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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/18032-8.txt b/18032-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4bced3f --- /dev/null +++ b/18032-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8372 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Canadian Commonwealth, by Agnes C. Laut + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Canadian Commonwealth + + +Author: Agnes C. Laut + + + +Release Date: March 21, 2006 [eBook #18032] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CANADIAN COMMONWEALTH*** + + +E-text prepared by Al Haines + + + +THE CANADIAN COMMONWEALTH + +by + +AGNES C. LAUT + +Author of +Lords of the North, Pathfinders of the West, +Hudson's Bay Company, etc. + + + + + + +Indianapolis +The Bobbs-Merrill Company +Publishers +Copyright 1915 +The Bobbs-Merrill Company + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER + + I NATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS + II FOUNDATION FOR HOPE + III THE TIE THAT BINDS + IV AMERICANIZATION + V WHY RECIPROCITY WAS REJECTED + VI THE COMING OF THE ENGLISH + VII THE COMING OF THE FOREIGNER + VIII THE COMING OF THE ORIENTAL + IX THE HINDU + X WHAT PANAMA MEANS + XI TO EUROPE BY HUDSON BAY + XII SOME INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS + XIII HOW GOVERNED + XIV THE LIFE OF THE PEOPLE + XV EMIGRATION AND DEVELOPMENT + XVI DEFENSE + XVII THE DOMAIN OF THE NORTH + XVIII FINDING HERSELF + INDEX + + + + +THE CANADIAN COMMONWEALTH + + +CHAPTER I + +NATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS + +I + +An empire the size of Europe setting out on her career of world history +is a phenomenon of vast and deep enough import to stir to national +consciousness the slumbering spirit of any people. Yet when you come +to trace when and where national consciousness awakened, it is like +following a river back from the ocean to its mountain springs. From +the silt borne down on the flood-tide you can guess the fertile plains +watered and far above the fertile plains, regions of eternal snow and +glacial torrent warring turbulently through the adamantine rocks. You +can guess the eternal striving, the forward rush and the throwback that +have carved a way through the solid rocks; but until you have followed +the river to its source and tried to stem its current you can not know. + +So of peoples and nations. + +Fifty years ago, as far as world affairs were concerned, Japan did not +exist. Came national consciousness, and Japan rose like a star +dominating the Orient. A hundred years ago Germany did not exist. +Came national consciousness welding chaotic principalities into unity, +and the mailed fist of the empire became a menace before which Europe +quailed. So of China with the ferment of freedom leavening the whole. +So of the United States with the Civil War blending into a union the +diversities of a continent. When you come to consider the birth of +national consciousness in Canada, you do not find the germ of an +ambition to dominate, as in Japan and Germany. Nor do you find a fight +for freedom. Canada has always been free--free as the birds of passage +that winged above the canoe of the first voyageur who pointed his craft +up the St. Lawrence for the Pacific; but what you do find from the very +first is a fight for national existence; and when the fight was won, +Canada arose like a wrestler with consciousness of strength for new +destiny. + + +II + +Go back to the beginning of Canada! + +She was not settled by land-seekers. Neither was she peopled by +adventurers seeking gold. The first settlers on the banks of the St. +Lawrence came to plant the Cross and propagate the Faith. True, they +found they could support their missions and extend the Faith by the fur +trade; and their gay adventurers of the fur trade threaded every river +and lake from the St. Lawrence to the Columbia; but, primarily, the +lure that led the French to the St. Lawrence was the lure of a +religious ideal. So of Ontario and the English provinces. Ontario was +first peopled by United Empire Loyalists, who refused to give up their +loyalty to the Crown and left New England and the South, abandoning all +earthly possessions to begin life anew in the backwoods of the Great +Lakes country. The French came pursuing an ideal of religion. The +English came pursuing an ideal of government. We may smile at the +excesses of both devotees--French nuns, who swooned in religious +ecstasy; old English aristocrats, who referred to democracy as "the +black rot plague of the age"; but the fact remains--these colonists +came in unselfish pursuit of ideals; and they gave of their blood and +their brawn and all earthly possessions for those ideals; and it is of +such stuff that the spirit of dauntless nationhood is made. Men who +build temples of their lives for ideals do not cement national mortar +with graft. They build with integrity for eternity, not time. Their +consciousness of an ideal gives them a poise, a concentration, a +stability, a steadiness of purpose, unknown to mad chasers after +wealth. Obstinate, dogged, perhaps tinged with the self-superior +spirit of "I am holier than thou"--they may be; but men who forsake all +for an ideal and pursue it consistently for a century and a half +develop a stamina that enters into the very blood of their race. It is +a common saying even to this day that Quebec is more Catholic than the +Pope, and Ontario more ultra-English than England; and when the +Canadian is twitted with being "colonial" and "crude," his prompt and +almost proud answer is that he "goes in more for athletics than +esthetics." "One makes men. The other may make sissies." + +With this germ spirit as the very beginning of national consciousness +in Canada, one begins to understand the grim, rough, dogged +determination that became part of the race. Canada was never +intoxicated with that madness for Bigness that seemed to sweep over the +modern world. What cared she whether her population stood still or +not, whether she developed fast or slow, provided she kept the Faith +and preserved her national integrity? Flimsy culture had no place in +her schools or her social life. A solid basis of the three R's--then +educational frills if you like; but the solid basis first. Worship of +wealth and envy of material success have almost no part in Canadian +life; for the simple reason that wealth and success are not the ideals +of the nation. Laurier, who is a poor man, and Borden, who is only a +moderately well-off man, command more social prestige in Canada than +any millionaire from Vancouver to Halifax. If demos be the spirit of +the mob, then Canada has no faintest tinge of democracy in her; but +inasmuch as the French colonists came in pursuit of a religious ideal +and the English colonists of a political ideal, if democracy stand for +freedom for the individual to pursue his own ideal--then Canada is +supersaturated with that democracy. Freedom for the individual to +pursue his own ideal was the very atmosphere in which Canada's national +consciousness was born. + +In the West a something more entered into the national spirit. French +fur-traders, wood-runners, voyageurs had drifted North and West, men of +infinite resources, as much at home with a frying-pan over a camp-fire +as over a domestic hearth, who could wrest a living from life anywhere. +English adventurers of similar caliber had drifted in from Hudson Bay. +These little lords in a wilderness of savages had scattered west as far +as the Rockies, south to California. They knew no law but the law of a +strong right arm and kept peace among the Indians only by a dauntless +courage and rough and ready justice. They could succeed only by a good +trade in furs, and they could obtain a good trade in furs only by +treating the Indians with equity. Every man who plunged into the fur +wilderness took courage in one hand and his life in the other. If he +lost his courage, he lost his life. Indian fray, turbulent rapids, +winter cold took toll of the weak and the feckless. Nature accepts no +excuses. The man who defaulted in manhood was wiped out--sucked down +by the rapids, buried in winter storms, absorbed into the camps of +Indian degenerates. The men who stayed upon their feet had the stamina +of a manhood in them that could not be extinguished. It was a +wilderness edition of that dauntlessness which brought the Loyalists to +Ontario and the French devotees to Quebec. This, too, made for a +dogged, strong, obstinate race. At the time of the fall of French +power at Quebec in 1759 there were about two thousand of these +wilderness hunters in the West. Fifty years later by way of Hudson Bay +came Lord Selkirk's Settlers--Orkneymen and Highlanders, hardy, keen +and dauntless as their native rock-bound isles. + +These four classes were the primary first ingredients that went into +the making of Canada's national consciousness and each of the four +classes was the very personification of strength, purpose, courage, +freedom. + + +III + +But Destiny plays us strange tricks. When Quebec fell in 1759, New +France passed under the rule of that English and Protestant race which +she had been fighting for two centuries; and when the American colonies +won their independence twenty years later and the ultra-English +Loyalists trekked in thousands across the boundary to what are now +Montreal and Toronto and Cobourg, there came under one government two +races that had fought each other in raid and counter-raid for two +centuries--alien and antagonistic in religion and speech. It is only +in recent years under the guiding hand of Sir Wilfred Laurier that the +ancient antagonism has been pushed off the boards. + +The War of 1812 probably helped Canada's national spirit more than it +hurt it. It tested the French Canadian and found him loyal to the +core; loyal, to be sure, not because he loved England more but rather +because he loved the Americans less. He felt surer of religious +freedom under English rule, which guaranteed it to him, than under the +rule of the new republic, which he had harried and which had harried +him in border raid for two centuries. The War of 1812 left Canada +crippled financially but stronger in national spirit because she had +tested her strength and repelled invasion. + +If mountain pines strike strong roots into the eternal rocks because +they are tempest-tossed by the wildest winds of heaven, then the next +twenty years were destined to test the very fiber of Canada's national +spirit. All that was weak snapped and went down. The dry rot of +political theory was flung to dust. Special interests, pampered +privileges, the claims of the few to exploit the many, the claims of +the many to rule wisely as the few--the shibboleth of theorists, the +fine spun cobwebs of the doctrinaires, governmental ideals of +brotherhood that were mostly sawdust and governmental practices that +were mostly theft under privilege--all went down in the smash of the +next twenty years' tempest. All that was left was what was real; what +would hold water and work out in fact. + +It is curious how completely all records slur over the significance of +the Rebellion of 1837. Canada is sensitive over the facts of the case +to this day. Only a few years ago a book dealing with the unvarnished +facts of the period was suppressed by a suit in court. As a rebellion, +1837 was an insignificant fracas. The rebels both in Ontario and +Quebec were hopelessly outnumbered and defeated. William Lyon +MacKenzie, the leader in Ontario, and Louis Papineau, the leader in +Quebec, both had to flee for their lives. It is a question if a +hundred people all told were killed. Probably a score in all were +executed; as many again were sent to penal servitude; and several +hundreds escaped punishment by fleeing across the boundary and joining +in the famous night raids of Hunters' Lodges. Within a few years both +the leaders and exiles were permitted to return to Canada, where they +lived honored lives. It was not as a rebellion that 1837 was +epoch-making. It was in the clarifying of Canada's national +consciousness as to how she was to be governed. + +Having migrated from the revolting colonies of New England and the +South, the ultra-patriotic United Empire Loyalists unconsciously felt +themselves more British than the French of Quebec. Canada was governed +direct from Downing Street. There were local councils in both Toronto +and Quebec--or Upper and Lower Canada, as they were called--and there +were local legislatures; but the governing cliques were appointed by +the Royal Governor, which meant that whatever little clique gained the +Governor's ear had its little compact or junta of friends and relatives +in power indefinitely. There were elections, but the legislature had +no control over the purse strings of the government. Such a close +corporation of special interests did the governing clique become that +the administration was known in both provinces as a "Family Compact." +Administrative abuses flourished in a rank growth. Judges owing their +appointment to the Crown exercised the most arbitrary tyranny against +patriots raising their voices against government by special interests. +Vast land grants were voted away to favorites of the Compact. Public +moneys were misused and neither account given nor restitution demanded +from the culprit. Ultra-loyalty became a fashionable pose. When +strolling actors played American airs in a Toronto theater they were +hissed; and when a Canadian stood up to those airs, he was hissed. +Special interests became intrenched behind a triple rampart of fashion +and administration and loyalty. Details of the revolt need not be +given here. A great love is always the best cure for a puny +affection--a Juliet for a Rosalind; and when a pure patriotism arose to +oust this spurious lip-loyalty, there resulted the Rebellion of 1837. + +The point is--when the rebellion had passed, Canada had overthrown a +system of government by oligarchy. She had ousted special interests +forever from her legislative halls. In a blood and sweat of agony, on +the scaffold, in the chain gang, penniless, naked, hungry and in exile, +her patriots had fought the dragon of privilege, cast out the accursed +thing and founded national life on the eternal rocks of justice to all, +special privileges to none. Her patriots had themselves learned on the +scaffold that law must be as sacredly observed by the good as by the +evil, by the great as by the small. From the death scaffolds of these +patriots sprang that part of Canada's national consciousness that +reveres law next to God. Canada passed through the throes of purging +her national consciousness from 1815 to 1840, as the United States +passed through the same throes in the sixties, but the process cost her +half a century of delay in growth and development. + +While the union of Upper and Lower Canada put an end to the evils of +special privileges in government, events had been moving apace in the +far West, where roving traders and settlers were a law unto themselves. +Red River settlers of the region now known as Manitoba were clamoring +for an end to the monopoly of the Hudson's Bay Fur Company over all +that region inland from the Great Northern Sea. The discovery of gold +had brought hordes of adventurers pouring into Cariboo, or what is now +known as British Columbia. Both Red River and British Columbia +demanded self-government. Partly because England had delayed granting +Oregon self-government, the settlers of the Columbia had set up their +own provisional government and turned that region over to the United +States. We are surely far enough away from the episodes to state +frankly the facts that similar underground intrigue was at work in both +Red River and British Columbia, fostered, much of it, by Irish +malcontents of the old Fenian raids. Once more Canada's national +consciousness roused itself to a bigger problem and wider outlook. +Either the far-flung Canadian provinces must be bound together in some +sort of national unity or--the Canadian mind did not let itself +contemplate that "or." The provinces must be confederated to be held. +Hence confederation in 1867 under the British North American Act, which +is to Canada what the Constitution is to the United States. It +happened that Sir John Macdonald, the future premier of the Dominion, +had been in Washington during one period of the Civil War. He noted +what he thought was the great defect of the American system, and he +attributed the Civil War to that defect--namely, that all powers not +specifically delegated to the federal government were supposed to rest +with the states. Therefore, when Canada formed her federation of +isolated provinces, Sir John and the other famous Fathers of +Confederation reversed the American system. All power not specifically +delegated to the provinces was supposed to rest with the Dominion. +Only strictly local affairs were left with the provinces. Trade, +commerce, justice, lands, agriculture, labor, marriage laws, waterways, +harbors, railways were specifically put under Dominion control. + + +IV + +Now, stand back and contemplate the situation confronting the new +federation: + +Canada's population was less than half the present population of the +state of New York; not four million. That population was scattered +over an area the size of Europe.[1] To render the situation doubly +dark and doubtful the United States had just entered on her career of +high tariff. That high tariff barred Canadian produce out. There was +only one intermittent and unsatisfactory steamer service across the +Atlantic. There was none at all across the Pacific. British +Columbians trusted to windjammers round the Horn. Of railroads binding +East to West there was none. A canal system had been begun from the +lakes and the Ottawa to the St. Lawrence, but this was a measure more +of national defense than commerce. Crops were abundant, but where +could they be sold? I have heard relatives tell how wheat in those +days sold down to forty cents, and oats to twenty cents, and potatoes +to fifteen cents, and fine cattle to forty dollars, and finest horses +to fifty dollars and seventy-five dollars. Fathers of farmers who +to-day clear their three thousand dollars and four thousand dollars a +year could not clear one hundred dollars a year. Commerce was +absolutely stagnant. Canada was a federation, but a federation of +what? Poverty-stricken, isolated provinces. Not in bravado, not in +flamboyant self-confidence, rebuffed of all chance to trade with the +United States, the new Dominion humbly set herself to build the +foundations of a nation. She did not know whether she could do what +she had set herself to do; but she began with that same dogged idealism +and faith in the future which had buoyed up her first settlers; and +there were dark days during her long hard task, when the whiff of an +adverse wind would have thrown her into national bankruptcy--that +winter, for instance, when the Canadian Pacific had no money to go on +building and the Canadian government refused to extend aid. Had the +Kiel Rebellion of '85 not compelled the Dominion government to extend +aid so that the line would be ready for the troops every bank in Canada +would have collapsed, and national credit would have been impaired for +fifty years. + +Meanwhile, a country of less than four million people set itself to +link British Columbia with Montreal, and Montreal with Halifax, and +Ottawa with Detroit, and the Great Lakes with the sea. The story is +too long to be related in detail, but on canals alone Canada has spent +a hundred millions. Including stocks, bonds, funded debt and debenture +stock, the Dominion railways have a capital of $1,369,992,574; and the +country that had not a foot of railroads, when the patriots fought the +Family Compact, to-day possesses twenty-nine thousand miles of +trackage,[2] three transcontinental systems of railroads and threescore +lines touching the boundary.[3] Five times more tonnage passes through +the Canadian Soo Canal than is expected for Panama or has passed +through Suez; but consider the burden of this development on a people +whose farmers were scarcely clearing one hundred dollars a year. It is +putting it mildly to say that during these dark days property +depreciated two-thirds in value. Land companies that had loaned up to +two-thirds the value of farm property found themselves saddled with +farms which could not be sold for half they had advanced on the loan. + +Three times within the memory of the living generation Canadian +delegates sought trade concessions in Washington; and three times they +came back rebuffed, with but a grimmer determination to work out +Canada's own destiny. Is it any wonder, when the fourth time came and +Canada was offered reciprocity that she voted it down? + +During the twenty dark years Canada lost to the United States +one-fourth her native population.[4] During the last ten years she has +drawn back to her home acres not only many of her expatriated native +born but almost two million Americans. In ten years her population has +almost doubled. Uncle Sam has boasted his four billion yearly foreign +trade from Atlantic ports. Canada with a population only one-twelfth +Uncle Sam's to-day has a foreign trade of almost a billion. + + +V + +Take another look at Canada's area! All of Germany and Austria spread +over Eastern Canada would still leave an area uncovered in the East +bigger than the German Empire. England spread out flat would just +cover the maritime provinces. Quebec stands a third bigger than +Germany, Ontario a third bigger than France; and you still have a +western world as large again as the East. Spread the British Isles +flat, they would barely cover Manitoba. France and Germany would not +equal Saskatchewan and Alberta; and two Germanies would not cover +British Columbia--leaving undefined Yukon and MacKenzie River and Peace +River and the hinterland of Hudson Bay, an area equal to European +Russia. If areas in Canada had the same population as areas in Europe, +the Dominion would be supporting four hundred million people. + +It would be assuming too much stoicism to say that Canadians are not +conscious of a great destiny. For years they stuck so closely to their +nation-building that they had no time to stand back and view the size +of the edifice of their own structure, but all that is different +to-day. When four hundred thousand people a year flock to the Dominion +to cast in their lot with Canadians, there is testimony of worth. +Canadians know their destiny is upon them, whatever it may be; and they +are meeting the challenge half-way with faces to the front. In the +words of Sir Wilfred Laurier, they know that "the Twentieth Century is +Canada's." What will they do with it? What are their aims and desires +as a people? Will the same ideals light the path to the fore as have +illumined the long hard way in the past? Will Canada absorb into her +national life the people who are coming to her, or will they absorb her? + + +[1] Canada's area is 3,750,000 square miles. The area of Europe is +3,797,410 square miles. + +[2] Canada's railway mileage at the end of 1913 was 29,303.53. The +land grants to Canadian railroads, Dominion and provincial, stand +55,256,429 acres. Cash subsidies to railroads in Canada up to June 30, +1913, stand thus: from the Dominion, $163,251,469.42; from the +provinces, $36,500,015.16; from the municipalities, $18,078,673.60. + +[3] The tonnage through both Canadian and U. S. canals at the "Soo" in +1913 was 72,472,676, of which 39,664,874 went through the Canadian +canal. + +[4] The U. S. Census reports place the number of Canadians in the +United States at one and a quarter million; but this is obviously far +below the mark. Canada's loss of people shows that. For instance, +from 1898 to 1908, Canada was receiving immigrants at a rate exceeding +200,000 a year, yet the census for this decade showed a gain of only a +million. It was not till 1914 her census showed a gain of two million +for ten years. Her immigrants either went back or drifted over the +line. Port figures show that few went back to Europe. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +FOUNDATION FOR HOPE + +I + +Canada at the opening of the twentieth century has the same population +as the United States at the opening of the nineteenth century.[1] Has +the Dominion any material justification for her high hopes of a world +destiny? Switzerland possesses national consciousness to an acute +degree. Yet Switzerland remains a little people. What ground has +Canada for measuring her strength with the nations of the world? +Having remained almost stationary in her national progress from 1759 to +1859, what reason has she to anticipate a progress as swift and +world-embracing as that which forced the United States to the very +forefront of world powers? It takes something more than high hopes to +build empire. Has Canada a foundation beneath her high hopes? No +nation ever had a more passionate patriotism than Ireland. Yet Ireland +has lost her population and retrogressed.[2] Why will the same fate +not halt and impede Canada? + +It may be acknowledged here that Canadians have no answers for such +questions and short shift for the questioner. They are too busy making +history to talk about it. It is only the woman insecure of her social +position who prates about it. It is only the nation uncertain of +herself that bolsters a fact with an argument. Canada is too busy with +facts for any flamboyant arguments. It is an even wager that if you +ask the average well-informed business man in Canada how many miles of +railways the Dominion has, he will answer on the dot "almost thirty +thousand." But if you ask if he knows that Germany, for instance, with +nine times denser population has barely twice as much trackage--no, +your Canadian business man doesn't know it. He is too busy building +his own railroads to care much what other nations are doing with +theirs. Likewise of the country's trade increasing faster almost than +the Dominion can handle it. He knows that imports have increased one +hundred and sixty-three per cent. in ten years, and that exports have +increased almost fifty per cent.; but he doesn't realize in the least +that the Dominion with seven million people has one-fourth as large a +foreign trade as the United States with a hundred million people.[3] +He knows that immigration has in ten years jumped from 49,000 a year to +402,000; but does he take in what it means that his country with only +five million native born is being called on to absorb yearly a third as +many immigrants as the United States with eighty million native +born?[4] He has been so busy handling the rush of prosperity that has +come in on him like a tidal wave that he has not had time to pause over +the problems of this new destiny--the fact, for instance, that in two +more decades the newcomers will outnumber the native born. + + +II + +Unless the edifice be top heavy, beneath it all must be the rock bottom +of fact. Beneath the tide is the pull of some eternal law. What facts +is Canada building her future on? What pull is beneath the tide of +four hundred thousand homeseekers a year? What has doubled population +and almost doubled foreign trade? + +It is almost a truism that the farther north the land, the greater the +fertility, if there be any fertility at all. There is first the supply +of unfailing moisture, with a yearly subsoiling of humus unknown to +arid lands. Canada is super-sensitive about her winter climate--the +depth and intensity of the frost, the length and rigor of her winters; +but she need not be. It should be cause of gratitude. Frost +penetrating the ground from five to twelve feet--as it does in the +Northwest--guarantees a subterranean root irrigation that never fails. +Heavy snow--let us acknowledge frankly snow sometimes banks western +streets the height of a man--means a heavy supply of moisture both in +thaw and rain. There is second the long sunlight. An earth tilted on +its axis toward the sun six months of the year gives the North a +sunlight that is longer the farther north you go. When the sun sets at +seven to eight in New York, it sets at eight to nine in Winnipeg, and +nine to ten in Athabasca, and only for a few hours at all still farther +north. It is the long sunlight that gives the fruit of Niagara and +Quebec and Annapolis its "fameuse" quality; just as it is the sunlight +that gives western fruit its finest coloring, the higher up the plateau +it is grown. It is the long sunlight that gives Number One Hard Wheat +its white fine quality so indispensable to the millers. So of barley +and vegetables and small fruits and all that can be grown in the short +season of the North. What the season lacks in length it gains in +intensity of sunlight. Four months of twenty-hour sunlight produce +better growth in some products than eight months of shorter sunlight. + +These two advantages of moisture and sunlight, Canada possesses.[5] +What else has she? It doesn't mean much to say that Canada equals +Europe in area and that you could spread Germany and France and Austria +and Great Britain over the Dominion's map and still have an area +uncovered equal to European Russia. Nor does it mean much more to say +that in Canada you can find the climate of a Switzerland in the +Canadian Rockies, of Italy in British Columbia, of England in the +maritime provinces and of Russia in the Northwest. Areas are so great +and diverse that you have to examine them in groups to realize what +basis of fact Canada builds from. + +Girt almost round by the sea are the maritime provinces--Nova Scotia, +Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick--in area within sixty-seven square +miles of the same size as England, and in climate not unlike the home +land.[6] Your impression of their inhabitants is of a quiescent, +romantic, pastoral and sea-faring people--sprung from the same stock as +the liberty-seekers of New England, untouched by the mad unrest of +modern days, conservative as bed-rock, but with an eye to the frugal +main chance and a way of making good quietly. They do not talk about +the simple life in the maritime provinces because they have always +lived it, and the land is famed for its diet of codfish, and its men of +brains. Frugal, simple, reposeful living--the kind of living that +takes time to think--has sent out from the maritime provinces more +leaders of thought than any other area of Canada. It is a land that +leaves a dreamy memory with you of sunset lying gold on the Bras d' Or +Lakes, of cattle belly-deep in pasture, of apple farms where fragrance +of fruit and blossoms seem to scent the very atmosphere, of fishermen +rocking in their smacks, of great ships plowing up and down to sea. +You know there are great coal mines to the east and great timber limits +to the north; you may even smell the imprisoned fragrance of the +yellowing lumber being loaded for export, but it is as the land of +winter ports and of seamen for the navy that you will remember the +maritime provinces as factors in Canada's destiny. + +When gold was discovered in the Yukon and a hundred million dollars in +gold came out in ten years, the world went mad. Yet Canada yearly +mines from the silver quarries of the sea a harvest of thirty-four +million dollars, and of that amount, fifteen million dollars comes from +the maritime provinces.[7] Conservationists have sung their song in +vain if the world does not know that the fisheries of the United States +have been ruthlessly depleted, but here is a land the area of England +whose fisheries have increased in value one hundred per cent. in ten +years. It is not, however, as the great resource of fisheries that the +maritime provinces must play their part in Canada's destiny. It is as +the nursery of seamen for a marine power. No southern nation, with the +exception of Carthage, has ever dominated the sea; partly for the +simple reason that the best fisheries are always located in temperate +zones, where the glacial silt of the icebergs feeds the finny hordes +with minute infusoria; and the fisherman's smack--the dory that rocks +to the waves like a cockleshell, with meal of pork and beans cooking +above a chip fire on stones in the bottom of the boat, and rough grimed +fellows singing chanties to the rhythm of the sea--the fisherman's +smack is the nursery of the world's proudest merchant marines and most +powerful navies. Japan knows this, and encourages her fishermen by +bounties and passage money to spread all over the world, and Japanese +to-day operate practically all the fisheries of the Pacific. England +knows this and in the North Sea and off Newfoundland protects her +fishermen and draws from their ranks her seamen. + +Japan dominates seventy-two per cent. of the commerce of the Pacific, +not through chance, but through her merchant marine built up from rough +grimed fellows who quarry the silver mines of the sea. England +dominates the Seven Seas of the world, not through her superiority man +to man against other races, but through her merchant marine, carrying +the commerce of the world, built up from simple fisher folk hauling in +the net or paying out the line through icy salty spray above +tempestuous seas. No power yet dominates the seas of the New World. +The foreign commerce of the New World up to the time of the great war +was carried by British, German and Japanese ships. Canada has the +steel, the coal, the timber, the nursery for seamen. Will she become a +marine power in the New World? It is one of her dreams. It is also +one of England's dreams. No country subsidizes her merchant liners +more heavily than Canada[8]--in striking contrast with the parsimonious +policy of the United States. It is Canada's policy of ship subsidies +that has established regular merchant liners--all liable to service as +Admiralty ships--to Australia, to China, to Japan and to every harbor +on the Atlantic. + +Whether heavy subsidies to large liners will effect as much for a +merchant marine for Canada as numerous small subsidies to small lines +remains to be seen. The development of seamen from her fisheries is +one of the dreams she must work out in her destiny, and that leads one +to the one great disadvantage under which Canada rests as a marine +power. She lacks winter harbors on the Atlantic accessible to her +great western domain, whence comes the bulk of her commerce for export. +True, the maritime provinces afford those harbors--Saint John and +Halifax. A dozen other points, if need were, could be utilized in the +maritime provinces as winter harbors; but take a look at the map! The +maritime provinces are the longest possible spiral distance from the +rest of Canada. They necessitate a rail haul of from two to three +thousand miles from the west. What gives Galveston, New Orleans, +Baltimore, Buffalo preeminence as harbors? Their nearness to the +centers of commerce--their position far inland of the continent, +cutting rail haul by half and quarter from the plains. Montreal has +this advantage of being far inland; but from November to May Montreal +is closed; and Canadian commerce must come out by way of American +lines, or pay the long haul down to the maritime provinces. There can +be no doubt that this disadvantage is one of the factors forcing the +West to find outlet by Hudson Bay--where harbors are also closed by the +ice but are only four hundred miles from the wheat plains. There can +also be no doubt that the opening of Panama will draw much western +commerce to Europe by way of the Pacific. + + +III + +When one comes to consider Quebec under its new boundaries, one is +contemplating an empire three times larger than Germany, supporting a +population not so large as Berlin.[9] It is the seat of the old French +Empire, the land of the idealists who came to propagate the Faith and +succeeded in exploring three-quarters of the continent, with canoes +pointed ever up-stream in quest of beaver. All the characteristics of +the Old Empire are in Quebec to-day. Quebec is French to the core, not +in loyalty to republican France, but in loyalty to the religious ideals +which the founders brought to the banks of the St. Lawrence three +centuries ago. Church spire, convent walls, religious foundations +occupy the most prominent site in every city and town and hamlet of +Quebec. From Tadousac to Montreal, from Labrador to Maine or New +Hampshire, you can follow the thread of every river in Quebec by the +glitter of the church spires round which nestle the hamlets. No matter +how poor the hamlet, no matter how remote the hills which slope wooded +down to some blue lake, there stand the village church with its cross +on the spire, the whitewashed house of the curé, the whitewashed square +dormer-windowed school. + +Outside Quebec City and Montreal, Quebec is the most reposeful region +in all America. What matter wars and rumors of wars to these habitants +living under guidance of the curé, as their ancestors lived two hundred +years ago? They pay their tithes. They attend mass. At birth, +marriage and death--the curé is their guide and friend. He teaches +them in their schools. He advises them in their family affairs. He +counsels them in their business. At times he even dictates their +politics; but when you remember that French is the language spoken, +that primary education is of the slimmest, though all doors are open +for a promising pupil to advance, you wonder whether constant tutelage +of a benevolent church may not be a good thing in a chaotic, confused +and restless age. The habitant lives on his little long narrow strip +of a farm running back from the river front. He fishes a little. He +works on the river and in the lumber camps of the Back Country. He +raises a little tobacco, hay, a pig, a cow, a little horse and a family +of from ten to twenty. When the daughters marry--as they are +encouraged to do at the earliest possible age--the farm is subdivided +among the sons; and when it will subdivide no longer, there is a +migration to the Back Country, or to a French settlement in the +Northwest, where another curé will shepherd the flock; and the +habitant, blessed at his birth and blessed at his marriage, is usually +blessed at his death at the ripe age of ninety or a hundred. It is a +simple and on the whole a very happy, if not progressive, life. Some +years ago, when hard times prevailed in Canada and the manufacturing +cities of New England offered what seemed big wages to habitants, who +considered themselves rich on one hundred dollars a year--a great +migration took place across the border; but it was not a happy move for +these simple children of the soil. They missed the shepherding of +their beloved curé, and the movement has almost stopped. Also you find +Jean Ba'tiste in the redwoods of California as lumber-jack, or plying a +canoe on MacKenzie River. The best fur-traders of the North to-day are +half-breeds with a strain of French Canadian blood. + +If you take a look at the map of Quebec under its new boundaries up +into Labrador--it seems absurd to call a region three times the area of +Germany "a province"--you will see that only the fringe of the river +fronts has been peopled. This is owing to the old system of parceling +out the land in mile strips back from the river--a system that +antedated the railroads, when every man's train was a paddle and the +waterfront. Beyond, back up from the rivers, lies literally a +no-man's-land of furs plentiful as of old, of timber of which only the +edge has been slashed, of water power unestimated and of mineral +resources only guessed. It seems incredible at this late date that you +can count on one hand the number of men who have ascended the rivers of +Quebec and descended the rivers of Labrador to Hudson Bay. The forest +area is estimated at one hundred and twenty million acres; but that is +only a guess. The area of pulp wood is boundless. + +Along the St. Lawrence, south of the St. Lawrence and around the great +cities come touches of the modern--elaborate stock farms, great +factories, magnificent orchards, huge sawmills. The progress of +Montreal and the City of Quebec is so intimately involved with the +navigation of the St. Lawrence route and the development of railroads +that it must be dealt with separately; but it may be said here that +nearly all the old seigneurial tenures--Crown grants of estates to the +nobility of New France--have passed to alien hands. The system itself, +the last relic of feudal tenure in Canada, was abolished by Canadian +law. What, then, is the aim of Quebec as a factor in Canada's destiny? +It may be said perfectly frankly that with the exception of such +enlightened men as Laurier, Quebec does not concern herself with +Canada's destiny. In a war with France, yes, she would give of her +sons and her blood; in a war against France, not so sure. "Why are you +loyal?" I asked a splendid scholarly churchman of the old régime--a man +whose works have been quoted by Parkman. "Because," he answered +slowly, "because--you--English--leave us--alone to work out our hopes." +"What are those hopes?" I asked. He waved his hand toward the +window--church spires and yet more spires far as we could see down the +St. Lawrence--another New France conserving the religious ideals that +had been crushed by the republicanism of the old land. Let it be +stated without a shadow of doubt--Quebec never has had and never will +have the faintest idea of secession. Her religious freedom is too well +guaranteed under the present régime for her to risk change under an +untried order of independence or annexation. The church wants Quebec +exactly as she is--to work out her destiny of a new and regenerate +France on the banks of the St. Lawrence. + +A certain section of the French oppose Canada embroiling herself in +European wars. They do this conscientiously and not as a political +trick to attract the votes of the ultramontane French. One of the most +brilliant supporters Sir Wilfred Laurier ever had flung his chances of +a Cabinet place to the winds in opposing Canada's participation in the +Boer War. He not only flung his chances to the winds, but he ruined +himself financially and was read out of the party. The motive behind +this opposition to Canada's participations in the Imperial wars is, +perhaps, three-fold. French Canada has never forgotten that she was +conquered. True, she is better off, enjoys greater religious liberty, +greater material prosperity, greater political freedom than under the +old régime; but she remembers that French prestige fell before English +prestige on the Plains of Abraham. The second motive is an unconscious +feeling of detachment from British Imperial affairs. Why should French +Canada embroil herself and give of her blood and means for a race alien +to herself in speech and religion? The Monroe Doctrine forever defends +Canada from seizure by European power. Why not rest under that defense +and build up a purely Canadian power? The third motive is almost +subconscious. What if a European war should involve French-Catholic +Canada on the side of Protestant England against French-Catholic +France, or even Catholic Italy? Quebec feels herself a part of Canada +but not of the British Empire; and it is a great question how much +Laurier's support of the British in the Boer War had to do with that +partial defection of Quebec which ultimately defeated him on +Reciprocity; for if there is one thing the devout son of the church +fears more than embroilment in European war, it is coming under the +republicanizing influence of the United States. Under Canadian law the +favored status of the church is guaranteed. Under American law the +church would be on the same footing as all other denominations. + + +IV + +When one comes to Ontario, one is dealing with the kitchen garden of +the Dominion--in summer a land of placid sky-blue lakes, and +amber-colored wooded rivers, and trim, almost garden-like farms, and +heavily laden orchards, and thriving cities beginning to smoke under +the pall of the increasing and almost universal factory. Under its old +boundaries Ontario stood just eighteen thousand square miles larger +than France. Under its new boundaries extending to Hudson Bay, Ontario +measures almost twice the area of France. France supports a population +of nearly forty millions; Ontario, of barely two and a half millions. +Both Ontario and France are equally fertile and equally diversified in +fertility. Along the lakes and clustered round Niagara is the great +fruit region--vineyards and apple orchards that are gardens of +perfection. North of the lakes is a mixed farm region. Parallel with +the latitude skirting Georgian Bay begins the Great Clay belt, an area +of heavily forested lands about seven hundred miles north to south and +almost a thousand diagonally east to west. On its southern edge this +hinterland, which forms the watershed between Hudson Bay and the St. +Lawrence, seems to be rock-bound and iron-capped. For years travelers +across the continent must have looked through the car windows across +this landscape of windfall and fire as a picture of desolation. +Surely, "here was nothing," as some of the first explorers said when +they viewed Canada from Labrador; but pause; not so fast! Here lay, if +nothing else, an area of timber limits seven hundred by one thousand +miles; and as the timber burned off curious mineral outcroppings were +observed. When the railroad was graded through what is now known as +Sudbury, there was a report of a great find of copper. Expert after +expert examined it, and company after company forfeited options and +refused to bond it. Finally a shipment was sent out to a smelter +across the border. The so-called "copper" was pronounced "nickel"--the +greatest deposit of the metal needed for armor plating known in the +world. In fact, only one other mine could compete against the Sudbury +nickel beds--the French mines of New Caledonia. Here was something, +surely, in this rock-bound iron region of desolation, which passing +travelers had pronounced worthless. + +The discovery of silver at Cobalt came by an almost similar chance. +Grading an extension of a North Ontario railroad projected purely for +the sake of prospective settlers, workmen came on surface deposits of +"rose" silver--almost pure metal, some of it; and there resulted such a +mining boom and series of quick fortunes as had made Klondike famous. +And Cobalt and Sudbury are at only the southern edge of the unexplored +hinterland of Ontario. Old records of the French régime, daily +journals of the Hudson's Bay Company fur-traders, repeatedly refer to +well-known mines between Lake Superior and James Bay; but fur-traders +discouraged mining; and this region is less known to-day than when +coureur de bois and voyageur threaded river and lake and leafy +wilderness. Ontario, like Quebec, is only on the outer edge of +realizing her own wealth. + + +V + +We sometimes speak as though Canada had had her boom and it was all +over. She has had her boom, and the boom has exploded, and it is a +good thing. When inflation collapses, a country gets down to reality; +and the reality is that Canada has barely begun to develop the +exhaustless mine of wealth which Heaven has given her. Ontario, +complacent with a fringe of prosperity along lake front, is an +instance; Quebec, with only a border on each bank of her great rivers +peopled, is another instance; and the prairie provinces are still more +striking illustrations of the sleeping potentialities of the Dominion. +In our dark days we used to call those three prairie provinces between +Lake Superior and the Rockies "the granary of the Empire." I am afraid +it was more in bravado, hoping against hope, than in any other spirit; +for we were raising little grain and exporting less and receiving +prices that hardly paid for the labor. That was back in the early +nineties. To-day, what? One single year's wheat crop from one only of +those provinces equals more gold in value than ever came out of +Klondike. If Britain were cut off from every other source of food +supply, those three provinces could feed the British Isles with their +surplus wheat. To be explicit, credit Great Britain with a population +of forty-five millions. Apportion to each six bushels of wheat--the +per capita requirement for food, according to scientists. Great +Britain requires two hundred and eighty to three hundred million +bushels of wheat for bread only--not to be manufactured into cereal +products, which is another and enormous demand in itself. Of the wheat +required for bread, Great Britain herself raises only fifty to sixty +million bushels, leaving a deficit, which must come from outside +sources, of two hundred million bushels. + +In 1912 Canada raised one hundred and ninety-nine million bushels of +wheat. In 1913, of grain products, Canada exported one hundred and ten +million bushels; of flour products, almost twenty million dollars' +worth. Under stress of need or high prices these totals could easily +be trebled. The figures are, indeed, bewildering in their bigness. In +the three prairie provinces there were under cultivation in 1912 for +all crops only sixteen and one-half million acres.[10] At twenty +bushels to the acre this area put under wheat would feed Great Britain. +But note--only sixteen and one-half million acres were under +cultivation. There have been surveyed as suitable for cultivation one +hundred and fifty-eight million acres. The land area of the three +prairie provinces is four hundred and sixty-six million acres. If only +half the land surveyed as suitable for cultivation were put in +wheat--namely seventy-nine million acres; and if it yielded only ten +bushels to the acre (it usually yields nearer twenty than ten), the +three prairie provinces of Canada would be producing crops equal to the +entire spring wheat production of the United States. Grant, then, two +bushels for reseeding, or one hundred and fifty-eight million bushels, +and six bushels for food, or fifty million bushels, the three prairie +provinces would still have for export more than five hundred million +bushels. All this presupposes population. Granting each man one +hundred and sixty acres, it presupposes 493,750 more farmers than are +in the West; but coming to Canada yearly are four hundred thousand +settlers; so that counting four out of every five settlers children, in +half a decade at the least, Western Canada will have five hundred +thousand more farmers--enough to feed Great Britain and still have a +surplus of wheat for Europe. + +In connection with wheat exports from the West one factor should never +be ignored--the influence of the Great Lakes and the Soo Canal in +reducing freight to the West. Great Lakes freight tolls are to-day the +cheapest in the world, and their influence in minimizing the toll on +the all-land haul must never be ignored. Freight can be carried on the +Great Lakes one thousand miles for the same rate charged on rail rate +for one hundred miles.[11] + +And wheat is not the only product of the three prairie provinces. On +the borderland between Manitoba and Saskatchewan are enormous deposits +of coal which have not yet been explored. Canoeing once through +Eastern Saskatchewan and Northern Manitoba, I saw a piece of almost +pure copper brought down from the hinterland of Churchill River by an +Indian, from an unknown mine, which no white man has yet found. On the +borderland between Alberta and British Columbia is a ridge of coal +deposits which such conservative experts as the late George Dawson +estimated would mine four million tons a year for five thousand years. +These coal deposits seem almost nature's special provision for the +treeless plains. + +It is well known that the decrease in white fish in the Great Lakes for +the past ten years has been appalling. Northward of Churchill River is +a region of chains of lakes--the Lesser Great Lakes, they have been +called--and these are the only untouched inland fisheries in America. +To the exporter they are ideal fishing ground. The climate is cool. +The fish can be sent out frozen to American markets. Of Canada's +thirty-four million dollars' worth of fish in 1912, one and one-half +million dollars' worth came from the three prairie provinces. + +Under the old boundaries, the three prairie provinces compared in area +respectively Manitoba with Great Britain; Saskatchewan with France; +Alberta, one and a half times larger than Germany. Under the new +boundaries extending the province to Hudson Bay, Manitoba is fifty-two +thousand square miles larger than Germany; Saskatchewan extended north +is fifty thousand square miles larger than France; and Alberta extended +north is fifty thousand square miles larger than Germany. And north of +the three grain provinces is an area the size of European Russia. + +We talk of Canada's boom as "done," but has it even begun? Strathcona +used to say that the three prairie provinces would support a population +of one hundred million. Was he right? On the basis of Europe's +population the three provinces would sustain three times Germany's +sixty-five millions. + +VI + +In British Columbia one reaches the province of the greatest natural +wealth, the greatest diversity in climate and the most feverish +activity in Canada. East of the mountains is a climate high, cold and +bracing as Russia or Switzerland. Between the ranges of the mountains +are valleys mild as France. On the coast toward the south is a climate +like Italy; toward the north, like Scotland. Of Canada's entire timber +area--twice as great as Europe's standing timber--three-quarters lie in +British Columbia. Fruit equal to Niagara's, fisheries richer than the +maritime provinces, mines yielding more than Klondike--exist in this +most favored of provinces. While the area is a half larger than +Germany, the population is smaller than that of a suburb of Berlin.[12] +Of Canada's thirty-four million dollars' worth of fish, thirteen +million dollars' worth come from British Columbia; and of her products +of forty-six millions of precious and fifty-six millions of +non-metallic minerals in 1911 easily half came from British +Columbia.[13] + +Instead of that repose which marks the maritime provinces, one finds an +eager fronting to the future that is almost feverish. If Panama is +turning the entire Pacific into a front door instead of a back door, +then British Columbia knows the coign of vantage, which she holds as an +outlet for half Canada's commerce by way of the Pacific. It is in +British Columbia that East must meet West and work out destiny. + + +[1] In 1800, the United States population was 5,308,483; in 1901, the +Canadian population was 5,371,315. + +[2] Ireland lost one-half her population from 1840 to 1900, Her +population dropped in round numbers from eight millions to four +millions. + +[3] Total foreign trade of Canada, 1912, $1,085,264,000; of United +States, $4,538,702,000. + +[4] This presupposes immigration to the United States at a million and +a quarter, as before the war. + +[5] Speaking generally, there are few sections of the Northwest where +the average rainfall is scanty. + +[6] The areas of all the Canadian provinces except the maritime ones +have been extended in recent years--Quebec to include Labrador--except +the East Shore, which is under Newfoundland; Ontario to James Bay; +Manitoba and Saskatchewan to Hudson Bay; Alberta to MacKenzie River. +Northern British Columbia is not yet surveyed, which explains why its +northern area is largely a matter of guess--closest estimates placing +the whole province including Yukon as twice Germany; without Yukon as +about one and two-thirds the area of Germany; but this is rough +guesswork. + +[7] Canada's fisheries for 1912 yielded $34,667,872. + +[8] Canada's subsidies to steamships vary from year to year, but I do +not think any year has much exceeded two millions. + +[9] This is including Labrador. + +[10] Under crop in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta 16,478,000 acres. +Area surveyed available for cultivation 158,516,427 acres; land area, +466,068,798 acres. + +[11] The rate from the head of the Lakes to Montreal is usually four to +five cents. It has been as low as one cent, when grain was carried +almost for ballast. + +[12] British Columbia's population in 1912 was 392,480. + +[13] Canada, mineral production for 1911 stands thus: copper, +$6,911,831: gold, $9,672,096; iron, $700,216; lead, $818,672; nickel, +$10,229,623; silver, $17,452,128; other metal, $322,862; total, +$46,197,428. Non-metallic production 1911: coal $26,378,477; cement, +$7,571,299; clay, $8,317,709; stone, $3,680,361; in all, $56,094.258. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE TIE THAT BINDS + +I + +It is easy to understand what binds the provinces into a confederation. +They had to bind themselves into a unity with the British North America +Act or see their national existence threatened by any band of settlers +who might rush in and by a perfectly legitimate process of +naturalization and voting set up self-government. At the time of +confederation such eminent Imperial statesmen as Gladstone and +Labouchère seriously considered whether it would not be better to cut +Canada adrift, if she wanted to be cut adrift. The difference between +the Canadian provinces and the isolated Latin republics of South +America illustrates best what the bond of confederation did for the +Dominion. The _why_ and _how_ of confederation is easy to understand, +but what tie binds Canada to the Mother Country? That is a point +almost impossible for an outsider to understand. + +England contributes not a farthing to Canada. Canada contributes not a +dime to England. Though a tariff against alien lands and trade +concessions to her colonies would bring such prosperity to those +colonies as Midas could not dream, England confers no trade favor to +her colonial children. There have been times, indeed, when she +discriminated against them by embargoes on cattle or boundary +concessions to cement peace with foreign powers. Except for a slight +trade concession of twenty to twenty-five per cent. on imports from +England--which, of course, helps the Canadian buyer as much as it helps +the British seller--Canada grants no favors to the Mother Country. In +spite of those trade concessions to England, in 1913 for every dollar's +worth Canada bought from England, she bought four dollars' worth from +the United States. + +Certainly, England sends Canada a Governor-General every four years; +but the Cabinet of England never appoints a Governor-General to Canada +till it has been unofficially ascertained from the Cabinet of the +Dominion whether he will be persona grata. Canada gives the +Governor-General fifty thousand dollars a year and some perquisites--an +emolument that can barely sustain the style of living expected and +exacted from the appointee, who must maintain a small viceregal court. +The Governor-General has the right of veto on all bills passed by the +Canadian government; and where an act might conflict with Imperial +interests, he would doubtless exercise the right; but the veto power in +the hands of the Imperial vicegerent is so rarely used as to be almost +dead. Veto is avoided by the Governor-General working in close +conference with the prevailing Cabinet, or party in power; and a party +on the verge of enacting laws inimical to Imperial interests can be +disciplined by dismissal from office, in which case the party must +appeal to the country for re-election. That means time; and time +allows passion to simmer down; and an entire electorate is not likely +to perpetrate a policy inimical to Imperial interests. In practice, +that represents the whole, sole and entire power of England's +representative in Canada--a power less than the nod of a saloon keeper +or ward boss in the civic politics of the United States. Officially, +yes; the signature of the Governor-General is put to commissions and +appointments of first rank in the army and the Cabinet and the courts. +In reality, it is a question if any Governor in Canada since +confederation has as much as suggested the name of an applicant for +office. + +On the other hand, Canada's dependence on England is even more tenuous. +Does a question come up as to the "twilight zone" of provincial and +federal rights, it is settled by an appeal to the Privy Council. Suits +from lower courts reversed by the Supreme Court of Canada can be +appealed to England for decision; and in religious disputes as to +schools--as in the famous Manitoba School Case--this right of appeal to +Imperial decision has really been the door out of dilemma for both +parties in Canada. It is a shifting of the burden of a decision that +must certainly alienate one section of votes--from the shoulders of the +Canadian parties to an impartial Imperial tribunal. + +If there be any other evidence of bonds in the tangible holding Canada +to England and England to Canada--I do not know it. + + +II + +What, then, is the tie that binds colony to Mother Country? +Tangible--it is not; but real as life or death, who can doubt, when a +self-governing colony voluntarily equips and despatches sixty thousand +men--the choice sons of the land--to be pounded into pulp in an +Imperial war? Who can doubt the tie is real, when bishops' sons, +bankers', lawyers', doctors', farmers', carpenters', teachers' and +preachers'--the young and picked heritors of the land--clamor a hundred +thousand strong to enlist in defense of England and to face howitzer, +lyddite and shell? Why not rest secure under the Monroe Doctrine that +forever forefends European conquest? It is something the outsider can +not understand. President Taft could not understand it when his +reciprocity pact was defeated in Canada partly because of his own +ill-advised words about Canada drifting from United States interests. +Canada was not drifting from American interests. In trade and in +transportation her interests are interlinking with the United States +every day; but the point--which President Taft failed to +understand--is: Canada is _not_ drifting because she is sheet-anchored +and gripped to the Mother Country. We may like it or dislike it. We +may dispute and argue round about. The fact remains, without any +screaming or flag waving, or postprandial loyalty expansions of rotund +oratory and a rotunder waist line--Canada is sheet-anchored to England +by an invisible, intangible, almost indescribable tie. That is one +reason why she rejected reciprocity. That is why at a colossal cost in +land and subsidies and loans and guarantees of almost two billions, she +has built up a transportation system east and west, instead of north +and south. That is why for a century she has hewn her way through +mountains of difficulty to a destiny of her own, when it would have +been easier and more profitable to have cast in her lot with the United +States. + +What is the tie that binds? Is it the hope of an Imperial Federation, +which shall bind the whole British Empire into such a world federation +as now holds the provinces of the Dominion? Twenty years ago, if you +had asked that, the answer might have been "Yes." Canada was in the +dark financially and did not see her way out. If only the Chamberlain +scheme of a tariff against the world, free trade within the empire, +could have evolved into practical politics, Canada for purely practical +reasons would have welcomed Imperial Federation. It would have given +her exports a wonderful outlet. But to-day Imperial Federation is a +deader issue in Canada than reciprocity with the United States. No +more books are written about it. No one speaks of it. No one wants +it. No one has time for it. The changed attitude of mind is well +illustrated by an incident on Parliament Hill, Ottawa, one day. + +A Cabinet Minister was walking along the terrace above the river +talking to a prominent public man of England. + +"How about Imperial Federation?" asked the Englishman. "Do you want +it?" + +The Canadian statesman did not answer at once. He pointed across the +Ottawa, where the blue shimmering Laurentians seem to recede and melt +into a domain of infinitude. "Why _should_ we want Imperial +Federation?" he answered. "We have an empire the size of Europe, whose +problems we must work out. Why should Canadians go to Westminster to +legislate on a deceased wife's sister's bills and Welsh +disestablishment and silly socialistic panaceas for the unfit to +plunder the fit?" + +It will be noticed that his answer had none of that flunkeyism to which +Goldwin Smith used to ascribe much of Canadian pro-loyalty. Rather was +there a grave recognition of the colossal burden of helping a nation +the area of Europe to work out her destiny in wisdom and in integrity +and in the certainty that is built up only from rock bottom basis of +fact. + +Has flunkeyism any part in the pro-loyalty of Canada? Goldwin Smith +thought it had, and we all know Canadians whose swelling lip-loyalty is +a sort of Gargantuan thunder. It may be observed, parenthetically, +those Canadians are not the personages who receive recognition from +England. + +"Sorry, Your Royal Highness, sorry; but Canada is becoming horribly +contaminated by Americanizing influences," apologized a pro-loyalist of +the lip-flunkey variety to the Duke of Connaught shortly after that +scion of royalty came to Canada as Governor. + +The Duke of Connaught turned and looked the fussy lip-loyalist over. +"What's good enough for Americans is good enough for me," he said. + +An instance of the absence of flunkeyism from the Dominion's loyalty to +the Mother Country occurred during the visit of the present King as +Prince of Wales to the Canadian Northwest a few years ago. The royal +train had arrived at some little western place, where a contingent of +the Mounted Police was to act as escort for the Prince's entourage. +The train had barely pulled in when a fussy little long-coat-tailed +secretary flew John-Gilpin fashion across the station platform to a +khaki trooper of the Mounted Police. + +"His Royal Highness has arrived! His Royal Highness has arrived," +gasped the little secretary, almost apoplectic with self-importance. +"Come and help to get the baggage off--" + +"You go to ----," answered the khaki-uniformed trooper, aiming a +tobacco wad that flew past the little secretary's ear. "Get the +baggage off yourself! We're not here as porters. We're here to +execute orders and we don't take 'em from little damphool fussies like +you." + +Yet that trooper was of the company that made the Strathcona Horse +famous in South Africa--famous for such daring abandon in their charges +that the men could hardly be held within bounds of official orders. He +is of the very class of men who have forsaken gainful occupations in +the West to clamor a hundred-thousand strong for the privilege of +fighting to the last ditch for the empire under the rain of death from +German fire. + +"How can Canadians be loyal to a system of government that acknowledges +some fat king sitting on a throne chair like a mummy as ruler?" +demanded an American woman of a Canadian man. + +"Well," answered the Canadian, "I don't know that any 'fat king' was +ever quite so fat as a gentleman named Mammon who plays a pretty big +part in the government of all republics." He drew a five-dollar bill +from his pocket. "As a piece of paper that is utterly worthless," he +explained. "It isn't even good wrapping paper. It's a promise to +pay--to deliver the goods, that gives it value. It's what the system +of government stands for, that rouses support--not this, that, or the +other man--" + +"But what does it stand for?" interrupted the American; and the +Canadian couldn't answer. It roused and held his loyalty as if of +family ties. Yet he could not define it. + +He might have explained that Canada has had a system of justice since +1837 never truckled to nor trafficked in, but he knew in his heart that +the loyalty was to a something deeper than that. He knew that many +republics--Switzerland, for instance--have as impartial a system of +justice. He might have descanted on the British North America Act +being to Canada what the Constitution is to the United States, only +more elastic, more susceptible to growth and changing conditions; but +he knew that the Constitution was what it was owing to this other +principle of which law and justice were but the visible formula. He +might easily have dilated on excellent features of the Canadian +parliamentary system different from the United States or Germany. For +instance, no party can hold office one day after it lacks the support +of a majority vote. It must resign reins to the other party, or go to +the country for re-election. Or he might have pointed to the very +excellent feature of Cabinet Ministers sitting in the House and being +directly responsible to Commons and Senate for the management of their +departments to the expenditure of a farthing. A Cabinet member who may +be quizzed to-day, to-morrow, every day in the week except Sunday, on +the management of affairs under him can never take refuge in ambiguous +silence or behind the skirts of his chief, as secretaries delinquent +have frequently taken refuge behind the spotless reputation of a +too-confiding President. But the Canadian explained none of these +things. He knew that these things were only the outward and visible +formula of the principle to which he was loyal. + + +III + +A few years ago the mistake would have been impossible; for there was, +up to 1900, practically no movement of settlers from the British Isles +to Canada; but to-day with an enormous in-rush of British colonists to +the Dominion, a superficial observer might ascribe the loyalty to the +ties of blood--to the fact that between 1900 and 1911, 685,067 British +colonists flocked to Canada. Not counting colossal investments of +British capital, there are to-day easily a million Britishers living on +and drawing their sustenance from the soil of Canada. And yet, however +unpalatable and ungracious the fact may be to Englishmen, the ties of +blood have little to do with the bond that holds Canada to England. +This statement will arouse protest from a certain section of Canadians; +but those same Canadians know there are hundreds--yes, thousands--of +mercantile houses in the Dominion where employers practically put up +the sign--"No Englishman need apply." + +"I've come to the point," said a wholesale hardware man of a Canadian +city, "where I won't employ a man if he has a cockney accent. I've +tried it hundreds of times, and it has always ended the same way. I +have to break a cockney's neck before I can convince him that I know +the way I want things done, and they have to be done that way. He is +so sure I am 'ownley a demmed ke-lo-neal' that he is lecturing me on +how I should do things before he is in my establishment ten minutes. I +don't know what it is. It may be that coming suddenly to a land where +all men are treated on an equality and not kicked and expected to doff +caps in thanks for the insolence, they can't stand the free rein and +not go locoed. All I know is--where I'll employ an Irishman, or a +Scotchman, or a Yorkshireman, on the jump, I will not employ a cockney. +I don't want to commit murder." + +And that business man voiced the sentiment of multitudes from farm, +factory and shop. I'll not forget, myself, the semi-comic episode of +rescuing an English woman from destitution and having her correct my +Canadian expressions five minutes after I had given her a roof. She +had referred to her experience as "jolly rotten"; and I had remarked +that strangers sometimes had hard luck because "we Canadians couldn't +place them," when I was roundly called to order by a tongue that never +in its life audibly articulated an "h." + + +IV + +Before digging down to the subterranean springs of Canadian loyalty, we +must take emphatic cognizance of several facts. Canada, while not a +republic, is one of the most democratic nations in the world. +Practically every man of political, financial or industrial prominence +in Canada to-day came up by the shirt-sleeve route in one generation. +If there is an exception to this statement--and I know every part of +Canada almost as well as I know my own home--I do not know it. Sifton, +Van Horne, MacKenzie, Mann, Laurier, Borden, Foster, the late Sir John +Macdonald--all came up from penniless boyhood through their own efforts +to what Canadians rate as success. I said "what Canadians rate as +success." I did not say to affluence, for Canadians do not rate +affluence by itself as success. Laurier, Foster, Sir John +Macdonald--each began as a poor man. Sifton began life as a penniless +lawyer. Van Horne got his foot on the first rung of the ladder +hustling cars for troops in the Civil War. MacKenzie of Canada +Northern fame began with a trowel; Dan Mann with an ax in the lumber +woods at a period when wages were a dollar and twenty-five cents a day; +Laurier with a lawyer's parchment and not a thing else in the world. +Foster, the wizard of finance, taught his first finance in a +schoolroom. And so one might go on down the list of Canada's great. +Unless I am gravely mistaken the richest industrial leader of Ontario +began life in a little bake shop, where his wife cooked and he sold the +wares; and the richest man in the Canadian West began with a pick in a +mine. I doubt if there is a single instance in Canada of a public man +whose family's security from want traces back prior to 1867. + +But the richest are not rated the most successful in Canada. There is +an untold and untellable tragedy here. There is many a city in Canada +which has a Mr. Rich-Man's-Folly in the shape of a palatial house or +castellated residence which failed to force open the portals of respect +and recognition for himself. Folly Castle has been occupied in an +isolation that was almost quarantine. Why? Because its foundations +were laid in some financial mud, which Canada never forgets and never +forgives. Instances could be multiplied of brilliant politicians +retired to private life, of moneyed men who spent fortunes to buy a +knighthood, a baronetcy, an earldom--and died disappointed because in +early life they had used fiduciary funds or trafficked in politics. It +may impart a seeming snobbery to Canadian life, an almost crude +insolence; but it keeps a title from becoming the insignia of an envied +dollar bill. It keeps men from buying what their conduct failed to +win. It does more than anything else to keep down that envy of true +success which is the curse of many lands. Canadian papers rarely +trouble to chronicle whether a rich man wears the hair shirt of a +troubled conscience, or the paper vest of a tight purse. They are not +interested in him simply because he is rich. If he loots a franchise +and unloads rotten stocks on widows and orphans and teachers and +preachers, they call him a thief and send him to jail a convict. Three +decades ago the premier's own nephew misused public funds. It could +have been hushed by the drop of a hat or the wave of a hand. The party +in power was absolutely dominant. The culprit was arrested at nine in +the morning and sentenced to seven years in the penitentiary by six +that day; and he served the term, too, without any political wash to +clear him. Instances are not lacking of titled adventurers ostracized +in Winnipeg and Montreal going to Newport and capturing the richest +heiresses of the land. These instances are not mentioned in invidious +self-righteousness. They are mentioned purely to illustrate the +underlying, unspoken difference in essential values. + + +V + +Set down, then, two or three premises! Canada is under a monarchy, but +in practice is a democratic country. Canada is absolutely impartial in +her justice to rich and poor. Have we dug down to the fountain spring +of Canadian loyalty? Not at all. These are not springs. They are +national states of mind. These characteristics are psychology. What +is the rock bottom spring? One sometimes finds the presence of a +hidden spring by signs--green grass among parched; the twist of a peach +or hazel twig in answer to the presence of water; the direction of the +brook below. What are the signs of Canada's springs? Signs, remember; +not proofs. Of proofs, there is no need. + +Perfectly impartially, whether we like it or dislike it, without any +argument for or against, let us set down Canadian likes and dislikes as +to government. These are not my likes and dislikes. They are not your +likes and dislikes. They are facts as to the Canadian people. + +Canadians have no faith in a system of government, whether under a +Turkish Khan or a Lloyd George Chancellor, which delegates the rule of +a nation to butchers and bakers and candlestick-makers and "the dear +people" fakers. They do not believe that a man who can not rule his +own affairs well can rule the nation well. They regard government as a +grave and sacred function, not as a grab bag for spoils. If a party +makes good in power, they have no fear of leaving that party in power +for term after term. The longer their premier is in office the more +efficient they think he will become. They have no fear of the premier +becoming a "fat" tyrannical king. Long as the party makes good, they +consider it has a right to power; and that experience adds to +competency. Instantly the party fails to make good, they throw it out +independent of the length of its tenure of office. + +Canadians do not believe that +"I-am-as-good-as-you-are-and-a-little-better." They will accept the +fact that "I-am-as-good-as-you-are" only when I prove it in brain, in +brawn, in courtesy, in mental agility, in business acumen, in +service--in a word, _in fact_. They are comparatively untouched by the +theoretical radicalism of the French Revolution, by the socialism of a +Lloyd George, by the war of labor and capital. They are untouched by +theory because they are so intent on fact. The "liberty, equality and +fraternity" cry of the French Revolution--they regard as so much hot +air. Canadians since 1837 have had "liberty, equality, fraternity." +Why rant about it? And when they didn't have it, they fought for it +and went to the scaffold for it, and got it. The day's work--that's +all. Why posturize and theorize about platitudes? Canadians are not +interested in the Lloyd George theory of the poor plundering the +prosperous, because every man or woman who tries in Canada can succeed. +He may hoe some long hard rows. Let him hoe! It will harden flabby +muscle and give backbone in place of jawbone! Help the innocent +children--yes! There is a child saving organization in every province. +But if the adult will not try, let him die! If he will not struggle to +survive, let him die! The sooner the better! No theoretical parasites +for Canada, nor parlor socialism! "Take off your coat! Roll up your +shirt-sleeves! Stop blathering! Go to work!" says Canada. + +"But I think--" protests the theorist. + +"_Thinks_ don't pass currency as coin. _Go to work, and pass up +facts_," says Canada. + + +VI + +It may be objected that all this means the survival of the fit, the +rule of the many by the few. That is exactly what it means. That is +the fountain spring of Canada's national idea, whether we like it or +hate it. That is the belief that binds Canada's loyalty to the +monarchical idea--though Canada would as soon call it the presidential +idea as the monarchical idea. She does not care what name you tag it +by so long as she delegates to the selected and elected few the power +to rule. She believes the selected few are better than the unwinnowed +many as rulers. She would sooner have a mathematical school-teacher as +finance minister than a saloon keeper or ward heeler. She believes +that the rule of the select few is better than the rule of the +thoughtless many. She delegates the right and power to rule to those +few, lets them make the laws and bows to the laws as to the laws of +God, as the best possible for the nation because they have been enacted +by the best of her nation. If that best be bad, it is at least not so +bad as the worst. She never says--"Pah! What is law! I made the law! +If it doesn't suit me, I'll break it. I am the law." + +Canadians acknowledge they have delegated power to make law to men whom +they believe superior to the general run. Therefore, they obey that +law as above change by the individual. In other words, Canadians +believe in the rule of the many delegated to the superior few. Those +few do what they deem wise; not what the electorate tell them. They +exceed instructions. They lead. They do not obey. But if they fail, +they are thrown to the dogs without mercy, whether the tenure of office +be complete or incomplete. It is the old Saxon idea of the +Witenagemot--the council of a few wise men ruling the clan. + +There is the fountain spring of Canadian loyalty to the monarchical +idea. It is not the fat king. It is not any king. It is what the +insignificant personality called "king" stands for, like the +five-dollar bill worthless as wrapping paper but of value as a promise +to deliver the goods. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +AMERICANIZATION + +I + +"The Americanizing of Canada" is a phrase which has been much in vogue +with a section of the British press ever since the attempt to establish +reciprocity between the United States and the Dominion. It is a +question if the glib users of the phrase have the faintest idea what +they mean by it. It is a catchword. It sounds ominously deep as the +owl's wise but meaningless "too-whoo." English publicists who have +never been nearer Canada than a Dominion postage stamp wisely warn +Canada against the siren seductions of Columbia's republicanism. + +If the phrase means that reciprocity might lead to annexation, Canada's +repudiation of reciprocity is sufficient disproof of the imputation. +If it means increased and increasing trade weaving a warp and woof of +international commerce--then--yes--there is an "Americanizing of +Canada" as there is a Canadianizing of the United States through +international traffic; but the users of the phrase should remember that +the country doing the largest trade of all countries with the United +States is Great Britain; and does one speak of the "Americanizing" of +Great Britain? If it means that in ten years two-fifths as many +Americans have settled in Western Canada as there are native-born +Canadians in the West--then--yes--Canada pleads guilty. She has spent +money like water and is spending it yet to attract these American +settlers; and they, on their part, have brought with them an average of +fifteen hundred dollars a settler, not counting money invested by +capitalists. If in the era between 1900 and 1911, 650,719 American +settlers came to Western Canada, and from 1911 to 1914, six hundred +thousand more--or say, with natural increase, a million and a quarter +in fifteen years; to counterpoise that consideration remember that in +the era from 1885 to 1895 one-fifth of Canada's native population moved +to the United States. + +There is not the slightest doubt that within ten years the balance of +political power in Canada has shifted from the solidarity of French +Quebec to the progressive West; but that can hardly be considered as of +political import when two out of four western provinces rejected +reciprocity. + +What, then, is meant by the phrase "Americanizing of Canada"? + +Consider for a moment what is happening! + +Twenty years ago the number of American and Canadian railroads meeting +at the boundary and crossing the boundary numbered some six. Ten years +ago in the West alone there were sixteen branch lines feeding traffic +into one another's territory across the border. To-day, if you count +all the American railroads reaching up from trunk lines north to +Canada, and all the Canadian spurs reaching south from trunk lines into +the United States, and all the great trunk lines having subsidiaries +like the South Shore and "Soo" crossing the border, and all the lines +having international running rights over one another's roadbed, there +are more than sixty railroads feeding Canadian traffic into the United +States and American traffic into Canada. This explains why of all the +export grain traffic from the Northwest forty-four per cent. only goes +from Canada by all-Canadian routing, while fifty-six per cent. comes to +seaboard over American lines; and all this is independent of the +enormous American traffic through the Canadian "Soo" by the Great +Lakes, in some years, reaching a total five times as large as the +traffic expected through Panama. One can not contemplate this constant +interchange of traffic without recalling the metaphor of the warp and +the woof, of the shuttle weaving a fabric of international commerce +that ignores dead reciprocity pacts and an invisible boundary. Yet +England does three-fourths of the carrying trade for the United States +across the Atlantic. Spite of high tariff on one side of the ocean and +no tariff on the other side, spite of eagle and lion rampant, British +ships weave like busy shuttles across the silver lanes of the sea an +invisible warp and woof that are stronger than cables of steel, or +political treaty. + +So much for lines of traffic between Canada and the United States! +What of the traffic carried? + +American imports to Canada have doubled in three years; or increased +from two hundred sixteen million dollars' worth in 1910 to four hundred +fifteen million dollars' worth in 1913; and instead of the war causing +a falling off, it is likely to cause an increase; for Canada's +purchases from Europe have been cut off and must be supplied by the +United States. Of the imports to Canada, two-thirds are manufactured +articles--motors, locomotives, cars, coffee, cotton, iron, steel, +implements, coal. At time of writing exports from the United States +now rank the United Kingdom first, Canada second, Germany third. When +you consider that Canada's purchasing power is that of seven million +people, where the United Kingdom's is forty-five and Germany's +sixty-five million, the significance of these comparative ranks is +apparent. + +From Canada to the United States, exports increased from $95,000,000 in +1910 to $120,000,000 in 1913, not because Canada's producing power is +so much smaller than her buying power, but because she is growing so +fast that she consumes much of what she produces. To put it another +way, of all Canada exports, the United States takes four-fifths of the +coal, nine-tenths of the copper, four-fifths of the nickel, +ten-elevenths of the gold, two-fifths of the silver, four-fifths of +other minerals, one-third of the fish, one-third of the lumber, +one-fourth of the animals and meat, one-tenth of the grain. It need +not be told here that the other portions of Canada's farm, mine and +lumber exports go almost entirely to Great Britain. + + +II + +It has been estimated that half a billion of American capital is +invested in Canada. A moment's thought reveals how ridiculously below +the mark are these figures. Between 1900 and 1911 by actual count +there entered Canada 650,719 American settlers. Averaging up one year +with another by actual estimate of settlers' possessions at point of +entry, these settlers were possessed of fifteen hundred dollars each in +cash. This represents almost a billion, and almost as many more +American settlers have entered Canada since 1911. This represents not +the investments of the capital class but of small savings. It takes no +account of the nickel mines, the copper mines, the smelters, the silver +mines, the coal lands, the timber limits, the fisheries, the vast +holdings of agricultural lands in the West held for speculative +purposes--for all of which spot cash was paid down in large proportion. + +The largest steel plant in the East, the largest coal areas in the +West, the only nickel mines in America, three-quarters of all the +copper and gold reduction works of the West are financed by American +capital. To be more explicit, when the MacKenzie-Mann interests bought +one large coal area in British Columbia, the Hill interests of St. Paul +bought the other large coal area. This does not mean there are not +large coal areas owned by Canadian capital. There are--colossal areas; +but for every big area being worked by Canadian capital there are two +such being worked by American. + +Before a single Canadian railroad had wakened up to the fact there were +any mines in East and West Kootenay and the Slocan, American lines had +pushed up little narrow-gauge lines to feed the copper and gold ores +into Butte and Helena smelters. By the time Canadian and British +capital came on the scene in Kootenay the cream had been skimmed from +the profits, and the mines had reached the wildcat stage of beautifully +gilded and engraved stock certificates taking the place of real +profits--of almost worth-nothing shares in worthless holes in the +ground selling on a face value of a next-door profit-yielding neighbor. +The American is without a peer as pioneer on land, in mine, in forest; +but the boomster, who invariably follows on the heels of that pioneer, +is also the most expert "houn' dawg" to rouse the wildcatter. +Canadians have too often wakened up only at the wildcat stage, and +British capital has come in to reorganize inflated and collapsed +properties on a purely investment basis. The American pioneer does +nothing on an investment basis. He goes in on a wild and rampant +dare-devil gamble. If he loses--as lose he often does--he takes his +medicine and never whines. If he wins, the welkin rings. + +What happened in Kootenay was largely repeated ten years later in +Klondike and ten years yet later in Cobalt, and it must not be +forgotten that when Canadian capital refused to bond the nickel mines +of Sudbury, it was American capital that dared the risk. + +What happened in the mining booms was only a faint foreshadowing of the +furore that broke to a madness in real estate when American settlers +began crossing the boundary in tens and hundreds of thousands a year. +Canadians knew they had wonderfully fertile farming land. Hadn't they +been telling themselves so since confederation, when they pledged the +credit of Canada to build a transcontinental? They knew they had the +most fertile wheat lands on earth, but what was the use of knowing that +when you could not sell those lands for fifty cents an acre? What was +the use of raising forty bushels of wheat to the acre, when you burned +it in the stack or fed it to cattle worth only ten dollars a head, +because you could get neither wheat nor cattle to market? You really +believed you had the best land on earth, but what good did the belief +do you? Sons and daughters forsook the Canadian farmstead for the +United States. Between the early eighties and the early nineties, of +Canada's population of five millions, over a million--some estimates +place it at a million and a half--Canadians left the Dominion for the +United States. You find the place names of Ontario all through +Michigan and Wisconsin and Minnesota and the two Dakotas; and you find +Jean Ba'tiste drifting from the lumber woods of Quebec to the Upper +Peninsula of Michigan and to the redwoods of California and to the +yellow pine uplands of the Southwestern Desert. I have met men who +worked for my brothers in the lumber woods of Wisconsin down among the +yellow pines of the Arizona Desert. All that was back in the decrepit +and languid and hopesick nineties. It was then you could see the skies +of Southern Manitoba luridly aflame at night with wheat stacks it +didn't pay to thresh. + +Came a turn of the wheel! Was it Destiny or Providence? We talk +mistily of Cause and Effect, but who drops the Cause that turns the +Wheel? Who of us that witnessed the crazy gold stampede to Kootenay +and the crazier stampede to Klondike could guess that the backwash of +those foolish tidal waves of gold-mad humanity would people the +Northwest? Why, we were mad with alarm over the gold stampede! Men +pitched their homesteads to the winds and trekked penniless for the +mines. Women bought mining shares for a dollar that were not worth ten +cents. Clerks, railroad hands, seamstresses, waitresses--all were +infected by the mania. In vain the wheat provinces pointed out that +one single year's wheat crop would exceed in value all the gold mined +in the North in fifty years. Nothing could stem the madness. You +could pave Kootenay with the fortunes lost there or go to Klondike by +the bones of the dead bleaching the trail. + +But behold the unexpected Effect! Adventurers from all the earth +rushing to the gold mines passed over unpeopled plains of seeming +boundlessness. Land in the western states was selling at this time at +from seventeen dollars in the remote sections to seventy-five dollars +an acre near markets. Here was land in these Canadian plains to be had +for nothing but the preemption fee of ten dollars and three years' +residence. + +"I didn't take up a homestead meaning to farm it," said a disappointed +fortune seeker to me on the banks of the Saskatchewan. "I did it +because I was dead broke, and it seemed to me the easiest way to make +three thousand dollars. I could earn three dollars a day well-driving, +and then at the end of my homestead term sell this one hundred and +sixty acres for three thousand dollars." + +Do you appreciate the amazing optimistic confidence of this bankrupt +argonaut? We could not sell that land for fifty cents an acre. To use +the words of a former Minister of the Interior, "We could not bring +settlers in by the scruff of the neck and dump them on the land." +(There had been fewer than two thousand immigrants the year that +minister made that apology for hard times to an audience in Winnipeg.) +But this penniless settler had seen it happen in his own home state of +Iowa. He had seen land increase in value from nothing an acre to ten +dollars and twenty dollars and seventy-five dollars and one hundred +dollars, and he sat him down on the bare prairie in a tar-papered +shanty to help the same process along in Canada. He never had the +faintest shadow of a doubt of his hopes materializing. He had gambled +on the gold and he had lost; and behold him casting another throw of +the dice in the face of Fate, and gambling on the land; and please +note--he won out. He was one of the multitude who won out of the land +what they had lost on gold--who plowed out of the prairie what they had +sunk in a hole in the ground in a mine! + +Another twist of the capricious Wheel of Fate! We didn't send Clifford +Sifton down from the West to boom Canada. We didn't know a boom was +coming. Nobody saw it. Clifford Sifton was one of the youngest +Cabinet Ministers ever appointed in Canada. There was a fight on +between the Province of Manitoba and the Dominion government as to the +right of the province to abolish separate schools. Had the province +exceeded its rights? The dispute was non-religious at first, but +finally developed into a bitter Catholic versus Protestant controversy. +Not all Protestants wanted non-religious schools; but when Catholic +Quebec said that Protestant Manitoba should not have non-religious +schools, a furious little tempest waxed in a furious little teapot. +The entrenched government of Sir John Macdonald, who had died some few +years previously, went down in defeat before Laurier, the Liberal, the +champion of Quebec and at the same time the defender of Manitoba +rights. Cardinal Merry del Val came from Rome, and the dispute was +literally squelched. It was never settled and comes up again to this +day; but the point was the champion of Manitoba, Clifford Sifton, +entered the Dominion Cabinet just as the Klondike boom broke. + +He saw the backwash of disappointed gold seekers. He realized the +enormous possibilities of free advertising for Canada, and he launched +such a campaign of colonization for Canada as the most daring optimist +hardly dreamed. Agents were appointed in every hamlet and city and +town in the western states--especially those states like Iowa and +Illinois and Minnesota and Wisconsin, where land was becoming high +priced. The personal testimony of successful farmers was bill-posted +from station platform to remotest barb-wire fence. The country was +literally combed by Sifton agents. Big land companies which had +already exploited colonization schemes in the western states pricked up +their ears and sent agents to spy out the land. Those agents may have +deluded themselves that they went to Canada secretly; it is a safe +wager that Sifton's agents prodded them to activity at one end and +Sifton's agents caught and piloted and plied them with facts at the +other end. I know of land that English colonization companies had +failed to sell at fifty cents an acre that was sold at this time to +these American companies at five dollars and resold by them at fourteen +dollars to thirty dollars. + +Such profits are the best advertisement for a propaganda. There +followed a land boom compared to which the gold boom had been mild. +American settlers came in special cars, in special trains, in relays of +special trains. Before Canada had wakened up to it fifty thousand +American settlers had trekked across the border. You met them in Peace +River. You met them at Athabasca. You met them on far reaches of the +Saskatchewan. And land jumped in value from five dollars to fifteen +dollars, from fifteen dollars to thirty dollars an acre. When Canada's +yearly immigration reached the proportions of four hundred +thousand--half Americans--it is not exaggerating to say the prairie +took fire. Villages grew into cities overnight. Edmonton and Calgary +and Moose Jaw and Regina--formerly jumping-off places into a +no-man's-land--became metropolitan cities of twenty-five to fifty +thousand people. If every American settler averaged fifteen hundred +dollars on his person at this period--as customs entries prove--it may +be confidently set down that his value as a producer and worker was +another fifteen hundred dollars. Wheat exports jumped to over one +hundred million dollars a year. Flour mills and elevators financed by +western American capital strung across the prairie like beads on a +string. + +If this was an "Americanizing of Canada," it was not a bad thing. +Every part of Canada felt the quickened pulse. Two more +transcontinental railroads had to be built. All-red routes of +round-the-globe steam ships were established; all-red round-the-world +cables were laid. The quickened pulse was Canada's passing from +hobble-de-hoy adolescence with a chip on the shoulder and a tremor in +the throat to big strong, silent, self-confident manhood. + +John Bull is a curious and dour foster father in some of his moods. He +never really wakened up to Canada as a desirable place for his numerous +family to settle till he saw Jonathan's coat tails going over the fence +of the border--till somebody began to howl about "the Americanizing of +Canada." Then, in the words of the illustrious Governor-General, "what +was good enough for Americans was good enough" for him. Clifford +Sifton's agents had been combing the United Kingdom as they had combed +the western states. British immigration jumped from almost nothing to +a total of 687,067 in ten years--with accelerating totals every year +since. + +If this was "the Americanizing of Canada," it was a good thing for the +Dominion. + + +III + +There was another feature to the tidal wave of four hundred thousand +immigrants a year. The American is a born pioneer, a born gambler, a +born adventurer. The Englishman is a steady-going, dogged-as-does-it +plodder. The American will risk two dollars on the chance of making +ten dollars; he often loses the two dollars, and he often makes the ten +dollars; from his general prosperity, I should say the latter results +oftener than the former; but the American never in the least minds +blazing the trail and stumping his toe and coming a hard fall. John +Bull does. He takes himself horribly seriously. He will never risk +two dollars to gain ten dollars. He will not, in fact, spend the two +dollars till he is sure of four per cent. on it. Four per cent. on two +dollars and ten dollars on two dollars do not belong to the same +category of investment. Jonathan makes the ideal pioneer; John Bull, +the ideal permanent settler who comes in and buys from the pioneer. + +If this, too, be "the Americanizing of Canada," it has been a good +thing for the country. + +To be sure, there have been hideous horrible abuses. The real estate +boom reached the proportions of a fevered madness before it collapsed. +Americans bought r_an_ches for five dollars an acre and resold them as +r_awn_ches for fifty dollars to young Englishmen who will never make a +cent on their investment; chiefly because fruit trees take from five to +ten years to come to maturity, and because fruit must be near a market, +and because only an expert can succeed at fruit. + +If ever wildcat flourished in a gold camp or gambling joint, and that +wildcat did not hie to Canada when the real estate boom broke loose, +the wildcat species not in evidence was too rare to be classified. +Property in small cities sold at New York and Chicago values. Suburban +lots were staked out round small towns in areas for a London or a +Paris, and the lots were sold on instalment plan to small investors, +many of whom bought in hope of resale before payments could accrue. +City taxes for these suburban improvements increased to a great burden. +Fortunes were made and lost overnight. Railroad bonds were guaranteed +plentifully enough to pave the prairie. All this applies chiefly to +city real estate. Inflation beyond investment basis never touched farm +lands; but as a prominent editor remarked, "No fool thing that ever +failed was half as improbable as the fool things that have succeeded. +Men have literally been kicked into fortunes; and the carefulest man +has often been the biggest fool by not biting till the last." + +The boom, of course, burst of its own inflation; but it is worthy of +note that the year the boom collapsed immigration reached its highest +figure--four hundred thousand. Whether the boom was good or bad for +Canada is hard to determine. It left a great many fortunes in its wake +and a great many wrecks; but naturally it did for the country what +years of hope, years of dogged silent work, years of self-confidence +could not do--it jolted Canada and the world into a consciousness of +the Dominion's possibilities. It is like the true story of the finding +of coal on Vancouver Island--a miner stubbed his toe and lo, a clod of +earth split into a seam of shining worth! + +Practically the very same story of the advent of American energy and +daring and optimism into the lumber industry of Canada could be told; +but it is the same story as of the mines and the land, except that the +Canadians on the ground first reaped larger profits. A few years ago +scarcely an acre in British Columbia was owned by interests outside the +province. To-day as far north as Prince Rupert the great lumbermen of +the United States own the timber limits. Canadians bought these lands +round four dollars and five dollars an acre. They sold at from one +hundred dollars to one thousand dollars. One understands why American +lumbermen to-day demand low tariff on Canadian lumber. East of the +Rockies from Edmonton to Port Arthur the fringe of timber along the +great rivers and lakes is owned by operators of Wisconsin and +Louisiana. In Quebec the most valuable pulp wood limits--the last of +the great pulp wood limits on the continent--are owned by New York +interests. Undoubtedly all this means "the Americanizing of Canada" +industrially. Will it result in the entrance of Big Business into +politics? That is hard to answer. The door is not wide open to Big +Business in politics for reasons that will appear in an account of how +Canada is governed. If Americans have entered so powerfully into +Canadian industrial life, why was reciprocity rejected? That, too, is +an interesting story by itself. + +There is one subject on which Canada's inconsistency regarding +"Americanizing influences" is almost laughable. It is the subject of +the influence of periodical literature. Canadians are great +lip-loyalists, but in all the history of Canada they have never +accorded support to a national magazine that enabled that magazine to +become worthy of the name. Facts are very damning testimony here. +Very well--then--let us have the facts! There is one American weekly +which has a larger circulation in every city in Canada than any daily +in any city in Canada. Of the American monthlies of first rank, there +is hardly one that has not a larger circulation in Canada than any +Canadian magazine has ever enjoyed. Even Canadian newspapers are +served by American syndicates and press associations. The influence of +this flood of American thought in the currents of Canadian thought can +not be exaggerated. It is subtle. It is intangible. It is +irresistible. What Americans are thinking about, Canadians +unconsciously are thinking, too. The influence makes for a community +of sentiment that political differences can never disrupt, and it is a +good thing for the race that this is so. It helps to explain why there +is no fort between the two nations for three thousand miles. + +It may also be added that no Canadian writer can get access to the +public in book form except through an American publisher. Unless the +author assumes the cost or risk of publication, the Canadian publisher +will rarely issue a book on his own responsibility. He sends the book +to New York or to London, and from New York or London buys plates or +sheets. This compels the Canadian book to have an Imperial or an +American appeal. In literature, the modus operandi works; for the +appeal is universal; but one might conceive of conditions demanding a +purely national Canadian treatment, which New York or London publishers +would not issue, when Canada would literally be damming the springs of +her national literature. Canada considers her population too small to +support a purely national literature. Not so reasons Belgium of +smaller population; nor Ireland; nor Scotland. The fault here is +primarily in the copyright law. A book published first in the United +States gains international copyright. A book published first in Canada +may be pirated in the United States or England; and on such printed +editions no payment can be collected by the author. The profits in +England and the United States were lost to authors on two of the most +popular books ever published by Canadians. [1] + + +[1] Charles Gordon's _Black Rock_, pirated from his own publisher, sale +half a million; Kirby's _Chien d'Or_, sale one million. