Mr. MORRISON:

I asked you if you thought it was more disastrous for the railways to fail to pay dividends during the past two years than the present situation, where the masses have failed to earn dividends no matter in what industry they were interested. You apparently consider the railways as of first importance, as compared with the masses of the people.

Mr. JOHN MORRISON (Weyburn) :

I have listened to the debate with a great deal of interest. The hon. member for Centre Winnipeg (Mr. Woodsworth) and the hon. member for East Calgary (Mr. Irvine) have, of course, a full right to their opinions and to their expression in this House, and I hope that they will accord to me and others the same privilege. I have lived in the West for twenty-three years and have seen quite a bit of the workings of the Northwest Mounted Police out there, having been a justice of the peace for a few years. I cannot agree with my friends who are representing Labour in this House in the accusations they have made against the Northwest Mounted Police. I have seen those men abused when they were trying to carry out their duty, but I have never seen them fail in the discharge of their duty. I have never seen them oppress people. I have seen them handled pretty rough and when they have had to fight back, but I think any man who is worth anything will fight back when he has to. I think the hon. member for Centre Winnipeg is prejudiced against the force because of his experience with it during the Winnipeg strike. My hon. friend says that there was no incipient revolution at Winnipeg. Now I have a card here that was issued at the time of the Winnpeg strike, and I want to read it so that everybody can judge for himself as to the nature of that movement. It was issued to the lumber camps throughout British Columbia and is the same as was issued in Winnipeg, I am told. It reads as follows:

Mounted Police

Workers!

Your recent fight by means of the "strike" to secure an eight-hour day and better working conditions has failed. You know the reason. Lack of courage on the part of some mill men and the importation of scabs-spineless creatures. However, there is no need to be discouraged as the fight is not yet lost- You have another weapon, and a good one, sabotage. Lay down on the job. Sabotage by a hundred and one tricks resulting in the withdrawal of efficiency. You can win and kick the boss in the ribs at the same time.

The real loggers are leaving the G.T.P. and the boss can not make out with prairie chickens.

That was the name for the homesteaders who took the place of the strikers. It goes on:

Lay down on the job!

In a short time the boss will realize that it is better to give eight hours, dean camps, better conditions and good food all round and thus get the real loggers to stay, than to mush around with prairie chickens and bush-whacking homesteaders.

Lay down on the job !

Get fired. What of it? You don't own that job. It is lent to you only so long as you produce profits for the boss.

Lay down on the job!

It is your most potent weapon. Go to it. Most of the bosses along the line are not worth 30 cents. Bust'em! The one you can't bust you can get fired. Hutton for instance.

That is where I picked up this card.

Mr. MORRISON:

If the hon. member for East Calgary (Mr. Irvine) will keep quiet and listen, he will find out.

Mr. MORRISON:

The card goes on:

Lay down on the job. Sabotage !

Ask your fellow worker how the woods and mill mens' strike was won in Washington, Idaho, in 1917. Lay down on the job. Workers of the world, unite. You have nothing but your chains to lose and the whole world to gain.

Now those men were threatening to burn the sawmill with the consequent destruction of a million dollars worth of property, and we had to use force to quell the disturbance. We could not get the provincial police, we could not get the Mounted Police-they were all busy. I have quoted this card to show hon. members that this was an attempt at breaking down that law and order which most of us are standing up for and whose observance we are trying to maintain. It is all well enough to say that the local authorities can deal with a

situation when it arises; but I agree with the hon. member from West Toronto (Mr. Hocken) that there are times when the Mounted Police can control disorder much more efficiently than the local police, and they have done it on many occasions.

My hon. friend from Centre Winnipeg said that most of the people do not want the Mounted Police. I do not know on what foundations he bases his claim to speak for the majority of the people, or where he obtains the evidence that they sympathize with his view. I think they do want the Mounted Police. There were four millions spent in 1921 on the force the hon. gentleman says, and less than half a million on employment doles. Well, it is too bad we have to spend such a sum as four millions, but as long as there are such disorders as those to which I have referred I would be willing to spend twice that amount in order to maintain order. I am friendly to Labour but I am not in sympathy with them when they take such a course as I have pointed out. I am a Labour man and to some extent a capitalist too; but I have to work and I would like the little money I have to earn something too. I do not want conditions to prevail under which there would be no security for a man's home or his business.

In Winnipeg, during the strike, defiance of law and order were manifested. The operation of public services of all kinds was stopped and there was even interference with the delivery of milk to the hospitals. If such a thing as that does not constitute a hardship for poor people I do not know the real definition of the term. -1 think the labour people have been very poorly led. If I -submitted to the leadership of others for twenty-five years and at the end of that time found myself penniless whilst those leaders were in comfortable circumstances I would think I had been misled. To my mind the gentlemen who have been speaking for Labour are not in reality Labour's true friends; they are mistaken in the methods they advocate for curing the evils of which they complain. Most of us wish to see better conditions brought about for labour-most of us indeed labour ourselves-but there is a proper way to bring about that improvement. To protest against the police and to abuse them-and I am sorry to say that some critics are all too prone to follow that course-will never result in improved conditions. I think it is far easier to get those in authority to listen to reason than

Mounted Police

ignorant labouring men such as are engaged in fomenting strikes of the character described. Personally, I stand for the maintenance of the Mounted Police in Canada.

Mr. MORRISON:

That was during the last two years before the war, when they were preparing for the fight.