesota. The eastern
boundary of this wedge-shaped area follows the
north shore of the Gulf of the St. Lawrence, and
then continues across to the southern end of the
Georgian Bay, while its west side follows the line
63
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
of the Great Lakes, starting from the Lake of
the Woods and passing through Lake Winnipeg,
Lake Athabaska, Great Slave Lake, Great Bear
Lake, and on to the shore of the Arctic Sea.
It is a somewhat undulating rocky plateau,
having an average elevation of about fifteen hun-
dred feet above sea level, although there is a
marked depression in the central portion, in
which are gathered the shallow waters of Hud-
son's Bay. It is studded with thousands of lakes
and traversed by hundreds of streams great and
small.
While clad with forest in its southern part and
containing many valuable deposits of metallic
ores, as well as many great water-powers and
some farming land, the peculiar significance of
the Laurentian plateau in its relation to the devel-
opment of Canadian history lies in the fact that,
speaking generally, it is a great tract of barren
country incapable of supporting an agricultural
population, and thus splits the Dominion into
two parts, Eastern and Western Canada. It was
not until a way had been blasted across it by the
construction of the Canadian Pacific Eailway,
and later by other transcontinental roads, that
Western Canada may be said to have been dis-
covered; and it is a natural barrier to free
intercourse, close association, and hence mutual
understanding, between the East and the West
in the Dominion that necessitates, and will neces-
sitate, on the part of Canadians, in order that it
may be bridged over, not only much patience but
64
OUR NATIONAL HERITAGE
a sincere endeavour on the part of the residents
of Eastern and Western Canada alike, to appre-
ciate one another's point of view and to treat the
same sympathetically when understood.
The eastern mountain range has also played
in Canadian history a similar though less pro-
nounced r61e, separating the Maritime Provinces
from central Canada, until this barrier was
broken through by the construction of the Inter-
colonial Railway.
In fact, in Canada the " grain of the country "
runs north and south, while the currents of Cana-
dian life must and do run east and west, breaking
through or overleaping these barriers set up by
Nature.
Having in mind, then, these accentuating fea-
tures it will be seen that the Dominion of Canada
consists of five distinct or separate regions, each
with its characteristic features which determine
the course of its future development, as well as
its ultimate possibilities and the part which it
is destined to play in the New Era in Canada.
These are :
(1) The Eastern Maritime Provinces, or Aca-
dian region, comprising the Provinces of Nova
Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward
Island, with the eastern hilly or mountainous
region of the Province of Quebec. A deeply
embayed maritime region diversified in character
and with very considerable areas of good arable
land suitable for mixed farming and fruit grow-
ing, great deposits of good coal, and the greatest
5 65
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
off-shore fishing grounds in the world. The
eastern mountain belt separates this from the
following division.
(2) The Eastern Plains. A great stretch of
level land in the Provinces of Quebec and Ontario
lying to the south of the Laurentian plateau. It
is adapted to mixed farming, and on it at the
present time more than half the population of
Canada find their home. It is here also that the
manufacturing industries of Canada are located.
(3) The Laurentian Plateau, just described.
(4) The Western Plains. These contain by far
the greatest expanse of land suitable for agricul-
ture in the Dominion of Canada. They comprise
the wheat fields of the Dominion, but much of the
land is also suitable for mixed farming, which is
gradually extending over a greater area in the
country. It is the part of Canada which must
play the most important part in the future of the
Dominion, for it is capable of supporting by far
the largest settlement of any of the five regions,
and it is on these plains that the population of
Canada will eventually focus.
(5) British Columbia, witti a strip of Western
Alberta. A sea of mountains washed by the
waters of the Pacific Ocean on the west. The
most accentuated and beautiful part of the
Dominion with, however, a relatively small
amount of agricultural land which can be
worked without irrigation. It has enormous
forests, great mineral wealth, and also highly
productive fisheries.
66
OUR NATIONAL HERITAGE
THE QUESTION PLAINLY STATED
One of the most distinguished representatives
of the British Empire, and one who has enjoyed
an exceptionally favourable opportunity for
becoming familiar with the situation on this con-
tinent, recently remarked that in his opinion the
British Empire will one day centre in Canada.
Whether this be so or not, it is certain that in
the New Era, on the threshold of which she now
stands, Canada will be called upon to occupy a
much more prominent place among the nations
of the wTorld, and one of the foremost places in
the greatest empire which the world has ever
seen.
This position will carry with it not only wider
responsibilities but greatly increased burdens.
Among these not the least will be the necessity
of providing after the war for an expenditure
which Mr. Flumerfelt, in a recent address before
the Canadian Club of Montreal, estimated would
reach not less than $100,000,000 a year. If Can-
ada then is to be one of the great partners of the
Empire, a question must present itself to every
Canadian at this time, namely, Will Canada rise
to the measure of her increased responsibilities?
or, to employ the colloquial language of the
present hour, Will Canada make good?
And here a brief digression may be permitted.
The great empires of former times — the Baby-
lonian, Chaldean, Assyrian, and later the empires
of Greece and Rome — loom up gigantic as we
view them through the golden haze of the dis-
67
THE NEW EKA IN CANADA
tant past. How does the British Empire com-
pare in size with these great empires which ruled
the world in former times? In making this com-
parison there is no reference to greatness in the
sense of mental achievements or moral excellence
— a judgment on the basis of these qualities
would be of great interest, but does not concern
us here. The comparison desired is simply one
of extent.
Now the greatest of all ancient empires was
the Eoman Empire, and Gibbon tells us that
when the Koman Empire was at its zenith, "it
was supposed to contain about 1,600,000 square
miles." The area of Canada at the present time
is 3,729,665 square miles, i.e., it is more than
twice the size of the greatest empire of former
times. Even if we set aside the northern half
of Canada, which is for the most part uninhabit-
able, and consider only the southern half of Can-
ada, it has an extent equal to the whole empire
ruled by Home.
Canada, however, forms but a relatively small
part of the empire. The area of the British
Empire in 1913 was 13,154,000 square miles, or
about one-quarter of the earth's surface. Owing
to certain happenings the area of the empire
during the past two years has been increased by
something over 2,000,000 square miles. These
figures give some idea of the significance of the
statement that Canada will be one of the fore-
most states in the British Empire, and will in
virtue of this fact be called upon in the New Era
68
OUR NATIONAL HERITAGE
to share in the policy and government of the
same.
What is the factor which is to determine
whether Canada will rise to this higher status
and play a worthy part as a vigorous strength-
giving element in the empire of the future? This
factor on its material side is represented by the
natural resources of the Dominion and their
proper utilization.
Every country, like every man, has given to it
certain talents — these talents are its natural
resources. A country may be blessed with ten
talents, or may have but one, and it may develop
these talents and thus achieve its proper destiny,
or it may neglect or even waste them. On the
use of these gifts the fate of nations — so far as
this is influenced by material considerations —
depends. Sir Clifford Sifton, in his Annual
Address to the Commission of Conservation last
January, remarked that "it has been found by
hard experience that national safety demands
that the nation should not only possess resources,
but understand them and be able to utilize them
economically." And so civilized nations to-day
are anxiously taking stock of their resources.
They have found that the practice of trusting to
others for the necessities of civilized existence is
fraught with both danger and uncertainty.
It is the purpose of the present essay to indi-
cate the chief sources of natural wealth in the
Dominion, and to inquire whether these at pres-
ent are being utilized as fully as possible and in
69
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
the best interests of national efficiency, bearing
in mind that the Canada for which the present
generation has fought is the Canada in which
succeeding generations must live, and in which
they are to develop that higher national life for
which the labours of Canadians so far have
merely prepared or, perhaps it may be said,
rough-hewed, the way.
ILLUSIONS
In thinking of the resources of the Dominion
it is well that Canadians should free their minds
from certain illusions which cling about this sub-
ject. Reference will be made to two of these.
In the first place, there is a tendency among
orators in Canada who desire to infuse a stirring
and patriotic element into a popular address, to
preface this by reminding hearers that Canada
has an area rather greater than that of the
United States, "including Alaska," and almost
identical with that of Europe. This interesting
statement is always vigorously applauded because
it carries with it the implication that Canada will
one day have a population equal to that which
can be supported by the United States, and that
within its domain are to be found, potentially,
the resources, the arts, and the industries of the
entire continent of Europe. In an address deliv-
ered in one of the chief cities of the Dominion not
many years ago, somewhat along these lines, the
speaker, wishing to impress upon his audience
that the northern portions of Canada were sus-
70
OUR NATIONAL HERITAGE
ceptible of an enormous development, compared
them with northern Russia. A large map of
northern Canada was thrown upon the screen,
and upon it was projected a map of Russia. Ref-
erence was then made to the great export trade
from the port of Archangel, which is situated on
the Arctic Sea, and it was suggested that Canada
might look forward to the development of similar
mercantile activity on the corresponding shore of
the Arctic Sea in North America.
Then the map showed that Petrograd, sur-
rounded by a productive agricultural country,
was on the same latitude as Fort Churchill, on
Hudson's Bay. Other comparisons suggested
that the Barren Grounds of northern Canada
might be made, if not to " blossom like the rose,"
at least to meet with that very extended develop-
ment which the territories of our Russian ally
now enjoy. These comparisons, however, rest
on the fallacy that a parallel of latitude as it
goes around the world always passes over dis-
tricts having the same climate. The fact is that
northern Europe, on the same latitude, is rela-
tively warmer than the northern portion of North
America. Montreal, although on the same lati-
tude as a point in the south of France, has a dis-
tinctly different climate. The Lord Bishop of
Keewatin, who in his earlier life spent some sev-
enteen years as a missionary at Fort Churchill,
and who is a very expert horticulturalist, has
stated that when there he used his best efforts
to develop a garden of some kind, and having
71
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
scraped up with great labour some earth from
various scattered spots where that rare material
was found to exist, he eventually established a
garden. In this, however, after the most strenu-
ous efforts, the only thing which he could succeed
in growing was a crop of turnips. These, at their
maximum development, reached the dimensions
of an ordinary glass alley, and the crop had to be
wrapped in an eiderdown to keep it from freezing
solid before it could be placed in the pot prepara-
tory to finding its place upon the table. Under
such conditions it would be difficult to reproduce
the capital city of our allies the Russians.
The Dominion has so much good land awaiting
settlement and such abundant sources of unde-
veloped wealth in its habitable parts that it is
not necessary, nor is it advisable, to indulge in
geographical gymnastics in order to impress
others, or ourselves, with the value and impor-
tance of our Arctic region.
The second illusion is that the resources of the
Dominion are "inexhaustible." This statement
is met with continually, although within the last
year or so some remote suggestion seems to have
instilled itself into the public mind that per-
haps it requires modification. Thus in one of the
most recent compilations giving general infor-
mation concerning Canadian products Canada's
resources are said to be "comparatively inex-
haustible." As a matter of fact our resources
are not inexhaustible, indeed nothing is inex-
haustible. These resources need to be carefully
72
OUR NATIONAL HERITAGE
cultivated and conserved, and some of them,
indeed, have already suffered serious depletion.
THE NATURAL RESOURCES OF THE DOMINION
The questions, then, which present themselves
are the following :
(1) What are the character and extent of the
Natural Resources of Canada?
(2) Are these Resources being used and devel-
oped in a way to secure from them the best
results to the nation?
The Natural Resources of the Dominion, as
might be expected in so vast a land, are enormous
in extent and very varied in character. They
may be classified under five heads, as follows :
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OUR NATIONAL HERITAGE
In this list they are arranged according to the
value of their output in dollars, but there must
be added to these another whose output, while of
great value, cannot be estimated in this manner,
and that is the water powers of the Dominion. In
this enumeration manufacturing is not included,
because it is not a natural resource, but is based
upon natural resources and directly influenced
by them.
i
AGRICULTURE
There are two great stretches of agricultural
land in the Dominion. These lie respectively on
the eastern plain of Canada, along the valley of
the St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes in the Pro-
vinces of Quebec and Ontario; and in the great
western plains of Manitoba, Alberta and Saskat-
chewan. In other provinces the areas of arable
land are relatively smaller, but in all the pro-
vinces there is as yet an abundance of rich land
awaiting the arrival of the settler.
The amount of arable land in the Dominion as
a whole cannot be accurately determined at the
present time, but an estimate based on the results
of the most recent Government returns, places it
at 440,951,000 acres. The area tilled is increas-
ing rapidly year by year, and in 1915 amounted
to 37,063,000 acres. This area embraces one of
the greatest wheat fields of the world, as well as
enormous tracts of land excellently suited for
mixed farming of all kinds. It will yield under
cultivation all the products of the cooler temper-
75
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
ate zone. In the southern portions fruit trees
flourish, and some crops, such as Indian corn and
tomatoes, which cannot be ripened in Great
Britain in the open, grow to perfection.
The average size of a farm in Canada at the
present time is a little over one hundred and fifty
acres. If in the future the rapid settlement of the
country continues and the land suitable for settle-
ment is all taken up and distributed in farms of
this size to families consisting of an average of
five persons, the Dominion will provide for an
agricultural population of 14,700,000 souls.
These figures show how enormously the agri-
cultural output of Canada can be increased with
the influx of new settlers. But not only are
more farmers required, but the individual farmer
should increase his production. The Agricul-
tural Survey of the Dominion, carried out for
the Commission of Conservation by Dr. J. W.
Eobertson, shows that if all the farmers in the
Dominion would adopt the system and methods
followed by the best ten per cent, of these farmers,
the field crops of the Dominion could be doubled
in ten years, while with the methods of inten-
sive farming used in Europe, whereby smaller
areas are worked more thoroughly, it would be
possible for the agricultural land of Canada to
support a very much larger population than that
referred to above, and to yield an immensely
•greater output. Looking towards this greater
production, Doctor Robertson's reference to what
has been accomplished in Denmark is of interest.
76
OUR NATIONAL HERITAGE
"When I was in Denmark about twenty-six
years ago," he writes, "I then learned that the
Danes had picked out the best farms all over
the country, and during many years had given
grants to hundreds of young farmers to go and
live and work and learn on these farms. These
young farmers brought back to their localities
not simply a knowledge of the principles on
which they could pass an. examination, but a
working knowledge of systems, practices and
methods. All Denmark was seeded down to the
practice of the best farms. No farmer to-day in
Denmark feels that he has done his duty if he
has discovered a better method of raising a crop
or feeding a cow until he gets all the others to
adopt the same method. This is real co-opera-
tion. Now what are some of the results in Den-
mark? From being about the poorest nation in
Europe, Denmark is now the most prosperous in
the world of those whose main industry is farm-
ing. It has become so in less than my lifetime
by these methods I am indicating. What can we
not accomplish if we follow similar methods?
We have a better chance on this great continent
by reason of our resources, our population and
our opportunities. The Danes take from Eng-
land more money than any other nation obtains
for an equal quantity of butter, bacon and eggs,
because of their superior qualities. For the
superiority of their butter, bacon and eggs, they
get as a premium more than we spend on our
rural schools from the Atlantic to the Pacific."
77
THE NEW EKA IN CANADA
As it is, agriculture occupies a relatively less
important place among the industries of Canada
than it did fifteen years ago. Large quantities
of butter, eggs, mutton and lamb, pork, and other
products of the farm, are now imported into Can-
ada to supply the demands of the rapidly increas-
ing urban population, while great stretches of
fertile land remain uncultivated within easy
access of large and profitable markets.
The agricultural production of Canada must
be increased, not only on account of the necessity
of developing a large export trade in the products
of this great industry, but also on account of
the fact that this increased production will tend
directly to lower the cost of living, which is of
vital importance to Canada if her manufacturing
industries are to show a substantial growth, as
they should do, in order that they may sustain
their due share in the increased taxation which
must follow the present war. To this end some
steps must be taken not only to make farming
fairly profitable, but to make farm and country
life more attractive and interesting than it is at
present in many parts of Canada. Thus in many
districts in the East, but notably in the Western
Provinces, owing largely to the manner in which
the agricultural lands have been granted, the
farms are separated by blocks of unsettled lands,
and a sparse population is thus scattered over
a great area, compact settlement being prevented
by the high prices at which the unsettled lands
are held. This isolates the settler, making access
78
OUK NATIONAL HERITAGE
to markets, schools and churches more difficult
and expensive, and cuts him off from the social
activities which contribute largely to the happi-
ness and contentment of a population. As is well
known, it is the loneliness of this life that is not
the least among the causes which in Canada
determine the flow of the rural population to the
great centres of population.
It may be said that conditions will improve as
time goes on, but in the meanwhile the newcomer
is required. He is the maker of increased pro-
duction, and these unoccupied lands, often the
best in the district, stand as unproductive assets.
A country that can enlist and send 300,000 of its
sons to France with complete equipment and
commissariat, and even 1,500 miles of railway
communication, in order to save Canada, is
surely equal to the test of devising some method
of settling these men on the best of its vacant
land when they return. To stand aside and
advise others to go back to the land if conditions
of farming do not provide a happy and success-
ful livelihood, is devoting ourselves to the public
weal with that same enthusiasm which was mani-
fested by Artemus Ward in the case of a certain
project for the success of which he informs us
that he was willing to sacrifice all his wife's able-
bodied relations. While these are pressing and
very real problems, there is a certain influence
at work throughout the Dominion which even
now is tending to make farming not only more
profitable but a much more interesting occupa-
79
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
tion than it has been in the past. This is the
educational work which is being carried out by
the Dominion and Provincial Governments and
by the great Agricultural Colleges. By these
the farmer is introduced to new ideas, modern
methods and to the achievements of modern
science so far as they can be applied to agricul-
ture. He is thus being gradually raised from
the status of an unskilled labourer to that of a
skilled and independent worker.
FORESTS
Among the natural resources of the Dominion
next in importance to the products of the farm
are the products of the forest. The forests and
woodlands of Canada cover an area of approxi-
mately 1,351,505 square miles, and have fur-
nished immense supplies of timber and lumber
from before Confederation down to the present
time.
A sharp distinction must be drawn between
" woodland " and " forest." The woodlands con-
sist of country covered by trees often of no com-
mercial value whatsoever, while the forest areas
are those which contain stands of merchantable
timber. Data on which a tolerably accurate esti-
mate of the amount of standing timber in the
Dominion may be based are now for the first
time available. These have been obtained chiefly
by the Forest Surveys carried out by the Com-
mission of Conservation. The Forest Survey of
Nova Scotia is completed. The returns for Brit-
80
OUR NATIONAL HERITAGE
ish Columbia have just lately been received. The
surveys of the prairie provinces are partially
completed and the results will be published
shortly. The Commission is now about to under-
take a survey of the forest resources of Ontario
and Quebec, although concerning these we have
some considerable knowledge from other sources,
while the Provincial Government of New Bruns-
wick is now engaged in making a comprehensive
survey of the forest resources of that province.
The total stand of commercial timber in the
Canadian forests is somewhere between five hun-
dred and seven hundred billion feet board meas-
ure. In addition to this the forests contain very
large reserves of small spruce which is cut for
pulp wood used in the manufacture of paper,
which is now one of the more important of the
Canadian industries.
The forest also supplies an immense number
of railway ties, telegraph poles and posts, as well
as the material for numerous manufacturing and
chemical industries situated in different parts of
the Dominion. The Canadian railways alone
require some 20,000,000 ties per annum. These
forest industries, if carefully developed, may be
made to support a much larger population than
they do at the present time, and one which is more
permanent and less migratory in character.
The Canadian forests are often said to be inex-
haustible. As a matter of fact, however, these
forest surveys show that this is by no means the
case, and that the Canadian forests now hold
6 81
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
only between one-fifth and one-fourth as much
merchantable timber as those of the United
States. Of this about one-half is contained in
the magnificent forests of British Columbia,
while the other half is situated in the forests
of Quebec and Ontario. Mr. Craig and Doctor
Whitford, who have just completed the Forest
Survey of British Columbia for the Commission
of Conservation, report that of the 250,000,000
acres of British Columbia, 92,000,000 are abso-
lute forest land, and that of this area 33,000,000
carry merchantable timber. The remainder has
been burned over and is now more or less covered
with young growth. One-half of the 33,000,000
acres which carries merchantable timber has been
partially damaged by fire, so that of the 92,000,-
000 acres of absolute virgin forest land in British
Columbia only about 17,000,000 remain entirely
uninjured by fire. The forest of British Colum-
bia is part of the great forest which extends
southward into Washington and Oregon. It is
one of the two great tracts of merchantable vir-
gin timber which still exist in the world, the
other being the great pine forest of Russia. The
forest of British Columbia could be made to yield
without depletion about five times as much lum-
ber as is being at present cut from it. To effect
its full development it is necessary to secure a
larger export trade. This is now being developed
by commercial agents of the Government, and a
number of ships, to be engaged exclusively in this
export trade, are now being built.
82
OUR NATIONAL HERITAGE
The eastern forest has been seriously depleted
by the axe of the lumberman. The first quality
of white pine has already disappeared, and the
time is not far distant when the supplies of
spruce will not be more than sufficient for domes-
tic use, and Eastern Canada will cease to have
any supplies of merchantable timber for export.
In 1874 Mr. Deferbaugh visited the Ottawa dis-
trict, and in his " History of Lumbering in North
America" he gives a very interesting statement
concerning the condition of the trade in that
great centre of the lumber industry at that time.
He found that within a radius of ten miles of the
City of Ottawa, twenty-four mills, nearly all of
superior grade, were in operation, having a capa-
city of 400,000,000 feet of lumber per year, and
he reported that each of these mills had limits
which it was estimated would produce abundant
supplies of logs for twenty-five, fifty, or a hun-
dred years, even if the mills were doubled in
capacity. Now — forty-four years later — there
are in the same area seven saw-mills which have
a combined capacity of but 250,000,000 feet a
year, while their output falls short of this figure.
Most of the logs to supply these mills must now
be brought from distances of fifty to a hundred
and fifty miles from the mills, often requiring
two years to drive them.
Both the eastern and the western forest have
also suffered from the ravages of fire. A minimum
estimate shows that the loss from this cause for
very many years has amounted to between $5,000,-
83
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
000 and f 10,000,000 annually. Far more lumber
has thus been burned than has fallen to the lum-
berman's axe. Within the last few years, how-
ever, public opinion has been aroused to the
serious nature of this menace, and there has been
a widespread movement to stop these forest fires.
Thus the various lumber companies operating on
the upper waters of the St. Maurice, acting in
co-operation, have formed the St. Maurice Pro-
tective Association, for the purpose of guarding
their combined limits, embracing about seven and
one-half million acres, from fire. The limits have
been placed under a trained forester with an
adequate staff. Hundreds of miles of paths have
been cut through the forest connecting the vari-
ous outlook stations which command the whole
area. These are also connected by telephone, so
that the fire wardens at any of the outlooks see-
ing the smoke of a bush fire at any point can at
once get together a sufficient number of men to
extinguish the fire in its incipient stages. This
organization has proved very successful, and last
summer practically no serious fires took place in
the Association's limits. A similar association,
operating with equal success over larger limits
situated on the Ottawa River and containing very
valuable stands of white pine, is the Ottawa River
Forest Protective Association.
In former times the sparks from the locomo-
tives of railways were one of the chief causes of
the destruction of the forests, but this danger has
also now been practically eliminated, the Rail-
84
OUR NATIONAL HERITAGE
way Commission having enacted that the railways
shall extinguish every fire which starts within
three hundred feet of their tracks. So that, instead
of first settling the question as to who started the
fire before proceeding to extinguish it, the law
now requires the rail way* company to extinguish
the fire and then make a claim for damages
against the actual offenders if it is proved that
the fire was originated through other agencies
than their own. In this great work for the con-
servation of the Canadian forests the railway
companies have heartily co-operated with the
Government, with the splendid result above men-
tioned. Now instead of travelling across the
continent through a blackened waste, the green
woodland and forest of young trees is everywhere
springing up, while the dead " rampikes " repre-
senting the original forest trees, towering up
here and there above the younger growth, are
eloquent of the former things which have now
passed away.
In Quebec and British Columbia, settlers who
desire to burn their slash must now obtain per-
mits from the Government forest ranger, who
supervises the burning and sees that it is carried
out only under conditions where due precautions
for safety have been taken. The tremendous
devastation caused by the fires in Northern
Ontario have recently aroused public opinion to
such an extent that the Ontario Government have
also undertaken to make their forest surveys
effective and to introduce similar laws with ref-
85
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
erence to the disposal of slash made by the
settlers when clearing the land. Great tracts of
country, however, in the north are still unpro-
tected, from which devastating fires may at any
time sweep southward and destroy timber of
great value.
Another most important step toward the pre-
servation of the Canadian forests has been taken
in recent years in the setting aside by the Domin-
ion and Provincial Governments of great tracts
of country as Forest Reserves. They lie chiefly
about the head waters of the great rivers of the
Dominion, and thus serve not only as perman-
ent timber and game reserves, but also provide
a valuable protective cover on the gathering
ground of the streams feeding the river systems
of the country. In these cases the forests act as
great sponges in which the water which falls as
rain slowly drains away, thus maintaining in the
streams an equable flow of water throughout the
year, preventing the disastrous floods which
always follow the destruction of the forest and
securing all the advantages of a normal flow for
the rivers of the land.
In order to obtain the data from which to
develop a proper system of forest management
the Dominion Government is now making inves-
tigations into the question of forest growth and
reproduction, and also into the methods of utiliz-
ing the products of the forest to the best advan-
tage and with the least possible waste. This
work is being carried on in part in the forest
86
OUR NATIONAL HERITAGE
itself and in part in the Government Forest Pro-
ducts Laboratories, which are conducted in asso-
ciation with McGill University. Canada is thus,
in the treatment of her forest resources, gradu-
ally ceasing to look upon the forest from the
standpoint of the pioneer as an enemy to be
destroyed, and is coming to recognize that in the
forests there is a great source of wealth which
must be conserved and developed so that from
it the nation may obtain the highest possible
returns, both now and through all the years to
come.
MINES
The mineral deposits of the Dominion are so
numerous and so varied in character that it is
impossible here even to enumerate them. They
include, in that portion of the country which has
already been explored, not only ores of most of
the metals but great deposits of the non-metallic
minerals, as well as of building stones and every
species of constructional material.
The great nickel, copper, silver and gold
deposits of Ontario; the copper, gold, lead and
zinc deposits of British Columbia; the asbestos
and copper deposits of Quebec, are renowned.
Furthermore, it is known from the explorations
of the Dominion Geological Survey in the great
hinterland of northern Canada, that the geologi-
cal formations which carry the nickel and copper
of Sudbury, the great silver and cobalt deposits
of Cobalt, and the rich gold mines of Porcupine,
87
THE NEW EKA IN CANADA
run in great belts through this remote land, and
will undoubtedly yield abundant returns to the
prospector when the country is sufficiently acces-
sible to permit of close and continued search.
This is true even of the farthest north. Doctor
O'Neil, of the Geological Survey, who has spent
the past two years in journeying to the shores
of the Arctic Sea and there searching for the
deposits of copper from which the Eskimos
obtain the supplies of metallic copper to make
their weapons and utensils, has just returned,
and reports he found there one thousand square
miles of country underlaid by rocks, all of which
holds copper in small amount, while great addi-
tional tracts of this copper-bearing territory are
known to exist in adjacent areas, but still await
careful examination. The percentage of copper
hitherto discovered in these rocks is not suffi-
ciently high to enable the deposits to be worked
with profit, but the experience of other mining
regions shows that in such an area rich segrega-
tions of high grade copper ore will be found on
further search. Thus it seems by no means
beyond the bounds of possibility that even in
this remotest part of Canada a great copper
industry may one day arise. If a great mining
industry could be opened up in that ultima thule,
it would bring with it the development of all the
other natural resources of that great region which
now, on account of their remoteness, remain
unused.
88
OUR NATIONAL HERITAGE
Canada has also, with the single exception of
the United States, greater coal deposits than any
other country of the world. These are situated
in Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan, Alberta and
British Columbia. The central portion of the
Dominion, from Montreal to Winnipeg, contains
no coal deposits and, therefore, all the coal used
in this part of Canada is imported from the
United States. A wide field for the introduction
of improved methods of working, and for closer
utilization of the product, is presented by these
coal fields, especially in western Canada. Among
these may be mentioned the saving of the pro-
ducts yielded in the coking of coal. These pro-
ducts consist, in addition to great quantities of
gas suitable for illuminating and heating pur-
poses, of ammonia, tar, creosote, benzine, toluene,
and other similar substances which form the basis
of all manner of chemical manufactures, includ-
ing the great aniline dye industry, explosives and
fertilizers.
In Germany at the present time the burning of
raw coal under any circumstances is absolutely
forbidden ; coke properly crushed and sized being
an excellent substitute, while the volatile con-
stituents driven out of the coal during the process
of coking supply to Germany the raw materials
for the manufacture of the explosives required in
the prosecution of the war.
Many of these chemical industries should find
a home in Canada in the New Era, and, to quote
the words of Sir Clifford Sifton in his presiden-
89
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
tial address to the Commission of Conservation
in January, 1916, " it may not be too much to pre-
dict that before many years coke will be the fuel
and that the by-products now dissipated in smoke
will furnish the fertilizers which will render yet
more productive the grain fields of the west."
FISHERIES
Canada, unlike most other countries, is not
hemmed in by the territories of other peoples,
but is, on three sides, bounded by the waters of
the salt sea, while inland it is traversed by many
streams and rivers which take their rise in thou-
sands of lakes, among which are some of the
greatest bodies of fresh water in the world. All
these abound — or did abound — in fish and other
living creatures useful to man and constituting
another of the sources of national wealth.
It was, in fact, the fisheries on the Atlantic
coast of Canada that, after the discovery of
America, led men to brave the dangers of the
great waste of waters, and, having plied their
trade as fishermen, to form some of the earliest
settlements in the Dominion and in Newfound-
land. Their descendants and successors con-
stituted that hardy seafaring population which
has in the present war contributed so nobly to the
manning of the British Navy.
There are no fishing grounds in the world so
favourably situated or so suitable as a habitat
for the most valuable species of commercial
fishes. During fifteen years, from 1870 to 1885,
90
OUR NATIONAL HERITAGE
there was a rapid and steady advance in the yield
of our Atlantic fisheries. During the next twenty-
five years, from 1885 to 1910, however, but little
progress was made, and since that time the yield
has even somewhat fallen off. These fisheries
suffer from a restricted market which, however,
could easily be expanded if improved and modern
methods of curing, packing and shipping were
adopted, and the quality of the salted fish now
supplied to the market were thus improved. Dur-
ing the present war these fisheries have received
a marked impetus owing to the large quantities
of fish shipped from them to the allied armies in
France. They have thus " done their bit " in the
great cause.
The fishing industry of British Columbia, in
value of annual output, is about equal to that of
the Maritime Provinces, but offers a marked con-
trast to it in many respects. Salmon and halibut
are the chief fish which are taken. The former
are netted when coming in from the sea to spawn
in the rivers, chiefly the Fraser River, and they
are thus easily secured. These salmon are for
the most part canned for shipment. Year by
year the canneries are increasing their output,
while the nets across the mouth of the Fraser
River form a veritable barricade. A careful
study of the situation goes to show that the
supply of fish is gradually diminishing under
this intensive fishing. The conservation of this
most important industry presents peculiar diffi-
culties. The salmon coming in from the sea to
91
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
spawn in the Fraser Kiver pass by the coast of
the United States on the south side of the Gulf
of Georgia, and are there taken in enormous
numbers, about double the Canadian catch, by
the fishermen of the United States. The preser-
vation of these fisheries is, therefore, an inter-
national question, and there can be but little
doubt that unless some agreement can be reached
in the near future the industry will severely
suffer.
The preservation and extension of the inland
fisheries of Canada is a question to which the
Dominion Government has devoted much atten-
tion. These aims have been furthered both by
enacting close seasons and by artificial breeding.
In the case of the whitefish in the Great Lakes
these efforts have undoubtedly resulted in an
increased yield of fish. A similar policy prose-
cuted with equal vigour in connection with trout,
bass, sturgeon and other fishes would undoubt-
edly result in a great increase of the available
food supply of the inland waters of Canada.
WATER-POWERS
Another source of wealth with which Canada
is blest in a pre-eminent degree is its water-
powers. Some of these are situated in the far
north and are, consequently, not available for
use at the present. time. Eecent surveys, how-
ever, which have been carried out by the Water-
Powers Branch of the Department of the Interior,
and by the Commission of Conservation, show
92
OUR NATIONAL HERITAGE
that, excluding those of the North- West Terri-
tory, the Yukon, and the northern portions of the
Province of Quebec, the water-powers of the
remaining portion of Canada will yield no less
than 17,746,000 horse-power.
Of this at the present time 1,712,173 horse-
power, or about ten per cent, of the whole, has
been developed. Two-thirds of this amount has
been made available within the last ten years.
Of this total 524,000 horse-power is situated in
the Province of Quebec, 789,466 in the Province
of Ontario, and 265,345 in the Province of British
Columbia.
Not only is Canada fortunate in the possession
of so large a supply of available water-power,
but it is also fortunate in the fact that these
water-powers are most conveniently situated.
As has been already mentioned, no coal occurs
in central Canada, where most of the manufac-
turing industries of the Dominion are at present
located. Now, however, that the water-powers of
the Dominion have been made available for use
by the construction of long-distance transmission
systems, it is found that practically every impor-
tant centre of industry from coast to coast, with
the exception of a few towns in the middle prairie
provinces, is within easy reach of an abundance
of water-power, sufficient not only to supply its
present needs, but also for all anticipated require-
ments in the future.
In fact, the favourable location of the water-
powers of Canada is one of their outstanding
93
THE NEW EKA IN CANADA
features. Where the coal supplies of the Domin-
ion are absent the supplies of " white coal " take
their place.
An abundant supply of cheap power is one
of the first and chief factors in the development
of an industry. This is true not only for manu-
facturing but also in mining, lumbering, and
even to a certain extent in agriculture. Abund-
ant supplies of power are also required for the
proper and efficient development of the com-
munal life of the towns and great cities of the
Dominion, where it is needed for lighting, trans-
portation, water supply, and a hundred other
purposes. This power will also eventually be
used for the electrification of the railway systems
of the country, at least over considerable por-
tions of their lines. The great advantage to be
derived from its use in the case of rural muni-
cipalities is seen in the magnificent results
obtained from the work of the Ontario Hydro-
Electric Power Commission. These are the prim-
ary and most important uses of power which lie
at the very basis of civilized life in any highly-
developed community.
But, in addition, an abundant supply of cheap
power is the basis on which are built up great
chemical industries. These are only just com-
mencing to develop in Canada; conditions, how-
ever, are favourable for their rapid growth.
Among the chemical industries which can be
easily developed with the abundant supplies of
cheap power which are available, the manufac-
94
OUR NATIONAL HERITAGE
ture of the following substances may be men-
tioned: Carbide of calcium, acetone, bleaching
powder, cyanide, cyanamide, nitrate of lime,
metallic aluminum, metallic sodium, metallic
magnesium, as well as a hundred other products.
For the purpose of the chemical manufacturers,
however, the more remote water-powers should be
employed, these not being needed for the imme-
diate requirements of our great centres of popu-
lation.
The mere development of electrical power is of
little advantage to a country unless it is used in
the country. A great station capable of supply-
ing one hundred thousand horse-power when once
installed can be operated by a dozen men and
gives work to these alone. The power is only
effective in developing wealth in a community
and for the support of a large population at the
points and in the country where it is used. Such
being the case, the export of water-power by
Canada is to be deprecated, more especially as it
is the power from the best and most accessible
water-powers which is now being sent to the
United States. As has been well said, facilities
make business, and cheap power is one of the
prime facilities in manufacturing. If the water-
power of the Dominion is kept in Canada it will
bring the business to it. When exported it builds
up the business of competing interests, and Can-
ada will in the future require all the advantages
with which it has been endowed by nature in
95
THE NEW EKA IN CANADA
order to hold its own in the keen competition of
the coming times.
It is sometimes stated that water-power ex-
ported from Canada may be returned to the
country so soon as a more pressing need arises
for it. This statement, however, is not correct.
The power so exported is employed in great
industrial establishments which are built up by
its use. In this way a vested claim, if not a vested
interest, in the power is established, and when
the time comes when it is desired to make use of
the power in Canada these vested interests at
once assert themselves, and trouble arises which
in many cases threatens to result in international
complications.
The following quotation from an address
recently delivered by Dr. George Otis Smith, the
Director of the Geological Survey of the United
States, will show how this question of the need
of the conserving the power supplies of a nation
appears when looked at from the standpoint of
the United States :
" Cheap power promises to be in some future
century this country's largest asset in the indus-
trial rivalry among nations. Our unsurpassed
coal reserves, reinforced by these water-power
resources, constitute a strong line of national
defence in that they form the real basis for an
industrial organization of the nation's workers.
It is only through abundant and well-distributed
power that the other material resources of the
country can be put to their highest use and made
96
OUR NATIONAL HERITAGE
to count most in the nation's development. The
people's interest in water-power is greatest in its
promise of future social progress, and such an
interest is well worth protecting."
This statement applies with even greater force
to Canada owing to the absence of coal deposits
in the central portion of the country, and should
be laid to heart by all who are interested in the
future development and welfare of the Dominion.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS
And so the original question presents itself
again, having found its answer.
The national heritage of the Canadian people
is one of vast extent and of manifold and varied
resources. The people of Canada are, however,
just emerging from the condition of pioneers in
a new country, to whom the natural wealth of
forest, stream and mine seems boundless and who
in the struggles incident to early settlement draw
upon those gifts with but little thought for future
times.
In the New Era, however, Canada must set its
face toward higher things and take many long
steps in the path of national efficiency if the coun-
try is to worthily fill the place to which its mani-
fold destiny is calling it. It must develop and
at the same time conserve its resources, and must
administer the national domain with the same
initiative, care and ability that a great commer-
cial corporation conducts its affairs, and this in
7 97
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
the interest of the whole people and not of the
few.
It is one of the grave disadvantages of demo-
cratic rule that no government can take any far-
reaching action in this direction unless it is
supported by a strong public opinion. It is,
therefore, a good omen that the people of Canada
are now awakening to the importance of true
conservation.
A conservationist is not a man who advocates
the locking up of a nation's resources in order
that they may be saved for some later generation,
but he is one who sees in the natural resources of
a country national assets which can be worked so
as to yield a present increased profit, while at the
same time their capital value is maintained and
they are handed on unimpaired to our children
and to succeeding generations.
It is only in this way that we can enable our
successors to uphold the position which Canada
must take in the Empire, and incidentally to pay
the interest on the national debt which is now
being accumulated.
The great menace in this country is that of
public inertia — that accidia which Dante ranked
so high among the sins of national life — the
failure to recognize the gravity of the situation,
and the lack of a public opinion which burns
with the determination to have the right thing
done and to have it done now, that victory may
be secured, not only over the forces of nature,
but over wrong ideals and ignoble ambitions.
98
OUK NATIONAL HERITAGE
Doctor Parkhurst, in one of his campaigns
against Tammany, said :
"It is written that the wicked flee when no
man pursueth, but I find they go much faster
when they know someone is after them."
But with us it is not so much the pursuit of the
wicked that is required, as that every Canadian
should become possessed of the idea that if, in
time of war, he must fight to the last ditch for
Canada because it is his home, it is necessary
that in times of peace he should put forth equal
efforts to ensure that Canada is made a home
worthy of the best traditions and of the future
greatness of the Empire of which it is a part.
Frank Dawson Adams.
99
IMMIGRATION
AND
SETTLEMENT
LIFE'S SATISFACTION
THERE is a beauty at the goal of life,
A beauty growing since the World began,
Through every age and race, through lapse and strife
Till the great human soul complete her span.
Beneath the waves of storm that lash and burn,
The currents of blind passion that appall,
To listen and keep watch till we discern
The tide of sovereign truth that guides it all;
So to address our Spirits to the height,
And so attune them to the valiant whole,
That the great light be clearer for our light,
And the great soul be stronger for our soul;
To have done this is to have lived, though fame
Remember us with no familiar name.
Archibald Lampman.
IMMIGRATION AND SETTLEMENT
WHEN the war is over it will be necessary to
consider the problem of naturalization and to
establish more rigid control over immigration.
I do not believe that the wide, fertile areas of
Canada should be closed to desirable settlers
from any free country. We shall need popula-
tion in order to carry the burden of the war and
to provide adequate support for the machinery
of industry and transportation which we have
created. But we should guard the franchise
against elements which cannot be expected to
sympathize with our ideals or institutions.
If we have bought freedom at a great price we
should set value upon free British citizenship.
We should require allegiance to Canada and the
Empire. We should not tolerate a covert politi-
cal obligation to any other country. We should
not give the franchise too readily to immigrants
who have never lived under free institutions, who
are ignorant of the responsibilities of citizenship
and who have barely established themselves in
the country. Careless enfranchisement of alien
groups breeds political corruption and lowers the
whole average of citizenship.
There will always be competition between poli-
tical parties for the support of every voting ele-
ment. Once the franchise is granted it is not
easily withdrawn. But we can extend the period
during which the franchise is withheld from new-
103
comers and we can exercise more strict supervi-
sion over the kind of people that are admitted
to Canada. There is reason to think that the
medical examination at Quebec is careless and
unsatisfactory. Not a few people have entered
the country who should have been excluded.
Hundreds of those who came as agricultural
immigrants have crowded into the centres of
population.
There should be better inspection at ports of
entry and at seaports in Europe before immi-
grants embark for Canada. Deportation is an
undesirable practice. There is something cruel
and barbarous in shipping sick or diseased
people out of the country. We have the right,
however, to exclude such people and to make
other countries support their sick and indigent.
It is not vital that we should have a population
of ten millions in three years or five years. It is
vital that we should have a population physically
and morally sound and equal to the obligations
of free government.
TESTS FOR VOTERS
When the war is over we shall have to declare
our attitude towards immigration from enemy
countries and, for this reason alone, we must con-
sider the whole question of immigration and
citizenship. A further reason for a critical exam-
ination of the basis of the franchise will be found
in the probable concession of equal suffrage to
women. In consideration of the great interests
104
IMMIGRATION AND SETTLEMENT
involved, it may be necessary that the qualifica-
tion for federal voters shall be fixed by the Fed-
eral Government, and not, as it is now, by each
province at its discretion. The voters in federal
elections determine national character and the
national destiny, and, in the future, national and
Imperial considerations cannot be wisely ignored
in settling the qualifications of citizenship. Many
of the American States have a literacy test for
voters, and more than once the President has had
to veto an Act of Congress requiring a literacy
test for immigrants. Possibly such tests would
not be so urgently required if the period of quali-
fication for citizenship could be extended. We
should also have an Act such as is recommended
by the Unionist War Committee on Naturaliza-
tion in Great Britain, giving power to the
authorities to revoke certificates of naturaliza-
tion on grounds of public policy.
Immigrants from lands still under autocratic
government, who can have no knowledge of the
responsibilities of citizenship in a free country,
should not have the franchise until they are able
to speak the common language of the province in
which they live, until they have some definite
conception of the responsibilities of British
citizenship, and some adequate knowledge of
the questions upon which judgment has to be
pronounced at the polls. There is no royal road
to assimilation of immigrants, but at least we
should not herd masses of people in the West, or
in the cities, who cannot speak the English lan-
105
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
guage, and, therefore, will be slow to acquire any
sympathetic knowledge of Canadian conditions
or Canadian problems.
SOLDIERS AND THE LAND
We must be hospitable to people from Ally
countries who have fought with the soldiers of
the Empire in the common cause of freedom and
civilization. We should make liberal provision
for British soldiers who may desire to settle
under their own flag and who, through service
in the field, may have developed a distaste for
indoor pursuits. Chiefly, of course, we should
seek British immigrants. We shall have to pro-
vide assistance in establishing such immigrants
on the land. Particularly is this true of those
who have been soldiers. After all, those who
compose the British armies are very like the
citizen soldiers of Canada. To-day there are few
professional soldiers in the armies of Great
Britain or the Dominions. These men, who are
fighting as valiantly as ever men fought in human
history, have been withdrawn from civil pursuits,
and will return to civil pursuits in Great Britain,
in the Dominions, or elsewhere, as soon as peace
is restored. We can go far, therefore, to estab-
lish British soldiers in Canada, and possibly for
immigrants from any part of the Empire we can
make exceptional provision.
It is doubtful if the old system of subsidies to
steamship companies for securing immigrants
should be continued. At least far more severe
106
IMMIGRATION AND SETTLEMENT
penalties should be imposed upon steamship com-
panies who bring in undesirable people. It is
vitally necessary to establish an Imperial Migra-
tion Board in London, as suggested by the
Ontario Commission on Unemployment. This
wouH ensure co-operation between the Imperial
auth ?ities and the Dominion Governments in
distributing population throughout the Empire
and in determining whether immigration of par-
ticular classes at particular seasons should be
encouraged or discouraged.
In these matters there should also be greater
co-operation between the Government at Ottawa
and the Governments of the Provinces. Our
obligation to immigrants should not cease when
they land at Halifax or St. John or Quebec. We
should be as anxious to have newcomers well
established in Canada as we were to induce them
to leave other countries. We should see that they
are treated with sympathy and consideration
when they land on Canadian soil, that they are
carried to their destination under the direction
of sympathetic public officers, that they are
assured of necessary medical and hospital treat-
ment during their first years in the country, and
that, if they devote themselves to farming, they
have wise and continuous instruction from agri-
cultural experts. Those admitted to Canada who
cannot speak the English language should have
the assistance of interpreters who know their
own language. They should have advice from
officials who understand conditions in this coun-
107
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
try. They should be helped to secure employ-
ment at fair wages and guarded against robbery
by conscienceless dealers and speculators. In
short, we should look chiefly for immigrants who
will go upon the land, and we should regard our-
selves as responsible for their welfare until they
have a reasonably secure footing in the country.
The report of the Ontario Commission on
Unemployment deals with many phases of the
problem of immigration and makes valuable
recommendations. The Legislatures of British
Columbia, New Brunswick and Ontario are
enacting measures which are substantially iden-
tical with the Commission's proposals. The
Koyal Colonial Institute adopted the Commis-
sion's recommendation in favour of a Central
Migration Board to supervise the movement of
population within the Empire, and by an influen-
tial deputation urged its advantages upon the
Imperial Government. There is reason to believe
that such a Board will be established. Doubtless
its exact scope and authority will be settled at
the Imperial Conference. The general conclu-
sions and recommendations of the Commission
are best stated in the exact language of the
report.
AN INTER-IMPERIAL POLICY
The Commission recommends such reform in
immigration as will make directly for the settle-
ment of vacant agricultural areas, stimulate the
development of the country's natural resources
108
IMMIGRATION AND SETTLEMENT
and combat the universal tendency of population
to concentrate in cities. It further advises such
united action by the Imperial and Dominion
authorities as will lead a greater proportion of
British immigrants to the Overseas Dominions
instead of to foreign countries, thus conserving
the man-power and adding to the strength and
wealth of the Empire. For these economic and
patriotic reasons, the close of the war should find
us ready with a courageous inter-Imperial immi-
gration policy in which the Imperial, Dominion
and Provincial Governments and railway and
other great employing corporations will have a
responsible share. For Canada the primary prob-
lem is to bring the right sort of people to the
land and to assist them in every way possible to
make the land productive and themselves pros-
perous citizens of the Dominion. If necessary,
the Governments interested should furnish such
financial assistance as will enable the newcomers
to become within a reasonable time self-support-
ing on the soil.