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +WHY RECIPROCITY WAS REJECTED + +I + +If American capital and American enterprise dominate Canadian mines, +Canadian timber interests, Canadian fisheries; if American elevators +are strung across the grain provinces and American flour mills have +branches established from Winnipeg to Calgary; if American implement +companies and packing interests now universally control subsidiaries in +Canada--why was reciprocity rejected? If it is good for Canada that +American capital establish big paper mills in Quebec, why is it not +good for Canada to have free ingress for her paper-mill products to +American markets? The same of the British Columbia shingle industry, +of copper ores, of wheat and flour products? If it is good for the +Canadian producer to buy in the cheapest market and to sell in the +highest, why was reciprocity rejected? Implements for the farm south +of the border are twenty-five per cent. cheaper than in the Canadian +Northwest. Canadian wheat milled in Minneapolis enjoys a lower freight +rate and consequently a higher market than Canadian wheat milled in +Europe, as sixteen and twenty-two are to forty and fifty cents--the +former being the freight cost to a Minneapolis mill; the latter, the +freight cost to a European mill. Why, then, was reciprocity rejected? + +From 1867, Canada had been intermittently seeking reciprocity with the +United States. Now, at last, the offer of it came to her unsolicited. +Why did she reject it by a vote that would have been unanimous but for +the prairie provinces? Though the desire for reciprocity with the +United States was exploited politically more by the Liberals--or +low-tariff party--than by the Conservatives--the high-tariff +party--both had repeatedly sent official and unofficial emissaries to +Washington seeking tariff concessions. Tariff concessions were a plank +in the Liberal platform from the days of Alexander MacKenzie. They +were not a plank in the platform of the Conservative party for the sole +reason that the high tariff on the American side forced a high tariff +in self-defense on the Canadian side. Close readers of Sir John +Macdonald's life must have been amazed to learn that one of his very +first visits to Washington--contemporaneous with the Civil War period, +when the United States were just launching out on a high-tariff +policy--was for the purpose of seeking tariff favors for Canada. +Failing to obtain even a favorable hearing, he observed the high-tariff +trend at Washington, took a leaf out of his rival's book and returned +to Canada to launch the high-tariff policy that dominated the Dominion +for thirty years. Alexander MacKenzie, Blake, Mowat, George Brown, +Laurier, Cartwright, Fielding--all the dyed-in-the-wool ultra Whigs of +the Liberal party--practically held their party together for the thirty +lean years out-of-office by promises and repeated promises of +reciprocity with the United States the instant they came into office. +They never seemed to doubt that the instant they did come into office +and proffered reciprocity to the United States the offer would be +accepted and reciprocated. It may be explained that all these old-line +Liberals from MacKenzie to Laurier were free-traders of the +Cobden-Bright school. They believed in free trade not only as an +economic policy but as a religion to prevent the plundering of the poor +by the rich, of the many by the few. One has only to turn to the back +files of the _Montreal Witness_ and _Toronto Globe_ from 1871 to +1895--the two Liberal organs that voiced the extreme free-trade +propaganda--to find this political note emphasized almost as a +fanatical religion. The high-tariff party were not only morally wrong; +they were predestinedly damned. I remember that in my own home both +organs were revered next to the Bible, and this free-trade doctrine was +accepted as unquestionably as the Shorter Catechism. + + +II + +Well--Laurier came to power; and he gathered into his Cabinet all the +grand old guard free-traders still alive. As soon as the Manitoba +School Question was settled Laurier put his Manchester school of +politics into active practice by granting tariff concessions on British +imports. The act was hailed by free-trade England as a tribute of +statesmanship. Laurier and Fielding were recognized as men of the +hour. The next step was to carry out the promises of reciprocity with +the United States. One can imagine Sir John Macdonald, the old +chieftain of the high-tariff Conservatives, turning over in his grave +with a sardonic grin--"Not so fast, my Little Sirs!" When twitted on +the floor of the House over a high tariff oppressing farmers and +favoring factories, Sir John had always disclaimed being a high-tariff +man. He would have a low tariff for the United States, if the United +States would grant Canada a low tariff--he had answered; but the United +States would not grant Canada any tariff concessions. And the grand +old guard of Whigs had jeered back that he was "a compromiser" and "a +trimmer," who tacked to every breeze and never met an issue squarely in +his life. + +If the Liberals had not been absolutely sincere men, they would not +have ridden to such a hard and unexpected fall. They would, like Sir +John, have trimmed to the wind; but they believed in free trade as they +believed in righteousness; and they furthermore believed all they had +to do was to ask for it to get it. Blake had retired from Canadian +politics. George Brown of the _Globe_ was dead; Alexander MacKenzie +had long since passed away; but the old guard rallied to the +reciprocity cry. International negotiations opened at Quebec. They +were not a failure. They were worse than a failure. They were a joke. +High tariff was at its zenith in the United States. Every one of the +American commissioners was a dyed-in-the-wool high-tariff man. It +would be an even wager that not one man among them had ever heard of +the Cobden-Bright Manchester School of Free Trade, by which the Laurier +government swore as by an unerring Gospel. They had heard of McKinley +and of Mark Hanna, but who and what were Cobden and Bright? What +relation were Cobden and Bright to the G. O. P.? The negotiations were +a joke to the United States and a humiliation to Canada. They were +adjourned from Quebec to Washington; and from Washington, Fielding and +Cartwright returned puzzled and sick at heart. They could obtain not +one single solitary tariff concession. They found it was not a case of +theoretical politics. It was a case of quid pro quo for a trade. What +had Canada to offer from 1893 to 1900 that the United States had not +within her own borders? Canada wanted to buy cheaper boots and cheaper +implements and cheaper factory products generally. She wanted a higher +market for her wheat and her meat and her fish and her crude metals and +her lumber. She would knock off her tariff on American factory +products, if the United States would knock off her tariff against +Canadian farm products. One can scarcely imagine Republican +politicians going to American farmers for votes on that platform. What +had Canada to offer? She had meat and wheat and fish and timber and +crude metals. Yes; but from 1893 to 1900 Uncle Sam had more meat and +wheat and fish and timber and crude metals than he could digest +industrially himself. Look at the exact figures of the case! You +could buy pulp timber lands in the Adirondacks at from fifty cents to +four dollars an acre. You could buy timber limits that were almost +limitless in the northwestern states for a homesteader's relinquishment +fee. Kansas farmers fed their wheat to hogs because it did not pay to +ship it. Texas steers sold low as five dollars on the hoof. Crude +metals were such a drug on the market that the coinage of free silver +was suggested as a panacea. Canada hadn't anything that the United +States wanted badly enough for any quid pro quo in tariff concessions. + +This was the time that Uncle Sam rejected reciprocity. + +Fielding, Laurier and Cartwright came home profoundly disappointed men; +and--as stated before--old Sir John may have turned over in his grave +with a sardonic grin. + +When Sir John had launched the Canadian Pacific Railroad to link Nova +Scotia with British Columbia, when his government to huge land grants +had added cash loans, when he had offered bonuses for factories and +subsidies for steamships--no one had sent home such bitter shafts of +criticism as these old-guard Liberals hungry for office. Why give away +public lands? Why push railroads in advance of settlement? Why build +railroads when there were no terminals, and terminals when there were +no steamships? Why subsidize steamships, when there were no markets? +Was it not more natural to trade with neighbors a handshake across the +way than with strange nations across the ocean? I have heard these +barbed interrogations launched by Liberals at Conservatives with such +bitterness that the wives of Conservative members would not bow to the +wives of Liberal members met in the corridors of Parliament. + +Now mark what happened when the free-trade Liberals found they could +obtain no tariff concessions from the United States! They had gibed +Sir John for committing the country to one transcontinental railroad. +They now launched two more transcontinental railroads--east and west, +not north and south. Subsidies were poured into the lap of steamship +companies to attract them to Canadian ports; and thirty-eight millions +in all were spent improving navigation in the St. Lawrence. Wherever +Clifford Sifton sent agents to drum up settlers trade agents were sent +to drum up markets. Then--as Sir Richard Cartwright acknowledged--the +Liberals were traveling in the most tremendous luck. An era of almost +opulent prosperity seemed to come over the whole world. Gold was +discovered in Klondike. Germany opened unexpected markets for copper +ores. Number One Hard Wheat became famous in Europe. Canadian apples, +Canadian butter, Canadian meats began to gather a fame of their own. +Canada was no longer dependent on American markets. There was more +demand for Canadian products in European markets than could be filled. +Then came the tidal wave of colonists. This created an exhaustless +market for farm produce within Canada's borders, and within three +years--in spite of the tariff--imports of manufacturers from the United +States doubled. American factories and flour mills and lumber mills +sprang up on the Canadian side by magic. In this era Canada was +actually importing ten million dollars' worth of food a year for one +western province, and the cost of living in ten years increased +fifty-one per cent. + + +III + +Came a turn in the wheel! The wheel has a tricky way of turning up the +unexpected between nations. A new era had come to the United States. +Kansas was no longer feeding wheat to hogs. In fact, the decrease in +wheat exports had become so alarming that men like Hill of Great +Northern fame and James Wilson, Secretary of Agriculture, actually +predicted that there would come a day of bread famine in the United +States. The population of the United States had grown faster than the +country's production of food. There was an appalling decrease of meat +animals. American packers were establishing branch houses all through +Canada. As for metals, with the superabundance of gold from Yukon and +Nevada, there did not seem any limit to the world's power to absorb +what was produced. The almost limitless timber lands of the +northwestern states passed into the hands of the great trusts. Buyers +of print paper in the United States became alarmed at the impending +shortage of wood pulp. + +It was not unnatural that the same thought came to many minds in the +United States at once. "If we had free trade, we could bring Canada's +raw products in and build up our factories here instead of in Canada," +was the gist of the manufacturer's argument. "If we had free trade, it +would reduce the cost of living," was the gist of the city consumer's +argument. Canadian lumber, Canadian meat, Canadian wheat could be +brought across and manufactured on the American side. For the first +time the American manufacturer became a free trader. Practically there +was only one section in the United States opposed to reciprocity with +Canada; that was the American farmer, and his opposition was more +negative than positive. + +It is hard to say who voiced the desire for reciprocity first. +Possibly the buyers of print paper. At all events, there was at Ottawa +a Governor-General of the Manchester School of Free Trade. There was +editing the _Toronto Globe_--the main Liberal organ--a worthy successor +of George Brown as an exponent of the Manchester School of Free Trade. +Shortly after this editor--a man of brilliant forceful character--had +met President Taft and Joe Cannon in Washington, the Governor-General +of Canada was the guest of Governor Hughes at Albany and there met +President Taft. Of the old guard of free traders, there were still a +few in Laurier's Cabinet, and Laurier himself was as profoundly and +sincerely a free trader in power as he had been out of office. Enemies +aver that the Laurier government now launched reciprocity to divert +public attention from criticism of the railroad policy, in which there +had undoubtedly been great incompetency and gross extravagance--an +extravagance more of a recklessly prosperous era than of +dishonesty--but this motive can hardly be accepted. If Laurier had +launched reciprocity as a political dodge, he would have sounded public +opinion and learned that it was no longer with him on tariff +concessions; but because he was absolutely sincere in his belief in the +Cobden-Bright Gospel of Free Trade, he rode for a second time to a +humiliating fall. A trimmer would have sounded public opinion and +pretended to lead it while really following. Laurier believed he was +right and launched out on that belief. + + +IV + +There was probably never at any time a more conspicuous example of +politicians mistaking a rear lantern for a headlight. I had come East +from a six months' tour of the northwestern states and Northwestern +Canada. I chanced to meet a magazine editor who for twenty years had +been the closest exponent of Republican politics in New York. The +Canadian elections were to be held that very day. In Canada a party +does not launch a new policy like reciprocity without going to the +country for the electorate's approval or condemnation. The editor +asked me if I would mind reading over a ten-page advance editorial +congratulating both countries on the endorsation of reciprocity. I was +paralyzed. I was a free trader and had been trained to love and revere +Laurier from childhood; but I knew from cursory observation in the West +that there was not a chance, nor the shadow of a chance, for +reciprocity to be endorsed by the Canadian people. The editor would +not believe me. He was in close touch with Taft. He sat up overnight +to get returns from Canada, and the next night I left for Ottawa to get +the views of Robert Borden, Canada's new Conservative Premier, as to +why it had happened. + +It had happened because it could not have happened otherwise, though +neither President Taft nor Premier Laurier, neither the editor of the +_Globe_ nor the free-trade Governor-General seemed to have the faintest +idea what was happening. Canada rejected reciprocity now for precisely +the same reason that Uncle Sam had rejected reciprocity ten years +before--because Uncle Sam had no quid pro quo, no equivalent in values +to offer, which Canada wanted badly enough to make trade concessions. +Said Canada: you have exhausted your own lumber; you want our lumber; +pay for it. You want it so badly that you will ultimately put lumber +on the free list without any concession from us. Meanwhile, for us to +remove the tariff would simply lead to our lumber going across the line +to be manufactured. It would build up your mills instead of ours. The +higher you keep the tariff against our lumber the better pleased we'll +be; for you will have to build more and more mills on our side of the +line. We are even prepared to put an export duty on logs to compel you +to keep on building mills on our side of the line. This was the +argument that swayed and won the vote in British Columbia and Quebec. +A similar argument as to wheat and meat swayed the prairie provinces +and Ontario. + +From Montreal to Vancouver there is hardly a hamlet that has not some +American industry, packing house, lumber mill, flour mill, elevator, +machine shop, motor factory, which operates on the Canadian side of the +border because the tariff wall compels it to do so. These industries +have doubled and trebled the populations of cities like Montreal, +Hamilton, Winnipeg, Vancouver, Calgary, Moose Jaw. Would removal of +the tariff bring more industries to these cities or move them south of +the border? The cities voted almost to a man against reciprocity. + +Allied with the cities were the great transportation systems running +east and west. Reciprocity to divert traffic north and south seemed a +menace to their receipts. To a man these systems were against +reciprocity. + +You have forced us to work out our own Destiny, said Canada. Very +well--now that we are at the winning post, don't divert us from the +goal! We love you as neighbors; we welcome you as settlers; we embrace +you as investors; but when we came to you, you rejected us. Now you +must come to us! + +Deep beneath all the jingoism these were the economic factors that +rejected reciprocity. It is all a curious illustration of the +difference between practical and theoretical politics. Theoretically +both parties have been free traders in Canada. Practically free trade +had thrown them both down. Theoretically Canada rejects reciprocity. +Practically trade across the boundary has increased one hundred per +cent. since she rejected reciprocity. Theoretically Canada was +protecting her three transcontinental systems when she rejected +reciprocity. Practically the growth of lines with running rights +across the boundary has increased from _sixteen_ to _sixty-four_ in ten +years. + +When American industries have become rooted in Canadian soil beyond +possibility of transplanting, no doubt the fear will be removed; and at +the present rate of the increase of trade between the two countries the +tariff wall must become an anachronism, if it be not worn down by sheer +force of trade attrition. + +Comical incidents are related of the Canadian fear in individual cases. +There was a Scotch school trustee in Calgary. He had voted +Whig-Liberal-dyed-in-the-wool free trade for forty years--from the +traditions of reciprocity under Alexander Mackenzie. A Canadian flag +was flying above the fine new Calgary school. The Scotchman was going +to the polls by street-car. An excursion of American home seekers had +just come in, and one of the variety to essay placing an American flag +on the pyramids had taken a glass too much. He began haranguing the +street-car. "So that's the old Can-a-dáy flag," said he. "You jus' +wait till to-morrow and, boys, you'll see another flag above that thar +school 'ouse!" + +Now a Scotchman is vera' serious. The Scotch trustee gave one +glowering look at that drunken prophet; and he rang the street-car +bell; and he went at the patter of a dead run to the polling place; and +for the first time in his life he voted, not Whig, not free trade, not +reciprocity and Laurier, but Tory and high tariff. [1] + +It should be added here that the tariff reductions on food under +President Wilson have justified Canada's rejection of reciprocity. +Canadian farm products have gained freer access to the American market +without a quid pro quo. + + +[1] Opponents of reciprocity in the United States made skilful use of +Canadian touchiness on such matters, and not all such expressions as +that quoted above were spontaneous.--THE EDITOR. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE COMING OF THE ENGLISH + +For a hundred years England's colonies have been distinctively +dependencies--self-governing dependencies, if you will, in the case of +Canada and Australia--but distinctively dependent on the Mother Country +for protection from attack by land and sea. Has the day come when +these colonies, are to be, not lesser, but greater nations--offshoots +of the parent stock but transcending in power and wealth the parent +stock--a United Kingdom of the Outer Meres, becoming to America and +Australasia what Great Britain has been to Europe? + +Ten years ago this question would have been considered the bumptious +presumption of flamboyant fancy. It isn't so considered to-day. +Rather than a flight of fancy, the question is forced on thinking minds +by the hard facts of the multiplication table. Between 1897 and 1911 +there came to Canada 723,424 British colonists; and since 1911 there +have come half a million more. At the outbreak of the war settlers of +purely British birth were pouring into Canada at the rate of two +hundred thousand a year. A continuation of this immigration means that +in half a century, not counting natural increase, there will be as many +colonists of purely British birth in Canada as there are Americans west +of the Mississippi, or as there were Englishmen in England in the days +of Queen Elizabeth. It means more--one-fourth of the United Kingdom +will have been transplanted overseas. If there be any doubt as to +whether the transplanting be permanent, it should be settled by +homestead entries. In one era of something less than three years out +of 351,530 men, women and children who came, sixty thousand entered for +homesteads. In other words, if each householder were married and had a +family of four, almost the entire immigration of 351,530 was absorbed +in permanent tenure by the land. The drifters, the floaters, the +disinherited of their share of earth became landowners, proprietors of +Canada to the extent of one hundred and sixty acres. From 1897 to 1911 +the Canadian government spent $2,419,957 advertising Canada in England +and paying a bonus of one pound per capita to steamship agents for each +immigrant; so that each colonist cost the Dominion something over three +dollars. I have heard immigration officials figure how each colonist +was worth to the country as a producer fifteen hundred dollars a year. +This is an excessive estimate, but the bargain was a good one for +Canada. In 1901, when Canada's population was five millions, there +were seven hundred thousand people of British birth in the Dominion; so +that of Canada's present population of 7,800,000, there are in the +Dominion a million and a half people of British birth.[1] Averaging +winter with summer for ten years, colonists of British birth have been +landing on Canada's shores at the rate of three hundred a day. +Canada's natural increase is under one hundred thousand a year. +British colonists are to-day yearly outnumbering Canada's natural +increase. + +Only two other such migrations of Saxon blood have taken place in +history: when the Angles and Jutes and Saxons came in plunder raids to +English shores at the dawn of the Christian Era; when in the +seventeenth century Englishmen came to America; and both these tides of +migration were as a drop in an ocean wave compared to the numbers of +English born now flooding to the shores of Canada. + +Knowing the Viking spirit that rode out to conquer the very elements in +the teeth of death, it is easy to look back and realize that these +Angles and Jutes and Saxons were bound to found a great sea empire. +So, too, of the New England Puritans! Men who sacrificed their all for +a political and religious belief were bound to build of such belief +foundation for a sturdy nation of the future. It is easy to look back +and realize. It is hard to look forward with eyes that see; but one +must be a very opaque thinker, indeed, not to wonder what this latest +vast migration of Saxon blood portends for future empire. The Jutes +and Angles and Saxons poured into ancient Albion for just one +reason--to acquire each for his own freehold of land. Look at the +ancient words! Freehold of land! For what else have a million and a +half British born come to the free homesteads of Canada? For freehold +of land--land unoppressed by taxes for war lords; land unoppressed by +tithes for landlord; land absolutely free to the worker. That such a +migration should break in waves over Canadian life and leave it +untouched, uninfluenced, unswerved, is as inconceivable as that the +Jutes and Angles and Saxons could have settled in ancient Albion and +not made it their own. + + +II + +For years Canada was regarded chiefly in England as a dumping ground +for slums. "You have broken your mother's heart," thundered an English +magistrate to a young culprit. "You have sent your father in sorrow to +the grave. Why--I ask you--do you not go to Canada?" That such +material did not offer the best fiber for the making of a nation in +Canada did not dawn on this insular magisterial dignitary; and the +sentiments uttered were reflected in the activities of countless +philanthropies that seemed to think the porcine could be transmogrified +into the human by a simple transfer from the pig-sty of their own vices +and failure to the free untrammeled life of a colony. Fortunately +Canada has a climate that kills men who won't work. Men must stand on +their own feet in Canada, and keep those feet hustling in winter--or +die. It is not a land for people who think; the world owes them a +living. They have to earn the living and earn it hard, and if they +don't earn it, there are neither free soup kitchens nor maudlin +charities to fill idle stomachs with some other man's earnings. + +"Why do you think so many young Englishmen fail to make good in +Canada?" I asked a young Yorkshire mill hand who had come to Canada +with his five brothers and homesteaded nearly a thousand acres on the +north bank of the Saskatchewan. The house was built of logs and clay. +There was not a piece of store furniture in it except the stove. The +beds were berths extemporized ship-fashion, with cowhides and +bear-skins for covering. The seats were benches. The table was a +rough-hewn plank. These young factory hands had things reduced to the +simplicity of a Robinson Crusoe. They had come out each with less than +one hundred dollars, but they had their nine hundred and sixty acres +proved up and wintered some ten horses and thirty head of cattle in a +sod and log stable. They had acquired what small ready cash they could +by selling oats and hay to newcomers. The hay they sold at four +dollars a ton, the oats at thirty cents a bushel. The boy I questioned +had all the characteristics of the overworked factory hand--abnormally +large forehead, cramped chest, half-developed limbs. Yet the health of +outdoor life glowed from his face, and he looked as if his muscles had +become knotted whipcords. + +"Why do I think so many young Englishmen fail to make good settlers?" +he repeated, changing my question a little. "Because, up to a few +years ago, the wrong kind of people came. The only young Englishmen +who came up to a few years ago were no-goods, who had failed at home. +They were the kind of city scrubs who give up a job when it is hard and +then run for free meals at the soup kitchen. There aren't any soup +kitchens out here, and when they found they had to work before they +could eat, they cleared out and gave the country the blame. Men who +are out of work half the time at home get into the habit of depending +on charity keeping them. When you are a hundred miles from a railroad +town, there isn't any charity to keep you out here; you have to hustle +for yourself. But there is a different class of Englishmen coming now. +The men coming now have worked and want to work." + +And yet--at another point a hundred miles from settlement I came on a +woman who belonged to that very type that ought never to emigrate. She +was a woman picked out of the slums by a charity organization. She had +presumably been scrubbed and curried and taught household duties before +being shipped in a famous colony to Canada. The colony went to pieces +in a deplorable failure on facing its first year of difficulties, but +she had married a Canadian frontiersman and remained. She wore all the +slum marks--bad teeth, loose-feeble-will in the mouth, furtive whining +eyes. She was clean personally and paraded her religion in unctuous +phrase; but I need only to tell a Canadian that she had lived in her +shanty three years and it was still bare of comfort as a biscuit box, +to explain why the Dominion regards this type as unsuitable for +pioneering. The American or Canadian wife of a frontiersman would have +had skin robes for rugs, biscuit boxes painted for bureaus, and chairs +hand-hewn out of rough timber upholstered in cheap prints. But the +really amazing thing was the condition of her children. They were fat, +rosy, exuberant in health and energy. They were Canadians. In a +decade they would begin to fill their place as nation makers. Back in +England they would have gone to the human scrap heap in hunger and +rags. Ten years of slums would have made them into what their mother +was--an unfit; but ten years of Canada was making them into robust +humans capable of battling with life and mastering it. + +The line is a fine one and needs to be drawn with distinction. Canada +does not begrudge the down-and-outs, the failures, the disinherited, +the dispossessed, a chance to begin over again. She realizes that she +has room, boundless room, for such as they are to succeed--and many +more; but what she can not and will not do is assume the burden of +these people when they come to Canada and will not try and fail. What +she can not and will not do is permit Europe to clean her pig-sties of +vice and send the human offal to Canadian shores. Children, strays, +waifs, reforms--who have been taken and tested and tried and taught to +support themselves--she welcomes by the thousands. In fact, she has +welcomed 12,260 of them in ten years, and the cases of lapses back to +failure have been so small a proportion as to be inconsiderable. + +In the early days, "the remittance man"--or young Englishman living +round saloons in idleness on a small monthly allowance from home--fell +into bad repute in Canada; and it didn't help his repute in the least +to have a title appended to his remittance. Unless he were efficient, +the title stood in his way when he applied for a job, whether as horse +jockey or bank clerk. Canadians do not ask--"_Who_ are you?" or +"_What_ have you?" but "_What can you do?_" "What can you do to add to +the nation's yearly output of things done--of a solid plus on the right +side of the yearly balance?" It is a brutal way of putting things. It +does not make for poetry and art. It may be sordid. I believe as a +people we Canadians, perhaps, do err on the sordid side of the +practical, but it also makes for solidity and national strength. + +Ten years have witnessed a complete change in the class of Englishmen +coming to Canada. The drifter, the floater, the make-shift, rarely +comes. The men now coming are the land-seekers--of the blood and type +that settled England and New England and Virginia--of the blood and +type, in a word, that make nations. Hard on the heels of the +land-seekers have come yet another type--the type that binds country to +country in bonds tighter than any international treaty--the investors +of surplus capital. + + +III + +It is possible to keep a record of American investments in Canada; +because possessions are registered more or less approximately at ports +of entry and in bills of incorporation; but the English investor has +acted through agents, through trust and loan companies, through banks. +He is the buyer of Canada's railway stocks, of her municipal, street +railway, irrigation and public works bonds. Of Canadian railroad bonds +and stocks, there are $395,000,000 definitely known to be held in +England. Municipal and civic bonds must represent many times that +total, and the private investments in land have been simply +incalculable. The Lloyd George system of taxation was at once followed +by enormous investments by the English aristocracy in Canada. These +investments included large holdings of city property in Montreal and +Winnipeg and Vancouver, of ranch lands in Alberta, town sites along the +new railroads, timber limits in British Columbia and copper and coal +mines in both Alberta and British Columbia. The Portland, Essex, +Sutherland and Beresford families have been among the investors. It +does not precisely mean the coming of an English aristocracy to Canada, +but it does mean the implanting of an enormous total of the British +aristocracy's capital in Canada for long-time investment. + +It would be untrue to say that these investments have all been wisely +made. One wonders, indeed, at what the purchasing agents were aiming +in some cases. I know of small blocks in insignificant railroad towns +bought for sixty thousand dollars, for no other reason, apparently, +than that they cost ten thousand dollars and had been sold for twenty +thousand dollars. The block, which would yield twenty per cent. on ten +thousand dollars, yields only three per cent. on sixty thousand +dollars. Held long enough, doubtless, it will repay the investor; or +if the investor is satisfied with three per cent., where Canadians earn +twenty per cent.--it may be all right; but Canadians expect their +investments to repay capital cost in ten years, and they do not buy for +profits to posterity but for profits in a lifetime. + +Similarly of many of the r_an_ches bought at five dollars an acre by +Americans and resold as r_awn_ches at twenty-five dollars to forty +dollars to Englishmen. If the Englishmen will be satisfied with two +and three per cent., where the American demands and makes twelve to +twenty per cent.--the investment may make satisfactory returns; but it +is hard to conceive of enormous tracts two and three hundred miles from +a railroad bought for fruit lands at twenty-five dollars an acre. +Fruit without a market is worse than waste. It is loss. When +questioned, these English investors explain how raw fruit lands that +sold at twenty-five dollars an acre a few years ago in the United +States to-day sell for five hundred dollars and one thousand dollars an +acre. The point they miss is--that these top values are the result of +exceptional conditions; of millionaires turning a region into a +playground as in the walnut and citrus groves of California; or of +nearness to market and water transportation; or of peculiarly finely +organized marketing unions. If the rich estates of England like to +take these risks, it is their affair; but they must not blame Canada if +their investment does not give them the same returns as more careful +buying gives the Canadian and American. + +Not all investments are of this extravagant character. Hundreds of +thousands of acres and city properties untold have been bought by +English investors who will multiply their capital a hundredfold in ten +years. I know properties bought along the lines of the new railroads +for a few hundred dollars that have resold at twenty thousand and +thirty thousand and fifty thousand. It is such profits as these that +lure to wrong investment. + +Horse and cattle ranching has appealed to the Englishman from the +first, and as great fortunes have been realized from it in Canada as in +Argentina. However, the day of unfenced pasture ground is past; and in +reselling ranches for farms, many English investors have multiplied +their fortunes. In the outdoor life and freedom from conventional +cares--there has been a peculiar charm in ranch life. In no life are +the grit and efficiency of the well-bred in such marked contrast with +the puling whine and shiftlessness of the settler from the cesspool of +the city slums. I have gone into a prairie shanty where an +Englishwoman sat in filth and rags and idleness, cursing the country to +which she had come and bewailing in cockney English that she had come +to this; and I have gone on to an English ranch where there presided +some young Englishman's sister, who had literally never done a stroke +in her life till she came to Canada, when in emergency of prairie fire, +or blizzard, or absent ranch hands, she has saddled her horse and +rounded to shelter herds of cattle and droves of ponies. She didn't +boast about it. She probably didn't mention it, and when winter came, +she would go off for her holiday to England or California. Having come +of blood that had proved itself fit in England, she proved the same +strain of blood in Canada; and to this class of English Canada gives +more than a welcome. She confers charter rights. + +Lack of domestic help will long be the great drawback for English +people on the prairie. You may bring your help with you if you like. +If they are single, they will marry. If they are married, they will +take up land of their own and begin farming for themselves. It is this +which forces efficiency or exterminates--on the prairie. Let no woman +come to the prairie with dolce far niente dreams of opalescent peaks, +of fenceless fields and rides to a horizon that forever recedes, with a +wind that sings a jubilate of freedom. All these she will have; but +they are not ends in themselves; they are incidental. Days there will +be when the fat squaw who is doing the washing will put all the laundry +in soap suds, then roll down her sleeves and demand double pay before +she goes on. Prairie fires will come when men are absent, and women +must know how to set a back fire; and whether the ranch hands are near +or far, stock must never be allowed to drive before a blizzard. The +woman with iron in her blood will meet all fate's challenges halfway +and master every emergency. The kind that has a rabbit heart and sits +down to weep and wail should not essay adventures in the Canadian West. + + +IV + +I said that England's colonies depended on the Mother Country for +protection from attack by land and sea. Of the vessels calling at +Canadian ports, three-fifths are British, one-fifth foreign, and +one-fifth Canadian. Whore England is the great sea carrier for Europe, +Canada has not wakened up to establish enough sea carriers for her own +needs. + +Canada's exports to the whole British Empire are almost two hundred +millions a year.[2] Her aggregate trade with the British Empire has +increased three hundred per cent. since confederation, or from one +hundred and seven to three hundred and sixteen millions. With the +United States, her aggregate trade has increased from eighty-nine to +six hundred and eight millions. For one dollar's worth she buys in +England, she buys four dollars' worth in the United States. Here trade +is not following the flag, and the flag is not following trade. Trade +is following its own channels independent of the flag. + + +V + +What is the future portent of the great migration of Englishmen of the +best blood and traditions to Canada? There can be only one portent--a +Greater Britain Overseas, and Canada herself has not in the slightest +degree wakened to what this implies. She knows that her railroads are +a safe and shorter path to the Orient than by Suez; and in a cursory +way she may also know that the nations of the world are maneuvering for +place and power on the Pacific; but that she may be drawn into the +contest and have to fight for her life in it--she hardly grasps. If +you told Canada that within the life of men and women now living her +Pacific Coast may bristle with as many forts and ports as the North +Sea--you would be greeted with an amused smile. Yet all this may be +part of the destiny of a Greater Britain Overseas. + +With men such as Sir John Macdonald and Laurier and Borden on the +roster roll of Canada's great, one dislikes to charge that Canadian +statesmen have not grown big enough for their job. The Aztec Indians +used to cement their tribal houses with human blood. Canada's part in +the Great War may be the blood-sign above the lintel of her new +nationality. + + +[1] I have variously referred to Canada's population as five million, +seven million, and over seven million. Five million was Canada's +population before the great influx of colonists began. The census +figures of 1911 give Canada's population as 7,204,838. Add to this the +immigration for 1912, and you get the Department of Labor +figures--7,758,000. If you add the immigration for 1913 the total must +be close on 8,000,000. + +[2] The figures are from the official _Trade and Commerce Report_, Part +I, 1914: They tabulate the trade of 1913 thus: Imports from United +Kingdom, $138,741,736; imports from United States, $435,770,081. +Average duty imports United Kingdom, 25.1. Average duty imports United +States, 24.1. Per cent. of goods from U. K., 20.1; per cent. of goods +from U. S., 65.1. + +Exports to United Kingdom, $177,982,002; exports to United States, +$150,961,675. Percentage goods exported U. K., 47.1; percentage goods +exported U. S., 40.1. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE COMING OF THE FOREIGNER + +So far scarcely a cloud appears on the horizon of Canada's national +destiny. Like a ship launched roughly from her stays to tempests in +shallow water, she seems to have left tempests and shallow water behind +and to have sailed proudly out to the great deeps. In '37 she settled +whether she would be ruled by special interests, by a plutocracy, by an +oligarchy. In '67 she settled forever what in the United States would +be called "states' rights." That is--she gathered the scattered +members of her fold into one confederation and bound them together not +only with the constitution of the British North America Act, but with +bands of iron and steel in railways that linked Nova Scotia with +British Columbia. By '77 she had met the menace of the American high +tariff, which barred her from markets, and entered on a fiscal system +of her own. By '87 her system of transportation east and west was in +working order and she had begun the subsidizing of steamships and the +search for world markets which have since resulted in a total foreign +trade equal to one-fourth that of the United States. By '97 she was +almost ready for the preferential tariff reduction of from twenty-five +to thirty-three per cent. on British goods which the Laurier government +later introduced, and she had established her right to negotiate +commercial treaties with foreign powers independent of the Mother +Country. By 1907 she was in the very maelstrom of the maddest real +estate boom and immigration flood tide that a sane country could +weather. + +In a word, Canada's greatest dangers and difficulties seem to have been +passed. The sea seems calm and the sky fair. In reality, she is close +to the greatest dangers that can threaten a nation--dangers within, not +without; dangers, not physical, but psychological, which are harder to +overcome; dangers of dilution and contamination of national blood, +national grit, national government, national ideals. + +These are strong statements! Let us see if facts substantiate them! + +Canada's natural increase of population is only one-fourth her incoming +tide of colonists. In a word, put her natural increase at eighty to +one hundred thousand a year, and it is nearer eighty than one hundred +thousand. Her immigration exceeds four hundred thousand. If that +immigration were all British and all American there would be no +problem; for though there are differences in government, both people +have the same national ideal--utter freedom of opportunity for each man +to work out the best in him. It is an even wager that the average +Canadian coming to the United States is unaware of any difference in +his freedom, and the average American coming to Canada is unaware of +any difference in his freedom. Both people have fought and bled for +freedom and treasure it as the most sacred thing in life. + +But this is not so of thirty-three per cent. of Canada's immigrants who +do not speak English, much less understand the institutions of freedom +to which they have come. If they had been worthy of freedom, or +capable of making right use of it, they would have fought for it in the +land from which they came, or died fighting for it--as Scotchmen and +Irishmen and Englishmen and Americans have fought and bled for freedom +wherever they have lived. A people unused to freedom suddenly plunged +in freedom need not surprise us if they run amuck. + + +II + +"This is mos' won'erful country," writes Tony to his brother in Italy. +"They let us vote and they pay us two dollars to do it." + +"Yah, yah," answered a foreign mother in North Winnipeg to a +school-teacher, trying to recall why her young hopeful had played +truant. "Dat vas eelection--my boy, he not go--because Jacob--my +man--he vote seven time and make seven dollar." (The whole family had +been on a glorious seven-dollar drunk.) + +"Does this man understand for what he is voting?" demanded the election +clerk of a Galician interpreter who had brought in a naturalized +foreigner to vote. + +"Oh, yaas; I eexplain heem." + +"Can he write?" + +An indeterminate nod of the head; so the voter marks his ballot, and +his vote counts for as much as that of the premier or president of a +railroad. + +For years Canadians have pointed the finger of scorn at the notorious +misgovernment of American cities, at the manner in which foreigners +were herded to the polls by party bosses to vote as they were paid. +The cases of a Louisiana judge impeached for issuing bogus certificates +of citizenship to four hundred aliens and of New York courts that have +naturalized ignorant foreigners in batches of twenty-five thousand in a +few months have all pointed a moral or adorned a tale in Canada. + +Yet what is happening in Canada since the coming of hordes of ignorant +immigrants? I quote what I have stated elsewhere, an episode typical +of similar episodes, wherever the foreign vote herds in colonies. An +election was coming on in one of the western provinces, where reside +twenty thousand foreigners almost en bloc. The contest was going to be +very close. Offices were opened in a certain block. Legally it +requires three years to transform a foreigner into a voting Canadian +subject. He must have resided in Canada three years before he can take +out his papers. The process is simple to a fault. The newcomer goes +before a county judge with proof of residence and two Canadian +witnesses. He must not be a criminal, and he must be of age. That is +all that is required to change a Pole or a Sicilian or a Slav into a +free and independent Canadian fully competent to apprehend that voting +implies duties and fitness as well as rights. The contest was going to +be very close. A few of the party leaders could not bear to have those +newcomers wait a long three years for naturalization. They got +together and they forged in the same hand, the same manipulation, the +signatures of three hundred foreigners, who did not know in the least +what they were doing, to applications for naturalization +papers--foreigners who had not been three months in Canada. If forgery +did not matter, why should perjury? The perpetrators of this fraud +happened to be provincial and of a stripe different politically from +the federal government then in power at Ottawa. The other party had +not been asleep while this little game was going on. The party heeler +neither slumbers nor sleeps. The papers with those three hundred +forged signatures--names in the writing of foreigners, who could +neither read, write, nor speak a word of English--were sent down to the +Department of Justice in Ottawa; and everybody waited for the +explosion. The explosion did not come. Those perjuries and forgeries +slumber yet, secure in the Department of Justice. For when the +provincial politicians heard what had been done to trap them, they sent +down a little message to the heelers of the party in power: If you go +after us for _this_, we'll go after you for _that_; and perhaps the pot +had better not call the kettle black. The chiefs of each party were +powerless to act because the heelers of both parties had been alike +guilty. + +It may be said that the fault here was not in the poor ignorant +foreigner but in the corrupt Canadian politicians. That is true of +Canada, as it is of similar practices in the United States; but the +presence of the ignorant, irresponsible foreigner in hordes made the +corruption possible, where it is neither possible nor safe with men of +Saxon blood, with German, Scandinavian or Danish immigrants, for +instance. + + +III + +It is futile to talk of the poor and ignorant foreigner as a Goth or a +Vandal--to talk of excluding the ignorant and the lowly. The floating +"he-camps"--as these floating immigrants are called in labor +circles--are to-day doing much of the manual work of the world. +Canadian railways could not be built without them. Canadian industrial +and farm life could not go on without them. They are needed from +Halifax to Vancouver, and their labor is one of the wealth producers +for the nation. + +And do not think for a moment that the wealth they produce is for +capital--for the lords of finance and not for themselves. When +Montenegrins, who earn thirty cents a day in their own land, earn +eleven dollars a day on dynamite work constructing Canadian railroads, +it is not surprising that they retire rich, and that the railroad for +which they worked would have gone bankrupt if the Dominion had not come +to its aid with a loan of millions. Likewise of Poles and Galicians in +the coal mines. When Charles Gordon--Ralph Connor--was sent to +investigate the strike in these mines he found foreigners earning +seventeen dollars a day on piecework who had never earned fifty cents a +day in their own land. I have in mind one Galician settler who has +accumulated a fortune of $150,000 in perfectly legitimate ways in ten +years. Even the Doukhobors--the eccentric Russian religious +sect--hooted for their oddities of manner and frenzies of religion--are +accumulating wealth in the Elbow of the Saskatchewan, where they are +settled. + +From the national point of view Canada needs these foreign settlers. +She needs their labor. Every man to her is worth fifteen hundred +dollars in productive work. The higher wages he earns on piecework the +more Canada is pleased; for the more work he has done. But at the +present rate of peopling Canada these foreign born will in twenty years +outnumber the native born. What will become of Canada's national +ideals then? In one foreign section of the Northwest I once traveled a +hundred miles through new settlements without hearing one word of +English spoken; and these Doukhobors and Galicians and Roumanians and +Slavs were making good. They were prospering exceedingly. Men who had +come with less than one hundred dollars each and lived for the first +years in crowded tenements of Winnipeg or under thatch-roof huts on the +prairie now had good frame houses, stables, stock, modern implements. +The story is told of one poor Russian who, when informed of the fact +that the land would be his very own, fell to the earth and kissed the +soil and wept. Such settlers make good on soil, whatever ill they work +in a polling booth. Except for his religious vagaries, the Doukhobor +Russian is law abiding. The same can not be said of the other Slav +immigrants. Crime in the Northwest, according to the report of the +Mounted Police, has increased appallingly. The crimes are against life +rather than against property--the crimes of a people formerly kept in +order by the constant presence of a soldier's bayonet run amuck in +Canada with too much freedom. And the votes of these people will in +twenty years out-vote the Canadian. These poverty-stricken Jews and +Polacks and Galicians will be the wealth and power of Canada to-morrow. +If you doubt what will happen, stroll down Fifth Avenue, New York, and +note the nationality of the names. A Chicago professor carefully noted +the nationality of all the names submitted in Chicago's elections for a +term of years. Three-quarters of the names were of nationalities only +one generation away from the Ghetto. + +Man to man on the prairie farm, in the lumber woods, your Canadian can +out-do the Russian or Galician or Hebrew. The Canadian uses more +brains and his aggregate returns are bigger; but boned down to a basis +of _who_ can save the most and become rich fastest, your foreigner has +the native-born Canadian beaten at the start. Where the Canadian earns +ten dollars and spends eighty per cent. of it, your foreigner earns +five dollars, and saves almost all of it. How does he do this? He +spends next to nothing. Let me be perfectly specific on how he does +it: I have known Russian, Hebrew, Italian families in the Northwest who +sewed their children into their clothes for the winter and never +permitted a change till spring. Your Canadian would buy half a dozen +suits for his children in the interval. Your foreigner buys of +furniture and furnishings and comforts practically nothing for the +first few years. He sleeps on the floor, with straw for a bed, and he +occupies houses twenty-four to a room--which is the actual report in +foreign quarters in the north end of Winnipeg. Your Canadian requires +a house of six rooms for a family of six. When your foreigner has +accumulated a little capital he buys land or a city tenement. Your +Canadian educates his children, clothes them a little better, moves +into a better house. When the foreigner buys a block, he moves his +whole family into one room in the basement and does the janitor and +scrubbing and heating work himself or forces his women to do it for +him. When the Canadian buys a block, he hires a janitor, an engineer, +a scrub woman, and if he moves into the block, he takes one of the best +apartments. It does not take any guessing to know which of these two +will buy a second block first--especially if the foreigner lives on +peanuts and beer, and the Canadian on beefsteak and fresh fruit. Nor +does it take any guessing to know which type stands for the higher +citizenship--which will make toward the better nation. + + +IV + +The question is--will Canada remain Canada when these new races come up +to power? And Canada need not hoot that question; or gather her skirts +self-righteously and exclusively about her and pass by on the other +side. The United States did that, and to-day certain sections of the +foreign vote are powerful enough to dictate to the President. + +Take a little closer look at facts! + +Foreigners have never been rushed into Canada as cheap labor to +displace the native born, so they have not, as in great American +industrial centers, lowered the standard of living for Canadians. They +have come attracted by two magnets that give them great power: (1) +wages so high they can save; (2) land absolutely free but for the +ten-dollar preemption fee. + +In 1881 there were six hundred and sixty-seven Jews in Canada. + +In 1901 there were sixteen thousand. To-day it is estimated there are +twenty thousand each in Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg. These Jews have +not gone out to the land. They have crowded into the industrial +centers reproducing the housing evils from which they fled the European +Ghetto. There are sections of Winnipeg and Montreal and Toronto where +the very streets reek of Bowery smells. When they go to the woods or +the land, these people have not the stamina to stand up to hard work. +Yet in the cities, by hook or crook, by push-cart and trade, they +acquire wealth. On the charity organization of the cities they impose +terrible burdens during Canada's long cold winter. + +In one section of the western prairie are 150,000 Galicians. Of +Austrians and Germans--the Germans chiefly from Austria and +Russia--there are 800,000 in Canada, or a population equal to the city +of Montreal. Of Italians at last report there were fully 60,000 in +Canada. In one era of seven years there took up permanent abode in +Canada 121,000 Austrians, 50,000 Jews, 60,000 Italians, 60,000 Poles +and Russians, 40,000 Scandinavians. When you consider that by actual +count in the United States in 1900, 1,000 foreign-born immigrants had +612 children, compared to 1,000 Americans having 296 children, it is +simply inconceivable but that this vast influx of alien life should not +work tremendous and portentous changes in Canada's life, as a similar +influx has completely changed the face of some American institutions in +twenty years. Immigration to Canada has jumped from 54,000 in +1851-1861 to 142,000 in 1881-1891, and to 2,000,000 in 1901-1911. It +has not come in feeble rivulets that lost their identity in the main +current--as in the United States up to 1840. It has come to Canada in +inundating floods. + +Chief mention has been made of the races from the south of Europe +because the races from the north of Europe assimilate so quickly that +their identity is lost. Of Scandinavians there are in Canada some +fifty thousand; of Icelanders, easily twenty thousand; and so quickly +do they merge with Canadian life that you forget they are foreigners. +I was a child in Winnipeg when the first Icelanders arrived, and their +rise has been a national epic. I do not believe the first few hundreds +had fifty dollars among them. They slept under high board sidewalks +for the first nights and erected tar-paper shanties on vacant lots the +next day. In these they housed the first winter. Though we +Winnipeggers did not realize it, it must have been a dreadful winter to +them. Their clothing was of the scantest. Many were without +underwear. They lived ten and twenty to a house. The men sawed wood +at a dollar and a half a day. The women worked out at one dollar a +day. In a few weeks each family had bought a cow and rudiments of +winter clothes. By spring they had money to go out on their +homesteads. During winter some of the grown men attended school to +learn English. Teachers declared they never witnessed such swift +mastery of learning. To-day the Icelanders are the most prosperous +settlers in Manitoba. The same story could be told of German +Mennonites driven from Russia by religious persecution and of +Scandinavians driven abroad by poverty. Of course, the weak went to +the wall and died, and didn't whine about the dying, though some +mother's heart must have broken in silence. I recall one splendid +young fellow who walked through every grade the public schools +afforded, and then through the high school, and was on the point of +graduating in medicine when he died from sheer mental and physical +exhaustion. This type of settler will build up Canada's national +ideals. It is the other type that gives one pause. + + +V + +Well--what is Canada going to do about it? Bar them out! Never! She +needs these raw brawny Vandals and Goths of alien lands as much as they +need Canada. She needs their hardy virility. They are the crude +material of which she must manufacture a manhood that is not sissified, +and one must never forget that some of the most honored names in the +United States are from these very races. One of the greatest +mathematicians in the United States, the greatest copper miners, the +richest store keepers, one of the most powerful manufacturers--these +sprang from the very races that give Canada pause to-day. + +It is on the school rather than on the church that Canada must depend +for the nationalizing of these alien races. Nearly all the colonists +from the south of Europe have brought their church with them. In one +foreign church of North Winnipeg is a congregation of four thousand, +and certainly, in the case of the Doukhobors, the influence of the +foreign priest has not been for the good of Canada. But none of these +races has brought with them a school system, and that throws on the +public school system of Canada the burden of preserving national ideals +for the future. Will the schools prove equal to it? I wish I could +answer unequivocally "yes"; for I recall some beautiful episodes of +boys and girls--too immature to realize the importance of their +work--"baching" it in prairie shanties, teaching at forty dollars a +month; amid the isolation of Doukhobor and Galician and Ruthenian +settlement preserving Canada's national ideals for the future; little +classes of foreigners in the schools of North Winnipeg reading lessons +in perfect English with flower gardens below the window kept by +themselves--the little girls learning sewing and housekeeping in upper +rooms, the boys learning technical trades in the basement. All this is +good and well; but how about the recognition Canada gives these +teachers who manufacture men and women out of mud, who do more in a day +for the ideals of the nation than all the eloquence that has been +spouted in Houses of Parliament? In Germany, they say--once an army +man always an army man; for though the pay is ridiculously small, +social prestige and recognition are so great that the army is the most +desirable vocation. Canada's teachers in the schools among foreigners +are doing for the Dominion what the German army has aimed to do for the +empire. Do the Canadian teachers receive the same recognition? The +question needs no answer. They receive so little recognition that the +majority throw aside the work at their twenty-first year and crowd into +other over-crowded professions. Meanwhile time moves on, and in twenty +years the foreign vote will outnumber that of the native born. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE COMING OF THE ORIENTAL + +I + +If the coming of the foreigner has been Canada's greatest danger from +within, the coming of the Oriental has been one of her most perplexing +problems from without. It is not only a perplexity to herself. It is +a perplexity in which Canada involves the empire. + +Take the three great Oriental peoples! With China, Great Britain is in +friendly agreement. With Japan, Great Britain is in closest +international pact. To India, Great Britain is a Mother. Yet Canada +refuses free admission to peoples from all three countries. Why? For +the same reason as do South Africa and Australia. It is only +secondarily a question of labor. The thing goes deeper than that. + +Consider Japan first: Panama is turning every port facing west into a +front door instead of a back door. Within twenty years, the combined +populations of American ports on the Pacific have jumped from a few +hundreds of thousands at San Francisco and nothing elsewhere to almost +two million, with growth continuing at an accelerated rate promising +within another quarter of a century as many great harbors of almost as +great population on the Pacific as on the Atlantic. The Orient has +suddenly awakened. It is importing something besides missionaries. It +is buying American and Canadian steel, American and Canadian wool, +American and Canadian wheat, American and Canadian machinery, American +and Canadian dressed lumber. Ship owners on the Pacific report that +the docks of through traffic are literally jammed with goods outward +bound--"more goods than we have ships," as the president of one line +testified. + +When the reason for building Panama has been shorn of highfalutin +metaphors, it concentrates down to the simple bald fact that the United +States possessions on the Pacific had grown too valuable to be guarded +by a navy ten thousand miles away around the Horn. True, Roosevelt +sent the fleet around the world to show what it could do, and the +country howled its jubilation over the fact. But the Little Brown +Brother only smiled; for the fleet hadn't coal to steam five hundred +miles without hiring foreign colliers to follow around with supply of +fuel. "Fine fleet! To be sure we have the ships," exploded a rear +admiral in San Diego Bay a few years ago; "but look here!" He pointed +through the port at an insignificant coaling dock such as third-rate +barges use. "See any coal?" he asked. "If trouble should come"--it +was just after the flight of Diaz--"we haven't coal enough to go +half-way up or down the coast." + + +II + +Sometimes we can guess the game from the moves of the chess players. +With facts for chessmen, what are the moves? + +It was up in Atlin, British Columbia, a few years after the Klondike +rush. Five hundred Japs had come tumbling into the mining camp, +seemingly from nowhere, in reality from Japanese colonies in Hawaii. +The white miners warned the Japs that "it wouldn't be a healthy camp," +but mine owners were desperate for workers. Wages ran at from five to +ten dollars a day. The Japs were located in a camp by themselves and +put to work. On dynamite work, for which the white man was paid five +to ten dollars, the Jap was paid three and five dollars. Still he held +on with his teeth, "dogged as does it," as he always does. Suddenly +the provincial board of health was notified. There was a lot of +sickness in the Jap camp--"filthy conditions," the mine owners +reported. The board of health found traces of arsenical poisoning in +all the Jap maladies. The Japs decamped as if by magic. + +Simultaneously there broke out from Alaska to Monterey the anti-Jap, +anti-Chinese, anti-Hindu agitation. California's exclusion and land +laws became party planks. British Columbia got round it by a +subterfuge. She had the Ottawa government rush through an +order-in-council known as "the direct passage" law. All Orientals at +that time were coming in by way of Hawaii. Ships direct from India +were not sailing. They stopped at Hong Kong and Hawaii. The +order-in-council was to forbid the entrance of Brown Brothers unless in +direct passage from their own land. That effectually barred the Hindu +out, till recently when a Japanese line, to test the Direct Passage +Act, brought a shipload of Hindus direct from India to Vancouver. +Vancouverites patrolled docks and would not let them land. A head tax +of five hundred dollars was leveled at John Chinaman. That didn't keep +John Chinaman out. It simply raised his wages; for the Chinese boss +added to the new hand's wages what was needed to pay the money loaned +for entrance fee. A special arrangement was made with the Mikado's +government to limit Japanese emigration to a few hundreds given +passports, but California went the whole length of demanding the total +exclusion of Brown Brothers. + +Why? What was the Pacific Coast afraid of? When the State Departments +of the United States and Canada met the State Department of the Mikado, +practically what was said was this. Only in very diplomatic language: + +Whiteman: "We don't object to your students and merchants and +travelers, but what we do object to is the coolies. We are a +population of a few hundred thousands in British Columbia, of less than +three million in the states of the Pacific. What with Chink and Jap +and Hindu, you are hundreds of millions of people. If we admit your +coolies at the present rate (eleven thousand had tumbled into one city +in a few months), we shall presently have a coolie population of +millions. We don't like your coolies any better than you do yourself! +Keep them at home!" + +This conversation is paraphrased, but it is practically the substance +of what the representative of the Ottawa government said to a +representative of the Mikado. + +Brown Brother: "We don't care any more for our coolies than you do. We +don't in fact, care a hoot what becomes of the spawn and dregs of +no-goods in our population. We are not individualists, as you white +men are! We don't aim to keep the unfit cumbering the earth! We don't +care a hoot for these coolies; but what we do care for is this--we +Orientals refuse to be branded any longer as an inferior race. We'll +restrain the emigration of these coolies by a passport system; but +don't you forget it, just as soon as we are strong enough, in the +friendliest, kindest, suavest, politest, most diplomatic way in the +world, we intend not to be branded any longer as an inferior race. We +intend to stand shoulder to shoulder with you in the management of the +world's affairs. If we don't stand up to the job, throw us down! If +we stand up to the job--and we stood up moderately in China and Russia +and Belgium--we don't intend to ask you for the sop of that Christian +brotherhood preached by white men. We intend to force recognition of +what we are by what we do. We ask no favors, but we now serve you +notice we are in to play the game." + +Neither is this conversation a free translation. Shorn of diplomatic +kotowing and compliments and circumlocutions, it is exactly what the +Mikado's representative served to the representatives of three great +governments--Uncle Sam's, John Bull's, Miss Canada's. If you ask how I +know, I answer--direct from one of the three men sent to Japan. + +Can you see the white men's eyes pop out of their heads with +astonishment? They thought they were up against a case of labor union +jealousy, and they found themselves involved in a complex race problem, +dealing with three aggressive applicants for places at the councils of +rulers governing the world. California was ordered to turn on the soft +pedal and do it quick, and officially, at least, she did for a time. +Canada was ordered to lay both hands across her mouth and never to +speak above a whisper of the whole Brown Brother problem; and +England--well--England openly took the Jappy-Chappy at his +word--recognized him as a world brother and entered into the famous +alliance. And the coming of coolies suddenly stopped to the United +States and Canada. It didn't stop to South America and Mexico, but +that is another play of the game with facts for chessmen. + +Chinese exclusion, Japanese exclusion, Hindu exclusion suddenly became +party shibboleths--always for the party _out_ of power, never for the +party _in_ power. The party in power kept a special Maxim silencer on +the subject of Oriental immigration. The politician in office kept one +finger on his lip and wore rubber-soled shoes whenever an almond-eyed +was mentioned. With that beautiful consistency which only a politician +has, a good British Columbia member, who rode Oriental exclusion as his +special hobbyhorse, employed a Jap cook. In the midst of his stump +campaign against Orientals he found in the room of his cook original +drawings of Fort Esquimalt, of Vancouver Harbor and of Victoria back +country. I was in British Columbia at the time. The funny thing to me +was--all British Columbia was so deadly in earnest it didn't see the +funny side of the inconsistency. + + +III + +I was up and down the Pacific the year the Mikado died, and chanced to +be in San Diego the month that a Japanese warship put into port because +its commander had suicided of grief over the Emperor's death. The ship +had to lie in port till a new commander came out from Japan. Japanese +coolies were no longer coming; but the Japanese middies had the run and +freedom of the harbor; and they sketched all the whereabouts of Point +Loma--purely out of interest for Mrs. Tingley's Theosophy, of course. + +Diaz's ministry had been very hard pressed financially before being +ousted by Madero. Some Boston and Pacific Coast men had secured an +option from the Diaz faction of the sandy reaches known as Magdalena +Bay in Lower California. The Pacific Coast is a land of few good +natural harbors; especially harbors for a naval station and target +practice. Suddenly an unseen hand blocked negotiations. Within a year +Japan had almost leased Magdalena Bay, when Uncle Sam wakened up and +ordered "hands off." + +Nicaragua has never been famous as a great fishing country. Yet +Japanese fishermen tried to lease fishing rights there and may have, +for all the world knows. In spite of exclusion acts, they already +dominate the salmon fishing of the Pacific. + +Coaling facilities will be provided for the merchantmen of the world at +both ends of Panama. Yet when England and France began furbishing up +colonial stations in the Caribbean, Japan forthwith made offers for a +site for a coaling station in the Gulf of Mexico. + +But it was in South America and Mexico that the most active +colonization proceeded. There is not an American diplomat in South +America who does not know this and who has not reported it--reported it +with one finger on both lips and then has seen his report discreetly +smothered in departmental pigeon-holes. Up to a few years ago Mexico +and South America were enjoying marvelous prosperity. Coffee had not +collapsed in Brazil. Banks had not blown up from self-inflation in +Argentina. Revolution at home and war abroad had not closed mines in +Mexico. All hands were stretched out for colonists. Japan launched +vast trans-Pacific colonization schemes. Ships were sent scouting +commercial possibilities in South America. To colonists in Chile and +Peru, fare was in many cases prepaid. Money was loaned to help the +colonists establish themselves, and an American representative to one +of these countries told me that free passage was given colonists on +furlough home if they would go back to the colony. There is no known +record outside Japan of the numbers of these colonists. And Japan +asks--why not? Does not England colonize; does not Germany colonize; +does not France colonize? We are taking our place at the world board +of trade. If we fail to make good, throw us out. If we make good, we +do not ask "by your leave." + + +IV + +When a shipping investigation was on in Washington a year ago, many +members of the committee were amazed to learn that Japan already +controls seventy-two per cent. of the shipping on the Pacific. Ask a +Chilean or Peruvian whether he prefers to travel on an American or a +Japanese ship. He laughs and answers that American ships to the +western coast of South America would be as tubs are to titanics--only +until the new registry bill passed there were hardly any ships under +the United States flag on the Southern Pacific. Each of these Japanese +ships is so heavily subsidized it could run without a passenger or a +cargo; high as one hundred thousand dollars a voyage for many ships. +Its crews are paid eight to ten dollars a month, where American and +Canadian crews demand and get forty to fifty dollars. In cheapness of +labor, in efficiency of service, in government aid and style of +building no American nor Canadian ships can stand up against them. And +again Japan asks--why not? Atlantic commerce is a prize worth four +billions a year. When the Orient fully awakens, will Pacific commerce +total four billions a year? Who rules the sea rules the world. +Japan's ships dominate seventy-two per cent. of the Pacific's commerce +now. + +So when the war broke out, Japan shouldered not the white man's burden +but the Brown Brother's and plunged in to police Asia. Again--why not? +As Uncle Sam polices the two Americas, and John Bull the seas of the +world, so the Mikado undertakes to police the sea lanes of the Orient. +The Jappy said when he met the diplomats on the subject of coolie +immigration that he would prove himself the partner of the white man at +the world's council boards--or step back. + +Is it a menace or a portent? Certainly not a menace, when accepted as +a matter of fact. Only the fact must be faced and realized, and the +new chessman's moves recognized. Uncle Sam has the police job of one +world, South America; Great Britain of another--Europe. Will the +little Jappy-Chappy take the job for that other world, where the Star +of the Orient seems to be swinging into new orbits? The Jappy-Chappy +isn't saying much; but he is essentially on the job for all he is +worth; and Canada hasn't wakened up to what that may mean to her +Pacific Coast. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE HINDU + +I + +Is it, then, that Canada fears the growth of Japan as a great world +power? No, the thing is deeper than that. We have come to the place +where we must go deeper than surface signs and use neither rose water nor +kid gloves. The question of the Chinese and the Japanese is entirely +distinct from the Hindu. + +If you think that shutting your eyes to what you don't want to know and +stopping your nostrils to the stench and gathering your garments up and +passing by on the other side ever settled a difficult question, then the +Pacific Coast wishes you joy to your system of moral sanitation; but +don't offer the people of the Pacific Coast any platitudinous advice +about admitting Asiatics. They know what they are doing. You don't! +Theoretically the Asiatic should have the same liberty to come and go +with Canada as Canadians have to come and go with the Orient. +Theoretically, also, the colored man should be as clean and upright and +free-and-equal and dependable as the white man; but practically--in an +anguish that has cost the South blood and tears--practically he isn't. +The theory does not work out. Neither does it with the Asiatic. That +is, it does not work out at close range on the spot, instead of the width +of half a continent away. + +Canada is being asked to decide and legislate on one of the most vital +race problems that ever confronted a nation. She is also being asked to +be very lily-handed and ladylike and dainty about it all. You must not +explore facts that are not--"nice." You must not ask what the Westerner +means when he says that "the Asiatic will not affiliate with our +civilization." Is it more than white teeth and pigments of the skin? Is +it more than skin deep? Had the Old Book some deep economic reason when +it warned the children of Israel against mixing their blood with aliens? +Has it all anything to do with the centuries' cesspools of unbridled +vice? Is that the reason that women's clubs--knowing less of such +things--rather than men's clubs--are begged to pass fool resolutions +about admitting races of whose living practices they know absolutely +nothing? + +If it isn't the labor unions and it isn't the fear of new national power +that prejudice against the Oriental--what is it? Why has almost every +woman's club on the Pacific passed resolutions against the admission of +the Oriental, and almost every woman's club in the East passed +resolutions for the admission? Why did the former Minister of Labor in +Canada say that "a minimum of publicity is desired upon this subject"? +What did he mean when he declared "that the native of India is not a +person suited to this country"? If the native Hindu is "not a person +suited to Canada"--climate, soil, moisture, what not?--why isn't that +fact sufficient to exclude the Oriental without any legislation? +Italians never go to live at the North Pole. Nor do Eskimos come to live +in the tropics. + +You may ask questions about Hindu immigration till you are black in the +face. Unless you go out on the spot to the Pacific Coast, the most you +will get for an answer is a "hush." And it would not be such an +impossible situation if the other side were also going around with a +finger to the lip and a "hush"; but the Oriental isn't. The Hindu and +his advocates go from one end of Canada to the other clamoring at the +tops of their voices, not for the privilege, but for the right, of +admission to Canada, the right to vote, the right to colonize. At the +time the first five or six thousand were dumped on the Pacific Coast, +twenty thousand more were waiting to take passage; and one hundred +thousand more were waiting to take passage after them, clamoring for the +right of admission, the right to vote, the right to colonize. Canada +welcomes all other colonists. Why not these? The minute you ask, you +are told to "hush." + +South Africa and Australia "hushed" so very hard and were so very careful +that after a very extensive experience--150,000 Hindus settled in one +colony--both colonies legislated to shut them out altogether. At least +South Africa's educational test amounted to that, and South Africa and +Australia are quite as imperial as Canada. Why did they do it? The +labor unions were no more behind the exclusion in those countries than in +British Columbia. The labor unions chuckled with glee over the +embarrassment of the whole question. + + +II + +Each side of the question must be stated plainly, not as my personal +opinions or the opinions of any one, but as the arguments of those +advocating the free admission of the Hindu, and of those furiously +opposing the free admission. + +A few years ago British Columbia was at her wit's ends for laborers--men +for the mills, the mines, the railroads. India was at her wit's ends +because of surplus of labor--labor for which her people were glad to +receive three, ten, twenty cents a day. Her people were literally +starving for the right to live. It does not matter much who acted as the +connecting link,--the sawmill owners, the canneries, the railroads, or +the steamships. The steamship lines and the sawmill men seem to have +been the combined sinners. The mills wanted labor. The steamship lines +saw a chance to transport laborers at the rate of twenty thousand a year +to and from India. The Hindus came tumbling in at the rate of six +thousand in a single year, when, suddenly, British Columbia, inert at +first, awakened and threatened to secede or throw the newcomers into the +sea. By intervention of the Imperial government and the authorities of +India a sort of subterfuge was rigged up in the immigration laws. The +Hindus had been booked to British Columbia via Hong Kong and Hawaii. The +most of the Japs had come by way of Hawaii. To kill two birds with one +stone, by order-in-council in Ottawa, the regulation was enacted +forbidding the admission of immigrants except on continuous passage from +the land of birth. Canada's immigration law also permits great latitude +in interpretation as to the amount of money that must be possessed by the +incoming settlers. Ordinarily it is fifty dollars for winter, +twenty-five dollars for summer, with a five hundred dollar poll tax +against the Chinaman. The Hindus were required to have two hundred and +fifty dollars on their person. + +One wonders at the simplicity of a nation that hopes to fence itself in +safety behind laws that are pure subterfuge. The subterfuge has but +added irritation to friction. What was to hinder a direct line of +steamships going into operation any day? As a matter of fact, to force +the issue, to force the Dominion to declare the status of the Oriental, a +Japanese ship early in 1914 did come direct from India with a cargo of +angry armed Hindus demanding entrance. Canada refused to relent. The +ship lay in harbor for months unable to land its colonists, and a +Dominion cruiser patrolled Vancouver water to prevent actual armed +conflict. When the final decision ordered the colonists on board +deported, knives and rifles were brandished; and Hopkinson, the secret +service man employed by British authorities, was openly shot to death a +few weeks later in a Vancouver court room by a band of Hindu assassins. +"We are glad we did it," declared the murderers when arrested. Hopkinson +himself had come from India and was hated and feared owing to his secret +knowledge of revolutionary propaganda among the Vancouver Hindus, who +were posing as patriots and British subjects. The fact that many +thousands of Sikhs and Hindus had just been hurried across Canada in +trains with blinds down to fight for the empire in Europe added tragic +complexity to an already impossible situation. + +The leaders of the Hindu party in Canada had already realized that more +immigration was not advisable till they had stronger backing of public +opinion in Canada, and a campaign of publicity was begun from Nova Scotia +to the Pacific Coast. Churches, women's missionary societies, women's +clubs, men's clubs were addressed by Hindu leaders from one end of Canada +to the other. It did not improve the temper of some of these leaders +posing in flowing garments of white as mystic saints before audiences of +women to know that Hopkinson, the secret agent, was on their trail in the +shadow with proofs of criminal records on the part of these same leaders. +These criminal records Hopkinson would willingly have exposed had the +Imperial government not held his hand. When I was in Vancouver he called +to see me and promised me a full exposure of the facts, but before +speaking cabled for permission to speak. Permission was flatly refused, +and I was told that I was investigating things altogether too deeply. I +can see the secret agent's face yet--as he sat bursting with facts +repressed by Imperial order--a solemn, strong, relentless man, sad and +savage with the knowledge he could not use. Without Hopkinson's aid, it +was not difficult to get the facts. Canada is a country of party +government. One party had just been ousted from power, and another party +had just come in. While I was waiting for permission from Ottawa to +obtain facts in the open, information came to me voluntarily with proofs +through the wife of a former secret agent. + +It did not make things easier for Hopkinson that the whole dispute as to +Hindu immigration was relegated into that doubtful resort of all +ambiguous politics--"the twilight zone"--or the doubtful borderland where +provincial powers end and federal powers begin and Imperial powers +intervene. England was shoving the burden of decision on the Dominion, +and the Dominion was shoving the burden on the Province of British +Columbia, and to evade responsibility each government was shuttling the +thing back and forward, weaving a tangle of hate and misunderstanding +which culminated in Hopkinson's assassination in 1914. + +As "the twilight zone" between provincial and federal rights comes up +here, it should be considered and emphasized; for it is the one great +weakness of every federation. _Who_ is to do _what_--when neither +government wants to assume responsibility? Who is to enforce laws, when +neither government wants to father them? It was this gave such passion +to Vancouver's resentment in Hindu immigration. Indeed this very +question of "a twilight zone" gives pause to many an Imperial +Federationist. In a dispute of this sort, involving the parts of the +empire, could England give force to an exclusion act without losing the +allegiance to her British Empire? + +Every conceivable argument has been used in this Hindu dispute. I want +to emphasize--they are _arguments_, used for argument's sake--not +reasons. The plain brutal bald reasons on each side of the dispute are +British Columbia does _not_ want the Hindus. The Hindus want British +Columbia. Simultaneously with the campaign for publicity action was +taken: (1) to force the resident Hindu on the voters' list; (2) to break +down the immigration laws by demanding the entrance of wives and +families; (3) to force recognition of the status of the Oriental by +bringing them in the ships of Japan--England's ally. + +If the resident Hindu had a vote--and as a British subject, why not?--and +if he could break down the immigration exclusion act, he could out-vote +the native-born Canadian in ten years. In Canada are five and one-half +million native born, two million aliens. In India are hundreds of +millions breaking the dykes of their own national barriers and ready to +flood any open land. Take down the barriers on the Pacific Coast, and +there would be ten million Hindus in Canada in ten years. The drawing of +Japan into the quarrel by chartering a Japanese ship was a crafty move. +Japan is the empire's ally. Offense to Japan means war. + + +III + +The arguments from both sides I set down in utter disinterest personally. +Here they are: + +We need room for colonization--says the Hindu. Let England lose India, +and she loses five-sixths of the British Empire. By refusing admission +to the Hindu, Canada is endangering British dominion in India. Moral +conditions there are appalling, of course; but say the missionaries--give +these people a chance, and they will become as good as any of us. Are we +not sprung from the same Aryan stock? + +British Columbia has immense tracts of arable land. Why not give India's +millions a chance on it as colonizers? + +There is not so much sedition among the Hindus of British Columbia as +among Canadian-born Socialists, who rant of the flag as "the bloody rag." + +The vices of the Hindu are no worse than the vices of the low whites. + +They are British subjects and have a right to admission. Admission is +not a privilege but a right. + +How can we expect good morals among three to five thousand men who are +forcibly separated from wives and children? Admit their wives to prevent +deterioration. This argument was used by a Hindu addressing audiences in +Toronto. + +What right have Canadians to point the finger of scorn at the reproach of +the child wife when the age of marriage in one province is twelve years? + +In the days of the mutiny the Sikh proved his loyalty. To-day the Indian +troops are proving their loyalty by fighting for the empire in Europe. + +Many of the Canadians now denouncing the Hindu made money selling them +real estate in Vancouver, and expropriation is behind the idea of +exclusion. + +The admission of the Hindu would relieve British Columbia's great need +for manual laborers. + +Canadian missionaries to India are received as friends. Why are the +Hindus not received as friends in Canada? + +Why should a Sikh not marry a white woman as one did in Vancouver? This +question was asked by the official publication of the Sikhs in Vancouver. + +If Canada shuts her doors to the Hindus, let the Hindus shut doors to +Canadians. + +These are not my arguments. They are the arguments of the people +advocating the free admission of people from India to Canada. + +To these arguments the Pacific Coast makes answer. Likewise, the answer +is not mine: + +We know that you as a people need room for colonization; but if we admit +you as colonists, will your presence drive out other colonists, as it has +done in Australia and South Africa; as the presence of colored people +prevents the coming of other colonists to the southern states? If we +have to decide between having you and excluding Canadians, or excluding +you and having Canadians, we can not afford to hesitate in our decision. +We must keep our own land for our own people. + +Australia and South Africa have excluded the Hindu--South Africa's +educational test amounts to that--and that has not imperiled British +dominion in India. Why should it in Canada? The very fact there are +millions ready to come is what alarms us. Morals are low--you +acknowledge--and your people would be better if they had a chance; but +would the chance not cost us too dearly, as the improvement of the blacks +has cost the South in crime and contaminated blood? We are sorry for +you, just as we are sorry for any plague-stricken region; but we do not +welcome you among us because of that pity. + +There may not be so much sedition among the Hindus of British Columbia as +among Canadian-born Socialists, who rant of the flag as "a bloody rag"; +but our Socialistic seditionists have never yet been accused of +collecting two million dollars to send home to India to buy rifles for +the revolution. Canadian Socialists have never yet collected one dime to +buy rifles. These are not my accusations. They are accusations that +have been in the very air of Vancouver and San Francisco. If they are +true, they ought to be proved true. If they are untrue, they ought to be +proved untrue; but in view of the shoutings over patriotism and of +Hopkinson's assassination, they come with a rude jar to claims grounded +on loyalty. Could Hindus who landed in British Columbia destitute a few +years ago possibly have that amount of money among them? At last census +they had property in Vancouver alone to the amount of six million +dollars, held collectively for the whole community. + +Their vices may be no worse than the vices of the low whites, but if +immigration officials find that whites low or high have vices, those +whites are excluded, be they English, Irish, Scotch, or Greek. + +The Hindus are British subjects, but Canada does not admit British +subjects unless she wants them--unless they can give a clean bill of +health and morals. + +Canada does not regard admission as a right to any race, European, Asian, +African. She considers her citizenship a privilege and reserves to +herself the right to extend or not to extend that privilege to whom she +will. + +That separation from families will excuse base and lewd morals is a view +that Canada will never admit. Her sons go forth unaccompanied by wives +or sisters to lumber camps and mines and pioneer shacks, and in +ninety-nine cases out of a hundred come back clean as they went forth, +and manlier. That women should be victims on an altar of lust is an +argument that may appeal to the Asiatic--the sentiment all draped in +wisteria and lilies, of course; but it isn't an argument that will prove +anything in Canada but the advocate's unfitness for citizenship. + +What reason have Canadians to point the finger of reproach at the +institution of the child wife, when the age of marriage in one province +is low as twelve? And that brings up the whole question of the child +wife. Because one province has the marriage age criminally low does not +prove that that province approves of marriages at twelve. In the whole +history of that province marriages at that age have been as rare as the +pastime of skinning a man alive, and that province has no specific law +against skinning a man alive. It has no such law because that type of +crime is unknown. But can it be said that the institution of child +marriage is an unknown or even a rare crime in India? The Hindu wives +for whom loud outcry is being made are little girls barely eight years of +age, whom before marriage the husbands have never seen, men of +thirty-five and forty and forty-eight. Does Canada desire the system of +the child wife embodied in her national life? Suppose one hundred +thousand Hindu colonists came to the vacant arable lands of British +Columbia. As the inalienable right of a British subject, the colonist +must be allowed to bring in his wife. What if she is a child to whom he +was married in her infancy? The colonist being a British subject is to +be given a vote. How would Canada abolish the child wife system if Hindu +votes outnumbered Canadian votes? Forget all about the rifle fund--the +discovery of which was paid for in Hopkinson's life! Forget all about +labor and mill owner and color of pigments! You know now why the +Oriental question is more than skin-deep. Go a little deeper in this +child-wife thing! Don't balk at the horror of it! The Pacific Coast +wants you to know a few medical facts. Hundreds of thousands of children +in India, age from nine to twelve, are wives actually living with +husbands; and the husbands are in many cases from thirty to eighty years +of age. Anglo-Saxons regard these unions as criminal. One-third of all +children born of mothers under sixteen years of age die in infancy +because of the tortures to the mother's body, compared to which the +tortures of the Inquisition were merciful. Does Canada want that system +embodied in her national life? Under Canadian law such crimes are +treated to thirty-nine lashes: under American law to Judge Lynch. +Twenty-five per cent. of the women of India die prematurely because of +the crimes perpetrated through child marriage. Twenty-five per cent. +become invalids from the same cause. Nine million girl wives in India +are under fifteen years of age; two million are under eleven. + +I asked a British Columbia sawmill owner why the Hindu could not speed up +with a Pole or Swede. + +"No stamina," he answered. "Too many generations of vice! Too many +generations of birth from immature mothers; no dower of strength from +birth." + +The advocates of Hindu colonization in Canada glibly advise "prohibiting +child wives." To bar out child wives sounds easy. How are you to know +they are child wives and not daughters? If one thing more than another +has been established in Vancouver about Hindus, not excepting the +leaders, it is that you can not believe a Hindu under oath. Also British +law does not allow you to bar out a subject's wife unless she be diseased +or vicious. If you let down the bar to any section of the Hindu, teeming +millions will come--with a demand to vote. + +That Canada's continuous passage law is immoral and intolerable no one +denies. It is a subterfuge and a joke. The day the Japanese steamship +tested the law by bringing passengers direct from land of birth the law +fell down and Canada had to face squarely the question of exclusion. As +the world knows, the shipload of human cargo after lying for months in +Vancouver Harbor was sent back, and Hindu leaders proved their claims of +a right to citizenship by assassinating Hopkinson. + +To the claim that the Sikhs are loyal, Canada answers--"for their own +sake." If British protection were withdrawn from India to-morrow, a +thousand petty chiefs would fly at one another's throats. The idea that +expropriation is behind exclusion could be entertained only by an +Oriental mind. Expropriation is possible under Canadian law only for +treason. Imperial unity is no more threatened in Canada by exclusion +than it was threatened in South Africa and Australia. The Hindus are +adapted to the cultivation of the soil, but if they come in millions, +will any white race sit down beside them? Why does immigration +persistently refuse to go to the southern states? Because of a black +shadow over the land. Does Canada want such a shadow? + +The missionary argument can hardly be taken seriously. Missionaries do +not go to India to colonize. They do not introduce white vices. They go +at Canada's expense to give free medical and social service to India. + +"Why should a Sikh not marry a white woman?" There, again, you are up +against a side of the subject that is neither violet water nor pink tea; +but--it is a vital side of the subject. For the same reason that the +South objects to and passes laws against mixed unions of the races. +These laws are not the registration of prejudice. They are the +registration of terrible lessons in experience. It is not a matter of +opinion. It is a matter of fact. What is feared is not the marriage of +a Sikh who is refined to a white woman who knows what she is doing. What +is feared is the effect of that union on the lewd Hindu; the effect on +the safety of the uncultured white woman and white girl. Any one on the +Coast who has lived next to Asiatics, any one in India or the Philippines +knows what this means in terms of hideous terrible fact that can not be +set down here. Vancouver knows. "I'll see," said an officer in the +Philippines of his native valet, "that the--dog turns up missing;" and +every man present knew why; and when the officer set out on an unnamed +expedition with his valet, the valet did "turn up missing." There are +vices for which a white man kills. "Have not the English carried vices +to India?" a Hindu protagonist asked me. Yes, answered British Columbia, +but we do not purpose poisoning the new young life of Canada to +compensate the vices of English soldiers who have gone to pieces morally +in India. + +As to shutting Canadians out of India, Canada would accept that challenge +gladly. When Canadians carry vices to India--says Canada--shut them out. + +These are the reasons given for the Pacific Coast's aversion to the +Hindu, and even with the arguments stated explicitly, there is a great +deal untold and untellable. + +For instance, some of the leaders talking loudest in Eastern Canada in +the name of the Sikh are not Sikhs at all, and one at least has a +criminal record in San Francisco. + +For instance again, when the coronation festivities were on in England, +there was a very peculiar guard kept round the Hindu quarters. It would +be well for some of the eastern women's clubs to inquire why that was; +also why the fact was hushed up that two white women of bad character +were carried out of that compound dead. + +Said a mill owner, one who employs many Hindus, "If the East could +understand how some of these penniless leaders grow rich, they would +realize that the Hindu has our employment sharks beaten to a frazzle. I +take in a new man from one of these leaders. The leader gets two dollars +or five dollars for finding this fellow a job. I have barely got the man +broken in when the leader yanks him off to another job and sends me a new +man, getting, of course, the employment agent fee for both changes." + +"But why not let them come out here and work and go back?" asks the East. + +Because that is just what the Hindu will not do. When he comes, he +fights for the franchise to stay. That is the real meaning behind the +fight over cases now in the courts. + +"They are curious fellows, poor beggars," said a police court official to +me. "They have no more conception of what truth means than a dog +stealing a bone. We had a Hindu come in here as complainant against +another man, with his back hacked to beef steak. We had very nearly sent +the defendant up for a long term in the 'pen,' when we got wind that +these two fellows had been bitter enemies--old spites--and that there was +something queer about the complainant's shanty. We sent out to examine. +The fellow had stuck bits of glass all over the inside of his shack walls +and then cut his own back to pay an old grudge against the other man. +Another fellow rushed in here gesticulating complaint, who was literally +soaked in blood. We had had our experience and so sending for an +interpreter, we soused this fellow into a bathtub. Every dab came off +and there was not a scratch under." + +"You say the Hindu is the negro problem multiplied by ten, plus craft," +said a life-long resident of India to me. "That is hardly correct. The +Hindu is different from the negro. He is intellectual and spiritual as +well as crafty and sensuous. You will never have trouble with the Hindu, +if you keep him in his place--" + +"But do you think a democratic country can what you call 'keep a race in +its place'? The very genius of our democracy is that we want each +individual to come up out of his place to a higher place." + +"Then you will learn a hard lesson here in Canada." + +What kind of a lesson? Again, let us take facts, not opinions! + +A clergyman's wife in Vancouver, full of missionary zeal for India, +thought it her duty to accord the Hindu exactly the same treatment as to +an American or English immigrant. She took a man as general house +servant and treated him with the same genial courtesy she had treated all +other help in her home. You know what is coming--don't you? The man +mistook it for evil or else failed to subdue the crimes of the centuries +in his own blood. Had he not come from a land where a woman more or less +did not matter, and hundreds of thousands of little girls are yearly +sacrificed on the altars of Moloch? I need not give details. As a +matter of fact, there are none. Asiatic ideas about women collided +violently with facts which any Canadian takes for granted and does not +talk about! No Anglo-Saxon (thank God) is too ladylike not to have a bit +of the warrior woman left in her blood. The Hindu was thrown out of that +house. Then the woman reasoned with the blind persistence peculiar to +any conscientious good woman, who always puts theory in place of fact! +There are blackguards in every race. There are scoundrels among +Englishmen in India. Why should she allow one criminal among the Hindus +to prejudice her against this whole people? And she at once took another +Hindu man servant in the house. This time she kept him in the kitchen +and garden. Within a month the same thing happened with a little +daughter. This Hindu also went out on his head. No more were employed +in that house. That woman's husband was one of the Pacific Coast +clergymen who passed the resolution, "that the Hindus would not affiliate +with our Canadian civilization." + +Personally I think that resolution would have been a great deal more +enlightening to the average Easterner if the ministerial association had +plainly called a spade a spade. + + +IV + +With the Chinaman conditions are different. In the first place, since +China obtained freedom from the old cast-iron dynasty, Chinamen have not +wanted to colonize in Canada. The leaders of the young China party laid +their plots and published their liberty journals from presses in the +basement of Vancouver and Victoria shops, but having gained their +liberty, they went back to China. The Chinaman does not want to +colonize. He does not want a vote. He wants only to earn his money on +the Pacific Coast and hoard it and go home to China with it. The fact +that he does not want to remain in the country but comes only to work and +go back has always been used as an argument against him. Neither does he +consider himself your equal. Nor does he want to marry your daughter, +nor have you consider him a prince of the royal blood in disguise--a pose +in which the little Jap is as great an adept as the English cockney who +drops enough "h's" to build a monument, all the while he is telling you +of his royal blue blood. If you mistake the Chinaman for a prince in +disguise, the results will be just what they were with a poor girl In New +York four or five years ago. The results will be just what they always +are when you mistake a mongrel for a thoroughbred. + +All the same, dismiss the idea from your mind that labor is behind the +opposition to Chinese immigration! A few years ago, when Oriental labor +came tumbling into British Columbia at the rate of twelve thousand in a +single year--when the Chinese alone had come to number fifteen or sixteen +thousand--labor was alarmed; but a twofold change has taken place since +that time. First, labor has found that it can better control the +Chinaman by letting him enter Canada, than by keeping him in China and +letting the product of cheap labor come in. Second, the Chinaman has +demonstrated his solidarity as a unit in the labor war. If he comes, he +will not foregather with capital. That is certain! He will affiliate +with the unions for higher wages. + +"If the Chinaman comes in here lowering the price of goods and the price +of labor," said the agitator a few years ago, "we'll put a poll tax of +five hundred dollars on and make him pay for his profit." The poll tax +was put on every Chinaman coming into Canada, but do you think John +Chinaman pays it? It is a way that unjust laws have of coming back in a +boomerang. The Chinaman doesn't pay it! Mr. Canadian Householder paid +it; for no sooner was the poll tax imposed than up went wages for +household servant and laundryman and gardener, from ten to fifteen +dollars a month to forty and forty-five and fifty dollars a month. The +Italian boss system came in vogue, when the rich Chinaman who paid the +entrance tax for his "slaves" farmed out the labor at a profit to +himself. The system was really one of indentured slavery till the +immigration authorities went after it. Then Chinese benevolent +associations were formed. Up went wages automatically. The cook would +no longer do the work of the gardener. When the boy you hired at +twenty-five dollars had learned his job, he suddenly disappeared one +morning. His substitute explains he has had to go away; "he is sick;" +any excuse; with delightful lapses of English when you ask questions. +You find out that your John has taken a job at forty dollars a month, and +you are breaking in a new green hand for the Chinese benevolent +association to send up to a higher job. If you kick against the trick, +you may kick! There are more jobs than men. That's the way you pay the +five hundred dollars poll tax; comical, isn't it; or it would be comical +if the average white householder did not find it five hundred dollars +more than the average income can spare? So the labor leaders chuckle at +this subterfuge, as they chuckle at the "continuous" passage law. + +For a time the indentured slavery system worked almost criminally; for if +the newcomer, ignorant of the law and the language, got wise to the fact +that his boss was doing what was illegal under Canadian law, and +attempted to jump his serfdom, he was liable--as one of them expressed +it--"to be found missing." It would be reported that he had suicided. +Among people who did not speak English, naturally, no details would be +given. It seems almost unbelievable that in a country wrestling with the +whole Asiatic problem the fact has to be set down that the government has +no interpreter among the Chinese who is not a Chinaman, no interpreter +among the Japanese who is not a Jap. As it chances, the government +happens to have two reliable foreigners as interpreters; but they are +foreigners. + +Said Doctor Munro, one of the medical staff of the Immigration +Department: "Even in complicated international negotiations, where each +country is jockeying to protect its rights, Canada has to depend on +representatives of China or Japan to translate state documents and +transmit state messages. Here we are on the verge of great commercial +intercourse with two of the richest countries in Asia, countries that are +just awakening from the century's sleep, countries that will need our +flour and our wheat and our lumber and our machinery; and we literally +have not a diplomatic body in Canada to speak either Chinese or Japanese. +I'll tell you what a lot of us would like to see done--what the southern +states are doing with the Latin-Spanish of South America--have a staff of +translators for our chambers of commerce and boards of trade, or price +files and lists of markets, etc. How could this be brought about? Let +Japan and China send yearly, say twenty students to study international +law and English with us. Let us send to China and Japan yearly twenty of +our postgraduate students to be trained up into a diplomatic body for our +various boards of trade, to forward international trade and help the two +countries to understand each other. + +"When trouble arose over Oriental immigration a few years ago," continued +Doctor Munro, "I can tell you that it was a serious matter that we had to +have the translating of our state documents done at that time by +representatives of the very nations we were contesting." + +Unless I am misinformed, one of the men who did the translating at that +time is one of the Orientals who has since "suicided," and the reason for +that suicide you might as well try to fathom as to follow the windings of +a ferret in the dark. Certain royal clans of Japan will suicide on order +from their government for the good of their country. + +"The trouble with these foolish raids on Chinatown for gambling," said an +educated Chinaman in Vancouver to me, "is that the city police have no +secret service among the Chinese, and they never raid the resorts that +need most to be cleaned out. They raid some little joint where the +Chinese boys are playing fan-tan for ten cents, when they do not raid +up-town gambling hells where white men play for hundreds of dollars. If +the police employed Chinese secret service, they could clean out every +vice resort in a week. Except in the segregated district, which is +white, there would not be any vice. They need Chinese police or men who +speak Chinese, and there would be no Chinese vice left in this town." + +To go back to the matter of the poll tax and the system of indentured +slavery, the bosses mapped out every part of the city and province in +wage areas. Here, no wages under twenty-five dollars, to which green +hands were sent; here, a better quarter, no wages under forty dollars; +and so on up as high as sixty dollars for mill work and camp cooking. +About this time riots turned the searchlight on all matters Oriental; and +the boss system merged in straight industrial unionism. You still go to +a boss to get your gangs of workmen; but the boss is secretary of a +benevolent association; and if he takes any higher toll than an +employment agent's commission, the immigration department has never been +able to detect it. "I have no hesitation in saying," declared an +immigration official, "that for four years there has not been a case of +boss slavery that could be proved in the courts. There has not been a +case that could be proved in the courts of women and children being +brought in for evil purposes. Only merchants' wives, students, and that +class can come in. The other day an old fellow tried to bring a young +woman in. We suspected he had left an old wife in China; but we could +not prove it; so we charged him five hundred dollars for the entrance of +this one and had them married on the spot. Whenever there is the +slightest doubt about their being married, we take no chances, charge +them five hundred dollars and have the knot tied right here and now. +Then the man has to treat the woman as a wife and support her; or she can +sue him; and we can punish and deport him. There is no more of little +girls being brought in to be sold for slavery and worse." + +All the same, some evils of the boss system still exist. The boss system +taught the Chinaman organization, and to-day, even with higher wages, +your forty-five dollars a month cook will do no gardening. You ask him +why. "They will cut my throat," he tells you; and if he goes out to mow +the lawn, he is soon surrounded by fellow countrymen who hoot and jeer +him. + +"Would they cut his throat?" I asked a Chinaman. + +"No; but maybe, the benevolent association or his tong fine him." + +So you see why labor no longer fears the Chinaman and welcomes him to +industrial unionism, a revolution in the attitude of labor which has +taken place in the last year. Make a note of these facts: + +The poll tax has trebled expenses for the householder. + +The poll tax has created industrial unionism among the Chinese. + +The poll tax has not kept the Chinaman out. + +How about the Chinese vices? Are they a stench to Heaven as the Hindu's? +I can testify that they certainly are not open, and they certainly are +not aggressive, and they certainly do not claim vice as a right; for I +went through Vancouver's Chinatown with only a Chinaman as an escort (not +through "underground dens," as one paper reported it) after ten at night; +and the vices that I saw were innocent, mild, pallid, compared to the +white-man vices of Little Italy, New York, or Upper Broadway. We must +have visited in all a dozen gambling joints, two or three midnight +restaurants, half a dozen opium places and two theaters; and the only +thing that could be remotely constructed into disrespect was the +amazement on one drunken white face on the street that a white woman +could be going through Chinatown with a Chinaman. Instead of playing for +ten and one hundred dollars, as white men and women gamble up-town, the +Chinese boys were huddling intently over dice boxes, or playing fan-tan +with fevered zeal for ten cents. Instead of drinking absinthe, one or +two sat smoking heavily, with the abstracted stare of the opium victim. +In the midnight restaurants some drunken sailors sat tipsily, eating chop +suey. Goldsmiths were plying their fine craftsmanship. Presses were +turning out dailies with the news of the Chinese revolution. Grocery +stores, theaters, markets, all were open; for Chinatown never sleeps. