Our National Outlook

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen,-

I appreciate very much your kind invitation to be present today and the opportunity which you have given me of saying a few words, however fragmentary and imperfect, concerning the outlook before us as Canadians. The hopeful thing about Canada is that she has a future, and it seems to me that it will be our fault if it is not a brilliant future. With some older countries it is not so much a question of going forward as of holding the place which they have already.

We, as a people, are in the formative period of youth. Our first tasks, of course, had to be of a severely practical sort, and the sturdy pioneer, even though illiterate, might well seem better adapted for them than the most artistic dreamer. And it is scarcely to be wondered at that commercial standards of value should become dominant and that when any object is presented before the average citizen he should be less inclined to ask: " What will it teach me?" than: " How much is it worth?" Even though we do not worship the almighty dollar, few of us have learned to live on nothing a year. But as we gradually come to take a wider view of National relationships, the very crudeness of those initial ideas which the circumstances of a new country almost necessitate, will lead to far-reaching improvement; and therefore it seems to me that the main question before us is this: " Have we the materials for further progress? And if we have, do we intend to use them in the wisest and most healthy way?"

Now, while it is quite true that the chief assets of a nation do not lie in externals of any sort, that seems to me no reason why we should affect to despise them. When we consider our resources and the general conditions of life around us, the most roseate optimism does not appear irrational. As concerns our purely material resources we are only just beginning to discover how great they are. A few years ago it was seriously doubted by the most sensible men whether our NorthWest could produce any wheat at all. Fifty million bushels will come out of it this year and as yet only a very small part of the productive area is under cultivation. I think it highly probable that many here will live to see the day when Canada becomes the chief granary of the British Empire, and it may be of the whole world.

Then again our mineral wealth-while I think, unfortunately, at times it has been brought into discredit by manufacturers of fraudulent prospectuses-is nevertheless undeniable, and with increased facilities for smelting and transportation the mining industry is sure to have a revival, and I dare say there will be some even in Toronto who will be glad when this happens. Our forests are so large that we scarcely go to the trouble of taking any care of them; our fish and game abound in plenty; our great inland seas and our broad rivers are designed year by year to be filled more and more with the carriers of commerce; the trans-continental railways which we have already, and the others, more or less numerous, which we shall have before many years go past, will furnish for us a choice of high-roads that open up the breadth and traverse the whole length of this Dominion. And when we turn from the merely material resources we have no reason to be discouraged, it seems to me, in other matters.

Our educational system is not by any means beyond criticism, either in its methods of administration or in its ideas. But if it has sometimes pressed utilitarianism to an extreme, on the other hand it at least makes complete illiteracy almost impossible amongst us. Even though some hard-headed people should have discovered that the study of Greek is commercially valueless, yet the three R's still flourish and possibly the time may come when we shall be persuaded that there are a few things which it is good for anyone to know even though they cannot be translated into bread and butter. We enjoy the blessings of a constitutional rule which has been broadened from precedent to precedent, and while there are some laws which in the course of time ought to be added to our Statute Book I think in the meantime we shall do very well if we take the trouble to respect and to enforce those which we have already. We are able today to worship God in such form and manner as conscience dictates, or, if we are so disposed, the State does not compel us to worship at all. Considering everything I know of no country which better holds the golden mean between thraldom and lawlessness; no country where an honest and industrious citizen has a fairer chance; no country which is more fitted to develop that spirit of patriotism which is not content with mere transient effervescence, or even with keeping both hands on the Union Jack, but which desires and is ready to strive, and if need be, to suffer, in order that the name " Canadian " may have an honourable place in the eyes of all the world.

You will, perhaps, Sir, pardon this commonplace review of some of our resources and the conditions which surround us, because I cannot help feeling that as Canadians we have scarcely yet emerged into full self-consciousness. There is no use blaming other people for not knowing us if we do not quite know ourselves. I do not envy the man who is not thrilled with pride as he contemplates our big inheritance. But, Sir, it is for the inheritors themselves to make it a great inheritance; making their country instead of expecting their country to make them. Though we are young, no doubt, it seems to me we are old enough to pass beyond mere panegyrics over what we have to serious consideration of what we ought to be. We shall have to guard against the mere vulgarity of dollars, against commercial subterfuge, against public or private vice, against everything which would check our national progress and prevent us from fulfilling our proper destiny. If we reject the fallacy that all men are equal, if we must worship something, if we feel that the artistic is needed in any civilization, then let us pay homage to wealth of intellect, or of character, and show that we regard an acute mind or a pure heart of greater value than simply a well-filled pocket. Industrial stocks, I am told, are proverbially fluctuating and conservative investors place them upon the speculative list. But, gentlemen, there is one industry whose intrinsic value cannot long be concealed by the most bearish assaults upon it, and that 'is the manufacture of the right kind of men.

