bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Problems in Census Taking
Authors: Lemieux O. A.
Published: June 2006

While this is too early a date to produce for discussion a tentative questionnaire for the 1951 Census, with all the necessary definitions, we, in the Dominion Bureau of Statistics, are greatly pleased to have the opportunity of placing before you some of the problems that we will have to solve before our army of enumerators begin their house to house canvass to gather the information. Along with the discussion of these problems, I would like to mention some of the improvements that we propose to make in the 1951 Census as compared with previous censuses.

The taking of a census is a very important and costly operation. The Advisory Committee on the United States Census stated in 1921: “Of all the peace-time activities of the federal government, taking and compiling the census is the largest.” Because of its high cost, it is necessary to make it yield its maximum both in quality and quantity of returns. The problem of determining the optimum quantity, keeping in mind that quantity very often works against quality, is possibly one of the most difficult ones to solve. Just before the census is taken we receive suggestions from a very large number of persons and groups for additional questions to be placed on questionnaires. These persons reason quite correctly that the most costly part of our organization is the one which makes it possible to cover every nook and cranny of this vast country of ours; and they also reason, not quite so correctly, that since our enumerators visit every home anyway, there is no harm is asking a few more questions. Mind you, the great majority of these questions are worthwhile and would produce information which is not available anywhere else. We are, therefore, placed in the unhappy position of having to appear to be unco-operative or to load our questionnaires beyond the point where it is possible to obtain reliable information. The first point, then, is to determine how long census questionnaires should be to provide as much information as possible without placing the quality of the statistics obtained in jeopardy.
The Municipal Business Tax in Canada
Authors: Clark Robert M.
Published: June 2006

The nature, origin, development, and possible justification of the municipal business tax in Canada are the topics considered in this paper. These subjects are all the more interesting because there has been no comparable development in the United States. Statistics as late as May, 1947 indicate that New York City is the only city in the United States with a business tax comparable to the municipal business tax in Canada.

The term “municipal business tax” generally is used in Canada to refer to a tax on premises occupied for business purposes. Three bases are in use: a fraction of the assessed value of the premises, the annual rental value of premises, and square feet of space occupied.
Britain's Post-War Economic Policy, 1945-50
Authors: Crick W. F.
Published: June 2006

No one in England would claim that the radical readjustments of the national economy necessitated by the Second World War had yet been completed. Nevertheless, it is undoubtedly true that much progress has been made, in many ways even beyond the pre-war level of attainment, since the fighting came to an end; and certainly the past five and a half years have been a period of intense activity, aimed perhaps not so much at reconstruction of a former economic system but rather at building a structure which should be more in accord with popular aspirations than the kind of economy that prevailed before the war.

This interpretation of fundamental objectives is supported by a quick review of the tasks confronting Great Britain as she emerged from the war. First, and of immediate concern, was the delicate process of transition to a peace economy, involving the innumerable interlocking problems of switching manpower and physical resources back from war service to the purposes of a more peaceable way of life. Then there were more deep-seated problems to be faced, such as the replacement of physical assets, both social and economic, destroyed during the war or rendered obsolescent while the economic system had been concentrated upon the overriding purposes of war production. Along with these went a whole network of complicated problems of monetary reorganization, arising largely from the facts that in process of financing war requirements Britain's international position had been dramatically changed, from the status of a creditor country to that of a debtor, that her international reserves had been heavily reduced, and that her export trade had been ruthlessly sacrificed as part of the larger strategy of war. Finally, and underlying all these, was the widespread demand for the establishment of an economic system which should serve the needs of the people more effectively and more equitably than in times past, above all, one which should guarantee to every willing and competent citizen the continuous opportunity of remunerative employment. Naturally, there was wide disagreement about the best means of securing all these ends; but the ends themselves were generally accepted as necessary and worthy objectives.
Some Problems in the Study of Hostility and Aggression in Middle-Class American Families
Authors: Naegele K. D.
Published: June 2006

This paper is primarily an impressionistic sketch of an on-going piece of family research. No conclusions can as yet be offered. Instead, I intend briefly to suggest a frame of reference for the study of family hostility as well as enumerate some of the procedures of field work used in the present project.