VOLUME OF IMMIGRATION
In the first fourteen years of the present cen-
tury the number of immigrants into Canada was
about 2,900,000, of whom 1,100,000 came from
the British Isles, 1,000,000 from the United
States, and the remaining 800,000 from many
other countries, mostly European. The maxi-
mum movement was reached in the fiscal years
1912-13 and 1913-14. In these two years, respec-
109
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
tively, the arrivals numbered 402,432 and 384,878
from all sources. The influx having been stopped
by the war, there seems to be no reason why it
should not be resumed upon the conclusion of
peace. There are indeed factors in the situation
which may operate to swell the migration. Over
against the destruction of human life are to be
set the wreckage to property and the rousing of
an adventurous spirit in the breasts of millions of
young men, who will be inclined to seek their for-
tunes in new lands, particularly in new lands
under the allied flags — most of which are under
the Union Jack. It is for Canada to be fully
prepared beforehand to take advantage of a
situation likely to prove so favourable.
RELATION TO UNEMPLOYMENT
In the problem of immigration is involved that
of unemployment. The one cannot be solved
apart from the other. Once immigration is dealt
with satisfactorily, we shall have gone some dis-
tance towards abolishing unemployment in
Canada. The Dominion requires a heavy and
continuous immigration movement to people its
vacant areas, develop its material resources and
utilize its railway and industrial plants. Mil-
lions of men and women from other lands are
required to increase production and meet the
debt incurred in the creation of extensive trans-
portation systems and in the prosecution of the
war. Yet immigration, if improperly directed,
or allowed to take care of itself, may easily lead
110
IMMIGRATION AND SETTLEMENT
to widespread unemployment and want, as it has
done in the past. The welfare of Canadian indus-
try requires that skilled and unskilled labour
shall be protected against undue and untimely
invasion of workers from abroad. It will be
necessary in the public interest to regulate the
influx of artisans and labourers during periods
of industrial expansion and to check the influx
when a redundancy of labour exists.
PLACE ON THE LAND
Many of those in Canada who are from time to
time out of work were not born in this country.
A large proportion came from Europe and have
not had time to make fixed places for themselves.
Often the wrong kind of people have been
admitted or, when the newcomers have been of
the right sort, too many have been allowed to
drift into a position of helplessness — for sheer
lack of alert and informed leadership. This
statement applies to immigrants from the British
Isles and also to people from Continental Europe.
Investigation has shown that a large proportion
of the unemployed foreigners in our cities, many
of whom we had to support two or three years
ago, were engaged in agriculture in Europe and
expected to go on the land in Canada. Disap-
pointed in their own field, they readily found
employment by the thousand upon the new rail-
ways and extensive public works in course of
construction for some years prior to 1914. When
these undertakings were almost brought to corn-
Ill
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
pletion, or came to a comparative standstill,
thousands of foreigners flocked to centres of
population and became public charges or bene-
ficiaries of private charity. The cities in which
these experienced yet farmless farmers congre-
gate are only a few hours removed from millions
of acres of fertile but unbroken land. For the
future, immigration should be so directed and
immigrants so handled as to prevent such separa-
tion of complementary assets. Not only must we
get agricultural immigrants, but after reaching
Canada they must not be diverted from the land.
There must be machinery whereby they may be
taken to the land on arrival, and maintained
there, if necessary, with the aid of agricultural
credfts extended by the public treasury.
A DUTY AND A PRIVILEGE
After the conclusion of peace Great Britain,
the British Dominions and allied countries will
disband millions of armed men, a considerable
proportion of whom may be available for settle-
ment on the land in Canada. To all those who
have fought the awful battle for human freedom
and democratic principles, this country will owe
a lasting debt. It is the duty, as well as the
privilege, of Canada to offer them a home and the
opportunity of earning for themselves a comfort-
able living. The obligation to discharged British
soldiers and discharged Canadian soldiers is
especially pressing. If we wait until the end of
the war nothing satisfactory can be achieved. A
112
IMMIGRATION AND SETTLEMENT
grave economic and social crisis may result. As
has been said by a member of the British Asso-
ciation, " the machinery for providing ex-service
men with land ought to be created without delay
and be in operation before we have the men upon
our hands." For this purpose, and for the gen-
eral purposes of inter- Imperial migration and
land settlement, the United Kingdom and the
Dominions should be viewed as a single whole.
It should be possible effectively to unite the
Imperial and Dominion Governments in a policy
which shall keep the movement of population
more and more within the Empire and check the
drain of population to foreign countries, and so
conserve British manhood for the development of
British territory and the support and defence of
British institutions against future contingencies.
All soldiers in the Japanese army are trained in
practical agriculture two hours on three days of
each week, so that they may have a desirable
occupation and means of livelihood for them-
selves and their families when the time for their
discharge arrives. Settlement on the land of
time-expired soldiers would be much assisted by
the pensions of which there is a prospect.
CONDITIONS IN DIFFERENT PROVINCES
In any plan of Imperial co-operation the
domestic interests of the United Kingdom must
not be forgotten. It would not be fair or wise
to depopulate the Mother Country, even in order
to people the daughter States. The annual emi-
8 113
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
gration from the United Kingdom to all countries
before the war amounted to nearly 500,000 people.
The number of farmers and agricultural labour-
ers in the United Kingdom is not excessive, but
it should be feasible to utilize other elements in
the population in the development of our natural
resources. In the opinion of many who have
studied the situation at first hand, it will be found
practicable to train dwellers in British cities,
towns and villages for successful careers on the
land in Canada.
The varying conditions found in different parts
of Canada may render the problem easier of solu-
tion. Under intelligent management, newcomers
will go to those parts of the country which are best
adapted to their special needs and capabilities.
Each province might specialize in a particular
kind of colonization: Old Ontario in live stock,
fruit-growing and other forms of intensive farm-
ing, New Ontario in pioneer bush farming, Sas-
katchewan in grain growing, Alberta in mixed
farming. On1 the Pacific coast there is room for
fruit farmers and cattle raisers, and during the
first years of occupation these can partly pay their
way by taking out logs and pulp wood. In the
Atlantic provinces there is a place for farmers of
moderate means to settle upon prepared or partly
prepared farms.
THE COST OF UNDESIRABLES
Defects in the immigration system under suc-
cessive governments have resulted in the admis-
sion of undesirables, too many of whom have
114
IMMIGRATION AND SETTLEMENT
become a permanent burden on the country. This
has been the case particularly during the heavy
influx of the past decade, which was checked by
the outbreak of war. By far too high a propor-
tion of the immigrants admitted have been dis-
eased physically or were mentally unsound.
Many of these have found their way to the ordin-
ary hospitals, to hospitals for the insane, and to
homes for the mentally defective. The charge
thus imposed upon the public reaches startling
figures, especially when the progeny of the men-
tally defective is taken into consideration. The
census of 1911 showed that about fifteen per cent,
of the population of Canada had been born out-
side of Canada. If these were as sound as the
native population, the number of them who have
been certified as defective or insane should not
exceed one-sixth of all the patients in the asylums.
It appears that they constitute a proportion far
larger than this. Statistics issued by the Provin-
cial Secretary of Ontario show that 445 out of
1,351 patients admitted to the asylums in this
Province in 1914 were born outside of Can-
ada. Of 22,664 admitted since the Government
began to care for the insane, 7,366 came from
abroad. In each case the percentage of non-
Canadians is over one-third. Of 2,873 admitted
to the Government homes for feeble-minded and
epileptics, 504 were not native born. The cost of
maintenance of these hundreds for the remainder
of their natural lives is a grievous public burden.
In the past few years the Government has sought
115
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
to minimize the evil results of such unsound
immigration by deportation. During 1914 the
number of deportations from Canada was 1,834.
Of these 207 were insane, 376 were criminals, and
715 likely to become a public charge. But the
cost of deportation is considerable, and the law
does not authorize the deportation of those who
have been in the country more than three years.
It is noteworthy that, with a view to checking the
inflow of mental defectives, the Hon. Dr. Koche,
Minister of the Interior, has had an expert in
Psychology added to the Immigration Staff at
Quebec. Australia requires medical examina-
tions of immigrants before they leave their homes
in Europe.
AMERICAN EXPERIENCE
The United States suffers from the same cause.
The presence of three thousand, or thirty per
cent., of the feeble-minded children maintained
by New York State in institutions is attributed to
the refusal by Congress of applications for the
adequate inspection of immigrants at the port of
landing. The decline which has taken place in
the volume of immigration since the war began
has enabled immigration officers to make their
inspection more effective and, as a consequence
of this intensive scrutiny, the percentage of rejec-
tions has risen from two or three per cent, to seven
per cent. In the Congressional Record of 1912 it
was stated that New York has spent $25,000,000
on alien insane, the result of insufficient inspec-
116
IMMIGRATION AND SETTLEMENT
tion by the federal authorities at Ellis Island.
The average life of an inmate of a hospital for
the insane is eleven years, and in that time he
costs the public between three and four thousand
dollars. No less than seventy-four per cent, of all
those in the State asylums are foreign-born or of
foreign parentage.
Only experts in mental diseases are capable of
detecting symptoms of insanity in many of those
who, on landing, appear quiet and well-balanced,
but who afterwards find their way to the asylums
and prisons. The whole business of the inspec-
tion of immigrants must be taken out of politics
and brought up to a high standard of modern
efficiency. A Public Health Service for Immigra-
tion at home and abroad should be constituted.
It should comprise only active physicians and
nurses. Their tenure of office should be perman-
ent and their compensation commensurate with
the vital importance of the work to be performed,
so that they would be induced to make it their
life business. They could do their work at Euro-
pean ports of departure, on board ship, or at
Canadian ports of entry. Up to the present the
perfunctory examination at some Canadian ports
of landing has been made by local practitioners
who have treated this1 work as a " side line," and
whose political affiliations have played a part in
their appointment. As a result, many diseased
persons, especially those suffering from tubercu-
losis, have been admitted. Steamship companies
117
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
may be induced to exercise more vigilance by a
heavy increase in the penalties for non-observ-
ance of the regulations.
VALUE OF GOOD ADVICE
Evidence has been placed before the Commis-
sion which establishes the fact that numbers even
of those who are free from disease and insanity
fail in Canada for other reasons. From Europe
come skilled workmen whose trades do not exist
here, and who cannot readily adapt themselves
to other trades. Inevitably, therefore, many who
would have been artisans had they remained at
home, have been occupied in unskilled labour at
a meagre wage. Others possess so little power of
adaptation that they fail altogether to adjust
themselves to new conditions. These would have
been well advised to remain in surroundings to
which they were accustomed. In both cases need-
less suffering is caused by the lack of good advice,
and the cost of the failure falls on Canada. A
fearless immigration policy should never hesi-
tate to dissuade such individuals from coming.
It is as much the duty of immigration agents in
Great Britain to guard against those who for
various reasons show no promise of success as
it is to secure men of the opposite type. This
phase of immigration has not been appreciated
at its proper value.
Canada labours at present under the great
handicap of not knowing at what rate her foreign-
born population is increasing. In the ten years
118
IMMIGRATION AND SETTLEMENT
between the census of 1901 and that of 1911, the
number of immigrant arrivals was a little more
than 1,700,000. At the census of 1901 the num-
ber of people in Canada who had been borne else-
where was returned as 700,000. There should
have been more than 2,400,000 people not of
Canadian birth in Canada when the census of
1911 was taken. The number returned in the
census was less than 1,600,000. In other words,
there was a deficiency of more than 800,000. Part
of this deficiency, no doubt, can be explained by
faulty registration in the Census Department
and by faulty returns by immigration officials,
but it is inconceivable that a large part of this
deficiency should be due to either cause. We
have no statistics as to the number who drift into
the United States or return to their own country.
In what proportion these influences were com-
bined it is impossible to say, and the discussion
which follows each successive census does not
explain the discrepancy.
FAULTY STATISTICS
Our present methods leave us in darkness as
to the conditions of our problem of assimilation.
This would matter little if the proportion of those
born outside Canada to the total population was
a small one. Under present circumstances, how-
ever, since, in all probability, more than one-fifth
of the people of Canada were born elsewhere, it
is vital that we should know to what extent new-
comers remain in Canada after their arrival and
119
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
which races are the most migratory. At present
our only means of knowing this lies in the tables
compiled by the United States Department of
Immigration, which relate entirely to American
conditions. It will never be possible to handle
Canadian problems of citizenship with full and
accurate knowledge until the registration of
departures from Canada is made with the same
care and published with the same regularity as
the registration of immigrant arrivals.
The volume of immigration has an important
influence on conditions of labour in every indus-
try. Fuller information will afford a valuable
guide, not only for the work of the immigration
authorities, but also for the Departments of
Labour in dealing with the problems of Cana-
dian industry. A complete separation between
the control of immigration and of labour condi-
tions is no longer possible. In order to realize
their full efficiency, these two departments of
the Federal Government must maintain a close
relationship.
After the war the heterogeneous character of
our population may be increasingly emphasized.
Before the multitudes of newcomers can be
assimilated and imbued with the Canadian out-
look, effective agencies must be set at work. The
schools and churches must do their part, and
it should be possible to enlist the services of
municipal governments, the Canadian Welfare
League, commercial and industrial boards, labour
organizations and other public bodies. Immi-
120
IMMIGRATION AND SETTLEMENT
grants from foreign lands must be taught the
meaning and value of the free institutions they
enjoy under the British flag.
ADVANTAGES OF ENGLISH
The Commission agrees that while every con-
stitutional right granted to any province or any
element of the population should be respected
and maintained, it is desirable that the whole
people should speak the English language. Since
this is an English-speaking continent, those who
cannot speak English are shut out from many of
the higher positions in business, finance and
industry, and are handicapped in competition
with their fellows who have no greater natural
ability. In suggesting that English should have
a preferred position, where constitutional rights
do not interfere, there is no desire to reflect upon
any other language or to prescribe what lan-
guage should be spoken in the homes of the
people. The view of the Commission is that,
through ignorance of English, the earning power
of considerable elements of the population is less-
ened and their participation in Canadian affairs
restricted. It is vital to Canada that, through a
general use of English, foreign elements should
be assimilated, while we must utilize the English
language as the basis of a common national and
imperial spirit.
In the United States a movement is on foot to
secure this object, and the following are the
121
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
methods employed by firms in Detroit with this
in view :
(1) A Preferential Policy. — Men were assem-
bled and told that from this time on those that
were going to night school and trying to learn
English would be preferred — the first to be pro-
moted, the last to be laid off and the first to be
taken back.
(2) Compulsion. — Several companies made
night school attendance for the non-English-
speaking a condition of employment. The North-
way Company established a factory school also,
and then submitted to its men a threefold pro-
posal: (a) to attend night school; (6) to attend
the factory school ; (c) to be laid off.
(3) Popularizing the Idea. — The Cadillac
Company, for instance, worked out a definite
programme — to interest the leaders of the men
and let them do the rest.
(4) A Bonus System. — The Solvay Company
proposed a two-cent-an-hour increase for all non-
English-speaking men that would attend night
school.
BETTER REGULATIONS
The present system of subsidizing booking and
shipping agencies requires complete revision.
Possibly so drastic a step as the abolition of the
bonuses can scarcely be taken, except by action
in common with Australia and other competing
Dominions, but the bonuses certainly furnish too
powerful a temptation to dump upon the country
IMMIGRATION AND SETTLEMENT
inferior classes of immigrants. The regulations
requiring immigrants upon landing to possess a
minimum sum of money also require revision.
It is stated that the necessary amount is often
lent them for the sole purpose of satisfying the
authorities, and that, once past the inspectors,
they return the money to the lender. Conditions
for which the war is responsible may augment
largely the supply of women for domestic service
in Canada. The migration of these young women
to this country should be under the special direc-
tion of public authorities. On arrival here they
should be sheltered in suitable hostels in charge
of properly qualified matrons, and their subse-
quent employment in private homes should be
under Government supervision. The promoters
of the proposed Imperial Protective Association
in Great Britain have expressed a readiness to
send fully qualified men and women to Canada,
if proper arrangements are made on this side of
the Atlantic for their reception and final employ-
ment. No assisted passage should be given unless
the name and address of a prospective employer
are supplied to the immigration authorities, or
the passage is authorized by the Provincial Board
which has charge of this service. Private immi-
gration agencies should be required to provide
for women brought out by the agency a home
where they can stay until employment is secured.
The terms of agreement as to repayment of pas-
sage money should be approved by the Provincial
immigration authority.
123
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
A DEFINITE IMPERIAL OBJECT
The war has brought home to everyone the
interdependence of all parts of the Empire. For
the future, the consolidation and strengthening
of all the British Dominions must be a definite
objective. On an Imperial Board in close touch
with every Government within the British Empire
should rest the responsibility for disseminating
in the United Kingdom detailed, authoritative,
accurate and up-to-date information regarding
opportunities in the Dominions. It should pass
on the timeliness of emigration movements and
upon the suitability of emigrants. It should dis-
courage the indiscriminate migration which has
been a feature of past years, and, when any one
of the Dominions is suffering from widespread
unemployment, should make impossible a large
emigration till conditions have returned to nor-
mal. The co-operation of the British labour
exchanges and of employment bureaux and
immigration boards in the Dominions should
be secured. Receiving homes for immigrants
would naturally form a part of the necessary
Dominion machinery. Room could be made for
co-operation by existing philanthropic societies,
such as the Imperial Home Reunion Association,
the British Naval and Military Emigration
League and the Salvation Army. The British
clergy, the British teaching profession and city
and county authorities in the Old Land might
also be enlisted in the work.
124
IMMIGRATION AND SETTLEMENT
Farms for training farm help and future
farmers could be established. As far as pos-
sible Canadian farmers must be induced to hire
men by the year and, in the case of married men,
to provide them with a house and garden.
Wherever adopted, this departure has more than
justified itself, and if generally followed would
materially enhance agricultural production by
helping to solve an old and difficult problem.
The release for occupation by selected immi-
grants of lands held by railway and other cor-
porations, the feasibility of nationalizing our
forests and other natural resources, the practica-
bility of developing new industries by and for the
employment of immigrants, means for the train-
ing of aliens to an intelligent appreciation of
British ideals and Canadian citizenship — all
these questions invite careful attention and
study by the public authorities.
GENERAL RECOMMENDATIONS
The Commission, therefore, recommends :
(1) That in view of the important effect of
immigration upon labour conditions, either the
Immigration Department should be placed in
the Department of Labour, or provision should
be made for close co-operation between these
Departments.
(2) That more adequate provision should be
made for inspection of immigrants ; that appoint-
ments should be determined wholly by profes-
sional and practical qualifications, and that the
125
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
officials so appointed should give their whole
time and energy to the work.
(3) That immigrants, upon arrival, should be
provided with printed statements, in their own
language — explaining conditions in Canada ; the
advantages of learning English ; their relation to
banks, private and public employment agencies;
the terms of land settlement in Canada ; openings
for agricultural labour ; possible abuses to which
they may be subject, and where they should go
for advice.
(4) That careful registration be made of all
who leave the Dominion, as well as of immigrant
arrivals.
(5) That an Imperial Migration Board be
organized in London, representing the British
Government, and the Governments of the Domin-
ions, with such Provinces and States in the
Dominions as desire to be represented on the
Board; the cost to be borne jointly by all Gov-
ernments concerned.
(6) That the Board be responsible for the
distribution of complete, impartial and up-to-
date information regarding opportunities in the
Dominions, the demand for labour in the differ-
ent pursuits, occupations and industries, and the
facilities and cost of transport.
(7) That the co-operation of the labour
exchanges in the United Kingdom and of the
public employment bureaux and immigration
authorities in the Dominions be secured with this
in view.
126
IMMIGRATION AND SETTLEMENT
(8) That the Imperial Migration Board be
given power to require returns and such other
information as it thinks necessary from agencies
and individuals in the United Kingdom and the
Dominions, dealing with immigrants.
(9) That the Imperial Migration Board con-
sider the whole question of inspection and report
the best system to be adopted in the interests of
the United Kingdom, the Dominions and the
emigrants themselves.
J. S. Willison.
127
EAST
AND
WEST
UP-HILL
DOES the road wind up-hill all the way?
Yes, to the very end.
Will the day's journey take the whole long day?
From morn to night, my friend.
But is there for the night a resting-place?
A roof for when the slow dark hours begin.
May not the darkness hide it from my face?
You cannot miss that inn.
Shall I meet other wayfarers at night?
Those who have gone before.
Then must I knock, or call when just in sight?
They will not keep you standing at that door.
Shall I find comfort, travel-sore and weak?
Of labour you shall find the sum.
Will there be beds for me and all who seek?
Yea, beds for all who come.
0. O. Rossetti.
EAST AND WEST
AT the present stage of its development Canada
is practically divided by the unsettled country
north of Lake Superior into two great separate
areas, which are generally referred to as the
"East" and the "West." Many Canadians can-
not believe that this division is only temporary,
and they look forward with doubt to the future
of a country in which the cohesion between the
parts is so imperfect. The British North Ameri-
can Confederation was, however, designed by men
who could, in their vision of the future, foresee
the filling in of the vast gap between the old
Province of Upper Canada and the small settle-
ments on the Pacific coast — a distance of about
2,400 miles — and this vast gap was far more
thinly settled than New Ontario and the country
north of Lake Superior are to-day. The doubters
of to-day think that people will not settle on the
great clay belt, just as the doubters of fifty years
ago felt sure that settlers would never go in num-
bers into our prairie country. By the time, how-
ever, that Canada has twenty millions of people,
instead of eight, these doubts will have dis-
appeared and we shall begin to realize that this
is one country with one destiny, and that, even
if we use in our Federal Parliament two official
languages, we have, except in one province, but
one literature and one body of national aspira-
tions and traditions.
131
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
BUILD ONE GREAT COMMONWEALTH
Before it is possible to consider intelligently
and fairly any differences or disagreements that
exist at the moment between the East and the
West it is necessary to bear clearly in mind that
we are all engaged in the task of building up
what must some day be one of the great nations
of the world, and that while we must try to be
fair to each other as individuals and to pay
proper regard to the rights of each community,
we must never lose sight of the main aspects of
the task we have undertaken.
There are many people now in Canada who are
not Canadian by birth, and of these many are not
British by origin. It may seem too much to
expect that the latter will think of anything but
their own particular interests, or that they will
make a positive sacrifice for the sake of the coun-
try as a whole, but those who have watched the
children of the foreign-born parents in our east-
ern cities should not doubt that they will eventu-
ally become good Canadians. It is not too much,
however, to expect from those who are the most
intelligent, and who are the natural leaders
among their own people, that they should care
intensely about the future of the country in
which their children are to live, and that for this
reason alone they should not regard any public
question merely from a personal or local point
of view.
132
EAST AND WEST
MATTERS OF DISAGREEMENT
Starting, then, with the assumption that we
are all working with the desire to build up one
great commonwealth from the Atlantic to the
Pacific and from the Great Lakes and the 49th
parallel to the Arctic seas, and that, whether we
put this desire first or second, it has a strong
place in the conduct of our affairs, what are the
chief matters about which we disagree? The
utmost degree of harmony that we can expect in
a modern democracy will involve the existence
of at least two great political parties, and usually
a more or less influential third party. Without
that radical tendency on the one hand which
causes legislative experiments of a novel or
drastic kind to be made and that conservative
tendency on the other which deplores change and
doubts the wisdom of experiments, modern gov-
ernment would doubtless end either in atrophy
or anarchy. We must, therefore, expect always
to have the want of harmony which arises from
this fundamental difference in character, from
differences of experience drawn from varying
degrees of success, and from differing environ-
ments.
The West believes that legislation in Canada
is mostly in the interest of the East, and that
our legislators, whether from East or West, are
drawn from men more interested in the cities,
in trade and in manufactures than in agricul-
ture, and almost everywhere in Canada the
farmer is disposed to believe that legislation is
133
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
mainly in the interest of those who dwell in cities.
T place this first among the grievances to be con-
sidered, quite apart from whatever, in the opinion
of the West, may be its degree of urgency. I
believe that to the extent that this feeling exists
it is more fruitful in causing dissension and mis-
understanding than are the facts themselves.
There have always been farmers of distinct
ability as legislators to be found among our mem-
bers of parliament, but there are not as many
as there should be, and the farmers are to some
extent to blame for this. The country lawyer
presents himself for their acceptance and they
elect him. He doubtless does the best he can for
his farming voters, but doubtless also he does not
always understand their needs. The interests of
agriculture in the West are so vast that among
its farmers men have arisen quite able to take
their place in the halls of legislation and to
explain to the assembled wisdom of the country
the needs of their particular section. Although
it is regrettable, it is doubtless quite natural that
they are, judging from their utterances, as desir-
ous of obtaining advantages by legislation over
their city friends as, according to them, the aver-
age legislator is desirous of obtaining advantages
over the farmer. I am not agreeing or disagree-
ing with the view that agriculture does not receive
at the hands of our legislators the consideration
it deserves, but whether true or not, much mis-
chief is done by the existence of such a view.
134
EAST AND WEST
No truth regarding our industrial condition is
so widely accepted as the fact that agricultural
and pastoral pursuits are the most vital to our
prosperity. We admit that production in these
directions depends upon the profit to the producer
as it does in any other business ; we realize, how-
ever, that the overwhelming majority of the
farmers in the West have had to live, to learn
their business, and to acquire the capital neces-
sary to own a farm, all at one time. Because of
the inexperience of some of them they receive, as
a whole, more advice, both from those who know
and from those who do not, than any other men
in business in our country. This irritates some
farmers, and affords many an opportunity for
cynical retorts to bankers and other paternal
guardians of agriculture; but, viewed with good
nature, it is the clearest evidence of the deep and
friendly interest which almost everybody has in
the farm and all its surroundings. What is
wanted is discussion, not animosity, argument,
not suspicion, and especially a realization of the
guiding principle that we are partners in the
work of building up a country for the happiness
and the prosperity of our children. The farmers
of the West have demonstrated that in matters
where co-operation is really practicable they are
capable of co-operating sucessfully, and they can
so organize their opinion as to make its influence
powerful; this being the case, we cannot doubt
that the issues which now cause dissension will
be dealt with in some manner in the near future.
135
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
In this connection it is most gratifying to notice
the formation of a Joint Committee of Commerce
and Agriculture, from the meetings of which
much good has already come.
THE GRIEVANCES OF THE WEST
The grievances which are most frequently dis-
cussed are, first, the treatment accorded to the
West by the various bodies who are supposed to
represent the capital and power of the East, and
who are, using a more- or less opprobrious epithet,
called the " Big Interests." It is asserted that
the railroads charge too high freight rates, that
the banks and mortgage loan companies charge
too high rates for money and make credit too
difficult to obtain, that implement and other
manufacturers charge excessive prices for their
goods, and that this is partly due to the imper-
fection of our systems of credit and distribution.
The second main grievance which is constantly
discussed is the high tariff and particularly the
trade relations of our West with the United
States.
INTEREST RATES AND CREDIT
Among the first set of grievances are those con-
cerning interest rates and credit, and there has
been considerable discussion of these subjects as
a result of the creation of the Joint Committee
of Commerce and Agriculture, under the auspices
of which conferences have been held between
farmers and bankers and between farmers and
136
EAST AND WEST
mortgage loan companies. I am told that before
these conferences the farmers regarded the bank-
ers and other business men as "animated only
by the most narrowly and hopelessly selfish
motives, and disposed to plunder the farmer to
the last possible cent. On the other hand, many
intelligent business men — while ready to do their
part in an effort to co-operate in finding a remedy
for those conditions which were susceptible of
remedy — expressed scepticism of the possibilities
of co-operating because of the selfishness and
utter unreasonableness of farmers as a class."
As the first result of these conferences much of
this hostility and suspicion has disappeared, and
the business men have discovered that many of
the farmers' leaders are as large-minded and as
capable as the best of the business men, that they
claim to be striving only for fair play, and are
too proud and independent to seek special favour,
either by legislation or otherwise.
In all new communities where men are trying
to draw wealth from natural resources, but have
not yet accumulated much of what we call capi-
tal, credit is hard to be obtained by those who
need it the most, and, judged by immediate results,
loans cost too much. This uncomfortable state of
affairs is not, however, justly to be attributed to
the lender or to any system of banking. Every
country, of course, needs a sound system of bank-
ing, but the needy borrower often wishes for one
which is just the reverse. In Canada the banking
charters run for only ten years at a time, while
137
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
for about fifty years in the United States the
most important system of banking in the coun-
try needed many reforms in the interest of the
people, but they were practically unobtainable
because the people, as represented in Congress,
disliked the bankers and would not do anything
to mend matters. In Canada at the decennial
revision the system is discussed, and at every
renewal of the Bank Act important changes have
taken place, not, however, with the object of
making banking more profitable except to the
extent that a service which is better for the
people will in the end be better for the banks
also. Anyone who reads the evidence given before
the Committee on Banking at Ottawa in 1913
must acknowledge that every grievance brought
against the banks was answered frankly, whether
every particular answer was entirely satisfactory
to the West or not. Settlers in Canada will, in
some cases, express their preference for some
other system to which they have been accus-
tomed, while others from the same country will
express most vigorously their preference for the
Canadian system. As a rule, such opinions
reflect a personal experience and do not help to
determine what is really best for the country.
Credit is sensitive, and what the banker wants
is security for the repayment of his loan. His
interest charge will be governed by the nature of
the security offered him, by the cost of carrying
on his business and by the extent to which the
borrower's community possesses loanable capital.
138
EAST AND WEST
Security may mean commodities or bonds, so
deposited as to be entirely in the bank's control ;
it may mean the pledge of movable property still
in the possession of the borrower, or the pledge
of fixed property by mortgage ; it may mean only
the unsecured promise of the borrower. Clearly,
the borrower is just as much interested as the
lender in the satisfactory state of these securi-
ties, because the extent and the cost of the credit
he is able to obtain will depend largely thereon,
but he does not always act as if he realized this.
If the borrower has a lax idea of what he may
do with movable property pledged to a bank,
although still in his possession, or if he encour-
ages legislation which has the effect of piling
up liens on mortgaged property ahead of the
mortgage itself, he should not wonder if credit
declines in extent and becomes more costly.
Strange as it may seem, credit will increase in
volume and decrease in cost in proportion to the
quantity of loans which may safely be made on
the mere name of the borrower without the
pledge of anything else.
What is wanted in order to improve the rela-
tions between the borrowers in the West and the
banks is frequent discussion ; candid but friendly
statement; the improvement of the Bank Act
where it can be shown that it does not serve the
best purposes of the community ; the recognition
that, as the banks are trustees for the depositors,
they have not the right to lend on anything but
sound security; and the mutual effort of every-
139
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
one to create such provincial laws, such standards
of business and conceptions of individual charac-
ter, that credit will become cheap because losses
from bad loans are no longer excessive. In such
a new country as the West there is not only too
large a proportion of men seeking to manage land
or develop some other of our natural resources
without adequate capital, but there are also too
many bank offices which have not yet accumu-
lated enough business to pay and too many young
and inexperienced bankers in charge of them.
Time and patience will cure this, but I fear there
is no short road by legislation or by any other
method.
AGRICULTURAL LOANS
In some countries land banking and commer-
cial banking are closely connected, but happily
in this country they are clearly separated. The
air in Canada and in the United States is full of
plans for an improved system of agricultural
loans. For many years I have urged that the
present system of borrowing a sum which actu-
ally falls due every five years, and which, as a
rule, the farmer cannot possibly pay, should be
changed to one under which the loan would be
repaid by an annual rent-charge ending in a
certain number of years, the rent-charge bearing
some relation to the annual product of the farm.
The commercial banker always wants his money
back fairly soon, because he must keep his capital
liquid. The loan or trust company only desires
140
EAST AND WEST
to receive the interest — if the loan is well secured
— and there is no real pressure upon the bor-
rower to pay his debts. The farmer, therefore,
often lets the year, and sometimes the years, go
by without paying anything on the principal of
his debt. A very little more added to the interest
and paid on each interest day would have paid
the debt in a generation. In such a case the
farmer goes to bed to bear in the early morning
hours the weight of the whole mortgage, and
often it makes him a sour pessimist without a
kind thought for anyone. If he had to pay a
rent-charge equal only to the interest and the
amortization, he could do it readily, and he
would feel when he had made the year's payment
that he was out of debt. He would no more feel
that the next year's payment was a present debt
than a shopkeeper who had rented premises for
ten years would think he owed the whole ten
years' rent at any one time. Legislation and
some other things may be necessary to accom-
plish reform, but we are all interested in a good
system of agricultural lending, and out of the
present discussion I hope a new day for the West-
ern farmer as a borrower will arise. If he could
settle down to the task of acquiring the full
ownership of his farm over a longer series of
years, but with lesser strain, he would be a
happier citizen, he would have more to spend on
improvements, and if, after making all the pay-
ments due in any one year he still had money to
spare, there are banks and other means of laying
141
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
by capital for a rainy day. I am told that many
farmers, assured of their ability to pay off large
sums annually, would not borrow in the manner
suggested. The answer to this is that such
farmers evidently do not need the aid of any
improved system, and if they find the payment
of principal so easy the rate of interest cannot
be intolerable. I am concerned about those who
find the mortgage hard and not easy to pay. I
am also told that those who remember the old
instalment mortgages in Ontario would not like
loans in the form suggested. There is, however,
no real ground for comparison, especially as the
law throughout Canada now provides that where
in the payments under a mortgage the principal
and interest are blended the mortgage shall con-
tain "a statement showing the amount of such
principal money and the rate of interest charge-
able thereon calculated yearly or half-yearly not
in advance."
•
THE RAILROADS
When we look at a map of the great Canadian
West by some early traveller we see a vast area
called the Fertile Belt, and a still greater area
included as part of the Great American Desert.
The latter part was thought to be useless for
agriculture, whether valuable for pastoral pur-
poses or not. The Fertile Belt was a mere pos-
sibility for the future, its prospective value in
money being placed at a few cents per acre —
there being, indeed, practically no money value
143
EAST AND WEST
at all. The land was an opportunity for man's
labour, and began to have value when he turned
a furrow or put some cattle to graze on it; but
he might cultivate the land and pasture cattle
for ever without any result in money so long as
there were no transport facilities. Throughout
the history of the settlement of North America
the venturesome pioneer has sought free or cheap
land in advance of transportation facilities, and
in his periods of tragical distress, because of the
absence of a market for the plentiful products of
his newly turned soil, he has been anxious to
have his municipality, or his province, or any
government to which he could appeal, promise
almost anything to the equally venturesome ship,
canal or railroad builder who would bring him
relief.
If any citizen of Ontario recalls the history
of the Trent Valley Canal, which is only now
nearing completion, he will understand the
tragedy of those early settlers who prayed for it
during two generations, the grandchildren of
whom are now seeing its completion long after
its usefulness has been superseded by the rail-
roads. The great Canadian West was of little
use without railroads, and, while there are East-
ern Canadians who talk glibly about excessive
railroad building in Canada, Western Canadians
know that between the Great Lakes and the
Rocky Mountains there is not only no surplus of
railroad mileage, but that the inadequacy of their
railroad facilities is still the cloud over many
143
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
new farming communities. Whatever follies of
this kind may have been committed in other parts
of Canada it is not necessary to refer to in this
essay. The West keenly desired the building of
the present railroads, and if it is true, as I hope
it is, that we are all working for the future of
this country, which is only another way of saying
that we are all working for the future of our
children, we must desire to see these railroads
made as complete instruments of economic trans-
portation as it is possible to make them. Unless
we have that narrow kind of selfishness, which in
the end means national suicide, we shall not wish
to see our products transported to the great
points of consumption in Europe by any but our
own railroads and our own ships.
The West and the transportation companies, as
good Canadians, have made a gentleman's agree-
ment, which should avert such a misfortune to
the country ; I am not forgetting, however, that a
gentleman's agreement means that each shall
play the game fairly. I have no intention of dis-
cussing the merits of the situation as it exists —
whether or not the railroads give as efficient a
service as is possible and at as low a charge as
is reasonable — my purpose is to urge that the
railroad is a part of the social contract which
holds the country together, that its owners are
entitled to a fair profit, and that by action
through the Railway Commission the producers
or the shippers and the railroad companies
should, from stage to stage, try to work out the
144
EAST AND WEST
difficulties with keen regard to their particular
interests, of course, but as far as possible in the
interests of the country as a whole. In order to
have the railroads built, government aid was
given freely, and because of this there are many
who deny the right of the railroad builder to
profit by his enterprise, but this is clearly not
playing the game. What we must secure, if it
be possible, is the fixing of fair rates of carriage,
which shall, after paying the interest on all
bonds, guaranteed by the government or other-
wise, give a fair profit to those who own the rail-
road. If we think we can do better by turning
over the management and ownership to the
people, or what is called government ownership,
clearly that is what we should do, but we should
not do this simply because we are impatient with
the problems that confront us. We should do it
only because we believe that by state manage-
ment we can, after paying interest on our rail-
road indebtedness, afford to carry freight at a
lower rate than competing railroads with skilled
management will carry it under the pressure of
the Railroad Commission.
PRICES AND DISTRIBUTION OF GOODS
Another feature of the first series of grievances
is the alleged high prices for all classes of goods,
whether supplied by the implement dealer or the
shopkeeper. Apart from the tariff, to which I
shall refer later, prices should depend upon com-
petition, credit and all that is connected with the
10 145
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
distribution of goods. A generation ago in
Ontario every buyer of goods, whether he paid
cash or obtained credit, was paying not merely
for the goods he received, but for the bad debts
made by the shopkeeper in selling to less trust-
worthy customers. In a very large part of East
ern Canada this is the case to-day, and where-
ever it is so the shopkeeper must also, as a rule,
buy on credit, and thus pay for the bad debts
made by the manufacturer or the wholesale
dealer. The buyer with the cash began to ask
for discounts, and eventually the shop selling
only for cash came into existence. Then it was
discovered that the man with the cash had an
enormous advantage over the man who needed
credit; he could buy where he liked, while the
other man was tied to the shop where he owed a
bill. Thus to retain its customers the cash store
must offer low prices and, what goes with low
prices, effective and cheap delivery. Now Win-
nipeg offers as brilliant examples of what can be
done in prices and distribution in exchange for
cash as any eastern city in Canada. The farmer
who has the money or who has credit at his bank
should buy with the ready cash, thus securing the
keen competition for his trade and the low prices
which come from such competition. When from
the sale of his farm products he obtains cash, if
he merely liquidates a standing account he has
paid his share for those who never liquidate
theirs, but when he can use his cash to buy direct
146
EAST AND WEST
he will find that he has, by taking credit in the
past, been indulging in a very expensive luxury.
The West complains that there are too many
banks, shopkeepers, implement agents, and
middlemen of all kinds; that there is general
inefficiency among them all; that credit is too
easily granted ; that too little value is put upon
cash payments as compared with credit ; that too
little regard is shown for the fact that these
middlemen have undertaken to supply the West
with its requirements and should in all fairness
do this as cheaply and as effectively as possible.
In time the mail-order house, the shop selling only
for cash, co-operative buying by the farmers and
competition among those who sell on credit will
cure this condition, but meanwhile the West has
to pay for this want of efficiency and for the bad
debts arising from the imperfections of the sys-
tem. Surely the East should do its part to work
out a plan which will lessen or put an end to this
particular grievance.
THE TARIFF
This brings me to the second series of griev-
ances: those connected with the tariff. It is,
I think, to be regretted that those who discuss
the tariff generally range themselves under the
banner either of Free Trade or Protection, and
discuss the subject either on abstract grounds,
which have little relation to the facts, or on
facts relating to their own fortunes, which have
little bearing on the peculiar principles which
147
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
are at stake in Canada. The opinion of a Brit-
ish free-trader as to what is good for Canada is
of as little value as the opinion of a Canadian
manufacturer, who is thinking only of the tariff
in connection with his own business. Both of
these extremists becloud the real issue and make
it difficult for good citizens to get together on
this complicated question. No thoughtful East-
ern man can, however, remain indifferent to
the fact that almost all our fellow citizens in
the West think that our tariff has been built
up by sucessive governments which have taken
counsel mainly with the manufacturers, and have
largely ignored the interests of the farmers.
On the other hand, many people in the East
think we have surrendered for ever the right
to manufacture certain articles in order to
please the farmer. With such extreme variance
of opinion it is surely in the interest of peace
and the future prosperity of Canada that we
should create the machinery for a national solu-
tion of the problem. Would it not be well to
establish a Tariff Commission on which both
Agriculture and Commerce would feel that they
were fairly represented? If the incidence of the
tariff is found to be unfair to the farmer and the
wage-earner, after giving proper consideration to
national as well as private interests, such griev-
ances should be remedied as early as possible.
It is natural enough that men so strongly
opposed to a protective tariff should go to the
other extreme and demand actual free-trade, but
148
EAST AND WEST
it is probable that after a full discussion of the
situation, both they and the extremists who
favour high protection will be willing to abate
somewhat their extreme views, and that a work-
ing basis may be found which will do justice to
the individual and not destroy the future of
Canada as one nation.
The writer as a young man was an ardent
free-trader, distributing Cobden Club pamphlets
wherever the seed might thus be sown ; but he
has spent over half a century in trying to do his
share in building up a nation beside another
country with twelve or more times the popula-
tion and with nearly a century the start of us.
Whether wisely or not, we have decided to become
a nation of manufacturers as well as of agricul-
turists, and we have also decided to build up our
country without becoming a part of the United
States. Our problem then is how Canada, exist-
ing as she does alongside such a development of
manufactures and of agriculture as that of the
United States, can best do this. Here again, as
I have already suggested, we must make a com-
promise between the interest of the individual
and that of the people as a whole. We must keep
the implied social contract if that be reasonably
compatible with individual success. If any West-
ern man thinks that he owes no consideration to
the railroads and none to the manufacturers, I
fear I have nothing to say to him, but I have just
as little concern for the manufacturer who treats
the Western farmer as his legitimate spoil. We
149
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
have no right to make an article at all, if, after
all things have been considered, the necessary
protective duty makes the price oppressive; but
the Canadian buyer, before he complains, must
remember that taxes in some form must be paid,
and that he cannot expect a low rate for East-
bound freight if he does not encourage West-
bound freight.
I am aware that he says he would rather
pay direct taxes, but I notice that he also says
that no income should be taxed that is under
$4,000 per annum. It is hard to believe that
the farmers of the Free Trade League platform
really mean this. We all acknowledge the jus-
tice of exempting from taxation whatever income
is necessary to provide a bare living, but to
exempt all incomes under $4,000 would save from
taxation practically everybody but the very few
who are unusually rich. More than ninety-five
out of every hundred would escape. I do not
believe that the well-to-do farmer wishes to
escape all taxation for the support of the federal
government, and I am quite sure that he does not
wish that almost every dweller in towns and
cities should also escape. I have no intention,
however, of arguing the question, and there is
not enough space at my disposal if I had. I only
wish to warn the man who intends to deal justly
by his country, while demanding justice for him-
self, that the fair deal at which we seek to arrive
will not be aided by the extremists on either side
of the controversy. As I said earlier, what we
150
EAST AND WEST
need is frank and fearless discussion, with the
recognition that the tariff should not be made
just to suit any one class, but, as far as possible,
to suit Canada as a whole. When it is next under
discussion at Ottawa I hope no one will feel that
the manufacturers have the ear of the Govern-
ment, and I hope there will be agriculturists as
well as other Western business men present, and
that all will debate this great question in the
broadest and most truly national spirit.
What is clear beyond argument is that agri-
culture is stijl the most important of the pro-
ductive forces in Canada, and that it should be
a profitable field for those who desire to follow
it as a vocation is also not open to question. The
East will readily admit the truth of the state-
ment, but it must also be ready to join the West
in all reasonable measures to ensure profit in
agricultural and pastoral pursuits when these
are carried on with average intelligence. On the
other hand, the West must not forget that the
prosperity of other pursuits has helped to build
and to sustain the towns and cities of the East,
which constitute the most important markets the
Canadian farmer possesses, and that in sustain-
ing the cost of carrying on the affairs of the coun-
try from the smallest to the most important, these
urban dwellers have enormously lightened the
burden of the agriculturist. Indeed, it is rather
idle to argue about a modern nation which
believes that it has a great future, and yet
believes it can succeed by one industry playing
151
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
false with another industry. We must learn to
get along together, and this we shall accomplish
by argument and not by holding aloof while we
abuse each other.
Let us learn what we can from the history of
the United States. When the war between the
North and the South was over, pessimists said
that the East and the West would, sooner or
later, separate over the tariff. In those days the
West meant, for the most part, the Mississippi
valley, for at first there was no transcontin-
ental railroad, and for years there was only one.
Farmers in States like Iowa hauled grain as far
as a hundred miles to market, corn was some-
times cheaper to burn than coal, and there are
few ills that the men who founded the Western
States did not suffer. But to-day, so far as East
and West or North and South are concerned, the
whole country coheres. They have plenty of
troubles, of course, of other kinds, but if we
recall their unsettled areas forty years ago, we
may look forward confidently to the time when
many of our areas, at present unsettled, will be
peopled, and we may surely hope that our chil-
dren will not see the East and the West working
out of harmony, no matter what new social or
political troubles we may develop through other
causes.
A UNITED PEOPLE
It is pleasant to turn to other aspects of our
national life in which there is either perfect har-
mony or only that rivalry which springs from a
152
EAST AND WEST
desire for progress along similar lines. When
the declaration of war in Europe came like a bolt
from the blue there was no question of East or
West in our conception of our duty to the Empire
or in our realization of the dangers which threat-
ened the liberties of the world. In the enlistment
of our soldiers, in the vigour of our efforts to pro-
duce everything necessary to carry on the war, in
our liberal giving to every fund for the soldiers
or their dependants, in our widened knowledge
of the meaning of the Empire of which we are a
part, we are as united as any brothers could be
in an hour of sudden and great trial, and we shall
remain so to the end, no matter what strain may
be put upon our endurance. Only yesterday we
were for the most part a new people, scattered
over a new land, little tested as to our national
feeling, trying by various agencies to make the
West thrill with the legends of New France and
to make the East follow the earliest pathfinders
in their descriptions of our splendid prairies and
of our magnificent mountains, and to arouse
interest in the narratives of the Spanish and
other adventurers by sea who first saw our Paci-
fic shores. Indeed, the task of making each and
every Canadian feel that the history of the
romantic past of every part of Canada is his his-
tory, had but begun. Now, however, in the great-
est drama in the history of the world the men of
our Dominion, acting together, have made the
name of Canada famous for all time. Before the
war, judged by many standards, we were not a
nation. Now, Canada is credited with the per-
153
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
formance of great actions, both on the battle line
and at home, which cause her to stand before the
world stamped unmistakably with the hall-mark
of nationhood.
