Civic Responsibility and the Increase of Immigration

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Empire Club,--In the few remarks I propose to make today on the subject set down in your programme, I wish to draw your attention to the fact that we have to deal with a situation growing out of new conditions in this countrysuch as the fact that within five years the population of Toronto has grown from 208,000, according to the Census, to 251,ooo, according to your last municipal census; Winnipeg has grown from 48,000 to 92,000; and Montreal has grown from 267,000 to some 300,000, or 400,000 with the suburbs. That is the situation which we have to deal with in this country, and which has developed in the last five or six years. If we think of Canada as a country along with its provinces, cities, towns and villages, we have to realize the fact that a country is an organism and as truly subject to the laws of evolution as is any other individual organism in the vegetable or in the animal world.

To make this point more precise, I would say that physiology, which deals with the life processes in animals and in plants, utilizes every known science which we have developed. For instance, physics is made use of in the study of the phenomena of sound and light; hydraulics is made use of to study the circulation of the blood; mechanics, in dealing with the locomotion and equilibrium of the body; the laws of gases tell us the relations of the outside air to the body and the lungs; chemistry tells us all about the metabolism which goes on in the tissues and in the food; and finally we take a look at the individual cell itself through a microscope and there study the individual unit that goes to make up the total organism which we call man.

If we apply this process of looking at things to society, we shall see perfectly well that in order to study society intelligently, we have to look upon it as an organism made up of individual units, just as the cells make up the individual body. That is to say, society must be studied in connection with, or in relation to its surroundings, its environment, whether external to the body or internal to the body. With regard to the external environment of the individual who goes to make up society, we naturally study him in relation to the climate in which he lives, the kind and quality of food he has to use, the extent and construction of his houses and his workshops, and finally with regard to the ventilation, lighting and draining of those particular houses and workshops which are his habitation. If we look at the individual who helps to make up this society, with regard to the internal environment, we have to see that his internal environment is made up of sights and sounds which are carried to him through the senses, and help to form his ideas; in other words, his educational environment or that which goes to make up the conscious self of the individual. We say, then, that society as a whole, of the city of Toronto, the whole country of Canada, must be made up and measured in accordance with the goodness of that individual environment.

I propose, then, for a few moments after this general statement, to turn to the situation as we find it in Toronto today and in our other large cities, due; mainly, to the fact that we have seen Canada grow enormously in population during a period of five or six years. In order to understand it (I shall not trouble you with many figures, but would ask you to carry these in your mind) I would say that Ontario, according to our immigration returns, has received in five years, ending last June, 134,000 immigrants, of whom a large proportion have been British. Last year, we had 52,000 people come into Ontario, of this number we had 40,600 British, 1,902 Hebrews, 3,400 Italians, and 6,700 of other foreign races. Whether they remained in Ontario or not does not seriously affect our question or the argument. These people, as I have shown, have, I am glad to repeat, been increasingly British in the numbers that have come into Canada during the last five years. Turning to the distribution of these people, we have to note that the distribution has been remarkable in the fact that Mr. Southworth, of the Ontario Bureau of Immigration here, tells me that the British who were not artisans have been sent to the farmers of the country, the artisans have been found work here and in many other places, and the community is constantly crying out for more help. The Italian has almost wholly gone out on to railway work. We have then left 2,000 Hebrews, and some of these have gone into the Temiskaming district and begun settlements there. The balance have, we assume, remained in this or other cities. It is to this wonderful increase and to the distribution that I wish particularly to ask your sympathetic attention.

That the British follow their instincts, the peculiar instincts of the Teuton, whatever country he has lived in or been brought to, is shown in the fact that in the suburbs and in the outlying parts of the city, we have hundreds and thousands of houses, first shacks, put up two or three years ago, which have now become good houses, filled with British-thinking, British-speaking, British-acting citizens. It is, then, I take it, with the few others, relatively few but important in their nature, that we have to deal particularly. You all know very well that we have had in the city always a quarter which a few thousand foreigners have gradually filled in long before 1900. I remember having patients in St. John's ward years and years ago, amongst the foreigners, and I am glad to say, so far as my observation goes, that those foreigners in this city, filtering in gradually, have proved themselves very good citizens, and have come up very largely to our ideals of thinking and doing. I have pointed out that of the nearly two thousand Hebrews, four thousand Italians, and seven thousand other foreigners, who came into Ontario, some of them must necessarily have come to Toronto. Remember, that as they are foreign in language, in custom, in occupation in a large degree, and poor for the most part, it is only natural to suppose, what we know to be a fact, that those people have gone to those parts of the city where their countrymen have previously been living.