Much has been written about the family by many sociologists of various persuasions. Yet a large part of this phase of sociological effort leaves one dissatisfied. Admittedly data on our own types of family structure are hidden from clear view precisely because of their familiarity as well as their privacy. But this fact is not sufficient to account for the disparity between the experienced complexity of family life and the sparsity of published details made significant by a sustained and incisive theoretic orientation. Headway could be made by the use of a frame of reference which combines sociological with psychological considerations, without confusing them, and which draws its vitality from the impassioned analyses of the structure of large-scale social systems and of individual character as begun by Weber and Freud. At the present time family research seems on the whole to have made little consistent use of the leads of kinship analysis and to have by-passed a cumulative effort at spelling out the empirical details of the social structure of various types of American families. As it is, we hear much about the family as a “unity of interacting personalities,” about processes of accommodation or conflict, or about the kinds of valuation that marital partners place upon one another; yet we hear little of the intervening details which, in their fullness, would give us a sense of how indeed a family as an on-going concern functions and how the inherent or emergent demands of its social structure are met, how the social structure of a family is related meaningfully or functionally to the rest of the social system, and how any given family of orientation dissolves into successive families of procreation.
Mr. King and Parliamentary Government
Authors: Forsey Eugene
Published: June 2006

What Mr. King said and did about parliamentary government constitutes his most important and distinctive contribution to the development of our constitution, and to Canadian political ideas. This is partly because parliamentary government is the very essence of our constitution; partly because Mr. King had an enormous amount to say about it, and an unrivalled opportunity to put his ideas into practice; and partly because this is the one field in which his ideas were completely original.

This is notably true of his theory of the Crown. Two facts about it are unmistakable. First, he did not believe in the “rubber stamp” theory. In the 1926 crisis, he said three times, once in the House of Commons and twice in his opening campaign speech, that there would be circumstances in which the Crown would be justified in refusing dissolution. He also said, before the vote on the Robb motion, that if Mr. Meighen's Government were defeated, and did not resign, the Governor-General should dismiss it, and he himself would take responsibility for the dismissal. This is about as far from the “rubber stamp” theory as anybody could get. Second, except in its remoteness from the “rubber stamp” theory, Mr. King's theory was startlingly different from the received doctrine of British parliamentary government. A single example will dispel any doubts. If there is one firmly established point in British constitutional practice, it is that a retiring Prime Minister has no right even to offer advice as to his successor, let alone have it accepted.
The Economic Problem of the Newfoundland Fisheries
Authors: Mayo H. B.
Published: June 2006

Adequate descriptive accounts of the Newfoundland fisheries have more than once been given, and it would be superfluous to attempt another within the limits of this note. Only a few of the essential features of the industry need be called to mind as background to a more analytical discussion of its problems and prospects.

Newfoundland and codfish have been almost synonymous terms for 450 years, ever since John Cabot brought back to Europe his reports of the teeming fish in the vicinity of the island. Although with the passing years other fisheries have been developed, especially herring, lobster, salmon, seal, and whale, the cod fishery remains by far the most important branch. The other fisheries, although in the aggregate important, are still subsidiary and for the most part are followed by men who are cod fishermen as well.

The economic importance of the fisheries derives chiefly from the fact that together they form an industry which easily takes the lead in giving employment. It may even now be true that a majority (although not a large one) of the population depends either directly or indirectly upon the fisheries for its main source of livelihood. Over the long run, the number of fishermen seems to be decreasing. In 1935 the number was about the same as in 1891, and shows a considerable decline from the numbers engaged in the intervening census years. During and since the recent war there has been considerable fluctuation in the numbers of fishermen, but there appear to be somewhat fewer today than in 1935.
Some Notes on the Economics of Transportation
Authors: McDonald J. A.
Published: June 2006

Since well before the turn of this century economists have been attempting to explain the phenomena associated with pricing in the transportation industry. Of recent years this subject has received both descriptive and prescriptive treatment at the hands of welfare economists. In the course of this paper it will be argued that the current descriptive theory is based upon a fundamental misconception of the nature of transportation output and that, in consequence, the policy prescriptions, even when they are right, are usually right for the wrong reasons.

