bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Effects of the War on the Concept of National Interest
Authors: Keirstead B. S.
Published: June 2006

Economists of the past century generally believed that, beneath the appearance of social conflict, there was a fundamental harmony, if not identity, of economic interest, and that this harmony of interest existed not only for different social classes and occupational groups, but also for different regions within a nation state and even for different nation states themselves. This belief in a universal community of interest, which led to the notion of a world policy which would serve human welfare conceived as a whole, rested on certain explicit and implied articles of faith, viz. (1) on the proposition derived from Pareto's law, that all social classes benefit from an increase, and suffer from a diminution, of the national real income; (2) on the assumption of mobility of labour and capital within the national state and even across international borders; (3) on the laissez-faire theory of international trade, which invoked the principle of comparative advantage; (4) on the belief that competitive private enterprise, if left alone, naturally achieved the maximization of production along the most economic lines. Competition among sellers led to the adoption of the most efficient processes and the extension of production to the point of least profitability, that is, to the point where the least efficient firm in the industry earned no profits above “normal” interest on capital and average wages of management. Competition among buyers was likewise an operative principle for social good, for it resulted in the allocation of the productive resources so as to satisfy in the order of their importance the most urgent social wants. A final assumption was that social welfare, consisting of the sum of satisfactions, could be measured in pecuniary terms. Thus an addition to the money income of a large group was held more than to offset the real sacrifices of any small group, regardless of the level of subsistence enjoyed by the two groups before the change occurred. The natural corollary of these assumptions was that the test of national policy was its effect on the national real income. But this could not always be determined or, with respect to future policy, accurately predicted. Since, however, profitability was regarded both as the guide to the most urgent in the hierarchy of social wants and as the single stimulus to increased production, it was believed that the anticipation of high profits was a rough and ready indication of an increase in the national real income. Hence profitability was the criterion of welfare and the compass of national policy. In policy so conceived and so directed all classes were held to have a common interest.
Early Theories of Parliamentarism
Authors: Eulau Heinz H. F.
Published: June 2006

In contrast to the numerous expositions and commentaries concerning the origin, history, and nature of the doctrine of the separation of powers, early theories of parliamentary government have failed to attract the attention of historians of political thought. This negligence arises from two factors which must not be under-estimated. In the first place, it is generally asserted that Walter Bagehot was the first to appreciate the true nature of parliamentarism. Indeed, the penetration and lucidity of his famous essay on the English constitution overshadowed earlier attempts to grasp theoretically the mechanism of parliamentary government. In the second place, historians of political theory have been less prone to trace the roots of the theory of parliamentarism than those of the doctrine of the separation of powers because parliamentary government, although gradually introduced into a number of countries in the course of the nineteenth century, was not reduced to writing in any organic law prior to the World War. The development of the theory of parliamentary government is, therefore, one of the most neglected chapters in the history of constitutional ideas.

While the English to the end of the fifties of the last century looked upon and appraised their constitution through the eyes of Montesquieu, Blackstone, and De Lolme, continental theorists were busy in elaborating a new theory about the nature of the English constitution. The early history of parliamentary theory is determined, therefore, to no small extent by the way in which continental theorists observed and conceived the operation of English government. It was in France and Germany that the true nature of the English constitution was first discovered and a theory of parliamentarism formulated for the direct purpose of introducing the parliamentary system into those two countries.
An Introduction to Canadian Agricultural History
Authors: Fowke V. C.
Published: June 2006

The Dominion government's wheat policy for 1941-2 has been widely interpreted as marking the end of a great Canadian agricultural era. Historians, sporadically interested in Canadian agriculture, have emphasized the significance of events which occurred just over a decade ago, and have thought them sufficiently important to mark the end of the latest agricultural period. It is impossible yet to measure the relative importance for Canadian agriculture of war-created conditions as compared with those of the pre-war years. A decade more or less is of little consequence in relation to eras, and a lengthening of perspective forces us to recognize that the position of agriculture within the Canadian economy has changed markedly since 1920, and continues to change. Many factors such as drought and world depression, and possibly the far-reaching impact of the present war, have served to shrink the stature of the wheat economy; but, more particularly, the phenomenal rise since 1920 of the newer staples, minerals and newsprint, is placing the wheat economy and Canadian agriculture in general in a position of shrunken relative importance, despite record wheat acreage and production for the biennium 1939-40.

