Hon. W. L. MACKENZIE KING (Prime Minister) :

My right hon. friend (Mr. Meighen) asked me to lay on the table of the House correspondence between the

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late Government and the Government of Australia with respect to reciprocal trade relations between Australia and Canada. I have gathered together such papers as I am able to find in the Department, but the file does not appear to be complete, and I have asked that further search be made for other papers. Those that I am now bringing down are the only papers that thus far have come to my notice.

Right Hon. ARTHUR MEIGHEN (Leader of the Opposition):

I mentioned as well correspondence between members of the late Government and myself. I refer particularly to correspondence that passed between the Acting Prime Minister and myself while I was at the Imperial Conference.

Mr. MACKENZIE KING:

That is the correspondence which I have just brought down.

Mr. E. J. McMURRAY (North Winnipeg) moved:

That an address be presented to His Excellency the Governor General, offering the humble thanks of this House to His Excellency for the gracious speech which he has been pleased to make to both Houses of Parliament.

He said: Mr. Speaker, it is customary, and courtesy requires, that as mover of this Address I should express the appreciation of my constituents and myself for the high honour that has been done to them and to me. This constituency of North Winnipeg which I represent is one of the most cosmopolitan in Canada by reason of the varied ethnic elements of its population, many of them people from Central Europe, who, as new Canadians, I am pleased to say, Sir, are rapidly acquiring the manners, characteristics and habits of old Canadians; and because of their racial origin they appreciate very much the honour that has been paid to them by having their representative move the Address in reply to the Speech from the Throne.

It is a pleasure, Mr. Speaker, to congratulate you, and to congratulate ourselves, upon your appointment as first

Commoner. Your wide experience as a parliamentarian, as a cabinet minister, and as a barrister will he of inestimable service to us as we deliberate in this assembly, and I trust, Sir, that you will be long spared to give us your advice and guidance.

The poet has said:

The old order ehangeth giving place to the new;

and we have in this House for the first time a lady member-the hon. member for Southeast Grey (Miss Macphail). I am sure that when I say we all appreciate her presence here my words find an echo in the hearts of all.

During the past year the term of Governor Generalship of the Duke of Devonshire, who and whose family in imany ways have been connected with Canadian life, terminated. Baron Byng of Vimy, a man who as commander of our gallant divisions in the war had won a high place in the hearts of the Canadian people, has succeeded to that office. I am sure, Sir, that it will be filled by him with satisfaction to us, and I trust that his tenure of office will he pleasureable to himself and to his family.

This new Parliament, the first expression of the will of the Canadian people after the war, meets under unusual circumstances. Both at home and abroad conditions are abnormal. Four years of war have rendered Europe not the Europe of old. International trade had drawn us close together, the world had grown smaller. Any serious disturbance of trade or of affairs in Europe must affect every nation, and we in that regard have been affected with the rest. Those circumstances and conditions we cannot control. But throughout the whole of her history Europe has survived tremendous catastrophes; there is in European civilization an inherent strength, a capacity to reestablish itself. Already the situation is clarifying; already the stars are beginning to to shine in Europe's dark night. The Washington Conference on the Limitation of ,Armaments, which has just closed, is, let us hope, the morning star that ushers in the dawn of a day of international harmony and concord. The reference to that Conference in the Speech from the Throne is a matter of satisfaction. I was particularly struck with the intimation that the treaties there arranged are to be submitted to the consideration of this House; it is a vindication of the assertion that has been made by Mr. Lloyd

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George, by Mr. Smuts, and by Mr. Hughes, that we are a nation in every sense of the term.

We have domestic problems, the outcome of which we can more or less control; the exterior problem we cannot so much control. We have a stupendous financial burden, the greatest in the history of this country, involving an indebtedness which can only be carried by large annual outlays. We have also a very difficult railway problem. Our state-owned railroad system, one of the largest in the world, is being operated at an annual deficit of many millions. The rates are so high to-day as to thwart and stifle industry and to defeat the very object for which they ' were established. This railroad system- a portion of it-has been actually wished upon us; like a starved and emaciated foundling it has been left at the door of the Dominion and the Dominion must perforce take it in and, we hope, rear it and develop it to strong and healthy maturity. Private ownership as applied to much of this road, Sir, has proved to be a failure. Private ownership has laid the burden and asked that we take it up and carry it. That being the case, state ownership should be given a chance. Not for a year or two, but for a reasonable length of time, having regard to prevailing conditions, to the vastness of the project and to the failure of private ownership, state ownership should be given a reasonable opportunity to demonstrate its capacity to deal with this tremendous problem.

Those who have travelled over the state-owned road from Quebec to Edmonton must have been struck with the fact that no railway line on the American continent runs through a better, a more productive, a greater freight-yielding country. In Northern Ontario and Northern Quebec there are probably twenty million acres of fertile land, capable of producing our ordinary cereals, land which will some day be very thickly settled. It is estimated that between Edmonton and Winnipeg, within a distance of ten or twelve miles on each side of the road, there are some ten million acres of unoccupied lands; from Edmonton out to the Coast the line runs through a more or less productive region. It is said, Sir, that comparisons are odious, but one cannot help remarking, merely for the sake of illustration, that the Canadian Pacific Railroad does not run through any section of country so productive as that traversed by the old Grand Trunk Pacific and the Transcontinental.

There is a small strip of rocky land along the line of the state-owned road between the Quebec border and Edmonton, covering a distance of some three hundred miles, but even that area is more or less heavily mineralized. It is a matter of great satisfaction that in the Speech from the Throne it is stated that there will be a co-ordination of the various railroad systems making up the National Railways which will ensure better management and bring about economy in operation.

Closely connected with these two great problems, the national indebtedness and the national railroads, is the question of conditions pertaining to agriculture. Agriculture is the basic industry of Canada; in it we Canadians, speaking from the financial point of view, live and move and have our being. During the war agriculture was a paying industry, but following the termination of the war prices have fallen or have become unstabilized, through the costs of operation-of farm machinery and of labour-continue high. That has been the condition of agriculture throughout Canada. Moreover, a high tariff wall has been raised against us in the United States in the form of the Fordney Bill. In adition to that, the crops of the West last year suffered from heavy rains and there was a consequent lowering in the quality of the grain produced and in the price obtained. Agriculture in Canada to-day, therefore, is becoming an unprofitable occupation.

It was with pleasure that I heard in the Speech from the Throne, Sir, that the policy of the Liberal party of the past and as set down in their election platform was to be brought into effect as far as possible during this session, in a consideration of the tariff and a reduction as far as possible of the duties on certain commodities. The tariff operates, Sir, as a rule to the advantage of the few and to the disadvantage of the many, and the deductions to be made will be in the interests of the producer as well as of the great body of the consumers. These reductions can be made without violence, without dislocation of industry; they will be in the interests of the country as a whole.

While on the subject of agriculture, to those of us who came from Western Canada, which, after all, commands a very high place in our agricultural production, it was particularly gratifying to hear that the natural resources of the three western provinces were to be dealt with and some form of settlement effected, if possible. We of

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the West, and particularly Manitoba, have long awaited such a step. We want only what is fair and reasonable, we want only what we believe is constitutionally ours; and I repeat, it was a great pleasure to me as a westerner to hear in the Speech from the Throne, the first time, I believe, any such intimation has been given in that way, that a settlement of this long outstanding question was under negotiation.

