JL > U) U) (0 A6 UC-NRLF B M bDS 3^7 en 1 '■ 3i Quebec Vie'w of Canadian XationaUsn\ AN ESSAY BY A DYED-IN-THE-WOOL FRENCH-CANADIAN, ON THE BEST MEANS OP ENSURING THE GREAT- NESS OF THE CANADIAN FATHERLAND Olivar ^sselin irOR SAI,B AT AU, BOOK STORSS AT 25 CBNTS A COPY. Otm HUNDRED C0PIB8 ON JAPAN VELLUM AT ONB DOLLAR. TWaNTY-WVE COPIES ON JAPAN VELLUM, WITH HAND- DESIGNED INITIALS, AT FIVE DOU,AR8. 1 A QUEBEC VIEW OF Canadian Nationalism An Essay by a dyed-in-the-wool French-Canadian, on the best means of ensuring the great- ness of the Canadian Fatherland. O Canada I mon pays, mes amours! C ARTIER. A well organised State is the greatest possible tribute from man to Divinity. CICERO. DECEMBER. 1909 GUERTIN PRINTING COMPANY. LTD. MONTREAL JLU" - Rico and the Philippines, cannot be depended on to act justly tov/ards a weaker nation. But if you own that England would not go to war with the Americans for our sake, — and this seems more unlikely than ever, — how can you pretend that the national status would more fatally bring us under the American hegemony? Twelve years ago, the United States only had their negro problem to cope with. Since then, they have put a finger in the Porto-Rican pie, and another in the Philippine pudding. They have be- come a V/orld Power, and assumed the responsibilities of a World Power. A combination could be made against them with the South American Republics. Alliances or ententes could be made against them with European or Asiatic powers needing our transporta- tion facilities or our commercial favors. Canada could secure a moral advantage over them by agreeing to submit all differences to international arbitration. She could derive additional security by making mili- tary training compulsory in the schools and recasting her militia on the Swiss pattern. These are only a few of the means by which she could make herself as strong with fifteen or twenty million people as the United States with their hundred millions. ^ This, however, is misplacing the question. If we are ex- pected, under the proposed Imperial Defence system, to shoulder all the liabilities of Nationhood, why should we continue to drag the fetters of Colonialism? Why should we not, in our external relations, look for that consideration which is the lot of all independent 20 A QUEBEC VIEW OF states however small, and let that proud spirit which the full enjoyment of Nationhood can alone beget, im- pel us to great deeds? That, and nothing else, is the question. G. So, whichever way you look at it, you are con- fronted with this conclusion, that as long as a colony is a colony, she is entitled to the armed protection of the Mother Country; that the colony which would build a navy to assist the Mother Country whenever the latter's "honor" or the "integrity of her territory" is at stake — and these are the terms of the resolution of March 29 last — would be three times worse off than the Mother Country herself ; and that Canada, con- sidering the risks implied in her connection with Great Britain, would still be doing more than the ordinary duties of Nationhood by simply providing for the defence of her own territory. G. Such is the Quebec Nationalist doctrine on the subject of Defence. It is not Quixotic. It is not even heroic in the sense that some of our Imperialists would give to the word. Only it is replete with common sense. It is intensely Canadian. CE. It is even more. CI. One cannot read of the fancies and delusions of British statesmanship immediately prior to the Ameri- can Revolution without being impressed with the idea that history is repeating itself. Will the end be the same? Will our present-day Loyalists, sincere as they may be now, behave better under the stress of taxation than did people who were equally loyal up to CANADIAN NATIONALISM 21 the time of secession? This is something for the British statesman to figure out. But allowing for the best, will he take chances? It is a problem for Anglo- Saxon thinkers to knov/ what the mutual relations of the United States and England would be to-daj^, had not George III., upon the advice of sycophant ministers, attempted to revive Roman Imperialism for Great Britain's profit. No doubt natural laws would have followed their course. No doubt the American colo- nies would, in the course of time, have claimed the glory and benefits of Nationhood. Who will, hcv^^ever, be made to believe that the spirit of the new country towards England would have been the same? Instead of an ever-indifferent and sometimes hostile nation, Great Britain would now find on this side of the ocean an all-powerful and friendly power ready to back her up in all her just undertakings and help her rule the world. Let the Mother Country heed the lessons of her own history. Let her not try to stem the tide of Colonial Nationhood with a vain and ill-timed revival of Roman Imperialism, when, by submitting to the inevitable, she may at least ingratiate herself in the hearts of a young, healthy and ambitious people. k=l \}J JUT^ a- (i^' 22 A QUEBEC VIEW OF II. CANADA'S INTERNAL RELATIONS. The Race and Creed Problem. N order to be a strong nation, Canada must also have internal peace and be able to trust in the thorough loyalty of all her people. C It has been said by some that our form of government is the best in the world. This is saying much. This may be saying too much. We are too apt, through self-complacency, to lose sight of such admirably governed countries as Belgium and Switzer- land. In criticizing the defects of the American Constitution, we are too prone to forget the defects of our own. A.t all events, the Canadian Federal System cannot work out its best results unless applied in the fair spirit in which it was devised. CE. The Fathers of Confederation set themselves a two- fold purpose. ' First, they wanted to rid the Cen- tral Government of such business as could better be adjusted by the local authorities. '' Second, they wanted the two main elements of the Canadian people — French and English — to enjoy equal rights under the Federal Constitution. Provincial Ever since 1867, the Federal Government Autonomy j^^s evinced an ambition to increase its patronage by encroachments upon Pro- vincial powers. The regulation of the Liquor Traffic, Fishing Rights, Railway Control and Company Incor- CANADIAN NATIONALISM 23 poration, have been some of the bones of contention between Ottawa and the Provinces. But the Provin- cial governments, irrespective of their racial make-up, have never flinched in their opposition to that ten- dency. There has been but one greater Provincialist than Mercier. It was Mowat. British Columbia vies with the Maritime Provinces in defending her fisheries. Manitoba vies with Ontario in striving to keep the Cor- poration Legislation of Ottawa within Constitutional bounds. ^ The situation could be further improved by restricting the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court to Commercial cases and to those cases of ordinary Civil law originating from more than one Province. t Some would also have each legislating power en- force its own laws and the Federal power take away from the Provinces the administration of Criminal Jus- tice. T[ As things stand, it is safe to assume that Provincial Government in Canada will endure. The trouble comes in when the dividing line in certain matters has to be defined. I refer particularly to School matters. The School SomeCanadiansare partisans of what they Rigrhts of call National Schools. I am not at all sure Minorities ^g ^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ mean. We have read in some Western and in a few Ontario papers that the National School is a school where one language — English — and no religion would be taught. We have heard some Quebec men advocate a Public School which they did not care to define, but where, I presume, Quebec ideals would obtain in so far as the Quebec people have their say — for it cannot be imagined that a Quebec man would think of forcing the Western type of National School on Quebec. 