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +WHAT PANAMA MEANS + +I + +It now becomes apparent why British Columbia was described as the +province where East meets West and works out Destiny. + +On the other side of the Pacific lies Japan come to the manhood of +nationality, demanding recognition as the equal of the white race and +room to expand. Behind Japan lies China, an awakened giant, potent for +good or ill, of half a billion people, whose commerce under a few years +of modern science and mechanics is bound to equal the commerce of half +Europe. It may in a decade bring to the ports that have hitherto been +the back doors of America an aggregate yearly traffic exceeding the +four billion dollars' worth that yearly leave Atlantic ports for +Europe. Canada is now the shortest route to "Cathay"; the railroads +across Canada offer shorter route from China to Europe than Suez or +Horn, by from two to ten thousand miles. Then there is India, another +awakened giant, potent for good or ill, of three hundred million +people--two hundred to the square mile--clamoring for recognition as +British subjects, clamoring for room to expand. + +The question is sometimes asked by Americans: Why does Canada concern +herself about foreign problems and dangers? Why does she not rest +secure under the aegis of the Monroe Doctrine, which forever forfends +foreign conquest of America by an alien power? And Canada +answers--because the Monroe Doctrine is not worth the ink in which it +was penned without the bayonet to enforce the pen. Belgium's +neutrality did not protect her. The peace that is not a victory is +only an armed truce--a let-live by some other nation's permission. +Without power to enforce the Monroe Doctrine, that doctrine is to +Canada but a tissue-paper rampart. + +To add to the complication involving British Columbia comes the opening +of Panama, turning the Pacific Ocean into a parade ground for the +world's fleets both merchantmen and war. Commercially Panama simply +turns British Columbia into a front door, instead of a back door. What +does this mean? + +The Atlantic has hitherto been the Dominion's front door, and the +Canadian section of the Atlantic has four harbors of first rank with an +aggregate population of nearly a million. Canada has, besides, three +lake harbors subsidiary to ocean traffic with an aggregate population +of half a million. One may infer when the Pacific becomes a front +door, that Vancouver and Victoria and Port Mann and Westminster and +Prince Rupert will soon have an aggregate population of a million. + +Behind the Atlantic ports, supplied by them with traffic, supplying +them with traffic, is a provincial population of five millions. Behind +the Pacific ports in British Columbia and Alberta, one would be +justified in expecting to find--Strathcona said a hundred million +people, but for this generation put it at twelve million. + +Through the Atlantic ports annually come two hundred and fifty thousand +or more immigrants, not counting the one hundred and fifty thousand +from the United States. What if something happened to bring as many to +the Pacific, as well as those now coming to the Atlantic? + +Then a century of peace has a sleeping-powder effect on a nation. We +forget that the guns of four nations once boomed and roared round old +Quebec and down Bay of Fundy way. If the Pacific becomes a front door, +the guns of the great nations may yet boom there. In fact, if Canada +had not been a part of Greater Britain four or five years ago when the +trouble arose over Japanese immigration, guns might easily have boomed +round Vancouver long before the Pacific Coast had become a front door. +Front door status entails bolt and strong bar. Front door means navy. +Navy means shipbuilding plants, and the shipyards of the United States +on the Atlantic support fifty thousand skilled artisans, or what would +make a city of two hundred and fifty thousand people. The shipyards of +England support a population equal to Boston. In the United States +those shipyards exist almost wholly by virtue of government contracts +to build war vessels, and in Great Britain largely by virtue of +admiralty subsidies. Though they also do an enormous amount of work on +river and coastal steamers, the manager of the largest and oldest plant +in the United States told me personally that with the high price of +labor and material in America, his shipyard could not last a day +without government contracts for war vessels, torpedoes, dredges, etc. +Front door on the Pacific means that to Canada, and it means more; for +Canada belongs to an empire that has vaster dominions to defend in Asia +than in Europe. + +But isn't all this stretching one's fancy a bit too far in the future? +How far is _too_ far? The Panama Canal is open for traffic, and there +is not a harbor of first rank in the United States, Atlantic, Pacific, +or Gulf of Mexico, that does not bank on, that is not spending millions +on, the expectation of Panama changing the Pacific from a back into a +front door. Either these harbors are all wrong or Canada is sound +asleep as a tombstone to the progress round her. Boston has spent nine +million dollars acquiring terminals and water-front, and is now +guaranteeing the bonds of steamships to the extent of twenty-five +million dollars. New York has built five new piers to take care of the +commerce coming--and the Federal government has spent fifty million +dollars improving the approaches to her harbor. Baltimore is so sure +that Panama is going to revive shore-front interests that she has +reclaimed almost two hundred acres of swamp land for manufacturing +sites, which she is leasing out at merely nominal figures to bring the +manufacturers from inland down to the sea. In both Baltimore and +Philadelphia, railroads are spending millions increasing their trackage +for the traffic they expect to feed down to the coast cities for Panama +steamers. + +Among the Gulf ports, New Orleans has spent fifteen million dollars +putting in a belt line system of railroads and docks with steel and +cement sheds, purely to keep her harbor front free of corporate +control. This is not out of enmity to corporations, but because the +prosperity of a harbor depends on all steamers and all railroads +receiving the same treatment. This is not possible under private and +rival control. Yet more, New Orleans is putting on a line of her own +civic steamships to South America. Up at St. Louis and Kansas City, +they are putting on civic barge lines down the rivers to ocean front. + +At Los Angeles twenty million dollars have been spent in making a +harbor out of a duck pond. San Francisco and Oakland have improved +docks to the extent of twenty-four million dollars. Seattle attests +her expectation of what Panama is going to do on the Pacific by +securing the expenditure of fifteen million dollars on her harbor for +her own traffic and all the traffic she can capture from Canada; and it +may be said here that the Grand Trunk Pacific of Canada--a national +road on which the Dominion is spending hundreds of millions--has the +finest docks in Seattle. Portland has gone farther than any of the +Pacific ports. Portland is Scotch--full of descendants of the old +Scotch folk who used to serve in the Hudson's Bay Company. If there is +a chance to capture world traffic, Portland is out with both hands and +both feet after that flying opportunity. Portland has not only +improved the entrance to the Columbia to the extent of fifteen million +dollars--this was done by the Federal government--but she has had a +canal cut past bad water in the Columbia, costing nearly seven +millions, and has put on the big river a system of civic boats to bring +the wheat down from an inland empire. There is no aim to make this +river line a dividend payer. The sole object is to bring the Pacific +grain trade to Portland. Portland is already a great wheat port. Will +she get a share of Canada's traffic in bond to Liverpool? Candidly, +she hopes to. How? By having Canadian barges bring Alberta wheat down +the Columbia. + + +II + +And now, what is Canada doing? Canada is doing absolutely nothing. +Canada is saying, with a little note of belligerency in her +voice--What's Panama to us? Either every harbor in the United States +is Panama fool-mad; either every harbor in the United States is +spending money like water on fool-schemes; or Canada needs a wakening +blast of dynamite 'neath her dreams. If Panama brings the traffic +which every harbor in the United States expects, then Canada's share of +that traffic will go through Seattle and Portland. Either Canada must +wake up or miss the chance that is coming. + +Two American transcontinentals have not come wooing traffic in +Vancouver for nothing. The Canadian Pacific is not double tracking its +roadbed to the Coast for nothing. The Grand Trunk has not bought +terminals in Seattle for nothing. Yet, having jockeyed for traffic in +Vancouver, the two American roads have recently evinced a cooling. +They are playing up interests In Seattle and marking time in Vancouver. +Grand Trunk terminals in Seattle don't help Vancouver; but if Canada +doesn't want the traffic from the world commerce of the seas, then +Portland and Seattle do. + +One recalls how a person feels who is wakened a bit sooner than suits +his slumbers. He passes some crusty comments and asks some criss-cross +questions. The same with Canada regarding Panama. What's Panama to +us? How in the world can a cut through a neck of swamp and hills three +thousand miles from the back of beyond, have the slightest effect on +commerce in Canada? And if it has, won't it be to hurt our railroads? +And if Panama does divert traffic from land to water, won't that divert +a share of shipping away from Montreal and St. John and Halifax? + +There is no use ever arguing with a cross questioner. Mr. Hill once +said there was no use ever going into frenzies about the rights of the +public. The public would just get exactly what was coming to it. If +it worked for prosperity, it would get it. If it were not sufficiently +alert to see opportunity, it certainly would not be sufficiently alert +to grasp opportunity after you had pointed it out. Your opinion or +mine does not count with the churlish questioner. You have to hurl +facts back so hard they waken your questioner up. Here are the facts. + +How can Panama turn the Pacific Coast into a front door instead of a +back door? + +Almost every big steamship line of England and Germany, also a great +many of the small lines from Norway and Belgium and Holland and Spain +and Italy, have announced their intention of putting on ships to go by +way of Panama to the Orient and to Pacific Coast ports. Three of those +lines have explicitly said that they would call at Pacific ports in +Canada if there were traffic and terminals for them. + +The steamers coming from the Mediterranean have announced their +intention of charging for steerage only five to ten dollars more to the +Pacific Coast ports than to the Atlantic ports. It costs the immigrant +from sixteen to twenty-five dollars to go west from Atlantic ports. It +can hardly be doubted that a great many immigrants will save fare by +booking directly to Pacific ports. Of South-of-Europe immigrants, +almost seven hundred thousand a year come to United States Atlantic +ports, of whom two-thirds remain, one-third, owing to the rigor of +winter, going back. Of those who will come to Pacific ports, they will +not be driven back by the rigor of winter. They will find a region +almost similar in climate to their own land and very similar in +agriculture. Hitherto Canada has not made a bid for South-of-Europe +immigrants, but, with Panama open, they will come whether Canada bids +for them or not. They are the quickest, cheapest and most competent +fruit farmers in the world. They are also the most turbulent of all +European immigrants. We may like or dislike them. They are coming to +Canada's shores when the war is over, coming in leaderless hordes. + +The East has awakened and is moving west. The West has always been +awake and is moving east. The East is sending her teas and her silks +to the West, and the West is sending her wheat and her lumber to the +East. When these two currents meet, what? If two currents meet and do +not blend, what? Exactly what has happened before in the world, +impact, collision, struggle; and the fittest survives. This was the +real reason for the building of the Panama Canal--to give the American +navy command of her own shores on the Pacific. Now that Panama is +built it means the war fleets of the whole world on the Pacific. +Canada can no more grow into a strong nation and keep out of the world +conclave assembling on the Pacific than a boy can grow into strong +manhood and keep out of the rough and tumble of life, or a girl grow to +efficient womanhood and play the hothouse parasite all her life. +Fleets, naval stations, coaling stations, dry docks, whole cities +supported by shipyards are bound to grow on the Pacific just as surely +as the years come and go. The growth has begun already. Nothing worth +having can be left undefended and be kept. Poor old China tried that. +So did Korea. We may talk ourselves black in the face over peace and +pass up enough platitudes to pave the way to a universal brotherhood of +heaven on earth, but in the past good intentions and platitudes have +paved the way to an altogether different sort of place. In the whole +world history of the past (however much we might wish this earth a +different place) the nation most secure against war has been the nation +most prepared against war. Canada can't dodge that fact. With Panama +open come the armaments of the world to the Pacific! + +How about a merchant marine for Canada? This question was important to +the maritime provinces, but the maritime provinces are well served by +British liners. On the Pacific seventy-two per cent. of the carrying +trade is already controlled by Japan. Now Canada can buy her ships in +the cheapest market, Norway or England. + +She can herself build ships as cheaply as any country in the world. +She can operate her ships as cheaply as any country in the world. + +She has no restrictions as to the manning of her crews and, as far as I +know, has never had a case of abuse arising from this freedom which her +laws permit. + +Except for the St. Lawrence after October, there is no foreign +discrimination in the insurance of her ships. + +Canada can go into the race for world-carrying trade unhampered. + +She has yet another advantage. With only two or three exceptions--a +fishing bounty, one or two mail contracts--the United States has not +given and may never give government aid to ships. The Canadian +government does and does wisely! Ocean traffic may be as requisite to +prosperity as rail traffic, and you can't give land subsidies to the +sea. + + +III + +It is when one comes to consider Panama's influence on rail traffic +that it becomes apparent the Canal may divert half the Dominion's +traffic to seaboard by Pacific routes. Why do you suppose that the big +grain companies of the Northwest want to reverse their former policy? +Formerly the biggest elevators were built east, the medium-sized at the +big gathering centers, the smaller scattered out along the line +anywhere convenient to the grower. To-day, as far as Alberta is +concerned, the biggest elevators are going up farthest west. Why? Why +do you suppose that the big traction companies of Birmingham, Alabama, +the big wire companies of Cleveland and Pittsburgh are looking over the +Canadian West for sites? One Birmingham firm has just bought the site +for a big plant in Calgary. Why do you suppose that the Canadian +Pacific Railway is building big repair shops at Coquitlam, and the +Canada Northern at Port Mann? Why are both these roads also stationing +big repair plants at inland points, one at Calgary, the other supposed +to be for Kamloops? It is not to help along the townsite lot booms in +these places. No one deprecates these town lots running out the area +of Chicago more than the railroads do. "Wild oats" hurt trade more +than they advertise the legitimate opportunities of a new country. + +Take a look at them! + +From Fort William to Alberta is one thousand two hundred miles, to +Calgary one thousand two hundred eighty, to Edmonton one thousand four +hundred fifty-one miles. From Alberta to Vancouver is slightly over +six hundred miles. Port William navigation is open only half the year. +The Pacific harbors are open all the year. Manitoba and Saskatchewan +wheat may be rushed forward in time for shipment before the close of +navigation. Because Alberta is farther west and must wait longest for +cars, very little of her wheat can be rushed forward in time; so +Alberta wheat must go on down to St. John, another one thousand two +hundred miles. Look at the figures--six hundred and fifty miles from +Alberta to the seaboard at Vancouver, two thousand four hundred miles +from Alberta to sea-board at St. John! In other words, while a car is +making one trip to St. John and back with wheat, it could make four +trips to Vancouver. + +One year the crop so far exceeded the rolling stock of all the +railroads in America that millions of dollars were lost in depreciation +and waste waiting for shipment. This state of affairs does not apply +to wheat alone nor to Canada alone. It was the condition with every +crop in every section of America. I saw twenty-nine miles of cotton +standing along the tracks of a southern port exposed to wet weather +because the southern railroads had neither steamers nor cars to rush +shipments forward for Liverpool. In New York State and the belt of +middle west states thousands of barrels of fruit lay and rotted on the +ground because the railroads could not handle it. In an orchard near +my own I saw two thousand barrels lie and go to waste because there +were no shipping facilities cheap enough to make it worth while to send +the apples to market. Hill has said that if all the fruit orchards set +out in western states come to maturity, it will require twenty times +the rolling stock that exists today to ship the fruit out in time to +reach the market in a salable condition. The same of wheat, especially +in the West, where wheat is raised in quantities too great for any +individual granary. A few years ago, when the northwestern states had +their banner crop, piles of wheat the size of a miniature town lay +exposed to weather for weeks on Washington and Idaho and Montana +railroads because the railroads had not sufficient cars to haul it away. + +The same thing almost happened in Canada one fall, though conditions +were aggravated by the coal strike. + +Now, then, where does Panama come into this story? What if the +railroads did not carry the crop two thousand four hundred miles to +seaboard in order to ship forward to Liverpool? What if they carried +some of the big crops only six hundred miles west to sea-board on the +Pacific? They would have four times as many cars available to handle +the crop, or they could make just four times as many trips to Vancouver +with the same cars as to the Atlantic seaboard after the close of +navigation in the East. It is apparent now why the Pacific ports have +gone mad over the possibilities from Panama and are preparing for +enormous traffic. Of course there are features of this diversion of +traffic to new channels which the lay mind will miss and only the +traffic specialist appreciate. For instance, there is the question of +grade over the mountains. The Canadian Pacific Railroad meets this +difficulty with its long tunnel through Mount Stephen. The Grand Trunk +declares that it has the lowest mountain grade of all the +transcontinentals. The Great Northern uses electric power for its +tunnels, and Los Angeles will tell you how its new diagonal San Pedro +road up through Nevada puts it in touch with the inland empire of the +mountain states by running up parallel with the mountains and not +crossing a divide at all. + + +IV + +Take a look at the subject from another angle! At the present rate of +homesteading in the West, within twenty years the three prairie +provinces will be producing seven to nine hundred million bushels of +wheat a year. Possibly they will not do so well as that, but suppose +they do; the three grain provinces of Canada will be producing as much +as the wheat produced in all the United States. Now, the United States +to take care of its crop has practically seven transcontinentals and a +host of allied trunk lines like the Illinois Central, the New York +Central and the Pennsylvania; but when a big crop comes, the United +States roads are paralyzed from a shortage of cars. Canada has only +three big transcontinentals and no big trunk lines to take care of a +crop that may be as large as the whole United States crop. Panama +promises, not a menace, but the one possible avenue of relief to the +railroads. + +Of course eastern cities may fight a diversion of traffic to the +seaboard of the West, but they can not stop it. Portland is already +one of the big grain shippers and will bid for a share of Canada's +west-bound grain, if Vancouver and Prince Rupert do not prepare for the +new conditions. + +Not only terminals but elevators must be prepared on the Pacific. +Terminals mean more than railroad company tracks. They mean city-owned +trackage, so that the tramp steamer seeking cargo at cheap rates shall +have every inducement and facility for getting cargo. They mean free +sites for manufacturers, not sky-rocket boom prices that keep new +industries out of a city. Elevators and terminals have been announced +time and again for Vancouver, but up to the present the announcements +have not materialized. Regular grain steamers must be put on, steamers +good for cargo of three hundred thousand and four hundred thousand +bushels, as on the lakes, and with devices for such swift handling as +have made Montreal one of the best grain ports in the world, in spite +of high insurance rates and half-season. As long as there are no +elevators at Vancouver, grain must be sacked. Sacking costs from five +to six cents extra a bushel, and more extra in handling. The remedy +for this is for the Pacific ports to build elevators; and even when +they haven't elevators, the saving in rates over and above the extra +sacking has already been from eight to fourteen cents a bushel on grain +billed for Liverpool via the one hundred ninety miles of rail over +Tehuantepec, or via the Panama railroad, where bulk need not be broken +twice. + +An objection is that in the humid Pacific Coast winter climate there is +danger of grain heating. This has been overcome at Portland, and +against this must be set the incalculable advantage that Pacific Coast +ports are open all the year round. One year, of 65,000,000 bushels of +grain from the prairie provinces that passed over the Great Lakes +forty-three per cent. went out by way of Buffalo to American ports. +Why? Because the glut was so great, the facilities so inadequate for +the enormous crop, the insurance so high, that the grain could not be +rushed seaward fast enough before close of navigation. Through +Vancouver during this very period there passed only 750,000 bushels of +wheat. Why not more? No facilities. + +"We could have shipped millions of bushels of wheat to Liverpool by way +of Vancouver," said the head of one of the largest grain companies in +Calgary, "but there were simply no facilities to take care of it. On +16,000 bushels, which we shipped by way of Vancouver and Tehuantepec, +we saved eight cents a bushel, as against Atlantic rates. You know how +much handling the Tehuantepec route requires. Well, you can figure +what we should save the farmer when Panama opens and the cargo never +breaks bulk to Liverpool from our shore." + +Rates, not heating nor sacking, are the real cloud in the Canadian mind +regarding Panama; and if Canada continues to stand twiddling her hands +over rates when she should be hustling preparations, the inevitable +will happen--Portland, which sends millions of bushels of her own wheat +to Liverpool, is ready to take care of Canada's traffic; so is Seattle. +There is nothing these cities hope more than that Canada will continue +to shun the question of rates. + + +V + +Let us look at this question of rates! + +Ordinarily the rate on wheat from Chicago to New York is about ten to +twelve cents a bushel; from New York to Liverpool about three to seven +cents. That is, for one thousand miles (roughly) the rate by rail is +ten cents. For three thousand miles the rate by water is three cents. +That is, one cent buys the shipper one hundred miles by rail. One cent +buys him one thousand miles by water. Get out a chart and figure out +for yourself what the saving means on wheat via Panama to Liverpool on +a crop--we'll say--of one hundred million bushels, Alberta's future +share alone, leaving Saskatchewan and Manitoba crops to continue going +to Liverpool by Fort William and Montreal. You can figure the distance +to Liverpool via Panama twice or even three times as far as via +Atlantic ports, long as water rates are to rail, as one to ten, the +saving on a one-hundred-million-bushel crop for a single year is enough +to buy terminals, build elevators and run civic ships as Boston and New +Orleans and St. Louis and Kansas City and Portland are doing. Via +Tehuantepec the saving was eight cents a bushel. At that rate your +saving in a year would be eight million dollars for Alberta wheat +alone, not counting dairy products, which are bound to become larger +each year, and coal, which will yet bring the same wealth to Alberta as +to Pennsylvania, and lumber, on which the saving is as one to four. + +Please note one point! It is a point usually ignored in all +comparisons of water and rail rates. While sea and lake are the +cheapest method of transportation in the world, canals (unless some +other nation builds them as the United States built Panama) are not so +cheap as sea and lake. When you add to the cost of canals, the +interest on cost, the maintenance, and charge that up against +traffic--for it doesn't matter, though the government does maintain +canals; you pay the bill in the end--canal rates come higher than rail +rates. But in Canada's use of Panama, Canada is not paying for the +building of the canal; and the Lord pays the upkeep of the canal of the +sea. + +Take this question of Vancouver rates, from which Canada is standing +back so inertly! Take the latest rates issued! These are subject to +change and correction, but that does not affect final conclusions. It +costs Manitoba and Saskatchewan from twelve to nineteen cents a hundred +weight to send grain to Fort William, then during open navigation from +four to five cents to reach seaboard at Montreal. It costs Alberta, +being farther west, twenty-five cents to reach Fort William; but, as a +matter of fact, her wheat can seldom reach Fort William before the +close of navigation; so she must pay twenty-five cents more to send her +wheat on down to St. John, and five to six cents from St. John to +Liverpool, or in all fifty-five cents. The Alberta rate is twenty-two +cents plus a fraction to Vancouver, or forty-five cents to Liverpool. +Now, Alberta wants to know: Why is she charged twenty-two and a +fraction cents for six hundred fifty miles west, and only twenty-five +cents for one thousand two hundred miles east? + +There is the nub and the rub and the hub of the whole thing, and the +discrimination bears just as vitally on fruit and dairy products and +lumber and coal as on wheat. It is a question that has to be settled +in Canada within the next few years, or her west-bound traffic will +build up Portland and Seattle instead of Vancouver and Prince Rupert. + +The whole problem of the effect of Panama is so new in Canada that data +do not exist to make comparisons; but details have been carefully +gathered by American ports, and the cases are a close enough parallel +to illustrate what Panama means in the world of traffic to-day. +Freight on a car of Washington lumber to New York is from three hundred +ninety-five to four hundred eleven dollars; by water, the freight is +from one hundred to one hundred and seventy-five dollars. To bring a +car of Washington fir diagonally across the continent to Norfolk costs +eighty-five cents a hundred weight. To bring it round by Panama costs +twenty cents, or to ship the very same cargo from Norfolk to +England--which many southern dealers are now doing--costs twelve to +fifteen cents, including the handling at both ends. Dry goods from New +York to Texas by water cost eighty-nine cents; by rail, one dollar and +eighty-two cents. Oranges by rail from the Pacific to the Atlantic +cost twenty-three dollars a ton; by water before the canal opened, +breaking bulk twice, ten dollars, and through the canal, when bulk is +not broken, will cost only five to eight dollars. On oranges alone +California will save twenty million dollars a year shipping via Panama. +The Balfour-Guthrie firm of Antwerp can ship a ton of groceries from +Europe to Los Angeles round the Horn for the same amount the Southern +Pacific ships that ton from Los Angeles to San Francisco--namely, six +dollars plus. The rail rate on salt in Washington is eight dollars +seventy cents for eighty-eight miles; the river rate one dollar fifty +cents. I could give instances in the South where cotton by rail costs +two dollars a bale; by water, twenty-five cents. + +If Panama works this great reduction, this revolution, in freights, +will that not hurt the railroads? Ask the railroads whether they make +their profit on the long or the short haul. Ask them whether high +rates and sparse population or dense population and low rates pay the +better dividends! Compare New York Central traffic receipts and +Southern Pacific on the average per mile! Now ships that are to use +Panama plan pouring twenty million people into the Pacific Coast in +twenty years. + +Will Canada share the coming tide of benefits? Only two things can +prevent her: first, lack of preparation--too much "hot air" and not +enough hustle; too much after-dinner aviating in the empyrean and not +enough muddy mess out on the harbor dredge with "sand hogs" and "shovel +stiffs"; then, second, lack of adequate labor to prepare. After-dinner +speeches don't make the dirt fly. Canada wants fewer platitudes and a +great deal more of good old-fashioned hard hoeing. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +TO EUROPE BY HUDSON BAY + +I + +It must have become apparent to the most casual observer that +transportation has been to Canada more than a system of exploitation by +capital. Transportation has been to Canada an integral part of her +very national life--which, perhaps, explains how with the exception of +extravagance incident to a period of great prosperity her railroad +systems have been founded on sound finance from bed-rock up. In spite +of huge land grants--in all fifty-five million acres--and in the case +of one railroad wild stock fluctuations from forty-eight to three +hundred dollars--it is a question if a dollar of public money has ever +been diverted from roadbed to promoters' pockets. Certainly, in the +case of the strongest road financially in Canada, no director of the +road has ever juggled with underground wires to unload worthless +securities on widows and orphans. Railroad stocks have never been made +the football of speculators. Charters in the old days were juggled +through legislatures with land grants of eight and twelve thousand +acres per mile; but at that time these acres were worthless; and the +system of land grants has for the last ten years been discontinued. +Because railroads are a necessary part of Canada's national +development, state aid of late has taken the form of loans, cash grants +and guarantee of bonds by provincial and federal governments. This has +given Canada's Railway Commission a whip handle over rates and +management, which perhaps explains why railroads in Canada have never +been regarded as lawful game by the financial powers that prey. +Including municipal, provincial and federal grants, stocks and bonds, +Canada has spent on her railroads a billion and a half. Including +capital cost and maintenance, Canada has spent on her canals +$138,000,000. On steamship subsidies, Canada's yearly grants have +gradually risen from a few hundred thousands to as high as two millions +in some years. Nor does this cover all the national expenditure on +transportation; for besides the thirty-eight millions spent on dredging +and improving navigation on the St. Lawrence, twelve millions have been +appropriated for improving Halifax Harbor; and only recently federal +guarantee for bonds to the extent of forty-three millions was accorded +one transcontinental. This road was so heavily guaranteed by +provincial governments that if it had failed it would have involved +four western provinces. Its plight arose from two causes--the +extravagant cost of labor and material in an inflated era, and the +depression in the world money markets curtailing all extension. +Workmen on this road were paid three to seventeen dollars a day, who +would have received a dollar and a half to four dollars ten years ago. +In fact, the owners of the road themselves received those wages thirty +years ago. Sections cost one hundred thousand dollars a mile which +would formerly have been built for thirty thousand; and prairie grading +formerly estimated at six to eight thousand dollars a mile jumped to +twenty and thirty thousand dollars. In coming to the aid of the Canada +Northern, the government did no more than Sir John Macdonald's +government did for the Canadian Pacific Railroad in 1885, and the +prosperity of the Canadian Pacific Railroad has amply justified that +aid. + +Canada's transportation system has been a national policy from the +first. Her first transcontinental she built to unify and bind +confederation. Her second two transcontinentals she launched to carry +commerce east and west, because the United States had built a tariff +wall which prevented Canada moving her commerce north and south. Her +canal system to cut the distance from the Great Lakes to the seaboard +and to overcome the rapids at "the Soo," at Niagara and on the St. +Lawrence--has simply resolved itself into an effort to move seaboard +inland, on the principle that the farther inland the port the shorter +the land haul and the lower the traffic toll. Owing to the enormous +increase in the cargo capacity of lake freighters in recent years, +grain ships reach Buffalo carrying three hundred thousand bushels of +western wheat, and Canada's Welland Canal has worked at a handicap. +Until the Canal is widened, the big cargo carriers can not pass through +it, and the necessity to break bulk here is one explanation of more +than half Canada's western traffic going to seaboard by way of Buffalo +instead of Montreal. + +For years the proposal has been under consideration to connect the +Great Lakes with the St. Lawrence by way of a canal from Georgian Bay +through Ottawa River. This would be a colossal undertaking; for the +region up Mattawa River toward Georgian Bay is of iron rock, and to +build a canal wide enough for the big cargo carriers would out-distance +anything in the way of canal construction in the world. Both parties +in Canada have endorsed what is known as the Georgian Bay Ship Canal; +and estimates place the cost at one hundred and twenty-five millions; +but traffic men of the Lakes declare if the big cargo carriers are to +have cheap insurance on this route, the canal will have to be wide +enough to guarantee safe passage; and the cost would be twice this +estimate. + +On no section of her national transportation has Canada expended more +thought and effort than improving navigation on the St. Lawrence. +This, in its way, has been as difficult a problem for a people of seven +millions as the construction of Panama for a people of ninety millions. +Consider the geographical position of the St. Lawrence route! It +penetrates the continent from eight hundred to nine hundred sixty +miles. Montreal, the head of navigation on the St. Lawrence, is the +farthest inland harbor of America with the exception of two +ports--Galveston on the Gulf of Mexico and Port Nelson on Hudson Bay. +Galveston is seven hundred miles from the wheat fields of Kansas. Port +Nelson is four hundred miles from the wheat fields of Manitoba. +Montreal is--roughly--a thousand miles from the head of the Lakes, one +thousand five hundred miles from the wheat fields of Manitoba, two +thousand two hundred miles from the wheat fields of Alberta. +Montreal's great advantage is in being situated so far inland. Her +disadvantages are from the nature of the St. Lawrence. First, the port +is closed by ice from November to April. Second, the St. Lawrence is +the drainage bed of inland oceans--the Great Lakes. Third, it passes +into the Atlantic at one of the most difficult sections of the coast. +South of Newfoundland are the fogs of the Grand Banks. North of +Newfoundland the tidal current beats upon an iron coast in storm and +fog. To save detour, St. Lawrence vessels, of course, follow the route +north of Newfoundland through the Straits of Belle Isle. + +When Canada began dredging the St. Lawrence in 1850, the channel +averaged a depth of ten feet. By 1888, the channel averaged +twenty-seven and one-half feet at low water. To-day a depth of thirty +to thirty-one feet has been attained. At its narrowest points the St. +Lawrence has a steamship channel four hundred and fifty feet wide and +thirty feet deep from side to side. In the days when high insurance +rates were established against the St. Lawrence route, there was +practically not a lighthouse nor channel buoy from Tadousac to the +Straits of Belle Isle. To-day between Montreal and Quebec are +ninety-nine lighted buoys, one hundred and ninety-five can buoys; +between Quebec and the Straits, three light ships, eighty gas buoys, +one whistling buoy, seventy-five can buoys, four submarine bell ships, +and a line of lighthouses. Telegraph lines extend to the outer side of +Belle Isle, and hydrographic survey has charted every foot of the +river. In spite of these improvements, insurance rates are four to six +per cent. for lines to Canada, where they are one and one-half to two +and one-half to American ports. + + +II + +What with three transcontinentals, a complete canal system from +seaboard to the Great Lakes and an outlet for western traffic through +Panama, one would think that Canada had made ample provision for +transportation; but she has only begun. If she is to be the shortest +route to the Orient, she must keep traffic in Canadian channels and not +divide it with Panama and Suez. If she is to feed the British Empire, +she must establish the shortest route from her wheat fields to the +United Kingdom; and if she is to overcome the disadvantage of harbors +open only half the year, she must secure to herself some other +advantage--such as access to the harbor having the shortest land haul +and therefore the lowest freight rates in America. There is another +consideration. If when Canada is raising less than three hundred +million bushels of wheat her transcontinentals are glutted with traffic +and her harbors gorged, what will happen when her wheat fields raise +eight hundred million bushels of wheat? So Canada has cast about for a +shorter route to Europe by Hudson Bay, and both parties in Dominion +politics have backed the project. + +At a time when the food supply of Great Britain must be drawn almost +solely from her colonial possessions and the United States and +Argentina, when her very national existence depends on the sea lanes to +that food supply being kept open--a route which shortens the distance +to that food supply by from one thousand five hundred to three thousand +miles becomes doubly interesting. + +Take a mental look at the contour of North America! All the big export +harbors of the Atlantic Coast are situated at the broadest bulge of the +continent--Halifax, St. John, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore +are all where the distance across the continent from the grain fields +is widest. That means a long land haul. + +Take another look at the map--this time at a revolving globe! Any +schoolboy knows that a circle round a top is shorter at the ends than +around its middle. The same of the earth. East and west distances are +shorter the nearer you are to the Pole, the farther you are from the +Equator. + +To England from Eastern Asia by Suez is fourteen to eighteen thousand +miles. To England from Asia by San Francisco is eleven thousand miles, +by Seattle ten thousand miles, by Prince Rupert and Hudson Bay seven to +eight thousand miles--representing a saving by the northern route of +almost half round the world. + +Another point--take a compass! Stick the needle on Hudson Bay and +swing the leg down round New York and up through the wheat plains of +the Northwest. Draw lines to the center of your circle--to your +amazement, you find the lines from the wheat plains to New York are +twice and thrice as long as the lines from the wheat plains to Hudson +Bay. In other words, Mr. Hill's wheat empire is one thousand miles +nearer tidewater to Hudson Bay than to New York. The three prairie +provinces of Northwestern Canada are from four hundred (for Manitoba) +to eight hundred miles (for Alberta) distant from ocean front on Hudson +Bay. They are from one thousand two hundred to two thousand four +hundred miles distant from tidewater at Montreal and New York and +Philadelphia. + +That is--if land rates were the same as water rates--the Hudson Bay +route to Europe would cut rates to England from the Orient by half, and +from the wheat plains by the difference between one thousand two +hundred miles and four hundred, and two thousand four hundred miles and +eight hundred. But land rates are not water rates. From Alberta to +the Great Lakes is roughly one thousand two hundred miles. From the +Great Lakes to tidewater is roughly another one thousand two hundred +miles--either by way of Chicago-Buffalo, or Lake Superior-Montreal. +For the one thousand two hundred miles from Alberta to the Great Lakes, +grain shippers at time of writing pay a rate of twenty-two to +twenty-five cents a bushel. For the one thousand two hundred miles +from the head of the Lakes to Buffalo, the rate is three cents, from +the head of the Lakes to Montreal five to six cents. In other words, +the rate by land is just five to eight times higher than the rate by +water. + +To the argument--shorter distances by half by the northern route--is +added the argument cheaper rates as eight to one. + +That is why for twenty years Canada has gone sheer mad over a Hudson +Bay route to Europe. For obvious reasons the ports in Eastern Canada +have fought the idea and ridiculed the whole project as "an iron tonic +from rusting rails" for the cows. That has not stopped the West. +Grading is under way for the railroad to Hudson Bay from the grain +plains. The Canadian government is the backer and the builder. +Construction engines, dredges, steamers now whistle over the silences +of the northern inland sea; and Port Nelson, which for three centuries +has been the great fur entrepôt of the wintry wastes, now echoes to +pick and hammer and blowing locomotive intent on the construction of +what is known as the Hudson Bay Railroad. Should the war last for +years as wars of old, and Port Nelson become a great grain port as for +three centuries it has been the greatest fur port of the world, the +navies of Europe may yet thunder at one another along Hudson Bay's +shallow shores, as French and English fought there all through the +seventeenth century. + + +III + +The Hudson Bay railroad hung in mid-air for almost a quarter century. +It was regarded by the East as one of the West's mad impossible "boom" +projects. Hadn't Canada, a country of seven million population, a +railroad system of 29,000 miles? Hadn't the Dominion spent +$138,000,000 on canals heading traffic to the St. Lawrence? Why divert +half that traffic north to Hudson Bay? Surely three great +transcontinental systems for a country with a population not larger +than New York State were enough. So argued the East, and a great many +conservative people in the West. Better make haste slowly, especially +as it was becoming more and more evident that Canada would have to come +to the aid of two of the transcontinentals or see them go bankrupt. + +Then something happened. In fact, two or three things happened. + +The population, which had remained almost stationary for half a +century, jumped two million in less than ten years. Immigrants began +pouring in at the rate of four hundred thousand a year--they were +coming literally faster than the railroads could carry them. + +It sometimes takes an outsider's view of us to make us realize +ourselves. Do you realize--they asked--that your three grain provinces +alone are three times the area of the German Empire? Here is a grain +field as long as from Petrograd to Paris and of unknown width north and +south. You have 480,000,000 acres of wheat lands. (The United States +plants only 50,000,000 acres a year to wheat.) You are cultivating +only 16,000,000 acres. If there is a grain blockade now, what will +there be when you cultivate 100,000,000 acres? Yes--we know--you may +send Alberta grain west by Panama to Liverpool; but even with half +going by Panama, can the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence route take care of +the rest? We hear about a constant shortage of cars; of elevators +bulging with grain every September; of miles of lake cargo carriers +waiting to get in and out of their berths every October before +navigation closes. Do you know--they asked--that you have five times +more traffic--seventy-two million tons--going through your canals than +is expected for Panama? Do you know your rail traffic has jumped from +36,000,000 tons in 1900 to 90,000,000 tons in 1912? If you sent +200,000,000 bushels of wheat abroad in 1912 and 158,000,000 bushels in +1914--a poor year--what will you send in 1920 with twice as much land +under wheat? + +Two other comparatively unpondered facts were the hammers that drove +the argument for a Hudson Bay route home and forced the Canadian +government, irrespective of party, to back the project. The two facts +were these--of Canada's agricultural exports eighty per cent. went to +Great Britain. In spite of Canada spending a billion on her +transportation system, look at the fact well--it is a poser--only from +thirty-two to forty per cent. of her export trade went out by Canadian +routing. Why was that? The Department of Railroads and Canals in its +annual report explains elaborately that sixty per cent. of Western +Canadian grain went out by the Duluth-Buffalo route instead of Ft. +William-Montreal because the lake rate of the former was cheaper as +three to six cents a bushel; but there is nothing in this argument +because Montreal is tidewater. Buffalo is not. To the cheaper Buffalo +rate you must add five cents to New York, proving the American routing +really two cents a bushel higher. Yet sixty per cent. of Western +Canadian wheat went out by the costlier routing. Why? For the same +reason that if you jam a bag too full it bursts. Because the Canadian +trans-continentals simply could not take care of the traffic blockading +tracks and ports and elevators. + +So in spite of the funny man's jokes about a Hudson Bay route being +"iron tonic for the cows," Canada launched on another all-red, +to-the-sea railroad project. + + +IV + +What of the road itself? + +I camped in the region a few years ago when the venture was still in +air. The wheat plains terminate just west of Lake Winnipeg in an +interminable swamp region that has been the home of small furs from the +beginning of time. Saskatchewan River here literally widens to seventy +miles of swamp, where you can barely find foot room dry soled except in +winter, when the marsh turns to iron ice twelve feet thick. Through +this swamp country runs a ridge of rock northeasterly to Hudson Bay. +Down this ridge run Nelson and Hayes and Churchill Rivers in a +succession of rapids and lakes, wild rough barren country, where you +can paddle in summer or course by dog-train in winter for four hundred +miles without sight of arable land or human dwelling. Along this ridge +the railroad runs from the wheat plains. It is a route destined for +the present to be barren of local traffic, but that also is true of the +stretches along Lake Superior, or across the desert of the Southwest. +Back from the ridge coal deposits have been found, and traces of +copper, the mines of which have not yet been located. I myself saw +chunks of pure copper from the Churchill River region the size of one's +hand, but the veins from which the Indians brought it have not yet been +located. In time these great deposits may be worked as oil and coal +and gold and silver have been taken from the American Desert, but for +the near future the Hudson Bay Railroad will carry little traffic but +that received at its terminals. + +The western terminal connecting with the wheat railroads is the Pas, an +old, very old fur post of the French wood-runner days, on the +Saskatchewan west of Lake Winnipeg. Here the railroad touches the +Canada Northern and will doubtless later connect with the Canadian +Pacific Railroad and Grand Trunk. To any one who knows the region well +it seems almost a pity that the western terminus could not have been +Grand Rapids just northwest of Lake Winnipeg. Here is a fine wooded +high park country with the unlimited water power of nine miles of a +continental river walled into a canyon half a mile wide. But the +country west of Lake Winnipeg is as yet untouched by a railroad, though +one can hardly conceive of a city not some day springing up at this the +head of Manitoba navigation. Eastward from the Pas to Hudson Bay it is +four hundred miles plus. Construction presents no great difficulties +except bridging, and that can hardly be compared to the difficulties of +canyons in the Rockies and drouth in the desert. + +For years there was sharp contest whether the terminus on the Bay +should be Nelson or Churchill. Churchill is one of the best harbors in +the world, land locked, rock protected and fathomless; and Nelson is +probably one of the worst--shallow, with sand bars caused by the +confluence of the two great rivers emptying here, exposed to open sea. +But the balance of favor on the Bay is how long can navigation be kept +open. Navigation is open a month earlier and a month later at Nelson +than at Churchill; so the Dominion dredges have gone to work to make +Nelson a fit harbor. + +How long is navigation open on the Bay? The Dominion government has +sent three expeditions to ascertain this, though data might have been +obtained from the Archives of the Hudson's Bay Fur Company covering the +record of over two hundred years. Both the Archives and the official +expeditions record the same--navigation opens between the middle of May +and the first of June, and closes about the end of October. Seasons +have been known when navigation remained open till New Year's, but this +was unusual. So as far as the opening and closing of navigation is +considered, the Hudson Bay route is not far different from the Great +Lakes. + +Hudson Bay itself is in area about the size of the Mediterranean. +Because it is so far north the impression prevails that it is afloat +with ice. This is a false impression. Hudson Bay lies in the same +latitude as the North Sea and the Baltic, which are freighted with +Russian and German commerce, but the climate, of course, is colder. +The ice, which has given the great inland sea its ill repute, comes +from the Pole and goes out through the Straits, seldom coming down the +Bay in the season of navigation. + +The Straits are the real crux of the Hudson Bay route to Europe, and +there is no narrow neck of land to cut a way of escape through to open +sea as at Kiel and Cape Cod. The Straits have been navigated by +fur-traders since 1670, but the fur-traders could take a week or a +month to the four hundred and fifty miles of Straits. They could +afford the time to float back and forward with the ice packs for six +weeks, and as many as seven vessels have been wrecked in ten years. To +this tale of wreckage in the Straits, friends of the Hudson Bay route +answer as follows: + +First, the fur-traders' vessels were little discarded admiralty vessels +of small tonnage and rickety construction. Give us ice jammers such as +the Russians use on the Baltic, built narrow and high of oak, not +steel, to ride and crush down through the ice; and we can take care of +high insurance rates. Second, the Straits are still an utterly +uncharted sea four hundred and fifty miles long and from seventy to one +hundred and fifty wide. This is not so long as the passage up the St. +Lawrence. In such an inland sea as these Straits there must exist safe +as well as unsafe channels, shelters, smooth reaches. Let us get the +Straits charted and marked with buoys, with telegraph and cable points, +and we shall navigate these four hundred and fifty miles. The +questions of lighthouses need not bother the Straits, for the season of +navigation is also the season of long daylight. + + +V + +Three advantages must be put on the credit side of the Hudson Bay route: + +Distances to tidewater cut by half. + +Distances to Europe cut by a third. + +Rates reduced on grain as eight to one. + +Against these advantages must be placed three handicaps: + +The danger of an uncharted sea in the Straits. + +High insurance. + +Necessity for enormous elevator and storage room. + +Mr. Hill's wheat country may begin wheat cutting in July. The Canadian +Northwest is lucky if it cuts before the eighth of August. Consider +the area of the big wheat farms! The whole of August is taken up with +cutting and threshing. It is September or October, before the wheat is +hauled to market, and it is November before it reaches seaboard. In +November navigation on the Bay closes, and one hundred, perhaps two +hundred million bushels of wheat must be held by the farmers, or the +elevators, till May. This means interest on money out of the farmer's +pocket for six months, or storage charges. On the other hand, there +will be no danger of stored wheat "heating" on the Bay. The cold there +is of too sharp a type, but this is a danger in many of the +all-the-year-round open harbors. + +For twenty years the Hudson Bay railroad has been a project up in air. +It is now a project on graded roadbed. Before these words are in print +Hudson Bay Railroad will be on wheels and tracks. Then the real +difficulty of the Straits will be faced, and probably--as Russia has +overcome the difficulties of the Baltic--so will the Canadian Northwest +overcome the difficulties of this hyperborean sea. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +SOME INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS + +I + +The contest between capital and labor in Canada has never become that +armed camp divided by a chasm of hatred known in other lands. This for +two reasons: First, the labor of yesterday is the capital of to-day, +and the labor of to-day is the capital of to-morrow. Second, from the +very nature of Canada's greatest wealth--agricultural lands--the +substantial proportion of the population consists of land owners, +vested righters, respecters of property interests because they +themselves are property holders. The city dweller in Canada has been +from the very nature of things the anachronism, the anomaly, the +parasite, the extraneous outgrowth on the main body of production. + +To take the first reason why capital and labor has not been divided in +hostile camps in Canada, because the labor of yesterday is the capital +of to-day--I am not dealing with speculative arguments and opinions. I +am trying to set down facts. The owner of the largest fortune west of +the Rocky Mountains in Canada began life with a pick and shovel. The +owner of the richest timber limits in British Columbia began at a +dollar and twenty-five cents a day piling slabs. The wealthiest meat +packer east of the Rocky Mountains was "bucking" and "breaking" +bronchoes thirty years ago at twenty-five dollars a month. The packer +who comes next to him in wealth began life in Pt. Douglas, Winnipeg, +loading frozen hogs. The richest newspaper man in Canada began life so +poor that he and his father hauled the first editions of their paper to +customers on a hand sled. The four men who are to-day the greatest +powers in the railroad world of the Dominion began life, one as a stone +mason, another as a lumber-jack, a third as a store keeper, a fourth as +a telegraph operator. I do not think I am wrong in saying that the +richest wholesaler in Canada reached the scene of his present +activities with his entire earthly possessions in a pocket handkerchief +and a tin lunch pail. Of two of the most powerful men who ever came +out of the maritime provinces, one swept a village store for his living +at a dollar and fifty cents a week; another reached St. John, New +Brunswick, from his home in the backwoods, dressed in a home-made suit, +which his mother had spun and carded from their own wool. The fact +that the door of opportunity is open to the talented tends to prevent +the opening of a chasm of hatred between capital and labor, though it +must be admitted that the warfare of capital and labor in the States +was developing in the era when Rockefeller and Carnegie were lifting +themselves from penury to the heights of financial power. + +Infinitely more important is the second reason. For a long time at +least the stanchest, strongest and stablest part of Canada's people +must be rooted to the soil. Up to the present half her population has +been rural, and less than three per cent. absorbed by the factory, the +railway, the labor union. Of her population of 7,800,000, only 176,000 +workers belong to labor organizations, and ninety per cent. of these +have never been on strike. These figures alone explain why class +hatred has never widened into a chasm dividing society in Canada. + +Why Big Business has never dominated government in Canada will be dealt +with in a later chapter, but if Big Business can not violate law with +impunity at one end of the social scale, it may be safely said that +anarchy will never violate law at the other end of the scale. + +At the same time there are symptoms appearing in the industrial +conditions of Canada as gravely dangerous as anything in her +immigration problems. These need only be stated to be apparent. Where +wages have increased only ten per cent. in a decade, the cost of living +has increased fifty-one per cent.--according to an official commission +appointed by the Ottawa government to report. Though Canada is an +agricultural country, in food products alone, she pays ten million +dollars duty yearly. In one farming province ten million dollars' +worth of food is yearly imported. Why is this? Why is Canada not +producing all the food she consumes? Because in certain sections only +one settler goes out to the farm for four that live in the town. + +In the West, if you add up the population of all the cities, you will +find that one-fourth as many people live in the cities as in the +country. In one province you will find that out of half a million +population, three hundred thousand are living in cities and towns. +This is the province that imports such quantities of food. It is also +the province that has more labor trouble than all the other sections of +the Dominion put together. Demagogues harangue the city squares for +"the right to work," "the right to live;" and mill owners, farmers, +ranchers, railway builders go bankrupt for lack of men to work. It is +the province where the highest wages in the world are paid for every +form of labor. It is also the province where the greatest number of +people are idle, and neither you nor I nor anybody else, can convince +the idle stone mason who demands eight dollars a day that he keeps +himself idle by not accepting half that figure. He is not dealing with +"the robber baron" capitalistic class. He is dealing with the humble +householder who wants to build but can not afford workmen at eight +dollars to five dollars a day, when he could afford workmen at four +dollars to a dollar and fifty cents a day. + +In 1800 only four per cent. of the United States population was urban, +and ninety-six per cent. was rural. By 1910 only fifty-three per cent. +of the population was rural. Similarly of France and Great Britain. +Sixty-five per cent. of France's population is rural, and France is +prosperous, and her people are the thriftiest and most saving in the +world. They with their tiny savings are the world's bankers. In the +United Kingdom, the rural population has decreased from twenty-eight +per cent. to twenty-three per cent. of the total population. How about +Canada? In 1891 thirty-two per cent. of Canada's people lived in towns +and cities. By 1901 thirty-eight per cent. were town dwellers. By +1914 the proportion in towns and cities is almost fifty per cent. + +The entire movement of population from country to city is reflected in +the astounding growth of the cities. In 1800 Montreal had a population +of seven thousand; in 1850, sixty thousand; by 1914, almost half a +million. Similarly of Toronto, of Winnipeg, of Vancouver. From +nothing in 1800, these cities have grown to metropolitan centers of +three hundred thousand, and their growth is the subject of fevered +civic pride. It ought to be cause of gravest alarm. In the history of +the world, when men began to hive in a crowded cave life, those nations +began to decline. The results are always the same--an extortionate +rise in the cost of food, the long bread line, charity where there +ought to be labor and thrift, food riots, terrible tragic contrasts of +the very rich and the very poor, all the vices that go with crowded +housing. When charity workers investigated in Toronto and Montreal and +Winnipeg, they found foreigners living forty-three in five rooms, +twenty-four and fifteen and ten in one. Wherever such proportions +exist as to rural and urban population, ground rentals and values +ascend in price like overheated mercury. Men begin to build +perpendicularly instead of latitudinally. The cave life of the +skyscraper takes the place of the trim home garden, and so greed of +gain--interest on extortionate real estate values--takes its toll of +human life and virtue, clean living and clean thinking. In one section +of Canada during ten years, where there had been an increase of 574,878 +in the country population, there was an increase of 1,258,645 in the +city population. Between 1901 and 1911, where 39,951 newcomers settled +in the country districts of Quebec, 313,863 settled in the cities. For +one who chose life in the open, eight chose the tenement and the +sweatshop. In 1901 Canada had 3,349,516 people living in the country, +and 2,021,799 living in the cities. By 1911 there were 3,924,394 +living in the country, and 3,280,440 living in the cities. + +All this signifies but one thing to Canada--a swift transition from +agricultural status to industrial life; and whether such an artificial +transition bodes good or ill for a land whose greatest wealth lies in +forest and mine and farm remains to be seen. For the time it has +resulted in a cost of living almost prohibitive to the very poor. The +sweatshop, the tenement, the Ghetto, the cave life hovel of Europe have +been reproduced in the crowded foreign quarters of Canadian cities. It +means more than physical deterioration and moral contamination and +degeneration of national stamina. It means if Canada is to become a +great manufacturing country, feeding the human into the hopper of the +machine that dividends may pour out, then she, the youngest of the +nations, must compete against the oldest and the strongest--Germany, +England, France, the United States; but if she is to be a great +agricultural country, then she has few peers in the whole world. +Neither need she have any fear. The nations of the world must come to +her, as they went down to Egypt, for bread. The man on his own land, +be his work good or ill owns his own labor and takes profit or loss +from it and can blame no one but himself for that profit or loss. With +the renting out of a man's labor to some other man for that other man's +profit or loss come all the discontent and class strife of industrial +warfare. Of industrial strife, of labor riots, of syndicalism, of +social revolution, of the few plundering the many, and the many +threatening reprisal in the form of legislation for the many to plunder +the few--of this dog-eat-dog, internecine industrial strife--Canada has +hitherto known next to nothing; but she is at the parting of the ways. +The day that a preponderance of her population becomes urban instead of +rural, that day a preponderance of her population must ask leave to +live from some other man--must ask leave to work for some other man, +must ask leave to put the collar of the industrial serf on the neck as +the sign of labor owned by some other man. That day the preponderance +of Canada's population will cease owning their own vested rights and +will begin attacking the vested rights of other men. That day +plutocracy will begin plundering democracy, and the unfit will begin +plundering the fit, and the many will demand the same rewards as the +few, not by winning those rewards and rising to the plane of the few, +but by expropriating those rewards and pulling the few down to the +level of the many. To me it means the sickling over a robust +nationhood with the yellowing hue of a dollar democracy, the yellowing +hue of gnashing social jealousy, the yellowing hue of moral putridity +and decadence and rot. Hitherto every man has stood on his own legs in +Canada. There has been no weak-kneed, puling greedy mob bellowing for +pap from the breasts of a state treasury--demanding the rewards of +industry and thrift which they have been too weak and shiftless and +useless to earn. But Canada is at the parting of the ways. The day +more men live in the cities demanding food than live on the soil +producing it--which God forfend--that day Canada goes down in the +welter of industrial war and social upheaval. + +Hitherto no statesman has arisen in Canada who remotely sensed the +impending evil, much less made an effort to avert the doom that has +come like a cloud above the well-being of every modern country. The +man who makes it a national policy in Canada to attract the settler to +the soil rather than to the city hovel will in the future annals of +this great nation be rated above a Napoleon or a Bismarck.[1] This to +me is the crux of the very greatest and most acute problem confronting +the Dominion's future destiny. + + +II + +In a country where organized labor numbers only 176,000 out of +7,800,000, labor problems can hardly be set down as acute. They do not +split society asunder as they do elsewhere. I am glad of it. I am +glad that in Canada up to the present labor is only capital in the +inchoate. I should be sorry if the day ever came when labor was the +serf, and capital the robber baron, as--let us frankly acknowledge--it +is elsewhere. + +In this connection three points should be emphasized. Whether they +should be praised or blamed I do not know; but the points are these: + +The Senate in Canada being appointed for life has acted as a breakwater +of adamant and reinforced concrete against all labor or capital +legislation that has arisen from the passions of the moment. More than +once when labor or capital, holding the whip handle in the Commons, +would have forced through hasty legislation as to compensation, as to +liability, as to non-liability--the leaders in the Commons have said +frankly in caucus to the Senate: We are dependent on the vote for our +places here. You are not. We are letting this fool bill through, but +we are letting it through because we know you will kill it. Kill it! + +In the next place, "the twilight zone" between federal and provincial +power in matters of labor has proved an unmitigated curse. When the +syndicalists of Europe, known in America as the Industrial Workers of +the World, succeeded in tying up railroad construction and almost +ruining the contractors of two transcontinental systems in British +Columbia a few years ago, endless delay in terminating an impossible +situation occurred through the province trying to throw the burden of +dealing with the matter on the Dominion, and the Dominion trying to +throw the burden on the province. Both province and Dominion were +afraid of the labor vote. The losses caused during that three months' +strike in the construction camps indirectly afterward fell on the +Canadian people; for the embarrassed transcontinentals had to come to +the Dominion government for aid; and the Dominion government is, after +all, the people. + +"I pray God," said a Cabinet Minister in Ottawa to me at the time, +"that Imperial Federation may never come; if it adds to our woes +another 'twilight zone' as to Dominion and Imperial powers." + + +III + +It seems almost ungracious in this connection to say that Canada's +far-famed Arbitration Act has been overrated. That it has accomplished +some good and settled many controversies no reasonable person will +deny, but it is not a panacea for all ills. + +Here is the difficulty as to arbitration. It is not unlike the +situation of Belgium regarding Germany in the great war. Arbitration +depends on "a scrap of paper." What if some one tears up "the scrap of +paper"? What if one side says there is nothing to arbitrate? Twenty +years ago--yes--wages, hours, conditions of labor--could have been +arbitrated; but to-day the contest in the industrial world is often not +for wages and hours of labor. + +"Demand three dollars a day for an eight-hour day, to-day," I heard an +Industrial Worker of the World shout in a Vancouver strike. "Demand +four dollars a day to-morrow, till you secure four dollars a day for a +four-hour day--till your ascending wages expropriate capital--take over +capital and all industry to be operated for labor." + +In the great struggle between the railroads and the I. W. W.'s in +British Columbia, Canada's Arbitration Act fell down hopelessly simply +because there was nothing to arbitrate. Labor said: We shall paralyze +all industry, or operate all industry for labor's profit solely. +Capital said--you shall not. There the two tied in deadlock for +months, and there all arbitration acts must often tie in deadlock in +industrial warfare. That is why I hope industrial warfare will never +become a part of Canada's national life. That is why I hope and pray +every Canadian settler will become a vested righter by owning and +operating his own acres till Death lays him in God's Acre. + + +IV + +In a country where the public debt is only $350,000,000 or forty-five +dollars per head, and the national income is $1,500,000,000 from farm, +factory, forest and mine--or two hundred dollars per head and that +fairly well distributed--for the present there is little to fear of +social revolution. It is not the social revolution that I fear for +Canada. It is the canker of social hate and jealousy preceding +revolution. If fifty per cent. of the population can be kept owning +and operating their own land, that social canker will never infect +Canada's national life as a whole. + + +[1] Thomas Jefferson desired such a rural future for the United States +and deplored the day of cities and industrialism. It came, +nevertheless.--THE EDITOR. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +HOW GOVERNED + +I + +Reference has been made to the facts that Big Business has up to the +present been unable to get control of the reins of government in Canada, +that the courts have been kept comparatively free of political influence +and that the doors of underground politics are not easily pried open by +corruption. Why is this? Canadians would fain take unction to +themselves that it is owing to their superior national integrity, but +this is nonsense. + +Exuberant forest growth is always characterized by some fungus and dry +rot. How has Canada escaped so much of this fungus excrescence of +representative government? To get at the reason for this it is necessary +to trace back for a little space the historic growth of Canada's form of +government. We speak of Canada's constitution being the British North +America Act. As a matter of fact, Canada's constitution is more than an +act--more than a dry and hard and inflexible formula to which growth must +conform. Rather than plaster cast into which growing life must fit +itself, Canada's constitution is a living organism evolved from her own +mistakes and struggles of the past and her own needs as to the present. +Canada's constitution is not some pocket formula which some +doctrinaire--with apologies to France--has whipped out of his pocket to +remedy all ills. Canada's constitution is like the scientific data of +empirical medicine; it is the result of centuries' experiments, none the +less scientific because unconscious. + +One need not trace the growth of government to the days prior to English +rule. When England took over Canada by the Treaty of Paris in 1763, the +main thing to remember is that the French-Canadian was guaranteed the +free exercise of his religion. This--and not innate loyalty to an alien +government--was the real reason for Quebec refusing to cast in her lot +with the revolting American colonies. This was the reason for Quebec +remaining stanch in the War of 1812, and this is the reason for Quebec +to-day standing a solid unit against annexation. We must not forget what +a high emissary from Rome once jocularly said of a religious quarrel in +Canada--Quebec was more Catholic than the Pope. + +Following the military régime of the Conquest came the Quebec Act of +1774.--Please note, contemporaneous with the uprising of the American +colonies, Canada is given her first constitution. The Governor and +legislative council are to be appointed by the Crown, and full freedom of +worship is guaranteed. French civil law and English criminal law are +established; and the Church is confirmed in its title to ecclesiastical +property--which was right when you consider that the foundations of the +Church in Quebec are laid in the blood of martyrs. Just here intervenes +the element which compelled the reshaping of Canada's destiny. When the +American colonies gained their independence, there came across the border +to what are now New Brunswick and Nova Scotia and Ontario some forty +thousand Loyalists mainly from New England and the South. These +Loyalists, of course, refused to be dominated by French rule; so the +Constitutional Act was passed in 1791 by the Imperial Parliament. The +people of Canada were represented for the first time in an assembly +elected by themselves, The Governor-General for Quebec--Lower Canada--and +the Lieutenant-Governor for Ontario--Upper Canada--were both appointed by +the Crown. The Executive, or Cabinet, was chosen by the Governor. The +weakness of the new system was glaringly apparent on the surface. While +the assembly was elected in each province by the people, the assembly had +no direct control over the Executive. Downing Street, England, chose the +Governors; and the Governors chose their own junta of advisers; and all +the abuses of the Family Compact arose, which led to the Rebellion of '37 +under William Lyon MacKenzie in Ontario and Louis Papineau in Quebec. +Judges at this time sat in both Houses, and Canada learned the bitter +lesson of keeping her judiciary out of politics. As the power of +appointment rested exclusively with the Governor and his circle, it can +be believed that the French of Quebec suffered disabilities and prejudice. + +Hopelessly at sea as to the cause of the continual unrest in her colonies +and undoubtedly sad from the loss of her American possessions, England +now sent out a commissioner to investigate the trouble; and it is to the +findings of this commissioner that the United Kingdom has since owed her +world-wide success in governing people by letting them govern themselves. +People sometimes ask why England has been so successful in governing +one-fifth of the habitable globe. She does not govern one-fifth the +habitable globe. She lets much of it govern itself; and it was Lord +Durham, coming out as Governor-General and high commissioner at this +time, who laid the foundations of England's success in colonizing. His +report has been the Magna Charta and Declaration of Independence of the +self-governing colonies of the British Empire. + +First of all, government must be entrusted to the house representing the +people. Second, the granting of moneys must be controlled by those +paying the taxes. Third, the Executive must be responsible not only to +the Crown but to the representatives of the people. It is here the +Canadian system differs from the American. The Secretary, or Cabinet +Minister, can not hold office one day under the disapproval of the House, +no matter what his tenure of office. + +The Act of 1840 resulted from Durham's report. Upper and Lower Canada +were united under one government--which was really the forerunner of +confederation in '67. The House was given exclusive control of taxation +and expenditure. Nothing awakened Canada so acutely to the necessity of +federating all British North America as the Civil War in the United +States, when the States Right party fought to secede. Red River and +British Columbia had become peopled. The maritime provinces settled by +French from Quebec and New England Loyalists were alien in thought from +Upper and Lower Canada. The cry "54-40 or fight," the setting up of a +provisional government by Oregon, the Riel Rebellion in Manitoba, the +rush of California gold miners to Cariboo--all were straws in a restless +wind blowing Canada's destiny hither and whither. Confederation was not +a pocket theory. It was a result born of necessity, and the main +principles of confederation embodied in the British North America Act had +been foreshadowed in Durham's report. Durham himself suffered the fate +of too many of the world's great. He had come out to Canada to settle a +bitter dispute between the little oligarchy round the royal Governor and +the people. He sided with neither and was abjured by both. The +sentences against the patriots he had set aside or softened. The +royalists he condemned but did not punish. Both sides poured charges +against Durham into the office of the Colonial Secretary in England, +Durham died of a broken heart, but his report laid the foundation of +England's future colonial policy. + + +II + +By the British North America Act of 1867, passed by the Imperial +Parliament, Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick came into the +Union. Later Prince Edward Island, Manitoba, the Northwest Territories +and British Columbia joined. Up to the present Newfoundland has stood +aside. Under the British North America Act, Canada is ruled to-day. + +There is first the Imperial government represented by a Governor-General. +The commandant of Canada's regular militia is also an Imperial officer. + +There is second the federal government with executive, legislative and +judicial powers; or a cabinet, a parliament, a supreme court. + +There are third the provincial governments with executive, legislative +and judicial powers. + +Details of each section of government can not be given here; but several +facts should be noted; for they explain the practical workings of +Canada's system. + +The Witenagemot--or Saxon council of wise men--stands for Canada's ideal +of a parliament. It is not so much a question of spoils. It is not so +much a case of "the outs" ejecting "the ins." I have never heard of any +party in Canada taking the ground, "Here--you have been in long enough; +it's our turn." I have never heard a suggestion as to tenure of office +being confined to "one term" for fear of a leader becoming a Napoleon. +If a leader be efficient--and it is thought the more experienced he is, +the more efficient he will be--he can hold office as long as he lives if +the people keep on electing him. + +The Cabinet--or inner council of advisers to the Governor-General--must +be elected by the people and directly responsible to the House. At its +head stands the Premier. + +Within her own jurisdiction Canada's legislature has absolute power. If +her treaties or acts should conflict with Imperial interests, they would +be disallowed by the Imperial Privy Council as unconstitutional, or ultra +vires. Likewise of the provinces, if any of their acts conflicted with +federal interests, they would be disallowed as ultra vires. + +Should the Governor-General differ from the Cabinet in office, he must +either recede from his own position or dismiss his advisers and send them +to the country for the verdict of the people. Should the people endorse +the Ministry, the Governor-General must either resign or recede from his +stand. I know of no case where such a contingency has arisen. A +Governor-General is careful never to conflict with a Ministry endorsed by +the electorate. + +Once a man has received an appointment to a position in the civil service +of Canada he must keep absolutely aloof from politics. This is not a law +but it is a custom, the violation of which would cost a man his position. + +The Parliament in the Dominion consists of the Commons and the Senate. +The Commons are elected by the people. The Senators are appointed by the +Governor-General, strictly under advice of the party in office, for life. +Senators must be thirty years of age and possess property over four +thousand dollars in value above their liabilities. The Senator resides +in the district which he represents. The Commoner may represent a +district in which he does not reside, and, on the whole, this is more of +an advantage than a disadvantage. It permits a district that has special +needs to choose a man of great character and power resident in another +district. If he fails to meet the peculiar needs of that district, he +will not be reelected. If he meets the needs of the district which he +represents he has the additional prestige of his influence in another +electoral district. A Senator can be removed for only four reasons: +bankruptcy, absence, change of citizenship, conviction of crime. + +At a time when the United States is so generally in favor of the election +of Senators by direct vote, when England is trending so preponderately in +favor of curbing the veto power of the House of Lords, it seems +remarkable that Canada never questions the power of the Senator appointed +for life. + +Though officially supposed to be appointed by the Governor-General, the +Senator is in reality never appointed except on recommendation of the +prevailing Cabinet which means--the party in power. The appointments +being for life and the emolument sufficient to guarantee a good living +conformable with the style required by the official position, the Senator +appointed for life--like the judge appointed for life--soon shows himself +independent of purely party behests. He is depended upon by the +Commoners to veto and arrest popular movements, which would be inimical +to public good, but which the Commoner dare not defeat for fear of defeat +in reelection. For instance, a few years ago a labor bill was introduced +in the Commons as to compensation for injuries. In theory, it was all +right. In practice, it was a blackmail levy against employers. The +Commoners did not dare reject it for fear of the vote in one particular +province. What they did was meet the Senate in unofficial caucuses. +They said: We shall pass this bill all three readings; but we depend on +you--the Senate--to reject it. We can go to the province and say we +passed the bill and ask for the support of that province; but because the +bill would be inimical to the best interests of other provinces, we +depend on you, the Senate, to defeat it. And the Senate defeated it. + +When older democracies are curtailing the strength of veto power in upper +houses, it is curious to find this dependence of a young democracy on +veto power. Instead of the life privileges leading to an abuse of +insolence and Big Business, up to the present in Canada, life tenure +independent of politics has led to independence. The appointments being +for life guarantees that many of the incumbents are not young, and this +imparts to the Upper House that quality of the Witenagemot most valued by +the ancient Saxons--the council of the aged and the experienced and the +wise. + +Active, aggressive power, of course, resides chiefly with the Commons. +Representation here is arranged according to the population and must be +readjusted after every census. "Rep. by Pop." was the rallying cry that +effected this arrangement. No property qualification is required from +the member of the House of Commons, but he must be a British subject. He +must not have been convicted of any crime, minor or major. + +Franchise in Canada is practically universal suffrage. At least it +amounts to that. Voters must be registered. They must be British +subjects. They must be twenty-one years of age. They must not be +insane, idiots or convicts. They must own real property to the value of +three hundred dollars in cities, two hundred dollars in towns, one +hundred and fifty dollars in the country; or they must have a yearly +income of three hundred dollars. A farmer's son has the right to vote +without these qualifications, evidently on the ancient Saxon presumption +that a free-holder represents more vitally the interests of a country +than the penniless floater, who neither works nor earns. In other words, +the carpet-bag voter does not yet play any part in Canadian politics. +Bad as the corruption is in some cases among the foreigners, when votes +are bought at two dollars to five dollars, the point has not yet been +reached when a carpet-bag gang of boarding-house floaters and saloon +heelers can be transferred from a secure ward to a doubtful ward and so +submerge the political rights of permanent residents. + +Judges can not vote in Canada. In fact, they can take no part, direct or +indirect, by influence or speech, in politics. This was one of the +things fought out in the '37 Rebellion and forever settled. Canada could +not conceive of a man who had been a judge being nominated for the +premiership or as Governor. Of course, when Liberals are in power, as +advisers of the Governor-General, they recommend more Liberals for +judgeships than Conservatives; and when Conservatives are in power, they +recommend for judgeships more Conservatives than Liberals. I think of +attorneys who were penniless strugglers in the Liberal ranks of my +childhood days in Winnipeg who are to-day dignified judges; and I think +of other attorneys, who were penniless strugglers in Conservative ranks +who have been advanced under the Borden regime to judgeships; but the +point is, having been so advanced, they pass a chasm which they can never +retrace without impeachment--the chasm is party politics. They are +independent of popular favor. They can be impeached and displaced. They +are forever disgraced by defalcation in office. By observing the duties +of office, they are secure for life and held in an esteem second only to +that of the Governor-General. + +You will notice that it is all more a matter of public sentiment than a +law; of custom than of court. That is what I mean when I say that +Canada's constitution is a vital, living, growing thing, not a dead +formula by which the Past binds and impedes the Present and the Future. + +There must be a session of the Dominion Parliament once every year. Five +years is the limit of any tenure of office by the Commons. Every five +years the Commoners must go to the country for reelection. Usually the +government in power goes to the country for reendorsement before the term +of Parliament expires. + +Laws on corrupt practices are very strict and what is more--they are +generally enforced. The slightest profit, direct or indirect of a +member, vacates his seat. Corruption on the part of underlings, of which +they have known nothing, vacates an election. A member of Parliament can +not participate directly or indirectly in any public work benefiting his +district. He is not in it for what he can get out of it. He is in it +for what he can give to it. Expenses of election to a postage stamp must +be published after election. + +The methods of conducting business in Parliament need not be discussed +here, except to say that any member can introduce a bill, any member can +present a petition from the humblest inhabitant of the commonwealth, and +any member can speak on a motion provided he gains the floor first. + +Judges are appointed and paid by the Dominion government, not by the +provincial. Decisions by provincial judges--appointed by the Dominion +government--can be appealed to a Supreme Court of Canada. Judges can be +removed only on petition to the Governor-General for misbehavior. + +Dominion taxes in Canada are indirect--on imports. As stated elsewhere, +the main power in Canada is vested in federal authorities. Only local +affairs--education, excise, municipal matters, drainage, local railroads, +etc.--are left to the provinces. + +Every man in Canada is supposed to be liable for military training if +called on, but the number of men annually drilled is about fifty +thousand. Hitherto a man appointed from the Imperial Forces has been the +commanding general in Canada. It need scarcely be said that if Canada is +to hold her own in Imperial plans, if she is to become a power in the +struggle for ascendency on the Pacific, her equipment both as to land +forces and marine are ridiculously inadequate. They are the equipment of +a member in Imperial plans who is skulking his share. + +Provincial courts are, of course, administered by provincial officers; +but these are appointed by the Governor-General advised by the Cabinet of +the federal party in power. The Lieutenant-Governor of the province is +appointed by the Governor-General advised by the party in power. He is +paid by the Dominion. Judges of superior courts must be barristers of +ten years' good standing at the bar of their provinces. All judges and +justices of the peace must have some property qualification. Rascals +with criminal records are not railroaded into judgeships in Canada. I +know of a judge in San Francisco who until the advent of the woman vote +literally held his position by reason of his alliance with the white +slavers. I know of another judge in New York who held his position in +spite of a criminal record by reason of the fact he could get himself +elected by the disreputable gangs. These things are virtually impossible +under the Canadian system. In the future the system may prove too rigid. +At the present time it works and keeps the courts clear of political +influence. + +Juries are not so universal in Canada as in the United States. In civil +cases, where the points of law are complicated, the tendency is to let +the judge guide the verdict of the court. + + +III + +There is one feature of Canadian justice which sentimentalists deplore. +It is that the lash is still used for crimes of violence against the +person and for bestiality. This is not a relic of barbarism. It is the +result of careful thought on the part of the Department of Justice--the +thought being that it is useless to speak to a man capable of bestiality +in terms not articulate to his nature; and the fact remains that +criminals of this class seldom come back for second terms of punishment +for the same sort of crimes. + +If you ask why few homicides are punished in the United States, and few +escape in Canada--I can not answer. Political expediency, party heelers, +technicalities--the dotting of an i, the crossing of a t, the omission of +a comma--have no effect whatsoever on Canadian justice. The courts are +never defied, and the law takes its course. + +The law not only takes its course relentlessly but the pursuit of crime +literally never desists. This feature of Canadian justice is a rude +sharp shock to the unruly element pouring in with the new colonists. A +Montana gunman blew into a Canadian frontier town and in accordance with +custom began "to shoot up" the bar rooms. In twenty-four hours he +awakened from his spree under sentence of sixty days' hard labor. "Let +me out of this blamed Can-a-day," he cursed. "Who'd 'a' thought of +takin' any offense from touchin' up this blamed dead town?" + +A Texas outlaw succeeded in inducing a young Englishman of the verdantly +bumptious and moneyed sort to go homestead hunting with him. The Indians +saw the two ride into the back country. In spring only the Texan came +out. I forget what his explanation of the Englishman's disappearance +was. In any other country under the sun, who would have ridden two +hundred miles beyond nowhere to investigate the story of an outlaw about +a young fool, who had plainly been a candidate for trouble? But an old +Indian chief meandered into the barracks of the nearest Mounted Police +station, sat him down on the floor and after smoking countless pipes let +drop the fact that two settlers had "gone in" and only "one man--he come +out." That was enough. Two policemen were detailed on the case. They +rode to the abandoned homesteads. In the deserted log cabin nothing +seemed amiss, but some distance away on a bluff a stained ax was found; +yet farther away a mound not a year old. Beneath it the remains of the +Englishman were found with ax hacks in the skull. It was now a year +since the commission of the crime and the murderer was by this far enough +away. Why put the country to the expense of trailing down a criminal who +had decamped? Those two young Mounted Policemen were told to find the +criminal and not come back till they had found him. They trailed him +from Alberta to Montana, from Montana to the Orient, from China back to +Texas, where he was found on a homestead of his own. Now the proof of +murder was of the most tenuous sort. One of the Mounted Policemen +disguised himself as a laborer and obtained work on an adjoining +homestead. It took two years to gain the criminal's confidence and +confession. The man was arrested and extradited to Canada. If I +remember rightly, the trial did not last a week, and the murderer was +hanged forthwith. + +Instances of this kind could be retailed without number, but this one +case is typical. It is something more than relentlessness. It is more +than keeping politics out of the courts. It is a tacit national +recognition of two basic truths: that the protection of innocence is the +business of the courts more than the protection of guilt; that having +delegated to the Department of Justice the enforcement of criminal law, +Canada holds that Department of Justice responsible for every infraction +of law. The enforcement is greatly aided by the fact that criminal law +in Canada is under federal jurisdiction. An embezzler can not defalcate +in Nova Scotia, lightly skip into Manitoba and put both provinces to +expense and technical trouble apprehending him. In the States I once was +annoyed by a semi-demented blackmailer. When I sent for the +sheriff--whose deputy, by the way, hid when summoned--the lunatic stepped +across the state border, and it would have cost me two hundred dollars to +have apprehended him. As the culprit was a menace more to the community +than to me, I went on west on a trip to a remote part of Alberta. I had +not been in Alberta twenty-four hours before the chief constable called +to know if this blackmailer of whom he had read in the press, could be +apprehended in Canada. The why of this vigilance on one side of the line +and remissness on the other, I can no more explain than why American +industrial progress is so amazingly swift and Canadian industrial +progress is so amazingly slow. + +There is very little wish-washy coddling of the criminal in Canada. +While in the penitentiary he is cared for physically, mentally and +spiritually. When released, he is helped to start life afresh; but if he +keeps falling and falling, he is put where he will not propagate his +species and hurt others in his back-sliding. + +"I regret," said a judge in a Winnipeg court, "to sentence such a +youthful offender." The prisoner was a young foreigner who attacked +another man viciously in a drunken brawl. "But foreigners must learn +that Canadian law can not be broken with impunity," and he sent the young +man to what was practically a life sentence. + +"Hard on the poor devil," said a court attendant. + +"Yes," retorted a westerner who lived in the foreign settlement, "but +it's an all-fired good thing for Canada." + +The case of a judge in British Columbia is famous on the Pacific Coast. +It was in the old days of murder and robbery on the trail to the gold +diggings of Cariboo. In the face of the plainest evidence the jury had +refused to convict. The astounded judge turned amid tense silence in +fury on the prisoner. + +"The jury pronounces the prisoner not guilty," he said, "and I strongly +recommend him to go out and cut their throats." + +Reference has been made to an Imperial court official assassinated by an +angry Hindu conspirator in a Vancouver court room. The assassin was +sentenced to death nine days from the commission of the crime, and if any +newspaper had attempted to make a head-line affair out of it, or "to try +the jury" for trying the prisoner, the editors and owners of that paper +would have been sent to jail for contempt. + + +IV + +The gradual rise of the two political parties dates from the adoption of +a high tariff by the Conservatives after confederation. Prior to 1837 +Canadian parties consisted simply of the Outs and the Ins. The advanced +Radicals, who formed themselves into a party to oust the Family Compact, +called themselves Liberals. The entrenched oligarchy called themselves +Conservatives. After confederation, by force of circumstances, namely +the refusal of tariff concessions from the United States, the +Conservatives, who were in power, became the high tariff party. The +Liberals, when out of power, advocated tariff for revenue only. Also by +force of circumstances until the transfer of the balance of power from +Quebec to the New West, the party in office had a tendency to play for +the French Catholic vote of Quebec; the party out of office coquetted +with the ultra-Protestant vote of Ontario. This naturally worked toward +the provincial governments being Liberal, when the federal government was +Conservative; and vice versa. The Liberal in provincial politics was +Liberal in federal politics, and the Conservative in federal politics was +Conservative in provincial politics; but the policy has always been for +the Outs first to attack the Ins provincially--to win the outposts before +attacking the entrenched power of the federal government. Before Sir +John Macdonald's Conservative administration was defeated there was a +long series of victories by the Liberals in the provinces, and before Sir +Wilfred Laurier's Liberal government was defeated the Conservatives had +captured the most of the provincial governments. With the Conservatives +professing high tariff as economic salvation and the Liberals regarding +high tariff as economic damnation, it seems almost heresy to set down +that the line of demarkation between the two great parties in practice is +really one of Outs and Ins. The only tariff reductions made by the +Liberals were on British imports, and this did not lower the average on +British imports to the level of the average duty on American imports; +when the high tariff Conservatives came back to power, the duties were +not shoved to higher levels. This, too, has all been by force of +circumstances. When both parties would have grasped eagerly at tariff +reductions from the United States, those concessions could not be +obtained. When the tariff concessions were offered, Canada had already +built up such intrenched interests of her own in factory, mill and +transportation that she was not in a position to accept the offer. +Laurier did not see this, but many of his party did and refused to +support him in reciprocity. + +At time of writing, to an outsider, there is in practice no difference +between the two parties; but this can hardly remain a permanent +condition. As long as the war lasts both parties will be a unit in +support of Imperial defense. The day the war is over Canada may have to +consider, not Imperial, but Dominion defense; and this is bound to split +the parties up on entirely new lines. The French Nationalists are for +standing aside from all European entanglements and resting secure under +the Monroe Doctrine. The two million Americans in the West may be +expected to advocate the same policy. The British and the Canadians of +British descent in Canada may be expected to take an aggressive stand for +active self-defense; for defense may be one of Canada's next big problems. + +Up to the present, Canadians have considered it a superiority that their +constitution--the British North America Act--could be so easily amended. +As long as Canada is peopled by Canadians, it is an advantage to work +under a constitution that may be modified to suit the growing need of a +growing nation, but one is constrained to ask what if Galicians and +Germans ever acquired the balance of voting power in Canada? There are +half as many German-born Germans in the United States as there are +native-born Canadians in Canada. What if such a tide of German +immigration came to Canada? Would it be an advantage or a disadvantage +that the country's constitution could be so easily amended by the +Imperial Parliament? Or more striking still, suppose the Hindu, a +British subject, began peopling Western Canada by the million. Suppose +the Hindu, a British subject, voted in Canada for a change in the +constitution! Can one conceive for one minute of the Imperial government +refusing to amend the British North American Act? Canadians sometimes +refer to the American Constitution as too fixed and inelastic for modern +conditions. They sometimes wonder how certain famous constitutional +lawyers could make a living without the American Constitution to +interpret and argue before the Supreme Court, but Americans and Canadians +are to-day working out from different angles a great world experiment in +self-government. It remains to be seen which experiment will stand the +stress of world-convulsing changes. We need not theorize. Time will +arbitrate. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE LIFE OF THE PEOPLE + +I + +Some one has said that the life of a nation is but the shadow of the +units composing it; or the life of a nation is but the replica of the +life of the individuals in it. Massed figures on gross exports are but +the total thrift of a multitude of toiling men. Wheat production to +feed a hungry empire is but one farmer's tireless vigilance multiplied +by hundreds of thousands of other farmers. What manner of man is the +Canadian behind all these figures attesting material prosperity? What +manner of being is the Canadian woman, his partner? Is the Canadian a +Socialist, or an Individualist? Does he believe that each man should +stand upon his own feet or lean upon a state crutch? There is no state +church in Canada. Then, what part does religion play? Is it a shadow, +or a substance? Is it a refuge for the unfit and the weak to shift the +responsibility for their own failure to the fatalism of the will of +God; or is religion a terrible and dynamic force that compels right for +right's sake independent of compromise? How does the Canadian live in +his home? Is he beer-drinking, lethargic, dreamy and flabby in will +power; or is he whisky-drinking, fiery, practical and pugnacious? Why +hasn't he a distinctive literature, a distinctive art? Nature never +was more lavish to any people in beautiful landscape from the quiet +rural scenery of the maritime provinces, Quebec and Ontario, to the +far-flung epic of the fenceless prairies and the Homeric grandeur of +the mountains. Why are quiet rural beauty and illimitable freedom and +lofty splendor not reflected in poem and novel and ballad and picture? +The Canadian may answer--We go in more for athletics than aesthetics: +we are living literature, not writing it. In our snow-covered prairies +edged by the violet mist, lined in silver and pricked at night by the +diamond light of a million stars, we are living art, not painting it. +That our mountains are dumb and inarticulate, that our forests chant +the litany of the pines untranslated to the winds of heaven, and that +our cataracts thunder their diapasons inimitable to art--is no proof +that though we are dumb and inarticulate, we are not lifted and +transported and inspired by the wondrous beauties of the heritage God +has given us. The Canadian may say this theoretically, but is he +strengthened in body and made greater in soul by the mystic splendors +of his country? In a word, has the Canadian found himself? He is not +self-conscious, if that be what is meant by finding self; and that may +be a good thing; for self-consciousness is of one of two things--the +vanity of femininity in its adolescence, or the picayune pecking +introspection of natures thrown in on self instead of exuberantly +spending energy in effort outside of self. Self-consciousness is too +much ego, whether it be old or young; and the devil must be cast out +into the swine over the cliff into the sea, before there can enter into +men, or nations, that Spirit of God which makes for great service in +Destiny. + +Has Canada found herself? + + +II + +Without any brief for or against Socialism as a system, it may be said +that for many years Socialism will play little part in Canadian +affairs. In areas like Germany, where the population is three hundred +and ten per square mile; or France, where the population is one hundred +and eighty-nine per square mile; or England, where the population is +over five hundred per square mile; or Saxony, where the population is +eight hundred and thirty per square mile--one can understand the claim +of the most rabid and extreme Socialist that the great proportion of +the people can never by any chance own their own freehold; that the +great proportion of the toilers are not having a fair chance in an open +field; but in Canada where there are millions of acres untaken, where +the population is not quite two to the square mile, it is impossible to +raise the cry that every man, and any man, can not have all the +freehold he is manly enough to go out and take. The grievance becomes +preposterous and a joke. There is more land uninhabited and open to +preemption in Canada than is owned in freehold. There are more forests +standing in Canada than have been cut. There are more mines than there +are workmen, and only the edge of Canada's mineral lands have been +explored. There are more fish uncaught than have ever been hooked. I +have heard soap-box orators in Canada rant about the plutocrats +gobbling the resources of the country; and I have gone to their offices +and shown them on the map that any man could become a plutocrat by +going out and gobbling some more, provided he had brains and brawn and +gobbled hard enough instead of gabbled; and I have been answered these +very words: "But we don't want that. We want to inflame the masses +with hatred for the classes so that the laborer will take over all +industry." When I have pointed out that there are "no masses" nor +"classes" in Canada--that all are laborers, I have been met with a +blank stare. + +The case is a standing joke in one province of a man who as an agitator +used to rave at "the British flag as a bloody rag." The police were +never quite sure whether to arrest him for treason or let him blow off +steam and exhaust. They wisely chose the latter course. Prosperity +came to the town. The man sold his small bit of real estate for +something under a hundred thousand. He didn't stay to divide his +unearned increment among his fellow agitators. He hied him to retire +to the land where "the flag was a bloody rag." This, of course, proves +nothing for or against Socialism as a system. There was a Judas among +the apostles; but it illustrates the point that Canada is still at the +stage where every man may become a capitalist, a vested righter, the +owner of his own freehold. When every man may have a vested property +right in a country--not as a gift but as the reward of his own effort +in a fair field with no favors--it is a fairly safe prophecy that the +vested rights earned and held by the fit and the strong will never be +handed over as a gift to the unfit and the weak and the don't-trys. +The savings of the man who has not squandered his earnings on saloons +and reckless living will never be taxed to support in idleness--even an +idle old age--the feckless who have spent on stomach and lust what +other men save. Sounds hard; doesn't it, in the face of almost +universal nostrums for the salvation and propagation of the useless? +But it is like Canada's climate. Perhaps the climate has a good deal +to do with it. Hard it may be; but the issue is clean-cut and crystal +clear--work, or starve; be fit, or die; make good, or drop out; here is +a fair field and no favors! Gird yourself as a man to it, and no +puling puny whining for pity! + +Can Canada keep a fair field and no favors? Her destiny as a power +depends on the answer to that question. In every city in Canada to-day +are growing up crowded foreign quarters peopled by men and women who +have never had a fair field--with class hate in their hearts for +inherited social wrongs; derelicts, no-goods, unfits, born unfit +through no fault of their own. Have they no claim? Can Canada as a +foster mother redeem such as these? Her destiny as a power depends on +the answer to this question, too. These people are coming to her. In +every city are tens of thousands of them. She needs these people. +They need her. Will it be a leveling down process for Canada or a +leveling up process for them? Before the nineties the average number +of inhabitants per house in urban Canada was three. By 1901 the +average was up to four. By 1911 it was up to five. In the crowded +centers as many as twenty a room have been found. If this sort of +thing continue and increase, Socialism will become a factor in Canada. +It will become a factor because every man or woman who has not had a +fair chance has a right to demand a change to a system that will give a +fair chance. Canada's economic stability and freedom from social +unrest will depend on getting her foreign denizens out to the land. +Unfortunately high tariff fosters factory; and factory fosters cheap +foreign labor; and cheap foreign labor as inevitably leads to social +ferment as heat sours milk. + + +III + +What part does religion play in Canada? In marked distinction to the +United Kingdom and the United States, Canada is a church-going nation. +You hear a great deal of the orthodoxy of the Britisher; but if you go +to England and go to his church, even to a festal service such as +Christmas, you will find that he leaves the orthodoxy mostly to the +clergy and the women. I have again and again seen the pews of the most +famous churches in England with barely a scattering of auditors in +them. Of churches where the hard-working manual toiler may be found +side by side with the cultured and the idle and the leisured--there is +none. You also hear a great deal about the heterodoxy of the American; +but if you go to his church--with the exception of the Catholic--you +find that he, too, is leaving his heterodoxy to the clergy and the +women. A few years ago it was almost impossible to gain entrance to a +metropolitan church in the United States, where the preacher happened +to be a man of ability or fame. Try it to-day! Though church music +has been improved almost to the excellence of oratorios or grand opera, +unless it be a festal service like Easter or Christmas, the pews are +only sparsely filled. I do not think I am exaggerating when I say this +is as true of the country districts as of the city. All through New +England are countless country churches that have had to be permanently +closed for lack of attendance. But between the churches of the United +Kingdom and the United States is a marked difference--it is the air of +the preacher. The Englishman is positively sublime in his +unconsciousness of the fact that he had lost a grip of his people. The +American knows and does not blink the fact and is frantically +endeavoring by social service, by popular lectures, by music, by +current topics, by vehement eloquence to regain the grip of his people; +and it must cut a live manly man to the quick to know that his best +efforts on salvation are too often expended on dear old saintly ladies, +who could not be damned if they tried. + +Now the curious thing about Canada, which I don't attempt in the least +to explain, is this: whether the preacher pules, or whines, or moons, +or shouts to the rafters, or is gifted with the eloquence to touch "the +quick and the dead"; whether the music be a symphony or a dolorous +horror of discords; whether there be social service or old-fashioned +theology; whether, in fact, the preacher be some raw ignorant stripling +from the theological seminary, or a man of divine inspiration and +power--whatever is or is not, if the church is a church, from Halifax +to Vancouver, you find it full. I have no explanation of this fact. I +set it down. Canadians are a vigorously virile people in their +church-going. They do it with all their might. I sometimes think that +the church does for Canada what music does for continental nations, +what dollar-chasing and amusement do for the American nation--opens +that great emotional outlet for the play of spiritual powers and +idealization, which we must all have if we would rise above the +gin-horse haltered to the wheel of toil. "The Happy Warrior" in Watts' +picture dreamed of the spirit face above him in his sleep. So may +Canada dream in her tireless urgent business of nation-making; and +religion may visualize that dream through the church. + +Understand--the Canadian is no more religious than the American or the +Britisher. He drinks as much whisky as they do light wines and beer. +He "cusses" in the same unholy vernacular, only more vigorously. He +strikes back as quickly. He hits as hard. He gives his enemy one +cheek and then the other, and then both feet and fists; but the +Canadian goes to church. One of the most amazing sights of the new +frontier cities is to see a church debouching of a Sunday night. The +people come out in black floods. In one foreign church in Winnipeg is +a membership of four thousand. I think of a little industrial city of +Ontario where there is a church--one of three--with a larger membership +than any single church in the city of New York. + +Canadians not only go to church but they dig down in their pockets for +the church. In little frontier cities of the West more is being spent +on magnificent temples of worship than has been spent on some European +cathedrals. Granted the effects are sometimes garish and squarish and +dollar-loud. This is not an age when artisans spend a lifetime carving +a single door or a single facade; but when a little place--of say +seventeen thousand people--spends one hundred thousand dollars on a +church, somebody has laid down the cash; and the Canadian is not a man +who spends his cash for no worth. That cash represents something for +which he cares almightily in Canadian life. What is it? Frankly I do +not know, but I think it is that the church visualizes Canada's ideal +in a vision. We love and lose and reach forward to the last. Where? +We toil and strive and attain. To what end? Our successes fail, and +our failures succeed. Why? And love lights the daily path. But where +to? Religion helps to visualize the answers to those questions for +Canada. + +Another characteristic about religion in Canada, which is very +remarkable in an era of decadence in belief, is that the church is a +man's job. Unless in some of the little semi-deserted hamlets in the +far East, you will find in Canada churches as many men as women. In +the West you will find more men than women. The church is not +relegated to "the dear sisters." Shoulder to shoulder men and women +carry the burden joyfully together, which, perhaps, accounts for the +support the church receives from young men. An episode concerning "the +dear sisters" will long be remembered of one synod in Montreal. A poor +little English curate had come out as a missionary to the Indians of +the Northwest. Such misfits are pitiable, as well as laughable. When +you consider that in some of these northern parishes a man can reach +his different missions only by canoe or dog-train, that the missions +are forty miles apart, that the canoe must run rapids and the dog-train +dare blizzards--an effeminate type of man is more of a tragedy than a +comedy. I think of one mission where the circuit is four hundred miles +and the distance to railroad, doctor, post-office, fifty-five miles. +This little curate had had a hard time, though his mission was an easy +one. When his turn came to report, his face resembled the reflection +on an inverted teaspoon. Hardship had taken all the bounce and laugh +and joy and rebound out of him. The other frontier missionaries grew +restless as he spoke. One magnificent specimen, who had been a gambler +in his unregenerate days, began to shuffle uneasily. When the little +curate whined about the vices of the Indians, this big frontier +missionary pulled off his coat. (He explained to me that it was "a hot +night"; besides it "made him mad to hear the poor Indians damned for +their vices, when white men, who passed as gentlemen, had more.") +Finally, when the little curate appealed to "the dear sisters to raise +money to build a fence," the big man could stand it no longer. He +ripped his collar loose and sprang to his feet. "Man," he thundered, +"pull off your coat and build your own fence and don't trouble the Lord +about such trifles. I'm rich on thirty dollars a year. When I need +more, I sell a steer. Don't let us bother God-Almighty with such +unmanly puling and whining," and much more, he said--which I have told +elsewhere--which brought that audience to life with the shocks of a +galvanic battery. One of the most successful Indian missionaries in +Canada is a full blood Cree. It does not detract from his services in +the least that if in the middle of his prayers he hears the wild geese +coming in spring, he bangs the Holy Book shut and shouts for the +congregation to grab their guns and get a shot. + +The virile note in religious life is one of the chief reasons for its +support in Canada; and I have been amused to watch English and American +friends who have gone to Canada first indifferent to the church-going +habit, then touched and finally caught in the current. Does the habit +react on public life? Undoubtedly and most strongly! Catholic Quebec +and Protestant Ontario for years literally dictated provincial and +federal policies; but, with the shift of the balance of power from East +to West, that shuffling of Catholic against Protestant and vice versa +has ceased in Canadian politics; and those newspapers that gained their +support playing on religious prejudice have had to sell and begin with +a new sheet. At the same time no policy could be put forward in +Canada, no man could stay in public life against the voice of the +different churches. If it were not invidious, examples could be given +of public men relegated to private life because they violated the +principles for which the church stands. The church in Canada is not a +dead issue. It is not the city of refuge for the failures and the +misfits. It voices the ideals of Canadian men and women busy +nation-building. It has been cynically said that the church in +England, as far as public men are concerned, lays all its emphasis on +the Eighth Commandment, and none at all on the Seventh; and that the +church in the United States lays all its emphasis on the Seventh +Commandment and none at all on the Eighth. I do not think a politician +could be a special acrobat with either of these Commandments and stay +in public life in Canada. The clergy would "peel off" those coats and +roll up their sleeves and get into the fight. There would be a lot of +mud-slinging; but the culprit would go--as not a few have gone in +recent years. + + +IV + +Deeply grounded, then, so deeply that the Canadian is unconscious of +it, put the belief in the economic principle of vested rights! Still +more deeply grounded, put a belief in religious ideals as a working +hypothesis! Does any other factor enter deeply in Canadians' every-day +living? Yes--next to economic beliefs and religious beliefs, I should +put love of outdoor sport as a prime factor in determining Canadian +character. + +Professional sport has comparatively little place in Canada, though +professional baseball has gained a firm foothold in the Northwest, +where the American influence is strong, while the International League +reaches over the boundary in the East. But it is the amateur who +enjoys most favor. If a picked team of bank clerks and office hands +and young mechanics in Winnipeg practises up in hockey and comes down +from Winnipeg and licks the life out of a team in Montreal or Ottawa, +or gets licked, the whole population goes hockey mad. This churchly +nation will gamble itself blue in the face with bets and run up gate +receipts to send a professional home sick to bed, and I have known of +employers forgiving youngsters who bet and lost six months' salary in +advance. Montreal will cheer Winnipeg just as wildly when Winnipeg +wins in Montreal, as Winnipeg will cheer Montreal when Montreal wins in +Winnipeg. It is not the winning. It is the playing of clean good +sport that elicits the applause. The same of curling, of football, of +cricket, of rowing, of canoeing, of snowshoeing, of yachting, of +skeeing, of running. When an Indian won the Marathon, he was lionized +almost to his undoing. When hardest frost used to come, I knew a dear +old university professor, who would have considered it sin to touch the +ace of spades, who used to hie him down to the rink with "bessom" and +"stane" and there curl on the ice till his toes almost froze on his +feet; and one Episcopal clergyman used to have hard work holding back +hot words of youthful habit on the golf links; and his people loved him +both because he golfed and because he almost said things, when he +golfed. They would rather have a clergyman who golfed and knew "a cuss +word" when he saw it, than a saint who couldn't wield a club and might +faint at such words as golf elicits. + +In one of Canada's best rowing crews, a millionaire merchant was the +acting captain of the crew and among his men were a printer, an +insurance canvasser, a bank clerk, a clerk in a dry goods store. In +one of the most famous hockey teams was a bicycle repairer. Sport in +Canada, as in the United States, is the most absolute democracy. I can +think of no man in Canada who has attained a permanently good place in +social life through catering to women's favor with dandified +mannerisms, though not a few have got a leg up to come most terrible +croppers; but I do think of many men to whom all doors are permanently +open because they are such clean first-rate sportsmen. Until the last +ten years of opulent fevered prosperity came to the Dominion, Canada +might have been described as a nation of athletes. This does not mean +that Canada neglected work for play. It means that she worked so +robustly because she had developed strength on the field of play. +Three truths are almost axiomatic about nations and sport. It is said +that a nation is as it spends its leisure; that nations only win +battles as their boys have played in their youth; that man's work is +only boy's sport full grown. The religious little catechist may win +prizes in the parochial school; but if he doesn't learn to take kicks +and give them good and hard, in play, he will not win life's prizes. +Fair play, nerve, poise, agility, act that jumps with thought, the +robust fronting of life's challenge--these are learned far more on the +toboggan slide where you may break your neck, in a snowshoe scamper, +than poring over books, or in a parlor. I do not know that Canada has +analyzed it out, but she lives it. Young Canada may be bumptious, raw, +crude. Time tones these things down; but she is not tired before she +has begun the race. She is not nerve-collapsed and peeved and +insincere. + + +V + +As to why Canada has no distinctive and great literature--I confess +frankly I do not know. England had only Canada's population when a +Shakespeare and a Milton rose like stars above the world. Scotland and +Ireland both have a smaller population than Canada, and their ballads +are sung all over the world. Canada has had a multitude of sweet +singers pipe the joys of youth, but as life broadened and deepened +their songs did not reach to the deeps and the heights. Something +arrested development. They did not go on. Why? It may be that +literature rises only as high as its fountain springs--the people; and +that the people of Canada have not yet realized themselves clearly +enough to recognize or give articulation to a national literature. It +may be that Canada is living her literature rather than writing it. If +Scott had not found appreciation for his articulation of Scottish life +and history in poems and novels, he would not have gone on. In fact, +when Byron eclipsed Scott in public favor as a poet, Scott stopped +writing poetry. It may be that Canada has not become sufficiently +unified--cemented in blood and suffering--to appreciate a literature +that distinctively interprets her life and history. It may be that she +has been swamped by the alien literature of alien lands, for the +writers of English to-day are legion. Or it may be the deeper cause +beneath the dearth of world literature just now--lack of that peace, +that joyous calm, that repose of soul and freedom from distraction, +that permits a creator to give of his best. + +One sometimes hears Canadians--particularly in England--accused of +crudity in speech. I confess I like the crudities, the rawness, the +colloquialisms. They smack of the new life in a new land. I should be +sorry if Canadians ever began to Latinize their sentences, to "can" +their speech and pickle it in the vinegar pedantry of the peeved +study-chair critic. Because it is a land of mountain pines and +cataracts and wild winds, I would have their speech smack always of +their soil; and I would bewail the day that Canadians began to measure +their phrases to suit the yard stick of some starveling pedant in a +writer's attic, who had never been nearer reality than his own +starvation. I can see no superiority in the Englishman's +colloquialisms of "runnin'," "playin'," "goin'," to the Canadian's "cut +it out," "get out," "beat it." One is the slovenliness of languor. +The other is the rawness of vigor. + + +VI + +When one comes to consider woman in a nation's life, it is always a +little provoking to find "woman" and "divorce" coupled together; for +there never was a divorce without a man involved as well as a woman. +The marriage tie is not easily dissolved in Canada. Divorce pleas must +go before a committee of the Federal Senate. Without legal fees, it +costs five hundred dollars to obtain a divorce in Canada; with fees, +one thousand dollars; so that Canada's divorce record is 1,530 for +7,800,000 of population in 1913; or one divorce for every 5,000 people. +This seems a laudably low record, and Canada takes great credit to +herself for it. I am not sure she should, for her system makes divorce +a luxury available only to the rich. Divorce is not a cause. It is a +result. I am not sure that people ill-mated do not do more harm to +their children staying together than separating; and marriage is not +for the man or the woman, but for the race. This opinion, however, +would be considered heresy in Canada, and a great many factors conspire +to help woman's status in the Dominion. To begin with, there are half +a million more men than women. A woman need never give herself so +cheaply as to spend her life paying for her precipitancy. She is not a +superfluous. Another point in which some other countries could emulate +Canada is in the protection of women and children. A woman ill-mated +has the same protection under the law as though she were single. +Infringement of her rights is punishable with penalties varying from +seven years and the lash to death. A man living on a woman's illicit +earnings is not coddled by ward heelers and let off with light bail, as +in certain notorious California cases. He is given the lash and seven +years. Such offenders seldom come up for sentence twice. + +On the other hand, compared to punishments for property violations, the +protection of women and children is ridiculously inadequate. A man +abducting a girl is liable to sentence of five years; a man stealing a +cow, to sentence of fourteen years. Counterfeiting coin is punished by +life imprisonment. Misusing a ward or employee is punished by two +years' imprisonment. This remissness is no index to a subordinate +position by women in Canada. It is rather simple testimony to the fact +that before the influx of alien peoples certain types of crime were +unknown. + +There is little of sex unrest in Canada. In fact, sex as sex is not in +evidence, which is a symptom of wholesome relationships. Perhaps I +should say there is little of that feminine discontent and revolt so +strident in older lands. This I attribute to two facts: an overplus of +men, and boundless opportunity and freedom for the expenditure of +unused energies. In certain sections of England, women over-balanced +men before the war as ten to one. What the over-balance will be after +the war, one can only guess. When women who want to marry are not +married, or married to types different from themselves--which must +happen when the sexes are in disproportion--unhappiness must result. +Woman is at war, she knows not with what. When women who are full of +energy and ability have nothing to do, there is bound to be +unhappiness. In Canada a woman has perfect freedom to do anything she +chooses. Her opportunity is limited only by her own personality. What +she wills, she may, if she can. If she can't, then her quarrel must be +with self, not with life. Children can not choose their parents; but a +woman can choose the parent of her child; and when her choice is high +and wide and happy, it bodes better for the race than when conditions +have forced her into an alliance that must be more or less of an armed +truce on a low plane. + +As an example of the fairness of marriage laws in Canada, if a +fur-trader marry an Indian woman--according to the custom of the tribe, +simply taking her to wife without ceremony, she is his legal heir, and +her children are his legal heirs. This was established in a famous +trial in the courts of Quebec. A trader became contractor and +politician. When prosperity came, he discarded his Indian wife and +married an English girl. On his death the Indian wife and children +sued for his estate. It was awarded to them by the courts and +established a precedent that guaranteed social status to the children +of such unions. This is one of the things that easterners can not +comprehend. I have never heard the opprobrious phrase "squaw man" used +on the Canadian frontier; and descendants of the MacKenzies, the +Isbisters, the Hardistys, the Strathconas, the Macleans, the +MacLeods--blush, not with shame but pride, in acknowledging the Indian +strain of blood. + +The fact that some of the western provinces notoriously ignore a +woman's property rights in her husband's estate--is sometimes quoted to +prove the unfairness of Canada's laws to women. I am no defender of +those lax property laws. They ought to, and will soon, be changed; but +let us give even the devil his dues; and the devil in this case was the +mad real estate speculation. When thousands of adventurers poured in +from everywhere and began buying and selling and reselling property, it +impeded quick turn overs to reserve the absent wife's third. +Sometimes, as in the case of a famous actor, the wives numbered four. +Ordinarily in Canada--certainly in eastern provinces--a third is the +wife's reserve unless she sign it away. How four wives could each have +a third was a poser for the speculator and the knot was cut by ignoring +the wife's claims. Now that the fevered mad mania of speculation is +over this remissness of the law in two provinces will doubtless be +remedied. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +EMIGRATION AND DEVELOPMENT + +I + +You can ascribe the different characteristics of different nations to +the topography of their native land--up to a certain point only. +Beyond that the difference becomes one of psychology and soul rather +than geography, and that is why nations hold to a large extent their +destiny in their own hands. Undoubtedly the unfenced illimitable +reaches of the prairie have reacted on the human soul, unshackling it +from the discouragements of failure in the past and have given a sense +of freedom that explains the dauntless optimism of the West; but if the +people who went to the West had not had the courage to face the +hardships of the pioneer, their optimism could not have triumphed over +difficulties. The very qualities that sent pioneers forth on the trail +to the setting sun guaranteed their success as empire builders. + +Japan was long an island empire, but it was only when the soul of that +empire awakened to the Western Renaissance that Japan became a world +power. The German people existed on the map many centuries before they +came into existence as a nation. It was only when the national idea +came that Germany became a power. Likewise of England as mistress of +the seas--the source of her commerce and wealth. England had been a +seagirt nation from the beginning of time. It was only when by the +defeat of the Armada England learned what mastery of the sea meant that +she shot into front rank as a great world power. + +How does all this bear on Canada? It is a puzzling question. Ask the +average Canadian why the development of Canada has been slow; and he +denies that it has been slow; or he proves that it is a good thing it +has been slow; or he compares Canada's progress with that of some other +country which has gone too fast, or too slow. All this is a mere +clever dodging of fact. Blinking one's eyes to a fact doesn't +eliminate the fact. + + +II + +What are the facts? + +De Monts' first charter to Arcadia dates 1605. The first charter for +Virginia plantations comes in 1606, and the first New England charter +dates the same year. The United States and Canada are both fertile. +They have almost the same area in square miles. One has a population +of over ninety millions and a foreign commerce of four billions. The +other has a population of about eight millions and a foreign commerce +of one billion. One raises from seven hundred to nine hundred million +bushels of wheat; the other, from two hundred to three hundred +millions. One produces thirty million metric tons of steel a year; the +other, less than a million tons; one is worth a hundred and fifty +billion dollars, the other perhaps ten billions. + +It is explained that the northern belt of Canada lying in a semi-arctic +zone should hardly be included in comparisons with the area of the +United States lying altogether in a temperate zone; but if cultivation +is proving one thing more than another, it is that Canada's arctic +region recedes a little every year, and her isothermal lines run a +little farther north every year. To put it differently, it is being +yearly more and more proved that the degree of northern latitude +matters less in vegetable growth than heretofore thought, if the arable +land be there; for the simple reason that twenty hours of sunlight from +May to September force as rapid a growth as twelve to fifteen hours' +sunlight from March to September, and the product grown in the North +may be superior to that grown farther south. Wheat from Manitoba is +better than wheat from Georgia. Apples from Niagara have a quality not +found in apples--say from the Gulf states. All things will not grow in +northern latitudes. You can't raise corn. You can't raise peaches. I +doubt if any apple will ever be found suitable for the northwestern +prairie. At any rate, it has not yet been found. + +Half a century ago the Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company in +perfectly good faith testified before a committee of the Imperial +Commons that farming could never be carried on in Rupert's Land, or +what are now known as Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. He proved +that grain could not be grown there. I recall the day when the idea of +fall wheat west of Lake Superior elicited a hoot of derision. I have +lived to wander through fields of six hundred acres north of the +Saskatchewan. Thirty years ago any one suggesting settlement on Peace +River, or at Athabasca, would have been regarded as a visionary fool. +Yet wheat is ground into flour on Peace River, and the settler is at +Athabasca; and soft Kansas fall wheat sent to Peace River has by a few +years' transplanting been transformed into Number One Hard spring +wheat. Canada's arctic belt has shrunk a little each year, and her +isothermal lines gone a little farther north. The only limit to growth +in the North Country is the nature of the soil. I am not, of course, +speaking of the Arctic slope, but I am of the great belt of wild land +north of Saskatchewan River. And where the arable land stops, the +great fur farm of the world begins---a fur farm which may change but +can never be exhausted. Of course, Canada has a great northern belt of +land that is not arable, but in that belt are such precious minerals as +were discovered in the Yukon. Land that can't be plowed isn't +necessarily waste land, and Canada's great northern belt is partly +balanced by the desert belt of the Southwest in the United States--the +perpetual Indian land of Uncle Sam. + + +III + +With this argument--you come back just where you began. The two +countries were first settled almost contemporaneously. Their area is +not far different. They are both fertile. Each has great +belts--having spent months in each belt, I hesitate to call them +barren--of land that can not be plowed. Why has one country progressed +with such marvelous rapidity; and the other progressed in fits and +starts and stops? Why did a million and a half Canadians--or +one-fourth the native population--leave Canada for the United States? +The Canadian retort always is--for the same reason that two million +Americans have left the United States for Canada--to better their +position. But the point is--why was it these million and a half +Canadians found better opportunities in the United States than in +Canada? Opportunities knock at every man's door if he has ears to +hear, but they are usually supposed to knock loudest and oftenest in +the new land. It is a truism that there are ten chances on the +frontier for a man to rise compared to one in the city. One can +understand American settlers thronging to Canada. They have used and +made good the opportunities in their own land. Now they are sending +their sons to a land of more opportunities. The Iowa farmer who has +succeeded on his three hundred and twenty acres sends forth his sons +each to succeed on his one hundred and sixty acres in Canada; or he +sells his own land for one hundred dollars an acre and forthwith buys a +thousand acres in Canada. When the farmers of Ontario flocked to +Wisconsin and Michigan and Minnesota and the two Dakotas, their land +was worth thirty per cent. less than when they bought it. To-day that +same land is worth one hundred per cent. more than for what they sold +it. + +It is easy to look over another land and diagnose its ills. Any +Canadian will acknowledge that Ireland's population dropped from +8,500,000 in 1850 to 4,400,000 in 1908 solely owing to mismanagement, +if not gross misgovernment; but he will not acknowledge that his own +country lost a million and a half people from the same cause. Ireland +lost her population at the rate of one hundred thousand a year for +forty years, and that lost population helped to build up some of the +greatest cities in the United States. The Irish vote is to-day a +dominant power solely owing to that population lost to Ireland. It is +no exaggeration to say that from 1880 to 1890 Canada lost her +population to the United States at a higher rate than one hundred +thousand a year. Why? + +Go back a little in history! The most pugnacious United Empire +Loyalist that ever trekked from the American colonies to Ontario and +Nova Scotia and New Brunswick would hardly deny that Canada was grossly +misgoverned under the French régime. Laborers were forced to work +unpaid on fortifications, on roads, on governors' palaces. The farmer +was taxed to death in tithes to the seignior. Shipping was confined to +French vessels owned by royal favorites. Fishing was permitted only +under a license. The fur trade was a corrupt monopoly held by a closed +ring round the Royal Intendant. New France was so mis-governed that +the sons of the best families took to the woods and the _Pays d'en +Haut_--to which fact we owe the exploration of three-quarters of the +continent. + +And the most pugnacious Loyalist will hardly deny that under the +British régime from 1759 to Durham's Report in 1840 the mismanagement +was almost as gross as the misgovernment under the French. If any one +entertain doubts on that score, let him look up the record on grants of +thousands of acres to favorites of the Family Compact; on peculations +of public funds in Quebec by irresponsible executives; on mistrials of +disorders in the Fur Country, when North-Wester and Hudson's Bay +traders cut each other's throats; on the constant bicker and bark +between Protestant Ontario and Catholic Quebec, which kept the country +rent by religious dissensions when men should have been empire-building. + +Set down the cause of Canada's slow progress up to 1840 to +misgovernment. Durham's Report remedied all that; and confederation +followed in 1867. Was Canada's progress as swift after 1867 as it +ought to have been? Examine a few figures: + +In 1790 the United States population was four millions. + +In 1800 the United States population was five millions. + +In 1914 the United States population was ninety-eight millions. + +In 1891 Canada's population was five millions. + +In 1900 Canada's population was five million three hundred thousand. + +In 1914 Canada's population was seven million eight hundred thousand. + +In point of population Canada is just one hundred years behind the +United States. Why? Granted her foreign trade is one-fourth as great +as that of the United States. How is it that a people with such a +genius for success in foreign trade have been so dilatory in their work +of nation-building? Slow progress can no longer be ascribed to +misgovernment. Her system of justice is one of the most perfect in the +world. Her parliamentary representation could hardly be more complete. +No people has stricter bit and rein on executive ministers. Through an +anguish of travail Canada has worked out an excellent system of +self-government. Why is her progress still slow? + +Of course one reason for her slow progress in the past was the +impression that long prevailed regarding Canada's climate and +agricultural possibilities. The officials of the Hudson's Bay Company +contended that the Northwest was unfit for settlement, and it was only +within recent times that the contrary view gained a hearing and proved +to be true. With vast tracts of unoccupied land in the milder climate +of the United States still open to settlement and with Canadians +themselves denying that the great Northwest could be cultivated, it is +not strange that most immigrants passed Canada by. Furthermore in +those days the glamour of democracy fascinated dissatisfied Europeans +who swarmed to the New World. Canada was practically as free as the +United States, but she was a possession of the British Crown, and many +emigrants, especially from the Emerald Isle, preferred to try the +experiment of living in a republic. + +But there are other reasons. It was after the Civil War that the +American high tariff struck Canada an unintended but nevertheless +staggering blow. She had no market. She had to build up +transportation system and trade routes, but this was well under way by +1890. Has her progress since 1890 kept pace with the United States? +One has but to compare the population between the Mississippi and +Seattle with the population between Red River and Vancouver to have the +answer to this question. + +Is it something in the soul; a habit of discouragement; of marking +time; of fighting shy on the defensive instead of jumping into the +aggressive; of self-derogation; of criticism instead of construction; +of foreshortened vision? A diagnosis can be made from symptoms. I set +down a few of the symptoms. There may be many more, and the thinker +must trace up--a surgeon would "guess"--his own diagnosis. + + +IV + +If it were not such a tiresome task, it could be shown from actual +quotations that there is not a paper published in Canada that at some +time during the year does not deliver itself of sentiments regarding +the United States which may be paraphrased thus: "We thank God we are +not as Thou art!" Now the point may be well taken; and Canada should +be thankful to God (and keep her powder dry) that crimes are punished, +that innocence is protected, that vice is not a factor in civic +government; but it is a dangerous attitude for any people to assume +toward another nation. It does not turn the soul-searchings in on +self. It does not get down beneath the skin of things; down, for +instance, beneath a hide of self-righteousness to meanness or nobility +of motive. A big ship always has barnacles; the United States is a big +ship, and she keeps her engine going and her speed up and in the main +her prow headed to a big destiny. It ill becomes a little ship to bark +out--but let it be left unsaid! + +While this curious assumption of superiority exists internationally, +there is the most contradictory depreciation nationally. "We," they +say, "are only a little people." So was Switzerland. So was Greece. +So was Belgium. So, indeed, were the Jews. + +You never mention a Jim Hill, a Doctor Osler, a Schurman, a Graham +Bell--or a host of similar famous expatriates--in a Canadian gathering +but some one utters with a pride of gratulation that fairly beams from +the face: "They are Canadians." Canada is proud these famous men are +Canadians. It has always struck me as curious that she wasn't +ashamed--ashamed that she lost their services from her own +nation-building. To my personal knowledge three of these men had to +borrow the money to leave Canada. Their services were worth untold +wealth to other lands. Their services did not give them a living in +Canada. + +At time of writing--with only three exceptions--Canada imports the +presidents of her great universities; though she exports some of the +greatest presidents and deans who have ever graced Princeton, Cornell, +Oxford. She thinks she can not afford to keep these men. Is it a +matter of money, at all; or of appreciative intelligence? No matter +what the cost, can Canada afford to lose them from her young nationals? + +It is a truism that to my knowledge has not a single exception that +Canada has never given the imprimatur of her approval to a writer, to +an inventor, to a scholar, to an artist, till he has gone abroad and +received the stamp of approval outside his own land. By the time Paul +Peel was acclaimed in Paris and Horatio Walker in New York each was +lost to his own land. It is an even wager nine Canadians out of ten do +not know who these men were or for what they were acclaimed. Try it as +an experiment on your first train acquaintance. + +You can not read early records of Congress without the most astounding +realization that Washington, Monroe, Jefferson, Adams, big statesmen +and little politicians, voicing solemn convictions or playing to the +gallery--all were deadly in earnest and serious about the business of +building up a nation. They never lost sight of the idea of conserving, +up-building, protecting, extending their country. The national idea is +in Canada so recent that most men have not grasped it. "Build a navy?" +Canada hooted and made the vote a party football. "Canada should have +her own shipyards?" Men look at you! What for? "Panama will reverse +the world conduits of trade." Bah! Hot-air! I have heard these and +similar comments not once but a thousand times. + +Americans say of opportunity--"How much can we make of it?" Canadians +say--"How little can we pay for it?" And each takes out of opportunity +exactly the amount of optimism put into it. + +So one could go down the list enumerating symptoms, but beneath them +all, it is plain, lies a cause psychological, not physical. It may be +a psychology of discouragement and disparagement from long years of +hardship, but whatever it is, if Canada is to be as big nationally as +she is latitudinally, as great in soul as in area, she must get rid of +this negative thing in her attitude to herself and life. It makes for +solidity, but it also makes for stolidity. Nations do not grow great +by what they leave undone. Psychologists say all mentality divides +itself into two great classes: those giving off negative response to +stimulus; those giving off positive. One class of people stands for +carping criticism; the other, for constructive attempts. One is safe, +to be sure, and sane; and the other is distinctively rash and +dangerous; but of rashness and danger is valor made. "I know thy +works," said the Voice to the Laodiceans, "that thou art neither hot +nor cold: I would thou wert hot or cold . . . because thou art +lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spue thee out of my mouth." + +And the Voice is the verdict of destiny to every nation that has taken +its place at the world's council board. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +DEFENSE + +Having spent a hundred years working out a system of government almost +perfect in its democracy, and having spent fifty more years working out +a system of trade and transportation that gives Canada sixth rank in +the gross foreign trade of the world nations--one would think the +Dominion entitled to lie back resting on her laurels reaping the reward +that is undoubtedly hers. + +But nations can no more rest in their development than men. To stop +means to go back. To rest means to rust, and Canada to-day must face +one of the most serious problems in her national history. What is +worth having is worth holding, and what is worth holding must always be +defended. The strong man does not go out challenging a fight. The +very fact that he is strong prevents other men challenging him to a +fight, and Canada must face the need of national defense. + +So remote did the need of national defense seem to Canada that as late +as May of 1913 the Senate rejected Premier Borden's plan for Canada to +contribute her quota in cost to the British navy. The Laurier +government had proposed building a small navy for the Dominion. This +was hooted by the French Nationalists, and when the Borden government +came into power, the policy was modified from building a small navy to +bearing a quota of the cost of a navy built and equipped by Imperial +power. In the rejection of this policy, the composition of the Senate +and Commons should be observed. The Commons were Conservative, or +supporters of Premier Borden, and the Government Navy Bill passed the +Commons by one hundred and one to sixty-eight. The Nationalists voted +with the opposition or the Liberals. The Nationalists are the small +French party pledged against Canada's intervention in European affairs. +Laurier having been in power for almost two decades, the Senate was, of +course, tinged with the Liberal policy. They could not completely +reject a naval policy without repudiating Laurier's former policy; so +they rejected the Borden Naval Bill on the ground that it ought to have +been submitted to the electorate. The vote in the Senate was fifty-one +to twenty-seven. In the Senate were fifty-four Liberals--or supporters +of Laurier--and thirty-two Conservatives, or supporters of Borden. In +other words, so remote did the possible need of defense seem that both +parties played politics with it. + +For a hundred years Canada had been at peace. The Rebellion of 1837 +can hardly be called a war. In 1870 the Indian unrest known as the +First Riel Rebellion had occurred, but this amounted to little more +than a joy jaunt for the troops under Lord Wolseley to Red River. The +Riel Uprising of 1885 was more serious; but every Canadian who gave the +matter any thought at all knew there had been genuine cause for +grievance among the half-breeds; and fewer lives were lost in this +rebellion than in many a train or mine accident. Canada sent to the +South African War troops who distinguished themselves to such an extent +as to give a feeling of almost false security to the Dominion. On +every frontier are men born to the rifle and the saddle--ready-made +troopers; but as the frontier shrinks, this class deteriorates and +softens. + +For a hundred years Canada has been at peace with the outside world. +For three thousand miles along her southern border dwells a neighbor +who has often been a rival in trade and with whom Canada has had many a +dispute as to fisheries and boundaries and tariff, but along this +borderland of three thousand miles exists not a single fort, points not +a single gun, watches not a single soldier. It is a question if +another such example of international friendship without international +pact exists in the history of the world. Where international +boundaries in Europe bristle with forts and cannon, international +boundaries in America are a shuttle of traffic back and forth of great +migrations of population, of great waves of friendship and good feeling +which all the trade rivalries and hostile tariffs of a half century +have failed to stem. The pot shot of some fishery patrol across the +nets of a poacher on the wrong side of the international line fails to +excite anybody. Even if some flag lunatic full of whisky climbs a +flagstaff and tears down the other country's national emblem--the +boundary does not go on fire. The authorities cool such alcoholic +patriotism with a water hose, or ten days in the lock-up. The papers +run a half column, and that is all there is about it. + +So why should Canada become excited over national defense? On the +south is a boundary without a fort, without a gun, guarded by a +powerful nation with a Monroe Doctrine challenging the world neither to +seize nor colonize in the Western Hemisphere. On the east for three +thousand miles washes the Atlantic, on the west for five thousand miles +the Pacific--what has Canada to fear? "Why," asked the Conservatives, +"should we support the Laurier policy of building a tin-pot navy?" +"Why," retorted the Liberals when Laurier went out and Borden went in, +"should we support the Borden Navy Bill to contribute good Canadian +cash to a British navy?" + +Besides, in the back of Canada's collective head--as it were--in a sort +of unspoken consciousness was the almost religious conviction that the +Dominion had contributed her share toward Imperial defense in her +transportation system. Had she not granted fifty-five million acres of +land for the different transcontinentals and spent far over a billion +in loans and subsidies and guarantees? Value that land at ten dollars +an acre. That was tantamount to an expenditure of two hundred dollars +per capita for a transportation system of use to the empire in Imperial +defense. Seventy trainloads of Hindu troops were rushed across Canada +in cars with drawn blinds and transported to Europe before the enemy +knew such a movement was contemplated. Should Turkey ever cut off +Suez, Canada and Panama would be England's route to India. In +addition, Canada considers herself the granary of the empire. Should +Suez ever cut off the path to India and Australia, what colony could +feed England but Canada? + +You will note that Canada's thought concerned the empire, not herself. +The reason for the navy bills proposed by both parties has been +Imperial defense. That Canada might some day be compelled to fight for +her own existence--and fight to the death for it--never dawned on her +legislators; and their unconsciousness of national peril is the +profoundest testimony to the pacific intentions of the United States +that could be given. It seems almost treason at this era of world war +to call Canada's attention to the fact that the greatest danger is not +to Imperial defense. It is to Canada's national defense. Uncle Sam +has been Canada's big brother, but what if when the danger came, his +arms were tied in a conflict of his own? Whatever comes to menace the +United States will menace the safety of Canada; and with swift +cruisers, Europe and Asia are nearer Canada to-day than Halifax is near +Vancouver. Either city could be attacked by foreign powers before +military aid could be transported across the width of Canada. We are +nearer Europe to-day than the North was near the South in the Civil +War. It takes a shorter time to transport troops across Atlantic or +Pacific than it formerly took to send a Minnesota regiment to Maryland. +Including Quebec, Montreal, old Port Royal, Annapolis, Louisburg and +the forts on Hudson Bay, Canada's chief strongholds of defense have +been taken and retaken seven times by European enemies in one hundred +and sixty years--between 1629 and 1789. Day was when Quebec +fortifications cost so much that the King of France wanted to know if +they were laid in gold. Before the fall of Quebec in 1759, +Louisburg--a forgotten fortress of Cape Breton--was considered one of +France's strongholds. Have Canadians forgotten the frightful wreck of +the British fleet in the St. Lawrence in 1711 under Sir Havender +Walker; or the defeat of the admiralty ships manned by the Hudson's Bay +fur-traders up off Port Nelson in 1697 by Lemoyne d' Iberville? Before +La Pérouse reduced Churchill it was regarded as a second Gibraltar. +Yet Churchill and Nelson and Quebec and Louisburg all fell before a +foreign foe, and Europe is nearer to-day than she was in those eras of +terrible defeat. What additional fortifications or defenses has Canada +to be so cocksure that history can never repeat itself? She is not +resting under the Monroe Doctrine. It is a safe wager that many +Canadians have never heard of the Monroe Doctrine. Besides, the minute +Canada voluntarily enters a European war, does she forfeit American +"protection" under that Monroe Doctrine? The idea of being "protected" +by any power but her own--and Britain's--right arm Canada would scout +to derision. Yet what are her own national defenses? + +Her regular forces ordinarily consist of less than three thousand men; +her volunteer forces of forty-five to sixty thousand. By law it is +provided that the Dominion militia consist of all male inhabitants of +the age of eighteen and under sixty, divided into four classes: from +eighteen to thirty years of age unmarried or widowers; from thirty to +forty-five unmarried or widowers; from eighteen to forty-five married +or widowers; men of all classes between forty-five and sixty. In +emergency, those liable to service would be called in this order. The +period of service is three years. Up to the present service has been +voluntary, and the period of drill lasts sixteen days. Except for +fishing patrols and insignificant cruisers, Canada has no marine force, +absolutely none, though she can requisition the big merchant liners +which she subsidizes. Canada has an excellent military school in +Kingston and a course of instruction at Quebec, but the majority of +graduates from these centers go into service in the British army simply +because there is no scope for them in their own land. At Esquimalt off +Victoria, British Columbia, and at Halifax, Nova Scotia, before the +outbreak of the present war, were Imperial naval stations; but these +were being reduced to a minimum. Perhaps to these defenders should be +added some thirty thousand juvenile cadets trained in the public +schools, but if one is to set down facts not fictions, much of the +training of the volunteers resolves itself into a yearly picnic. One +wonders on what Canada is pinning her faith in security from attack in +case disaster should come to the British navy. Whether Canada is +conscious of it or not, her greatest defense is in the virility of her +manhood. Her men are neither professorial nor an office type. They +are big outdoor men who shoot well because they have shot from boyhood +and lived a life in the open. All this, however, is not national +defense. It is unused but splendid material for national defense. + +Up to the outbreak of the present war Canada has not spent ten million +a year on national defense. That is--for the security of peace for a +century, she has spent less than one dollar and fifty cents per head a +year. A year ago naval bills were rejected. To-day there are few +people in Canada who would not acknowledge that Canada is spending too +little on defense. Stirred profoundly but, as is the British way, +saying little, the Dominion is setting herself in earnest to the big +new problem. To the European War, Canada has sent sixty thousand men; +and she has promised one hundred thousand more. A nation that can +unpreparedly deliver on such promises to the drop of the hat can take +care of her defense, and that may be Canada's next national job. + +Would any power have an object in crippling Canada? The question is +answered best by another. If Suez were cut off and Canada were cut +off, where would England look for her food supply? And if it were to +the advantage of a hostile power to cripple Canada, could she be +conquered? Any one familiar with Canada will answer without a moment's +hesitation. She could be attacked. Her coastal cities could be laid +waste as the cities of Belgium. To reach the interior of Canada, an +enemy must do one of three things, all next to impossible: penetrate +the St. Lawrence--a treacherous current--for a thousand miles exposed +to submarine and mine and attack from each side; cross the United +States and so violate American sovereignty, cross the Rockies to reach +inland. Any one of these feats is as impossible as the conquest of +Switzerland or the Scottish Highlands. Canada could be attacked and +laid waste; she could be financially ruined by attack and set back +fifty years in her progress; but she could no more be conquered than +Napoleon conquered Russia. The conquest would be at a cost to destroy +the conqueror, and the conqueror could no more stay than Napoleon +stayed in Moscow. Canada has a vast, an illimitable back country--the +area of all Russia; and to the lakes and wild rivers and mountain +passes of that country her people are born and bred. To her climate +her people are born and bred. The climate would take care of the rest. +You can't exactly despatch motors and motor guns down swamps for a +hundred miles and over cataracts and through mountain passes on the +perpendicular. Canada's back country is her perpetual city of refuge. +Nevertheless, the day of dependence on false security is past. +National status implies national defense, and at time of writing the +indications are that the whole military system of the Dominion will be +put on a new basis, training to patriotism and defense and service from +the public school up through the university. + +"Then what becomes of your co-eds and woman movement?" a militarist +asked. + +The question can be answered in the words of a great doctor--more men +die on the field of battle from lack of women nurses than ever die from +the bullet of the enemy. The time seems to have come for woman's place +on the firing line. That womanhood which gives of life to create life +now claims the right to go out on the field of danger to conserve and +protect life; and in the embodiment of military training in public +education that, too, may be part of Canada's new national defense. + +When an admiral's fleet is sunk within ten days' sail of Victoria and +Vancouver, Laurier's naval policy to build war vessels, and Borden's to +contribute to their purchase for service in the British Navy take on +different aspect to Canada; and the Dominion enters a new era in her +development, as one of the dominant powers in the North Atlantic and +the North Pacific. That is--she must prepare to enter; or sit back the +helpless Korea of America. A country with a billion dollars of +commerce a year to defend cuts economy down to the danger line when she +spends not one per cent. of the value of her foreign commerce to +protect it. Like the United States, Canada has been inclined to sit +back detached from world entanglements and perplexities. That day has +passed for Canada. She must take her place and defend her place or +lose her identity as a nation. The awakening has gone over Canada in a +wave. One awaits to see what will come of it. + +Much, of course, depends upon the outcome of the great war. If Britain +and her allies triumph--and particularly if peace brings partial +disarmament--the urgency of preparation on Canada's part will be +lessened. But should Germany win or the duel be a draw, then may +Canada well gird up her loins and look to her safety. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE DOMAIN OF THE NORTH + +I + +Canada does not like any reference to her fur trade as a national +occupation. Of course, it is no longer a national occupation. It +occupies, perhaps, two thousand whites and it may be twenty or thirty +thousand Indians. More Indians in Canada earn their living farming the +reserves than catching fur, but the Indians north of Athabasca and +Churchill and in Labrador must always earn their living fur hunting. +Of them there is no census, but they hardly exceed thirty thousand all +told. The treaty Indians on reserves now number a hundred thousand. +Yet, though only two thousand whites are fur-trading in Canada, no +interpretation of Canadian life is complete without reference to that +far domain of the North, where the hunter roams in loneliness, and the +night lights whip unearthly through still frosty air, and no sound +breaks leagueless silence but the rifle shot, crackle of frost or the +call of the wolf pack. It will be recalled that Canada's first +settlers came in two main currents from two idealistic motives. The +French came to convert the Indians, not to found empire, and the +English Loyalists came from the promptings of their convictions. Both +streams of settlers came from idealistic motives, but both had to live, +and they did it at first by fur hunting. Jean Ba'tiste, the Frenchman, +who might have been a courtier when he came, promptly doffed court +trappings and donned moccasins and exchanged a soldier's saber for a +camp frying-pan and kept pointing his canoe up the St. Lawrence till he +had threaded every river and lake from Tadousac to Hudson Bay and the +Rockies. It was the pursuit of the little beaver that paid the piper +for all the discovering and exploring of Canada. When John Bull +came--also in pursuit of ideals--he, too, in a more prosperous way +promptly exchanged the pursuit of ideals for the pursuit of the little +beaver. It was the little beaver that led the way for Radisson, for La +Salle, for La Verandryé, for MacKenzie, for Fraser, for Peter Skene +Ogden, from the St. Lawrence to the Columbia, from the Athabasca to the +Sacramento. + +While all this is of the past, the heritage of a fur-hunting ancestry +has entered into the very blood and brawn and brain of Canada in a kind +of iron dauntlessness that makes for manhood. Some of her greatest +leaders--like Strathcona and MacKenzie--have been known as "Men of the +North"; and whether they have fur-traded or not, nearly all those "Men +of the North" who have made their mark have had the iron dauntlessness +of the hunter in their blood. It is a sort of tonic from the +out-of-doors, like the ozone you breathe, which fills body and soul +with zest. Canada is sensitive to any reference to her fur trade for +fear the world regard her as a perpetual fur domain. Her northern +zones are a perpetual fur domain--we may as well acknowledge that--they +can never be anything else; and Canada should serve notice on the +softer races of the world that she does not want them. They can stand +up neither to her climate nor to her measure of a man, but far from +cause of regret, this is a thing for gratulation. Canada can never be +an overcrowded land, where soft races crowd for room, like slugs under +a board. She will always have her spacious domain of the North--a +perpetual fur preserve, a perpetual hunting ground, where dauntless +spirits will venture to match themselves against the powers of death; +and from that North will ever emerge the type of man who masters life. + + +II + +The last chapter of the fur trade has not been written--as many assert. +The oldest industry of mankind, the most heroic and protective against +the elements--against Fenris and Loki and all those Spirits of Evil +with which northern myth has personified Cold--fur hunting, +fur-trading, will last long as man lasts. We are entering, not on the +extermination of fur, but on a new cycle of smaller furs. In the days +when mink went begging at eighty cents, mink was not fashionable. Mink +is fashionable to-day; hence the absurd and fabulous prices. Long ago, +when ermine as miniver--the garb of nobility--was fashionable and +exclusive, it commanded fabulous prices. Radicalism abolished the +exclusive garb of royalty, and ermine fell to four cents a pelt, +advanced to twenty-five cents and has sold at one dollar. To-day, mink +is the fashion, and the little mink is pursued; but to-morrow fashion +will veer with the caprices of the wind. Some other fur will come into +favor, and the little mink will have a chance to multiply as the ermine +has multiplied. + +In spite of the cry of the end of fur, more furs are marketed in the +world than ever before in the history of the race--forty million +dollars' worth; twenty millions of which are handled in New York and +Chicago and St. Louis and St. Paul; some five millions passing through +Edmonton and Winnipeg and Montreal and Quebec; three millions for home +consumption, two millions plus for export. Some years ago I went +through all the Minutes of the Hudson's Bay Company in London from 1670 +to 1824 and have transcripts of those Minutes now in my library. In +not a single year did the fur record exceed half a million dollars' +worth. Compare that to the American traffic to-day of twenty millions, +or to the three and four hundred thousand dollar cargoes that each of +the Hudson's Bay Company and Revillons' ships bears to Europe from +Canada yearly. + +"How much can a good Indian hunter make in a season?" I asked a +fur-trader of the Northwest, because in nearly all accounts written +about furs, you read a wail of reproach at milady for wearing furs when +trapping entails such hardship and poverty on the part of the hunter. + +"A good hunter easily earns six hundred dollars or seven hundred +dollars a winter if he will go out and not hang around the minute he +gets a little ahead. It takes from three thousand dollars to four +thousand dollars to outfit a small free-trader to go up North on his +own account. This stock he will turn over three or four times at a +profit of one hundred per cent. on the supplies. For example, ten +dollars cash will buy a good black otter up North. In trade, it will +cost from twelve dollars to fifteen dollars. On the articles of trade, +the profit will be fifty per cent. The otter will sell down at +Edmonton for from twenty dollars to thirty dollars. It's the same of +muskrat. At the beginning of the season when the kits are plentiful +and small, the trader pays nine cents for them up North. Down at the +fur market he will get from twenty-five to sixty cents for them, +according to size. There were one hundred and thirty-two thousand +muskrat came to one firm of traders alone in Edmonton one year, which +they will sell at an advance of fifty per cent." + +"How much fur comes yearly to Edmonton?" I asked an Edmonton trader. +If you look at the map you will see that Edmonton is the jumping off +place to three of the greatest fur fields of North America--down +MacKenzie River to the Arctic, up Peace River to the mountain +hinterland between the Columbia and the Yukon, east through Athabasca +Lake to the wild barren land inland from Churchill and Hudson Bay. + +"Well, we can easily calculate that. I know about how much is brought +in to each of the traders there." + +I took pencil while he gave me the names. It totaled up to six hundred +thousand dollars' worth for 1908. When you consider that in its +palmiest old days of exclusive monopoly the Hudson's Bay Company never +sold more than half a million dollars' worth of furs a year, this total +for Edmonton alone does not sound like a scarcity of furs. + + +III + +The question may be asked, do not these large figures presage the +hunting to extinction of fur-bearing animals? I do not think so. + +Take a map of the northern fur country. Take a good look at it--not +just a Pullman car glance. The Canadian government has again and again +advertised thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of square miles +of free land. Latitudinally, that is perfectly true. Wheat-wise, it +isn't. When you go one hundred miles north of Saskatchewan River +(barring Peace River in sections) you are in a climate that will grow +wheat all right--splendid wheat, the hardest and finest in the world. +That is, twenty hours of sunlight--not daylight but sunlight--force +growth rapidly enough to escape late spring and early fall frosts; but +the plain fact of the matter is, wheat land does not exist far north of +the Saskatchewan except in sections along Peace River. What does +exist? Cataracts countless--Churchill River is one succession of +cataracts; vast rivers; lakes unmapped, links and chains of lakes by +which you can go from the Saskatchewan to the Arctic without once +lifting your canoe; quaking muskegs--areas of amber stagnant water full +of what the Indians call mermaid's hair, lined by ridges of moss and +sand overgrown with coarse goose grass and "the reed that grows like a +tree," muskrat reed, a tasseled corn-like tufted growth sixteen feet +high--areas of such muskeg mile upon mile. I traversed one such region +above Cumberland Lake seventy miles wide by three hundred long where +you could not find solid camping ground the size of your foot. What +did we do? That is where the uses of a really expert guide came in; we +moored our canoe among the willows, cut willows enough to keep feet +from sinking, spread oilcloth and rugs over this, erected the tents +over all, tying the guy ropes to the canoe thwarts and willows, as the +ground would not hold the tent pegs. + +It doesn't sound as if such regions would ever be overrun by +settlement--does it? Now look at your map, seventy miles north of +Saskatchewan! From the northwest corner up by Klondike to the +southeast corner down in Labrador is a distance of more than three +thousand miles. From the south to north is a distance of almost two +thousand miles. I once asked a guide with a truly city air--it might +almost have been a Harvard air--if these distances were "as the crow +flies." He gave me a look that I would not like to have a guide give me +too often--he might maroon a fool on one of those swamp areas. + +"There ain't no distances as the crow flies in this country," he +answered. "You got to travel 'cording as the waters collect or the ice +goes out." + +Well, here is your country, three thousand by two thousand miles, a +great fur preserve. What exists in it? Very little wood, and that +small. Undoubtedly some minerals. What else exists? A very sparse +population of Indians, whose census no man knows, for it has never been +taken; but it is a pretty safe guess to say there are not thirty +thousand Indians all told in the north fur country. I put this guess +tentatively and should be glad of information from any one in a +position to guess closer. I have asked the Hudson's Bay Company and I +have asked Revillons how many white hunters and traders they think are +in the fur country of the North. I have never met any one who placed +the number in the North at more than two thousand. Spread two thousand +white hunters with ten thousand Indians--for of the total Indian +population two-thirds are women and children--over an area the size of +two-thirds of Europe--I ask you frankly, do you think they are going to +exterminate the game very fast? Remember the climate of the North +takes care of her own. White men can stand only so many years of that +lonely cold, and then they have "to come out" or they dwarf mentally +and degenerate. + +Take a single section of this great northern fur preserve--Labrador, +which I visited some years ago. In area Labrador is 530,000 square +miles, two and a half times the size of France, twice the size of +Germany, twice the size of Austria-Hungary. Statistical books set the +population down at four thousand; but the Moravian missionaries there +told me that including the Eskimo who come down the coast in summer and +the fishermen who come up the coast in summer the total population was +probably seventeen thousand. Now Labrador is one of the finest game +preserves in the world. On its rocky hills and watery upper barrens +where settlement can never come are to be found silver fox--the finest +in the world, so fine that the Revillons have established a +fur-breeding post for silver fox on one of the islands--cross fox +almost as fine as silver, black and red fox, the best otter in the +world, the finest marten in America, bear, very fine Norway lynx, fine +ermine, rabbit or hare galore, very fine wolverine, fisher, muskrat, +coarse harp seal, wolf, caribou, beaver, a few mink. Is it common +sense to think the population of a few thousands can hunt out a fur +empire here the size of two Germanies? Remember it was not the hunter +who exterminated the buffalo and the beaver and the seal and the otter! +The poacher destroyed one group of sea furs; the railway and the farm +supplanted the other. West of Mackenzie River and north of British +Columbia is a game region almost similar to Labrador in its furred +habitat, with the exception that the western preserve is warmer and +more wooded. Northward from Ontario is another hinterland which from +its very nature must always be a great hunting ground. Minerals +exist--as the old French traders well knew and the latter-day +discoveries of Cobalt prove--and there is also heavy timber; but north +of the Great Clay Belt, between the Clay Belt and the Bay, lies the +impenetrable and--I think--indestructible game ground. Swamp and rock +will prevent agricultural settlement but will provide an ideal fur +preserve similar in climate to Labrador. + +Traveling with Indian guides, it is always a matter of marvel and +admiration to me how the fur companies have bred into the very blood +for generations the careful nurture of all game. At one place canoeing +on Saskatchewan we heard of a huge black bear that had been molesting +some new ranches. "No take now," said the Indian. "Him fur no good +now." Though we might camp on bare rocks and the fire lay dead ash, it +was the extra Indian paddler who invariably went back to spatter it +out. You know the white's innate love for a roaring log fire in front +of the camp at night? The Indian calls that +"a-no-good-whitemen-fire-scare-away-game." + +Now take another look at the map. Where the Saskatchewan makes a great +bend three hundred miles northeast of Prince Albert, it is no longer a +river--it is a vast muskeg of countless still amber water channels not +twice the width of your canoe and quaking silt islands of sand and +goose grass--ideal, hidden and almost impenetrable for small game. +Always muskeg marks the limit of big game and the beginning of the +ground of the little fellows--waupoos, the rabbit; and musquash, the +muskrat; and sakwasew, the mink; and nukik, the otter; and wuchak or +pekan, the fisher. It is a safe wager that the profits on the millions +upon millions of little pelts--hundreds of thousands of muskrat are +taken out of this muskeg alone--exceed by a hundredfold the profits on +the larger furs of beaver and silver fox and bear and wolf and cross +fox and marten. + +Look at the map again! North of Cumberland Lake to the next fur post +is a trifling run of two hundred and fifty to three hundred miles by +dog-train to Lac du Brochet or Reindeer Lake--more muskeg cut by +limestone and granite ridges. Here you can measure four hundred miles +east or west and not get out of the muskeg till you reach Athabasca on +the west and Hudson's Bay on the east. North of Lac du Brochet is a +straight stretch of one thousand miles--nothing but rocks and cataracts +and stunted woods, "little sticks" the Indians call them--and +sky-colored waters in links and chains and lakes with the quaking +muskeg goose grass and muskrat reed, cut and chiseled and trenched by +the amber water ways. + + +IV + +If you think there is any danger of settlement ever encroaching on the +muskegs and barrens, come with me on a trip of some weeks to the south +end of this field. + +We had been pulling against slack water all day, water so slack you +could dip your hand down and fail to tell which way the current ran. +Where the high banks dropped suddenly to such a dank tangle of reeds, +brush wood, windfall and timbers drifted fifteen hundred miles down +from the forests of the Rocky Mountains--such a tangle as I have never +seen in any swamp of the South--the skeleton of a moose, come to its +death by a jump among the windfall, marked the eastern limit of big +game; and presently the river was lost--not in a lake--but in a swamp. +A red fox came scurrying through the goose grass, sniffed the air, +looked at us and ran along abreast of our canoe for about a mile, +evidently scenting the bacon of the tin "grub box." Muskrats feed on +the bulb of the tufted "reed like a tree," sixteen feet high on each +side, and again and again little kits came out and swam in the ripple +of our canoe. Once an old duck performed the acrobatic feat over which +the nature and anti-nature writers have been giving each other the lie. +We had come out of one long amber channel to be confronted by three +openings exactly alike, not much wider than the length of our Klondike +canoe, all lined by the high tufted reed. MacKenzie, the half-breed +rapids man, had been telling us the endless Cree legends of +Wa-sa-kee-chaulk, the Cree Hiawatha, and his Indian lore of stagnant +waters now lured him into steering us to one of the side channels. We +were not expected. An old mother duck was directly across our path +teaching some twenty-two little black hobbling downy babies how to +swim. With a cry that shrieked "Leg it--leg it" plain as a quack could +speak and which sent the little fellows scuttling, half swim, half run, +the old mother flung herself over on her back not a paddle's length +ahead of us, dipped, dived, came up again just at our bow and flopped +broken-winged over the water ahead of us near enough almost to be +caught by hand; but when you stretched out your hand, the crafty lady +dipped and dived and came up broken-winged again. + +"You old fool," said our head man, "your wing is no more broken than +mine is. We're not going to hurt your babies. Shut up there and stop +that lying." + +Spite of which the old duck kept up her pantomime of deceit for more +than a mile; when she suddenly sailed up over our heads back to her +hidden babies, a very Boadicea of an old duck girl. When we drew in +for nooning, wild geese honked over our heads near enough to be hit by +the butt of a gun. Drift chips, lodged in the goose grass, kindled +fire for kettle, but oilcloth had to be spread before you could get +footing ashore. I began to wonder what happened as to repairs when +canoes ripped over a snag in this kind of region, and that brought up +the story of a furtrader's wife in another muskeg region north of Lac +La Ronge up toward Churchill River, who was in a canoe that ripped a +hole clean the size of a man's fist. Quick as a flash, the head man +was into the tin grub box and had planked on a cake of butter. The +cold water hardened it, and that repair carried them along to the first +birch tree affording a new strip of bark. + +Where an occasional ridge of limestone cut the swamp we could hear the +laughter and the glee of the Indian children playing "wild goose" among +the trembling black poplars and whispering birches, and where we landed +at the Indian camps we found the missionaries out with the hunters. In +fact, even the nuns go haying and moose hunting with the Indian +families to prevent lapses to barbarism. + +Again and again we passed cached canoes, provisions stuck up on sticks +above the reach of animal marauders--testimony to the honesty of the +passing Indian hunters, which the best policed civilized eastern city +can not boast of its denizens. + +"I've gone to the Rockies by way of Peace River dozens of times," +declared the head of one of the big fur companies, "and left five +hundred dollars' worth of provisions cached in trees to feed us on our +way out, and when we came that same way six months afterward we never +found one pound stolen, though I remember one winter when the Indians +who were passing and repassing under the food in those trees were +starving owing to the rabbit famine." + +In winter this region is traversed by dog-train along the ice--a matter +of five hundred miles to Lac du Brochet and back, or six hundred to +Prince Albert and back. "Oh, no, we're not far," said a lonely-faced +Cambridge graduate fur-trader to me. "When my little boy took sick +last winter, I had to go only fifty-five miles. There happened to be a +doctor in the lumber camp back on the Ridge." + +But even winter travel is not all easy in a fifty-below-zero climate +where you can't find sticks any larger than your finger to kindle night +fire, I know the story of one fur-trader who was running along behind +his dog sleigh in this section. He had become overheated running and +had thrown his coat and cap across the sleigh, wearing only flannel +shirt, fur gauntlets, corduroy trousers and moccasins. At a bend in +the iced channel he came on a pack of mangy coyotes. Before he had +thought he had sicked the dogs on them. With a yell they were off out +of sight amid the goose grass and reeds with the sleigh and his +garments. Those reeds, remember, are sixteen feet high, stiff as broom +corn and hard on moccasins as stubble would be on bare feet. To make +matters worse, a heavy snowstorm came on. The wind was against the +direction the dogs had taken and the man hallooed himself hoarse +without an answering sound. It was two o'clock in the morning before +the wind sank and the trader found his dogs, and by that time between +sweat and cold his shirt had frozen to a board. + +Such a thing as an out and out pagan hardly exists among the Indians of +the North. They are all more or less Christian with a curious mingling +of pagan superstition with the new faith. The Indian voyageurs may +laugh but they all do it--make offerings of tobacco to the Granny +Goddess of the River before setting out. In vain we threw biscuit and +orange peel and nuts to the perverse-tempered deity supposed to preside +at the bottom of those amber waters. The winds were contrary, the +waters slack, sluggish, dead, no responsive gurgle and flap of laughter +and life to the slow keel. + +One channel but opened on another. Even the limestone ridges had +vanished far to rear, and the stillness of night fell with such a flood +of sunset light as Turner never dreamed in his wildest color +intoxications. There would be the wedge-shaped line of the wild geese +against a flaming sky--a far honk--then stillness. Then the flackering +quacking call of a covey of ducks with a hum of wings right over our +shoulders; then no sound but the dip of our paddles and the drip and +ripple of the dead waters among the reeds. Suddenly there lifted +against the lonely red sunset sky--a lob stick--a dark evergreen +stripped below the tip to mark some Indian camping place, or vow, or +sacred memory. We steered for it. A little flutter of leaves like a +clapping of hands marked land enough to support black poplars, and we +rounded a crumbly sand bank just in time to see the seven-banded birch +canoe of a little old hunter, Sam Ba'tiste Buck--eighty years old he +was--squatting in the bottom of the birch canoe, ragged almost to +nakedness, bare of feet, gray-headed, nearly toothless but happier than +an emperor--the first living being we had seen for a week in the +muskegs. We camped together that night on the sandbars--trading Sam +Ba'tiste flour and matches for a couple of ducks. He had been +storm-stead camping in the goose grass for three days. Do you think he +was to be pitied? Don't! Three days' hunting will lay up enough meat +for Sam for the winter. In the winter he will snare some small game, +while mink and otter and muskrat skins will provide him flour and +clothes from the fur-trader. Each of Sam's sons is earning seven +hundred dollars a year hunting big game on the rock ridge farther +north--more than illiterate, unskilled men earn in eastern lands. Then +in spring Sam will emerge from his cabin, build another birch canoe and +be off to the duck and wild geese haunts. When we paddled away in the +morning, Sam still camped on the sand bank. He sat squat whittling +away at kin-a-kin-ic, or the bark of the red willow, the hunter's free +tobacco. In town Sam would be poverty-stricken, hungry, a beggar. +Here he is a lord of his lonely watery domain, more independent and +care-free than you are--peace to his aged bones! + +Another night coming through the muskegs we lost ourselves. We had +left our Indian at the fur post and trusted to follow southwest two +hundred miles to the next fur post by the sun, but there was no sun, +only heavy lead-colored clouds with a rolling wind that whipped the +amber waters to froth and flooded the sand banks. If there was any +current, it was reversed by the wind. We should have thwarted the main +muskeg by a long narrow channel, but mistook our way thinking to follow +the main river by taking the broadest opening. It led us into a lake +seven miles across; not deep, for every paddle stroke tangled into the +long water weed known as mermaid's hair but deep enough for trouble +when you consider the width of the lake, the lack of dry footing the +width of one's hand, and the fact that you can't offer the gun'l of a +canoe to the broadside of a big wave. We scattered our dunnage and all +three squatted in the bottom to prevent the rocking of the big canoe. +Then we thwarted and tacked and quartered to the billows for a half day. + +Nightfall found us back in the channel again scudding before thunder +and a hurricane wind looking for a camping place. It had been a +back-breaking pace all day. We had tried to find relief by the +Indian's choppy strokes changing every third dip from side to side; we +had tried the white man's deep long pulling strokes; and by seven in +the evening with the thunder rolling behind and not a spot of dry land +visible the size of one's foot, backs began to feel as if they might +break in the middle. Our canoe and dunnage weighed close on seven +hundred pounds. Suddenly we shot out of the amber channel into a +shallow lagoon lined on each side by the high tufted reeds, but the +reeds were so thin we could see through them to lakes on each side. A +whirr above our heads and a flock of teal almost touched us with their +wings. Simultaneously all three dropped paddles--all three were +speechless. The air was full of voices. You could not hear yourself +think. We lapped the canoe close in hiding to the thin lining of +reeds. I asked, "Have those little sticks drifted down fifteen hundred +miles to this lagoon of dead water?" + +"Sticks," my guide repeated, "it isn't sticks--it isn't drift--it's +birds--it's duck and geese--I have never seen anything like it--I have +lived west more than twenty years and I never heard tell of +anything--of anything like it." + +Anything like it? I had lived all my life in the West and I had never +heard or dreamed any oldest timer tell anything like it! For seven +miles, you could not have laid your paddle on the water without +disturbing coveys of geese and duck, geese and duck of such variety as +I have never seen classified or named in any book on birds. We sat +very still behind the hiding of reed and watched and watched. We +couldn't talk. We had lost ourselves in one of the secluded breeding +places of wild fowl in the North. I counted dozens and dozens of moult +nests where the duck had congregated before their long flight south. +That was the night we could find camping ground only by building a +foundation of reeds and willows, then spreading oilcloth on top; and +all night our big tent rocked to the wind; for we had roped it to the +thwarts of the canoe. Next day when we reached the fur post, the chief +trader told us any good hunter could fill his canoe--the big, white +banded, gray canoe of the company, not the little, seven banded, birch +craft--with birds to the gun'l in two hours' shooting on that lake. + +That muskeg is only one of thousands, when you go seventy miles north +of the Saskatchewan, sixty miles east of Athabasca Lake. That muskeg +and its like, covering an area two-thirds of all Europe, is the home of +all the little furs, mink and muskrat and fisher and otter and rabbit +and ermine, the furs that clothe--not princes and millionaire, who buy +silver fox and sea otter--but you and me and the rest of us whose +object is to keep warm, not to show how much we can spend. Out of that +one muskeg hundreds of thousands of little pelts have been taken since +1754 when Anthony Hendry, the smuggler, came the first of the +fur-traders inland from the Bay. And the game--save in the year of the +unexplained rabbit pest--shows no sign of diminishing. + +Does it sound very much to you like a region where the settler would +ultimately drive out the fur trade? What would he settle on? That is +the point. Nature has taken good care that climate and swamp shall +erect an everlasting barrier to encroachment on her game preserves. + +To be sure, if you ask a fur-trader, "How are furs?" he will answer, +"Poor--poorer every year." So would you if you were a fur-trader and +wanted to keep out rivals. I have never known a fur-trader who did not +make that answer. + +To be sure, seal and sea otter, beaver and buffalo have been almost +exterminated; but even to-day if the governments of the world, +especially Canada and the United States, would pass and enforce laws +prohibiting the killing of a single buffalo or beaver, seal or sea +otter for fifty years, these species would replenish themselves. + +"The last chapter of the fur trade has been written?" Never! The +oldest industry of mankind will last as long as mankind lasts. + + +V + +I read also that "the last chapter of the fur romance has been +written." That is the point of view of the man who spends fifty weeks +in town and two weeks in the wilds. It is not the point of view of the +man who spends two weeks in town and fifty in the wilds; of the man who +goes out beyond the reach of law into strange realms the size of Russia +with no law but his own right arm, no defense but his own wit. Though +I have written history of the Hudson's Bay Company straight from their +own Minutes in Hudson's Bay House, London, I could write more of the +romance of the fur trade right in the present year than has ever been +penned of the company since it was established away back in the year +1670. + +Space permits only two examples. You recall the Cambridge man who +thought it a short distance to go only fifty-five miles by dog-train +for a doctor. A more cultured, scholarly, perfect gentleman I have +never met in London or New York. Yet when I met his wife, I found her +a shy little, part-Indian girl, who had almost to be dragged in to meet +us. That spiritual face--such a face as you might see among the +preachers of Westminster or Oxford--and the little shy Indian girl-wife +and the children, plainly a throw-back to their red-skin ancestors, not +to the Cambridge paternity! What was the explanation? Where was the +story of heartache and tragedy--I asked myself, as we stood in our tent +door watching the York boat come in with provisions for the year under +a sky of such diaphanous northern lights as leave you dumb before their +beauty and their splendor? How often he must have stood beneath those +northern lights thinking out the heartbreak that has no end. + +I did not learn the story till I had come on down to civilization and +town again. That Cambridge man had come out from England flush with +the zeal of the saint to work among the Indians. In the Indian school +where he taught he had met his Fate--the thing he probably +scouted--that fragile type of Indian beauty almost fawn-like in its +elusiveness, pure spirit from the very prosaic fact that the seeds of +mortal disease are already snapping the ties to life. It is a type you +never see near the fur posts. You have to go to the far outer +encampments, where white vices have not polluted the very air. He fell +in love. What was he to do? If he left her to her fate, she would go +back to the inclement roughness of tepee life mated to some Indian +hunter, or fall victim to the brutal admiration of some of those white +sots who ever seek hiding in the very wilderness. He married her and +had of course to resign his position as teacher in the school. He took +a position with the company and lived no doubt in such happiness as +only such a spiritual nature could know; but the seeds of the disease +which gave her such unearthly beauty ripened. She died. What was to +become of the children? If he sent them back to England, they would be +wretched and their presence would be misunderstood. If he left them +with her relatives, they would grow up Indians. If he kept them he +must have a mother for them, so he married another trader's +daughter--the little half-breed girl--and chained himself to his rock +of Fate as fast as ever martyr was bound in Grecian myth; and there he +lives to-day. The mail comes in only once in three months in summer; +only once in six in winter. He is the only white man on a watery +island two hundred miles from anywhere except when the lumbermen come +to the Ridge, or the Indian agent arrives with the treaty money once a +year. + +And "the last chapter of the fur romance has been written"? + +"The last chapter of the fur romance" will not have been written as +long as frost and muskeg provide a habitat for furtive game, and strong +men set forth to traverse lone places with no defense but their own +valiant spirit. + +The other example is of a man known to every fur buyer of St. Louis and +Chicago and St. Paul--Mr. Hall, the chief commissioner of furs for the +Hudson's Bay Company. I wish I could give it in Mr. Hall's own +words--in the slow quiet recital of the man who has spent his life amid +the great silent verities, up next to primordial facts, not theorizing +and professionalizing and discretionizing and generally darkening +counsel by words without knowledge. He was a youth somewhere around +his early twenties, and he was serving the company at Stuart Lake in +British Columbia--a sort of American Trossachs on a colossal scale. He +had been sent eastward with a party to bring some furs across from +MacLeod Lake in the most heavily wooded mountains. It was mid-winter. +Fort MacLeod was short of provisions. On their way back travel proved +very heavy and slow. Snow buried the beaten trail, and travel off it +plunged men and horses through snow crust into a criss-cross tangle of +underbrush and windfall. The party ran out of food. It was thought if +Hall, the youngest and lightest, could push ahead on snowshoes to +Stuart Lake, he could bring out a rescue party with food. + +He set off without horse or gun and with only a lump of tallow in his +pocket as food. The distance was seventy-five miles. At first he ran +on winged feet--feet winged with hunger; but it began to snow heavily +with a wind that beat in his face and blew great gusts of snow pack +down from the evergreen branches overhead; and even feet winged with +hunger and snowshoes clog from soft snow and catch derelict branches +sticking up through the drifts. By the time you have run half a day +beating against the wind, reversing your own tracks to find the chipped +mark on the bark of the trees to keep you on the blazed trail--you are +hungry. Hall began to nibble at his tallow as he ran and to snatch +handfuls of snow to quench his thirst. At night he kindled a roaring +big white-man fire against the wolves, dried out the thawed snow from +his back and front, dozed between times, sang to keep the loneliness +off, heard the muffled echo come back to him in smothered voice, and at +first streak of dawn ran on, and on, and on. + +By the second night Hall had eaten all his tallow. He had also reefed +in his belt so that his stomach and spine seemed to be camping +together. The snow continued to fall. The trees swam past him as he +ran. And the snowdrifts lifted and fell as he jogged heavily forward. +Of course, he declared to himself, he was not dizzy. It was the snow +blindness or the drifts. He was well aware the second night that if he +would have let himself he would have dug a sleeping hole in the snow +and wrapped himself in a snow blanket and slept and slept; but he +thrashed himself awake, and set out again, dead heavy with sleep, weak +from fatigue, staggering from hunger; and the wings on his feet had +become weighted with lead. + +He knew it was all up with him when he fell. He knew if he could get +only a half hour's sleep, it would freshen him up so he could go on. +Lots of winter travelers have known that in the North; and they have +taken the half hour's sleep; and another half hour's; and have never +wakened. Anyway, something wakened Hall. He heard the crackle of a +branch. That was nothing. Branches break to every storm, but this was +like branches breaking under a moccasin. It was unbelievable; there +was not the slightest odor of smoke, unless the dream odor of his own +delirious hunger; but not twenty paces ahead crackled an Indian fire, +surrounded by buckskin tepees, Indians warming themselves by the fire. + +With an unspeakable revulsion of hope and hunger, Hall flung to his +feet and dashed into the middle of the encampment. Then a tingling +went over his body like the wakening from death, of frost to +life--blind stabbing terror obsessed his body and soul; for the fire +was smokeless, the figures were speechless, transparent, unaware of his +presence, very terribly still. His first thought was that he had come +on some camp hopeless from the disaster of massacre or starvation. +Then he knew this was no earthly camp. He could not tell how the +figures were clothed or what they were. Only he knew they were not +men. He did not even think of ghosts. All he knew was it was a death +fire, a death silence, death tepees, death figures. He fled through +the woods knowing only death was behind him--running and running, and +never stopping till he dropped exhausted across the fort doorstep at +two in the morning. He blurted out why he had come. Then he lapsed +unconscious. They filled him with rum. It was twenty-four hours +before he could speak. + +"I don't know these modern theories about hallucination and delusions +and things," concluded Mr. Hall, gazing reflectively on the memories of +that night. "I'm not much on romance and that kind of thing! I don't +believe in ghosts. I don't know what it was. All I know is it scared +me so it saved my life, and it saved the lives of the rest, too; for +the relief party got out in time, though they didn't see a sign of any +Indian camp. I don't know what to make of it, unless years ago some +Indian camp had been starved or massacred there, and owing to my +unusual condition I got into some clairvoyant connection with that +past. However, there it is; and it would take a pretty strong argument +to persuade me I didn't see anything. All the other things I thought I +saw on that trip certainly existed, and it would be a queer thing if +the one thing which saved my life did not exist. That's all I know, +and you can make anything you like of it." + +So while Canada resents being regarded as a fur land, her domain of the +North sends down something more than roaring winds--though winds are +good things to shake dead leaves off the soul as well as off trees. +Her domain of the North rears more than fur-bearing animals. It rears +a race with hardihood, with dauntlessness, with quiet dogged unspeaking +courage; and that is something to go into the blood of a nation. A man +who will run on snowshoes eighteen hundred miles behind a dog-train as +a Senator I know did in his youth, and a woman of middle life, who will +"come out"--as they say in the North--and study medicine at her own +expense that she may minister to the Indians where she lives--are not +types of a race to lie down whipped under Fate. Canada will do things +in the world of nations shortly. She may do them rough-handed; but +what she does will depend on the national ideals she nurtures to-day; +and into those ideals has entered the spirit of the Domain of the North. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +FINDING HERSELF + +I + +One of the questions which an outsider always asks of Canada and of +which the Canadian never thinks is--Why is Newfoundland not a part of +Canada? Why has the lonely little Island never entered confederation? +On the map Newfoundland looks no larger than the area of Manitoba +before the provincial boundaries were extended to Hudson Bay. In +reality, area has little to do with Newfoundland's importance to +England's possessions in North America. It is that part of America +nearest to Europe. If you measure it north to south and east to west +it seems about two hundred and fifty by three hundred and fifty miles; +but distance north and south, east and west, has little to do with +Newfoundland's importance to the empire. Newfoundland's importance to +the empire consists in three fundamental facts: Newfoundland is the +radiating center for the fisheries on the Grand Banks, that submarine +plateau of six hundred by one hundred and fifty miles, where are the +richest deep-sea fisheries in the world; Newfoundland lies gardant at +the very entrance to Canada's great waterways; and Newfoundland's coast +line is the most broken coast line in the whole world affording +countless land-locked, rock-ribbed deep-sea harbors to shelter all the +fighting ships of the world. + +What have the deep-sea fisheries of the Grand Banks to do with a +Greater Britain Overseas? You would not ask that question if you could +see the sealing fleets set out in spring; or the whaling crews drive +after a great fin-back up north of Tilt Cove; or the schooners go out +with their dories in tow for the Grand Banks fisheries. Asked what +impressed him most in the royal tour of the present King of England +across Canada and Newfoundland several years ago, a prominent official +with the Prince answered: "Newfoundland and the prairie provinces." +"Why?" he was asked. "Men for the navy and food for the Empire." That +answer tells in a line why Newfoundland is absolutely essential to a +Greater Britain Overseas. You can't take landlubbers, put them on a +boat and have seamen. Sailors are bred to the sea, cradled in it, +salted with it for generations before they become such mariners as hold +England's ascendency on the seas of the world. They love the sea and +its roll and its dangers more than all the rewards of the land. Of +such men, and of such only, are navies made that win battles. Come out +to Kitty Vitty, a rock-ribbed cove behind St. John's, and listen to +some old mother in Israel, with the bloom of the sea still in her +wilted cheeks, tell of losing her sons in the seal fisheries of the +spring, when men go out in crews of two and three hundred hunting the +hairy seal over the ice floes, and the floes break loose, and the +blizzard comes down! It isn't the twenty or thirty or fifty dollar +bonus a head in the seal hunt that lures them to death, in darkness and +storm. It is the call, the dare, the risk, the romance of the sea born +in their own blood. Or else watch the fishing fleets up off the North +Shore, down on the Grand Banks! The schooner rocks to the silver swell +of the sea with bare mast poles. A furtive woman comes up the hatchway +and gazes with shaded eyes at passing steamers; but the men are out in +the clumsy black dories that rock like a cradle to the swell of the +sea, drawing in--drawing in--the line; or singing their sailor +chanties--"Come all ye Newfoundlanders"--as meal of pork and cod +simmers in a pot above a chip fire cooking on stones in the bottom of +the boat. It isn't the one or two hundred dollars these fishermen +clear in a year--and it may be said that one hundred dollars cleared in +a year is opulence--that holds them to the wild, free, perilous life. +It is the call of the sea in their blood. Of such men are victorious +navies made, and if Canada is to be anything more than the hanger-on to +the tail of the kite of the British Empire, she, too, must have her +navy, her men of the sea, born and cradled and crooned and nursed by +the sea. That is Newfoundland's first importance to a Greater Britain +Overseas. + +Perhaps, if the present war had not broken out, Canada would never have +realized Newfoundland's second importance to a Greater Britain Overseas +as the outpost sentinel guarding entrance to her waterways. It would +require shorter time to transport troops to Newfoundland than to Suez. +Should Canada ever be attacked, Newfoundland would be a more important +basis than Suez. Two centuries ago, in fact, for two whole centuries, +St. John's Harbor rang to the conflict of warring nations. If ever war +demanded the bottling up and blockading of Canada, the basis for that +embargo would be Newfoundland. + +It may as well be acknowledged that Canada's east coast affords few +good land-locked harbors. Newfoundland's deep-sea land-locked harbors +are so numerous you can not count them. Your ship will be coasting +what seems to be a rampart wall of sheer black iron towering up three, +four, six hundred feet flat as if planed, planed by the ice-grind and +storms of a million years beating down from the Pole riding thunderous +and angry seas. You wonder what would happen if a storm caught your +ship between those iron walls and a landward hurricane; and the captain +tells you, when the wind sheers nor'-east, he always beats for open +sea. It isn't the sea he fears. It is these rock ramparts and +saw-tooth reefs sticking up through the lace fret. Suddenly you twist +round a sharp angle of rock like the half closed leaf of a book. You +slip in behind the leaf of rock, and wriggle behind another +angle--"follow the tickles o' water" is, I believe, the term--and there +opens before you a harbor cove, land-locked, rock-walled from sea to +sky, with the fishermen's dories awash on a silver sea, with women in +brightly colored kirtles and top-boots and sunbonnets busy over the +fishing stages drying cod. Dogs and hogs are the only domestic animals +visible. The shore is so rocky that fences are usually little sticks +anchored in stones. There are not even many children; for the children +are off to sea soon as they can don top-boots and handle a line. There +is the store of "the planter" or outfitter--a local merchant, who +supplies schooners on shares for the season and too often holds whole +hamlets in his debt. There is the church. The priest or parson comes +poling out to meet your ship and get his monthly or half-yearly mail, +and there are the little whitewashed cots of the fisher folk. It is a +simpler life than the existence of the habitant of Quebec. It is more +remote from modern stress than the days of the Tudors. On the north +and west shore and in that sea strip of Labrador under Newfoundland's +jurisdiction and known in contradiction to Labrador as The +Labrodor--are whole hamlets of people that have never seen a railroad, +a cow, a horse. They are Devon people, who speak the dialect of Devon +men in Queen Elizabeth's day. You hear such expressions as "enow," +"forninst," "forby"; and the mental attitude to life is two or three +centuries old. + +"Why should we pay for railroads?" the people asked late as 1898. "Our +fathers used boats and their own legs." And one hamlet came out and +stoned a passing train. "Checks--none of your checks for me," roared +an out-port fisherman taking the train for the first time and lugging +behind him a huge canvas bag of clothes. "Checks--not for me! I know +checks! When the banks busted, I had your checks; and much good they +were." This was late as '98, and back from the pulp mills of the +interior and the railroad you will find conditions as antiquated to-day. + +If Newfoundland is absolutely essential to a Greater Britain Overseas, +why is she not part of Canada? Because Canada refused to take her in. +Because Canada had not big enough vision to see her need of this +smallest of the American colonies. For the same reason that +reciprocity failed between Canada and the United States--because when +Newfoundland would have come in, Canada was lethargic. Nobody was big +enough politically to seize and swing the opportunity. Because when +Canada was ready, Newfoundland was no longer in the mood to come in; +and nobody in Newfoundland was big enough to seize and swing an +opportunity for the empire. + +It was in the nineties. Fish had fallen to a ruinous price and for +some temporary reason the fishing was poor. There had been bank kiting +in Newfoundland's financial system. She had no railroads and few +steamships. Her mines had not been exploited, and she did not know her +own wealth in the pulp-wood areas of the interior. In fact, there are +sections of Northern Newfoundland not yet explored inland. Every bank +in the colony had collapsed. Newfoundland emissaries came to Ottawa to +feel the pulse for federation. The population at that time was +something under two hundred thousand. + +Now Canada has one very bad British characteristic. She has the John +Bull trick of drawing herself up to every new proposal with an air of +"What is that to us?" At this time Canada herself was in bad way. She +had just completed her first big transcontinental. Times were dull. +The Crown Colony of Newfoundland did not come begging admission to +confederation. No political party could do that and live; for politics +in Newfoundland are a fanatical religion. I have heard the warden of +the penitentiary say that if it were not for politics he would never +have any inmates. It is a fact that out-port prisons have been closed +for lack of inmates, but long as elections recur, come broken heads. +So the Crown Colony did not seek admission. It came feeling the Ottawa +pulse, and the Ottawa pulse was slow and cold. "What's Newfoundland to +us?" said Canada. One of the commissioners told me the real hitch was +the terms on which the Dominion should assume the Crown Colony's small +public debt; so the chance passed unseized. Newfoundland set herself +to do what Canada had done, when the United States refused reciprocity. +She built national railways. She launched a system of national ships. +She nearly bankrupted her public treasury with public works and +ultimately handed her transportation system over to semi-private +management. Outside interests began buying the pulp-wood areas. Pulp +became one of the great industries. The mines of the east shore picked +up. There was a boom in whaling. World conditions in trade improved. +By the time that the Dominion had awakened to the value of Newfoundland +no party in Newfoundland would have dared to mention confederation, and +that is the status to-day. One can hardly imagine this status +continuing long. The present war, or the lessons of the present war, +may awaken both sides to the advantages of union. Sooner or later, for +her own sake solely, Canada must have Newfoundland; and it is up to +Canada to offer terms to win the most ancient of British colonies in +America. British settlement in Newfoundland dates a century prior to +settlement in Acadia and Virginia. Devon men came to fish before the +British government had set up any proprietary claim. + + +II + +And now eliminate the details of Canada's status among the nations and +consider only the salient undisputed facts: + +Her population has come to her along four main lines of motive; seeking +to realize religious ideals; seeking to realize political ideals; +seeking the free adventurous life of the hunter; seeking--in modern +day--freehold of land. One main current runs through all these +motives--religious freedom, political freedom, outdoor vocations in +freedom, and freehold of land. This is a good flavor for the +ingredients of nationality. + +Conditioning these movements of population have been Canada's climate, +her backwoods and prairie and frontier hardship--challenging the +weakling, strengthening the strong. No country affords more +opportunity to the fit man and none is crueler to the unfit than +Canada. I like this fact that Canada is hard at first. It is the +flaming sword guarding the Paradise of effort from the vices of inert +softened races. Diamonds are hard. Charcoals are soft, though both +are the very same thing. + +Canada affords the shortest safest route to the Orient. + +Canada has natural resources of mine, forest, fishery, land to supply +an empire of a hundred million; to supply Europe, if need arose. + +She must some day become one of the umpires of fate on the Pacific. + +She yearly interweaves tighter commercial bonds with the United States, +yet refuses to come under American government. It may be predicted +both these conditions will remain permanent. + +Panama will quicken her west coast to a second Japan. + +Yearly the West will exert greater political power, and the East less; +for the preponderance of immigration settles West not East. + +As long as she has free land Canada will be free of labor unrest, but +the dangers of industrialism menace her in a transfer of population +from farm to factory. + +In twenty years Canada will have as many British born within her +borders as there were Englishmen in England in the days of Queen +Elizabeth. + +In twenty years Canada will have more foreign-born than there are +native-born Canadians. + +Her pressing problems to-day are the amalgamation of the foreigner +through her schools; a working arrangement with the Oriental fair to +him as to her; the development of her natural resources; the anchoring +of the people to the land; and the building of a system of powerful +national defense by sea and land. + +Her constitution is elastic and pliable to every new emergency--it may +be, too pliable; and her system of justice stands high. + +She has a fanatical patriotism; but it is not yet vocal in art, or +literature; and it is--do not mistake it--loyalty to an ideal, not to a +dynasty, nor to a country. She loves Britain because Britain stands +for that ideal. + +Stand back from all these facts! They may be slow-moving ponderous +facts. They may be contradictory and inconsistent. What that moves +ever is consistent? But like a fleet tacking to sea, though the course +shift and veer, it is ever forward. Forward whither--do you ask of +Canada? + +There is no man with an open free mind can ponder these facts and not +answer forthwith and without faltering--_to a democratised edition of a +Greater Britain Overseas_. Only a world cataclysm or national upheaval +displacing every nation from its foundations can shake Canada from that +destiny. + +Will she grow closer to Britain or farther off? Will she grow closer +to the United States or farther off? Will she fight Japan or league +with her? Will she rig up a working arrangement with the Hindu? + +Every one of these questions is aside from the main fact--England will +not interfere with her destiny. The United States will not interfere +with her destiny. Canada has her destiny in her own hands, and what +she works out both England and the United States will bless; but with +as many British born in her boundaries anchored to freehold of land as +made England great in the days of Queen Elizabeth, unless history +reverse itself and fate make of facts dice tossed to ruin by malignant +furies, then Canada's destiny can be only one--a Greater Britain +Overseas. + + + + +THE END + + + + +INDEX + +ALBERTA: size of, 16, 39; coal deposits of, 38; investment of British +capital in, 104; distance from seaboard, 180; rate from on wheat to +Fort William, 187-188; distance from Montreal, 195; from Great Lakes, +199. + +"AMERICANIZING OF CANADA," discussion of, 61-79. + +AMERICANS: emigration of to Canada, 65, 72, 273; investments of in +Canada, 66, 80, 92; as pioneers, 74, 76; sell ranches as rawnches, 105; +trade of with Canada, 128; attitude of Americans in Canadian Northwest +to Monroe Doctrine, 244; view of opportunity, 280. See also UNITED +STATES. + +ARBITRATION ACT, defects of, 220. + + +BELL, GRAHAM, a Canadian, 278. + +BIG BUSINESS, does not dominate government in Canada, 212, 223. + +BORDEN, ROBERT: social prestige of, 4; a self-made man, 53; new +premier, 91; one of Canada's great men, 109; naval policy of, 283, 285. + +BRITISH COLUMBIA: demands self-government, 11; railway to planned, 14; +larger than two Germanies, 16; climate of, 22; coal deposits of, 38; +description of, 40-41; investment of British capital in, 104; opposes +Oriental immigration, 129-133; coming of Hindus into and problem of, +141 et seq. + +BRITISH NORTH AMERICA ACT: the Canadian Constitution, 11; mentioned, +42, 111, 245; elasticity of, 51; constitution of Canada, 223; +provisions of, 228. + +BROWN, GEORGE, favors reciprocity, 82. + + +CABINET, how chosen and to whom responsible, 229. + +CANADA NORTHERN: builds repair shops at Port Mann, 179; uses electric +power in tunnels, 182; aided by government, 193. + +CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY: builds repair shops at Coquitlam, 179; tunnel +of through Mount Stephen, 182; aided by government, 193. + +CANADIAN SOO CANAL; tonnage passing through, 14; influence of in +reducing freight rates, 38. + +CHINA, an awakened giant, 168. + +CHINESE: agitation against on West Coast, 129; head tax upon, 130,164; +a separate problem from that of the Hindu, 138; in British Columbia, +159-167. + +CHURCHES, well attended in Canada, 252-255. + +COBALT: discovery of silver at, 34; boom in, 67. + +"COBDEN-BRIGHT SCHOOL," mentioned, 82, 84. + +COCKNEYS, Canadian hostility toward, 52. + +CONNAUGHT, DUKE OF, rebukes lip-loyalist, 48. + +CONSERVATIVES: tariff views of, 81-86; and appointment of judges, 234; +support Family Compact, 242; principles of, 242-244; support Navy Bill, +283; oppose Laurier's naval program, 285. + + +DAWSON, GEORGE, on coal deposits of Alberta and British Columbia, 38. + +"DIRECT PASSAGE" LAW: enacted, 130, 142; attempt to evade, 143, 153. + +DIVORCE, low rate of, 264. + +DOUKHOBORS: are accumulating wealth, 117; law-abiding, 118; influence +of priests upon, 124. + +DURHAM, LORD: work of in Canada, 226-228; report of, 274. + + +ENGLAND, see GREAT BRITAIN. + + +"FAMILY COMPACT": a governing clique, 9; mentioned, 14, 226, 242. + +FRANCHISE, in Canada, 232-233. + +FUR TRADE, account of, 294-322. + + +GEORGE, LLOYD: mentioned, 56, 57; Canada not interested in theories of, +58; effects of tax system of upon investment in Canada, 104. + +GEORGIAN BAY SHIP CANAL, proposed, 194. + +GLADSTONE, EDWARD E., attitude of toward colonies, 42. + +GORDON, CHARLES, investigates mining strike, 117. + +GOVERNOR-GENERAL: appointment and powers of, 43-44, 228-230; appoints +provincial judges, 236. + +GRAND BANKS, mentioned, 323. + +GRAND TRUNK PACIFIC: has dock in Seattle, 173, 174; its low mountain +grade, 182. + +GREAT BRITAIN: withholds self-government from Oregon region, 11; food +requirements of, 36; grants no trade favors to her colonies, 43; +dependence of Canada upon, 43-45; trade of with the United States, +62-63; her dependencies, 95; immigration from, 95-110; allied with +Japan, 127, 132; as a world policeman, 137; shipyards of, 171; need of +shortest wheat route to, 197; eighty per cent. of Canada's agricultural +products go to, 202; acquires Canada, 224; secret of her success as a +colonial power, 269; overplus of women in, 265; rise of as a world +power, 269; her navy Canada's chief defense, 289; what defeat of her +navy would mean to Canada, 292-293; importance of Newfoundland to her +possessions in America, 323; will not interfere with Canada's destiny, +333. + +GREAT CLAY BELT; described, 33; mentioned, 303. + + +HENDRY, ANTHONY, first white fur-trader in Saskatchewan country, 314. + +HILL, JAMES: he and associates buy large coal areas, 66; predicts bread +famine in United States, 88; on rights of the public, 175; on western +fruit crop, 181; wheat empire of, 198, 208; a Canadian, 278. + +HINDUS: agitation against in British Columbia, 129; problem of in +Canada, 138-167; possible effects on constitution of unlimited +immigration of, 245; troops rushed across Canada, 286. + +HOPKINSON: murder of, 144; had secret information regarding Hindus, +144, 153. + +HUDSON BAY RAILROAD, account of, 191-209. + +HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY; monopoly of, 11; journals of mention mineral +deposits, 35; governor of testifies that farming can not succeed in +Rupert's Land, 271; effect of contentions regarding Northwest, 276; +trade of, 297-298; former monopoly of, 299; mentioned, 302. + +HUDSON STRAITS, the crux of the Hudson Bay route, 206-209. + +HUNTERS' LODGES, raids of, 8. + + +ICELANDERS, story of in Manitoba, 122-123. + +IMMIGRATION: increase in ten years, 20; from Great Britain, 51, 95-110; +American immigration into Canada, 61-79; from continental Europe, +111-126; from the Orient, 127-167; probable effect of Panama Canal +upon, 176. + +IMPERIAL FEDERATION, a dead issue in Canada, 47. + +INDIANS: number of in the fur trade, 294; rights of Indian wives +married to white men, 266. + +INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD: in Canada, 219; program of, 221. + + +JAPAN: dominates fishing industry of the Pacific, 24; alliance of with +Great Britain, 127; attitude of on equality question, 130-132; activity +of on West Coast, 134-136; controls seventy-two per cent. of the +shipping of the Pacific, 136, 178; future influence of, 137; attempt to +draw into Hindu quarrel, 146; demands room to expand, 168; becomes a +world power, 269; future relations of with Canada, 333. + +JAPANESE: inrush of into British Columbia, 129; limitations on +immigration of, 130; exclusion of becomes party shibboleth, 133; a +separate problem from that of the Hindu, 138. + +JUDGES, position and powers of, 233-236. + + +KOOTENAY, mining boom in, 66-67. + + +LABRADOR, as a fur country, 302-304. + +LABRODOR, THE, under jurisdiction of Newfoundland, 327 + +LAURIER, SIR WILFRED: social prestige of, 4; helps allay racial +antagonisms, 7; prediction of as to Canada's future, 17; supports Boer +War, 31-32; a self-made man, 53; a free-trader, 82; and reciprocity, +89-91; one of Canada's great men, 109; and a Dominion navy, 283, 285; +mentioned, 243. + +LESSER GREAT LAKES, fisheries of, 39. + +LIBERALS: favor free trade, 82; seek reciprocity agreement, 83-85; +launch two more transcontinentals, 86; and appointment of judges, 234; +organize to oust Family Compact, 242; principles of, 242-244; oppose +Naval Bill, 283, 285. + +LITERATURE: no great national in Canada, 262; Canadians slow to +recognize writers, 279; most Canadian books first published out of +Canada, 79. + +LORD SELKIRK'S SETTLERS, come to Canada, 6. + +LOYALISTS, see UNITED EMPIRE LOYALISTS. + + +MACDONALD, SIR JOHN: influence of upon Canadian constitution, 11-12; +comes up from penury, 53; seeks tariff concessions from the United +States, 81; tariff views of, 83; launches Canadian Pacific Railway, 86; +one of Canada's great men, 109; mentioned, 243. + +MACKENZIE, ALEXANDER: comes up from penury, 53; mentioned, 81; a +free-trader, 82; a man of the North, 295. + +MACKENZIE, WILLIAM LYON, a leader in rebellion of 1837-8, 226. + +MANITOBA: almost as large as British Isles, 16, 39; coal deposits in, +38; distance of from Montreal and Hudson Bay, 195. + +MANITOBA SCHOOL CASE, mentioned 44, 83. + +MANN, DAN, comes up from penury, 53, + +MARITIME PROVINCES, described, 221. + +MONROE DOCTRINE: mentioned, 32, 45, 285; Canadian opinion of, 169, 288; +attitude of French Nationalists toward, 244. + +MOUNTED POLICE: say crime in Northwest is increasing, 118; efficiency +of, 238-240. + +MUNRO, DOCTOR, quoted regarding Oriental immigration, 162-163. + + +NATIONALISTS; oppose Navy Bill, 283, 285; and outside entanglements, +244. + +NAVY BILL: defeated, 284. + +NEW BRUNSWICK, mentioned, 22. + +NEWFOUNDLAND; mentioned, 195; description of, 323-328; why not a part +of Canada, 323-330. + +NEW FRANCE, conquest of, 6. + +NORTH AMERICA ACT, see BRITISH NORTH AMERICA ACT. + +NOVA SCOTIA, mentioned, 22. + + +ONTARIO: first settlement of, 3; more ultra-English than England, 4; +description of, 33-35. + +OSLER, WILLIAM, a Canadian, 278. + + +PANAMA CANAL; mentioned, 14; influence of upon commerce, 27; turns +Pacific into a front door, 41; what it means to Canada, 168-190; will +reverse conduits of trade, 280. + +PAPINEAU, LOUIS, a leader in the rebellion of 1837-8, 226. + +PARLIAMENT: composition and powers of, 230-233; a session every year, +234. + +PEACE RIVER COUNTRY: mentioned, 16; wheat grown in, 271; wheat lands +of, 300. + +PEEL, PAUL: lost to Canada, 279. + +PRAIRIE PROVINCES: resources of, 350; probable wheat production of in +twenty years, 183. + +PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND, mentioned, 22. + + +QUEBEC, PROVINCE OF: more Catholic than the Pope, 4; size of, 16; +description of, 27-32. + +QUEBEC ACT, first constitution of Canada, 225. + + +RAILWAY COMMISSION, 192. + +REBELLION OF 1837: significance of, 8. + +RECIPROCITY: Canadians seek, 15; why rejected, 80-94. + +RED RIVER, demands self-government, 11. + +RELIGION, influence of in Canada, 252-259. + +REVILLONS: yearly fur trade of, 298; inquiry made of as to number of +white hunters, 302. + +RIEL REBELLION, mentioned, 227, 284. + +ROOSEVELT, THEODORE, sends fleet round the world, 128. + +ROYAL NORTHWEST MOUNTED POLICE, absence of flunkeyism among, 49. + + +SASKATCHEWAN: area of, 16, 39; coal deposits in, 38. + +SCHURMAN, JACOB G., a Canadian, 278. + +SIFTON, CLIFFORD: a self-made man, 53; campaign for immigrants, 70-74, +87. + +SMITH, GOLDWIN, opinion of Canadian loyalty, 47-48. + +SOCIALISM: plays little part in Canadian affairs, 248-251; in Canada, +210, 222. + +SOCIALISTS, have never collected money to buy rifles, 149. + +SPORT, interest in and forms of, 259-262. + +ST. LAWRENCE RIVER, improvements along, 192-196. + +STRATHCONA, LORD: prophecy of regarding the prairie provinces, 39, 170; +once a fur-trader, 295. + +STRATHCONA HORSE, daring of in South Africa, 49. + +SUDBURY, nickel mines of, 34. + + +TAFT, WILLIAM H., and reciprocity, 45, 89-91. + +TEACHERS, lack of recognition of services of, 125-126. + +"TWILIGHT ZONE": borderland between Dominion and provincial powers, +145; embarrassing in labor disputes, 219. + + +UNITED EMPIRE LOYALISTS: first people Ontario, 3; mentioned, 6, 7, 9, +225, 274, 295. + +UNITED STATES: effects of Civil War upon unity of, 2; emigration to +from Canada, 15; population of compared with that of Canada, 18, 269, +275; absorption of immigration by, 20; spring wheat production of, 37; +government of compared with that of Canada, 50-51; transportation +facilities between Canada and the United States, 64; trade of with +Canada, 64-65; lumbermen from our timber lands in Dominion, 76; and +reciprocity, 81-94; increase in value of fruit lands in, 105; +similarity to Canada, 113; political corruption in, 116; why she built +Panama Canal, 128, 187; problems of immigration in, 120, 130, 176; +emigration to Canada from, 170; shipyards in, 171; expectations of +Panama, 174; little aid given by to shipping, 179; how it transports +its wheat crop, 183; a source of the British wheat supply, 197; acreage +of wheat in, 201; increase of urban population in, 214; as a competitor +of Canada, 216; churches of poorly attended, 252; friendly relations of +with Canada, 273; comparison of with Canada, 269-277; Canadians +grateful they are not as, 277; a "big ship," 278; what menaces United +States menaces Canada, 287; foreign policies of two countries similar, +292; even closer commercial relations of with Canada, 332; will not +interfere with Canada's destiny, 332. + + +VAN HORNE, SIR WILLIAM C, comes up from penury, 53. + + +WALKER, HORATIO, lost to Canada, 279. + +WAR OF 1812, cripples Canada financially, 7. + +WELLAND CANAL, not wide enough, 194, + +WILSON, WOODROW, tariff reductions under, 94. + + +YUKON: mentioned, 16; gold discovered in, 23. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CANADIAN COMMONWEALTH*** + + +******* This file should be named 18032-8.txt or 18032-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/0/3/18032 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + diff --git a/18032-8.zip b/18032-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ade7c04 --- /dev/null +++ b/18032-8.zip diff --git a/18032.txt b/18032.