Together we have carried out our share in this
great war ; together we have incurred the cost of
it ; together we shall share the burden in coming
years both of that debt and of the pensions and
other expenditures on behalf of our soldiers and
their dependants. To do this we must pro-
duce, both of raw products and of manufactured
articles, more than ever before. We must, as far
as possible, turn out our products at a lower cost
and of a better quality than other nations. To
this end the -East and the West should be meet-
ing now, and they are doing so to some extent, in
order to plan for the settlement of soldiers and
others on the land, for the preliminary education
of such men, for the establishment of systems of
lending to them capital, and for the many objects
which a practical commission, free from politics,
could surely accomplish. We must have — and
some of our Governments are moving in this mat-
ter also — bureaus established with access to the
laboratories in our universities, or with labora-
tories of their own, or better still with both,
where problems in physics, chemistry, metal-
lurgy, or in any similar subject, may be solved
for our manufacturers and other producers. In
the fierce fight for commerce which will come
after the war, the fittest will as usual succeed.
Woe to Canada if East and West have not
co-operated in preparing for the fray !
154:
EAST AND WEST
EDUCATION
In education the relations between the East
and the West are happy and mutually helpful.
The settlement of the East is older, and, there-
fore, it possesses some advantages which are
cheerfully recognized. The West is so vigorous
that this condition may not last long, but by the
time it has passed away many of the difficulties
of the West will also have disappeared. The
fact that higher education was, from the begin-
ning, carried on or directed mainly by graduates
of the universities of Eastern Canada naturally
caused the atmosphere of the Universities of
Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British
Columbia to be congenial to the shaping of
their curricula and the establishment of their
standards and methods on the lines of the East-
ern universities.
The courses in Arts in the West, as in the East,
follow British rather than American models, and
they are so similar throughout Canada that little
difficulty has been experienced in obtaining recog-
nition in the older universities for work done in
the newer. In the important universities of the
East there have been for years many students,
chiefly sons and daughters of former graduates,
who come to take their college or professional
course in the earlier homes of their parents. The
number will be lessened in coming years, but it
is hoped that for graduate and professional work
it will long continue to be maintained.
Very great importance should be attached to
the development of graduate work in the large
155
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA^
Eastern universities. As they become well
equipped with laboratories and libraries the
opportunities they afford for advanced work will
soon be as great as those of the leading uni-
versities of the United States. It is surely of
national importance that these universities
should attract Western graduates so that they
may pass on to higher degrees in their own
country. If they are educated in Canada instead
of in the United States they will return to the
West as living links to bind our country together.
Several fellowships, worth five hundred dollars
each with free tuition, have lately been estab-
lished by Eastern Canadians, and to encourage
this movement they are to be first offered to
graduates of Western universities.
Each year for the last three years a conference
of Canadian universities has been held for the
purpose of considering the common problems of
higher education in Canada, and hereafter this
conference will continue to meet at least once
every two years. The aim is to unify and develop
the educational side of our national life, to facili-
tate interchange of students, to consider how best
the resources of the universities may be put at
the disposal of the youth of our country, to enable
our younger universities to draw upon the advan-
tages of the older institutions of the East, and
to give common utterance to educational needs
which, without this concerted action, might
not be fully considered or might long remain
unsatisfied.
156
EAST AND WEST
There are many features of our national life
affecting the relations between the East and the
West to which I have not referred, but I have
endeavoured to write with absolute fairness
regarding such matters as I have ventured to
review. As I wrote recently in a short article
for university students, our responsibilities are
enormous. We have been put in charge of one-
third of the area of the British Empire. We
have in racial origin, land, climate, laws, society,
industrial energy and moral quality such an
opportunity as has seldom come to any people.
In the whole world we are the greatest hope of the
home-seeker. If we will turn the energy we have
shown in the war to the building of that Canada
which our elements are intended to produce, we
shall show the world a nation such as history has
not yet recorded. This is not boasting — this is
said in deep humility. I am sure that all the
cards are in our hands, and I hope we may learn
how to play them and thus win the greatest game
since the foundations of society were laid.
B. E. Walker.
157
NATIONAL
IDEALS
IN
INDUSTRY
SAY NOT, THE STRUGGLE NOUGHT
AVAILETH
SAY not, the struggle nought availeth,
The labour and the wounds are vain,
The enemy faints not, nor faileth,
And as things have been, things remain.
If hopes were dupes, fears may be liars;
It may be, in yon smoke conceal'd
Your comrades chase e'en now the fliers,
And, but for you, possess the field.
For while the tired waves, vainly breaking,
Seem here no painful inch to gain,
Far back, through creeks and inlets making,
Comes silent, flooding in, the main.
And not by eastern windows only,
When daylight comes, comes in the light;
In front, the sun climbs slow, how slowly,
But westward, look, the land is bright.
A. H. Clough.
NATIONAL IDEALS IN INDUSTRY
CANADA in the past has not sufficiently recog-
nized that the realizable value of its resources is
dependent upon an industrial expansion propor-
tioned to world requirements as well as to home
demands. Agriculture and manufactures are
equally natural and indispensable in a country
so variously and richly endowed. Moreover,
public and private advantage will follow a cer-
tain order and proportion in their development.
National industries are simply a congeries of
individual enterprises. The requirements of a
village are easily ascertained and the activities
of its inhabitants find an easy adjustment. With
the growth of population, services assume a new
division which not infrequently involves tempor-
ary loss and inconvenience during the period of
readjustment. As population further increases
and distribution widens, it becomes increasingly
difficult to proportion the application of capital
and labour to the demand for specific commodi-
ties ; but individual, and therefore national, pros-
perity is dependent upon the success which
follows these efforts.
Fluctuation of demand for employment, finan-
cial crises and general business stagnation are
simply the result of misdirection of capital and
labour. A certain portion only of the national
income can be invested wisely in " plant," and a
ratio of production must follow such investment,
11 161
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
otherwise dislocation of enterprise, production
and finance becomes unavoidable. Our experi-
ence during 1913-14, as is now apparent, was the
result of misdirected and disproportionate public
and private expenditure. We spent within the
preceding seven years not less than f 1,500,000,000
of borrowed capital without preserving a wise
balance between immediately productive utilities
and those from which the returns, as in the case
of railways and municipal improvements, are
slowly realizable. Dislocation will equally follow
an excess of production in particular commodi-
ties, although the same capital and labour might
be profitably and permanently employed in other
forms of production.
DEVELOPMENT OF OUR RESOURCES
It must be admitted that to secure a propor-
tionate development of resources as varied and
widely spread as those of Canada is not an easy
task. It demands reliable and extensive informa-
tion as to foreign requirements, adequate trans-
portation and banking facilities, favourable trade
treaties, trade and technical training for workers
and a knowledge of modern languages on the part
of those to whom is directly entrusted the sale
of Canadian commodities in foreign countries.
Nevertheless, when the possibility and impor-
tance of such a truly national development are
understood and appreciated, we may more reason-
ably hope for stable prosperity and the successful
solution of industrial and fiscal problems. The
182
NATIONAL IDEALS IN INDUSTRY
strength of our economic structure is measured
by the degree to which all productive services are
proportioned and co-ordinated.
Manufacturers are so often told that agricul-
ture is Canada's chief industry they are disposed
to accept a protective tariff as not only natural,
but indeed as an inherent right of industry in
" an agricultural country such as ours." On the
other hand, agriculturists so firmly believe they
are the backbone of the country that it is difficult
to persuade them that a backbone alone is only a
museum exhibit. A placid acceptance of the
theory that Canada is primarily an agricultural
country has exercised a pernicious influence upon
Canadian political thought and Canadian indus-
try. Grain growing, cattle raising, and the varied
activities of farming are not more entitled to be
considered primary Canadian industries than are
the manufacture of wood pulp, paper, lumber,
and the finished products of which these are the
constituents. So too of our mineral and fishery
products; these are as primary to Canada as
are cheese and butter. Credit and transporta-
tion facilities are as essential to production as
machinery or motive power.
The time has come when a new national policy
should find its expression in measures designed
with care to secure a truly " national " develop-
ment commensurate with our resources. This
will be found possible only if the whole structure
of production and distribution is subjected to the
critical business analysis now adopted by suc-
163
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
cessful individual enterprises. National indus-
tries, private enterprise and public business are
affected equally by maladministration and incom-
petent leadership. When private enterprises are
mismanaged the ill effects fall upon compara-
tively few persons, whereas failure to conduct pub-
lic business with wisdom and foresight involves
loss and possibly hardship to millions. For this
reason alone the standards now regulating pri-
vate business should be equally or more rigor-
ously exercised in the conduct of public affairs.
If the far-reaching effects of public policy and
administration were realized an informed public
opinion would make it impossible for political
leaders to retain incompetent ministers in
administrative positions. It would be as diffi-
cult for an unqualified business man to secure
a public position requiring business experience
as it is now for a man without medical know-
ledge to secure an appointment as medical
health officer. The truth is little serious effort
has been made to study Canadian development or
the administration of public business apart from
personal or party interests which, while possibly
wholly legitimate, do not form a safe basis for
political or industrial leadership.
For many years Canada enjoyed a prosperity
which engendered a cheerful but dangerous
laissez faire optimism. The teaching of political
economists might and indeed probably did apply
to European conditions, but not to those in a
" young," " richly endowed " and " rapidly devel-
NATIONAL IDEALS IN INDUSTRY
oping" country such as Canada! An eminent
Canadian justified our railway construction to
the writer, despite its self-evident disproportion-
ate expansion, upon the ground that railway
experience in the United States and Great
Britain was to an equal degree temporarily
unfavourable. Our present lack of preparation
for post-bellum industrial conditions would indi-
cate that even yet we do not admit the necessity
for preparedness — national as well as individual
— in conformity with a wise political economy.
The continued adoption of our present customs
tariff is a further illustration of our lack of scien-
tific method. For the future the need of an ever-
increasing national income will alone justify the
subordination of individual to community ideals.
Our aim should be an organic progress in which
producers, distributors and consumers, con-
sciously find an ever-widening channel of com-
mon interests. The object of this paper is to
suggest one or two of the many steps which
might, and in the opinion of the writer should,
be taken immediately to advance this policy. The
plan advocated is the adoption of national
co-operative methods and ideals as a substitute
for class and self-centred individualism. The
benefits of the competitive system have already
reached their apex. The future lies with that
country which most wisely organizes its material
and human resources, recognizing the solidarity
of the interests of society in co-operative effort
165
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
and the conduct of public business. Democratic
government calls for better, not less, organiza-
tion.
THE CANADIAN TARIFF
Tariff policy has nominally divided Canadian
political opinion, one party advocating import
duties chiefly for purposes of "revenue," while
the other has maintained the national importance
of "protection." Since the same tariff for the
most part served both parties, it is evident no
serious effort was made to frame a tariff upon
the principles underlying the policies advocated.
One party was happy so long as no serious oppo-
sition developed in agricultural circles ; the other
was content to enjoy the approval of manufac-
turing interests. One party inclined towards a
reduction of duties, while the other favoured as
a minimum the status quo. The present tariff
is the result of political expediency. Political
parties unite in their desire to use it for both
revenue and protection, but without attempting
to define the object and extent of the protection,
and with apparent indifference to the fact that
in the proportion the tariff affords protection its
value for revenue purposes is lessened. Of equal
or possibly greater importance is the fact that
no adequate effort has been made to ascertain the
effect of the tariff upon social well-being and
national development.
Without attempting to exhaust the subject, one
or two principles may be stated as illustrating a
166
NATIONAL IDEALS IN INDUSTRY
treatment of the tariff which might serve to
advance national interests.
There is little room for party controversy in
the statement that commodities should be easily
and cheaply procurable in proportion as they are
indispensable to life and health. If, under a
" low " tariff, it is not possible to manufacture in
Canada articles required by the least well-to-do
citizens, such articles should not be made scarce
or dear as a result of the tariff. Moreover, neces-
saries of life are indispensable to production, and
commodities indispensable to production are not
proper objects of heavy taxation. This is but an
indirect way of stating that a " protective " tariff
has natural limitations. It is a mere platitude
to add that while Canada has to bear the present
burden of national indebtedness luxuries should
be heavily taxed, both by customs duties and
otherwise. Tariff rates should increase propor-
tionately with the cost and fineness of the com-
modities imported. For instance, in the case of
floor coverings, some form of which is required
in Canada owing to the climate, cheap and sub-
stantial carpeting should be admitted free or at
a low duty, while higher grades should bear
import duties in proportion to their costliness.
It is evident, moreover, that if the consuming
public be called upon to pay for protection, it
should be given to understand why, for what
period, and for what ultimate purpose. An added
cost to the consumer must be justified by some
present or future national advantage. Possibly
167
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
the period for which "protection" is granted
should be definitely agreed upon, any extension
being dependent upon comparative labour costs
in production. Protected industries in this way
would receive notice that they are expected to
become self-dependent; that under special cir-
cumstances their "protection" may be con-
tinued; but that the industry must justify itself,
since the purpose of the tariff is general and not
individual advantage. The object is clearly not
to ensure excessive profits for capital; the issue
of watered stock by " protected" companies would
therefore be considered as prima facie evidence
of the necessity for tariff revision.
An argument frequently advanced for protec-
tive duties is that industry in Canada is handi-
capped since, owing to our smaller market, it is
not possible to compete successfully with manu-
facturers whose market is a hundred millions of
consumers instead of only eight millions. It
must, of course, be admitted that there are eco-
nomic units of production, and possibly eight
million consumers do not in every case provide a
sufficient market for such a unit. What shall
we say, however, of industries which have multi-
plied until the factories engaged upon the same
forms of production are numbered by the dozen
or the score? If the economic unit of production
referred to is ever to find its realization in Can-
ada, will it be secured under the present system
in which new capital is continually attracted to
enterprises already established in order to share
168
NATIONAL IDEALS IN INDUSTRY
the profits of those who would have us believe
that at least in their particular industry an eco-
nomic unit of production is not in sight and the
necessity for protective duties as urgent as ever?
One result of framing a tariff embodying a
clearly defined policy would possibly be the weed-
ing out of parasitic industries. If this is the
result, it calls for no defence. The object of a
wise protective system is not to bolster up ineffi-
cient management, worn-out plants and anti-
quated methods of production or marketing. Pro-
tective duties should be based only upon the
ascertained needs of efficient producers.
THE EFFECT OF THE TARIFF ON EXPORT TRADE
The importance of export trade is referred to
elsewhere. It is sufficient at present, therefore,
to refer to the fact that we can produce for for-
eign markets only if we can sell our products
profitably in competition with the world. Pro-
tective duties can find no justification if the
direct or indirect results place Canadian exports
at a disadvantage compared with competing pro-
ducts. Among the factors which govern this
production are, (1), the cost and availability
of raw materials; (2), the price of necessary
machinery ; ( 3 ) , labour efficiency ; ( 4 ) , wage rates.
It is obvious that the market prices of living
necessaries are reflected in the wage rates paid
to labour. If these from any cause are increased,
production for export trade will be handicapped
unless greater labour efficiency, favourable trade
169
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
treaties, advantageous freight rates, or other
factors, offset the resulting disadvantages. The
same is true in the case of raw materials and
machinery. But there is an added factor which
has not received sufficient attention from those
affected. We should no longer consider personal
or even provincial interests as of primary impor-
tance. World markets are essential to Canadian
prosperity and the total cost of the various fac-
tors entering into products for export must not
exceed that of our competitors. If, therefore,
raw materials, necessaries of life, and other
requirements for production, are made dear as a
result of the tariff their increased cost will weigh
with prejudicial effect upon the wage rates of
Canadian labour. Conversely, the less the cost
of the other factors entering into the products,
the greater will be the margin available as pay-
ment for labour. It is, therefore, of importance
to Canadian labour that the requisites of eco-
nomic production should enter Canada free of
duty, unless otherwise procurable at a cost which
will not jeopardize production for export. If,
however, revenue requirements render the collec-
tion of duties unavoidable, compensating meas-
ures should be taken to stimulate the productive
efficiency of machinery and labour. There is con-
stituted an urgent demand upon the Dominion
Government for the generous support of trade
and agricultural and technical training. The use
of labour-saving machinery should be greatly
extended and the policy of scientific and indus-
170
NATIONAL IDEALS IN INDUSTEY
trial research already entered upon vigorously
prosecuted in order that the increased market
value of Canadian national production, either in
quality or quantity — preferably in both — may
offset the handicaps which otherwise may result
from the operation of the federal tariff. For
many years we have accepted a policy of protec-
tion without taking the measures necessary to
develop its logical economic accompaniment — a
highly-organized and efficient system of produc-
tion and marketing. It should be realized more
fully that in the last analysis the protection
which is secured to home industries by improved
methods of production and marketing is the only
sure and permanent protection.
TRADE BALANCES
Heretofore we have expected imports and
exports to find a satisfactory adjustment by
means of international trade. Whatever the
merits of this method in the past, there is little
reason to believe that it will serve equally well
for the future. International trading will be
seriously affected as an outcome of the war and
will depend more than formerly upon trade alli-
ances and an assured exchange of products.
Large use will be made of tariffs as a means of
economic rehabilitation, not necessarily as forms
of reprisal, but to meet the necessities of the fin-
ancial situation. A fiscal policy wholly justifi-
able and desirable when adopted by a creditor
country, may prove little short of suicidal under
171
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
other conditions. That an exchange of com-
modities between countries may prove of advan-
tage to each is not disputed; the fact remains
that Canadian exports must for many years
vastly exceed Canadian imports, owing to our
past heavy borrowings, private as well as public.
The Canadian tariff, therefore, must be made
more manifestly a means of bartering products
for products as the minimum of our economic
requirements. Great Britain being the largest
and most certain market for Canadian products,
it may pay us better as a nation to purchase
our foreign requirements there even at a
slightly greater money cost. We may be able
to buy, for instance, in the United States some
commodities at a less immediate cost, but it does
not follow that such purchases will bear the same
ultimate cost. Great Britain will in future be
less of a creditor nation than formerly. To the
extent, therefore, that we direct our purchases to
British markets we ensure the sale of home pro-
ducts and stimulate their production. This sale
and stimulus may well repay substantial tariff
preferences; for trade balances should not be
left in future to find as they can a satisfactory
adjustment.
A BOARD OF INDUSTRY
As a first step toward the reforms advocated it
appears desirable that provision should be made
for the consideration of the tariff solely from the
standpoint of fiscal requirements and national
172
NATIONAL IDEALS IN INDUSTRY
interests. It may be found necessary for the Fed-
eral Government to appoint a permanent Board of
Industry, whose duty it will be to study the rela-
tion and balance which should exist amongst our
productive activities, having regard to the neces-
sity for an accepted policy which will secure for
Canada the largest available dividend. The
necessity for the appointment of such a board
will be apparent when it is realized that irrecon-
cilable differences exist between East and West
and between different classes of producers which
may have serious results unless reasonable com-
promises are brought about as a result of better
understanding the problems common to each in
connection with production and marketing.
Intelligent public opinion can be united if the
issues are not obscured by party catch-words and
misrepresented because of inadequate and mis-
leading information.
A protective tariff wisely designed may be
made to strengthen the national structure, to
enlarge opportunity and diversify employment.
But protection is a narcotic as well as a stimu-
lant. If not carefully restricted to national ends,
it may be made to enrich individuals at the
expense of the State, to weaken initiative and
efficiency in industry, and to corrupt politics by
the sacrifice of principles to party expediency.
The present haphazard system of protection can
not and should not remain as the national policy
of Canada. Those who for patriotic reasons
approve a protective tariff should unite in sup-
173
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
porting measures to prevent its abuses and
reform existing irregularities. Such measures
may, and doubtless will, be the subject of con-
troversy, but difficulties will disappear whenever
the national purposes of a wise protective policy
for Canada receive clear definition. Equality of
talent and income, even if desirable, are not
obtainable by state action, but equality of oppor-
tunity is an ideal of Democracy for which the
people of Canada may well sacrifice selfish inter-
ests and existing party divisions.
THE IMPORTANCE OF MARKETING ABILITY
Paradoxical though the statement may appear,
the crux of production lies in marketing. An
efficient selling system is the surest and speediest
way to increase production ; and a reduction in
the cost of selling is a direct road to foreign trade.
Without a too fine weighing of words, it may
truthfully be said that under modern conditions
marketing ability governs employment. This
means something more, and something more
immediately important, than that supply is gov-
erned by demand. The object of this paper is not
to discuss abstract truths. The "supply" with
which we are concerned is the portion produced
in our own country, and the "demand" which
interests us is the proportion of world demand
which can be diverted to Canadian products. We
are considering the case of a country which must
export $175,000,000 of products annually in
excess of imports to pay interest charges. We
NATIONAL IDEALS IN INDUSTRY
are discussing production and marketing for
which we and not others are responsible.
Canadian salesmanship has not in the past
kept pace with Canada's power to produce. It is
doubtful if even during the period of greatest
activity prior to the war we were producing more
than three-quarters of our factory capacity. From
the census returns of 1911 it would appear that
in proportion to output Canada had an indus-
trial plant 1200,000,000 in excess of productive
requirements. Irregularity of factory employ-
ment and idle plant were accepted almost heed-
lessly as the inevitable concomitants of an
industrial system. Nor did employers gener-
ally acknowledge any responsibility for the
under-employment or unemployment of men and
machinery. As a solution of this problem export
trade was under-valued, and even those regarded
as industrial leaders expressed a doubt as to the
necessity for such trade in the case of factory
products. The opinion broadly held was that
Canadian agriculturists should supply the
exports and Canadian manufacturers should
confine their attention to the resulting home
market. Under present conditions no fallacy
could be more harmful or prove ultimately more
disastrous.
Fortunately this view was not universally
held; some of our more efficient industrial
organizations established a world market. Never-
theless out of the total export trade of 1913-14,
manufactures contributed only $57,000,000, or
176
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
thirteen per cent. For the twelve months ending
December 31st, 1916, these exports increased to
1440,477,143.
The causes which led to this phenomenal
speeding up of factory production are familiar,
but the determining factor has not received suffi-
ciently clear recognition. After making due
allowance for the desire to aid in the war, and
the effect of high prices, the outstanding explana-
tion is found in the fact that a purchasing organi-
zation for Canadian products had been created
as a result of the war ; that the problem had been
narrowed to one of production; that the selling
having been all attended to there was no lack of
capital to oil the wheels of industry and ensure
that goal of industrial experts — capacity produc- '
tion.
It cannot be too clearly recognized that this
has not been the result of Canadian sales effi-
ciency, but was the distinct and obvious conse-
quence of an Imperial purchasing organization.
Canadian factories for the most part were like
young robins with open mouths into which the
Munitions Board dropped orders averaging a
million dollars a day. The problem requiring
the attention of Government and industrial
leaders alike is how and where to find some
agency which will replace the Munitions Board
when its activities cease. If this can be found
Canada's prosperity will continue, but if not it
is not too soon to think about the consequences.
In view of the new efficiency which is being
176
NATIONAL IDEALS IN INDUSTRY
planned and to a large degree practised in Great
Britain, the United States of America, and else-
where, a return to former methods of marketing
would mean the surrender of all that has been
won.
THE COMING PROBLEM OF EMPLOYMENT
The question would be sufficiently grave if
only the present staff of industrial workers were
affected, but it becomes of infinite gravity and
complexity when, in addition, the disbandment of
an army of munition workers and soldiers, com-
prising nearly one-quarter of the entire able-
bodied male population of Canada, is to be con-
sidered and provided for. It is no exaggeration
to state that Canada must adopt a well-advised
policy of preparedness or be faced by the greatest
industrial crisis in its history.
The army of workmen is a potential purchas-
ing as well as a potential producing market. If
productively engaged, a considerable proportion
of the products can and will be distributed among
the workers in payment for services rendered or
for commodities in exchange. The marketing of
that portion of the products which must repay
and replace the capital employed is, however,
the factor governing the entire employment of
workers and production of commodities. If
under present conditions a foreign market is not
found for this portion, the production which
would find a ready market among the workers
themselves will not be proceeded with. The
12 177
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
motive power for Canadian production after the
war, as now, will be found in foreign markets.
It is desirable that the collateral results of export
trade, if the products exported be wholly of Cana-
dian labour and Canadian raw materials, should
be more generally appreciated. -Every dollar of
such exports calls for a further production of
commodities for home consumption. For each
man engaged in the firing line of export trade
another, or perhaps two, will find employment
behind the lines.
If employment is not awaiting our returned
soldiers there will arise a demand for public
assistance, and no Government will refuse such
a demand. If ^provision is not made in advance
for their rapid re-employment payments to them
by the Government will assuredly be made to the
extent of many millions of dollars, and with dis-
astrous results upon the habits and character of
the recipients. At such a time the demand will
be insistent that the Government supply employ-
ment. If new capital can be obtained we may be
stampeded into a policy of engaging upon public
works which are of little, if any, productive
utility. It is difficult to imagine a condition of
public affairs more disastrous individually and
nationally. The cost of adequate preparation,
compared with the social and money cost of the
best palliatives for the situation sure to develop,
should now be the subject of more careful con-
sideration.
178
NATIONAL IDEALS IN INDUSTRY
PALLIATIVES FOR GENERAL UNEMPLOYMENT
WORTHLESS
In the Report of the Ontario Commission on
Unemployment the value of productive labour is
contrasted with the futility of relief work as a
remedy for general unemployment. " If a foreign
market," state the Commissioners, "could be
found for a larger proportion of industrial pro-
ducts the regular channels of industry would
again call for the existing reserve of skilled
labour. This in turn would to a considerable
extent provide employment for unskilled work-
men. The amount of employment for such labour
is largely determined by the activity of skilled
workmen. In times of depression to plan 'work
that anyone can do ' is to plan a palliative — it is
self-contained and has no remedial power. To
remedy a stagnation of business which reveals
itself in a general lack of employment a stimulus
must be supplied at the heart of industry. The
value of undertakings having as their object the
permanent solution of the problems of unemploy-
ment may, therefore, be measured by the extent to
which they call for the labour of skilled work-
men." There is but one remedy for general unem-
ployment— " stimulus at the heart of industry."
Possibly a fact of even greater importance is
that as a remedy for industrial crises an ounce of
"prevention" is worth infinitely more than the
proverbial pound of "cure." Measures taken
before a crisis develops — measures taken now —
will prove of "greater remedial value than the
179
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
most energetic efforts directed to relief after the
influences which disorganize the labour market
are developed and united."
WITH WHOM LIES RESPONSIBILITY
There remains emigration as a solution for
such a problem, but viewed from a national
standpoint no remedy can be more costly. Yet
for self-respecting workmen there are but two
alternatives for unemployment — work or emi-
gration. The question now urged for considera-
tion is : // private enterprise does not absorb the
workers seeking employment, can the State better
afford to support them in idleness, or lose them
by emigration, than to provide the leadership
which will solve the problem of their employment?
As in time of war the responsibility for success
lies chiefly with those in the higher commands, so
in the coming time of peace that responsibility
must be borne by those who occupy positions of
industrial and national leadership. Failure to
meet the coming problems of employment will be
paid for in disappearing profits and in social if
not in national disintegration. What has been
done generously and effectively by the few in
time of war must be done by the many, assisted,
and if necessary led, by the Government if we are
measurably to solve the problems of peace. For
lack of preparedness where so much is involved
public authorities and industrial leaders should
in future be held to strict accountability.
180
NATIONAL IDEALS IN INDUSTRY
Industrial leaders should take the time neces-
sary to grasp thoroughly the significance of the
spreading movement toward the state control of
industrial and other services. The strength of
this movement lies in the conviction of many that
the present industrial system recognizes only the
law of the jungle — power. If it be true that
Canadian prices are fixed at " all the traffic will
bear," which being interpreted means the maxi-
mum made possible by monopoly or a protective
tariff ; if the possession of power justifies, in the
opinion of those who control industry, its exer-
cise to secure labour at a price measured only by
the necessity of workmen and workwomen; if
profits have no moral measurement, then the
present industrial system should and must be
replaced by another which recognizes social and
national responsibility. The dangers of indus-
trial nationalization are great, indeed obvious,
but the future well-being of ninety per cent, of the
people justifies the adoption of measures neces-
sary to secure ultimately a new and better
standard of human relationship. Prophecy is
always dangerous, but it requires little vision
to become convinced that if other industrial
standards are not accepted the movement toward
state control during the ten years following the
war will exceed that of all preceding years.
There remains a course safer, more intelligent,
more democratic and more human. If industry
is not to be gradually nationalized, the industrial
leadership which now employs labour solely as
181
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
a means of profit-making must accept such leader-
ship as a form of National Service in which the
interests of labour will receive precisely the
attention formerly centred upon capital. The
practice heretofore has been to capitalize profits
and profit-earning power. Under the new system
these would be humanized and democratized
instead of capitalized. Such a system involves
no injustice to capital, but simply reverses the
order of precedence. The stored labour of the
past — capital — would be considered of secondary
importance with the labour of to-day. No other
course can offer equal incentive to increased pro-
duction, increased efficiency and whole-hearted
service. War debts and necessary public expen-
ditures would bear but lightly upon the increase
in national dividend which would result.
CAN PRESENT WAGE RATES BE RETAINED?
A reduction of present wage rates as a means
of readjusting industrial conditions presents
great difficulty. While it is true wages have been
increased, this increase is not generally out of
proportion to the higher cost of living, and a
remedy will not be found chiefly, if indeed at all,
in a resumption of the former scale of payments.
It is in the interest of the State that the level
of living and of home life now enjoyed by Cana-
dian workmen should, if possible, be maintained.
It is not in the interest of Canada that its living
conditions should be lowered to the level of those
countries from which men and women for the
182
NATIONAL IDEALS IN INDUSTRY
sake of their children are prevented by poverty
alone from emigrating. One of the greatest prob-
lems facing Canada is to secure vast numbers of
able-bodied workers to round out the develop-
ment already made in railways, municipal
improvements and industrial undertakings. If
for no other reason, therefore, it would not be
wise to lessen the attraction which Canada before
the war had for those less favourably situated in
other countries.
If, however, the present standard of living is
to be retained, and employment for our workmen
provided in Canada, these advantages can be
secured only as the result of labour efficiency.
High wages cannot be paid without a correspond-
ing increased output. The interests of workmen,
as shown in the Eeport of the Unemployment
Commission of Ontario, "are better secured by
the payment of steady wages for a large produc-
tion than by the exaction of an artificial price for
labour through the curtailment of production."
In the near future there will be little market for
the products of restricted or inefficient labour.
The competition from Great Britain, from the
United States, and even from Germany, will
destroy the illusions of any who hold opposing
views.
If, as is urged by labour leaders, the state
should accept a wider responsibility for the well-
being of its individual members, this responsi-
bility can be borne only if in return labour
accepts the resulting obligation for individual
183
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
efficiency. Labour leaders are not worthy of
their trusteeship for the permanent interests of
labour if they fail to direct workmen to the only
road in which lies prosperity and security.
PRODUCTION AND MARKETING NATIONAL
PROBLEMS
Production and employment are national as
well as individual problems. In proportion as
trade becomes international it calls for guidance
and assistance from national authorities. This
responsibility is already recognized in the crea-
tion of a Department of Labour and in the
appointment of Trade Commissioners. The
Department of Trade and Commerce has also
made arrangement with His Majesty's Govern-
ment by which Canadians are privileged to con-
sult any of His Majesty's consuls in foreign coun-
tries on matters of trade. Responsibility for
trade treaties and for adequate shipping facili-
ties rests with Federal authorities. There
remains, however, need for further progressive
action.
Reliance upon chance or upon the business
activities of other countries for the performance
of necessary trade functions is an invitation to
failure. And of all these functions salesman-
ship is the one indispensable service which we
must provide for ourselves. Other nations may
finance our purchases, transport our products
and insure their safe delivery, but to no other
184
NATIONAL IDEALS IN INDUSTRY
nation can we look for a satisfactory selling
organization. Private organization to do this
effectively is within the power only of the
strongest manufacturing companies. Such an
organization calls for men of high character and
thorough business training who are equipped
with a knowledge of the language and busi-
ness customs of the country to which they are
assigned. Specific reports on the demand for
individual products, particulars of tariff regu-
lations and restrictions, competitive market
methods and credit ratings, must all be avail-
able. An efficient central selling organization
can supply these services most economically, and
only through such an organization can hundreds
and possibly thousands of smaller manufacturers
secure any share in the trade of foreign countries.
The marketing of food products and materials
for manufacture, as has been pointed out by the
United States Federal Trade Commission, differs
widely from the marketing of finished manufac-
tured articles. " The former will sell themselves
at some price, usually at a price broadly estab-
lished in competitive world markets, but for fac-
tory products, both staple and special, the manu-
facturer must often create the demand for his
particular goods." Demand does not operate
automatically and from within, but can be both
stimulated and guided from without. It is this
which constitutes the necessity for a strong
selling organization.
185
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
ORGANIZED MARKETING
Organized selling alone can meet the competi-
tion of the already established sources of supply
and bear the initial expense of securing a firm
foothold in foreign markets. The experience of
Europe would seem to prove that some form of
combination of producers and dealers may be
made to facilitate greatly such trade. In Ger-
many combinations of manufacturers and distri-
butors are the rule. Cartels, syndicates, inter-
locking relationships, and price agreements are
found in a large proportion of the industries. In
France similar combinations have been organ-
ized in many industries. In England amalgama-
tions and combinations of competitors are of
frequent occurrence. In Belgium and in Austria-
Hungary, before the war, the entire industrial
system, as in Germany, was organized in cartels,
syndicates, and price agreements. In Italy,
Switzerland, Holland, Sweden, Kussia and
Japan similar conditions exist to a less degree.
The formation of corresponding combinations
has been strongly recommended in the United
States. The organization of each separate Ameri-
can industry for export trade is the object of a
Trade Commission now sitting permanently at
Washington.
The form which such an organization should
take to meet Canadian requirements can not be
decided upon without a most careful and thor-
ough enquiry, and such an enquiry should be
engaged in at once by the Federal Labour Depart-
186
NATIONAL IDEALS IN INDUSTRY
ment, the Department of Trade and Commerce,
or other Government authority in co-operation
with a carefully selected committee of industrial
leaders and labour representatives.
A SUBSTITUTE FOR THE MUNITIONS BOARD
Eeference has already been made to the impor-
tant functions which a competent board of indus-
try might exercise in connection with national
production. Service of equal value should be pro-
vided for in connection with the problems of
marketing. An effort has been made to show
that only by the consideration of production and
marketing, as constituting one problem, can the
problems of each be adequately dealt with. The
experience of the past two years has demon-
strated the desirability, and indeed the necessity,
of enlisting the services of successful and practi-
cal business men to control and administer work
of this nature. A nucleus for the board of indus-
try proposed lies within the personnel of the
present Imperial Munitions Board. To a board
of this character might with safety be assigned
the task of co-ordinating and strengthening the
work of all Government departments now having
to do with export trade. It may be found desir-
able to bring under one control work now handi-
capped by division and subdivision of authority.
Careful investigation may prove the need for a
reorganization of the work of our foreign trade
representatives to bring them and Canadian pro-
ducers into closer and more effective co-opera-
187
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
tion. Powers equalling the great responsibilities
involved would necessarily have to be given the
members of the Board; but to men of affairs,
experienced in industry, commerce and finance,
and actuated by the desire "to serve," such
powers may most safely be entrusted. It may
be found of advantage to leave the negotiation
of trade treaties, and the provision of adequate
shipping facilities, in their charge, for these are
inseparable and basic constituents of marketing.
Through their effort and influence, the produc-
ing and distributing forces of Canada may be
successfully harmonized to secure " national "
advancement. Half-hearted and unrelated meas-
ures can not adequately deal with the situation
already created by the war or find a solution for
post-war problems. The task is a great one, the
greatest ever presented for the consideration of
Canadian industrial leaders, but the leadership
which can be given by the members of such a
board would meet with a response from West to
East which would surmount all difficulties. The
heart of Canada is sound, materialism is not
dominant, public opinion is wholesome and may
be mobilized for the advancement of a great
national ideal.
But whether by these or other means, the duty
of the Government of Canada clearly is to take
the initiative, to call to their counsel representa-
tives of the interests involved, and to plan now
with definiteness and in detail for the period of
readjustment and reconstruction of industry
188
NATIONAL IDEALS IN INDUSTKY
which inevitably must come soon. Preparedness
for such a time is not the work of days or weeks,
but will be the arduous and concentrated task
of many months if it is to prove in any degree
adequate. It is not the part of wise statesman-
ship, nor yet of shrewd business foresight, to
trust to haphazard solutions for problems of such
importance, or to plead the pressure of other
problems as an excuse for inaction. The whole
teaching of the war is to this end.
G. Frank Beer.
189
CANADIAN
NATIONAL
UNITY
THE DEAD
BLOW out, you bugles, over the rich Dead!
There's none of these so lonely and poor of old,
But, dying, has made us rarer gifts than gold.
These laid the world away; poured out the red
Sweet wine of youth; gave up the years to be
Of work and joy, and that unhoped serene,
That men call age; and those who would have tfeen,
Their sons, they gave, their immortality.
Blow, bugles, blow! They brought us, for our dearth,
Holiness, lacked so long, and Love, and Pain.
Honour has come back, as a King, to earth,
And paid his subjects with a royal wage;
And Nobleness walks in our ways again;
And we have come into our heritage.
Rupert Brooke.
CANADIAN NATIONAL UNITY
AN argument often used by the advocates of
Canadian Confederation, during the middle
decades of the last century, was to the effect
that a union of the Provinces of British North
America "would give us nationality." In 1887
Sir Charles Tupper went to Washington to dis-
cuss the relations of Canada and the United
States, and the Secretary of State said to him:
"The Confederation of Canada and the con-
struction of the Canadian Pacific Railway have
brought us face to face with a nation, and we
may as well discuss public questions from that
point of view." The union has given us nation-
ality, and the chief centripetal forces which hold
the Dominion of Canada together as a nation are :
(1) Loyalty to the British Crown.
(2) The Dominion Parliament and Adminis-
tration, the Dominion Court of Appeal, the body
of Dominion law and custom which has developed
during fifty years, and all the central institu-
tions which have grown out of the British North
America Act.
(3) The Christian civilization of Western
Europe inherited by the vast majority of Cana-
dians.
(4) Churches which embrace two or more pro-
vinces or races in their organizations.
(5) Educational systems which inspire Cana-
dian patriotism with high civic ideals, and insti-
13 193
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
tutions of higher education frequented by stu-
dents of different provinces. In his " Studies in
History and Jurisprudence " Lord Bryce says :
" The Prussian Government founded the Uni-
versity of Bonn immediately after the recovery
of the left bank of the Ehine from France in
1814, and the University of Strassburg immedi-
ately after the recovery of Alsace in 1871, in both
cases with the view of benefiting these territories
and of drawing them closer to the rest of the
country by the afflux of students from other parts
of it, an aim which was realized. Indeed the non-
local character of the German universities, each
serving the whole of the lands wherein the Ger-
man tongue was spoken, powerfully contributed
to intensify the sentiment of a common German
nationality throughout the two centuries (1648
to 1870) during which Germany had virtually
ceased to be a State."
(6) The large number of people of the older
provinces who settled in the newer provinces.
(7) The English language and the French lan-
guage. The several groups of French-speaking
Canadians in the other provinces are pledges that
Quebec will never seek to secede.
(8) The transcontinental railways.
(9) Interprovincial trade.
(10) Business corporations, trade unions, fra-
ternal orders, and women's societies, when they
are interprovincial in organization.
(11) Political parties.
(12) The national sentiment which has devel-
oped under the action of these forces, and is now
194
CANADIAN NATIONAL UNITY
developing rapidly under the patriotic impulse of
self-defence in war.
Canada cannot claim, as some nations can, that
her people have a common ancestry, the use of
a common language, or the enjoyment of a com-
mon literature ; but, again to quote Lord Bryce :
" The importance of these factors has often been
exaggerated. Some of the keenest Irish revolution-
aries have been English by blood. . . . The
Borderers of Northumberland and those of Ber-
wickshire did not hate one another less because
they were of the same stock and the same tongue.
The Celts of Inverness-shire and the Teutons of
Lothian are now equally enthusiastic Scotchmen,
though they disliked and despised one another
almost down to the day of Walter Scott. Mere
identity of origin does not count for much, as
witness the ardent Hungarian patriotism of most
of the Germans and Jews settled in Hungary."
Belgium and Switzerland have proved that
unity of race and language is not essential to
national unity, atfid historical events have made
these diversities unavoidable in Canada. It is
more important, from the patriotic point of view,
to consider those centrifugal forces which are
avoidable. Some of them are but aspects of the
forces which have been enumerated as centripetal.
RELIGION AND POLITICS
In its normal action religion is a unifying influ-
ence in the State. It gives the sanction of con-
science and of precept to law, and sanctity to the
obligation of an oath. It hallows the relations of
195
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
family life. It develops education and character.
It instils a spirit of self-sacrifice for an ideal. It
places at the disposal of public authorities many
means of relief or prevention in the crusade
against social evils. It creates sympathy and
co-operation on a large scale, and trains men and
women in the management of organizations. It
develops leaders and centres of social influence.
On the other hand, in countries like Canada,
where there are several rival Churches, religion
is often the occasion of civil discord. The root
evil in such cases, from the point of view of the
nation, is habitual mistrust of one another by the
opposing sides. Individual leaders may or may
not deserve mistrust, but men do not mistrust
one another in the mass for the sake of any one
contemporary leader. The evil becomes national
when whole masses of men distrust one another
because of conflicts which their forefathers waged
centuries ago in Europe. It is with diffidence
that one ventures to suggest remedies, especially
when, as in the case of the following, an educa-
tional campaign would be needed to get them
applied in practice.
(1) It may be assumed as an axiom that poli-
ticians act habitually from political motives, and
for the benefit of their respective parties, when-
ever they meddle in religion in Canada or exploit
religious antagonism. Hence, churchmen of all
denominations should, in such cases, if they feel
obliged to express dissatisfaction, direct their
energies against the political party which it is
196
CANADIAN NATIONAL UNITY
sought to benefit by religious agitation, and not
against the religion which is utilized for that
purpose, unless it is proved that the representa-
tives of the religion concerned have conspired
with the politicians. Why did Honor 6 Mercier,
as Premier of Quebec, place a reference to the
Pope in the preamble of his Jesuits Estates Bill?
The purpose of the Bill did not require it. No
denominational interest was served by it. Sir
John A. Macdonald was convinced that Mercier's
design in this reference was to embarrass the
Government at Ottawa by the pressure that
would be brought to bear upon the Dominion
Premier to disallow the Act, at a time when the
provinces were particularly sensitive regarding
their relations with the Federal Government. It
was a matter of party strategy ; but it raised the
ghosts of three hundred years of denominational
conflicts. The agitators were serving the purpose
which Mercier wished them to serve. Mutual
confidence between large bodies of the population
was thereby weakened. The force of the agita-
tion should have been directed against Mercier
and the political party which he led.
(2) A frank facing of the historical questions
involved in religious issues would help to lessen
antagonism. It is not a paradox to say that men
are more easily aroused by traditional memories
of issues contested centuries ago than they are by
questions of to-day. For every ten men in Canada
who can be moved to action by the appeal of pres-
ent social needs, there are hundreds more easily
197
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
moved to action by the appeal of dangers which
may have been real in a former age, but are now
imaginary. A noted Paris litterateur and uni-
versity professor, Emile Faguet, wrote in 1902 :
" Europe dislikes France almost unanimously,
and why? Why dislike a people which is not at
all a danger to other nations, which has ceased
to be a nation of the first rank, and which cannot
disturb international politics? But, s'il vous
plait, it is not the France of 1902 that Europe
dislikes ; it is the France of 1802 ; it is not the
France of M. Loubet, but of Napoleon I; it is
not the France of Fashoda, but of Wagram. But,
then, why hate for the past instead of hating
whatever is formidable or hateful now? Because
it is difficult to understand the present and easy
to recall the past; because it is difficult to be
intelligent and very easy to remember."
Since men are so inclined to live in the past
and to seek motives of action in the past, it is
well worth while to strive to describe the past as
it was and as it differs from the partisan views
which live in traditional memories.
(3) The most effective, and probably the
easiest, way to meet sectarian as well as racial
difficulties in the national life is to develop the
sense of public responsibility in the people. Bids
for votes at the expense of the true interest or the
unity of the nation will continue to be made as
long as the people respond to such appeals. The
people cannot be expected to investigate the
underlying principles of policy or to master the
198
CANADIAN NATIONAL UNITY
details of legislation; but they can pass judg-
ment on the concrete issues usually discussed,
and they can distinguish between the leader and
the demagogue, at least to the extent of knowing
that a true leader does not raise questions which
he knows, and they know, cannot issue in legisla-
tion. The evil to be overcome is not ignorance in
the people, but apathy. The love of self-govern-
ment, for its own sake, apart from the immediate
benefits it confers, is not a strong passion in any
people. It is stronger in a small nation than in
one with a large population, because when there
are many millions of electors, each citizen feels
that his lone voice counts for very little. Hence
it is of vital importance to Canada that the sense
of public responsibility be developed now, while
it is yet a small nation, especially since the State
is everywhere assuming control in spheres of life
which were formerly left to personal discretion.
Modern conditions have made this extension of
State action necessary as a reaction against
excessive individualism ; but there will soon come
a time when a reaction against excessive State
control will be equally necessary, if the people do
not learn to be vigilant and energetic in the use
of the franchise. It is easy to induce the State
to extend its control. It is difficult to force
the State to relinquish any control it has once
assumed. A vigilant and energetic electorate is
the hope of the future. The problem of the
present is: How can vigilance and intelligent
energy be developed in the electors? I see no
199
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
way except through the moral sense. It is the
conscience that has to be cultivated in its bearing
on public affairs. Mere appeals to prejudice or
to sectional or personal interest will not be
resisted unless the sense of duty turns them aside.
The following circular, issued last year to the
priests of this Diocese, will serve to illustrate
what is meant by an effort to arouse conscience
in the use of the ballot :
" Every priest is free to use his own judgment
in polling his vote as a citizen ; but he is not free
to use his position in the Church for the purpose
of influencing others in favour of any party or
any candidate. As pastor or curate he is politi-
cally neutral. There may be times when the
interests of the Church are involved in the issue ;
but even then it is only the Bishop of the Diocese
who can rightly say what action should be taken.
"The case is different in regard to the moral
duties of citizens in election contests. On these
the pastors should instruct their flocks some Sun-
day before an election, confining their remarks to
the following points :
" ( 1 ) The laws of the country, enacted for the
purpose of safeguarding the freedom and the
purity of elections, are to be obeyed. It is both
our interest and our civic duty to obey them.
"(2) People who have the right to vote should
vote, and vote conscientiously. It is not a matter
to be treated lightly.
"(3) It is a sin to sell one's vote or one's poli-
tical influence for money or for position or any
other private gain. The right to vote is not our
200
CANADIAN NATIONAL UNITY
property. It is essentially a public matter for
the public welfare.
