Part 31

Side by side with this agricultural expansion there has been an era of discovery in the Dominion unequalled even by the golden age of '49. Alexander {463} Macdonald, a Scotchman from New Brunswick, found a fortune in the great Klondike rush of 1894-8 and other Canadians did the same at Cobalt, Ontario, in 1903, where a member of a railway construction gang picked up a silver nugget by accident, thereby disclosing to an eager continent the famous Cobalt silver fields. Canada has, as a result, one of the greatest gold and silver-mining centres in the world.

As if to keep pace with this unexpected development, Dr. Charles E. Saunders, of the Department of Agriculture, Ottawa, announced his successful evolution of Marquis wheat. The Doctor had been experimenting with mid-European Red Fife and Red Calcutta ever since 1903. By successfully crossing the two, an early ripening, hard red spring wheat with excellent milling and baking qualities was evolved. Marquis wheat, as it was named, is now the dominant spring wheat throughout America. Over three hundred million bushels are produced annually, and it was largely owing to Canadian Marquis that the Allies were able to overcome the food crisis in 1918. The wealth of the world has thus been increased enormously by it.

In 1911 Sir Wilfrid, who had been attending the Imperial Conference in London during May and June of that year, returned home determined to place himself again in the hands of the electorate. Unfortunately he had either not profited by the lesson of 1891 or he now believed that the Dominion was ripe for reciprocity with the United States. The contest resulted in the overwhelming defeat of his ministry. For fifteen years he had enjoyed the same confidence of the people as was extended to {464} Sir John A. Macdonald, and the story of his premiership was practically the political history of Canada for that period.

The Hon. Sir Robert Borden, who had led the Conservative party after Sir Charles Tupper had resigned in 1901, now succeeded, and a new era opened in Canadian politics. Throughout the ten years of his two terms of office he invariably viewed the questions and problems before him from a judicial standpoint. At the end of his term of office he carried into his semi-retirement the respect and honour of the Canadian people. If he lacked the personality and the fire of Sir John A. and Sir Wilfrid, on the hustings and in the House, he made up for it by a mind well balanced in statesmanship. Never was this seen to greater advantage than on those occasions when he participated in the Imperial Conferences and at the Peace negotiations ir Versailles.

Early in the winter of 1913, Vilhjalmur Stefansson, an Icelander from Manitoba, set out on one of his explorations of the Arctic regions of Canada. Public opinion had been so roused and excited over Admiral Peary reaching the North Pole on April 6, 1909, that the Canadian Government felt that they owed it to the Empire to make some attempt at charting the northern regions for the Dominion. Under Government organisation and supervision the enterprise lasted for five years. Thousands of square miles were added to Canadian territory within the Arctic Circle, many of which, contrary to popular conception, are green and habitable. The geography of certain lands and seas was amplified and corrected, interesting and useful {465} scientific material was obtained, and much light thrown on general conditions prevailing in those latitudes which had escaped the observation of Roald Amundsen when he accomplished the navigation of the Northwest Passage during 1903-6.

The opening years of the second decade of the twentieth century, however, had not been without their toll of the Empire makers in Canada. Just before the Great War broke on an unsuspecting Dominion, Lord Strathcona passed away in his 94th year. From an apprentice clerk in Hudson's Bay Company he had passed from honour to honour until his death, when he was High Commissioner for Canada in London. Not many months later he was followed by the last surviving Father of Confederation, Sir Charles Tupper, who had preceded him in the office. Both of these pioneers in Canadian life wielded an influence very far reaching in the interests of the British Empire.

At the outbreak of the war similar losses in Canadian public life passed without much notice in the stress and strain of the struggle to which Canada was to devote herself during the ensuing years.

The prompt action of Sir Sam Hughes, the Minister of Militia, the sending of 400,000 men overseas to fight the great fight, the seemingly never-ending battles of Ypres, St. Julien, Festubert, Givenchy, St. Eloi, Sanctuary Wood, Vimy Ridge, Loos, Hill 70, Courcelette, Passchendaele, and the Somme, under General Lord Byng and General Sir Arthur Currie, appear too vivid in the mind as yet to be regarded as history.

