bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Geography the Correlative Science
Authors: Taylor Griffith
Published: June 2006

In the present paper I propose first to discuss the place of geography among the sciences, and then to show how modern geographical technique can be applied with fruitful results in the fields of history, economics, anthropology, sociology, and linguistics.

At the University of Chicago, one of the three leading research institutions in America, the four general divisions of undergraduate study are the social, physical, and biological sciences and the humanities. It was found desirable to give geography a place in the first two divisions, thus emphasizing its liaison character. Indeed the relations between geographical research and such subjects as history and biology are so close that the writer feels that geography might well have been given representation on the boards of all four divisions!
The Barter Terms of Trade between British Columbia and Eastern Canada
Authors: Carrothers W. A.
Published: June 2006

A study of the trade position of the province of British Columbia shows clearly that the major part of the manufactured goods consumed in the province are imported from Eastern Canada, mainly Ontario and Quebec. At the same time the major portion of British Columbia products must be sold in outside markets. Thus British Columbia citizens are directly or indirectly dependent upon the revenue arising from British Columbia exports with which to pay for imports from Eastern Canada. It is obvious, therefore, that if British Columbia export prices fall as a consequence of declining prices on world markets, British Columbia will not be able to purchase Eastern Canadian manufactures to the same extent as formerly unless a corresponding reduction takes place in Eastern Canadian prices. Should British Columbia continue to purchase at the former rate, ultimately a financial strain would be placed on the province. Further, when British Columbia producers find their export prices declining, they must sooner or later make internal adjustments to meet reduced income. As a result, employment and other factors in economic activity will ultimately be adversely affected. Our study of British Columbia's trade position has shown very clearly a definite relation between the general economic activity of the province and world trading conditions.
Land Settlement in Northern Areas of Western Canada (1925-35)
Authors: England Robt.
Published: June 2006

Rural population in the three Prairie Provinces increased from 1921 to 1931 by 17 per cent., and land in farms in these provinces in 1931 totalled 110,000,000 acres, an increase of 23 per cent. since 1921. A study of the census returns reveals that the largest population increases occurred in the northern territory. Rural population in Manitoba has been relatively stable with normal increases in the northern census divisions 14 and 15, while there is a 50 per cent. increase in population—over 10,000—in census division 16 which reflects the mining development of The Pas. When we turn to Saskatchewan we find that the census divisions 9, 10, 14, 15, 16, and 17 had a population of 234,015 in 1921 and the 1931 census lists the population at 308,399, an increase of one-third in the decade. As we move further west we find that in Alberta the census divisions 10, 12, 13, and 14 were rather less than 100,000 in 1921 (95,916) and this increased to 136,308 in 1931, an increase of slightly less than 40 per cent. The Peace River population in census divisions 15 and 16 increased from 18,000 to over 41,000, an increase of over 100 per cent. The census divisions in which Saskatoon and Edmonton are to be found are not included in these figures. Both these cities increased their population heavily in the period.
Dominion Legislation of 1935 an Economist's Review
Authors: Curtis C. A.
Published: June 2006

The legislation of the past session of the Canadian Parliament is of particular interest for three reasons. Firstly, it was a pre-election session; secondly, it witnessed further “anti-depression” efforts; and thirdly it indicated the nature of Mr. Bennett's “reform” programme. The purpose of the present article is to review the legislation passed at this session of Parliament and to attempt a brief analysis of it. Some sixty-six public Acts were passed but not more than twenty will be mentioned by name here, and only a few of these twenty require any detailed discussion. The forty or more undiscussed Acts consist of Supply Bills, minor Acts, and minor amendments to existing statutes. Although it is difficult to draw a precise line between “reform” legislation and any other kind, the analysis here will be in terms of “reform” Acts and of other general Acts. This division allows some general discussion on a topical basis.

In his radio broadcasts in January, 1935, Mr. Bennett announced a programme of “reform” legislation including certain general proposals then outlined, and other legislation arising out of the recommendations shortly to be made by the Price Spreads Commission. The report of the Royal Commission was presented in April, 1935. The legislation originating from these two sources will be discussed under the general heading of “reform”.