As a starting point it will be useful to recall a controversy which began with a journal article, written some sixty years ago, in which Professor Taussig was endeavouring to show that railway rates could be fitted within the framework of general price theory. He argued that the wide differentials which were apparent in the railways' charges for their services could be explained by the preponderant influence of joint costs. If this were true, the rates charged for output A would be the consequence of passive adjustments in price to changes in the output of B in response to changes in demand for the latter product. Actually Taussig argued that the commodities transported (e.g., coal and copper) were sold to different consumers and should be treated as different products. Many years later the criticisms of Professor Pigou precipitated a lengthy debate over the validity of the joint cost doctrine, Pigou contending that railway output was homogeneous and measurable in units of ton-miles.
The United Nations
Authors: Angus H. F.
Published: June 2006

The fruits of victory in a world war are never easy to appraise and perhaps it is not wise to look this gift horse of Providence too closely in the mouth. We cannot say with any degree of confidence what our condition would have been if we had lost the war, if we had made a compromise peace, or if we had avoided the conflict altogether by submitting to the will of the enemy. And the results of victory consist only in part in escaping the unpleasant consequences of defeat and the possibly less distasteful consequences of compromise or submission. They include, as well, a fleeting opportunity to reorganize the world on better lines.

So probable is it that this opportunity will vanish in abject failure, as similar opportunities have vanished in the past, and so little can anyone do to enhance its prospects of success, that it bears some resemblance to an expensive lottery ticket, whose holder has paid a high price for an infinitesimal chance of winning a great prize. Mathematics may reveal to us (as they did to Pascal) that an infinitesimal chance may have an immense value if the prize is adequate; but psychologically even the most inveterate of gamblers will shrink from backing an argument such as this.
Internal Determinants of the Canadian Upswing, 1921–9
Authors: Malach Vernon W.
Published: June 2006

In this paper, the peculiar pattern of the 1921-9 Canadian upswing of activity is examined and its major domestic determinants indicated. In addition, various factors are examined to ascertain their relative significance in determining the size of these domestic determinants. External determinants are not discussed in this paper.

The Canadian upswing from 1921 to 1929, generally speaking, was relatively sharp. By the latter year gross national product had risen 46.9 per cent over the 1921 level; net national income increased 50.4 per cent in the same period. Despite the relatively great strength of the initial expansionary forces, however, the expansion in the years 1923 and 1924 was relatively slow. Gross national product in real terms had risen 16.9 per cent from 1921 to 1922; by 1924 it had only risen 25.9 per cent above the 1921 level. By 1929 gross national product in real terms was 34.8 per cent above the 1924 level. Generally speaking, before 1925 the development proceeded gradually; from 1925 on more violence is evidenced. Hence the problem arises of explaining this peculiar pattern of the Canadian upswing and particularly its failure to continue at its original speedy rate.

Canadian incomes rose at a relatively fast pace in 1922 mainly because of increased investment activity. The theory of the multiplier and acceleration principle would lead us to expect then that as incomes rose from the increased investment, consumption would also rise and thus encourage additional investment in the consumers’ goods sector and those industries equipping this sector.
The Canadian Labour Press from 1867: A Chronological Annotated Directory
Authors: Elliott Robbins L.
Published: June 2006

The outstanding characteristic of Canadian labour journals is the shortness of their lives. They have been born to ride the crest of a rising membership within the union, and have fallen with the union into the slough of a business cycle recession, or been snuffed out by technological change, or simply by apathy. Numerous small papers arise almost weekly, while as many more pass out of existence without notice. Nearly 250 labour journals have been established in Canada since 1867 and fewer than seventy are publishing today. Accordingly any directory of the labour press is subject to the inaccuracies consequent upon the high mortality among such publications.

But the labour press is meriting more and more careful consideration. A greater number of labour organs, of, by, and for the working man, are being published today than ever before. And what the labour press is saying to its readers is of importance, for Canadian union members comprise approximately 10 per cent of the adult population of Canada.

The directory contains essential information concerning 239 labour publications, the majority of which are, or were, official organs of Canadian or international labour organizations, while the remainder are sponsored by fraternal groups, political parties, and private individuals. Some few of these latter publications, while written for the labouring man, are definitely anti-union in character. The criterion for inclusion in this directory was not whether a publication was pro-union or anti-union, but rather whether it was addressed primarily to the working people of Canada.
Some Aspects of the Problem of Guaranteed Wages and Employment
Authors: Ross H. F.
Published: June 2006

The Need for Income and Employment Security. In modern times insecurity of income has been the lot of many workers in most countries. This income insecurity is the result of the effects of seasonal variations, cyclical fluctuations, secular changes, and random fluctuations upon production in individual plants and businesses. Production in industries such as meat packing, fruit canning, or clothing manufacturing is typically seasonal because of the nature of their raw materials, or of the demand for their products. Cyclical fluctuations in economic activity affect the economy as a whole but hit particularly severely durable goods industries such as the building and construction industry, or the automobile industry. Further, the economy is subject to secular changes owing to such causes as changes in the size and age structure of the population, technological advance, or changes in the buying habits of consumers. In addition, economic phenomena exhibit chance or random fluctuations.

