Schools, the ill-health of pupils which he appeared to think should be better guarded, and the Bi-lingual school issue. As to this latter point, after deprecating the alleged inaction of the Government and without any reference to the Merchant Commission, he said:

At the present time our French-Canadian fellow-citizens in this Province number about 250,000. They constitute almost one-tenth of our entire population and their number is increasing. Apparently the teaching in many of their schools is neither satisfactory to them nor to us; their children are not receiving the education they should have to fit them for their life-work. It is the duty of the State, therefore, to see that in every school of the Province every child shall receive a thorough English education. But, on the other hand, we should not seek to prevent the children of our French-Canadian fellow citizens retaining the use of their mother tongue. What we are concerned about is that they should master English, and not that they should be ignorant of French. problem in its working out is largely one of teachers and administration.

The

In the matter of the three-fifths clause the Opposition Leader was explicit: "This requirement we propose to abolish at once with respect to all future contests, so that all municipalities hereafter adopting Local Option may carry it by a simple majority and repeal it by a like majority. Those which passed Local Option by a three-fifths vote will still require a three-fifths vote to repeal it." As to Prohibition he said: "It is our intention to give early consideration to this matter in all its bearings and the decision at which we arrive will be laid before the people and the people will have an opportunity of passing judgment upon our policy at the next general election, not in the form of a referendum, but as the policy of the party, upon which we will stand or fall; but we shall not fall." As to Liquor law administration he suggested the appointment of a Commission to control the policy-a Commission responsible to the Government. Mr. Mackenzie King, who presided, dealt at length with social and economic conditions -first, however, making a vigorous reference to Mr. Champ Clark's utterances on annexation as tending to estrange rather than cement the two countries: "Whatever may be the differences in matters of domestic policy between the Liberal and Conservative parties in Canada they are cordially united in their loyalty to the British Crown and in their belief that Canada's future is bound up with the future of the Empire and that, as part of the British Empire, Canada has more to give and more to receive than by any other destiny under the sun."

From this time on Mr. Rowell was kept busy in a speaking tour of the Province-with a three weeks itinerary arranged as follows: Guelph, Nov. 17 and Plattsville and Drumbo on the 18th; Belleville, Nov. 20th and Lindsay on the 21st; Napanee, Nov. 22nd, North Oxford on the 23rd and Ottawa on the 24th; Sturgeon Falls and North Bay on Nov. 28th; Barrie on the 29th and Waterford on the 30th; Stratford on Dec. 1st, Woodstock

and Innerkip on the 4th, Brantford on the 5th, Sarnia on the 6th, St. Thomas on the 7th, and Palmerston on the 8th. At Guelph he made a special appeal to agricultural interests and urged the organization of Demonstration farms-not Demonstration orchards such as the Government had established but apparently District extensions of the Experimental Farm policy. He opposed the making of the Hydro-Electric Commission a Department of the Government and preferred a non-official Board of business men. At Drumbo his reference to women's suffrage was as follows: "Perhaps it is not out of place to look forward to the time when women will exercise the franchise but whether this will, or will not, come in the near future one thing is certain and that is that public men will have to give the matter their consideration in the near future. Therefore the Liberal party will give thought to this question and I hope when they meet in the new Legislature that they will reach a conclusion on the subject which will be satisfactory." Upon the Power question Mr. Rowell had this to say at Woodstock:

If you look at the Hydro-Electric Act and the agreements between the Commission and the municipalities you will see that the Commission is simply the trustee of the municipalities for the purchase and distribution of Electric energy. The whole cost of construction, maintenance, and operation, and cost of power, must be borne by the municipalities. The Commission holds all the properties and assets acquired by it as trustee for the municipalities. If there is inefficiency or extravagance in the management, if matters do not go well with the Government financially, the municipalities must pay every cent of the loss.