First in the “reform list” come the Acts whose constitutionality—because their subject matter is assigned to provincial jurisdiction—depends upon the treaty-making power of the Dominion. The specific Acts so passed are the Employment and Social Insurance Act, the Minimum Wage Act, the Limitation of Hours of Work Act, and the Weekly Rest in Industrial Undertakings Act. The preambles of these Acts indicate clearly that their constitutionality is tied to the treaty-making powers of the Dominion government.
Puritanism and Democracy
Authors: Woodhouse A. S. P.
Published: June 2006

I have been invited to present to you my thesis regarding Puritanism and Democracy in seventeenth-century England. The thesis in question is simple and obvious, though some of its ramifications are (I hope) neither simple nor altogether obvious. The period of the Puritan revolution was one in which religion and even theology dominated the common modes of thought and expression. Lord Acton, who (unlike some historians) was sufficiently unenlightened to know theology when he saw it, described the period as “the middle ages of Protestantism”. It follows that the concepts whether of liberty or of authority which the Puritans developed, can be fully understood only if they are studied in their proper setting, and their native terminology. Dogma formed that terminology and the Puritan church organization constituted the setting. Without denying the validity of other approaches (the constitutional approach for example, in which the liberals have long had their own way, or the economic, in which the Marxists are, I understand, taking theirs)—without denying the usefulness of these approaches, I suggest the value to the student who would know what really happened, of a third, namely the religious approach. For the Puritan concept of democracy, if it did not spring from Puritan religion, at least sprang up in closest contact with it. Puritan religion constituted the climate of opinion in which the concept was born and nourished. The religious approach has one advantage (shared in measure with the constitutional): it can stay within the period under discussion, and it can afford to rest its case on the actual words used. It does not require a transposition of terms, whereby theology is shown to be a roundabout way of saying economics, and St. Mark's gospel gets spelled with an x. Nor does it ask us to make any large assumptions—to believe that Calvin built better than he knew: he intended a church and it turned out to be a bank! One will no doubt be told that some of the theological argument with which the pamphlets in the Thomason Collection are filled, and most of the reasons urged in the Councils of the Army at Putney and Whitehall, are what are now called “rationalizations”, and that we gain nothing by refusing to recognize this fact. So be it. But if these are rationalizations they involve the terms in which the Puritan viewed his world and they rest upon the convictions with which he was prepared to face not only his fellows, but his Maker. We shall gain nothing by brushing those terms and those convictions aside, though to comprehend them requires patient study and a modicum of historical sympathy. “Nothing”, says Lord David Cecil, “is more baffling to the imagination than the religion of another age.”
International Labour Conventions in Australia
Authors: Stewart Robert B.
Published: June 2006

The opinion of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in Attorney-General for Canada v. Attorney-General for Ontario, dealing with the cornpetence of the Dominion Parliament to implement international labour conventions, has received widespread comment not only in Canada and in England but particularly in Australia and even in the United States. The Commonwealth of Australia, like Canada, suffers certain disabilities peculiar to federations, because there, too, the power to legislate on conditions of labour rests in general with the Legislatures of the several states and not with the central Parliament. It is interesting, therefore, to compare Canadian and Australian procedures with respect to international labour conventions.

The Commonwealth constitution contains no exact parallel either to section 132 of the British North America Act, giving to the Dominion express power to perform obligations of Canada arising under treaties made between the British Empire and foreign countries, or to the residuary powers of the Dominion under section 91. The Commonwealth Parliament is endowed with the power of legislation only upon certain enumerated subject-matters, the residuary powers remaining with the states. Somewhat comparable to section 132, however, is the provision in section 51 of the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act that the Parliament of the Commonwealth shall have power “to make laws for the peace, order and good government of the Commonwealth with respect to … (xxix) External Affairs”. In regard to the meaning of this provision a Commonwealth communication of February 26, 1909, was addressed to the secretary of state for the colonies, informing him that the law advisers of the government had expressed the view that the Commonwealth Parliament possessed the power under section 51 (xxix) “to make such legislative provision as is necessary to secure the fulfillment of treaty obligations, and that accordingly the powers of the Commonwealth Parliament are substantially identical with those of Canada”. This interpretation had been reaffirmed by Justice Evatt in 1933.
Labour Organization: A Critical Review
Authors: Logan H. A.
Published: June 2006

I speak as an economist and not as a physical scientist or an engineer. I accept as an accomplished fact, or as a fact in process, that ours is an age of technological advance. I assert that in all this there is only a limited significance unless its benefits come to the masses of the people. The lead that the British nation has given toward industrial democracy over three-quarters of a century through collective bargaining and through the other expressions of the will and desires of the workers is one of the finest achievements of modern civilization. Marching with political democracy and the democratization of education, it represents the most widespread set of benefits, materially and morally, that has come to humanity in our day and the day of our fathers and grandfathers. And I say this in full knowledge of the limited success of the British Labour party while in power in Parliament.