The security of income and employment of the working population is affected by all these different types of economic variations but it is with cyclical and seasonal unemployment that we are concerned chiefly here. It is difficult to determine whether a worker is suffering as a result of either cyclical or seasonal unemployment as there is generally a combination of both in most industries. In many cases, however, unemployment is markedly cyclical or seasonal in character although it is little consolation to the worker to know the kind of unemployment of which he is the victim.
Regionalism and Administration: North American Experiments
Authors: Hare F. Kenneth
Published: June 2006

It is customary to regard the planning function as being distributed over three levels of government—national, local and regional. This analysis radically differs from existing administrative machinery in most modern states: nevertheless it has been widely recognized that comprehensive, nation-wide planning cannot be carried out solely through the normal processes of national and local government. There is a need for a new level of power and responsibility: a level of government intermediate in function between central government and the municipality both geographically and administratively. To quote E. A. Gutkind: “Planning implies a systematic procedure starting from the top and the bottom at the same time. It includes large-scale plans as well as local plans, or in other words, its general framework consists of a national plan while local plans constitute, as it were, the cellular components which are bound together through the medium of regional schemes. Consequently planning proceeds on the different levels of national, regional and local activities forming one coherent whole ….”

Although this idea is probably true of planning, however its field is defined, it is worth remembering that the word is loose in meaning, and that under it several very different activities have been lumped together. In its commonest usage, planning means city planning: the reconstruction of cities to render them more efficient and more liveable. Though such planning usually requires permissive national legislation for its prosecution, it is emphatically a local activity, carried out normally in the smallest governmental units. Primarily, it is a matter for the architect and the engineer. But equally vital (perhaps more vital) to the community is the planning work of the conservationist, who is concerned to stop the wastage of physical resources and amenities. In the United States, the conservation movement has gathered impetus in this century until there are now many governmental agencies wholly concerned with work of this character. The work chiefly rests with either state or federal agencies: it involves too great an expenditure and too wide a viewpoint to be carried out locally. Lastly there is the group of purely national activities we can label economic and social planning, which may cover anything from public investment policies to such matters as the relocation of industry, the colonization of hitherto undeveloped country, or the systematic restriction of some field of production.
Old Age Security in Canada: Changing Attitudes
Authors: Wallace Elisabeth
Published: June 2006

Old age pensions of $40 a month became available on January 1, 1952, to every Canadian over seventy years of age, who had lived in the country for twenty years. As Canada has now had pensions for old people (subject to a means test) for only a quarter of a century, the idea is usually thought of as relatively new. In point of fact, however, Canadians were interested in old age security as far back as 1889, when the Royal Commission on the Relations of Labour and Capital mentioned with approval a French scheme to provide annuities for elderly workmen and their widows. The need for government action in the matter has been widely discussed in the Dominion ever since.

Great Britain's example in this, as in so many other matters, had an important influence. As early as 1773 a bill to provide annuities for “the industrious poor” had been passed by the House of Commons at Westminster, only to be rejected by the Lords. During the eighteen-eighties and nineties British enthusiasm for pensions for the aged revived, largely owing to Charles Booth. His monumental study of the Life and Labour of the People of London showed that some thirty per cent of the population of the metropolis lived in conditions of extreme poverty, because their earnings were not high enough to allow a decent standard of living, much less to make feasible any provision against old age. The government, Booth argued, ought under these circumstances to accept some responsibility for its elderly citizens.
Recent Canadian Economic Policy: Some Alternatives
Authors: Eastman H. C.
Published: June 2006

Until the Canadian dollar was raised to parity with the American dollar in July, 1946, Canadian foreign exchange reserves had been maintained at a satisfactory level by an inflow of capital which offset the substantial current account deficit with the United States. After the appreciation, which was undertaken to insulate the domestic price level from rising prices abroad, the capital flow was reversed and the official liquid reserves diminished rapidly until the end of 1947. The weakness in Canada's balance of payments position was caused by the fact that her surplus on current account was smaller than the rate at which her foreign loans were drawn down. The governmental policies undertaken to correct the balance of payments disequilibrium combined with a high level of national income in the United States to decrease the deficit in the current account with the United States and to replenish the reserves in 1948 and 1949.