Undoubtedly, it is an evidence of the goodwill of the Government and of the people of the East towards the people of the West. In this connection I cannot help making reference to the gracious act that has been accorded to the West by the province of Quebec in providing a constituency and a seat for the Honourable the Minister of the Interior (Hon. Mr. Stewart). That gracious act was indicative, I believe, of the goodwill of the people of the East towards the people of the West, of the French-speaking people towards their English-speaking compatriots.

The Speech from the Throne in its opening paragraphs contained a reference to unemployment, and intimated that the Government would continue, at least for the present year, measures of relief in that connection. Unemployment is a painful thing. It is with us very largely because of the dislocation of business caused by the war. Many returned men and many skilled artisans are idle, and it was therefore very gratifying to learn in the Speech from the Throne that there has been an appreciation of that condition.

Then there is the question of the returned soldier. Some arrangement must be made in that regard. We cannot do greater honour to the soldier, the living or the dead, than to provide for his dependents, and for those who have been disabled. We cannot do too much, within reason, in that regard.

These problems that we have to face are tremendous; they cannot be minimized. They are problems worthy of the calibre of the Canadian people. Our problems are great, but compared with the lot of other people we, in this country, are comparatively fortunate. Canada can be compared to a young athlete who has been stunned in a struggle, only to rise stronger to continue the battle to ultimate victory, like the fabled wrestler of old who when he touched his mother earth only rose the stronger. Time and tide are with Canada. Time runs in Canada's favour. The recuperative powers of a country are a combination of its resources and its people,

TMr. McMurray.]

and the history of Canada has proven us to be an intelligent, industrious, and resourceful people. Our resources are very great, in fact, almost illimitable when compared with most other countries. We have a vast extent of fertile land, some three hundred million acres, of which but one-sixth, or some fifty million acres, is under cultivation. We can produce food in as great a variety as the German Empire, and yet the German Empire, by reason of its food supply, was capable of defying the world in arms for a period of years. The German Empire is a mere pigmy compared with Canada in the area of its fertile food-producing land. We have vast forests, some five hundred thousand square miles, two hundred thousand square miles of which is saw timber. And yet with these vast forests we actually have Germany to-day, with its forests planted on the sand dunes, competing against us in the American markets in the pulp industry. Great as is our fertile land in Canada, it constitutes but about fifteen per cent of the total area of the country.

We have also over two million square miles of mineral lands. The mineral lands of Canada are unusual and different from those found almost anywhere else. As a rule, in the matter of minerals, Mother Nature has hidden her jewels well, but we have that great pre-Cambrian range extending down from the north and crossing into Minnesota and Michigan. We have merely touched the fringe of its wealth. Yet we have the Cobalt and the nickel mines of Sudbury-the Hollinger gold mine-the Flin Flon, with its twenty million toms of copper -we have that great iron range extending down into Minnesota-we are on the edge of the great copper ledges of Michigan. Great as are our agricultural resources, high as Canada stands in the agricultural world to-day, some day in the future she may stand still higher as a mineral-producing nation.

We have in our oceans and inland waters vast resources in fish. In water powers we stand second in the world. Undoubtedly, in the very near future water power will take the place of coal in our homes and in our industries; it will operate the transcontinental trains.

In addition to all these resources pur railways are built, the trunk lines at least; we have built our canals. The stage is all set. What do we lack? Canada lacks but two things. We are short in man power, and short in capital. Is there a solution to the

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great problems that we have to face? What must we do to be saved financially? There is only one way in which wealth can be produced and that is by the application of labour to the natural resources direct or indirect. We must deal with our great resources as an individual would deal with his. We must assist in permitting the free development of these resources, and we can assist by providing markets. As Robert Ingersoll so beautifully said, "And prosperity, when it comes must come over the golden grain fields, past the flaming forges and the whirring wheels, greeted and grasped by the countless sons of toil."

For the building up of our country, for the development of its resources, and ir. order that we may be prosperous and rich individually, we must bring to our country wealth-creating labour and capital. And I believe, Sir, that the time was never more suitable than at present- owing to the dislocated conditions of affairs in Europe consequent on the termination of the great world war-for the bringing to Canada the very cream of Europe's wealth-producing people. The same would hold, Sir, in connection with attracting settlers from the United States. The stage is all set for the resumption of our development from the point where it was temporarily stayed. Where should we have been, Mr. Speaker, had the trade arrangements that had been established, the wider markets that had been secured, been permitted to continue? Had war not intervened, with these resources where would we have been to-day? Who can tell? As I have already said, the stage is set, Sir. We have no creed problems and no racial problems in Canada such as they have in Europe. We have all the conditions necessary to enable us to forge ahead.

It is true, Sir, that we cannot offer people free homesteads such as have existed in the past, but we can offer them cheap lands- lands close to railroads, lands with all the conveniences of good roads, schools, and every other advantage attendant upon them. It was by a system of immigration that the United States grew up to be the great nation that she is to-day, the paragon of the world so far as wealth and increased population is concerned. And in past years wealth was produced with great rapidity in Canada. So able an observer as the late Viscount Bryce marvelled at the rapid creation of wealth in this country.

It is very interesting-and I will not detain the House long in this connection- to consider the growth of wealth in Canada under an active immigration policy. In

the year 1896 there were five millions of people in this country, in 1911 there were seven millions, an increase of forty per cent. In 1896 the exports and imports of Canada amounted to $223,000,000, and in 1911 the figures had increased to $798,000,000, or over 300 per cent. In 1900 the mineral products of Canada amounted to $47,000,000; in 1910 they had increased to $122,000,000, or a gain of 250 per cent in ten years. In 1900 the capital invested in manufactures in Canada was $446,000,000; ten years later the amount had increased to $1,247,000,000, or a gain of 275 per cent. The value of the manufactured products in 1900 was $481,000,000, whereas in 1910 that value had increased to $1,165,000,000 or 250 per cent. Those products in the last ten years, or in 1920, have more than doubled, and to-day amount to some three billions. In the growth of agriculture there has been the same marked increased. In 1900 there were some 16,000,000 acres of land under cultivation in Canada. In 1910 that area had increased to 30,000,000, a gain of 14,000,-000-the area of cultivation practically doubled. In 1900 there were 338,000,000 bushels of grain produced, and in 1910 the figures had increased to 583,000,000, an increase of 250,000,000 bushels. In 1911, the number of horses, cattle, and swine had increased by one million each. In cultivated lands from 1910 to 1921, despite the war, there was an increase from 32,000,000 acres to 52,000,000 acres, a gain of 20,000,000 acres.

Now, Sir, to meet this situation what must we do? We must bring immigrants to Canada to fill the vacant spaces of the West and help develop the country's great resources. The call is for men, men, and yet more men. We must attract capital to Canada; we must provide conditions under which capital will come to this country and be safe in its investment here.

I was glad, Sir, to note in the Speech from the Throne that already steps had been taken by the Government to make provisions for obtaining wider markets. These markets must be found. We must consider the Orient, we must consider Mexico. Coupled with these measures we must bring science to our aid. We must prevent national waste, such as the terrible destruction of our forests by fire. By national thrift and saving-the replenishment of our seas, the refertilization of our. fields, the replanting of our forest, by planting a tree wherever we cut one down -our future will be eventually assured.