Thus we have the fact which we must deal with, that in the last several years we have had a notable number of persons, who are not British, coming in amongst us to fill a demand which is constantly being made here for labour, whether it be skilled or unskilled. Instead of criticizing, what every business man here is demanding in the shape of that class of labour, the person who fills the labour demand has, in my opinion, a right, remembering he is a foreigner in his ideals, remembering he is handicapped in language, he has a right, I repeat, not to our criticism, but to our sympathy and kindly interest; and it is to that particular point, the responsibility which we as citizens of Toronto have with regard to this relatively small population, that I desire for the moment, and for the rest of the term allotted me, to direct my remarks. We have absorbed, perfectly I think, the thousand Italians and some three thousand Jews, who were in Toronto, according to the Census of 18gi. We must have added in each year since a definite number. This year, I pointed out, we have had 1900 Hebrews come in, and some 4,000 Italians and 6,000 others, largely Hungarians and Poles; so that we must have some of them here, and they have overflowed into St. John's ward and other parts of the city.

What is the situation regarding them, or what situation are they creating? Dr. McLaughlin, of the Marine Hospital Service of the United States, has said this very pointedly, with regard to the slums of New York. After pointing out that 65,000 Hebrews, in a single year, had located in New York, he said: "As to whether they create a worse condition than existed before, depends upon certain facts. The slum is due to the grasping landlord, on the one hand, and the puerile civic administration on the other. If slums exist, they are not caused by the immigrant, but the immigrant comes into the condition, which has already created or made the slums possible." That is exactly the point which we must remember. Let us look at it from a practical standpoint. I have tried to get some definite information in regard to the Toronto situation, by writing to a friend of mine, a man engaged in missionary work in the city, and he wrote me saying: "It would be impossible for me to describe to you the deplorable condition of some of our poorer citizens. In order to do so, I would have to go into details, which it would not be possible for me now, but I would like you to come up and spend a little while looking into this." He goes on to say: "We know what the remedy is, but we don't know how, or by whom the remedy is to be applied. We require time, money, management, probably most of all management." Now, if that is the situation as it exists in Toronto today, it is quite clear that the responsibility which rests upon us as good citizens must be met either individually or by united civic effort, and by none, I take it, can this be met better than through ideals and intelligent energy, which I see in the faces of the members of the Empire Club.

What will we do? In the city of Chicago, in 1900, what they called the "City Homes Association," was formed with the idea of making an exact study and investigation of some of the slum districts of Chicago. They appointed a Committee under a University professor of economics. He added to his Committee from various sources, and got in touch and in sympathy with the charity organizations of the city, the health authorities of the city, and the Homes Visiting Committee of the city. Their report was published in 1901, and I think is without exception the finest, most comprehensive, clear, and definite in its recommendations of any report on the subject that exists, and I seriously recommend to any of the gentlemen who are interested in the subject, to get hold of the Chicago Tenement House Report of 1901. Let me read a word or two from what the Secretary says in his preliminary remarks: "A few years ago the worst features of certain portions of the city appeared but temporary and transitional. The optimism of citizens interested in this phase of municipal development led to the belief that conditions would improve with time, in fact. it could not have been known, until the results of such an inquiry as this were studied, that housing conditions are growing steadily worse, and that the slums now building are likely to repeat the history of other cities. An important factor, on the one hand, is the natural desire on the part of the landlords to cover every foot of their ground-space with large tenements, without sufficient provision for light and ventilation. On the other hand, it is the short-sighted policy of the municipality which permits the growth of housing conditions, for whose improvements years of agitation and vigourous effort will be necessary. The histories of many other cities show that the forces which built their slums are almost exactly those at work here. A radical change cannot be expected without steady pressure, and a steady cultivation of public opinion." That is what Mr. Robert Hunter says, in the preliminary pages of the Chicago report, and I recommend it to your serious consideration.

I am not saying for a moment that the few thousand immigrants we have in Toronto, of the poorer industrial class, have created as yet a condition which can be called serious. I think we may congratulate ourselves that they have not. Labour has been abundant, the distribution has been remarkable, the influence of the Salvation Army in caring for those that it brought in has been remarkable in sifting out the undesirable, and I know from our Departmental list that they have returned some who were unwilling to work-returned them very promptly to the Old Country, from which they came. That is all true, and Mr. Taylor, of the City Relief Office, tells me, or, rather, tells the public through statistics, that the relief of this last year 1906 was even less than that of 1905. Nevertheless, I learn that owing to the fact of the famine in houses for the labouring class, especially the absence of new houses in the congested district, the readiness with which the landlord can put in two where there wag previously one, the tendency which there is among a certain class of landlords to do as they say in the Chicago Report, and similarly in the New York Report of 1894; "that they will fill up all their space, and build up their houses to Heaven, if they were allowed to do so, in order to lessen the amount of assessment, and the amount of ground rent."