The rapid increase in the merchandise deficit with the United States, evident in the first six months of 1951, and the declining rate of capital import pointed to the possibility of a deterioration in Canada's foreign exchange position. It is thus opportune to examine the effect of the policies followed by the Canadian government in its attempt to deal with the balance of payments disequilibrium of 1947. An attempt is made in this paper to discover how much these policies, especially import controls, contributed to the solution of the problem.
Television as a Political Issue in Britain
Authors: Harris John S.
Published: June 2006

Since its return to power in 1951 the Conservative party of Great Britain, in its programme to restrict the influence of government in the economy and ensure greater scope and freedom for private enterprise, has projected television for the first time into the arena of partisan politics. And with the emergence of television as a political issue public attention has been focused on the relative merits of public service versus commercial television. The Government's announcement in May, 1952, that “in the expanding field of television provision should be made to permit some element of competition” touched off a controversy of unusual intensity and breadth of interest. Two years later the debate culminated in action by Parliament permitting the introduction of commercial competition.

From the beginning, opposition to commercial television was vehement and articulate because of the strong conviction that television (to a far greater extent, indeed, than sound broadcasting) is a force, potentially at least, capable of revolutionizing the lives of men and reshaping the course of civilization. Thus, Herbert Morrison, deputy leader of the parliamentary Labour party, declared in December, 1953, just prior to Parliament's approval of the Government's proposal, that the debate on television policy was the most important since the war. Statements concerning the gravity of the change came from diverse groups—the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, the universities, the Labour party, a substantial segment of British industry, and even the Conservative Government itself.
The Combines Investigation Act: Its Intent And Application
Authors: Skeoch L. A.
Published: June 2006

In reviewing the literature on the purpose and administration of the combines and anti-trust legislation for this paper, it became apparent that there were topics very close to the core of the matter which, although they were separately the subject of exhaustive analysis, were rarely brought face to face; nor were the problems involved in their integration fully probed. Recent developments in economic theory and differences of approach on the part of lawyers and economists, to mention only two areas of potential discord, may create issues that are attributed to quite different sources. Neither time nor personal competence will permit a detailed exploration of this important subject. Nevertheless, a brief survey of some of the issues that often lie submerged in our discussions of combines matters may serve as a useful background for the more detailed review that follows.

The difference in the approach of lawyers and economists to the problems of monopoly and restraints of trade was the subject of a recent paper by Dr. Jesse W. Markham, then Acting Director of the Bureau of Industrial Economics of the Federal Trade Commission. Basically, legal and economic disciplines are regarded as being oriented toward different sets of values and sometimes differently toward the same set of values.

Economics [Dr. Markham said] is concerned largely with fundamental social phenomena and with the laws of human behaviour by which man brings order to economic activity. The law, on the other hand, is concerned with formal rules enforceable in the courts. The law, on the other hand, is concerned with formal rules enforceable in the courts. Thus, the economist views the competitive enterprise system as a particular form of economic organization … while the legal mind views it as a set of rights and obligations related to private property, contracts, and other aspects of business as expressed in the formal law. In brief, economics is oriented toward fundamental relationships among men and business firms; while the law is simply the accepted rules of conduct for such relationships.
The National Accounts: Whither Now?
Authors: Goldberg S. A. , Leacy F. H.
Published: June 2006

Ten years ago, almost to the day, a memorandum describing the conceptual framework of Canada's National Accounts was presented at a special session of the annual meeting of this Association held in Kingston and its substance appeared soon afterwards as chapter 1 of the first of the series of publications on the National Accounts, Income and Expenditure issued by the Dominion Bureau of Statistics. The present occasion therefore marks the tenth anniversary of Canada's National Accounts, and it seems appropriate to commemorate it with something of a stock-taking and a glimpse into the future. We have been prompted to undertake this task not merely by reasons of sentiment but primarily by a very practical consideration. For various reasons noted below, the Bureau is commencing work on a revised volume of the National Accounts which it plans to release two years from now. We hope that the present discussion will help to make this document as useful as possible by promoting a cross-fertilization of ideas between the users and producers of the data.