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But, Sir, we have another and greater work to perform. We cannot be great and rich, we cannot develop our resources, unless peace and concord dwell within our borders. National duty must never permit class selfishness to usurp its functions. We must build up in this country a democracy sound, and sane, and loyal to the core to Canada. We must have the fullest scope of liberty within our borders. Where liberty dwells license will not exist; license only follows upon the heels of tyranny. Sir, during the last few years democratic principles have had a rough time of it in our country. Perhaps we must make allowance for the consequences of war, and if we do probably some justification may be found for the curtailment of free institutions and the loss of a certain amount of liberty. But at the termination of war that restraint should have been lifted and we should have reverted at once to our old institutions. The condemnation of the ' late Government by the people of Canada at the last election, so decisive, so absolutely overwhelming, was the united protest-the united and indignant protest- of the people against political autocracy. The people, Sir, could not and would not forget government by Order in Council and specially constructed Election Acts. The status of the Canadian, Sir, as a citizen, in the last few years had sunk very low. May that time never come again. Under the new regime these conditions never will again obtain. Liberalism is associated absolutely with personal liberty. On personal liberty the British Empire was built. And, Sir, while it was not contained in the Speech from the Throne, I would like to see the last Act enacted by the late Parliament, the Election Act, which deprived a large portion of the electors of this country, particularly in my own constituency, from participating in the inalienable right of selecting and electing a Government-I would like to see that Act repealed and disappear from our statute books. As long as it continues in force it is an insult to these people, a degredation to ourselves, and a blot upon our statutes.

When we read the history of Europe and reflect upon its past wars and catastrophies, when we contemplate Europe to-day, with the decimation of its population by wars and famines, when we think of the tragic sltory of Ireland within our own Empire, with all its tale of sadness and of sorrow, and when we reflect that in this Canada of ours, two of the world's most virile races, high in courage and proud of lineage, but with a

difference: in speech and religion, with the true spirit of democracy, with mutual toleration and forbearance, for upwards of a hundred years have lived together side by side, and developed the free institutions which we enjoy to-day; when we realize that these wars of Europe have largely been the result of race creed and race difference, Sir, the concord prevailing in Canada must be cause of great satisfaction to us. The same spirit that existed between the French and the English in this country we must exercise towards the new Canadian who is with us in many thousands in the West today, who will come to us more and more as time progresses. It was no statesman's hand that spread the weed seeds of dissension to the detriment and injury of his country.

We have occupational troubles in Canada, as other nations of the world have bad, and as other members of the British Empire are experiencing. There are troubles between labour and capital in this country, and they must be dealt with. There must be a spirit of toleration, a spirit of reasonableness. With this, and under the guidance of the eminent gentleman, the Prime Minister of this country (Mr. Mackenzie King), with his deep theoretical knowledge and wide practical experience, and of the Minister of Labour (Mr. Murdock), these problems should be easily and readily solved. There has grown up in this country, or is said to have grown up, a spirit of antagonism between the agricultural interest and the manufacturing interest. These interests are undoubtedly dependent one upon another. We must approach them in the same spirit that has worked out so successfully between our Freneh-Canadian people and our English-speaking people. We must not deviate from the path of reasonableness and fairness in dealing with these questions, and must cast aside everything which is not in the common interest of our country. In a spirit of toleration we must deal with the great problems placed in our hands.We want Canadian people, in the words of Kipling, to realize that "there is no East, no West, border nor breed nor birth." And I recall the very appropriate words of one who in the years gone by sat in this House as a minister, who said, in the words of poetry:

What matter if at different shrines we kneel unto one God,

What matter if at different times our fathers won the sod,

One in name, one in fame,

-the Canadian should ever be.

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The question of tariff is a very important one. I notice in the Speech from the Throne a reference to the postal conference to be held between Canada and the United States. That indicates a friendly spirit. The Fordney Bill is not framed specially against Canada, and I understand there are possibilities of some trade arrangements being made with them.

I note also the co-ordination of all the branches of defence under one head. That is indicative undoubtedly of a period of economy in the administration of affairs, and I close with the golden words of one, ever respected by political friend and foe, a truly great Canadian, who left 'hits mark forever upon this country, words uttered a short time before his death to the young Liberals of London, Ontario. I refer to the gifted leader of the Liberal party. He said to these young men-

After a long life I shall remind you that already many problems rise before you, problems of race division, problems of creed differences, problems of economic conflict, problems of national duty and national aspiration. Let me tell you that for the solution of these problems you have the safe guide and unfailing light if you remember that faith is better than doubt and love than hate. So live, so strive, so serve to do your part, to raise ever higher the standard of life you live in.

I have the honour, Sir, to move the Ad-'reply to the Speech from the

*brume.

Mr. PAUL MERCIER (Westmount-St. Henri) (Translation):

Mr. Speaker: The opening of the fourteenth Parliament of Canada took place with the prescribed state ceremonies and amidst the concourse of the people mingling their voices in praise to God and our Sovereign King George V.

I highly appreciate the honour conferred by the Prime Minister in calling upon me to second the motion to the Address in answer to the Speech from the Throne. This honour reflects highly upon the electors of the division of Westmount-St. Henri.

Rest assured, Mr. Speaker, that in rising amongst this distinguished assembly of the nation, I realize fully all the responsibilities which, at this moment, devolve upon me. Once my task is fulfilled my one regret will he that of not having been equal to the mission so kindly entrusted to me. I therefore beg my fellow members to be indulgent and rather attribute to my lack of parliamentary experience the deficiencies of my debut in this House.

To second in my mother tongue the motion for the Address is to seize upon a

pleasing occasion to pay homage to my Sovereign, my country, my province and my race; it is at the same time to perform a duty towards our ancestors for the heritage which we have inherited in the form of the British North America Act; it affords the thankful son an occasion to remember his native province; it moreover testifies to the return to our best traditions; it is to trace our constitutional liberties back to their origin; finally, Mr. Speaker, it is to sanction anew the official use of the French language in the debate on the Address and in the administration of the affairs of the country. General elections took place on the 6th of December last. The Meighen Government and its followers had not the satisfaction of seeing their deeds and their political programme endorsed by the people. On the contrary the Canadian people placed their trust in the Liberals, made them their authorized mandatories under the direction of a Liberal ministry, having as its leader the young and brilliant successor to Laurier, the hon. William Lyon Mackenzie King. The country welcomed the new ministry composed of distinguished statesmen, and in the true spirit of our constitution, all responsible to the people. Just as in 1896, when the Laurier ministry assumed power, the Canadian people look forward with confidence to the future, trusting in the guiding light of those who henceforth designated to safeguard our Cana-dlian traditions, direct the destinies of the country.

Within these parliamentary walls raised with such splendour from their ashes, Mr. Speaker, I feel throbbing in the elite that surround me, symbolising the nine provinces of Confederation, as it were, the anxious soul of the country. Canada is suffering from the consequence of the world-wide crisis; an epoch of heavy responsibility is its lot. Its revenues are no longer adequate to meet the national debt and to enable the federal administration to carry on. The country is anxious and suffering through unemployment; the wheels of industry are running slow. Our citizens bear up with sacrifices, proving by their quiet and dignified attitude that the solidarity in misfortunes must one day or another, earn them a better fate. As a representative of the people, I shared the intimate thoughts of my electors and with them I was most desirious to hear from the Governor General's lips, in the Speech from the Throne a message of good wishes and also the Government's pro-

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termittent periods of unemployment, he has been magnanimous in his conduct. He never had the intention, as was so justly remarked the other day by one of their leaders on a delegation to Ottawa, to belittle any government, but on the contrary to co-operate to the best of his ability in the country's interest. However, in return he expects a legitimate and effective protection from the Government, a legislation which will give him hope of more favourable conditions of employment and compensation. It is with pleasure that I see that this question is under consideration and will be solved by the department to the advantage of all interested.

