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The interest created by the annual meetings of the Canadian Political Science Association has served to stimulate conferences dealing chiefly with economic subjects; and with the prospect of elections, political parties have been quick to note the general trend. The post-war period has been characterized by the emergence of the conference, first as a result of the exhaustion and then of the reviving idealism subsequent to the War. Still more recently, the conference idea has been losing prestige in Europe coincidently with the coming of age of the War generation and the growth of the youth movement. In Canada, on the other hand, the conference movement has been quickened by the fresh interests of youth and also by the depression.

The published proceedings of political summer schools, in spite of, or because of, careful editing fail to convey the warm atmosphere of the meetings. Genial conviviality shines from the references to banquets and from the photographs in the Liberal publication. One of the best addresses of the Conservative school (by Mr. Earl Lawson) was omitted, while what must obviously have been a worst speech was included in one volume, and from the other it is enough to select one choice statement: that “every time a man acquired a new language he was developing a layer of brain cells, so that if he could speak fourteen languages or thirty-two languages, it really meant that he had developed that many layers of brain cells.” That refuge of weak minds the argumentum ad hominem is conspicuous, and in both volumes, to quote one speaker, “parrot cries are heard on all hands.” Both parties have been careful to suggest that they do not assume responsibility for the conclusions advanced in the various papers, and it is difficult to isolate underlying policies. At the Conservative school arguments were presented against the wheat agreement, and at the Liberal school in favour of it. Professor R. M. MacIver’s statement that “the liberal seeks to discover and keep the good and remove the evil” does not differ from the emphasis of Mr. Bennett and Mr. Macaulay on Tennyson’s lines,

French Canada was represented at both schools. Women were not present at the Conservative meetings. Speakers at Newmarket were drawn largely from members of governments, especially that of the Province of Ontario, and were limited to Canadians, whereas at Port Hope, British, Americans, and Chinese were included, and some members of the provincial party were noticeably absent. In each case the personnel largely explains the general tone of the published proceedings. The foreigners (who spoke at Port Hope) could not be expected to throw much light on Canadian problems; and the ministers (who spoke at Newmarket) were concerned too intimately with immediate domestic problems. The Conservative volume lays emphasis on planning whereas the Liberal does not.

In the main both books leave an impression of failure to understand the crucial problem of Canada and its implications. Substantial and important papers by economists and political scientists were, indeed, included; but the outlook which they represented did not extend beyond these isolated contributions, and the result is merely a lack of unity. The Conservative volume omits references to banking and corporate finance, the Liberal to the civil service, and the latter is weak on transportation. In each there appears an excellent paper on the British North America Act and its implications in federal-provincial relations. The Conservative proceedings entitled Canadian Problems as seen by Twenty Outstanding Men (the ethics of reviewing, if not modesty, requires that I should correct this number to nineteen) shows little appreciation of the underlying unity of Canadian development and of the necessity of relating each contribution to the Canadian problem. It is the tale of nineteen wise, blind men reporting accurately on the respective parts of the elephant with which they have come in contact. These papers are important and valuable as contributions to anatomy, but an accurate description of the elephant’s whiskers throws little light on the state of his pulse. Perhaps we should not expect unity from summer schools. On the other hand, one cannot avoid commenting on the inevitable mental indigestion of the students.

Let us turn to a discussion of a direct assault on the problem as a whole such as is produced by Messrs. Hankin and MacDermot and by Mr. Moore. Partly because the first volume is a joint product and partly because neither of its authors is an economist, we may consider at greater length the book by Mr. Moore, a man with a training in economics and a wide background of experience in private and governmental activities. Not that Recovery by Control does not include a valuable account of the extent and character of government intervention throughout the range of economic activity in Canada, but its approach is not that of the economist. We are grateful to Mr. Moore for his determined attempt to present an exposition of laissez-faire economics suitable for an economically illiterate public. In the process of popularization accuracy has been sacrificed: Communist Russia is persistently referred to as socialistic and the recovery in Australia has been entirely disregarded. There is, however, a wholesome emphasis on the importance of flexibility in an economy based on the export of raw materials. Mr. Moore has little faith in governmental intervention and advocates a return to economic liberalism. With Mr. Bennett he is sceptical of the efficiency of democratic control, but Mr. Bennett argues for more efficiency whereas Mr. Moore argues for less control.

