America, Britain and Canada—The "A B C" of Destiny

MR. GRIFFIN: Members and Guests of The Empire Club of Canada: Our guest today is one of Canada's outstanding preachers and public speakers. Born in Ohio, Rabbi Feinberg was educated at the University of Cincinnati and did post-graduate work at Chicago and Columbia Universities. His academic honours include membership in Phi Beta Kappa. After serving in New York City. Denver and other American cities Rabbi Feinberg was called to Holy Blossom Temple, Toronto, several years ago. As the voice of Canada's most prominent Jewish pulpit, as a contributor to national publications such as McLean's Magazine and as a frequent speaker over the radio he has become known throughout this Dominion. Rabbi Feinberg takes a very active part in public affairs and has been a keen participant in the field of civil liberties, in interfaith movements and on such bodies as the Red Cross Executive and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. While his official biographical sketch modestly omits mention of this, I have learned that his interest in music is more than a formal one. Our guest possesses a magnificent singing voice and I have been told that it is a wonderful and inspiring experience to hear him chant the prayers of his ancient faith.

An American citizen himself, Rabbi Feinberg is a firm friend of Great Britain and believes that the Old Land must regain its former stature in world affairs if peace and order are to be restored.

It is a pleasure to present Rabbi Abraham L. Feinberg.

RABBI FEINBERG: On April 9th, 1867, Sir John A. Macdonald wrote privately to a friend that in four days he would sail for Canada with the Act uniting all of British North America in his pocket. That is how Canada came to birth-in the pocket of its first Prime Minister.

The B. N. A. Act was not an "act", whereby a people willed itself into sovereign existence through a dramatic deed, like the American revolution; it was a careful arrangement of words, which expressed a peaceful agreement. Canada resulted from the fact that men could effect a meeting of minds; it is the child of compromise, the offspring of an "arranged marriage".

In one phase of Canadian life after another, that formula can be observed: the merger of two forces, by compromise and balance.

First, of course, is the contract between the Catholic, French, Latin culture of Quebec, and the Protestant, British, Anglo-Saxon culture which dominates the rest of Canada. This obviously has been a union of convenience. But, even during the nine years of my residence in this land, I have seen progress in mutual understanding.

The second merger is that of provinces and federal government. The allocation of authority set down in 1867 may not be valid for 1953. Times have changed, with them the requirements and scope of government. How is Canada confronting the issue of provincial versus central authority? Again, by meeting of minds, through conference.

Third, is the partnership of sovereignity, as an independent nation, and sentiment, as a member of the British Commonwealth. Alone in the Western hemisphere, throughout two continents, Canada has preserved a tie with its European parent. That link is the central fact of our existence.

In the beginning, Canada was torn apart by two contradictory loves; one is called geography, and the other history. Let us examine them. On the one hand, the Canadian people wanted to build a way of life suited to a stern and stubborn land, and confronted by great physical obstacles. That is geography--a continent chiefly of wilderness and forest and tundra, the earth under our feet. At the same time, the majority of Canadians respond to the traditions enshrined in the Old Country. Sometimes, just because British Canadians felt isolated in the frozen wastes of the West and exiled from their centre overseas, they drew all the closer to it in spirit, and became "more British than the King". . . . That is history, the pull of the past.

This mutual dependence of Britain and Canada was dramatized by the visit of Princess, now Queen, Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh. Why did that event excite such emotion? Are not the Queen and her Consort human beings like ourselves? Yes, they are! Even regarded simply as human beings, the Royal household of Britain has shown superior quality. At the centre of world acclaim, which makes every little act of their lives the material of public attention, yet they are modest, self-restrained, sacrificial, generous in spirit and extremely hard-working. That is why King Farouk of Egypt once said: "In my life-time, only five kings will remain on their thrones: the four kings in a deck of cards-and the king of England."

But even devotion to people and duty does not explain why the King's death and his daughter's visit evoked such affectionate interest. The reason lies in the fact that they stand for something. Not what they are, but what they represent.

