creating the Provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. We see the Quebec army at work in an endeavour to force the French language into the public schools of the various Provinces. We see the Federal service swarming with French-Canadian employees to the exclusion of Englishspeaking citizens. In every Province there is the same determined effort to control the education of the rising generation. In Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, where separate schools are prohibited by law, they are conducted by subterfuge. He urged political action by the Orange Order and an active propaganda of its principles. Meantime the annual meeting of the Grand Lodge for British North America at Brantford had been rather slimly attended. In his annual address Dr. T. S. Sproule, M.P., Grand Master, was explicit in denouncing any change in the Accession Declaration: "Until the Pope cancels the oaths taken by the Jesuits he has no right to ask for a change in the oath of the Sovereign of Britain. The Jesuit Bishops are made to swear that they believe the Pope has the right to depose Kings and Governments. While this claim exists it is necessary that all who admit it shall be excluded from ascending the throne of the British Empire." Other subjects than those of a sectarian nature were dealt with at these Conventions. Direct contribution to the British Navy was urged at a number of meetings; unswerving fidelity to British connection was always expressed; the Ontario West Grand Lodge protested earnestly against the prevalence of gambling. The following were the heads of the chief Orange Organizations elected or re-elected in 1910: The Royal Mr. Mackenzie King, Minister of Labour, showed in 1909 great interest in this question of Technical Education and made some successful efforts to obtain Provincial endorsation-as Education comes under Provincial jurisdiction in Canada-for a Federal inquiry into the subject. As a result he was able to read to the House of Commons on Feb. 7, 1910, a correspondence which commenced with his own statement of Dec. 13, 1909, that the Government was considering the advisability of appointing a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the subject, that Provincial approval and co-operation were felt to be necessary, and that it would be well to know whether any question of jurisdiction would be raised. The Premiers of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia expressed approval of the proposal; the Premier of Manitoba did not commit himself except in approving the general idea of better industrial training; the Premier of Quebec emphasized the fact of technical as well as all other education lying within Provincial jurisdiction but saw no objection to the appointment of the Commission; the Premier of Ontario stated that so long as the Commission was confined to gathering information he would approve of its appointment. In the Commons on Dec. 6, 1909, Mr. Hugh Guthrie (Lib.) urged the appointment of such a Commission and stated that in Nova Scotia there were now 21 Technical schools, and in Prince Edward Island a system of manual training; in New Brunswick a Department of Forestry in connection with the University; in Quebec a Technical Institute at Montreal, 11 schools of arts and manufactures, and Technical departments in the Universities of McGill and Laval; in Ontario a system of Technical instruction and manual training, a School of Practical Science and Department of Forestry in the University of Toronto, and a School of Mines at Kingston; in Manitoba Technical schools or evening classes for artisans at Winnipeg. Speaking before the Ontario Club, Toronto, on Mch. 31, the Minister of Labour announced that the Government had decided to appoint a Commission, that a liberal appropriation would be made for the purpose, and that five of the best men in Canada would be appointed. The Commission will not be limited in the scope or character of its work. It will not be content with observations and investigations at two or three centres. It will be asked to travel from one end of Canada to the other; to do its work thoroughly; to perform its mission in the fullest sense of the word. It will meet the employers, the Boards of Trade, the workingmen. It will study their needs and seek to understand them. It will look for possible opportunities to better industrial conditions. And when it has completed all this its task will not be done. The Government proposes to give the Commission the right to travel the United States and Germany and France and Britain and other European countries if necessary, to see and to study industrial processes and industrial equipment. On June 2nd, at Berlin, the Minister stated that the Royal Commission on Industrial Training and Technical Education had been constituted with the following members: James W. Robertson, C.M.G., LL.D., of Montreal (Chairman); Hon. J. N. Armstrong, M.L.C., of North Sydney, N.S.; George Bryce, LL.D., F.R.S.C., of Winnipeg; M. Gaspard DeSerres of Montreal; Gilbert M. Murray, B.A., of Toronto; David Forsyth, M.A., of Berlin, Ont.; and James Simpson of Toronto. Mr. Thomas Bengough of Toronto was to be Secretary and stenographer and the objects were officially gazetted on June 1st as follows: "To inquire into and report upon the needs and present equipment of the Dominion of Canada respecting industrial training and technical education and into the systems and methods of technical instruction obtaining in other countries." Of the members it may be said that Dr. Robertson was, perhaps, the best equipped man in the Dominion along these lines; Mr. Murray was Secretary of the Canadian Manufacturers Association, and a close student of economic matters; Mr. Simpson was a clever Toronto journalist and a Socialist in his opinions; Dr. Bryce was an historian and authority upon Western conditions. The Commission began work promptly and in July visited Lunenburg, Liverpool, Yarmouth, Digby, Middleton, Kentville, Wolfville, Windsor and Truro in Nova Scotia; in August it visited Sydney, New Glasgow and Pictou in Nova Scotia, Charlottetown and Summerside in Prince Edward Island, Amherst, N.S., and Shediac, Moncton, Sussex, St. John, Fredericton and Woodstock in New Brunswick. During September, Quebec, Three Rivers, Sorel, St. Hyacinthe, Sherbrooke, Montreal, Valleyfield, and Hull, in Quebec, were visited; during October, Ottawa, Smith's Falls, Cornwall, Brockville, Kingston, Belleville, Peterborough, Toronto, Barrie, Orillia, Hamilton, St. Catharines, Niagara Falls, Brantford, and Paris were in the itinerary; during November Galt, Berlin, Waterloo, Guelph, Stratford, Woodstock, London, St. Thomas, Chatham, Windsor