The main purposes of this paper develop in relation to the above considerations. Now is an obvious time to take stock in the field of Canadian agricultural history, and to note what research has been done. Since, however, bibliography requires some frame of reference, it is necessary to postulate something of the historical role of agriculture within the Canadian economic framework, and to use this hypothesis as a guide for the arrangement and evaluation of relevant materials. This approach is at once a method of analysis and a plea that agricultural history be not thought to consist solely in changing censuses of rural populations and farm stock, in acres cultivated and bushels produced. Detailed studies in agricultural history should be designed to integrate rather than to atomize the field.
Consumer Rationing in Great Britain
Authors: Richardson J. Henry
Published: June 2006

The problem reviewed in this article is restricted to organized compulsory systems for ensuring the regular distribution of specified quantities of commodities or groups of commodities to consumers. Systems of rationing goods to producers or traders or of determining priorities or allocations to them are not considered, even though they result in shortages to consumers. Nor is attention directed to voluntary schemes of rationing introduced to meet shortages by retailers who may decide to sell the commodities concerned only to their regular customers or to allow each customer only a small amount of the commodity. Voluntary methods may be adequate for dealing with shortages of less essential goods or with temporary shortages of necessaries, but are not effective for meeting continuing shortages of necessaries. Such systems are distinct from that of consumer rationing, and would require separate review, which in dealing with Great Britain would be concerned with Limitation of Supplies Orders by which traders receive only a fraction of their peace-time supplies, and with the consequences of such Orders.

Consumer rationing has its greatest value where supplies of necessaries are short and are yet available in sufficient quantity to give each consumer a reasonable amount if supplies are equitably distributed. Until rationing is introduced shortages result in rush to buy supplies so that the shortage is aggravated. Some purchasers who have time and money go round from shop to shop buying such quantities as they can obtain to build up a private stock, and thus deprive others of their fair share of the limited supply. Queues are formed outside the shops and much annoyance and uneasiness results. These and other difficulties are avoided when rationing is introduced, and the psychology of the public towards the shortage is improved.
Some Aspects of Currency Depreciation
Authors: Allely J. S.
Published: June 2006

In the decade following 1929 all currencies of the world, save the Albanian franc, have undergone either devaluations in terms of gold or exchange restrictions tantamount to devaluations. These changes reflect not only the depreciation of several originally overvalued currencies to equilibrium, but also a nearly complete round of successive depreciations of individual currencies to temporary undervaluation. Each such undervaluation has set in motion forces tending to restore equilibrium, through rising supply and demand schedules in the undervalued-currency country, falling supply and demand schedules in the overvalued-currency countries, counter-depreciation in the latter countries and sometimes adverse tariff action. The proportions in which the effects have been divided among these four channels have differed among countries; consequently with the end of the round of depreciations, the re-establishment of something like equilibrium of exchange rates has come about without having involved equal degrees of devaluation by all countries. Thus the new exchange rates differ from those of 1929 in many ways additional to those necessary to cancel the disequilibrium of that year. That, toward the end of this decade, something like equilibrium of the major exchange rates has been established, is indicated by agreements that sharply limit the possibility of further depreciations to under-valuation and even the possibility of depreciations to counteract over-valuations which may arise in the future from changes in international reciprocal demand, etc. It is now opportune to examine the effects of these depreciations of the past decade upon the prosperity of the countries concerned.
The Impact of Fiscal Policy on National Income
Authors: Somers Harold M.
Published: June 2006

The past decade has witnessed a growing recognition of the economic effects of government finance. Government expenditures and revenues, government borrowing and debt repayment are studied, not for their impact on the Treasury, but for their impact on the economy. It is recognized now more than ever before that each aspect of government finance may be used as an instrument of economic policy to influence the size of the nation's income or alter the character of the nation's output. At first the problems of the depression and now the necessities of the war have converted “government finance” into “fiscal policy.” The theory of fiscal policy, reborn in the depression, nurtured during the recovery and matured in the war, has become the handmaiden of the government official and the political economist.