However, not all the matters discussed here will be incorporated in the forthcoming volume. Indeed much of the work in progress described here is developmental and will take many years to complete. Furthermore, some matters to be discussed are still speculative and hypothetical, introduced primarily to illustrate interesting possibilities which may or may not take the form of published statistical series. It is difficult to draw the line clearly or with confidence in all cases but we hope that, in general, it will appear from the context which parts are likely to be included in the forthcoming report, which parts represent developmental work that eventually will see the light of day, and which parts have a more uncertain fate.
Perspective on Change in the Prairie Economy
Authors: Britnell G. E.
Published: June 2006

In a period of sudden and fairly rapid change it sometimes requires a conscious effort to retain proportion and perspective. I have therefore resisted the obvious temptation to call my paper “New Resources and Their Effect on the Prairie Economy.” Such a title might suggest fundamental and far-reaching changes that could not be verified by an examination of current economic realities. Even more important perhaps it would tend to obscure great differences in the discovery and exploitation of new resources in the three Prairie Provinces, differences which are sharply reflected in varying rates of economic diversification and growth. Finally, it is important to perspective that the continuing contributions of older resources be accorded appropriate recognition. It would seem that proportion would be best ensured by starting with an evaluation of the older resources, moving on to an appraisal of the new, and concluding with an attempt to interpret present and possible future trends for the prairie economy as a whole. In such an approach, and at the risk of wearying my listeners, much of the analysis must be essentially quantitative in its nature.
Newfoundland and the Labrador Potential
Authors: Fay C. R.
Published: June 2006

This paper is to be considered as a prelude to the trip which the writer plans to make to the Labrador in July and August of this year (1953), with the help of the Fisheries Board and other friends. The trip is a continuation of one made around the coast of Newfoundland in 1952, including visits to Corner Brook, Grand Falls, and Buchans.
Delegated Legislation in Canada: Recent Changes in Machinery
Authors: Mallory J. R.
Published: June 2006

Few today would deny the necessity for subordinate legislation. The true business of Parliament remains the debate over the major principles of policy, but Parliament has neither the technical skill nor the time to process the mass of detailed regulation. Nevertheless, even with a sound division of function between Parliament and the departmental sources of delegated legislation, a serious problem remains. The initiative in the framing of public policy has passed to the bureaucracy, and machinery is required to ensure that bureaucratic legislation may receive the same debate, criticism, and review as ordinary legislation. The objective of administrative reform has been to safeguard the public against bureaucratic tyranny by three devices: (a) systematic publication of subordinate legislation; (b) opportunity for parliamentary review; and (c) continuance of judicial review of the scope of delegated authority.

In the United Kingdom, where these matters are more highly developed than under any other parliamentary system, the first two of these requirements are met by the Statutory Instruments Act, 1946, by various Statutory Instruments Regulations made thereunder, by the activity of the House of Commons Select Committee on Statutory Instruments, and through various techniques of parliamentary review.
Consumption Levels in Canada and the United States, 1947-50
Authors: Due Jean Mann
Published: June 2006

Measures of levels of consumption in various countries are useful not only as means of comparing the utilization of goods and services in the countries concerned but also as partial indicators of the relative levels of welfare and of production in those countries. These indicators are particularly useful in international economic relations for determining contributions to mutual defence, and to the various United Nations organizations. Although the usefulness of these measures is recognized, agreement as to the best method of obtaining these measures has not been reached.

Canada and the United States were chosen for this methodological study of international levels of consumption because of the similarity of modes of living, institutions, economic systems, age and sex distributions of the population, sizes of family, and habits of consumption in the two countries. In addition the author is familiar with both countries and most of the necessary data were available. The study was confined to the period 1947 to 1950 because a series of years is more reliable for purposes of comparison than a single year in this post-war period, and because data for more recent years were not available when the methodology was tested.

A comparison of per capita national and personal incomes in Canada and the United States during the period indicated that Canadian incomes were approximately 66 per cent of American incomes. Average family incomes in the two countries were in about the same relationship; the average Canadian family received $2,233 and the average American family $3,187 in 1948. What, then, was the relative level of consumption in the two countries?
The Efficiency of Competition as an Allocator of Resources: II. External Economies of Consumption
Authors: Kemp Murray C.
Published: June 2006

Economists have long been aware of the interdependence of the consumption and the consumption plans of individuals. For the most part they have been interested in the implications of this interdependence for the theory of market behaviour rather than in its implications for welfare. The purpose of this article is to give a detailed diagrammatic treatment of the welfare implications of external economies and diseconomies of consumption. In particular, we shall discuss the fiscal measures which, in a competitive economy, would provide the incentives necessary to the attainment of an optimal allocation of resources.

We shall distinguish from each other, and consider separately, three types of interdependence of consumption and consumption plans.

