men have been diverted from normal and beneficent, productive work in this country and have been set to the work of making munitions of war for the purposes of the destruction of life and property. In this destruction of life and property, the only redeeming thing which can be said about it is that they are defending the life and liberties of the Empire and fighting for the cause of human freedom and liberty. But from the economic point of view, my argument stands that this diversion has taken place. Something more has taken place in that time. Not only has there been this diversion and abstraction of productive labour, but there has been no compensating inflowing current of immigration. To a young country like our own, a country situated as Canada is, that is one great source of growth and advancing strength and prosperity. Outside of the natural increase, and coming from suitable sources, the strength and prosperity of the country are enhanced by an inflowing population, adults and others, which mingles itself with, and becomes co-operative in the production and development of the country. For these two years of, war a very small amount of that current has flowed in and Canada is bereft of the invigorating and progressive force and enterprise which are derived from such sources. But, in addition, capital and equipment and capital for the purposes of equipment have been diverted to and employed in the work of making munitions of war and therefore is not employed in normal productive industries. This is a factor which has also to be reckoned with. In addition, financial conditions will have been so changed that when peace comes we shall be met with a different situation as regards enterprise and industry from that which existed before the war. Money will be harder to get, interest will be higher, the cost of Government and of administration will be enhanced and all these are factors in the obtaining of capital and in the working out of enterprises for which capital is necessary.
Now, you 6ay that this labour, or a great deal with it, will return. Let us consider some factors in regard to this. Of these 500,000 adults who will have gone from our country some, unfortunately, will never return. That will foe human energy entirely lost to this country. Another considerable portion of those who return will be totally, or partially, disabled and will therefore be, in one way, a
burden which we will all love to bear, but yet an economic burden upon the country; or they will be reduced in point of worth and efficiency in the productive work of the country. The men who come back after two years of the life in the trenches, with all the strain, the nervous and physical shock, the endurances and privation of war, will be different from the men they were before they went to the war. Wil'l these men quickly settle down to normal operations? Will they be as effective as they were before? Any way there will be a period, more or less lengthened, during which there will be a process of adaptation and of change from the old- though it is only two years old-to the new and something like the normal conditions that preceded it.
Now, this is just a rough statement of the facts upon one side of the case. Are we thinking about this situation which faces us when the war stops? The moment the war stops the doors of every munition factory will be closed and the help that was gathered, and which worked therein, will have to find some other employment. When the munition factories stop, the thousand and one subsidiary operations which spread themselves through the length and breadth of the country, connected by more or less subtle threads with the dominant work of forming munitions of war, will also come to a standstill, and these two working together will bring about a period during which reversion to normal, adaptation to circumstances as they then exist, will eat up time, will confuse and disturb energy and will have its effect upon the economic condition and development of the country. These are the things that face us. , Whilst we are glad to see the munition works doing their part in supplying the Empire with that which is necessary, whilst we are glad to have the money which comes as a sequence to the employment, yet all this is not beneficent and productive work and when it stops-yes, before it stops-well before it stops-the people of this country should be putting on their thinking caps, sizing up the situation and getting ready for the inevitable and important change that is to come. The first duty of this House and of the people of the country is simply to face that situation, to get right down before it, face it, think it out and be prepared with plans and organization as to what shall be done when the time arrives. That is the first duty of us all. In the next place,
I
will you allow me, Mr. Speaker, to call your attention to another phase of the question, and that is: what are the practical things that can be done and to what extent are we doing these practical things?
And now I make an acknowledgment to the House: that is, that I feel the duty and necessity of saying a few words about my own department, the Department of Trade ahd Commerce. I have not projected that department nor myself before this House nor before the country; I have been very modest with reference to the work that was going on. I have come to the conclusion that I have been a little too modest and that maybe my department has not taken that place in the minds of hon. gentlemen to which it is rightly entitled. I do not speak in this way from any personal vanity, or any personal regret; but I would like the people of this country and ihe members of this House to know something of what we really have been doing; and I speak in order that my department may not only have their sympathy but also their active help and co-operation. So, I know, Mr. Speaker, you will pardon the allusion that I am about to make to my own department.
One of the things that I think we ought to do, and may well do, is to take stock of the situation in Canada as it will probably tie when peace comee. What is it in the Dominion of Canada that we shall consume, that we shall find necessary for our daily wants? To what extent can that be produced in Canada, and to what extent must we depend upon outside countries for these supplies? First-and I am not going to labour the point, for I wish to finish my remarks by six o'clock-I think that the thing we ought to do is to sit down and take stock of the resources and of the wants of the country. And with this idea-that, knowing what we require, and knowing how much is produced by ourselves at the present time, and for how much of it we have to depend upon foreign countries, we may, in a business way, set ourselves as Canadiaip to the solution of the problem of our wants. And I think the most accurate statistics that it is possible to have on that subject should be within the departments in Ottawa, and more especially within my own department, and should be there for the use of the House and of the business men of the country-information, comprehensive, accurate and fresh, as the foundation for the active work of dealing with this problem.
The next thing I think it is necessary
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for us to do, and which my department is trying to do, and I think is pretty effectively doing, is to find out in what fields outside of Canada goods that are made in Canada, and the products raised in Canada, may find sale and consumption. There .are business enterprises and aggregations of capital which may better busy themselves with the home market of Canada, and with that only. There are other aggregations of enterprise and capital which may better busy themselves entirely in providing for the foreign markets. And there are other aggregations of capital and enterprise that may most economically combine both, and, making a base of the home market, extend their trade to the supply of foreign countries and thus diminish the incidence of overhead and general expenses upon their total trade. So, my department, while I have had charge of it-and as it commenced before, and I hope will continue-is particularly occupied with that problem.
Through what media? In the first place, we have the medium of the Trade Commissioners whom we now have in every important district of the United Kingdom, in the overseas dominions, and in such foreign countries as it has seemed best, up to the present time, to enter. These trade commissioners are, I believe I can say without exaggeration, doing their business on the whole excellently well, and some of them deserve all the praise that can possibly be given them for the energy, the capacity, and the success with which they are carrying on their work. These trade commissioners are diligently engaged, from the first of January to the thirty-first of December in every year, gathering information in the districts to which they are accredited and the areas to which their work applies. They are gathering that information judiciously, and not simply sending in anything which would make a paragraph or a report. They send in weekly and monthly reports, and these reports are carefully edited and published in our bulletin, and in that form sent out weekly to now some 6,000 or 8,000 of selected business men in the different parts of Canada. It has been a source of great gratification to me to receive the kind words and hearty endorsation of business men in every part of Canada, testifying to the interest with which these bulletins are regarded as welcome, helpful and profitable visitors to their offices and their homes. But the trade commissioners are assisted, and the scope of the whole system is widened by the privilege which we have,