First, the political expression of labour in Britain is a part of the recognized functioning of democracy and as such is freely admitted. Second, the co-operative movement represents in a limited way the democratization of the property institution. Control over the buying and the production is as wide as the membership, and there is no profit running with investment. Third, the organization into unions partakes also of the nature of democracy so far as relations within the unions is concerned. But beyond that, when it comes to dealing with the powerful competing elements in an organized economy, viz., the capital-owning and profit-taking interests, it drops in large measure the democratic methods of discussion and decision and concern for the individual expression of every man. It takes up rather the weapons of the capitalist economy, viz., the concentration of power to drive hard bargains and even to force them upon the other party. Unionism—and I am thinking chiefly of its chief strand, the collective bargaining unionism—assumes a continuing opposition of interest between the propertied and controlling interests on the one hand and labour on the other, and between them battle must be done. That assumption brings in a point of view that is narrower in its compass than a democratic concern for the whole society and a methodology that seeks to elevate a single group with little concern for other sections of the community.
Wheat In Canadian History
Authors: Burton F. W.
Published: June 2006

The principal differentia of the Canadian economy are familiar. Because of the nature of her resources and her situation, Canada depends chiefly upon the production in quantity of a few staple commodities for export to those regions having less specialized resources and more diversified economies. Canada is thus subjected, willy-nilly, to a violent alternation of boom and depression by the fluctuation of demand in her foreign markets. Geography, moreover, has afflicted Canada with a transportation problem, which has two phases: in time of boom, the problem is how to obtain quickly more and cheaper transportation; in time of depression, how to pay out of her shrunken national income the heavy fixed costs incurred by the construction of transportation facilities.
Newfoundland, Economic and Political I. The Amulree Report (1933): A Review
Authors: Plumptre A. F. W.
Published: June 2006

A sorry state of affairs was discovered by the Newfoundland Royal Commission of 1933. This article is a review of its Report. No attempt is made to describe subsequent events or to consider the actual results of the publication of that remarkable document. These matters are treated elsewhere. Here we are only concerned to disclose its substance and to criticize its arguments and recommendations.

The immediate cause of the appointment of the Commission was financial. The government of Newfoundland was unable to meet its obligations. At the end of 1932 the governments of Canada and the United Kingdom had arranged an advance to save Newfoundland from default and a further advance had been made by the United Kingdom on the following first of July (p. 55). This explains why the Commission was appointed by His Majesty on the advice of his ministers in Canada and Great Britain, as well as in Newfoundland. The commissioners were Lord Amulree, a British lawyer with wide experience of official investigations and industrial conciliation, raised to the peerage under the Labour government of 1929-31; Mr. C. A. Magrath, whose most outstanding work had been as chairman of the Canadian section of the International Joint Commission; and Sir William Stavert, who had “had the privilege of establishing the first Canadian Bank, the Bank of Nova Scotia, in the island” (p. 29), whose later banking connections had been with the Bank of Montreal, “bankers of the Government” (p. 45), and who had become in 1932, on the recommendation of the latter bank, the government's “financial advisor” (p. 55). The secretary was Mr. P. A. Clutterbuck of the Dominions Office; and two other British civil servants were also assigned to assist in the Commission's work (p. 233). The whole of the terms of reference consists in the few words: “To examine into the future of Newfoundland and, in particular, to report on the financial situation and prospects therein” (p. 1).
Centre and Circumference in a Tariff Protected Area
Authors: Sandwell B. K.
Published: June 2006

It is a current fashion among economists of certain schools to spend a great deal of time and energy in attempting to ascertain the incidence of a given protective tariff upon some particular fraction of the total area at whose borders it is collected. This is not at all surprising, for economists are nothing if not obliging, and when they find a demand they are usually ready to supply it, just as lawyers when they find a case are usually ready to plead it; and there happens to be a keen demand at the moment for arguments which will support the claims of sections—Canadian provinces, Australian states, innumerable other sorts of local organisms within greater organisms—for better treatment by, or for separation from, their respective central authorities. Those economists who are not busy calculating this tariff incidence as felt by the village of Podunk or the Eastern Townships or the Peace River Valley are equally busy denouncing the methods employed by the other economists in their calculations. And I must say that I think the denouncers are doing the more useful job of the two.
Public Policy in Relation to the Wheat Market
Authors: Griffin H. L.
Published: June 2006

