The Canadian Outlook

MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN,--I accepted with diffidence your invitation to address you, for the most of my time has been devoted to industry, trade and commerce, hence I cannot appear before you as one well equipped or prepared to discuss the great questions which are agitating our mind at this time, having given but few years of my life to public service. But as citizens of a great country even the least of us may on occasion have found some inspiration in these days of trial, of testing, of mighty conflict. It was my purpose just to make some reference to the country in which we live, its resources and potential wealth, so that we may feel called upon here and now to make the greatest sacrifices that Britons have ever made; and theirs is a history of devotion and sacrifice for the upbuilding of great ideals.

Go with me in imagination to the dyked lands of the Bay of Fundy, and then cross the sunset sea to the Alaskan boundary, and we find in this country vast resources-timber areas greater than the forest wealth of any other country in the world when the value of our pulp woods are considered; water powers which furnish the electric current to aid labour and commerce, greater, I believe, than those given to any other country in the world. Our mineral resources are but little developed, but it is known that we have within those areas about half of the coal areas of the world. Cape Breton has iron ore beds that would easily supply Pittsburg indefinitely. Our wheat lands are perhaps the greatest of any country next to Russia, and we live in a latitude where the cereals and grasses grow to great perfection and where animals necessary to our domestic happiness and comfort reach great perfection also. From our latitude have hitherto come the conquering races of the world. These resources, and the institutions which it is our privilege to enjoy and maintain, have been handed down to us by the mother country, by the people of those little islands surrounded by the sea. It is therefore our duty to help maintain our own liberty and the liberty of the world. This is the great task, and a great calling, and the question is, can we endure unto the end?

Look at the history of our mother country. There are those who have said that our forefathers were buccaneers and pirates on the seas; but if that statement has a grain of truth in it, it has led to the upbuilding and maintenance of a fleet which is our sure shield and protection. That navy is a sure shield and protector for the British Empire and for democracy and humanity in this titanic struggle. The great motherland handed Canada, over to us at the cost of much blood and treasure. Follow them to India and you will find them establishing liberty and British justice in that country of great oriental splendour; and why? Because that great people, with all their early civilization and their splendour, were divided into separate dynasties which made war upon one another, and war in all its cruelty was ever present in that country. But British rule, British power 'for organization, has given comparative peace, education and social development in that great country. British genius, organizing power and capital have transformed those areas, dry and arid, but still occupied by millions of the inhabitants of India, so that periodical drouth has been eradicated, and where millions formerly suffered the pangs of hunger and death they are now living in comparative comfort.

Go to Egypt, and what do you find? The great Kitchener established law and order in that country; true, it was with the power of the sword and the arbitrament of war, but it was necessary; and what is the result today? No sooner were law and order established than British pluck and enterprise constructed the great Assouan dam, one of the greatest enterprises of its time, in order that the waters of the Nile river and its floods might be controlled-that river on which once floated the gilded barge of Cleopatra-that it might furnish a perennial reserve of supply for the irrigation of the lands over which formerly had roamed the ancient Pharaoh. By this means vast valleys have been brought under cultivation, and today the highest grades of cotton that the world produces come from those valleys thus supplied.

Let us go to South Africa. We know that at the time of the Boer war there was some difference of opinion as to whether or not the British people were justified in making war, but it would seem that now, at least, their efforts have been justified, for some of those men who fought against us are now assisting us in the fight for democracy over autocracy. I think you will agree with me that if any wrong means were adopted in that war, the end has justified the means. The British people have made mistakes, but they are honest at heart, they are liberal and generous, as a short review of their history proves, and they are loyal to the greatest ideals that the world today knows.

In this mighty conflict we are now joined by the other half of the Anglo-Saxon race. Tardily they have joined us, because we all know there have been great differences of opinion with regard to our ideas, British ideas. We know that it is not so many years ago that the tail of the British lion was frequently twisted by the yellow press of the United States. But that has ceased, to a great extent, and today the press of the great democracy to the south of us approves of the principles we are fighting to uphold, and joins with us whole-heartedly, and if the conflict continues I believe the United States will show that they are not as described by the Germans, through Major Moraht, who sneers at the American army as "shoddy material." Well he may sneer at that great republic because of their unpreparedness but he should remember that the dominating spirits of that great country come of the stock from which we ourselves have sprung, and the blood that flows in our veins still flows in theirs. The German people seem to have become a pagan people, a cruel people, a merciless people, consumed by their own egotism and vanity; but Major Moraht and his pagan ideas will suffer seriously by the very incompetence that he pretends to describe. If this war continues, as it may, for a considerable period, he will find that that mighty country, with its scientific appliances, great natural resources, its ability to finance, and its proud people, will count as a tremendous factor, and that the paganism of Germany will fade before its power. Time counts in the history of this war.