" (4) It is the duty of the elector to seek know-
ledge about the candidates who solicit his vote.
To. vote without knowledge, and simply at the
bidding of others, is not to sell one's vote, but to
give it away. He has no right to make of it a
present to any one. It is his to use for the wel-
fare of his country, and for no other purpose.
This welfare includes educational, religious, fin-
ancial, social, and other public interests."
PARTIES AND RACES
The two political parties which contend for
power in the Dominion have a rightful claim to
be classed as unifying forces. They develop
leaders, promote intercourse between people from
all parts of the Dominion, strive to express the
general mind and needs of the nation, influence
legislation whether in power or in opposition,
and maintain organizations more or less perman-
ent. In other respects they have to be classed as
centrifugal forces. There is a somewhat general
impression among the thoughtful that our party
leaders preach national unity during non-elec-
tion years, and national disruption during elec-
tion contests. This is an exaggerated way of
saying that parties exploit, and therefore develop,
permanent antagonisms among the people for
party purposes. The following paragraph on the
Eiel Question is taken from Volume 30 of the
" Chronicles of Canada " :
201
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
" Had it been only the resistance offered by the
Red River settlers to Canadian authority which
was in question in the seventies, time would soon
have brought understanding and forgetfulness.
That the half-breed settlers had just grievances,
that the Canadian authorities bungled badly
their first experiment in national expansion, all
would have admitted. But the shooting in cold
blood of Thomas Scott, an Orangeman of Ontario,
by the order of Louis Kiel, lit fires of passion that
would not easily die. And politicians fanned the
flames for party ends. Neither party was guilt-
less. At the outset in Ontario the Liberals played
to the Orange gallery, while in Quebec they
appealed to French prejudices. Sir John Mac-
donald could attack Blake for frightening Riel
out of the country and beyond the reach of jus-
tice, by offers of reward for his arrest, at the very
time that Macdonald himself was paying Riel out
of the secret service fund to keep away from
Canada."
Sir John A. Macdonald was able in his day to
secure majorities both in Ontario and Quebec.
No leader, even with his skill and personality,
could achieve that result now.
Politicians follow the lines of least resistance
when they appeal for support to racial, religious,
sectional, or personal interests. It is easier to
accomplish their purpose of party success in this
way.
PRESENT STATE OF REPRESENTATIVE
GOVERNMENT
One result is that representative government is
falling into disrepute. How often one hears the
202
CANADIAN NATIONAL UNITY
remark, in reference to questions which trouble
the body politic, that they could be settled if poli-
ticians would only refrain from using them as
party weapons ! In a congress held a few years
ago in Quebec, one of the speakers, Mr. Fortier,
of Montreal, cited a series of careful studies
which had been published regarding the agricul-
tural and industrial development of the Province
of Quebec, and asked why such accumulated
knowledge was not utilized. Part of his answer
is:
" Our energies have been wasted in idiotic party
conflicts in wrhich men of reputed intelligence
discussed with breathless interest the grave prob-
lem as to whether Peter was a little more grit or
a little more tory than Paul, whether candidate
Francis would give a bridge to the county, or
whether the bridge should give the county to
candidate Francis."
On December 16th, 1916, Mr. J. W. Flavelle,
Chairman of the Imperial Munitions Board,
addressed these serious words to the Ottawa
Canadian Club :
"There are grave conditions in this country.
We have extreme party spirit everywhere. I have
lived in Ottawa for a year. I could not conceive
of any condition where party politics were more
bitter or more insistent than they have been in
the official circles in the City of Ottawa during
this last year, as if it were a horse race that was
on in place of a great war in which the very life
of the nation is in peril. We have to live together
in this country. We have one-third of our com-
munity who are French Canadian people. We
203
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
of British birth and British aspiration and Brit-
ish temper cannot sink them in the St. Lawrence
and have them disappear. Nor can they — not-
withstanding their viewpoint — live in a country
other than with us. And God forgive us for party
strife or sectionalism or any other fault whereby
we fail to help one another to understand our
points of view, and work one with the other for
the common good of the State. And I would like
to say . . . that if a general election is held
shortly, a racial cry will be inevitable and Eng-
lish will be pitted against French and French
against English, and there will follow years of
bitterness."
Modern Democracy did not come into existence
because leading citizens in different countries
devised it, advocated it, and fought for it. It
came because the masses of the people were
becoming tired of being drawn or driven into
wars, or agitated or oppressed, by small groups
of ruling men who sought additional territory or
revenge for an insult or an advantageous royal
marriage or national unity in religion under State
control or a royal succession of their selection,
or some other enterprise or policy remotest from
the minds of the men in the ranks. The masses
aimed at no definite form of government. They
moved forward instinctively rather than ration-
ally, in some countries through blood and slaugh-
ter, away from respect for " superior classes " in
society and from reverence for blood and birth,
towards equality of rights and opportunities.
The outcome is popular, representative govern-
204
CANADIAN NATIONAL UNITY
ment, with suffrage more or less universal. The
assumption is that representative government
with frequent elections is identical with self-gov-
ernment. So it would be if all the people took
an energetic and conscientious interest in the
selection and the work of their representatives.
But the masses find that absolute monarchy,
aristocracy, and plutocracy are not the only
powers capable of drawing or driving them
hither and thither. Their own selfish desires,
played upon by groups of practised political
manipulators, build up walls between them and
self-government, and, in our case, between Can-
ada and national unity. In meeting this new
obstacle in the way of progress in democracy, the
masses cannot expect much aid from the wealthy,
who love their own ease, their own exclusiveness,
their own gains, and have little time or thought
for what they call " dirty politics," though there
are some indications of a change for the better.
They need an infusion of moral earnestness to
enable them to take up the burdens of citizenship
in a democratic form of society. From whatever
point of view we look at the problem the inevit-
able conclusion is the need of the masses to be
imbued with the teaching of St. Paul that " all
power is from God." Whether the power is exer-
cised in the polling booth or in the Cabinet or on
the Bench, it is the use of a divine gift for the
common good. It is a trust from God for the
nation. It involves duties as well as rights, and
devotion to these duties is the measure of one's
205
THE NEW EKA IN CANADA
patriotism. There is the duty of knowledge to
ascertain what is best for the nation as a whole.
There is the duty of vigilance to know what the
elected representatives are doing. And there is
the duty as elector to vote only for those who have
the patriotism of conscientious regard for the
nation's welfare. To learn these duties and prac-
tise them is the way of escape from groups of
politicians who play upon sectional or racial
prejudices, and it is not an impossible task for
disinterested leaders to impress these duties upon
the minds of the people.
OTHER CENTRIFUGAL FORCES
The problem of East and West in Canada is
dealt with elsewhere in this collection of essays.
The unequal distribution of wealth can become
a disturbing, and even a disintegrating, factor in
any nation. It is said that in the United States
two per cent, of the people own sixty per cent, of
the wealth, and sixty-five per cent, of the people
own five per cent, of the wealth. Canada is moving
in the same direction. " Captains of industry," as
they are called, are necessary in modern methods
of production. It is not from them as such that
there is danger of plutocracy, but from the mani-
pulators of the money markets. The kings of
high finance may form an unseen government
behind the visible government of a country ; and
this unseen influence tends to become inter-
national. One can imagine Canada becoming
more subject to Wall Street than to Downing
206
CANADIAN NATIONAL UNITY
Street. Armies have invaded different coun-
tries at the bidding of high finance. The finan-
cial ideal is a hard-working, peaceful, well-fed
humanity producing material for the activities of
the stock exchanges. It is non-moral, non-patri-
otic, non-intellectual. The J. P. Morgan syndi-
cate of New York received securities to the
value of sixty-three and a half million dollars
($63,500,000) for organizing the United States
Steel Corporation. This was the commission
secured through interlocking directorates, and,
since the Steel Corporation controlled the market,
it could and did raise the price of its products,
thus reducing the purchase-value of wages. In
1908 the amount of "water" in the American
Tobacco Company was sixty-six million dollars.
During the twelve years ending in 1910 the Pull-
man Company issued one hundred millions in
stock dividends. By centralization, stock-water-
ing, interlocking directorates, and other devices,
groups of financiers disturb the distribution of
wealth and widen the distance between employer
and employed, until the antagonism between capi-
tal and labour becomes a danger to the nation.
Reforms through legislation can help, but cannot
cure. The root of the social problem is in the
heart of man, his ideal of life, his ideas of wel-
fare, and his attitude towards God and fellow-
men. The choice of the future seems to be either
a return to Christian living in the use of wealth
or a relapse to barbarism.
+ Neil McNeil,
Archbishop of Toronto.
207
WOMEN
AND
THE
NATION
" WHEN I HAVE BORNE IN MEMORY "
WHEN I have borne in memory what has tamed
Great Nations, how ennobling thoughts depart
When men change swords for ledgers, and desert
The student's bower for gold, some fears unnamed
I had, my Country! — am I to be blamed?
Now, when I think of thee, and what thou art,
Verily, in the 'bottom of my heart,
Of those unfilial fears I am ashamed.
For dearly must we prize thee; we who find
In thee a bulwark for the cause of men :
And I by my affection was beguiled :
What wonder if a Poet now and then,
Among the many movements of his mind,
Felt for thee as a lover or a child!
— W. Wordsworth.
WOMEN AND THE NATION
IT may be news to the Government that the
women of Canada experienced some disappoint-
ment when they were not included in the scheme
for National Service registration at the beginning
of 1917. So far as the writer knows, there has
been no instance of a united expression of regret
from any organization or meeting of women. But,
without doubt, the average Canadian woman, as
an individual, wished that she had been called
on, to this extent at least, for service by the Gov-
ernment. If cards had been sent to men and
women at the same time, the women would have
been so glad to reply that the response from the
men would have been increased. No wife or
mother, who had sent in her own card, would
have allowed her husband or son to overlook his.
But, although disappointed at the time, these
women are not discouraged. Hope by Canadian
women for some form of recognized national ser-
vice will last as long as the war.
PAID WORKERS NOT THE CHIEF CONCERN
If a question is addressed to the Government
as to whether they are preparing to make the best
use of women in national service, the Government
in turn may inquire of what use, which would be
helped by a registration, women can be to the
nation at such a time as this? The problem is
perpetually recurring in Canadian affairs as to
m
THE NEW EKA IN CANADA
how far new work should be undertaken by the
Government, or if it should continue to be left
in the main to private organization. An effort*
has recently been made to outline the economic
and social contribution to the country which may
be undertaken by Canadian women as private
individuals. Some statistics and conclusions from
this survey may help to show ways in which
women can be of greater service to the nation
through recognition by the Government of the
national character of their work. It is unlikely
that good statesmanship will assert that the Gov-
ernment has no concern with the work of women
except when they are employed in factories or
other gainful occupations. The Government is
concerned, of course, with the well-being of paid
employees. But the unpaid employments of
women are of vast importance to the state. No
reasonable comparison can be made between the
value of the paid and the unpaid occupations of
women. The unpaid occupations of women are
worth as much to the state as the paid occupa-
tions of men.
Women will doubtless always do the bulk of
their work as private individuals. But the good
will and work of the individual woman must be
linked up with the good will and work of the
multitude of women workers in primary employ-
ments, if the state is to move forward in a time
of crisis. Women should improve their own
primary employments. They cannot do so to
* " The Woman — Bless Her," by Marjory MacMurchy.
WOMEN AND THE NATION
the utmost without recognition by the Gov-
ernment that these primary employments are
national service, nor can women make any great
advance in the efficiency of these employments
without Government co-operation.
According to the Census of 1911, which may
be accepted as a basis for this discussion, there
are in Canada 3,387,771 women. Those between
fifteen and eighty years of age, which includes
practically the whole population of women cap-
able of work, number 2,186,000. Married women
number 1,251,182: single women, from fifteen to
eighty, 746,000. In realizing the importance of the
class of married women, it should be remembered
that the majority of single women are between
fifteen and thirty-five, and that from eighty to
ninety per cent, of these women will marry. About
250,000 Canadian women belong to national
organizations of women. Between five and six
thousand are graduates of universities. Women
in paid occupations number 364,821. Reckoning
together married women and women in paid
occupations, and even allowing for the fact that
some married women are also in paid employ-
ment, it must be recognized that the leisured
class of women in Canada is very small. A fair
estimate places this leisured class at 50,000.
Allowance should be made for the fact that a
large number of single women are fully engaged
in work at home, although they are not in paid
employment. Take, for instance, the number of
daughters of farmers who live at home and are
213
THE NEW EKA IN CANADA
not returned in the census as having any occupa-
tion. It would be absurd to regard this class of
single women as belonging to a leisured class.
Broadly speaking, therefore, we have in Can-
ada: married women, engaged in home-making
and the care of children ; women in paid employ-
ments ; single women working at home ; a small
leisured class; and girls and young women who
are in training at schools and universities. Every
woman can place herself readily in her own class,
and should be able to identify her occupation, or
should recognize that she is making no economic
contribution to the life of the nation.
Before discussing the employment which would
be most useful to the state for women in any of
these classes, several points should be noted with
regard to conditions of work affecting Canadian
women.
The first is that it is advisable to take a practi-
cal view in the choice of work. Anyone who is
looking for employment should choose an occu-
pation in which she has, by natural bent or
training, an advantage over others.
A second point to be considered is the differ-
ence in war work for women in Canada and in
Great Britain. Although the war has made work
advisable and indeed necessary for everyone,
including women of leisure, any change in the
employment of wromen in Canada is compara-
tively slight. Few women, apparently, who were
not at work before the war have gone into paid
employment since the war began. This condition
214
WOMEN AND THE NATION
is largely explained by the fact that the great
majority of Canadian women are either employed
in home-making or the care of children, or they
are already in paid employment.
The unemployed employable women of Canada
are an extremely restricted class. If you go out
into the streets of a Canadian city on a flag-sell-
ing day, you will see them, some hundreds of
girls and young women, selling flags ; these repre-
sent our unemployed employable class. In addi-
tion, the leisured class consists of a few single
women living at home or boarding, a few married
Women who do not keep house, and a few widows
who have no home responsibilities.
WOMEN IN SKILLED EMPLOYMENTS
Skilled work for women is regarded with
favour in Canada, but work involving physical
strain is looked on with disfavour. Munition
work is accepted as being so essentially war work
of the most necessary kind that not many Cana-
dian fathers and mothers would refuse to let their
daughters engage in it. It is plain, however, that
a large number of Canadian employers would
rather not have women in munition factories if
they can get on without them. What has hap-
pened in Canada is not only that the number of
women working on munitions has grown consid-
erably, but also that numbers of women with
some leisure, or at some sacrifice of other employ-
ment, have offered themselves for munition work,
and have been disappointed.
215
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
In the same way the Canadian standard of
well-being, which is against physical strain for
women, reacts unfavourably in the case of ordin-
ary agricultural employment. All agricultural
employment, however, of a lighter kind is looked
on with approval. A few women manage farms,
and this also is regarded favourably. But actual
field work for women does not, under present
conditions, please Canadians. So far nothing in
the war has changed this point of view. The
only gain in women's employment which can be
readily seen as resulting from the war is that
skilled employment for women has still further
increased in general favour.
Canadian women themselves, by their efforts
and good judgment, their willingness and fitness,
should see that their opportunities for paid
employment are maintained, and extended. This
is one of the economic contributions which they
can make both during the war and afterwards.
Outside the unpaid primary employments, the
first great opportunity, therefore, for Canadian
women in national service is in skilled work, and
here three classes of women should find their
duty. Women who belong to the small leisured
class, and girls and young women in training,
will do well to fit themselves for skilled employ-
ment. No country in the world offers a more
wonderful opportunity to women in occupations
which require training. Even before the war it
had become evident that no Canadian girl should
be allowed to grow up without a skilled employ-
ee
WOMEN AND THE NATION
ment of some kind. Since the war began the duty
of patriotic women of the leisured class to con-
sider seriously the question of training them-
selves for skilled work has become evident. It
is a mistake to suppose that a woman needs to be
very young in order to acquire skill in any
occupation.
Here it should be pointed out that no other
occupations for women are as greatly in need
of training as the primary employments of home-
making and the care of children. If it can be
said truly that it is impossible for the nation
to do its best unless women of leisure become
employed, it is a far more important truth that
it is impossible for the contribution of women to
reach its highest point if the primary employ-
ments of women remain unskilled.
Again, if educated and trained women fail
to study the big fields of employments open to
women, the opportunity for women's economic
and social contribution cannot be realized.
Examples of these largest paid employments
are domestic work and factory work. Thousands
of women are at work in these occupations. But
practically no women economists or sociologists
are studying them. Where is the trained and
certificated household worker that we ought to
have? Only women can make her evolution pos-
sible. One of the largest employments is fac-
tory work; we know little about its effects on
women. One class of factory may produce one
type of worker. Another may make a different
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
type, not nearly as satisfactory from the point
of view of the primary employments of women.
Young women who are receiving a university
training should prepare themselves to enter
higher positions in such large women's employ-
ments. What woman knows, for instance, how
women are engaged as factory hands or how they
are discharged; or how long they hold their
positions or why they leave them? Women who
undertake such work as that of making all this
clear can render great economic service.
It is scarcely necessary to point out that it is
to the advantage of any woman in paid employ-
ment to be a skilled worker. To do skilled work
is also the best way in which she can serve the
community. Preparation for and the carrying
out of skilled employment is, therefore, the duty
of the average member of three classes of Cana-
dian women : the leisured class, the class in train-
ing, and the class of women already in paid
employments.
There remains the great class of married
women. The national organizations of Canadian
women prove that middle-aged married women
have a certain amount of leisure, that they crave
employment, and that they have a genius for
organization.
The war work of the past three years has con-
vinced these women that there is a great good
in productive work undertaken in co-operation
with other women. They are not willing to go
back to pre-war conditions. They continually
218
WOMEN AND THE NATION
ask themselves what arrangements can be made
so that they may continue to do some useful pro-
ductive work. " The work of my hands has proved
to be of value/' these women say. " I am not will-
ing to lose this feeling of satisfaction. This pro-
ductive work and this co-operation with others
for effective ends should be continued."
TRAINING IN PRIMARY EMPLOYMENTS
If these women would make the care of the
home, and the care of children, skilled employ-
ments, thus placing them on a higher level of
efficiency than is possible in the position which
these primary employments now occupy, they
will give inestimable service to the nation.
These are the employments in which they have
an advantage over every other worker. Since
Canadian women have a genius for organization,
why should not their organizations undertake
the study of skilled work in the care of children
and household economics? Let them study the
relation between the purchasing skill of home-
makers and the economic prosperity of the coun-
try. Let them ask the Government to recognize
and deal with the needs of home-makers and their
households. Is the price of living at home to soar
unchecked? It cannot be made a fair price until
the woman at home who controls the family
budget knows what that budget means multi-
plied by all the other budgets of home-making
women, and aims at securing the best interests
of the consumer.
219
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
To make these occupations skilled employ-
ments, the woman at home must interest herself
in the education of girls. The girl should be
taught what she needs to know. But it is lament-
ably true that the average Canadian girl is not,
under present conditions, properly trained for
home-making and the care of children. If the
Canadian woman will acquire this training, if
she will make her own occupations skilled
employments, and if she will see that Canadian
girls are taught what they need to know — remem-
ber over eighty per cent, of all girls marry — she
will have advanced immeasurably her country's
usefulness and happiness.
CARE OF CHILDREN AS A NATIONAL INTEREST
While we believe that Canadian women are
ready for this great advance, it is not to be sup-
posed that women are wholly responsible for the
unskilled state of home employments. They have
not framed the present system of education. For
this, as in everything else, men and women
together, the whole fabric of society, are respon-
sible. Nor can women by themselves make
the needed advance. They would be attempting
the impossible unless strongly supported by
public opinion. Why should not Federal and
Provincial Governments establish Home Depart-
ments to look after the development and well-
being of the work of the home? In no govern-
ment department is adequate attention paid to
the care of children as a national interest. Nor
220
WOMEN AND THE NATION
should such things be regarded as matters affect-
ing women only. The home and children are the
joint business of men and women. A government
department which will lead in the better care
of children and will represent the interests of
households as consumers may be part of the
answer to the desire of Canadian women that
their work should be organized along the lines
of national service.
To help in this and in all other work in which
women have a part we need leaders among
women. But they must be women of training
and skill, able to do work up to the level of a
high world standard. Their training should be
accurate and scientific; and in their leadership,
while they should be able to give the happy
impulses of character and personality, they
should add as well the definite power of the
efficient worker, whose absence has been so far
a drawback to the women of Canada. What
women in Canada have to do to-day is not the
work of a man, but the work of a woman, in
co-operation with men at work.
It surely must be regarded as a sign of lack of
progress that the two most important employ-
ments for women, home-making and the care of
children, are not recognized as occupations by
the census. They are the most important employ-
ments for women in every way. In one sense the
state may be said to exist for its homes ; and the
greatest potential wealth of any country is its
children. These truths are generally recognized,
221
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
and this makes it the more remarkable that little
effort has been made to introduce skill and train-
ing into these women's employments. If a girl
becomes a stenographer she will receive more
careful and precise instruction for her work than
the woman has received who is caring for chil-
dren— unless that woman is a trained nurse.
Graduate nurses are the only class of women who
have the benefit of such training.
A plea then is made that, for the economic and
social well being of the nation, girls and women
should be trained for the employments of home-
making and the care of children. Over eighty per
cent. — possibly ninety per cent. — of all women
are engaged at some time in their lives in one or
the other, or in both, of these occupations.
While business life has been revolutionized,
this change is not more thorough than that in
the economic position of the woman at home.
The Canadian income last year was estimated at
two billions. It is admitted that women spent
one-half of this income. Few, indeed, of these
women knew that they were exercising any eco-
nomic effect on the life of the country, outside
their own houses or apartments. The successful
business of the country, which consists of the
proper balance between producing, manufactur-
ing, exporting, importing, the home and the
foreign market, borrowing, paying and lending,
can hardly be carried on successfully if the
woman wTho buys is ignored. Is the farmer
important? the manufacturer? the banker? the
233
WOMEN AND THE NATION
wholesale merchant? So is the woman. Nor is
her place as an economic factor to be put at the
end of the list. But we do not know that anyone
is taking the trouble to inform her of national
economics, or of the importance of what she can
do to maintain and build the solvency and
strength of the country.
PRIMARY EMPLOYMENTS ARE NATIONAL SERVICE
Many of what were once the industries of the
home are now organized in factories outside the
home, and the woman worker in paid employ-
ment, generally speaking, has only followed her
home work when she is employed in a factory.
But in the factory her importance as a paid
worker is recognized and she receives a more or
less thorough training for her work. In some
cases at least she is under the impression that
she is more important economically to the coun-
try when she is doing paid work than she would
be if she were making a home. It is difficult to
see how the right balance of importance is to be
preserved in the judgment of communities unless
there is some form of government recognition of
the national service involved in the two primary
employments of women.
Two recommendations of the Ontario Com-
mission on Unemployment, with regard to the
training of girls and the effect of paid employ-
ment on the standing of the home employments,
show that these vital questions' are intimately
223
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
associated with the prosperity and well-being of
the nation.
The first of the recommendations is : " That
practical education be more fully provided for
girls in the schools of the Province, and that
their training should include the study of food
values, cooking, health, physical training, instruc-
tion in the use of money, thrift, home economics,
and the care of children, some knowledge of the
making of clothes, and other practical matters,
such as gardening and the advantage of self-help
clubs."
A further recommendation deals with the
standing of the home employments : " That since
changes resulting from the development of many
paid occupations are tending to interfere seri-
ously with the position held by home-making
employments, recognition should be given by
educational authorities and the state to home-
making and the care of children as women's occu-
pations which require training, skill and a high
degree of efficiency. Your Commissioners believe
that such recognition will be to the advantage of
home-making and wage-earning occupations and
to the community."
The industrial employment of women is impor-
tant. Their Red Cross and patriotic work is
essential to the carrying on of the war. Their
help in munitions is useful and desirable. They
are aiding and will aid more extensively in agri-
cultural production. But the Government and
the nation must grasp the fact that the great
224:
WOMEN AND THE NATION
employments of women, in comparison with
which all other women's employments appear
insignificant, are home-making and the care of
children. The well-being of the nation needs as
never before better cared-for children. The way
in which money is spent is more vital at the
present time than it has ever been. The country
does not wish its women to suppose that they are
more important economically when employed in
factories than when they are in the homes of
Canada.
THE GOVERNMENT AND THE WORK OF WOMEN
These home employments of women have been
individualistic to a singular degree. The hour
has struck when their national character requires
that the Government should recognize the neces-
sity for an increase in their efficiency. The right
education of girls is in the hands of the pro-
vinces ; but technical education is encouraged by
the Federal Government, and this is education for
the employment of half the nation. The establish-
ment by the Federal Government of a Department
of Home Economics, with similar departments in
the provinces, and the further organization of
Home-makers' Clubs for housewives in towns and
cities, as well as in the country, would bring into
direct connection with the Government women
whose work is vital to the health and happiness,
and in no small measure the progress, of the com-
munity. Men and women together make the
nation. National questions, such as child wel-
15 225
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
fare, national health, the food supply, national
economy and national unity, women's employ-
ments, and education, cannot be dealt with except
through the intelligent co-operation of women.
One may well feel a doubt if any national ques-
tion can be solved to the best advantage unless
the intelligence and work of women are combined
with the intelligence and work of men. Men have
been more fully tested and have been found effi-
cient in public affairs. But it is likely that the
public service of women will follow the same his-
tory of gradual improvement as has been worked
for in the case of men. Such an opportunity for
national service, for all citizens alike, both men
and women, has never been heard of in the world
before, and is hardly likely to occur again, or to
be met with the same spiritual eagerness. Now
is the time for the forward step.
Marjory MacMurchy.
THE
BI-LINGUAL
QUESTION
THE FLOWERS
BUY my English posies!
You that scorn the may,
Won't you greet a friend from home
Half the world away?
Green against the draggled drift,
Faint and frail and first; —
Buy my Northern blood-root
And I'll know where you were nursed :
Robin down the logging-road whistles, " Come to me!"
Spring has found the maple-grove, the sap is running free;
All the winds of Canada call the ploughing-rain.
Take the flower and turn the hour, and kiss your love again !
Far and far our homes are set round the Seven Seas;
Woe for us if we forget, we that hold by these!
Unto each his mother-beach, bloom and bird and land;
Masters of the Seven Seas, oh, love and understand.
Rudyard Kipling.
THE BI-LINGUAL QUESTION
THE FRENCH LANGUAGE IN ONTARIO
IN politics, as in life, things in themselves
trifling often cause more anxiety and heart-
burning than the really great problems. The
bi-lingual question in Ontario affects some
schools in Eastern and Northern Ontario border-
ing on the Province of Quebec and some schools
in or near Sandwich in Western Ontario, where
there is an ancient French settlement. Probably
less than ten thousand children in all are directly
touched by the issue. Yet, so sensitive is the
public mind on questions of language and race
that the two chief provinces of Canada have been
deeply stirred by the strife, and prophets of evil
have gone so far as to say that civil war between
the French and the English elements may be the
outcome of the dispute. Such extravagance of
speech is little suited to the temper of the Cana-
dian people. When the issue is understood it
will be found to have in it nothing so grave that
cannot be settled by the law both of reason and
of the existing constitution of Canada.
In respect to questions of race, as to so many
other things, the Prussian has furnished us an
example of how not to do it. In the Province
of Posen, a part of Prussia's spoils from the
destroyed Kingdom of Poland, the captive people
desired, of course, to have their native Polish as
the language of their schools. This liberty, how-
229
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
ever, Prussia was not willing to concede. A few
years before the great war broke out the power
of Prussia was being used to make the little
children of Posen speak the German language.
Not merely was it to be the language of secular
teaching in the schools, it must be the language
of prayer and, when the children refused to say
the Lord's Prayer in school in the prescribed
German, they were sharply punished. When par-
ents withdrew the children from school, rather
than accept this system, they were arrested, fined
and imprisoned. Every Polish child must be
taught in German, must pray in German, or the
hand of mighty Prussia would be heavy on both
child and parents.
Such methods are certain in the end to fail.
To-day the Polish tongue is all the more dear to
the people of Posen because stern efforts have
been made to limit its use. We may be quite
certain that if, in Canada, the attempt had been
made to force the people of French origin to give
up their speech, the language of France would
now be even more strongly entrenched than it is.
From the beginning, however, the new masters
of Canada placed no limits on the use of the
French language. It was assumed, as a matter
of course, that French might be used. At first,
upon this point, no constitutional guarantees
were either asked or given. When, in 1791,
Lower Canada received a separate constitution
and, for the first time, an elected legislature, the
right to use the French language was so little
230
THE BI-LINGUAL QUESTION
questioned that it was not even mentioned.
From the outset French and English were spoken
with equal freedom in the legislature of Lower
Canada.
HISTORICAL REVIEW
The time came, however, when, during a brief
period, the right to use French was questioned.
Largely as a result of the agitation carried on for
twenty years by the master agitator, Louis
Joseph Papineau, Lower Canada was in 1837
and 1838 the scene of a bitter racial strife. When
the discontented elements took up rebellious
arms, there was an acute crisis. The constitu-
tion of Lower Canada was suspended and the pro-
vince was governed under the despotic authority
of a special Council directed by the Governor.
In the end the legislatures both of Lower and
Upper Canada were abolished and in 1841 the
two provinces were united under a single parlia-
ment. In most decisive terms the Act of Union
provided for the official use of " the English lan-
guage only." From the first, however, this pro-
vision was inoperative. In the debates French
members spoke in French, at their discretion,
and in 1848 the clause was repealed by Act of
the Imperial Parliament. French and English
remained on an equality. French was used freely,
not merely in the proceedings of Parliament, but
also, without protest, in schools in Upper Canada
or wherever there was a French-speaking popula-
tion. " The French is the recognized language of
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
the country as well as the English," wrote on
April 24, 1857, the Rev. Dr. Ryerson, the Super-
intendent of Education in Upper Canada. The
same right was accorded to those who wished to
use German. No hard and fast lines had as yet
been drawn in regard to language in the schools
of the English-speaking province. As late as in
1883 the regulations permitted a knowledge of
French or German grammar to be substituted
for that of English grammar.
When the union under one legislature of the
two Canadian provinces was expanded in 1867
and a federal system was created for the whole
of British North America, we have for the first
time exact rights defined in respect to the use of
the French language. In all federal official busi-
ness the French and the English language were
placed on a footing of complete equality. In the
business of the Federal Parliament and of the
federal courts any one who chose to use French
was within his rights. Federal laws were to be
issued in both English and French versions. At
the same time, however, limitations were placed
upon this dualism of language. Only the Pro-
vince of Quebec was to be bi-lingual. For that
province alone was it stated that French and
English were on the same footing. By implica-
tion English alone was to be the official language
of the other provinces. Manitoba, however, was
made bi-lingual when it entered the federation in
1870.
232
THE BI-LINGUAL QUESTION
In spite of the limitations placed upon the use
of French by the Federation Act of 1867, for a
long time still no emphasis was placed by the
Department of Education in Ontario on this pro-
vision. The frontier between Ontario and Quebec
is marked by the Ottawa River, and it was inevit-
able that English-speaking people from Ontario
should settle on the Quebec side and French-
speaking people from Quebec on the Ontario side.
The Counties of Prescott and Eussell in Ontario
are bordered by the Ottawa River. In some dis-
tricts the people were almost wholly French in
origin; they spoke that language alone, used it
in their schools and knew and learned no Eng-
lish. This condition had existed prior to the
federation of Canada, and for twenty years after
that event no serious attempt was made to ensure
that English should be the language of the schools
on this frontier and also in the French districts
at Sandwich in Western Ontario. By 1886 atten-
tion had been called to the fact that in some of
the schools of the French districts of Ontario
English was not being taught. The experience
of the working of the new federal union had by
this time emphasized the position of Quebec as a
bi-lingual province in which French was chiefly
spoken and that of Ontario as an English-speak-
ing province. In the provincial courts of Ontario,
in the provincial legislature, in the provincial
schools, it was regarded as beyond question that
English, and English alone, had any rights in
respect to official use. To permit the use of
233
THE NEW EEA IN CANADA
French in the schools was considered as only an
act of courtesy to meet special and transient
conditions.
DEFECTIVE TEACHING OF ENGLISH
By 1885 the question of the English-French
schools had been sharply debated, both in the
legislature of Ontario and on the hustings. The
question lent itself readily to passion and mis-
understanding. Canada is a country in which
the forces of both Protestantism and Roman
Catholicism are so strong that each fears the
power of the other. In the Province of Ontario,
in particular, the Orange Order is powerful and
well-organized, and this order, with the defence
of Protestantism as its reason for existing, was
opposed to the use of the French language in
Ontario, because it was believed that this would
include inevitably an extension of the influence
of the Roman Catholic Church, to which the
French Canadians to a man belonged. The Orange-
men thus looked upon the problem as chiefly one
of religion. In truth, however, the English-speak-
ing Roman Catholics of Ontario were equally reso-
lute opponents of the exclusive use of the French
language in the schools of Ontario. For a long
time a struggle had been going on within the
Roman Catholic Church in Canada between the
English-speaking and the French-speaking ele-
ments. In the Province of Quebec the bishops,
the traditions of the Church, the cast of thought
in ecclesiastical matters, tall were French. In
234
THE BI-LINGUAL QUESTION
Ontario the English-speaking Koman Catholics
were resolved that the dominant influences in
the Church should be as definitely English. It
thus happened that powerful forces, both Pro-
testant and Roman Catholic, impelled the Gov-
ernment of Ontario to strong action. They had
the support of every important influence in the
province. The man in the street had no thought
that Ontario should be anything else than Eng-
lish-speaking; the Orangemen, for religious rea-
sons, held the same opinion, and, by an odd
accident, the Roman Catholics of Irish extraction
also insisted that the principal language of all
the schools should be English.
It was in 1885 that the Department of Educa-
tion of Ontario took definite action to carry out
this policy. Then it was required that in all
schools in the French and German districts the
pupils should be taught to read English. Up to
this time there had been schools in which almost
no word of English was ever heard. The new
policy was carried out with some diligence and,
within four years, that is by 1889, English was
being taught in every school in the French-speak-
ing parts of Eastern Ontario. To carry out this
policy involved, however, a new difficulty. It was
not easy to teach English to pupils whose lan-
guage in daily life was French. Quite obviously
a teacher who knew only English would be unin-
telligible to pupils who knew only French. Thus
it was necessary to have teachers who knew both
languages and could explain English terms to
235
THE NEW EKA IN CANADA
French-speaking pupils. Such teachers were
hard to find. It is unhappily true that in the
rural districts of Ontario the school teacher is
badly paid and that, in consequence, the teachers
are often mere boys and girls, who teach for only
a short period before settling down in some other
vocation. It was hard enough to secure efficient
teachers when they were required to know only
one language ; it seemed impossible, for the small
pay offered, to get teachers who knew two lan-
guages. The Government of Ontario appointed
in 1889 a Commission to report on the problem
of the French language in the schools. The Com-
mission reported that the way to teach English
to French-speaking pupils was by leading them
to converse in English; that to effect this the
teacher must know both languages, and that it
would be necessary to establish a special training
school for such bi-lingual teachers. This task
the Department of Education undertook, and in
1890 it opened at the little village of Plantagenet,
in the County of Russell, a small model school
for the training of the few bi-lingual teachers
who were required. Some thirty prospective
teachers began their training. They were mere
boys and girls, their ages ranging from sixteen
to eighteen, and it was through them that the
problem was to be solved of teaching English in
schools where the language spoken in the homes
of the pupils was French.
Enquiry showed that more than half the
teachers in the bi-lingual schools remained in
236
THE BI-LINGUAL QUESTION
their posts for only about a year. Their work
was necessarily inefficient. Moreover, even of
such teachers, the supply was still inadequate.
Thus it remained true after 1890 that in some
schools the pupils really learned no English. By
this time, too, the French-speaking parents had
become suspicious. They had no objection to the
learning of English by their children, but they
began to fear that this compulsory learning of
English was really the beginning of a serious
attempt to force, in the ordinary relations of life,
the use of the English to replace the French
tongue. Attacks in Ontario on the supposed
designs of the Koman Catholic hierarchy were
met by attacks in Quebec on the supposed designs
of the Orangemen. Some of the Koman Catholic
bishops in Ontario were resolute for limiting the
official use of the French language in schools. A
Commission which reported in 1893 on the state
of the schools in the Counties of Prescott and
Russell noted the fears of the French people and
tried to remove them by showing that the learn-
ing of English was not intended to supplant the
use of French, but rather was designed to
increase the efficiency of those who spoke French,
by enabling them to use also English, the pre-
vailing language in North America. The public
discussions of the question went on. In 1905 the
Liberals, in office for more than thirty years,
were defeated and a Conservative Government
was installed in Ontario. The attacks on the
efficiency of the French-English schools con-
237
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
tinued. A firm policy on the part of the new
Government was demanded by many of its sup-
porters, and in 1910 the preliminary to decisive
action was taken by the appointment of a Com-
mission to report on the whole problem. After
prolonged enquiries the Commissioner, Dr. F. W.
Merchant, an official of the Department of Edu-
cation of Ontario, reported in 1912, and thus the
last stage of the controversy was reached.
Much dispute had raged about the question
whether the language of instruction to French-
speaking pupils should be English or French.
Dr. Merchant's report made clear that pupils
who knew French, but not English, must be
taught in the first two forms in the French lan-
guage. When they reached Form III English
should be the language of instruction. He found
that many, though not all, of the English-French
schools were inefficient. Naturally, when a pupil
had to learn in school not merely the subjects
of instruction but also the language in which
instruction was given, his progress was slow. In
eighty per cent, of the bi-lingual schools in East-
ern Ontario English was not really in use, though
it was superficially studied. The deplorable fact
remained clear that many French-speaking pupils
left the schools with an inadequate equipment for
life. Moreover, some of the schools were isolated
and the attendance was irregular. Certainly, too,
not much could be expected when nearly sixty per
cent, of the teachers had been in their positions
for less than a year. Behind methods lay the
238
THE BI-LINGUAL QUESTION
perennial problem of securing teachers. By this
time training schools had been established at four
points, Ottawa, Sturgeon Falls, Vankleek Hill,
and Sandwich. But the Commissioner asked
anxiously : " Prom what sources are these schools
to secure an attendance?" The teachers must, he
said, come from the French-speaking population.
It happened, however, that bi-lingual young men
and women were in much demand in other walks
of life. The teaching profession was not attract-
ing ambitious young people, and least of all were
they likely to be attracted to troublesome and
backward bi-lingual schools.
THE POLICY OF USING ENGLISH IN ALL SCHOOLS
The Report of Dr. Merchant brought from
the Government of Ontario the action which fin-
ally threw the matter into the courts of law. In
June, 1912, the Department of Education issued
Instruction 17. Controversy on the question of
French in the schools had been acute, and there
is no doubt that the terms of the Instruction
were drastic, though they were somewhat soft-
ened in the revised version issued in 1913. The
Instruction makes clear two features of the
policy of the Government. One was that all
pupils in the schools must learn the English lan-
guage and must begin to study it on entering the
school. The other was that while, with French-
speaking pupils, French might 'be the language
of instruction, this use of French was to be, as
a rule, in Form I only. The inspector might,
239
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
however, authorize the further use of French if
pupils did not understand the English language.
In the elementary schools of Ontario no Latin,
Greek, German or any other foreign language is
taught. French had never been taught, except in
the few French districts. In Great Britain and
the United States the same practice generally
obtains, that foreign languages are not taught in
elementary schools. The practice may be wise or
unwise. Instruction 17 now showed that, as far
as possible, it was to be carried out in the schools
of Ontario. The clause most likely to cause strife
was the one apparently requiring that the French
language might be taught henceforth only in
those schools of Ontario where "French has
hitherto been a subject of study," and it might
be taken by pupils only at the special request of
parents or guardians. The clause caused indig-
nation among the supporters of the use of French,
for it seemed to decree that French might not be
taught in any schools which should be estab-
lished after the Instruction was issued. In no
school might it be taught for more than an hour
a day unless the inspector ordered an increase in
the time. The aim of the regulations seemed to
be to remove from the elementary schools as far
as possible all teaching of a language other than
English. Since Instruction 17 was issued it
has been stated officially that other regulations
of the department, not repealed by Instruction
17, permit the teaching of French and also of
German in any school, new or old, where the
240
THE BI-LINGUAL QUESTION
inspector recommends that this is advisable and
the Department of Education accepts his advice.
Thus, while the plea is justified that the teaching
of French in the schools is restricted, it is not
true that French may not be taught in any school
where it was not already being taught in 1912.
It was not unnatural that the champions of
French should proclaim their alarm and annoy-
ance at the rigour of Instruction 17. French
was the first European language to be used in
Canada and, during more than two hundred years
of the early history of the region which became
the Provinces of Quebec and Ontario, it had an
exclusive sway. It had unquestioned rights in
the federal affairs of Canada and in the Province
of Quebec. It had long been used in schools in
Ontario. Yet now it seemed to alarmists as if a
malignant attempt was being made to banish it
from Ontario as a subject of study. All over the
Province of Quebec the word ran that Ontario
was implacably hostile to the French tongue and
that its defenders must fight for their rights.
To stir up suspicion and anger between peoples
who do not use the same language and who live
remote from each other is never very difficult. It
is a far cry from Toronto to Quebec, the capitals,
nearly six hundred miles apart, of the two pro-
vinces. Toronto is strongly Protestant, domin-
ated in its municipal life by the Orange lodges;
Quebec is as strongly Roman Catholic, the seat
of a Cardinal Archbishop, the central home, dur-
ing more than three centuries, of the missionary
16 241
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
activities in Canada of that Church. In the
Legislature at Toronto French is never heard;
in that at Quebec English is rarely heard, though
the people of Quebec speak English much more
generally than those of Ontario speak French.
ANTAGONISM BETWEEN ONTARIO AND QUEBEC
When the cry went out in the Province of Que-
bec that its sister province, Ontario, was showing
a bitter hostility to the French tongue and forcing
English upon French-speaking children, a sullen
anger extended far. The agitator and the poli-
tician made no attempt to state the case fairly.
What they did was to tell a proud people, tena-
cious of their rights and customs, that Ontario
was an arrogant and fanatical neighbour, bent
on excluding from its borders the use of their
language, the language of a noble literature and
of the great French nation from which they
sprang. Circumstances helped to inflame pas-
sions. In 1911 there was a federal election in
Canada. In provinces other than Quebec the
issue was that of proposed reciprocity in trade
with the United States. In Quebec reciprocity
was half forgotten, and the election turned on
the duty of Canada in respect to the defence of
the British Empire. By 1909 the intention of
Germany to dispute with Britain supremacy on
the sea had caused widespread alarm throughout
the British Empire. The Government of Canada
had, in consequence, . adopted at that time the
plan of creating a Canadian navy to be merged in
242
THE BI-LINGUAL QUESTION
time of war with that of Great Britain. To
this policy of assisting in British defence a new
Nationalist party in Quebec was bitterly opposed.
During the election of 1911 its leaders, MM.
Henri Bourassa and Armand Lavergne, bitterly
attacked the Prime Minister, Sir Wilfrid Laurier,
for his naval policy. He was, they said, the ser-
vile tool of British jingo leaders. Canada was
not called upon to take any share in imperial
wars; she should look after herself if attacked,
but her responsibility did not extend beyond her
own borders. Great Britain was trying to exploit
Canada as a vassal state and to secure Canadian
money and shed Canadian blood in her unjust
and aggressive wars. One frantic Nationalist
talked of shooting holes in the British flag as the
symbol of tyranny and oppression.
Sir Wilfrid Laurier was defeated. A Conser-
vative government came into power and was at
once confronted with the naval question. Since
the crisis was acute and the giving of prompt
help was urgent, the new government of Mr.
Borden laid before Parliament early in 1913 a
proposal to vote $35,000,000 with which three
" Dreadnoughts " should be built for the British
fleet. This Sir Wilfrid Laurier opposed, favour-
ing instead his original design of a Canadian
navy. The proposed vote was defeated by the
Liberal majority in the Senate. Canada did noth-
ing to aid in naval defence, and in Ontario the
cry was raised that this result was due to the
sinister influence of the French Canadian leader,
243
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
Sir Wilfrid Laurier. If Quebec had shown anger
about the language question, Ontario was angry
about the naval question. If Quebec cried
" Bigotry," Ontario cried " Disloyalty." Utter-
ances of extremists in both camps lent sufficient
plausibility to both charges, and a difficult and
dangerous temper was aroused.
Then, in 1914, came the great war. It was soon
clear that Canada would share in it to the utmost.
From one end of Canada to the other was appar-
ent the conviction that human liberty was at
stake, that the whole future of the British Empire
was involved, and that sacrifices on a vast scale
must be confronted. This conviction was deep
and spontaneous. Naturally the populous cen-
tres, where thought is most active, first realized
the facts of the situation, and it was from them
chiefly that were recruited the first battalions to
go overseas. It is also true and quite natural
that the people in Canada who had been born in
Britain and were themselves of British origin
were specially prompt in offering as volunteers.
The western provinces, where many old country
people had settled, soon had under arms a larger
proportion of their male population than had the
eastern provinces. In these eastern provinces,
including Ontario, with a sparse population, for
the most part born in Canada, scattered over a
wide area, and having little knowledge of condi-
tions in Europe, the movement of thought in the
villages and on the farms was slow. A year after
the war had begun there were villages in Ontario
244
THE BI-LINGUAL QUESTION
which were barely aware of the war. In time
steady and tactful effort brought home to the
smallest village the urgency of the need, and the
response was satisfactory. Nova Scotia and New
Brunswick were even slower of movement than
was Ontario, and slowest of all was the Province
of Quebec. Outside of one or two cities, its people
were native to the soil of Canada; they knew
almost nothing of Europe, they read little, and
they were not quick to understand a conflict
remote from their own doors.
The situation in Quebec might have been slowly
improved, as was that in other provinces, without
any recrimination, but for a set of facts which
made Quebec unique. In Quebec alone was there
an active and open propaganda against the tak-
ing by Canada of any part in the war. M. Henri
Bourassa's journal, Le Devoir, carried on a bitter
campaign against sharing in the war. He said
that the chief care of the French Canadians
should be to preserve their own land for their
own enjoyment ; that, since they had no voice in
governing the British Empire, they should think
only of defending Canada ; that British navalism
was as great a menace as German militarism and
that neither England nor Germany had any right
to dominate the world. "What," cried M. Bourassa,
"about British tyranny over Boers, Irish and
French Canadians?" He took up with great vehe-
mence the claim that the French were being
unjustly deprived of rights in Ontario. Thus it
happened that the bi-lingual question came to be
245
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
linked in the minds of many people with venom-
ous attacks on Britain, and the assertion that the
terrible sacrifices of Canada in the war were
unnecessary and mistaken.