24 A QUEBEC VIEW OF When and how a school begins to be National, no one ever told us. When and how it ceases to be National, is still an open question. Will any one say that the absence of religious teaching is an essential element of the National School? Will any one seriously con- tend that a French school is not a National School in a country where French is a National language? In the large American cities such as New York and Philadel- phia, the Jew objects to whatever Christian teaching is left in the Public School, hitherto considered as Neut- ral and National, while Christian denominations which did not previously see the necessity of religious teaching are beginning to ask themselves if a creedless school is not an utter impossibility. In some sections of the same country, the National School is half German, though the German language is not recognized by either the Federal or the State constitutions. Why then not take the Canadian Constitution as it is and enforce it as its makers evidently intended that it should be enforced ? / CE. While the Canadian Constitution places the school ^ under Provincial control, it explicitly ensures the right to Separate Schools — that is. National schools with religious teaching — to the Protestants in Quebec and to the Catholics in Ontario and other provinces. And it provides (section 93) for Federal redress of any infringement of that right by Provincial governments. ^ The Federal authority, however, jealous as it was of its powers in other respects, has always shrunk from that interference. The fallacious theory is fast spreading in English-speaking Canada that Provincial authority in School affairs is supreme, and that the sooner the teaching of French is wiped out by law, the better for the country. This is neither the place nor CANADIAN NATIONALISM 25 the time to go into the intricacies of the Western school troubles, and I will not do it. I only note the general trend of events as I am sure it will strike every impar- tial observer. C The Neutral School, if really neutral, is not only use- ful, but indispensable, where the diversity of religious beliefs is too great to allow of denominational teaching, or where a portion of the people, for some reason or other, will not patronize denominational schools. But when a sufficient number of taxpayers see their way to having a school of their own, that will teach their own religious beliefs while complying with State standards of secular education, they — whether Cath- olics, Protestants, Jews or Mormons — should be allowed to do so if their teaching is not subversive of social order or fealty to the State. This is the true Liberal doctrine. This is the true Canadian Constitu- tional doctrine. Any departure from that doctrine is sure to breed internal trouble and hurt the country. The What I say of Religion is largely true French of Language. Tj It was argued, in the last Language school controversies, that if you allowed the teaching of French in the Western schools, you could not deny the same privilege to any one race of immigrants. I have already pointed out that French is one of the official languages of the country. The argument therefore falls flat. The rights granted and guaranteed to the French in 1867 were no free gift. They were the deserved recog- nition of good work done for the Crown and the Colony. The French have not forfeited their claims since, that we know of; but if you will do the pioneers of this 26 A QUEBEC VIEW OF country the injustice of placing them on a par with the foreign-bom who, bonused into a well organized land, only have to till the soil and use the transport- ation roads, you will at least give them a privilege that you would not refuse to the immigrant. If a school teaches enough English for the just requirements of citizenship, what harm does it do in also teaching the language of its supporters? ^ The School is not the only medium of assimilation. You must also rely on the Surroundings. How many men of foreign extraction born in the United States are unable to speak English like the natives, whatever school they went to? If such is the law of nature, why not trust to it? ^ These views were expounded in very lucid and straightforward language by no less a man than Earl Grey's brother in the "University Mag- azine" two years ago. Unfortunately the Old World Anglo-Saxon idea of liberty does not always prevail in the Colony. Throughout North America the mean- ing of certain words is being inverted. He who lives and lets live has come to be looked upon as the narrow- minded man. He who forces his view of education and life on his fellow man has come to be looked upon as the broad-minded man. Nov/, it is plain enough that, if you agree to this inversion, any selfish brute will be broad-minded, and the bigger the brute the broader the mind. C I often wondered how such masterful intellects as Mr. Goldwin Smith could be blinded by religious pre- judice to the point of seeing the hand of Rome and the Jesuit in every move of the Catholic politicians. 1 Rome is a foreign power, but it is a Spiritual power. Rome certainly interferes in Canadian politics for the CANADIAN NATIONALISM 27 safeguarding of her particular interests. But she has a right to. No one is compelled to listen to Rome. If you are not satisfied with being a Catholic, get out of the Catholic Church. If you remain a Catholic, the head of your Church has the same right to com- mand you in Spiritual matters that the head of the International labor unions has to command Canadian union men in labor matters, or that Huxley, Tyndall and Spencer have to sway Mr. Goldwin Smith's mind from the bottom of their graves. And the Canadian State, unless it will undertake to censure the religious or philosophical tenets of its subjects, should not interfere with that right as long as it does not en- danger the interests of the State — which it cannot be shown that it does. C Likewise, it is wonderful how far some learned men will carry their misconception of broad-minded- ness. ^ Five years ago, "Le Nationaliste" called for opinions from its readers on the future of the French- Canadian. One of the writers, Mr. Adam Shortt, then Professor of Political Economy at Queen's Univer- sity, and now one of the Civil Service Commissioners of Canada, said in plain words that Quebec was a bar to the intellectual progress of Canada, and that the first condition of that progress was the suppression of French, ^j The outrageous superficiality of this as- sertion does not need to be pointed out. There may be hundreds of University people in the English pro- vinces who can speak German, Spanish, or Italian, and do not suspect what is going on in neighboring Quebec. It is quite possible, too, that the manifest inferiority of Higher Education — as distinct from purely profes- sional education — in the Province of Quebec, may i 28 A QUEBEC VIEW OF convey a wrong idea of our intellectual level to out- siders. But we would like to know why the co- existence of two refined languages in a country should in itself be detrimental to intellectual progress. That Quebec is as profoundly unknown to English-speaking University men as Thibet or Patagonia, is a stigma — but not upon Quebec. When all French-Canadian children can read and write, and half of them two lan- guages, which is one of the certainties of to-morrow, some people in the English provinces will still cling to the notion that Quebec is a blot on the Canadian map. Are we to blame for that ? And what can we do to help it ? C Politically, there is no more friction between Que- bec and Ontario than between Ontario and the Mari- time Provinces. All the leading French-Canadians speak fluent English. There is not one French- Canadian editor out of five who does not scan the English papers every day. What little ill-feeling remains on both sides is due to three chief causes. d. First, we have French papers coining money out of the misrepresentation of English-Canadian senti- ment. H A great many Canadian newspapers to-day are mere business ventures, and some of them none too honest ventures at that, notwithstanding the pious face and holy composure. When Mackenzie & Mann want- ed to "touch" the Federal and Provincial treasuries for a few millions, they bought "La Presse", with its 90,000 readers. It was while in that ignominious bondage that "La Presse" felt most "patriotic" in Samuel Johnson's interpretation of the word, and most intent to scour the English press for anything that could be CANADIAN NATIONALISM 29 construed or misconstrued as a disparagement to the French. Nothing that the Opposition press would do for National peace was mentioned. Everything that it did or could be charged with doing for National dis- cord was magnified a hundredfold. The bosses — the English-speaking bosses — evidently liked it so. ^ True enough, the foul work was made possible by Quebec's ignorance of the contents of the English press, and that may be argued in favor of unification. But apart from this, that we are dealing with facts, not with theories, the French Opposition papers were there to set the people right, and the garbled quotations and carefully devised omissions of "La Presse" did not prevent the Conservatives from swelling their total strength in the Province at the 1908 elections by twenty thousand votes. Messrs Cox's and Jaffray's Toronto " Globe " on insurance and railway subsidies, Mr. Sifton's " Manitoba Free Press" on timber and land grants, or Mr. Pearson's Halifax "Chronicle" on gov- ernment printing contracts, are