Queen Elizabeth--and the late King, of course--symbolize the historic saga of Britain-all that it was, is and may yet become. Her Majesty is Magna Charta and the rights of man; she is Admiral Dake and the dogged courage of the British fleet; she is the study-halls of Oxford, where countless generations have sought truth; she is Shakespeare and the earthy tang of English speech; she is St. Paul's Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, the Bible open for reading in the lamp-lit kitchens of humble homes; she is Parliament, mother of democratic institutions; she is the colonizing will that has built an Empire; she is the indomitable fortitude and faith of a civilized people under the barbarism of the Nazi blitz. . . . She is all this and more besides!

That saga became flesh, it took on life-in the person of Elizabeth. There stood England! All the Canadian people were aware of it.... The pull of history! ...

But her visit also high-lighted what Canada has done with geography! Suppose we compare her visit, a little more than a year ago, to that of her father, the late King George VI, in the early summer of 1939. Then Canada had just begun to emerge from a decade of depression, deflation and unemployment. Wheat, lumber and nickel were selling below production cost; bankruptcy, shutdown and relief rolls had become commonplace. Only the most optimistic and obstinate voiced confidence in the future.

Twelve years later, the King's daughter came to a land which had contributed a full and honourable part to the war against Nazi Germany, a land which not only recovered but made enormous strides forward economically, politically, financially and in prestige among the other nations of the world, with a quadrupled national income, an industrial production tripled, mineral resources that give immense promise-and a position of moral leadership in the U.N. councils.

As a part of the British Commonwealth, our role was enriched by Elizabeth's tour; it tightened the link of history. But a comparison with her father's visit proves how far we have progressed, as an independent power, in the conquest of our geography. . . . We are a sovereign nation; just because of that, we recognize and renew our voluntary role in the British Commonwealth.

That alliance with the Commonwealth never relied on compulsion. Britain was a marine empire, far-flung over the seas and oceans. Such an empire survives only as it gives its constituent parts the maximum measure of autonomy. A huge land-mass imperialism like Soviet Russia, or Germany under Hitler, can compel satellites to obey its bidding, because they are contiguous extensions of space and territory. We have seen how quickly armies can move across borders into control of weaker neighbouring states! But a sea-power like Britain had to establish a spiritual tradition and evoke inner loyalty; its foundation rested on moral, not military, force.

The British Commonwealth of nations has been a unique example of freedom without separateness, of independence and inter-dependence, of local patriotism and larger co-operation. On the world level, it has been a balance-wheel for stability, carrying forward into world affairs the pattern for peace, by serving to mediate between the United States and the Soviet Union. Washington and Moscow, with all respect to their power, are newly-rich parvenus in diplomacy and statecraft, as compared to the British Commonwealth. A tragedy of the modem world is the economic and political disability of Britain, in relation to both United States and Russia, with a consequent decrease of her influence.

At this hour, one of the greatest services Canada can perform is to strengthen the moral status of Britain, by affirming her support of British moderation, by joining with the mother-land in the unswerving quest for peace despite the impasse between the United States and the Soviet Union and by contributing every possible aid to British economic rehabilitation. It is dangerous to have the world divided between two competing titans! A third strong power, dedicated to the ways of statecraft, can save the world from a war.

When Britain occupied top-rank among the nations on earth, Canada mediated between her and the United States. Today, Canada, allied with Britain, must build a bridge across the gaping emptiness between the United States and the Soviet Union.

Is not Canada a Middle Power? Even there, we occupy the middle ground. A small population, the lack of colonies, prevents us from becoming a major power, arrogant and bristling with guns, an object of fear and envy. On the other hand, natural wealth, strategic position, human resources, lift us beyond the rank of a minor power, such as Mexico and Sweden.

That position-in the middle-enables Canada to take a positive role in the search for peace. Unless this country is resigned to the role of Belgium in World War Three, as the "innocent bystander" caught "in the middle" between the jaws of an all-crushing nut-cracker, it must devote itself to the urgent role of "middle-man" for peace. Just as we have brought opposites together, and found a basis for co-operative compromise within our own country, balancing French Catholicism and British Procestantism, provinces and central government, geography and history, the British Commonwealth and sovereign independence, conservatism and progress, sparse population and vast territory, farm and city-so does the twentieth century beckon Canada to serve as a middle-man for the salvation and security of mankind.

