SHOULDER TO SHOULDER WITH THE EMPIRE

While the enlistment and equipment of the first contingent proceeded apace, all political ranks united for the war. Militarists and pacifists, fathoms apart in times of peace on the question of a Dominion navy, joined hands. Party lines, as in Great Britain, were instantly obliterated. Sir Wilfrid Laurier, former Prime Minister, and leader of the opposition in the Canadian Parliament, who, at the Imperial Conference of 1911, advocated the doctrine of colonial neutrality, declaring that Canada would not necessarily consider herself bound to take part in wars in which Great Britain might become involved, immediately threw the weight of his influence behind the Government. When the Dominion Parliament met August 19, 1914, to indorse Great Britain's participation in the war, Sir Wilfrid, after announcing that for the present all party lines had been abolished, said:

"So long as there is danger at the front it is our duty, more pressing than all other duties on this first day of debate, to let Great Britain, to let all the friends and foes of Great Britain, know that there is in Canada but one mind and one heart, and that all Canadians stand behind the mother country, conscious and proud that she did not engage in war from selfish motives or for aggrandizement, but to maintain untarnished the honor of her name, to fulfill her obligations to her allies, to maintain her treaty obligations, and to save civilization from the unbridled lust of conquest and power." Of the Canadian contingent he said it was the opinion of the British Government that the assistance of Canadian troops, humble though it might be, would be appreciated for their material and moral help, and would show the world that Canada, daughter of England, intended to stand by her in the conflict.

Canada's Governor General, the Duke of Connaught, had opened Parliament wearing a general's field uniform in khaki, and reminded the legislators that England was asking for their help. Sir Wilfrid Laurier, in the speech he made, presented a motion proposing that the Dominion be prepared to carry out the duke's suggestion. The motion's seconder was the Premier, Sir Robert Borden, who said:

"We stand shoulder to shoulder with the mother country. With firm hearts we abide the issue. The men who are going to the front from Canada are going as freemen from a free country to serve this Dominion and the Empire. We are giving our best to our country, and we are proud to do it." The press of Canada ardently indorsed the decision.

The Canadian Parliament immediately voted a war credit of $50,000,000, the minister of finance declaring that Canada was prepared to spend her last drop of blood and her last dollar in the defense of the country. This measure, the first contribution from Canada's war chest on behalf of the Empire, signalized an outpouring of gifts in kind, official or private, in rich profusion. From its storehouses the Government presented Great Britain with 98,000 bags of flour; the Provinces thereupon followed with individual gifts of supplies. Ontario gave 250,000 bags of flour; Manitoba, 50,000 bags; Quebec, 4,000,000 pounds of cheese; New Brunswick, 100,000 bushels of potatoes; Saskatchewan, 1,500 horses, valued at $250,000; Alberta, 500,000 bushels of oats; Prince Edward Island, 100,000 bushels of oats; British Columbia, 25,000 cases of salmon; while Nova Scotia at first offered 100,000 tons of coal, a cumbrous contribution, which was later converted to its cash equivalent. These governmental offerings evoked no less handsome responses to the call of the mother country from many cities and towns, corporations, and individuals. Great Britain's sinews of war were further reenforced by $100,000 from the Bank of Montreal; $500,000 from Mr. J. K. L. Ross of Montreal; a battery of machine guns from Mr. J. C. Eaton of Toronto; while Mr. Hamilton Gault of Montreal equipped and raised at his own expense a crack regiment composed entirely of men possessing war medals, and known as the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, or more properly as "Princess Pat's Pets." Having outfitted this force at a cost of $1,500,000, Mr. Gault did not take command, but joined it as one of its officers, while Mrs. Gault closed her home and left for the front as a nurse. Corporations also contributed funds for the war, and many employees gave a percentage of their salaries.