Justly does the Canadian workman hope, for the present Liberal Administration was born from the popular vote, and knowing its responsibilities, of an incomparable importance in our political history, it will strive for unity, right and justice.

Representing in this House an electoral division for the greater part made up of workmen, and knowing these good people, having witnessed the throbbing of their generous heart under their working blouse, I can vouch that the workman of my county, like others, understands that he has to work with the ultimate end of the greatest possible production in order to establish abundance and competition of products in the world's market. In so doing, he will have been a help to his Government, he will become the recognized artisan of the falling cost of living already but too high, the comforter of human misery.

And we on this side of the House, witnessing such a noble act on the part of the working class, shall continue to believe in the just administrative principles bequeathed by Laurier and which our party has always extolled in its programme and which the people accepted at the last general election, that is: that the individual of whatever art or trade, commerce or profession he may be, is indispensable on this earth; that classes must exist, help one another, love and respect each other in order to re-establish peace in this world and thereby assure the success and the welfare of humanity. This is, Mr. Speaker, the true doctrine; no other exists, to follow or to invent in order to make a people happy.

I admire the reference in the Speech from the Throne, which draws our attention to the fact that in the hard times we are experiencing a wise economy must be sought by all the federal departments if

we wish that Canada, burdened with heavy debts by the different administrations that have followed one another since the year 1911, meet her obligations. Official figures speak more plainly than words and sarcasm. On January the 31st, 1922, our debt amounted to more than two billions of dollars. Our current revenue on January the 31st, 1922, amounted to $318,489,889.74. The expenses incurred by the late government for the fiscal year ending on March 31st, 1921, required the enormous sum of $361,118,145.21. We must conclude, taking into account these figures, that the financial position of Canada must be judiciously looked into if we wish to maintain our national credit. It is absolutely necessary to make the best possible use of our revenue; to see that such an important problem as the railways be solved not in the interest of individuals, but in the interest of the whole country: to reduce the expenditure of the various departments to the minimum of their needs; to reclassify the Civil Service, if need be, in order to secure in every case the greatest efficiency and also that every civil servant may prove his actual usefulness by his daily labour. This economy which we are now preaching with a view to restoring our national credit, will show to the citizens of Canada that the hon. Prime Minister and his colleagues are conscious of their responsibility. No doubt, during this much confused period, they may rely on every member of this House who sincerely wishes for the prosperity of this Dominion.

Before I resume my seat, as I cast my eyes upon this 'House, I realize better now than I did at the beginning of my remarks, that it is composed of three parties. The division of the old Canadian political system into two great parties, Liberals and Conservatives, seems to have disappeared, at least for the present. The Conservative party died away, even in time of victory, and like an autumn leaf, was carried away by the passing breeze of Unionism. Since 1911, the Liberal party alone remained in existence. It remained the party of the people, of the humble and of the mighty, of the poor as well as that of the rich; untouched by the conflict of opinions which has destroyed everything else, it will live to promote the actual interests of the country.

There is a third party, named the Progressive party. At its head and in its ranks there are experienced men who are filled with the best public spirit.

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The people of Canada, however, have looked at those political changes with some apprehension, but always confident in the destinies of the Liberal party and in the King Administration they look forth to the days of resurrection.

Right Hon. ARTHUR MEIGHEN (Leader of the Opposition) :

Mr. Speaker, I am able, with, I believe, more than even the usual sincerity, without reservation, insofar as their personalities are concerned, to congratulate the mover and the seconder of this motion. To come into this House for the first time and address his fellow-members is no easy matter for a young member of Parliament. I, of course, was able to follow more closely the hon. member for North Winnipeg (Mr. McMurray) than the hon. member for Westmount-St. Henri (Mr. Mercier) who seconded the motion. With the sentiments expressed by the hon. member for North Winnipeg, I find myself in concurrence to a greater degree than I had expected prior to his rising and, I think I may add, to a greater degree than he expects even now. I am not able to share all his hopes as to what is to be the fruitage to come from this Speech from the Throne. Indeed, I may venture to predict that before the session is over he will find himself a great deal nearer the depths of distrust and despair in which I am now than the high level on which he has commenced. He has, however, acquitted himself creditably to his constituency and creditably to the province which he alone represents on that side of the House.

The hon. member for Westmount-St. Henri has come to this Parliament preceded by a reputation which does him honour. Though I was not able to follow his utterance with that degree of certainty that would enable me to refer to it particularly prior to translation, I am sure he has vindicated his reputation as a public speaker at least in point of clearness of enunciation, in point of natural decisiveness and graciousness of speech. Those ef us who have spent many years, many of us the best of our years, in public and parliamentary life, gladly welcome new talent amongst us. There is room in the politics of Canada, there is room in the work of this House, for the best and most promising of our young men, and the welcome that I hope I may be permitted to extend to the mover and the seconder of this Address goes with equal sincerity to all who come among us on all sides of this

assembly; and possibly I may add that it goes as well to many good friends, although my opponents politically, who, after severance from public life, are back with us again.

I add especially a word of welcome to the first lady member of the House of Commons. The last Parliament, by a very large majority, almost by a unanimous decision, conferred the franchise on women, and conferred upon them as well the privilege of candidature for the Commons of Canada. To be the recipient of the first expression of confidence by a constituency is an historic honour, and I know I express the feelings of all, when I put into words the hope that she will vindicate the confidence that the last Parliament has reposed in her sex, do credit to herself and to the constituency that she represents.

This House meets under a new Government and under a new Prime Minister. The Prime Minister who leads this assembly now has come to his high office at an early age. He has had considerable association with public life in a conspicuous way. Notwithstanding the feelings many of us have of opposition, of, indeed, antipathy, to the methods indulged in by himself and his followers, by which their so-called success was achieved, we all, as Canadians, wish him long service in the life of this country. We shall give him fair play in the work of this House; we shall do our part to contribute to the success of this Parliament; and I, for one, wish him personal success. Before I sit down, I shall have something to say in explanation of the words I have uttered as to the character of the campaign that preceded the last contest. I do not do so in any spirit of resentment to the people of this country; I do not do so at all out of any personal regret I may feel at not holding high office still; indeed, I speak in all sincerity when I say that it is well that young and, indeed, sometimes untried figures come to responsibility in our public life. Alternation of party control is good-those of us who know what the burden has been during the past ten years will understand what I mean. I do not think the years ahead will be so strenuous; I hope they will not; but aside from all questions of public policy, it is well that those who are fresher to the task and who perhaps bring new points of view should assume from time to time, the responsibilities of administration.

