A Canada Forward Policy

Mr. President and Gentlemen,--There is no other city in Canada in which I would rather address the Board of Trade and The Empire Club and yet I can imagine none in which I would address two such organizations with more diffidence than I do today. That is a study in complexes and contradictions that we may all well leave to the pyschoanalysts. (Laughter) This is my native city; here I was born and here I have lived until four years ago. One cannot but feel under such circumstances that it is both an honor and a privilege to be invited to return and address two such organizations. But my composure has been somewhat disturbed through seeing this morning the notice card of The Empire Club and realizing what an enormous reputation I had to live up to. (Laughter) There is one sentence, however, in that notice with which I agree, and that is this: "He loves his Canada." (Applause)

Mr. Imrie was born in Toronto and lived here until four years ago. He has had a very distinguished career as a newspaper man-we fancy he would rather be known as that than by the more high falutin name of journalist. For ten years he was Manager of the Canadian Press Association and then of the Canadian Daily Newspapers Association. He went west to Edmonton in 1920 and is the Managing Director of the Edmonton Journal. He is Vice-President of the Edmonton Board of Trade. He is the President of the Canadian Daily Newspapers Association.

Two years ago a Toronto paper referring to a talk I gave there at that time, described me as "an Easterner who became a Westerner." I would rather be considered as one who was a Canadian in Toronto and now is a Canadian in Edmonton. (Applause)

In approaching a consideration of Canada's problems and outlook it is a great advantage to have divided one's life between a centre of Eastern industry and a centre of Western agriculture. Although we hear a lot about Canada's economic problems, her basic problem is not material but spiritual. It is the maintenance of a national outlook, a national spirit and national unity in the face of a geography that is a constant invitation to sectionalism. That invitation has the strongest appeal when Canada seems to be standing still instead of going forward.

What is the situation in Canada today? No other country has better reason for looking forward with hope and confidence to its future; no other country has better reason for taking immediate steps towards the realization of its future. And yet, if I may quote again a paragraph your Chairman quoted a few minutes ago, "There seems to be lacking the dynamic of a definite forward-looking program that would appeal alike to the imagination and the common sense of our people, and in its absence more attention is being paid to the discouraging factors in our national situation than to those that give sure ground for confidence and progress." Gentlemen, I submit that depression is being boomed today as optimism was never boomed, even in the hectic days before the war. And because of certain inescapable psychological principles, this will, if persisted in, bring about the very situation which we most dread.

Perhaps the most threatening of the discouraging factors in our present situation is the tendency towards sectionalism and disunity. This is no new thing in Canadian public affairs. In every previous depression in Canada there has been a new accentuation of territorial interests and territorial rights, a new emphasis on the differences in interest of different parts of Canada rather than on the broad community of interest over all. Perhaps we can take a lesson and inspiration from the manner in which some of those previous depressions were handled.

In the first depression after Confederation the tendency towards sectionalism and the depression itself were met by a new national policy in name as well as in fact. It matters not how opinion may differ about the principles on which that policy was based. The important fact for today is that in a time of depression, in a time of drift towards sectionalism, there were men with the vision and courage to frame up and put into practise a new national policy based upon their conception of the needs of the day and one which they thought would unite the people.

There were other depressions meanwhile, but I pass to one of twenty years later, which another government, of a different political complexion, met by a national stock-taking, out of which there evolved an energetic policy of immigration and land settlement. Over two million people were brought to this country in twelve years, and Canada enjoyed a period of unprecetented prosperity industrially and agriculturally. It is true that mistakes were made in that time, but no one would think for a moment of taking out of Canada's history and development the net result of that period.