Government attempts to raise the price of wheat have been so widespread during the past six years that some such action by the Canadian government was inevitable. The particular form of Canadian efforts was the result of circumstances. Participation in the London Wheat Agreement came because it was possible to make that Agreement, and probably no other international wheat agreement. The guarantee of operations conducted in the wheat futures market by Canadian Co-operative Wheat Producers Limited, the Central Selling Agency through which the western pools formerly sold their wheat, resulted from the special difficulties of that agency at a particular time. Considering the magnitude and importance of the operations, there has been comparatively little criticism, until recently, of government market intervention although lately there has been controversy with respect to the way in which it has been carried out. It is to be hoped that no difference of opinion as to the correctness of procedure at different times during recent years will obscure consideration of the future course of action.
An Economist Looks at Economics
Authors: Mackintosh W. A.
Published: June 2006

Last year you heard my distinguished predecessor, Dr. Coats, set forth a by-no-means modest claim for statistics in his brilliant address “Statistics Comes of Age”. Sweeping as his claim was, Dr. Coats, by his great organizing and administrative abilities, has established it in this country. That he has through the shifting experiences of more than thirty years of public administration retained his vision and resourcefulness, is evidence of a high courage.

It is now more than a hundred and sixty years since Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, popularly conceived to be the beginning of specialized study of economics, was launched into the world of letters and affairs, and it is about fifty since Economics became a subject of specialized study in Canadian universities. One has only to scan university examination papers of the late eighties, based mainly on John Stuart Mill and Fawcett's little manual, to realize that in form at least the subject has changed profoundly. But what has been accomplished? Is it an instrument or a game that has been fashioned? If an instrument, what are its limitations?

These and related questions have often been asked and answered, and the answers are not always to the economist's liking. Three years ago the then president of this Association asked, “What is left of Adam Smith?” and answered in substance, nothing except the economic man. Avoiding discussion of his exception, and adding one or two of our own, we can accept his answer as broadly not untrue. The implication, however, that modern economics even in rudimentary form is set forth in the Wealth of Nations, needs emphatic denial. As Professor Schumpeter has justly said: “Classical theory has no other claim to its epithet than pristine simplicity.” And yet, the economics of the Wealth of Nations is of a type which the economist's critics would have him adopt—the espousal of a doctrine, the initiation of a movement, propagandizing a policy. Any body of doctrine limited and attached to a policy is necessarily tied to a particular era; most of the Wealth of Nations is now of historical interest only.
Dominion Aids to Wheat Marketing, 1929–39
Authors: Fowke V. C.
Published: June 2006

Dominion aids to Canadian wheat marketing extend back at least to the beginnings of the western wheat trade and have been of three traditional types, viz.: (1) regulation, (2) investigation, and (3) elevator operation on a limited scale. Regulation of the Canadian grain trade has long been of a quality unsurpassed in other grain producing countries and has evolved in recent decades through repeated revisions of the Canada Grain Act. Investigation dealing specifically with the western wheat trade has involved a notable series of royal commissions commencing with the present century. Elevator operation by the Dominion Government started in 1913 with experimentation and compromise as its objects, and the Dominion Government still retains substantial interests in interior and other terminal elevator plants. In addition to the customary federal aids to wheat marketing before 1929, mention should be made of the exceptional intervention accompanying the Board of Grain Supervisors, which marketed part of the 1916 wheat crop and the crops of 1917 and 1918, and the first Canadian Wheat Board, which marketed the crop of 1919.

Important as the above-mentioned aids have been in shaping the destiny of the Canadian grain trade, they form a striking contrast in simplicity compared with the interventions of the decade4 herein considered. Dominion regulation, investigation, and elevator operation have continued to the present time, but the notable innovations in Dominion activity after 1929 lie beyond the traditional categories and include more or less sustained sorties in attempted stabilization, in bonusing, in international consultation, and in various types of wheat board operation. Dominion aids to wheat marketing, of special significance from 1929 to 1939, may therefore be classified as follows: (1) stabilization activities, (2) bonus payments, (3) international consultation and agreement, (4) wheat board operations; and since several important federal investigations of the grain trade took place within the decade, there should be added (5) investigation. These topics have, for the most part, been analysed individually and at short range in various current writings, so that factual material may here be reduced to a minimum and the emphasis placed upon interpretation in perspective.
Judicial Review, Federalism, and the Canadian Constitution
Authors: Clokie H. McD.
Published: June 2006