There has been comment in the speech of the mover of the motion, and there is

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reference in the Speech from the Throne itself, to the conference that has just been concluded at Washington. I am sur.e the words of the Speech in that regard and the words of the mover of the motion as well find unanimous and hearty echo from us all. The purpose of that conference is not misunderstood by those who have read the press. I was anxious-and I think I succeeded in my desire-not to impart into the late party contest any questions of external policy of this country, any question as to the conduct of our affairs in relation either to the Empire or to the outside world. It is, however, only fair to say that in the bringing about of that conference this country took its part as other countries did, and in the earnest hope that something real, something practical, has been effected in the alleviation of the woes and miseries from which the world has suffered and suffers to-day in the lifting of the clouds that are before the world to-day, Canada's anxiety, Canada's earnestness takes second place to that of no other country in the world. That the Conference has had practical results should be a matter of congratulation; that there have been practical results I have no doubt at all. I am sorry that the purpose of the conference, that Canada's participation therein, should have been a subject of misconception even in the last election contest in Canada; but it is well in that respect to let bygones be bygones, and I make no further reference thereto.

The first paragraph in the Speech from the Throne makes comment on the present condition, commercially and industrially, of this Dominion. All of us were glad to see that paragraph inserted, and I think we understand the significance intended thereby. It is as follows:

Our Dominion has not escaped the world-wide economic disturbance and industrial depression, hut has suffered less from it than other countries. Keen observers of the business barometer feel that the worst is about over and that at an early date we may look for a substantial revival of activity.

Those words are true. I find no mention in the Speech from the Throne of a very outstanding fact that might, I think, have appropriately been referred to-namely, what has been disclosed as regards our population in the recent census returns. It is true that those returns are not to the last fraction of percentage complete, but they are substantially complete, and what is known of them is a matter for congratulation on the part of all our people. Our population has increased from

less than seven and a quarter millions to well over eight and three-quarter millions. In a speech which I read in the press recently, delivered by the chief statistician of the Dominion in the city of London, he called attention to the fact that the rate of increase has in these ten years been the fastest of that of any English-speaking country in the world, inclusive of all the British Dominions and the United States. We have passed the 21 '5 per cent rate-that is the highest rate. In that speech emphasis is laid on the fact that this increase has been achieved against the handicap of the war. And Mr. Coates says that Canada would have passed the nine million mark but for the losses in men and women and in the birth rate due directly to the war. The fact, however, that we have surpassed the record of the world in this regard, at a time when the greatest difficulty was encountered in doing so, and when some of the other great countries of the world outside the Englishspeaking countries sustained a loss in population, is a matter for pronounced congratulation.

This increase in our prosperity, as evidenced by our increase in population, has been accompanied by an expansion of our trade unprecedented in our history. Our trade has expanded to proportions undreamt of ten years ago. In making that statement I have reference not to the inflated figures that obtained during the war, but to the 1921 figures obtained during the very depths of the post-war deflation. Comparing those figures with the figures for the ten years preceding 1911, our exports have multiplied almost three times over in that decade, as opposed to the increase of less than twice in the fifteen years that went before. Therefore there was a very considerable basis of fact for the assertion in the Speech from the Throne that this Dominion, which took a place of honour and of great value in the most terrible conflict the world has ever known; this Dominion that performed the stupendous task of placing on another continent five hundred thousand of her sons; this Dominion that took upon her back a debt of over $2,000,000,000 for the sole purpose of prosecuting to victory a war for human freedom-this Dominion finds itself to-day, as acknowledged in this Speech, in the best position of any country in the world. And I am disposed to believe that when the Speech from the Throne enters into the realm of prediction it does not go

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too far. It states that to keen observers of the business barometer the worst is over, that the year 1921-which I have just compared with the year 1911-was the year of greatest deflation, the year of heaviest reaction. That prediction placed alongside the assertion of fact as to our present condition, should bring comfort and cheer to us all.

I wonder if hon. gentlemen opposite would recognize any comparison between this very frank acknowledgment in the Speech from the Throne and some of their literature and speeches in the late campaign. Was it a picture of confidence that they drew? Was it a comparison favourable to Canada that they made with other countries of the world? It was not. I have before me some of the speeches made and pamphlets issued by the hon. Minister of Justice (Sir Lomer* Gouin). I understood that until he reached this House he was in a state of exceeding doubt, not to say irremovable despair, at the awful position into which this country had fallen. He was associated in those feelings with the present hon. member for St. Antoine (Mr. Mitchell), who felt that the condition of the country was so desperate that he should resign his post in the government of his Province and devote his capacities to the rehabilitation of the Dominion financially and commercially. I have before me* some utterances of both these hon. gentlemen. In a manifesto, issued at, I fear considerable expense, and appearing among other publications, in The Montreal Standard of the 5th November last, the following is given as a description of our plight-I would like it placed alongside of the paragraph that I have just quoted from the Speech from the Throne.

"Our country," said Mr. Mitchell, now hon. member for St. Antoine, "is passing through a crisis."

After passing through four years of war and sacrifice which did it credit, Canada to-day is reeling under a burden which would crush many nations less courageous than ours. With a war debt unparalleled in the history of this land or any other with a population the size of ours;-

This land that is now acknowledged to be the best of any in its relative position in the world.

-with a gaping wound in the body politic which only the best physicians gathered together in counsel can heal;-

And which I assume, this Speech from the Throne is designed to heal even in this present session.

-with a railway deficit whicli would rock to its very foundation; with a meichant marine, the national credit of any land with a population

of nine millions; with a national revenue'which is declining day by day while our burdens and liabilities increase, Canada to-day is looking in this direction and in that direction to find a way to meet the terrible storms that are ahead.

And they have found it.

Mr. MEIGHEN:

They have found the way, and the way is designated in this Speech from the Throne, which, as hon. members will see in a few minutes, promises to do in every regard just what they found the late government doing, and insofar as it does not promise to do what they found the late government doing, promises to think about the subject. The manifesto continues:

With these huge undertakings, either one of which alone is sufficient to cripple Canada, this Dominion is sick commercially and weakened financially.

I will refer to other portions of this address when I come to other subjects treated of in the Speech from the Throne.

The hon. member who is now the Minister of Justice (Sir Lomer Gouin) speaking in his province also in the course of the campaign, gave utterance to sentiments that painted an equally doleful picture. He seems to have declared even that our population was diminishing. I see he gives mute indication of dissent, but I have the declaration attributed to him before me now. He stated as well that trade was falling; that unemployment was rampant; that bankruptcy was at hand; and that, indeed, we were going to fall into the hands of the United States unless the people arose to a sense of the appalling condition they were in,-in other words, unless they elected him and his party to power. On the 3rd of December he is thus reported in Le Soleil:

Sir Lomer Gouin received an ovation when he entered the hall. He warned the electors against the stratagem of the Conservatives-

Hear, hear.

Mr. MEIGHEN:

I paused there purposely in order that the opportunity for applause might come. I will wait now for the applause that will finish the sentence:

-the stratagem of the Conservatives, who, once elected, will take away from us our railway shops and managements, thus depriving at least 50,000 of our workingmen who would be compelled to exile themselves.

In which the hon. member, now the Minister of Justice, deliberately associated himself with the most disreputable political roorback that ever disgraced the politics of any country.

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Again, in a speech at Three Rivers on 21st November, the Minister of Justice said:

In case the Meighen or Crerar Government be adopted-

My hon. friend from Marquette (Mr. Crerar) is in the same boat as myself.

In case the Meighen or Crerar Government be adopted, farm land will be taxed, as well as urban and rural dwellings and the house of the rich as that of the poor. If we maintain the Meighen Administration, not only will your lands be taxed but you will never be so close to that annexation, which will soon be a reality in this country, if Meighen is elected.

Hear, hear.

Mr. MEIGHEN:

And hon. gentlemen

say "hear, hear."