Today we are facing another series of new and difficult conditions. Some of these are due to changes in the world situation; they are due, in part, to the financial and other burdens of the war, and, to some extent, to over expansion in government and transportation services. But whatever the cause, the situation must be met by something that will appeal again to the imagination and common sense, of the people in a big, broad, constructive way. (Applause)

Every part of Canada is feeling the burden of these conditions. Each part of Canada, naturally enough, feels most keenly the burden that is on itself, and I am afraid that each has a suspicion that it is bearing a little more than its share of the sum total. Such a situation calls for constructive leadership of the highest order in analyzing Canada's problems, in sizing up her outlook and possibilities and in launching the definite, concrete, forward-looking program which I am firmly convinced such analysis would justify. This would quicken anew our national spirit, it would spur us on to new endeavor, it would stimulate new enterprise and development, and help to unite our Canadian people in a new common purpose. (Applause)

Many of our economic problems have their beginnings in the conditions that governed the early settlement of Canada. I am going to ask you to bear with me for a little while as I endeavor to trace briefly the early settlement of the United States; I think you will agree that they had some advantages in that respect which have not fallen to our lot in Canada. You will recall the early settlement of the United States was in a narrow fringe along the Atlantic coast. When the western movement commenced it was very gradual. There were no great physical barriers or unproductive areas to cause wide gaps in early settlement. It is a striking fact that the early movement was very slightly north or south. It was largely due west. Thus in 1862 construction of the first railway across the western States was commenced the United States had a fairly compact population of 32 millions, largely concentrated within 1,200 miles of the Atlantic coast engaged in a variety of pursuits and representing some considerable measure of self-containment and construction of what became the Canadian Pacific main line was accomplished and followed by construction of many branch lines. The tendency of people was to go ahead of these; to follow the lure of unbroken territory. So we found settlers going away ahead of established lines of communication, and, as soon as settled there, calling upon governments-as has been the fashion from time immemorial-to provide public services. Public services were provided and more branch lines were built. The promoters of the Canadian Northern Railway thought there was an opportunity for a second transcontinental railway and were encouraged to construct it. The federal government of that day thought they saw a need for a third Trans-Canada railway and the National Transcontinental and Grand Trunk Pacific were constructed.

There were thoughtful Canadians of that day who considered the thing was being overdone and urged that the three transcontinentals should be obliged to pool their lines over the great natural barrier around Lake Superior and that two of them planning to use the Yellowhead Pass should be required to use a common highway there. But that view did not receive much consideration; those who held it were accused of lack of faith in the future of Canada. The great immigration movement of 1900 to 1914 was on and the popular view of the day was that Canada would soon have sufficient population to sustain three transcontinentals. And so nothing was done to keep railway construction within reasonable distance of present and immediately prospective requirements.

Then the war. With it, of course, immigration fell off immediately. The war itself took its own toll of life, energy and capital. At its close we found ourselves with a plant, federal, provincial and from a transportation standpoint that had been deliberately expanded to provide for the needs of 20,000,000 people. I am not going to dwell upon more recent conditions that have come in the wake of the war. I have gone thus far in sketching conditions of the past simply because it seems to me they point to a remedy, to what I regard as the chief remedy, for the present situation.

There could be some saving through railway cooperation. There could be some through applying the axe vigorously to our government expenditures. But these savings would not be sufficient to meet the situation that has been created. It seems to me that the chief remedy for Canada's economic ills lies in the building up of a permanent population to the point at which it could reasonably sustain present systems of government and transportation, carry the burden of the war and other debts and provide the necessary variety of vocational interests, opportunity and employment. (Applause)

What are Canada's chief economic problems today? Our burden of debt, our high taxation, our national railway deficits, our isolation of rural settlements, our loss of population to the United States, our sectional disunity, our defects in education in rural areas; these are some of our economic ills--there are many others but I think those mentioned are the chief. And they are all due, in large part at least to the spreading of nine million people over an area that could and should sustain many times that number. (Applause) There is no doubt that the war and certain mistakes in development policies are among other contributing factors but the burden of these also would be immeasurably lightened if spread over two or three times our present number of people.

