8/10/2019 Review of 'The History of Canadian Wealth,' by Gustavus Myers - July 5, 1914, in the New York Times

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CANADIAN WEALTHNew York Times (1857-1922); Jul 5, 1914;pg. BR301

CANADIAN

WEALTH

Part

Played

by

Railways

in

Dominion's

Development

HISTORY OF CANADIAN WEALTH.

By

Gustavus

Myers. Chicago:

Charles H.

Kerr

&.

Co.

A

YEAR or

so

ago

Mr.

Myers

gave

himself much

pleasure by laying

bare the

Inmost secrets

of

the

Supreme

Court. The

fact

that a Justice

who leaves

enough

to

pay

a

supertax

is

a

rarity

was

no

bar

to

the scandalous

revelations.

The

vice

of

the Federal

Jus-

tices was

not

venality,

but

a

state

of

mind.

They

were so

steeped

in class

prejudice

that

it

was

not

necessary

to

bribe

them.

Their

dishonesty

was not

pecuniary,

but mental.

They

are

honest

victims of

prejudice

in favor of the

in-

stitutions

which

they

sustain

by

their

decisions. That,

it seems

to uswith

a

change

of

names

is

the

explanation

of

Mr.

Myers's

obsession that vice

is the

motive of whatever he

disapproves. He

thinks there

can

be

no reasonable

and

creditable

explanation

of the

fact, or

at

least of his

assertion, that

fifty

men

control

one-third

of

Canada's

wealth.

They

control it

without

owning

it ,

and

that is

worse than

ownership.

They

are

i

trusted

by

their

countrymen,

and

so

have

power

without

responsibility.

The lead-

ing

railways buy

up

branches and

digest

smaller

companies

at

a

meal.

Twenty-

six banks each have over

a hundred

branches,and some

have several

hundreds

apiece. The United

States

has

no

branch

banks, and

that

alone

proves

that

Can-

ada Is

betrayed

and

impoverished by

its

bankers. That

is to

say, proves

it to

Mr.

Myers

and

to those of his readers

who

agree

with him.

Those who

dis-

agree

are

those

who

believe that

branch

banking

has indisputable

merits,

and is

better than

the

system

of

which the

United States

is

divesting

itself

because

of

its

defects.

The

industrial

concen-

tration is

flagrant.

In four

years

fifty-

six

industrial

amalgamations

absorbed

248

concerns

and

turned 167,000,000

into

457,000,000.

Canada

suffers

no such

pain

as

Mr.

Myers

from these secrets,

whose

knowledge

is

confined

to the own-

ers of

th e

shares and those

who deal

in

them on

the public Exchanges.

The

arid

volumes

beloved of

the

market-place

throw no searchlight

upon

the sources

of

this

iniquity.

That

is

the

function of

Mr. Myers,

and

he has

traced the

cor

ruption

to

its

historic

roots. The

primi-

tive fur

traders put

their

profits

into

land,

and the

land

was

made valuable

by railways.

Myriads

of

documents

were

searched and

their

contents put

into

a

nariative which is

not

misleading

in

substance,

obsolete in treatment,

or

spir-

itless

In

character.

That

is

Mr.

Myers's

estimate of the

writings

of those

who

have

preceded

him in this

fertile

field.

For himself he

is content to

sup-

ply the

ra w

material

for

the

knowledge

necessary

to

obliterate all that

stands

in the

way

of

the

full,

unshackled,

so-

cial,

industrial,

and

intellectual devel-

opment

of

mankind. That

puts

Mr.

Myers

into the same

class with Senator

La

Follette,

who has made similar con-

tributions

toward the

unshackling

of the

United States

from the chains

of

the

Money

Trust.

The

history

of Canadian wealth can

be

cordially

recommended to those who

liked Senator La Follette's

exposure

of

American

wealth.

Never

in

the

history

of mankind have two communities de -

veloped

with such

rapidity

in

all that

goes

to

make life worth

living. They

have

de-

veloped

along

similar

lines,

and that

is

sufficient

explanation

of the faults and

the excesses

of

the

process.

In

both

countries there

are

those

who

cannot

lift their

eyes

above

the mud, and

many

who

delight

to think

that

they,

too,

would

have

been

rich and

great

if

only they

had not been too honest. No doubt

there

are cases where

an excess of virtue em -

barrasses

progress

in

a

worldly

sense,

and

if

the virtue

is

real

there is neither

regret

nor

cause

for

sympathy.