In spite of the great amount of attention it has received, the theory of fiscal policy still lacks complete co-ordination of its various faculties and still suffers from frequent reversion to its childhood days. During the time of deep depression when the multiplier theory was developed it was taken for granted by many economists that deficits were the appropriate instrument for raising the level of national income. Since widespread unemployment and underemployment existed there was little need for differentiating real from money income, since a general rise in prices was not very likely and, in any case, was desirable. During the war, however, we wish to raise only the real income or the physical output, and then only the output of war materials, and keep down as much as possible the money national income and the price level. How must the theory of fiscal policy be changed as a result of these new objectives and altered conditions? And when the war is over will we have to resort to deficit-spending to prevent a depression? Are deficits, which were required to raise the level of national income, appropriate for maintaining a high level of national income? We must exercise the greatest care in answering these questions and we must guard against glibly applying some ready formula which we ourselves have carried over from the pre-war days of business depression. It is necessary first of all to examine the structure of fiscal policy (Part i) and trace through the interrelations among expenditures, taxation, borrowing, debt repayment, and national income (Part ii). Then we can see how fiscal policy may be used to achieve desired ends and avoid dangerous pitfalls during the war (Part iii) and in the post-war period (Part iv).
The Economic Problems of Canadian Agriculture in the War and Post-War Period
Authors: Booth J. F.
Published: June 2006

Experiences during other war and post-war periods indicate that there is a close relationship in the field of economics between what happens during the war and what comes after it. In no division of our national economy is that more evident than in agriculture. It seems appropriate, therefore, to begin a paper such as this with a discussion of what is happening now—with the problems that are being encountered as the war progresses. This will provide a background for the consideration of some questions that may arise in the period following the war. The discussion of these invites consideration of steps that might be taken to deal with them. Some references will therefore be made to the latter although the treatment will, of necessity, be sketchy.

Prices and Income. First among the matters of concern to farmers now is the question of prices and income. It is not a new problem. For some years prior to this war the prices of farm products had been low relative to the prices of things farmers buy. This has been said so often that one may be accused of labouring the point to mention it again. It is a matter that must be appreciated, however, if one would understand the reason for some of the difficulties now being experienced by farmers.

For fourteen out of the twenty years, from 1920 to 1939 inclusive, the prices of farm products were below the prices of commodities in general. Even though the technique of farming has improved and costs have been reduced in the meantime, the returns have been insufficient to maintain the industry on a basis comparable with earlier years or with the status of many industries. It is not surprising, therefore, that there should be some mur-murings of dissatisfaction with efforts to prevent prices from rising, even though some farm products have been exempted from ceiling regulations or have been given special consideration in one way or another.
Reconstruction in Canada: A Note on Policies and Plans
Authors: Brady A.
Published: June 2006

This brief article is concerned with the steps taken by the Dominion government to re-establish in civil life those who enter the armed forces of Canada, and to prepare economic and social policies for the post-war period. Provinces and municipalities also have obviously a role to play in reconstruction. I make no attempt here to examine that role, or to evaluate such extremely fragmentary schemes as may already be formulated.

The first responsibility of the Dominion government regarding reconstruction is to re-establish in civil life members of the armed forces, and already plans for this phase of reconstruction are well advanced. In December, 1939, a special committee of the Cabinet was constituted by Order in Council to examine “the problems which will arise from the demobilization and the discharge from time to time of members of the forces during and after the conclusion of the present war, and the rehabilitation of such members into civil life.” This committee duly formed an advisory interdepartmental committee, known as the General Advisory Committee on Demobilization and Rehabilitation, and sub-committees were organized to cope with specific portions of the subject. The net result of this varied committee activity was the formulation of specific policies which successively became implemented by Orders in Council or by Acts of parliament. An extensive and on the whole generous system for the wel-fare of the veteran emerged, with provision for pensions, hospitalization of the disabled, post-discharge allowances and treatment, vocational training, transitional re-establishment benefits, re-establishment in civil employment, allowances for resumption of interrupted education, allowances while await-ing returns from private enterprise or awaiting employment, and settlement on the land. Lessons have been gleaned from the experience of the last post-war period, and a praiseworthy attempt is made to avoid former mistakes.
The Price System and the War Economy
Authors: Bates Stewart
Published: June 2006