(i) The consumption of a particular commodity X by a particular individual A may increase (decrease) the satisfactions of other individuals, that is, generate external economies (diseconomies).

(ii) The consumption of a particular commodity X may change the satisfactions of other individuals independently of the identity of the consumer.

(iii) The receipt of money income by a particular individual A may, independently of his manner of disposal of the income, change the satisfactions of other individuals.

No doubt this classification is not exhaustive. Thus no place is found for various external repercussions of consumption which might be discussed in a dynamic model, that is, in a model permitting instability of preference maps. Even in static models a place could be found for types of interdependence not discussed here. Many of these excluded types, however, can be described as combinations of those already enumerated (for example, a particular act of consumption may lower the satisfaction of some, raise that of other individuals) and can be treated by the techniques to be developed for their analysis.
The Ideas of Henri Bourassa
Authors: O'Connell M. P.
Published: June 2006

The purpose of this paper is to sketch briefly some aspects of Bourassa's political and social thought and to indicate in particular a few of the influences shaping his complex mentality. With the historical detail of his public career, and of the Nationalist movement which he led in the first two decades of this century, the paper is not directly concerned. Nor is any attempt made to reach a final estimate of his influence or significance in Canadian politics.

The difficulties in examining Bourassa's ideas are many and arise not only from his radical temperament and tendency to over-statement. They spring also from his great sensitivity to the intellectual and emotional currents of his day which found expression in innumerable pamphlets, speeches, and editorials in his newspaper of ideas and combat, Le Devoir, founded in 1910. Difficulties are implicit in the complicated nature of the task he sought to perform. For he set out, at the turn of the century, and with a sense of the opening of a new era in the historic development of the French-Canadian people, to re-examine every aspect of his people's situation; political, social, economic, moral, religious, and intellectual. He proposed to expound principles basic to their social thought and action in a new set of circumstances.

Three main elements in the new era were of special concern. First was the impact upon Canada of the new imperialism, opening up prospects of direct involvement in imperial wars in an age of mounting imperial rivalries, and threatening, moreover, so he believed, to undermine toleration of cultural and ethnic difference in Canada. A second major change in circumstance was the rapid development after 1900 of the Canadian West on the basis of a large immigrant population of diverse peoples, posing grave difficulties to the achievement of the ideal of a dual nationality throughout Canada. Finally, he became much concerned with the deeper significance to French-Canadian nationality of the whole complex of adaptations—ideological, moral, economic, and social—being made in response to the coming of North American urban industrialism to the province of Quebec.
Adolescent Bureaucracy: Some Features of the Canadian Civil Service before Confederation
Authors: Hodgetts J. E.
Published: June 2006

The poet Thomas Gray certainly did not have civil servants in mind when he penned the lines:
Let not Ambition mock their useful toil,Their homely joys, and destiny obscure; …Nor you, ye proud, impute to these the fault,If Mem'ry o'er their tomb no trophies raise.

Nevertheless, his words seem to be a most fitting epitaph for those public servants who lived between 1840 and 1867 in the United Canadas. Our historians and sculptors have rescued most of our leading politicians from oblivion, but a great web of silence has been woven around the personalities and labours of our bureaucrats. It will be argued in this paper that this silence is quite unjustified. It will be argued further that this neglect of the civil service by our historians has resulted in the presentation of an incomplete picture of the attainment of responsible government in Canada. A third set of observations deals with the shadowy area dividing administration from politics, that is, dividing the ministerial head from his highest permanent advisers. Obviously this selection of topics is not designed to provide a comprehensive and complete survey of the state of our public services before Confederation. What follows is, rather, a series of impressions, deliberately undocumented, which are advanced as a basis for subsequent discussion.
The Formative Years of the House of Commons, 1867–91
Authors: Ward Norman
Published: June 2006

The practice of criticizing political institutions on the basis of their efficiency as pieces of machinery is so widespread in political science today that it is sometimes difficult to remember that institutions may be as important for what they are as for what they do. An elected legislature, in its scrutiny of governmental affairs, not only represents the dominant sections of the electorate that returned it; it also reveals, through the nature of its own organization, their attitudes towards the elected legislature and its place in their society. An appraisal of the capacities and incapacities of a legislature would be at best incomplete if it paid no attention to the beliefs and traditions reflected therein, for it would ignore the obvious truth that the quality of the legislature's work was conditioned by its social environment. In the paragraphs that follow, the emphasis is not upon performance, although that is not overlooked, but upon the legislature as a social entity, as a mirror in which one can see an important part of a community.