about as safe advisers of public opinion as "La Presse" was on race and creed subjects. The crying need of the hour all over Canada is a Press free from the grip of financial buc- caneers, and when such papers exist in Quebec, the difference in language will not be the danger to National unity that, to a certain extent, it may be now. d What "La Presse" and, for that matter, all the French Ministerial papers have done, some English Ministerial papers have done. Tj I am thinking specially of a Montreal daily whose anti-Catholic earnestness, and a far from Platonic interest in insurance legislation, is fast driving it to the utmost limits of journalistic dis- honesty. Not only will that lovable sheet credit the 30 A QUEBEC VIEW OF French Opposition papers with views they never held, but, through sheer religious hatred, it will not stop at swallowing its well-known Prohibition principles when appealed to by fosterers of Sunday liquor-selling schemes on the ground of anti-Clericalism. The Toronto "Globe" often indulges in the same kind of Pecksniffery. ^ Most English Canadian journalists, however, are simply suffering from that acute form of self-complacency we have just noted in Mr. Shortt. They know nothing of their French compatriots, not because they could not know, but because they do not care to know.^ The average correspondent of the Toronto or Halifax paper in Montreal is ignorant of the French language, does not mingle with the French people, is about as familiar with their thought and customs as the average Toronto or Halifax scribbler. The French paper is not read in the English editorial office, save for occasional party advantage, t To quote from personal experience. When the French aldermen of Montreal, four years ago, forced upon the English minority, as a Protestant school commissioner, a man whom it had turned down,"Le Nationaliste" was the one paper to protest against that deed of wanton cowardice by men who, if in a minority, would proba- bly have lacked the courage to defend their rights. Marked copies of the article were sent to several con- freres then in the habit of telling untruths about us. Not one of these gentlemen mentioned it, and, in subsequent controversies, they acted as though they had never read it. At the Federal elections of 1908, the barefaced racial appeals of Laurierite papers and Laurierite politicians throughout French Canada had become a matter of shame for all self-respecting CANADIAN NATIONALISM 31 French-Canadians. All the more as those loot- seeking wreckers of National Unity were posing as the champions of mutual forbearance before the country. " Le Nationaliste " once more inveighed, showing that the French-Canadian, to win the confidence of the ma- jority, must be prepared to adopt the same standard as the latter in the appreciation of the public man's business deeds and business methods. In support of the facts, it quoted from all the leading ministerial papers of the Province, and from Sir Wilfrid Laurier's own speeches. The authorship of the article should have made it doubly interesting for a hitherto mis- taken public. A translation of it was sent to, and simultaneously printed at Toronto, Ottawa and Halifax. The next week the old legend about those Briton-baiters of Nationalists was as robust as ever. ^ Is the difference of language responsible for that, and to what degree? Are not the bumptiousness, thick-headedness and procrastination of some of the English-Canadian pressmen also to blame? 7 CThen we have an army of politicians in both sec- tions thriving on popular prejudice. ^ The English- speaking candidate finds it quite natural and quite decent to explain that the hands of his party chieftains were stayed, on this or that occasion, by the treason- able attitude of the French. The French-speaking candidate finds it quite as natural, and quite as decent, to account for the parliamentary mishaps of the minority, not by the French representative's own worthlessness, nor by Constitutional shortcomings, but by the religious and racial fanaticism of the English. And thus is National unity promoted by our Canadian type of broad-minded compromisers. ^ Far / 32 A QUEBEC VIEW OF more wicked yet is the minority politician who makes it a practice gently to tickle the selfish side of Anglo- Saxon nature for personal political profit. Foremost among these is Sir Wilfrid Laurier. ^j In the South African contest, all French-Canadians were at heart against the sending of troops. They had a right to be, and to say that they were. It would have been better for them, and for the country, had they spoken out their true minds, as Sir Wilfrid Laurier did at the outset./ Deceit in Canada's internal relations, and the maze of misconception and trickery that must needs follow, is a far greater menace to Canada's future than the passing agitations that may result from an honest divergence of views. To retain power. Sir Wilfrid preferred to swing around to the opposite camp and question the loyalty of his French critics, v/ith the out- come that a legitimate expression of thought became an act of treason in the eyes of the war-crazy Canadians. % In every School debate since 1889, a body of French- Canadians have held that the future peace of the coun- try lies in a liberal interpretation of the B. N. A. Act and a generous treatment of the Catholic and French minority. These people may have been wrong at times in their own interpretation— although, for my- self, I do not think they were. But, right or wrong, they were surely not bad Canadians; otherwise you would have to charge the Montreal "Witness" with National treason every time it comes out for a better representation of the English Protestant element in the Quebec Cabinet, or for a more generous treatment of the Protestant schools by the Quebec ministers — and this is about the only square thing the "Witness" has done in a long time on the race issue. % The CANADIAN NATIONALISM 33 two great races of Canada must learn to differ and battle, and to win or lose, without reviling each other or impugning each other's motives. Healthy discus- sion, open-minded debate, never bred National dis- aster. Yet, throughout the School wrangle, Sir Wil- frid Laurier has been denouncing the Quebec cham- pions of minority rights as firebrands, to be dealt with as outlaws. ^ Several times in the last five years, the oflicial use of French has come up for Parliamen- tary debate. Moneys are voted every year for the publication of the public documents in both languages. In fact, a French version is published. Only, through somebody's idiocy or ill-will, it comes out months and years after the English version, and the French press has to get along without it. Any sensible man will admit, that since the expenditure is incurred, it should be made to serve some useful end. It is an insult to our English fellow citizens to suppose that one of them would object to this, once the case was properly explained. Are they not, as Canadians, interested in all Canadians having the best available means of political learning? What does it matter to them if the French get the Blue Books, the Statutes or "Hansard" in time, the cost being the same? Yet again, whenever the question was mooted in the House, Sir Wilfrid was among the first to hold up the speaker to the ridicule and distrust of the English members. ^ The ugly side of this conduct has probably escaped the attention of those whose innate selfishness it was intended to gratify. If you pause to ponder over it, you will soon marvel that the cheapness and vulgarity — not to say baseness — of it, has not struck you before. Laurier's ends are certainly promoted by it. It flat- ^J 34 A QUEBEC VIEW OF ters one section of the people. As for the other sec- tion, his being at the helm of government is in itself such a satisfaction to their vanity that they v/ill not reprove him for anything he does. What of to- morrow? Laurier has been called a Nation Builder. It may be realized after his death that Success was the goal and inspiration of his life ; that some of his alleged appeals to mutual tolerance were calculated harping on the hidden passions of human nature, and that no other Canadian statesman has done so much to estrange the two great branches of the Canadian family. CE. But these causes of friction, I repeat, are not neces- sarily connected with the race issue. ^ The French journalist is not deterred from his National duty by the present race conditions. ^ The English journalist could at least publish truth when it is shoved under his nose in his own language. If No Prime Minister is justified by the dual character of the country in court- ing the favor of the majority at the expense of the majority's own dignity, as well as of the minority's Constitutional rights — especially when that gentleman himself is of the minority. Canadian The Nationalist policy in religious Minorities and ^nd racial matters does not admit Annexation ^^ ^j^^ superiority of any particular creed or race. It is human. It is just. It is the reverse of the course of forced assimila- tion which too many of our leading men would com- mend to the attention of the Anglo-Saxon majority. / / Thank God, it has been the policy of the British government in Canada since Lafontaine's strong will, CANADIAN NATIONALISM 35 spurred on by Elgin's farsightedness, broke the backbone of the Family Compact. So much for the minority's interest. , Let us now revert to the all- Canadian, and, in a measure, the British standpoint. I was reading lately in the Montreal "Standard", itself an outgrowth of the Montreal "Star", that the activity of the American press at Ottawa is causing alarm in Canadian political circles. Said the "Standard": "Citizens are wondering if there are a sufficient num- ber of Americans interested in Canadian news to warrant (American papers) giving up so much space to Canadian topics. Some go as far as to say that this is the first out- crop of an organized attempt to mould American public opinion as to the enormous value of Canada and her mineral resources with a view to political action later on. It is pointed out that the United States publishers are now at their v/its' ends for news print paper, and that a cam- paign to educate the American people as to the vast re- sources of Canada in this respect v/ould be only natural in their own interests, where Canada will come in being another question. "This may be only an expression of American enter- prise, but in my estimation it may mean very much more. The daily exploitation of the riches of Canada for the delectation of American readers must naturally have the effect of exciting the cupidity of Americans — this is only natural. The time has come when they need our raw material — this has become an absolute necessity. Espe- cially is this true with regard to our pulp wood. What more natural than that American newspaper publishers should do everything in their power to become possessed, by any means possible, of the treasures of the Canadian forests? And to do this the way must be prepared — the opinion of the people must be moulded. I may be wrong, but this looks to me like the beginning of stirring times. What the American papers undertake, they generally 36 A QUEBEC VIEW OF accomplish, and it seems to me that Canada is now the plum upon which they are to concentrate all their atten- tion. How Canada will come out of it remains to be seen." C This is no exaggeration. It is common sense itself. The wonder is how truth could be concealed so long from the great bulk of the Canadian people. If And if such be the truth, what in the name of logic has this country to gain by the open or the hypocritical des- poiling of minorities, and more especially of the French Catholic minority? t The English-Canadian holds to Great Britain by blood. Legitimate self- concern is the main tie between the French-Canadian and the Mother Country. Simple-minded people may be shocked by it, no truly enlightened man will find fault with it. The moment we lose our old Constitutional immunities, we have no more reason to prefer British rule to American rule. ^ Nor must it be thought that our quiet enjoyment of equal rights in the sole Province of Quebec, as advocated by Mr. Goldwin Smith, Mr. Willison, and many others, will suffice to ensure our loyalty to the British Crown. Louisiana kept her own language and institutions un- der the American flag as long as she chose, and there is no likelihood that Quebec would be denied the same privilege if her consent to annexation could be won in that way. French would be barred from Federal business, but have we not practically reached that stage in our own country when eighteen deputy- ministers out of twenty cannot speak one word of French, and you cannot get a reply in French from two administrative departments out of five? What we want is a different National spirit, and a broader CANADIAN NATIONALISM 37 spirit, in all sections of the National fabric. 1 Some Canadian public men seem to be bent on picking flaws in the Constitution through which the rights or privi- leges of the minority may be curtailed. For Britain's own sake, should not the Constitution rather be scrutinized with a view to bettering the condition of minorities as far as consistent with the general welfare and moral unity of the country? Has Russia strength- ened herself by the compulsory assimilation of Poland? Would not her position in her war with Japan have been improved, had she not been under the obligation of maintaining martial law in Poland, Finland, and other portions of her immense empire? Is it not time for the Canadian statesmen to realize that any policy calculated to remove the French-Canadian's sole objection to Annexation is a mighty poor one for Canada, and for the Mother Country? 38 A QUEBEC VIEW OF s in. IMMIGRATION PEAKING of the race and creed problem, one is brought to deal with Immigration. C The native-bom is naturally inclined to distrust the immigrant. Foreign languages and customs will ever be an object of suspicion for people who have seen comparatively little of the outside world. It takes more than ordinary human sympathy to comprehend how much courage, how much self-reliance, how much of all the heroic virtues of man, is in him who leaves the hearth of his fore- fathers to seek a home in an unknown land. The v/riter, for his part, is not unwilling to regard the Emi- grant as a superior species of man. The worthy son of the Argonauts is the salt of nations ; nothing can down his steel-clad soul. Yet, a country would stultify itself in throwing its doors ajar before him without first making sure that its political and social future will not be at his mercy. The Engflish The English immigrant has come in and other fQj. ^ round sum of abuse at the hands Immigrrants ^^ j^-^ Canadian cousins, and nowhere has this abuse been more freely meted out to him by the Press, the public men and the employ- ers of labor, than in Toronto, V/innipeg and the English section of Montreal. Lord Milner was astounded to read the notice in Winnipeg, "No Englishmen need CANADIAN NATIONALISM 39 apply." He may have taken this as one of the signs of the creeping-in Yankee prejudice. In Montreal, where the public mind is more free from the American imprint, the writer knows of an immigration and employment office which is daily told by English em- ployers that no English are needed. In spite of the latest regulations of our government, a large percen- tage of the immigration from Great Britain remains utterly unfit for either country or city life in Canada. But this would only show the necessity of a more careful selection, and caution us against the plans of the noble lords who, considering England as their own game preserve, would make Canada the dumping- ground of the old country's human refuse. Politically the British immigrant is certainly the best suited to Canadian needs, if he will once for all understand that THIS is now his country, and that the moment he settles here, he must also move the ground of his affec- tions. ' ^ The French and the Belgian, with their thrifty habits, their respect for law and order, their intimate knowledge of home industries and concen- trated farming, their fair experience of parliamentary government, their ethnic kinship to the pioneer race of Canada, are classes of settlers for whom we should have made a stronger bid. They are the pick and flower of European peasantry. That they were left in the background would indicate that other and less avowable considerations than the general good of the country have been actuating the higher officials of the Department of the Interior. The whole aim of our Government outside the British Isles has seem- ingly been to bring in as many mid-Europe people and as many Americans as they^could. 