The shape and content of the paper may be outlined in the beginning. It has three parts. The first suggests that the war economy is essentially distinctive. The transformation of life and purposes in war involves a revaluation of the factors into which we customarily subdivide the consideration of the social organization—the political, the administrative, the technical, and the economic. In its essence the war economy, concerned with victory not individual wants, strengthens the administrative, the technical and political, factors and reduces the importance of the economic as we know it. The ordinary economic criteria no longer apply. This raises the question discussed in the second part of the paper, the place of the price system in a war economy. In the private economy, the price system was the key to the distribution of resources, and in previous wars governments made the transformation to war mainly by acting on the price system via finance, by fiscal policies that expanded taxes, loans, and government expenditures and that thereby secured the re-allocation of resources. But this method and all its implications require reconsideration as a method of transition from peace to war, because the war economy is now so distinctive and because even in recent peace-time the price system was ceasing to be a satisfactory allocator of resources. The third section discusses the inapplicability of certain economic criteria in a war economy. The implications of this are left to the academic economist himself.
Recent Trends in Consumption
Authors: Stocking S. B.
Published: June 2006

This is the report of an attempt to learn something about the effect of the war on the pattern of consumption in Canada—that is, on the changes caused by the war in the way people spend their money. Everyone knows, of course, that we as a country have had more money to spend since the war started than we had before, and it is possible to estimate the amount of the increase with a fair degree of confidence. The question of how this increased purchasing power has been used is a great deal harder to answer because of the limited statistical evidence. Nevertheless, it is a rather important part of any evaluation of the effect of the war on the economy, and in spite of the limited basis for conclusion, well worth looking into.

Most discussion about the effect of the war on consumer purchases has hinged about the so-called luxury items, and especially about automobiles. There is one school of thought which says that Canadian consumers are tending to defeat the war effort by their insistence on buying more and more of these luxury items instead of putting their money into war savings. Others, seeing somewhat the same ultimate result, place the blame on business men, and say that their pleas for “business as usual” really mean “twice as much business as usual”; these people feel that the makers and sellers of luxury items are guilty of sabotaging the war effort.
Taking Stock of Federalism in the United States
Authors: Macmahon Arthur W.
Published: June 2006

Federalism is not the least of interests shared by Canada and the United States. The elements of likeness and unlikeness exist in a balance that makes comparison profitable, although such comparison is allowed to remain implicit in the following survey of trends in the United States. To discuss in Canada the federalism of another country, of course, is to carry to Newcastle the ashes of its own coals, so greatly are all federal systems in debt to the monumental inquiry of the Royal Commission on Dominion-Provincial Relations. No similar focus yet enlightens the analysis of federal problems in the United States.

The temper of the United States is incorrigibly one of contrivance. The brevity of the constitution leaves it essentially unwritten. Of the obstacles of the formal amending process, of course, it can no longer quite be said, as Frank J. Goodnow put the matter in 1911, that “the constitution of the United States is, on account of the complicated procedure and the large majorities required, very difficult, if not impossible, of amendment under ordinary conditions.” After forty-three years without an amendment, six have been ratified since 1913. But the habit of relying on adjustment by interpretation is deep. The Supreme Court controversy in 1937 would have found the country at a loss to suggest just how it would amend the Constitution if the discussion as a practical matter had taken that turn. Students of government are sometimes irked by the atmosphere that takes for granted the necessity of advance by accommodation; mostly, however, their lives are spent on detailed inquiries that merely deepen the assumption. In recent years the impact of events abroad has challenged them to identify and to reaffirm the fundamentals of popular government. But the effect of these events has been to throw the United States back upon its constitutional tradition. The mood will last, it is admitted, only so long as there is movement and vigour. Never has the constitutional system of the United States been more fluent. Paradoxically, this condition encourages the survival of the old reliance on piecemeal adaptation.
Canada and the Balance of World Power
Authors: MacKay R. A.
Published: June 2006

Political science has not yet advanced, if indeed it ever will, to the stage where accurate measure of contemporary forces is possible; much less can it be used to predict the future. Since I deal with both the present and the future my remarks are largely a venture in political speculation rather than a discourse on political science. But I make no apology for the subject. Canada faces a difficult and dangerous future. It is our primary duty as citizens of a democracy to face the stark realities of the present crisis, and to attempt as best we can to assess this significance for our country. It is particularly the duty of those of us who by reason of our vocation can snatch time for leisured thought amid a world given over to violent action.