At the Ottawa meeting (Nov. 24) a message was read from Sir W. Laurier, saying: "I am heart and soul for Mr. Rowell." Here the Provincial Leader dealt with the taxation question: "The land speculator toils not, neither does he spin. Others have laboured and he enters in and enjoys the results of their labours. Social justice demands that this condition should be remedied and that if the municipalities desire to encourage improvements they should be entitled to do so by putting a lower tax on improvements than on land values. It will tend to discourage the holding of large blocks of land out of the market, and it will stimulate building on unimproved land so as to make it incomeearning. It will tend to prevent an increase in rents by bringing more houses into the market to rent." The Innerkip meeting gave Mr. Rowell an opportunity to elaborate this taxation principle in its application to Railways. We believe that these corporations should pay in the same proportion as the farmers. The Grand Trunk Railway pays 4 times as much taxes in Michigan as it does in Ontario and the Canadian Pacific for its lines in Wisconsin pays 5 times as much. Don't you think these figures should be equalized?"

66

In North Bay, where there is a large French population,

tribute was paid to the pioneer French missionaries as "a priceless treasure" of our country and the statement made that "no Government has the right to prevent a child from speaking his mother-tongue." Much was said of Northern Ontario at Barrie: "Roads must be built to bring in settlers and some system of loans similar, for instance, to that existing in New Zealand must be devised to assist the settlers in beginning life in this territory. If necessary the North should be built up with a Bond issue. If the people of Old Ontario can have bond issues for their HydroElectric power plans then New Ontario has a right to expect that it shall receive consideration to the same extent. The fact is that of the $8,000,000 contributed each year to the Crown by the people of this Province New Ontario supplies $3,500,000." At Sarnia a complaint was made that the Government was spending twice as much to protect fish and game as to protect citizens from tuberculosis. Palmerston was the scene of a rather striking statement in view of the Government's pride in its aggressive policy and fighting leader. "This is our charge against the Government: that it lies down in face of difficulties instead of courageously grappling with them. The Government appears

to be a spent force, a burnt-out volcano, unable to initiate progressive legislation!"

Like Sir James Whitney, Mr. Rowell expressed a strong Imperial sentiment. At Woodstock on Dec. 4th he said: " Canada is moving out to take an ever-increasing part and influence in the councils of the Empire. This Empire is by no means decadent and the days of its greatest glory are yet to come, when Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, these giant young nations, will join around the Motherland and combine to form the greatest union ever known." The Liberal leader issued a final Manifesto on Dec. 6th in which he denounced the alleged inefficient and unprogressive character of the Administration, reiterated many of his already quoted statements or items of policy and described the Bi-lingual school issue as evaded by the Government. The Liberal policy was "to provide, through adequate training schools, a sufficient supply of competent teachers and to insure, under proper regulations and inspection, that the pupils in every school in the Province shall receive a thorough knowledge of English." Northern conditions were said to be stagnant and a breakdown to exist in the general enforcement of the law throughout Ontario; the expenditures were described as doubled in five years with $100,000 spent upon a revision of the Statutes alone; political influence was asserted to have caused the Government deposits in the Farmers Bank and to have indirectly aided in wrecking that institution while "the forces of reaction" were said to have gained control of the License Department; the Ontario Railway Board was described as "a public scandal" and the Government, in turn, as one of autocracy and as composed of "seven sleepers."

The Hon. Mackenzie King addressed a large number of meetings during the contest-in fact he was Mr. Rowell's chief assistant in this respect. His itinerary was announced to include Pelham on Nov. 20 and Aurora on the 21st, Acton on the 22nd, Amherstburg on the 23rd, Dresden on the 24th, Forest and Thedford on the 25th, Mount Forest on Nov. 27th, Hanover on the 28th, Wingham on the 29th, Midland on the 30th, Clinton on Dec. 1st, Cayuga on the 4th, Tillsonburg on the 5th, St. Mary's on the 6th, Peterborough on the 7th, and Whitby on the 8th. Through him the Ontario Reform Association issued on Nov. 2nd an urgent appeal to the Liberal organizations to get their candidates nominated. The vigour of Mr. King's attacks upon the Government is pretty well illustrated in the following extract from his Whitby speech:

I want to refer to the Prime Minister's statement that we could not find any flaws in his Administration with a microscope. It doesn't take a microscope to discover over 1,000 teachers in this Province teaching without certificates. It doesn't take a microscope to see that there are 75,000 fewer farmers on the lands of this Province than there were ten years ago. It doesn't take a microscope to see that the cost of living has gone up in consequence. It doesn't take a microscope to see that Dr. Beattie Nesbitt, who wrecked the Farmers Bank, is still at large and has never been brought to justice. It doesn't require a magnifying glass to discover 2,000,000 acres of land given away to the Canadian Northern Railway.