Yesterday President Truman warned the Soviet Union, and the West, that the H-bomb can destroy our world. If this Hell-bomb escapes the control hitherto exercised by the will to peace, it will leave the corpse of civilization to the blind moles under the ground, and to the Hottentots of the African jungle, who have nothing to make them a target for its destructiveness. In the manufacture of that bomb, Canada must contribute certain crucial ingredients. For the Atomic Age, we are the best-equipped nation in the West, endowed with fabulous riches that have been sleeping in the bosom of the earth for aeons, awaiting the use and challenge of this hour. Vast wealth--iron, gold, copper, cobalt, titanium, nickel, uranium--magic sesames to power in the second half of the twentieth century!

These metals and minerals are not just pawns on the chess-board of the Stock Exchange, to be manipulated for private profit. They are a sacred responsibility for which history has summoned Canada.

Shall we supply the arsenal for the suicide of civilization-or be the instrument of its redemption? The only way to evade that choice is to seal up every mine in Canada, forget about these resources God has given us, and act as though they did not exist! The United States is profoundly conscious of the present power of its industrial production--the mightiest on earth; Canada must become aware of the burdens imposed by the potential power of its natural resources, and employ it for peace.

We are eager to enjoy what peace makes; we must be willing to pay for what makes peace. Like every good, peace has its price. For Canadians it means sharing our wealth with the poor of the earth-in the Orient especially. I have no time to enlarge on that today. My theme is this:-for Canadians, the price of peace means courage--unflagging courage, to insist that we shall continue to serve as an agent of conciliation. That inevitably involves further support of Britain, to assure her recovery as an agency for moderation in the world.

There are certain psychological handicaps, however. Canada is afflicted with an inferiority complex. Why? Hugh Maclennan ascribed this to the time-lag between Canada and the United States. Our Southern neighbour's industrial revolution was generations before Canada's, and her political revolution beat the B. N. A. Act by almost a century.

Furthermore, the three chief racial groups in the country became Canadian with resignation, as a result of defeat in war or politics. The French in Quebec were abandoned by their King in the 18th century, and thereafter retreated into a solid fortress of fidelity to a departed past, with an unbroken grip on their cultural and religious inheritance. The English fled from the American rebels of 1776 to the north, driven by their frustration and their unbroken will to uphold the Empire. They, too, sustained their morale on the traditions of a beloved past. The Highland Scotch, as Hugh Maclennan says, were ousted from Scotland after the Jacobite Rebellion, so that the English lords might have hunting space. They had nowhere else to go-but Canada. For a long time, they also were satisfied to nurture their souls on what had been, in the old world, again-the past.

This longing for the past can deny the present, and retard the future; it may breed over-caution, clannishness, resentment toward the newcomer and suspicion of change. The British people are inclined to understate themselves; that is a highly-civilized and admirable tendancy. But Canadians go beyond that, to underrate themselves.

John Fisher, CBC commentator, in an address some months ago, pungently urged Canadians to be more like the Americans south of the border. In some matters, I agree: for example, more flexible, demonstrative, social relations between racial and religious groups; the breezy, informal American may have something to teach Canadians there. That, however, along with other faults, like youthfulness, will be "cured" by time. The impact of the new immigrant elements on Canada, who now form 20% of the population, will loosen up the barriers of snobbery and stuffiness. Also, I believe that the absence of a written documentation and guarantee of individual rights, like the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence, is a handicap. Some day it may be corrected.

Yet, as an American citizen and at the risk of being accused by Senator McCarthy of subversive opinions, I urge you never to let Canada become a carbon-copy of the United States.

Prospects for our world are grim enough. They will not be brightened by standardized monotony, in which everybody drinks the same coloured pop, eats the same pre-digested breakfast food, sings the same infantile rhythms and listens passively to the same sporific pap as do most of the citizens in the mightiest land on earth. The most valuable gift Canada can bestow on mankind is not her minerals--but Canadianism, a unique quality of heart and mind, a way of living and looking at life different from any other. There is no people or civilization on earth today worthy of slavish copying. A first-rate American has a responsible job in the world; an imitation--American merely adds a decorative appendage to the wheels of the American chariot. However great the accomplishments of the United States, she has not completed the fulfilment of the human struggle. There are still problems in human relations to confront, diseases to conquer, art-works to create. Just as a Canadian scientist discovered insulin, so Canada tomorrow may hew out paths, by being herself, to a better life.