It was to provide for such an increase of population that the present system of government and transportation were created. This was to have been Canada's century, even as the last was that of the United States. If this hope had been realized as rapidly as anticipated the burden of the situation we have created would not have been comparable to what it is today.

It seems to me that the main solution of our present problem lies in bringing about just that for which our present plant was constructed. It was never intended for only nine million people and that number cannot bear it without tremendous strain.

It seems to me that our main solution lies along the line of intensive stimulated colonization and immigration, on a basis that would enable us to keep within our own country those whom we may bring here. (Applause) Quite apart from our own interests in this matter, there are conditions which seem to make this an opportune time for inaugurating such a scheme.

There is, first, the increase in the prices of grain and other agriculural products. This within recent days has been retarded for the moment, but undoubtedly world economic conditions are heading in a direction which will favor agriculture in Canada. That is bound to have a considerable effect in stimulating land settlement.

Another factor is the widespread unemployment in the Old Country which has caused many to think of emigration and the state to offer aid in emigration to overseas dominions.

In continental Europe the war has caused a new turning of eyes to the democracies of this continent. The United States has thought it wise to close her doors to a certain extent to the surplus population of those nations and that has given us an opportunity to take advantage of the turning of eyes this way.

In the United States itself several factors are working towards inducing emigration to this country. Among those might be mentioned the wide publicity that was given during the recent Presidential campaign to the lower cost of agricultural production in Canada and the lower freight rates on grain from farm to seaboard. While there may have been political reasons for this publicity there is no doubt that it made a deep impression on the American farmers.

Granted that our interests demand stimulated immigration, it seems to me that it should be confined for the present to agriculturists and to those willing to go on the land and likely to make a success there. That view may not be altogether popular down here, but it seems to me it would be a mistake to bring to our country at this time those seeking industrial employment; we should concentrate on land settlement until such time as increased demand for the products of our manufacturing plants affords reasonable opportunity for the employment of more industrial workers. (Applause) When that has been done the policy could be extended to include other classes of people.

Colonization must be an important feature of any future immigration policy. (Applause) It is not enough to see that people come here--they must be established here under conditions that will make for their permanent retention. (Hear, hear) They must be aided in securing suitable locations, in learning Canadian methods of agriculture and marketing, in learning the basis and development of Canadian institutions and generally in becoming assimilated in our national life.

Canada has been for long enough a stepping stone for immigration to the United States and that condition must be brought to an end. (Loud applause)

I had occasion some time ago to look up some figures on this phase. They revealed that all of the homesteads and pre-emptions filed upon in Canada up to 1915, 39.7 percent had been cancelled up to that year. Of those filed upon in the period from 1900 to 1909 as many as 49 percent, or approximately one-half, had been cancelled since 1915. I have not been able to find records of cancellations since that date, but there is no doubt that those would bring up the percentage very considerably. This is a tremendous economic loss; we have been spending large sums of money to bring people here, only to have many of them leave soon and go to another country.

There are many ways in which this situation may be remedied in some degree. There would have to be some better system of selection at the point of origin. There should be some system of location in groups. I don't mean in the matter of nationalities, but location in groups so that there could be put among them field men who would assist them in making a proper start. There will have to be loans to many of these new settlers.

I had the opportunity of a conference with Roger W. Babson in New York last week, and he made this statement--that the federal loans system in the United States had been the strongest individual factor in retaining the migration of farmers in that country. Don't forget that conditions are vastly different today from those of that last great immigration movement. There is no longer the lure of the free homestead. Farm implement companies are no longer pleading with settlers to buy implements on long, long terms of payment. There are no longer merchants in mushroom towns willing and eager to grubstake the new settler. It costs a lot more money to get established today on a farm in Canada than it did in the first ten or twelve years of this country.