Incidents of the Liberal campaign included Joseph Oliver's advocacy in North Toronto of the abolition of the bar, extension of the T. & N. O. to Toronto, Niagara Falls and Windsor, and the teaching of English, only, in the Public Schools; a passing expression of feeling at Kenora, Fort William and a few other points in Northern Ontario favourable to the creation of a new Province. including certain points in that region and extending to Hudson's Bay; a deputation from Cobalt, Haileybury, and other places, said to be largely Liberal, which, on Nov. 21st, urged upon the Premier that the Municipal Voters' Lists of 1911 should be used in the Elections which the Premier told them could not be legally done; the charge of the London Free Press that Mr. Rowell was a Corporation lawyer, representing the Hill interests and United States Steel trust which that Leader promptly denied; the charge of The Globe (Aug. 26) that "in or about the month of June, 1908, the Manager of the Toronto World, of which paper W. F. Maclean, Conservative member for South York, is chief owner, made an arrangement with W. R. Travers, Manager of the Farmers Bank, to solicit deposits for the Farmers Bank, which it is now claimed by The News and other Conservative organs was rotten from its inception. That in return Travers agreed to loan funds of the Bank to the Toronto World and that the deposits were eventually given."

An interesting incident was a circular letter issued in North Toronto by T. W. Self, William Bush and other Orangemen asking the Order to support Mr. Oliver as an Orangeman of 40 years standing against Hon. J. J. Foy. Hon. George P. Graham spoke for Mr. Rowell at Woodstock on Dec. 8th and Mr. A. G. MacKay put up a vigorous personal campaign in North Grey with a declaration on Nov. 30th that "English is the language of the Province and no language but English should be taught in the schools." On Nov. 16th Rev. B. H. Spence, Secretary of the Ontario Alliance, issued a statement as to the Temperance issue: "Disappointment and regret are the feelings of the Temperance people of this Province at the failure of the new Leader of the Liberal party, either in his published platform or his expressions at Massey Hall, to deal strongly and effectively with the Temperance question. There was a right thing to do. He has not done Look at what Mr. Rowell's policy really means. He has ignored the promises and pledges made by Sir Oliver Mowat and his successors and has substituted nothing in their place save that he will take the matter into his serious consideration for four years and then announce his conclusions."

it.

School Issue:

Something has already been said of this question The Bi-Lingual -one which became prominent in 1910* and was Triumph of the much discussed before and during the 1911 ElecGovernment tions. The matter had in recent years first taken public form in rivalry between English and French speaking Catholics as to the control and management of Ottawa University and in 1904 (Jan. 15) an elaborate appeal had been made to Mgr. Sbaretti, Papal Delegate, to intervene on behalf of the former element. By 1911 the issue had broadened into the general one of an increasing French-Canadian population in many parts of Ontario, a growing use of the French language in certain schools, an increasing rivalry between the English and French Catholic view of this matter-emphasized by the outstanding opinion of Bishop Fallon in favour of English and the vigorous advocacy of French by the French-Canadian Provincial Educational Association in which Senator N. A. Belcourt and Judge Constantineau of Ottawa were controlling figures. Long before this, however, Bi-lingual instruction in schools had been dealt with by a preceding Liberal Government without any public excitement. In 1885 the Education Department had adopted Regulations for examinations to be conducted in either the French or German schools: in 1890 a Model School for the training of French teachers had been opened at Plantagenet in Eastern Ontario; in 1893 a Government Commission of Inquiry had reported in favour of Bi-lingual school readers-French and English-and they had been authorized for the French schools.

NOTE.-See The Canadian Annual Review for 1910.