LORD STRATHCONA & AMERICA

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2004, 11 March 1914, Page 8

LORD STRATHCONA & AMERICA

THE IMPERIAL Sl'ilUt T!io death of Lord Stratheoua lw,s loci to mach stocktaking in tho EnglMj. Press about the position of Canada in the Empire, The lato High Ccjumisstoner was never a man of many words: he irrote in.railways across the hroxa face of the prairie, and spoke very little at all. Once, as a yo-taig- man, whai ocvupyisg .a Hudson Bay post, in tho extreme north, he was attacked by snow blindness, and tnwiiped 1000 miles to Montreal to consult an oculist. On tho way down ho titot the. resident governor of the company. "Who gaVe you leave to quit,your post?" asked the governor. "Who etniMP" wplied DoiiaM Smith, as Iμ then w ; as, "si»eo no man ikes -within IQOO miles of mo?" The governor was of tho old school. "If it be bat the ehoko between year eyes and the service of tht) company," ho said, "got back to your post as quickly as you cafu" Smith immediately turned on his traelvS, and on tho mayoh back he. eiittsuntereii. such weather that tho two Indians ho had irith him died ef cshausiiieil.

There was not much b Lord Strathcoiia's epeetshes. In tie Hou.se' of JjOtds ha spoke rarely, and then lwt xtjpon Imperial matters, ' Occasionally, however', Iks topped a remark of the greatest signifieiMice, -and oliee w'ithia tiie past j'ow yoare, after it trip into ! tho lWfti.iwesi provuices (at 90 he thought" no Biore of a> run from Lofrdoni to Vancouver than iJjo average njan of 30 thinks of a trip to Edinburgh), lie said that tho future of tho Gaiin&ian west seemed to be in the hands of tiso Americans. Mo mmsmbcred the eatiirjry, of co'Ui'so, wtei it .was in tli.e possession of tho Indian and the bwii'alo, aftd w.as presided over by tho widolj-vscattercd icpreseiitati\T2S ' <jf tho Hudson Bay Company. ** The inflow <?f tho Americans ivliich followed tho construction of tho Canadian Pacific railway added enbrttottslyj ■no doubt, to Lord Strathcona's vast wealth. ISut stiH ho was a Britisher, and was fl'aiikjy frouWod to find orMyCrhfrro tbo Anaerioaw veica and tfeo Anierioaii influence. He was a Scotsman and a.ij Imperialist, who knew notliiiig ab«it tho loeal uationiilisin of the jtow Baiiriuion3. Stf.inge as if. may appear, ho waa pot nearly as popnlar in Canada as 1»e • \vas in this eauntfy. He loved -Catjiida. test of all, not. because she was a yoiitta countty with a great future iisMrofl, but because she was part of the British Empire. Although heavily interested In iv mimlxtt of young Canadian roamiEactnrlng industries, ite was one of tie strongest atilvocates for tto grant of Customs preference for British goods, ffls interest) Wotijd liavo shut oiit 0)0 pwelnet of British capital and Inbonr, Imt- ins sentiment carried , tho jay.