Already, so to speak, he said, our country is palsied, and halted immobilized in its expansion.

This country which, let me repeat, is acknowledged in the Speech from the Throne to be in the soundest position of any affected by the war.

It makes no more progress; its population decreases while its indebtedness increases to a huge extent; its trade diminishes every month; uncertainty and uneasiness obtain everywhere, according to the own admission of the Prime Minister, and minds heretofore optimistic foresee only bankruptcy and annexation. The people are giving way under the burden of taxation, and in spite of that, deficits accumulate. Dulness is experienced in Government administration ; industry is standing pat; trade is stagnant, and on the approach of winter unemployment prevails throughout the country. How can we be charged with exaggeration when the highest financial authorities of the country are frightened?

I draw the attention of hon. gentlemen to my left to the quotation of the Ron. Minister of Justice of "the highest financial authorities" being frightened because of the course pursued by the late Administration.

Now, I need not make reference to utterances in the late campaign by which the entire anti-conscription feeling of any part of this country, but particularly of the province of Quebec, was turned against the late Administration. This from "Le Soleil," however, is typical:

The people's forces consist of all those who have wept when they saw their sons being hunted for the slaughter; of all those who were deceived by the false promises of ministers ; of all the heroes who were deluded by those who drove them to carnage.

That is worthy of memory, and I am sure it will be remembered and will be done justice to by the hon. member (Mr. Crerar) who leads the Progressive Party and who had part with us in the, not pleasant but necessady, tasks-and onerous tasks they

were-imposed upon us during the conduct of the war. I doubt if I could point to any hon. gentlemen opposite coming from that province-although I think I should exculpate the hon. Minister of Justice in this regard-who did not make use of that appeal; who did not point out as the chief sin of the late Government that, in a time when the country was rocking in the very worst convulsions, struggling through the very darkest nights of a terrible war, that Government sought to carry out the undoubted mandate of the people to impose compulsory and equal military service throughout the length and breadth of our land in order that the honour of the nation might be maintained, in order that the men who fought for us might be supported

in order, in a word, that we might do in the best way we could what we deemed to be our duty in the most awful crisis of the world's history.

Now I pass to other and to me-because I do not desire unnecessarily to harp on the past

more pleasant subjects, so far as discussion goes, enumerated in the Speech from the Throne. The Speech makes reference to the return to the western provinces of their natural resources, and in a somewhat boastful way refers to the fact that already a definite proposal has been made to the prime ministers of the western provinces for the return of those resources. The Government appears to feel that as a consequence a settlement of the question is at hand. On the same subject the hon. member for North Winnipeg (Mr. McMurray) too, is optimistic. He is hopeful that something will be done at once. It is stated in the Speech from the Throne that a proposal has been made to the several governments of Western Canada looking to the return of those resources. What the proposal is is not vouchsafed in this Speech. However, there has been given to the press, and to the public through the press, a full statement-I believe it is a full statement-of what the Government has proposed. That, I might remark, has been done notwithstanding the many protestations of the Prime Minister that Parliament always had to know Government policy ahead of the press and of the public. In the letter which has been given publication, the Prime Minister proposes to the three western provinces that the resources withheld from them when those provinces were established, or what remains of those resources, should now be transferred to them by federal statute, and that each of them should in return release any claims it may have to the

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extra indemnity which at the time of the original withholding of the resources was given to the provinces concerned. One would think by the emphasis and the advertisement given to this action on the part of the Administration that it was a new and wholly original thought.

The House, of course, is aware that for ten years that precise proposal has been before the western provinces. It was made ten years ago by the then Prime Minister, Sir Robert Borden. It was repeated afterwards, repeated by myself specifically in 1920, when I attained the premiership, in letters to the prime ministers of the western provinces. But from the first the proposal has been rejected; it was rejected in 1911, and every year since, and it stands rejected to-day. I do not know what value there is in making the proposal once more, nor do I quite understand the complacency evidenced by language which indicates that in making the proposal which in the past had been rejected, all eyes are turned to the future and to this "new method" of solution. It is true that that letter goes on to propose arbitration as a means of solution if this offer is again refused, but we have no intimation either in the letter of the Prime Minister to the three western provinces, and much less in the Speech from the Throne, of the nature of the arbitration that is to be conducted or the character of the tribunal that is to be erected.

As hon. gentlemen know-and no one knows it better that the Hon. Minister of Justice (Sir Lomer Gouin) for no one was more emphatic than he in the -claim that he made when Prime Minister of the province of Quebec-the assertion has been persistently made on the part of British Columbia, on the part of the province of Quebec, on the part of the province of Ontario, and possibly more emphatically still on the part of the three Maritime Provinces, that they as provinces have a claim in respect of those resources, and have a claim particularly in regard to any adjustment of provincial subsidies that may be made as a result of the return of the natural resources. Is each of these provinces to be represented on this board of arbitration? Let the Prime Minister now make good his boast and tell this Parliament. Let us know, first, whether the province of Nova Scotia is to be represented, whether the province of British Columbia is to be represented, whether the province of Quebec is to be represented, and whether the province of Ontario. I do not know how there can be

an arbitration with their approval unless they are represented, and if there is to be an arbitration board on which all provinces are represented, on what principle and by what right is any such arbitration board going to assume functions that are essentially functions of the Parliament of Canada? All these provinces are represented here. They have sent their representatives to this Parliament. Why, the leader of the Government elected one of his supporters in this House, even the hon. member who succeeds him in the representation of the county of Prince, by advancing a claim on behalf of Prince Edward Island that that province had millions of dollars of interest in the resources of Western Canada. I read from an advertisement published under the heading "Why vote for MacLean?" Among other reasons, none of which appeal very strongly to those who have had experience in this House, the following is given:

Because by doing so you will be upholding your birthright in the public domain of the western provinces, in which millions of dollars are involved and justly coming to us, in spite of Mr. Crerar's contention and assertion to the contrary, and we can surely do with that money now.

Again I ask, are we to acquiesce in a proposal which proposes to erect a tribunal, composed of representatives of all the provinces, to be substituted for this tribunal in which the constitution vests responsibility for apportioning the rights and claims as among all the provinces of Confederation? Is Parliament to make that surrender? It is for this Government-this Gevernment whose members for years criticised the late Administration because we were not able to get the representatives of the various provinces to agree upon any terms that would have been acceptable to Western Canada, and which belaboured us for the delay that intervened-to come to this Parliament with a proposal which they believe will commend itself to a majority, a proposal not for the abdication of the rights of this Parliament but for the assertion of those rights in solving a problem that Parliament alone can solve. Let the Prime Minister come down with a proposal that commends itself to a majority of Parliament, and then it will become the law of this land. But, is something to become the law of this land because it happens to commend itself to certain others selected by the Government to represent the constituencies of this country when it does not commend itself to those selected by the people to represent those constituen-

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cies? I venture to recall the assertion I made early in my address and to ask the hon. member for North Winnipeg not to forget that before this session is over, and still more, before the end of sessions to come, the optimism excited in his breast by this sentence in the Speech from the Throne will be very much lower and darker than it is just now.

I see in a statement, evidently issued officially or semi-officially, that the government of Manitoba has resented the proposal to accept a return of the resources and release all the extra subsidy that came to take their place, and further that if an arbitration board is to be appointed, the Manitoba Government is going to be represented by the Attorney General of the Province, by the hon. member for South Winnipeg (Mr. Hudson), and by one other

three representatives from the province of Manitoba; and the prediction is made- a prediction that very probably will come true-that if this course is adopted it will take several years to get the accounting done and come to a decision.

