QUEBEC OF YESTERDAY AND QUEBEC OF TOMORROW

'ANADDRESS DELIVERED BY HON. LOUIS ATHANASE DAVID, K.C., LL.B. PROVINCIAL SECRETARY AND MINISTER OF EDUCATION FOR QUEBFC

Before the Empire Club of Canada, Toronto,
October, 28, 1920

PRESIDENT HEWITT in introducing the speaker said,Gentlemen, I esteem it a great privilege indeed to be able to introduce to the members of the Empire Club the Honourable the Provincial Secretary and Minister of Education for the Province of Quebec. The Hon. Mr. David has devoted himself to the service of his country and is the type of man the country needs. Plato has said that the punishment suffered by the wise who refuse to take part in government is to live under a government of bad men. Canada's need to-day is that the best of her sons should devote their lives to some branch of the public service (hear, hear) and to the solving of the many complex problems that concern her as a nation. In fact, not until we all own responsibility as individuals, our responsibility for the things that are and the things that ought to be, shall we reach the goal of a united and prosperous Canada. (Applause) We welcome the guest of to-day as a representative of more than two and a half millions of Canadians of French origin whom, if we would realize to the fullest extent a happy, prosperous and united Canada, we must know well enough to appreciate (applause) and to whom we, as English-speaking Canadians, must prove our sincere desire to co-operate in all things that are best for our country (applause) in the upward march toward the glorious destiny which we believe is designed for Canada. (Hear, hear)

Gentlemen, a great deal of interest has been created by the visit of the Hon. Mr. David to our city. I believe that it is seven or eight years since any public man from the government of the Province of Quebec has visited Toronto and delivered a public address to a Toronto audience. The Empire Club has been striving for some time to secure for its meetings one of the outstanding men of that Province, and we are delighted to-day to have Mr. David with us. This has been noted by a friend and fellow-member, Mr. J. W. Bengough, who has handed to me these lines, which I am going to use, with your permission, in introducing the Hon. Mr. David:

"Bonne Entente Cordiale" proclaim we to the nations great and small,

Friendship, peace, good understanding round the world to one and all;

But a warmer, freer greeting we reserve for our own hearth. And the sons we're proud to honour of Canadian blood and birth.

Bonne Entente for every stranger coming to us in good-will,
But for such as you, compatriots, something homier, nearer still.
For yourself, the meed of honour we would frankly speak,
And, through you, our admiration and our love for old Quebec.
In our faces as we listen to the message you will bring.
We can read the happy promise of faith's future harvesting.
Master of the speech and genius of the English, you may well
Translate to warmer phrase our feelings than "Bonne Entente
Cordiale."

HON. MR. DAVID on rising was received with loud applause. He said:-This morning about five o'clock as the movement of the train, very much against my will and desire, awakened me. I lifted up the curtain of the drawing-room, and I could see in the far east the sun that was rising. It was all beautiful; and exactly at that moment as the sun's rays were attracting my eyes, we were passing in front of a little station, and that little station was Agincourt. (The speaker gave it the French pronunciation-Azh-in-coor-amid laughter.) I took it from this coincidence that evidently the sun in Ontario was rising on English and on French. (Applause) I come to you, gentlemen-can I say with a little of

those rays of the sun, and with that good-will that Mr. Bengough wants us to promote, and which in our state and in our relations is not only good for Ontario, not only good for Quebec, but there is something larger than Quebec and Ontario, and that is, Canada. (Hear, hear, and applause)

HON. LOUIS ATHANASE DAVID

Mr. President and Gentlemen,-The War has exercised such an influence on the world at large that one will not marvel at the fact that, in the province of Quebec, a great and altogether new idea is gathering strength: Quebec, for 150 years centre of French thought in America; Quebec, which throughout its vast extent always has fought for the highest concepts and its loftiest beliefs; this ancient Quebec, settled in its old, deeprooted traditions, which has hitherto allowed its guiding thought to be one, subject only to the moral and intellectual needs of the moment, now realizes, all at once, that ideas alone cannot be given credit indefinitely, and that, no matter how indulgent one might be, these ideas will, sooner or later, be called to account. And so, one may actually notice, in our midst, a tendency to measure up those ideas against our present economic needs.