The problem of Mr. Moore’s book is fundamental to economics. As one of the best efforts to discuss the subject with the public, its failure is illuminating. It is impossible to discuss the increasingly complex problems of economics with the untrained, as it is impossible to discuss the (actually less difficult) subjects of mathematics or physics. The attempt inevitably leads to vagueness, to moral platitudes, or to statistical sandbagging. An important phase of the Canadian problem is the marked decline in standards of living of the wheat-growers of the Prairie Provinces and of producers for export in other areas such as the Maritime Provinces: a country cannot endure half slave and half free. Mr. Moore has thrown no light on the causes of the problem, nor has he given any helpful suggestion as to how the problem can be attacked. He fails to realize that economic liberalism and political liberalism flourished in a period of economic expansion incidental to the opening of new land. The task of determining what pressure an increasingly rigid structure has on exposed industries, particularly wheat-production, presents a challenge to Canadian economists which can only be met by a most determined and persistent attack calling for all the skill which they can command.

Appraised in relation to this problem the various books under review are of little assistance, and in even some well-intentioned cases the conclusions would probably do more harm than good. I am sufficiently impressed with the difficulties to understand the point of view of those who insist that the old solutions of political adjustment are alone adequate, but I have sufficient faith in the science of economics to believe that the ultimate solution can be proposed by it alone. But solution of the problem assumes the persuasion of a democracy, which means, in terms of counting of heads, the more densely populated regions of Eastern Canada. Immediate advantages seized upon by the East may ultimately do more harm than good to the Canadian economy if they involve an increase in the burden on Western Canada. It is extremely difficult to elaborate measures insuring a balance of interests, and perhaps even more difficult to secure their adoption.

A discussion of the effects which proposed measures will have on Western Canada provides the touchstone of their merit. Reduction of prices in Eastern Canada, whether brought about by application of machinery under the Combines Investigation Act, or by the reduction of the tariff, or by the action of departmental and chain stores, is advantageous to Western Canada. On the other hand, these measures must be considered in relation to disadvantages to the East. With present and prospective price-levels of wheat, an increase in the price-level of Eastern Canada—whether brought about by an increase in the tariff, combines, recovery based only on Eastern development, monetary policy, public works, or social legislation—is in the main disadvantageous to Western Canada. Measures responsible for readjustment of debt, including tax-machinery, loan-councils, and those measures which are designed primarily to raise the price of wheat, including monetary policy, are advantageous to Western Canada and in the main to the whole of Canada. It is the task of the economist primarily to devise methods of easing the weight of the paralysing burden of debt in Western Canada and of increasing Western purchasing power. Measures tending to improve the equilibrium between Eastern and Western Canada will be to the advantage of Canada as a whole.

The task of mobilizing economic intelligence and of applying conclusions is the most urgent of our time. In one of the volumes under discussion, a former minister of railways actually advocates increased immigration as a solution for the railway problem, in spite of all the work done during the past decade by economists, such as Carrothers, Swanson, and MacGibbon, to emphasize the very serious limitations of this policy! There is perhaps the consolation that the repository of economic knowledge which has the greatest influence with governments, namely, the civil service, was scarcely represented at the summer schools and that the problem is at least matter of serious concern to the Prime Minister. Finally, in the Contributions to Canadian Economics and in the Papers of the Political Science Association there are indications that an important body of economic knowledge is slowly being built up, but even here the necessity of discussing practical problems as the only means of eliciting interest implies something inadequate in the audience addressed. On the other hand, the attempt to reach a very narrow audience of trained economists necessitates ample support from such organizations as a university press or a scientific society, but no support offers greater returns from the standpoint of national health.

TRANSCRIBER NOTES

Misspelled words and printer errors have been corrected. Where multiple spellings occur, majority use has been employed.

Punctuation has been maintained except where obvious printer errors occur.

A cover which is placed in the public domain was created for this ebook.

[The end of Economics for Demos, by Harold Adams Innis]