The women of Canada raised a fund of $285,960, one hundred thousand of which was for military hospital purposes, and the remainder for a naval hospital. The Canadian Red Cross sent a fully equipped field hospital and $50,000 to the British Red Cross Society. The Dominion Government provided $100,000 for a Canadian hospital in France. Farmers in different districts gathered vast stocks of flour and farming produce and sent them to England. The Canadians also raised their own Patriotic Relief Fund, devoted to caring for dependents of Canadians fighting at the front and providing a subsistence for their future. Eighteen cities raised considerably over $5,000,000 for this fund within ten weeks of the outbreak of the war. Montreal leading with $2,000,000, and Toronto with nearly $1,000,000.

In the wake of this munificence came an increased depression. Before the war a temporary check had come to a long and unexampled era of prosperity in Canada. An industrial crisis had set in, and the war brought it to an acute point. There had been an overstimulation of industrial enterprises; land values had been artificially inflated in the Northwest; and capital had been too easily raised. Capital now became scarce; Canadian promotions were viewed with suspicion; and some foreign investments were withdrawn. With the war many Canadians, who were working and giving whole-heartedly for the Empire, saw their enterprises facing ruin for want of capital they could not obtain. The stock exchanges were closed. Shares in some of the soundest industrial concerns were almost unsalable; others were offered for little more than half their market price of a few months before. Canadian Pacific shares, as an example, fell to $157-½; a little over a year previous to the war they had reached $254. Government and municipal undertakings found difficulty in obtaining funds to continue public works, and in consequence had to discharge hundreds of men. A number of establishments closed altogether; others continued on curtailed time and staffs.

Montreal felt an immediate depressing tendency on the outbreak of the war. In Toronto the financial stringency caused by the war brought a more serious phase to the labor situation in that city than had ever before been encountered. All lines of industry were affected, and thousands of men and women paid off. The enlistment of several thousands of Canadians did not appreciably relieve the congestion in the labor market. The building trade was suddenly paralyzed owing to the inability of contractors to obtain advances from banks and loan companies. The same check to all manner of business enterprises and construction work was felt in Port Arthur, Fort William, Sault Ste. Marie, Winnipeg, Regina, Calgary, Edmonton, Prince Rupert, and Victoria. In all these cities the numbers of unemployed grew to extraordinary proportions. So, while military preparations were proceeding without pause, the Dominion, Provincial, and municipal authorities and business interests had to wrestle with the industrial situation. In due time distress was relieved, new enterprises were initiated, wholesale economies instituted, and vigorous efforts made to restore financial stability.

Canada looked suspiciously at the migratory Germans within her gates when the war broke out, but more assuringly at her settlers of German descent, who were not only domiciled but rooted on her soil. Of these Sir Wilfrid Laurier spoke thus in the Canadian House of Parliament: "They have shown more than once their devotion to British institutions, but they would not be men if they did not in their hearts have a deep feeling for the land of their ancestry. Nobody blames them for that. There is nothing, perhaps, so painful as a situation in which the mind and heart are driven in opposite directions. Let me tell my fellow countrymen of German origin that Great Britain has no antagonism to the German people. We respect and admire them, but in the struggle for constitutional liberty which has been universal in Europe the German people have not made the same advances as some other nations. I am sure they will agree with me that if the institutions of the land of their ancestors were as free as those of the land of their adoption, this cruel war would never have taken place."

This sentiment brought a ready echo from Berlin, Ontario, which at least showed that that German colony shared the common aspirations of the Dominion. In a cablegram sent to Lord Kitchener the citizens of this Ontario German settlement said:

"Berlin, Ontario, a city of 18,000, of which 12,000 are German or of German descent, proposes to raise $75,000 or more for the National (Canadian) Patriotic Fund. The German people want to see militarism in Germany smashed for good, and the people set free to shape a greater and better Germany."

Pro-German sentiment undoubtedly lurked in these German Canadian communities, but it was quiescent and therefore harmless. Hence anti-German sentiment, which became demonstrative and dangerous upon the declaration of war by Great Britain, did not direct its attention to the German settlements, but to the consulates. Those at Vancouver and Winnipeg were stoned by mobs, and the German and Austrian consuls were requested to leave the country. There was a fear of spies, and a number of unaffiliated Germans were arrested and interned.