As to our own position, we have arrived at a period in this great conflict when no less a man than the head of the British army, Sir William Robertson, cries out to the Empire for more men, that the end is not yet; that the road to travel is long and hard before victory crowns our efforts. It is therefore up to us in this Dominion to call out our every resource, to contribute all the man-power we have, to reinforce the gallant civilian soldiers who have been carrying on the fight for liberty in Flanders. Yes, our sons over there are calling on us to give them reinforcements to supply the wastage; and I hold that the first thing necessary to win this great war is manpower. This should be our first consideration, whether through voluntary enlistment, or through the courage of British manhood we say, "The man who has not the pluck and the spirit to fight for home and country should be compelled." Yes, compelled to give the service equal to the protection and service which he receives from the country of his birth or adoption. The material things will follow-enough of us will remain behind to provide all we require, if more effort, more energy, more self-sacrifice is given to the cause of liberty. When we think of the deeds of Canada's sons in the various conflicts we are amazed at the lack of moral courage among those at home who refuse to follow. I do not reflect on our leaders in public life; I do not wish to reflect on one party or the other, but I say it is up to the people to bring pressure upon those who lead them. I have always found, speaking generally, that the men who are called upon to govern are as good to govern as the people who elect them deserve. I say it is up to us to give the men proper support, first by manpower. Look at the history they have made and are making. Consider the position of Canada's citizen soldiers at Ypres, when they were surprised and attacked with poisonous gases that had not hitherto been used in warfare; when their neighbours retired, through no fault of their own, and left our men exposed not only to gases and shell and rifle fire from the enemy in front; but also to the enfilading of the enemy because of a retirement for which they were not responsible. But they stood their ground, and fought and bled, never deserting. Many were wounded and killed. They died nobly; yes, they sat at the foot of the cross of their own crucifixion, dying that they might live again in history, an example to us who remain. They saved the day. They kept the Hun back. Most of them perished, but the history of their deeds will remain indelibly stamped as an instruction to generations yet unborn.

The fact is fresh in your minds that only recently, after that great French genius, Joffre, with his splendid army, failed to secure the Vimy heights, after many bloody battles to attain, those heights, all ending in failure, failure, failure, the Canadian citizen soldiers took those heights. They wiped out what was on the surface, and from the very bowels of the earth they broke those Huns who had not the courage to stay on the surface; and we are told that 4,000 men were marched back as prisoners by Canadian soldiers.

These are the deeds that call out to us to put forth our greatest effort in furnishing men first, and afterwards material. Shall we rise to the occasion? Shall we endure to the end? Shall we imitate the men who have gone before us?--our forefathers who established the Empire of which we claim to be so proud? Look at the British people. During the period of voluntary enlistment they enrolled about eleven per cent. of the total population of those islands in order that the principles of humanity might be maintained, while Canada, this vigorous young nation, has enlisted only about five per cent. Yet that was not sufficient, for the Government of Britain, by its people, were forced to say, "Enlist every man, or compel every man capable of carrying arms; send him to the colors whether he will or not." For the democracy of the Empire is not the freedom that some people think it is; it is not a license to do as we will; rather is it a license to serve the state. That is what democracy means. That is what our mother-country is doing with every man, and really every woman, too. What the women of Britain have done and are doing in this great conflict is indeed a joy to every man and woman in the Empire. I know that we have the same spirit in women in Canada, but we have not yet called it out, and given them full opportunity to exercise all that is in them to do.

Let us send our able-bodied men to fight our battles, and call upon the women of this country, if necessary, to fill their places; then, and only then, will we have contributed our full quota; then and only then can we lay the flattering unction to our souls that we have fully discharged the great responsibilities resting upon the great people occupying one of the chief countries of the world; remembering those words

Breathes there a man with soul so dead Who never to himself hath said,

"This is my own, my native land?"

That is the spirit which should actuate us on every occasion and all the time if we are to endure, if we are to do our full part in maintaining the liberties which have been handed down to us, which have been vouchsafed to the world through democracy--and what country has succeeded in establishing a more democratic and more liberal form of government than our own? There is no other.

In conclusion I would say: "Be not weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not."

A vote of thanks, moved by Hon. Mr. Justice Craig, and seconded by Prof. McLennan, was carried.