THE RACIAL STRIFE IN OTTAWA
It was inevitable that sooner or later Ottawa
should become the storm centre. In the federal
affairs of the capital the two languages and races
met on a footing of perfect equality. The lan-
guage of parliament and of the federal laws and
courts is indifferently French or English. A
large number of the civil servants of the federal
government use French as the language of daily
life. Ottawa, and Hull, lying opposite to the
capital across the Ottawa Kiver, in the Province
of Quebec, have great timber and paper indus-
tries, and in these industries a large number of
French Canadians are employed. Not less than
one-third of the population of Ottawa habitually
speaks French. Thus it happens that though
Ottawa lies in Ontario, the French who live there
feel themselves to be on their own ground, with
full rights to the official use of their own lan-
guage. Canada has not followed the United
States in creating for its capital a federal dis-
trict ruled by the federal government and not
under the control of any province. Ottawa, the
federal capital of Canada, is a lesser city of
Ontario, subject, in respect to its schools, to the
jurisdiction of the government at Toronto and to
the provincial law that English must be taught
246
THE BI-LINGUAL QUESTION
to all pupils in the schools. It was not unnatural
that such a situation should create a certain ten-
sion of feeling. The French Canadians who
worked in Ottawa, but had their homes less than
a mile away across the river at Hull, were under
no compulsion in respect to the learning of Eng-
lish by their children. French, and French alone,
was taught in their schools. Those, however, who
had their homes in Ottawa came under the rule
in Ontario that all the pupils must learn English.
The question could not be divorced from racial
passion. The facility of movement in modern life
has had some unexpected results. In earlier days
it often happened in European states, where
people were isolated in their villages, that two
districts, a few miles apart, would have separate
languages. This caused little inconvenience, for
the inhabitants of the districts rarely mingled.
When, however, railways and steamships made
travel easy, the resultant movement brought dif-
ferent races into contact with each other. Peoples
who do not understand each other are likely to
suspect each other, and the last half of the nine-
teenth century was marked by the outburst all
over Europe of the racial strife which has become
perhaps the most disturbing factor in modern
politics. It was inevitable that a movement,
world- wide in its range, should be felt in Canada.
The Koman Catholic Church was torn by this
strife. For a long time, in some of the semin-
aries for the training of priests in Canada,
French-speaking and English-speaking students
247
THE NEW EEA IN CANADA
had met and studied together with little or no
consciousness of racial discord. In the seminary
at Montreal, kept by the powerful Sulpitian
Order, were educated until recently most of the
English-speaking priests from Ontario. Though
the order was and is wholly French in its affilia-
tion, many an English-speaking priest now work-
ing in the Toronto diocese and in other Roman
Catholic dioceses in Ontario was there trained,
quite unconscious of any problem of race. Within
the last dozen years all this has been changed.
Gradually an atmosphere of vehement racialism
crept into the institution. The English-speaking
students began to feel uncomfortable, and to-day
few English-speaking students from Ontario are
to be found in the seminary.
In Ottawa the educational work of the Church
was in time infected by this spirit. When, about
1860, Ottawa became the capital of Canada, the
Roman Catholic Church founded in the new
centre a university under the control of the
Oblate Fathers. From the first the institution
was on the French rather than the English model.
No sharp distinction was drawn between second-
ary and higher education. Schoolboys, youths
proceeding to a degree in Arts, and mature can-
didates for the priesthood, were all received in
the university and provided for in its teaching.
At first English was the prevailing language, and
a good many members of the faculty were Eng-
lish-speaking. In time, however, racial friction
began. The order which controlled the institu-
248
THE BI-LINGUAL QUESTION
tion was French. The influence of the English-
speaking element was gradually weakened. The
ablest of the English-speaking teachers were sent
to other points and were replaced usually by men
whose language was French. In 1915 came the
final crisis, when all the English-speaking pro-
fessors were dismissed. The institution then
remained almost wholly French in character
and, as a result, English-speaking students were
forced to seek instruction elsewhere.
THE SITUATION IN THE WEST
If in respect to these institutions the French-
speaking element triumphed, in other scenes they
met with failure. The Canadian West had long
been one of the chosen fields of French effort in
Canada. It was a French Canadian explorer,
La Ve>endrye, who, in 1743, penetrated to the
prairie country from a trading post where now
stands Winnipeg, and came at last in sight of the
Rocky Mountains. All over the West French
names on the map bear witness, to this day, to
the labours of the early French discoverers.
When, in 1870, the Province of Manitoba was
created, the French and the English languages
were placed on an equal footing. Time proved
that in Manitoba the French were a minority
steadily declining in power. Still, however, the
highest offices in the Koman Catholic Church
went to French Canadians. The bishop who
ruled at Winnipeg was invariably a French Cana-
dian. In 1890 the Government of the Province
249
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
of Manitoba abolished the official use of French
and also the privileges of the Roman Catholics
in respect to separate schools. Public opinion
was stirred by the fact that not only the French,
who had on historic grounds special privileges
for their language, but newcomers from contin-
ental Europe, claimed the privilege of having
schools in which their own tongue was used. The
climax came in 1916 when the new Liberal gov-
ernment made the use of English compulsory in
all schools. About the same time the strife
between the French-speaking and the English-
speaking elements within the Roman Catholic
Church came to a head. When, in 1916, died the
Roman Catholic archbishop, Mgr. Langevin, his
see was divided, the French-speaking portion was
placed under a French-speaking bishop, while to
the City of Winnipeg was given an English-
speaking bishop.
These incidents illustrate the effect which the
modern world-wide strife of races has produced
in Canada. In the schools of Ottawa the struggle
of races was sharp. In the Province of Ontario,
as the result of a long-established compromise,
the Roman Catholic ratepayers, where their num-
bers warrant it, have the right to establish schools
in which the tenets of the Roman Catholic Church
may be taught. These schools are kept up by a
school tax, levied by the state on Roman Cath-
olics, and are controlled by boards of trustees
elected by the supporters of the schools. The
Government of the Province of Ontario possesses
250
THE BI-LINGUAL QUESTION
the right to inspect and regulate the separate
schools as it does other state schools. As early
as 1866 disputes became acute in Ottawa between
the French-speaking and the English-speaking
Roman Catholics in regard to the separate
schools. In 1886 the Separate School Board
formed itself into two committees, one to control
the French-speaking, the other the English-speak-
ing schools. The law did not recognize such a
division, but it lessened friction and for a long
time worked reasonably well. As a rule the Eng-
lish-speaking committee paid higher salaries to
teachers than did the French-speaking commit-
tee, which drew many teachers from members of
religious orders who worked for a small stipend.
The French supporters outnumbered the English
by more than two to one, but the French rate-
payers belonged largely to the poorer classes and
the English-speaking element paid the greater
share of the taxes.
THE SITUATION IN OTTAWA
When the bi-lingual question became acute the
French committee at Ottawa resented the provi-
sion in the Ontario law that all pupils must be
taught English. As a matter of fact, in some of
the schools of Ottawa, English, if taught at all,
was taught in a manner so perfunctory that it
had no value. The French committee disliked
inspection by the government at Toronto. When,
by an accident of circumstances, the inspector
was a Protestant, they declared it to be insulting
251
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
that a Protestant inspector should be sent to
Eoman Catholic schools. When, however, a
Roman Catholic inspector was appointed, they
refused to admit him to the schools, since he was
certain to find that they were not complying with
the law in respect to the teaching of English. On
October 12, 1912, the pupils of the Garneau school
walked out when an English-speaking inspector
entered. When Instruction 17, requiring that
English should be taught in all schools in
Ontario, was issued in 1912, the Ottawa Board
definitely refused to obey it and remained obstin-
ate in this decision. It appointed its own inspec-
tor, proceeded to get rid of all lay teachers and
to replace them by the less costly service of
members of religious orders, some of whom, under
the regulations in force in Ontario, were not
qualified to teach in the schools. At the same
time the Board proceeded with the plan for build-
ing new schools and for borrowing large sums of
money for this purpose.
The English-speaking element on the Board
protested against these acts of defiance and, in
the end, brought an action at law to restrain the
Board dominated by their French-speaking col-
leagues. Before judgment was given a dramatic
crisis was reached. On April 29, 1914, an injunc-
tion was issued forbidding, until the case was
tried, the Ottawa Board to employ or pay
teachers without legal qualifications or to pass
by-laws for borrowing money, so long as the
provincial regulations were not obeyed. The
Ml
THE BI-LINGUAL QUESTION
answer of the Ottawa Board was to turn out the
whole staff of teachers and to close for a time
every French-English school in Ottawa and leave
seven or eight thousand boys and girls without
any means of instruction. Thus, in obeying the
letter of the injunction, the Board committed a
new act of defiance. A preliminary judgment in
the case was given on September 11, 1914, order-
ing the trustees to reopen the schools and to
employ only legally qualified teachers. When the
case was appealed, the Ontario Court of Appeal
in July, 1915, confirmed the original judgment.
The Ottawa Separate School Board based their
right to defy the authority of the Provincial Gov-
ernment on the ground that the rights of the
separate schools in Ontario were guaranteed by
an Imperial Act of Parliament, the British North
America Act, that the rights of trustees included
the authority to determine what language might
be used in the schools, and that no merely pro-
vincial regulations had any authority to modify
such rights. Believing itself strong in this legal
argument the Board persistently refused to obey
Instruction 17. At last, in 1915, the Legislature
of Ontario passed a bill authorizing the Depart-
ment of Education to hand over to a commission
the powers of the Ottawa Separate School Board
in conducting the schools. On August 4, 1915,
three Commissioners were appointed. They
assumed authority over the Ottawa schools and
refused to accept any teachers not qualified to
teach under the regulations of the Province of
253
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
Ontario. The testing came in the case of the
Misses Deloges, whom the Ottawa Board had
appointed, but who had not the necessary legal
qualifications. When the Commission required
them to withdraw from the school where they had
taught they did so but their pupils retired with
them. There were some stormy scenes in Ottawa.
Mobs composed largely of women refused to per-
mit entry to the schools of the teachers named by
the Commission. Racial passions were all aflame.
Happily, however, there was no religious passion
as the struggle was between persons of the same
faith.
THE JUDGMENT OF THE PRIVY COUNCIL
It was inevitable that appeal should be made to
the highest court in the British Empire, the
Privy Council, and the final decision was given
on November 2, 1916. The result was looked for
with keen expectancy. On the whole the Privy
Council confirmed the action of the Government
of Ontario. It declared, indeed, that the appoint-
ment of the special Commission to control the
Ottawa Separate Schools was ultra vires. The
law, it pointed out, gives to the electors who sup-
port the schools the power to name trustees to
control them. To put a special commission in
charge of the schools would unjustly deprive
those who supported the schools of the right of
control. On the general question, however, of
the right of the government of Ontario to deter-
mine to what extent French, or any other lan-
254
THE BI-LINGUAL QUESTION
guage, might be taught or used in the schools the
Privy Council was emphatic. The rights guaran-
teed by the British North America Act, which
could not be altered by a provincial measure,
were rights in respect to religious teaching, not
in respect to race or language.
This pronouncement of the Privy Council will
be found finally to have settled the bi-lingual
question in Ontario. The controversy made clear
that Ontario was determined that all the chil-
dren in its schools should learn the English
language. To this it is probable that few French
Canadians would have objected had they been
convinced at the same time that encouragement
would be given to those who desired also to know
French. Instruction 17 seemed, however, to have
as an ultimate aim the entire abolition of French
from the primary schools of the Province of
Ontario. It must be admitted, and the Privy
Council expressly stated, that Instruction 17 is
obscurely worded. But persons in authority in
Ontario declare that, if all the pupils learn Eng-
lish, they would be glad that as many as possible
should also learn French, and, considering the
language of Instruction 17, such statements
must be given weight. If new schools are
established in French-speaking communities in
Ontario the use and teaching of French in such
schools will, as a matter of course, be allowed.
The controversy illustrates the danger inher-
ent in appeals to racial and religious passions.
Since Instruction 17 is obscurely worded the
255
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
simplest course would have been so to alter
it that the obscurity should disappear. This
step, however, the government feared to take.
They ,knew that if they changed the regulation
they would be charged with yielding to the clam-
our of those who attacked the policy requiring
all pupils to learn English. The assailants of
the regulation, for their part, read into its
obscure phrasing sinister designs against the
French tongue. Mr. N. A. Belcourt, a Senator
of Canada and a protagonist of the claims for
the French language, urged with passion that the
aim was wholly to proscribe the French lan-
guage in the primary schools, and claimed that
in this respect German was more favoured in
Ontario than French. It is of happy augury
that both Pope Benedict XV and the Koman
Catholic Bishops, French-speaking and English-
speaking, in .the dioceses affected have united
to insist that the law governing questions of lan-
guage in the schools must be respected, and at
the same time to urge the opposing elements to
show mutual consideration and forbearance.
Another effort at conciliation brings the com-
forting reflection that special dangers arouse
special efforts to counteract them. The strained
relations between Quebec and Ontario led to a
movement which has come to be known by the
promising name of the Bonne Entente. In the
autumn of 1916 a group of nearly a hundred men
of affairs from Ontario visited important centres
in Quebec and were received with marked cor-
256
THE BI-LINGUAL QUESTION
diality. At banquets and public meetings mes-
sages of good-will passed from one side to the
other. In January, 1917, the men of Quebec
made a return visit to Ontario. At a banquet in
Toronto, the Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario,
the prime ministers of the two provinces, the
leader of the Liberal Party in Ontario, and many
others in influential positions, dwelt upon the
vital need of unity. Frank statement of the
causes of strife and misunderstanding was not
wanting, but the desire for co-operation domi-
nated all the utterances. Business men find
that peace is advantageous to trade and even the
politician has learned that to stir up racial strife
is to use a two-edged sword which may injure
him who carries it. It is to be hoped that the
current has set strongly towards peace and not
strife.
The judgment of the Privy Council reaches
beyond Ontario. It makes clear that, except in
Quebec, the provincial legislatures have full
authority in respect to the language to be used in
the schools, and it can hardly be doubted that
this will in the end mean that they will authorize
the official use of English and English alone.
From the first this has been the rule in the
United States and so similar are the conditions
of settlement in Canada that here also the same
result is probable. The alternative in the west-
ern provinces is not whether English alone, or
English and French, shall have official recogni-
tion. In the Province of Saskatchewan a formi-
17 257
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
dable section of the population speaks German,
while very few speak French. If French were
given official standing the demand on behalf of
German could not be resisted and after German
would come Ruthenian and other tongues.
It is not, however, to be forgotten that the
French language has a privileged position in
Canada, for in federal affairs it is on a perfect
equality with English. This fact ought to in-
volve that, in the work of education, French
should have a special place. It is a shameful fact
that the average citizen of Ontario knows almost
no word of French. If he spoke the language of
France and had the key to its noble literature
his outlook upon life would be greatly broadened.
There is a vast trade between the two provinces
and it is surely in the interests of the alert busi-
ness man of Ontario that he should know the
language of the people where an important
market is found. Unhappily when French is
taught in the secondary schools of Ontario the
work is usually done as if French were, like
Latin, a dead and not a living tongue. In truth
it should be taught as a spoken language by one
who himself uses it and the aim of instruction
should be facility of speech in French. There is
an old tradition in Ontario that all students who
enter upon a university course must have some
knowledge of Latin. Probably this rule will not
long endure. If, however, compulsory French
were substituted for compulsory Latin the
change would give French a standing in the
258
THE BI-LINGUAL QUESTION
schools in harmony with the bi-lingual character
of federal Canada.
There must be no attempt to deprive the
French-speaking people in Canada of any rights
to the official use of their language which are
guaranteed by the constitution. Nearly three
hundred years ago French martyrs died within
the Province of Ontario in unselfish missionary
work for its pagan and degraded natives. French
pioneers were the first discoverers of the Can-
adian West, French traders began the mighty
commerce of that region. If, in the past, French
and English fought for this fair land, to-day
they are linked together in a common allegiance,
while the parent states stand side by side in a
grim and passionate fight for the freedom of the
world. This is no day for a racial quarrel between
French and English. Probably there never was
a time when the English-speaking world more
admired the spirit of France or was more anxious
to know the language of France than at this
moment. Among all the countries of the world
Canada is unique in having both French and
English as official languages in its national
affairs. It would be well if the Canadian people
should carry out fully the spirit of this compact
and enrich their knowledge and enlarge their
outlook by becoming themselves bi-lingual.
George M. Wrong.
259
OUR
FUTURE
IN THE
EMPIRE
CENTRAL
AUTHORITY
THE GIFTS OF GOD
WHEN God at first made Man,
Having a glass of blessings standing by;
Let us (said He) pour on him all we can:
Let the world's riches, which dispersed lie,
Contract into a span.
So strength first made a way;
Then beauty flow'd, then wisdom, honour, pleasure:
When almost all was out, God made a stay,
Perceiving that alone, of all His treasure.
Rest in the bottom lay.
For if I should (said He)
Bestow this jewel also on my creature,
He would adore my gifts instead of me,
And rest in Nature, not the God of Nature,
So both should losers be.
Yet let him keep the rest,
But keep them with repining restlessness:
Let him be rich and weary, that at least,
If goodness lead him not, yet weariness
May toss him to my breast.
O. Herbert.
OUR FUTURE IN THE EMPIRE :
CENTRAL AUTHORITY
FOR something over twenty years a slowly
increasing number of Canadians have been think-
ing about the relation of Canada to the rest of
the Empire. In our British Democracy changes
come rather slowly, very important changes come
only of more or less obvious urgent necessity.
The years between 1870 and 1880 were, in the
main, devoted to the great constitutional problem
of making the Act of Confederation a reality.
From 1880 to 1910 the physical machinery of
federal unity was worked out by way of great
transcontinental lines of railway, and with this
came the increase of population necessary for
their material justification. During all this
period our eyes were turned inward. The South
African war, momentous and menacing as it
really was, seemed in Canada as very distant and
carried with it little suggestion that the period
of unreciprocated protection and hermit-like re-
moteness from the disturbance of world affairs
was coming to an end.
Our constitutional conflicts of the time before
1870 had left the usual heritage of battle cries.
Warmed and comforted by the phrases of past
struggles we apparently slept. But this period of
thirty years was, after all, not a sleep but a time
of national incubation, and the rude awakening
of 1914 found us with a national life complete
263
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
except for the limits of constitutional develop-
ment that we had set upon ourselves. There is
nothing so soothing to the British mind as the dis-
covery of a word or phrase that has the appear-
ance of expressing our principles and aspira-
tions. But while these seem adequate in periods
of undisturbed quiet, the inevitable new growta
of aspirations, which a vigorous nation matures
under a surface appearance of indifference,
deprives old words and phrases of their signifi-
cance and demands new definitions. For example,
the word autonomy carries with it even now to
some minds an adequate description of the Can-
adian constitutional position and implies a com-
plete political development. Unfortunately it
means neither the one thing nor the other. The
word autonomy means the right of self-govern-
ment, and while it is true that in Canada we have
the right of self-government in purely domestic
affairs, and while we possess indirectly a certain
influence on some of the general policies of the
Empire, we do not possess full national autonomy.
It is simply a fact that we have literally no con-
trol over the policies which determine whether
we shall be at war or at peace. At present we
are at war, actively and enthusiastically, but this
has come through no act of ours, but only through
the fact that we are British.
WHAT IS THE BRITISH EMPIRE ?
It seems impossible to treat the subject of this
essay without being continually halted by words
with an historical or political significance which
264
OUR FUTURE IN THE EMPIRE
makes them the centre of controversy. We meet
at the outset the instinctive dislike that many of
us feel for the historical associations of the word
empire. In point of fact the British Empire is
not an empire at all, but an association of nations
and countries governed for the most part under
the most democratic forms known to history.
Even with regard to India, it is the heartfelt
ambition of the British to develop as soon as may
be whatever can be matured in India in the direc-
tion of democratic control. What we really have
to deal with is not an empire or a project of an
empire, not even a commonwealth, but the project
of a commonwealth. It is absolutely vital to keep
clearly before our minds that the route we take
for a closer union of what we now call Empire
must lead towards a democratic peace-loving
organization.
CENTRALIZATION
Out of the moods of thought that have preceded
the war, and out of the war itself, there has
arisen in Canada a general determination that
after the war the states of the British Common-
wealth must be brought into closer relationship.
From the point of view of one who believes in
the desirability of a real union of the Empire, or,
to use the preferable phrase, the creation of a
genuine British Commonwealth, it is difficult not
to feel that the various methods by which differ-
ent kinds of people suggest the bringing about
of some sort of closer union represent in reality
stages of thought. It is my own conviction that
265
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
what we call co-operation is only a stage, perhaps
a necessary stage, in the inevitable journey to
unification, or, as some critics are fond of describ-
ing it, centralization.
Let us turn for a moment to the present consti-
tution of the Empire. It is in reality an extra-
ordinary combination of extreme centralization
with an almost anarchic lack of co-ordination.
The control of the foreign policy of the Empire
is to-day centralized in a small group of English-
men, and is in fact almost in the hands of two
people, namely, the Prime Minister and the Secre-
tary for Foreign Affairs in the British Cabinet.
These two men are able at a moment's notice,
almost without consultation, to plunge the whole
Empire into war as the result of international
relations about which hardly anybody else has
had the opportunity of knowing anything. The
suggestion that the Governments of the Domin-
ions have a certain influence in foreign politics
is almost frivolous. What knowledge could they
have of the deep game played for years by Ger-
many in the Persian Gulf and the acts of the
British Government in response? Any one of
these might, however, have precipitated war, and
the acts of the British ministers may have been
absolutely necessary to preserve intact the frame-
work of the Empire. Only those who share in the
daily and hourly consultations and decisions in
foreign matters continuously before the Foreign
Office can have any control over the issues of
peace and war. It is simply a fact that nearly
260
OUR FUTURE IN THE EMPIRE
every member of the British Government is dis-
tracted by a thousand details which have no rela-
tion to the great issues of national life. With such
labours he is incapable of giving continuous
thought to any department but his own. The
members of the Cabinet are unable to keep any
salutary check upon the course of the Minister
of Foreign Affairs. Automatically he becomes
a dictator, except when he insists on consultation
and on sharing his responsibility.
THEORIES OF IMPERIAL ORGANIZATION
The books, pamphlets and articles that appear
from time to time on the question of Imperial
organization represent the picture which appears
to each writer of the problem to be faced. Some,
one might almost say, wilfully contract the area
that they are willing to survey. Others feel that
it is wise to attempt to face everything in view
as factors in the settlement. Of works of the
latter kind the most striking instance is Mr.
Lionel Curtis' book, "The Problem of the Com-
monwealth." Whatever exceptions may be taken
to the suggested details that he sets out under
the heading of " Solutions," the book as a whole
is an illuminating statement by a man, frank
and honest, and without a trace of political cun-
ning. He proves, or believes that he proves, that
it is vitally necessary to confront the whole prob-
lem at once, with the implications involved in the
idea of a fully developed British Commonwealth.
He strongly believes that in the last analysis
267
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
Canadians will not ask for what is easy or for
what is only profitable in the material sense. He
is convinced that they will be willing to assume,
along with a full British citizenship, the noble
burden that has rested on Britain. This burden
is no less than that of giving liberty, good gov-
ernment, and the prospect of moral and intellec-
tual growth to all the subjects of the British
Crown. Some of them are so little developed in
political stature that they must be for a time
wards of Britain. To all of them, however, she aims
to give growth in liberty and self-government.
This is certainly a noble vision. It is nothing
less than of a great democratic commonwealth,
constituting in itself a genuine experiment in
internationalism, bridging the East and the West,
and gathering a quarter of the population of the
world into a single living organism, an organism
devoted to progress in the highest sense of the
word. It would have peace within itself, and its
great strength and influence would be steadily
exerted to prevent predatory wars. Though
highly organized and effective it would yet be
flexible enough and catholic enough to provide
room for national differences and for the fullest
development of local characteristics. But Mr.
Curtis has not devoted so much space to the
grandeur of his conception as to neglect the dif-
ficulties involved. Indeed, perhaps the best thing
in the book is that he endeavours to face all diffi-
culties. But many of us will prefer not to outline
a theory of a commonwealth as exhaustive as that
268
OUR FUTURE IN THE EMPIRE
of Mr. Curtis. Mr. Z. A. Lash, in Ms very inter-
esting book, "Defence and Foreign Affairs,"
proceeds on the assumption that a great part
of the structure of government suggested by Mr.
Curtis must be left for future consideration. For
the needs of the immediate future he draws up
a plan, simple and easy to understand. In his
hands the Parliament suggested by Mr. Curtis
becomes a Council charged with a task much
more limited. Variety in point of view is all to
the good. The problem is too intricate to be
solved on the basis of any one theory.
CANADIAN IDEALS
Canada is before all things a democratic coun-
try, and while it is right to insist on what is
ideally best for Canada, it is essential to associate
with this question the further one of what Cana-
dians do desire. Those who have faith in the
high quality of British democracy will be ready
like myself to believe that the two questions can
be not merely associated but safely trusted to
become one. It is of the essence of democracy that
its movement towards an ideal cannot be directed
from without, but must result from a slow pro-
cess of conviction reaching all or a large majority
of the minds of the people. It would not be an
over-estimate to say that, as a whole, Canadians
not only desire to retain their British citizen-
ship, but that they wish to move in the direction
at least of a closer organization. There was per-
haps a moment, so to speak, before the war when
269
THE NEW EEA IN CANADA
some of us feared that the magnificent old Eng-
land which belongs to history had, at least par-
tially, faded, that there were even visible elements
of degeneracy. The war has, however, effaced
all that, and now the desire for closer union with
the Mother Country, as with the other parts of
the Empire, will not be modified by any distrust
in the full manhood of the whole.
After all, when we Canadians talk of taking
our part in an organization of the Empire, we
may remember that this Empire is already ours
as much as it is England's. Westminster belongs
to us, and we are not talking of some exterior
thing to be patched together out of heterogeneous
elements hitherto estranged, but of a much more
intimate process, the process of reorganizing our-
selves so that the spirit of the whole empire may
be expressed more adequately as a unit. The hor-
rible efficiency of the Prussian system represents
a form of centralization that is not true central-
ization, but means only the dominance of a class.
It would be wise to get away from the word
centralization altogether and' to think of the
problem as one of complete co-ordination. A
fine spirit of trust is shown when many Cana-
dians say that, after all, they are prepared to
let the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary
of the British Cabinet continue to be responsible
for the exterior affairs of the Empire. This is
probably the outcome of a quite sound conviction
that after all these two men will in themselves
adequately represent the spirit of a democratic
270
OUR FUTURE IN THE EMPIRE
community, that they are not in the least likely
to enter into outrageous adventures, and that
they have the training and the tradition of the
work to be done. Why, therefore, disturb what
works well?
This spirit of trust is, no doubt, fine. It
belongs, however, rather to the colonial status
than to the mature conception of full self-govern-
ment and of complete citizenship which is grow-
ing up all over the Empire. This deeper view
demands that those who control the issues of
peace and war shall be more immediately repre-
sentative of the British citizens who live in the
outer Empire. It is less true that various solu-
tions are suggested for this problem than that
there are various shades of opinion, from the
belief in a kind of organized alliance to a convic-
tion that the only solution lies in the estab-
lishment of a full unitary state. After all, the
difficulties in all this gradation of solutions,
except the final one, lie about the question of
efficient action. If it were possible to look for-
ward with confidence to the cessation of war, to
the dis-establishment or abolition of all states
with predatory instincts and powerful military
and naval forces, the problem would be infinitely
simpler. It is, however, impossible to believe
that, even with the destruction of the Prussian
menace, the final battle for liberty will have been
won. If one could feel with confidence that when-
ever the liberty of the world may be threatened
all freedom-loving democracies would at once
271
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
stand to arms in its defence, there would perhaps
be less need for the full organization of the forces
of genuine liberty. But we know that the hoped-
for unity is not real. We have seen the great
English-speaking democracy on our south, in face
of the greatest danger to liberty that the world
has ever seen, unable, until the eleventh hour, to
grasp the truth that everything that democracy
holds precious has been in peril. If these things
are true one conclusion seems inevitable. The
problem is urgent and it deserves earnest study.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Among the many things that the great war has
done is to give a distinct stimulus to the study
of history and of the affairs of other countries.
During the last two years many of us have given
more thought to the general affairs of the world
than we have ever done before. The whole sur-
face of human society has been illuminated by
the fires of passion, and never was there a time
when the study of world affairs could be carried
on under such favourable conditions. The com-
prehension of world affairs is so closely asso-
ciated with the problem of a British Common-
wealth that it is interesting to notice the attitude
of a certain section of thoughtful people in Eng-
land towards the British Foreign Office. The
Union of Democratic Control is a body organized
for the purpose of trying to insist upon greater
publicity in the conduct of foreign affairs. It
believes that the more or less direct control that
272
OUR FUTURE IN THE EMPIRE
democracy has come to exercise over domestic
affairs can be extended to the highly expert busi-
ness of the Foreign Office. There are, of course,
various difficulties in the way, but perhaps the
greatest of all is that the vast majority of people
have very little knowledge of the facts upon
which democratic action must be based. Under
the presidency of Lord Bryce, a body called the
" Committee for the Study of Foreign Relations "
is making an earnest effort to make it possible
for people in general to become acquainted with
the problems associated with the various nation-
alities and states involved in the circle of diplo-
matic activities. It is issuing a series of small
books and pamphlets written by informed per-
sons and specially adapted for students, and it is
organizing large numbers of student groups for
the purpose of mutual education. In a small
leaflet on the subject of the Study Circle are the
following remarks :
"The Study Circle, because it recognizes the
responsibility of the ordinary man, is the true
democratic method of gaining knowledge. It is
the co-operative principle applied to adult educa-
tion. When each member of a group contributes
his best on a given subject there is not infre-
quently a resulting idea or series of ideas, quite
new to all the contributors in the discussion.
These results are vital, for they represent true
progress to the group.
"The Study Circle, then, should be so con-
ducted that each contribution to the subject or
course of study shall be based on accurate know-
is 273
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
ledge, and presented with sincerity and judgment.
Herein lies its secret. Conducted in this spirit
the results of the study must serve to bring to all
concerned new light on the subject under discus-
sion, and go far to solve the problems presented."
There is no reason why this system of mutual
education should not be used for any important
subject. At the moment the external affairs of
the nations of the world are clearly the most
important, and it is natural, therefore, that this
system should in the first place be applied to
them.
THE ROUND TABLE STUDIES
Some six or seven years ago the system of study
circles of the same intimate and democratic char-
acter was adopted by an organization called the
Round Table. The energies of this society have
been devoted to the study of the problem of the
British Empire. In each of the great British
Dominions, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa
and Canada, groups have been established, mem-
oranda exchanged and commented upon, and as
time has gone on the group system of each
Dominion has, as was natural, taken on certain
characteristics of its own. Out of these studies
has grown no dogma, but just a conviction that
the present position of the British Empire
involves a vital problem. As to how that prob-
lem can best be solved, members of the Round
Table differ widely. Mr. Curtis is careful, in his
preface, to explain that his baok is in no sense a
274
OUR FUTURE IN THE EMPIRE
statement of the conclusions of the Round Table.
I am one of those who, though full of admiration
for the breadth of vision shown in his book, are
unable to see his " Solutions " are the only, or the
immediately necessary, steps to a unification that
will probably come by rather gradual stages.
There is no subject upon which there has been
more loose writing, loose thinking and loose talk-
ing than the British Empire. It is an old saying
that everybody knows all about religion and poli-
tics. Both of these are high matters and require
knowledge and earnest thought for their compre-
hension. The truly democratic way of arriving
at the settlement of a problem that involves not
only the whole future of the British peoples, but
probably the liberty and progress of the world,
is that as far as possible every man and every
woman who has the reasonable amount of leisure
necessary should try to understand at least the
elements of the subject. In the last analysis the
question of the organization of a great British
Commonwealth has nothing whatever to do with
any party, Conservative or Liberal. It is bigger
than all of them. Above all things we should
refuse to be misled by catchwords and phrases
and the familiar tags that litter the battlefields
of partisan politics.
A. J. Glazebrook.
876
OUR
FUTURE
IN THE
EMPIRE
ALLIANCE
UNDER
THE
CROWN
THE HAPPY HEART
ART thou poor, yet ihast thou golden slumbers?
O sweet content!
Art thou rich, yet Is thy mind perplexed?
O punishment!
Dost thou laugh to see how fools are vexed
To add to golden numbers, golden numbers?
O sweet content! O sweet O sweet content!
Work apace, apace, apace, apace;
Honest labour bears a lovely face;
Then hey nonny nonny, hey nonny nonny!
Canst drink the waters of the crisped spring?
O sweet content!
Swimm'st thou in wealth, yet sink'st in thine own tears?
O punishment!
Then he that patiently want's burden bears
No burden bears, but is a king, a king!
O sweet content! O sweet O sweet content!
Work apace, apace, apace, apace;
Honest labour bears a lovely face;
Then hey nonny nonny, hey nonny nonny!
T. Dckker.
OUR FUTURE IN THE EMPIRE : ALLI-
ANCE UNDER THE CROWN
THE Great War will leave nothing as it found
it. In what manner will it affect the relations
of the British Dominions to one another, and the
position in the world at large of the British Com-
monwealth? There has been long discussion and
debate about the degree and character of the
organization of the British peoples that is desir-
able and practicable; and the war, there is gen-
eral agreement, will bring this question into the
arena of public affairs, and oblige the peoples of
the various Dominions to deal with it by mak-
ing in the not distant future a definite choice
between two great conflicting principles of Empire
organization. The precipitation of this issue is
not wholly the result of the war, but is due in
part to plans carefully laid by powerful social
and political agencies which deem the time
opportune to force a decision. To these the slow
evolution of Empire in response to some inward
and hidden motive has appeared as nothing but
an aimless drifting towards disunion and dis-
aster. Already active before the war, they have
interpreted the manner in which the British
Dominions have played their part in the great
struggle as confirming their fears and strengthen-
ing their resolution to urge wide and fundamental
changes in imperial relationships; though pre-
cisely opposite conclusions are drawn from these
279
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
facts by others and with apparently better rea-
son. The Round Table group has recognized that
the war must lead to a reconsideration of theories
of Empire organization by those who in the past
have shown interest in this question, and that
there is a vast accession of thinking about this
problem by many to whom it was formerly a mat-
ter of little concern. Accordingly, Mr. Lionel
Curtis, who is regarded as the directing mind of
the movement, has taken the field with a definite,
concrete scheme of Empire consolidation set
forth in detail in " The Problem of the Common-
wealth."
The problem of Canada's relationship to the
other overseas Dominions and to the Motherland
is not quite the same as the problem with which
the people of New Zealand, of Australia, and of
South Africa must deal; and between these
Dominions there are divergencies in conditions
which will react upon political opinion. It is
not merely by chance that New Zealand is more
receptive to the Round Table views than are
Canada and South Africa. Canada has a wider
range of alternatives than the other Dominions.
She has the physical basis, the geographical
location, and in some measure the political apti-
tude for complete national independence. The
road is also open to her, if she chooses to walk
in it, to join a kindred and friendly nation, whose
potentialities in wealth and power are not com-
putable. Neither of these conceivable destinies
comes within the scope of this discussion. They
280
OUR FUTURE IN THE EMPIRE
are far below the horizon. If they ever emerge
it will be the result of external pressure forcing
Canada into relations alien to her desires. The
inclination and intention of the great majority
of the Canadian people is to remain a part of
that assemblage of nations and peoples known
under the general title of the British Empire.
THE FUTURE OF CANADA
There are three conceptions of Canada's future
as a British country :
(a) As a province or integral part of a cen-
tralized world-wide Empire, governed from a
centre which must, for the next century at least,
be London. This idea first took form in the
Imperial Federation programme which proposed
to open the British Parliament to proportionate
representation from the Dominions. It was
frankly a proposal to place the resources of the
whole Empire at the disposal of a central govern-
ment in the furtherance of imperialistic policies.
It secured so little support from the overseas
Dominions that as a conscious and definite propa-
ganda it ceased to exist. But the school of
thought of which it was the first tentative expres-
sion has remained in being ; and it makes a new
venture for the fulfilment of its hopes in Mr.
Curtis' scheme. Though dressed out with a new
and attractive terminology it is in spirit the same
proposal.
(6) The development of our present status,
by a continuance of the evolutionary process
281
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
which has been going on for the past eighty
years, to complete nationhood : Canada, a nation
with full sovereign powers, to be linked in per-
petual alliance with the other British nations on
terms of equality, under a common crown, with
a common white citizenship.
(c) The continuance of the colonial status
with a studied renouncement of external obliga-
tions of all kinds. Canada's sole military respon-
sibility under such a status would be defence of
Canadian coasts and territory. A generation ago
this was the common view of Canadians, though
it was held almost unconsciously, because they
had never given thought to the matter of national
responsibilities. Already impaired by the rising
tide of national consciousness this conception of
national duty was blown into the air by the shock
of the war ; but it is still cherished by the Quebec
Nationalist group and commands a small follow-
ing as well in the English provinces. Its advo-
cates will either associate themselves with those
who hold that Canada must be one of the allied
nations or they will, of necessity, become advo-
cates of complete independence, or even of union
with the United States.
It is, of course, undeniable that the character
of the peace to follow the war, which will be de-
termined by the way the war ends, may power-
fully affect the attitude of all the British peoples
towards their relationships with one another. A
complete German victory, carrying with it the
overlordship of the world and the actual occupa-
tion by Germany of those vast empty spaces with-
OUR FUTURE IN THE EMPIRE
in the Empire, which have long inspired the
cupidity of Berlin, is a danger that has passed. It
is, however, conceivable that the war may not go
forward to its logical conclusion, but may be
ended by a peace that will leave the issue between
Prussian militarism and Western Democracy
unsettled. Since this would mean merely the
suspension of the war, the relations, not only of
the British peoples to one another, but of all the
Entente Powers, would be conditioned by the need
of military preparations against the resumption
of the struggle. Under the pressure of fear and
of military necessity the structure of the Empire
might undergo strange modifications.
The discussion of the Empire's future in this
article is based upon the assumption that the
objects of the war, as set forth by the Entente
Powers in their note to the United States Gov-
ernment, will be substantially achieved ; and that
with a re-drawn map of Europe, registering the
crushing of Prussian militarism and the lib-
eration of the enslaved nationalities of central
Europe, the British nations may plan for a future
from which the possibility of war cannot be
entirely excluded, but which is not to be domin-
ated and controlled by the consideration that
preparation for war is our chiefest duty.
OUR NATIONHOOD A TRUE EVOLUTION
The constitutional development of Canada, its
gradual transformation from a conquered colony,
subject to direct control from London, exercised
through military officers, to a self-governing state
283
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
exercising in fact sovereign powers, though still
nominally subordinate, is full of significance to
the student of Imperial consolidation. It has
been a true evolution, proceeding step by step as
though in furtherance of a plan thought out by
some high intelligence, and tending steadily and
surely to a goal lying plain before us. Now with
but a single remaining step to be taken we are
implored to retrace our path to cross-roads which
we passed at least two, and perhaps three, gen-
erations ago. Seventeen years ago Edward Blake,
speaking in the British House of Commons out of
an experience which included the premiership of
the leading province of Canada, membership in a
Dominion Government, the leadership of one of
the great Dominion parties and membership in
the British Parliament, expressed his reasoned
judgment upon the project of a unified Empire
and a central parliament in these words :
" For many years I, for my part, have looked to
conference, to delegation, to correspondence, to
negotiation, to quasi-diplomatic methods, subject
always to the action of free parliaments here and
elsewhere, as the only feasible way of working
the quasi-federal union between the Empire and
the sister nations of Canada and Australia. A
quarter of a century past I dreamed the dream
of imperial parliamentary federation, but many
years ago I came to the conclusion that we had
passed the turning that could lead to that ter-
minus, if ever indeed there was a practicable
road. We have too long and too extensively gone
on the lines of separate action here and elsewhere
284,
OUB FUTURE IN THE EMPIRE
to go back now. Never forget that the good will
on which you depend is due to local freedom, and
would not survive its limitation."
While, at an early date in the history of Canada
as a British possession, a rudimentary measure
of self-government in local affairs was conceded,
the real reins of control were in the hands of an
official group who regarded themselves as the
true custodians of imperial interests and viewed
with cold suspicion or positive enmity every
movement directed towards enlarging the people's
powers of self-government. Every step along this
road they regarded as a danger to their ideal of
a United Empire. We find in those days the
origins of the two schools of thought which are
still in conflict: those who believe there is a
natural incongruity between national sentiment
and imperial policy, and in proportion to their
zeal for an imperial ideal discourage all move-
ments and ideas looking towards the strengthen-
ing of national feeling ; and those who give their
first loyalty to the community to which they
belong, believing that there is no necessary con-
flict of interests between full national develop-
ment and an imperial system dedicated to demo-
cratic purposes.
British officialdom — to a much greater degree
formerly than now — has been sympathetic to the
first view, and from time to time has intervened,
decorously of course, to discourage the movement
towards nationalism. Sir Robert Borden said,
very justly, in 1902 : " Step by step the Colonies
285
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
have advanced towards the position of virtual
independence so far as their internal affairs are
concerned, and in all the important instances the
claim has been made by Canada, has been resisted
at first by the imperial statesmen, and finally has
been conceded, proving an advantage both to the
Mother Country and to the Colonies."
An excellent example of the inability of the
official mind to appreciate the cardinal fact that
in this matter of imperial relationships logic and
" good form " are not the determining factors is
supplied by the speech made in the British House
of Commons in 1844 by Lord Stanley, Colonial
Secretary, in defence of the arbitrary policy then
being pursued by Sir Charles Metcalfe, Governor
of Canada. With inexorable thoroughness he
pointed out that a Governor cannot be respon-
sible at all times both to the Imperial Govern-
ment and to the Canadian Legislature. "Place
the Governor of Canada," he said, " in a state of
absolute dependence on his Council and they
would at once make Canada an independent and
republican colony." His defence, regarded sim-
ply as an argument, was unanswerable ; in point
of fact it is still unanswerable. Nevertheless it
embodies a fatal policy which, if persisted in,
would have ended in the separation of Canada
from Great Britain by force, or in the continu-
ance to this day in British North America of
colonies disunited, backward and discontented.
There would be to-day no Dominion of Canada
pouring out its treasures of men by the hundred
886
OUR FUTURE IN THE EMPIRE
thousand and of money by the hundred million
in defence of the British Empire.
As the political literature of the day bears wit-
ness, Lord Stanley's denial of the practicability
of responsible government and the approval of
his views by Lord John Russell were received
with frantic joy by an element in Canadian life,
strong in numbers and still stronger in social and
financial power. Since then history has repeated
itself many times. Influences radiating from
London have sought from time to time to check
or discourage the march forward of Canadian
nationalism in the supposed interests of empire,
and these have never lacked the zealous co-opera-
tion of strong Canadian groups in Canada. It is
less than three years since an expressed inclina-
tion on the part of a British Cabinet minister,
Winston Churchill, to interfere in the consid-
eration by Canadians of a highly controversial
domestic question was thus joyously welcomed.
Experience has shown, however, that despite the
strength of the ultra-British group, the pro-
gramme of National Canadianism goes forward ;
and a position once occupied is never lost. Even
the greatly threatened and much-abused Naval
Service Act of 1910 is still on the statute book.
To avoid misconception, let me say that I do
not solely credit one political party in Canada
with furthering the policy of National Cana-
dianism. Three of the landmarks along the road
to nationhood were set up by Sir John A. Mac-
donald : the declaration of fiscal independence in
887
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
1859, when the Canadian Government affirmed
" the right of the Canadian Legislature to adjust
the taxation of the people in the way they deemed
best, even if it should unfortunately happen to
meet with the disapproval of the Imperial min-
istry " ; the participation by Canada in the nego-
tiations leading up to the Treaty of Washington
in 1871 ; and the refusal of the suggestion, made
in 1885 by the British Government, that Canada
should send troops to take part in a war which
did not affect the interests of this country. Sir
John A. Macdonald, for his time and generation,
had a statesmanlike conception of true imperial
relationships. In the Confederation debates,
more than fifty years ago, he said : " England will
be able to look to the subordinate nations, Can-
ada and Australia, in alliance with her and
owning allegiance to the same sovereign, who
will assist in enabling her to meet the whole
world in arms, as she has done before." What
was actually in Sir John's mind was revealed in
his attempt to have the confederation of British
American colonies named " the Kingdom of Can-
ada." As Sir John knew, sovereignty is implicit
in a kingdom. This was known, too, to London
officialdom, and they blocked his plan, supposedly
out of deference to United States susceptibilities.
THE CURTIS PLAN
It is not within the scope of this article to
enter into any detailed analysis of the Round
Table scheme, but some brief consideration of
salient characteristics of the plan is necessary.
288
OUR FUTURE IN THE EMPIRE
"The Problem of the Empire" reveals an
almost pathetic desire to respect what are appar-
ently regarded as susceptibilities on the part of
the Dominions overseas so far as this can be
done by skilful phrasing; but with this goes a
studied refusal to consider with sympathy and
understanding the national movement in these
Dominions.
Canadians — let me call them National Cana-
dians to make the definition clear — are not much
concerned with words or with theories ; but they
are vitally concerned with facts. They are amused
by the meticulous care taken by Mr. Curtis to use
terms supposed to be agreeable to them.
Thus Mr. Curtis is careful always to salute
Canada and the other Dominions as nations.
Canadians know that Canada at present is, in
essential qualities, a nation. Operating under a
delegated and defined authority, it has its limi-
tations and its humiliations; but these do not
touch our vital interests. Moreover, Canadians
know that it rests with them to take, at the
opportune moment, the step that will carry them
from partial to complete nationhood. They have
not taken this step because the opportunity did
not arrive, nor was the need urgent. Canadians
have not been and are not impatient at a delay
which leaves Canada in a state of subordination
not seemly for so virile and powerful a people ;
they have been content to await the convenient
season when the formal step which should put
the crown upon a century of constitutional devel-
opment would come naturally, noiselessly, with-
19 289
THE NEW EEA IN CANADA
out shock. But it may be necessary to hasten the
process of orderly evolution, if advantage is to
be taken of our present anomalous condition by
the Curtis plan to urge us to give up the actual
freedom of action and choice, which we now
enjoy, for a new status which, while technically
adding to our stature, actually degrades us from
a state of sovereignty to one of permanent
subordination.
Under the Curtis scheme Canada may be called
a nation ; but the title will not make her a nation.
A nation exercises complete rights of sovereignty
within its boundaries, and externally meets other
nations on terms of complete equality. Under
its present status Canada can meet, roughly, the
first test of nationhood, but not the second.
Under the Curtis scheme Canada will meet
neither of the tests ; she will cease to be a nation.
What is now known as the British Empire is, as
to form, a league of free British nations, bound
together in seemingly haphazard fashion, but in
reality by ties which have withstood, triumph-
antly, the unbelievable strain of Armageddon.