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8cd3d44 --- /dev/null +++ b/18032.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8372 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Canadian Commonwealth, by Agnes C. Laut + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Canadian Commonwealth + + +Author: Agnes C. Laut + + + +Release Date: March 21, 2006 [eBook #18032] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CANADIAN COMMONWEALTH*** + + +E-text prepared by Al Haines + + + +THE CANADIAN COMMONWEALTH + +by + +AGNES C. LAUT + +Author of +Lords of the North, Pathfinders of the West, +Hudson's Bay Company, etc. + + + + + + +Indianapolis +The Bobbs-Merrill Company +Publishers +Copyright 1915 +The Bobbs-Merrill Company + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER + + I NATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS + II FOUNDATION FOR HOPE + III THE TIE THAT BINDS + IV AMERICANIZATION + V WHY RECIPROCITY WAS REJECTED + VI THE COMING OF THE ENGLISH + VII THE COMING OF THE FOREIGNER + VIII THE COMING OF THE ORIENTAL + IX THE HINDU + X WHAT PANAMA MEANS + XI TO EUROPE BY HUDSON BAY + XII SOME INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS + XIII HOW GOVERNED + XIV THE LIFE OF THE PEOPLE + XV EMIGRATION AND DEVELOPMENT + XVI DEFENSE + XVII THE DOMAIN OF THE NORTH + XVIII FINDING HERSELF + INDEX + + + + +THE CANADIAN COMMONWEALTH + + +CHAPTER I + +NATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS + +I + +An empire the size of Europe setting out on her career of world history +is a phenomenon of vast and deep enough import to stir to national +consciousness the slumbering spirit of any people. Yet when you come +to trace when and where national consciousness awakened, it is like +following a river back from the ocean to its mountain springs. From +the silt borne down on the flood-tide you can guess the fertile plains +watered and far above the fertile plains, regions of eternal snow and +glacial torrent warring turbulently through the adamantine rocks. You +can guess the eternal striving, the forward rush and the throwback that +have carved a way through the solid rocks; but until you have followed +the river to its source and tried to stem its current you can not know. + +So of peoples and nations. + +Fifty years ago, as far as world affairs were concerned, Japan did not +exist. Came national consciousness, and Japan rose like a star +dominating the Orient. A hundred years ago Germany did not exist. +Came national consciousness welding chaotic principalities into unity, +and the mailed fist of the empire became a menace before which Europe +quailed. So of China with the ferment of freedom leavening the whole. +So of the United States with the Civil War blending into a union the +diversities of a continent. When you come to consider the birth of +national consciousness in Canada, you do not find the germ of an +ambition to dominate, as in Japan and Germany. Nor do you find a fight +for freedom. Canada has always been free--free as the birds of passage +that winged above the canoe of the first voyageur who pointed his craft +up the St. Lawrence for the Pacific; but what you do find from the very +first is a fight for national existence; and when the fight was won, +Canada arose like a wrestler with consciousness of strength for new +destiny. + + +II + +Go back to the beginning of Canada! + +She was not settled by land-seekers. Neither was she peopled by +adventurers seeking gold. The first settlers on the banks of the St. +Lawrence came to plant the Cross and propagate the Faith. True, they +found they could support their missions and extend the Faith by the fur +trade; and their gay adventurers of the fur trade threaded every river +and lake from the St. Lawrence to the Columbia; but, primarily, the +lure that led the French to the St. Lawrence was the lure of a +religious ideal. So of Ontario and the English provinces. Ontario was +first peopled by United Empire Loyalists, who refused to give up their +loyalty to the Crown and left New England and the South, abandoning all +earthly possessions to begin life anew in the backwoods of the Great +Lakes country. The French came pursuing an ideal of religion. The +English came pursuing an ideal of government. We may smile at the +excesses of both devotees--French nuns, who swooned in religious +ecstasy; old English aristocrats, who referred to democracy as "the +black rot plague of the age"; but the fact remains--these colonists +came in unselfish pursuit of ideals; and they gave of their blood and +their brawn and all earthly possessions for those ideals; and it is of +such stuff that the spirit of dauntless nationhood is made. Men who +build temples of their lives for ideals do not cement national mortar +with graft. They build with integrity for eternity, not time. Their +consciousness of an ideal gives them a poise, a concentration, a +stability, a steadiness of purpose, unknown to mad chasers after +wealth. Obstinate, dogged, perhaps tinged with the self-superior +spirit of "I am holier than thou"--they may be; but men who forsake all +for an ideal and pursue it consistently for a century and a half +develop a stamina that enters into the very blood of their race. It is +a common saying even to this day that Quebec is more Catholic than the +Pope, and Ontario more ultra-English than England; and when the +Canadian is twitted with being "colonial" and "crude," his prompt and +almost proud answer is that he "goes in more for athletics than +esthetics." "One makes men. The other may make sissies." + +With this germ spirit as the very beginning of national consciousness +in Canada, one begins to understand the grim, rough, dogged +determination that became part of the race. Canada was never +intoxicated with that madness for Bigness that seemed to sweep over the +modern world. What cared she whether her population stood still or +not, whether she developed fast or slow, provided she kept the Faith +and preserved her national integrity? Flimsy culture had no place in +her schools or her social life. A solid basis of the three R's--then +educational frills if you like; but the solid basis first. Worship of +wealth and envy of material success have almost no part in Canadian +life; for the simple reason that wealth and success are not the ideals +of the nation. Laurier, who is a poor man, and Borden, who is only a +moderately well-off man, command more social prestige in Canada than +any millionaire from Vancouver to Halifax. If demos be the spirit of +the mob, then Canada has no faintest tinge of democracy in her; but +inasmuch as the French colonists came in pursuit of a religious ideal +and the English colonists of a political ideal, if democracy stand for +freedom for the individual to pursue his own ideal--then Canada is +supersaturated with that democracy. Freedom for the individual to +pursue his own ideal was the very atmosphere in which Canada's national +consciousness was born. + +In the West a something more entered into the national spirit. French +fur-traders, wood-runners, voyageurs had drifted North and West, men of +infinite resources, as much at home with a frying-pan over a camp-fire +as over a domestic hearth, who could wrest a living from life anywhere. +English adventurers of similar caliber had drifted in from Hudson Bay. +These little lords in a wilderness of savages had scattered west as far +as the Rockies, south to California. They knew no law but the law of a +strong right arm and kept peace among the Indians only by a dauntless +courage and rough and ready justice. They could succeed only by a good +trade in furs, and they could obtain a good trade in furs only by +treating the Indians with equity. Every man who plunged into the fur +wilderness took courage in one hand and his life in the other. If he +lost his courage, he lost his life. Indian fray, turbulent rapids, +winter cold took toll of the weak and the feckless. Nature accepts no +excuses. The man who defaulted in manhood was wiped out--sucked down +by the rapids, buried in winter storms, absorbed into the camps of +Indian degenerates. The men who stayed upon their feet had the stamina +of a manhood in them that could not be extinguished. It was a +wilderness edition of that dauntlessness which brought the Loyalists to +Ontario and the French devotees to Quebec. This, too, made for a +dogged, strong, obstinate race. At the time of the fall of French +power at Quebec in 1759 there were about two thousand of these +wilderness hunters in the West. Fifty years later by way of Hudson Bay +came Lord Selkirk's Settlers--Orkneymen and Highlanders, hardy, keen +and dauntless as their native rock-bound isles. + +These four classes were the primary first ingredients that went into +the making of Canada's national consciousness and each of the four +classes was the very personification of strength, purpose, courage, +freedom. + + +III + +But Destiny plays us strange tricks. When Quebec fell in 1759, New +France passed under the rule of that English and Protestant race which +she had been fighting for two centuries; and when the American colonies +won their independence twenty years later and the ultra-English +Loyalists trekked in thousands across the boundary to what are now +Montreal and Toronto and Cobourg, there came under one government two +races that had fought each other in raid and counter-raid for two +centuries--alien and antagonistic in religion and speech. It is only +in recent years under the guiding hand of Sir Wilfred Laurier that the +ancient antagonism has been pushed off the boards. + +The War of 1812 probably helped Canada's national spirit more than it +hurt it. It tested the French Canadian and found him loyal to the +core; loyal, to be sure, not because he loved England more but rather +because he loved the Americans less. He felt surer of religious +freedom under English rule, which guaranteed it to him, than under the +rule of the new republic, which he had harried and which had harried +him in border raid for two centuries. The War of 1812 left Canada +crippled financially but stronger in national spirit because she had +tested her strength and repelled invasion. + +If mountain pines strike strong roots into the eternal rocks because +they are tempest-tossed by the wildest winds of heaven, then the next +twenty years were destined to test the very fiber of Canada's national +spirit. All that was weak snapped and went down. The dry rot of +political theory was flung to dust. Special interests, pampered +privileges, the claims of the few to exploit the many, the claims of +the many to rule wisely as the few--the shibboleth of theorists, the +fine spun cobwebs of the doctrinaires, governmental ideals of +brotherhood that were mostly sawdust and governmental practices that +were mostly theft under privilege--all went down in the smash of the +next twenty years' tempest. All that was left was what was real; what +would hold water and work out in fact. + +It is curious how completely all records slur over the significance of +the Rebellion of 1837. Canada is sensitive over the facts of the case +to this day. Only a few years ago a book dealing with the unvarnished +facts of the period was suppressed by a suit in court. As a rebellion, +1837 was an insignificant fracas. The rebels both in Ontario and +Quebec were hopelessly outnumbered and defeated. William Lyon +MacKenzie, the leader in Ontario, and Louis Papineau, the leader in +Quebec, both had to flee for their lives. It is a question if a +hundred people all told were killed. Probably a score in all were +executed; as many again were sent to penal servitude; and several +hundreds escaped punishment by fleeing across the boundary and joining +in the famous night raids of Hunters' Lodges. Within a few years both +the leaders and exiles were permitted to return to Canada, where they +lived honored lives. It was not as a rebellion that 1837 was +epoch-making. It was in the clarifying of Canada's national +consciousness as to how she was to be governed. + +Having migrated from the revolting colonies of New England and the +South, the ultra-patriotic United Empire Loyalists unconsciously felt +themselves more British than the French of Quebec. Canada was governed +direct from Downing Street. There were local councils in both Toronto +and Quebec--or Upper and Lower Canada, as they were called--and there +were local legislatures; but the governing cliques were appointed by +the Royal Governor, which meant that whatever little clique gained the +Governor's ear had its little compact or junta of friends and relatives +in power indefinitely. There were elections, but the legislature had +no control over the purse strings of the government. Such a close +corporation of special interests did the governing clique become that +the administration was known in both provinces as a "Family Compact." +Administrative abuses flourished in a rank growth. Judges owing their +appointment to the Crown exercised the most arbitrary tyranny against +patriots raising their voices against government by special interests. +Vast land grants were voted away to favorites of the Compact. Public +moneys were misused and neither account given nor restitution demanded +from the culprit. Ultra-loyalty became a fashionable pose. When +strolling actors played American airs in a Toronto theater they were +hissed; and when a Canadian stood up to those airs, he was hissed. +Special interests became intrenched behind a triple rampart of fashion +and administration and loyalty. Details of the revolt need not be +given here. A great love is always the best cure for a puny +affection--a Juliet for a Rosalind; and when a pure patriotism arose to +oust this spurious lip-loyalty, there resulted the Rebellion of 1837. + +The point is--when the rebellion had passed, Canada had overthrown a +system of government by oligarchy. She had ousted special interests +forever from her legislative halls. In a blood and sweat of agony, on +the scaffold, in the chain gang, penniless, naked, hungry and in exile, +her patriots had fought the dragon of privilege, cast out the accursed +thing and founded national life on the eternal rocks of justice to all, +special privileges to none. Her patriots had themselves learned on the +scaffold that law must be as sacredly observed by the good as by the +evil, by the great as by the small. From the death scaffolds of these +patriots sprang that part of Canada's national consciousness that +reveres law next to God. Canada passed through the throes of purging +her national consciousness from 1815 to 1840, as the United States +passed through the same throes in the sixties, but the process cost her +half a century of delay in growth and development. + +While the union of Upper and Lower Canada put an end to the evils of +special privileges in government, events had been moving apace in the +far West, where roving traders and settlers were a law unto themselves. +Red River settlers of the region now known as Manitoba were clamoring +for an end to the monopoly of the Hudson's Bay Fur Company over all +that region inland from the Great Northern Sea. The discovery of gold +had brought hordes of adventurers pouring into Cariboo, or what is now +known as British Columbia. Both Red River and British Columbia +demanded self-government. Partly because England had delayed granting +Oregon self-government, the settlers of the Columbia had set up their +own provisional government and turned that region over to the United +States. We are surely far enough away from the episodes to state +frankly the facts that similar underground intrigue was at work in both +Red River and British Columbia, fostered, much of it, by Irish +malcontents of the old Fenian raids. Once more Canada's national +consciousness roused itself to a bigger problem and wider outlook. +Either the far-flung Canadian provinces must be bound together in some +sort of national unity or--the Canadian mind did not let itself +contemplate that "or." The provinces must be confederated to be held. +Hence confederation in 1867 under the British North American Act, which +is to Canada what the Constitution is to the United States. It +happened that Sir John Macdonald, the future premier of the Dominion, +had been in Washington during one period of the Civil War. He noted +what he thought was the great defect of the American system, and he +attributed the Civil War to that defect--namely, that all powers not +specifically delegated to the federal government were supposed to rest +with the states. Therefore, when Canada formed her federation of +isolated provinces, Sir John and the other famous Fathers of +Confederation reversed the American system. All power not specifically +delegated to the provinces was supposed to rest with the Dominion. +Only strictly local affairs were left with the provinces. Trade, +commerce, justice, lands, agriculture, labor, marriage laws, waterways, +harbors, railways were specifically put under Dominion control. + + +IV + +Now, stand back and contemplate the situation confronting the new +federation: + +Canada's population was less than half the present population of the +state of New York; not four million. That population was scattered +over an area the size of Europe.[1] To render the situation doubly +dark and doubtful the United States had just entered on her career of +high tariff. That high tariff barred Canadian produce out. There was +only one intermittent and unsatisfactory steamer service across the +Atlantic. There was none at all across the Pacific. British +Columbians trusted to windjammers round the Horn. Of railroads binding +East to West there was none. A canal system had been begun from the +lakes and the Ottawa to the St. Lawrence, but this was a measure more +of national defense than commerce. Crops were abundant, but where +could they be sold? I have heard relatives tell how wheat in those +days sold down to forty cents, and oats to twenty cents, and potatoes +to fifteen cents, and fine cattle to forty dollars, and finest horses +to fifty dollars and seventy-five dollars. Fathers of farmers who +to-day clear their three thousand dollars and four thousand dollars a +year could not clear one hundred dollars a year. Commerce was +absolutely stagnant. Canada was a federation, but a federation of +what? Poverty-stricken, isolated provinces. Not in bravado, not in +flamboyant self-confidence, rebuffed of all chance to trade with the +United States, the new Dominion humbly set herself to build the +foundations of a nation. She did not know whether she could do what +she had set herself to do; but she began with that same dogged idealism +and faith in the future which had buoyed up her first settlers; and +there were dark days during her long hard task, when the whiff of an +adverse wind would have thrown her into national bankruptcy--that +winter, for instance, when the Canadian Pacific had no money to go on +building and the Canadian government refused to extend aid. Had the +Kiel Rebellion of '85 not compelled the Dominion government to extend +aid so that the line would be ready for the troops every bank in Canada +would have collapsed, and national credit would have been impaired for +fifty years. + +Meanwhile, a country of less than four million people set itself to +link British Columbia with Montreal, and Montreal with Halifax, and +Ottawa with Detroit, and the Great Lakes with the sea. The story is +too long to be related in detail, but on canals alone Canada has spent +a hundred millions. Including stocks, bonds, funded debt and debenture +stock, the Dominion railways have a capital of $1,369,992,574; and the +country that had not a foot of railroads, when the patriots fought the +Family Compact, to-day possesses twenty-nine thousand miles of +trackage,[2] three transcontinental systems of railroads and threescore +lines touching the boundary.[3] Five times more tonnage passes through +the Canadian Soo Canal than is expected for Panama or has passed +through Suez; but consider the burden of this development on a people +whose farmers were scarcely clearing one hundred dollars a year. It is +putting it mildly to say that during these dark days property +depreciated two-thirds in value. Land companies that had loaned up to +two-thirds the value of farm property found themselves saddled with +farms which could not be sold for half they had advanced on the loan. + +Three times within the memory of the living generation Canadian +delegates sought trade concessions in Washington; and three times they +came back rebuffed, with but a grimmer determination to work out +Canada's own destiny. Is it any wonder, when the fourth time came and +Canada was offered reciprocity that she voted it down? + +During the twenty dark years Canada lost to the United States +one-fourth her native population.[4] During the last ten years she has +drawn back to her home acres not only many of her expatriated native +born but almost two million Americans. In ten years her population has +almost doubled. Uncle Sam has boasted his four billion yearly foreign +trade from Atlantic ports. Canada with a population only one-twelfth +Uncle Sam's to-day has a foreign trade of almost a billion. + + +V + +Take another look at Canada's area! All of Germany and Austria spread +over Eastern Canada would still leave an area uncovered in the East +bigger than the German Empire. England spread out flat would just +cover the maritime provinces. Quebec stands a third bigger than +Germany, Ontario a third bigger than France; and you still have a +western world as large again as the East. Spread the British Isles +flat, they would barely cover Manitoba. France and Germany would not +equal Saskatchewan and Alberta; and two Germanies would not cover +British Columbia--leaving undefined Yukon and MacKenzie River and Peace +River and the hinterland of Hudson Bay, an area equal to European +Russia. If areas in Canada had the same population as areas in Europe, +the Dominion would be supporting four hundred million people. + +It would be assuming too much stoicism to say that Canadians are not +conscious of a great destiny. For years they stuck so closely to their +nation-building that they had no time to stand back and view the size +of the edifice of their own structure, but all that is different +to-day. When four hundred thousand people a year flock to the Dominion +to cast in their lot with Canadians, there is testimony of worth. +Canadians know their destiny is upon them, whatever it may be; and they +are meeting the challenge half-way with faces to the front. In the +words of Sir Wilfred Laurier, they know that "the Twentieth Century is +Canada's." What will they do with it? What are their aims and desires +as a people? Will the same ideals light the path to the fore as have +illumined the long hard way in the past? Will Canada absorb into her +national life the people who are coming to her, or will they absorb her? + + +[1] Canada's area is 3,750,000 square miles. The area of Europe is +3,797,410 square miles. + +[2] Canada's railway mileage at the end of 1913 was 29,303.53. The +land grants to Canadian railroads, Dominion and provincial, stand +55,256,429 acres. Cash subsidies to railroads in Canada up to June 30, +1913, stand thus: from the Dominion, $163,251,469.42; from the +provinces, $36,500,015.16; from the municipalities, $18,078,673.60. + +[3] The tonnage through both Canadian and U. S. canals at the "Soo" in +1913 was 72,472,676, of which 39,664,874 went through the Canadian +canal. + +[4] The U. S. Census reports place the number of Canadians in the +United States at one and a quarter million; but this is obviously far +below the mark. Canada's loss of people shows that. For instance, +from 1898 to 1908, Canada was receiving immigrants at a rate exceeding +200,000 a year, yet the census for this decade showed a gain of only a +million. It was not till 1914 her census showed a gain of two million +for ten years. Her immigrants either went back or drifted over the +line. Port figures show that few went back to Europe. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +FOUNDATION FOR HOPE + +I + +Canada at the opening of the twentieth century has the same population +as the United States at the opening of the nineteenth century.[1] Has +the Dominion any material justification for her high hopes of a world +destiny? Switzerland possesses national consciousness to an acute +degree. Yet Switzerland remains a little people. What ground has +Canada for measuring her strength with the nations of the world? +Having remained almost stationary in her national progress from 1759 to +1859, what reason has she to anticipate a progress as swift and +world-embracing as that which forced the United States to the very +forefront of world powers? It takes something more than high hopes to +build empire. Has Canada a foundation beneath her high hopes? No +nation ever had a more passionate patriotism than Ireland. Yet Ireland +has lost her population and retrogressed.[2] Why will the same fate +not halt and impede Canada? + +It may be acknowledged here that Canadians have no answers for such +questions and short shift for the questioner. They are too busy making +history to talk about it. It is only the woman insecure of her social +position who prates about it. It is only the nation uncertain of +herself that bolsters a fact with an argument. Canada is too busy with +facts for any flamboyant arguments. It is an even wager that if you +ask the average well-informed business man in Canada how many miles of +railways the Dominion has, he will answer on the dot "almost thirty +thousand." But if you ask if he knows that Germany, for instance, with +nine times denser population has barely twice as much trackage--no, +your Canadian business man doesn't know it. He is too busy building +his own railroads to care much what other nations are doing with +theirs. Likewise of the country's trade increasing faster almost than +the Dominion can handle it. He knows that imports have increased one +hundred and sixty-three per cent. in ten years, and that exports have +increased almost fifty per cent.; but he doesn't realize in the least +that the Dominion with seven million people has one-fourth as large a +foreign trade as the United States with a hundred million people.[3] +He knows that immigration has in ten years jumped from 49,000 a year to +402,000; but does he take in what it means that his country with only +five million native born is being called on to absorb yearly a third as +many immigrants as the United States with eighty million native +born?[4] He has been so busy handling the rush of prosperity that has +come in on him like a tidal wave that he has not had time to pause over +the problems of this new destiny--the fact, for instance, that in two +more decades the newcomers will outnumber the native born. + + +II + +Unless the edifice be top heavy, beneath it all must be the rock bottom +of fact. Beneath the tide is the pull of some eternal law. What facts +is Canada building her future on? What pull is beneath the tide of +four hundred thousand homeseekers a year? What has doubled population +and almost doubled foreign trade? + +It is almost a truism that the farther north the land, the greater the +fertility, if there be any fertility at all. There is first the supply +of unfailing moisture, with a yearly subsoiling of humus unknown to +arid lands. Canada is super-sensitive about her winter climate--the +depth and intensity of the frost, the length and rigor of her winters; +but she need not be. It should be cause of gratitude. Frost +penetrating the ground from five to twelve feet--as it does in the +Northwest--guarantees a subterranean root irrigation that never fails. +Heavy snow--let us acknowledge frankly snow sometimes banks western +streets the height of a man--means a heavy supply of moisture both in +thaw and rain. There is second the long sunlight. An earth tilted on +its axis toward the sun six months of the year gives the North a +sunlight that is longer the farther north you go. When the sun sets at +seven to eight in New York, it sets at eight to nine in Winnipeg, and +nine to ten in Athabasca, and only for a few hours at all still farther +north. It is the long sunlight that gives the fruit of Niagara and +Quebec and Annapolis its "fameuse" quality; just as it is the sunlight +that gives western fruit its finest coloring, the higher up the plateau +it is grown. It is the long sunlight that gives Number One Hard Wheat +its white fine quality so indispensable to the millers. So of barley +and vegetables and small fruits and all that can be grown in the short +season of the North. What the season lacks in length it gains in +intensity of sunlight. Four months of twenty-hour sunlight produce +better growth in some products than eight months of shorter sunlight. + +These two advantages of moisture and sunlight, Canada possesses.[5] +What else has she? It doesn't mean much to say that Canada equals +Europe in area and that you could spread Germany and France and Austria +and Great Britain over the Dominion's map and still have an area +uncovered equal to European Russia. Nor does it mean much more to say +that in Canada you can find the climate of a Switzerland in the +Canadian Rockies, of Italy in British Columbia, of England in the +maritime provinces and of Russia in the Northwest. Areas are so great +and diverse that you have to examine them in groups to realize what +basis of fact Canada builds from. + +Girt almost round by the sea are the maritime provinces--Nova Scotia, +Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick--in area within sixty-seven square +miles of the same size as England, and in climate not unlike the home +land.[6] Your impression of their inhabitants is of a quiescent, +romantic, pastoral and sea-faring people--sprung from the same stock as +the liberty-seekers of New England, untouched by the mad unrest of +modern days, conservative as bed-rock, but with an eye to the frugal +main chance and a way of making good quietly. They do not talk about +the simple life in the maritime provinces because they have always +lived it, and the land is famed for its diet of codfish, and its men of +brains. Frugal, simple, reposeful living--the kind of living that +takes time to think--has sent out from the maritime provinces more +leaders of thought than any other area of Canada. It is a land that +leaves a dreamy memory with you of sunset lying gold on the Bras d' Or +Lakes, of cattle belly-deep in pasture, of apple farms where fragrance +of fruit and blossoms seem to scent the very atmosphere, of fishermen +rocking in their smacks, of great ships plowing up and down to sea. +You know there are great coal mines to the east and great timber limits +to the north; you may even smell the imprisoned fragrance of the +yellowing lumber being loaded for export, but it is as the land of +winter ports and of seamen for the navy that you will remember the +maritime provinces as factors in Canada's destiny. + +When gold was discovered in the Yukon and a hundred million dollars in +gold came out in ten years, the world went mad. Yet Canada yearly +mines from the silver quarries of the sea a harvest of thirty-four +million dollars, and of that amount, fifteen million dollars comes from +the maritime provinces.[7] Conservationists have sung their song in +vain if the world does not know that the fisheries of the United States +have been ruthlessly depleted, but here is a land the area of England +whose fisheries have increased in value one hundred per cent. in ten +years. It is not, however, as the great resource of fisheries that the +maritime provinces must play their part in Canada's destiny. It is as +the nursery of seamen for a marine power. No southern nation, with the +exception of Carthage, has ever dominated the sea; partly for the +simple reason that the best fisheries are always located in temperate +zones, where the glacial silt of the icebergs feeds the finny hordes +with minute infusoria; and the fisherman's smack--the dory that rocks +to the waves like a cockleshell, with meal of pork and beans cooking +above a chip fire on stones in the bottom of the boat, and rough grimed +fellows singing chanties to the rhythm of the sea--the fisherman's +smack is the nursery of the world's proudest merchant marines and most +powerful navies. Japan knows this, and encourages her fishermen by +bounties and passage money to spread all over the world, and Japanese +to-day operate practically all the fisheries of the Pacific. England +knows this and in the North Sea and off Newfoundland protects her +fishermen and draws from their ranks her seamen. + +Japan dominates seventy-two per cent. of the commerce of the Pacific, +not through chance, but through her merchant marine built up from rough +grimed fellows who quarry the silver mines of the sea. England +dominates the Seven Seas of the world, not through her superiority man +to man against other races, but through her merchant marine, carrying +the commerce of the world, built up from simple fisher folk hauling in +the net or paying out the line through icy salty spray above +tempestuous seas. No power yet dominates the seas of the New World. +The foreign commerce of the New World up to the time of the great war +was carried by British, German and Japanese ships. Canada has the +steel, the coal, the timber, the nursery for seamen. Will she become a +marine power in the New World? It is one of her dreams. It is also +one of England's dreams. No country subsidizes her merchant liners +more heavily than Canada[8]--in striking contrast with the parsimonious +policy of the United States. It is Canada's policy of ship subsidies +that has established regular merchant liners--all liable to service as +Admiralty ships--to Australia, to China, to Japan and to every harbor +on the Atlantic. + +Whether heavy subsidies to large liners will effect as much for a +merchant marine for Canada as numerous small subsidies to small lines +remains to be seen. The development of seamen from her fisheries is +one of the dreams she must work out in her destiny, and that leads one +to the one great disadvantage under which Canada rests as a marine +power. She lacks winter harbors on the Atlantic accessible to her +great western domain, whence comes the bulk of her commerce for export. +True, the maritime provinces afford those harbors--Saint John and +Halifax. A dozen other points, if need were, could be utilized in the +maritime provinces as winter harbors; but take a look at the map! The +maritime provinces are the longest possible spiral distance from the +rest of Canada. They necessitate a rail haul of from two to three +thousand miles from the west. What gives Galveston, New Orleans, +Baltimore, Buffalo preeminence as harbors? Their nearness to the +centers of commerce--their position far inland of the continent, +cutting rail haul by half and quarter from the plains. Montreal has +this advantage of being far inland; but from November to May Montreal +is closed; and Canadian commerce must come out by way of American +lines, or pay the long haul down to the maritime provinces. There can +be no doubt that this disadvantage is one of the factors forcing the +West to find outlet by Hudson Bay--where harbors are also closed by the +ice but are only four hundred miles from the wheat plains. There can +also be no doubt that the opening of Panama will draw much western +commerce to Europe by way of the Pacific. + + +III + +When one comes to consider Quebec under its new boundaries, one is +contemplating an empire three times larger than Germany, supporting a +population not so large as Berlin.[9] It is the seat of the old French +Empire, the land of the idealists who came to propagate the Faith and +succeeded in exploring three-quarters of the continent, with canoes +pointed ever up-stream in quest of beaver. All the characteristics of +the Old Empire are in Quebec to-day. Quebec is French to the core, not +in loyalty to republican France, but in loyalty to the religious ideals +which the founders brought to the banks of the St. Lawrence three +centuries ago. Church spire, convent walls, religious foundations +occupy the most prominent site in every city and town and hamlet of +Quebec. From Tadousac to Montreal, from Labrador to Maine or New +Hampshire, you can follow the thread of every river in Quebec by the +glitter of the church spires round which nestle the hamlets. No matter +how poor the hamlet, no matter how remote the hills which slope wooded +down to some blue lake, there stand the village church with its cross +on the spire, the whitewashed house of the cure, the whitewashed square +dormer-windowed school. + +Outside Quebec City and Montreal, Quebec is the most reposeful region +in all America. What matter wars and rumors of wars to these habitants +living under guidance of the cure, as their ancestors lived two hundred +years ago? They pay their tithes. They attend mass. At birth, +marriage and death--the cure is their guide and friend. He teaches +them in their schools. He advises them in their family affairs. He +counsels them in their business. At times he even dictates their +politics; but when you remember that French is the language spoken, +that primary education is of the slimmest, though all doors are open +for a promising pupil to advance, you wonder whether constant tutelage +of a benevolent church may not be a good thing in a chaotic, confused +and restless age. The habitant lives on his little long narrow strip +of a farm running back from the river front. He fishes a little. He +works on the river and in the lumber camps of the Back Country. He +raises a little tobacco, hay, a pig, a cow, a little horse and a family +of from ten to twenty. When the daughters marry--as they are +encouraged to do at the earliest possible age--the farm is subdivided +among the sons; and when it will subdivide no longer, there is a +migration to the Back Country, or to a French settlement in the +Northwest, where another cure will shepherd the flock; and the +habitant, blessed at his birth and blessed at his marriage, is usually +blessed at his death at the ripe age of ninety or a hundred. It is a +simple and on the whole a very happy, if not progressive, life. Some +years ago, when hard times prevailed in Canada and the manufacturing +cities of New England offered what seemed big wages to habitants, who +considered themselves rich on one hundred dollars a year--a great +migration took place across the border; but it was not a happy move for +these simple children of the soil. They missed the shepherding of +their beloved cure, and the movement has almost stopped. Also you find +Jean Ba'tiste in the redwoods of California as lumber-jack, or plying a +canoe on MacKenzie River. The best fur-traders of the North to-day are +half-breeds with a strain of French Canadian blood. + +If you take a look at the map of Quebec under its new boundaries up +into Labrador--it seems absurd to call a region three times the area of +Germany "a province"--you will see that only the fringe of the river +fronts has been peopled. This is owing to the old system of parceling +out the land in mile strips back from the river--a system that +antedated the railroads, when every man's train was a paddle and the +waterfront. Beyond, back up from the rivers, lies literally a +no-man's-land of furs plentiful as of old, of timber of which only the +edge has been slashed, of water power unestimated and of mineral +resources only guessed. It seems incredible at this late date that you +can count on one hand the number of men who have ascended the rivers of +Quebec and descended the rivers of Labrador to Hudson Bay. The forest +area is estimated at one hundred and twenty million acres; but that is +only a guess. The area of pulp wood is boundless. + +Along the St. Lawrence, south of the St. Lawrence and around the great +cities come touches of the modern--elaborate stock farms, great +factories, magnificent orchards, huge sawmills. The progress of +Montreal and the City of Quebec is so intimately involved with the +navigation of the St. Lawrence route and the development of railroads +that it must be dealt with separately; but it may be said here that +nearly all the old seigneurial tenures--Crown grants of estates to the +nobility of New France--have passed to alien hands. The system itself, +the last relic of feudal tenure in Canada, was abolished by Canadian +law. What, then, is the aim of Quebec as a factor in Canada's destiny? +It may be said perfectly frankly that with the exception of such +enlightened men as Laurier, Quebec does not concern herself with +Canada's destiny. In a war with France, yes, she would give of her +sons and her blood; in a war against France, not so sure. "Why are you +loyal?" I asked a splendid scholarly churchman of the old regime--a man +whose works have been quoted by Parkman. "Because," he answered +slowly, "because--you--English--leave us--alone to work out our hopes." +"What are those hopes?" I asked. He waved his hand toward the +window--church spires and yet more spires far as we could see down the +St. Lawrence--another New France conserving the religious ideals that +had been crushed by the republicanism of the old land. Let it be +stated without a shadow of doubt--Quebec never has had and never will +have the faintest idea of secession. Her religious freedom is too well +guaranteed under the present regime for her to risk change under an +untried order of independence or annexation. The church wants Quebec +exactly as she is--to work out her destiny of a new and regenerate +France on the banks of the St. Lawrence. + +A certain section of the French oppose Canada embroiling herself in +European wars. They do this conscientiously and not as a political +trick to attract the votes of the ultramontane French. One of the most +brilliant supporters Sir Wilfred Laurier ever had flung his chances of +a Cabinet place to the winds in opposing Canada's participation in the +Boer War. He not only flung his chances to the winds, but he ruined +himself financially and was read out of the party. The motive behind +this opposition to Canada's participations in the Imperial wars is, +perhaps, three-fold. French Canada has never forgotten that she was +conquered. True, she is better off, enjoys greater religious liberty, +greater material prosperity, greater political freedom than under the +old regime; but she remembers that French prestige fell before English +prestige on the Plains of Abraham. The second motive is an unconscious +feeling of detachment from British Imperial affairs. Why should French +Canada embroil herself and give of her blood and means for a race alien +to herself in speech and religion? The Monroe Doctrine forever defends +Canada from seizure by European power. Why not rest under that defense +and build up a purely Canadian power? The third motive is almost +subconscious. What if a European war should involve French-Catholic +Canada on the side of Protestant England against French-Catholic +France, or even Catholic Italy? Quebec feels herself a part of Canada +but not of the British Empire; and it is a great question how much +Laurier's support of the British in the Boer War had to do with that +partial defection of Quebec which ultimately defeated him on +Reciprocity; for if there is one thing the devout son of the church +fears more than embroilment in European war, it is coming under the +republicanizing influence of the United States. Under Canadian law the +favored status of the church is guaranteed. Under American law the +church would be on the same footing as all other denominations. + + +IV + +When one comes to Ontario, one is dealing with the kitchen garden of +the Dominion--in summer a land of placid sky-blue lakes, and +amber-colored wooded rivers, and trim, almost garden-like farms, and +heavily laden orchards, and thriving cities beginning to smoke under +the pall of the increasing and almost universal factory. Under its old +boundaries Ontario stood just eighteen thousand square miles larger +than France. Under its new boundaries extending to Hudson Bay, Ontario +measures almost twice the area of France. France supports a population +of nearly forty millions; Ontario, of barely two and a half millions. +Both Ontario and France are equally fertile and equally diversified in +fertility. Along the lakes and clustered round Niagara is the great +fruit region--vineyards and apple orchards that are gardens of +perfection. North of the lakes is a mixed farm region. Parallel with +the latitude skirting Georgian Bay begins the Great Clay belt, an area +of heavily forested lands about seven hundred miles north to south and +almost a thousand diagonally east to west. On its southern edge this +hinterland, which forms the watershed between Hudson Bay and the St. +Lawrence, seems to be rock-bound and iron-capped. For years travelers +across the continent must have looked through the car windows across +this landscape of windfall and fire as a picture of desolation. +Surely, "here was nothing," as some of the first explorers said when +they viewed Canada from Labrador; but pause; not so fast! Here lay, if +nothing else, an area of timber limits seven hundred by one thousand +miles; and as the timber burned off curious mineral outcroppings were +observed. When the railroad was graded through what is now known as +Sudbury, there was a report of a great find of copper. Expert after +expert examined it, and company after company forfeited options and +refused to bond it. Finally a shipment was sent out to a smelter +across the border. The so-called "copper" was pronounced "nickel"--the +greatest deposit of the metal needed for armor plating known in the +world. In fact, only one other mine could compete against the Sudbury +nickel beds--the French mines of New Caledonia. Here was something, +surely, in this rock-bound iron region of desolation, which passing +travelers had pronounced worthless. + +The discovery of silver at Cobalt came by an almost similar chance. +Grading an extension of a North Ontario railroad projected purely for +the sake of prospective settlers, workmen came on surface deposits of +"rose" silver--almost pure metal, some of it; and there resulted such a +mining boom and series of quick fortunes as had made Klondike famous. +And Cobalt and Sudbury are at only the southern edge of the unexplored +hinterland of Ontario. Old records of the French regime, daily +journals of the Hudson's Bay Company fur-traders, repeatedly refer to +well-known mines between Lake Superior and James Bay; but fur-traders +discouraged mining; and this region is less known to-day than when +coureur de bois and voyageur threaded river and lake and leafy +wilderness. Ontario, like Quebec, is only on the outer edge of +realizing her own wealth. + + +V + +We sometimes speak as though Canada had had her boom and it was all +over. She has had her boom, and the boom has exploded, and it is a +good thing. When inflation collapses, a country gets down to reality; +and the reality is that Canada has barely begun to develop the +exhaustless mine of wealth which Heaven has given her. Ontario, +complacent with a fringe of prosperity along lake front, is an +instance; Quebec, with only a border on each bank of her great rivers +peopled, is another instance; and the prairie provinces are still more +striking illustrations of the sleeping potentialities of the Dominion. +In our dark days we used to call those three prairie provinces between +Lake Superior and the Rockies "the granary of the Empire." I am afraid +it was more in bravado, hoping against hope, than in any other spirit; +for we were raising little grain and exporting less and receiving +prices that hardly paid for the labor. That was back in the early +nineties. To-day, what? One single year's wheat crop from one only of +those provinces equals more gold in value than ever came out of +Klondike. If Britain were cut off from every other source of food +supply, those three provinces could feed the British Isles with their +surplus wheat. To be explicit, credit Great Britain with a population +of forty-five millions. Apportion to each six bushels of wheat--the +per capita requirement for food, according to scientists. Great +Britain requires two hundred and eighty to three hundred million +bushels of wheat for bread only--not to be manufactured into cereal +products, which is another and enormous demand in itself. Of the wheat +required for bread, Great Britain herself raises only fifty to sixty +million bushels, leaving a deficit, which must come from outside +sources, of two hundred million bushels. + +In 1912 Canada raised one hundred and ninety-nine million bushels of +wheat. In 1913, of grain products, Canada exported one hundred and ten +million bushels; of flour products, almost twenty million dollars' +worth. Under stress of need or high prices these totals could easily +be trebled. The figures are, indeed, bewildering in their bigness. In +the three prairie provinces there were under cultivation in 1912 for +all crops only sixteen and one-half million acres.[10] At twenty +bushels to the acre this area put under wheat would feed Great Britain. +But note--only sixteen and one-half million acres were under +cultivation. There have been surveyed as suitable for cultivation one +hundred and fifty-eight million acres. The land area of the three +prairie provinces is four hundred and sixty-six million acres. If only +half the land surveyed as suitable for cultivation were put in +wheat--namely seventy-nine million acres; and if it yielded only ten +bushels to the acre (it usually yields nearer twenty than ten), the +three prairie provinces of Canada would be producing crops equal to the +entire spring wheat production of the United States. Grant, then, two +bushels for reseeding, or one hundred and fifty-eight million bushels, +and six bushels for food, or fifty million bushels, the three prairie +provinces would still have for export more than five hundred million +bushels. All this presupposes population. Granting each man one +hundred and sixty acres, it presupposes 493,750 more farmers than are +in the West; but coming to Canada yearly are four hundred thousand +settlers; so that counting four out of every five settlers children, in +half a decade at the least, Western Canada will have five hundred +thousand more farmers--enough to feed Great Britain and still have a +surplus of wheat for Europe. + +In connection with wheat exports from the West one factor should never +be ignored--the influence of the Great Lakes and the Soo Canal in +reducing freight to the West. Great Lakes freight tolls are to-day the +cheapest in the world, and their influence in minimizing the toll on +the all-land haul must never be ignored. Freight can be carried on the +Great Lakes one thousand miles for the same rate charged on rail rate +for one hundred miles.[11] + +And wheat is not the only product of the three prairie provinces. On +the borderland between Manitoba and Saskatchewan are enormous deposits +of coal which have not yet been explored. Canoeing once through +Eastern Saskatchewan and Northern Manitoba, I saw a piece of almost +pure copper brought down from the hinterland of Churchill River by an +Indian, from an unknown mine, which no white man has yet found. On the +borderland between Alberta and British Columbia is a ridge of coal +deposits which such conservative experts as the late George Dawson +estimated would mine four million tons a year for five thousand years. +These coal deposits seem almost nature's special provision for the +treeless plains. + +It is well known that the decrease in white fish in the Great Lakes for +the past ten years has been appalling. Northward of Churchill River is +a region of chains of lakes--the Lesser Great Lakes, they have been +called--and these are the only untouched inland fisheries in America. +To the exporter they are ideal fishing ground. The climate is cool. +The fish can be sent out frozen to American markets. Of Canada's +thirty-four million dollars' worth of fish in 1912, one and one-half +million dollars' worth came from the three prairie provinces. + +Under the old boundaries, the three prairie provinces compared in area +respectively Manitoba with Great Britain; Saskatchewan with France; +Alberta, one and a half times larger than Germany. Under the new +boundaries extending the province to Hudson Bay, Manitoba is fifty-two +thousand square miles larger than Germany; Saskatchewan extended north +is fifty thousand square miles larger than France; and Alberta extended +north is fifty thousand square miles larger than Germany. And north of +the three grain provinces is an area the size of European Russia. + +We talk of Canada's boom as "done," but has it even begun? Strathcona +used to say that the three prairie provinces would support a population +of one hundred million. Was he right? On the basis of Europe's +population the three provinces would sustain three times Germany's +sixty-five millions. + +VI + +In British Columbia one reaches the province of the greatest natural +wealth, the greatest diversity in climate and the most feverish +activity in Canada. East of the mountains is a climate high, cold and +bracing as Russia or Switzerland. Between the ranges of the mountains +are valleys mild as France. On the coast toward the south is a climate +like Italy; toward the north, like Scotland. Of Canada's entire timber +area--twice as great as Europe's standing timber--three-quarters lie in +British Columbia. Fruit equal to Niagara's, fisheries richer than the +maritime provinces, mines yielding more than Klondike--exist in this +most favored of provinces. While the area is a half larger than +Germany, the population is smaller than that of a suburb of Berlin.[12] +Of Canada's thirty-four million dollars' worth of fish, thirteen +million dollars' worth come from British Columbia; and of her products +of forty-six millions of precious and fifty-six millions of +non-metallic minerals in 1911 easily half came from British +Columbia.[13] + +Instead of that repose which marks the maritime provinces, one finds an +eager fronting to the future that is almost feverish. If Panama is +turning the entire Pacific into a front door instead of a back door, +then British Columbia knows the coign of vantage, which she holds as an +outlet for half Canada's commerce by way of the Pacific. It is in +British Columbia that East must meet West and work out destiny. + + +[1] In 1800, the United States population was 5,308,483; in 1901, the +Canadian population was 5,371,315. + +[2] Ireland lost one-half her population from 1840 to 1900, Her +population dropped in round numbers from eight millions to four +millions. + +[3] Total foreign trade of Canada, 1912, $1,085,264,000; of United +States, $4,538,702,000. + +[4] This presupposes immigration to the United States at a million and +a quarter, as before the war. + +[5] Speaking generally, there are few sections of the Northwest where +the average rainfall is scanty. + +[6] The areas of all the Canadian provinces except the maritime ones +have been extended in recent years--Quebec to include Labrador--except +the East Shore, which is under Newfoundland; Ontario to James Bay; +Manitoba and Saskatchewan to Hudson Bay; Alberta to MacKenzie River. +Northern British Columbia is not yet surveyed, which explains why its +northern area is largely a matter of guess--closest estimates placing +the whole province including Yukon as twice Germany; without Yukon as +about one and two-thirds the area of Germany; but this is rough +guesswork. + +[7] Canada's fisheries for 1912 yielded $34,667,872. + +[8] Canada's subsidies to steamships vary from year to year, but I do +not think any year has much exceeded two millions. + +[9] This is including Labrador. + +[10] Under crop in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta 16,478,000 acres. +Area surveyed available for cultivation 158,516,427 acres; land area, +466,068,798 acres. + +[11] The rate from the head of the Lakes to Montreal is usually four to +five cents. It has been as low as one cent, when grain was carried +almost for ballast. + +[12] British Columbia's population in 1912 was 392,480. + +[13] Canada, mineral production for 1911 stands thus: copper, +$6,911,831: gold, $9,672,096; iron, $700,216; lead, $818,672; nickel, +$10,229,623; silver, $17,452,128; other metal, $322,862; total, +$46,197,428. Non-metallic production 1911: coal $26,378,477; cement, +$7,571,299; clay, $8,317,709; stone, $3,680,361; in all, $56,094.258. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE TIE THAT BINDS + +I + +It is easy to understand what binds the provinces into a confederation. +They had to bind themselves into a unity with the British North America +Act or see their national existence threatened by any band of settlers +who might rush in and by a perfectly legitimate process of +naturalization and voting set up self-government. At the time of +confederation such eminent Imperial statesmen as Gladstone and +Labouchere seriously considered whether it would not be better to cut +Canada adrift, if she wanted to be cut adrift. The difference between +the Canadian provinces and the isolated Latin republics of South +America illustrates best what the bond of confederation did for the +Dominion. The _why_ and _how_ of confederation is easy to understand, +but what tie binds Canada to the Mother Country? That is a point +almost impossible for an outsider to understand. + +England contributes not a farthing to Canada. Canada contributes not a +dime to England. Though a tariff against alien lands and trade +concessions to her colonies would bring such prosperity to those +colonies as Midas could not dream, England confers no trade favor to +her colonial children. There have been times, indeed, when she +discriminated against them by embargoes on cattle or boundary +concessions to cement peace with foreign powers. Except for a slight +trade concession of twenty to twenty-five per cent. on imports from +England--which, of course, helps the Canadian buyer as much as it helps +the British seller--Canada grants no favors to the Mother Country. In +spite of those trade concessions to England, in 1913 for every dollar's +worth Canada bought from England, she bought four dollars' worth from +the United States. + +Certainly, England sends Canada a Governor-General every four years; +but the Cabinet of England never appoints a Governor-General to Canada +till it has been unofficially ascertained from the Cabinet of the +Dominion whether he will be persona grata. Canada gives the +Governor-General fifty thousand dollars a year and some perquisites--an +emolument that can barely sustain the style of living expected and +exacted from the appointee, who must maintain a small viceregal court. +The Governor-General has the right of veto on all bills passed by the +Canadian government; and where an act might conflict with Imperial +interests, he would doubtless exercise the right; but the veto power in +the hands of the Imperial vicegerent is so rarely used as to be almost +dead. Veto is avoided by the Governor-General working in close +conference with the prevailing Cabinet, or party in power; and a party +on the verge of enacting laws inimical to Imperial interests can be +disciplined by dismissal from office, in which case the party must +appeal to the country for re-election. That means time; and time +allows passion to simmer down; and an entire electorate is not likely +to perpetrate a policy inimical to Imperial interests. In practice, +that represents the whole, sole and entire power of England's +representative in Canada--a power less than the nod of a saloon keeper +or ward boss in the civic politics of the United States. Officially, +yes; the signature of the Governor-General is put to commissions and +appointments of first rank in the army and the Cabinet and the courts. +In reality, it is a question if any Governor in Canada since +confederation has as much as suggested the name of an applicant for +office. + +On the other hand, Canada's dependence on England is even more tenuous. +Does a question come up as to the "twilight zone" of provincial and +federal rights, it is settled by an appeal to the Privy Council. Suits +from lower courts reversed by the Supreme Court of Canada can be +appealed to England for decision; and in religious disputes as to +schools--as in the famous Manitoba School Case--this right of appeal to +Imperial decision has really been the door out of dilemma for both +parties in Canada. It is a shifting of the burden of a decision that +must certainly alienate one section of votes--from the shoulders of the +Canadian parties to an impartial Imperial tribunal. + +If there be any other evidence of bonds in the tangible holding Canada +to England and England to Canada--I do not know it. + + +II + +What, then, is the tie that binds colony to Mother Country? +Tangible--it is not; but real as life or death, who can doubt, when a +self-governing colony voluntarily equips and despatches sixty thousand +men--the choice sons of the land--to be pounded into pulp in an +Imperial war? Who can doubt the tie is real, when bishops' sons, +bankers', lawyers', doctors', farmers', carpenters', teachers' and +preachers'--the young and picked heritors of the land--clamor a hundred +thousand strong to enlist in defense of England and to face howitzer, +lyddite and shell? Why not rest secure under the Monroe Doctrine that +forever forefends European conquest? It is something the outsider can +not understand. President Taft could not understand it when his +reciprocity pact was defeated in Canada partly because of his own +ill-advised words about Canada drifting from United States interests. +Canada was not drifting from American interests. In trade and in +transportation her interests are interlinking with the United States +every day; but the point--which President Taft failed to +understand--is: Canada is _not_ drifting because she is sheet-anchored +and gripped to the Mother Country. We may like it or dislike it. We +may dispute and argue round about. The fact remains, without any +screaming or flag waving, or postprandial loyalty expansions of rotund +oratory and a rotunder waist line--Canada is sheet-anchored to England +by an invisible, intangible, almost indescribable tie. That is one +reason why she rejected reciprocity. That is why at a colossal cost in +land and subsidies and loans and guarantees of almost two billions, she +has built up a transportation system east and west, instead of north +and south. That is why for a century she has hewn her way through +mountains of difficulty to a destiny of her own, when it would have +been easier and more profitable to have cast in her lot with the United +States. + +What is the tie that binds? Is it the hope of an Imperial Federation, +which shall bind the whole British Empire into such a world federation +as now holds the provinces of the Dominion? Twenty years ago, if you +had asked that, the answer might have been "Yes." Canada was in the +dark financially and did not see her way out. If only the Chamberlain +scheme of a tariff against the world, free trade within the empire, +could have evolved into practical politics, Canada for purely practical +reasons would have welcomed Imperial Federation. It would have given +her exports a wonderful outlet. But to-day Imperial Federation is a +deader issue in Canada than reciprocity with the United States. No +more books are written about it. No one speaks of it. No one wants +it. No one has time for it. The changed attitude of mind is well +illustrated by an incident on Parliament Hill, Ottawa, one day. + +A Cabinet Minister was walking along the terrace above the river +talking to a prominent public man of England. + +"How about Imperial Federation?" asked the Englishman. "Do you want +it?" + +The Canadian statesman did not answer at once. He pointed across the +Ottawa, where the blue shimmering Laurentians seem to recede and melt +into a domain of infinitude. "Why _should_ we want Imperial +Federation?" he answered. "We have an empire the size of Europe, whose +problems we must work out. Why should Canadians go to Westminster to +legislate on a deceased wife's sister's bills and Welsh +disestablishment and silly socialistic panaceas for the unfit to +plunder the fit?" + +It will be noticed that his answer had none of that flunkeyism to which +Goldwin Smith used to ascribe much of Canadian pro-loyalty. Rather was +there a grave recognition of the colossal burden of helping a nation +the area of Europe to work out her destiny in wisdom and in integrity +and in the certainty that is built up only from rock bottom basis of +fact. + +Has flunkeyism any part in the pro-loyalty of Canada? Goldwin Smith +thought it had, and we all know Canadians whose swelling lip-loyalty is +a sort of Gargantuan thunder. It may be observed, parenthetically, +those Canadians are not the personages who receive recognition from +England. + +"Sorry, Your Royal Highness, sorry; but Canada is becoming horribly +contaminated by Americanizing influences," apologized a pro-loyalist of +the lip-flunkey variety to the Duke of Connaught shortly after that +scion of royalty came to Canada as Governor. + +The Duke of Connaught turned and looked the fussy lip-loyalist over. +"What's good enough for Americans is good enough for me," he said. + +An instance of the absence of flunkeyism from the Dominion's loyalty to +the Mother Country occurred during the visit of the present King as +Prince of Wales to the Canadian Northwest a few years ago. The royal +train had arrived at some little western place, where a contingent of +the Mounted Police was to act as escort for the Prince's entourage. +The train had barely pulled in when a fussy little long-coat-tailed +secretary flew John-Gilpin fashion across the station platform to a +khaki trooper of the Mounted Police. + +"His Royal Highness has arrived! His Royal Highness has arrived," +gasped the little secretary, almost apoplectic with self-importance. +"Come and help to get the baggage off--" + +"You go to ----," answered the khaki-uniformed trooper, aiming a +tobacco wad that flew past the little secretary's ear. "Get the +baggage off yourself! We're not here as porters. We're here to +execute orders and we don't take 'em from little damphool fussies like +you." + +Yet that trooper was of the company that made the Strathcona Horse +famous in South Africa--famous for such daring abandon in their charges +that the men could hardly be held within bounds of official orders. He +is of the very class of men who have forsaken gainful occupations in +the West to clamor a hundred-thousand strong for the privilege of +fighting to the last ditch for the empire under the rain of death from +German fire. + +"How can Canadians be loyal to a system of government that acknowledges +some fat king sitting on a throne chair like a mummy as ruler?" +demanded an American woman of a Canadian man. + +"Well," answered the Canadian, "I don't know that any 'fat king' was +ever quite so fat as a gentleman named Mammon who plays a pretty big +part in the government of all republics." He drew a five-dollar bill +from his pocket. "As a piece of paper that is utterly worthless," he +explained. "It isn't even good wrapping paper. It's a promise to +pay--to deliver the goods, that gives it value. It's what the system +of government stands for, that rouses support--not this, that, or the +other man--" + +"But what does it stand for?" interrupted the American; and the +Canadian couldn't answer. It roused and held his loyalty as if of +family ties. Yet he could not define it. + +He might have explained that Canada has had a system of justice since +1837 never truckled to nor trafficked in, but he knew in his heart that +the loyalty was to a something deeper than that. He knew that many +republics--Switzerland, for instance--have as impartial a system of +justice. He might have descanted on the British North America Act +being to Canada what the Constitution is to the United States, only +more elastic, more susceptible to growth and changing conditions; but +he knew that the Constitution was what it was owing to this other +principle of which law and justice were but the visible formula. He +might easily have dilated on excellent features of the Canadian +parliamentary system different from the United States or Germany. For +instance, no party can hold office one day after it lacks the support +of a majority vote. It must resign reins to the other party, or go to +the country for re-election. Or he might have pointed to the very +excellent feature of Cabinet Ministers sitting in the House and being +directly responsible to Commons and Senate for the management of their +departments to the expenditure of a farthing. A Cabinet member who may +be quizzed to-day, to-morrow, every day in the week except Sunday, on +the management of affairs under him can never take refuge in ambiguous +silence or behind the skirts of his chief, as secretaries delinquent +have frequently taken refuge behind the spotless reputation of a +too-confiding President. But the Canadian explained none of these +things. He knew that these things were only the outward and visible +formula of the principle to which he was loyal. + + +III + +A few years ago the mistake would have been impossible; for there was, +up to 1900, practically no movement of settlers from the British Isles +to Canada; but to-day with an enormous in-rush of British colonists to +the Dominion, a superficial observer might ascribe the loyalty to the +ties of blood--to the fact that between 1900 and 1911, 685,067 British +colonists flocked to Canada. Not counting colossal investments of +British capital, there are to-day easily a million Britishers living on +and drawing their sustenance from the soil of Canada. And yet, however +unpalatable and ungracious the fact may be to Englishmen, the ties of +blood have little to do with the bond that holds Canada to England. +This statement will arouse protest from a certain section of Canadians; +but those same Canadians know there are hundreds--yes, thousands--of +mercantile houses in the Dominion where employers practically put up +the sign--"No Englishman need apply." + +"I've come to the point," said a wholesale hardware man of a Canadian +city, "where I won't employ a man if he has a cockney accent. I've +tried it hundreds of times, and it has always ended the same way. I +have to break a cockney's neck before I can convince him that I know +the way I want things done, and they have to be done that way. He is +so sure I am 'ownley a demmed ke-lo-neal' that he is lecturing me on +how I should do things before he is in my establishment ten minutes. I +don't know what it is. It may be that coming suddenly to a land where +all men are treated on an equality and not kicked and expected to doff +caps in thanks for the insolence, they can't stand the free rein and +not go locoed. All I know is--where I'll employ an Irishman, or a +Scotchman, or a Yorkshireman, on the jump, I will not employ a cockney. +I don't want to commit murder." + +And that business man voiced the sentiment of multitudes from farm, +factory and shop. I'll not forget, myself, the semi-comic episode of +rescuing an English woman from destitution and having her correct my +Canadian expressions five minutes after I had given her a roof. She +had referred to her experience as "jolly rotten"; and I had remarked +that strangers sometimes had hard luck because "we Canadians couldn't +place them," when I was roundly called to order by a tongue that never +in its life audibly articulated an "h." + + +IV + +Before digging down to the subterranean springs of Canadian loyalty, we +must take emphatic cognizance of several facts. Canada, while not a +republic, is one of the most democratic nations in the world. +Practically every man of political, financial or industrial prominence +in Canada to-day came up by the shirt-sleeve route in one generation. +If there is an exception to this statement--and I know every part of +Canada almost as well as I know my own home--I do not know it. Sifton, +Van Horne, MacKenzie, Mann, Laurier, Borden, Foster, the late Sir John +Macdonald--all came up from penniless boyhood through their own efforts +to what Canadians rate as success. I said "what Canadians rate as +success." I did not say to affluence, for Canadians do not rate +affluence by itself as success. Laurier, Foster, Sir John +Macdonald--each began as a poor man. Sifton began life as a penniless +lawyer. Van Horne got his foot on the first rung of the ladder +hustling cars for troops in the Civil War. MacKenzie of Canada +Northern fame began with a trowel; Dan Mann with an ax in the lumber +woods at a period when wages were a dollar and twenty-five cents a day; +Laurier with a lawyer's parchment and not a thing else in the world. +Foster, the wizard of finance, taught his first finance in a +schoolroom. And so one might go on down the list of Canada's great. +Unless I am gravely mistaken the richest industrial leader of Ontario +began life in a little bake shop, where his wife cooked and he sold the +wares; and the richest man in the Canadian West began with a pick in a +mine. I doubt if there is a single instance in Canada of a public man +whose family's security from want traces back prior to 1867. + +But the richest are not rated the most successful in Canada. There is +an untold and untellable tragedy here. There is many a city in Canada +which has a Mr. Rich-Man's-Folly in the shape of a palatial house or +castellated residence which failed to force open the portals of respect +and recognition for himself. Folly Castle has been occupied in an +isolation that was almost quarantine. Why? Because its foundations +were laid in some financial mud, which Canada never forgets and never +forgives. Instances could be multiplied of brilliant politicians +retired to private life, of moneyed men who spent fortunes to buy a +knighthood, a baronetcy, an earldom--and died disappointed because in +early life they had used fiduciary funds or trafficked in politics. It +may impart a seeming snobbery to Canadian life, an almost crude +insolence; but it keeps a title from becoming the insignia of an envied +dollar bill. It keeps men from buying what their conduct failed to +win. It does more than anything else to keep down that envy of true +success which is the curse of many lands. Canadian papers rarely +trouble to chronicle whether a rich man wears the hair shirt of a +troubled conscience, or the paper vest of a tight purse. They are not +interested in him simply because he is rich. If he loots a franchise +and unloads rotten stocks on widows and orphans and teachers and +preachers, they call him a thief and send him to jail a convict. Three +decades ago the premier's own nephew misused public funds. It could +have been hushed by the drop of a hat or the wave of a hand. The party +in power was absolutely dominant. The culprit was arrested at nine in +the morning and sentenced to seven years in the penitentiary by six +that day; and he served the term, too, without any political wash to +clear him. Instances are not lacking of titled adventurers ostracized +in Winnipeg and Montreal going to Newport and capturing the richest +heiresses of the land. These instances are not mentioned in invidious +self-righteousness. They are mentioned purely to illustrate the +underlying, unspoken difference in essential values. + + +V + +Set down, then, two or three premises! Canada is under a monarchy, but +in practice is a democratic country. Canada is absolutely impartial in +her justice to rich and poor. Have we dug down to the fountain spring +of Canadian loyalty? Not at all. These are not springs. They are +national states of mind. These characteristics are psychology. What +is the rock bottom spring? One sometimes finds the presence of a +hidden spring by signs--green grass among parched; the twist of a peach +or hazel twig in answer to the presence of water; the direction of the +brook below. What are the signs of Canada's springs? Signs, remember; +not proofs. Of proofs, there is no need. + +Perfectly impartially, whether we like it or dislike it, without any +argument for or against, let us set down Canadian likes and dislikes as +to government. These are not my likes and dislikes. They are not your +likes and dislikes. They are facts as to the Canadian people. + +Canadians have no faith in a system of government, whether under a +Turkish Khan or a Lloyd George Chancellor, which delegates the rule of +a nation to butchers and bakers and candlestick-makers and "the dear +people" fakers. They do not believe that a man who can not rule his +own affairs well can rule the nation well. They regard government as a +grave and sacred function, not as a grab bag for spoils. If a party +makes good in power, they have no fear of leaving that party in power +for term after term. The longer their premier is in office the more +efficient they think he will become. They have no fear of the premier +becoming a "fat" tyrannical king. Long as the party makes good, they +consider it has a right to power; and that experience adds to +competency. Instantly the party fails to make good, they throw it out +independent of the length of its tenure of office. + +Canadians do not believe that +"I-am-as-good-as-you-are-and-a-little-better." They will accept the +fact that "I-am-as-good-as-you-are" only when I prove it in brain, in +brawn, in courtesy, in mental agility, in business acumen, in +service--in a word, _in fact_. They are comparatively untouched by the +theoretical radicalism of the French Revolution, by the socialism of a +Lloyd George, by the war of labor and capital. They are untouched by +theory because they are so intent on fact. The "liberty, equality and +fraternity" cry of the French Revolution--they regard as so much hot +air. Canadians since 1837 have had "liberty, equality, fraternity." +Why rant about it? And when they didn't have it, they fought for it +and went to the scaffold for it, and got it. The day's work--that's +all. Why posturize and theorize about platitudes? Canadians are not +interested in the Lloyd George theory of the poor plundering the +prosperous, because every man or woman who tries in Canada can succeed. +He may hoe some long hard rows. Let him hoe! It will harden flabby +muscle and give backbone in place of jawbone! Help the innocent +children--yes! There is a child saving organization in every province. +But if the adult will not try, let him die! If he will not struggle to +survive, let him die! The sooner the better! No theoretical parasites +for Canada, nor parlor socialism! "Take off your coat! Roll up your +shirt-sleeves! Stop blathering! Go to work!" says Canada. + +"But I think--" protests the theorist. + +"_Thinks_ don't pass currency as coin. _Go to work, and pass up +facts_," says Canada. + + +VI + +It may be objected that all this means the survival of the fit, the +rule of the many by the few. That is exactly what it means. That is +the fountain spring of Canada's national idea, whether we like it or +hate it. That is the belief that binds Canada's loyalty to the +monarchical idea--though Canada would as soon call it the presidential +idea as the monarchical idea. She does not care what name you tag it +by so long as she delegates to the selected and elected few the power +to rule. She believes the selected few are better than the unwinnowed +many as rulers. She would sooner have a mathematical school-teacher as +finance minister than a saloon keeper or ward heeler. She believes +that the rule of the select few is better than the rule of the +thoughtless many. She delegates the right and power to rule to those +few, lets them make the laws and bows to the laws as to the laws of +God, as the best possible for the nation because they have been enacted +by the best of her nation. If that best be bad, it is at least not so +bad as the worst. She never says--"Pah! What is law! I made the law! +If it doesn't suit me, I'll break it. I am the law." + +Canadians acknowledge they have delegated power to make law to men whom +they believe superior to the general run. Therefore, they obey that +law as above change by the individual. In other words, Canadians +believe in the rule of the many delegated to the superior few. Those +few do what they deem wise; not what the electorate tell them. They +exceed instructions. They lead. They do not obey. But if they fail, +they are thrown to the dogs without mercy, whether the tenure of office +be complete or incomplete. It is the old Saxon idea of the +Witenagemot--the council of a few wise men ruling the clan. + +There is the fountain spring of Canadian loyalty to the monarchical +idea. It is not the fat king. It is not any king. It is what the +insignificant personality called "king" stands for, like the +five-dollar bill worthless as wrapping paper but of value as a promise +to deliver the goods. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +AMERICANIZATION + +I + +"The Americanizing of Canada" is a phrase which has been much in vogue +with a section of the British press ever since the attempt to establish +reciprocity between the United States and the Dominion. It is a +question if the glib users of the phrase have the faintest idea what +they mean by it. It is a catchword. It sounds ominously deep as the +owl's wise but meaningless "too-whoo." English publicists who have +never been nearer Canada than a Dominion postage stamp wisely warn +Canada against the siren seductions of Columbia's republicanism. + +If the phrase means that reciprocity might lead to annexation, Canada's +repudiation of reciprocity is sufficient disproof of the imputation. +If it means increased and increasing trade weaving a warp and woof of +international commerce--then--yes--there is an "Americanizing of +Canada" as there is a Canadianizing of the United States through +international traffic; but the users of the phrase should remember that +the country doing the largest trade of all countries with the United +States is Great Britain; and does one speak of the "Americanizing" of +Great Britain? If it means that in ten years two-fifths as many +Americans have settled in Western Canada as there are native-born +Canadians in the West--then--yes--Canada pleads guilty. She has spent +money like water and is spending it yet to attract these American +settlers; and they, on their part, have brought with them an average of +fifteen hundred dollars a settler, not counting money invested by +capitalists. If in the era between 1900 and 1911, 650,719 American +settlers came to Western Canada, and from 1911 to 1914, six hundred +thousand more--or say, with natural increase, a million and a quarter +in fifteen years; to counterpoise that consideration remember that in +the era from 1885 to 1895 one-fifth of Canada's native population moved +to the United States. + +There is not the slightest doubt that within ten years the balance of +political power in Canada has shifted from the solidarity of French +Quebec to the progressive West; but that can hardly be considered as of +political import when two out of four western provinces rejected +reciprocity. + +What, then, is meant by the phrase "Americanizing of Canada"? + +Consider for a moment what is happening! + +Twenty years ago the number of American and Canadian railroads meeting +at the boundary and crossing the boundary numbered some six. Ten years +ago in the West alone there were sixteen branch lines feeding traffic +into one another's territory across the border. To-day, if you count +all the American railroads reaching up from trunk lines north to +Canada, and all the Canadian spurs reaching south from trunk lines into +the United States, and all the great trunk lines having subsidiaries +like the South Shore and "Soo" crossing the border, and all the lines +having international running rights over one another's roadbed, there +are more than sixty railroads feeding Canadian traffic into the United +States and American traffic into Canada. This explains why of all the +export grain traffic from the Northwest forty-four per cent. only goes +from Canada by all-Canadian routing, while fifty-six per cent. comes to +seaboard over American lines; and all this is independent of the +enormous American traffic through the Canadian "Soo" by the Great +Lakes, in some years, reaching a total five times as large as the +traffic expected through Panama. One can not contemplate this constant +interchange of traffic without recalling the metaphor of the warp and +the woof, of the shuttle weaving a fabric of international commerce +that ignores dead reciprocity pacts and an invisible boundary. Yet +England does three-fourths of the carrying trade for the United States +across the Atlantic. Spite of high tariff on one side of the ocean and +no tariff on the other side, spite of eagle and lion rampant, British +ships weave like busy shuttles across the silver lanes of the sea an +invisible warp and woof that are stronger than cables of steel, or +political treaty. + +So much for lines of traffic between Canada and the United States! +What of the traffic carried? + +American imports to Canada have doubled in three years; or increased +from two hundred sixteen million dollars' worth in 1910 to four hundred +fifteen million dollars' worth in 1913; and instead of the war causing +a falling off, it is likely to cause an increase; for Canada's +purchases from Europe have been cut off and must be supplied by the +United States. Of the imports to Canada, two-thirds are manufactured +articles--motors, locomotives, cars, coffee, cotton, iron, steel, +implements, coal. At time of writing exports from the United States +now rank the United Kingdom first, Canada second, Germany third. When +you consider that Canada's purchasing power is that of seven million +people, where the United Kingdom's is forty-five and Germany's +sixty-five million, the significance of these comparative ranks is +apparent. + +From Canada to the United States, exports increased from $95,000,000 in +1910 to $120,000,000 in 1913, not because Canada's producing power is +so much smaller than her buying power, but because she is growing so +fast that she consumes much of what she produces. To put it another +way, of all Canada exports, the United States takes four-fifths of the +coal, nine-tenths of the copper, four-fifths of the nickel, +ten-elevenths of the gold, two-fifths of the silver, four-fifths of +other minerals, one-third of the fish, one-third of the lumber, +one-fourth of the animals and meat, one-tenth of the grain. It need +not be told here that the other portions of Canada's farm, mine and +lumber exports go almost entirely to Great Britain. + + +II + +It has been estimated that half a billion of American capital is +invested in Canada. A moment's thought reveals how ridiculously below +the mark are these figures. Between 1900 and 1911 by actual count +there entered Canada 650,719 American settlers. Averaging up one year +with another by actual estimate of settlers' possessions at point of +entry, these settlers were possessed of fifteen hundred dollars each in +cash. This represents almost a billion, and almost as many more +American settlers have entered Canada since 1911. This represents not +the investments of the capital class but of small savings. It takes no +account of the nickel mines, the copper mines, the smelters, the silver +mines, the coal lands, the timber limits, the fisheries, the vast +holdings of agricultural lands in the West held for speculative +purposes--for all of which spot cash was paid down in large proportion. + +The largest steel plant in the East, the largest coal areas in the +West, the only nickel mines in America, three-quarters of all the +copper and gold reduction works of the West are financed by American +capital. To be more explicit, when the MacKenzie-Mann interests bought +one large coal area in British Columbia, the Hill interests of St. Paul +bought the other large coal area. This does not mean there are not +large coal areas owned by Canadian capital. There are--colossal areas; +but for every big area being worked by Canadian capital there are two +such being worked by American. + +Before a single Canadian railroad had wakened up to the fact there were +any mines in East and West Kootenay and the Slocan, American lines had +pushed up little narrow-gauge lines to feed the copper and gold ores +into Butte and Helena smelters. By the time Canadian and British +capital came on the scene in Kootenay the cream had been skimmed from +the profits, and the mines had reached the wildcat stage of beautifully +gilded and engraved stock certificates taking the place of real +profits--of almost worth-nothing shares in worthless holes in the +ground selling on a face value of a next-door profit-yielding neighbor. +The American is without a peer as pioneer on land, in mine, in forest; +but the boomster, who invariably follows on the heels of that pioneer, +is also the most expert "houn' dawg" to rouse the wildcatter. +Canadians have too often wakened up only at the wildcat stage, and +British capital has come in to reorganize inflated and collapsed +properties on a purely investment basis. The American pioneer does +nothing on an investment basis. He goes in on a wild and rampant +dare-devil gamble. If he loses--as lose he often does--he takes his +medicine and never whines. If he wins, the welkin rings. + +What happened in Kootenay was largely repeated ten years later in +Klondike and ten years yet later in Cobalt, and it must not be +forgotten that when Canadian capital refused to bond the nickel mines +of Sudbury, it was American capital that dared the risk. + +What happened in the mining booms was only a faint foreshadowing of the +furore that broke to a madness in real estate when American settlers +began crossing the boundary in tens and hundreds of thousands a year. +Canadians knew they had wonderfully fertile farming land. Hadn't they +been telling themselves so since confederation, when they pledged the +credit of Canada to build a transcontinental? They knew they had the +most fertile wheat lands on earth, but what was the use of knowing that +when you could not sell those lands for fifty cents an acre? What was +the use of raising forty bushels of wheat to the acre, when you burned +it in the stack or fed it to cattle worth only ten dollars a head, +because you could get neither wheat nor cattle to market? You really +believed you had the best land on earth, but what good did the belief +do you? Sons and daughters forsook the Canadian farmstead for the +United States. Between the early eighties and the early nineties, of +Canada's population of five millions, over a million--some estimates +place it at a million and a half--Canadians left the Dominion for the +United States. You find the place names of Ontario all through +Michigan and Wisconsin and Minnesota and the two Dakotas; and you find +Jean Ba'tiste drifting from the lumber woods of Quebec to the Upper +Peninsula of Michigan and to the redwoods of California and to the +yellow pine uplands of the Southwestern Desert. I have met men who +worked for my brothers in the lumber woods of Wisconsin down among the +yellow pines of the Arizona Desert. All that was back in the decrepit +and languid and hopesick nineties. It was then you could see the skies +of Southern Manitoba luridly aflame at night with wheat stacks it +didn't pay to thresh. + +Came a turn of the wheel! Was it Destiny or Providence? We talk +mistily of Cause and Effect, but who drops the Cause that turns the +Wheel? Who of us that witnessed the crazy gold stampede to Kootenay +and the crazier stampede to Klondike could guess that the backwash of +those foolish tidal waves of gold-mad humanity would people the +Northwest? Why, we were mad with alarm over the gold stampede! Men +pitched their homesteads to the winds and trekked penniless for the +mines. Women bought mining shares for a dollar that were not worth ten +cents. Clerks, railroad hands, seamstresses, waitresses--all were +infected by the mania. In vain the wheat provinces pointed out that +one single year's wheat crop would exceed in value all the gold mined +in the North in fifty years. Nothing could stem the madness. You +could pave Kootenay with the fortunes lost there or go to Klondike by +the bones of the dead bleaching the trail. + +But behold the unexpected Effect! Adventurers from all the earth +rushing to the gold mines passed over unpeopled plains of seeming +boundlessness. Land in the western states was selling at this time at +from seventeen dollars in the remote sections to seventy-five dollars +an acre near markets. Here was land in these Canadian plains to be had +for nothing but the preemption fee of ten dollars and three years' +residence. + +"I didn't take up a homestead meaning to farm it," said a disappointed +fortune seeker to me on the banks of the Saskatchewan. "I did it +because I was dead broke, and it seemed to me the easiest way to make +three thousand dollars. I could earn three dollars a day well-driving, +and then at the end of my homestead term sell this one hundred and +sixty acres for three thousand dollars." + +Do you appreciate the amazing optimistic confidence of this bankrupt +argonaut? We could not sell that land for fifty cents an acre. To use +the words of a former Minister of the Interior, "We could not bring +settlers in by the scruff of the neck and dump them on the land." +(There had been fewer than two thousand immigrants the year that +minister made that apology for hard times to an audience in Winnipeg.) +But this penniless settler had seen it happen in his own home state of +Iowa. He had seen land increase in value from nothing an acre to ten +dollars and twenty dollars and seventy-five dollars and one hundred +dollars, and he sat him down on the bare prairie in a tar-papered +shanty to help the same process along in Canada. He never had the +faintest shadow of a doubt of his hopes materializing. He had gambled +on the gold and he had lost; and behold him casting another throw of +the dice in the face of Fate, and gambling on the land; and please +note--he won out. He was one of the multitude who won out of the land +what they had lost on gold--who plowed out of the prairie what they had +sunk in a hole in the ground in a mine! + +Another twist of the capricious Wheel of Fate! We didn't send Clifford +Sifton down from the West to boom Canada. We didn't know a boom was +coming. Nobody saw it. Clifford Sifton was one of the youngest +Cabinet Ministers ever appointed in Canada. There was a fight on +between the Province of Manitoba and the Dominion government as to the +right of the province to abolish separate schools. Had the province +exceeded its rights? The dispute was non-religious at first, but +finally developed into a bitter Catholic versus Protestant controversy. +Not all Protestants wanted non-religious schools; but when Catholic +Quebec said that Protestant Manitoba should not have non-religious +schools, a furious little tempest waxed in a furious little teapot. +The entrenched government of Sir John Macdonald, who had died some few +years previously, went down in defeat before Laurier, the Liberal, the +champion of Quebec and at the same time the defender of Manitoba +rights. Cardinal Merry del Val came from Rome, and the dispute was +literally squelched. It was never settled and comes up again to this +day; but the point was the champion of Manitoba, Clifford Sifton, +entered the Dominion Cabinet just as the Klondike boom broke. + +He saw the backwash of disappointed gold seekers. He realized the +enormous possibilities of free advertising for Canada, and he launched +such a campaign of colonization for Canada as the most daring optimist +hardly dreamed. Agents were appointed in every hamlet and city and +town in the western states--especially those states like Iowa and +Illinois and Minnesota and Wisconsin, where land was becoming high +priced. The personal testimony of successful farmers was bill-posted +from station platform to remotest barb-wire fence. The country was +literally combed by Sifton agents. Big land companies which had +already exploited colonization schemes in the western states pricked up +their ears and sent agents to spy out the land. Those agents may have +deluded themselves that they went to Canada secretly; it is a safe +wager that Sifton's agents prodded them to activity at one end and +Sifton's agents caught and piloted and plied them with facts at the +other end. I know of land that English colonization companies had +failed to sell at fifty cents an acre that was sold at this time to +these American companies at five dollars and resold by them at fourteen +dollars to thirty dollars. + +Such profits are the best advertisement for a propaganda. There +followed a land boom compared to which the gold boom had been mild. +American settlers came in special cars, in special trains, in relays of +special trains. Before Canada had wakened up to it fifty thousand +American settlers had trekked across the border. You met them in Peace +River. You met them at Athabasca. You met them on far reaches of the +Saskatchewan. And land jumped in value from five dollars to fifteen +dollars, from fifteen dollars to thirty dollars an acre. When Canada's +yearly immigration reached the proportions of four hundred +thousand--half Americans--it is not exaggerating to say the prairie +took fire. Villages grew into cities overnight. Edmonton and Calgary +and Moose Jaw and Regina--formerly jumping-off places into a +no-man's-land--became metropolitan cities of twenty-five to fifty +thousand people. If every American settler averaged fifteen hundred +dollars on his person at this period--as customs entries prove--it may +be confidently set down that his value as a producer and worker was +another fifteen hundred dollars. Wheat exports jumped to over one +hundred million dollars a year. Flour mills and elevators financed by +western American capital strung across the prairie like beads on a +string. + +If this was an "Americanizing of Canada," it was not a bad thing. +Every part of Canada felt the quickened pulse. Two more +transcontinental railroads had to be built. All-red routes of +round-the-globe steam ships were established; all-red round-the-world +cables were laid. The quickened pulse was Canada's passing from +hobble-de-hoy adolescence with a chip on the shoulder and a tremor in +the throat to big strong, silent, self-confident manhood. + +John Bull is a curious and dour foster father in some of his moods. He +never really wakened up to Canada as a desirable place for his numerous +family to settle till he saw Jonathan's coat tails going over the fence +of the border--till somebody began to howl about "the Americanizing of +Canada." Then, in the words of the illustrious Governor-General, "what +was good enough for Americans was good enough" for him. Clifford +Sifton's agents had been combing the United Kingdom as they had combed +the western states. British immigration jumped from almost nothing to +a total of 687,067 in ten years--with accelerating totals every year +since. + +If this was "the Americanizing of Canada," it was a good thing for the +Dominion. + + +III + +There was another feature to the tidal wave of four hundred thousand +immigrants a year. The American is a born pioneer, a born gambler, a +born adventurer. The Englishman is a steady-going, dogged-as-does-it +plodder. The American will risk two dollars on the chance of making +ten dollars; he often loses the two dollars, and he often makes the ten +dollars; from his general prosperity, I should say the latter results +oftener than the former; but the American never in the least minds +blazing the trail and stumping his toe and coming a hard fall. John +Bull does. He takes himself horribly seriously. He will never risk +two dollars to gain ten dollars. He will not, in fact, spend the two +dollars till he is sure of four per cent. on it. Four per cent. on two +dollars and ten dollars on two dollars do not belong to the same +category of investment. Jonathan makes the ideal pioneer; John Bull, +the ideal permanent settler who comes in and buys from the pioneer. + +If this, too, be "the Americanizing of Canada," it has been a good +thing for the country. + +To be sure, there have been hideous horrible abuses. The real estate +boom reached the proportions of a fevered madness before it collapsed. +Americans bought r_an_ches for five dollars an acre and resold them as +r_awn_ches for fifty dollars to young Englishmen who will never make a +cent on their investment; chiefly because fruit trees take from five to +ten years to come to maturity, and because fruit must be near a market, +and because only an expert can succeed at fruit. + +If ever wildcat flourished in a gold camp or gambling joint, and that +wildcat did not hie to Canada when the real estate boom broke loose, +the wildcat species not in evidence was too rare to be classified. +Property in small cities sold at New York and Chicago values. Suburban +lots were staked out round small towns in areas for a London or a +Paris, and the lots were sold on instalment plan to small investors, +many of whom bought in hope of resale before payments could accrue. +City taxes for these suburban improvements increased to a great burden. +Fortunes were made and lost overnight. Railroad bonds were guaranteed +plentifully enough to pave the prairie. All this applies chiefly to +city real estate. Inflation beyond investment basis never touched farm +lands; but as a prominent editor remarked, "No fool thing that ever +failed was half as improbable as the fool things that have succeeded. +Men have literally been kicked into fortunes; and the carefulest man +has often been the biggest fool by not biting till the last." + +The boom, of course, burst of its own inflation; but it is worthy of +note that the year the boom collapsed immigration reached its highest +figure--four hundred thousand. Whether the boom was good or bad for +Canada is hard to determine. It left a great many fortunes in its wake +and a great many wrecks; but naturally it did for the country what +years of hope, years of dogged silent work, years of self-confidence +could not do--it jolted Canada and the world into a consciousness of +the Dominion's possibilities. It is like the true story of the finding +of coal on Vancouver Island--a miner stubbed his toe and lo, a clod of +earth split into a seam of shining worth! + +Practically the very same story of the advent of American energy and +daring and optimism into the lumber industry of Canada could be told; +but it is the same story as of the mines and the land, except that the +Canadians on the ground first reaped larger profits. A few years ago +scarcely an acre in British Columbia was owned by interests outside the +province. To-day as far north as Prince Rupert the great lumbermen of +the United States own the timber limits. Canadians bought these lands +round four dollars and five dollars an acre. They sold at from one +hundred dollars to one thousand dollars. One understands why American +lumbermen to-day demand low tariff on Canadian lumber. East of the +Rockies from Edmonton to Port Arthur the fringe of timber along the +great rivers and lakes is owned by operators of Wisconsin and +Louisiana. In Quebec the most valuable pulp wood limits--the last of +the great pulp wood limits on the continent--are owned by New York +interests. Undoubtedly all this means "the Americanizing of Canada" +industrially. Will it result in the entrance of Big Business into +politics? That is hard to answer. The door is not wide open to Big +Business in politics for reasons that will appear in an account of how +Canada is governed. If Americans have entered so powerfully into +Canadian industrial life, why was reciprocity rejected? That, too, is +an interesting story by itself. + +There is one subject on which Canada's inconsistency regarding +"Americanizing influences" is almost laughable. It is the subject of +the influence of periodical literature. Canadians are great +lip-loyalists, but in all the history of Canada they have never +accorded support to a national magazine that enabled that magazine to +become worthy of the name. Facts are very damning testimony here. +Very well--then--let us have the facts! There is one American weekly +which has a larger circulation in every city in Canada than any daily +in any city in Canada. Of the American monthlies of first rank, there +is hardly one that has not a larger circulation in Canada than any +Canadian magazine has ever enjoyed. Even Canadian newspapers are +served by American syndicates and press associations. The influence of +this flood of American thought in the currents of Canadian thought can +not be exaggerated. It is subtle. It is intangible. It is +irresistible. What Americans are thinking about, Canadians +unconsciously are thinking, too. The influence makes for a community +of sentiment that political differences can never disrupt, and it is a +good thing for the race that this is so. It helps to explain why there +is no fort between the two nations for three thousand miles. + +It may also be added that no Canadian writer can get access to the +public in book form except through an American publisher. Unless the +author assumes the cost or risk of publication, the Canadian publisher +will rarely issue a book on his own responsibility. He sends the book +to New York or to London, and from New York or London buys plates or +sheets. This compels the Canadian book to have an Imperial or an +American appeal. In literature, the modus operandi works; for the +appeal is universal; but one might conceive of conditions demanding a +purely national Canadian treatment, which New York or London publishers +would not issue, when Canada would literally be damming the springs of +her national literature. Canada considers her population too small to +support a purely national literature. Not so reasons Belgium of +smaller population; nor Ireland; nor Scotland. The fault here is +primarily in the copyright law. A book published first in the United +States gains international copyright. A book published first in Canada +may be pirated in the United States or England; and on such printed +editions no payment can be collected by the author. The profits in +England and the United States were lost to authors on two of the most +popular books ever published by Canadians. [1] + + +[1] Charles Gordon's _Black Rock_, pirated from his own publisher, sale +half a million; Kirby's _Chien d'Or_, sale one million. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +WHY RECIPROCITY WAS REJECTED + +I + +If American capital and American enterprise dominate Canadian mines, +Canadian timber interests, Canadian fisheries; if American elevators +are strung across the grain provinces and American flour mills have +branches established from Winnipeg to Calgary; if American implement +companies and packing interests now universally control subsidiaries in +Canada--why was reciprocity rejected? If it is good for Canada that +American capital establish big paper mills in Quebec, why is it not +good for Canada to have free ingress for her paper-mill products to +American markets? The same of the British Columbia shingle industry, +of copper ores, of wheat and flour products? If it is good for the +Canadian producer to buy in the cheapest market and to sell in the +highest, why was reciprocity rejected? Implements for the farm south +of the border are twenty-five per cent. cheaper than in the Canadian +Northwest. Canadian wheat milled in Minneapolis enjoys a lower freight +rate and consequently a higher market than Canadian wheat milled in +Europe, as sixteen and twenty-two are to forty and fifty cents--the +former being the freight cost to a Minneapolis mill; the latter, the +freight cost to a European mill. Why, then, was reciprocity rejected? + +From 1867, Canada had been intermittently seeking reciprocity with the +United States. Now, at last, the offer of it came to her unsolicited. +Why did she reject it by a vote that would have been unanimous but for +the prairie provinces? Though the desire for reciprocity with the +United States was exploited politically more by the Liberals--or +low-tariff party--than by the Conservatives--the high-tariff +party--both had repeatedly sent official and unofficial emissaries to +Washington seeking tariff concessions. Tariff concessions were a plank +in the Liberal platform from the days of Alexander MacKenzie. They +were not a plank in the platform of the Conservative party for the sole +reason that the high tariff on the American side forced a high tariff +in self-defense on the Canadian side. Close readers of Sir John +Macdonald's life must have been amazed to learn that one of his very +first visits to Washington--contemporaneous with the Civil War period, +when the United States were just launching out on a high-tariff +policy--was for the purpose of seeking tariff favors for Canada. +Failing to obtain even a favorable hearing, he observed the high-tariff +trend at Washington, took a leaf out of his rival's book and returned +to Canada to launch the high-tariff policy that dominated the Dominion +for thirty years. Alexander MacKenzie, Blake, Mowat, George Brown, +Laurier, Cartwright, Fielding--all the dyed-in-the-wool ultra Whigs of +the Liberal party--practically held their party together for the thirty +lean years out-of-office by promises and repeated promises of +reciprocity with the United States the instant they came into office. +They never seemed to doubt that the instant they did come into office +and proffered reciprocity to the United States the offer would be +accepted and reciprocated. It may be explained that all these old-line +Liberals from MacKenzie to Laurier were free-traders of the +Cobden-Bright school. They believed in free trade not only as an +economic policy but as a religion to prevent the plundering of the poor +by the rich, of the many by the few. One has only to turn to the back +files of the _Montreal Witness_ and _Toronto Globe_ from 1871 to +1895--the two Liberal organs that voiced the extreme free-trade +propaganda--to find this political note emphasized almost as a +fanatical religion. The high-tariff party were not only morally wrong; +they were predestinedly damned. I remember that in my own home both +organs were revered next to the Bible, and this free-trade doctrine was +accepted as unquestionably as the Shorter Catechism. + + +II + +Well--Laurier came to power; and he gathered into his Cabinet all the +grand old guard free-traders still alive. As soon as the Manitoba +School Question was settled Laurier put his Manchester school of +politics into active practice by granting tariff concessions on British +imports. The act was hailed by free-trade England as a tribute of +statesmanship. Laurier and Fielding were recognized as men of the +hour. The next step was to carry out the promises of reciprocity with +the United States. One can imagine Sir John Macdonald, the old +chieftain of the high-tariff Conservatives, turning over in his grave +with a sardonic grin--"Not so fast, my Little Sirs!" When twitted on +the floor of the House over a high tariff oppressing farmers and +favoring factories, Sir John had always disclaimed being a high-tariff +man. He would have a low tariff for the United States, if the United +States would grant Canada a low tariff--he had answered; but the United +States would not grant Canada any tariff concessions. And the grand +old guard of Whigs had jeered back that he was "a compromiser" and "a +trimmer," who tacked to every breeze and never met an issue squarely in +his life. + +If the Liberals had not been absolutely sincere men, they would not +have ridden to such a hard and unexpected fall. They would, like Sir +John, have trimmed to the wind; but they believed in free trade as they +believed in righteousness; and they furthermore believed all they had +to do was to ask for it to get it. Blake had retired from Canadian +politics. George Brown of the _Globe_ was dead; Alexander MacKenzie +had long since passed away; but the old guard rallied to the +reciprocity cry. International negotiations opened at Quebec. They +were not a failure. They were worse than a failure. They were a joke. +High tariff was at its zenith in the United States. Every one of the +American commissioners was a dyed-in-the-wool high-tariff man. It +would be an even wager that not one man among them had ever heard of +the Cobden-Bright Manchester School of Free Trade, by which the Laurier +government swore as by an unerring Gospel. They had heard of McKinley +and of Mark Hanna, but who and what were Cobden and Bright? What +relation were Cobden and Bright to the G. O. P.? The negotiations were +a joke to the United States and a humiliation to Canada. They were +adjourned from Quebec to Washington; and from Washington, Fielding and +Cartwright returned puzzled and sick at heart. They could obtain not +one single solitary tariff concession. They found it was not a case of +theoretical politics. It was a case of quid pro quo for a trade. What +had Canada to offer from 1893 to 1900 that the United States had not +within her own borders? Canada wanted to buy cheaper boots and cheaper +implements and cheaper factory products generally. She wanted a higher +market for her wheat and her meat and her fish and her crude metals and +her lumber. She would knock off her tariff on American factory +products, if the United States would knock off her tariff against +Canadian farm products. One can scarcely imagine Republican +politicians going to American farmers for votes on that platform. What +had Canada to offer? She had meat and wheat and fish and timber and +crude metals. Yes; but from 1893 to 1900 Uncle Sam had more meat and +wheat and fish and timber and crude metals than he could digest +industrially himself. Look at the exact figures of the case! You +could buy pulp timber lands in the Adirondacks at from fifty cents to +four dollars an acre. You could buy timber limits that were almost +limitless in the northwestern states for a homesteader's relinquishment +fee. Kansas farmers fed their wheat to hogs because it did not pay to +ship it. Texas steers sold low as five dollars on the hoof. Crude +metals were such a drug on the market that the coinage of free silver +was suggested as a panacea. Canada hadn't anything that the United +States wanted badly enough for any quid pro quo in tariff concessions. + +This was the time that Uncle Sam rejected reciprocity. + +Fielding, Laurier and Cartwright came home profoundly disappointed men; +and--as stated before--old Sir John may have turned over in his grave +with a sardonic grin. + +When Sir John had launched the Canadian Pacific Railroad to link Nova +Scotia with British Columbia, when his government to huge land grants +had added cash loans, when he had offered bonuses for factories and +subsidies for steamships--no one had sent home such bitter shafts of +criticism as these old-guard Liberals hungry for office. Why give away +public lands? Why push railroads in advance of settlement? Why build +railroads when there were no terminals, and terminals when there were +no steamships? Why subsidize steamships, when there were no markets? +Was it not more natural to trade with neighbors a handshake across the +way than with strange nations across the ocean? I have heard these +barbed interrogations launched by Liberals at Conservatives with such +bitterness that the wives of Conservative members would not bow to the +wives of Liberal members met in the corridors of Parliament. + +Now mark what happened when the free-trade Liberals found they could +obtain no tariff concessions from the United States! They had gibed +Sir John for committing the country to one transcontinental railroad. +They now launched two more transcontinental railroads--east and west, +not north and south. Subsidies were poured into the lap of steamship +companies to attract them to Canadian ports; and thirty-eight millions +in all were spent improving navigation in the St. Lawrence. Wherever +Clifford Sifton sent agents to drum up settlers trade agents were sent +to drum up markets. Then--as Sir Richard Cartwright acknowledged--the +Liberals were traveling in the most tremendous luck. An era of almost +opulent prosperity seemed to come over the whole world. Gold was +discovered in Klondike. Germany opened unexpected markets for copper +ores. Number One Hard Wheat became famous in Europe. Canadian apples, +Canadian butter, Canadian meats began to gather a fame of their own. +Canada was no longer dependent on American markets. There was more +demand for Canadian products in European markets than could be filled. +Then came the tidal wave of colonists. This created an exhaustless +market for farm produce within Canada's borders, and within three +years--in spite of the tariff--imports of manufacturers from the United +States doubled. American factories and flour mills and lumber mills +sprang up on the Canadian side by magic. In this era Canada was +actually importing ten million dollars' worth of food a year for one +western province, and the cost of living in ten years increased +fifty-one per cent. + + +III + +Came a turn in the wheel! The wheel has a tricky way of turning up the +unexpected between nations. A new era had come to the United States. +Kansas was no longer feeding wheat to hogs. In fact, the decrease in +wheat exports had become so alarming that men like Hill of Great +Northern fame and James Wilson, Secretary of Agriculture, actually +predicted that there would come a day of bread famine in the United +States. The population of the United States had grown faster than the +country's production of food. There was an appalling decrease of meat +animals. American packers were establishing branch houses all through +Canada. As for metals, with the superabundance of gold from Yukon and +Nevada, there did not seem any limit to the world's power to absorb +what was produced. The almost limitless timber lands of the +northwestern states passed into the hands of the great trusts. Buyers +of print paper in the United States became alarmed at the impending +shortage of wood pulp. + +It was not unnatural that the same thought came to many minds in the +United States at once. "If we had free trade, we could bring Canada's +raw products in and build up our factories here instead of in Canada," +was the gist of the manufacturer's argument. "If we had free trade, it +would reduce the cost of living," was the gist of the city consumer's +argument. Canadian lumber, Canadian meat, Canadian wheat could be +brought across and manufactured on the American side. For the first +time the American manufacturer became a free trader. Practically there +was only one section in the United States opposed to reciprocity with +Canada; that was the American farmer, and his opposition was more +negative than positive. + +It is hard to say who voiced the desire for reciprocity first. +Possibly the buyers of print paper. At all events, there was at Ottawa +a Governor-General of the Manchester School of Free Trade. There was +editing the _Toronto Globe_--the main Liberal organ--a worthy successor +of George Brown as an exponent of the Manchester School of Free Trade. +Shortly after this editor--a man of brilliant forceful character--had +met President Taft and Joe Cannon in Washington, the Governor-General +of Canada was the guest of Governor Hughes at Albany and there met +President Taft. Of the old guard of free traders, there were still a +few in Laurier's Cabinet, and Laurier himself was as profoundly and +sincerely a free trader in power as he had been out of office. Enemies +aver that the Laurier government now launched reciprocity to divert +public attention from criticism of the railroad policy, in which there +had undoubtedly been great incompetency and gross extravagance--an +extravagance more of a recklessly prosperous era than of +dishonesty--but this motive can hardly be accepted. If Laurier had +launched reciprocity as a political dodge, he would have sounded public +opinion and learned that it was no longer with him on tariff +concessions; but because he was absolutely sincere in his belief in the +Cobden-Bright Gospel of Free Trade, he rode for a second time to a +humiliating fall. A trimmer would have sounded public opinion and +pretended to lead it while really following. Laurier believed he was +right and launched out on that belief. + + +IV + +There was probably never at any time a more conspicuous example of +politicians mistaking a rear lantern for a headlight. I had come East +from a six months' tour of the northwestern states and Northwestern +Canada. I chanced to meet a magazine editor who for twenty years had +been the closest exponent of Republican politics in New York. The +Canadian elections were to be held that very day. In Canada a party +does not launch a new policy like reciprocity without going to the +country for the electorate's approval or condemnation. The editor +asked me if I would mind reading over a ten-page advance editorial +congratulating both countries on the endorsation of reciprocity. I was +paralyzed. I was a free trader and had been trained to love and revere +Laurier from childhood; but I knew from cursory observation in the West +that there was not a chance, nor the shadow of a chance, for +reciprocity to be endorsed by the Canadian people. The editor would +not believe me. He was in close touch with Taft. He sat up overnight +to get returns from Canada, and the next night I left for Ottawa to get +the views of Robert Borden, Canada's new Conservative Premier, as to +why it had happened. + +It had happened because it could not have happened otherwise, though +neither President Taft nor Premier Laurier, neither the editor of the +_Globe_ nor the free-trade Governor-General seemed to have the faintest +idea what was happening. Canada rejected reciprocity now for precisely +the same reason that Uncle Sam had rejected reciprocity ten years +before--because Uncle Sam had no quid pro quo, no equivalent in values +to offer, which Canada wanted badly enough to make trade concessions. +Said Canada: you have exhausted your own lumber; you want our lumber; +pay for it. You want it so badly that you will ultimately put lumber +on the free list without any concession from us. Meanwhile, for us to +remove the tariff would simply lead to our lumber going across the line +to be manufactured. It would build up your mills instead of ours. The +higher you keep the tariff against our lumber the better pleased we'll +be; for you will have to build more and more mills on our side of the +line. We are even prepared to put an export duty on logs to compel you +to keep on building mills on our side of the line. This was the +argument that swayed and won the vote in British Columbia and Quebec. +A similar argument as to wheat and meat swayed the prairie provinces +and Ontario. + +From Montreal to Vancouver there is hardly a hamlet that has not some +American industry, packing house, lumber mill, flour mill, elevator, +machine shop, motor factory, which operates on the Canadian side of the +border because the tariff wall compels it to do so. These industries +have doubled and trebled the populations of cities like Montreal, +Hamilton, Winnipeg, Vancouver, Calgary, Moose Jaw. Would removal of +the tariff bring more industries to these cities or move them south of +the border? The cities voted almost to a man against reciprocity. + +Allied with the cities were the great transportation systems running +east and west. Reciprocity to divert traffic north and south seemed a +menace to their receipts. To a man these systems were against +reciprocity. + +You have forced us to work out our own Destiny, said Canada. Very +well--now that we are at the winning post, don't divert us from the +goal! We love you as neighbors; we welcome you as settlers; we embrace +you as investors; but when we came to you, you rejected us. Now you +must come to us! + +Deep beneath all the jingoism these were the economic factors that +rejected reciprocity. It is all a curious illustration of the +difference between practical and theoretical politics. Theoretically +both parties have been free traders in Canada. Practically free trade +had thrown them both down. Theoretically Canada rejects reciprocity. +Practically trade across the boundary has increased one hundred per +cent. since she rejected reciprocity. Theoretically Canada was +protecting her three transcontinental systems when she rejected +reciprocity. Practically the growth of lines with running rights +across the boundary has increased from _sixteen_ to _sixty-four_ in ten +years. + +When American industries have become rooted in Canadian soil beyond +possibility of transplanting, no doubt the fear will be removed; and at +the present rate of the increase of trade between the two countries the +tariff wall must become an anachronism, if it be not worn down by sheer +force of trade attrition. + +Comical incidents are related of the Canadian fear in individual cases. +There was a Scotch school trustee in Calgary. He had voted +Whig-Liberal-dyed-in-the-wool free trade for forty years--from the +traditions of reciprocity under Alexander Mackenzie. A Canadian flag +was flying above the fine new Calgary school. The Scotchman was going +to the polls by street-car. An excursion of American home seekers had +just come in, and one of the variety to essay placing an American flag +on the pyramids had taken a glass too much. He began haranguing the +street-car. "So that's the old Can-a-day flag," said he. "You jus' +wait till to-morrow and, boys, you'll see another flag above that thar +school 'ouse!" + +Now a Scotchman is vera' serious. The Scotch trustee gave one +glowering look at that drunken prophet; and he rang the street-car +bell; and he went at the patter of a dead run to the polling place; and +for the first time in his life he voted, not Whig, not free trade, not +reciprocity and Laurier, but Tory and high tariff. [1] + +It should be added here that the tariff reductions on food under +President Wilson have justified Canada's rejection of reciprocity. +Canadian farm products have gained freer access to the American market +without a quid pro quo. + + +[1] Opponents of reciprocity in the United States made skilful use of +Canadian touchiness on such matters, and not all such expressions as +that quoted above were spontaneous.--THE EDITOR. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE COMING OF THE ENGLISH + +For a hundred years England's colonies have been distinctively +dependencies--self-governing dependencies, if you will, in the case of +Canada and Australia--but distinctively dependent on the Mother Country +for protection from attack by land and sea. Has the day come when +these colonies, are to be, not lesser, but greater nations--offshoots +of the parent stock but transcending in power and wealth the parent +stock--a United Kingdom of the Outer Meres, becoming to America and +Australasia what Great Britain has been to Europe? + +Ten years ago this question would have been considered the bumptious +presumption of flamboyant fancy. It isn't so considered to-day. +Rather than a flight of fancy, the question is forced on thinking minds +by the hard facts of the multiplication table. Between 1897 and 1911 +there came to Canada 723,424 British colonists; and since 1911 there +have come half a million more. At the outbreak of the war settlers of +purely British birth were pouring into Canada at the rate of two +hundred thousand a year. A continuation of this immigration means that +in half a century, not counting natural increase, there will be as many +colonists of purely British birth in Canada as there are Americans west +of the Mississippi, or as there were Englishmen in England in the days +of Queen Elizabeth. It means more--one-fourth of the United Kingdom +will have been transplanted overseas. If there be any doubt as to +whether the transplanting be permanent, it should be settled by +homestead entries. In one era of something less than three years out +of 351,530 men, women and children who came, sixty thousand entered for +homesteads. In other words, if each householder were married and had a +family of four, almost the entire immigration of 351,530 was absorbed +in permanent tenure by the land. The drifters, the floaters, the +disinherited of their share of earth became landowners, proprietors of +Canada to the extent of one hundred and sixty acres. From 1897 to 1911 +the Canadian government spent $2,419,957 advertising Canada in England +and paying a bonus of one pound per capita to steamship agents for each +immigrant; so that each colonist cost the Dominion something over three +dollars. I have heard immigration officials figure how each colonist +was worth to the country as a producer fifteen hundred dollars a year. +This is an excessive estimate, but the bargain was a good one for +Canada. In 1901, when Canada's population was five millions, there +were seven hundred thousand people of British birth in the Dominion; so +that of Canada's present population of 7,800,000, there are in the +Dominion a million and a half people of British birth.[1] Averaging +winter with summer for ten years, colonists of British birth have been +landing on Canada's shores at the rate of three hundred a day. +Canada's natural increase is under one hundred thousand a year. +British colonists are to-day yearly outnumbering Canada's natural +increase. + +Only two other such migrations of Saxon blood have taken place in +history: when the Angles and Jutes and Saxons came in plunder raids to +English shores at the dawn of the Christian Era; when in the +seventeenth century Englishmen came to America; and both these tides of +migration were as a drop in an ocean wave compared to the numbers of +English born now flooding to the shores of Canada. + +Knowing the Viking spirit that rode out to conquer the very elements in +the teeth of death, it is easy to look back and realize that these +Angles and Jutes and Saxons were bound to found a great sea empire. +So, too, of the New England Puritans! Men who sacrificed their all for +a political and religious belief were bound to build of such belief +foundation for a sturdy nation of the future. It is easy to look back +and realize. It is hard to look forward with eyes that see; but one +must be a very opaque thinker, indeed, not to wonder what this latest +vast migration of Saxon blood portends for future empire. The Jutes +and Angles and Saxons poured into ancient Albion for just one +reason--to acquire each for his own freehold of land. Look at the +ancient words! Freehold of land! For what else have a million and a +half British born come to the free homesteads of Canada? For freehold +of land--land unoppressed by taxes for war lords; land unoppressed by +tithes for landlord; land absolutely free to the worker. That such a +migration should break in waves over Canadian life and leave it +untouched, uninfluenced, unswerved, is as inconceivable as that the +Jutes and Angles and Saxons could have settled in ancient Albion and +not made it their own. + + +II + +For years Canada was regarded chiefly in England as a dumping ground +for slums. "You have broken your mother's heart," thundered an English +magistrate to a young culprit. "You have sent your father in sorrow to +the grave. Why--I ask you--do you not go to Canada?" That such +material did not offer the best fiber for the making of a nation in +Canada did not dawn on this insular magisterial dignitary; and the +sentiments uttered were reflected in the activities of countless +philanthropies that seemed to think the porcine could be transmogrified +into the human by a simple transfer from the pig-sty of their own vices +and failure to the free untrammeled life of a colony. Fortunately +Canada has a climate that kills men who won't work. Men must stand on +their own feet in Canada, and keep those feet hustling in winter--or +die. It is not a land for people who think; the world owes them a +living. They have to earn the living and earn it hard, and if they +don't earn it, there are neither free soup kitchens nor maudlin +charities to fill idle stomachs with some other man's earnings. + +"Why do you think so many young Englishmen fail to make good in +Canada?" I asked a young Yorkshire mill hand who had come to Canada +with his five brothers and homesteaded nearly a thousand acres on the +north bank of the Saskatchewan. The house was built of logs and clay. +There was not a piece of store furniture in it except the stove. The +beds were berths extemporized ship-fashion, with cowhides and +bear-skins for covering. The seats were benches. The table was a +rough-hewn plank. These young factory hands had things reduced to the +simplicity of a Robinson Crusoe. They had come out each with less than +one hundred dollars, but they had their nine hundred and sixty acres +proved up and wintered some ten horses and thirty head of cattle in a +sod and log stable. They had acquired what small ready cash they could +by selling oats and hay to newcomers. The hay they sold at four +dollars a ton, the oats at thirty cents a bushel. The boy I questioned +had all the characteristics of the overworked factory hand--abnormally +large forehead, cramped chest, half-developed limbs. Yet the health of +outdoor life glowed from his face, and he looked as if his muscles had +become knotted whipcords. + +"Why do I think so many young Englishmen fail to make good settlers?" +he repeated, changing my question a little. "Because, up to a few +years ago, the wrong kind of people came. The only young Englishmen +who came up to a few years ago were no-goods, who had failed at home. +They were the kind of city scrubs who give up a job when it is hard and +then run for free meals at the soup kitchen. There aren't any soup +kitchens out here, and when they found they had to work before they +could eat, they cleared out and gave the country the blame. Men who +are out of work half the time at home get into the habit of depending +on charity keeping them. When you are a hundred miles from a railroad +town, there isn't any charity to keep you out here; you have to hustle +for yourself. But there is a different class of Englishmen coming now. +The men coming now have worked and want to work." + +And yet--at another point a hundred miles from settlement I came on a +woman who belonged to that very type that ought never to emigrate. She +was a woman picked out of the slums by a charity organization. She had +presumably been scrubbed and curried and taught household duties before +being shipped in a famous colony to Canada. The colony went to pieces +in a deplorable failure on facing its first year of difficulties, but +she had married a Canadian frontiersman and remained. She wore all the +slum marks--bad teeth, loose-feeble-will in the mouth, furtive whining +eyes. She was clean personally and paraded her religion in unctuous +phrase; but I need only to tell a Canadian that she had lived in her +shanty three years and it was still bare of comfort as a biscuit box, +to explain why the Dominion regards this type as unsuitable for +pioneering. The American or Canadian wife of a frontiersman would have +had skin robes for rugs, biscuit boxes painted for bureaus, and chairs +hand-hewn out of rough timber upholstered in cheap prints. But the +really amazing thing was the condition of her children. They were fat, +rosy, exuberant in health and energy. They were Canadians. In a +decade they would begin to fill their place as nation makers. Back in +England they would have gone to the human scrap heap in hunger and +rags. Ten years of slums would have made them into what their mother +was--an unfit; but ten years of Canada was making them into robust +humans capable of battling with life and mastering it. + +The line is a fine one and needs to be drawn with distinction. Canada +does not begrudge the down-and-outs, the failures, the disinherited, +the dispossessed, a chance to begin over again. She realizes that she +has room, boundless room, for such as they are to succeed--and many +more; but what she can not and will not do is assume the burden of +these people when they come to Canada and will not try and fail. What +she can not and will not do is permit Europe to clean her pig-sties of +vice and send the human offal to Canadian shores. Children, strays, +waifs, reforms--who have been taken and tested and tried and taught to +support themselves--she welcomes by the thousands. In fact, she has +welcomed 12,260 of them in ten years, and the cases of lapses back to +failure have been so small a proportion as to be inconsiderable. + +In the early days, "the remittance man"--or young Englishman living +round saloons in idleness on a small monthly allowance from home--fell +into bad repute in Canada; and it didn't help his repute in the least +to have a title appended to his remittance. Unless he were efficient, +the title stood in his way when he applied for a job, whether as horse +jockey or bank clerk. Canadians do not ask--"_Who_ are you?" or +"_What_ have you?" but "_What can you do?_" "What can you do to add to +the nation's yearly output of things done--of a solid plus on the right +side of the yearly balance?" It is a brutal way of putting things. It +does not make for poetry and art. It may be sordid. I believe as a +people we Canadians, perhaps, do err on the sordid side of the +practical, but it also makes for solidity and national strength. + +Ten years have witnessed a complete change in the class of Englishmen +coming to Canada. The drifter, the floater, the make-shift, rarely +comes. The men now coming are the land-seekers--of the blood and type +that settled England and New England and Virginia--of the blood and +type, in a word, that make nations. Hard on the heels of the +land-seekers have come yet another type--the type that binds country to +country in bonds tighter than any international treaty--the investors +of surplus capital. + + +III + +It is possible to keep a record of American investments in Canada; +because possessions are registered more or less approximately at ports +of entry and in bills of incorporation; but the English investor has +acted through agents, through trust and loan companies, through banks. +He is the buyer of Canada's railway stocks, of her municipal, street +railway, irrigation and public works bonds. Of Canadian railroad bonds +and stocks, there are $395,000,000 definitely known to be held in +England. Municipal and civic bonds must represent many times that +total, and the private investments in land have been simply +incalculable. The Lloyd George system of taxation was at once followed +by enormous investments by the English aristocracy in Canada. These +investments included large holdings of city property in Montreal and +Winnipeg and Vancouver, of ranch lands in Alberta, town sites along the +new railroads, timber limits in British Columbia and copper and coal +mines in both Alberta and British Columbia. The Portland, Essex, +Sutherland and Beresford families have been among the investors. It +does not precisely mean the coming of an English aristocracy to Canada, +but it does mean the implanting of an enormous total of the British +aristocracy's capital in Canada for long-time investment. + +It would be untrue to say that these investments have all been wisely +made. One wonders, indeed, at what the purchasing agents were aiming +in some cases. I know of small blocks in insignificant railroad towns +bought for sixty thousand dollars, for no other reason, apparently, +than that they cost ten thousand dollars and had been sold for twenty +thousand dollars. The block, which would yield twenty per cent. on ten +thousand dollars, yields only three per cent. on sixty thousand +dollars. Held long enough, doubtless, it will repay the investor; or +if the investor is satisfied with three per cent., where Canadians earn +twenty per cent.--it may be all right; but Canadians expect their +investments to repay capital cost in ten years, and they do not buy for +profits to posterity but for profits in a lifetime. + +Similarly of many of the r_an_ches bought at five dollars an acre by +Americans and resold as r_awn_ches at twenty-five dollars to forty +dollars to Englishmen. If the Englishmen will be satisfied with two +and three per cent., where the American demands and makes twelve to +twenty per cent.--the investment may make satisfactory returns; but it +is hard to conceive of enormous tracts two and three hundred miles from +a railroad bought for fruit lands at twenty-five dollars an acre. +Fruit without a market is worse than waste. It is loss. When +questioned, these English investors explain how raw fruit lands that +sold at twenty-five dollars an acre a few years ago in the United +States to-day sell for five hundred dollars and one thousand dollars an +acre. The point they miss is--that these top values are the result of +exceptional conditions; of millionaires turning a region into a +playground as in the walnut and citrus groves of California; or of +nearness to market and water transportation; or of peculiarly finely +organized marketing unions. If the rich estates of England like to +take these risks, it is their affair; but they must not blame Canada if +their investment does not give them the same returns as more careful +buying gives the Canadian and American. + +Not all investments are of this extravagant character. Hundreds of +thousands of acres and city properties untold have been bought by +English investors who will multiply their capital a hundredfold in ten +years. I know properties bought along the lines of the new railroads +for a few hundred dollars that have resold at twenty thousand and +thirty thousand and fifty thousand. It is such profits as these that +lure to wrong investment. + +Horse and cattle ranching has appealed to the Englishman from the +first, and as great fortunes have been realized from it in Canada as in +Argentina. However, the day of unfenced pasture ground is past; and in +reselling ranches for farms, many English investors have multiplied +their fortunes. In the outdoor life and freedom from conventional +cares--there has been a peculiar charm in ranch life. In no life are +the grit and efficiency of the well-bred in such marked contrast with +the puling whine and shiftlessness of the settler from the cesspool of +the city slums. I have gone into a prairie shanty where an +Englishwoman sat in filth and rags and idleness, cursing the country to +which she had come and bewailing in cockney English that she had come +to this; and I have gone on to an English ranch where there presided +some young Englishman's sister, who had literally never done a stroke +in her life till she came to Canada, when in emergency of prairie fire, +or blizzard, or absent ranch hands, she has saddled her horse and +rounded to shelter herds of cattle and droves of ponies. She didn't +boast about it. She probably didn't mention it, and when winter came, +she would go off for her holiday to England or California. Having come +of blood that had proved itself fit in England, she proved the same +strain of blood in Canada; and to this class of English Canada gives +more than a welcome. She confers charter rights. + +Lack of domestic help will long be the great drawback for English +people on the prairie. You may bring your help with you if you like. +If they are single, they will marry. If they are married, they will +take up land of their own and begin farming for themselves. It is this +which forces efficiency or exterminates--on the prairie. Let no woman +come to the prairie with dolce far niente dreams of opalescent peaks, +of fenceless fields and rides to a horizon that forever recedes, with a +wind that sings a jubilate of freedom. All these she will have; but +they are not ends in themselves; they are incidental. Days there will +be when the fat squaw who is doing the washing will put all the laundry +in soap suds, then roll down her sleeves and demand double pay before +she goes on. Prairie fires will come when men are absent, and women +must know how to set a back fire; and whether the ranch hands are near +or far, stock must never be allowed to drive before a blizzard. The +woman with iron in her blood will meet all fate's challenges halfway +and master every emergency. The kind that has a rabbit heart and sits +down to weep and wail should not essay adventures in the Canadian West. + + +IV + +I said that England's colonies depended on the Mother Country for +protection from attack by land and sea. Of the vessels calling at +Canadian ports, three-fifths are British, one-fifth foreign, and +one-fifth Canadian. Whore England is the great sea carrier for Europe, +Canada has not wakened up to establish enough sea carriers for her own +needs. + +Canada's exports to the whole British Empire are almost two hundred +millions a year.[2] Her aggregate trade with the British Empire has +increased three hundred per cent. since confederation, or from one +hundred and seven to three hundred and sixteen millions. With the +United States, her aggregate trade has increased from eighty-nine to +six hundred and eight millions. For one dollar's worth she buys in +England, she buys four dollars' worth in the United States. Here trade +is not following the flag, and the flag is not following trade. Trade +is following its own channels independent of the flag. + + +V + +What is the future portent of the great migration of Englishmen of the +best blood and traditions to Canada? There can be only one portent--a +Greater Britain Overseas, and Canada herself has not in the slightest +degree wakened to what this implies. She knows that her railroads are +a safe and shorter path to the Orient than by Suez; and in a cursory +way she may also know that the nations of the world are maneuvering for +place and power on the Pacific; but that she may be drawn into the +contest and have to fight for her life in it--she hardly grasps. If +you told Canada that within the life of men and women now living her +Pacific Coast may bristle with as many forts and ports as the North +Sea--you would be greeted with an amused smile. Yet all this may be +part of the destiny of a Greater Britain Overseas. + +With men such as Sir John Macdonald and Laurier and Borden on the +roster roll of Canada's great, one dislikes to charge that Canadian +statesmen have not grown big enough for their job. The Aztec Indians +used to cement their tribal houses with human blood. Canada's part in +the Great War may be the blood-sign above the lintel of her new +nationality. + + +[1] I have variously referred to Canada's population as five million, +seven million, and over seven million. Five million was Canada's +population before the great influx of colonists began. The census +figures of 1911 give Canada's population as 7,204,838. Add to this the +immigration for 1912, and you get the Department of Labor +figures--7,758,000. If you add the immigration for 1913 the total must +be close on 8,000,000. + +[2] The figures are from the official _Trade and Commerce Report_, Part +I, 1914: They tabulate the trade of 1913 thus: Imports from United +Kingdom, $138,741,736; imports from United States, $435,770,081. +Average duty imports United Kingdom, 25.1. Average duty imports United +States, 24.1. Per cent. of goods from U. K., 20.1; per cent. of goods +from U. S., 65.1. + +Exports to United Kingdom, $177,982,002; exports to United States, +$150,961,675. Percentage goods exported U. K., 47.1; percentage goods +exported U. S., 40.1. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE COMING OF THE FOREIGNER + +So far scarcely a cloud appears on the horizon of Canada's national +destiny. Like a ship launched roughly from her stays to tempests in +shallow water, she seems to have left tempests and shallow water behind +and to have sailed proudly out to the great deeps. In '37 she settled +whether she would be ruled by special interests, by a plutocracy, by an +oligarchy. In '67 she settled forever what in the United States would +be called "states' rights." That is--she gathered the scattered +members of her fold into one confederation and bound them together not +only with the constitution of the British North America Act, but with +bands of iron and steel in railways that linked Nova Scotia with +British Columbia. By '77 she had met the menace of the American high +tariff, which barred her from markets, and entered on a fiscal system +of her own. By '87 her system of transportation east and west was in +working order and she had begun the subsidizing of steamships and the +search for world markets which have since resulted in a total foreign +trade equal to one-fourth that of the United States. By '97 she was +almost ready for the preferential tariff reduction of from twenty-five +to thirty-three per cent. on British goods which the Laurier government +later introduced, and she had established her right to negotiate +commercial treaties with foreign powers independent of the Mother +Country. By 1907 she was in the very maelstrom of the maddest real +estate boom and immigration flood tide that a sane country could +weather. + +In a word, Canada's greatest dangers and difficulties seem to have been +passed. The sea seems calm and the sky fair. In reality, she is close +to the greatest dangers that can threaten a nation--dangers within, not +without; dangers, not physical, but psychological, which are harder to +overcome; dangers of dilution and contamination of national blood, +national grit, national government, national ideals. + +These are strong statements! Let us see if facts substantiate them! + +Canada's natural increase of population is only one-fourth her incoming +tide of colonists. In a word, put her natural increase at eighty to +one hundred thousand a year, and it is nearer eighty than one hundred +thousand. Her immigration exceeds four hundred thousand. If that +immigration were all British and all American there would be no +problem; for though there are differences in government, both people +have the same national ideal--utter freedom of opportunity for each man +to work out the best in him. It is an even wager that the average +Canadian coming to the United States is unaware of any difference in +his freedom, and the average American coming to Canada is unaware of +any difference in his freedom. Both people have fought and bled for +freedom and treasure it as the most sacred thing in life. + +But this is not so of thirty-three per cent. of Canada's immigrants who +do not speak English, much less understand the institutions of freedom +to which they have come. If they had been worthy of freedom, or +capable of making right use of it, they would have fought for it in the +land from which they came, or died fighting for it--as Scotchmen and +Irishmen and Englishmen and Americans have fought and bled for freedom +wherever they have lived. A people unused to freedom suddenly plunged +in freedom need not surprise us if they run amuck. + + +II + +"This is mos' won'erful country," writes Tony to his brother in Italy. +"They let us vote and they pay us two dollars to do it." + +"Yah, yah," answered a foreign mother in North Winnipeg to a +school-teacher, trying to recall why her young hopeful had played +truant. "Dat vas eelection--my boy, he not go--because Jacob--my +man--he vote seven time and make seven dollar." (The whole family had +been on a glorious seven-dollar drunk.) + +"Does this man understand for what he is voting?" demanded the election +clerk of a Galician interpreter who had brought in a naturalized +foreigner to vote. + +"Oh, yaas; I eexplain heem." + +"Can he write?" + +An indeterminate nod of the head; so the voter marks his ballot, and +his vote counts for as much as that of the premier or president of a +railroad. + +For years Canadians have pointed the finger of scorn at the notorious +misgovernment of American cities, at the manner in which foreigners +were herded to the polls by party bosses to vote as they were paid. +The cases of a Louisiana judge impeached for issuing bogus certificates +of citizenship to four hundred aliens and of New York courts that have +naturalized ignorant foreigners in batches of twenty-five thousand in a +few months have all pointed a moral or adorned a tale in Canada. + +Yet what is happening in Canada since the coming of hordes of ignorant +immigrants? I quote what I have stated elsewhere, an episode typical +of similar episodes, wherever the foreign vote herds in colonies. An +election was coming on in one of the western provinces, where reside +twenty thousand foreigners almost en bloc. The contest was going to be +very close. Offices were opened in a certain block. Legally it +requires three years to transform a foreigner into a voting Canadian +subject. He must have resided in Canada three years before he can take +out his papers. The process is simple to a fault. The newcomer goes +before a county judge with proof of residence and two Canadian +witnesses. He must not be a criminal, and he must be of age. That is +all that is required to change a Pole or a Sicilian or a Slav into a +free and independent Canadian fully competent to apprehend that voting +implies duties and fitness as well as rights. The contest was going to +be very close. A few of the party leaders could not bear to have those +newcomers wait a long three years for naturalization. They got +together and they forged in the same hand, the same manipulation, the +signatures of three hundred foreigners, who did not know in the least +what they were doing, to applications for naturalization +papers--foreigners who had not been three months in Canada. If forgery +did not matter, why should perjury? The perpetrators of this fraud +happened to be provincial and of a stripe different politically from +the federal government then in power at Ottawa. The other party had +not been asleep while this little game was going on. The party heeler +neither slumbers nor sleeps. The papers with those three hundred +forged signatures--names in the writing of foreigners, who could +neither read, write, nor speak a word of English--were sent down to the +Department of Justice in Ottawa; and everybody waited for the +explosion. The explosion did not come. Those perjuries and forgeries +slumber yet, secure in the Department of Justice. For when the +provincial politicians heard what had been done to trap them, they sent +down a little message to the heelers of the party in power: If you go +after us for _this_, we'll go after you for _that_; and perhaps the pot +had better not call the kettle black. The chiefs of each party were +powerless to act because the heelers of both parties had been alike +guilty. + +It may be said that the fault here was not in the poor ignorant +foreigner but in the corrupt Canadian politicians. That is true of +Canada, as it is of similar practices in the United States; but the +presence of the ignorant, irresponsible foreigner in hordes made the +corruption possible, where it is neither possible nor safe with men of +Saxon blood, with German, Scandinavian or Danish immigrants, for +instance. + + +III + +It is futile to talk of the poor and ignorant foreigner as a Goth or a +Vandal--to talk of excluding the ignorant and the lowly. The floating +"he-camps"--as these floating immigrants are called in labor +circles--are to-day doing much of the manual work of the world. +Canadian railways could not be built without them. Canadian industrial +and farm life could not go on without them. They are needed from +Halifax to Vancouver, and their labor is one of the wealth producers +for the nation. + +And do not think for a moment that the wealth they produce is for +capital--for the lords of finance and not for themselves. When +Montenegrins, who earn thirty cents a day in their own land, earn +eleven dollars a day on dynamite work constructing Canadian railroads, +it is not surprising that they retire rich, and that the railroad for +which they worked would have gone bankrupt if the Dominion had not come +to its aid with a loan of millions. Likewise of Poles and Galicians in +the coal mines. When Charles Gordon--Ralph Connor--was sent to +investigate the strike in these mines he found foreigners earning +seventeen dollars a day on piecework who had never earned fifty cents a +day in their own land. I have in mind one Galician settler who has +accumulated a fortune of $150,000 in perfectly legitimate ways in ten +years. Even the Doukhobors--the eccentric Russian religious +sect--hooted for their oddities of manner and frenzies of religion--are +accumulating wealth in the Elbow of the Saskatchewan, where they are +settled. + +From the national point of view Canada needs these foreign settlers. +She needs their labor. Every man to her is worth fifteen hundred +dollars in productive work. The higher wages he earns on piecework the +more Canada is pleased; for the more work he has done. But at the +present rate of peopling Canada these foreign born will in twenty years +outnumber the native born. What will become of Canada's national +ideals then? In one foreign section of the Northwest I once traveled a +hundred miles through new settlements without hearing one word of +English spoken; and these Doukhobors and Galicians and Roumanians and +Slavs were making good. They were prospering exceedingly. Men who had +come with less than one hundred dollars each and lived for the first +years in crowded tenements of Winnipeg or under thatch-roof huts on the +prairie now had good frame houses, stables, stock, modern implements. +The story is told of one poor Russian who, when informed of the fact +that the land would be his very own, fell to the earth and kissed the +soil and wept. Such settlers make good on soil, whatever ill they work +in a polling booth. Except for his religious vagaries, the Doukhobor +Russian is law abiding. The same can not be said of the other Slav +immigrants. Crime in the Northwest, according to the report of the +Mounted Police, has increased appallingly. The crimes are against life +rather than against property--the crimes of a people formerly kept in +order by the constant presence of a soldier's bayonet run amuck in +Canada with too much freedom. And the votes of these people will in +twenty years out-vote the Canadian. These poverty-stricken Jews and +Polacks and Galicians will be the wealth and power of Canada to-morrow. +If you doubt what will happen, stroll down Fifth Avenue, New York, and +note the nationality of the names. A Chicago professor carefully noted +the nationality of all the names submitted in Chicago's elections for a +term of years. Three-quarters of the names were of nationalities only +one generation away from the Ghetto. + +Man to man on the prairie farm, in the lumber woods, your Canadian can +out-do the Russian or Galician or Hebrew. The Canadian uses more +brains and his aggregate returns are bigger; but boned down to a basis +of _who_ can save the most and become rich fastest, your foreigner has +the native-born Canadian beaten at the start. Where the Canadian earns +ten dollars and spends eighty per cent. of it, your foreigner earns +five dollars, and saves almost all of it. How does he do this? He +spends next to nothing. Let me be perfectly specific on how he does +it: I have known Russian, Hebrew, Italian families in the Northwest who +sewed their children into their clothes for the winter and never +permitted a change till spring. Your Canadian would buy half a dozen +suits for his children in the interval. Your foreigner buys of +furniture and furnishings and comforts practically nothing for the +first few years. He sleeps on the floor, with straw for a bed, and he +occupies houses twenty-four to a room--which is the actual report in +foreign quarters in the north end of Winnipeg. Your Canadian requires +a house of six rooms for a family of six. When your foreigner has +accumulated a little capital he buys land or a city tenement. Your +Canadian educates his children, clothes them a little better, moves +into a better house. When the foreigner buys a block, he moves his +whole family into one room in the basement and does the janitor and +scrubbing and heating work himself or forces his women to do it for +him. When the Canadian buys a block, he hires a janitor, an engineer, +a scrub woman, and if he moves into the block, he takes one of the best +apartments. It does not take any guessing to know which of these two +will buy a second block first--especially if the foreigner lives on +peanuts and beer, and the Canadian on beefsteak and fresh fruit. Nor +does it take any guessing to know which type stands for the higher +citizenship--which will make toward the better nation. + + +IV + +The question is--will Canada remain Canada when these new races come up +to power? And Canada need not hoot that question; or gather her skirts +self-righteously and exclusively about her and pass by on the other +side. The United States did that, and to-day certain sections of the +foreign vote are powerful enough to dictate to the President. + +Take a little closer look at facts! + +Foreigners have never been rushed into Canada as cheap labor to +displace the native born, so they have not, as in great American +industrial centers, lowered the standard of living for Canadians. They +have come attracted by two magnets that give them great power: (1) +wages so high they can save; (2) land absolutely free but for the +ten-dollar preemption fee. + +In 1881 there were six hundred and sixty-seven Jews in Canada. + +In 1901 there were sixteen thousand. To-day it is estimated there are +twenty thousand each in Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg. These Jews have +not gone out to the land. They have crowded into the industrial +centers reproducing the housing evils from which they fled the European +Ghetto. There are sections of Winnipeg and Montreal and Toronto where +the very streets reek of Bowery smells. When they go to the woods or +the land, these people have not the stamina to stand up to hard work. +Yet in the cities, by hook or crook, by push-cart and trade, they +acquire wealth. On the charity organization of the cities they impose +terrible burdens during Canada's long cold winter. + +In one section of the western prairie are 150,000 Galicians. Of +Austrians and Germans--the Germans chiefly from Austria and +Russia--there are 800,000 in Canada, or a population equal to the city +of Montreal. Of Italians at last report there were fully 60,000 in +Canada. In one era of seven years there took up permanent abode in +Canada 121,000 Austrians, 50,000 Jews, 60,000 Italians, 60,000 Poles +and Russians, 40,000 Scandinavians. When you consider that by actual +count in the United States in 1900, 1,000 foreign-born immigrants had +612 children, compared to 1,000 Americans having 296 children, it is +simply inconceivable but that this vast influx of alien life should not +work tremendous and portentous changes in Canada's life, as a similar +influx has completely changed the face of some American institutions in +twenty years. Immigration to Canada has jumped from 54,000 in +1851-1861 to 142,000 in 1881-1891, and to 2,000,000 in 1901-1911. It +has not come in feeble rivulets that lost their identity in the main +current--as in the United States up to 1840. It has come to Canada in +inundating floods. + +Chief mention has been made of the races from the south of Europe +because the races from the north of Europe assimilate so quickly that +their identity is lost. Of Scandinavians there are in Canada some +fifty thousand; of Icelanders, easily twenty thousand; and so quickly +do they merge with Canadian life that you forget they are foreigners. +I was a child in Winnipeg when the first Icelanders arrived, and their +rise has been a national epic. I do not believe the first few hundreds +had fifty dollars among them. They slept under high board sidewalks +for the first nights and erected tar-paper shanties on vacant lots the +next day. In these they housed the first winter. Though we +Winnipeggers did not realize it, it must have been a dreadful winter to +them. Their clothing was of the scantest. Many were without +underwear. They lived ten and twenty to a house. The men sawed wood +at a dollar and a half a day. The women worked out at one dollar a +day. In a few weeks each family had bought a cow and rudiments of +winter clothes. By spring they had money to go out on their +homesteads. During winter some of the grown men attended school to +learn English. Teachers declared they never witnessed such swift +mastery of learning. To-day the Icelanders are the most prosperous +settlers in Manitoba. The same story could be told of German +Mennonites driven from Russia by religious persecution and of +Scandinavians driven abroad by poverty. Of course, the weak went to +the wall and died, and didn't whine about the dying, though some +mother's heart must have broken in silence. I recall one splendid +young fellow who walked through every grade the public schools +afforded, and then through the high school, and was on the point of +graduating in medicine when he died from sheer mental and physical +exhaustion. This type of settler will build up Canada's national +ideals. It is the other type that gives one pause. + + +V + +Well--what is Canada going to do about it? Bar them out! Never! She +needs these raw brawny Vandals and Goths of alien lands as much as they +need Canada. She needs their hardy virility. They are the crude +material of which she must manufacture a manhood that is not sissified, +and one must never forget that some of the most honored names in the +United States are from these very races. One of the greatest +mathematicians in the United States, the greatest copper miners, the +richest store keepers, one of the most powerful manufacturers--these +sprang from the very races that give Canada pause to-day. + +It is on the school rather than on the church that Canada must depend +for the nationalizing of these alien races. Nearly all the colonists +from the south of Europe have brought their church with them. In one +foreign church of North Winnipeg is a congregation of four thousand, +and certainly, in the case of the Doukhobors, the influence of the +foreign priest has not been for the good of Canada. But none of these +races has brought with them a school system, and that throws on the +public school system of Canada the burden of preserving national ideals +for the future. Will the schools prove equal to it? I wish I could +answer unequivocally "yes"; for I recall some beautiful episodes of +boys and girls--too immature to realize the importance of their +work--"baching" it in prairie shanties, teaching at forty dollars a +month; amid the isolation of Doukhobor and Galician and Ruthenian +settlement preserving Canada's national ideals for the future; little +classes of foreigners in the schools of North Winnipeg reading lessons +in perfect English with flower gardens below the window kept by +themselves--the little girls learning sewing and housekeeping in upper +rooms, the boys learning technical trades in the basement. All this is +good and well; but how about the recognition Canada gives these +teachers who manufacture men and women out of mud, who do more in a day +for the ideals of the nation than all the eloquence that has been +spouted in Houses of Parliament? In Germany, they say--once an army +man always an army man; for though the pay is ridiculously small, +social prestige and recognition are so great that the army is the most +desirable vocation. Canada's teachers in the schools among foreigners +are doing for the Dominion what the German army has aimed to do for the +empire. Do the Canadian teachers receive the same recognition? The +question needs no answer. They receive so little recognition that the +majority throw aside the work at their twenty-first year and crowd into +other over-crowded professions. Meanwhile time moves on, and in twenty +years the foreign vote will outnumber that of the native born. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE COMING OF THE ORIENTAL + +I + +If the coming of the foreigner has been Canada's greatest danger from +within, the coming of the Oriental has been one of her most perplexing +problems from without. It is not only a perplexity to herself. It is +a perplexity in which Canada involves the empire. + +Take the three great Oriental peoples! With China, Great Britain is in +friendly agreement. With Japan, Great Britain is in closest +international pact. To India, Great Britain is a Mother. Yet Canada +refuses free admission to peoples from all three countries. Why? For +the same reason as do South Africa and Australia. It is only +secondarily a question of labor. The thing goes deeper than that. + +Consider Japan first: Panama is turning every port facing west into a +front door instead of a back door. Within twenty years, the combined +populations of American ports on the Pacific have jumped from a few +hundreds of thousands at San Francisco and nothing elsewhere to almost +two million, with growth continuing at an accelerated rate promising +within another quarter of a century as many great harbors of almost as +great population on the Pacific as on the Atlantic. The Orient has +suddenly awakened. It is importing something besides missionaries. It +is buying American and Canadian steel, American and Canadian wool, +American and Canadian wheat, American and Canadian machinery, American +and Canadian dressed lumber. Ship owners on the Pacific report that +the docks of through traffic are literally jammed with goods outward +bound--"more goods than we have ships," as the president of one line +testified. + +When the reason for building Panama has been shorn of highfalutin +metaphors, it concentrates down to the simple bald fact that the United +States possessions on the Pacific had grown too valuable to be guarded +by a navy ten thousand miles away around the Horn. True, Roosevelt +sent the fleet around the world to show what it could do, and the +country howled its jubilation over the fact. But the Little Brown +Brother only smiled; for the fleet hadn't coal to steam five hundred +miles without hiring foreign colliers to follow around with supply of +fuel. "Fine fleet! To be sure we have the ships," exploded a rear +admiral in San Diego Bay a few years ago; "but look here!" He pointed +through the port at an insignificant coaling dock such as third-rate +barges use. "See any coal?" he asked. "If trouble should come"--it +was just after the flight of Diaz--"we haven't coal enough to go +half-way up or down the coast." + + +II + +Sometimes we can guess the game from the moves of the chess players. +With facts for chessmen, what are the moves? + +It was up in Atlin, British Columbia, a few years after the Klondike +rush. Five hundred Japs had come tumbling into the mining camp, +seemingly from nowhere, in reality from Japanese colonies in Hawaii. +The white miners warned the Japs that "it wouldn't be a healthy camp," +but mine owners were desperate for workers. Wages ran at from five to +ten dollars a day. The Japs were located in a camp by themselves and +put to work. On dynamite work, for which the white man was paid five +to ten dollars, the Jap was paid three and five dollars. Still he held +on with his teeth, "dogged as does it," as he always does. Suddenly +the provincial board of health was notified. There was a lot of +sickness in the Jap camp--"filthy conditions," the mine owners +reported. The board of health found traces of arsenical poisoning in +all the Jap maladies. The Japs decamped as if by magic. + +Simultaneously there broke out from Alaska to Monterey the anti-Jap, +anti-Chinese, anti-Hindu agitation. California's exclusion and land +laws became party planks. British Columbia got round it by a +subterfuge. She had the Ottawa government rush through an +order-in-council known as "the direct passage" law. All Orientals at +that time were coming in by way of Hawaii. Ships direct from India +were not sailing. They stopped at Hong Kong and Hawaii. The +order-in-council was to forbid the entrance of Brown Brothers unless in +direct passage from their own land. That effectually barred the Hindu +out, till recently when a Japanese line, to test the Direct Passage +Act, brought a shipload of Hindus direct from India to Vancouver. +Vancouverites patrolled docks and would not let them land. A head tax +of five hundred dollars was leveled at John Chinaman. That didn't keep +John Chinaman out. It simply raised his wages; for the Chinese boss +added to the new hand's wages what was needed to pay the money loaned +for entrance fee. A special arrangement was made with the Mikado's +government to limit Japanese emigration to a few hundreds given +passports, but California went the whole length of demanding the total +exclusion of Brown Brothers. + +Why? What was the Pacific Coast afraid of? When the State Departments +of the United States and Canada met the State Department of the Mikado, +practically what was said was this. Only in very diplomatic language: + +Whiteman: "We don't object to your students and merchants and +travelers, but what we do object to is the coolies. We are a +population of a few hundred thousands in British Columbia, of less than +three million in the states of the Pacific. What with Chink and Jap +and Hindu, you are hundreds of millions of people. If we admit your +coolies at the present rate (eleven thousand had tumbled into one city +in a few months), we shall presently have a coolie population of +millions. We don't like your coolies any better than you do yourself! +Keep them at home!" + +This conversation is paraphrased, but it is practically the substance +of what the representative of the Ottawa government said to a +representative of the Mikado. + +Brown Brother: "We don't care any more for our coolies than you do. We +don't in fact, care a hoot what becomes of the spawn and dregs of +no-goods in our population. We are not individualists, as you white +men are! We don't aim to keep the unfit cumbering the earth! We don't +care a hoot for these coolies; but what we do care for is this--we +Orientals refuse to be branded any longer as an inferior race. We'll +restrain the emigration of these coolies by a passport system; but +don't you forget it, just as soon as we are strong enough, in the +friendliest, kindest, suavest, politest, most diplomatic way in the +world, we intend not to be branded any longer as an inferior race. We +intend to stand shoulder to shoulder with you in the management of the +world's affairs. If we don't stand up to the job, throw us down! If +we stand up to the job--and we stood up moderately in China and Russia +and Belgium--we don't intend to ask you for the sop of that Christian +brotherhood preached by white men. We intend to force recognition of +what we are by what we do. We ask no favors, but we now serve you +notice we are in to play the game." + +Neither is this conversation a free translation. Shorn of diplomatic +kotowing and compliments and circumlocutions, it is exactly what the +Mikado's representative served to the representatives of three great +governments--Uncle Sam's, John Bull's, Miss Canada's. If you ask how I +know, I answer--direct from one of the three men sent to Japan. + +Can you see the white men's eyes pop out of their heads with +astonishment? They thought they were up against a case of labor union +jealousy, and they found themselves involved in a complex race problem, +dealing with three aggressive applicants for places at the councils of +rulers governing the world. California was ordered to turn on the soft +pedal and do it quick, and officially, at least, she did for a time. +Canada was ordered to lay both hands across her mouth and never to +speak above a whisper of the whole Brown Brother problem; and +England--well--England openly took the Jappy-Chappy at his +word--recognized him as a world brother and entered into the famous +alliance. And the coming of coolies suddenly stopped to the United +States and Canada. It didn't stop to South America and Mexico, but +that is another play of the game with facts for chessmen. + +Chinese exclusion, Japanese exclusion, Hindu exclusion suddenly became +party shibboleths--always for the party _out_ of power, never for the +party _in_ power. The party in power kept a special Maxim silencer on +the subject of Oriental immigration. The politician in office kept one +finger on his lip and wore rubber-soled shoes whenever an almond-eyed +was mentioned. With that beautiful consistency which only a politician +has, a good British Columbia member, who rode Oriental exclusion as his +special hobbyhorse, employed a Jap cook. In the midst of his stump +campaign against Orientals he found in the room of his cook original +drawings of Fort Esquimalt, of Vancouver Harbor and of Victoria back +country. I was in British Columbia at the time. The funny thing to me +was--all British Columbia was so deadly in earnest it didn't see the +funny side of the inconsistency. + + +III + +I was up and down the Pacific the year the Mikado died, and chanced to +be in San Diego the month that a Japanese warship put into port because +its commander had suicided of grief over the Emperor's death. The ship +had to lie in port till a new commander came out from Japan. Japanese +coolies were no longer coming; but the Japanese middies had the run and +freedom of the harbor; and they sketched all the whereabouts of Point +Loma--purely out of interest for Mrs. Tingley's Theosophy, of course. + +Diaz's ministry had been very hard pressed financially before being +ousted by Madero. Some Boston and Pacific Coast men had secured an +option from the Diaz faction of the sandy reaches known as Magdalena +Bay in Lower California. The Pacific Coast is a land of few good +natural harbors; especially harbors for a naval station and target +practice. Suddenly an unseen hand blocked negotiations. Within a year +Japan had almost leased Magdalena Bay, when Uncle Sam wakened up and +ordered "hands off." + +Nicaragua has never been famous as a great fishing country. Yet +Japanese fishermen tried to lease fishing rights there and may have, +for all the world knows. In spite of exclusion acts, they already +dominate the salmon fishing of the Pacific. + +Coaling facilities will be provided for the merchantmen of the world at +both ends of Panama. Yet when England and France began furbishing up +colonial stations in the Caribbean, Japan forthwith made offers for a +site for a coaling station in the Gulf of Mexico. + +But it was in South America and Mexico that the most active +colonization proceeded. There is not an American diplomat in South +America who does not know this and who has not reported it--reported it +with one finger on both lips and then has seen his report discreetly +smothered in departmental pigeon-holes. Up to a few years ago Mexico +and South America were enjoying marvelous prosperity. Coffee had not +collapsed in Brazil. Banks had not blown up from self-inflation in +Argentina. Revolution at home and war abroad had not closed mines in +Mexico. All hands were stretched out for colonists. Japan launched +vast trans-Pacific colonization schemes. Ships were sent scouting +commercial possibilities in South America. To colonists in Chile and +Peru, fare was in many cases prepaid. Money was loaned to help the +colonists establish themselves, and an American representative to one +of these countries told me that free passage was given colonists on +furlough home if they would go back to the colony. There is no known +record outside Japan of the numbers of these colonists. And Japan +asks--why not? Does not England colonize; does not Germany colonize; +does not France colonize? We are taking our place at the world board +of trade. If we fail to make good, throw us out. If we make good, we +do not ask "by your leave." + + +IV + +When a shipping investigation was on in Washington a year ago, many +members of the committee were amazed to learn that Japan already +controls seventy-two per cent. of the shipping on the Pacific. Ask a +Chilean or Peruvian whether he prefers to travel on an American or a +Japanese ship. He laughs and answers that American ships to the +western coast of South America would be as tubs are to titanics--only +until the new registry bill passed there were hardly any ships under +the United States flag on the Southern Pacific. Each of these Japanese +ships is so heavily subsidized it could run without a passenger or a +cargo; high as one hundred thousand dollars a voyage for many ships. +Its crews are paid eight to ten dollars a month, where American and +Canadian crews demand and get forty to fifty dollars. In cheapness of +labor, in efficiency of service, in government aid and style of +building no American nor Canadian ships can stand up against them. And +again Japan asks--why not? Atlantic commerce is a prize worth four +billions a year. When the Orient fully awakens, will Pacific commerce +total four billions a year? Who rules the sea rules the world. +Japan's ships dominate seventy-two per cent. of the Pacific's commerce +now. + +So when the war broke out, Japan shouldered not the white man's burden +but the Brown Brother's and plunged in to police Asia. Again--why not? +As Uncle Sam polices the two Americas, and John Bull the seas of the +world, so the Mikado undertakes to police the sea lanes of the Orient. +The Jappy said when he met the diplomats on the subject of coolie +immigration that he would prove himself the partner of the white man at +the world's council boards--or step back. + +Is it a menace or a portent? Certainly not a menace, when accepted as +a matter of fact. Only the fact must be faced and realized, and the +new chessman's moves recognized. Uncle Sam has the police job of one +world, South America; Great Britain of another--Europe. Will the +little Jappy-Chappy take the job for that other world, where the Star +of the Orient seems to be swinging into new orbits? The Jappy-Chappy +isn't saying much; but he is essentially on the job for all he is +worth; and Canada hasn't wakened up to what that may mean to her +Pacific Coast. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE HINDU + +I + +Is it, then, that Canada fears the growth of Japan as a great world +power? No, the thing is deeper than that. We have come to the place +where we must go deeper than surface signs and use neither rose water nor +kid gloves. The question of the Chinese and the Japanese is entirely +distinct from the Hindu. + +If you think that shutting your eyes to what you don't want to know and +stopping your nostrils to the stench and gathering your garments up and +passing by on the other side ever settled a difficult question, then the +Pacific Coast wishes you joy to your system of moral sanitation; but +don't offer the people of the Pacific Coast any platitudinous advice +about admitting Asiatics. They know what they are doing. You don't! +Theoretically the Asiatic should have the same liberty to come and go +with Canada as Canadians have to come and go with the Orient. +Theoretically, also, the colored man should be as clean and upright and +free-and-equal and dependable as the white man; but practically--in an +anguish that has cost the South blood and tears--practically he isn't. +The theory does not work out. Neither does it with the Asiatic. That +is, it does not work out at close range on the spot, instead of the width +of half a continent away. + +Canada is being asked to decide and legislate on one of the most vital +race problems that ever confronted a nation. She is also being asked to +be very lily-handed and ladylike and dainty about it all. You must not +explore facts that are not--"nice." You must not ask what the Westerner +means when he says that "the Asiatic will not affiliate with our +civilization." Is it more than white teeth and pigments of the skin? Is +it more than skin deep? Had the Old Book some deep economic reason when +it warned the children of Israel against mixing their blood with aliens? +Has it all anything to do with the centuries' cesspools of unbridled +vice? Is that the reason that women's clubs--knowing less of such +things--rather than men's clubs--are begged to pass fool resolutions +about admitting races of whose living practices they know absolutely +nothing? + +If it isn't the labor unions and it isn't the fear of new national power +that prejudice against the Oriental--what is it? Why has almost every +woman's club on the Pacific passed resolutions against the admission of +the Oriental, and almost every woman's club in the East passed +resolutions for the admission? Why did the former Minister of Labor in +Canada say that "a minimum of publicity is desired upon this subject"? +What did he mean when he declared "that the native of India is not a +person suited to this country"? If the native Hindu is "not a person +suited to Canada"--climate, soil, moisture, what not?--why isn't that +fact sufficient to exclude the Oriental without any legislation? +Italians never go to live at the North Pole. Nor do Eskimos come to live +in the tropics. + +You may ask questions about Hindu immigration till you are black in the +face. Unless you go out on the spot to the Pacific Coast, the most you +will get for an answer is a "hush." And it would not be such an +impossible situation if the other side were also going around with a +finger to the lip and a "hush"; but the Oriental isn't. The Hindu and +his advocates go from one end of Canada to the other clamoring at the +tops of their voices, not for the privilege, but for the right, of +admission to Canada, the right to vote, the right to colonize. At the +time the first five or six thousand were dumped on the Pacific Coast, +twenty thousand more were waiting to take passage; and one hundred +thousand more were waiting to take passage after them, clamoring for the +right of admission, the right to vote, the right to colonize. Canada +welcomes all other colonists. Why not these? The minute you ask, you +are told to "hush." + +South Africa and Australia "hushed" so very hard and were so very careful +that after a very extensive experience--150,000 Hindus settled in one +colony--both colonies legislated to shut them out altogether. At least +South Africa's educational test amounted to that, and South Africa and +Australia are quite as imperial as Canada. Why did they do it? The +labor unions were no more behind the exclusion in those countries than in +British Columbia. The labor unions chuckled with glee over the +embarrassment of the whole question. + + +II + +Each side of the question must be stated plainly, not as my personal +opinions or the opinions of any one, but as the arguments of those +advocating the free admission of the Hindu, and of those furiously +opposing the free admission. + +A few years ago British Columbia was at her wit's ends for laborers--men +for the mills, the mines, the railroads. India was at her wit's ends +because of surplus of labor--labor for which her people were glad to +receive three, ten, twenty cents a day. Her people were literally +starving for the right to live. It does not matter much who acted as the +connecting link,--the sawmill owners, the canneries, the railroads, or +the steamships. The steamship lines and the sawmill men seem to have +been the combined sinners. The mills wanted labor. The steamship lines +saw a chance to transport laborers at the rate of twenty thousand a year +to and from India. The Hindus came tumbling in at the rate of six +thousand in a single year, when, suddenly, British Columbia, inert at +first, awakened and threatened to secede or throw the newcomers into the +sea. By intervention of the Imperial government and the authorities of +India a sort of subterfuge was rigged up in the immigration laws. The +Hindus had been booked to British Columbia via Hong Kong and Hawaii. The +most of the Japs had come by way of Hawaii. To kill two birds with one +stone, by order-in-council in Ottawa, the regulation was enacted +forbidding the admission of immigrants except on continuous passage from +the land of birth. Canada's immigration law also permits great latitude +in interpretation as to the amount of money that must be possessed by the +incoming settlers. Ordinarily it is fifty dollars for winter, +twenty-five dollars for summer, with a five hundred dollar poll tax +against the Chinaman. The Hindus were required to have two hundred and +fifty dollars on their person. + +One wonders at the simplicity of a nation that hopes to fence itself in +safety behind laws that are pure subterfuge. The subterfuge has but +added irritation to friction. What was to hinder a direct line of +steamships going into operation any day? As a matter of fact, to force +the issue, to force the Dominion to declare the status of the Oriental, a +Japanese ship early in 1914 did come direct from India with a cargo of +angry armed Hindus demanding entrance. Canada refused to relent. The +ship lay in harbor for months unable to land its colonists, and a +Dominion cruiser patrolled Vancouver water to prevent actual armed +conflict. When the final decision ordered the colonists on board +deported, knives and rifles were brandished; and Hopkinson, the secret +service man employed by British authorities, was openly shot to death a +few weeks later in a Vancouver court room by a band of Hindu assassins. +"We are glad we did it," declared the murderers when arrested. Hopkinson +himself had come from India and was hated and feared owing to his secret +knowledge of revolutionary propaganda among the Vancouver Hindus, who +were posing as patriots and British subjects. The fact that many +thousands of Sikhs and Hindus had just been hurried across Canada in +trains with blinds down to fight for the empire in Europe added tragic +complexity to an already impossible situation. + +The leaders of the Hindu party in Canada had already realized that more +immigration was not advisable till they had stronger backing of public +opinion in Canada, and a campaign of publicity was begun from Nova Scotia +to the Pacific Coast. Churches, women's missionary societies, women's +clubs, men's clubs were addressed by Hindu leaders from one end of Canada +to the other. It did not improve the temper of some of these leaders +posing in flowing garments of white as mystic saints before audiences of +women to know that Hopkinson, the secret agent, was on their trail in the +shadow with proofs of criminal records on the part of these same leaders. +These criminal records Hopkinson would willingly have exposed had the +Imperial government not held his hand. When I was in Vancouver he called +to see me and promised me a full exposure of the facts, but before +speaking cabled for permission to speak. Permission was flatly refused, +and I was told that I was investigating things altogether too deeply. I +can see the secret agent's face yet--as he sat bursting with facts +repressed by Imperial order--a solemn, strong, relentless man, sad and +savage with the knowledge he could not use. Without Hopkinson's aid, it +was not difficult to get the facts. Canada is a country of party +government. One party had just been ousted from power, and another party +had just come in. While I was waiting for permission from Ottawa to +obtain facts in the open, information came to me voluntarily with proofs +through the wife of a former secret agent. + +It did not make things easier for Hopkinson that the whole dispute as to +Hindu immigration was relegated into that doubtful resort of all +ambiguous politics--"the twilight zone"--or the doubtful borderland where +provincial powers end and federal powers begin and Imperial powers +intervene. England was shoving the burden of decision on the Dominion, +and the Dominion was shoving the burden on the Province of British +Columbia, and to evade responsibility each government was shuttling the +thing back and forward, weaving a tangle of hate and misunderstanding +which culminated in Hopkinson's assassination in 1914. + +As "the twilight zone" between provincial and federal rights comes up +here, it should be considered and emphasized; for it is the one great +weakness of every federation. _Who_ is to do _what_--when neither +government wants to assume responsibility? Who is to enforce laws, when +neither government wants to father them? It was this gave such passion +to Vancouver's resentment in Hindu immigration. Indeed this very +question of "a twilight zone" gives pause to many an Imperial +Federationist. In a dispute of this sort, involving the parts of the +empire, could England give force to an exclusion act without losing the +allegiance to her British Empire? + +Every conceivable argument has been used in this Hindu dispute. I want +to emphasize--they are _arguments_, used for argument's sake--not +reasons. The plain brutal bald reasons on each side of the dispute are +British Columbia does _not_ want the Hindus. The Hindus want British +Columbia. Simultaneously with the campaign for publicity action was +taken: (1) to force the resident Hindu on the voters' list; (2) to break +down the immigration laws by demanding the entrance of wives and +families; (3) to force recognition of the status of the Oriental by +bringing them in the ships of Japan--England's ally. + +If the resident Hindu had a vote--and as a British subject, why not?--and +if he could break down the immigration exclusion act, he could out-vote +the native-born Canadian in ten years. In Canada are five and one-half +million native born, two million aliens. In India are hundreds of +millions breaking the dykes of their own national barriers and ready to +flood any open land. Take down the barriers on the Pacific Coast, and +there would be ten million Hindus in Canada in ten years. The drawing of +Japan into the quarrel by chartering a Japanese ship was a crafty move. +Japan is the empire's ally. Offense to Japan means war. + + +III + +The arguments from both sides I set down in utter disinterest personally. +Here they are: + +We need room for colonization--says the Hindu. Let England lose India, +and she loses five-sixths of the British Empire. By refusing admission +to the Hindu, Canada is endangering British dominion in India. Moral +conditions there are appalling, of course; but say the missionaries--give +these people a chance, and they will become as good as any of us. Are we +not sprung from the same Aryan stock? + +British Columbia has immense tracts of arable land. Why not give India's +millions a chance on it as colonizers? + +There is not so much sedition among the Hindus of British Columbia as +among Canadian-born Socialists, who rant of the flag as "the bloody rag." + +The vices of the Hindu are no worse than the vices of the low whites. + +They are British subjects and have a right to admission. Admission is +not a privilege but a right. + +How can we expect good morals among three to five thousand men who are +forcibly separated from wives and children? Admit their wives to prevent +deterioration. This argument was used by a Hindu addressing audiences in +Toronto. + +What right have Canadians to point the finger of scorn at the reproach of +the child wife when the age of marriage in one province is twelve years? + +In the days of the mutiny the Sikh proved his loyalty. To-day the Indian +troops are proving their loyalty by fighting for the empire in Europe. + +Many of the Canadians now denouncing the Hindu made money selling them +real estate in Vancouver, and expropriation is behind the idea of +exclusion. + +The admission of the Hindu would relieve British Columbia's great need +for manual laborers. + +Canadian missionaries to India are received as friends. Why are the +Hindus not received as friends in Canada? + +Why should a Sikh not marry a white woman as one did in Vancouver? This +question was asked by the official publication of the Sikhs in Vancouver. + +If Canada shuts her doors to the Hindus, let the Hindus shut doors to +Canadians. + +These are not my arguments. They are the arguments of the people +advocating the free admission of people from India to Canada. + +To these arguments the Pacific Coast makes answer. Likewise, the answer +is not mine: + +We know that you as a people need room for colonization; but if we admit +you as colonists, will your presence drive out other colonists, as it has +done in Australia and South Africa; as the presence of colored people +prevents the coming of other colonists to the southern states? If we +have to decide between having you and excluding Canadians, or excluding +you and having Canadians, we can not afford to hesitate in our decision. +We must keep our own land for our own people. + +Australia and South Africa have excluded the Hindu--South Africa's +educational test amounts to that--and that has not imperiled British +dominion in India. Why should it in Canada? The very fact there are +millions ready to come is what alarms us. Morals are low--you +acknowledge--and your people would be better if they had a chance; but +would the chance not cost us too dearly, as the improvement of the blacks +has cost the South in crime and contaminated blood? We are sorry for +you, just as we are sorry for any plague-stricken region; but we do not +welcome you among us because of that pity. + +There may not be so much sedition among the Hindus of British Columbia as +among Canadian-born Socialists, who rant of the flag as "a bloody rag"; +but our Socialistic seditionists have never yet been accused of +collecting two million dollars to send home to India to buy rifles for +the revolution. Canadian Socialists have never yet collected one dime to +buy rifles. These are not my accusations. They are accusations that +have been in the very air of Vancouver and San Francisco. If they are +true, they ought to be proved true. If they are untrue, they ought to be +proved untrue; but in view of the shoutings over patriotism and of +Hopkinson's assassination, they come with a rude jar to claims grounded +on loyalty. Could Hindus who landed in British Columbia destitute a few +years ago possibly have that amount of money among them? At last census +they had property in Vancouver alone to the amount of six million +dollars, held collectively for the whole community. + +Their vices may be no worse than the vices of the low whites, but if +immigration officials find that whites low or high have vices, those +whites are excluded, be they English, Irish, Scotch, or Greek. + +The Hindus are British subjects, but Canada does not admit British +subjects unless she wants them--unless they can give a clean bill of +health and morals. + +Canada does not regard admission as a right to any race, European, Asian, +African. She considers her citizenship a privilege and reserves to +herself the right to extend or not to extend that privilege to whom she +will. + +That separation from families will excuse base and lewd morals is a view +that Canada will never admit. Her sons go forth unaccompanied by wives +or sisters to lumber camps and mines and pioneer shacks, and in +ninety-nine cases out of a hundred come back clean as they went forth, +and manlier. That women should be victims on an altar of lust is an +argument that may appeal to the Asiatic--the sentiment all draped in +wisteria and lilies, of course; but it isn't an argument that will prove +anything in Canada but the advocate's unfitness for citizenship. + +What reason have Canadians to point the finger of reproach at the +institution of the child wife, when the age of marriage in one province +is low as twelve? And that brings up the whole question of the child +wife. Because one province has the marriage age criminally low does not +prove that that province approves of marriages at twelve. In the whole +history of that province marriages at that age have been as rare as the +pastime of skinning a man alive, and that province has no specific law +against skinning a man alive. It has no such law because that type of +crime is unknown. But can it be said that the institution of child +marriage is an unknown or even a rare crime in India? The Hindu wives +for whom loud outcry is being made are little girls barely eight years of +age, whom before marriage the husbands have never seen, men of +thirty-five and forty and forty-eight. Does Canada desire the system of +the child wife embodied in her national life? Suppose one hundred +thousand Hindu colonists came to the vacant arable lands of British +Columbia. As the inalienable right of a British subject, the colonist +must be allowed to bring in his wife. What if she is a child to whom he +was married in her infancy? The colonist being a British subject is to +be given a vote. How would Canada abolish the child wife system if Hindu +votes outnumbered Canadian votes? Forget all about the rifle fund--the +discovery of which was paid for in Hopkinson's life! Forget all about +labor and mill owner and color of pigments! You know now why the +Oriental question is more than skin-deep. Go a little deeper in this +child-wife thing! Don't balk at the horror of it! The Pacific Coast +wants you to know a few medical facts. Hundreds of thousands of children +in India, age from nine to twelve, are wives actually living with +husbands; and the husbands are in many cases from thirty to eighty years +of age. Anglo-Saxons regard these unions as criminal. One-third of all +children born of mothers under sixteen years of age die in infancy +because of the tortures to the mother's body, compared to which the +tortures of the Inquisition were merciful. Does Canada want that system +embodied in her national life? Under Canadian law such crimes are +treated to thirty-nine lashes: under American law to Judge Lynch. +Twenty-five per cent. of the women of India die prematurely because of +the crimes perpetrated through child marriage. Twenty-five per cent. +become invalids from the same cause. Nine million girl wives in India +are under fifteen years of age; two million are under eleven. + +I asked a British Columbia sawmill owner why the Hindu could not speed up +with a Pole or Swede. + +"No stamina," he answered. "Too many generations of vice! Too many +generations of birth from immature mothers; no dower of strength from +birth." + +The advocates of Hindu colonization in Canada glibly advise "prohibiting +child wives." To bar out child wives sounds easy. How are you to know +they are child wives and not daughters? If one thing more than another +has been established in Vancouver about Hindus, not excepting the +leaders, it is that you can not believe a Hindu under oath. Also British +law does not allow you to bar out a subject's wife unless she be diseased +or vicious. If you let down the bar to any section of the Hindu, teeming +millions will come--with a demand to vote. + +That Canada's continuous passage law is immoral and intolerable no one +denies. It is a subterfuge and a joke. The day the Japanese steamship +tested the law by bringing passengers direct from land of birth the law +fell down and Canada had to face squarely the question of exclusion. As +the world knows, the shipload of human cargo after lying for months in +Vancouver Harbor was sent back, and Hindu leaders proved their claims of +a right to citizenship by assassinating Hopkinson. + +To the claim that the Sikhs are loyal, Canada answers--"for their own +sake." If British protection were withdrawn from India to-morrow, a +thousand petty chiefs would fly at one another's throats. The idea that +expropriation is behind exclusion could be entertained only by an +Oriental mind. Expropriation is possible under Canadian law only for +treason. Imperial unity is no more threatened in Canada by exclusion +than it was threatened in South Africa and Australia. The Hindus are +adapted to the cultivation of the soil, but if they come in millions, +will any white race sit down beside them? Why does immigration +persistently refuse to go to the southern states? Because of a black +shadow over the land. Does Canada want such a shadow? + +The missionary argument can hardly be taken seriously. Missionaries do +not go to India to colonize. They do not introduce white vices. They go +at Canada's expense to give free medical and social service to India. + +"Why should a Sikh not marry a white woman?" There, again, you are up +against a side of the subject that is neither violet water nor pink tea; +but--it is a vital side of the subject. For the same reason that the +South objects to and passes laws against mixed unions of the races. +These laws are not the registration of prejudice. They are the +registration of terrible lessons in experience. It is not a matter of +opinion. It is a matter of fact. What is feared is not the marriage of +a Sikh who is refined to a white woman who knows what she is doing. What +is feared is the effect of that union on the lewd Hindu; the effect on +the safety of the uncultured white woman and white girl. Any one on the +Coast who has lived next to Asiatics, any one in India or the Philippines +knows what this means in terms of hideous terrible fact that can not be +set down here. Vancouver knows. "I'll see," said an officer in the +Philippines of his native valet, "that the--dog turns up missing;" and +every man present knew why; and when the officer set out on an unnamed +expedition with his valet, the valet did "turn up missing." There are +vices for which a white man kills. "Have not the English carried vices +to India?" a Hindu protagonist asked me. Yes, answered British Columbia, +but we do not purpose poisoning the new young life of Canada to +compensate the vices of English soldiers who have gone to pieces morally +in India. + +As to shutting Canadians out of India, Canada would accept that challenge +gladly. When Canadians carry vices to India--says Canada--shut them out. + +These are the reasons given for the Pacific Coast's aversion to the +Hindu, and even with the arguments stated explicitly, there is a great +deal untold and untellable. + +For instance, some of the leaders talking loudest in Eastern Canada in +the name of the Sikh are not Sikhs at all, and one at least has a +criminal record in San Francisco. + +For instance again, when the coronation festivities were on in England, +there was a very peculiar guard kept round the Hindu quarters. It would +be well for some of the eastern women's clubs to inquire why that was; +also why the fact was hushed up that two white women of bad character +were carried out of that compound dead. + +Said a mill owner, one who employs many Hindus, "If the East could +understand how some of these penniless leaders grow rich, they would +realize that the Hindu has our employment sharks beaten to a frazzle. I +take in a new man from one of these leaders. The leader gets two dollars +or five dollars for finding this fellow a job. I have barely got the man +broken in when the leader yanks him off to another job and sends me a new +man, getting, of course, the employment agent fee for both changes." + +"But why not let them come out here and work and go back?" asks the East. + +Because that is just what the Hindu will not do. When he comes, he +fights for the franchise to stay. That is the real meaning behind the +fight over cases now in the courts. + +"They are curious fellows, poor beggars," said a police court official to +me. "They have no more conception of what truth means than a dog +stealing a bone. We had a Hindu come in here as complainant against +another man, with his back hacked to beef steak. We had very nearly sent +the defendant up for a long term in the 'pen,' when we got wind that +these two fellows had been bitter enemies--old spites--and that there was +something queer about the complainant's shanty. We sent out to examine. +The fellow had stuck bits of glass all over the inside of his shack walls +and then cut his own back to pay an old grudge against the other man. +Another fellow rushed in here gesticulating complaint, who was literally +soaked in blood. We had had our experience and so sending for an +interpreter, we soused this fellow into a bathtub. Every dab came off +and there was not a scratch under." + +"You say the Hindu is the negro problem multiplied by ten, plus craft," +said a life-long resident of India to me. "That is hardly correct. The +Hindu is different from the negro. He is intellectual and spiritual as +well as crafty and sensuous. You will never have trouble with the Hindu, +if you keep him in his place--" + +"But do you think a democratic country can what you call 'keep a race in +its place'? The very genius of our democracy is that we want each +individual to come up out of his place to a higher place." + +"Then you will learn a hard lesson here in Canada." + +What kind of a lesson? Again, let us take facts, not opinions! + +A clergyman's wife in Vancouver, full of missionary zeal for India, +thought it her duty to accord the Hindu exactly the same treatment as to +an American or English immigrant. She took a man as general house +servant and treated him with the same genial courtesy she had treated all +other help in her home. You know what is coming--don't you? The man +mistook it for evil or else failed to subdue the crimes of the centuries +in his own blood. Had he not come from a land where a woman more or less +did not matter, and hundreds of thousands of little girls are yearly +sacrificed on the altars of Moloch? I need not give details. As a +matter of fact, there are none. Asiatic ideas about women collided +violently with facts which any Canadian takes for granted and does not +talk about! No Anglo-Saxon (thank God) is too ladylike not to have a bit +of the warrior woman left in her blood. The Hindu was thrown out of that +house. Then the woman reasoned with the blind persistence peculiar to +any conscientious good woman, who always puts theory in place of fact! +There are blackguards in every race. There are scoundrels among +Englishmen in India. Why should she allow one criminal among the Hindus +to prejudice her against this whole people? And she at once took another +Hindu man servant in the house. This time she kept him in the kitchen +and garden. Within a month the same thing happened with a little +daughter. This Hindu also went out on his head. No more were employed +in that house. That woman's husband was one of the Pacific Coast +clergymen who passed the resolution, "that the Hindus would not affiliate +with our Canadian civilization." + +Personally I think that resolution would have been a great deal more +enlightening to the average Easterner if the ministerial association had +plainly called a spade a spade. + + +IV + +With the Chinaman conditions are different. In the first place, since +China obtained freedom from the old cast-iron dynasty, Chinamen have not +wanted to colonize in Canada. The leaders of the young China party laid +their plots and published their liberty journals from presses in the +basement of Vancouver and Victoria shops, but having gained their +liberty, they went back to China. The Chinaman does not want to +colonize. He does not want a vote. He wants only to earn his money on +the Pacific Coast and hoard it and go home to China with it. The fact +that he does not want to remain in the country but comes only to work and +go back has always been used as an argument against him. Neither does he +consider himself your equal. Nor does he want to marry your daughter, +nor have you consider him a prince of the royal blood in disguise--a pose +in which the little Jap is as great an adept as the English cockney who +drops enough "h's" to build a monument, all the while he is telling you +of his royal blue blood. If you mistake the Chinaman for a prince in +disguise, the results will be just what they were with a poor girl In New +York four or five years ago. The results will be just what they always +are when you mistake a mongrel for a thoroughbred. + +All the same, dismiss the idea from your mind that labor is behind the +opposition to Chinese immigration! A few years ago, when Oriental labor +came tumbling into British Columbia at the rate of twelve thousand in a +single year--when the Chinese alone had come to number fifteen or sixteen +thousand--labor was alarmed; but a twofold change has taken place since +that time. First, labor has found that it can better control the +Chinaman by letting him enter Canada, than by keeping him in China and +letting the product of cheap labor come in. Second, the Chinaman has +demonstrated his solidarity as a unit in the labor war. If he comes, he +will not foregather with capital. That is certain! He will affiliate +with the unions for higher wages. + +"If the Chinaman comes in here lowering the price of goods and the price +of labor," said the agitator a few years ago, "we'll put a poll tax of +five hundred dollars on and make him pay for his profit." The poll tax +was put on every Chinaman coming into Canada, but do you think John +Chinaman pays it? It is a way that unjust laws have of coming back in a +boomerang. The Chinaman doesn't pay it! Mr. Canadian Householder paid +it; for no sooner was the poll tax imposed than up went wages for +household servant and laundryman and gardener, from ten to fifteen +dollars a month to forty and forty-five and fifty dollars a month. The +Italian boss system came in vogue, when the rich Chinaman who paid the +entrance tax for his "slaves" farmed out the labor at a profit to +himself. The system was really one of indentured slavery till the +immigration authorities went after it. Then Chinese benevolent +associations were formed. Up went wages automatically. The cook would +no longer do the work of the gardener. When the boy you hired at +twenty-five dollars had learned his job, he suddenly disappeared one +morning. His substitute explains he has had to go away; "he is sick;" +any excuse; with delightful lapses of English when you ask questions. +You find out that your John has taken a job at forty dollars a month, and +you are breaking in a new green hand for the Chinese benevolent +association to send up to a higher job. If you kick against the trick, +you may kick! There are more jobs than men. That's the way you pay the +five hundred dollars poll tax; comical, isn't it; or it would be comical +if the average white householder did not find it five hundred dollars +more than the average income can spare? So the labor leaders chuckle at +this subterfuge, as they chuckle at the "continuous" passage law. + +For a time the indentured slavery system worked almost criminally; for if +the newcomer, ignorant of the law and the language, got wise to the fact +that his boss was doing what was illegal under Canadian law, and +attempted to jump his serfdom, he was liable--as one of them expressed +it--"to be found missing." It would be reported that he had suicided. +Among people who did not speak English, naturally, no details would be +given. It seems almost unbelievable that in a country wrestling with the +whole Asiatic problem the fact has to be set down that the government has +no interpreter among the Chinese who is not a Chinaman, no interpreter +among the Japanese who is not a Jap. As it chances, the government +happens to have two reliable foreigners as interpreters; but they are +foreigners. + +Said Doctor Munro, one of the medical staff of the Immigration +Department: "Even in complicated international negotiations, where each +country is jockeying to protect its rights, Canada has to depend on +representatives of China or Japan to translate state documents and +transmit state messages. Here we are on the verge of great commercial +intercourse with two of the richest countries in Asia, countries that are +just awakening from the century's sleep, countries that will need our +flour and our wheat and our lumber and our machinery; and we literally +have not a diplomatic body in Canada to speak either Chinese or Japanese. +I'll tell you what a lot of us would like to see done--what the southern +states are doing with the Latin-Spanish of South America--have a staff of +translators for our chambers of commerce and boards of trade, or price +files and lists of markets, etc. How could this be brought about? Let +Japan and China send yearly, say twenty students to study international +law and English with us. Let us send to China and Japan yearly twenty of +our postgraduate students to be trained up into a diplomatic body for our +various boards of trade, to forward international trade and help the two +countries to understand each other. + +"When trouble arose over Oriental immigration a few years ago," continued +Doctor Munro, "I can tell you that it was a serious matter that we had to +have the translating of our state documents done at that time by +representatives of the very nations we were contesting." + +Unless I am misinformed, one of the men who did the translating at that +time is one of the Orientals who has since "suicided," and the reason for +that suicide you might as well try to fathom as to follow the windings of +a ferret in the dark. Certain royal clans of Japan will suicide on order +from their government for the good of their country. + +"The trouble with these foolish raids on Chinatown for gambling," said an +educated Chinaman in Vancouver to me, "is that the city police have no +secret service among the Chinese, and they never raid the resorts that +need most to be cleaned out. They raid some little joint where the +Chinese boys are playing fan-tan for ten cents, when they do not raid +up-town gambling hells where white men play for hundreds of dollars. If +the police employed Chinese secret service, they could clean out every +vice resort in a week. Except in the segregated district, which is +white, there would not be any vice. They need Chinese police or men who +speak Chinese, and there would be no Chinese vice left in this town." + +To go back to the matter of the poll tax and the system of indentured +slavery, the bosses mapped out every part of the city and province in +wage areas. Here, no wages under twenty-five dollars, to which green +hands were sent; here, a better quarter, no wages under forty dollars; +and so on up as high as sixty dollars for mill work and camp cooking. +About this time riots turned the searchlight on all matters Oriental; and +the boss system merged in straight industrial unionism. You still go to +a boss to get your gangs of workmen; but the boss is secretary of a +benevolent association; and if he takes any higher toll than an +employment agent's commission, the immigration department has never been +able to detect it. "I have no hesitation in saying," declared an +immigration official, "that for four years there has not been a case of +boss slavery that could be proved in the courts. There has not been a +case that could be proved in the courts of women and children being +brought in for evil purposes. Only merchants' wives, students, and that +class can come in. The other day an old fellow tried to bring a young +woman in. We suspected he had left an old wife in China; but we could +not prove it; so we charged him five hundred dollars for the entrance of +this one and had them married on the spot. Whenever there is the +slightest doubt about their being married, we take no chances, charge +them five hundred dollars and have the knot tied right here and now. +Then the man has to treat the woman as a wife and support her; or she can +sue him; and we can punish and deport him. There is no more of little +girls being brought in to be sold for slavery and worse." + +All the same, some evils of the boss system still exist. The boss system +taught the Chinaman organization, and to-day, even with higher wages, +your forty-five dollars a month cook will do no gardening. You ask him +why. "They will cut my throat," he tells you; and if he goes out to mow +the lawn, he is soon surrounded by fellow countrymen who hoot and jeer +him. + +"Would they cut his throat?" I asked a Chinaman. + +"No; but maybe, the benevolent association or his tong fine him." + +So you see why labor no longer fears the Chinaman and welcomes him to +industrial unionism, a revolution in the attitude of labor which has +taken place in the last year. Make a note of these facts: + +The poll tax has trebled expenses for the householder. + +The poll tax has created industrial unionism among the Chinese. + +The poll tax has not kept the Chinaman out. + +How about the Chinese vices? Are they a stench to Heaven as the Hindu's? +I can testify that they certainly are not open, and they certainly are +not aggressive, and they certainly do not claim vice as a right; for I +went through Vancouver's Chinatown with only a Chinaman as an escort (not +through "underground dens," as one paper reported it) after ten at night; +and the vices that I saw were innocent, mild, pallid, compared to the +white-man vices of Little Italy, New York, or Upper Broadway. We must +have visited in all a dozen gambling joints, two or three midnight +restaurants, half a dozen opium places and two theaters; and the only +thing that could be remotely constructed into disrespect was the +amazement on one drunken white face on the street that a white woman +could be going through Chinatown with a Chinaman. Instead of playing for +ten and one hundred dollars, as white men and women gamble up-town, the +Chinese boys were huddling intently over dice boxes, or playing fan-tan +with fevered zeal for ten cents. Instead of drinking absinthe, one or +two sat smoking heavily, with the abstracted stare of the opium victim. +In the midnight restaurants some drunken sailors sat tipsily, eating chop +suey. Goldsmiths were plying their fine craftsmanship. Presses were +turning out dailies with the news of the Chinese revolution. Grocery +stores, theaters, markets, all were open; for Chinatown never sleeps. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +WHAT PANAMA MEANS + +I + +It now becomes apparent why British Columbia was described as the +province where East meets West and works out Destiny. + +On the other side of the Pacific lies Japan come to the manhood of +nationality, demanding recognition as the equal of the white race and +room to expand. Behind Japan lies China, an awakened giant, potent for +good or ill, of half a billion people, whose commerce under a few years +of modern science and mechanics is bound to equal the commerce of half +Europe. It may in a decade bring to the ports that have hitherto been +the back doors of America an aggregate yearly traffic exceeding the +four billion dollars' worth that yearly leave Atlantic ports for +Europe. Canada is now the shortest route to "Cathay"; the railroads +across Canada offer shorter route from China to Europe than Suez or +Horn, by from two to ten thousand miles. Then there is India, another +awakened giant, potent for good or ill, of three hundred million +people--two hundred to the square mile--clamoring for recognition as +British subjects, clamoring for room to expand. + +The question is sometimes asked by Americans: Why does Canada concern +herself about foreign problems and dangers? Why does she not rest +secure under the aegis of the Monroe Doctrine, which forever forfends +foreign conquest of America by an alien power? And Canada +answers--because the Monroe Doctrine is not worth the ink in which it +was penned without the bayonet to enforce the pen. Belgium's +neutrality did not protect her. The peace that is not a victory is +only an armed truce--a let-live by some other nation's permission. +Without power to enforce the Monroe Doctrine, that doctrine is to +Canada but a tissue-paper rampart. + +To add to the complication involving British Columbia comes the opening +of Panama, turning the Pacific Ocean into a parade ground for the +world's fleets both merchantmen and war. Commercially Panama simply +turns British Columbia into a front door, instead of a back door. What +does this mean? + +The Atlantic has hitherto been the Dominion's front door, and the +Canadian section of the Atlantic has four harbors of first rank with an +aggregate population of nearly a million. Canada has, besides, three +lake harbors subsidiary to ocean traffic with an aggregate population +of half a million. One may infer when the Pacific becomes a front +door, that Vancouver and Victoria and Port Mann and Westminster and +Prince Rupert will soon have an aggregate population of a million. + +Behind the Atlantic ports, supplied by them with traffic, supplying +them with traffic, is a provincial population of five millions. Behind +the Pacific ports in British Columbia and Alberta, one would be +justified in expecting to find--Strathcona said a hundred million +people, but for this generation put it at twelve million. + +Through the Atlantic ports annually come two hundred and fifty thousand +or more immigrants, not counting the one hundred and fifty thousand +from the United States. What if something happened to bring as many to +the Pacific, as well as those now coming to the Atlantic? + +Then a century of peace has a sleeping-powder effect on a nation. We +forget that the guns of four nations once boomed and roared round old +Quebec and down Bay of Fundy way. If the Pacific becomes a front door, +the guns of the great nations may yet boom there. In fact, if Canada +had not been a part of Greater Britain four or five years ago when the +trouble arose over Japanese immigration, guns might easily have boomed +round Vancouver long before the Pacific Coast had become a front door. +Front door status entails bolt and strong bar. Front door means navy. +Navy means shipbuilding plants, and the shipyards of the United States +on the Atlantic support fifty thousand skilled artisans, or what would +make a city of two hundred and fifty thousand people. The shipyards of +England support a population equal to Boston. In the United States +those shipyards exist almost wholly by virtue of government contracts +to build war vessels, and in Great Britain largely by virtue of +admiralty subsidies. Though they also do an enormous amount of work on +river and coastal steamers, the manager of the largest and oldest plant +in the United States told me personally that with the high price of +labor and material in America, his shipyard could not last a day +without government contracts for war vessels, torpedoes, dredges, etc. +Front door on the Pacific means that to Canada, and it means more; for +Canada belongs to an empire that has vaster dominions to defend in Asia +than in Europe. + +But isn't all this stretching one's fancy a bit too far in the future? +How far is _too_ far? The Panama Canal is open for traffic, and there +is not a harbor of first rank in the United States, Atlantic, Pacific, +or Gulf of Mexico, that does not bank on, that is not spending millions +on, the expectation of Panama changing the Pacific from a back into a +front door. Either these harbors are all wrong or Canada is sound +asleep as a tombstone to the progress round her. Boston has spent nine +million dollars acquiring terminals and water-front, and is now +guaranteeing the bonds of steamships to the extent of twenty-five +million dollars. New York has built five new piers to take care of the +commerce coming--and the Federal government has spent fifty million +dollars improving the approaches to her harbor. Baltimore is so sure +that Panama is going to revive shore-front interests that she has +reclaimed almost two hundred acres of swamp land for manufacturing +sites, which she is leasing out at merely nominal figures to bring the +manufacturers from inland down to the sea. In both Baltimore and +Philadelphia, railroads are spending millions increasing their trackage +for the traffic they expect to feed down to the coast cities for Panama +steamers. + +Among the Gulf ports, New Orleans has spent fifteen million dollars +putting in a belt line system of railroads and docks with steel and +cement sheds, purely to keep her harbor front free of corporate +control. This is not out of enmity to corporations, but because the +prosperity of a harbor depends on all steamers and all railroads +receiving the same treatment. This is not possible under private and +rival control. Yet more, New Orleans is putting on a line of her own +civic steamships to South America. Up at St. Louis and Kansas City, +they are putting on civic barge lines down the rivers to ocean front. + +At Los Angeles twenty million dollars have been spent in making a +harbor out of a duck pond. San Francisco and Oakland have improved +docks to the extent of twenty-four million dollars. Seattle attests +her expectation of what Panama is going to do on the Pacific by +securing the expenditure of fifteen million dollars on her harbor for +her own traffic and all the traffic she can capture from Canada; and it +may be said here that the Grand Trunk Pacific of Canada--a national +road on which the Dominion is spending hundreds of millions--has the +finest docks in Seattle. Portland has gone farther than any of the +Pacific ports. Portland is Scotch--full of descendants of the old +Scotch folk who used to serve in the Hudson's Bay Company. If there is +a chance to capture world traffic, Portland is out with both hands and +both feet after that flying opportunity. Portland has not only +improved the entrance to the Columbia to the extent of fifteen million +dollars--this was done by the Federal government--but she has had a +canal cut past bad water in the Columbia, costing nearly seven +millions, and has put on the big river a system of civic boats to bring +the wheat down from an inland empire. There is no aim to make this +river line a dividend payer. The sole object is to bring the Pacific +grain trade to Portland. Portland is already a great wheat port. Will +she get a share of Canada's traffic in bond to Liverpool? Candidly, +she hopes to. How? By having Canadian barges bring Alberta wheat down +the Columbia. + + +II + +And now, what is Canada doing? Canada is doing absolutely nothing. +Canada is saying, with a little note of belligerency in her +voice--What's Panama to us? Either every harbor in the United States +is Panama fool-mad; either every harbor in the United States is +spending money like water on fool-schemes; or Canada needs a wakening +blast of dynamite 'neath her dreams. If Panama brings the traffic +which every harbor in the United States expects, then Canada's share of +that traffic will go through Seattle and Portland. Either Canada must +wake up or miss the chance that is coming. + +Two American transcontinentals have not come wooing traffic in +Vancouver for nothing. The Canadian Pacific is not double tracking its +roadbed to the Coast for nothing. The Grand Trunk has not bought +terminals in Seattle for nothing. Yet, having jockeyed for traffic in +Vancouver, the two American roads have recently evinced a cooling. +They are playing up interests In Seattle and marking time in Vancouver. +Grand Trunk terminals in Seattle don't help Vancouver; but if Canada +doesn't want the traffic from the world commerce of the seas, then +Portland and Seattle do. + +One recalls how a person feels who is wakened a bit sooner than suits +his slumbers. He passes some crusty comments and asks some criss-cross +questions. The same with Canada regarding Panama. What's Panama to +us? How in the world can a cut through a neck of swamp and hills three +thousand miles from the back of beyond, have the slightest effect on +commerce in Canada? And if it has, won't it be to hurt our railroads? +And if Panama does divert traffic from land to water, won't that divert +a share of shipping away from Montreal and St. John and Halifax? + +There is no use ever arguing with a cross questioner. Mr. Hill once +said there was no use ever going into frenzies about the rights of the +public. The public would just get exactly what was coming to it. If +it worked for prosperity, it would get it. If it were not sufficiently +alert to see opportunity, it certainly would not be sufficiently alert +to grasp opportunity after you had pointed it out. Your opinion or +mine does not count with the churlish questioner. You have to hurl +facts back so hard they waken your questioner up. Here are the facts. + +How can Panama turn the Pacific Coast into a front door instead of a +back door? + +Almost every big steamship line of England and Germany, also a great +many of the small lines from Norway and Belgium and Holland and Spain +and Italy, have announced their intention of putting on ships to go by +way of Panama to the Orient and to Pacific Coast ports. Three of those +lines have explicitly said that they would call at Pacific ports in +Canada if there were traffic and terminals for them. + +The steamers coming from the Mediterranean have announced their +intention of charging for steerage only five to ten dollars more to the +Pacific Coast ports than to the Atlantic ports. It costs the immigrant +from sixteen to twenty-five dollars to go west from Atlantic ports. It +can hardly be doubted that a great many immigrants will save fare by +booking directly to Pacific ports. Of South-of-Europe immigrants, +almost seven hundred thousand a year come to United States Atlantic +ports, of whom two-thirds remain, one-third, owing to the rigor of +winter, going back. Of those who will come to Pacific ports, they will +not be driven back by the rigor of winter. They will find a region +almost similar in climate to their own land and very similar in +agriculture. Hitherto Canada has not made a bid for South-of-Europe +immigrants, but, with Panama open, they will come whether Canada bids +for them or not. They are the quickest, cheapest and most competent +fruit farmers in the world. They are also the most turbulent of all +European immigrants. We may like or dislike them. They are coming to +Canada's shores when the war is over, coming in leaderless hordes. + +The East has awakened and is moving west. The West has always been +awake and is moving east. The East is sending her teas and her silks +to the West, and the West is sending her wheat and her lumber to the +East. When these two currents meet, what? If two currents meet and do +not blend, what? Exactly what has happened before in the world, +impact, collision, struggle; and the fittest survives. This was the +real reason for the building of the Panama Canal--to give the American +navy command of her own shores on the Pacific. Now that Panama is +built it means the war fleets of the whole world on the Pacific. +Canada can no more grow into a strong nation and keep out of the world +conclave assembling on the Pacific than a boy can grow into strong +manhood and keep out of the rough and tumble of life, or a girl grow to +efficient womanhood and play the hothouse parasite all her life. +Fleets, naval stations, coaling stations, dry docks, whole cities +supported by shipyards are bound to grow on the Pacific just as surely +as the years come and go. The growth has begun already. Nothing worth +having can be left undefended and be kept. Poor old China tried that. +So did Korea. We may talk ourselves black in the face over peace and +pass up enough platitudes to pave the way to a universal brotherhood of +heaven on earth, but in the past good intentions and platitudes have +paved the way to an altogether different sort of place. In the whole +world history of the past (however much we might wish this earth a +different place) the nation most secure against war has been the nation +most prepared against war. Canada can't dodge that fact. With Panama +open come the armaments of the world to the Pacific! + +How about a merchant marine for Canada? This question was important to +the maritime provinces, but the maritime provinces are well served by +British liners. On the Pacific seventy-two per cent. of the carrying +trade is already controlled by Japan. Now Canada can buy her ships in +the cheapest market, Norway or England. + +She can herself build ships as cheaply as any country in the world. +She can operate her ships as cheaply as any country in the world. + +She has no restrictions as to the manning of her crews and, as far as I +know, has never had a case of abuse arising from this freedom which her +laws permit. + +Except for the St. Lawrence after October, there is no foreign +discrimination in the insurance of her ships. + +Canada can go into the race for world-carrying trade unhampered. + +She has yet another advantage. With only two or three exceptions--a +fishing bounty, one or two mail contracts--the United States has not +given and may never give government aid to ships. The Canadian +government does and does wisely! Ocean traffic may be as requisite to +prosperity as rail traffic, and you can't give land subsidies to the +sea. + + +III + +It is when one comes to consider Panama's influence on rail traffic +that it becomes apparent the Canal may divert half the Dominion's +traffic to seaboard by Pacific routes. Why do you suppose that the big +grain companies of the Northwest want to reverse their former policy? +Formerly the biggest elevators were built east, the medium-sized at the +big gathering centers, the smaller scattered out along the line +anywhere convenient to the grower. To-day, as far as Alberta is +concerned, the biggest elevators are going up farthest west. Why? Why +do you suppose that the big traction companies of Birmingham, Alabama, +the big wire companies of Cleveland and Pittsburgh are looking over the +Canadian West for sites? One Birmingham firm has just bought the site +for a big plant in Calgary. Why do you suppose that the Canadian +Pacific Railway is building big repair shops at Coquitlam, and the +Canada Northern at Port Mann? Why are both these roads also stationing +big repair plants at inland points, one at Calgary, the other supposed +to be for Kamloops? It is not to help along the townsite lot booms in +these places. No one deprecates these town lots running out the area +of Chicago more than the railroads do. "Wild oats" hurt trade more +than they advertise the legitimate opportunities of a new country. + +Take a look at them! + +From Fort William to Alberta is one thousand two hundred miles, to +Calgary one thousand two hundred eighty, to Edmonton one thousand four +hundred fifty-one miles. From Alberta to Vancouver is slightly over +six hundred miles. Port William navigation is open only half the year. +The Pacific harbors are open all the year. Manitoba and Saskatchewan +wheat may be rushed forward in time for shipment before the close of +navigation. Because Alberta is farther west and must wait longest for +cars, very little of her wheat can be rushed forward in time; so +Alberta wheat must go on down to St. John, another one thousand two +hundred miles. Look at the figures--six hundred and fifty miles from +Alberta to the seaboard at Vancouver, two thousand four hundred miles +from Alberta to sea-board at St. John! In other words, while a car is +making one trip to St. John and back with wheat, it could make four +trips to Vancouver. + +One year the crop so far exceeded the rolling stock of all the +railroads in America that millions of dollars were lost in depreciation +and waste waiting for shipment. This state of affairs does not apply +to wheat alone nor to Canada alone. It was the condition with every +crop in every section of America. I saw twenty-nine miles of cotton +standing along the tracks of a southern port exposed to wet weather +because the southern railroads had neither steamers nor cars to rush +shipments forward for Liverpool. In New York State and the belt of +middle west states thousands of barrels of fruit lay and rotted on the +ground because the railroads could not handle it. In an orchard near +my own I saw two thousand barrels lie and go to waste because there +were no shipping facilities cheap enough to make it worth while to send +the apples to market. Hill has said that if all the fruit orchards set +out in western states come to maturity, it will require twenty times +the rolling stock that exists today to ship the fruit out in time to +reach the market in a salable condition. The same of wheat, especially +in the West, where wheat is raised in quantities too great for any +individual granary. A few years ago, when the northwestern states had +their banner crop, piles of wheat the size of a miniature town lay +exposed to weather for weeks on Washington and Idaho and Montana +railroads because the railroads had not sufficient cars to haul it away. + +The same thing almost happened in Canada one fall, though conditions +were aggravated by the coal strike. + +Now, then, where does Panama come into this story? What if the +railroads did not carry the crop two thousand four hundred miles to +seaboard in order to ship forward to Liverpool? What if they carried +some of the big crops only six hundred miles west to sea-board on the +Pacific? They would have four times as many cars available to handle +the crop, or they could make just four times as many trips to Vancouver +with the same cars as to the Atlantic seaboard after the close of +navigation in the East. It is apparent now why the Pacific ports have +gone mad over the possibilities from Panama and are preparing for +enormous traffic. Of course there are features of this diversion of +traffic to new channels which the lay mind will miss and only the +traffic specialist appreciate. For instance, there is the question of +grade over the mountains. The Canadian Pacific Railroad meets this +difficulty with its long tunnel through Mount Stephen. The Grand Trunk +declares that it has the lowest mountain grade of all the +transcontinentals. The Great Northern uses electric power for its +tunnels, and Los Angeles will tell you how its new diagonal San Pedro +road up through Nevada puts it in touch with the inland empire of the +mountain states by running up parallel with the mountains and not +crossing a divide at all. + + +IV + +Take a look at the subject from another angle! At the present rate of +homesteading in the West, within twenty years the three prairie +provinces will be producing seven to nine hundred million bushels of +wheat a year. Possibly they will not do so well as that, but suppose +they do; the three grain provinces of Canada will be producing as much +as the wheat produced in all the United States. Now, the United States +to take care of its crop has practically seven transcontinentals and a +host of allied trunk lines like the Illinois Central, the New York +Central and the Pennsylvania; but when a big crop comes, the United +States roads are paralyzed from a shortage of cars. Canada has only +three big transcontinentals and no big trunk lines to take care of a +crop that may be as large as the whole United States crop. Panama +promises, not a menace, but the one possible avenue of relief to the +railroads. + +Of course eastern cities may fight a diversion of traffic to the +seaboard of the West, but they can not stop it. Portland is already +one of the big grain shippers and will bid for a share of Canada's +west-bound grain, if Vancouver and Prince Rupert do not prepare for the +new conditions. + +Not only terminals but elevators must be prepared on the Pacific. +Terminals mean more than railroad company tracks. They mean city-owned +trackage, so that the tramp steamer seeking cargo at cheap rates shall +have every inducement and facility for getting cargo. They mean free +sites for manufacturers, not sky-rocket boom prices that keep new +industries out of a city. Elevators and terminals have been announced +time and again for Vancouver, but up to the present the announcements +have not materialized. Regular grain steamers must be put on, steamers +good for cargo of three hundred thousand and four hundred thousand +bushels, as on the lakes, and with devices for such swift handling as +have made Montreal one of the best grain ports in the world, in spite +of high insurance rates and half-season. As long as there are no +elevators at Vancouver, grain must be sacked. Sacking costs from five +to six cents extra a bushel, and more extra in handling. The remedy +for this is for the Pacific ports to build elevators; and even when +they haven't elevators, the saving in rates over and above the extra +sacking has already been from eight to fourteen cents a bushel on grain +billed for Liverpool via the one hundred ninety miles of rail over +Tehuantepec, or via the Panama railroad, where bulk need not be broken +twice. + +An objection is that in the humid Pacific Coast winter climate there is +danger of grain heating. This has been overcome at Portland, and +against this must be set the incalculable advantage that Pacific Coast +ports are open all the year round. One year, of 65,000,000 bushels of +grain from the prairie provinces that passed over the Great Lakes +forty-three per cent. went out by way of Buffalo to American ports. +Why? Because the glut was so great, the facilities so inadequate for +the enormous crop, the insurance so high, that the grain could not be +rushed seaward fast enough before close of navigation. Through +Vancouver during this very period there passed only 750,000 bushels of +wheat. Why not more? No facilities. + +"We could have shipped millions of bushels of wheat to Liverpool by way +of Vancouver," said the head of one of the largest grain companies in +Calgary, "but there were simply no facilities to take care of it. On +16,000 bushels, which we shipped by way of Vancouver and Tehuantepec, +we saved eight cents a bushel, as against Atlantic rates. You know how +much handling the Tehuantepec route requires. Well, you can figure +what we should save the farmer when Panama opens and the cargo never +breaks bulk to Liverpool from our shore." + +Rates, not heating nor sacking, are the real cloud in the Canadian mind +regarding Panama; and if Canada continues to stand twiddling her hands +over rates when she should be hustling preparations, the inevitable +will happen--Portland, which sends millions of bushels of her own wheat +to Liverpool, is ready to take care of Canada's traffic; so is Seattle. +There is nothing these cities hope more than that Canada will continue +to shun the question of rates. + + +V + +Let us look at this question of rates! + +Ordinarily the rate on wheat from Chicago to New York is about ten to +twelve cents a bushel; from New York to Liverpool about three to seven +cents. That is, for one thousand miles (roughly) the rate by rail is +ten cents. For three thousand miles the rate by water is three cents. +That is, one cent buys the shipper one hundred miles by rail. One cent +buys him one thousand miles by water. Get out a chart and figure out +for yourself what the saving means on wheat via Panama to Liverpool on +a crop--we'll say--of one hundred million bushels, Alberta's future +share alone, leaving Saskatchewan and Manitoba crops to continue going +to Liverpool by Fort William and Montreal. You can figure the distance +to Liverpool via Panama twice or even three times as far as via +Atlantic ports, long as water rates are to rail, as one to ten, the +saving on a one-hundred-million-bushel crop for a single year is enough +to buy terminals, build elevators and run civic ships as Boston and New +Orleans and St. Louis and Kansas City and Portland are doing. Via +Tehuantepec the saving was eight cents a bushel. At that rate your +saving in a year would be eight million dollars for Alberta wheat +alone, not counting dairy products, which are bound to become larger +each year, and coal, which will yet bring the same wealth to Alberta as +to Pennsylvania, and lumber, on which the saving is as one to four. + +Please note one point! It is a point usually ignored in all +comparisons of water and rail rates. While sea and lake are the +cheapest method of transportation in the world, canals (unless some +other nation builds them as the United States built Panama) are not so +cheap as sea and lake. When you add to the cost of canals, the +interest on cost, the maintenance, and charge that up against +traffic--for it doesn't matter, though the government does maintain +canals; you pay the bill in the end--canal rates come higher than rail +rates. But in Canada's use of Panama, Canada is not paying for the +building of the canal; and the Lord pays the upkeep of the canal of the +sea. + +Take this question of Vancouver rates, from which Canada is standing +back so inertly! Take the latest rates issued! These are subject to +change and correction, but that does not affect final conclusions. It +costs Manitoba and Saskatchewan from twelve to nineteen cents a hundred +weight to send grain to Fort William, then during open navigation from +four to five cents to reach seaboard at Montreal. It costs Alberta, +being farther west, twenty-five cents to reach Fort William; but, as a +matter of fact, her wheat can seldom reach Fort William before the +close of navigation; so she must pay twenty-five cents more to send her +wheat on down to St. John, and five to six cents from St. John to +Liverpool, or in all fifty-five cents. The Alberta rate is twenty-two +cents plus a fraction to Vancouver, or forty-five cents to Liverpool. +Now, Alberta wants to know: Why is she charged twenty-two and a +fraction cents for six hundred fifty miles west, and only twenty-five +cents for one thousand two hundred miles east? + +There is the nub and the rub and the hub of the whole thing, and the +discrimination bears just as vitally on fruit and dairy products and +lumber and coal as on wheat. It is a question that has to be settled +in Canada within the next few years, or her west-bound traffic will +build up Portland and Seattle instead of Vancouver and Prince Rupert. + +The whole problem of the effect of Panama is so new in Canada that data +do not exist to make comparisons; but details have been carefully +gathered by American ports, and the cases are a close enough parallel +to illustrate what Panama means in the world of traffic to-day. +Freight on a car of Washington lumber to New York is from three hundred +ninety-five to four hundred eleven dollars; by water, the freight is +from one hundred to one hundred and seventy-five dollars. To bring a +car of Washington fir diagonally across the continent to Norfolk costs +eighty-five cents a hundred weight. To bring it round by Panama costs +twenty cents, or to ship the very same cargo from Norfolk to +England--which many southern dealers are now doing--costs twelve to +fifteen cents, including the handling at both ends. Dry goods from New +York to Texas by water cost eighty-nine cents; by rail, one dollar and +eighty-two cents. Oranges by rail from the Pacific to the Atlantic +cost twenty-three dollars a ton; by water before the canal opened, +breaking bulk twice, ten dollars, and through the canal, when bulk is +not broken, will cost only five to eight dollars. On oranges alone +California will save twenty million dollars a year shipping via Panama. +The Balfour-Guthrie firm of Antwerp can ship a ton of groceries from +Europe to Los Angeles round the Horn for the same amount the Southern +Pacific ships that ton from Los Angeles to San Francisco--namely, six +dollars plus. The rail rate on salt in Washington is eight dollars +seventy cents for eighty-eight miles; the river rate one dollar fifty +cents. I could give instances in the South where cotton by rail costs +two dollars a bale; by water, twenty-five cents. + +If Panama works this great reduction, this revolution, in freights, +will that not hurt the railroads? Ask the railroads whether they make +their profit on the long or the short haul. Ask them whether high +rates and sparse population or dense population and low rates pay the +better dividends! Compare New York Central traffic receipts and +Southern Pacific on the average per mile! Now ships that are to use +Panama plan pouring twenty million people into the Pacific Coast in +twenty years. + +Will Canada share the coming tide of benefits? Only two things can +prevent her: first, lack of preparation--too much "hot air" and not +enough hustle; too much after-dinner aviating in the empyrean and not +enough muddy mess out on the harbor dredge with "sand hogs" and "shovel +stiffs"; then, second, lack of adequate labor to prepare. After-dinner +speeches don't make the dirt fly. Canada wants fewer platitudes and a +great deal more of good old-fashioned hard hoeing. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +TO EUROPE BY HUDSON BAY + +I + +It must have become apparent to the most casual observer that +transportation has been to Canada more than a system of exploitation by +capital. Transportation has been to Canada an integral part of her +very national life--which, perhaps, explains how with the exception of +extravagance incident to a period of great prosperity her railroad +systems have been founded on sound finance from bed-rock up. In spite +of huge land grants--in all fifty-five million acres--and in the case +of one railroad wild stock fluctuations from forty-eight to three +hundred dollars--it is a question if a dollar of public money has ever +been diverted from roadbed to promoters' pockets. Certainly, in the +case of the strongest road financially in Canada, no director of the +road has ever juggled with underground wires to unload worthless +securities on widows and orphans. Railroad stocks have never been made +the football of speculators. Charters in the old days were juggled +through legislatures with land grants of eight and twelve thousand +acres per mile; but at that time these acres were worthless; and the +system of land grants has for the last ten years been discontinued. +Because railroads are a necessary part of Canada's national +development, state aid of late has taken the form of loans, cash grants +and guarantee of bonds by provincial and federal governments. This has +given Canada's Railway Commission a whip handle over rates and +management, which perhaps explains why railroads in Canada have never +been regarded as lawful game by the financial powers that prey. +Including municipal, provincial and federal grants, stocks and bonds, +Canada has spent on her railroads a billion and a half. Including +capital cost and maintenance, Canada has spent on her canals +$138,000,000. On steamship subsidies, Canada's yearly grants have +gradually risen from a few hundred thousands to as high as two millions +in some years. Nor does this cover all the national expenditure on +transportation; for besides the thirty-eight millions spent on dredging +and improving navigation on the St. Lawrence, twelve millions have been +appropriated for improving Halifax Harbor; and only recently federal +guarantee for bonds to the extent of forty-three millions was accorded +one transcontinental. This road was so heavily guaranteed by +provincial governments that if it had failed it would have involved +four western provinces. Its plight arose from two causes--the +extravagant cost of labor and material in an inflated era, and the +depression in the world money markets curtailing all extension. +Workmen on this road were paid three to seventeen dollars a day, who +would have received a dollar and a half to four dollars ten years ago. +In fact, the owners of the road themselves received those wages thirty +years ago. Sections cost one hundred thousand dollars a mile which +would formerly have been built for thirty thousand; and prairie grading +formerly estimated at six to eight thousand dollars a mile jumped to +twenty and thirty thousand dollars. In coming to the aid of the Canada +Northern, the government did no more than Sir John Macdonald's +government did for the Canadian Pacific Railroad in 1885, and the +prosperity of the Canadian Pacific Railroad has amply justified that +aid. + +Canada's transportation system has been a national policy from the +first. Her first transcontinental she built to unify and bind +confederation. Her second two transcontinentals she launched to carry +commerce east and west, because the United States had built a tariff +wall which prevented Canada moving her commerce north and south. Her +canal system to cut the distance from the Great Lakes to the seaboard +and to overcome the rapids at "the Soo," at Niagara and on the St. +Lawrence--has simply resolved itself into an effort to move seaboard +inland, on the principle that the farther inland the port the shorter +the land haul and the lower the traffic toll. Owing to the enormous +increase in the cargo capacity of lake freighters in recent years, +grain ships reach Buffalo carrying three hundred thousand bushels of +western wheat, and Canada's Welland Canal has worked at a handicap. +Until the Canal is widened, the big cargo carriers can not pass through +it, and the necessity to break bulk here is one explanation of more +than half Canada's western traffic going to seaboard by way of Buffalo +instead of Montreal. + +For years the proposal has been under consideration to connect the +Great Lakes with the St. Lawrence by way of a canal from Georgian Bay +through Ottawa River. This would be a colossal undertaking; for the +region up Mattawa River toward Georgian Bay is of iron rock, and to +build a canal wide enough for the big cargo carriers would out-distance +anything in the way of canal construction in the world. Both parties +in Canada have endorsed what is known as the Georgian Bay Ship Canal; +and estimates place the cost at one hundred and twenty-five millions; +but traffic men of the Lakes declare if the big cargo carriers are to +have cheap insurance on this route, the canal will have to be wide +enough to guarantee safe passage; and the cost would be twice this +estimate. + +On no section of her national transportation has Canada expended more +thought and effort than improving navigation on the St. Lawrence. +This, in its way, has been as difficult a problem for a people of seven +millions as the construction of Panama for a people of ninety millions. +Consider the geographical position of the St. Lawrence route! It +penetrates the continent from eight hundred to nine hundred sixty +miles. Montreal, the head of navigation on the St. Lawrence, is the +farthest inland harbor of America with the exception of two +ports--Galveston on the Gulf of Mexico and Port Nelson on Hudson Bay. +Galveston is seven hundred miles from the wheat fields of Kansas. Port +Nelson is four hundred miles from the wheat fields of Manitoba. +Montreal is--roughly--a thousand miles from the head of the Lakes, one +thousand five hundred miles from the wheat fields of Manitoba, two +thousand two hundred miles from the wheat fields of Alberta. +Montreal's great advantage is in being situated so far inland. Her +disadvantages are from the nature of the St. Lawrence. First, the port +is closed by ice from November to April. Second, the St. Lawrence is +the drainage bed of inland oceans--the Great Lakes. Third, it passes +into the Atlantic at one of the most difficult sections of the coast. +South of Newfoundland are the fogs of the Grand Banks. North of +Newfoundland the tidal current beats upon an iron coast in storm and +fog. To save detour, St. Lawrence vessels, of course, follow the route +north of Newfoundland through the Straits of Belle Isle. + +When Canada began dredging the St. Lawrence in 1850, the channel +averaged a depth of ten feet. By 1888, the channel averaged +twenty-seven and one-half feet at low water. To-day a depth of thirty +to thirty-one feet has been attained. At its narrowest points the St. +Lawrence has a steamship channel four hundred and fifty feet wide and +thirty feet deep from side to side. In the days when high insurance +rates were established against the St. Lawrence route, there was +practically not a lighthouse nor channel buoy from Tadousac to the +Straits of Belle Isle. To-day between Montreal and Quebec are +ninety-nine lighted buoys, one hundred and ninety-five can buoys; +between Quebec and the Straits, three light ships, eighty gas buoys, +one whistling buoy, seventy-five can buoys, four submarine bell ships, +and a line of lighthouses. Telegraph lines extend to the outer side of +Belle Isle, and hydrographic survey has charted every foot of the +river. In spite of these improvements, insurance rates are four to six +per cent. for lines to Canada, where they are one and one-half to two +and one-half to American ports. + + +II + +What with three transcontinentals, a complete canal system from +seaboard to the Great Lakes and an outlet for western traffic through +Panama, one would think that Canada had made ample provision for +transportation; but she has only begun. If she is to be the shortest +route to the Orient, she must keep traffic in Canadian channels and not +divide it with Panama and Suez. If she is to feed the British Empire, +she must establish the shortest route from her wheat fields to the +United Kingdom; and if she is to overcome the disadvantage of harbors +open only half the year, she must secure to herself some other +advantage--such as access to the harbor having the shortest land haul +and therefore the lowest freight rates in America. There is another +consideration. If when Canada is raising less than three hundred +million bushels of wheat her transcontinentals are glutted with traffic +and her harbors gorged, what will happen when her wheat fields raise +eight hundred million bushels of wheat? So Canada has cast about for a +shorter route to Europe by Hudson Bay, and both parties in Dominion +politics have backed the project. + +At a time when the food supply of Great Britain must be drawn almost +solely from her colonial possessions and the United States and +Argentina, when her very national existence depends on the sea lanes to +that food supply being kept open--a route which shortens the distance +to that food supply by from one thousand five hundred to three thousand +miles becomes doubly interesting. + +Take a mental look at the contour of North America! All the big export +harbors of the Atlantic Coast are situated at the broadest bulge of the +continent--Halifax, St. John, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore +are all where the distance across the continent from the grain fields +is widest. That means a long land haul. + +Take another look at the map--this time at a revolving globe! Any +schoolboy knows that a circle round a top is shorter at the ends than +around its middle. The same of the earth. East and west distances are +shorter the nearer you are to the Pole, the farther you are from the +Equator. + +To England from Eastern Asia by Suez is fourteen to eighteen thousand +miles. To England from Asia by San Francisco is eleven thousand miles, +by Seattle ten thousand miles, by Prince Rupert and Hudson Bay seven to +eight thousand miles--representing a saving by the northern route of +almost half round the world. + +Another point--take a compass! Stick the needle on Hudson Bay and +swing the leg down round New York and up through the wheat plains of +the Northwest. Draw lines to the center of your circle--to your +amazement, you find the lines from the wheat plains to New York are +twice and thrice as long as the lines from the wheat plains to Hudson +Bay. In other words, Mr. Hill's wheat empire is one thousand miles +nearer tidewater to Hudson Bay than to New York. The three prairie +provinces of Northwestern Canada are from four hundred (for Manitoba) +to eight hundred miles (for Alberta) distant from ocean front on Hudson +Bay. They are from one thousand two hundred to two thousand four +hundred miles distant from tidewater at Montreal and New York and +Philadelphia. + +That is--if land rates were the same as water rates--the Hudson Bay +route to Europe would cut rates to England from the Orient by half, and +from the wheat plains by the difference between one thousand two +hundred miles and four hundred, and two thousand four hundred miles and +eight hundred. But land rates are not water rates. From Alberta to +the Great Lakes is roughly one thousand two hundred miles. From the +Great Lakes to tidewater is roughly another one thousand two hundred +miles--either by way of Chicago-Buffalo, or Lake Superior-Montreal. +For the one thousand two hundred miles from Alberta to the Great Lakes, +grain shippers at time of writing pay a rate of twenty-two to +twenty-five cents a bushel. For the one thousand two hundred miles +from the head of the Lakes to Buffalo, the rate is three cents, from +the head of the Lakes to Montreal five to six cents. In other words, +the rate by land is just five to eight times higher than the rate by +water. + +To the argument--shorter distances by half by the northern route--is +added the argument cheaper rates as eight to one. + +That is why for twenty years Canada has gone sheer mad over a Hudson +Bay route to Europe. For obvious reasons the ports in Eastern Canada +have fought the idea and ridiculed the whole project as "an iron tonic +from rusting rails" for the cows. That has not stopped the West. +Grading is under way for the railroad to Hudson Bay from the grain +plains. The Canadian government is the backer and the builder. +Construction engines, dredges, steamers now whistle over the silences +of the northern inland sea; and Port Nelson, which for three centuries +has been the great fur entrepot of the wintry wastes, now echoes to +pick and hammer and blowing locomotive intent on the construction of +what is known as the Hudson Bay Railroad. Should the war last for +years as wars of old, and Port Nelson become a great grain port as for +three centuries it has been the greatest fur port of the world, the +navies of Europe may yet thunder at one another along Hudson Bay's +shallow shores, as French and English fought there all through the +seventeenth century. + + +III + +The Hudson Bay railroad hung in mid-air for almost a quarter century. +It was regarded by the East as one of the West's mad impossible "boom" +projects. Hadn't Canada, a country of seven million population, a +railroad system of 29,000 miles? Hadn't the Dominion spent +$138,000,000 on canals heading traffic to the St. Lawrence? Why divert +half that traffic north to Hudson Bay? Surely three great +transcontinental systems for a country with a population not larger +than New York State were enough. So argued the East, and a great many +conservative people in the West. Better make haste slowly, especially +as it was becoming more and more evident that Canada would have to come +to the aid of two of the transcontinentals or see them go bankrupt. + +Then something happened. In fact, two or three things happened. + +The population, which had remained almost stationary for half a +century, jumped two million in less than ten years. Immigrants began +pouring in at the rate of four hundred thousand a year--they were +coming literally faster than the railroads could carry them. + +It sometimes takes an outsider's view of us to make us realize +ourselves. Do you realize--they asked--that your three grain provinces +alone are three times the area of the German Empire? Here is a grain +field as long as from Petrograd to Paris and of unknown width north and +south. You have 480,000,000 acres of wheat lands. (The United States +plants only 50,000,000 acres a year to wheat.) You are cultivating +only 16,000,000 acres. If there is a grain blockade now, what will +there be when you cultivate 100,000,000 acres? Yes--we know--you may +send Alberta grain west by Panama to Liverpool; but even with half +going by Panama, can the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence route take care of +the rest? We hear about a constant shortage of cars; of elevators +bulging with grain every September; of miles of lake cargo carriers +waiting to get in and out of their berths every October before +navigation closes. Do you know--they asked--that you have five times +more traffic--seventy-two million tons--going through your canals than +is expected for Panama? Do you know your rail traffic has jumped from +36,000,000 tons in 1900 to 90,000,000 tons in 1912? If you sent +200,000,000 bushels of wheat abroad in 1912 and 158,000,000 bushels in +1914--a poor year--what will you send in 1920 with twice as much land +under wheat? + +Two other comparatively unpondered facts were the hammers that drove +the argument for a Hudson Bay route home and forced the Canadian +government, irrespective of party, to back the project. The two facts +were these--of Canada's agricultural exports eighty per cent. went to +Great Britain. In spite of Canada spending a billion on her +transportation system, look at the fact well--it is a poser--only from +thirty-two to forty per cent. of her export trade went out by Canadian +routing. Why was that? The Department of Railroads and Canals in its +annual report explains elaborately that sixty per cent. of Western +Canadian grain went out by the Duluth-Buffalo route instead of Ft. +William-Montreal because the lake rate of the former was cheaper as +three to six cents a bushel; but there is nothing in this argument +because Montreal is tidewater. Buffalo is not. To the cheaper Buffalo +rate you must add five cents to New York, proving the American routing +really two cents a bushel higher. Yet sixty per cent. of Western +Canadian wheat went out by the costlier routing. Why? For the same +reason that if you jam a bag too full it bursts. Because the Canadian +trans-continentals simply could not take care of the traffic blockading +tracks and ports and elevators. + +So in spite of the funny man's jokes about a Hudson Bay route being +"iron tonic for the cows," Canada launched on another all-red, +to-the-sea railroad project. + + +IV + +What of the road itself? + +I camped in the region a few years ago when the venture was still in +air. The wheat plains terminate just west of Lake Winnipeg in an +interminable swamp region that has been the home of small furs from the +beginning of time. Saskatchewan River here literally widens to seventy +miles of swamp, where you can barely find foot room dry soled except in +winter, when the marsh turns to iron ice twelve feet thick. Through +this swamp country runs a ridge of rock northeasterly to Hudson Bay. +Down this ridge run Nelson and Hayes and Churchill Rivers in a +succession of rapids and lakes, wild rough barren country, where you +can paddle in summer or course by dog-train in winter for four hundred +miles without sight of arable land or human dwelling. Along this ridge +the railroad runs from the wheat plains. It is a route destined for +the present to be barren of local traffic, but that also is true of the +stretches along Lake Superior, or across the desert of the Southwest. +Back from the ridge coal deposits have been found, and traces of +copper, the mines of which have not yet been located. I myself saw +chunks of pure copper from the Churchill River region the size of one's +hand, but the veins from which the Indians brought it have not yet been +located. In time these great deposits may be worked as oil and coal +and gold and silver have been taken from the American Desert, but for +the near future the Hudson Bay Railroad will carry little traffic but +that received at its terminals. + +The western terminal connecting with the wheat railroads is the Pas, an +old, very old fur post of the French wood-runner days, on the +Saskatchewan west of Lake Winnipeg. Here the railroad touches the +Canada Northern and will doubtless later connect with the Canadian +Pacific Railroad and Grand Trunk. To any one who knows the region well +it seems almost a pity that the western terminus could not have been +Grand Rapids just northwest of Lake Winnipeg. Here is a fine wooded +high park country with the unlimited water power of nine miles of a +continental river walled into a canyon half a mile wide. But the +country west of Lake Winnipeg is as yet untouched by a railroad, though +one can hardly conceive of a city not some day springing up at this the +head of Manitoba navigation. Eastward from the Pas to Hudson Bay it is +four hundred miles plus. Construction presents no great difficulties +except bridging, and that can hardly be compared to the difficulties of +canyons in the Rockies and drouth in the desert. + +For years there was sharp contest whether the terminus on the Bay +should be Nelson or Churchill. Churchill is one of the best harbors in +the world, land locked, rock protected and fathomless; and Nelson is +probably one of the worst--shallow, with sand bars caused by the +confluence of the two great rivers emptying here, exposed to open sea. +But the balance of favor on the Bay is how long can navigation be kept +open. Navigation is open a month earlier and a month later at Nelson +than at Churchill; so the Dominion dredges have gone to work to make +Nelson a fit harbor. + +How long is navigation open on the Bay? The Dominion government has +sent three expeditions to ascertain this, though data might have been +obtained from the Archives of the Hudson's Bay Fur Company covering the +record of over two hundred years. Both the Archives and the official +expeditions record the same--navigation opens between the middle of May +and the first of June, and closes about the end of October. Seasons +have been known when navigation remained open till New Year's, but this +was unusual. So as far as the opening and closing of navigation is +considered, the Hudson Bay route is not far different from the Great +Lakes. + +Hudson Bay itself is in area about the size of the Mediterranean. +Because it is so far north the impression prevails that it is afloat +with ice. This is a false impression. Hudson Bay lies in the same +latitude as the North Sea and the Baltic, which are freighted with +Russian and German commerce, but the climate, of course, is colder. +The ice, which has given the great inland sea its ill repute, comes +from the Pole and goes out through the Straits, seldom coming down the +Bay in the season of navigation. + +The Straits are the real crux of the Hudson Bay route to Europe, and +there is no narrow neck of land to cut a way of escape through to open +sea as at Kiel and Cape Cod. The Straits have been navigated by +fur-traders since 1670, but the fur-traders could take a week or a +month to the four hundred and fifty miles of Straits. They could +afford the time to float back and forward with the ice packs for six +weeks, and as many as seven vessels have been wrecked in ten years. To +this tale of wreckage in the Straits, friends of the Hudson Bay route +answer as follows: + +First, the fur-traders' vessels were little discarded admiralty vessels +of small tonnage and rickety construction. Give us ice jammers such as +the Russians use on the Baltic, built narrow and high of oak, not +steel, to ride and crush down through the ice; and we can take care of +high insurance rates. Second, the Straits are still an utterly +uncharted sea four hundred and fifty miles long and from seventy to one +hundred and fifty wide. This is not so long as the passage up the St. +Lawrence. In such an inland sea as these Straits there must exist safe +as well as unsafe channels, shelters, smooth reaches. Let us get the +Straits charted and marked with buoys, with telegraph and cable points, +and we shall navigate these four hundred and fifty miles. The +questions of lighthouses need not bother the Straits, for the season of +navigation is also the season of long daylight. + + +V + +Three advantages must be put on the credit side of the Hudson Bay route: + +Distances to tidewater cut by half. + +Distances to Europe cut by a third. + +Rates reduced on grain as eight to one. + +Against these advantages must be placed three handicaps: + +The danger of an uncharted sea in the Straits. + +High insurance. + +Necessity for enormous elevator and storage room. + +Mr. Hill's wheat country may begin wheat cutting in July. The Canadian +Northwest is lucky if it cuts before the eighth of August. Consider +the area of the big wheat farms! The whole of August is taken up with +cutting and threshing. It is September or October, before the wheat is +hauled to market, and it is November before it reaches seaboard. In +November navigation on the Bay closes, and one hundred, perhaps two +hundred million bushels of wheat must be held by the farmers, or the +elevators, till May. This means interest on money out of the farmer's +pocket for six months, or storage charges. On the other hand, there +will be no danger of stored wheat "heating" on the Bay. The cold there +is of too sharp a type, but this is a danger in many of the +all-the-year-round open harbors. + +For twenty years the Hudson Bay railroad has been a project up in air. +It is now a project on graded roadbed. Before these words are in print +Hudson Bay Railroad will be on wheels and tracks. Then the real +difficulty of the Straits will be faced, and probably--as Russia has +overcome the difficulties of the Baltic--so will the Canadian Northwest +overcome the difficulties of this hyperborean sea. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +SOME INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS + +I + +The contest between capital and labor in Canada has never become that +armed camp divided by a chasm of hatred known in other lands. This for +two reasons: First, the labor of yesterday is the capital of to-day, +and the labor of to-day is the capital of to-morrow. Second, from the +very nature of Canada's greatest wealth--agricultural lands--the +substantial proportion of the population consists of land owners, +vested righters, respecters of property interests because they +themselves are property holders. The city dweller in Canada has been +from the very nature of things the anachronism, the anomaly, the +parasite, the extraneous outgrowth on the main body of production. + +To take the first reason why capital and labor has not been divided in +hostile camps in Canada, because the labor of yesterday is the capital +of to-day--I am not dealing with speculative arguments and opinions. I +am trying to set down facts. The owner of the largest fortune west of +the Rocky Mountains in Canada began life with a pick and shovel. The +owner of the richest timber limits in British Columbia began at a +dollar and twenty-five cents a day piling slabs. The wealthiest meat +packer east of the Rocky Mountains was "bucking" and "breaking" +bronchoes thirty years ago at twenty-five dollars a month. The packer +who comes next to him in wealth began life in Pt. Douglas, Winnipeg, +loading frozen hogs. The richest newspaper man in Canada began life so +poor that he and his father hauled the first editions of their paper to +customers on a hand sled. The four men who are to-day the greatest +powers in the railroad world of the Dominion began life, one as a stone +mason, another as a lumber-jack, a third as a store keeper, a fourth as +a telegraph operator. I do not think I am wrong in saying that the +richest wholesaler in Canada reached the scene of his present +activities with his entire earthly possessions in a pocket handkerchief +and a tin lunch pail. Of two of the most powerful men who ever came +out of the maritime provinces, one swept a village store for his living +at a dollar and fifty cents a week; another reached St. John, New +Brunswick, from his home in the backwoods, dressed in a home-made suit, +which his mother had spun and carded from their own wool. The fact +that the door of opportunity is open to the talented tends to prevent +the opening of a chasm of hatred between capital and labor, though it +must be admitted that the warfare of capital and labor in the States +was developing in the era when Rockefeller and Carnegie were lifting +themselves from penury to the heights of financial power. + +Infinitely more important is the second reason. For a long time at +least the stanchest, strongest and stablest part of Canada's people +must be rooted to the soil. Up to the present half her population has +been rural, and less than three per cent. absorbed by the factory, the +railway, the labor union. Of her population of 7,800,000, only 176,000 +workers belong to labor organizations, and ninety per cent. of these +have never been on strike. These figures alone explain why class +hatred has never widened into a chasm dividing society in Canada. + +Why Big Business has never dominated government in Canada will be dealt +with in a later chapter, but if Big Business can not violate law with +impunity at one end of the social scale, it may be safely said that +anarchy will never violate law at the other end of the scale. + +At the same time there are symptoms appearing in the industrial +conditions of Canada as gravely dangerous as anything in her +immigration problems. These need only be stated to be apparent. Where +wages have increased only ten per cent. in a decade, the cost of living +has increased fifty-one per cent.--according to an official commission +appointed by the Ottawa government to report. Though Canada is an +agricultural country, in food products alone, she pays ten million +dollars duty yearly. In one farming province ten million dollars' +worth of food is yearly imported. Why is this? Why is Canada not +producing all the food she consumes? Because in certain sections only +one settler goes out to the farm for four that live in the town. + +In the West, if you add up the population of all the cities, you will +find that one-fourth as many people live in the cities as in the +country. In one province you will find that out of half a million +population, three hundred thousand are living in cities and towns. +This is the province that imports such quantities of food. It is also +the province that has more labor trouble than all the other sections of +the Dominion put together. Demagogues harangue the city squares for +"the right to work," "the right to live;" and mill owners, farmers, +ranchers, railway builders go bankrupt for lack of men to work. It is +the province where the highest wages in the world are paid for every +form of labor. It is also the province where the greatest number of +people are idle, and neither you nor I nor anybody else, can convince +the idle stone mason who demands eight dollars a day that he keeps +himself idle by not accepting half that figure. He is not dealing with +"the robber baron" capitalistic class. He is dealing with the humble +householder who wants to build but can not afford workmen at eight +dollars to five dollars a day, when he could afford workmen at four +dollars to a dollar and fifty cents a day. + +In 1800 only four per cent. of the United States population was urban, +and ninety-six per cent. was rural. By 1910 only fifty-three per cent. +of the population was rural. Similarly of France and Great Britain. +Sixty-five per cent. of France's population is rural, and France is +prosperous, and her people are the thriftiest and most saving in the +world. They with their tiny savings are the world's bankers. In the +United Kingdom, the rural population has decreased from twenty-eight +per cent. to twenty-three per cent. of the total population. How about +Canada? In 1891 thirty-two per cent. of Canada's people lived in towns +and cities. By 1901 thirty-eight per cent. were town dwellers. By +1914 the proportion in towns and cities is almost fifty per cent. + +The entire movement of population from country to city is reflected in +the astounding growth of the cities. In 1800 Montreal had a population +of seven thousand; in 1850, sixty thousand; by 1914, almost half a +million. Similarly of Toronto, of Winnipeg, of Vancouver. From +nothing in 1800, these cities have grown to metropolitan centers of +three hundred thousand, and their growth is the subject of fevered +civic pride. It ought to be cause of gravest alarm. In the history of +the world, when men began to hive in a crowded cave life, those nations +began to decline. The results are always the same--an extortionate +rise in the cost of food, the long bread line, charity where there +ought to be labor and thrift, food riots, terrible tragic contrasts of +the very rich and the very poor, all the vices that go with crowded +housing. When charity workers investigated in Toronto and Montreal and +Winnipeg, they found foreigners living forty-three in five rooms, +twenty-four and fifteen and ten in one. Wherever such proportions +exist as to rural and urban population, ground rentals and values +ascend in price like overheated mercury. Men begin to build +perpendicularly instead of latitudinally. The cave life of the +skyscraper takes the place of the trim home garden, and so greed of +gain--interest on extortionate real estate values--takes its toll of +human life and virtue, clean living and clean thinking. In one section +of Canada during ten years, where there had been an increase of 574,878 +in the country population, there was an increase of 1,258,645 in the +city population. Between 1901 and 1911, where 39,951 newcomers settled +in the country districts of Quebec, 313,863 settled in the cities. For +one who chose life in the open, eight chose the tenement and the +sweatshop. In 1901 Canada had 3,349,516 people living in the country, +and 2,021,799 living in the cities. By 1911 there were 3,924,394 +living in the country, and 3,280,440 living in the cities. + +All this signifies but one thing to Canada--a swift transition from +agricultural status to industrial life; and whether such an artificial +transition bodes good or ill for a land whose greatest wealth lies in +forest and mine and farm remains to be seen. For the time it has +resulted in a cost of living almost prohibitive to the very poor. The +sweatshop, the tenement, the Ghetto, the cave life hovel of Europe have +been reproduced in the crowded foreign quarters of Canadian cities. It +means more than physical deterioration and moral contamination and +degeneration of national stamina. It means if Canada is to become a +great manufacturing country, feeding the human into the hopper of the +machine that dividends may pour out, then she, the youngest of the +nations, must compete against the oldest and the strongest--Germany, +England, France, the United States; but if she is to be a great +agricultural country, then she has few peers in the whole world. +Neither need she have any fear. The nations of the world must come to +her, as they went down to Egypt, for bread. The man on his own land, +be his work good or ill owns his own labor and takes profit or loss +from it and can blame no one but himself for that profit or loss. With +the renting out of a man's labor to some other man for that other man's +profit or loss come all the discontent and class strife of industrial +warfare. Of industrial strife, of labor riots, of syndicalism, of +social revolution, of the few plundering the many, and the many +threatening reprisal in the form of legislation for the many to plunder +the few--of this dog-eat-dog, internecine industrial strife--Canada has +hitherto known next to nothing; but she is at the parting of the ways. +The day that a preponderance of her population becomes urban instead of +rural, that day a preponderance of her population must ask leave to +live from some other man--must ask leave to work for some other man, +must ask leave to put the collar of the industrial serf on the neck as +the sign of labor owned by some other man. That day the preponderance +of Canada's population will cease owning their own vested rights and +will begin attacking the vested rights of other men. That day +plutocracy will begin plundering democracy, and the unfit will begin +plundering the fit, and the many will demand the same rewards as the +few, not by winning those rewards and rising to the plane of the few, +but by expropriating those rewards and pulling the few down to the +level of the many. To me it means the sickling over a robust +nationhood with the yellowing hue of a dollar democracy, the yellowing +hue of gnashing social jealousy, the yellowing hue of moral putridity +and decadence and rot. Hitherto every man has stood on his own legs in +Canada. There has been no weak-kneed, puling greedy mob bellowing for +pap from the breasts of a state treasury--demanding the rewards of +industry and thrift which they have been too weak and shiftless and +useless to earn. But Canada is at the parting of the ways. The day +more men live in the cities demanding food than live on the soil +producing it--which God forfend--that day Canada goes down in the +welter of industrial war and social upheaval. + +Hitherto no statesman has arisen in Canada who remotely sensed the +impending evil, much less made an effort to avert the doom that has +come like a cloud above the well-being of every modern country. The +man who makes it a national policy in Canada to attract the settler to +the soil rather than to the city hovel will in the future annals of +this great nation be rated above a Napoleon or a Bismarck.[1] This to +me is the crux of the very greatest and most acute problem confronting +the Dominion's future destiny. + + +II + +In a country where organized labor numbers only 176,000 out of +7,800,000, labor problems can hardly be set down as acute. They do not +split society asunder as they do elsewhere. I am glad of it. I am +glad that in Canada up to the present labor is only capital in the +inchoate. I should be sorry if the day ever came when labor was the +serf, and capital the robber baron, as--let us frankly acknowledge--it +is elsewhere. + +In this connection three points should be emphasized. Whether they +should be praised or blamed I do not know; but the points are these: + +The Senate in Canada being appointed for life has acted as a breakwater +of adamant and reinforced concrete against all labor or capital +legislation that has arisen from the passions of the moment. More than +once when labor or capital, holding the whip handle in the Commons, +would have forced through hasty legislation as to compensation, as to +liability, as to non-liability--the leaders in the Commons have said +frankly in caucus to the Senate: We are dependent on the vote for our +places here. You are not. We are letting this fool bill through, but +we are letting it through because we know you will kill it. Kill it! + +In the next place, "the twilight zone" between federal and provincial +power in matters of labor has proved an unmitigated curse. When the +syndicalists of Europe, known in America as the Industrial Workers of +the World, succeeded in tying up railroad construction and almost +ruining the contractors of two transcontinental systems in British +Columbia a few years ago, endless delay in terminating an impossible +situation occurred through the province trying to throw the burden of +dealing with the matter on the Dominion, and the Dominion trying to +throw the burden on the province. Both province and Dominion were +afraid of the labor vote. The losses caused during that three months' +strike in the construction camps indirectly afterward fell on the +Canadian people; for the embarrassed transcontinentals had to come to +the Dominion government for aid; and the Dominion government is, after +all, the people. + +"I pray God," said a Cabinet Minister in Ottawa to me at the time, +"that Imperial Federation may never come; if it adds to our woes +another 'twilight zone' as to Dominion and Imperial powers." + + +III + +It seems almost ungracious in this connection to say that Canada's +far-famed Arbitration Act has been overrated. That it has accomplished +some good and settled many controversies no reasonable person will +deny, but it is not a panacea for all ills. + +Here is the difficulty as to arbitration. It is not unlike the +situation of Belgium regarding Germany in the great war. Arbitration +depends on "a scrap of paper." What if some one tears up "the scrap of +paper"? What if one side says there is nothing to arbitrate? Twenty +years ago--yes--wages, hours, conditions of labor--could have been +arbitrated; but to-day the contest in the industrial world is often not +for wages and hours of labor. + +"Demand three dollars a day for an eight-hour day, to-day," I heard an +Industrial Worker of the World shout in a Vancouver strike. "Demand +four dollars a day to-morrow, till you secure four dollars a day for a +four-hour day--till your ascending wages expropriate capital--take over +capital and all industry to be operated for labor." + +In the great struggle between the railroads and the I. W. W.'s in +British Columbia, Canada's Arbitration Act fell down hopelessly simply +because there was nothing to arbitrate. Labor said: We shall paralyze +all industry, or operate all industry for labor's profit solely. +Capital said--you shall not. There the two tied in deadlock for +months, and there all arbitration acts must often tie in deadlock in +industrial warfare. That is why I hope industrial warfare will never +become a part of Canada's national life. That is why I hope and pray +every Canadian settler will become a vested righter by owning and +operating his own acres till Death lays him in God's Acre. + + +IV + +In a country where the public debt is only $350,000,000 or forty-five +dollars per head, and the national income is $1,500,000,000 from farm, +factory, forest and mine--or two hundred dollars per head and that +fairly well distributed--for the present there is little to fear of +social revolution. It is not the social revolution that I fear for +Canada. It is the canker of social hate and jealousy preceding +revolution. If fifty per cent. of the population can be kept owning +and operating their own land, that social canker will never infect +Canada's national life as a whole. + + +[1] Thomas Jefferson desired such a rural future for the United States +and deplored the day of cities and industrialism. It came, +nevertheless.--THE EDITOR. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +HOW GOVERNED + +I + +Reference has been made to the facts that Big Business has up to the +present been unable to get control of the reins of government in Canada, +that the courts have been kept comparatively free of political influence +and that the doors of underground politics are not easily pried open by +corruption. Why is this? Canadians would fain take unction to +themselves that it is owing to their superior national integrity, but +this is nonsense. + +Exuberant forest growth is always characterized by some fungus and dry +rot. How has Canada escaped so much of this fungus excrescence of +representative government? To get at the reason for this it is necessary +to trace back for a little space the historic growth of Canada's form of +government. We speak of Canada's constitution being the British North +America Act. As a matter of fact, Canada's constitution is more than an +act--more than a dry and hard and inflexible formula to which growth must +conform. Rather than plaster cast into which growing life must fit +itself, Canada's constitution is a living organism evolved from her own +mistakes and struggles of the past and her own needs as to the present. +Canada's constitution is not some pocket formula which some +doctrinaire--with apologies to France--has whipped out of his pocket to +remedy all ills. Canada's constitution is like the scientific data of +empirical medicine; it is the result of centuries' experiments, none the +less scientific because unconscious. + +One need not trace the growth of government to the days prior to English +rule. When England took over Canada by the Treaty of Paris in 1763, the +main thing to remember is that the French-Canadian was guaranteed the +free exercise of his religion. This--and not innate loyalty to an alien +government--was the real reason for Quebec refusing to cast in her lot +with the revolting American colonies. This was the reason for Quebec +remaining stanch in the War of 1812, and this is the reason for Quebec +to-day standing a solid unit against annexation. We must not forget what +a high emissary from Rome once jocularly said of a religious quarrel in +Canada--Quebec was more Catholic than the Pope. + +Following the military regime of the Conquest came the Quebec Act of +1774.--Please note, contemporaneous with the uprising of the American +colonies, Canada is given her first constitution. The Governor and +legislative council are to be appointed by the Crown, and full freedom of +worship is guaranteed. French civil law and English criminal law are +established; and the Church is confirmed in its title to ecclesiastical +property--which was right when you consider that the foundations of the +Church in Quebec are laid in the blood of martyrs. Just here intervenes +the element which compelled the reshaping of Canada's destiny. When the +American colonies gained their independence, there came across the border +to what are now New Brunswick and Nova Scotia and Ontario some forty +thousand Loyalists mainly from New England and the South. These +Loyalists, of course, refused to be dominated by French rule; so the +Constitutional Act was passed in 1791 by the Imperial Parliament. The +people of Canada were represented for the first time in an assembly +elected by themselves, The Governor-General for Quebec--Lower Canada--and +the Lieutenant-Governor for Ontario--Upper Canada--were both appointed by +the Crown. The Executive, or Cabinet, was chosen by the Governor. The +weakness of the new system was glaringly apparent on the surface. While +the assembly was elected in each province by the people, the assembly had +no direct control over the Executive. Downing Street, England, chose the +Governors; and the Governors chose their own junta of advisers; and all +the abuses of the Family Compact arose, which led to the Rebellion of '37 +under William Lyon MacKenzie in Ontario and Louis Papineau in Quebec. +Judges at this time sat in both Houses, and Canada learned the bitter +lesson of keeping her judiciary out of politics. As the power of +appointment rested exclusively with the Governor and his circle, it can +be believed that the French of Quebec suffered disabilities and prejudice. + +Hopelessly at sea as to the cause of the continual unrest in her colonies +and undoubtedly sad from the loss of her American possessions, England +now sent out a commissioner to investigate the trouble; and it is to the +findings of this commissioner that the United Kingdom has since owed her +world-wide success in governing people by letting them govern themselves. +People sometimes ask why England has been so successful in governing +one-fifth of the habitable globe. She does not govern one-fifth the +habitable globe. She lets much of it govern itself; and it was Lord +Durham, coming out as Governor-General and high commissioner at this +time, who laid the foundations of England's success in colonizing. His +report has been the Magna Charta and Declaration of Independence of the +self-governing colonies of the British Empire. + +First of all, government must be entrusted to the house representing the +people. Second, the granting of moneys must be controlled by those +paying the taxes. Third, the Executive must be responsible not only to +the Crown but to the representatives of the people. It is here the +Canadian system differs from the American. The Secretary, or Cabinet +Minister, can not hold office one day under the disapproval of the House, +no matter what his tenure of office. + +The Act of 1840 resulted from Durham's report. Upper and Lower Canada +were united under one government--which was really the forerunner of +confederation in '67. The House was given exclusive control of taxation +and expenditure. Nothing awakened Canada so acutely to the necessity of +federating all British North America as the Civil War in the United +States, when the States Right party fought to secede. Red River and +British Columbia had become peopled. The maritime provinces settled by +French from Quebec and New England Loyalists were alien in thought from +Upper and Lower Canada. The cry "54-40 or fight," the setting up of a +provisional government by Oregon, the Riel Rebellion in Manitoba, the +rush of California gold miners to Cariboo--all were straws in a restless +wind blowing Canada's destiny hither and whither. Confederation was not +a pocket theory. It was a result born of necessity, and the main +principles of confederation embodied in the British North America Act had +been foreshadowed in Durham's report. Durham himself suffered the fate +of too many of the world's great. He had come out to Canada to settle a +bitter dispute between the little oligarchy round the royal Governor and +the people. He sided with neither and was abjured by both. The +sentences against the patriots he had set aside or softened. The +royalists he condemned but did not punish. Both sides poured charges +against Durham into the office of the Colonial Secretary in England, +Durham died of a broken heart, but his report laid the foundation of +England's future colonial policy. + + +II + +By the British North America Act of 1867, passed by the Imperial +Parliament, Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick came into the +Union. Later Prince Edward Island, Manitoba, the Northwest Territories +and British Columbia joined. Up to the present Newfoundland has stood +aside. Under the British North America Act, Canada is ruled to-day. + +There is first the Imperial government represented by a Governor-General. +The commandant of Canada's regular militia is also an Imperial officer. + +There is second the federal government with executive, legislative and +judicial powers; or a cabinet, a parliament, a supreme court. + +There are third the provincial governments with executive, legislative +and judicial powers. + +Details of each section of government can not be given here; but several +facts should be noted; for they explain the practical workings of +Canada's system. + +The Witenagemot--or Saxon council of wise men--stands for Canada's ideal +of a parliament. It is not so much a question of spoils. It is not so +much a case of "the outs" ejecting "the ins." I have never heard of any +party in Canada taking the ground, "Here--you have been in long enough; +it's our turn." I have never heard a suggestion as to tenure of office +being confined to "one term" for fear of a leader becoming a Napoleon. +If a leader be efficient--and it is thought the more experienced he is, +the more efficient he will be--he can hold office as long as he lives if +the people keep on electing him. + +The Cabinet--or inner council of advisers to the Governor-General--must +be elected by the people and directly responsible to the House. At its +head stands the Premier. + +Within her own jurisdiction Canada's legislature has absolute power. If +her treaties or acts should conflict with Imperial interests, they would +be disallowed by the Imperial Privy Council as unconstitutional, or ultra +vires. Likewise of the provinces, if any of their acts conflicted with +federal interests, they would be disallowed as ultra vires. + +Should the Governor-General differ from the Cabinet in office, he must +either recede from his own position or dismiss his advisers and send them +to the country for the verdict of the people. Should the people endorse +the Ministry, the Governor-General must either resign or recede from his +stand. I know of no case where such a contingency has arisen. A +Governor-General is careful never to conflict with a Ministry endorsed by +the electorate. + +Once a man has received an appointment to a position in the civil service +of Canada he must keep absolutely aloof from politics. This is not a law +but it is a custom, the violation of which would cost a man his position. + +The Parliament in the Dominion consists of the Commons and the Senate. +The Commons are elected by the people. The Senators are appointed by the +Governor-General, strictly under advice of the party in office, for life. +Senators must be thirty years of age and possess property over four +thousand dollars in value above their liabilities. The Senator resides +in the district which he represents. The Commoner may represent a +district in which he does not reside, and, on the whole, this is more of +an advantage than a disadvantage. It permits a district that has special +needs to choose a man of great character and power resident in another +district. If he fails to meet the peculiar needs of that district, he +will not be reelected. If he meets the needs of the district which he +represents he has the additional prestige of his influence in another +electoral district. A Senator can be removed for only four reasons: +bankruptcy, absence, change of citizenship, conviction of crime. + +At a time when the United States is so generally in favor of the election +of Senators by direct vote, when England is trending so preponderately in +favor of curbing the veto power of the House of Lords, it seems +remarkable that Canada never questions the power of the Senator appointed +for life. + +Though officially supposed to be appointed by the Governor-General, the +Senator is in reality never appointed except on recommendation of the +prevailing Cabinet which means--the party in power. The appointments +being for life and the emolument sufficient to guarantee a good living +conformable with the style required by the official position, the Senator +appointed for life--like the judge appointed for life--soon shows himself +independent of purely party behests. He is depended upon by the +Commoners to veto and arrest popular movements, which would be inimical +to public good, but which the Commoner dare not defeat for fear of defeat +in reelection. For instance, a few years ago a labor bill was introduced +in the Commons as to compensation for injuries. In theory, it was all +right. In practice, it was a blackmail levy against employers. The +Commoners did not dare reject it for fear of the vote in one particular +province. What they did was meet the Senate in unofficial caucuses. +They said: We shall pass this bill all three readings; but we depend on +you--the Senate--to reject it. We can go to the province and say we +passed the bill and ask for the support of that province; but because the +bill would be inimical to the best interests of other provinces, we +depend on you, the Senate, to defeat it. And the Senate defeated it. + +When older democracies are curtailing the strength of veto power in upper +houses, it is curious to find this dependence of a young democracy on +veto power. Instead of the life privileges leading to an abuse of +insolence and Big Business, up to the present in Canada, life tenure +independent of politics has led to independence. The appointments being +for life guarantees that many of the incumbents are not young, and this +imparts to the Upper House that quality of the Witenagemot most valued by +the ancient Saxons--the council of the aged and the experienced and the +wise. + +Active, aggressive power, of course, resides chiefly with the Commons. +Representation here is arranged according to the population and must be +readjusted after every census. "Rep. by Pop." was the rallying cry that +effected this arrangement. No property qualification is required from +the member of the House of Commons, but he must be a British subject. He +must not have been convicted of any crime, minor or major. + +Franchise in Canada is practically universal suffrage. At least it +amounts to that. Voters must be registered. They must be British +subjects. They must be twenty-one years of age. They must not be +insane, idiots or convicts. They must own real property to the value of +three hundred dollars in cities, two hundred dollars in towns, one +hundred and fifty dollars in the country; or they must have a yearly +income of three hundred dollars. A farmer's son has the right to vote +without these qualifications, evidently on the ancient Saxon presumption +that a free-holder represents more vitally the interests of a country +than the penniless floater, who neither works nor earns. In other words, +the carpet-bag voter does not yet play any part in Canadian politics. +Bad as the corruption is in some cases among the foreigners, when votes +are bought at two dollars to five dollars, the point has not yet been +reached when a carpet-bag gang of boarding-house floaters and saloon +heelers can be transferred from a secure ward to a doubtful ward and so +submerge the political rights of permanent residents. + +Judges can not vote in Canada. In fact, they can take no part, direct or +indirect, by influence or speech, in politics. This was one of the +things fought out in the '37 Rebellion and forever settled. Canada could +not conceive of a man who had been a judge being nominated for the +premiership or as Governor. Of course, when Liberals are in power, as +advisers of the Governor-General, they recommend more Liberals for +judgeships than Conservatives; and when Conservatives are in power, they +recommend for judgeships more Conservatives than Liberals. I think of +attorneys who were penniless strugglers in the Liberal ranks of my +childhood days in Winnipeg who are to-day dignified judges; and I think +of other attorneys, who were penniless strugglers in Conservative ranks +who have been advanced under the Borden regime to judgeships; but the +point is, having been so advanced, they pass a chasm which they can never +retrace without impeachment--the chasm is party politics. They are +independent of popular favor. They can be impeached and displaced. They +are forever disgraced by defalcation in office. By observing the duties +of office, they are secure for life and held in an esteem second only to +that of the Governor-General. + +You will notice that it is all more a matter of public sentiment than a +law; of custom than of court. That is what I mean when I say that +Canada's constitution is a vital, living, growing thing, not a dead +formula by which the Past binds and impedes the Present and the Future. + +There must be a session of the Dominion Parliament once every year. Five +years is the limit of any tenure of office by the Commons. Every five +years the Commoners must go to the country for reelection. Usually the +government in power goes to the country for reendorsement before the term +of Parliament expires. + +Laws on corrupt practices are very strict and what is more--they are +generally enforced. The slightest profit, direct or indirect of a +member, vacates his seat. Corruption on the part of underlings, of which +they have known nothing, vacates an election. A member of Parliament can +not participate directly or indirectly in any public work benefiting his +district. He is not in it for what he can get out of it. He is in it +for what he can give to it. Expenses of election to a postage stamp must +be published after election. + +The methods of conducting business in Parliament need not be discussed +here, except to say that any member can introduce a bill, any member can +present a petition from the humblest inhabitant of the commonwealth, and +any member can speak on a motion provided he gains the floor first. + +Judges are appointed and paid by the Dominion government, not by the +provincial. Decisions by provincial judges--appointed by the Dominion +government--can be appealed to a Supreme Court of Canada. Judges can be +removed only on petition to the Governor-General for misbehavior. + +Dominion taxes in Canada are indirect--on imports. As stated elsewhere, +the main power in Canada is vested in federal authorities. Only local +affairs--education, excise, municipal matters, drainage, local railroads, +etc.--are left to the provinces. + +Every man in Canada is supposed to be liable for military training if +called on, but the number of men annually drilled is about fifty +thousand. Hitherto a man appointed from the Imperial Forces has been the +commanding general in Canada. It need scarcely be said that if Canada is +to hold her own in Imperial plans, if she is to become a power in the +struggle for ascendency on the Pacific, her equipment both as to land +forces and marine are ridiculously inadequate. They are the equipment of +a member in Imperial plans who is skulking his share. + +Provincial courts are, of course, administered by provincial officers; +but these are appointed by the Governor-General advised by the Cabinet of +the federal party in power. The Lieutenant-Governor of the province is +appointed by the Governor-General advised by the party in power. He is +paid by the Dominion. Judges of superior courts must be barristers of +ten years' good standing at the bar of their provinces. All judges and +justices of the peace must have some property qualification. Rascals +with criminal records are not railroaded into judgeships in Canada. I +know of a judge in San Francisco who until the advent of the woman vote +literally held his position by reason of his alliance with the white +slavers. I know of another judge in New York who held his position in +spite of a criminal record by reason of the fact he could get himself +elected by the disreputable gangs. These things are virtually impossible +under the Canadian system. In the future the system may prove too rigid. +At the present time it works and keeps the courts clear of political +influence. + +Juries are not so universal in Canada as in the United States. In civil +cases, where the points of law are complicated, the tendency is to let +the judge guide the verdict of the court. + + +III + +There is one feature of Canadian justice which sentimentalists deplore. +It is that the lash is still used for crimes of violence against the +person and for bestiality. This is not a relic of barbarism. It is the +result of careful thought on the part of the Department of Justice--the +thought being that it is useless to speak to a man capable of bestiality +in terms not articulate to his nature; and the fact remains that +criminals of this class seldom come back for second terms of punishment +for the same sort of crimes. + +If you ask why few homicides are punished in the United States, and few +escape in Canada--I can not answer. Political expediency, party heelers, +technicalities--the dotting of an i, the crossing of a t, the omission of +a comma--have no effect whatsoever on Canadian justice. The courts are +never defied, and the law takes its course. + +The law not only takes its course relentlessly but the pursuit of crime +literally never desists. This feature of Canadian justice is a rude +sharp shock to the unruly element pouring in with the new colonists. A +Montana gunman blew into a Canadian frontier town and in accordance with +custom began "to shoot up" the bar rooms. In twenty-four hours he +awakened from his spree under sentence of sixty days' hard labor. "Let +me out of this blamed Can-a-day," he cursed. "Who'd 'a' thought of +takin' any offense from touchin' up this blamed dead town?" + +A Texas outlaw succeeded in inducing a young Englishman of the verdantly +bumptious and moneyed sort to go homestead hunting with him. The Indians +saw the two ride into the back country. In spring only the Texan came +out. I forget what his explanation of the Englishman's disappearance +was. In any other country under the sun, who would have ridden two +hundred miles beyond nowhere to investigate the story of an outlaw about +a young fool, who had plainly been a candidate for trouble? But an old +Indian chief meandered into the barracks of the nearest Mounted Police +station, sat him down on the floor and after smoking countless pipes let +drop the fact that two settlers had "gone in" and only "one man--he come +out." That was enough. Two policemen were detailed on the case. They +rode to the abandoned homesteads. In the deserted log cabin nothing +seemed amiss, but some distance away on a bluff a stained ax was found; +yet farther away a mound not a year old. Beneath it the remains of the +Englishman were found with ax hacks in the skull. It was now a year +since the commission of the crime and the murderer was by this far enough +away. Why put the country to the expense of trailing down a criminal who +had decamped? Those two young Mounted Policemen were told to find the +criminal and not come back till they had found him. They trailed him +from Alberta to Montana, from Montana to the Orient, from China back to +Texas, where he was found on a homestead of his own. Now the proof of +murder was of the most tenuous sort. One of the Mounted Policemen +disguised himself as a laborer and obtained work on an adjoining +homestead. It took two years to gain the criminal's confidence and +confession. The man was arrested and extradited to Canada. If I +remember rightly, the trial did not last a week, and the murderer was +hanged forthwith. + +Instances of this kind could be retailed without number, but this one +case is typical. It is something more than relentlessness. It is more +than keeping politics out of the courts. It is a tacit national +recognition of two basic truths: that the protection of innocence is the +business of the courts more than the protection of guilt; that having +delegated to the Department of Justice the enforcement of criminal law, +Canada holds that Department of Justice responsible for every infraction +of law. The enforcement is greatly aided by the fact that criminal law +in Canada is under federal jurisdiction. An embezzler can not defalcate +in Nova Scotia, lightly skip into Manitoba and put both provinces to +expense and technical trouble apprehending him. In the States I once was +annoyed by a semi-demented blackmailer. When I sent for the +sheriff--whose deputy, by the way, hid when summoned--the lunatic stepped +across the state border, and it would have cost me two hundred dollars to +have apprehended him. As the culprit was a menace more to the community +than to me, I went on west on a trip to a remote part of Alberta. I had +not been in Alberta twenty-four hours before the chief constable called +to know if this blackmailer of whom he had read in the press, could be +apprehended in Canada. The why of this vigilance on one side of the line +and remissness on the other, I can no more explain than why American +industrial progress is so amazingly swift and Canadian industrial +progress is so amazingly slow. + +There is very little wish-washy coddling of the criminal in Canada. +While in the penitentiary he is cared for physically, mentally and +spiritually. When released, he is helped to start life afresh; but if he +keeps falling and falling, he is put where he will not propagate his +species and hurt others in his back-sliding. + +"I regret," said a judge in a Winnipeg court, "to sentence such a +youthful offender." The prisoner was a young foreigner who attacked +another man viciously in a drunken brawl. "But foreigners must learn +that Canadian law can not be broken with impunity," and he sent the young +man to what was practically a life sentence. + +"Hard on the poor devil," said a court attendant. + +"Yes," retorted a westerner who lived in the foreign settlement, "but +it's an all-fired good thing for Canada." + +The case of a judge in British Columbia is famous on the Pacific Coast. +It was in the old days of murder and robbery on the trail to the gold +diggings of Cariboo. In the face of the plainest evidence the jury had +refused to convict. The astounded judge turned amid tense silence in +fury on the prisoner. + +"The jury pronounces the prisoner not guilty," he said, "and I strongly +recommend him to go out and cut their throats." + +Reference has been made to an Imperial court official assassinated by an +angry Hindu conspirator in a Vancouver court room. The assassin was +sentenced to death nine days from the commission of the crime, and if any +newspaper had attempted to make a head-line affair out of it, or "to try +the jury" for trying the prisoner, the editors and owners of that paper +would have been sent to jail for contempt. + + +IV + +The gradual rise of the two political parties dates from the adoption of +a high tariff by the Conservatives after confederation. Prior to 1837 +Canadian parties consisted simply of the Outs and the Ins. The advanced +Radicals, who formed themselves into a party to oust the Family Compact, +called themselves Liberals. The entrenched oligarchy called themselves +Conservatives. After confederation, by force of circumstances, namely +the refusal of tariff concessions from the United States, the +Conservatives, who were in power, became the high tariff party. The +Liberals, when out of power, advocated tariff for revenue only. Also by +force of circumstances until the transfer of the balance of power from +Quebec to the New West, the party in office had a tendency to play for +the French Catholic vote of Quebec; the party out of office coquetted +with the ultra-Protestant vote of Ontario. This naturally worked toward +the provincial governments being Liberal, when the federal government was +Conservative; and vice versa. The Liberal in provincial politics was +Liberal in federal politics, and the Conservative in federal politics was +Conservative in provincial politics; but the policy has always been for +the Outs first to attack the Ins provincially--to win the outposts before +attacking the entrenched power of the federal government. Before Sir +John Macdonald's Conservative administration was defeated there was a +long series of victories by the Liberals in the provinces, and before Sir +Wilfred Laurier's Liberal government was defeated the Conservatives had +captured the most of the provincial governments. With the Conservatives +professing high tariff as economic salvation and the Liberals regarding +high tariff as economic damnation, it seems almost heresy to set down +that the line of demarkation between the two great parties in practice is +really one of Outs and Ins. The only tariff reductions made by the +Liberals were on British imports, and this did not lower the average on +British imports to the level of the average duty on American imports; +when the high tariff Conservatives came back to power, the duties were +not shoved to higher levels. This, too, has all been by force of +circumstances. When both parties would have grasped eagerly at tariff +reductions from the United States, those concessions could not be +obtained. When the tariff concessions were offered, Canada had already +built up such intrenched interests of her own in factory, mill and +transportation that she was not in a position to accept the offer. +Laurier did not see this, but many of his party did and refused to +support him in reciprocity. + +At time of writing, to an outsider, there is in practice no difference +between the two parties; but this can hardly remain a permanent +condition. As long as the war lasts both parties will be a unit in +support of Imperial defense. The day the war is over Canada may have to +consider, not Imperial, but Dominion defense; and this is bound to split +the parties up on entirely new lines. The French Nationalists are for +standing aside from all European entanglements and resting secure under +the Monroe Doctrine. The two million Americans in the West may be +expected to advocate the same policy. The British and the Canadians of +British descent in Canada may be expected to take an aggressive stand for +active self-defense; for defense may be one of Canada's next big problems. + +Up to the present, Canadians have considered it a superiority that their +constitution--the British North America Act--could be so easily amended. +As long as Canada is peopled by Canadians, it is an advantage to work +under a constitution that may be modified to suit the growing need of a +growing nation, but one is constrained to ask what if Galicians and +Germans ever acquired the balance of voting power in Canada? There are +half as many German-born Germans in the United States as there are +native-born Canadians in Canada. What if such a tide of German +immigration came to Canada? Would it be an advantage or a disadvantage +that the country's constitution could be so easily amended by the +Imperial Parliament? Or more striking still, suppose the Hindu, a +British subject, began peopling Western Canada by the million. Suppose +the Hindu, a British subject, voted in Canada for a change in the +constitution! Can one conceive for one minute of the Imperial government +refusing to amend the British North American Act? Canadians sometimes +refer to the American Constitution as too fixed and inelastic for modern +conditions. They sometimes wonder how certain famous constitutional +lawyers could make a living without the American Constitution to +interpret and argue before the Supreme Court, but Americans and Canadians +are to-day working out from different angles a great world experiment in +self-government. It remains to be seen which experiment will stand the +stress of world-convulsing changes. We need not theorize. Time will +arbitrate. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE LIFE OF THE PEOPLE + +I + +Some one has said that the life of a nation is but the shadow of the +units composing it; or the life of a nation is but the replica of the +life of the individuals in it. Massed figures on gross exports are but +the total thrift of a multitude of toiling men. Wheat production to +feed a hungry empire is but one farmer's tireless vigilance multiplied +by hundreds of thousands of other farmers. What manner of man is the +Canadian behind all these figures attesting material prosperity? What +manner of being is the Canadian woman, his partner? Is the Canadian a +Socialist, or an Individualist? Does he believe that each man should +stand upon his own feet or lean upon a state crutch? There is no state +church in Canada. Then, what part does religion play? Is it a shadow, +or a substance? Is it a refuge for the unfit and the weak to shift the +responsibility for their own failure to the fatalism of the will of +God; or is religion a terrible and dynamic force that compels right for +right's sake independent of compromise? How does the Canadian live in +his home? Is he beer-drinking, lethargic, dreamy and flabby in will +power; or is he whisky-drinking, fiery, practical and pugnacious? Why +hasn't he a distinctive literature, a distinctive art? Nature never +was more lavish to any people in beautiful landscape from the quiet +rural scenery of the maritime provinces, Quebec and Ontario, to the +far-flung epic of the fenceless prairies and the Homeric grandeur of +the mountains. Why are quiet rural beauty and illimitable freedom and +lofty splendor not reflected in poem and novel and ballad and picture? +The Canadian may answer--We go in more for athletics than aesthetics: +we are living literature, not writing it. In our snow-covered prairies +edged by the violet mist, lined in silver and pricked at night by the +diamond light of a million stars, we are living art, not painting it. +That our mountains are dumb and inarticulate, that our forests chant +the litany of the pines untranslated to the winds of heaven, and that +our cataracts thunder their diapasons inimitable to art--is no proof +that though we are dumb and inarticulate, we are not lifted and +transported and inspired by the wondrous beauties of the heritage God +has given us. The Canadian may say this theoretically, but is he +strengthened in body and made greater in soul by the mystic splendors +of his country? In a word, has the Canadian found himself? He is not +self-conscious, if that be what is meant by finding self; and that may +be a good thing; for self-consciousness is of one of two things--the +vanity of femininity in its adolescence, or the picayune pecking +introspection of natures thrown in on self instead of exuberantly +spending energy in effort outside of self. Self-consciousness is too +much ego, whether it be old or young; and the devil must be cast out +into the swine over the cliff into the sea, before there can enter into +men, or nations, that Spirit of God which makes for great service in +Destiny. + +Has Canada found herself? + + +II + +Without any brief for or against Socialism as a system, it may be said +that for many years Socialism will play little part in Canadian +affairs. In areas like Germany, where the population is three hundred +and ten per square mile; or France, where the population is one hundred +and eighty-nine per square mile; or England, where the population is +over five hundred per square mile; or Saxony, where the population is +eight hundred and thirty per square mile--one can understand the claim +of the most rabid and extreme Socialist that the great proportion of +the people can never by any chance own their own freehold; that the +great proportion of the toilers are not having a fair chance in an open +field; but in Canada where there are millions of acres untaken, where +the population is not quite two to the square mile, it is impossible to +raise the cry that every man, and any man, can not have all the +freehold he is manly enough to go out and take. The grievance becomes +preposterous and a joke. There is more land uninhabited and open to +preemption in Canada than is owned in freehold. There are more forests +standing in Canada than have been cut. There are more mines than there +are workmen, and only the edge of Canada's mineral lands have been +explored. There are more fish uncaught than have ever been hooked. I +have heard soap-box orators in Canada rant about the plutocrats +gobbling the resources of the country; and I have gone to their offices +and shown them on the map that any man could become a plutocrat by +going out and gobbling some more, provided he had brains and brawn and +gobbled hard enough instead of gabbled; and I have been answered these +very words: "But we don't want that. We want to inflame the masses +with hatred for the classes so that the laborer will take over all +industry." When I have pointed out that there are "no masses" nor +"classes" in Canada--that all are laborers, I have been met with a +blank stare. + +The case is a standing joke in one province of a man who as an agitator +used to rave at "the British flag as a bloody rag." The police were +never quite sure whether to arrest him for treason or let him blow off +steam and exhaust. They wisely chose the latter course. Prosperity +came to the town. The man sold his small bit of real estate for +something under a hundred thousand. He didn't stay to divide his +unearned increment among his fellow agitators. He hied him to retire +to the land where "the flag was a bloody rag." This, of course, proves +nothing for or against Socialism as a system. There was a Judas among +the apostles; but it illustrates the point that Canada is still at the +stage where every man may become a capitalist, a vested righter, the +owner of his own freehold. When every man may have a vested property +right in a country--not as a gift but as the reward of his own effort +in a fair field with no favors--it is a fairly safe prophecy that the +vested rights earned and held by the fit and the strong will never be +handed over as a gift to the unfit and the weak and the don't-trys. +The savings of the man who has not squandered his earnings on saloons +and reckless living will never be taxed to support in idleness--even an +idle old age--the feckless who have spent on stomach and lust what +other men save. Sounds hard; doesn't it, in the face of almost +universal nostrums for the salvation and propagation of the useless? +But it is like Canada's climate. Perhaps the climate has a good deal +to do with it. Hard it may be; but the issue is clean-cut and crystal +clear--work, or starve; be fit, or die; make good, or drop out; here is +a fair field and no favors! Gird yourself as a man to it, and no +puling puny whining for pity! + +Can Canada keep a fair field and no favors? Her destiny as a power +depends on the answer to that question. In every city in Canada to-day +are growing up crowded foreign quarters peopled by men and women who +have never had a fair field--with class hate in their hearts for +inherited social wrongs; derelicts, no-goods, unfits, born unfit +through no fault of their own. Have they no claim? Can Canada as a +foster mother redeem such as these? Her destiny as a power depends on +the answer to this question, too. These people are coming to her. In +every city are tens of thousands of them. She needs these people. +They need her. Will it be a leveling down process for Canada or a +leveling up process for them? Before the nineties the average number +of inhabitants per house in urban Canada was three. By 1901 the +average was up to four. By 1911 it was up to five. In the crowded +centers as many as twenty a room have been found. If this sort of +thing continue and increase, Socialism will become a factor in Canada. +It will become a factor because every man or woman who has not had a +fair chance has a right to demand a change to a system that will give a +fair chance. Canada's economic stability and freedom from social +unrest will depend on getting her foreign denizens out to the land. +Unfortunately high tariff fosters factory; and factory fosters cheap +foreign labor; and cheap foreign labor as inevitably leads to social +ferment as heat sours milk. + + +III + +What part does religion play in Canada? In marked distinction to the +United Kingdom and the United States, Canada is a church-going nation. +You hear a great deal of the orthodoxy of the Britisher; but if you go +to England and go to his church, even to a festal service such as +Christmas, you will find that he leaves the orthodoxy mostly to the +clergy and the women. I have again and again seen the pews of the most +famous churches in England with barely a scattering of auditors in +them. Of churches where the hard-working manual toiler may be found +side by side with the cultured and the idle and the leisured--there is +none. You also hear a great deal about the heterodoxy of the American; +but if you go to his church--with the exception of the Catholic--you +find that he, too, is leaving his heterodoxy to the clergy and the +women. A few years ago it was almost impossible to gain entrance to a +metropolitan church in the United States, where the preacher happened +to be a man of ability or fame. Try it to-day! Though church music +has been improved almost to the excellence of oratorios or grand opera, +unless it be a festal service like Easter or Christmas, the pews are +only sparsely filled. I do not think I am exaggerating when I say this +is as true of the country districts as of the city. All through New +England are countless country churches that have had to be permanently +closed for lack of attendance. But between the churches of the United +Kingdom and the United States is a marked difference--it is the air of +the preacher. The Englishman is positively sublime in his +unconsciousness of the fact that he had lost a grip of his people. The +American knows and does not blink the fact and is frantically +endeavoring by social service, by popular lectures, by music, by +current topics, by vehement eloquence to regain the grip of his people; +and it must cut a live manly man to the quick to know that his best +efforts on salvation are too often expended on dear old saintly ladies, +who could not be damned if they tried. + +Now the curious thing about Canada, which I don't attempt in the least +to explain, is this: whether the preacher pules, or whines, or moons, +or shouts to the rafters, or is gifted with the eloquence to touch "the +quick and the dead"; whether the music be a symphony or a dolorous +horror of discords; whether there be social service or old-fashioned +theology; whether, in fact, the preacher be some raw ignorant stripling +from the theological seminary, or a man of divine inspiration and +power--whatever is or is not, if the church is a church, from Halifax +to Vancouver, you find it full. I have no explanation of this fact. I +set it down. Canadians are a vigorously virile people in their +church-going. They do it with all their might. I sometimes think that +the church does for Canada what music does for continental nations, +what dollar-chasing and amusement do for the American nation--opens +that great emotional outlet for the play of spiritual powers and +idealization, which we must all have if we would rise above the +gin-horse haltered to the wheel of toil. "The Happy Warrior" in Watts' +picture dreamed of the spirit face above him in his sleep. So may +Canada dream in her tireless urgent business of nation-making; and +religion may visualize that dream through the church. + +Understand--the Canadian is no more religious than the American or the +Britisher. He drinks as much whisky as they do light wines and beer. +He "cusses" in the same unholy vernacular, only more vigorously. He +strikes back as quickly. He hits as hard. He gives his enemy one +cheek and then the other, and then both feet and fists; but the +Canadian goes to church. One of the most amazing sights of the new +frontier cities is to see a church debouching of a Sunday night. The +people come out in black floods. In one foreign church in Winnipeg is +a membership of four thousand. I think of a little industrial city of +Ontario where there is a church--one of three--with a larger membership +than any single church in the city of New York. + +Canadians not only go to church but they dig down in their pockets for +the church. In little frontier cities of the West more is being spent +on magnificent temples of worship than has been spent on some European +cathedrals. Granted the effects are sometimes garish and squarish and +dollar-loud. This is not an age when artisans spend a lifetime carving +a single door or a single facade; but when a little place--of say +seventeen thousand people--spends one hundred thousand dollars on a +church, somebody has laid down the cash; and the Canadian is not a man +who spends his cash for no worth. That cash represents something for +which he cares almightily in Canadian life. What is it? Frankly I do +not know, but I think it is that the church visualizes Canada's ideal +in a vision. We love and lose and reach forward to the last. Where? +We toil and strive and attain. To what end? Our successes fail, and +our failures succeed. Why? And love lights the daily path. But where +to? Religion helps to visualize the answers to those questions for +Canada. + +Another characteristic about religion in Canada, which is very +remarkable in an era of decadence in belief, is that the church is a +man's job. Unless in some of the little semi-deserted hamlets in the +far East, you will find in Canada churches as many men as women. In +the West you will find more men than women. The church is not +relegated to "the dear sisters." Shoulder to shoulder men and women +carry the burden joyfully together, which, perhaps, accounts for the +support the church receives from young men. An episode concerning "the +dear sisters" will long be remembered of one synod in Montreal. A poor +little English curate had come out as a missionary to the Indians of +the Northwest. Such misfits are pitiable, as well as laughable. When +you consider that in some of these northern parishes a man can reach +his different missions only by canoe or dog-train, that the missions +are forty miles apart, that the canoe must run rapids and the dog-train +dare blizzards--an effeminate type of man is more of a tragedy than a +comedy. I think of one mission where the circuit is four hundred miles +and the distance to railroad, doctor, post-office, fifty-five miles. +This little curate had had a hard time, though his mission was an easy +one. When his turn came to report, his face resembled the reflection +on an inverted teaspoon. Hardship had taken all the bounce and laugh +and joy and rebound out of him. The other frontier missionaries grew +restless as he spoke. One magnificent specimen, who had been a gambler +in his unregenerate days, began to shuffle uneasily. When the little +curate whined about the vices of the Indians, this big frontier +missionary pulled off his coat. (He explained to me that it was "a hot +night"; besides it "made him mad to hear the poor Indians damned for +their vices, when white men, who passed as gentlemen, had more.") +Finally, when the little curate appealed to "the dear sisters to raise +money to build a fence," the big man could stand it no longer. He +ripped his collar loose and sprang to his feet. "Man," he thundered, +"pull off your coat and build your own fence and don't trouble the Lord +about such trifles. I'm rich on thirty dollars a year. When I need +more, I sell a steer. Don't let us bother God-Almighty with such +unmanly puling and whining," and much more, he said--which I have told +elsewhere--which brought that audience to life with the shocks of a +galvanic battery. One of the most successful Indian missionaries in +Canada is a full blood Cree. It does not detract from his services in +the least that if in the middle of his prayers he hears the wild geese +coming in spring, he bangs the Holy Book shut and shouts for the +congregation to grab their guns and get a shot. + +The virile note in religious life is one of the chief reasons for its +support in Canada; and I have been amused to watch English and American +friends who have gone to Canada first indifferent to the church-going +habit, then touched and finally caught in the current. Does the habit +react on public life? Undoubtedly and most strongly! Catholic Quebec +and Protestant Ontario for years literally dictated provincial and +federal policies; but, with the shift of the balance of power from East +to West, that shuffling of Catholic against Protestant and vice versa +has ceased in Canadian politics; and those newspapers that gained their +support playing on religious prejudice have had to sell and begin with +a new sheet. At the same time no policy could be put forward in +Canada, no man could stay in public life against the voice of the +different churches. If it were not invidious, examples could be given +of public men relegated to private life because they violated the +principles for which the church stands. The church in Canada is not a +dead issue. It is not the city of refuge for the failures and the +misfits. It voices the ideals of Canadian men and women busy +nation-building. It has been cynically said that the church in +England, as far as public men are concerned, lays all its emphasis on +the Eighth Commandment, and none at all on the Seventh; and that the +church in the United States lays all its emphasis on the Seventh +Commandment and none at all on the Eighth. I do not think a politician +could be a special acrobat with either of these Commandments and stay +in public life in Canada. The clergy would "peel off" those coats and +roll up their sleeves and get into the fight. There would be a lot of +mud-slinging; but the culprit would go--as not a few have gone in +recent years. + + +IV + +Deeply grounded, then, so deeply that the Canadian is unconscious of +it, put the belief in the economic principle of vested rights! Still +more deeply grounded, put a belief in religious ideals as a working +hypothesis! Does any other factor enter deeply in Canadians' every-day +living? Yes--next to economic beliefs and religious beliefs, I should +put love of outdoor sport as a prime factor in determining Canadian +character. + +Professional sport has comparatively little place in Canada, though +professional baseball has gained a firm foothold in the Northwest, +where the American influence is strong, while the International League +reaches over the boundary in the East. But it is the amateur who +enjoys most favor. If a picked team of bank clerks and office hands +and young mechanics in Winnipeg practises up in hockey and comes down +from Winnipeg and licks the life out of a team in Montreal or Ottawa, +or gets licked, the whole population goes hockey mad. This churchly +nation will gamble itself blue in the face with bets and run up gate +receipts to send a professional home sick to bed, and I have known of +employers forgiving youngsters who bet and lost six months' salary in +advance. Montreal will cheer Winnipeg just as wildly when Winnipeg +wins in Montreal, as Winnipeg will cheer Montreal when Montreal wins in +Winnipeg. It is not the winning. It is the playing of clean good +sport that elicits the applause. The same of curling, of football, of +cricket, of rowing, of canoeing, of snowshoeing, of yachting, of +skeeing, of running. When an Indian won the Marathon, he was lionized +almost to his undoing. When hardest frost used to come, I knew a dear +old university professor, who would have considered it sin to touch the +ace of spades, who used to hie him down to the rink with "bessom" and +"stane" and there curl on the ice till his toes almost froze on his +feet; and one Episcopal clergyman used to have hard work holding back +hot words of youthful habit on the golf links; and his people loved him +both because he golfed and because he almost said things, when he +golfed. They would rather have a clergyman who golfed and knew "a cuss +word" when he saw it, than a saint who couldn't wield a club and might +faint at such words as golf elicits. + +In one of Canada's best rowing crews, a millionaire merchant was the +acting captain of the crew and among his men were a printer, an +insurance canvasser, a bank clerk, a clerk in a dry goods store. In +one of the most famous hockey teams was a bicycle repairer. Sport in +Canada, as in the United States, is the most absolute democracy. I can +think of no man in Canada who has attained a permanently good place in +social life through catering to women's favor with dandified +mannerisms, though not a few have got a leg up to come most terrible +croppers; but I do think of many men to whom all doors are permanently +open because they are such clean first-rate sportsmen. Until the last +ten years of opulent fevered prosperity came to the Dominion, Canada +might have been described as a nation of athletes. This does not mean +that Canada neglected work for play. It means that she worked so +robustly because she had developed strength on the field of play. +Three truths are almost axiomatic about nations and sport. It is said +that a nation is as it spends its leisure; that nations only win +battles as their boys have played in their youth; that man's work is +only boy's sport full grown. The religious little catechist may win +prizes in the parochial school; but if he doesn't learn to take kicks +and give them good and hard, in play, he will not win life's prizes. +Fair play, nerve, poise, agility, act that jumps with thought, the +robust fronting of life's challenge--these are learned far more on the +toboggan slide where you may break your neck, in a snowshoe scamper, +than poring over books, or in a parlor. I do not know that Canada has +analyzed it out, but she lives it. Young Canada may be bumptious, raw, +crude. Time tones these things down; but she is not tired before she +has begun the race. She is not nerve-collapsed and peeved and +insincere. + + +V + +As to why Canada has no distinctive and great literature--I confess +frankly I do not know. England had only Canada's population when a +Shakespeare and a Milton rose like stars above the world. Scotland and +Ireland both have a smaller population than Canada, and their ballads +are sung all over the world. Canada has had a multitude of sweet +singers pipe the joys of youth, but as life broadened and deepened +their songs did not reach to the deeps and the heights. Something +arrested development. They did not go on. Why? It may be that +literature rises only as high as its fountain springs--the people; and +that the people of Canada have not yet realized themselves clearly +enough to recognize or give articulation to a national literature. It +may be that Canada is living her literature rather than writing it. If +Scott had not found appreciation for his articulation of Scottish life +and history in poems and novels, he would not have gone on. In fact, +when Byron eclipsed Scott in public favor as a poet, Scott stopped +writing poetry. It may be that Canada has not become sufficiently +unified--cemented in blood and suffering--to appreciate a literature +that distinctively interprets her life and history. It may be that she +has been swamped by the alien literature of alien lands, for the +writers of English to-day are legion. Or it may be the deeper cause +beneath the dearth of world literature just now--lack of that peace, +that joyous calm, that repose of soul and freedom from distraction, +that permits a creator to give of his best. + +One sometimes hears Canadians--particularly in England--accused of +crudity in speech. I confess I like the crudities, the rawness, the +colloquialisms. They smack of the new life in a new land. I should be +sorry if Canadians ever began to Latinize their sentences, to "can" +their speech and pickle it in the vinegar pedantry of the peeved +study-chair critic. Because it is a land of mountain pines and +cataracts and wild winds, I would have their speech smack always of +their soil; and I would bewail the day that Canadians began to measure +their phrases to suit the yard stick of some starveling pedant in a +writer's attic, who had never been nearer reality than his own +starvation. I can see no superiority in the Englishman's +colloquialisms of "runnin'," "playin'," "goin'," to the Canadian's "cut +it out," "get out," "beat it." One is the slovenliness of languor. +The other is the rawness of vigor. + + +VI + +When one comes to consider woman in a nation's life, it is always a +little provoking to find "woman" and "divorce" coupled together; for +there never was a divorce without a man involved as well as a woman. +The marriage tie is not easily dissolved in Canada. Divorce pleas must +go before a committee of the Federal Senate. Without legal fees, it +costs five hundred dollars to obtain a divorce in Canada; with fees, +one thousand dollars; so that Canada's divorce record is 1,530 for +7,800,000 of population in 1913; or one divorce for every 5,000 people. +This seems a laudably low record, and Canada takes great credit to +herself for it. I am not sure she should, for her system makes divorce +a luxury available only to the rich. Divorce is not a cause. It is a +result. I am not sure that people ill-mated do not do more harm to +their children staying together than separating; and marriage is not +for the man or the woman, but for the race. This opinion, however, +would be considered heresy in Canada, and a great many factors conspire +to help woman's status in the Dominion. To begin with, there are half +a million more men than women. A woman need never give herself so +cheaply as to spend her life paying for her precipitancy. She is not a +superfluous. Another point in which some other countries could emulate +Canada is in the protection of women and children. A woman ill-mated +has the same protection under the law as though she were single. +Infringement of her rights is punishable with penalties varying from +seven years and the lash to death. A man living on a woman's illicit +earnings is not coddled by ward heelers and let off with light bail, as +in certain notorious California cases. He is given the lash and seven +years. Such offenders seldom come up for sentence twice. + +On the other hand, compared to punishments for property violations, the +protection of women and children is ridiculously inadequate. A man +abducting a girl is liable to sentence of five years; a man stealing a +cow, to sentence of fourteen years. Counterfeiting coin is punished by +life imprisonment. Misusing a ward or employee is punished by two +years' imprisonment. This remissness is no index to a subordinate +position by women in Canada. It is rather simple testimony to the fact +that before the influx of alien peoples certain types of crime were +unknown. + +There is little of sex unrest in Canada. In fact, sex as sex is not in +evidence, which is a symptom of wholesome relationships. Perhaps I +should say there is little of that feminine discontent and revolt so +strident in older lands. This I attribute to two facts: an overplus of +men, and boundless opportunity and freedom for the expenditure of +unused energies. In certain sections of England, women over-balanced +men before the war as ten to one. What the over-balance will be after +the war, one can only guess. When women who want to marry are not +married, or married to types different from themselves--which must +happen when the sexes are in disproportion--unhappiness must result. +Woman is at war, she knows not with what. When women who are full of +energy and ability have nothing to do, there is bound to be +unhappiness. In Canada a woman has perfect freedom to do anything she +chooses. Her opportunity is limited only by her own personality. What +she wills, she may, if she can. If she can't, then her quarrel must be +with self, not with life. Children can not choose their parents; but a +woman can choose the parent of her child; and when her choice is high +and wide and happy, it bodes better for the race than when conditions +have forced her into an alliance that must be more or less of an armed +truce on a low plane. + +As an example of the fairness of marriage laws in Canada, if a +fur-trader marry an Indian woman--according to the custom of the tribe, +simply taking her to wife without ceremony, she is his legal heir, and +her children are his legal heirs. This was established in a famous +trial in the courts of Quebec. A trader became contractor and +politician. When prosperity came, he discarded his Indian wife and +married an English girl. On his death the Indian wife and children +sued for his estate. It was awarded to them by the courts and +established a precedent that guaranteed social status to the children +of such unions. This is one of the things that easterners can not +comprehend. I have never heard the opprobrious phrase "squaw man" used +on the Canadian frontier; and descendants of the MacKenzies, the +Isbisters, the Hardistys, the Strathconas, the Macleans, the +MacLeods--blush, not with shame but pride, in acknowledging the Indian +strain of blood. + +The fact that some of the western provinces notoriously ignore a +woman's property rights in her husband's estate--is sometimes quoted to +prove the unfairness of Canada's laws to women. I am no defender of +those lax property laws. They ought to, and will soon, be changed; but +let us give even the devil his dues; and the devil in this case was the +mad real estate speculation. When thousands of adventurers poured in +from everywhere and began buying and selling and reselling property, it +impeded quick turn overs to reserve the absent wife's third. +Sometimes, as in the case of a famous actor, the wives numbered four. +Ordinarily in Canada--certainly in eastern provinces--a third is the +wife's reserve unless she sign it away. How four wives could each have +a third was a poser for the speculator and the knot was cut by ignoring +the wife's claims. Now that the fevered mad mania of speculation is +over this remissness of the law in two provinces will doubtless be +remedied. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +EMIGRATION AND DEVELOPMENT + +I + +You can ascribe the different characteristics of different nations to +the topography of their native land--up to a certain point only. +Beyond that the difference becomes one of psychology and soul rather +than geography, and that is why nations hold to a large extent their +destiny in their own hands. Undoubtedly the unfenced illimitable +reaches of the prairie have reacted on the human soul, unshackling it +from the discouragements of failure in the past and have given a sense +of freedom that explains the dauntless optimism of the West; but if the +people who went to the West had not had the courage to face the +hardships of the pioneer, their optimism could not have triumphed over +difficulties. The very qualities that sent pioneers forth on the trail +to the setting sun guaranteed their success as empire builders. + +Japan was long an island empire, but it was only when the soul of that +empire awakened to the Western Renaissance that Japan became a world +power. The German people existed on the map many centuries before they +came into existence as a nation. It was only when the national idea +came that Germany became a power. Likewise of England as mistress of +the seas--the source of her commerce and wealth. England had been a +seagirt nation from the beginning of time. It was only when by the +defeat of the Armada England learned what mastery of the sea meant that +she shot into front rank as a great world power. + +How does all this bear on Canada? It is a puzzling question. Ask the +average Canadian why the development of Canada has been slow; and he +denies that it has been slow; or he proves that it is a good thing it +has been slow; or he compares Canada's progress with that of some other +country which has gone too fast, or too slow. All this is a mere +clever dodging of fact. Blinking one's eyes to a fact doesn't +eliminate the fact. + + +II + +What are the facts? + +De Monts' first charter to Arcadia dates 1605. The first charter for +Virginia plantations comes in 1606, and the first New England charter +dates the same year. The United States and Canada are both fertile. +They have almost the same area in square miles. One has a population +of over ninety millions and a foreign commerce of four billions. The +other has a population of about eight millions and a foreign commerce +of one billion. One raises from seven hundred to nine hundred million +bushels of wheat; the other, from two hundred to three hundred +millions. One produces thirty million metric tons of steel a year; the +other, less than a million tons; one is worth a hundred and fifty +billion dollars, the other perhaps ten billions. + +It is explained that the northern belt of Canada lying in a semi-arctic +zone should hardly be included in comparisons with the area of the +United States lying altogether in a temperate zone; but if cultivation +is proving one thing more than another, it is that Canada's arctic +region recedes a little every year, and her isothermal lines run a +little farther north every year. To put it differently, it is being +yearly more and more proved that the degree of northern latitude +matters less in vegetable growth than heretofore thought, if the arable +land be there; for the simple reason that twenty hours of sunlight from +May to September force as rapid a growth as twelve to fifteen hours' +sunlight from March to September, and the product grown in the North +may be superior to that grown farther south. Wheat from Manitoba is +better than wheat from Georgia. Apples from Niagara have a quality not +found in apples--say from the Gulf states. All things will not grow in +northern latitudes. You can't raise corn. You can't raise peaches. I +doubt if any apple will ever be found suitable for the northwestern +prairie. At any rate, it has not yet been found. + +Half a century ago the Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company in +perfectly good faith testified before a committee of the Imperial +Commons that farming could never be carried on in Rupert's Land, or +what are now known as Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. He proved +that grain could not be grown there. I recall the day when the idea of +fall wheat west of Lake Superior elicited a hoot of derision. I have +lived to wander through fields of six hundred acres north of the +Saskatchewan. Thirty years ago any one suggesting settlement on Peace +River, or at Athabasca, would have been regarded as a visionary fool. +Yet wheat is ground into flour on Peace River, and the settler is at +Athabasca; and soft Kansas fall wheat sent to Peace River has by a few +years' transplanting been transformed into Number One Hard spring +wheat. Canada's arctic belt has shrunk a little each year, and her +isothermal lines gone a little farther north. The only limit to growth +in the North Country is the nature of the soil. I am not, of course, +speaking of the Arctic slope, but I am of the great belt of wild land +north of Saskatchewan River. And where the arable land stops, the +great fur farm of the world begins---a fur farm which may change but +can never be exhausted. Of course, Canada has a great northern belt of +land that is not arable, but in that belt are such precious minerals as +were discovered in the Yukon. Land that can't be plowed isn't +necessarily waste land, and Canada's great northern belt is partly +balanced by the desert belt of the Southwest in the United States--the +perpetual Indian land of Uncle Sam. + + +III + +With this argument--you come back just where you began. The two +countries were first settled almost contemporaneously. Their area is +not far different. They are both fertile. Each has great +belts--having spent months in each belt, I hesitate to call them +barren--of land that can not be plowed. Why has one country progressed +with such marvelous rapidity; and the other progressed in fits and +starts and stops? Why did a million and a half Canadians--or +one-fourth the native population--leave Canada for the United States? +The Canadian retort always is--for the same reason that two million +Americans have left the United States for Canada--to better their +position. But the point is--why was it these million and a half +Canadians found better opportunities in the United States than in +Canada? Opportunities knock at every man's door if he has ears to +hear, but they are usually supposed to knock loudest and oftenest in +the new land. It is a truism that there are ten chances on the +frontier for a man to rise compared to one in the city. One can +understand American settlers thronging to Canada. They have used and +made good the opportunities in their own land. Now they are sending +their sons to a land of more opportunities. The Iowa farmer who has +succeeded on his three hundred and twenty acres sends forth his sons +each to succeed on his one hundred and sixty acres in Canada; or he +sells his own land for one hundred dollars an acre and forthwith buys a +thousand acres in Canada. When the farmers of Ontario flocked to +Wisconsin and Michigan and Minnesota and the two Dakotas, their land +was worth thirty per cent. less than when they bought it. To-day that +same land is worth one hundred per cent. more than for what they sold +it. + +It is easy to look over another land and diagnose its ills. Any +Canadian will acknowledge that Ireland's population dropped from +8,500,000 in 1850 to 4,400,000 in 1908 solely owing to mismanagement, +if not gross misgovernment; but he will not acknowledge that his own +country lost a million and a half people from the same cause. Ireland +lost her population at the rate of one hundred thousand a year for +forty years, and that lost population helped to build up some of the +greatest cities in the United States. The Irish vote is to-day a +dominant power solely owing to that population lost to Ireland. It is +no exaggeration to say that from 1880 to 1890 Canada lost her +population to the United States at a higher rate than one hundred +thousand a year. Why? + +Go back a little in history! The most pugnacious United Empire +Loyalist that ever trekked from the American colonies to Ontario and +Nova Scotia and New Brunswick would hardly deny that Canada was grossly +misgoverned under the French regime. Laborers were forced to work +unpaid on fortifications, on roads, on governors' palaces. The farmer +was taxed to death in tithes to the seignior. Shipping was confined to +French vessels owned by royal favorites. Fishing was permitted only +under a license. The fur trade was a corrupt monopoly held by a closed +ring round the Royal Intendant. New France was so mis-governed that +the sons of the best families took to the woods and the _Pays d'en +Haut_--to which fact we owe the exploration of three-quarters of the +continent. + +And the most pugnacious Loyalist will hardly deny that under the +British regime from 1759 to Durham's Report in 1840 the mismanagement +was almost as gross as the misgovernment under the French. If any one +entertain doubts on that score, let him look up the record on grants of +thousands of acres to favorites of the Family Compact; on peculations +of public funds in Quebec by irresponsible executives; on mistrials of +disorders in the Fur Country, when North-Wester and Hudson's Bay +traders cut each other's throats; on the constant bicker and bark +between Protestant Ontario and Catholic Quebec, which kept the country +rent by religious dissensions when men should have been empire-building. + +Set down the cause of Canada's slow progress up to 1840 to +misgovernment. Durham's Report remedied all that; and confederation +followed in 1867. Was Canada's progress as swift after 1867 as it +ought to have been? Examine a few figures: + +In 1790 the United States population was four millions. + +In 1800 the United States population was five millions. + +In 1914 the United States population was ninety-eight millions. + +In 1891 Canada's population was five millions. + +In 1900 Canada's population was five million three hundred thousand. + +In 1914 Canada's population was seven million eight hundred thousand. + +In point of population Canada is just one hundred years behind the +United States. Why? Granted her foreign trade is one-fourth as great +as that of the United States. How is it that a people with such a +genius for success in foreign trade have been so dilatory in their work +of nation-building? Slow progress can no longer be ascribed to +misgovernment. Her system of justice is one of the most perfect in the +world. Her parliamentary representation could hardly be more complete. +No people has stricter bit and rein on executive ministers. Through an +anguish of travail Canada has worked out an excellent system of +self-government. Why is her progress still slow? + +Of course one reason for her slow progress in the past was the +impression that long prevailed regarding Canada's climate and +agricultural possibilities. The officials of the Hudson's Bay Company +contended that the Northwest was unfit for settlement, and it was only +within recent times that the contrary view gained a hearing and proved +to be true. With vast tracts of unoccupied land in the milder climate +of the United States still open to settlement and with Canadians +themselves denying that the great Northwest could be cultivated, it is +not strange that most immigrants passed Canada by. Furthermore in +those days the glamour of democracy fascinated dissatisfied Europeans +who swarmed to the New World. Canada was practically as free as the +United States, but she was a possession of the British Crown, and many +emigrants, especially from the Emerald Isle, preferred to try the +experiment of living in a republic. + +But there are other reasons. It was after the Civil War that the +American high tariff struck Canada an unintended but nevertheless +staggering blow. She had no market. She had to build up +transportation system and trade routes, but this was well under way by +1890. Has her progress since 1890 kept pace with the United States? +One has but to compare the population between the Mississippi and +Seattle with the population between Red River and Vancouver to have the +answer to this question. + +Is it something in the soul; a habit of discouragement; of marking +time; of fighting shy on the defensive instead of jumping into the +aggressive; of self-derogation; of criticism instead of construction; +of foreshortened vision? A diagnosis can be made from symptoms. I set +down a few of the symptoms. There may be many more, and the thinker +must trace up--a surgeon would "guess"--his own diagnosis. + + +IV + +If it were not such a tiresome task, it could be shown from actual +quotations that there is not a paper published in Canada that at some +time during the year does not deliver itself of sentiments regarding +the United States which may be paraphrased thus: "We thank God we are +not as Thou art!" Now the point may be well taken; and Canada should +be thankful to God (and keep her powder dry) that crimes are punished, +that innocence is protected, that vice is not a factor in civic +government; but it is a dangerous attitude for any people to assume +toward another nation. It does not turn the soul-searchings in on +self. It does not get down beneath the skin of things; down, for +instance, beneath a hide of self-righteousness to meanness or nobility +of motive. A big ship always has barnacles; the United States is a big +ship, and she keeps her engine going and her speed up and in the main +her prow headed to a big destiny. It ill becomes a little ship to bark +out--but let it be left unsaid! + +While this curious assumption of superiority exists internationally, +there is the most contradictory depreciation nationally. "We," they +say, "are only a little people." So was Switzerland. So was Greece. +So was Belgium. So, indeed, were the Jews. + +You never mention a Jim Hill, a Doctor Osler, a Schurman, a Graham +Bell--or a host of similar famous expatriates--in a Canadian gathering +but some one utters with a pride of gratulation that fairly beams from +the face: "They are Canadians." Canada is proud these famous men are +Canadians. It has always struck me as curious that she wasn't +ashamed--ashamed that she lost their services from her own +nation-building. To my personal knowledge three of these men had to +borrow the money to leave Canada. Their services were worth untold +wealth to other lands. Their services did not give them a living in +Canada. + +At time of writing--with only three exceptions--Canada imports the +presidents of her great universities; though she exports some of the +greatest presidents and deans who have ever graced Princeton, Cornell, +Oxford. She thinks she can not afford to keep these men. Is it a +matter of money, at all; or of appreciative intelligence? No matter +what the cost, can Canada afford to lose them from her young nationals? + +It is a truism that to my knowledge has not a single exception that +Canada has never given the imprimatur of her approval to a writer, to +an inventor, to a scholar, to an artist, till he has gone abroad and +received the stamp of approval outside his own land. By the time Paul +Peel was acclaimed in Paris and Horatio Walker in New York each was +lost to his own land. It is an even wager nine Canadians out of ten do +not know who these men were or for what they were acclaimed. Try it as +an experiment on your first train acquaintance. + +You can not read early records of Congress without the most astounding +realization that Washington, Monroe, Jefferson, Adams, big statesmen +and little politicians, voicing solemn convictions or playing to the +gallery--all were deadly in earnest and serious about the business of +building up a nation. They never lost sight of the idea of conserving, +up-building, protecting, extending their country. The national idea is +in Canada so recent that most men have not grasped it. "Build a navy?" +Canada hooted and made the vote a party football. "Canada should have +her own shipyards?" Men look at you! What for? "Panama will reverse +the world conduits of trade." Bah! Hot-air! I have heard these and +similar comments not once but a thousand times. + +Americans say of opportunity--"How much can we make of it?" Canadians +say--"How little can we pay for it?" And each takes out of opportunity +exactly the amount of optimism put into it. + +So one could go down the list enumerating symptoms, but beneath them +all, it is plain, lies a cause psychological, not physical. It may be +a psychology of discouragement and disparagement from long years of +hardship, but whatever it is, if Canada is to be as big nationally as +she is latitudinally, as great in soul as in area, she must get rid of +this negative thing in her attitude to herself and life. It makes for +solidity, but it also makes for stolidity. Nations do not grow great +by what they leave undone. Psychologists say all mentality divides +itself into two great classes: those giving off negative response to +stimulus; those giving off positive. One class of people stands for +carping criticism; the other, for constructive attempts. One is safe, +to be sure, and sane; and the other is distinctively rash and +dangerous; but of rashness and danger is valor made. "I know thy +works," said the Voice to the Laodiceans, "that thou art neither hot +nor cold: I would thou wert hot or cold . . . because thou art +lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spue thee out of my mouth." + +And the Voice is the verdict of destiny to every nation that has taken +its place at the world's council board. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +DEFENSE + +Having spent a hundred years working out a system of government almost +perfect in its democracy, and having spent fifty more years working out +a system of trade and transportation that gives Canada sixth rank in +the gross foreign trade of the world nations--one would think the +Dominion entitled to lie back resting on her laurels reaping the reward +that is undoubtedly hers. + +But nations can no more rest in their development than men. To stop +means to go back. To rest means to rust, and Canada to-day must face +one of the most serious problems in her national history. What is +worth having is worth holding, and what is worth holding must always be +defended. The strong man does not go out challenging a fight. The +very fact that he is strong prevents other men challenging him to a +fight, and Canada must face the need of national defense. + +So remote did the need of national defense seem to Canada that as late +as May of 1913 the Senate rejected Premier Borden's plan for Canada to +contribute her quota in cost to the British navy. The Laurier +government had proposed building a small navy for the Dominion. This +was hooted by the French Nationalists, and when the Borden government +came into power, the policy was modified from building a small navy to +bearing a quota of the cost of a navy built and equipped by Imperial +power. In the rejection of this policy, the composition of the Senate +and Commons should be observed. The Commons were Conservative, or +supporters of Premier Borden, and the Government Navy Bill passed the +Commons by one hundred and one to sixty-eight. The Nationalists voted +with the opposition or the Liberals. The Nationalists are the small +French party pledged against Canada's intervention in European affairs. +Laurier having been in power for almost two decades, the Senate was, of +course, tinged with the Liberal policy. They could not completely +reject a naval policy without repudiating Laurier's former policy; so +they rejected the Borden Naval Bill on the ground that it ought to have +been submitted to the electorate. The vote in the Senate was fifty-one +to twenty-seven. In the Senate were fifty-four Liberals--or supporters +of Laurier--and thirty-two Conservatives, or supporters of Borden. In +other words, so remote did the possible need of defense seem that both +parties played politics with it. + +For a hundred years Canada had been at peace. The Rebellion of 1837 +can hardly be called a war. In 1870 the Indian unrest known as the +First Riel Rebellion had occurred, but this amounted to little more +than a joy jaunt for the troops under Lord Wolseley to Red River. The +Riel Uprising of 1885 was more serious; but every Canadian who gave the +matter any thought at all knew there had been genuine cause for +grievance among the half-breeds; and fewer lives were lost in this +rebellion than in many a train or mine accident. Canada sent to the +South African War troops who distinguished themselves to such an extent +as to give a feeling of almost false security to the Dominion. On +every frontier are men born to the rifle and the saddle--ready-made +troopers; but as the frontier shrinks, this class deteriorates and +softens. + +For a hundred years Canada has been at peace with the outside world. +For three thousand miles along her southern border dwells a neighbor +who has often been a rival in trade and with whom Canada has had many a +dispute as to fisheries and boundaries and tariff, but along this +borderland of three thousand miles exists not a single fort, points not +a single gun, watches not a single soldier. It is a question if +another such example of international friendship without international +pact exists in the history of the world. Where international +boundaries in Europe bristle with forts and cannon, international +boundaries in America are a shuttle of traffic back and forth of great +migrations of population, of great waves of friendship and good feeling +which all the trade rivalries and hostile tariffs of a half century +have failed to stem. The pot shot of some fishery patrol across the +nets of a poacher on the wrong side of the international line fails to +excite anybody. Even if some flag lunatic full of whisky climbs a +flagstaff and tears down the other country's national emblem--the +boundary does not go on fire. The authorities cool such alcoholic +patriotism with a water hose, or ten days in the lock-up. The papers +run a half column, and that is all there is about it. + +So why should Canada become excited over national defense? On the +south is a boundary without a fort, without a gun, guarded by a +powerful nation with a Monroe Doctrine challenging the world neither to +seize nor colonize in the Western Hemisphere. On the east for three +thousand miles washes the Atlantic, on the west for five thousand miles +the Pacific--what has Canada to fear? "Why," asked the Conservatives, +"should we support the Laurier policy of building a tin-pot navy?" +"Why," retorted the Liberals when Laurier went out and Borden went in, +"should we support the Borden Navy Bill to contribute good Canadian +cash to a British navy?" + +Besides, in the back of Canada's collective head--as it were--in a sort +of unspoken consciousness was the almost religious conviction that the +Dominion had contributed her share toward Imperial defense in her +transportation system. Had she not granted fifty-five million acres of +land for the different transcontinentals and spent far over a billion +in loans and subsidies and guarantees? Value that land at ten dollars +an acre. That was tantamount to an expenditure of two hundred dollars +per capita for a transportation system of use to the empire in Imperial +defense. Seventy trainloads of Hindu troops were rushed across Canada +in cars with drawn blinds and transported to Europe before the enemy +knew such a movement was contemplated. Should Turkey ever cut off +Suez, Canada and Panama would be England's route to India. In +addition, Canada considers herself the granary of the empire. Should +Suez ever cut off the path to India and Australia, what colony could +feed England but Canada? + +You will note that Canada's thought concerned the empire, not herself. +The reason for the navy bills proposed by both parties has been +Imperial defense. That Canada might some day be compelled to fight for +her own existence--and fight to the death for it--never dawned on her +legislators; and their unconsciousness of national peril is the +profoundest testimony to the pacific intentions of the United States +that could be given. It seems almost treason at this era of world war +to call Canada's attention to the fact that the greatest danger is not +to Imperial defense. It is to Canada's national defense. Uncle Sam +has been Canada's big brother, but what if when the danger came, his +arms were tied in a conflict of his own? Whatever comes to menace the +United States will menace the safety of Canada; and with swift +cruisers, Europe and Asia are nearer Canada to-day than Halifax is near +Vancouver. Either city could be attacked by foreign powers before +military aid could be transported across the width of Canada. We are +nearer Europe to-day than the North was near the South in the Civil +War. It takes a shorter time to transport troops across Atlantic or +Pacific than it formerly took to send a Minnesota regiment to Maryland. +Including Quebec, Montreal, old Port Royal, Annapolis, Louisburg and +the forts on Hudson Bay, Canada's chief strongholds of defense have +been taken and retaken seven times by European enemies in one hundred +and sixty years--between 1629 and 1789. Day was when Quebec +fortifications cost so much that the King of France wanted to know if +they were laid in gold. Before the fall of Quebec in 1759, +Louisburg--a forgotten fortress of Cape Breton--was considered one of +France's strongholds. Have Canadians forgotten the frightful wreck of +the British fleet in the St. Lawrence in 1711 under Sir Havender +Walker; or the defeat of the admiralty ships manned by the Hudson's Bay +fur-traders up off Port Nelson in 1697 by Lemoyne d' Iberville? Before +La Perouse reduced Churchill it was regarded as a second Gibraltar. +Yet Churchill and Nelson and Quebec and Louisburg all fell before a +foreign foe, and Europe is nearer to-day than she was in those eras of +terrible defeat. What additional fortifications or defenses has Canada +to be so cocksure that history can never repeat itself? She is not +resting under the Monroe Doctrine. It is a safe wager that many +Canadians have never heard of the Monroe Doctrine. Besides, the minute +Canada voluntarily enters a European war, does she forfeit American +"protection" under that Monroe Doctrine? The idea of being "protected" +by any power but her own--and Britain's--right arm Canada would scout +to derision. Yet what are her own national defenses? + +Her regular forces ordinarily consist of less than three thousand men; +her volunteer forces of forty-five to sixty thousand. By law it is +provided that the Dominion militia consist of all male inhabitants of +the age of eighteen and under sixty, divided into four classes: from +eighteen to thirty years of age unmarried or widowers; from thirty to +forty-five unmarried or widowers; from eighteen to forty-five married +or widowers; men of all classes between forty-five and sixty. In +emergency, those liable to service would be called in this order. The +period of service is three years. Up to the present service has been +voluntary, and the period of drill lasts sixteen days. Except for +fishing patrols and insignificant cruisers, Canada has no marine force, +absolutely none, though she can requisition the big merchant liners +which she subsidizes. Canada has an excellent military school in +Kingston and a course of instruction at Quebec, but the majority of +graduates from these centers go into service in the British army simply +because there is no scope for them in their own land. At Esquimalt off +Victoria, British Columbia, and at Halifax, Nova Scotia, before the +outbreak of the present war, were Imperial naval stations; but these +were being reduced to a minimum. Perhaps to these defenders should be +added some thirty thousand juvenile cadets trained in the public +schools, but if one is to set down facts not fictions, much of the +training of the volunteers resolves itself into a yearly picnic. One +wonders on what Canada is pinning her faith in security from attack in +case disaster should come to the British navy. Whether Canada is +conscious of it or not, her greatest defense is in the virility of her +manhood. Her men are neither professorial nor an office type. They +are big outdoor men who shoot well because they have shot from boyhood +and lived a life in the open. All this, however, is not national +defense. It is unused but splendid material for national defense. + +Up to the outbreak of the present war Canada has not spent ten million +a year on national defense. That is--for the security of peace for a +century, she has spent less than one dollar and fifty cents per head a +year. A year ago naval bills were rejected. To-day there are few +people in Canada who would not acknowledge that Canada is spending too +little on defense. Stirred profoundly but, as is the British way, +saying little, the Dominion is setting herself in earnest to the big +new problem. To the European War, Canada has sent sixty thousand men; +and she has promised one hundred thousand more. A nation that can +unpreparedly deliver on such promises to the drop of the hat can take +care of her defense, and that may be Canada's next national job. + +Would any power have an object in crippling Canada? The question is +answered best by another. If Suez were cut off and Canada were cut +off, where would England look for her food supply? And if it were to +the advantage of a hostile power to cripple Canada, could she be +conquered? Any one familiar with Canada will answer without a moment's +hesitation. She could be attacked. Her coastal cities could be laid +waste as the cities of Belgium. To reach the interior of Canada, an +enemy must do one of three things, all next to impossible: penetrate +the St. Lawrence--a treacherous current--for a thousand miles exposed +to submarine and mine and attack from each side; cross the United +States and so violate American sovereignty, cross the Rockies to reach +inland. Any one of these feats is as impossible as the conquest of +Switzerland or the Scottish Highlands. Canada could be attacked and +laid waste; she could be financially ruined by attack and set back +fifty years in her progress; but she could no more be conquered than +Napoleon conquered Russia. The conquest would be at a cost to destroy +the conqueror, and the conqueror could no more stay than Napoleon +stayed in Moscow. Canada has a vast, an illimitable back country--the +area of all Russia; and to the lakes and wild rivers and mountain +passes of that country her people are born and bred. To her climate +her people are born and bred. The climate would take care of the rest. +You can't exactly despatch motors and motor guns down swamps for a +hundred miles and over cataracts and through mountain passes on the +perpendicular. Canada's back country is her perpetual city of refuge. +Nevertheless, the day of dependence on false security is past. +National status implies national defense, and at time of writing the +indications are that the whole military system of the Dominion will be +put on a new basis, training to patriotism and defense and service from +the public school up through the university. + +"Then what becomes of your co-eds and woman movement?" a militarist +asked. + +The question can be answered in the words of a great doctor--more men +die on the field of battle from lack of women nurses than ever die from +the bullet of the enemy. The time seems to have come for woman's place +on the firing line. That womanhood which gives of life to create life +now claims the right to go out on the field of danger to conserve and +protect life; and in the embodiment of military training in public +education that, too, may be part of Canada's new national defense. + +When an admiral's fleet is sunk within ten days' sail of Victoria and +Vancouver, Laurier's naval policy to build war vessels, and Borden's to +contribute to their purchase for service in the British Navy take on +different aspect to Canada; and the Dominion enters a new era in her +development, as one of the dominant powers in the North Atlantic and +the North Pacific. That is--she must prepare to enter; or sit back the +helpless Korea of America. A country with a billion dollars of +commerce a year to defend cuts economy down to the danger line when she +spends not one per cent. of the value of her foreign commerce to +protect it. Like the United States, Canada has been inclined to sit +back detached from world entanglements and perplexities. That day has +passed for Canada. She must take her place and defend her place or +lose her identity as a nation. The awakening has gone over Canada in a +wave. One awaits to see what will come of it. + +Much, of course, depends upon the outcome of the great war. If Britain +and her allies triumph--and particularly if peace brings partial +disarmament--the urgency of preparation on Canada's part will be +lessened. But should Germany win or the duel be a draw, then may +Canada well gird up her loins and look to her safety. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE DOMAIN OF THE NORTH + +I + +Canada does not like any reference to her fur trade as a national +occupation. Of course, it is no longer a national occupation. It +occupies, perhaps, two thousand whites and it may be twenty or thirty +thousand Indians. More Indians in Canada earn their living farming the +reserves than catching fur, but the Indians north of Athabasca and +Churchill and in Labrador must always earn their living fur hunting. +Of them there is no census, but they hardly exceed thirty thousand all +told. The treaty Indians on reserves now number a hundred thousand. +Yet, though only two thousand whites are fur-trading in Canada, no +interpretation of Canadian life is complete without reference to that +far domain of the North, where the hunter roams in loneliness, and the +night lights whip unearthly through still frosty air, and no sound +breaks leagueless silence but the rifle shot, crackle of frost or the +call of the wolf pack. It will be recalled that Canada's first +settlers came in two main currents from two idealistic motives. The +French came to convert the Indians, not to found empire, and the +English Loyalists came from the promptings of their convictions. Both +streams of settlers came from idealistic motives, but both had to live, +and they did it at first by fur hunting. Jean Ba'tiste, the Frenchman, +who might have been a courtier when he came, promptly doffed court +trappings and donned moccasins and exchanged a soldier's saber for a +camp frying-pan and kept pointing his canoe up the St. Lawrence till he +had threaded every river and lake from Tadousac to Hudson Bay and the +Rockies. It was the pursuit of the little beaver that paid the piper +for all the discovering and exploring of Canada. When John Bull +came--also in pursuit of ideals--he, too, in a more prosperous way +promptly exchanged the pursuit of ideals for the pursuit of the little +beaver. It was the little beaver that led the way for Radisson, for La +Salle, for La Verandrye, for MacKenzie, for Fraser, for Peter Skene +Ogden, from the St. Lawrence to the Columbia, from the Athabasca to the +Sacramento. + +While all this is of the past, the heritage of a fur-hunting ancestry +has entered into the very blood and brawn and brain of Canada in a kind +of iron dauntlessness that makes for manhood. Some of her greatest +leaders--like Strathcona and MacKenzie--have been known as "Men of the +North"; and whether they have fur-traded or not, nearly all those "Men +of the North" who have made their mark have had the iron dauntlessness +of the hunter in their blood. It is a sort of tonic from the +out-of-doors, like the ozone you breathe, which fills body and soul +with zest. Canada is sensitive to any reference to her fur trade for +fear the world regard her as a perpetual fur domain. Her northern +zones are a perpetual fur domain--we may as well acknowledge that--they +can never be anything else; and Canada should serve notice on the +softer races of the world that she does not want them. They can stand +up neither to her climate nor to her measure of a man, but far from +cause of regret, this is a thing for gratulation. Canada can never be +an overcrowded land, where soft races crowd for room, like slugs under +a board. She will always have her spacious domain of the North--a +perpetual fur preserve, a perpetual hunting ground, where dauntless +spirits will venture to match themselves against the powers of death; +and from that North will ever emerge the type of man who masters life. + + +II + +The last chapter of the fur trade has not been written--as many assert. +The oldest industry of mankind, the most heroic and protective against +the elements--against Fenris and Loki and all those Spirits of Evil +with which northern myth has personified Cold--fur hunting, +fur-trading, will last long as man lasts. We are entering, not on the +extermination of fur, but on a new cycle of smaller furs. In the days +when mink went begging at eighty cents, mink was not fashionable. Mink +is fashionable to-day; hence the absurd and fabulous prices. Long ago, +when ermine as miniver--the garb of nobility--was fashionable and +exclusive, it commanded fabulous prices. Radicalism abolished the +exclusive garb of royalty, and ermine fell to four cents a pelt, +advanced to twenty-five cents and has sold at one dollar. To-day, mink +is the fashion, and the little mink is pursued; but to-morrow fashion +will veer with the caprices of the wind. Some other fur will come into +favor, and the little mink will have a chance to multiply as the ermine +has multiplied. + +In spite of the cry of the end of fur, more furs are marketed in the +world than ever before in the history of the race--forty million +dollars' worth; twenty millions of which are handled in New York and +Chicago and St. Louis and St. Paul; some five millions passing through +Edmonton and Winnipeg and Montreal and Quebec; three millions for home +consumption, two millions plus for export. Some years ago I went +through all the Minutes of the Hudson's Bay Company in London from 1670 +to 1824 and have transcripts of those Minutes now in my library. In +not a single year did the fur record exceed half a million dollars' +worth. Compare that to the American traffic to-day of twenty millions, +or to the three and four hundred thousand dollar cargoes that each of +the Hudson's Bay Company and Revillons' ships bears to Europe from +Canada yearly. + +"How much can a good Indian hunter make in a season?" I asked a +fur-trader of the Northwest, because in nearly all accounts written +about furs, you read a wail of reproach at milady for wearing furs when +trapping entails such hardship and poverty on the part of the hunter. + +"A good hunter easily earns six hundred dollars or seven hundred +dollars a winter if he will go out and not hang around the minute he +gets a little ahead. It takes from three thousand dollars to four +thousand dollars to outfit a small free-trader to go up North on his +own account. This stock he will turn over three or four times at a +profit of one hundred per cent. on the supplies. For example, ten +dollars cash will buy a good black otter up North. In trade, it will +cost from twelve dollars to fifteen dollars. On the articles of trade, +the profit will be fifty per cent. The otter will sell down at +Edmonton for from twenty dollars to thirty dollars. It's the same of +muskrat. At the beginning of the season when the kits are plentiful +and small, the trader pays nine cents for them up North. Down at the +fur market he will get from twenty-five to sixty cents for them, +according to size. There were one hundred and thirty-two thousand +muskrat came to one firm of traders alone in Edmonton one year, which +they will sell at an advance of fifty per cent." + +"How much fur comes yearly to Edmonton?" I asked an Edmonton trader. +If you look at the map you will see that Edmonton is the jumping off +place to three of the greatest fur fields of North America--down +MacKenzie River to the Arctic, up Peace River to the mountain +hinterland between the Columbia and the Yukon, east through Athabasca +Lake to the wild barren land inland from Churchill and Hudson Bay. + +"Well, we can easily calculate that. I know about how much is brought +in to each of the traders there." + +I took pencil while he gave me the names. It totaled up to six hundred +thousand dollars' worth for 1908. When you consider that in its +palmiest old days of exclusive monopoly the Hudson's Bay Company never +sold more than half a million dollars' worth of furs a year, this total +for Edmonton alone does not sound like a scarcity of furs. + + +III + +The question may be asked, do not these large figures presage the +hunting to extinction of fur-bearing animals? I do not think so. + +Take a map of the northern fur country. Take a good look at it--not +just a Pullman car glance. The Canadian government has again and again +advertised thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of square miles +of free land. Latitudinally, that is perfectly true. Wheat-wise, it +isn't. When you go one hundred miles north of Saskatchewan River +(barring Peace River in sections) you are in a climate that will grow +wheat all right--splendid wheat, the hardest and finest in the world. +That is, twenty hours of sunlight--not daylight but sunlight--force +growth rapidly enough to escape late spring and early fall frosts; but +the plain fact of the matter is, wheat land does not exist far north of +the Saskatchewan except in sections along Peace River. What does +exist? Cataracts countless--Churchill River is one succession of +cataracts; vast rivers; lakes unmapped, links and chains of lakes by +which you can go from the Saskatchewan to the Arctic without once +lifting your canoe; quaking muskegs--areas of amber stagnant water full +of what the Indians call mermaid's hair, lined by ridges of moss and +sand overgrown with coarse goose grass and "the reed that grows like a +tree," muskrat reed, a tasseled corn-like tufted growth sixteen feet +high--areas of such muskeg mile upon mile. I traversed one such region +above Cumberland Lake seventy miles wide by three hundred long where +you could not find solid camping ground the size of your foot. What +did we do? That is where the uses of a really expert guide came in; we +moored our canoe among the willows, cut willows enough to keep feet +from sinking, spread oilcloth and rugs over this, erected the tents +over all, tying the guy ropes to the canoe thwarts and willows, as the +ground would not hold the tent pegs. + +It doesn't sound as if such regions would ever be overrun by +settlement--does it? Now look at your map, seventy miles north of +Saskatchewan! From the northwest corner up by Klondike to the +southeast corner down in Labrador is a distance of more than three +thousand miles. From the south to north is a distance of almost two +thousand miles. I once asked a guide with a truly city air--it might +almost have been a Harvard air--if these distances were "as the crow +flies." He gave me a look that I would not like to have a guide give me +too often--he might maroon a fool on one of those swamp areas. + +"There ain't no distances as the crow flies in this country," he +answered. "You got to travel 'cording as the waters collect or the ice +goes out." + +Well, here is your country, three thousand by two thousand miles, a +great fur preserve. What exists in it? Very little wood, and that +small. Undoubtedly some minerals. What else exists? A very sparse +population of Indians, whose census no man knows, for it has never been +taken; but it is a pretty safe guess to say there are not thirty +thousand Indians all told in the north fur country. I put this guess +tentatively and should be glad of information from any one in a +position to guess closer. I have asked the Hudson's Bay Company and I +have asked Revillons how many white hunters and traders they think are +in the fur country of the North. I have never met any one who placed +the number in the North at more than two thousand. Spread two thousand +white hunters with ten thousand Indians--for of the total Indian +population two-thirds are women and children--over an area the size of +two-thirds of Europe--I ask you frankly, do you think they are going to +exterminate the game very fast? Remember the climate of the North +takes care of her own. White men can stand only so many years of that +lonely cold, and then they have "to come out" or they dwarf mentally +and degenerate. + +Take a single section of this great northern fur preserve--Labrador, +which I visited some years ago. In area Labrador is 530,000 square +miles, two and a half times the size of France, twice the size of +Germany, twice the size of Austria-Hungary. Statistical books set the +population down at four thousand; but the Moravian missionaries there +told me that including the Eskimo who come down the coast in summer and +the fishermen who come up the coast in summer the total population was +probably seventeen thousand. Now Labrador is one of the finest game +preserves in the world. On its rocky hills and watery upper barrens +where settlement can never come are to be found silver fox--the finest +in the world, so fine that the Revillons have established a +fur-breeding post for silver fox on one of the islands--cross fox +almost as fine as silver, black and red fox, the best otter in the +world, the finest marten in America, bear, very fine Norway lynx, fine +ermine, rabbit or hare galore, very fine wolverine, fisher, muskrat, +coarse harp seal, wolf, caribou, beaver, a few mink. Is it common +sense to think the population of a few thousands can hunt out a fur +empire here the size of two Germanies? Remember it was not the hunter +who exterminated the buffalo and the beaver and the seal and the otter! +The poacher destroyed one group of sea furs; the railway and the farm +supplanted the other. West of Mackenzie River and north of British +Columbia is a game region almost similar to Labrador in its furred +habitat, with the exception that the western preserve is warmer and +more wooded. Northward from Ontario is another hinterland which from +its very nature must always be a great hunting ground. Minerals +exist--as the old French traders well knew and the latter-day +discoveries of Cobalt prove--and there is also heavy timber; but north +of the Great Clay Belt, between the Clay Belt and the Bay, lies the +impenetrable and--I think--indestructible game ground. Swamp and rock +will prevent agricultural settlement but will provide an ideal fur +preserve similar in climate to Labrador. + +Traveling with Indian guides, it is always a matter of marvel and +admiration to me how the fur companies have bred into the very blood +for generations the careful nurture of all game. At one place canoeing +on Saskatchewan we heard of a huge black bear that had been molesting +some new ranches. "No take now," said the Indian. "Him fur no good +now." Though we might camp on bare rocks and the fire lay dead ash, it +was the extra Indian paddler who invariably went back to spatter it +out. You know the white's innate love for a roaring log fire in front +of the camp at night? The Indian calls that +"a-no-good-whitemen-fire-scare-away-game." + +Now take another look at the map. Where the Saskatchewan makes a great +bend three hundred miles northeast of Prince Albert, it is no longer a +river--it is a vast muskeg of countless still amber water channels not +twice the width of your canoe and quaking silt islands of sand and +goose grass--ideal, hidden and almost impenetrable for small game. +Always muskeg marks the limit of big game and the beginning of the +ground of the little fellows--waupoos, the rabbit; and musquash, the +muskrat; and sakwasew, the mink; and nukik, the otter; and wuchak or +pekan, the fisher. It is a safe wager that the profits on the millions +upon millions of little pelts--hundreds of thousands of muskrat are +taken out of this muskeg alone--exceed by a hundredfold the profits on +the larger furs of beaver and silver fox and bear and wolf and cross +fox and marten. + +Look at the map again! North of Cumberland Lake to the next fur post +is a trifling run of two hundred and fifty to three hundred miles by +dog-train to Lac du Brochet or Reindeer Lake--more muskeg cut by +limestone and granite ridges. Here you can measure four hundred miles +east or west and not get out of the muskeg till you reach Athabasca on +the west and Hudson's Bay on the east. North of Lac du Brochet is a +straight stretch of one thousand miles--nothing but rocks and cataracts +and stunted woods, "little sticks" the Indians call them--and +sky-colored waters in links and chains and lakes with the quaking +muskeg goose grass and muskrat reed, cut and chiseled and trenched by +the amber water ways. + + +IV + +If you think there is any danger of settlement ever encroaching on the +muskegs and barrens, come with me on a trip of some weeks to the south +end of this field. + +We had been pulling against slack water all day, water so slack you +could dip your hand down and fail to tell which way the current ran. +Where the high banks dropped suddenly to such a dank tangle of reeds, +brush wood, windfall and timbers drifted fifteen hundred miles down +from the forests of the Rocky Mountains--such a tangle as I have never +seen in any swamp of the South--the skeleton of a moose, come to its +death by a jump among the windfall, marked the eastern limit of big +game; and presently the river was lost--not in a lake--but in a swamp. +A red fox came scurrying through the goose grass, sniffed the air, +looked at us and ran along abreast of our canoe for about a mile, +evidently scenting the bacon of the tin "grub box." Muskrats feed on +the bulb of the tufted "reed like a tree," sixteen feet high on each +side, and again and again little kits came out and swam in the ripple +of our canoe. Once an old duck performed the acrobatic feat over which +the nature and anti-nature writers have been giving each other the lie. +We had come out of one long amber channel to be confronted by three +openings exactly alike, not much wider than the length of our Klondike +canoe, all lined by the high tufted reed. MacKenzie, the half-breed +rapids man, had been telling us the endless Cree legends of +Wa-sa-kee-chaulk, the Cree Hiawatha, and his Indian lore of stagnant +waters now lured him into steering us to one of the side channels. We +were not expected. An old mother duck was directly across our path +teaching some twenty-two little black hobbling downy babies how to +swim. With a cry that shrieked "Leg it--leg it" plain as a quack could +speak and which sent the little fellows scuttling, half swim, half run, +the old mother flung herself over on her back not a paddle's length +ahead of us, dipped, dived, came up again just at our bow and flopped +broken-winged over the water ahead of us near enough almost to be +caught by hand; but when you stretched out your hand, the crafty lady +dipped and dived and came up broken-winged again. + +"You old fool," said our head man, "your wing is no more broken than +mine is. We're not going to hurt your babies. Shut up there and stop +that lying." + +Spite of which the old duck kept up her pantomime of deceit for more +than a mile; when she suddenly sailed up over our heads back to her +hidden babies, a very Boadicea of an old duck girl. When we drew in +for nooning, wild geese honked over our heads near enough to be hit by +the butt of a gun. Drift chips, lodged in the goose grass, kindled +fire for kettle, but oilcloth had to be spread before you could get +footing ashore. I began to wonder what happened as to repairs when +canoes ripped over a snag in this kind of region, and that brought up +the story of a furtrader's wife in another muskeg region north of Lac +La Ronge up toward Churchill River, who was in a canoe that ripped a +hole clean the size of a man's fist. Quick as a flash, the head man +was into the tin grub box and had planked on a cake of butter. The +cold water hardened it, and that repair carried them along to the first +birch tree affording a new strip of bark. + +Where an occasional ridge of limestone cut the swamp we could hear the +laughter and the glee of the Indian children playing "wild goose" among +the trembling black poplars and whispering birches, and where we landed +at the Indian camps we found the missionaries out with the hunters. In +fact, even the nuns go haying and moose hunting with the Indian +families to prevent lapses to barbarism. + +Again and again we passed cached canoes, provisions stuck up on sticks +above the reach of animal marauders--testimony to the honesty of the +passing Indian hunters, which the best policed civilized eastern city +can not boast of its denizens. + +"I've gone to the Rockies by way of Peace River dozens of times," +declared the head of one of the big fur companies, "and left five +hundred dollars' worth of provisions cached in trees to feed us on our +way out, and when we came that same way six months afterward we never +found one pound stolen, though I remember one winter when the Indians +who were passing and repassing under the food in those trees were +starving owing to the rabbit famine." + +In winter this region is traversed by dog-train along the ice--a matter +of five hundred miles to Lac du Brochet and back, or six hundred to +Prince Albert and back. "Oh, no, we're not far," said a lonely-faced +Cambridge graduate fur-trader to me. "When my little boy took sick +last winter, I had to go only fifty-five miles. There happened to be a +doctor in the lumber camp back on the Ridge." + +But even winter travel is not all easy in a fifty-below-zero climate +where you can't find sticks any larger than your finger to kindle night +fire, I know the story of one fur-trader who was running along behind +his dog sleigh in this section. He had become overheated running and +had thrown his coat and cap across the sleigh, wearing only flannel +shirt, fur gauntlets, corduroy trousers and moccasins. At a bend in +the iced channel he came on a pack of mangy coyotes. Before he had +thought he had sicked the dogs on them. With a yell they were off out +of sight amid the goose grass and reeds with the sleigh and his +garments. Those reeds, remember, are sixteen feet high, stiff as broom +corn and hard on moccasins as stubble would be on bare feet. To make +matters worse, a heavy snowstorm came on. The wind was against the +direction the dogs had taken and the man hallooed himself hoarse +without an answering sound. It was two o'clock in the morning before +the wind sank and the trader found his dogs, and by that time between +sweat and cold his shirt had frozen to a board. + +Such a thing as an out and out pagan hardly exists among the Indians of +the North. They are all more or less Christian with a curious mingling +of pagan superstition with the new faith. The Indian voyageurs may +laugh but they all do it--make offerings of tobacco to the Granny +Goddess of the River before setting out. In vain we threw biscuit and +orange peel and nuts to the perverse-tempered deity supposed to preside +at the bottom of those amber waters. The winds were contrary, the +waters slack, sluggish, dead, no responsive gurgle and flap of laughter +and life to the slow keel. + +One channel but opened on another. Even the limestone ridges had +vanished far to rear, and the stillness of night fell with such a flood +of sunset light as Turner never dreamed in his wildest color +intoxications. There would be the wedge-shaped line of the wild geese +against a flaming sky--a far honk--then stillness. Then the flackering +quacking call of a covey of ducks with a hum of wings right over our +shoulders; then no sound but the dip of our paddles and the drip and +ripple of the dead waters among the reeds. Suddenly there lifted +against the lonely red sunset sky--a lob stick--a dark evergreen +stripped below the tip to mark some Indian camping place, or vow, or +sacred memory. We steered for it. A little flutter of leaves like a +clapping of hands marked land enough to support black poplars, and we +rounded a crumbly sand bank just in time to see the seven-banded birch +canoe of a little old hunter, Sam Ba'tiste Buck--eighty years old he +was--squatting in the bottom of the birch canoe, ragged almost to +nakedness, bare of feet, gray-headed, nearly toothless but happier than +an emperor--the first living being we had seen for a week in the +muskegs. We camped together that night on the sandbars--trading Sam +Ba'tiste flour and matches for a couple of ducks. He had been +storm-stead camping in the goose grass for three days. Do you think he +was to be pitied? Don't! Three days' hunting will lay up enough meat +for Sam for the winter. In the winter he will snare some small game, +while mink and otter and muskrat skins will provide him flour and +clothes from the fur-trader. Each of Sam's sons is earning seven +hundred dollars a year hunting big game on the rock ridge farther +north--more than illiterate, unskilled men earn in eastern lands. Then +in spring Sam will emerge from his cabin, build another birch canoe and +be off to the duck and wild geese haunts. When we paddled away in the +morning, Sam still camped on the sand bank. He sat squat whittling +away at kin-a-kin-ic, or the bark of the red willow, the hunter's free +tobacco. In town Sam would be poverty-stricken, hungry, a beggar. +Here he is a lord of his lonely watery domain, more independent and +care-free than you are--peace to his aged bones! + +Another night coming through the muskegs we lost ourselves. We had +left our Indian at the fur post and trusted to follow southwest two +hundred miles to the next fur post by the sun, but there was no sun, +only heavy lead-colored clouds with a rolling wind that whipped the +amber waters to froth and flooded the sand banks. If there was any +current, it was reversed by the wind. We should have thwarted the main +muskeg by a long narrow channel, but mistook our way thinking to follow +the main river by taking the broadest opening. It led us into a lake +seven miles across; not deep, for every paddle stroke tangled into the +long water weed known as mermaid's hair but deep enough for trouble +when you consider the width of the lake, the lack of dry footing the +width of one's hand, and the fact that you can't offer the gun'l of a +canoe to the broadside of a big wave. We scattered our dunnage and all +three squatted in the bottom to prevent the rocking of the big canoe. +Then we thwarted and tacked and quartered to the billows for a half day. + +Nightfall found us back in the channel again scudding before thunder +and a hurricane wind looking for a camping place. It had been a +back-breaking pace all day. We had tried to find relief by the +Indian's choppy strokes changing every third dip from side to side; we +had tried the white man's deep long pulling strokes; and by seven in +the evening with the thunder rolling behind and not a spot of dry land +visible the size of one's foot, backs began to feel as if they might +break in the middle. Our canoe and dunnage weighed close on seven +hundred pounds. Suddenly we shot out of the amber channel into a +shallow lagoon lined on each side by the high tufted reeds, but the +reeds were so thin we could see through them to lakes on each side. A +whirr above our heads and a flock of teal almost touched us with their +wings. Simultaneously all three dropped paddles--all three were +speechless. The air was full of voices. You could not hear yourself +think. We lapped the canoe close in hiding to the thin lining of +reeds. I asked, "Have those little sticks drifted down fifteen hundred +miles to this lagoon of dead water?" + +"Sticks," my guide repeated, "it isn't sticks--it isn't drift--it's +birds--it's duck and geese--I have never seen anything like it--I have +lived west more than twenty years and I never heard tell of +anything--of anything like it." + +Anything like it? I had lived all my life in the West and I had never +heard or dreamed any oldest timer tell anything like it! For seven +miles, you could not have laid your paddle on the water without +disturbing coveys of geese and duck, geese and duck of such variety as +I have never seen classified or named in any book on birds. We sat +very still behind the hiding of reed and watched and watched. We +couldn't talk. We had lost ourselves in one of the secluded breeding +places of wild fowl in the North. I counted dozens and dozens of moult +nests where the duck had congregated before their long flight south. +That was the night we could find camping ground only by building a +foundation of reeds and willows, then spreading oilcloth on top; and +all night our big tent rocked to the wind; for we had roped it to the +thwarts of the canoe. Next day when we reached the fur post, the chief +trader told us any good hunter could fill his canoe--the big, white +banded, gray canoe of the company, not the little, seven banded, birch +craft--with birds to the gun'l in two hours' shooting on that lake. + +That muskeg is only one of thousands, when you go seventy miles north +of the Saskatchewan, sixty miles east of Athabasca Lake. That muskeg +and its like, covering an area two-thirds of all Europe, is the home of +all the little furs, mink and muskrat and fisher and otter and rabbit +and ermine, the furs that clothe--not princes and millionaire, who buy +silver fox and sea otter--but you and me and the rest of us whose +object is to keep warm, not to show how much we can spend. Out of that +one muskeg hundreds of thousands of little pelts have been taken since +1754 when Anthony Hendry, the smuggler, came the first of the +fur-traders inland from the Bay. And the game--save in the year of the +unexplained rabbit pest--shows no sign of diminishing. + +Does it sound very much to you like a region where the settler would +ultimately drive out the fur trade? What would he settle on? That is +the point. Nature has taken good care that climate and swamp shall +erect an everlasting barrier to encroachment on her game preserves. + +To be sure, if you ask a fur-trader, "How are furs?" he will answer, +"Poor--poorer every year." So would you if you were a fur-trader and +wanted to keep out rivals. I have never known a fur-trader who did not +make that answer. + +To be sure, seal and sea otter, beaver and buffalo have been almost +exterminated; but even to-day if the governments of the world, +especially Canada and the United States, would pass and enforce laws +prohibiting the killing of a single buffalo or beaver, seal or sea +otter for fifty years, these species would replenish themselves. + +"The last chapter of the fur trade has been written?" Never! The +oldest industry of mankind will last as long as mankind lasts. + + +V + +I read also that "the last chapter of the fur romance has been +written." That is the point of view of the man who spends fifty weeks +in town and two weeks in the wilds. It is not the point of view of the +man who spends two weeks in town and fifty in the wilds; of the man who +goes out beyond the reach of law into strange realms the size of Russia +with no law but his own right arm, no defense but his own wit. Though +I have written history of the Hudson's Bay Company straight from their +own Minutes in Hudson's Bay House, London, I could write more of the +romance of the fur trade right in the present year than has ever been +penned of the company since it was established away back in the year +1670. + +Space permits only two examples. You recall the Cambridge man who +thought it a short distance to go only fifty-five miles by dog-train +for a doctor. A more cultured, scholarly, perfect gentleman I have +never met in London or New York. Yet when I met his wife, I found her +a shy little, part-Indian girl, who had almost to be dragged in to meet +us. That spiritual face--such a face as you might see among the +preachers of Westminster or Oxford--and the little shy Indian girl-wife +and the children, plainly a throw-back to their red-skin ancestors, not +to the Cambridge paternity! What was the explanation? Where was the +story of heartache and tragedy--I asked myself, as we stood in our tent +door watching the York boat come in with provisions for the year under +a sky of such diaphanous northern lights as leave you dumb before their +beauty and their splendor? How often he must have stood beneath those +northern lights thinking out the heartbreak that has no end. + +I did not learn the story till I had come on down to civilization and +town again. That Cambridge man had come out from England flush with +the zeal of the saint to work among the Indians. In the Indian school +where he taught he had met his Fate--the thing he probably +scouted--that fragile type of Indian beauty almost fawn-like in its +elusiveness, pure spirit from the very prosaic fact that the seeds of +mortal disease are already snapping the ties to life. It is a type you +never see near the fur posts. You have to go to the far outer +encampments, where white vices have not polluted the very air. He fell +in love. What was he to do? If he left her to her fate, she would go +back to the inclement roughness of tepee life mated to some Indian +hunter, or fall victim to the brutal admiration of some of those white +sots who ever seek hiding in the very wilderness. He married her and +had of course to resign his position as teacher in the school. He took +a position with the company and lived no doubt in such happiness as +only such a spiritual nature could know; but the seeds of the disease +which gave her such unearthly beauty ripened. She died. What was to +become of the children? If he sent them back to England, they would be +wretched and their presence would be misunderstood. If he left them +with her relatives, they would grow up Indians. If he kept them he +must have a mother for them, so he married another trader's +daughter--the little half-breed girl--and chained himself to his rock +of Fate as fast as ever martyr was bound in Grecian myth; and there he +lives to-day. The mail comes in only once in three months in summer; +only once in six in winter. He is the only white man on a watery +island two hundred miles from anywhere except when the lumbermen come +to the Ridge, or the Indian agent arrives with the treaty money once a +year. + +And "the last chapter of the fur romance has been written"? + +"The last chapter of the fur romance" will not have been written as +long as frost and muskeg provide a habitat for furtive game, and strong +men set forth to traverse lone places with no defense but their own +valiant spirit. + +The other example is of a man known to every fur buyer of St. Louis and +Chicago and St. Paul--Mr. Hall, the chief commissioner of furs for the +Hudson's Bay Company. I wish I could give it in Mr. Hall's own +words--in the slow quiet recital of the man who has spent his life amid +the great silent verities, up next to primordial facts, not theorizing +and professionalizing and discretionizing and generally darkening +counsel by words without knowledge. He was a youth somewhere around +his early twenties, and he was serving the company at Stuart Lake in +British Columbia--a sort of American Trossachs on a colossal scale. He +had been sent eastward with a party to bring some furs across from +MacLeod Lake in the most heavily wooded mountains. It was mid-winter. +Fort MacLeod was short of provisions. On their way back travel proved +very heavy and slow. Snow buried the beaten trail, and travel off it +plunged men and horses through snow crust into a criss-cross tangle of +underbrush and windfall. The party ran out of food. It was thought if +Hall, the youngest and lightest, could push ahead on snowshoes to +Stuart Lake, he could bring out a rescue party with food. + +He set off without horse or gun and with only a lump of tallow in his +pocket as food. The distance was seventy-five miles. At first he ran +on winged feet--feet winged with hunger; but it began to snow heavily +with a wind that beat in his face and blew great gusts of snow pack +down from the evergreen branches overhead; and even feet winged with +hunger and snowshoes clog from soft snow and catch derelict branches +sticking up through the drifts. By the time you have run half a day +beating against the wind, reversing your own tracks to find the chipped +mark on the bark of the trees to keep you on the blazed trail--you are +hungry. Hall began to nibble at his tallow as he ran and to snatch +handfuls of snow to quench his thirst. At night he kindled a roaring +big white-man fire against the wolves, dried out the thawed snow from +his back and front, dozed between times, sang to keep the loneliness +off, heard the muffled echo come back to him in smothered voice, and at +first streak of dawn ran on, and on, and on. + +By the second night Hall had eaten all his tallow. He had also reefed +in his belt so that his stomach and spine seemed to be camping +together. The snow continued to fall. The trees swam past him as he +ran. And the snowdrifts lifted and fell as he jogged heavily forward. +Of course, he declared to himself, he was not dizzy. It was the snow +blindness or the drifts. He was well aware the second night that if he +would have let himself he would have dug a sleeping hole in the snow +and wrapped himself in a snow blanket and slept and slept; but he +thrashed himself awake, and set out again, dead heavy with sleep, weak +from fatigue, staggering from hunger; and the wings on his feet had +become weighted with lead. + +He knew it was all up with him when he fell. He knew if he could get +only a half hour's sleep, it would freshen him up so he could go on. +Lots of winter travelers have known that in the North; and they have +taken the half hour's sleep; and another half hour's; and have never +wakened. Anyway, something wakened Hall. He heard the crackle of a +branch. That was nothing. Branches break to every storm, but this was +like branches breaking under a moccasin. It was unbelievable; there +was not the slightest odor of smoke, unless the dream odor of his own +delirious hunger; but not twenty paces ahead crackled an Indian fire, +surrounded by buckskin tepees, Indians warming themselves by the fire. + +With an unspeakable revulsion of hope and hunger, Hall flung to his +feet and dashed into the middle of the encampment. Then a tingling +went over his body like the wakening from death, of frost to +life--blind stabbing terror obsessed his body and soul; for the fire +was smokeless, the figures were speechless, transparent, unaware of his +presence, very terribly still. His first thought was that he had come +on some camp hopeless from the disaster of massacre or starvation. +Then he knew this was no earthly camp. He could not tell how the +figures were clothed or what they were. Only he knew they were not +men. He did not even think of ghosts. All he knew was it was a death +fire, a death silence, death tepees, death figures. He fled through +the woods knowing only death was behind him--running and running, and +never stopping till he dropped exhausted across the fort doorstep at +two in the morning. He blurted out why he had come. Then he lapsed +unconscious. They filled him with rum. It was twenty-four hours +before he could speak. + +"I don't know these modern theories about hallucination and delusions +and things," concluded Mr. Hall, gazing reflectively on the memories of +that night. "I'm not much on romance and that kind of thing! I don't +believe in ghosts. I don't know what it was. All I know is it scared +me so it saved my life, and it saved the lives of the rest, too; for +the relief party got out in time, though they didn't see a sign of any +Indian camp. I don't know what to make of it, unless years ago some +Indian camp had been starved or massacred there, and owing to my +unusual condition I got into some clairvoyant connection with that +past. However, there it is; and it would take a pretty strong argument +to persuade me I didn't see anything. All the other things I thought I +saw on that trip certainly existed, and it would be a queer thing if +the one thing which saved my life did not exist. That's all I know, +and you can make anything you like of it." + +So while Canada resents being regarded as a fur land, her domain of the +North sends down something more than roaring winds--though winds are +good things to shake dead leaves off the soul as well as off trees. +Her domain of the North rears more than fur-bearing animals. It rears +a race with hardihood, with dauntlessness, with quiet dogged unspeaking +courage; and that is something to go into the blood of a nation. A man +who will run on snowshoes eighteen hundred miles behind a dog-train as +a Senator I know did in his youth, and a woman of middle life, who will +"come out"--as they say in the North--and study medicine at her own +expense that she may minister to the Indians where she lives--are not +types of a race to lie down whipped under Fate. Canada will do things +in the world of nations shortly. She may do them rough-handed; but +what she does will depend on the national ideals she nurtures to-day; +and into those ideals has entered the spirit of the Domain of the North. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +FINDING HERSELF + +I + +One of the questions which an outsider always asks of Canada and of +which the Canadian never thinks is--Why is Newfoundland not a part of +Canada? Why has the lonely little Island never entered confederation? +On the map Newfoundland looks no larger than the area of Manitoba +before the provincial boundaries were extended to Hudson Bay. In +reality, area has little to do with Newfoundland's importance to +England's possessions in North America. It is that part of America +nearest to Europe. If you measure it north to south and east to west +it seems about two hundred and fifty by three hundred and fifty miles; +but distance north and south, east and west, has little to do with +Newfoundland's importance to the empire. Newfoundland's importance to +the empire consists in three fundamental facts: Newfoundland is the +radiating center for the fisheries on the Grand Banks, that submarine +plateau of six hundred by one hundred and fifty miles, where are the +richest deep-sea fisheries in the world; Newfoundland lies gardant at +the very entrance to Canada's great waterways; and Newfoundland's coast +line is the most broken coast line in the whole world affording +countless land-locked, rock-ribbed deep-sea harbors to shelter all the +fighting ships of the world. + +What have the deep-sea fisheries of the Grand Banks to do with a +Greater Britain Overseas? You would not ask that question if you could +see the sealing fleets set out in spring; or the whaling crews drive +after a great fin-back up north of Tilt Cove; or the schooners go out +with their dories in tow for the Grand Banks fisheries. Asked what +impressed him most in the royal tour of the present King of England +across Canada and Newfoundland several years ago, a prominent official +with the Prince answered: "Newfoundland and the prairie provinces." +"Why?" he was asked. "Men for the navy and food for the Empire." That +answer tells in a line why Newfoundland is absolutely essential to a +Greater Britain Overseas. You can't take landlubbers, put them on a +boat and have seamen. Sailors are bred to the sea, cradled in it, +salted with it for generations before they become such mariners as hold +England's ascendency on the seas of the world. They love the sea and +its roll and its dangers more than all the rewards of the land. Of +such men, and of such only, are navies made that win battles. Come out +to Kitty Vitty, a rock-ribbed cove behind St. John's, and listen to +some old mother in Israel, with the bloom of the sea still in her +wilted cheeks, tell of losing her sons in the seal fisheries of the +spring, when men go out in crews of two and three hundred hunting the +hairy seal over the ice floes, and the floes break loose, and the +blizzard comes down! It isn't the twenty or thirty or fifty dollar +bonus a head in the seal hunt that lures them to death, in darkness and +storm. It is the call, the dare, the risk, the romance of the sea born +in their own blood. Or else watch the fishing fleets up off the North +Shore, down on the Grand Banks! The schooner rocks to the silver swell +of the sea with bare mast poles. A furtive woman comes up the hatchway +and gazes with shaded eyes at passing steamers; but the men are out in +the clumsy black dories that rock like a cradle to the swell of the +sea, drawing in--drawing in--the line; or singing their sailor +chanties--"Come all ye Newfoundlanders"--as meal of pork and cod +simmers in a pot above a chip fire cooking on stones in the bottom of +the boat. It isn't the one or two hundred dollars these fishermen +clear in a year--and it may be said that one hundred dollars cleared in +a year is opulence--that holds them to the wild, free, perilous life. +It is the call of the sea in their blood. Of such men are victorious +navies made, and if Canada is to be anything more than the hanger-on to +the tail of the kite of the British Empire, she, too, must have her +navy, her men of the sea, born and cradled and crooned and nursed by +the sea. That is Newfoundland's first importance to a Greater Britain +Overseas. + +Perhaps, if the present war had not broken out, Canada would never have +realized Newfoundland's second importance to a Greater Britain Overseas +as the outpost sentinel guarding entrance to her waterways. It would +require shorter time to transport troops to Newfoundland than to Suez. +Should Canada ever be attacked, Newfoundland would be a more important +basis than Suez. Two centuries ago, in fact, for two whole centuries, +St. John's Harbor rang to the conflict of warring nations. If ever war +demanded the bottling up and blockading of Canada, the basis for that +embargo would be Newfoundland. + +It may as well be acknowledged that Canada's east coast affords few +good land-locked harbors. Newfoundland's deep-sea land-locked harbors +are so numerous you can not count them. Your ship will be coasting +what seems to be a rampart wall of sheer black iron towering up three, +four, six hundred feet flat as if planed, planed by the ice-grind and +storms of a million years beating down from the Pole riding thunderous +and angry seas. You wonder what would happen if a storm caught your +ship between those iron walls and a landward hurricane; and the captain +tells you, when the wind sheers nor'-east, he always beats for open +sea. It isn't the sea he fears. It is these rock ramparts and +saw-tooth reefs sticking up through the lace fret. Suddenly you twist +round a sharp angle of rock like the half closed leaf of a book. You +slip in behind the leaf of rock, and wriggle behind another +angle--"follow the tickles o' water" is, I believe, the term--and there +opens before you a harbor cove, land-locked, rock-walled from sea to +sky, with the fishermen's dories awash on a silver sea, with women in +brightly colored kirtles and top-boots and sunbonnets busy over the +fishing stages drying cod. Dogs and hogs are the only domestic animals +visible. The shore is so rocky that fences are usually little sticks +anchored in stones. There are not even many children; for the children +are off to sea soon as they can don top-boots and handle a line. There +is the store of "the planter" or outfitter--a local merchant, who +supplies schooners on shares for the season and too often holds whole +hamlets in his debt. There is the church. The priest or parson comes +poling out to meet your ship and get his monthly or half-yearly mail, +and there are the little whitewashed cots of the fisher folk. It is a +simpler life than the existence of the habitant of Quebec. It is more +remote from modern stress than the days of the Tudors. On the north +and west shore and in that sea strip of Labrador under Newfoundland's +jurisdiction and known in contradiction to Labrador as The +Labrodor--are whole hamlets of people that have never seen a railroad, +a cow, a horse. They are Devon people, who speak the dialect of Devon +men in Queen Elizabeth's day. You hear such expressions as "enow," +"forninst," "forby"; and the mental attitude to life is two or three +centuries old. + +"Why should we pay for railroads?" the people asked late as 1898. "Our +fathers used boats and their own legs." And one hamlet came out and +stoned a passing train. "Checks--none of your checks for me," roared +an out-port fisherman taking the train for the first time and lugging +behind him a huge canvas bag of clothes. "Checks--not for me! I know +checks! When the banks busted, I had your checks; and much good they +were." This was late as '98, and back from the pulp mills of the +interior and the railroad you will find conditions as antiquated to-day. + +If Newfoundland is absolutely essential to a Greater Britain Overseas, +why is she not part of Canada? Because Canada refused to take her in. +Because Canada had not big enough vision to see her need of this +smallest of the American colonies. For the same reason that +reciprocity failed between Canada and the United States--because when +Newfoundland would have come in, Canada was lethargic. Nobody was big +enough politically to seize and swing the opportunity. Because when +Canada was ready, Newfoundland was no longer in the mood to come in; +and nobody in Newfoundland was big enough to seize and swing an +opportunity for the empire. + +It was in the nineties. Fish had fallen to a ruinous price and for +some temporary reason the fishing was poor. There had been bank kiting +in Newfoundland's financial system. She had no railroads and few +steamships. Her mines had not been exploited, and she did not know her +own wealth in the pulp-wood areas of the interior. In fact, there are +sections of Northern Newfoundland not yet explored inland. Every bank +in the colony had collapsed. Newfoundland emissaries came to Ottawa to +feel the pulse for federation. The population at that time was +something under two hundred thousand. + +Now Canada has one very bad British characteristic. She has the John +Bull trick of drawing herself up to every new proposal with an air of +"What is that to us?" At this time Canada herself was in bad way. She +had just completed her first big transcontinental. Times were dull. +The Crown Colony of Newfoundland did not come begging admission to +confederation. No political party could do that and live; for politics +in Newfoundland are a fanatical religion. I have heard the warden of +the penitentiary say that if it were not for politics he would never +have any inmates. It is a fact that out-port prisons have been closed +for lack of inmates, but long as elections recur, come broken heads. +So the Crown Colony did not seek admission. It came feeling the Ottawa +pulse, and the Ottawa pulse was slow and cold. "What's Newfoundland to +us?" said Canada. One of the commissioners told me the real hitch was +the terms on which the Dominion should assume the Crown Colony's small +public debt; so the chance passed unseized. Newfoundland set herself +to do what Canada had done, when the United States refused reciprocity. +She built national railways. She launched a system of national ships. +She nearly bankrupted her public treasury with public works and +ultimately handed her transportation system over to semi-private +management. Outside interests began buying the pulp-wood areas. Pulp +became one of the great industries. The mines of the east shore picked +up. There was a boom in whaling. World conditions in trade improved. +By the time that the Dominion had awakened to the value of Newfoundland +no party in Newfoundland would have dared to mention confederation, and +that is the status to-day. One can hardly imagine this status +continuing long. The present war, or the lessons of the present war, +may awaken both sides to the advantages of union. Sooner or later, for +her own sake solely, Canada must have Newfoundland; and it is up to +Canada to offer terms to win the most ancient of British colonies in +America. British settlement in Newfoundland dates a century prior to +settlement in Acadia and Virginia. Devon men came to fish before the +British government had set up any proprietary claim. + + +II + +And now eliminate the details of Canada's status among the nations and +consider only the salient undisputed facts: + +Her population has come to her along four main lines of motive; seeking +to realize religious ideals; seeking to realize political ideals; +seeking the free adventurous life of the hunter; seeking--in modern +day--freehold of land. One main current runs through all these +motives--religious freedom, political freedom, outdoor vocations in +freedom, and freehold of land. This is a good flavor for the +ingredients of nationality. + +Conditioning these movements of population have been Canada's climate, +her backwoods and prairie and frontier hardship--challenging the +weakling, strengthening the strong. No country affords more +opportunity to the fit man and none is crueler to the unfit than +Canada. I like this fact that Canada is hard at first. It is the +flaming sword guarding the Paradise of effort from the vices of inert +softened races. Diamonds are hard. Charcoals are soft, though both +are the very same thing. + +Canada affords the shortest safest route to the Orient. + +Canada has natural resources of mine, forest, fishery, land to supply +an empire of a hundred million; to supply Europe, if need arose. + +She must some day become one of the umpires of fate on the Pacific. + +She yearly interweaves tighter commercial bonds with the United States, +yet refuses to come under American government. It may be predicted +both these conditions will remain permanent. + +Panama will quicken her west coast to a second Japan. + +Yearly the West will exert greater political power, and the East less; +for the preponderance of immigration settles West not East. + +As long as she has free land Canada will be free of labor unrest, but +the dangers of industrialism menace her in a transfer of population +from farm to factory. + +In twenty years Canada will have as many British born within her +borders as there were Englishmen in England in the days of Queen +Elizabeth. + +In twenty years Canada will have more foreign-born than there are +native-born Canadians. + +Her pressing problems to-day are the amalgamation of the foreigner +through her schools; a working arrangement with the Oriental fair to +him as to her; the development of her natural resources; the anchoring +of the people to the land; and the building of a system of powerful +national defense by sea and land. + +Her constitution is elastic and pliable to every new emergency--it may +be, too pliable; and her system of justice stands high. + +She has a fanatical patriotism; but it is not yet vocal in art, or +literature; and it is--do not mistake it--loyalty to an ideal, not to a +dynasty, nor to a country. She loves Britain because Britain stands +for that ideal. + +Stand back from all these facts! They may be slow-moving ponderous +facts. They may be contradictory and inconsistent. What that moves +ever is consistent? But like a fleet tacking to sea, though the course +shift and veer, it is ever forward. Forward whither--do you ask of +Canada? + +There is no man with an open free mind can ponder these facts and not +answer forthwith and without faltering--_to a democratised edition of a +Greater Britain Overseas_. Only a world cataclysm or national upheaval +displacing every nation from its foundations can shake Canada from that +destiny. + +Will she grow closer to Britain or farther off? Will she grow closer +to the United States or farther off? Will she fight Japan or league +with her? Will she rig up a working arrangement with the Hindu? + +Every one of these questions is aside from the main fact--England will +not interfere with her destiny. The United States will not interfere +with her destiny. Canada has her destiny in her own hands, and what +she works out both England and the United States will bless; but with +as many British born in her boundaries anchored to freehold of land as +made England great in the days of Queen Elizabeth, unless history +reverse itself and fate make of facts dice tossed to ruin by malignant +furies, then Canada's destiny can be only one--a Greater Britain +Overseas. + + + + +THE END + + + + +INDEX + +ALBERTA: size of, 16, 39; coal deposits of, 38; investment of British +capital in, 104; distance from seaboard, 180; rate from on wheat to +Fort William, 187-188; distance from Montreal, 195; from Great Lakes, +199. + +"AMERICANIZING OF CANADA," discussion of, 61-79. + +AMERICANS: emigration of to Canada, 65, 72, 273; investments of in +Canada, 66, 80, 92; as pioneers, 74, 76; sell ranches as rawnches, 105; +trade of with Canada, 128; attitude of Americans in Canadian Northwest +to Monroe Doctrine, 244; view of opportunity, 280. See also UNITED +STATES. + +ARBITRATION ACT, defects of, 220. + + +BELL, GRAHAM, a Canadian, 278. + +BIG BUSINESS, does not dominate government in Canada, 212, 223. + +BORDEN, ROBERT: social prestige of, 4; a self-made man, 53; new +premier, 91; one of Canada's great men, 109; naval policy of, 283, 285. + +BRITISH COLUMBIA: demands self-government, 11; railway to planned, 14; +larger than two Germanies, 16; climate of, 22; coal deposits of, 38; +description of, 40-41; investment of British capital in, 104; opposes +Oriental immigration, 129-133; coming of Hindus into and problem of, +141 et seq. + +BRITISH NORTH AMERICA ACT: the Canadian Constitution, 11; mentioned, +42, 111, 245; elasticity of, 51; constitution of Canada, 223; +provisions of, 228. + +BROWN, GEORGE, favors reciprocity, 82. + + +CABINET, how chosen and to whom responsible, 229. + +CANADA NORTHERN: builds repair shops at Port Mann, 179; uses electric +power in tunnels, 182; aided by government, 193. + +CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY: builds repair shops at Coquitlam, 179; tunnel +of through Mount Stephen, 182; aided by government, 193. + +CANADIAN SOO CANAL; tonnage passing through, 14; influence of in +reducing freight rates, 38. + +CHINA, an awakened giant, 168. + +CHINESE: agitation against on West Coast, 129; head tax upon, 130,164; +a separate problem from that of the Hindu, 138; in British Columbia, +159-167. + +CHURCHES, well attended in Canada, 252-255. + +COBALT: discovery of silver at, 34; boom in, 67. + +"COBDEN-BRIGHT SCHOOL," mentioned, 82, 84. + +COCKNEYS, Canadian hostility toward, 52. + +CONNAUGHT, DUKE OF, rebukes lip-loyalist, 48. + +CONSERVATIVES: tariff views of, 81-86; and appointment of judges, 234; +support Family Compact, 242; principles of, 242-244; support Navy Bill, +283; oppose Laurier's naval program, 285. + + +DAWSON, GEORGE, on coal deposits of Alberta and British Columbia, 38. + +"DIRECT PASSAGE" LAW: enacted, 130, 142; attempt to evade, 143, 153. + +DIVORCE, low rate of, 264. + +DOUKHOBORS: are accumulating wealth, 117; law-abiding, 118; influence +of priests upon, 124. + +DURHAM, LORD: work of in Canada, 226-228; report of, 274. + + +ENGLAND, see GREAT BRITAIN. + + +"FAMILY COMPACT": a governing clique, 9; mentioned, 14, 226, 242. + +FRANCHISE, in Canada, 232-233. + +FUR TRADE, account of, 294-322. + + +GEORGE, LLOYD: mentioned, 56, 57; Canada not interested in theories of, +58; effects of tax system of upon investment in Canada, 104. + +GEORGIAN BAY SHIP CANAL, proposed, 194. + +GLADSTONE, EDWARD E., attitude of toward colonies, 42. + +GORDON, CHARLES, investigates mining strike, 117. + +GOVERNOR-GENERAL: appointment and powers of, 43-44, 228-230; appoints +provincial judges, 236. + +GRAND BANKS, mentioned, 323. + +GRAND TRUNK PACIFIC: has dock in Seattle, 173, 174; its low mountain +grade, 182. + +GREAT BRITAIN: withholds self-government from Oregon region, 11; food +requirements of, 36; grants no trade favors to her colonies, 43; +dependence of Canada upon, 43-45; trade of with the United States, +62-63; her dependencies, 95; immigration from, 95-110; allied with +Japan, 127, 132; as a world policeman, 137; shipyards of, 171; need of +shortest wheat route to, 197; eighty per cent. of Canada's agricultural +products go to, 202; acquires Canada, 224; secret of her success as a +colonial power, 269; overplus of women in, 265; rise of as a world +power, 269; her navy Canada's chief defense, 289; what defeat of her +navy would mean to Canada, 292-293; importance of Newfoundland to her +possessions in America, 323; will not interfere with Canada's destiny, +333. + +GREAT CLAY BELT; described, 33; mentioned, 303. + + +HENDRY, ANTHONY, first white fur-trader in Saskatchewan country, 314. + +HILL, JAMES: he and associates buy large coal areas, 66; predicts bread +famine in United States, 88; on rights of the public, 175; on western +fruit crop, 181; wheat empire of, 198, 208; a Canadian, 278. + +HINDUS: agitation against in British Columbia, 129; problem of in +Canada, 138-167; possible effects on constitution of unlimited +immigration of, 245; troops rushed across Canada, 286. + +HOPKINSON: murder of, 144; had secret information regarding Hindus, +144, 153. + +HUDSON BAY RAILROAD, account of, 191-209. + +HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY; monopoly of, 11; journals of mention mineral +deposits, 35; governor of testifies that farming can not succeed in +Rupert's Land, 271; effect of contentions regarding Northwest, 276; +trade of, 297-298; former monopoly of, 299; mentioned, 302. + +HUDSON STRAITS, the crux of the Hudson Bay route, 206-209. + +HUNTERS' LODGES, raids of, 8. + + +ICELANDERS, story of in Manitoba, 122-123. + +IMMIGRATION: increase in ten years, 20; from Great Britain, 51, 95-110; +American immigration into Canada, 61-79; from continental Europe, +111-126; from the Orient, 127-167; probable effect of Panama Canal +upon, 176. + +IMPERIAL FEDERATION, a dead issue in Canada, 47. + +INDIANS: number of in the fur trade, 294; rights of Indian wives +married to white men, 266. + +INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD: in Canada, 219; program of, 221. + + +JAPAN: dominates fishing industry of the Pacific, 24; alliance of with +Great Britain, 127; attitude of on equality question, 130-132; activity +of on West Coast, 134-136; controls seventy-two per cent. of the +shipping of the Pacific, 136, 178; future influence of, 137; attempt to +draw into Hindu quarrel, 146; demands room to expand, 168; becomes a +world power, 269; future relations of with Canada, 333. + +JAPANESE: inrush of into British Columbia, 129; limitations on +immigration of, 130; exclusion of becomes party shibboleth, 133; a +separate problem from that of the Hindu, 138. + +JUDGES, position and powers of, 233-236. + + +KOOTENAY, mining boom in, 66-67. + + +LABRADOR, as a fur country, 302-304. + +LABRODOR, THE, under jurisdiction of Newfoundland, 327 + +LAURIER, SIR WILFRED: social prestige of, 4; helps allay racial +antagonisms, 7; prediction of as to Canada's future, 17; supports Boer +War, 31-32; a self-made man, 53; a free-trader, 82; and reciprocity, +89-91; one of Canada's great men, 109; and a Dominion navy, 283, 285; +mentioned, 243. + +LESSER GREAT LAKES, fisheries of, 39. + +LIBERALS: favor free trade, 82; seek reciprocity agreement, 83-85; +launch two more transcontinentals, 86; and appointment of judges, 234; +organize to oust Family Compact, 242; principles of, 242-244; oppose +Naval Bill, 283, 285. + +LITERATURE: no great national in Canada, 262; Canadians slow to +recognize writers, 279; most Canadian books first published out of +Canada, 79. + +LORD SELKIRK'S SETTLERS, come to Canada, 6. + +LOYALISTS, see UNITED EMPIRE LOYALISTS. + + +MACDONALD, SIR JOHN: influence of upon Canadian constitution, 11-12; +comes up from penury, 53; seeks tariff concessions from the United +States, 81; tariff views of, 83; launches Canadian Pacific Railway, 86; +one of Canada's great men, 109; mentioned, 243. + +MACKENZIE, ALEXANDER: comes up from penury, 53; mentioned, 81; a +free-trader, 82; a man of the North, 295. + +MACKENZIE, WILLIAM LYON, a leader in rebellion of 1837-8, 226. + +MANITOBA: almost as large as British Isles, 16, 39; coal deposits in, +38; distance of from Montreal and Hudson Bay, 195. + +MANITOBA SCHOOL CASE, mentioned 44, 83. + +MANN, DAN, comes up from penury, 53, + +MARITIME PROVINCES, described, 221. + +MONROE DOCTRINE: mentioned, 32, 45, 285; Canadian opinion of, 169, 288; +attitude of French Nationalists toward, 244. + +MOUNTED POLICE: say crime in Northwest is increasing, 118; efficiency +of, 238-240. + +MUNRO, DOCTOR, quoted regarding Oriental immigration, 162-163. + + +NATIONALISTS; oppose Navy Bill, 283, 285; and outside entanglements, +244. + +NAVY BILL: defeated, 284. + +NEW BRUNSWICK, mentioned, 22. + +NEWFOUNDLAND; mentioned, 195; description of, 323-328; why not a part +of Canada, 323-330. + +NEW FRANCE, conquest of, 6. + +NORTH AMERICA ACT, see BRITISH NORTH AMERICA ACT. + +NOVA SCOTIA, mentioned, 22. + + +ONTARIO: first settlement of, 3; more ultra-English than England, 4; +description of, 33-35. + +OSLER, WILLIAM, a Canadian, 278. + + +PANAMA CANAL; mentioned, 14; influence of upon commerce, 27; turns +Pacific into a front door, 41; what it means to Canada, 168-190; will +reverse conduits of trade, 280. + +PAPINEAU, LOUIS, a leader in the rebellion of 1837-8, 226. + +PARLIAMENT: composition and powers of, 230-233; a session every year, +234. + +PEACE RIVER COUNTRY: mentioned, 16; wheat grown in, 271; wheat lands +of, 300. + +PEEL, PAUL: lost to Canada, 279. + +PRAIRIE PROVINCES: resources of, 350; probable wheat production of in +twenty years, 183. + +PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND, mentioned, 22. + + +QUEBEC, PROVINCE OF: more Catholic than the Pope, 4; size of, 16; +description of, 27-32. + +QUEBEC ACT, first constitution of Canada, 225. + + +RAILWAY COMMISSION, 192. + +REBELLION OF 1837: significance of, 8. + +RECIPROCITY: Canadians seek, 15; why rejected, 80-94. + +RED RIVER, demands self-government, 11. + +RELIGION, influence of in Canada, 252-259. + +REVILLONS: yearly fur trade of, 298; inquiry made of as to number of +white hunters, 302. + +RIEL REBELLION, mentioned, 227, 284. + +ROOSEVELT, THEODORE, sends fleet round the world, 128. + +ROYAL NORTHWEST MOUNTED POLICE, absence of flunkeyism among, 49. + + +SASKATCHEWAN: area of, 16, 39; coal deposits in, 38. + +SCHURMAN, JACOB G., a Canadian, 278. + +SIFTON, CLIFFORD: a self-made man, 53; campaign for immigrants, 70-74, +87. + +SMITH, GOLDWIN, opinion of Canadian loyalty, 47-48. + +SOCIALISM: plays little part in Canadian affairs, 248-251; in Canada, +210, 222. + +SOCIALISTS, have never collected money to buy rifles, 149. + +SPORT, interest in and forms of, 259-262. + +ST. LAWRENCE RIVER, improvements along, 192-196. + +STRATHCONA, LORD: prophecy of regarding the prairie provinces, 39, 170; +once a fur-trader, 295. + +STRATHCONA HORSE, daring of in South Africa, 49. + +SUDBURY, nickel mines of, 34. + + +TAFT, WILLIAM H., and reciprocity, 45, 89-91. + +TEACHERS, lack of recognition of services of, 125-126. + +"TWILIGHT ZONE": borderland between Dominion and provincial powers, +145; embarrassing in labor disputes, 219. + + +UNITED EMPIRE LOYALISTS: first people Ontario, 3; mentioned, 6, 7, 9, +225, 274, 295. + +UNITED STATES: effects of Civil War upon unity of, 2; emigration to +from Canada, 15; population of compared with that of Canada, 18, 269, +275; absorption of immigration by, 20; spring wheat production of, 37; +government of compared with that of Canada, 50-51; transportation +facilities between Canada and the United States, 64; trade of with +Canada, 64-65; lumbermen from our timber lands in Dominion, 76; and +reciprocity, 81-94; increase in value of fruit lands in, 105; +similarity to Canada, 113; political corruption in, 116; why she built +Panama Canal, 128, 187; problems of immigration in, 120, 130, 176; +emigration to Canada from, 170; shipyards in, 171; expectations of +Panama, 174; little aid given by to shipping, 179; how it transports +its wheat crop, 183; a source of the British wheat supply, 197; acreage +of wheat in, 201; increase of urban population in, 214; as a competitor +of Canada, 216; churches of poorly attended, 252; friendly relations of +with Canada, 273; comparison of with Canada, 269-277; Canadians +grateful they are not as, 277; a "big ship," 278; what menaces United +States menaces Canada, 287; foreign policies of two countries similar, +292; even closer commercial relations of with Canada, 332; will not +interfere with Canada's destiny, 332. + + +VAN HORNE, SIR WILLIAM C, comes up from penury, 53. + + +WALKER, HORATIO, lost to Canada, 279. + +WAR OF 1812, cripples Canada financially, 7. + +WELLAND CANAL, not wide enough, 194, + +WILSON, WOODROW, tariff reductions under, 94. + + +YUKON: mentioned, 16; gold discovered in, 23. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CANADIAN COMMONWEALTH*** + + +******* This file should be named 18032.txt or 18032.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/0/3/18032 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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