We, of Quebec, constitute something like a nation, that is a "political entity." And "political" does not mean here any of those ephemeral questions which might, from time to time, retain the attention of the professional, but rather, the more noble and lofty work of guiding the destiny of a young people, of assuring the survival of such a people tenaciously clinging to the rock of convictions upon which it has firmly and decidedly established itself.

But there is not only a political Quebec; there is an economic Quebec, as well, which also counts. In fact, it is no exaggeration to say that our natural resources are unequalled anywhere. Coal is the only thing, indeed, that we lack. But why should we worry when we have millions of horse-power closer to us in our unharnessed streams. And this very fact allows us to defy and mock

a bit the "Big Stick" which an American Senator said had to be hidden behind their backs when they talked conciliation to us over here. We do not fear the "Big Stick." Menaces, or threats, moreover, hardly ever impress us.

What then is it that cannot be found in our Province -from the red sands of Berthier to the iron mines of the mountains of the North, not to mention the gold mines of Thetford, and those recently discovered in Landrienne? Is it known that our Province furnishes 85% of the entire world production of this mineral? And, when we think that the other 15 per cent comes from the Ural mountains, it is easy to see that far-off Russia is our only competitor in the world market for a commodity the demand for which exceeds the supply. And by the way, I beg you to consider that our total production of this substance, in 1917, represented scarcely more than seven million dollars.

There lies the economic strength of Quebec, a strength of which we have but the barest outlines. Certainly you, Gentlemen, have not to be told that the primary element in a consideration of the economic strength of a people is a complete and exhaustive inventory of its natural recources. It is not exaggeration, to say that this inventory is going on, and all that we need is the co-operation of industrial pioneers to transform the natural riches into national wealth.

And that is why we hail our manufacturers and industrial men as a force for good which, enlisted in the service of this transformation (profitable to them, of course) of our natural resources, will ensure to Quebec a lively prosperity, and thanks to which, to-morrow, with the help of those sane and solid ideas which never failed her, Quebec will again proudly justify her pretentionand you won't resent her pride,—as being the first of the Provinces of the Dominion.

About the end of August, a year ago, when nearly every country was looking into her national conscience, which meant, as well, casting about to discover what

economic strength she could rely upon in the future, Mr. Nitti, the then President of the Italian Cabinet, throwing popular opinion to the winds, stated that the tendency now was for a continual mental jag, carried on in an atmosphere of unproductive far niente. And he added these severe words: "All classes of the community, now, have the same meeting ground of interest, and all should have the same directing force. When the fields lie cultivated on account of the wilfulness of the owner, or on account of the high cost of labour, when the mines lie undeveloped, when there are ships that rest idle in their ports, because of the owners or on account of the seamen's demands, there is destruction going on there." This is tantamount to saying that he who, to-day, does not create, destroys just as surely by his wilful inactivity as by his wilful laying-waste.

Paraphrasing Mr. Nitti, I would say that not to seek out opportunities to create or produce in our Province, where Nature has with a lavish hand put everything to work with at our disposal, not to contribute to the last ounce of one's strength to ensure our economic stability, is indeed to be guilty of improvidence and neglect which will directly affect and even compromise our future; it means in fact, destroying some of our future economic strength.

How many are the pressing duties, in truth, which the provident person can plainly see before him, nowadays, if he only tries to step out of his smug contented self. But it seems to me that there is one that we cannot pretend to miss seeing, one which stands directly before us, looming spectre-like, and that duty is for us to industrialize.

I am far from forgetting that Quebec, first of all, is a farming centre, and that she is and will remain an agricultural province. It is not my intention to overlook this, nor do I intend to place agriculture in a subordinate position among our national accomplishments, nor to slur over that element to which we owe much of our economic strength, now.