Then the popular imagination became scared by the remote possibility of an invasion of Canada by German and Austrian Americans. A feeling of nervousness over the supposed danger was reported along the Canadian frontier, though the fears of the border communities were accounted as groundless. The Government was fully cognizant of conditions along the border and military activities kept at least 40,000 men either mobilized or under arms in various parts of the country, composed of 10,000 as guards for home defense and 30,000 in training for oversea service. The danger, fanciful or not, caused extra precautions to be taken against any invasion across the Niagara River. Guards were stationed at Fort Erie, directly opposite Buffalo, and the whole river front from there to Niagara Falls and Queenstown was patrolled day and night by between 500 and 600 members of the newly organized home guards—in automobiles or on motorcycles. The guard on the Welland Canal was doubled.

There had been occasional trouble with alien workmen at munition factories, some of which, incidentally, were hemmed in by three successive fences of barbed wire, outside of which marched armed sentries. A railroad bridge in the Northwest had been blown up. Later a sentry on guard at a lock in the Soulanges Canal, near Montreal, had been shot.

Then followed an attempt to blow up the international bridge between Maine and New Brunswick. Here were sporadic manifestations which called for the services of the new home guards to protect railroads and canals, not only to safeguard Canadian commerce, but because any destruction of canals and bridges might seriously hamper the work of forwarding supplies to England. Much of England's food passed through the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence, and the wreck of one lock by explosion during the navigation season would be a serious disaster. After navigation closed the means of forwarding supplies and troops became even more limited. The Intercolonial Railroad, which is owned by the Government, was the only line extending to the Atlantic seaboard without crossing American territory, and for that reason was the sole artery available for the transport of troops. The entire 700 miles of its main line therefore had to be patrolled.

When found, however, alien enemies were well treated in Canada. They were but little molested, and unless under actual suspicion were allowed comparative freedom, being only required to register and report at certain intervals. Detention camps were subsequently established for those suspected of plotting and spying and for those in want. Some Germans and Austrians succeeded in fleeing the country when the war broke out. A ticket agent at Montreal was tried for treason—an offense punishable by death—on a charge that he had assisted them to leave Canada. German and Austrian workmen who did not leave were not permitted to depart, even to the United States, lest they should find means of returning to their own countries to join their armies. Most of them were unemployed; and as alien enemies were not supposed to be provided for by charitable organizations, they were assembled in camps to protect them from starvation.

Germany's attitude toward Canada was indicated in a statement credited to Count von Bernstorff, the German ambassador in Washington, regarding the scope of the Monroe Doctrine. The curious contention was therein made that Canada, by sending troops to fight against Germany, had violated that doctrine. The alleged violation was not very clear, unless, from the German viewpoint, it consisted in giving Germany cause for attacking Canada, which would at once test the effectiveness of the Monroe Doctrine. But this, the statement said, Germany had no intention of doing, nor of attempting to colonize Canada after the war if she were victorious.

Canada refused to take seriously this promise of Germany not to annex her. Most of the Canadian press waxed sarcastic, and those who dealt seriously with the German statement seized upon it as an excuse to beat the recruiting drum for the British army, especially the implication that, because Canada had sided against Germany, there was nothing in the Monroe Doctrine to prevent her landing an armed force in Canada. "Possibly he" (Count von Bernstorff), commented the Montreal "Herald," "expects the United States will now go out of its way and tell him how cordially they would welcome such delightful neighbors on the Canadian side of 3,000 miles of unfortified territory."

The unexampled conditions created by the war with Canada, of which the foregoing is a survey—her activities, turmoil, welding of political cleavages, industrial sacrifices, benevolences, and needless precautions against unsubstantial dangers—merely featured her real achievement. This was the creation of an army in being for the European battle field.