40 A QUEBEC VIEW OF The Now, I am not going to contend that the 1 1 1 iterate non-British European settler is not true at European heart to Canada. But if you fill the coun- try with people who cannot read nor write — and that is the case with three-fourths of the Gali- cians,for instance, — you will have to wait twenty years before a fair number of them can use the ballot intelli- gently. During those twenty years the economic life of Canada may be jeopardized without their seeing it; the very vitals of the country may be eaten away by vermin and its political existence imperilled, without their having the slightest suspicion of it. The Western timber and coal frauds, heavy with impending economic and social troubles, could not have taken place in Ontario or in Quebec. Not that the older provinces can boast of a much higher code of political ethics ; but they seem at least to have a sense of self-preservation which the illiterate new-comers are sorely in need of. The disgraceful management of the forest in Quebec may be accounted for by the exceptional richness of that Province in natural resources. For such squan- dering in the West, where lumber is a luxury, the only possible explanation is the ignorance of a large section of the electorate. The Galician, the Doukhobor, the Pole and the Muscovite are not more corrupt than we are. Their intentions may be more pure than ours, and less selfish their deeds. But they cannot deny that the conditions under which they have grown up have not fitted them for the practise of citizenship, and that a few more apostles of Old Canada's National ideals in their midst would have yeoman's service to perform. ^ As for the American, we Nationalists fail to see how he could shake off his first nature in CANADIAN NATIONALISM 41 crossing the border. He is separated from his kin by a mere imaginary line. Same language, same social life, same economic interests on each side of the border. Only a law of Parliament will now and then try to interfere with the natural course of trade, which, in those parts, runs from North to South and vice versa. How, and in the name of what political or psychological experience, can you expect this man to forswear his old political and moral allegiance and form new attachments in one day? Supposing he can train himself to love Canada more than his native land and stand prepared to defend her against all comers, will he ever feel for the four-thousand-mile distant Britain — a country which he was brought up to hate — even the reasoned but true affection of the French- Canadian? What will he do in a war between England and the United States? He is not a traitor. He is merely a man. And you must not expect him to rise above man's ordinary virtues. The Old The proposition that the nucleus of the new Stock country should be obtained from the older provinces has been laughed at. What was the use of moving Canadians from one part of the country to another ? That did not bring in new blood. That did not add to the country's population ; not did it mean a larger farm acreage and a larger agricultural output. ^ To-day, however, some people are begin- ning to doubt whether that would have been such a bad way of going at it. Thinning the trees of a forest is sometimes the best means to hasten their growth. Up to a certain point, the more you remove, the more is left. Thinning the population of Old Canada to make seedlings for the New would likely have had, 42 A QUEBEC VIEW OF and would still have, identical results. You could draw hundreds of thousands of settlers from both Ontario and Quebec to-morrow without weakening these pro- vinces. The birth rate would increase. European or American settlers would fill in the gaps, soon to be- come, by sheer virtue of environment, thoroughly identified with Canadian life. And all over Canada a strong nation would grow up, with one love, one thought, one purpose. In the West a minority of native-born citizens could rule a majority of foreign- ers differing between themselves on all that goes to make a bond of national union. CE. There are no logical reasons why our railways should give lower rates to the European immigrant, from the seaboard to the West, than they do to the Quebec or the Ontario man. But the steamship com- panies and the C. P. R. seem to have had their way at the Department of the Interior from the beginning. ^ And there are no reasons either why the native- born Canadian should not be given a pre-emption on the lands of his own country, and thus secure a direct profit from the ov/nership of the territories he bought with his blood and money. But the one watchword of the Ottawa officials seems to have been to keep the Old Canadian stock and the Old Canadian theory of creed and race freedom out of the West. *|| After a tour of the West, Mr. Ames, the Conservative M. P. for St. Antoine, while paying a glowing tribute to the enterprise and moral virtues of the foreign settler, expressed his regret that so few French-Canadians were to be found along the American border. That was putting Canadian patriotism above blind craving for race ascendency. Indeed, why should that Amer- CANADIAN NATIONALISM 43 ican invasion of the East, which the Anglo-Canadian papers begin to dread, be more of a threat to our poli- tical future than the American invasion of the West? A strong prejudice exists in Quebec against westward emigration, and that it could be overcome at this late hour is not at all certain. But the thing is worth trying, and if the attempt fails there, it may meet with greater success in Ontario. It is not too late yet to introduce some of the Canadian leaven in the West. t Will the Ottawa people do it? Or will they always be moved by the transportation interests on the one hand, and their ridiculous fear of the French bogey on the other hand? Let the Canadian spirit, whatever the vehicle, sweep the country from ocean to ocean! N* 44 A QUEBEC VIEW OF IV. SOCIAL AND ECONOiMIC LEGISLATION. The Part of our Provincial Governments in Nation-Making. B <^ ND now we come to the least talked-of (among English - Canadians) and, possibly, the most important article in the Nationalist programme. CE, Anti-Imperialism is a purely negative principle, if not supplemented with a claim to an ever larger measure of independence — and the reader has seen that the Nationalist programme implies only so much of this as circumstances and actual conditions will require. We look at these things not as Theorists, but as political Positivists, or, in the better sense of the word, Opportunists. C Provincial Autonomy will leave the local govern- ments free to do their will in their respective fields,\/ but wisdom is not the monopoly of Provincial author- ities, and it will cure nobody's ailment to substitute local misrule for central misrule. Popular control will be easier, that is all. What use must be made of local power is yet to be seen — and that is the positive side of the policy. C. Likewise religious and racial tolerance is only one of the blessings which the citizen of an enlightened country is entitled to. Whether viewed as the means, or as the end, it is not a complete policy. It will fail to endear the country to the individual, if the country is otherwise unfit to live in. And, on the other hand. CANADIAN NATIONALISM 45 Canada's Nationhood will be a mere word if these two essentials, Economic Strength and Social Order, are left out. ^ To those who get their idea of Quebec Nationalism from the Toronto "News", the Montreal "Witness", or such other papers as mistake the vagaries of their biased imagination for realities, it may be a surprise to learn that "Le Nationaliste", since its foun- dation in 1904, has not devoted one-tenth of its space to the Imperialistic and the race issues, and that even these were always discussed from purely Constitu- tional standpoints. That four-page weekly has given more space to the various political problems of the day than any other French-Canadian paper. Railway Ownership and Control, Railway Subsidies, Telegraph and Telephone Rates, Company Incorporation and Capitalization, Franchise Grants, Education, Lumber- ing, Mining, Hydro-Electric Legislation, are just a few of the subjects which, year in and year out, have been engrossing the attention of its writers. The Hydro- Electric policy of Ontario, the Railway policy, or lack of policy, of Mackenzie & Mann's milk and honey satrapy, Nova Scotia, the Lumber policy of the Mc Bride government, the Telephone policy of Roblin, Scott and Rutherford, we have followed with as much interest as we did the 1905 School controversy — for no other reason than that, to our minds, not only is a country like Canada unable to reap the full benefit of its immense potentialities under loose economic and social legislation, but such legislation can and should be made a common fighting ground for all good men, whatever their differences in other respects. €L The Nationalist programme cannot be said to be definite on all these subjects. ][ Nor can it be said 46 A QUEBEC VIEW OF to have been clearly formulated on all points, at all times; for presenting a great mass of new ideas to a conservative people all at once is not always the wisest course. 