There is one simple touchstone for every scheme
of imperial reorganization : Does it place Cana-
dian lives and Canadian treasure at the disposal
of a body, legislative or executive, which the
people of Canada do not control? If it does it
means that Canada loses those elements of
nationhood which constitute her strength and
becomes, however relatively important, a subor-
dinate part of a newly-constituted organism. No
290
OUR FUTURE IN THE EMPIRE
such scheme can be made acceptable to National
Canadians.
The Curtis proposition is that the British
Empire shall be transformed into the British
Nation, and that Canada shall abandon her
national status and become a province in that
nation. Nation or province? This is the issue.
" The Problem of the Commonwealth " reveals
the fact that its supporters are awake to the diffi-
culty of reconciling their scheme with the aspira-
tions of the Dominions. Very skilfully they dis-
guise its essential character behind a screen of
fair words. Canadians (and the people of the
other Dominions) are told that the adoption of
the plan for a centralized Empire and a com-
mon parliament means an enlargement of their
powers of self-government. What it actually
means is that Canadians will give up their rights
of self-government in the matters that really
affect them for the illusion of securing a measure
of control over the foreign policy of the Empire.
A far more effective measure of control can be
obtained by the Dominions retaining their free-
dom. With it they will preserve their right to
deal as equals, having the strength of their
peoples behind them, with the powers in London,
which, in fact, will continue in charge of foreign
policy, instead of as minorities able, in the last
resort, to register only a futile protest.
The allotting of all questions of trade and
immigration to the exclusive jurisdiction of the
subordinate Dominion parliaments is an expedi-
291
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
ent to escape an inescapable difficulty. It was
but yesterday that our ears were dinned with the
clamour of the contention that the future of the
Empire involved certain disruption and damna-
tion if all the Dominions did not agree to trade
together in conformity with certain theories
strongly held by a powerful school of imperial
reorganizers ; now the adherents of Mr. Curtis,
after weighing and testing Dominion sentiment,
concede that complete autonomy in matters of
trade by each Dominion is necessary to any
scheme of imperial centralization. Immigration
difficulties which have in the past led to con-
flicts between Imperial and Dominion interests
are resolved by a sweep of the pen, remitting
the questions wholly to the jurisdiction of the
Dominion parliaments.
Unfortunately, problems cannot be got rid of
so readily. If the newly constituted Imperial
Parliament is to deal with foreign policy it must,
by the necessities of the case, possess the power
to intervene in matters of trade and immigration
when they threaten the peace of the common-
wealth. In fact, trade and immigration consti-
tute, for the Dominions, their foreign policy; it
is only through questions arising from one or the
other that Canada is in danger of becoming
involved with other countries. Within the past
twenty years Canada has had a serious clash
with Germany over tariff matters, resulting in
a ten years' trade war ; she has also had a diffi-
culty, that might easily have become serious,
OUR FUTURE IN THE EMPIRE
with Japan over Canadian restrictions upon Jap-
anese immigration. Under a centralized form of
Imperial government issues such as these, once
they become possible causes of war, must become
the concern of the central authority, which alone
has the power to make war. Foreign powers
aggrieved by the action of a British Dominion,
will not be placated by a bland assurance from
the Imperial Foreign Minister that the matter is
beyond his jurisdiction. It might thus be demon-
strated that, despite all the verbal safeguards of
the imperial constitution, a subordinate parlia-
ment could involve the Empire in war.
PRACTICAL DIFFICULTIES
In the world of practical affairs it is the
achievable which is the matter of first concern.
The most ingenious paper-made constitution is
not of much utility if it cannot, in the Carlylean
phrase, be made to march. Mr. Curtis' scheme
must, by political methods, be made acceptable
to a majority of the people in each British Domin-
ion before it can become a reality. Has Mr.
Curtis the slightest idea of the political convul-
sions that will attend any serious attempt to
secure the adoption of his imperial constitution
by the various Dominions?
It is incredible to Canadians that the people
of the United Kingdom will ever consent that the
historic parliament at Westminster — the Mother
of Parliaments — should be shorn of its power
and reduced to a glorified legislature, concerned
299
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
with the domestic and municipal concerns of
Great Britain. "I greatly doubt," said Sir
John A. Macdonald, as recorded by his bio-
grapher, Sir Joseph Pope, " that England would
agree that the Parliament which has sat during
so many centuries at Westminster should be made
subsidiary to a federal legislature." This, how-
ever, need not be here discussed at length.
Equally impossible of realization appears to be
that feature of the Curtis scheme which provides
for the subjection of India to a board of direc-
tion, made up of Great Britain and the newer
Dominions. The rule of Great Britain is accept-
able to the diverse races and powers of India.
Between these ancient civilizations there are
links of sympathy and understanding; there is
the acceptance of the historic facts of conquest,
control, responsibilities. To make India, with its
principalities and its powers, its traditions and
its historic loyalties, subordinate to these young
and arrogant democracies, which deny to the
Indians access to their dominions, would be to
solve one imperial problem by creating a far
greater one.
There are local conditions which may reconcile
the Australasian Dominions to merging their
nationhood with a vast new organization which,
despite all disclaimers, is to be essentially mili-
taristic in its spirit and in its outlook; but in
two of the British Dominions, Canada and South
Africa, the political difficulties in the way of the
adoption of the Curtis plan appear to be insuper-
294
OUR FUTUEE IN THE EMPIRE
able. The injection of this issue into the domestic
politics of South Africa will be the signal for
political power to pass from Botha and Smuts to
Hertzog: certainly a remarkable responsibility
this for the Round Table people to assume in
furtherance of their ideal of a centralized empire.
Here in Canada there are certain political facts
that Mr. Curtis and his supporters should have
the moral courage to look squarely in the face.
Their scheme appeals to only a portion — cer-
tainly not to more than half — of the Canadians
of British descent; to the remaining British
Canadians it is anathema, as a denial of cher-
ished political principles. To the non-British
elements, comprising no less than forty-four per
cent, of the population, it makes no appeal,
except to a mere fringe affected by the social
possibilities of the suggested innovation. If this
question is forced into Dominion politics it will
swallow all other issues. Until it is settled every-
thing else will stand aside. The British Cana-
dian community will be rent in twain. A national
party, dedicated to the task of preserving Cana-
dian nationality, will inevitably arise; and the
policies of this party will naturally be determined
in large measure by the non-British elements,
who will constitute a considerable majority of its
membership. The Canadian who would assist in
bringing about so deplorable and dangerous a
state of affairs in pursuit of a chimera is sadly
lacking in political sense and practical vision.
295
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
Because Mr. Curtis is conscious that his plan
will require strong political support to overcome
the reluctance of the Dominions to surrender
their separate national existence, he invokes an
argument which would be very powerful — if it
were rooted in fact. He confronts us with a
momentous choice: "My plan or Separation!"
Unless the people of the Dominions are willing
to give up their national rights to a central par-
liament they " must renounce for ever their status
as British citizens." Indeed ! While Mr. Curtis
was writing these words in England, British sol-
diers from every portion of the far flung Empire,
brought together by a realization of a common
obligation, were dying side by side on the fields
of France — giving for all time the answer to those
of little vision and less faith who are blind to the
glory and the greatness of our voluntary Empire.
Canadians and the people of the other British
Dominions will neither renounce their status as
British citizens nor abdicate their rights of
actual self-government.
THE TRUE LINE OF DEVELOPMENT
It is not necessary, at least at this moment, for
those who hold that the only possible future for
the British Empire is the development of the
great Dominions to complete sovereignty, accom-
panied by a perpetual alliance based upon a com-
mon citizenship, to reply with a counter-plan to
the fully formulated Curtis scheme. They do not
concern themselves much about programmes and
296
OUR FUTURE IN THE EMPIRE
definitions, provided the spirit that makes for
British brotherhood burns clear. If the spirit is
there — as it is : bear witness slopes of Hellespont
and uplands of Picardy ! — such formal undertak-
ings as may be necessary to make it visible to all
men will in due time take shape. How they will
be reached need not be a matter for speculation.
They will be the fruits of conference and consul-
tation in which the Dominions and the Mother-
land will meet as equals; they will embody the
common consent of all ; and they will perpetuate
the conditions of equal independence which gave
them birth. The Colonial Conference grew into
the Imperial Conference; this in time will
develop into that common council which will
co-ordinate the powers of the British people and
make co-operation practicable where co-operation
is desirable.
Within a period of time — brief judged by the
life of nations — the British Commonwealth will
take definite form. It will comprise the British
Empire proper, made up of the United Kingdom
and its dependencies and adjuncts, and what are
known as the Dominions Overseas. These Domin-
ions will probably number only three: Canada,
including Newfoundland ; Australasia, including
New Zealand; and South Africa, embracing by
far the greater part of Africa south of the
equator. These Dominions may themselves be
imperial in some measure ; that is to say, they
may have their own dependencies: Canada pos-
sibly the West Indian Islands; Australasia,
297
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
almost certainly the Pacific Islands; South
Africa, conceivably sub-tropical areas in the dark
continent.
To all the test questions intended to prove the
impossibility of such an arrangement which may
be posed one answer can be made : If the Domin-
ions desire to live together the difficulties that
will arise from time to time will be adjusted ; if
they do not desire to keep together they will sep-
arate, just as they would under the Curtis scheme
if such conditions should arise. On this point
the believers in alliance have no fears; they do
not share the two cardinal hallucinations hugged
by the Curtis adherents : that the tendency of the
British peoples is towards disintegration, and
that this tendency can be checked by formulas.
Foreign policy, which is supposed to be the
irremovable obstacle in the way of an alliance
such as is here suggested, offers no such difficulty
when it is borne in mind that there is to be an
alliance of sovereign nations. A nation can make
war; and when it makes war its allies must
co-operate with it or the alliance ends. In this
alliance the British Empire, using these words
in their strict sense, would be primus inter pares,
and nine-tenths of the problems of foreign policy
would fall within its jurisdiction. But it would
be within the competence of any member of the
alliance, in a matter of prime importance to
itself, to involve the whole Commonwealth in war.
A profound difference between the believers in
Centralization and in Alliance is in their atti-
298
OUR FUTURE IN THE EMPIRE
tude towards war. Behind the scheme of a cen-
tralized empire lies the assumption that war is
an abiding feature of human society, and that
the first duty of nations will always be to be
ready for it. The Alliance will supply ample
facilities for providing for defence and preparing
for war during the continuance of the dark ages,
from which the world has not yet emerged; but
it will be organized in the expectation and the
hope — still cherished by the human heart despite
the fearful disillusionment of this war — that the
ultimate activities of the British nation will be
in the fields of a permanent peace.
John W. Dafoe.
299
SOME
THOUGHTS
ON THE
SUFFRAGE
IN CANADA
HOW SLEEP THE BRAVE
How sleep the Brave who sink to rest
By all their Country's wishes blest!
When Spring, with dewy fingers cold,
Returns to deck their hallow'd mould,
She there shall dress a sweeter sod
Than Fancy's feet have ever trod.
By fairy hands their knell is rung,
By forms unseen their dirge is sung:
There Honour comes, a pilgrim gray,
To bless the turf that wraps their clay,
And Freedom shall awhile repair
To dwell a weeping hermit there!
W. Collins.
SOME THOUGHTS ON THE SUFFRAGE
IN CANADA
The best form of government is that which doth actuate
and dispose every part and member of a state to the com-
mon good. If, instead of concord and interchange and
support, one part seeks to uphold an old form of govern-
ment, and the other part to introduce a new, they will
miserably consume one another. Histories are full of the
calamities of entire states and nations in such cases. It is
doubtless true that time must needs bring about some
alterations. Therefore have those commonwealths been
ever the most durable and perpetual which have often
formed and re-composed themselves according to their first
institution and ordinance. — Pyrn.
What are the qualities that fit a man for the exercise of
a privilege such as the franchise? Self-command, self-
control, respect for order, patience under suffering, con-
fidence in the law, regard for superiors. — Gladstone.
WAR AND CITIZENSHIP
WAR subjects all political institutions to a
searching test. In the life of the individual citi-
zen it separates, as by a touchstone, the alloy of
selfishness from the gold of self-sacrifice, and
stamps a man before the world as a patriot or a
shirker: revealing, though not determining, the
quality of his citizenship. Nor is the test
imposed upon institutions less severe.
To ensure success in war, every political con-
sideration must be subordinated to that of saving
the State ; and both individuals and institutions
303
THE NEW EEA IN CANADA
are justified or condemned according to their con-
tribution to that end. A natural consequence of
this critical condition is a tendency to question
the methods and the aims of institutions which,
in peace time, go unquestioned, if they are not
actively approved. Hence, in time of war, when
actual warfare might have been expected to have
engrossed the entire attention of the nation, there
is also frequently a trying-out of new political,
religious, and social expedients which, it is sup-
posed, might tend to promote efficiency on the
battlefield. Since war compels the State to
demand from every citizen the disposal of his
wealth and health, and even of life itself, ques-
tions naturally arise as to the nature of citizen-
ship, as well as of the grounds upon which the
stupendous claims of the State are based; so
that, though we might expect interest in political
and social questions to be dormant in war-time,
it is not infrequently peculiarly active. Such is
the case to-day in Canada.
The public conscience is uneasy as to political
corruption : the Churches are debating as to their
efficiency and their message: great experiments
in social legislation, such as prohibition, are
being conducted, and there is a growing demand
for a revision of the franchise.
WAR AND THE ENFRANCHISEMENT OF WOMEN
Among the unexpected results of the war, none
has been more surprising than the impetus it has
given to the movement towards the enfranchise-
304
SOME THOUGHTS ON THE SUFFRAGE
ment of women. That women cannot bear arms
in the service of their country has been advanced
frequently as an argument against woman's suf-
frage. But modern war is no affair of selected
armies of males. It is the embattlement of
national forces, in the field and behind the field ;
and this war had not been waged for many weeks
before it became apparent that the activities of
women would have to be reckoned among the
forces of any nation which desired to put forth
its full strength.
The logic of a policy which, in an empire avow-
edly organized for peace, disfranchised one-half
its population because that half was not (sup-
posedly) able to take its share in war, must be
defended by its supporters ; it is here only neces-
sary to record the change of view of some of the
more important of them.
A CHANGE OF HEART
The editor of The Observer frankly renounces
his error. He says : " In the past we have opposed
the claim for the franchise on the ground that
women, by the fact of their sex, were debarred
from bearing a share in the national defence.
We were wrong. Women are bearing their full
share in the hospitals, in the munition factories,
in all the departments of life in which they have
taken men's burdens upon their shoulders in
order to release men for the war. And more yet
in the deep, uncomplaining heroism with which
they are bearing their sorrows and giving their
20 305
THE NEW EEA IN CANADA
all. Then can we any longer deny them the right
to share in the future of the nation whose fate
is entwined with their very heart-strings? We
cannot."
Mr. Asquith, speaking as Prime Minister on
the floor of the House of Commons, said : " Dur-
ing the war, the women of the country have ren-
dered as effective service in the prosecution of
the war as any other class of the community. If
you are going to bring in a new class of electors,
on whatever ground of state service, none of us
can possibly deny their claims."
"Where is the Anti-Suffrage case?" cries the
editor of The Nation. " It is in ruins. The phy-
sical force argument has broken down in the hour
when it seemed to be carrying all before it."
If the case for the enfranchisement of women
rests on the proving of woman's power and will-
ingness to take her part in war, it would appear
to be already won.
A favourite argument of the anti-suffragists has
been that, though women should take their share
in public affairs, they should do so rather by per-
sonal influence than by the casting of the ballot,
although certain incidents which have occurred
during the war have shown the folly and the fate
of women who attempt to translate this theory
into practice.
This is a volte-face from the earlier objection
to women's enfranchisement, which was based on
the theory that women should not have political
power of any kind because their place was in the
306
SOME THOUGHTS ON THE SUFFRAGE
home and their views were represented by their
men folk. The facts of modern industrial and
business life have discredited this theory. How
can those women stay within the home whose
home life is limited to a bedroom in a boarding-
house? How can the house-mother limit her
interests to her own four walls when she finds
that the municipality and the province divide
with herself the management of her household
affairs and the education of her children? And
we have yet to find any considerable number of
male voters who cast their ballots so as to repre-
sent the views of their wives or sisters. Why
should they? The views of the elector himself —
not of his relations or dependants — should be
expressed by his own vote.
The editor of The Spectator, long the champion
of the anti-suffrage party, has recently aban-
doned his active opposition to woman's suffrage
and has adopted a position of reluctant neutral-
ity. Like other neutrals, he is concerned rather
with peace than justice. Mr. Strachey writes:
" On the merits, we are now as before against
the extension of the suffrage to women. We
should therefore feel no slight relief if we learnt
that the majority of women no longer asked for
the franchise, but were content to exercise their
influence indirectly rather than directly — for
surely no one can now doubt the enormous
indirect influence which is wielded by women.
If, however, a majority of the women of this
country press strongly for the vote, and if a
307
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
large number of the male electors are in agree-
ment with them or neutral, then we are bound
to say that we should not hold it wise to disturb
and disunite the country by fighting the matter
a outrance. There are certain causes in regard to
which we would accept no compromise, and would
fight for them to the last ditch. Chief of such
causes .are the maintenance of compulsory ser-
vice and compulsory training for all able-bodied
citizens, and the prevention, through the referen-
dum, of democracy being hamstrung by the caucus
and the party manipulations of representative
government. We admit that before the war we
should have placed, and indeed did place, Female
Suff rage in the catalogue of ' no compromise ' sub-
jects. The war, however, has modified our view
by altering our belief that some fundamental dif-
ference of opinion might arise between the sexes
upon an issue where action must be confined to
the male, i.e., military action. Our acknowledg-
ment of mistake here does not, of course, exhaust
our objections to votes for women, but, rightly
or wrongly, it does in our opinion render them
non-fundamental."
INFLUENCE OR THE SUFFRAGE ?
Yet when a woman of social importance used
her indirect influence with the War Office to
secure her own ends, the editor of The Spectator
refers to her proceedings as " an attempt to pull
strings and flutter petticoats." And again, "It
is not as though ' petticoat influence ' were a new
308
SOME THOUGHTS ON THE SUFFRAGE
thing. We have all heard of it in true and false
reports." We do not wish to do Mr. Strachey
the injustice of insinuating that he advocated the
use of woman's influence for selfish or discredit-
able purposes ; but we suggest the reflection that
all women are not good or wise, and that it is
therefore better that their political power should
be open, responsible and well-defined, rather than
based upon a fluttering petticoat, however dis-
creetly fluttered.
This contrasting of power and influence is no
new thing. Fifty years ago John Stuart Mill
urged Florence Nightingale to join a woman's
suffrage society.
"This society," he writes, "is aimed, in my
opinion, at the very root of all the evils you
deplore and have passed your life in combating.
. . . As I am convinced that the power (of
legislation) is by far the greatest that it is pos-
sible to wield for human happiness, I can neither
approve of women who decline the responsibility
of wielding it, nor of men who would shut out
women from the right to wield it. Until women
do wield it to the best of their ability, little or
great, and that in a direct, open manner, I am
convinced that the evils of which I know you to
be peculiarly aware can never be satisfactorily
dealt with."
Miss Nightingale was at first reluctant to join
the society. First, because she was an invalid
and, in her wisdom, had made a practice of never
lending her name when she could not give her
309
THE NEW EEA IN CANADA
work; but also because, as she expresses it, "I
have never felt the want of a vote. If I had been
a borough returning two members to parliament,
I should have had less administrative influence.
But I entirely agree, if I may be allowed to agree
with so great an authority, that women's politi-
cal power should be direct and open, not indirect.
That women should have the suffrage, I think
no one can be more convinced than I." In 1871
Miss Nightingale's name headed a memorial in
favour of Jacob Bright's Women's Disabilities
Bill, but even her influence was insufficient to
secure its success.
Florence Nightingale was peculiarly well fitted
to speak of the "influence" as opposed to the
"power" of women. For many years after her
Crimean experiences, she was the power behind
the Throne, the Press and the Cabinet. Royal
princesses, Viceroys of India, Prime Ministers
and Secretaries of State were proud to be
accorded audience in her invalid apartment. In
London, as in the Crimea, she used her influence
only for the promotion of human happiness, yet
she herself recognized its danger. The " Night-
ingale power," as her enemies termed it, was
beneficial only when wielded by a Florence
Nightingale. For most women the vote is a safer
weapon, though for our part we do not think that
the exercise of the ballot is necessarily exclusive
of the exercise of influence.
310
SOME THOUGHTS ON THE SUFFRAGE
WHY SHOULD SEX DETERMINE THE SUFFRAGE?
The war has also given a quietus to arguments
against the enfranchisement of woman based
upon her unlikeness to man. During the last
two years women have proved themselves able to
perform almost every duty performed by men;
they are even, as a last resource in some armies,
fighting in the trenches side by side with their
husbands or brothers. Only tasks demanding the
full strength of the strongest man have proved
beyond them; and sometimes even these have
been encompassed by an ingenuity of mind which
has diminished the demand upon physical
strength. Co-education and open-air holidays
began to lessen the difference between boy and
girl, the necessary emergence of women from
the stuffy femininity of the drawing-room into
the human life of industry and business has
been accelerated — though not initiated — by the
demands of war, and has disposed for ever of the
theory that there is no place for a woman outside
her home. We have made the discovery that,
after all, every man has inherited something
from his mother and every woman something
from her father ; and that, between brothers and
sisters who have common parents, common edu-
cation and common conditions of life there is no
middle wall of partition, dividing the fit-to-vote
from the unfit. Every test — except the arbitrary
one of sex — which can be applied to the potential
voter will be found both to enfranchise some
women and to disfranchise some men. We have
311
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
discovered that the fact of sex does not mark the
line of division between the good and the bad, or
the stupid and the clever, or the strong and the
weak. Generations of specialized training and
environment have left their mark upon both man
and woman, directing the tendencies of men in
one direction and of women in another. The
difference in point of view thus produced is
a chief argument for the enfranchisement of
women ; her mental qualities are supplementary
to those of men ; and union should spell strength
for the Commonwealth.
THE NEW " CULTURE "
The new relation which is arising between the
sexes is ascribed by Mr. Wells in his war novel,
" Mr. Britling Sees it Through," to a new culture
issuing from the North to meet and overwhelm
the older view of life born on the shores of the
Mediterranean. " Something is coming up in
America and in England and the Scandinavian
countries and Russia, a new culture, an escape
from the Levantine religion and the Catholic
culture that came to us from the Mediterranean.
We are Northerners — the key, the heart, the
nucleus and essence of every culture is its con-
ception of the relations of men and women ; and
this new culture tends to diminish the specializa-
tion of women as women, to let them out from
the cell of the home into common citizenship
with men. It is a new culture, still in process
of development, which will make men more social
312
SOME THOUGHTS ON THE SUFFRAGE
and co-operative, and women bolder, swifter,
more responsible and less cloistered. It mini-
mizes instead of exaggerating the importance of
sex. . . . It is just all this Northern ten-
dency that this world-struggle is going to release.
This war is pounding through Europe, smashing
up homes, dispersing and mixing homes; it is
killing young men by the million, altering the
proportions of the sexes for a generation, bring-
ing women into business and office and industry,
destroying the accumulated wealth that kept so
many in refined idleness, flooding the world with
strange doubts and novel ideas."
A Canadian woman, well known as an expon-
ent of this " new culture," sums up the woman's
point of view of this new relationship in a few
words, " Chivalry is a poor substitute for jus-
tice." "Chivalry" in man, "influence" in
woman, are traceable to the same source — sex-
attraction. Capable of being employed to both
the noblest and the vilest ends, this force is no
basis for a superstructure of political, industrial
and social relationships in which the best and
the worst are alike included. Such a superstruc-
ture demands a foundation of solid principles —
justice rather than chivalry, responsibility
rather than influence. And yet why should the
choice be demanded? It is a " choice " between
the bloom and the fruit; between the fragrance
and the flower; common sense and experience
alike teach that perfection demands both.
313
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
THE CLAIM OF DEMOCRACY
But the claim of women to the suffrage rests
neither upon their efficiency in war, nor upon
their approximation to man, nor even upon their
complementary qualities of mind, but rather
upon the right of every citizen in a democracy to
self-government.
This is the bed-rock upon which the claim of
women to the franchise is based. Class after
class in the community has been enfranchised, as
the justice of its claim to self-government first
permeated and then dominated public opinion.
Against the enfranchisement of each new class,
the same arguments have been put forth; and
have not been so much answered as submerged
by the greater volume of the arguments on the
other side; but in every case the basis of these
arguments has been the insistency of the claims
of democracy.
The arguments for and against the enfranchise-
ment of women as advanced by both sides very
frequently cancel one another. They are equally
true and false generalizations from a particular
or from a group of particulars. " Women are
indifferent to the franchise " is as true, and as
false, as " Women are determined to have the
franchise."
" The female vote will purify politics " is only
true if we assume that all women are both good
and wise, and the male voter inferior to them on
both counts.
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SOME THOUGHTS ON THE SUFFRAGE
The truth is that women can only be regarded
as a class from one point of view — that of sex.
Viewed from any other standpoint, woman, like
man, is a human being of whose mental, moral
and physical qualities it is safer to assume noth-
ing save that each individual is sui generis.
The exercise of political power is determined, not
by considerations of the mental, moral and
physical qualifications of the individual or the
class, but by the essential element in the govern-
ment of the State. If Canada is a democracy,
then every citizen has a claim to self-government.
But someone may ask " Are women citizens?"
In reply, we would ask "Are they not so
accounted by the policeman and the tax collec-
tor?" Under the criminal law, indeed, the woman
is presumed to be a "person" qualified to guard
her own chastity at the pitiful age of sixteen
years. It is only in the realms of the civil law
— consecrated to rights and property — that the
woman's claim to be a citizen or even a person is
questioned.
The economic position of women has become
of late years, and more especially during the war,
a question of growing importance. After the
war, not only will the returning soldier need his
former place in industry and business but there
will be a whole new class of partially disabled
men, who will compete with women for the
lighter kinds of employment. It would appear
difficult, if not impossible, to safeguard the
rights of the woman in industry and in business
315
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
except by the suffrage. Whatever may be the
future of Trade Unionism after the war, it may
be safely prophesied that an unenfranchised
class of workers will be at an economic as well
as a political disadvantage. After the war
women will find themselves engaged in a fiercer
struggle for existence ; and, at a time when com-
petition between men and women will be keenest,
the chances of marriage will have been greatly
diminished by the slaughter of marriageable men.
WOMAN SUFFRAGE FROM THE HISTORICAL
STANDPOINT
But the question of woman suffrage need not
be dealt with only from the theoretical stand-
point ; we must not ignore the fact that ten years
ago when the women of Norway received the
Parliamentary Franchise, the problem passed
into the experimental stage. Since that time all
the Scandinavian countries — Finland, Iceland,
Sweden, Denmark — have enfranchised their
women, qualifying them also to hold the offices in
respect to which they have votes. Within the
British Empire, New Zealand and Australia, the
Isle of Man and the Western Provinces of Can-
ada have given to women a more or less restricted
Parliamentary Franchise; while in the United
Kingdom, women have, since 1869, been eligible
to vote in municipal elections; since 1907 they
have been also eligible for seats on city and
county councils, and both Mr. Asquith and Mr.
Lloyd George have promised that any enlarge-
816
SOME THOUGHTS ON THE SUFFRAGE
merit of the franchise shall not exclude women.
In the United States, thirteen States have
granted women the full suffrage; and both can-
didates in the late Presidential election declared
in favour of the Federal Franchise for women
but on conditions which seem likely to entail
some considerable delay in obtaining it.
The day after the last paragraph was written
a Conservative Government suddenly announced
its intention of enfranchising the women of
Ontario; before the proofs were corrected, the
Report of the Speaker's Committee in Great
Britain urged the enfranchisement of all women
above the age of thirty-five and of all graduates
(irrespective of sex) of British universities. So
swiftly moves the van of public opinion !
What has been the trend of legislation since
the enfranchisement of women gave an oppor-
tunity for the expression of the woman's point
of view?
On examining a summary of such legislation
it would appear that women are using their
power mainly in two directions. First, they are
constantly striving to extend the scope of their
own political influence, aiming always at the
political, economic and social equality of the
sexes. Secondly, they are carrying into the larger
spheres of the state and the municipality, the
care of those interests which were formerly con-
served within the home. They are chiefly inter-
ested in questions of education, the safety of the
person, the health of workers, of food supply and
317
THE NEW EEA IN CANADA
sanitation; in the removal of forces inimical to
family life.
It would be untrue to suggest that all legisla-
tion in the direction of reform, enacted after the
enfranchisement of women, is due to the
woman's vote. The extension of the franchise to
women is generally — as in Western Canada —
itself part of a general movement towards
domestic " reform " in which it is hoped that the
woman's vote will play an inspiring and conserv-
ing part. The danger of such a " reform " move-
ment is its liability to promote legislation which
is the expression of the aspirations of the few
rather than the opinion of the many. However
good and necessary a law may be, it had better
never be made than made and not obeyed; for
it is public opinion, and not the police system
which enforces the observance of law.
Moreover in the very multiplication of laws
there is danger. After a somewhat wide exper-
ience of many kinds of women's societies, one is
impressed with the confidence reposed by women
in rules. Almost every woman's society is
weighed down by a cumbrous and minute consti-
tution; the business in women's meetings is
almost a ritual, and tends to distract attention
from the object for which the society exists.
Probably this minute attention to procedure is
the result of the fear of being thought " unbusi-
nesslike " which has haunted two generations of
women ; but, corrected by the comparatively lax
and hurried methods of men who are prone to
318
SOME THOUGHTS ON THE SUFFRAGE
accept with extreme readiness the ipse dixit of
the expert or official, it should produce the best
results for the community.
It is too soon as yet to pronounce upon the
results of woman's franchise as history exhibits
them. Ten years is but as a day in the his-
torian's eyes, and the causes of political events
are too many and too intricate for it to be pos-
sible to isolate any single event as the sole
cause of any given effect. Is it too much to sug-
gest that the world, as governed by men only,
leaves something to be desired in the safety of its
weaker members, in the education of its youth,
in the happiness of its homes, and that the
woman may help to make the task of government
more sympathetic, more human? A danger of
the future is that possibly this tendency may
go too far, and that sympathy may develop
into interference and fuss ; so that finding virtue
in danger, it may leave her cloistered.
In legislation, as in the home and the school,
the world needs neither the man's view alone,
nor the woman's view alone, but the " man and
woman " outlook on life.
" If we are to fix women's special contribution
to politics and social work," says the editor of
The [London] Nation, " we should say that they
brought to the task more industry than men,
more love of detail, a more intimate and affec-
tionate view of life, and that their power to grasp
its wider principles and forms of action will
319
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
probably expand in proportion as it secures
larger fields for exercising it."
A dangerous contribution, perhaps, if not cor-
rected by the man's point of view — his preference
for " business relationships," for broad issues,
for generous expenditures, for wide views of life,
for self-conservation — but no sane person ever
contemplated a state governed only by women.
WOMAN, A NON-PARTY VOTER
The enfranchisement of women contributes to
the state a new class of voters unbound by the
conventions of party politics. Although the for-
mation of a " woman's party," as a permanent
element in politics either in the electorate or in
Parliament, would be regrettable, yet the enfran-
chisement of a new class of the community
with a certain solidarity of interest appears to
afford almost the only chance of freeing political
life from the tyranny of the " machine " and the
canker of the patronage system. The electorate
is at present enmeshed in a web of conventions
and corruptions which render difficult the return
to power of the best class of public men and
which stultify the usefulness — nay, even the
righteousness — of the few honest men whom the
party machine selects for office.
If the women's vote could be so organized as
to free Canadian public life from this system,
women would confer upon Canada, in her young
nationhood, the priceless gift of the fairy God-
mother.
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SOME THOUGHTS ON THE SUFFRAGE
But the suffrage question in Canada, as in the
United States, is complicated by two factors
which are not present in this form in the older
countries.
SUFFRAGE AND THE ABORIGINES
Canada's inhabitants may be roughly divided
according to origin, into three classes : aborigines,
settled inhabitants, and immigrants. Of these,
the first contains the Indians and Eskimos,
towards whom the Dominion Government has
assumed the attitude of guardian. The Indian,
regarded as a perpetual child, is not considered
eligible for the franchise ; it is a remarkable com-
mentary on his political position that the Domin-
ion law affords a lower degree of protection
to the Indian's squaw than to the womenfolk of
the enfranchised Canadian. The question of the
extension of the franchise to the Indians is
already being agitated, but such action must
necessarily be preceded by a general review of the
position of the Indians, and for this the time is
fully ripe. In New Zealand, the Maoris, both men
and women, enjoy the Parliamentary franchise.
SUFFRAGE AND THE IMMIGRANT
But the problem of the political position of
Canada's aborigines is small in comparison with
that of her imported population, or immigrants.
Those of British birth are immediately eligible
for the suffrage ; all other immigrants must seek
naturalization before casting a vote either in Pro-
21 321
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
vincial or Federal elections. No person can be
naturalized until he (or she) has taken an oath
of residence (five years in British territory, of
which the last year must have been spent in
Canada), and an "oath of allegiance" to the
King ; and as the infant, lunatic, idiot or married
woman are regarded as " under disability " of
naturalization, no alien in this category can be
naturalized and become eligible to cast a Parlia-
mentary vote.
The danger of admitting to the country a large
number of persons, alien in language and cus-
toms, and enfranchising them merely on oath of
residence and allegiance is obvious. The neces-
sary term of residence may be spent in a colony
or " ghetto " where the immigrant associates only
with his compatriots and speaks only his native
language. Or they may be spent in a lumber or
mining camp in which like conditions prevail.
Is such a man capable of casting an intelligent
vote? Will he not almost certainly be the prey
of the political " boss," and be driven like a slave
to the polling booth to vote at the dictation of his
master? Should he then be deprived of his vote?
Certainly not. Perhaps the lure which has drawn
him across the sea is the desire to share in the
" liberty " of British institutions ; it is unfair to
class him with the infant, the lunatic, the idiot
and the married woman. It is also unwise to
exclude from a land which needs labour the
immigrant of sound body though uneducated
mind. What then?
SOME THOUGHTS ON THE SUFFRAGE
Canada gives herself five years in which to turn
the foreign-born immigrant into a Canadian citi-
zen. The pity is that this invaluable opportunity
for education is not fully improved. In order to
become naturalized, the immigrant is compelled
to take an oath that his body has been resident in
the Empire for five years, but in that period his
mind may have continued to dwell in Italy or
Galicia or Eussia. Each certificate of natural-
ization records that there exists no reason why
the said alien immigrant should not be granted
" all the rights and capacities of a natural-born
British subject." For what reason is the infant,
the lunatic, the idiot excluded from the exercise
of these rights and capacities? Is it not because
these persons cannot, from lack of understand-
ing, exercise the ordinary powers of the normal
adult? Would not the same test applied to the
alien immigrant exclude any person who, though
able to converse to the judge's satisfaction in
English or French, has not been presented
with an opportunity to familiarize himself with
the laws and customs of the nation of which he
aspires to be a member? If the Government took
proper precautions for the education of the alien
immigrant during his years of probation (during
which he might be considered in statu pupillari),
the problem might be solved, for the public
school system will take care of the next gen-
eration— it is already becoming aggressively
" Canadian " in speech and manners. And yet
the public school system needs safeguarding in
323
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
some quarters. It is credibly reported that in
certain " foreign " sections of the West, the
National Anthem may not be sung in the schools,
and the children refuse to salute the flag under
whose folds their parents have sought liberty or
riches. What possible justification is there for
extending hospitality to those whose acts pro-
claim them to be the country's enemies?
IMPORTANCE OF THE IMMIGRATION OFFICIAL
If, then, these probationary years be of such
crucial importance, it follows that it is of pro-
found consequence to Canada that the persons
who represent Canada to her prospective citizens
shall be men and women whose words and actions
are actuated by the dual desire to secure the
greatest happiness of the individual immigrant
while safeguarding the common weal. The value
of the foreigner as a citizen will depend more
upon the conditions he finds in Canada than on
those he left in his native land. The number and
even the quality of our immigration laws will be
of far less consequence during those five pro-
bationary years of the alien immigrant, than
the character and the quality of the men who
administer them. Much of the " Canadianizing"
of the immigrant must be done in small groups ;
it must even be carried to the individual, if it is
to be effective. Moreover, the process must be
conducted by those who understand the value
that the foreign immigrant, like the woman voter,
may bring to the country by his sheer unlikeness
334:
SOME THOUGHTS ON THE SUFFRAGE
to the Canadian whom we may regard as the
" norm." If the newcomers can be absorbed into
the nation in such a manner that they retain their
peculiar racial gifts to be spent in the service of
their new country, Canada will gain far more
than the mere wealth-producing power for which
she is looking. Italy will contribute her music ;
Russia, her mysticism ; France, her devotion to
duty; Germany, her spirit of discipline; Bel-
gium, her economy; if only Canadians can con-
ceive a plan by which these immigrants are pro-
tected and instructed from the moment they set
foot on a British vessel by those who realize what
gifts these shabby pilgrims bear and understand
how to preserve them for the good of Canada.
SOME CONSIDERATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS
We believe that when the extension of the fran-
chise to woman is under discussion, the wider
question also of the enfranchisement of the
foreign-born immigrant might well be reviewed.
If the principles underlying the British rule are
worthy of perpetuation, there should be some
well-defined policy for the political education of
the foreigner before he aspires to full citizenship
within the Empire.
Canada requires five years' residence in the
Empire, the last year at least being spent in
Canada, but neither provides nor prescribes any
system of education. Why should not the foreign-
born immigrant be required to acquaint himself
335
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
with the customs and the laws of the country in
whose government he desires to share?
If it be objected that such a process of educa-
tion would be expensive, we would reply that an
outlay of money upon such an object would be
an investment rather than an expenditure, paying
interest in the form most conducive to national
welfare — enlightened citizenship. Moreover, the
cash expenditure might be reduced materially,
if the Government would avail itself of the wealth
of unpaid, voluntary service which the war has
shown to be practically inexhaustible. Canada
has not yet seen the advent of a statesman who
knows how to utilize this valuable national asset.
Too often we have seen, even during the war, vol-
untary effort ignored or refused in favour of some
new piece of political machinery by which the
party may be strengthened and its " patronage "
list prolonged. Canada needs less politicians with
their eyes fixed on the next election, and more
statesmen to provide for the needs of the next
generation.
Again, the statistics of our charitable and cor-
rective institutions furnish overwhelming testi-
mony to the need of a more careful application
of the moral, mental and physical tests to which
the new-comer is subjected on arrival at the
Canadian port or border. It would be better for
all parties — except perhaps the touts of the trans-
portation companies — if these tests were applied
before the immigrant left his native land. But
even under the present system of examination, it
might be possible to detect and exclude a greater
336
SOME THOUGHTS ON THE SUFFRAGE
proportion of "undesirables." An intelligent
observer, who had had opportunities to see the
procedure at the immigration receiving stations,
both of Canada and the United States, remarked
lately that it was just three times as easy for an
" undesirable " to enter Canada as to get into the
United States. To discuss the immigration laws
and their administration is obviously beyond the
scope of this paper, but " immigration " is in
reality the somewhat inadequate name under
which we disguise the important process of
nation-building, and, as such, is closely related to
the question of enfranchisement.
The artificial stimulus to population given by
immigration creates new problems in citizenship
for which the formulae of older political institu-
tions provide no solutions. The United States
has preceded us by a few years along the path
Canada is now called to tread, and from the
States we may gather both example and warning.
In the region of state-aided voluntary effort and
research, as well as in the munificence of indi-
vidual citizens in providing for social experiments
among her new citizens, America has led along
a path we should be swift to follow. Such reports
as those issued by the Immigration Commission
of the State of California, for example, reveal a
new phase in the science of civilization, and they
are only a sample of a literature concerning or
intended for the foreign immigrant.
On the other hand, we should learn from the
existence of the unassimilated "hyphenate"
American the folly of permitting the establish-
327
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
ment of the " ghetto " or the " foreign quarter,"
and of omitting to insist upon the political edu-
cation of the immigrant. From America, also,
we may learn the folly of allowing immigration
to become a matter governed by competing trans-
portation companies or greedy employers of
labour. If immigration be really an artificial
method of making a nation, it should not be left
in the hands of companies whose avowed legiti-
mate aim is the accumulation of wealth for the
shareholders. The Government should control
immigration, guiding and protecting the immi-
grant, and placing in its immigration service men
and women chosen because of their aptitude for
the work rather than for their political affilia-
tions. By our present immigration service and
methods do we not show ourselves extraordin-
arily careless in our stewardship both of British
traditions and the vast potentialities of Canadian
citizenship?
To-day is the day of opportunity for reviewing
our methods and preparing for the new tide of
immigration which peace will assuredly direct to
our shores. For this task we need the ripest
thought of our wisest statesmen, backed by an
enlightened and instructed public opinion.
WAR HAS GIVEN A NEW IDEA OF CITIZENSHIP
Nor is it out of place now to consider the claim
of the State upon its citizens in time of peace.
The war has taught us to expect the State to make
great claims upon us : we have been inclined to
328
SOME THOUGHTS ON THE SUFFRAGE
complain that the Government has hesitated to
voice these claims with adequate insistence and
clarity. The State has become more than a mere
tax-collector or polling clerk. If we demand more
from it, we are also prepared to give more to it.
The demands of the State have created not
resentment or resistance, but a new and affection-
ate loyalty : exactly as the call of the Motherland
has drawn closer to her the component parts of
the Empire. Just as Canada, through the call
of war, realizes as never before that she is the
Empire, so the individual citizen makes the dis-
covery that he is the State. " L'Etat, c'est moi "
is proved true, though not in the sense in which
Le Grand Monarque used the phrase. In war,
we have found, through the State, the full devel-
opment of individual citizenship: we have
learned, in blood and tears, a new conception of
democracy.
The recognition of this new ideal, the quicken-
ing of this struggling spirit and the conservation
of the nobilities of war in the languorous days of
peace — these are the great tasks lying before our
leaders in State and Church, in School and Press.
" We need a new conception of citizenship,"
writes Mr. Woodsworth in an article on " Nation
Building," in a late number of the University
Magazine. " More than all we need men of vision
who can point us the way and men of devotion
whom we can follow."
Are we wrong in thinking that Canada's con-
ception of citizenship should be based upon the
329
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
inclusion of all those who may bring a contribu-
tion to the State, welcoming diversity of gifts and
differences of administration, finding in her
women and her strangers new sources of strength
and inspiration for the new life after the war?
Adelaide M. Plumptre.
330
PUBLIC
OPINION
AND
POLITICAL
LIFE
PEACE
Now God be thanked Who has matched us with His hour,
And caught our youth, and wakened us from sleeping,
With hand made sure, clear eye, and sharpened power,
To turn, as swimmers Into cleanness leaping,
Glad from a world grown old and cold and weary,
Leave the sick hearts that honour could not move,
And half-men, and their dirty songs and dreary,
And all the little emptiness of love!
Oh! we, who have known shame, we have found release
there,
Where there's no 111, no grief, but sleep has mending,
Naught broken save this body, lost but breath;
Nothing to shake the laughing heart's long peace there
But only agony, and that has ending;
And the worst friend and enemy is but Death.
Rupert Brooke.
PUBLIC OPINION AND POLITICAL LIFE
" THERE is no such thing as Public Opinion in
Canada," said a friend to whom I mentioned the
subject of this paper. His comment made me feel
strangely cheerful, for I realized at once that in
writing about what does not exist I could take
all the latitude I wished and need not fear that
I should make mistakes. If there are no facts
to deal with I shall not be hampered in arriving
at conclusions. The nebulosity of my theme
makes it doubly attractive, so instead of being
discouraged by the finality of his judgment, I
am undertaking my allotted task in a cheerful
and hopeful spirit. It promises adventure.
As public opinion in older and more com-
pletely organized countries usually expresses
itself in political movements, my friend was per-
haps not so very far wrong when he decided that
we have none. Certainly it does not reveal itself
as a force that makes or unmakes governments.
Paradoxical as it may seem, public opinion in
Canada expresses itself largely in indifference
to government. About the most illuminating
remark that I have heard about Canada was
made by a Canadian farmer to an American
farmer whom he met at an hotel.
" You are ruled by a king," said the American.
The Canadian was startled for a moment, and
then replied with spontaneous sincerity :
833
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
" Why, we have forgotten that we are ruled at
all."
Here, it seems to me, we have a true expres-
sion of the spirit of Canada, and the reply quoted
is a bit of public opinion that would be endorsed
by all Canadians.
THE LORDLY VOTER
The outstanding fact of our political life is
that every voter is a law unto himself. His state
is kingly, and very few of the actions of the
government affect him sufficiently to be felt.
The consequence is that his vote is not a weapon
to be used in defence of his liberties but a royal
favour which he bestows on the party or candi-
date of his choice. What does it matter to him
what his party or his candidate does after elec-
tion? They are what they are by grace of his
favour, and so long as their conduct does not
interfere with him in his everyday life, by reduc-
ing his income beyond the possibility of con-
vincing him to the contrary, he does not care
particularly what they do. All that he asks is
to be left alone.
The cause of this indifference on the part of
the voter is not hard to find. The population of
Canada is made up entirely of recent settlers and
the descendants of settlers. People came to this
country, and are still coming, to better their con-
dition. Their personal affairs are of more impor-
tance to them than the affairs of the country.
Their success depends on their own industry and
334
PUBLIC OPINION AND POLITICAL LIFE
enterprise rather than on government policies,
and the consequence is that few have any outlook
beyond their own farms or business concerns. To
the vast majority political affiliations are heredi-
tary, and they see no reason why they should
trouble themselves to study public affairs and
form opinions based on current events. Although
this may seem deplorable to those who are
inspired by great purposes it is the logical result
of existing conditions. The man with progres-
sive policies is merely one who is "troubling
Israel " if he tries to summon public opinion to
his support. On the other hand, the exploiter
of the country's resources is given a free hand.
If he can put through his schemes without bother- ,
ing the people they not only tolerate him but, in
many cases, regard his accumulations of wealth
with envy rather than with indignation. They,
or their ancestors, came to the country to make
their fortunes, and the man who makes a fortune
is to be admired rather than questioned as to how
he made it. Public opinion is with him.
THE PEOPLE AND THE GOVERNMENT
When Canada was being settled and the foun-
dations of nationality being laid, governments
and ruling persons were of much less importance
than historians would lead us to believe. It is
true that the country had governors, cabinets
and legislatures. They enacted laws, gave grants
from the public domain, granted charters of vari-
ous kinds that enriched the favoured, and other-
335
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
wise bestirred themselves for good and evil, as is
the way of governments ; but the destiny of Can-
ada was not in their hands. The future of the
country depended on clearing away the forest
and bringing the land under cultivation. This
work was undertaken by poor and often ignorant
people, whose one ambition was to establish
homes for themselves where they and their chil-
dren could live in freedom and comfort. Few of
them were equipped, either by training or with
tools, for the amazing task that they undertook.