If that is true, then, it is clear that someone, indeed all of us, must view the question from a practical standpoint, and see what measures are taken to prevent what has become elsewhere, .as this gentleman remarks in Chicago, "a condition requiring years and years of agitation and heart-burnings in the City Council before improvements are really made." Our building by-law is a remarkably good by-law, in nearly all respects. My old friend, Robert McCallum, is an unusually capable and serious-minded man in his work, and if you will look into the particulars of that City building by-law with regard to the strength of buildings, materials and the kind of drainage that is required, the kind of house on a certain sized piece of land that is required, the impossibility of putting up houses on lanes less than thirty feet in width, you will, find that all these things indicate that those who drew up the by-law have done a great deal to improve the tenement house condition of the City.

But you will find defects which are serious, and one is a provision by which an inner room may be created if it is lighted by an outer one. This is a beginning of what they call in Chicago or New York the double decker system of tenement houses, or in England the back to back system of houses. That, in England, has been absolutely prohibited in recent years, and must be prohibited here, before it begins. It has already begun in Montreal, and the authorities have not dealt with it as yet.

There is the other point,--the necessity for having something added to the building by-law making it absolutely clear, that on a particular area of ground in a particular size of house, not more than so many persons can sleep. We won't talk about living in the day-time, but " cannot sleep," that is the point, and the only point at which we can regulate in any degree the tenement house problem. All of you see the point; for instance, in a double decker in Chicago, the Committee tells its that one hundred and twenty-seven persons lived in seventy rooms, and in one case six children and three grownup persons lived in three interior rooms, which received no outside light at all, and this was in a new building. If that is the case there, then, our municipal health by-law or building bylaw must be amended, and in addition to that you must follow up legislation with constant inspection, because the landlord, in many cases, will simply go on to the limit, and if any of you wish to find an illustration of how this is done in London, read that novel by Stuart, " The Hebrew," where the conditions of. over-crowding are systematically worked up into a business. I need not go further, gentlemen; you all see the point which I wish to make, namely, that, with increasing civic population, increasing wealth, increasing ability to do things, we have to recognize, and ought to recognize, our increasing individual and civic responsibility.

If we are to forget everything except the purely individual and material interests of ourselves, we are not even good political philosophers in leaving out the question of good morals, because everyone sees very well--that if our City became like New York or Chicago, in its police force, in a general disregard for law and order, that everyone's property would be affected, to put it on the lowest basis. We would be affected in every way, and we cannot separate ourselves from our neighbours, be they rich or poor. I venture to say, in conclusion, gentlemen, that Toronto won't forget herself. I have known Toronto long enough to feel quite sure that as she has led in the past she will lead in this, and will take very good care indeed, when she once sees the danger, to step in in time to prevent its realization. You will all remember those old words of Tennyson's, in his little poem on "Freedom," where he speaks about knowledge. I shall leave them with you

"Knowledge fusing class with class,
Of civic strife no more to be,
Of love which leavens all the mass,
Until the soul be free."

Mr. I. F. Ellis: It has afforded me great pleasure to hear the address just given. While Dr. Bryce's remarks do not touch upon the question, I had hoped he would have said something in connection with the immigration of undesirable people into this country. All of you know that not long ago a very strong memorial was sent to Ottawa from the Boards of Trade, protesting against the number of undesirable immigrants constantly coming into Canada. It appears to us that the quarantine service is not as efficient as it should be and not carried out properly by the Dominion. It caused very much surprise to hear reports from the Sanitariums of the enormous proportion of those who are there that are affected with tuberculosis, but who have not been in this country a year; and through inquiry it was learned that a great many people were sent over here by the authorities at home, knowing that they were suffering from tuberculosis and advising that they come to Canada. It is a serious menace to the health of the country, and it is an added expense to these institutions. Professor Bryce is there in close touch with the authorities at Ottawa, and I think he could do Canada a great deal of service if he impressed upon them the importance of improved quarantine service, so that all undesirable immigrants should be immediately deported as soon as they landed in this country.

Dr. E. Clouse: I wish to say a word in support of lair. Ellis' remarks. Pew practising physicians in this country but know that his remarks are true even to the question of people being taken out of Sanitaria in the Old Country and sent here in the hope that the bracing air of Canada might improve their health. This is a matter which must soon claim the attention of the authorities here.