1 It is more in the nature of a tendency, ever running in the same direction. The Seven years ago, when the Nationalist Railways League was founded by the young men whom I have had the honor to lead in the paths of journalism, the Nationalist demand concer- ing railways did not go beyond the State being consi- dered a shareholder to the extent of its subsidies. As things went on, however, political, social and moral reasons commenced to impress themselves upon us why the railways should be Nationalized if a means could only be found to guard against the plague of "patronage". ^ It is an incontrovertible axiom that to control transportation is practically to own a country. Our great railway corporations may be Canadian to- day. How long will they be? How long can they resist the lure of amalgamation? Have our statesmen tried to realize what the hostility of the peace-and-war- wielding, railway-owned American Senate, would mean to Canada? There hangs a cloud that threatens neither Britain nor, barring Canada, any of Britain's over-sea dominions. So much for the political rea- sons. 1 The history of the United States shows that rate regulation, to be effective, must eventually take the form of expropriation. The dividend cannot be curtailed without the water first being squeezed out of the capital stock. And then, what is the dividend, but a sort of remuneration for the management of a public utility? Would not outright Nationalization be more rational, more honest, and more simple? The CANADIAN NATIONALISM 47 social conditions which have forced a radical policy upon the United States exist in Canada. On both sides of the line the preferential transportation rate is used to crush out competition and foster big trusts ; the Railway Commissions are lost in a maze of conflicting figures which they will come out of baffled and fooled ; the economic life of the nation is, or will soon be, at the mercy of the common carrier, with his illicit "melon-cutting", his devious bookkeeping, his dark interests in all the non-productive schemes of high finance. We must stop this at once. So much for the social reasons. ^ There is also the reason of public morality. The bane of "patronage", heinous as it must be to all good citizens, is not half so demora- lizing of public life as the railway corporation's lobby work. It is a well-known fact, outside of fools' paradises, that the contest at Ottawa is not so much between Liberals and Conservatives as between this and that combination of railway interests. Within the Cabinet itself, each minister will be fighting "like blazes" for his own corporation. Mackenzie & Mann's purchase of "La Presse", in 1904, was clearly intended to upset the administration if the enormous subsidies applied for were not promptly granted. In fact, they got more millions in the two following years than they ever got before. It is said on good authority that Sif ton's resignation in 1905, hitherto ascribed to that Minister's educational views, was sent in at the bidding of the same Mackenzie & Mann, who, through the gang of political spongers in their employ at Halifax, put similar pressure on Mr. Fielding, with a view to the formation of an all- Canadian-Northem cabinet by the two former minis- 48 A QUEBEC VIEW OF ters. Thus is the very sprmg of national life con- taminated. Thus is electoral debauchery started from the seat of government. The Nationalization of railways would eradicate this evil. The only difficulty I repeat, is how to prevent "patronage". % Manage- ment by Commission has proven a success in Ontario. It seems to be proving a success in the much larger field of Australia. Let us keep our eyes open. Let us watch the results carefully. In the meantime, let the State stop bonusing railways without a consideration ; let a more stringent control of railway capitalization be established; let "melon-cutting" be forbidden by Criminal Law, and such other measures be adopted as will insure the people their money's worth in the event of expropriation. The Lands No matter should be of greater concern to the government of a new country than the alienation of Crown lands. % Will there ever be a farm monopoly in America? Will the farming industry ever be commercialized to such an extent as to tempt the organizing genius of a Morgan? In other words, would it, or would it not be wise for Canada to make all her land grants for, say, seventy-five or one hundred years only, and on such other terms as would preclude the possibility of a land trust? This semi- Socialistic system has secured a foothold in some of the Australasian communities. The Quebec Nationalists, maybe for the lack of opportunity, have declared neither for nor against it. Too many other and more urgent problems were clamoring for a solution. ^ For instance, the forestry problem. CANADIAN NATIONALISM 49 The How the Federal timber lands have been Forests used as political spoils by Conservatives and Liberals alike, is now known to everybody. The Dewdney regime under the Conservatives, and the Sifton regime under the Liberals, are among the most shameful chapters of our history. Interests have been vested in private individuals which it will be necessary to trim, if not to uproot, by radical legislation. One half of the country has been handed over to a gang of freebooters to oppress and purloin. ^ I propose to deal with the less notorious, but fully as serious, misdeeds of the Quebec government. CL Seven years ago, in Quebec, hardly any one thought of the forestry problem. Sir Henri Joly de Lotbi- nifere's tree-planting crusade was smiled at as a fad, and Sir Henri himself seemed to have never worried his brains as to who would own the trees, and how much they would yield to the public chest, if they could only be planted. The then Premier, Mr. Parent, would lease, or sell — for it was nothing short of a sale — one thirtieth of the timbered area of the pro- vince at four week's notice, under the pretence that the Parent policy could not exhaust the Quebec forests in four thousand years. This is no pleasantry. It will be found in several of Mr. Parent's speeches. ^ The small Nationalist band were first in speaking out the voice of Common Sense and Public Interest. Ever since, whether against Mr. Parent or against his poli- tical heirs, they have been advocating a whole series of reforms for the financial good of the province, and, in the last analysis, the political stability of the coun- try. ^ They want the timber lands, now held for speculation, to pay additional rent, if not worked 60 A QUEBEC VIEW OF within a certain time. Tj They want a twenty or thirty-year lease substituted for the so-called one-year but really perpetual lease. ^ From time immemorial a four or five weeks' notice in small party papers, or in papers wholly devoted to news, has been the rule for all sales, with the result that friends of the Ministers could buy on confidential information at their own price, and other would-be tenderers were "frozen out". In 1905 and 1906, after the Minister of Crown Lands had officially announced that only cash or marked cheques would be accepted in payment, some four thousand square miles of standing timber were sold on unendorsed promissory notes which subsequently had to be renewed several times. The Nationalists want such practices stopped. Tj They want the forest sold in small lots, so that the small capitalists — Canadian capitalists for the most part — may occasionally get a slice of the Canadian domain. ^ In all of its leases, the Government now reserves the right to put as many settlers in the timber areas as it sees fit. If the settler is to be debarred and the lease mads exclusive, the Nationalists want the financial conditions altered accordingly. In fact, when they ask that special ter- ritories be reserved for colonization and the remain- ing portion withdrawn from the operation of the colonization law, they do not only advocate a greater encouragement to and a more efficient control of colonization, but also an increase in the value of timber limits, and a consequent increase of the public income. % They were the first to call for the adop- tion of the Ontario wood and paper policy by the Pro- vince of Quebec. CANADIAN NATIONALISM 51 Tho Mines Of the perpetual preservation of all the minerals there can be no question. The mine will not reproduce itself. As a general principle, the sooner it is worked the better. ^ It is plain, how- ever, that not only the exportation, but even the ex- traction of basic minerals like coal, iron, copper and nickel, should be regulated with a view to the future needs of the country. The For the water powers, as well as for the forest Water and the mine, the Nationalists were the first Powers political group — in Quebec at least — to out- line a policy. Up to 1906, the Quebec Govern- ment had been selling the water powers privately, without any advertising whatever, and on terms and conditions that would have stamped the manager of a private estate as a fool or a knave. Fifty thousand horse power falls were alienated unreservedly for fifty thousand dollars. Water fails of from five hundred to ten thousand