Canada is more directly important to the United States than any other nation: her best customer, her most plentiful outside supplier, the area of her largest investment and a strategic land-mass between her and the Soviet Union. Even if absorbed into the States, Canada could do no more for the big Southern neighbour than is being done now-and Canada would do far less for mankind.

According to the Report of the Massey Commission, the time has come to set about the task of developing a Canadian "personality". In the schools, a counterpart should be found for the Fourth of July. Canadian history is hard to glamourize, just because its theme is reason rather than revolution, and compromise instead of conquest. The accents of reason don't lend themselves to militant oratory! That merely sharpens the challenge. In striving to give zest and drama to the Canadian story, educators are challenged by a problem that is worldwide--to match the tawdry "romance" of war with the true romance of conciliation.

History text-books draw their patriotic tone and colour not from the over-all saga of Canada, but from a respective locale or region. Quebec exalts one hero, Ontario his opponent! Provincial patriotisms are not the the answer to the lack of Canadian patriotism. Our country must be regarded as a unit, once riven by internal war, now welded by common interest. What happened in the 18th century is merely a record of the dead years. The resentment of the defeated, the arrogance of the victorious, are both futile burdens of memory.

This is a nation of minorities; no one group dominates the other. Less than half of Canadians are British by descent, 30 per cent. French, 18 percent other Europeans, and the rest a mixture of Asiatics, Africans, Indians and Eskimos. Then what is a Canadian? Do we all have the same economic status? Certainly not! The same language? The same religion. The same centralized authority in all questions? ...

Then what does give Canada some semblance of unity? The common life together of many peoples from many lands, speaking many tongues, nurturing many cultures! It does not easily fall into words. But seen in practice--despite civil conflicts and internal strife-Canada slowly stands forth. What infinite diversity we find here! The Cape Breton cod-fisherman in his lonely dory; the coalminer of the Maritimes, digging three miles out under the ocean; the Newfoundland seal-hunter scanning the icy waters; the parish farmer of Quebec, loving the land which sustains the body and the church that comforts the spirit; the blue-denimed mechanic in the smoking automobile plants of Southern Ontario; the Americanized city-dwellers along the soft southern rim of the Dominion; the research-scientist working on cancer or soil-erosion in a university laboratory; the prairie wheat-king reaping his golden domain from a tractor to feed the world; the fruit-grower of the Okanagan Valley; the frontier missionary carrying God's word to Indian and Eskimo and white prospector, the gold-seeker at Yellowknife, the bush-pilot on Hudson Bay, the lumber-jack of British Columbia, the fur-trapper and trader and nurse and physician and mounted-police-who free a sprawling continent from the clutch of the primitive, hew out a path for civilized living, build a nation and keep it intact over thousands of miles of stream and mountain and forest and plain! Why, Canada is a man-sized job, and it takes all kinds of people to do it!

Recently, I read a passage from the book, "The Canadian People", by Lorne Pierce. May I recite a few sentences, my friends? Here they are. "There can be no Confederation if there is to be a religious test. There can be no Confederation if it is more honourable to preserve a traditional way of life than to enter whole-heartedly into the living, throbbing life of the present day. There can be no Confederation if democracy is invoked in peacetime and flouted in war. There can be no Confederation if one language is regarded as the voice of heresy and the other the voice of God. There can be no Confederation if schools are not free, free of the blight of religious fanatics, free to search for truth and honour it when found. There can be no Confederation if lodge and sect, labour unions and board of trade, party and race deliberately foster prejudice."

Mr. Pierce then declares, "The people know this" . . . The people know this! Do they? Do you?. If so, Canada has a grip on tomorrow. As a leading Middle Power whose whole background is compromise between clashing traditions and the fellowship of diverse groups, linked by unbreakable spiritual bonds to Britain and by profound respect and admiration to America, Canada can be a blessing to mankind. God give her the vision, the wisdom, and the courage!

THANKS OF THE MEETING were expressed by Mr. R. A. Stapells.