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Something of the spirit of the Canadians in sharing the common sacrifice is reflected in the beautiful though poignant lines of Colonel Macrae of the Canadian Army Medical Corps, who himself made the supreme sacrifice in one of the early engagements of 1915:

In Flanders fields the poppies blow Beneath the crosses, row on row That mark our place, and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly, Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved, and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe; To you, from falling hands, we throw The torch. Be yours to lift it high! If ye break faith with us who die, We shall not sleep, though poppies blow In Flanders fields.

As for those at home, now that the war has passed into the ages-long annals of the Empire, no words can express their thoughts better than those of Laurence Binyon at the entrance of the British Museum in London, England:

They shall grow not old As we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary them Nor the years condemn, At the going down of the sun And in the morning We will remember them.

But the years 1914-20 were constructive ones for Canada. Hitherto she had been content to be {467} regarded as a Dominion with a definite place in the Empire, proud of her position in that Association of Nations but not unmindful of her shortcomings. The world-conflict, however, caused her to realise her own constructive ability and possibilities only limited by population. Under the Imperial Munitions Board factories were converted into munition works, old plants were enlarged, and new machinery installed, so that the country is industrially equipped to supply a population considerably larger than it is to-day. Not only was wooden ship building revived, but also steel ship building plants were laid down. As a result there is a Government Merchant Marine arranged in conjunction with the Government railways, sailing the high seas to wherever Canadian produce can find a market. Closer international relationships are being fostered instead of considered as outside of the Dominion's power and her desire. These cords of commerce will undoubtedly strengthen British hegemony in the years to come.

The General Election of December 1917, passed quietly, making no change in the political situation, although there was a strong feeling in Quebec against conscription, which was the dominant issue in that province. On that question the Hon. W. L. Mackenzie King supported Sir Wilfrid Laurier in his opposition to compulsory service, being one of the few English Canadian Liberals to do so. In fact several of them had already joined Sir Robert Borden so that a Coalition Government could be formed. It was largely owing to Mr. King's support of Sir Wilfrid on this issue that the former was chosen to {468} succeed the latter as leader of the Liberal Party in the Convention held at Ottawa August 5-7, 1919. The country, however, was too intent on the struggle before it to worry about politics. If it did anything it placed Sir Robert Borden more firmly in power to carry on the task before him, especially endorsing the Military Service Act (Conscription) which had been passed on August 29, previously.

It is true that the people were stunned by the disasters which occurred in 1916 and 1917 when the Parliament Building at Ottawa was burned and Halifax was almost razed to the ground by the explosion resulting from the ramming of an ammunition ship. But outside of the great toll of life these losses could be repaired and were speedily made up in the erection of new Parliament Buildings and the creation of a more modern city of Halifax to dominate the entrance of the great highway from the East.

Early in the autumn of 1914, the Bank of England, realizing that it would be impossible for American firms to ship gold to London in payment of maturing indebtedness there, announced that deposits of gold by such firms with the Receiver-General at Ottawa would be regarded as if received by the Bank at London. Under this arrangement many million dollars of the precious metal were shipped to the Dominion Capital, where a Branch of the Royal Mint had already been established in January, 1908. The amount in the vaults at Ottawa during the war became almost twice the total amount held by British financial institutions in 1913. As part of it was raw gold, the Ottawa Branch of the Royal Mint {469} had to construct a new refinery in 1917 which had a refining capacity of one million ounces of fine gold per month. The Branch Mint had thus a larger capacity than any other Mint or gold refinery in the world. Shilling blanks were also produced for the Royal Mint in London as well as silver and bronze pieces for Newfoundland and nickel-copper pieces for Jamaica.

Later on the gold was returned to the United States when the British exchange became unfavourable owing to the huge purchases made in that country. Many Canadian business men at this time advocated a moratorium, but the Government steadfastly resisted such a suggestion until ultimately it was found unnecessary.

Financially, the Canadian people from 1915 to 1919 were not unmindful of their national obligations. Six domestic loans were issued during the war period amounting to 2,203 million dollars, while War Savings Certificates accounted for another 12 1/2 millions.