and Walkerville were visited. In November the Commission went to the West via Sault Ste. Marie and up to the close of the year sittings were held at Winnipeg, Portage la Prairie and Brandon in Manitoba; Moose Jaw, Regina, Saskatoon and Prince Albert in Saskatchewan; Edmonton, Strathcona, Calgary, Lethbridge and Medicine Hat in Alberta; and Vancouver, Nanaimo, Victoria, Fernie, Nelson and Vernon in British Columbia. At all these varied points in Canadian life and development the Commission heard the most opposing and contradictory statements, elaborate representations from many interests, individual points of view and experiences from many persons, varied opinions of an industrial, labour, financial, economic, theoretical or practical nature. They were welcomed officially by Provincial Governments, or publicly by Boards of Trade and Canadian Clubs, or individually by prominent citizens. In order to facilitate their work the Commission was divided into compartments of study. Dr. Robertson was Chairman and Mr. Murray took charge of the organization of industries and office management as his specialty; Dr. Bryce organized the relations of College work to Technical Education and undertook a bibliography of industry; Mr. Forsyth had the Collegiate and Secondary Technical Schools and their relations to manual training; Mr. Simpson looked after the hours of labour, factory ventilation and light, rates of wages, &c.; Mr. Armstrong studied specially the relation of industrial training to legislation; Mr. DeSerres looked after the artistic element in industrial problems. The Commission, in order to cover more ground in Ontario, also divided itself into two sections-the Western of which Dr. Bryce was Chairman and the Eastern of which Mr. Armstrong was Chairman. Reviewing the work, so far done, in the Toronto Globe of Aug. 29th, Mr. Bengough stated that his shorthand notes would have then filled 3,000 type-written pages. As to the rest: "There is everywhere absolute unanimity of opinion as to the great need for more effective measures for industrial training and technical education. This sentiment was voiced alike by the capitalist and mechanic, farmer and fisherman, foreman and apprentice, merchant and manufacturer, school and college and university teacher, and illiterate labourer. Men who had risen from the ranks by dint of hard study without teachers, or by correspondence courses, under disadvantages of distance and absence of a teacher who could explain difficulties, pleaded for better facilities for the young fellows who are coming along to fill their places." Mr. Armstrong, in a North Sydney interview on Aug. 27th, said that the educational facilities of the Maritime Provinces particularly impressed the visitors. "No less significant was the decided impression left with the Commission of the notable grip which the manufacturers of the East have been able to secure in the markets of the West and the increasing output required to meet these markets." At the Calgary sitting Mr. Boyce, Inspector of Schools at Red Deer, testified as to trouble over the singing of British patriotic songs in Western schools where there were children of American settlers. He said that this was especially the case in the rural districts with such airs as "Rule Britannia." Americans did not so much mind Canadian national airs but feeling arose when purely British songs were sung. Where objection was raised the songs were usually dropped. A further statement of interest was made by Dr. Robertson to the Victoria Colonist on Dec. 2nd: "In Canada the general neglect or abandonment of the apprenticeship system is responsible in large measures for the lack of skilled labour in the different industries and trades. During our tour of investigation through the Dominion we have heard over a thousand of the leading employers of labour, workmen and workwomen, and men and women connected with schools. From every quarter we have heard that there is a strong need for different and better education for those who work in the trades and industries of the Dominion." The absence of the apprenticeship system in the West and the difficulty of getting foremen was strongly emphasized. By the end of the year, and since Nov. 1, this Royal Commission had covered 100 cities and towns and taken the sworn evidence of 1,500 witnesses representing every grade of society-Deputy Ministers of Education, School Inspectors, Manufacturers, Superintendents and foremen of factories, miners, fishermen, lumbermen, farmers, journeymen in all trades, educational specialists, teachers of manual training and domestic science, representatives of Women's Councils, Trades and Labour Councils, Mayors and Aldermen, Chairmen and Members of Boards of Education, High School and Public School teachers. Farmers' to Ottawa The greatest Delegation which ever waited upon The Western a Canadian Government, the expression of a real sentiment amongst an important class of the population of Western Canada, a vital element in producing an historic change in the practical policy of the Laurier Government-such was the meeting which took place on Dec. 16, 1910, in the House of Commons Chambers at Ottawa between the Government of Canada and nearly 1,000 representative Canadian farmers. The event was preceded and influenced by the negotiations of the year regarding the threatened United States penalization of Canada over its French Convention; it was encouraged and hastened by Sir Wilfrid Laurier's Western tour and the nature of his speeches; it was rendered inevitable by the rumoured Reciprocity negotiations with the United States; it was the natural result of Western agricultural organization which had been going on for some years. On Dec. 5, 1901, W. R. Motherwell of Indian Head, afterwards Minister of Agriculture, was mainly instrumental in organizing the Grain Growers' Association of Saskatchewan of which he was the first President and which was incorporated on Jan. 17, 1902. Local bodies followed at various places with Senator W. D. Perley, R. S. Lake, M.P., and Walter Scott, M.P., as active workers in the movement. Meanwhile, in April, 1902, J. W. Scallion of Virden was instrumental in forming the Manitoba organization of which he was elected President and was, in 1910, Honorary President. The Alberta Farmers' Association and the Society of Equity were formed later on in Alberta and afterwards amalgamated. The cause of the movement was claimed -prior to the Elevator Commission of 1899 and the ensuing Manitoba Grain Act-to be due to discontent based upon the absence of track-loading rights and car distribution facilities. After that legislation there was an alleged failure by the Elevator |