Dr. W. H. Pepler: I have listened with interest to Dr. Bryce's remarks, and within the past year I have had a good deal of opportunity in seeing the immigrants that have been brought in recently, more especially from England, through my connection with the St. George's Society, and I must say that there have been a number of cases of tuberculosis, chronic ulcerated legs, chronic conditions of the liver, that practically have died here. Two or three cases have died in Toronto within a very short time after having arrived, and it struck me that certainly something could be done in the way of further and stricter inquiry into those immigrants that arrive in this country or before they get on the boat. I have asked quite a number of them what examination they go through. Of course, they are not educated men or women, but I gather that they are asked one or two questions, and two men have told me that their eyes were examined. I hope to see sortie improvement in the next year's immigration in this way.

Dr. Bryce: I am glad that my friends have given me an opportunity of laying before this Association exactly the situation as we know it to be. I have told you that there were 52,000 people came into Ontario last year, and, of course, Toronto is the great distributing point. I think, if I am not mistaken, Mr. Taylor reported that the total number of cases in 1906 which applied to the City Hall Office for relief was 1,026. That includes everybody, as I understand it, who came from any part of the population in Toronto, so that, so far as the actual relief goes, whether it was done by others or not, those are the figures. It is quite clear that on the relief side the matter has mended. In the particular matter referred to by Mr. Ellis and the other members, I have this to say, that the whole inspection at the ports is under my own personal direction and supervision, and for that I am prepared always to stand or fall and be responsible.

When I went to Ottawa, three years ago, the old Act of '73 was in force, and the work of inspection was just beginning. It has all been organized since then; it has all had to be worked out, and there has had to be a nice balancing of what we ought to do to prevent undesirable people coming in, so as not, at the same time, to discourage the coming of legitimate immigrants. Now, I will tell you what happens. The English come out, say, a thousand on a boat. As you know, they have practically no diseases of the eye and we do not examine them unless it is perfectly evident that one of the eyes is diseased. Ordinarily we look at the under side of the eyelids of all the foreigners, but an Englishman comes up to the inspector who observes him at a distance of a few feet in a good light. He has to judge, in that approach, what kind of a fellow he is. If he is an Englishman, he is generally of ruddy complexion, from staying out of doors, and even a sick man, if he approaches you after ten days at sea, is a pretty hard class of consumptive to diagnose, especially if he does not cough in your face, which he is not likely to do. I am free to say this, that I do not think it is a practical measure to deal with sometimes 4,000 people in a day and examine their chests for tuberculosis. That could not be done. There would be such a general outcry and confusion as to make it an impossibility. If the officers, and they are shrewdly trained, see a man with any indication, either from emaciation or any other cause, of being ill he is set aside in a room until the line is passed and is then carefully looked over. With regard to tuberculosis, this is the situation, and I wish you to remember it as an explanation of what Mr. Ellis says is the case.

A number of immigrants, last year, went to the Free Sanitarium on the Humber. I saw an item to that effect on New Year's Day, and I took the trouble to go out and get a list of them, and I have asked the authorities to give me, in detail, a statement as to how many months or how many years the two or three dozen which are on that list have actually been in Canada. The average time which specialists and physicians, treating consumption, give as the time during which a case exists in this country, before it is diagnosed, is eight months. People get a little run down or have a cold, but on an average they are not diagnosed for eight months after the disease has been in existence. Consumption runs on an average for probably two and a half to three years before the case dies. So that, you see, anything more than an individual personal examination at the port will fail in a certain number of cases of initial consumption, and I am quite prepared to take the responsibility for not attempting to diagnose every body. Last year, after working a year under the 1873 Act, personally and with the justice Department, I succeeded in having enough attention given to it to have it brought in as an Amendment to the Immigration Act. In that we have this clause: That no person liable to become a public charge can enter Canada, except he give bonds satisfactory to the Minister that he will not become a public charge. No person who has had insanity within five years can enter Canada. No epileptic can enter Canada. That is absolute. No feeble-minded person or idiot can enter Canada.

We may let in cripples, say a man who has lost an arm, on condition that he give satisfactory evidence that he has an occupation or an art, and is not likely to become a public charge. But in any case where a person becomes insane after coming into the country, or becomes epileptic, or develops tuberculosis, he may be returned, within two years. That is the situation. I do not think you can by any possibility exclude all, but we have in the Act absolute provision that if the City Clerk of Toronto or the Doctor at the Hospital for Consumptives brings to our attention a single person who has been admitted, who should not have got in and has become a charge to the public, either as a criminal, a lunatic, an epileptic, or a charitable case, within two years from the time he arrived, he can and will be deported.