On the announcement of the Armistice in November, 1918, the Government with the same energy and foresight which characterised their entrance into the conflict, began to demobilise the army which they had sent overseas. Within six months the bulk of the men were back in their homes. The opportunity was then taken of offering to the returned men land grants and loans for the purchase of farming implements. Up to the end of 1920, over 3 1/2 million acres had been disposed of in this way. In the Western Provinces alone about one million acres of it are under cultivation {470} by returned men. As a result of this action, new careers have been provided for men whose love of outdoor life was stimulated by their military experience. It has at the same time opened up from virgin soil fresh tracts of rich, arable land. As for pensions, up to February, 1921, the Dominion has paid out 82 million dollars and her annual pension bill now represents over 33 million dollars. Truly Canada is a country "fit for heroes to live in."

All this, however, has been accomplished not without some internal difficulty. At Winnipeg in May, 1919, some thousands of workmen came out on strike for more pay, shorter hours, and the principle of collective bargaining. Rioting took place among some of the more disorderly elements. But after negotiation by the Hon. Arthur Meighen and a fellow minister, aided by strong measures on the part of the Mayor and ex-Service men, the rioters returned to work.

But the great work of construction and restoration has progressed. In September, 1917, the Quebec Cantilever Bridge, one of the engineering triumphs of the world, even larger than the famous Forth Bridge, was completed at a cost of 15 million dollars. The special importance of this structure is, that by connecting the Government railway lines on the south of the River St. Lawrence with those on the north, it shortens the distance between Halifax and Winnipeg by two hundred miles. The necessity for good roads has not been overlooked. Parliament authorised under the Canada Highways Act of 1919, a grant of 20 million dollars, {472} for the purpose of road construction and improvement. This sum allotted to the various provinces is granted on condition that the amount should be supplemented by the provinces themselves. The 250,000 miles of public highways will therefore be extended gradually but effectively in the future.

In the same year, there occurred the death at Ottawa of one whom Canada could ill afford to lose; a statesman whose prestige at home and abroad stood out on the pages of the Dominion's history. Nominally the leader of the Liberal Party, Sir Wilfrid Laurier was more than that. He was a great national figure. As a statesman of broad imperialistic views, as an orator of brilliant gifts, as a zealous guardian of all that he considered to be for Canada's best interest, he will rank high among the makers of the Empire.

Fortunately the visit of the Prince of Wales came at a time when the Dominion badly needed royal encouragement. Arriving in the late summer of 1919, he was enthusiastically received. As the Quebec Bridge had just been completed he formally opened it for traffic, and later on, as a good Mason, laid the foundation stone of the tower of the new Parliament Buildings at Ottawa. Becoming enamoured with the possibilities of the two new provinces in the Northwest, he purchased a ranch of 1,600 acres in Alberta, under the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, proceeded to stock it with horses and cattle of the best English pedigree, and engaged a number of ex-Service men to manage the property. If there had been any doubt in the minds of the western settlers about His Royal {473} Highness, this removed it. To-day east and west vie in acclaiming the present Heir-Apparent to the British throne with an affection as genuine as it is evident.

When the Dominion Government, owing to the exigencies of war, began to impose restriction on the manufacture, importation and sale of intoxicating liquors in Canada, the old question of Prohibition came to the fore again. It was remembered that a plebiscite in favour of it had been carried on September 29, 1898, but never taken advantage of by the Federal authorities; Temperance organizations throughout the country took it up, and in order to meet the popular clamour the various provincial Assemblies passed some form of legislation which resulted in the country going "dry." Quebec, however, has only agreed to an amendment of the Canada Temperance Act by which the Dominion Government can prohibit the importation of intoxicants, but cannot prevent the province from making and selling under Government control such wine, spirits or beer as the people may desire. British Columbia afterwards voted for Government control in October, 1920.

In July, 1920, after nine years of power laden with some of the heaviest responsibilities ever imposed upon a Canadian statesman, Sir Robert Borden was compelled to resign the premiership through ill health. His efforts for the autonomy of the Dominion, consistent with Empire unity, culminating in her inclusion as a separate and equal nation at the Peace Conference in Paris, 1919, and the right to appoint her own Minister at Washington {474} will make for him a prominent place in the history of Canada.