And, Sir, in essaying this supreme task we shall surely be influenced most of all by the traditions which the Briton bequeaths to us. If imitation be the sincerest form of flattery, we sometimes flatter the United States, though I do not know that we always imitate the best features of American character. We can well afford to share their alertness, their enthusiasm, their strongly patriotic spirit, but I think we can do without some things which their own best citizenship repudiates: their yellow journalism, their grasping trusts-curious name-their political wiles, their boastful superficiality. Of course we must both of us be democratic, but I see no particular reason why we should court the perils of their form of democracy, while we are able to build up a more safe and abiding form of our own.

Any other relations than those of the utmost friendliness and good-will towards the great Republic would be in my judgment extremely foolish. Many of the people of the United States are of the same blood as we are. Many of our interests are identical with theirs. Many of their most valuable Institutions are modelled upon those which we inherit. We ought to rejoice in the marvellous strides which they are making, and in the sound common-sense and real worth which enable them to flourish in spite of certain tendencies which would be absolutely destructive of a weaker nation. Whatever views we may have held on questions of tariff and kindred matters-and none of you would think a parson competent to deal with them-I say whatever we may think of tariff matters and others of kindred character, we can well afford a reciprocity of effort to enthrone a selfrespecting civilization on this great continent. And yet, as we begin to discern more and more clearly our own distinctive tasks, it seems to me that the annexationist will become, what in truth he is rapidly becoming, an extinct species, to be found only in some museum of historical curiosities. I dare say you have heard the story of that unhappy home where husband and wife were nearly always quarrelling-a very rare case. One day after a domestic brawl, as he gazed on the cat and dog sleeping peacefully in front of the fire, the husband said, "Wife, look at the cat and dog. Why can't we get along as well as they do?" To which the wife replied, "Tie them together and then see what will happen?"

It is scarcely necessary then, Sir, for me to say that whatever changes the future may unfold, for myself I am more than content to live and die a Briton. The mere mention of the British Empire quickens our pulse and unfolds a magnificent panorama before the eye of the imagination. It is not so much a question of geographical extent, though that may well inspire us. An American orator was once dilating, as every American has a right to do, upon the great extent of his country, bounded on the north, as he said, by the ice-girt realm of Canada, on the south by the Gulf of Mexico, on the east by the raging Atlantic, on the west by the calm Pacific. One of the audience seemed to be dissatisfied with this definition of American boundaries and rising from his seat he interrupted the speaker. " Stay," he said, "you stifle me; you do not give me room enough to breathe the air of perfect freedom. My country is bounded on the north. by the Aurora Borealis, on the east by the effete and decaying civilizations of Europe, on the west by the beams of the setting sun, and on the south by the day of judgment." (Laughter.)

Now, Sir, without attempting to say how far the British Empire stretches into the immensities and eternities when we think of our fellow-subjects in Africa, in Australasia, in India, in the scattered isles of the seas, when we remember that they are joined not only by a communion of laws and liberties, but by a strength of loyal sentiment which has stood the test of many changing years, who can blame us if as Canadians we rejoice that we form no unimportant link in a girdle of empire which goes around the earth. And I cannot believe, Sir, that this has come about as a matter of mere accident. When we consider that though Britain has unquestionably the defects of her qualities and that sometimes those defects may seem to be more conspicuous even than their corresponding excellencies, yet, without shutting our eyes for a moment to national faults, I believe profoundly that the place which Britain holds today among the nations is to be attributed, under Providence, to nothing else, to nothing less, than the genuine worth of British character. (Applause.)

For instance, the sons of Britain have been marked by a large measure of that practical energy which shrank from no tasks, however hard; which feared no dangers, however menacing; which sets the wheels of commerce in swift motion; which went forth to colonize savage and unknown continents; which brought the ripe fruits of experience even to the most desert places and made fifty years of Europe better than a cycle of Cathay. Another characteristic of the British race is the inalienable love of freedom. While other peoples have sometimes been the easy dupes of tyrannous impostors there seems to be something in the constitution of the Briton which rouses him to resent any unwarrantable interference with his natural rights and privileges. The annals of Britain are largely a long record of continuous effort to win the enfranchisement of individual life and to build up upon firm foundations the beauteous temple of civil and religious liberty. Nor, Sir, has the Briton asked for himself, as a rule, more than he has been prepared to accord to others? No doubt, sometimes, the angry and selfish passions which war tends to provoke have led to 'an inadequate consideration of the interests of conquered people, but, broadly speaking, it has been part of Britain's deliberate policy to be the champion of the oppressed and down-trodden, the avenger of cruel wrongs, the exponent of just laws, irrespective of race and station. St. George has always been fighting the dragon, that dreadful dragon which mars the loveliness, which crushes the strength and hope out of life. And many a people who before had been strangers to the meaning of liberty have understood its grandeur and have rejoiced in its blessings when once the Union Jack waved over them.