Thus far in the twentieth century Canadian statesmen have been faced with two major constitutional problems, one relating to external autonomy, the other to internal economy. The first of these was the adaptation of existing governmental procedures in such fashion as to make Dominion nationhood a political reality by institutionalizing the processes appropriate to what is now called “Dominion Status.” The second has been the development of a more closely integrated national economy within the framework of a federal system. It is not necessary to consider the advisability or soundness of pursuing either of these purposes; it is enough for the student of constitutional machinery that they have been widely assumed as desirable ends, pursuit of which is considered to be progress. The very fact, however, that the attainment of these aims has had to be sought consciously in the past twenty-five years, more than half a century after the establishment of the Dominion, indicates that they were hardly in contemplation in 1867. And, as there can be no progress without change, it must be recognized that the progressive fulfilment of Dominion national aspirations, externally and internally, must carry with it very considerable if not almost revolutionary alteration in Canadian constitutionalism.

The obvious purpose of the formulation of the principles of Dominion status was to place each of the Dominions on terms of constitutional equality with Great Britain. If each Dominion had inherited British institutions in their pure form, the result would have been the creation of half a dozen reproductions of the British constitutional system. But no Dominion was actually a simple replica of the British polity, and in consequence the declaration of the new status created almost as many problems as it solved. With regard to the external aspects, the Dominions differed among themselves as to the immediate desirability of the legal consequences of the new status, so the Statute of Westminster, 1931, was drawn in such a way as to apply automatically only to Canada, the Irish Free State, and South Africa; for the other Dominions, the Statute was to come into operation only when adopted by them. So, also, with regard to the internal aspects, special reservations were made in the Statute to protect the constitutional systems of Canada, Australia, and New Zealand from change.
Power Aspects of the St. Lawrence Waterway
Authors: Bonbright J. C.
Published: June 2006

Sometime in the future, I hope that there will be published an exhaustive account of one of the most revealing episodes in the recent history of our two countries. I refer to the propaganda for and against the proposed development of a great navigation and power project on the International Rapids Section of the St. Lawrence River.

Doubtless other political movements in our history have a public significance even greater than that of the St. Lawrence seaway. But the St. Lawrence project probably offers to historians, to political scientists, and to economists, a more illuminating study of the way in which our democracies act, or fail to act, under the drives of conflicting pressure groups and of conflicting social philosophies than does any other political controversy of recent years. This is true because the underlying motives of the people who have taken part in the fight for this project are more clear-cut and less camouflaged than those involved, say, in controversies about the protective tariff, or about the merits of American isolationism versus interventionism in international affairs. So broad is the significance of this case study in the realm of economic and social motives— so critical is its import for our democratic way of life—that I shall return to it later even at the expense of cutting short my comments on the merits of the St. Lawrence project itself.
Technical Advance and Economic Equilibria
Authors: Keirstead B. S.
Published: June 2006

This article is an attempt to apply to certain problems of shifting equilibria some techniques which are familiar to readers of Professor Schumpeter. The problems to be examined are: the effect of a technical advance on the equilibrium position of a single firm which is in a position to adopt the new techniques; the effect of a technical advance on the optimum and typical size of firms in the industry; the social dispersal of benefits from a technical advance; the relation of a technical advance to the rate of investment and the rate of interest; and the implications of technical advance for social policy and the level of welfare.

I wish first to consider the position of a firm in imperfect competition experiencing a technical advance over a period of time. Now, whatever the nature of this firm, there will be a point, at any moment, beyond which increases in output can be achieved only at an increased unit cost. The greater the proportion of fixed to variable costs the further to the right (graphically speaking) this point will be. In industries like railroading the point may be to the right of the relevant sector of the curves because the proportionate decline in fixed costs per unit of output is absolutely so great as to offset rising variable unit costs for any practicable output. However diminishing returns inevitably exist in the rigorous sense that the intensification of the use of fixed plant, at any moment of time, will eventually result in diminished increments of product per unit of variable factor employed, and this implies increasing marginal variable cost. Total unit costs will increase when, with each increase in output, the absolute increases in variable costs exceed the absolute decrees in fixed costs per unit; and we should remember that, though the decline in fixed costs is uniform as a proportionate decline (the fixed unit cost curve is always a rectangular hyperbola of the type xy=k), the absolute decline, as output is increased, becomes less and less. Thus, and this is a commonplace of economic theory, any change in the proportion of fixed to variable costs of the firm, will have a definite effect on the optimum cost point and on whether or not the firm is operating, within any practicable range of output, under increasing or decreasing costs.
The Seventh Census of Population in Canada, 1931
Authors: Woodbury Robert M.
Published: June 2006