The Canadian House of Commons during its early years offered the unusual and interesting spectacle of a legislature engaged in threshing out great issues while the legislative machinery itself was still under construction. Debates on important matters concerning the country at large ran parallel with acrimonious discussions about the nature and function of the House of Commons and its organization, and the government frequently tried (by providing, for instance, that each province was to obtain its due proportion of Commons' clerkships) to make the House a significant factor in the settling of disputes. Many institutions of the House (the speakership, the Hansard, and the Library, to name but a few) took their initial form as a result of forces which often bore little relation to legislation and debate.
An Analysis of Multiple-Employer Collective Bargaining Based on Three Case Studies
Authors: Eastman Sheila MacQueen
Published: June 2006

Multiple-employer collective bargaining includes all systems of bargaining in which representatives of a number of separate firms act as a group in negotiating with representatives of their workers. The group negotiations need not cover the whole content of the contracts signed by the participating companies, nor does the group action necessarily extend from negotiation to administration of the collective bargaining contract. The employers' bargaining unit may be of any size. Industry-wide bargaining is only one form of multiple-employer bargaining; characteristics of multiple-employer bargaining are also present, although sometimes less pronounced, in local or district bargaining systems.

A significant proportion of the collective bargaining systems in Canada are organized on a multiple-employer basis. The Department of Labour estimated that in 1946, 26 per cent of all workers under collective agreements were covered by agreements negotiated by associations or groups of employers. The ratio would be 46 per cent if workers covered by agreements extended under the Collective Agreement Act of Quebec were included. The relative importance of multiple-employer collective bargaining is probably much the same today.
Marxist Theory and Scientific Methods
Authors: Mayo H. B.
Published: June 2006

Many social theories have been called scientific, but no one has insisted more than Marx on the scientific nature of his system of thought. It is the purpose of this article to examine the ambitious claim of Marxism to be the only real science of society. Dialectical materialism may be omitted from consideration since it concerns not science but philosophy (or even metaphysics), and in any case it is the Marxist social theory, or historical materialism, for which the claim of science is most insistently made.

There is no need to give here the details of Marx's historical materialism. The main point to be kept in mind is Marx's assumption, lying behind the entire body of his theory, that history and society move according to a pattern of knowable laws, the so-called “laws of motion” of society; and that Marx claims to have done nothing more than to have laid bare these laws. If Marx is right he obviously ranks as the greatest social scientist of all time. If he is not right he is a misguided and fanatical genius who has led man's thought up a long blind alley.

A preliminary word on the application of scientific methods to the study of society may not be out of place. The purposes of study, whether in the natural or social sciences, are the same: to explain how, to accomplish a practical result, or to predict. These three criteria may also be used to test a scientific theory. There are of course certain special difficulties in the social sciences, difficulties arising (to select from many reasons) because of the nature of the data, or because inference may so easily be confused with fact, or because merely studying the behaviour of people and publishing the results may affect the very behaviour being studied.
Social Credit Measures in Alberta
Authors: Whalen Hugh
Published: June 2006

The economic theory implied by the terms “New Economics,” “Douglasism,” and “Social Credit” rests on the plea that the present economic system is inherently defective; that capitalism has a “mechanical” flaw which assures in any given period a flow of purchasing power almost always less than the flow of prices. As a consequence there is a surplus of goods; a surplus, that is, only in relation to consumers' capacity to purchase and not in their capacity to consume. Major Douglas asserts that the deficiency of purchasing power is not periodic or accidental, but is chronic and ever present. He attributes the cause of the deficiency to the following factors: first, current banking practice which permits private banks to create and destroy credit at will; second, the process of saving and investment; and third, the difference of “circuit velocity between cost liquidation and price creation” which results in charges being carried over into prices from a previous cost-accountancy cycle. It has been pointed out repeatedly that each of these assumptions is of questionable validity.

In logical sequence to the hypothesis that capitalism produces a surplus of goods which consumers cannot purchase, Social Credit proposals for reform are designed to inject purchasing power into the consumption stream: in a word, to make consumption equal production. This can be achieved, it is stated, by introducing a “just-price” mechanism and by augmenting personal incomes through the issuance of “national dividends.” The “just” or “assisted price” is conceived as an arithmetic ratio (total national consumption over total national production) which is to be the means of deciding, from time to time, in what proportion the retail price level will be reduced.