Granted, then, that we are going to do all this how is it going to be done? It seems to me there is only one way in which it can be done effectively. It cannot be done in connection with politics; it must be separated from politics. There are so many conflicting points of view between federal and provincial governments. It seems to me the only way it can be done is to have it removed as far as possible from political influences, and to have some of the biggest men in this country take up the task through an Immigration Commission-men who would do the work through a sense of duty, recognizing that it afforded the most hopeful means of relief from our present economic burdens. Granted that this would be done, that some of our best men would devote themselves to this undertaking, it would not be long, I think, before there was a marked improvement in Canada's economic conditions.

But if this immigration and colonization is to be confined for the present to agriculturists and others going on the land, we must give consideration to the state of agriculture. We cannot expect to develop agriculture until we give more attention to its problems.

After all, satisfied settlers are the best immigration officers Canada can ever have. (Applause) It seems to me that there must be a frank recognition of the fact that agriculture is and must be for some time Canada's basic industry and that there cannot be permanent prosperity in Canada except under conditions that make for a prosperous agriculture.

I am not going to take time to enumerate all the things that will have to be done in this connection. I think we will find it necessary to provide a farm loan system for farmers already here as well as for those whom we may lure here. We will find it necessary to remove certain legislation from some of our provincial statute books that is keeping out investment capital and causing high interest rates. One thing we can do is to encourage co-operative marketing. It is of the utmost importance to the farmer and to Canada that the spread between world prices and the cost to him should be enlarged as much as possible. Only in that way can his profits be increased and agriculture be made increasingly attractive to him and to others.

Even under present conditions many farmers in Canada, by paying close attention to their business and following diversified farming have been able to make some progress. With the improved conditions that could be brought about there is no doubt we could make agriculture so attractive as to induce a great many to come in and share our lot.

There we take another side of the picture-a large and prosperous people not dependent upon agriculture alone. For while agriculture is and will be for long Canada's basic industry we cannot depend upon it alone. We must build up conditions which will permit us to retain within our own country our own natural increase, those whom we bring from other countries and their natural increase also.

Let me recall a few figures. At the present time there are in the United States alone three million native Canadians, or children born to them there and still living. Another group of those who emigrated first to Canada and then to the United States represent another million. Then there are those whose parents as well as themselves were born in the United States, but whose grandparents were born in this country.

The natural increase of a country, if it can be retained there, usually constitutes the great bulk of its increase in population.

The United States census figures show that from 1870 to 1920 seventy percent of the total increase in population of the United States was represented by natural increase that had been retained. If the United States was able to increase its population at that rate it suggests what we may be able to do here if we are able to build up industrial and agricultural conditions that will offer adequate opportunity to all who are born to us in this country.

Even in old Ontario there is a steady drift from the farm and it will always be so in greater or lesser degree. There are many people of the farm who have not the bent for farm life; they have an irresistible urge for the professions or industrial occupations. This is true in larger measure of the young people of our cities. In previous years, except in periods of great industrial development, we have not been able to accommodate anything like the number of those who have wished to turn to industrial employment or the professions and one by one that surplus has drifted to the United States. If we are going to retain within our borders the children of our farm homes, not to mention the children of our cities and towns, we have got to create larger and more varied employment opportunities. (Applause)

From this standpoint there are three classes of industry. There is the industry that is peculiarly indigenous, the industry that will soon be able to get along with very little help. There is the industry that has approximately the same opportunity as competing industries in other countries except for the difference in size of home market. There are other industries which, owing to certain conditions over which we have no control such as lack of the necessary raw materials or peculiar advantages of foreign competition, have no hope of sustaining themselves in this country even with a very great increase in population. I am for a tariff protection on a basis that can meet constructive criticism and withstand destructive criticism. (Loud applause) I have no wish to talk politics--I fear I may have gone too far already. It seems to me that we need a plan that will give the required protection for the first two classes of industry I mentioned and that will gradually lessen and ultimately eliminate the protection on the other. That is part of the program on which I think we could unite the people of Canada.

As I said in the editorial quoted by our chairman, the tariff is not an Alberta, problem; it is a national problem. Every part of Canada has certain advantages inherent in it as part of its birthright. But that birthright imposes responsibilities also. One of these is to regard the national interests as paramount to those of any one section or any one group of people at any one time.