In the quiet days before Munich we were wont to classify Canadians who had anything to say about the external policy of their country as “imperialists,” “collectivists,” “isolationists,” or “traditionalists.” Few, if any, Canadians fitted neatly into these pigeon-holes, but the classification was convenient for distinguishing between different trends or schools of thought. But whether these were possible alternatives of policy in the pre-Munich days, it is obvious that they no longer have much validity. We have passed from the apparently static world of the twenty years' armistice to the dynamic world of the present. In war there can be only one foreign policy and that the vigorous prosecution of the war. In the post-war world our freedom of choice may be scarcely less limited.
The Select Committee on the Civil Service, 1938
Authors: Dawson R. MacGregor
Published: June 2006

The reform of the Canadian civil service in 1918 largely destroyed the influence which the members of Parliament had been able to exert on the administrative personnel; but it apparently did not diminish their interest in the subject. Some wanted to keep in touch with the service because they hoped to discredit reform and abolish the merit system; others wished to assure themselves that their relinquishment of power did not result in its unfair use by someone else; others desired to improve the service by studying its faults in order to provide remedies which would make it more effective. The result of these mixed and even conflicting motives has been that the members have been unusually sensitive to the faults and needs of the service, and unusually desirous of keeping themselves informed of its condition. The obvious device for carrying out this purpose has been the parliamentary committee, and this form of collective surveillance has been used no less than seven times since 1918. The Royal Commission, which used to be the recognized instrument for conducting enquiries into the service, has at the same time fallen into desuetude, only one, the Beatty Commission of 1930, having been appointed in the past twenty years.
An Approach to War Finance
Authors: Plumptre A. F. W.
Published: June 2006

The first purpose of this article is to outline an approach to war finance which probably receives the approval of most economists, but which has seldom if ever been set down in black and white. This approach is that of a balance between the expansive and restrictive forces operating on money incomes. An alternative approach is the popular three-fold division of the subject into “taxation, borrowing, and inflation”; and it is argued at the end of the article that this approach is likely to be misleading. Certainly it is often misused. But before discussing the “three-fold division” it is convenient to see what light the “balance of forces” approach throws on the role of war loans and of central banking operations. The approach itself is probably more widely understood than are its implications in these directions.

No attempt is made to explain why taxation is generally preferable to borrowing or why inflation is to be avoided. That ground is by now sufficiently familiar. This article proceeds on the assumption that taxation will be used as far as it can be without damage to civilian morale and business incentive, but that a considerable amount of borrowing will be required nevertheless. The assumption is also made that inflation is undesirable. This is a point on which economists seem to have reached general agreement. Yet it is not beyond dispute; nor would the present writer wish to interpret the policy very rigorously.
Inter-Temporal Relations of Demand and Supply Within the Firm
Authors: Reder M. W.
Published: June 2006

This paper consists primarily in the application of a rather simple diagrammatic technique to several problems in the theory of imper-fect competition which have either been neglected or which have previously submitted only to very powerful (and complicated) mathematics. In the first section of the paper we shall examine several instances where the demand schedules for a firm's output are dependent upon the prices the firm pays (and/or the quantities that it uses) for the factors of production which it hires. The second section of the paper will contain an analysis of “monopoly over time” together with an application of the technique used in solving this problem to the determination of the optimum output of each product, if the firm produces more than one.
Gross and Net Investment in Canada Tentative Estimates
Authors: MacGregor D. C.
Published: June 2006

This study aims to measure the net investment or savings of individuals and enterprises in Canada. Two methods are available, the inventory or change of stocks method and the production or flow of goods method. The first compares the capital value of all durable goods at the beginning and end of the period in question, at constant prices, the difference being net saving or dissaving (inventories excepted). The sources for this approach consist of balance sheets and other data of the type used in making an estimate of national wealth. The second, the production or flow of goods method, utilizes records of retail sales of durable goods and, where sales data do not exist, figures of production, imports and exports, etc. From these sources the selling value of all durable goods sold or available to be sold, i.e. gross investment, is estimated. From gross investment is subtracted an estimate of the value of durable goods required to maintain existing capital intact. The remainder, which we shall call net investment or net saving (the additional adjective aggregate being taken for granted in both cases), represents the value of the net addition to the stock of durable goods.

To the layman, net investment appears remote from net saving. It can be demonstrated, however, that it does not differ significantly from saving, at any rate for statistical purposes. By saving is meant excess of current income over current outgo. Current outgo is taken to include appropriate charges for depreciation but excludes repayment of debts. Saving or non-current outgo is defined to include many consumers' expenditures for capital goods, as indicated in Table I.
Equilibrium and Wealth: A Word of Encouragement to Economists
Authors: Boulding K. E.
Published: June 2006

When the founder of the science which has become Economics came to write the title-page of his immortal work, he wrote boldly An Enquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. From this it might be thought that Economics was the science of wealth; that it would tell us what are the conditions which make one society wealthy and one poor, or which make for the growth and decline of wealth, in general or in particular. In fact, however, the science has not developed primarily along these lines, in spite of many interesting and important observations on this subject on the part of the standard writers. Especially in these days we seem to be interested not in Plutology—the science of wealth—but in Economy—the science of management, of budgeting, of the distribution of given resources. In other words, our interest has shifted from the study of the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations to the study of equilibrium and disequilibrium.