Many suffered from cold and hunger, but by
ceaseless toil they did their work and gave us
the Canada we have to-day. In many cases it
could be shown that they did this in spite of the
unnecessary and unjust burdens imposed upon
them by their rulers rather than through any
aid or instruction they received. Because of what
they accomplished I take but scant interest in
the history of Canada as recorded in books. It
is the history that is written on the fields that is
of absorbing interest, and it is the spirit of the
pioneers still hovering on those fields that is the
true spirit of Canada. The descendants of the
pioneers take little more interest in matters of
government than did their fathers. All they ask
is not to be interfered with any more than is
necessary and that they be allowed to go on with
the work of establishing homes for themselves
and their children. What is most worth while
in Canada was not planned out by governments
or leaders but was worked out by the plain
336
PUBLIC OPINION AND POLITICAL LIFE
people. If they had leadership it was the same
high leadership that led them from the oppressed
countries of the old world to achieve freedom for
themselves in the new.
A NEW PUBLIC OPINION
To-day, when Canada is facing a crisis and
must make her choice for the future, it is inter-
esting to find that once more the real authority
has passed from governments and leaders and is
about to make itself manifest through the plain
people. There is one result of the great struggle
in which we are engaged that was not planned
and could not be either planned or foreseen by
any leader. Although our Prime Minister and
members of his Government have been called to
London, where they have attended a conference
on the affairs of Empire, there is in progress a
democratic conference that is infinitely more rep-
resentative of Canada. Many thousands of our
Canadian boys are coming in contact with old-
world civilization and ideals, and every mail
from Europe is bringing us their conclusions.
After a careful investigation, extending over
many months and in different parts of the coun-
try, I have no hesitation in saying that the
greatest influence at present at work in Canada
is the letters written home by the boys at the
front or on their way to the front. Every week
they are penetrating every community, and are
being read and discussed by the friends and rela-
tives of our soldiers. Some of them are printed
22 337
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
in the small country weeklies and are read by
the people who knew the writers personally.
Although these letters may be censored as far
as war news is concerned, it is impossible to
censor the feelings and impressions of the writers.
These letters show how Canadians react to old-
world institutions and ideas, and the effect on
those who remain at home is tremendous. No
matter what our representatives may decide or
enact in the Imperial Conference, the public
opinion by which their work must stand or fall
is being created by the letters that are coming
in thousands and hundreds of thousands from
the boys who are abroad. And this is but just.
These boys — our sons and brothers — are making
the greatest sacrifices possible for Canada, and
they have the best right to say what her future
is to be. That their letters would shape public
opinion is something that no one dreamed, but it
is a fact that will soon be made clear to all. Not
only will their opinions count in the final adjust-
ment, but also the opinions of their friends and
relatives whom they have unconsciously influ-
enced. And it seems to me to be quite in keeping
with the work done by our pioneer forefathers
that the influence of our soldier boys should be
overwhelmingly in favour of a more robust Cana-
dianism. It is also satisfying to find that the
public opinion being formed in this way is beyond
the interference of either leadership or opposi-
tion. It is a true and spontaneous growth of
33*
PUBLIC OPINION AND POLITICAL LIFE
democratic power, and its influence on the future
of Canada is bound to be far-reaching and salu-
tary.
MOULDING PUBLIC OPINION
In trying to arrive at the laws governing pub-
lic opinion it may seem rash and even undignified
to turn from the philosophers and psychologists
to the practical men who are doing things in busi-
ness and politics, but in the search for truth it is
not wise to overlook anything. When a witness
in a business investigation describes himself
under oath as "An Accelerator of Public Opin-
ion"— as recently happened in New York — his
case demands thoughtful, consideration. During
the investigation the fact was brought out that
this suave and competent gentleman had been
earning a princely income for years by creating
and stimulating public opinion in favour of busi-
ness enterprises that needed legislative assist-
ance. Being a competent journalist, a convincing
orator and a skilled mixer he could with equal
facility rouse the people to the point of clamour-
ing for a new and unnecessary railway or develop
an overwhelming demand for the repeal of the
laws governing the manufacture and sale of oleo-
margarine. His power to shape and control
public opinion made his services eagerly sought
for by captains of industry who wished to pro-
mote new enterprises. Possibly if the public-
spirited men who wish to put through great
339
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
reforms or to do things for the public good would
condescend to sit at the feet of this glib Gama-
liel they would learn much by which they could
profit.
It is also interesting to turn from those who
study the conduct of crowds and peoples to the
advertising experts who create public opinion
in favour of the commodities that are being
offered for sale. Le Bon states that the forma-
tion of public opinion is due to "affirmation,
repetition, prestige and contagion." A study of
advertising methods shows that although the
advertising experts probably never heard of
Le Bon they follow his methods with startling
fidelity. They affirm the existence of certain
qualities in the commodity whose sale they are
promoting. They repeat this affirmation day
after day and year after year and give it prestige
by using the arts of the illustrator, testimonials
from prominent people, and ample space in the
best magazines and other publications. Some of
them even go so far as to promote the "contagion"
referred to by the psychologist. Probably the
most notable example of this occurred when an
American firm was promoting the sale of the
" Encyclopedia Britannica." Their advertising
expert used full-page advertisements in the daily
papers that were marvels of learning and elo-
quence. As he explained to an enquirer, he
" employed college professors in reduced circum-
stances to dig up the scientific material used and
then put the ' holler' in it himself." In these
340
PUBLIC OPINION AND POLITICAL LIFE
advertisements it was announced that the sale at
a reduced price would close on a certain day.
As the day approached the "holler" was so
insistent that it got on the nerves of the public,
and Hon. Arthur Balfour, at that time Prime
Minister, referred to it jocularly from his place
in Parliament. When the last day of the sale
arrived forty thousand telegrams were sent out
to all parts of Great Britain urging people to
place their orders by telegraph so as not to lose
this wonderful opportunity. The effect was in
every sense "contagious." Stolid Britishers
rushed to the telegraph offices to place their
orders. Moreover, they told their friends about
it, and others rushed to buy the books while there
was yet time. Thousands of sets of the " Ency-
clopaedia " were sold by this trick in one day, and
the man who devised the scheme probably never
heard of Le Bon or spent an hour in studying
scientific mob psychology.
A DISQUIETING PROSPECT
One of the most surprising results of the great
war is the use of advertising for the formation
and shaping of public opinion. To-day the Brit-
ish Government is the greatest advertiser the
world has ever known. Sir Hedley le Bas, who
had achieved a business success by the lavish and
skilful use of advertising, suggested to the Gov-
ernment that recruits could be secured in the
same way. He was authorized to conduct a cam-
paign for that purpose, and was so successful
341
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
that he is now practically Minister of Advertis-
ing. He has not only raised armies by advertis-
ing, but has sold issues of bonds, inculcated
lessons of saving and thrift, and influenced pub-
lic opinion in ways that will help to win the
war. For the first time advertising has become
a force in moulding public opinion for the pur-
poses of government. The lesson he has taught
is one that is bound to be adopted in future by all
who wish to influence public opinion. In the last
American elections the Republican party won in
every State in which it used advertising, except
one. This indicates that an advertising fund will
probably be as necessary to future political par-
ties as a corruption fund, and in the hands of skil-
ful and unscrupulous men may become equally
dangerous. Those who wish to promote reforms
in future will probably collect funds for adver-
tising purposes, and Demos will never again be
quiet. Instead of having that large body of apa-
thetic public opinion which le Bon regards as
the soul of a nation, we may have a hectic and
changeable public opinion that will be blown
hither and thither by every whiff of advertising.
In any case the moulding of public opinion will
henceforth be a matter of scientific skill, and it
is hard to imagine what the public will do, or
how it will arrive at conclusions when diverse
political parties shake it up with clamorous
advertisements proclaiming their rival merits
and virtues. Wells, in his forecast of the future
in "When the Sleeper Wakes," predicts adver-
342
PUBLIC OPINION AND POLITICAL LIFE
tising by talking machines and megaphones, and
the plain citizen may yet be compelled to stuff
his ears with cotton to protect his opinions from
advertising influences.
MEN NOT POLICIES
If my friend who asserted that there is no
public opinion in Canada had claimed that we
have no political life I should have been much
more inclined to agree with him. It is quite true
that we have political parties and all the machin-
ery of government and that the life of the country
is frequently disturbed by roaring elections, but
political principles that carry weight in other
countries have been little more than names with
us. Since Confederation the political life of the
country has been largely dominated by the per-
sonality of two remarkable men. Sir John A.
Macdonald and Sir Wilfrid Laurier have bulked
larger in the public eye than either Conservative
or Liberal principles. They led their respective
parties to victory, each retained power for many
years, and each of them finally went down to
defeat with his party. During their periods of
power the ordinary work of the country followed
its natural course without much reference to poli-
tical affairs, and under both great business enter-
prises prospered through legislative favours. As
political life offers few opportunities to men of
ambition or public spirit, their supporters in
Parliament were constantly changing, so that
beyond the recognized leaders there were few
343
who entered permanently into the political life
of the country. Every election brought new men
into prominence and sent others into retirement
with a rapidity that makes a political review
impossible in the brief space at my disposal.
Moreover, the political methods used to achieve
success involve the personal characters of too
many men still living to offer a safe subject for
comment at the present time. The charge has
often been made that the conduct of public affairs
in Canada has been unbusinesslike, and that we
need "a business man's government." Anyone
who carefully investigates the subject can hardly
help arriving at the opposite conclusion. Our
political life, such as it has been, has been mani-
pulated altogether too much by the business
interests of the country — by the railroads and
industrial and financial corporations. Until both
political parties are freed from their selfish influ-
ence we are not likely to have any political life
that will be worthy of thoughtful consideration.
THE OUTLOOK
There are indications, however, that both
public opinion and political life will undergo a
serious change in the near future. The war is
developing problems that will profoundly affect
the life of the people, but it is too early to predict
what the result will be. Public opinion has
already made itself felt in the wave of prohibi-
tion sentiment that is sweeping the country, and
it will doubtless make itself felt in dealing with
344
PUBLIC OPINION AND POLITICAL LIFE
the many questions affecting the future of Can-
ada that are now forcing themselves on our
attention. The extension of the franchise to
women will also introduce a new factor into our
political life which may give surprising results.
At the present moment the political parties, ques-
tions and leaders that were important before the
war seem to belong to an era that is closed.
Until an election is held it will be impossible to
estimate the extent to which public opinion has
been aroused or to forecast the policies with
which we shall meet the world problems in which
we have become involved. It is possible that the
past apathy of public opinion will safeguard us
from rash policies and that the unstable quality
of our political life will enable us to build on new
foundations a political power that will be ade-
quate and enduring. In their private lives the
vast majority of the people have shown them-
selves to be sane, decent and resourceful, and if
they are compelled by events to turn their atten-
tion to public questions the result is bound to be
beneficial. An aroused public opinion will soon
give us a political life that is more in touch with
the people than anything we have had in the past.
The hope of Canada to-day rests with those who
have hitherto taken but little or no part in the
public life of the country. ,
Peter McArthur.
345
THE
BETTER
GOVERNMENT
OF OUR
CITIES
OUR DEAD
OUB dead, they are ours and the Empire's
Till the last red sun doth set; —
And may God, in His terrible justice, deal with us,
If we forget.
Till that which we sent them to die for,
Till that dread struggle be won;
Though the traitor and idiot cry out for peace,
There can be none.
We are either on God's side or evil's,
We are either perjured or true; —
And that, which we set out to do in the first place,
That must we do.
If we lie now unto our highest,
Prove traitorous unto our best,
And soften the hand, which set out to conquer
At God's behest;
If we fail in our vows in the slightest,
Our pride to dishonour is thrall: —
For we stand to win all in this conflict, —
Or else lose all.
For our dead are ours and the Empire's,
Till the last red sun doth set; —
And may God, in His terrible justice, deal with us,
If we forget.
William Wilfred Campbell.
THE BETTER GOVERNMENT OF
OUR CITIES
PERMANENT improvement in municipal govern-
ment would appear to depend upon the following
conditions :
(1) Recognition of the fact that in the last
thirty years there has been evolving a Science of
Civics, which has now reached a stage where it
ranges itself alongside the other great depart-
ments of Economics. It is only by the study of
Civics as a science that we can hope for real
progress in city betterment.
(2) Governmental investigation that will lead
to a new Municipal Act and the establishment
of a Canadian equivalent of the English Local
Government Board.
(3) Education of public opinion that will
result in the more active participation of leading
citizens in civic affairs.
What are the modern ideals of good city gov-
ernment? A well-managed city is one that is
beautiful, healthy, convenient and cheap to live
in. Beauty means scale, fitness, proportion; it
means wide avenues, parks and recreation cen-
tres; it means the tasteful grouping of public
buildings and good architecture. Health involves
abundant supply of pure water, good sanitation,
abolition of congestion, plenty of air spaces, and
the consequent reduction of those forms of vice
that are the concomitants of squalor, — and a low
349
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
death rate. Convenience means scientific town
planning. Cheapness means adequate provision
of markets and gardens for home production ; and
finally the reduction to a minimum of municipal
taxation. All the best governed cities of the
world have already achieved one or more of these
ideals and are steadily pursuing others.
PRESENT CONDITIONS
The towns and cities of Canada have hitherto
grown haphazard. Except in a few places of
extremely rapid development in the West, there
has been no attempt to lay down any plan for
the city to grow to, and no effort to secure the
adoption of a well-matured policy for its manage-
ment in the years to come. How could it be
otherwise with the method of civic government
we have hitherto pursued? Under the best con-
ditions the system of annual elections, with a
constant change in the personnel of the council,
has produced lack of continuity in management,
confusion and waste of effort, of money and of
human life. Under conditions less favourable,
the municipality has sometimes been exploited
for the gain of individuals and private corpora-
tions. This is, perhaps, the darkest blot upon
the government of our cities, because it is an
axiom of civic morality that to exploit the city
is to rob the poor.
A few years ago Town Planning was practi-
cally an unknown term. There was no attempt
to control public utilities, with the single excep-
350
BETTER GOVERNMENT OF OUR CITIES
tion of water supply. Factory sites and residen-
tial quarters were, and still are, inextricably
mixed up in most municipalities. The housing
of the poor interested no one but the individual
landlord. The purchase of land for parks and
gardens and breathing-spaces was regarded as a
form of luxury that no city was warranted in
indulging ; these things were left to private bene-
faction, as was the alleviation of poverty. It was
the old bad time of individualism. The civic
consciousness was not yet born.
Where there is no civic consciousness there is
no vision. The result is a hand-to-mouth method
of administration. This has hitherto been the
practice of Canadian civic governments, a prac-
tice largely caused by our present system. In
the average smaller city the council strikes com-
mittees each year. Follow the course of the
average intelligent alderman. In his first year
be may be a member of the Board of Works
Committee ; in his second year he is elected chair-
man, having proved his capacity. During this
year he is the general manager of all the public
works of the city, and does it well, or, if he
makes a failure, the citizens know nothing of
it. In his third year he becomes entitled, by
seniority and ability, to the chairmanship of the
Finance Committee, giving up the important
department of Works just when he has it in good
running order. He is now in a position to sur-
vey the field and to make his plans for the future.
If, after three yearly elections, he retain his
351
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
popularity, he may now aspire to the mayoralty ;
or, as frequently happens, he becomes tired of
aldermanic life, and retires to the pursuit of his
own affairs. Is it any wonder that the chief
mark of our municipal administration is — Ineffi-
ciency?
There is no other corporation that so stands
in need of skilful management as that of the city.
The reason is plain. The great corporations, such
as the railways and banks, are kept in check by
their shareholders; their prime consideration is
dividends. But the main shareholders in the city
corporation are the wage-earners, the artisans
and labourers — in a word, the poor. The city
corporation may be likened to a great trust com-
pany. It manages the estate of the poor, and the
chief dividends it can pay to its shareholders
are health, comfort, convenience and the elimina-
tion of waste. There are in Europe towns and
cities that do more than this ; that actually return
to their citizens yearly cash dividends. But just
because those most concerned in the wise admin-
istration of their estate are the most needy and
the most helpless, it is a shame to civilization
when the affairs of the city are mismanaged.
EVILS OF INEFFICIENCY
Perhaps the worst of all evils from which our
cities suffer, through inefficient management, is
waste; waste of effort; of the people's wealth;
waste of life. Every Canadian city can show
numerous examples of waste of effort and money
352
BETTER GOVERNMENT OF OUR CITIES
in such matters as sewage, water supply, fire pro-
tection and all other things that can only be
clearly foreseen and provided for by unbroken
continuity of oversight and intelligent town
planning. It would be easy to fill many pages
with instances of loss through waste. One of the
most notable instances of waste of public money
and effort is that connected with the water sup-
ply of the City of Montreal. After spending
15,000,000, and proposing to spend an additional
$5,000,000, that corporation found, through the
public-spirited action of the eminent engineers
of the city, who conducted a thorough investiga-
tion of the scheme at their own expense, that the
enterprise was doomed to failure, and that the
money already expended was a dead loss. Little
wonder that it is now proposed to take the ad-
ministration of the affairs of Montreal out of the
hands of the mayor, controllers and aldermen,
and to place it in the hands of a commission. In
the opinion of many of its leading citizens our
largest Canadian city is a conspicuous example
of inefficient municipal government.
But the war has taught us that waste of effort
and! money is as nothing compared with the
waste of human life. If we are wise we shall see
that our supreme duty to our race for the genera-
tions to come is to put every possible safeguard
about the life and health of our people. Never
before in world history was the life of the grow-
ing boy and girl so precious as it is to-day. The
main object of efficient civic administration is
23 353
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
the life, health, comfort of the great mass of citi-
zens. The great English cities have become so
much alive to this aspect of civic government,
that they are now pointing the way to the whole
civilized world. The English have come nearer
than any other nation to the scientific solution
of the " housing " question in the idea of the
" garden city," perhaps the greatest contribution
of modern times to the well-being of urban popu-
lations. So strongly has the idea of the " garden
city" appealed to civic reformers that we are
glimpsing a new ideal of the city, and it may be
that the unbuilt cities of the future will not seek
greatness or renown in numbers. The thought
of what Canada may accomplish in city building,
when she fills up her waste places, stirs the
imagination at the prospect of an unique achieve-
ment in human progress.
It is often said by civic politicians that it is
useless to propose reforms which the citizens
have no interest in demanding. It is a common-
place of politics that the people get the sort of
governors and government they deserve. There
is no denying that there exists to-day in our towns
and cities a general apathy about most matters
relating to civic government. The people can be
stirred up to fight a crying evil or to attain a
single object that seems immediately desirable.
But to keep them at a high level of enthusiastic
interest in civic affairs has, so far, proved impos-
sible. One reason is that the great mass of citi-
zens have no belief that the city is managed in
354
BETTER GOVERNMENT OF OUR CITIES
their interests. They rarely see that anything is
directly done on their behalf; where this is in
reality done, the information is not put before
them in a way they can understand. The great
and immediate need of the moment is to stir up
enthusiasm for good civic government among all
classes of citizens. It is estimated that in the
large cities, under average conditions, only about
one-fourth of the electors take the trouble to vote
at annual elections. The first problem in city
betterment is to arouse and maintain the interest
of all citizens in the management of their own
municipality. It calls primarily for the unselfish
service of the best minds in every community.
THE CIVIC SURVEY
Probably the best way to get a real understand-
ing of the great subject of city betterment is by
means of the Civic Survey. This is within the
reach of every town and city. It can be ordered
by the city council, or, under present conditions,
can perhaps be better initiated by private citi-
zens. Great good has already been accomplished
by the partial survey achieved by a small body
of men in the City of Toronto. Very remarkable
results were attained in Springfield, 111., by simi-
lar action on the part of public-spirited citizens.
It needs only a little more publicity as to the
remarkable results possible of attainment to
induce the leading men and women in every civic
centre of the Dominion to combine for the pur-
pose of obtaining a civic survey.
355
THE NEW EKA IN CANADA
What does the term "Civic Survey" really
mean? It has so far generally meant enquiry
into municipal finances, the obtaining of a clear
statement of assets and liabilities; of the man-
agement of revenues; of the possible control of
public utilities ; of education ; of the housing of
the poor ; of parks and breathing spaces ; and of
a general preparation for town planning. But a
complete civic survey would embrace much more
than these, important as they are. Every city
needs a systematic survey of its origin, its his-
tory, its development, its present condition and
its outlook. To be complete, such a survey should
embrace not only material things, but also the
common life, the institutions, and the tone and
spirit of its people. The time is coming when
we shall be content with nothing less than this.
Here is a great and fascinating field for investi-
gation by men and women who are looking for
the pleasures of intellectual enterprise. There is
evidence, not a little, that it is easy to arouse
enthusiasm for the practical study of civic prob-
lems. The Canadian Social Service Council has
found that there is already arising in our towns
and cities, especially in the West, undoubted evi-
dence of growth of the community spirit. If such
a spirit can be aroused to deal with specific evils,
it can be kept alive to deal with questions of good
government and civic betterment. When the
small city of Springfield, 111., was aroused by a
few citizens to undertake a civic survey, six
hundred volunteer workers were rapidly enrolled,
356
BETTER GOVERNMENT OF OUR CITIES
and almost every sphere of civic management was
investigated.
The movement for city surveys has in the past
few years taken deep root in Great Britain. Sev-
eral cities have already obtained remarkable
results and a great extension of the movement
was stopped only by the war. The following
paragraph from a report of the British Sociologi-
cal Society outlines some of its aims :
" We have during the past few years addressed
ourselves towards the initiation of a number of
representative and typical city surveys, leading
towards civic exhibitions; and these we hope to
see under municipal auspices, in conjunction
with public museums and libraries, and with the
co-operation of leading citizens representative of
different interests and points of view. In Leices-
ter and Saffron Walden, Lambeth, Woolwich, and
Chelsea, Dundee, Edinburgh, Dublin and other
cities progress has already been made; and with
the necessary skilled and clerical assistance, and
moderate outlays, we should be able to assist
such surveys in many other towns and cities. Our
experience already shows that in this inspiring
task of surveying, usually for the first time, the
whole situation and life of a community in past
and present, and of thus preparing for the plan-
ning scheme which is to forecast, indeed largely
decide, its material future, we have the begin-
nings of a new movement — one already charac-
terized by an arousal of civic feeling, and the
corresponding awakening of more enlightened
and more generous citizenship."
357
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
CIVIC EXHIBITIONS
Interesting as would be the study, the scope of
this essay precludes any attempt to describe in
detail the field and method of a complete city
survey. It must suffice to say that an indispens-
able accompaniment of an efficient survey is the
Civic Exhibition, for the information of city
planners and for arousing and maintaining the
interest of the general public. Every city should
set apart a hall, or room, in the public library, or
other civic building, for the collection of maps,
diagrams and relief models, illustrating the his-
tory, development, and present state of the city,
in its material aspect, its industries, its climate,
its educational interests, and its civic welfare
projects, and to this collection the citizens should
be asked to contribute.
Before any real progress can be made the whole
subject of civics needs study. Never before was
there so wide and fertile a field for investigation
made possible to ordinary citizens without previ-
ous professional training. What Canadian towns
and cities need at the present time is co-ordinated
Bound Table groups for the study of civic ques-
tions. One institution of which Canadians have
reason to be proud is that of the Canadian Clubs.
These clubs have hitherto confined their activities
to listening to addresses by leading men on varied
questions of local, provincial or national interest.
Why should they not become something more
than listening clubs? Why not extend their use-
fulness by becoming, as to their more thoughtful
358
BETTER GOVERNMENT OF OUR CITIES
members, Study Clubs? And why not enter upon
the fascinating study of their own environment?
Then every small town and village, and even
township, might have its Canadian Club, with
manifold opportunities for pleasant and profit-
able mental employment, which is to-day the
great need of the Canadian people, as a counter-
foil to engrossment with material things.
TOWN PLANNING
Following upon the Civic Survey comes the
important matter of Town Planning. The ten-
dency at the moment is to reverse the order.
Never was it so true as now that the world is too
much with us, and we are always in a hurry to
attain immediate results, regardless of their bear-
ing upon future good. The efforts of our civic
reformers seem at present to be centred upon
town planning schemes. Crying as are the needs
for scientific planning before our towns and cities
attain to further growth, there is a danger of
adopting too hurriedly ill-considered plans that
may have to be recast at a later date at vast
expense, or may even permanently injure the
right development of a city. Town planning is
as yet in its infancy, not only on this continent,
but also in Great Britain and Europe. Many
considerations which affected the new laying-out
of European cities are now falling into disrepute;
One of these is the housing question. It is safe
to say that the old ideals of city building.
being abandoned in some of their essential
359
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
tares. The English ideal of "garden cities" is
attracting the attention of experts in civics all
over the world, and will doubtless profoundly
affect our ideas of the city of the future.
In view of the new civic ideals of the last quar-
ter of a century, town planning is still a science
in the making. It would be a serious mistake for
any city to confide its town planning to amateurs,
or even to city architects and engineers. Town
planning is about to become an organized and
regular profession. In England the Town Plan-
ning Institute for the training of civic experts
was established in 1914, and has entered upon a
highly useful and honourable career. Its mem-
bers are of two grades, the one investigating town
planning as a constructive art, and the other city
management on its administrative side. Both are
united in the further study of the actual life and
working of the city. These three branches con-
stitute in the widest sense the great subject of
Civics. On this continent we have, correspond-
ing to the British Town Planning Institute, the
Kussell Sage Foundation, which has already
accomplished important results in many cities of
the United States.
But the Canadian people are approaching
nationhood, and there is even now stirring within
them the new-born spirit and first pulsations of
a distinct national life. In entering upon their
heritage they will wish for the joy of finding solu-
tions for their own problems in their own way.
Most vital of all problems is that of the com-
BETTER GOVERNMENT OF OUR CITIES
munity life of the people, for it is in that life
that they will receive the stamp and impress of
what we call nationality. Every nation has con-
stantly before it the ideal of its type. It is only
by steady progress towards the realization of that
ideal that any people cuu make a genuine contri-
bution to world culture. It has been finely said :
" The definition of culture in terms of ' the best
that has been known and done in the world* is
but half the truth, that which mourns or meditates
among the tombs ; the higher meaning of culture
is also nearer its primitive sense, which finds in
the past not only fruit but seed, and so prepares
for a coming spring, a future harvest."
CIVICS AS A SCIENCE
The great and numerous subjects connoted by
the term Civics are of quite sufficient importance
to constitute a department of instruction and
investigation in our universities. If business
men have found it wise to found university
departments for the scientific study of Com-
merce, it is at least of equal importance that
Civics should also find its place in our highest
places of learning. There is no doubt that city
surveys, civic exhibitions, and the science of town
planning, are generating a new educational move-
ment in Great Britain and in the United States
as well as in Europe, and we cannot afford to
let such a movement pass us by. Already there
is a School of Civics in Dublin, there is practi-
cally another in Edinburgh, and the outbreak of
361
THE NEW EEA IN CANADA
the war alone prevented a great extension of the
movement in Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle,
and other places. A beginning might well be
made in Canadian universities, until the pressure
of public opinion demanded greater facilities, by
the establishment of fellowships in Civics, linked
to the present departments of Economics.
The study of Civics should thus proceed on two
lines. First, for the training of experts in city
surveys, town planning, administration, and fin-
ance ; and secondly, for the arousing of the civic
consciousness, by inducing all citizens to take an
active interest in the betterment of their own
municipality. Out of this interest, through much
publicity in the press, through exhibitions, and
through meetings for discussion, arises the idea
of the personal service of the citizen to his city,
and thus by progressive steps to the service of
the State. This war, the most titanic of all
struggles in the history of the human race, is a
conflict between two eternally warring spirits:
Autocracy and Democracy. Despite our deep
faith in Democracy, we are bound to admit that
it has not yet finally proved its power to survive.
The mere winning of the war will not in itself
be conclusive proof; there is more to be won.
Democracy must win the souls of men from the
absorbing pursuit of selfish ends to the idea of
personal service, to the other man, to the civic
community, to the state.
Under favourable conditions there are always
plenty of men and women willing to serve the
362
BETTER GOVERNMENT OF OUR CITIES
community. So far as the government of our
cities is concerned it must be admitted that the
unwisdom of past legislation has been a fatal
hindrance to individual civic service. Municipal
laws should make it easy rather than difficult for
the best and most honoured citizens to find their
greatest satisfaction in civic service. At present
the best men will not come forward to serve the
city in any official capacity, as representatives
of the people. This is a matter of common
knowledge, upon which it is unnecessary to
enlarge. Yearly elections, the ward system, pat-
ronage, these are the three main evils of our
present system. Towns and cities in Ontario are
governed under a Municipal Act that is half a
century behind the times. In the average Cana-
dian town and city the government is conducted
by a body of men constantly changing, in fact,
subject to possible complete yearly change. These
men are elected to represent specified local sec-
tions, each jealous of its personal interests, and
therefore subject to strong and continuous local,
political pressure. They are almost always men
immersed in private business affairs, who there-
fore give to the city the fag ends of time and
thought. Yet into the hands of such a body are
confided not only civic legislation, but also all
the intensely absorbing matters of civic adminis-
tration. Even if the city council were solely a
legislative body, our present system of annual
elections would be fatal to real constructive
progress. But when administration is added to
363
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
legislation under these conditions, the result is
confusion, enormous waste, financial loss and
strain, high taxation, and, worst of all, intense
apathy and the obliteration of civic pride, the
absence of community spirit, and the decay of
ideals of social service.
Evidence of the truth of this is to be found in
municipal election returns. The Mayor of Win-
nipeg recently said : " Typical indifference is dis-
played in Winnipeg by the fact that only on rare
occasions have we had more than twenty per cent,
of the resident qualified votes polled at an election,
and on one occasion when a by-law was submitted
to the people for a new water supply, involving
the expenditure of $13,000,000, only eleven per
cent, of the qualified electors turned out to vote for
or against it." Similar evidence is afforded by the
Bureau of Municipal Research of Toronto, which
stated in a recent bulletin that in the election of
1916 only three votes out of a possible seven were
cast in the contest for mayor, two of seven for
controllers, and four out of nineteen for alder-
men. The same apathy is in evidence in most of
our large civic centres.
DIVORCE OF ADMINISTRATION FROM LEGISLATION
The basic principle that lies at the root of
municipal reform is the divorce of administra-
tion from legislation. It is the fundamental prin-
ciple that governs the conduct of every great
business organization. The railway corporation
has its board of directors who visualize its future,
direct its policy and make its laws. These are
364
BETTER GOVERNMENT OF OUR CITIES
carried into effect by its various departmental
managers, whose positions are permanently
secured to them, on the single condition of effi-
ciency. It is the same with our banks and other
financial bodies, and with our manufacturing
companies. Similar principles govern the con-
duct of all large business enterprises, both whole-
sale and retail. One set of men to plan, to sur-
vey, to exercise vision for the future ; another set
of men to make a life-work of administration.
The council, the head, the heart, the eyes, of the
city ; the administrative body, the hands and the
feet.
Municipal government in Canadian towns and
cities has fallen into disrepute, because of the
apathy of the greater half of enfranchised citizens,
and because the men best fitted for civic affairs
decline to take part in them. It is possible to
induce such men to change their attitude towards
civic activities by making these attractive. If
the city council were solely a legislative body, as
is practically the case in the best governed cities
of Great Britain and the European continent,
and if the present system of annual elections
were changed, there would be little difficulty in
bringing forward the best type of citizen for the
honourable work of a "city father." What has
driven good men out of municipal politics is
abuse in the ward and in the press, by the ward-
gang and the press-gang — that and the evils of
the patronage system which permeates our whole
political life, in the municipalities and in our
Provincial and Dominion Parliaments.
365
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
If we were able to say to the men we really
wished to see in civic life : You are asked to give
time and thought to the upbuilding of this city
by becoming a member of its legislature. You
will be elected for three years, by the city at
large. You will have nothing to do with matters
of administration in any department; you will
not be troubled with any question of patronage.
The city needs the benefit of your ability and
experience in guiding its policies, in controlling
its expenditures, in guarding against waste, in
protecting its health and providing for the well-
being and happiness of the citizens, in planning
for its future development. There is no doubt
about the result of such an appeal. These are
things that every good citizen would feel hon-
oured in being asked to undertake. For such
things he would be willing to make sacrifice of
time and even of his private interests.
Divorce of administration from legislation. The
city council to supervise, to plan, to legislate ; and
a paid body of men to carry into effect the will of
the council.
CIVIC NOSTRUMS
In the last two decades many plans have been
suggested for the more efficient management of
cities. The United States has led the way by the
adoption of various forms of government by com-
mission, and some Canadian cities are attempt-
ing to follow this lead. In despair of its present
system, the City of Montreal is now proposing to
366
BETTER GOVERNMENT OF OUR CITIES
put its affairs into the hands of a commission,
and there is much to be said in favour of such a
course, in a great emergency. There is also the
plan of a city manager, which rests the control of
administration in single hands. Any or all of
these methods may prove temporarily successful.
They originated with the City of Galveston, which
found itself in desperate straits after its partial
destruction in 1900 by a great storm. Commis-
sion government was then founded as an emer-
gency measure, and that so far is its chief value
in the sphere of civic government.
No scheme of government can ever secure a
permanent place in a free democracy that is out
of harmony with the spirit of its institutions. No
free people will ever consent to abrogate their
inalienable right to control their own affairs, be
they civic or, in the wider sense, political. It is
of the genius of our people to act through their
chosen representatives. The referendum, the ini-
tiative and the recall are modern devices, which
have their uses, but which have also, in the present
state of society, clearly denned dangers. Propor-
tional representation is in a different category.
But a further stage in the evolution of democracy
must be reached before we are ready to abandon
the principle of government by elected represen-
tatives.
In any event the problems of the modern city
require for their solution much more than a body
of administrators. Such a body lives and moves
and acts in the present. Its chief function is
367
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
management; it is occupied with the details of
daily business, and finds itself fully employed
with the proper running of a vast machine. The
city council is composed of the personal repre-
sentatives of the citizens. To apply the good old
English civic phrase in the largest way, it is the
people's " Watch Committee." Its functions are
to know the various phases of the city's life, to
watch the movements of that life, to guard the
interests of all classes, especially the interests of
those least able to protect their own. Its func-
tion is to conduct the city's survey, not once but
many times ; to direct its town planning ; to make
provision for future growth and further uplift;
and finally to legislate. These are avenues of
effort sufficient to employ the time and energy
of the most active body of city councillors, and
they embrace all that should be asked of men
who give their services voluntarily to the city;
for, of course, they would be unpaid. The joy of
service such as is suggested is that it is freely
given.
A^NEW PROFESSION OF CIVIC ADMINISTRATORS
With the divorce of administration from legis-
lation there would arise a new profession, that of
Civic Science, which would offer to educated citi-
zens an honourable career. Our universities can-
not long delay the consideration of providing
such a course of training for their students.
These specialists would be needed in every town
and city. In the smaller municipalities two or
368
BETTER GOVERNMENT OF OUR CITIES
three such men could do the work of civic manage-
ment, under the general oversight of the council.
Probably a civil engineer, a solicitor and a treas-
urer would suffice. As soon as the council passed
the necessary legislation, all the details of admin-
istration would be vested in the hands of these
men, who might be called controllers, or adminis-
trators, or commissioners. They would, as a
body, make contracts, employ labour, appoint
foremen or managers, and be held strictly
accountable to the council for the efficient and
economical management of their departments.
The engineer would be over all public works, in
construction and operation; the solicitor would
be at the head of all general business, including
that of the city clerk ; the treasurer would man-
age the finances, prepare the annual budget, and
also exercise control over matters of assessment,
until we evolve something approaching a scien-
tific treatment of that difficult subject. Efficiency
of administration would be assisted by frequent
publication of reports in the daily press, and
perhaps by occasional bulletins.
In our larger cities the present Boards of Con-
trol might be changed into bodies of paid admin-
istrators appointed by the city council. All
appointments might be made for periods of five,
six, or seven years, with assurance of renewal on
condition of fitness, and with the prospect of
pension after long service. A large city would
require a large number of controllers, one for
each great department of public business. The
24 369
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
number would vary with the requirements, as is
the case in management of every great corpora-
tion. The cost of such a board of administration
would be great ; but there is no doubt that in the
long run there would be economy and a great sav-
ing to the city, through continuity of direction
and control of waste. To give a single example.
Dr. Frank D. Adams, of McGill University,
recently said : " It is a remarkable fact that there
is no city in North America which has a proper
map of its own territory. When a tunnel was
being driven through Mount Eoyal, that the
Canadian Northern Railway might reach the
centre of the city, a sewer, with a wooden bottom,
was encountered. The contents emptied into the
tunnel in about five minutes, causing enormous
damage. In the City of Providence, R.I., an
uncharted drain, running full, was cut seven
times by a new tunnel. Even in New York City
a new subway cut an unknown drain, six feet in
diameter and in full operation." This is a mild
instance of inefficient management under present
conditions.
ASSESSMENT AND TAXATION
The subject of civic assessment has been men-
tioned as one of great difficulty. With a few
notable exceptions, it is in a condition of chaos.
Since the earliest days of our municipal corpora-
tions there has been scarcely any improvement
in methods of assessment, and there is to-day no
uniform attempt to treat it as a highly technical
370
BETTER GOVERNMENT OF OUR CITIES
or scientific branch of municipal government. It
is somewhat surprising that citizens of small
means, proprietors of small holdings, those who
live on stated salaries, and wage-earners, who
form the mass of our citizens, should not long
ago have been stirred up to demand the scientific
direction of all questions of assessment, because
it is they who most feel the burden of taxation.
It is here that the establishment of a Department
of Civics in every provincial government would
be of inestimable benefit to the people. Such a
department, under a cabinet minister, might well
take such a question as assessment out of the
hands of the municipalities. There is much to be
said for the assessment of property by independ-
ent assessors. At the present time no two muni-
cipalities assess property on a uniform scale.
The same confusion is found in the cities of the
United States. In the State of Illinois, for
example, property is required by law to be
assessed at one- third of its value ; but in practice
real property in Chicago is assessed at only one-
quarter of its actual value. In Los Angeles the
law requires assessment at full face value, but in
practice it is less than half. In our smaller cities,
towns and rural municipalities we go upon the
principle that anyone with a common school edu-
cation is fitted to become an assessor. Modern
authorities are convinced that the whole subject
of assessment needs special study, and a specially
constituted authoritative body of specialists to
take charge of it. Why, for instance, should not
371
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
a province be divided into districts, embracing
rural and urban municipalities, over each of
which there would be an assessment board? It is
unnecessary to have yearly assessments; that
method is out-of-date. In rural districts an
assessment every three or four years would be
sufficient ; probably the same method would suf-
fice for towns and cities, with suitable provision
for retroactive rates on buildings erected in the
interval, and even for taxation of the unearned
increment.
Such assessment boards would learn by con-
stant study and experience how to deal with
many questions of taxation that are now on a
very unsatisfactory footing. Taxation of occu-
pied land and vacant land ; buildings ; corpora-
tions ; personal property ; business ; income — all
have yet to be scientifically co-ordinated by
expert method. Take the single instance of
income. The citizen who has a stated salary pays
the full tax with which it is chargeable. The
professional or business man whose income varies
has the opportunity to understate the amount
justly taxable. In spite of every precaution
there is in Europe, in the United States, and in
Canada a vast amount of dodging of income tax.
One reason is not far to seek. If a citizen pays
taxes on real estate that he can sell for $10,000,
but which is assessed for $5,000, he pays will-
ingly; but if his income is $10,000 he feels the
pinch of paying on the full amount while enjoy-
ing a fifty per cent, discount on his real estate
BETTER GOVERNMENT OP OUR CITIES
taxes. It is a question needing investigation and
experiment by expert assessment boards, whether
it would not be at once juster, and at the same
time more profitable, to assess incomes, that is
the wages of personal labour, at a lower rate than
real property.
THE TRUE FUNCTIONS OF A CITY COUNCIL
When the work of civic administration is fin-
ally separated from that of legislation, then the
city council will be set free to perform for its
citizens a higher form of service. Released from
the serving of tables, it would be the supreme
function of city fathers to render into the con-
crete the ideals of civic life and well-being. Lord
Bryce has well said: "There is no influence in
any community more potent and powerful for the
accomplishment of good than that of the business
men unselfishly banded together for the purpose
of promoting the general welfare of the entire
citizenship." That is a true vision of the aims
of the city council. That these aims have not
hitherto been realized in Canadian city govern-
ment is largely due to the fact that we have made
the conditions impossible. We have cabined and
confined our city councillors to the performance
of petty duties, under conditions that have denied
to us the service of the men best equipped for
civic service.
Thus it is that in our most enlightened cities
progressive ideas, and attempts at reform and
readjustment, come from the banding together of
373
THE NEW EKA IN CANADA
private citizens to perform what are the real
functions of the chosen representatives of the
people. The city council is the legislative body.
It should be composed of men able and free to
conduct, with the necessary expert help, their
own investigations into all matters pertaining to
the city's life and welfare. It should conduct
the Civic Survey ; it should be its own Bureau of
Municipal Research ; it should be the Town Plan-
ning body ; it should be the city's League of Civic
Improvement. It should be, by origination or
adoption, the source and fountain of every good
thing that reaches towards perfection of civic
life, civic activities, civic environment. It should
be constantly on the lookout for, and ever ready
to utilize, the wisdom and enterprise of private
citizens. This is no mere idle dream of the ideal
city council. It is an accomplished fact in many
of the best governed cities of the world.
It is only when a city's legislators are freed
from all details of administration that they are
able to take wide views of all that goes to make
a city contented and prosperous. The prosper-
ous are usually, as to their civic life, contented.
The discontented are those who see little prospect
of becoming prosperous. Hence the undertone of
envy and hatred that is often the real cause of
strikes and mob violence. The going wage gen-
erally leaves nothing over that may make for
what the wage-earner considers prosperity. The
well-managed city can do much to alleviate dis-
content among its mass of citizens by making
374
BETTEB GOVERNMENT OF OUR CITIES
many of the conditions of life easy for them.
There is no greater duty devolving upon the city
council, if it would live up to its opportunities,
than that of making the city a cheap place to
live in.
PUBLIC UTILITIES AND MUNICIPAL OWNERSHIP
It is impossible, within the compass of this
essay, to go adequately into the economies of
city management. Two factors may, however, be
mentioned. One is the control of public utilities.
In the past it has been the general rule to let the
profit-earning utilities fall into private hands,
while those which are a charge upon the city's
revenues are under civic control. It would be
difficult to estimate the loss to civic treasuries
which has resulted from this sacrifice of public
interests. While there has been a considerable
awakening in recent years to the possibilities of
revenue-producing utilities, much remains to be
done in order that our cities may earn for their
people a just return upon what is really the capi-
tal investment of the whole body of citizens. The
other factor is municipal ownership, on which
there is much to be said on both sides. Profes-
sional economists are! for the moment against it.
Probably the main reason why municipal owner-
ship has hitherto been inefficient and wasteful is
that we have as yet paid no attention to the train-
ing of a class of civic administrators. There is
no reason to believe that there is any inherent
weakness in civic administration of utilities as a
375
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
system. The experience of British and European
cities is all the other way. What we lack is a
thoroughly trained body of municipal experts.
This we can obtain only through our universities
and by the establishment of really comprehensive
municipal departments in our provincial legisla-
tures. In the meantime, the interests of the
people demand that city councils should seek to
obtain closer control of all public utilities, so
that the city treasuries may no longer be deprived
of revenues that belong to those who create them.
THE CITY AS LAND-OWNER
Not the least of the functions of the city coun-
cil is that of conserving the property and increas-
ing the corporate wealth of the city. There is
nothing that appeals so strongly to intending
citizens, or arouses the interest and enthusiasm
of all members of a community, as low taxation.
It is the piling up of civic debt with a steadily
increasing tax-rate that is one of the main causes
of apathy and active discontent. Perhaps the
greatest single cause of loss of earned wealth
arises from the exploitation of outlying lands by
private speculators. The unearned increment in
the value of lands adjacent to a city is created
by the joint labour and enterprise of the whole
body of citizens. To them it properly belongs.
It is one of the few possible means of increasing
the corporate wealth of the city. Yet we take no
measures to preserve it for the people, but allow
private individuals to build up huge fortunes by
what is virtually robbery of the public domain.
376
BETTER GOVERNMENT OF OUB CITIES
How do the best-managed cities of the world
deal with such a matter? In them the city coun-
cil is constantly watching the city's growth and
surveying its surroundings. When the time is
ripe, it buys in the open market property that
will eventually come within the city limits. This
land is surveyed for streets, sewage, water sup-
ply, illumination and street railway traffic. These
improvements are made as they are needed. Then
the city sells the sub-divided lots at the enhanced
value, and the increase goes into the city treas-
ury. Until we learn that the private exploita-
tion of the unearned increment is a crime against
the city, we cannot be said to have mastered the
first principles of the conservation of civic wealth.
The experience of English and European cities
in /their efforts for civic improvement goes to
prove that it is in the interest of every city to
own much of its land. Many of the French cities
are large land-owners. The German cities have
gone farther than any others in this direction.
The City of Frankfort owns 12,800 acres within
the corporation — over half — and 3,800 acres out-
side; Berlin owns 39,000 acres; Munich 13,600.
Mannheim owns over half the land within the city
limits. A few years ago Ulm owned three-fifths
of its land; now it owns four-fifths. Since the
rise of the town planning movement in England
there is plenty of evidence of the advantages of
municipal ownership of land. A report on the
town planning schemes of Greater Birmingham
says: "It is becoming more and more evident
that town planning will only be partially success-
377
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
fill until the corporation owns the land. . . .
Ownership of land not only disposes of difficulties
with regard to town planning schemes, but also
assures that the community will get the full bene-
fit of its work and expenditure in years to come.
. . . Another driving force will be the con-
stantly increasing pressure of the rates and the
search for fresh means of income. All schemes
of land valuation and taxation are merely an
attempt to get at the increased value of land
created by the activities of the community, but
no scheme is so perfect or complete as the actual
control of the land itself. Hence, by one means
and another, we a^e slowly being driven to face
the problem of land purchase."
Apart from questions of economic and other-
wise efficient city management, there is another
advantage in the municipal ownership of land,
and that is in the housing of the poor. The latest
trend in civic betterment is towards the develop-
ment of "garden cities." If th§ city owned the
land it would be no difficult matter to lay out
districts for working-men's cottages, with open
garden areas instead of unsightly back fences,
with plenty of beauty spots and breathing spaces,
and attainable at a low cost.
THE CITIZEN AND CIVIC SERVICE
Efforts for the better government of Canadian
towns and cities must come from within. It is a
healthy sign that in many places a beginning has
been made. But people are slow to be aroused to
378
BETTEE GOVERNMENT OF OUR CITIES
combined action, where the objects aimed at are
chiefly altruistic. It remains for the finer spirits
in the community, men and women of vision and
large sympathy, to stir the people to an active
interest in projects of general beneficence. It is
work upon which the churches might well unite.
After all, the ideal city of the Apocalyptic vision
was to be a city upon earth, a city of men and
women, living out their lives under ideal condi-
tions ; the city that twenty centuries later we are
still dimly trying to visualize.