horse power, v/ithin distributing distance of Montreal, were given away to party friends and lucky capitalists at a time when "white coal" reserva- tions should have been made all around the cities for the prevention of trust rate extortion. For a time, after Mr. Parent's downfall, the Nationalist outcry seemed to have stemmed the tide of administrative folly. A pretence was made by Mr. Parent's succes- sor at public auctioning of water powers. Besides the fact, however, that those so-called auctions were vir- tually secret deals, subsequent parliamentary returns will show that the private sales of water powers have trebled in number since Mr. Parent's withdrawal. A 5,000 h. p. fall, located at St. Ursule, Maskinong^ County, between the C. P. R. and the Canadian 62 A QUEBEC VIEW OF Northern railways, and only five or six miles from each, was unconditionally given to a Mr. Lefebvre, of Montreal, for a paltry $500. To this unspeakable dilapidation of public property, the Nationalists are opposing well-defined and practical principles. ^ In the first place, a full inventory of all the accessible hydro-electric energy should be made, whatever the cost. Tl Then the falls should be divided into Provincial, Regional and Local, according to their location and power ; the Provincial falls to be worked by the Provincial authority or under Pro- vincial control, after the Beck-Whitney system; the Regional or district falls to be worked by county councils or groups of municipalities, and the Local falls by local councils. Only such properties should be sold to private individuals as would not be needed by the people, and even then, the sale should be open and the regulation of rates provided for. The Town and County councils would be the executive machinery of vast co-operative societies, so to speak. The people's interest in their own undertakings would be direct enough to prevent the usual laxity of public manage- ment. It would be an object lesson in self-government, bound to awaken a popular desire for a closer insight into the more remote machinery of the Provincial and Federal administrations. That is where democratic government in our country should begin, instead of centralizing itself for most purposes away from the eye of the none too suspecting taxpayer. ^ With the water powers thus placed beyond the reach of the trust promoter, the price of electrical energy would be cut in two. The incandescent lamp would replace the smoky and unhealthy kerosene lamp in the working- CANADIAN NATIONALISM 63 man's dwelling; the small manufacturer would have cheap motive power at his disposal to compete with the big fellow; the farmer would have electric light in all his buildings and the electric railway at his door; and last but not least, the telephone would no longer be the luxury of the few. The social life of the city, the industrial life of the manufacturing centres, and the whole of farm life, would be revolutionized. Cheap light and good light would help to make the workingman's life liveable. Cheap light, cheap and quick transportation, cheap telephone communica- tions, would make the farm attractive and conjure away from the farmer's home the curse of city-mad- ness. And that is something worth striving for. The Of the Customs Tariff I will say little. In Fiscal^ fiscal matters, "Opportunism" is often the Question ^^^^ ^^^^^ ^ ^j^^ Nationalists hold, as a general principle, that official nursing should be limited to such industries as get their raw material in the country and will some day be able to withstand outside competition on their own strength. Among the so-called "infant" industries of Canada, some robust "infants" are eating their mother alive. They should be weaned without further notice. The In Labor matters we should break away from Labor ^he old Liberal doctrine of supply and de- Question ^^^^^ ^^^^ ourselves of Individualism and endow our country with the most progressive legislation of the civilized world. Only a greater amount of welfare and a more efficient protection for the laboring classes will free Canada from the tutelage of the American professional labor agitator. As 64 A QUEBEC VIEW OF long as the workingman is left to face the consequences of improvident social and economic legislation on his own resources, he cannot be blamed for welcoming whatever protection is tendered him from across the border. State Control Of all the needs of modern com- of Limited munities,none is more pressing than LiaDility^ the proper capitalization of limited liability companies. ^ Into the busi- ness of the private individual no self- respecting government will feel a proneness to pry. The limited liability corporation is not a private individual. It cannot exist without the will of the People. It is the People's will that has secured its members against in- dividual liability. Thanks to that immunity which the private citizen is denied, it can undertake more, dare more, risk more. In fact, it is the only form of enterprise that can be resorted to in life and death economic struggles where one of the rivals is bound to come out on top and have the consumer by the throat. The whole financial, commercial and indus- trial life of the country will soon be a vast limited con- cern. Why then should not the incorporating author- ity, the people, have a look into the operations of the "limited"? The Swiss legislation provides for a stringent State control of corporations. Stock dilut- ing is prohibited. All allotments of shares and all expenditures must be justified. In certain cases — when, for instance, necessaries of life are to be mono- polized — a limit is placed on profits. Why should not kindred laws be adopted in Canada, v/here stock- manipulating has forced Canadian-milled flour from Canadian wheat to a higher price than it sells for in CANADIAN NATIONALISM 65 Great Britain? ^ Stock "watering" does not help the honest business man. It fattens the parasite. It enriches the smooth-tongued gentleman who, living on the callousness of governments, will in turn use part of his ill-gotten money to corrupt govern- ments and make them still more, but this time advertently, callous. If the business corporation refuses to be in any wise responsible to the People, let it remain under the common law ; let the People's pro- tection be withdrawn from its individual members. The lack of control of the limited concern has raised the cost of living fifty per cent in the United States. The same thing will happen in Canada unless the Federal and Provincial governments take prompt action. This too is Nationalist doctrine. C Naturally, such a policy cannot prevail in one day. It cannot even be expected to be dealt with in any- thing like a fair spirit by most newspapers. ^ In Quebec, and, I suppose, in the other provinces as well, newspaper proprietors are developing a fondness for lumber, mining and electric lighting stocks. Of the three French dailies of Montreal, not one can be said to be free of that taint. Their proprietors are all doing business with, and getting grants from, govern- ments. Other papers, while not directly interested, are sufficiently patronized by the beneficiaries of the present system not to hesitate to prejudice the public against reform when the state of their financial affairs demands it. t With the English papers, the discussion of those matters is furthermore obscured by race or creed prejudice. That the economic and social legislation proposed by the Nationalists in the Provin- cial sphere would suit all the provinces, the writer 66 A QUEBEC VIEW OF thinks he has fairly demonstrated. Who can honestly deny that the timber and water power grants, for instance, are of great National import? The provinces own and manage three-fourths of the total area of the public lands in Canada. If that estate is squan- dered, if no steps are taken to make it the inalienable and the best revenue-producing property of the state, what ground will you build the nation upon ? That there cannot be any racial side to the debates at Quebec since seven-eights of the Legislature are French and the Nationalists are strong partisans of minority rights, should also strike any intelligent jour- nalist. The Nationalists have selected Quebec as their first battleground precisely because they hoped race hostility would no longer hamper their working for the' future greatness of Canada; also because ex- perience had taught them the necessity of educating the people to self-government in the smaller spheres first; and thirdly, because they thought that placing the French Province of Quebec at the head of Cana- dian progress should allay the prejudices entertained against the French-Canadian as a citizen. Yet, from the start, the English papers of Quebec have shown a sad inability or a still sadder