In many ways this shift of emphasis is regrettable, in spite of the undoubted achievements of equilibrium theory. Part of the loss of prestige from which Economics has suffered is undoubtedly due to this very point. To the general public, equilibrium seems to be a vague and irrelevant ideal. Most governments, and most individuals, would rather be in chronic disequilibrium, and be rich, than be in glorious equilibrium, and be poor. The assumption which frequently underlies economic homiletics—that equilibrium is synonymous with riches and disequilibrium with poverty—is not one which can be long maintained.
Some Aspects of the Canadian Automobile Industry
Authors: McDiarmid O. J.
Published: June 2006

The automobile industry is an outstanding example of branch plant expansion in the international field. Proximity to the American centres of automobile production, the policy of tariff protection pursued in the Dominion, and the similarity of Canadian and American manufacturing methods made possible its rapid extension north of the American border.

Ford of Canada was incorporated with an Ontario charter in 1904 just fourteen months after the establishment of the parent concern in Detroit. (A Dominion charter was secured in 1911.) The initiative in the establishment of a Ford assembly plant in East Windsor seems to have come from a group of Canadian business men, and all the actual capital investment in 1904 came from Canadian sources. The Ford Motor Company of Michigan received 51 per cent of the original stock, in amount $63,500, in consideration for which it agreed to extend to the Canadian concern the privilege of using in perpetuity all patents, improvements, and devices used to produce Ford products in the United States. This privilege included the use of such rights in Canada, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, and some minor British possessions. In the formation of General Motors of Canada the initiative again came from Canada. The McLaughlins of Oshawa, formerly carriage manufacturers, were instrumental in starting the manufacture of the Buick car in 1907. They contributed substantial properties to the enterprise and, for a time, appear to have retained a majority interest in the concern's stock; but the General Motors Corporation of Canada, which grew out of the McLaughlin Motor Car Company, is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of the American concern.
French and English in the Economic Structure of Montreal
Authors: Hughes Everett C. , McDonald Margaret L.
Published: June 2006

We propose to examine herein the position of the French and the English in the hierarchy of the economic structure. Not occupation as such, but positions of control are the centre of interest. Something of what we have in mind is indicated in the following quotation: “[Since] economic activity is quite as much organized through systems of administrative or canalizing controls as it is by the market, it is impossible to outline the structure of American economy without covering the structure of such controls. … In the conduct of economic activity the controls exercised by individuals or groups arise from three main sources: possession of one or more of the factors of production, possession of liquid assets, and position in relation to a functioning organization.”

It is common knowledge among the residents of Quebec that the English exercise a greater share of financial control than their proportion of the population would warrant. The English and French are quite conscious of this difference and each have their accepted clichés for describing or explaining it. As yet no detailed analysis has been made of the measure of this financial control or of the ways in which it has been exercised. Nor has any previous study shown just how important the ethnic factor is in the structure of financial control. In this study our analysis is confined to Montreal.
The Canadian Agricultural Tariff of 1843
Authors: Jones Robert Leslie
Published: June 2006

Upper Canada acquired a wheat-growing reputation during the 1830's comparable to that of the Genesee Valley or of Ohio. At that time, it was remarked, “the great and almost sole object of serious interest to the Canadian farmer was to grow wheat as largely, and to repeat the crop as frequently, as any decent return could be obtained.” Nor was this unreasonable. Lord Durham was informed that “in Upper Canada, the whole of the great peninsula between Lakes Erie and Huron, comprising nearly half the available land of the province, consists of gently-undulating alluvial soil, and with a smaller proportion of inferior land than probably any other tract of similar extent in that part of North America, is generally considered the best grain country on that continent.” The red and white winter wheats grown in Upper Canada in a favourable season, when exported to Great Britain, were “spoken of by millers as a grain of superior quality” and “brought the highest prices the markets would afford.” Finally, the merchants in many places were accustomed to pay cash for wheat, while they would receive other products only in trade. When he had a steady market, the wheat farmer had cause for thanksgiving; but all too often he lacked it.