The civic conscience is slowly awaking to the
call of social service. Already it has set on foot
many activities that make for better social con-
ditions than civilization has yet known. So far
the tendency has been to attack evils that lie
upon the surface. These are often effects which
have their causes deep down in the life of the
community. To deal effectively with these causes
requires the whole-hearted service of large num-
bers of leading men and women in every city. To
them at this time the call comes with an insist-
ency that cannot be ignored. The duty of the
service of the individual to the city is no new
ideal for modern democracy. It was finely set
forth by Plato over two thousand years ago;
though now perhaps it appeals to us with fresh
emphasis :
" When they have reached the age of fifty, those
who have come through successfully, and have
gained all the prizes in practical life and in
thought, will now be led towards their goal ; and
379
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
compelled to lift up the soul's eye to the Source
of Light, and seeing the Very Good, will use it
for an example to set in order, each in turn, for
the rest of his life, his own city, and his neigh-
bour's, meanwhile himself spending the greater
part of his time in thought. But, when his turn
comes, he will labour at politics, and become a
magistrate for the city's sake, not as an honour,
but as a necessary duty. And so, and not before,
when they have trained a succession of other men
of like character, and have left them in their
places, to be guardians in their stead, they will
withdraw to the Isles of the Blest, there to dwell ;
and we shall make the City set up tombs to them
and services as unto canonized saints, if Delphi
permit; or, if not, as at least to men of saintly
and divine nature.
" ' You have finished off your Governors in fine
style, Socrates, with your Sculptor's chisel.'
"'And Governesses, too, Glaucon,' I said.
'You are not to imagine that anything I have
said refers to men more than to women.' "
J. O. Miller.
nso
THE
OUTLOOK
FOR
RELIGIOUS
FAITH
INTIMATIONS OF IMMORTALITY
THE thought of our past years in me doth breed
Perpetual benediction; not indeed
For that which is most worthy to be blest;
Delight and liberty, the simple creed
Of childhood, whether busy or at rest,
With new-fledged hope still fluttering in his breast: —
Not for these I raise
The song of thanks and praise;
But for those first affections,
Those shadowy recollections
Which, be they what they may,
Are yet the fountain light of all our day,
Are yet a master light of all our seeing;
Uphold us, cherish, and have power to make
Our noisy years seem moments in the being
Of the eternal silence; truths that wake
To perish never;
Which neither listlessness, nor mad endeavour,
Nor man nor boy,
Nor all that is at enmity with joy,
Can utterly abolish or destroy!
Hence in a season of calm weather,
Though inland far we be,
Our souls have sight of that immortal sea
Which brought us hither,
Can in a moment travel thither,
And see the children sport upon the shore,
And hear the mighty waters rolling evermore.
W. Wordsworth.
THE OUTLOOK FOR RELIGIOUS FAITH
MANY and varied are the opinions held regard-
ing the future of religion. Widespread is the
somewhat paradoxical view that whilst church
membership and church attendance are every-
where decreasing, the age is by no means irreli-
gious, but that there are many indications of a
deep-seated need and yearning for something
that religion alone can supply. At the same time
there is a feeling abroad, which it is to be
acknowledged finds expression within as well as
without the fold, that the old forms of the church
are not sufficiently adapted to their environment.
The new wine of our age cannot be contained in
the old wineskins.
We are wont to describe our period as a time
of transition. But we must remember that all
times are times of transition. Human life is
never for a moment stationary whether we think
of the individual or the community. New aspects
of life, new points of view, are as continuously
coming into the horizon of experience as new
scenery meets the on-flowing river. Yet as the
waters of the river may flow for many miles
with a placid, almost imperceptible movement,
and then rush rapidly on for a space, so the
development of human life, with its concomitant
changes, is more obvious at one period than at
another. It is in such a period of rapid change
we are living, and the process is likely to be
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accelerated by the war, and it is not to be sup-
posed that religious conditions will be exempt
from the process.
The word religion is often used in different
senses, with consequent confusion of mind. In
the following pages it is used in its widest sense
as including three more or less distinct things,
viz. : ( 1 ) The personal experience of communion
with God; (2) theology, or the intellectual
formulations of such experience, and (3) the
Church, or the social expression of religion in
common worship. In discussing, therefore, the
outlook for religion, we shall have in mind each
of these three departments of religious life, for
the ideally perfect religion would include per-
sonal experience, theology, and the Church. I
shall, however, try to make it clear at every point
in the discussion which of these three depart-
ments is under discussion. The object of the
paper, then, will be to survey the present situa-
tion and to discuss the conditions upon which
religion may adapt itself to the changing circum-
stances of our times.
THE CHURCH AND THE NEW ERA
It will scarcely be questioned that there is
to-day much dissatisfaction with the present
state of religion, and yet it may be questioned
whether the clergy, of all denominations, were
ever before such a right living, sincere and
devoted body of men. There is much activity
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THE OUTLOOK FOR RELIGIOUS FAITH
displayed in congregations ; innumerable confer-
ences are held in which every phase of religion
is discussed. New schemes, revivals, missions,
courses of sermons, elaborate or popular music,
advertising, are all in turn or together tried,
with results that are, on the whole, disappointing.
In spite of everything, the churches are felt to
be wanting in healthy vitality. Their feverish
energy is regarded as a pathological symptom. It
testifies to the indifference of large masses of the
people in every walk of life. In certain quarters
the churches meet with severest criticism. The
intellectual element in our society regards the
churches as almost hopelessly out of date. The
masses regard the church as in the main a kind
of club or society for the well-to-do, and, in some
countries, as the opponent of social progress.
The popular newspapers give the smallest pos-
sible space to reports of church meetings, and
give even that little grudgingly, because they
know that the great body of their readers care
little or nothing about the questions discussed at
such gatherings.
Yet I believe there is no active opposition to
the Church. The clergy are respected. There
may be a feeling in some quarters that a clergy-
man's work is not " a man's job," but of any deep-
seated hostility or contempt there are but few
signs. All the more reason is there to ask the
question, " What are the roots of the dissatisfac-
tion within and without the Church to-day?"
25 385
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The most general answer suggested to this ques-
tion is that the Reformed Church of to-day is
not sufficiently adapted to its environment. Its
forms of thought, its modes of worship, its out-
look and attitude are those of the long-past Refor-
mation period. But it cannot be too strongly
urged that we are not living in that period. One
result of this general failure of the Church to
adapt itself to its environment is a feeling of
uncertainty about many of the doctrines confi-
dently proclaimed from the pulpit or expressed
in the service. Now, uncertainty is fatal to the
enthusiasm which is the life of the Church. The
Church is weighed down with traditions, which
are as much traditions of the elders and as injuri-
ous to her progressive life as those which our
Lord denounced in His day. Consequently the
thoughtful man tends, in ever-growing numbers,
quietly to drop out of the Church. He makes no
fuss about it. He does not even care enough
about the Church to try to help forward the work
of its adaptation to environment. Rightly or
wrongly, he regards the Church as hopelessly
bound hand and foot by all sorts of out-worn
symbols, Thirty-nine Articles, Westminster Con-
fessions, and the like, which voice the conceptions
of the sixteenth, but emphatically not of the
twentieth, century. Thus arises dissatisfaction
with the Church, or indifference to it arising out
of the conviction that, in spite of the money given
to it and the congregations that attend it, the
Church is not leading or inspiring the age. Thence
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THE OUTLOOK FOR RELIGIOUS FAITH
comes the cry that we are living in a " New Era,"
and that the Church must shape her message to
its needs.
THE NATURE OF FAITH
We are dealing with "The Outlook for Reli-
gious Faith," and it must be clearly understood
that religious experience and religious creeds are
both matters of faith. There is a stage in the
development of men when the appeal to faith is
despised. The youth just beginning to think for
himself catches up, with not unnatural pride in
his budding intellect, some such tag as " I won't
believe anything I cannot prove," or "We are
living in the Age of Reason, not in the Dark Ages
of Faith." He asks, therefore, for proof. If he
is a religiously-minded youth he becomes inter-
ested in the arguments of philosophy or the con-
clusions of the Higher Critics, and is pretty sure
to find that his looked-f or complete demonstration
of religion is not forthcoming. Disappointment
awaits the man who seeks to base his religious
life upon the single foundation of intellectual
proof. But later on, often in response to felt
needs, the enquiring youth reopens the question
of faith, and a wider experience and analysis of
life show him that virtually all the most impor-
tant things of life rest upon a basis not of
demonstrated truth but of conviction or faith.
The man who makes an investment does so on
grounds of faith, not of demonstration. He
chooses his doctor or his lawyer on similar
387
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
grounds. He selects the particular steamship
line by which to cross the ocean upon the same
principle of faith. There is indeed no other way.
He cannot be quite sure of his bank, or of his
lawyer's or his doctor's opinion, or of his steam-
boat's security. He finds that he is living in a
world of such a kind that every day he is com-
pelled to break his own rule to believe nothing
he cannot prove. The higher he advances in the
scale of human experience the more surely is he
submitted to the conditions of faith. Friendship
is in the last resort based upon faith, and the
best happiness that comes from friendship is due
to this fact. It is the joy of giving and receiving
confidence, or faith, that gives its blessing to
friendship, and it is obvious that the benediction
of marriage is proportionate to the completeness
and the unbrokenness of this perfect faith.
Seeing, then, that we actually live in a world
in which we continually do and must act upon
faith, it ought not to surprise us that faith is
the ruling word in religion. It is necessary to be
perfectly clear about this at the outset of any
profitable discussion of religion. But the word
faith is often used in two distinct senses, with
not merely resultant confusion, but much injury
to the Church. Faith per se is really a kind of
faculty ; it is the power of being convinced. Con-
viction is something far more than assent. A
man's whole personality is involved in convic-
tion. His emotions, his intellect, his will, are all
involved in the deeper convictions and especially
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THE OUTLOOK FOR RELIGIOUS FAITH
in the moral convictions of life. Faith when it
has to do with a person is near akin to love. It
is a confidence which leads to action, which influ-
ences life, which craves for friendship. Faith in
Christ, as the Supreme Guide and Master of Life,
is, in its intensest experiences and activities, the
highest possible application of the common fac-
ulty of faith. The outlook for such a faith must
be a matter of deepest importance.
But this use of the word faith is often con-
founded with the systematic statement which we
call a Creed or Confession of Faith. The two
things are related but by no means identical.
Faith is an inner experience. The Faith, or
Creed, is an attempt to set forth the content of
experience, and, as in the case of the earliest
creeds, it may include certain historical state-
ments, or statements believed to be historical.
Now it is perfectly clear that a statement once
believed to be plain history may in time come to
be regarded, either as unhistorical, or as not in
strictness belonging at all to the historical order.
When we examine attempts to state in logical
form the contents of religious experience, it is
equally clear that no one generation can give
perfect expression to all religious experience, for
the forms in which we express religious or any
other inner experience are sure to change with
advance of knowledge or change of mental out-
look. Hence there is a continual conflict between
those who have the conservative temperament,
and are not greatly impressed by changed condi-
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THE NEW EEA IN CANADA
tions of thought, and those who are what we call
"up-to-date." Traditional statements of faith
become deeply rooted in the affections of men,
and the utmost aversion to change is experienced.
Hence religious controversy, heresy trials, perse-
cution. But in all thought on our subject, and
in all discussion, it is of first-rate importance to
distinguish between faith as the equivalent of
conviction and " The Faith " as a statement of
articles to be assented to, that is, a Creed.
It must not, however, be concluded from any-
thing that has been said that there is no relation
whatever between faith and reason. The man
who has an investment to make brings to bear
not only his own reason but that of his financial
advisers upon the probabilities of its success.
Men do not choose their banks or their doctors
or their lawyers without good reason, nor do we
make friends with or marry just anyone at all
without consideration. But in the last resort
these processes fall back and finally rest upon
not rational demonstration but conviction. Just
so reason has a very large and important func-
tion to play in religion, and particularly in the
formulation of religious experience or the making
of creeds.
FAITH AND REASON
It is a fact that to many reason seems out of
touch with creed or confession. There are in our
Churches two sets of confessions: those which
come from the pre-mediseval age and those which
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THE OUTLOOK FOR RELIGIOUS FAITH
were drawn up in the Reformation period. The
early creeds, it is well to remember, were not
deliberately drawn up by councils with a view
to the complete expression of Christianity. They
are the result of a long development, and deal for
the most part only with matters that were the
subject of vehement controversy. It is because
such a creed, for example, as the Mcene grew
through centuries into its final shape that it will
long outlive the far more recent Confessions of
the Reformation era. Nevertheless, as Doctor
Sanday has pointed out, " In drawing up the
creeds, the ancients went upon a number of
assumptions that we can make no longer. They
assumed the strict inerrancy of all the Scrip-
tures; they assumed the literal accuracy of all
the Old and New Testaments alike. . . . They
thought of the sky as a solid vault resting on
pillars; they thought of the sun and moon and
planets as fixed in concentric spheres, which
revolved within one another. They believed that
irregularities occurred in the order of nature
without any of the limitations we should set to
them now." There is, moreover, a much greater
intellectual gulf between educated and thought-
ful people to-day and those of the Reformation
period, than between the men of the Reformation
and the theologians of the fourth and fifth cen-
turies of our era. The theory of Development
and the rise of Historical Criticism have not
merely resulted in the rewriting of all Natural
Science and History, but have revolutionized our
391
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
methods of study. It is for this reason that we
must realize that we are no longer living in the
Reformation period, and that the Confessions of
that period can no longer have an authoritative
control over our thinking or our preaching.
It is out of these indubitable facts, which it is
folly to ignore, that the need for a restatement of
the content of Christianity is urgently felt. It
would be possible to fill a volume with quotations
in support of this statement. I will give but one
from the pen of a leading theologian of the Angli-
can Church, Canon Streeter, of Oxford. In the
preface to the famous volume of essays known
as " Foundations," he writes as follows : " The
world is calling for religion ; but it cannot accept
a religion if its theology is out of harmony with
science, philosophy, and scholarship. Religion,
if it is to dominate life, must satisfy both the
head and the heart, a thing which neither obscur-
antism nor rationalism can do. At such a time
it seems most necessary that those who believe
that Christianity is no mere picturesque survival
of a romantic past, but a real religion with a real
message for the present and the future, should set
themselves to a careful re-examination and, if
need be, re-statement of the foundations of their
belief in the light of the knowledge and thought
of the day."
It is impossible, and would be out of place in
such a volume as this, to enter into a detailed
description of the contributions which the mod-
ern methods of study are making to this attempt
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THE OUTLOOK FOK RELIGIOUS FAITH
to re-state Christianity in terms of our own age,
just as the men of the fourth century and the
men of the Reformation period stated it for
theirs. But upon one point I must write with
some fulness, because upon it depends the value
of such practical propositions as I may offer at
the end of this essay.
Christianity in its origin was not a dogmatic
religion. It is not primarily the religion of a
creed. It does not begin with propositions that
can, in strictness, be described as theological.
The fashioning of creeds came later. Why and
how these things came about the prolonged study
of Christianity from the historical side has made
clear. Two important points are to be noted in
this connection.
(1) In its origin Christianity is of the Jews.
Christ was born under the Law. He was a
Hebrew, and His life was lived among Hebrews
and His appeal was to Hebrews. He is steeped
in Hebrew ideas and in Hebrew methods, in spite
of the fact that He was, like many of the Hebrew
prophets, despised and rejected of His own
people. Now the Hebrew religion was never
based upon a creed. There is no creed in the
Old Testament. Of course the Hebrews believed
many things about God, but they never formu-
lated them into a series of statements which
became terms of membership in the Hebrew
Church. The Hebrew is not speculative or
abstract. He is practical and concrete. He is
a person in whom will power predominates above
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THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
the emotions and the intellect. A key word of the
Old Testament is "righteousness," and right-
eousness is conformity to the will of God. The
Hebrew prophet looked for a kingdom of God
upon earth in which righteousness and peace
should prevail. In its method and form Christ's
teaching follows the prophetic model. Its first
word is "The Kingdom is at hand." Its most
characteristic teaching is ethical, although its
ethics spring out of the love of God and with it
are ever connected. In this kingdom our Lord's
own position is central. He is its King, albeit a
meek and lowly King, and those who would be
members of the Kingdom must be His disciples.
But from first to last there is nothing that pro-
perly can be described as a system or a creed.
(2) The second point to be noted is that it was
not until Christianity made its appeal to the
Gentile world that the idea of creed begins to
emerge. It was inevitable that the Greek should
ask speculative questions, and that as time went
on these speculative questions should become
more and more difficult. One question led on to
another. To them some answer had to be given,
and it was in the face of this necessity that the
Nicene and finally the so-called Athanasian Creed
were shaped. The Greek mind was, in its methods,
almost at the antipodes of the Hebrew, and there-
fore Christianity could not but undergo vast for-
mal changes when it left its parent soil and
sought to establish itself in so different an
environment.
394
THE OUTLOOK FOR RELIGIOUS FAITH
This process of transformation was necessary.
Only thus could Christianity make its way in the
Greek thinking world. " Primitive Christianity,"
it has been said, "had to die in order that the
Gospel might live." The student of the history
of Dogma will agree that in the controversies of
the first four centuries the Church was right, and
the Nicene Creed is a truly magnificent summing
up of three hundred years of hard thinking.
But my point is that this process of defining
the indefinable was not " primitive," but that it
was a process of "adaptation to environment,"
and therefore its results ought not to be imposed
upon every successive generation as the ultimate
test of a Christian. The world moves. New
environments are certainly arising, and there is
a continuous call for fresh adaptations. Although
the modern man may have no difficulty in acknow-
ledging Christ as the Lord of his spiritual and
moral being, even in the simplest of our creeds
there are things hard for him to accept. That the
Greek mind should make a permanent contribu-
tion to Christianity was to be expected, but that
its results should be stereotyped for all genera-
tions cannot be admitted. The needs of our own
age cannot be supplied by the provision that was
made for those of other times and other manners.
THE MEANING OF A RELIGIOUS REVIVAL
Since the outbreak of the war there has been
much talk of Religious Revival. But as to the
precise meaning of this term there has been much
395
THE NEW EEA IN CANADA
uncertainty. To remove this we have made spas-
modic and partial attempts, but so far as it is
ever possible to judge the results have not been
successful. The National Mission of Repentance
and Hope in England was upon a large scale and
was a well organized effort that could not fail to
be productive of some fruit. Yet we venture to
think the real nature of such a revival as our
times demand has not been adequately expressed,
because all the conditions of the times have not
been considered which render such a revival
necessary. We have heard of the falling off in
church-going, of the luxuriousness of the age, of
its worldliness and of its love of pleasure. But,
if our diagnosis of the age is approximately true,
the Church's failure (so far as it is a failure) is
not due to these causes alone, but to her failure
to meet the spiritual needs of serious and earnest
men. To one who will look below the surface the
serious problem for organized Christianity is not
the absence of the worldly or the pleasure-loving,
but of the unworldly and the serious, and it may
even be added of the religious.
Such a revival of religion as this " New Era "
calls for must go far deeper than even the
National Mission of Repentance and Hope in
England. Perhaps we may find some guidance
for the present and the future from a considera-
tion of the past.
In the nineteen hundred years of the Christian
era there have been but three periods or crises
which may be compared with ours. There was
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THE OUTLOOK FOE RELIGIOUS FAITH
(1) the period of the origin of Christianity, (2)
that of the Middle Ages, and (3) the Reforma-
tion. Our era is one which calls for a revival
that will bear some comparison with these. Now,
shall we be far astray if we assert that the chief
contribution of religion to these periods was a
new idea, a seed-like thought, which was sown in
an environment prepared for its reception, and
which forthwith sprang up and branched out into
many directions and bore not only rich but varied
fruit. Historians of Christianity have delighted
to show how remarkably the conditions of the
first century of our era were adapted to the
reception of the Christian idea of a universal as
opposed to a national religion. That was the new
idea which came to St. Peter when, with a kind
of astonishment, he cried, " Of a truth I perceive
that God is no respecter of persons, but in every
nation he that feareth him and worketh right-
eousness is accepted with him." It was this
new idea which came to that "Hebrew of the
Hebrews," St. Paul, and made him count all
things but loss for the sake of the one communion
and fellowship, wherein there is "neither Greek
nor Jew, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free."
It was again the idea of the City of God that
burned in the mind of St. Augustine when the
City of Rome and all it stood for was crashing to
ruin under the assaults of the barbarians. It
was this idea which gave new birth to the old
Empire under its new form of the Holy Roman
Empire and the Holy Roman Church with its
397
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
profound conception of unity, through which bar-
barian Europe was Christianized, civilized and
organized throughout the Middle Ages. And
when that " one good custom " threatened to cor-
rupt the world the great assertion of the worth
and of the right of the individual soul started
Europe upon a new line of development with its
splendid results. Always the idea underlies the
lasting revival or the new development.
It is, as it seems to us, the fresh idea which is
lacking to all the present-day efforts for a revival
of Christianity, and it is this which dooms them
to sterility, or, at best, to kindle a blaze of sensa-
tional fireworks which soon burns out, leaving
no lasting light or heat.
The idea which shall give birth to a fresh and
living movement of Christianity must be suffi-
ciently in harmony with the scientific and philo-
sophical ideas of our age to win the support of
thoughtful "men of good will." "We can do
nothing against the Truth." The lesson of the
fate of Galileo stands, and the Church has never
fully recovered the bad effects of her assaults
upon the various scientific advances of the nine-
teenth century. Even to-day the authorities of
the Church, whilst they have ceased their active
opposition to the modern movements of thought
and the modern increments of knowledge, ignore
them rather than undertake the heavier task of
studying them with a view to the correlation of
the old faith with the new intellectual environ-
ment. To engage in this study is, however, the
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THE OUTLOOK FOR RELIGIOUS FAITH
necessary condition of a lasting revival of reli-
gion. Every effort that opposes this condition or
ignores it leaves the thoughtful person cold.
IDEAS INVOLVED IN RELIGIOUS REVIVAL
The first note of a revised religion for the
twentieth century must be Universality or Cath-
olicity. This is indeed an essential note of Chris-
tianity. It is for all the world. We may observe
that this was the note struck at the beginning of
each of the great religious periods of the past.
" For all the world," was the primitive message.
The Holy Roman Empire and the Holy Roman
Church were conceived of as, in idea, at least,
including all mankind. Even the Reformation
which, in some ways meant division, had as its
fundamental proposition the assertion of the
rights of all men to free access to God. What-
ever else a religious revival may include, it must
begin with the note of universality.
In the second place, any revival which is
to be effective for our age must have the notes of
Liberty and Breadth. And this is in the main a
fresh note, and one not altogether pleasing to the
ecclesiastical mind. It requires, therefore, some
explanation and defence.
The mediaeval world and the world of the
Reformation period, in spite of the plea of the
Reformation for a kind of liberty, both believed
in an authority that was absolute and infallible.
With the one it was the Church, with the other
the Bible. But in experience all claims to infalli-
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THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
bility have broken down. A recent writer has
very truly said that "we have no more reason,
a priori, to look for infallibility in the sphere of
intellect, as the result of that operation of the
Divine Spirit which we call inspiration, than we
have to look for impeccability in the sphere of
conduct, as the result of that parallel operation
of the same spirit which we call grace. In prac-
tice we find neither the one nor the other: the
Church, the School of Saints, is yet the home of
sinners: the Church, the pillar and ground of
the truth, has yet been endowed with no miracu-
lous exemption from liberty to human error."
Moreover, the modern conception of human life
as a process of development renders the notion
of infallibility irrelevant to the modern mind.
What we may say and, as I venture to think, all
that we may say, is that just as we may believe,
in spite of imperfect morality amongst Chris-
tians, that " the heart of the Church has beaten
true upon the whole, and still beats true, to the
moral ideas of her Divine Master; so we may
believe, in spite of Robber Councils and Erastian
Confessions, and the chaos of sects and parties in
modern Christendom, that the Church has been
and is being guided into an ever-deepening appre-
hension of Divine truth."
The plea for liberty and breadth may, however,
be grounded upon a more positive basis than the
negative one of the failure of both the Roman
and Protestant ideas of authority. We have
already shown at sufficient length that Chris-
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THE OUTLOOK FOR RELIGIOUS FAITH
tianity is not in its essence a dogmatic faith. It
is personal trust and confidence in its Founder
and a willingness to follow Him. It is quite true
that, having for so many generations thought of
Christianity as a Creed rather than a Life, we
find it hard to extricate ourselves from this mode
of thinking; but the obstinate facts remain that
our Lord might have formulated, but did not
formulate, a Creed, and that He ever placed the
practical, in a word, life itself, above the theoreti-
cal. "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord,
Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but
he that doeth the will of my Father which is in
heaven." Further, a consideration of our daily
experience proves to us that no Church has any
monopoly of genuine followers of Christ, nor is
any Church exempt from flagrant sinners by
reason Of its orthodoxy. Nay more, we find,
amongst many who cannot assent to any of the
various creeds in their entirety, the genuine
spirit of Christ, a sincere love of truth, an
uprightness of life and willingness to live for
the common good which are at any rate a large
part of Christianity. It is indeed a difficult ques-
tion to decide where to assign the limits of free-
dom, but we may be sure that He who sternly
rebuked His disciples when they forbade one who
refused to follow them; that He who told the
story of the two sons whose father bade them
work in the vineyard and found the truer s'on in
him who, in word but not in deed, refused to go ;
that He who laid such firm emphasis upon fruit-
26 401
THE NEW EEA IN CANADA
bearing, and found in it and in the possession of
the spirit of Love the marks of His true disciples,
would fix no narrow bounds to the kingdom of
heaven upon earth.
Moreover, this age is one which judges men by
the spirit in which they live, and in doing so is
nearer to the mind of the Master than were some
previous ages. And in view of the vastness of the
task of transforming this modern world into a
Christian Society, this age realizes the necessity
for unity of spirit of all " men of good will " and
co-operation in work. Unless the Church can
include in its programme a large measure of
liberty and breadth it is hopeless to look for an
enduring revival of religion.
In the third place, the Church must devote
itself more frankly and completely to the general
good. Its message will, as ever, be a message of
salvation, but it will look for Salvation through
Service, and this it is clear enough was Christ's
way. The Church's task is to build up on earth
the kingdom of heaven — the kingdom of right-
eousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost — by
inspiring men to the love of God and guiding
them to the service of men. The two great com-
mandments are still, Thou shalt love the Lord
thy God with all thine heart, and thy neighbour
as thyself. It is at this point that the Church
is least adequate to its task, and it is owing to
this fact that so much of the best social service of
our day is organized and conducted from outside
the Church. The Church is still in the trammels
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THE OUTLOOK FOE RELIGIOUS FAITH
of its dogmatic limitations. It knows not, as
does a Jane Addams, how to love and labour for
man as man. It still reduces and hampers its
own efficiency by labelling men, as Catholic or
Protestant, Anglican or Methodist, Christian or
Jew. The Social Settlement seeks to serve man
as man, and herein it is closer than the Church
to the Divine Master. In men's hearts to-day
there is kindling as never before the humani-
tarian spirit. It is at least a half of Christianity,
and the revival of religion in the Church, if it is
to come at all, must give unlimited opportunity
to this spirit.
The great problems of to-day are nearly all
social in their character. They all resolve them-
selves into one, the problem of the common good.
But the Churches are hindered in their pursuit
of the common good by their love of the partial
good, i.e., the Denominational gain. The denom-
inational motive adulterates the purely Christian
motive. It is out of the recognition of this
amongst other facts that the Church Unity move-
ment has arisen. Exactly what form it may ulti-
mately take it is not possible to say, but it is
highly desirable that without waiting for formal
unity the spirit of fellowship and of common
effort should be stimulated.
It seems certain that after the war a great
effort will be made to build on a sounder basis
than heretofore the international fabric. The
key- word of this effort will be "The Common-
wealth of Nations," and the problem will be to
403
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
harmonize the national with the universal spirit.
What part or lot will the Churches have in this
movement? It is indeed of the essence of the
Gospel message. But in their divided and mutu-
ally antagonistic condition, the various branches
of the Church are enfeebled almost to the point
of paralysis. The situation of the Church is
indeed more perilous than its leaders appear to
realize, and the great opportunities that will open
to the Church in the near future will soon pass,
never to return. For how can the warring
branches of the Church bring peace and good to
the warring nations of the world?
THE MESSAGE OF LOVE AND SERVICE
In the Book of Revelation the Seer sees in a
vision four living creatures round the throne of
God, full of eyes before and behind. Without ceas-
ing they cry, " Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God,
the Almighty, which was and which is and which
is to come." Past, Present and Future, all are
His. And the living creatures endowed with eyes
before and behind look back upon the past and
forward to the future. The figure has its lesson
for the Church. Some there are who have eyes
only behind, and who ardently gaze upon the
past but have no vision of the future. Some with
equal ardour have little consciousness of the past
and no regard for it. They have eyes only in
front. But humanity and humanity's history are
one long development, and the past is ever con-
tained in the present. It is the Spirit that gives
404
THE OUTLOOK FOR RELIGIOUS FAITH
unity to history. The forms continually change.
The fullest and frankest study of religion in its
myriad forms strengthens the conviction that it
is an enduring and a growing element in human
nature. Man is a religious animal. The task of
the Church, therefore, is not to hand on a change-
less tradition, like the family jewels in a casket,
but rather to guide and direct mankind along the
paths of the spirit that lead onwards to eternity.
Adaptation to environment is a condition of
vitality in the Church, as in the world of nature.
Yet we need eyes behind as well as before. We
need, when we look backwards, to seek the les-
sons of the past to guide us in the future. The
past reveals to us the timeless element embodied
in the changing elements of custom, of knowledge,
of conditions. The retrospect strengthens our
faith in Him who sits upon the throne, the Eter-
nal Source from whence all things come, and to
which all things return. Out of this conviction
comes the inspiration of hope which cheers the
worker on his way. But the retrospect shows us
that the object of our faith and our hope is Love.
That object has throughout the Christian cen-
turies been symbolized by the Cross ; and clearer
than ever for the man of to-day stands out the
figure of One who is hanging from a cross. But
the modern mind puts a new emphasis upon the
meaning of the symbol, and relegates to the back-
ground older theories of the atonement which
found their sanction and appeal in a by-gone age.
For us the Man, upon the cross signifies the per-
405
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
feet Sacrifice of Love — the Supreme Sacrifice of
Service to the human race. It is the irresistible
appeal of this sacrifice of love and service that
induces men of our day to offer themselves, souls
and bodies, a living sacrifice, acceptable to God
as a reasonable service. It is the only appeal
that will henceforth move men to this decision.
"The New Era" will be an era rooted in faith
and inspired by hope, but the faith will be in
Him who said, " A new commandment give I unto
you that ye love one another," and who symbol-
ized the life of the Church in the words, " I am in
the midst of you as he that serveth." For the
rest this faith, though reverencing the creeds and
confessions of the past, will trust to the con-
tinued guidance of the living Spirit of God Who
has thus far brought humanity along the way
of life.
Herbert Symonds.
406
OUR
NATIONAL
ORGANIZATION
FOR THE WAR
CHARACTER OF THE HAPPY
WARRIOR
WHO is the happy Warrior? Who is he
That every man in arms should wish to be?
Tis, finally, the man who, lifted high,
Conspicuous object in a Nation's eye,
Or left unthought-of in obscurity —
Who, with a toward or untoward lot,
Prosperous or adverse, to his wish or not,
Plays, in the many games of life, that one
Where what he most doth value must be won:
Whom neither shape of danger can dismay,
Nor thought of tender happiness betray;
Who, not content that former worth stand fast,
Looks forward, persevering to the last,
From well to better, daily self-surpast:
Who, whether praise of him must walk the earth
Forever, and to noble deeds give birth,
Or he must go to dust without his fame,
And leave a dead unprofitable name,
Finds comfort in himself and in his cause;
And, while the mortal mist is gathering, draws
His breath in confidence of Heaven's applause:
This is the happy Warrior; this is he
Whom every man in arms should wish to be.
W. Wordsworth.
OUR NATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR
THE WAR
THE months through which we are now passing
are critical for the fate of the British Empire.
The war has lasted over two years and a half.
There is no sign of an end. Our enemies have
devastated Belgium and enslaved its people.
They have overrun Poland and taken to them-
selves its vast resources in corn and food. The
iron of Lorraine, the salt mines of Galicia, and
the oil fields of Roumania are in their hands.
They stand firmly entrenched on the western
front from the sea to Switzerland. Their own
coastline from Holland to Denmark has thus far
proved impregnable.
As against this we have done much. German
commerce is driven from the sea. The German
colonies are conquered. France has placed in the
field one-sixth of her population. England has
raised an army of five million men. From over-
seas a steady stream of transports crowded with
our troops moves towards the heart of the
Empire. The whole of the neutral world is under
contribution to our arms. Its factories are turned
to arsenals. British wealth that represented
before the war some twenty billion dollars in
its foreign investments is being traded for the
munitions of war.
In the moral sense the Allied peoples have done
still more. Belgium's defiance of tyranny, the
409
THE NEW EEA IN CANADA
grim devotion of those whom we used to call the
light-hearted people of France, and the cheerful
gayety of the " stolid " English — the nation that
will not retaliate, that still plays fair when mur-
der and piracy are turned against it, that buries
with military ceremony even the raiders who have
slaughtered its children, that hurls its bombs in
Flanders as a new form of cricket, and turns even
its dangers and its heroism into a form of sport —
these are the things that have called forth the
admiration of the world.
As against this the German brow is dark with
the shame of the torturer and the murderer.
There are cries that echo to us from the wastes
of the Atlantic, and that will echo still through
centuries of time.
But we only deceive ourselves if we hide the
fact that the fate of the war — and with it all that
is best in the world — hangs in the balance.
WHAT ARE WE TO DO ?
Our soldiers in the field have done, and are
doing, all that heroism can inspire and all that
endurance can fulfil. Are we doing our share at
home? We go about our tranquil lives scarcely
disturbed. Here and there, the swift dart of
death, that strikes "somewhere in France,"
reaches, with its double point, somewhere in Can-
ada, a mother's heart. We pause a moment in
our sympathy, and pass on. To and fro we go
about our business. We pay our easy taxes, and
subscribe to our so-called patriotic loan, so issued
410
OUR ORGANIZATION FOB THE WAR
that the hungriest money-lender in New York is
glad to clamour for a share of it. We eat, drink,
and are merry, or, at least, not sad, professing a
new philosophy of life as our sympathies grow
dull to the pain and suffering that we do not
share.
Are we, the people of Canada who are at home,
doing our proper part to help to win the war?
If a war were conducted with the full strength
of a nation, it would mean that every part of the
fighting power, the labour, and the resources of
the country were being used towards a single end.
Each man would either be fighting or engaged in
providing materials of war, food, clothes and
transport for those that were fighting, with siich
extra food and such few clothes as were needed
for themselves while engaged in the task.
This is a war economy. This is the fashion in
which the energies of a nation would be directed
if some omniscient despot directed them and
controlled the life and activity of every man.
A nation so organized, if it were possible,
would be multiplied as ten to one.
EFFORTS THAT LEAD NOWHERE
In place of it look about us. Thousands, tens
of thousands, millions of our men, women and
children are engaged in silly and idle services or
in production that is for mere luxuries and com-
forts and that helps nothing in the conduct of
the war. They are making pianos, gramophones,
motor cars, jewellery, books, pictures, clothes in
411
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
millions of yards and millions of dollars, that
are mere needless luxuries, furniture that could
be waited for, new houses where our old ones
would still do, new railroads that lead nowhere
— in short, a multitude of things that have no
bearing whatever on the great fight for life and
death which is going on in the world without.
Such people, though they work fourteen hours a
day, are but mere drones in the hive as far as the
war is concerned. Every crippled soldier that
comes home and looks upon our so-called busy
streets feels this by instinct, with something,
perhaps, like hatred in his heart.
These workers pay their taxes, it is said. By
levying taxes on what they made we get the
revenue that helps to pay for the war. Quite
true, as far as it goes. But follow this poor
argument in its tracks and you will see that it
goes but an inch or so and then falls. It springs
out of the perpetual confusion that arises in
people's minds by mixing up the movement of
money to and fro which they see and think they
understand, with the movement and direction of
the nation's production, which they do not. The
so-called War-Tax is but a small part of a man's
earnings; let us say, for the sake of argument,
one-tenth. This means that nine-tenths of the
man's work is directed to his own use and only
one-tenth for the war. Or let us put the case in
the concrete. Let us suppose that the man in
question makes pianos. The net result of his
412
OUR ORGANIZATION FOR THE WAR
work is as if he gave one-tenth of his pianos to
the Government. With that tenth there is no
quarrel. The Government can exchange it for
foreign gunpowder; this is the same, at one
remove, as if the piano made gunpowder. But
the other nine-tenths is all astray. This the piano
man exchanges for wheat, vegetables, meat,
clothes, and so on ; thus, as far as this nine-tenths
of the man's work goes, he is a mere drone or
parasite feeding himself and clothing himself,
but not helping to fight the war at all. Worse
than that. The farmer who raised the food is
a parasite, too. For although food is a war
material, this particular piece of food is not. The
farmer who raises food and exchanges it for
pianos, pianolas, victrolas, trotting buggies,
books, moving pictures, pleasure cars, and so on,
is just as much a war-drone as the man who made
them.
In other words, the further we look into the
case the worse it gets. Since food is a war
material we might have supposed at first sight
that our vast agricultural population was really
employed in working to win the war. Indeed a
lot of nonsense to this effect has been spoken and
printed during the past few years. If all our
farmers were working directly for the Govern-
ment, if all that they produced were handed
over to the Government, and if they themselves
received out of it only enough food and clothes
to keep them going, indeed, they would be doing
413
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
war work. For the Government could either use
the food to feed the soldiers or sell it to the for-
eigners for the munitions. But this is not the
case.
FRUITLESS EXPORTS
Exactly the same argument applies to the
export trade. It is often thought that if such
and such a thing is manufactured in Canada and
sold abroad, then since this brings money into
the country with which we can buy war material
to pay soldiers, the export trade is a direct con-
tribution towards the war. Sheer fallacy and
confusion, if not worse. Export in private hands
pays only its tax to the Government, not its
product. The export workers exchange their
nine-tenths of what they make, for their own con-
sumption. Here, again, drone trades with drone,
and the country profits — apart from its little
tax — nothing.
The truth is that in all these things individual
greed and selfishness obscure the issue. War
brings with it the peculiar phenomenon of war
prosperity. This, economically, is one of the
most distressing things conceivable. Here is the
interpretation of it. It is as if an industrious
farmer and his family had worked hard for a
generation and amassed flocks and herds, barns
and buildings, and good stores of provisions and
grain ; then, in a moment of insanity, had set to
work to burn the buildings, and in the warm light
of the flames kill and devour the animals, and
414
OUR ORGANIZATION FOR THE WAR
gorge themselves with the grain and fodder,
throwing the rest away. In this mad orgy one
son of the family, more idiotic even than the rest,
rubs his silly hands before the burning home and
leers : " Father, it is warmer here and nicer, and
there is more to eat, than in the old days when
we worked hard and had but little food. Father,
we are prosperous. We have done a good thing."
Then presently the fire burns down into ashes
and the night comes and the dark. And where
the grain once stood and the meadows smiled in
the sun, the wolves shall howl again in the gloom
of the forest. And where the homestead was,
there will be graves. Such is the interpretation
of war.
The farmer and the family are the nation, and
the idiotic son laughing beside the fire is the war
theorist talking of the boom of trade.
But people either do not, or will not, know
this. They still want their industry and its
inflated gains, and War Prosperity with the flush
on its hectic face and War Pleasure with its
strident laugh, dancing away the midnight hours.
In and through it all moves smug hypocrisy, sug-
gesting the little words and phrases that are to
salve the soul ; teaching the manufacturer to call
himself a patriot as he pockets his private gains,
and to shout for trade, more trade, that he may
cram his pockets the fuller ; teaching the farmer
that his own fat, easy industry is war itself, and
that he may count his fatted cattle in the light
of his stable lantern and go to bed a patriot;
415
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
teaching all the drones and parasites, the law-
yers, the professors, the chefs and the piano
players, the actors and the buffoons, that in going
on with their business they are aiding in the
conduct of the war.
"Business as usual," shouted some especial
idiot at the outset of the war.
The cry was like to ruin us.
ECONOMY OF REAL EFFORT
What then are we to do? By what means can
we change from an economy of peace and indus-
trial selfishness to an economy of effort and
national sacrifice?
There are two ways in which this can be done ;
one that is heroic and impossible, another that
lies easy to our hand.
The first is the method that nations adopt only
in their despair, only in the last agonies of for-
eign conquest, as when Richmond fell, or when
the Boers fought on in grim desperation across
the naked veldt. Here national production ends,
save only for necessary food and war supplies.
Private industry is gone. Luxury is dead. All
of the nation's men are gathered into a single
band. They do as they are told. They fight, they
work, they die. Its women are in the fields; or
they are making bandages; they tend the sick;
they pray beside the dying.
Thus can a nation stand, grim and terrible, its
back against the wall, till it goes down, all in one
heap, glorious. In the wild onslaughts of the
416
OUR ORGANIZATION FOR THE WAR
great conquests of the past, nations have died
like this.
But for us, here and now, and in the short time
that we have, this is not possible. Outside inva-
sion could force us to it, in a jumbled wreck, with
no choice of our own. But to accomplish this at
a word of command inside our present complex
industrial system is not possible. It is too intri-
cate, too complicated, to be done by command
from above. To enlist every man and woman in
an industrial army, to direct their work and
assign their rations — in other words, to create an
ideal national war machine — is a task beyond the
power of a government. Years of preparation
would be needed.
REAL NATIONAL ORGANIZATION
What we do must be done from below, using,
as best we can, the only driving force that we
know — the will of the individual. We must find
a means that will begin to twist and distort our
national industry out of its present shape till it
begins to take on the form of national organiza-
tion for war.
To do this we must exchange war prosperity
for war adversity, self-imposed and in deadly
earnest.
The key to the situation, as far as we can
unlock it, lies in individual thrift and individual
sacrifice. Let there be no more luxuries, no
wasted work, no drones to keep, out of the
national production.
27 417
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
Every man, to-day, who consumes any article
or employs any service not absolutely necessary,
aims a blow at his country.
Save every cent. Live plainly. Do without
everything. Eise early, work hard, and content
yourself with a bare living. The man who does
this — if he uses the saved money properly — is
doing war work for his country. He may wrap
his last year's coat about him and eat his bread
and cheese and feel that he, too, is doing some-
thing to show the world the kind of stuff that is
yet left in it.
But he must use his savings properly. That is
the whole essence of the matter.
Let us see what this implies. If the idea of
National Thrift were really to spread among us,
there would be no more purchases of mere luxur-
ies, or things that could be done without ; no more
motors, no theatres (save where the work is vol-
untary and the money for the war), no new
clothes — they would become a badge of shame —
no books, no pictures, no new furniture, no new
carpets, no victrolas, and for our children no new
toys save such as can be made by the affectionate
industry of a father working overtime with bits
of stick and cardboard.
Such a programme would threaten to wipe out
manufacturers and knock down dividends like
ninepins. At first sight, a manufacturer, reading
such an article as this, turns pale with indigna-
tion and contempt. Let him wait. Let us follow
the money that is saved a little further and see
what happens to it.
418
OUK ORGANIZATION FOE THE WAR
NATIONAL TAXES AND NATIONAL LOANS
Every cent of the money that can be gathered
up by national thrift should be absorbed by
national taxes and national loans. Our present
taxes are, for war-time, ridiculously low as far
as all people of comfortable, or even of decent,
means are concerned. And they are made with
one eye on the supposed benefit to industry. We
need a blast of taxation — real taxation, income
tax and all, that should strike us like a wave of
German gas. As things are, we should go down
before it. Armed with the new gas helmet of
national thrift we could breathe it easily enough
and laugh behind our goggles.
Over above the taxes we need a succession of
government patriotic loans, not money-lenders'
loans at market and super-market rates, but
patriotic loans in the real sense, at a low rate of
interest, let us say four per cent., and issued in
bonds of twenty-five dollars, with a dollar a year
as interest.
The people, one says, will not subscribe. Then,
if not, let us perish; we do not deserve to win
the war.
But they will subscribe.
If, under the auspices of our Government, a
national campaign for thrift and investment is
set on foot; if we give to the ideas all the pub-
licity that our business brains can devise, if we
advertise it as commerce advertises its healing
oils and fit-right boots and its Aphrodite corsets,
then people will subscribe, tumultuously, roar-
ingly, overwhelmingly.
419
THE NEW ERA IN CANADA
If not — if that is the kind of nation that we are
— let us call our soldiers home from the western
front. They are fighting under a misunderstand-
ing. The homes that they are saving are not
worth the sacrifice.
CAMPAIGN OF THRIFT
But first let the Government — of the domin-
ions, the provinces, the cities and the towns—
itself begin the campaign of thrift. At present
vast sums of money are being wasted in so-called
public works, railways in the wilderness, cement
sidewalks in the streets, post offices in the towns
— millions and millions that drain away our eco-
nomic strength. In time of peace these are excel-
lent. For war, unless they have a war purpose,
the things are worse than useless. The work of
the men who labour at them is of no value, and
the food and clothes that they consume must be
made by other men.
Let us be done with new streets and new side-
walks, new town halls and new railways, till the
war is done. Let us walk in our old boots on the
old boards, patriots all, with dollar pieces jing-
ling in our pockets adding up to twenty-five for
the latest patriotic loan.
Let us do this, and there will pour into the
hands of the Government such a cascade of
money that the sound of it shall be heard all the
way to Potsdam.
And here enters the last step to be taken under
National Thrift to convert ourselves into a war
430
OUR ORGANIZATION FOR THE WAR
economy. The Government goes with its money
to the manufacturers and interrogates them.
What can you make, and you, and you? You
have a plant that has made buggies and fancy
carriages. These our people will not buy because
now they walk. But what is it that you can
make? — can you turn yourself to making trucks,
waggons? You, that made boots and have lost
half your trade, what about a hundred thousand
boots for the army? You, that made clothes,
what about doing the whole thing over in khaki?
The needs of a War Government are boundless,
endless. The list of its wants is as wide as the
whole range of our manufactures. The adjust-
ment is difficult. Not a doubt of it. It cannot
be done in a day. But with each successive month
the process would go on and on till we would find
ourselves, while working, apparently, each for
himself, altered into a nation of war-workers,
every man, in his humble sense, at the front and
taking his part.
Meantime we at home are doing nothing, or
next to it, for the war. While we go about our
business as usual, men are breathing out their
lives for us, somewhere in France.
What shall we do?
Stephen Leacock.
[NOTE. — This paper was written by Professor Leacock for
the use of the Government, which has printed a quarter
of a million copies. It has attracted considerable atten-
tion in England, and especially in the London Times. Pro-
fessor Leacock has very kindly allowed me to use it here.
— EDITOR.]
421
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