The results of the seventh census of population in Canada, taken as of June 1, 1931, are comprised in 14 octavo volumes, of which all except the final volume of maps and graphs and certain monographs to be included in the two volumes of census monographs, have been issued. The present review is confined to the population census proper, including, however, the topics of gainful occupations, earnings, and unemployment; on the other hand, agriculture, merchandising and services, and institutions are omitted. In other words, the present review is limited to volumes I-VII, together with those monographs included in volumes XII and XIII which treat the topics of these seven volumes, so far as the monographs themselves have been issued. The advantage of considering the monographs in connection with the corresponding topics of the census itself is obvious, since the detailed analytical treatment of the former helps to throw into clear light the census findings and adds materially to the value of the results.

An outline of the contents of the several volumes may help to give perspective to the whole subject. Volume I contains, in addition to the administrative summary of the work of the census, a brief analysis and comment on each of the major subjects covered by the census, together with a selection of tables on all topics; the text covering 344 pages and the tables 1,177 pages. Volumes II-VII are devoted to tabular matter; volume II to population figures for local subdivisions, with details by sex, age, etc., for these areas; volume III to age classifications; volume IV to “cross classifications,” e.g. birthplace with racial origin, literacy, religion, etc.; volume V to wage-earners, earnings, families, and housing; volume VI to unemployment; and volume VII to occupation and industry.
Limitations of the Financial Factor in a War Economy
Authors: Douglas Monteath
Published: June 2006

The argument put forward in this paper assumes a point of view which it would be well to make clear at the beginning. Put briefly, it is that war today involves such a radical transformation of the economy that customary economic concepts which have been derived from peace-time experience, and even from the experience of earlier wars, no longer fit the facts. This war not only devours materials on an unprecedented scale, but it urgently imposes new and highly specialized objectives upon the whole scheme of economic activity, and with them new criteria and new methods. A new “war economy” has to be brought into being to meet these specifications.

I am concerned here simply with the role of financial policy in this war economy. As the questions which arise are to some extent questions of emphasis, it is desirable to avoid the misunderstanding which may easily occur if the emphasis is misplaced. It will not be disputed that fiscal policy and monetary policy are vital elements in the efficient conduct of the economy, in war as in peace, so far as their proper spheres of operation are concerned. But there is room for disagreement as to how far their proper spheres of operation actually do extend today. It is my thesis that as the organization of the war economy becomes more intensive, purely financial instruments of control necessarily yield diminishing returns, not merely in the literal and self-evident sense of the proportion of incomes which can be extracted from the pockets of the people, but in the sense of the objectives of organization which government policy may try by these means to achieve.
Political Nationalism and Confederation
Authors: Scott F. R.
Published: June 2006

To Canadians living in the 1860's, as to Canadians of the 1940's, the world seemed a very dangerous place. In many respects the threats to Canadian survival must have appeared even greater then than now. The American Civil War brought large-scale fighting closer than the present campaigns in Europe or Asia. The Fenian raids, apparently backed by wide American support, looked more ominous than U-boats in the St. Lawrence. The most disastrous international alignment that could ever befall Canadians—a war between the United States and Great Britain—appeared once again imminent. Internally there were equivalent dangers. The constitution of 1841 had broken down in the province of Canada, rendering stable government impossible. Political deadlock had been reached. Though French Canadians were able to enjoy the gratifying spectacle of British Canadians caught in the very constitutional trap—equal representation regardless of population—which had been designed to assure British supremacy, the situation could not continue. The economic outlook was no brighter. Imperial preferences had disappeared with the free trade movement, and though a successful readjustment had been made by the Reciprocity Treaty of 1854 this too was about to end. Notice of the cancellation of the Treaty was given by the United States in March, 1865. Thrust out into the economic world first by England, Canadians were rejected a second time by their other mainstay. And when they looked westward for new frontiers, they saw an advancing wave of American settlement, backed by western railways, threatening to engulf the unsettled prairies.
Municipal Government in Ontario
Authors: Curtis C. A.
Published: June 2006

Under the broad title of this paper I propose to deal with some legislative and administrative aspects of municipal government rather than the more political phases, although, of course, these matters cannot be definitely segregated. It is my intention to note some points in connection with the present structure of municipal government in this province, to raise certain problems for discussion—problems which are vital even if obvious—and to make some suggestions.