Now I come to a paragraph in the Speech of His Excellency which, in its comparative innocence, is really fitted to be historic

I refer to the paragraph dealing with the Customs Tariff. Hon. members should keep in mind, as I refer to this subject, the declarations in this House on the part of hon. gentlemen opposite-when declarations were made to get votes, declarations of definite and specific policy were made and voted for year after year. They should remember how anything in the way of delay was deprecated and berated. They should remember how we were told, session after session, that there was no need for any tariff inquiry, that the way was clear for action, that there was no need for delay at all-the proper course was to act and to act at once. Hon. members should keep in mind, as well, the specific commitments of hon. gentlemen opposite, made with all the sanctity of democracy in a great convention held in this city in August 1919, commitments that have a very peculiar ring when contrasted with this pallid, barren paragraph in the Speech of His Excellency to-day. The paragraph in question reads as follows:

You will be invited to consider the expediency of making some changes in the Customs Tariff. While there are details of revision, the consideration of which will require time and care that are not at present available, there are features of the tariff which it is felt may properly be dealt with during the present session.

What are the features, what are the "changes" alluded to? The hon. member for North Winnipeg assumes that this means a revision of the tariff downwards. I am afraid he will look long and patiently for any mention of the word "downward" in the paragraph. There may be revision upward, there may be revision 5 p.m. downward, there may be no revision at all, there may be inconsequential changes; but Parliament is not advised what shall be the character or the nature of the subjects dealt with. In such a position has the Government placed itself in its first session in office- this Government that obtained the seats it occupies this afternoon by specific, definite, and understandable pledges to the people of this country; this Government which obtained seats in this House because candidates now sitting behind it pledged themselves to their constituents that those promises-promises that everybody understood-would be made good as soon as the Liberal party was returned to power. I have before me those pledges and those commitments but is it necessary to read them? Have not hon. gentlemen read the commitment of 1919; has it not been placed on the pages of Hansard, over and over again? Did not the present Prime Minister-speaking in this House in the month of June, 1920, almost a year after the convention-pledge himself that when returned to power the resolution in question would be made the law of this country. Do hon. gentlemen not remember? Did not the present Prime Minister-speaking at various places in the country in the fall of 1920-bind himself to the terms of that resolution, and declare that by it he was going to stand or fall? Did he not, as respecting many of those terms, commit himself definitely even in the summer of 1921? I am quite aware that his language moderated after he was joined by the present Minister of Justice, after the resignation and candidature of the Provincial Treasurer of the Province of Quebec, and after those interests that to-day are responsible for his elevation to the Prime Ministership came and exercised their sway in the councils of his party. I know that it was in the fall of 1921 that he preached throughout Canada the doctrine of the chart, that all the commitments of the 1919 convention were merely indications of the direction in which he should proceed, and that as to how far he proceeded, or whether he proceeded at all, he was going to be governed by the wisest

The Address

councils of the men around him, knowing quite well that to his left-if he obtained power-would sit the present Minister of Justice; knowing quite well that to his right would sit the present Minister of Finance (Mr. Fielding) who had frankly declared to the people of the country that this platform was only made to get in on well knowing also that he would have near him the present Minister of Militia and Defence (Mr. Graham) ; knowing too that he would have behind him, and directing his conduct, the powers centred in and spreading from the city of Montreal who are responsible for his elevation and for his position to-day.

Then it was that the doctrine of the chart was promulgated, then it was that the guarded empty language came into use on platform after platform-about a tariff for revenue, about a tariff for producer and consumer, about a tariff for the home-then it was that all these phrases came to mind, and the hon. gentleman sought by means of them to escape from the commitment which he and his party had made in the month of August, 1919, upon which he accepted the position of leadership that has brought him the Prime Ministership of this country but which binds him in the same degree to-day as when he was simply leader of the Liberal party. I do not need to remind the House of all these commitments, but possibly it would be just as well to read them in order that they may stand alongside of the aggregation of' letters of the alphabet that is supposed to denote the Liberal policy as respects the tariff now that they have attained power. Here is what was resolved upon at the Liberal convention in 1919:

That the best interests of Canada demand that substantial reduction of the burdens of customs taxation be made with a view to the accomplishing of two purposes of the highest importance: First, diminishing the very high cost of living which presses too severely on the masses of the people; Second, reducing the cost of the instruments of production in the industries based on the natural resources of the Dominion, the vigorous development of which is essential to the progress and prosperity of our country;

That, to these ends, wheat, wheat flour and all products of wheat, the principal articles of food, farm implements and machinery, farm tractors, mining, flour and saw-mill machinery and repair parts thereof; rough and partly dressed lumber, gasoline, illuminating, lubricating and fuel oils, nets, net-twines -and fishermen's equipments, cements and fertilizers, should be free from customs duties, as well as the raw material entering into the same;

That a revision downwards of the tariff should be made whereby substantial reduction should be effected in the duties on wearing apparel and footwear, and on other articles of general consumption (other than luxuries), as well as on the raw material entering into the manufacture of the same;

That the British preference be increased to 50 per cent of the general tariff.

And the Liberal Party hereby pledges itself to implement by legislation the provision of this resolution when returned to power.

The day of the return to power has come. The hour has struck and the moment is here. I would not expect that they would embody this resolution in the Speech from the Throne, because that is not the custom, but I would expect that the paragraph in the Speech from the Throne would be comparable in principle and would intimate a fulfilment of the resolution. I ask this House and my hon. friends to the left, whom I endeavoured to persuade many a time of the very truth that is revealed before their eyes to-day: do you find in the Speech from the Throne the slightest intimation or promise or hint that anything will be done, even of the very nature of that delineated in the resolution of 1919? Are we to expect it? Proud hearts beat with hope as does the heart of the hon. member for North Winnipeg. I ask particularly the hon. member for Marquette^ (Hon. T. A. Crerar) to answer this question. I wonder now whether my analysis of the sincerity of hon. gentlemen opposite, made last session and the previous session, which I am sorry the hon. member for Marquette did not receive very well, will not prove more accurate than the hopes that even he sometimes gave expression to.

It is not hard to find the reason for the change of heart. The hon. gentleman who leads the Government in, I think, the last speech he made, at least one of the most recent speeches, declared that there was virtually no difference between his stand and the stand of the progressive party. He described their principles as the principles of Liberalism, to which he says he is prepared to give a very wide interpretation. In that I thoroughly agree with him, because the interpretation he has given to Liberalism has been so wide as to include every side of every question under the sun. Indeed, under his aegis, Liberalism has become merely a synonym for political dishonesty.

I refer to a speech, which, I think, was made in the province of Quebec, at a banquet given to celebrate the victory of the hon, the Minister of Marine and Fisheries

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tical promises. It indicates that once they have got their reward, once they have reaped the fruit of their professions, those professions and promises go into the discard and are forgotten. It indicates that when the hour for bringing down those "some changes" in t'he tariff comes, there will be about as much resemblance between the actual legislation and the pledge's of the past as there is between darkness and light. The hon. member for St. Lawrence and St. George (Mr. Mahler) declared his tariff faith as follows, and upon this he was elected:

That the tariff should be framed with the assistance of such scientific or other board acting in collaboration with a committee of Parliament, with the object in view of providing the revenues required for the administration of the country- the maintenance of established legitimate industries, the encouragement of new industries- the promotion of trade with other countries, consistent with the above objects- and with due regard to the economic rights of the consumer.