The ordinary market for the surplus wheat and flour of the Canadas was the United Kingdom, but the amounts exported fluctuated widely from one year to the next. Poor crops or good crops, increases in acreage, and especially the capricious Corn Laws, were the determining factors.
Canada in Perspective
Authors: Dawson C. A.
Published: June 2006

On these annual ceremonial occasions it has been customary to have an Economist look at Economics, a Statistician discuss the role of Statistics, the Historian look at History, or all the Social Scientists look concertedly at some synthetic product called Social Science. There have been some exceptions to this type of procedure. I shall take my cue from the latter and discuss some matters in the Canadian scene in which the various Social Sciences have a common interest.

Canada's Population Possibilities. In the first place, let us consider Canada's population. In recent years we have heard much about the so-called over-populated and under-populated countries. The crudest form in which notions of this kind are presented is in terms of number of people per square mile of land surface. By this device Canada's 2½ per square mile seems to demonstrate obvious under-population as compared with England's 390, forgetting that this 390 involves resources not only at home but also abroad. We seem to be on safer ground when we take arable land surface as a base for presenting population densities. Then Canada seems not so vacant with 121 to the square mile. The arable land index should be supplemented by indices of available minerals and closely allied items. Such measuring rods could be extended to include (1) real income trends for the country as a whole as well as for its varied occupations, (2) the employment index, and (3) trends in population growth. These merely suggest some of the indices that could be used to make comparisons of population pressure on the living space of different countries.
The Canadian Party System in Transition
Authors: Underhill F. H.
Published: June 2006

The Canadian Political Science Association, half-way through the second year of the Century of the Common Man, naturally devotes some of its attention to the prospects of democracy in our own country. It is fitting that we should inquire into what has been happening to our party system, for we have had as long an experience as most modern countries in the working of popular political parties as part of the machinery of democracy, and our experience should be of some significance to other peoples as well as to ourselves. How little systematic study has been done on this subject, however, is brought home to a Canadian after he has lived for a time in the United States and has had to try to answer Americans when they ask for books on the principles, organization, and history of Canadian parties, such as they produce so abundantly on their own parties. It might not be a bad idea, therefore, to begin this paper with some reference to recent American discussions of their party system. One can usually derive from a study of American experience the most useful categories of thought in which to arrange our own Canadian experience. And American books on democracy in general and on political parties as one of the techniques of democracy have been pouring from their presses in great profusion in recent years.

American study of the subject of political parties in America has now reached the stage at which text-books digesting for university undergraduates the conclusions of the experts are almost as standardized as American motor-cars. When one reads the new ones that appear with each new publishing season one gets a strong impression that the chief reason for the new publication is not the author's urge to throw fresh light on the subject but simply the reason which produces new text-books in most subjects, namely the urge to supplement a meagre salary by a comfortable income from royalties.
War-time Problems of Local Government
Authors: Curtis C. A. , Chatters Carl H.
Published: June 2006

This paper is an attempt to relate briefly the impact of the Canadian war organization on local governments in Canada; most of the experience and fact are derived from the Province of Ontario although they apply in large measure to the municipalities throughout Canada. In the course of the paper some criticisms will be made, not for the sake of being critical, but in the hope that they may influence coming developments.

In view of the confusion that seems to exist concerning the functions of municipal government, the division of constitutional powers in Canada is relevant and may be reviewed briefly. The British North America Act formally establishes only two divisions of government—the Dominion and the provinces. The provinces, under section 92, sub-section 8, are given exclusive power over “municipal institutions in the Province.” Certain other matters of local importance such as licences, charities, hospitals, and asylums, are also given to the provinces. These specific items along with the allocation generally of “all matters of a merely local or private nature” have been taken as indicating that the traditional social services in the first instance are a provincial responsibility although in fact they have been shared with the local government from the beginning. It is thus clear from the British North America Act that municipal institutions are under the province and are legally the creation of the province. Naturally, the experience has not been the same in all provinces and some have gone further than others in the development of local government. But one thing is clear: the provinces are familiar with the municipal governments which they have created; they have worked with them, they have argued with them, and they understand them. They appreciate that they are, to use the words of the sixteenth-century poet, “a proud and yet a wretched thing.”
Patents in Relation to Monopoly
Authors: Fox Harold G.
Published: June 2006