These matters have interested me for some time both because of an academic interest, and because of the experience of seven or eight years' active participation in municipal affairs. I have held municipal office—both by appointment and election—and I have learned much about what is and what is not possible in the political processes. But I hasten to add that I have also been defeated for municipal office and probably that has taught me the most. However, I will not labour these points here.

The first elementary point that I should like to make is the constitutional one that in this country the municipality is the creature of the province. Our constitution establishes only the federal and provincial governments, and such power as municipalities have is delegated by the province. This means that changes in municipal structure depend on no complicated constitutional negotiations or charter but simply upon the willingness of the legislature to make changes which are believed to be generally acceptable.
Press Censorship
Authors: Eggleston Wilfrid
Published: June 2006

Censorship in war-time seeks to withhold military information from the enemy, and to safeguard public morale from the corrosion of enemy propaganda. To achieve the first aim, press censorship is co-ordinated with censorship of radio, the mails, telephone, telegraph, and cable lines; and with appropriate safeguards against public access to prohibited areas.

The principles of military censorship are simple. The essence of successful warfare is secrecy. “Let us learn what we can from the enemy; let us teach him only what we must,” was the rule laid down by Lord Balfour in the last war. Surprise is still the most valuable “secret weapon” of war; and the ideal state of affairs from the narrow viewpoint of military operations is a complete black-out on all information regarding such matters as the strength of military forces, the disposition of units, the nature of defences, the stocks of war supplies, the rate of growth of the armed forces, the rate of production of war weapons, and so on. In modern wars, these desirable military secrets must be extended to facts concerning the economic, financial, and psychological strength of the nation at war.

The ideal state of affairs from the viewpoint of military operations is, unfortunately, at variance with other vital considerations. It is not practicable to screen all information from the enemy without hiding it quite as effectively from one's own people. Complete acceptance of the military philosophy of censorship would raise grave problems in a democracy, which relies so largely on an informed public, and on voluntary effort.
The Defence Programme and Labour Supply in the United States
Authors: Hinrichs A. F.
Published: June 2006

The defence effort, including the aid-to-Britain programme, dominates the economic life of the United States today. Whereas expenditures for defence materials were running at a level of about $2 billion a year during the first half of 1940, they are now running at an annual rate of about $13 billion. This six-fold increase in the level of defence expenditures has already resulted in a net increase in employment of about 2½ million, not counting in this figure an increase in the armed forces of nearly 900,000.

The formulation of any labour policy for the existing emergency must be built around the nature of the problem that is created by the emergency itself. Our problem is to transform the billions of dollars that have been authorized or appropriated into ships and planes, tanks and shells—into the thousands of items that are needed to meet the requirements of our own Army and Navy and Maritime Commission, as well as of the democracies of this and other continents. This means that we must mobilize the human and economic resources of the United States so that these munitions may be made available as efficiently and as quickly as is possible.

The first step in approaching this problem is to determine what resources are going to be needed. I am concerned in this discussion exclusively with our labour resources and the problems that affect labour.
Report of the Royal Commission on the Textile Industry
Authors: Kemp H. R.
Published: June 2006

While this inquiry arose out of the temporary closing of a mill at Sherbrooke, attributed by the management to the fear of Japanese competition, the Dominion Government called for “an investigation much more searching and extensive than is possible at the present time either by officials of any of the Government departments or by the Tariff Board.” The Honourable W. F. A. Turgeon, a judge of the Court of Appeal of Saskatchewan, was appointed a Royal Commissioner to make this investigation as speedily as possible. The completion of the report was delayed by the Government's decision to requisition the services of the same commissioner for a further study of the wheat problem, which occupied several months and necessitated investigations in England, but after two years' work and the collection of nineteen thousand pages of evidence, the report was laid before the Minister of Finance on January 20, 1938. It is an important document, which will undoubtedly be quoted, especially as a source of factual data, in discussions of the textile industry for years to come.

Conforming with the terms of reference, the Commissioner sought information with respect to tariff protection, volume of production, investment, costs, profits, wages, salaries, and bonuses, and such other matters as might help the Government to arrive at conclusions “regarding the position of this and other branches of the textile industry in relation to British and foreign competition, and in particular, the extent to which the employer can reasonably and properly be expected to maintain employment over periods of temporary difficulty.”
Post-war Tax Policy
Authors: Higgins Benjamin
Published: June 2006

Economic literature of the past decade suggests, and most economists would surely agree, that there are two fundamental economic problems: unemployment and monopoly. Together, enforced idleness of resources and maldistribution of resources due to monopolization of all kinds are responsible for whatever gap exists between actual and potential national real income. They account for a good deal of the inequity of income distribution as well. Economic policy has as its chief concern the elimination of monopoly without loss of efficiency, and the elimination of unemployment without inflation or misuse of resources.