unwillingness to under- stand some of the questions at issue — which they regarded, or feigned to regard, as small municipal affairs. Educational Almost to a man, the English-speak - Reform jng journalists — some of them through candid ignorance, and others for less creditable reasons, — have taken up the cleverly men- dacious argument of the Treasury-looters' and Nation- bleeders' army, that the Nationalists are raising side CANADIAN NATIONALISM 5T issues to divert public attention from the educational problem. A hare-brained gentleman named Sand well, who followed the sittings of the Quebec House for one month with the assistance of a pocket dictionary, and who studied the Quebec political conditions in musical treatises, — for he is a musical critic by training, — laid down that theory in Pidgin-English last spring in a To- ronto magazine. ^ Now, it will readily be seen that the educational question, in Quebec as elsewhere, is largely a money question. From top to bottom, from root to branch, educational progress in that province is hindered by lack of money. It is evident, therefore, that if you get five millions out of the public domains instead of one, you will facilitate the solution of the School question. % That is the claim of the Nation- alists. There may be Ultramontanes and Liberals, devout Catholics and, I suppose, a few Free Thinkers, among them, but here again they are Positivists first. They do not see the necessity of setting to work for fifty years to batter down a school system which, as a whole, — with such modifications as all public- spirited men can agree upon, — suits the tastes and the moral requirements of a great province, and, in the meantime, letting the robbers escape with the house- hold furniture. ^ It may be added, if the reader has not already noticed it, that, the Nationalist doctrine having been outlined for the men of good will and the progressive men of all creeds and nationalities, the School question in Quebec, outside of the Constitutional issue, is one that every individual race should be allowed to view through its own conscience. One may be a Catholic and do his best for the expansion of Catholicism. Another may be a Protestant and fight 68 A QUEBEC VIEW OF strenously for the spread of Protestantism. And yet another may be a Hebrew or a Buddhist and value his own creed above either form of Christianity. But all will be true Nationalists in religious matters if they first recognize the right of their fellow Cana- dians to have their children educated in schools of their choice. To-day's For the time being, the battle is BattBegrround to be fought on the Eighth Com- mandment. The same corrupting influences are at work throughout Canada to place the priceless treasures of the nation in the hands of a few privileged monopolists. With the possible exception of Ontario, all the provinces have pursued the same course of reckless improvidence. Only last year British Columbia, an even better lumbered pro- vince than Ontario or Quebec, changed her twenty-one year timber land tenure to perpetual tenure, in whose interests may easily be guessed. In the Maritime country the government will build railways, give them away to a private corporation, and loan money to the corporation afterwards to operate them. All along the line the fight is between the people and the plunderers, and the champions of the people's rights are few and far between. What v/as at one time the richest coun- try in the world, the United States, will soon be des- titute of natural resources. Within twenty years the ever-rising cost of existence, itself due to improvident economic and heartless social legislation, will have brought it face to face with anarchy. The Quebec Nationalists want to avert a similar fate from Canada. They want more happiness for the masses and a sounder foundation therefore for the State. €^ CANADIAN NATIONALISM 69 CONCLUSION FORM of government must be judged by its results. So with a political doctrine. The best political status is not necessarily that which best answers a certain preconceived and more logical view. Imperialism, Colo- nialism, Nationalism, are mere words. The state we are after is one that will ensure the highest degree of welfare to the people. Popular contentment, through moral freedom and material welfare, that is the goal to reach, and Nationalism we have chosen as our political creed because, to our mind, the greatest degree of moral freedom and material welfare is to be had therefrom. C When they talk of rejuvenating England with the blood of the colonies, we want to be shown whether England's blood — I mean the sweat of her brow and the labor of her hands — is not absorbed by an army of leeches for whom England's civilizing work is only a secondary consideration. We Cana- dians have not impoverished England. Far from that, our immigration policy is probably the only barrier to-day between England and social revolution. With virile hopes swelling our breasts, we will not let our blood replace in the veins of the Mother Country a life which heartless "loafers" of elder brothers are allowed to suck away. ^ This is why we are anti-Imperialists. d. Our Federal , Local and Municipal governments have too often in the past played the part of wastrels. We have squandered untold riches. We have laid the foundation of a plutocracy which, by reason of our vast natural resources, will be a clog in the working 60 A QUEBEC VIEW OF of the social machinery and a political danger to the State. We have built altars to political corruption, and the face of a great peculator never graced the pre- cincts of a Canadian penitentiary. We are probably to-day one of the rottenest states among civilized com- munities, and it will serve no interest, but that of the peculators themselves, to shut our eyes to it. But we are yet at the threshold of National life. The exper- ience of the United States is there to warn us. We can expect, through the medium of our own institu- tions, to set everything right before it is too late and we get stuck in that mire of political degradation that the Washington Senate and the American Caucus are dragging the American nation to. ^ This is why we are anti- Annexationists. C And here we are, French and English, the foes of yesterday, scions of the two greatest nations of the world, joint owners of an immense and an immensely rich territory. Our different extractions may be a cause of backwardness or a cause of progress, accord- ing as we choose to embitter the minority by coercive legislation or to intensify its patriotism by broad and just legislation. The matter rests with us. We think that in spite of occasional outbursts of passion, and the sincere but ill-inspired advocacy of compulsory assimilation by some, common sense will prevail in the end and race rivalry will be wholly diverted to productive channels. Working in common, each race profiting by the experience of its parent state and of Canada's southern neighbors, we can make of Canada the happiest country in the history of the world. We owe this object lesson to humanity. To ourselves we owe this victory. ^ This is why we are CANADIAN NATIONALISM 61 Liberals in the matter of minority rights, and Pro- gressists in economic and social matters. C And it is that opposition to both Imperialism and Annexation, that Liberalism and that Progressism, which make up our brand of Nationalism. C The Imperialist Mr. Ames, when a member of the Montreal City Council, always had the modest support of the writer, because Mr. Ames is an honest man, and while his Imperialism could do no harm in that sphere, the City of Montreal could not spare his honesty. *[| You must likewise learn to consider different subjects separately. If you cannot be with us on all points, be with us on some points. If we cannot go the whole way together, let us go half the way, and maybe a bond of mutual esteem and sym- pathy will grow out of common efforts, and we will make up our minds to reach the goal abreast. C What future Destiny has in store for Canada we do not know. Our plans may be shattered by unforeseen events. Not to speak of other contingencies, to- morrow the sleeping forces of the Yellow World, un- chaining themselves, may sweep over the face of North America as the wild hordes of the North did over the Roman Empire fifteen hundred years ago. But the divination of Providential designs is beyond our means. Let us do the duty of the hour. Let us do it well. And if we keep Canada's blood at home, if we ensure the internal peace of the country by a broad treatment of minorities, if we see to it that the benefits of the natural resources of the land accrue to the people, we may '^ face with'confidence the future and what it may have in store. 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