Francis Bacon long ago pointed out that to know truly is to know by causes. I think it can be said with some measure of accuracy that no one can know the patent system and be capable of judging its merits and defects who does not possess a reasonably intimate knowledge of its historical foundations and development. As Mr. Justice Holmes observed, historic continuity with the past is not a duty but only a necessity and if this be so, in no field is it more applicable than in a consideration of patents and monopolies. The superficial writers of history, and their slavish imitators, have persisted in painting the picture of an English citizenry groaning under the grievous weight of monopolies dispensed with a lavish hand by the Tudor and Stuart sovereigns to greedy and avaricious courtiers and favourites who milked the populace dry with their monopolistic exactions. They point to the Statute of Monopolies of 1624 as a milestone in the history of English law—a statute forced upon a reluctant king in much the same spirit as the little affair at Runneymede four centuries earlier. That is not an accurate view. Monopolies were not all regarded as anathema either by the common law or by Parliament in those early days. If they were for the good of the realm their propriety was never questioned. From this theory evolved the thought that a new invention or the setting up of a new manufacture was a laudable thing and a grant of monopoly to its introducer by an exercise of the Crown prerogative was a beneficial act and did not offend against the principle of the common law which regarded as illegal and in restraint of trade any monopoly which took away any freedom or liberty enjoyed by the public before the grant. From the genesis of this policy stemmed the great influx of alien workmen to England which, commencing in the reign of Edward III, was responsible for the introduction of a number of new trades and manufactures and the transmutation of England from an economy of importation to one of domestic production of manufactured goods. An examination of the patents for new inventions and manufactures granted by Elizabeth and James I will show that to them was owed in large measure the great upsurge in domestic manufacture which accompanied the policy of self-sufficiency inaugurated by Cecil and pursued under James. Whatever criticism may be offered of a few of the monopoly grants, that criticism fades before an appraisal of the benefits conferred by the introduction, under the spur of monopoly patents, of the important inventions and manufacturing which began to appear during the Tudor and Stuart periods.
History of Indian Administration in Canada
Authors: MacInnes T. R. L.
Published: June 2006

On the advent of the European to North America some four centuries ago, the Indian population of what is now Canada, according to the best estimates of anthropologists, was about 200,000. It dwindled following the first shock of contact with civilization with its outriders of vice and disease, and for a time the race seemed fated to die out. Then it began slowly to recover and in recent years it has shown a fairly steady increase; it is now 125,000 in round figures.

It is believed that the Indians came in successive migrations in prehistoric times from North Asia. They are divided into a number of distinct linguistic stocks, and many tribal subdivisions with widely differing physical and psychological characteristics.

Their affairs are administered exclusively by the Dominion government. Under the French régime, the Indians were treated kindly, even benevolently, but the French government never recognized them as having any special legal rights. The British, on the other hand, from their first contact with the Indians of North America recognized an Indian title or interest in the soil, to be parted with or extinguished, only by formal bilateral agreement. This was the beginning of the system of Indian treaties and surrenders which has been the fundamental basis of Indian policy, both in Canada and the United States. At the outset this policy doubtless was dictated in the main by protective motives designed to secure the very necessary goodwill of the warlike natives. As time passed, however, and the Indians ceased gradually to be a threat to the existence of the white settlements, it became an ethical and moral obligation, which on the whole and with some reservations, has been respected and fulfilled in both countries.
The Place of Canada in Post-War Organization
Authors: Claxton Brooke
Published: June 2006

Canada is the fourth industrial power, the fourth naval power, and the fourth air power in the free world. These facts are new, the result of the war. Taken with Canada's membership in the British Commonwealth, her close association with her friendly American neighbour, and her geographical relationship to the Soviet Union, they give her world-wide interests, major responsibilities, and definite opportunities. Canada's resources, geographical position, and dependence on world trade give her a stake in the peace of the world as great as that of any nation.

But whatever may be the position or interests of any nation today, it is clear that the making of peace, the keeping of peace, and, to a lesser degree, the formation and conduct of the numerous functional organizations necessary to conduct business between nations, depend on the attitude of the three major military powers among the United Nations.

What Canada's place will be in post-war international organization depends partly on the nature of the organization and partly on the recognition by our Canadian people of Canada's position and interests. To tell what that place is likely to be we must first try to see what the post-war organization may or should be like, and then estimate where Canada's opinion will stand.