We must encourage scientific research, a pooling of the best brains of our people in bringing about the highest standards in industry and in agriculture. In any operation that is carried out in Canada we should aim at the very best methods, we must not be satisfied to take second place in any line.

Let me remind you that it is only eighty years since the first attempt was made to apply scientific research to agriculture and in that time the productive capacity of agriculture has been enlarged by 11 per cent. The United States spent fifty million dollars in 1923 in scientific research. Its engineers have now determined upon the early solution of a hundred foundation chemical problems. We have got to see to it that our industries and our agriculture reflect the highest achievements of scientific research. (Applause)

I want to pass quickly to one or two other things. The development of interprovincial trade is another thing we need in these times. We need it for spiritual as well as economic reasons. And in line with that there should be a minute study of everything we bring into this country from other countries with a view to considering if and how we can best produce those commodities here under the aegis of stimulated interprovincial trade. This has particular relation to our natural products--the products of our mines for example-and the products of our manufacturing plants. It is essential, if we are going to bring about Canadian unity and promote Canadian development, that we should zealously co-operate in the building up of interprovincial trade.

There must be, also, an intensive study of export trade. There are new opportunities at the present time due to changes in world conditions, due to the opening up of Oriental and other markets. I mention Oriental markets in order to bring out one point that might not have occurred to you. One of the things that may help to bring about a community of interests between the East and the West is the establishment in the West of manufacturing industries which should cater to the trade of the Orient. We are selling Alberta-made flour in the Orient, we are selling British Columbia pulp and paper in the Orient, we are selling there butter, cheese and even ice-cream made from the dairy products of Alberta.

In developing inter-provincial trade it would be found a policy of wise national economy, where freight rates are a consideration, to nationalize a portion of the transportation costs of our own products over our great natural barriers-to load these with lower rates than might be considered strictly necessary under ordinary conditions and have the rest contributed nationally. Some sacrifice will have to be made at the outset in developing inter-provincial trade.

I am going to conclude with that thought with which I concluded an address to my fellow-workers of the Press last night. I am going to appeal for toleration of and generosity towards the opinions of others on national questions, particularly those which are at variance with our own. At the present time earnest men and women in every part of Canada are endeavoring with sincerity to find a way out of present difficulties. In regard to those there is throughout the country a new spirit of enquiry and analysis Many who hitherto have given little attention to politics are endeavoring today to get down to close grip with the fundamentals of our national position.

It is out of such a situation with its play and counterplay of gradually forming public opinion that new and sound constructive policies emerge and prove their worth. In their original conception and expression many of these may appear crude and of little value, but in an atmosphere of warmth and kindly reception and in the alchemy of concentrated statesmanship it is quite possible that some of these may be refined and blended with other known elements into the pure gold of a policy that would unite all geographical divisions and all occupational interests in a new common purpose and a new common endeavor.

The unity of interests and of purpose which this country so sorely needs today demands and is entitled to the best that each of us can give. It is to the definite endeavor of finding those elements that will unite our people in a common purpose that I appeal to you today as I appeal to myself also for a new consecration. I would call back to your minds those great occasions of the past on which, from mountain peaks of patriotic fervor, we have all found new and enlarged conceptions of the service we could give our country in a time of need. And I would appeal to the spirit that took us to those heights on such occasions to carry us there again today and give us a new vision of our country's need and of the service we may now render it. And there in that rarefied atmosphere, immune to every consideration of a sordid, selfish and sectional character, may we all receive as the seal of our new consecration a new baptism with the fire of that high and pure idealism which ever has been and ever must be alike the basis and the essence of great national endeavor.

MR. S. B. GUNDY, President of the Board of Trade, in eloquent terms expressed the thanks of both bodies for the inspiring address, adding his voice to the speaker's in a strong plea for an united effort to solve these vital problems.