The post-war period will present these two basic problems in aggravated form. Exigencies of war have led to increased concentration of industry, which could easily crystallize into enhanced monopoly power. With half our national income now generated by war expenditures, the task of maintaining full employment while shifting production from things that win wars to things that promote welfare will be of unprecedented magnitude. At the same time, vast new holdings of cash and other liquid resources, combined with the backlog of demand for both consumers' and producers' goods that will have accumulated, will constitute a grave threat of inflation. The balance of the economy, which must be maintained by what Professor Lerner has aptly called “functional finance,” will be delicate indeed.

This article suggests an approach to post-war tax policy designed to meet these problems. While the setting is Canadian, the analytical tools and even the policies proposed would be applicable to the British or American scenes with minor modifications.
Rate Control on Canadian Public Utilities
Authors: Currie A. W.
Published: June 2006

In comparison with either Great Britain or the United States relatively little attention has been given to the problems of public utilities by Canadian economists, business men, and governments. In part, this is due to the outstanding success of some of the publicly owned utilities like Ontario Hydro, Toronto Transportation Commission, and Winnipeg Municipal Electric and, at the same time, to the doubtful value of such public enterprises as the Canadian National. Our experience with these concerns has tended to focus attention on individual cases rather than on public utilities as a group.

Another explanation of the comparative neglect of this field of study is the constitutional framework. In the United States, it has been necessary to prove to conservatively minded courts, first, that the business in question comes within the vaguely defined category of public utilities, and then that the rates set by the regulatory commission have not infringed the Fourteenth Amendment that no person shall be deprived of property without due process of law. Under the British system of government, legislation bringing business under government control and the decisions of commissions regarding rates are, within broad limits, accepted by the courts as valid. Thus the virtually continuous litigation over public utility rates in the United States has been absent in Canada.

Despite this relative neglect, Canadian governments have not by any means entirely disregarded the control of public utilities. The federal government has set up the Board of Transport Commissioners which, since 1904, has supervised the rates, fares, and charges of railways under Dominion jurisdiction. For the most part the Board has dealt with relation of rates inter se. Nevertheless, it has occasionally considered the general level and in the main has accepted the revenue needs of the Canadian Pacific as a basis for rates. In effect it uses the prudent investment of the low cost line for rate-making purposes, but it has not attempted to arrive at either an accurate valuation or a precise figure for a reasonable rate of return. It has almost completely avoided the theoretical and practical difficulties of original cost, cost of reproduction new, and other valuation problems.
Appointment of Extra Senators under Section 26 of the British North America Act
Authors: Forsey Eugene
Published: June 2006

The present party standing in the Senate is sixty-five Liberals and twenty-six Progressive Conservatives, with five seats vacant. Since the Bennett government left office, thirty-seven Conservative Senators have died or resigned, eleven of them in the last three years alone. As the Progressive Conservatives are, for the most part, among the oldest Senators, it is by no means impossible that, if the Liberals retain office a few years longer, a succeeding Progressive Conservative government may find itself without a single supporter in the Senate. A C.C.F. government would, of course, inevitably be in the same position.

Clearly, any government must have some supporters in the Upper House, if only to move and second its legislation. Would there be any way out of the difficulty short of an amendment to the British North America Act?

The answer would seem to be yes. Normally the Senate is limited to ninety-six. But Section 26 of the British North America Act provides that “If, at any Time, on the Recommendation of the Governor-General, the King thinks fit to direct that four or eight Members be added to the Senate, the Governor-General may by Summons to four or eight qualified Persons (as the case may be), representing equally the four Divisions of Canada, add to the Senate accordingly.” Sections 27 and 28 add: “27. In case of such Addition being at any Time made the Governor-General … shall not summon any Person to the Senate, except on a further like Direction by the King on the like Recommendation, to represent one of the four Divisions until such Division is represented by Twenty-four Senators and no more. 28. The Number of Senators shall not at any Time exceed one hundred and four.” There can be little doubt that a government in the position just described would advise appointment of at least four extra Senators; and there can be equally little doubt that the advice would be accepted.