As clear and unequivocal a declaration of the principle and practice of protection as any candidate for Parliament ever made. By those mean's the government now in power obtained office. While their candidate in North Winnipeg was publishing the promises of 1919, while their candidate in Centre Winnipeg-and I have his declaration before me-was casting far and wide a circular in which he pledged himself, and declared his party was pledged, to put into effect the pledges of 1919, while every candidate that supported them in all the provinces of the West right to the Rocky Mountains was binding himself and his party to those pledges and getting votes upon the strength of those pledges, these hon. gentlemen, now elected to this House, were pledging themselves and their party to exactly the opposite course, and by that means they were elected. So the Government is bound to betray those who supported the present hon. member of St. Antoine (Mr. Mitchell), it is bound to belie the declarations of the present Minister of Justice (Sir Lomer Gouin), it is bound to take his electors into camp and deceive them; or it is bound to carry out the pledges they made to the whole people-pledges that were ratified, confirmed, repeated and voted upon by immense sections of this Dominion. That is the position hon. members supporting the Government are in, that is the position the Government itself is in. Far be it from me to make the claims of a prophet, but I know something of the preponderance of influence in the present administration, I know some-

[Mr. Meighen.j

thing of the source of the momentum that put them into office, I know something of those who bought and paid for a programme and who expect delivery of the value thereof, and in my own mind I have not very much doubt as to what will be the measure and character of the "some changes" referred to in the customs tariff paragraph of the Speech from the Throne.

I pass from that subject to refer to the declaration as regards railways. Of that I have less criticism to make. On the subject of railways it is declared, as though it were a matter requiring the attention of Parliament-and as I understand, speeches from the Throne are intended to lay down a programme for the consideration of Parliament during the ensuing .session-that there will he co-ordination of the railways owned by the people of this country. This is the paragraph:

In order that government ownership and operation of our national railways now extending through every province of the Dominion may be given a fair trial under the most favourable conditions, it is intended at an early date to co-ordinate the Government-owned systems in the manner best calculated to increase efficiency, and to effect economies in administration, maintenance and operation. The whole transportation situation is one which will require your best attention. It weighs heavily upon our national finances. To assist in obtaining the information essential to an exact understanding and an adequate appreciation of the problem in its many bearings, it is proposed to supplement the work of co-ordination by a thorough inquiry.

A Speech from the Throne, written by a Prime Minister, who, within a few months of writing that speech, had declared to the people that an inquiry is only suggested by a government that has no policy at all! It.will be noted how sedulous the draughtsman of the Speech from the Throne has been to use the most evasive and nebulous terms at his command. He does not say there is to be unification of the roads owned by the Government; he does not say there is to be amalgamation; he does not say all are to be brought together as one system, as was the intention of the last Parliament, and, is the intention of the law today. He says: There is going to be "coordination,"-a word chosen because of its elasticity, because its exact meaning is at least capable of more interpretations than any other word that could have been used.

I hope, however, that the meaning that will appeal to most of us is intended, namely, that there will be actual unification, in order that the advantages and economies incident to unity will be provided; in a word, that all intended by the statute of

The AdAress

this Parliament will be carried out. I hope that is the intention of the Administration. If it is, I can assure the Prime Minister on the part of those whom I represent in this House that he will have our assistance to the full in the carrying out of that policy.

I have no objection to reference to this being made in the Speech from the Throne; indeed I welcome it; but it does not provide material for the consideration of Parliament. This policy is already imbedded in the law of the country to-day. The Government need no legislation to carry it out. The Canadian National Railway Act of 1919 provides that roads from time to time owned or controlled by the Administration may be brought under the National system and operated as a unit in the same way as the roads at that time were being operated. From time to time the late government brought one road after the other under that system. The Grand Trunk Railway system alone now remains outside. As respects that system, the arbitration following its acquisition by the government was proceeding up to the time I arrived home from England in the summer of 1921, when the matter of the general election had immediately to be taken into account, and during the campaign no one would suggest that any action should have been taken to bring about that amalgamation, the last step of the whole process; it had to wait and did await the judgment of the people. But the intention of the late government as embalmed in the legislation of this House is apparent, and to do what is set out in the Speech from the Throne is only to carry out what is already expressed in the statute books of this country. I say again that I hope the language means the bringing into one unit of all our railway systems in order to get the advantages of co-ordination and unification. By that I do not imply that there cannot be that measure of local supervision that is so essential to the best management. That measure of local supervision, I, on the advice of the best experts at our command on the National Railway Board, stated was the policy of the late government, recommended by the board. With the Grand Trunk coming in and the entire mileage owned by the people of this country brought into one system, there should be what are called grand divisions, whereby, without in any way impairing the advantages of unification, a measure of local supervision in the operation of the lines would be feasible.

All these things are quite consistent, but there must be unification. There must be one system; there cannot continue to be two. The late Government proceeded on that principle and carried it out to a great extent; all that is left to be done is to bring in the Grand Trunk. Let that step be taken. May this paragraph in the Speech from the Throne mean that this will be done without delay; and if it is done it will have the support of those who stand behind me in this Parliament. But I am afraid that if the Government take that step they will have difficulty with those' around them; either that, or hon. gentlemen around them will have difficulty with their constituents.

I see in front of me now hon. members who are committed to their constituents to an exactly opposite course. I see in front of me those who have pledged themselves, not that the National Railways will be unified but that they will be disrupted; not that the National Railways will be co-ordinated, but that they will be disintegrated; not that the National Railways will be maintained out of politics, managed by a business board and all brought under that business board, but that portions of the system will be taken back into politics as they were in politics for many decades I see in front of me also those who are pledged against a continuance of national ownership and operation-yea, I see its bitterest enemies, its stoutest foes, in the ranks of the Government itself. I know the Prime Minister has declared, and I see a reference to it in the Speech from the Throne, that national ownership and operation shall be given a fair trial, but I for one, am apprehensive of the fairness of the trial to be given national ownership and operation at the hands of its inveterate enemies. I am apprehensive that it is not the desire of hon. gentlemen opposite that the utmost possible success shall follow that trial, because I know there are hon. gentlemen on that side who would be infinitely more pleased by the utmost possible failure than by the utmost possible success. I know there are hon. gentlemen elected to support this Government who have declared themselves on principle opposed to government operation not only of railways, but of everything, and who have pledged themselves to their constituents to do everything in their power to stop the wheels of government operation at the earliest moment. I know there are those who declare not only that the acquirements of the roads never should have taken

The Address

place, but that now they are acquired the proper policy to pursue is to get rid of them at the earliest possible day. Some would turn them over to the Canadian Pacific-even among those whom I see in front of me, hon. members supporting the Government. Some would sell them for a dollar-they have so little use for them.

Hear, hear.

Mr. MEIGHEN:

"Hear, hear" from the hon. member opposite; but he is going to be asked to support what is described as, and 'promised to be, a fair trial of government operation. I venture to suggest that government operation would have received a much fairer, a much more useful and much more successful trial at the hands of those who were its friends and wanted it to succeed; at the hands of those who in the difficult position in which they found themselves after years of railway blundering, took the best and the only course this country could take in its own interests and for its own protection in the acquirement of these roads.