Those

whose

morality

is

truly

robust, and who

are candid with

themselves,

know that

the rich

malefactor

is

the

exception, and

that brains

and

service

are

the

most

common

explanations

of accumulations

of

wealth.

Mr.

Myers's

books

are

recom-

mended

only

to admirers of the muck-

raking

school,

because

only they

believe

that

the

masses

are

poor

because

of un -

willingness

to imitate

the vices attributed

to

the rich.

That doctrine is the root

of

much

envy, hatred,

and

uncharitable-

ness, and

is

noxious

rather than

meri-

torious

In

its effects.

This

is

said

with-

out

disparagement

of

the

apparent

ef-

fort

of Mr.

Myers

to

be

accurate. His

facts

are

not

denied,

but

his

inferences

from them will

not

be admitted

gener-

ally.

All he

says may

be

true,

and

yet

there are other

offsetting

facts

which

compensate

for the blemishes

disclosed.

Admittedly

there

were

graft

and

waste

In

the

construction

of

railways

in

both

Canada and the United

States.

Admit-

tedly

there

has

been

a squandering

of

national

resources

fo r undue

benefit

to

individuals.

But what

then?

The record

would

be clearer

if there were

no

such

facts

upon it

but time

is

of the

essence

in

this

case.

The

haste

which

ordinarily

makes

waste

in this

case made

profits.

Both nations

are

richer and

the

riches

arc

better

distributed

than

would

have

been

the

case

if

railway

construction

had been

delayed

fo r

the

sake

of

pre-

venting

profit

to the

constructors,

and

if

the

public

lands had remained

public

lands,

fit

only

fo r

cattle ranches

rather

than

for

the

.

farms which

belong

to

mill-

ions,

and

which

feed

scores

of millions.

COURTSHIP OF

ANIMALS

THE

COURTSHIP OF

ANIMALS.

By

W. P.

Pycraft

of the

Zoological Dspartment

of

the British Museum. Illustrated.

New

York:

Henry

Holt

&

Co.

91.75.

A

great

many

interesting

facts

are

brought

out

by

W.

P.

Pycraft, an

em

inent

English zoologist,

in

his book en-

titled

The

Courtship of

Animals,

written, he

says,

not

simply fo r the

en

tertainment

of

those who

have a

liking

for

natural

history,

but also

fo r the

bearing

of

what it

shows

upon social

problems

now under animated

discussion

throughout

the world.

It

is

Mr.

Fycraft s

opinion

that

the

truth

of the

saying

that

one touch

of

nature

makes

the whole

world

kin

Is

strikingly obvious

when

we

study

the

courtship

of animals.

For,

he

re

marks,

the

*

Beasts

that

perish,* no

less than man

himself,

are

stirred

by

the

same

emotions;

the

force

of

love runs

as

high

in

them

as in

ourselves; and its

modes of

expression

are

not

so

different,

though

they may

superficially

appear

to

be

so.'* The

proper study

of mankind

lie

thinks

is not man

alone, but

man,

beast,

bird, fish,

and insect.

As a

sociologist

he

insists

on the

pre-eminence of man, clos

ing

his

chapter

on

Mankind

in

the

Making

by remarking

Among

the

civilized nations of

to

day,

in

proportion

as the

maicness

of

the

community becomes

more and

more

effete,

the

victims

of sophistry,

and slaves of the

shibboleths,

so

the

inf.uence

of

the

females asserts itself.

And

recent events

among

us show

plainly

enough

that

that influence

is

the reverse of

good.

Having

its roots

in

personal vanity

and the love

of

notoriety,

ft Is Intolerant

of

reason and

self-restraint, and that

way

madness

lic-s.

There are

something

over

eighty

ex-

cellent

illustrations

In Mr.

Pycraft s

book.

The Family

and Society

A treatise

on

The

Family

and

So

ciety,

written

by

Prof. John M. Gil

lette

of the

University

of

North Da

kota,

is

published

as a

volume

of the

National Social

Science

series. In

it

the

author

deals

Interestingly

with the

functions of

the

family,

the

origin

of

marriage,

the

evolution of the

family,

current

conditions

affecting

the

family,

and

the

biological

phases

of sex

that

are

observed

in the family;

he

says

he

has

taken

his

facts

from

the

best

available

authorities,

and that,

to the

measure

of

h.'s

ability,

his

work

a sci

entific

Interpretation

of

a

large

body

of

reliable data. (A . C,

McClurg

&

Co.

50

cents.)