One other characteristic of the British race is to be found in its moral standards. History teaches us this, it seems to me, that there is an inevitable connection between National character and National destiny. There have been peoples blessed with a rich inheritance and, it may be, intellectual gifts of no common order, but if they have been wanting in high aims or the courage to fulfill them, if the cancer of vice has eaten into their vitals, if they have placed their sole reliance upon the might or power of the sword, then sooner or later they have fallen behind in the march of progress and their ruined vestiges alone remain to attest a splendour which has forever passed away. The early dwellers in Britain, to them indeed its shores might well have seemed inhospitable, rude, granite rocks fronting the angry sea; the thick mist often lying over hill and meadow and stream; but, Sir, that rugged northern climate bred a nation of rugged manliness, of high ambition and fine integrity; and the tight little Island soon became too restricted in area for their display. It is not British valour alone, though that never can be ignored-it is not British valour alone, still less mere lust of conquest, which has gradually extended the bounds of Britain's domain; it is the character of her best ideals which, in spite of occasional lapses into forgetfulness, have gradually forced their way through all opposing obstacles and have compelled respect and admiration in every quarter of the globe.

Now, Sir, since the warp and woof of modern circumstance are woven in no small part by the busy toilers whose hands are now still, it seems to me that it would be fatuous on our part as Canadians to face the future without remembering that we share in all this rich inheritance; we are of the same lineage as those who fought at Cressy and Agincourt and Waterloo and Balaclava; the same lineage as those who wrung the Magna Charta from the reluctant King and resisted even to the death every unwarrantable invasion of personal rights and privileges; the same lineage as those who gave lustre to the Court of Elizabeth and made the Victorian era the pride of all succeeding generations; the same lineage as those who were the leaders of commercial enterprise, the pioneers of scientific achievement, the heralds of truth in the lands of heathen blindness. I say that surely every Canadian ought to rejoice in heart as he looks back over the annals of Britain to know that her glory is his glory, that her triumph is his triumph, because he is an integral part of the Empire whose wide influence stands for what is noblest and what is best in modern civilization. (Applause.)

In order to serve the best interests of a true Imperialism we ought to discharge our own tasks and mark out our own pathway, not expecting others to do for us what we are able to do for ourselves. We have a splendid opportunity here of showing what is possible to the sons of Britain. We are not handicapped as some older peoples are by the baneful influence of past history. Our vital force is not shrivelled up by ages of misgovernment and thraldom. Our lot is cast in a land where the rage of democracy, the horror of pauperism, the insolence of rank, are in a very large part unknown; and though our fortunes are linked with those of the Mother-land by bonds which, as it seems to me at least, can never, never, be broken, yet on the other hand we are possessed of the responsibilities of practical self-government, and it is for us to see that that trust is not betrayed. We must rise above the trammels of mere partizanship and the greed of self-seeking, and insist upon it that our public affairs shall be conducted in a wholesome and righteous way.

It will not suffice that we shall be visited simply with transient spasms of indignation when some scandal is brought to light. We must show all the time that we look for the very best men to guide the councils of State and that we will not tolerate anywhere the dishonest and the incompetent. There is no force more influential than self-respecting public opinion, and it seems to me that there is ample room for its further development if we would make Canada all that she ought to be. It may perhaps seem, Sir, that in the presence of two great races and two great creeds which constitute the dominant factors in our land, some of the problems before us assume additional complexity. So far from regretting this, it seems to me that we ought rather to rejoice in the enlargement which dual traditions impart to national life. Fondness of conviction, of personal conviction, is surely not inconsistent with the most courteous regard for divergent views in others. Whatever our confession of faith may be, and no matter how short it is, or how indifferent it is, it ought surely to include the article of charity. The more so as the points upon which we differ are relatively of trifling importance compared with those upon which every one of us agree.

In that old City of Quebec there is a fine object lesson, as it -seems to me, to every new settler coming amongst us. In that City of Quebec, overlooking the broad St. Lawrence, there stands a column erected to the memory of Wolfe and Montcalm, the vanquisher and the vanquished, in that crucial struggle for supremacy. On its face is written this inscription: " Valour gave a united death, history a united fame, posterity a united monument." It seems to me that the spontaneous feeling which called forth such a memorial suggests our unique and lofty mission as a people, to weld together in a common hope and a common loyalty French and English, Catholic and Protestant, so that side by side they may achieve the ambition of every true heart amongst us, the peace, the prosperity, the enduring renown of our beloved Dominion.

Sir, I rejoice in the name and in the objects of the Club which has honoured me with this invitation. We. are Canadians first of all; we are likewise citizens of the Empire; and I think we shall show the best Canadian spirit by proving that the children oil the Empire have not degenerated by transplantation to this Continent. I am far from agreeing with those prophets of evil who tell us that Britain has reached the zenith of her greatness, that she must now gradually pass through the successive stages of decay. So far as I am able to judge John Bull looks just as young as ever and during recent years is discovering a more intelligent interest in the possessions across the sea. But, Sir, if the time should come /when in smaller Britain industry is threatened with unwholesome congestion, if questions should arise which cannot be answered easily, if heroic sacrifice were needed in order to save the Mother-land from peril, we all know, Sir, that Greater Britain would arise to check alarms, to revive energy, to inspire achievement, so that as we watch the ship of Empire we may still follow it with a song of fervent love and noble expectation

" Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea,
Our hearts, our hopes are all with thee;
Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears,
Our faith triumphant o'er our fears,
Are all with thee, are all with thee."