Catholic Problems in Western Canada
G >> George Thomas Daly >> Catholic Problems in Western CanadaPublic utility, in matters of Company-taxes, is the basic principle of
assessment; it should also be the reason of their equitable
distribution. As the money of the public goes to Companies,
irrespective of creed, so also should the taxes of these Companies come
back to the community, irrespective of creed. As Companies are
assessed in school matters for the _benefit of the children_ of the
community, the proceeds of the assessment should be therefore
divided--_not according to the faith of the shareholders of the
company, but according to the number of children in each school
district_. And as the majority rules, the school district in the
majority should strike the rate of taxation for both districts.
* * * * * *
The division of Company-taxes according to the faith of the
shareholders is _neither just, nor practical_. It is not _just_ for
the reason we have brought forward. The principle involved in the
present law is _just when the individual is concerned_, especially when
the individual is the father of a family. As such, one has a right to
support the school which his conscience obliges him to support. This
natural right, our present law recognizes. _But in the case of a
company the principle of public utility and not the test of faith
should be invoked, we believe_.
This present law governing Company-taxes is not _practical_. The onus
is on the Separate School-Board to enlist each year the sympathies of
the companies. Before how many Boards of Directors is the matter
brought up? The local manager is the one who deals with the problem,
and he often is a stranger to the laws of the Province, with no
sympathy for separate schools. Facts, stubborn facts, are there to
prove our contention. In no city of the Province of Saskatchewan is
the Separate School Board getting its part of Company-taxes. This is
one of the reasons why our rate is often so high when compared with the
Public School rate, and why our Boards are crippled in their finances.
* * * * * *
This simple reasoning should appeal to every fair-minded man. This
change of legislation we advocate in the matter of Company-taxes, is
not a favour we beg--but the mere recognition of a principle of
distributive justice we ask.
NOTE. 1. The argument as presented herein is still stronger when
applied to Companies of public utilities such as tramways, express
companies, etc., for their nature and profits depend absolutely on the
public.
NOTE. 2. SCHOOL LAW OF QUEBEC PROVINCE IN THE MATTER. No. 2892.
"When immovable property of such corporations and companies is within a
territory, placed under the administration of two corporations of
school commissioners of different religious beliefs, established in
virtue of Article 2590, the corporation which comprises the greatest
number of rate-payers entered on the valuation roll, shall be bound to
levy the taxes affecting such property and to divide the same
proportionately to the number of children from five to sixteen years of
age residing in each municipality."--62 V. c. 28, s. 399.
[1] This memoir was presented to the Premier of Saskatchewan at a time
when this problem was widely discussed in the Press. As the
legislation, then enacted, did not bring a satisfactory solution we
thought that the argument as presented would be of service for a future
date.
CHAPTER XI.
DREAM OR REALITY[1]
_Higher Education in Western Canada--Duty of the Hour--University
Training Condition of Genuine Leadership--For Catholics Higher Education
means Higher Catholic Education--The Concerted Action of all Catholics in
Western Canada can make a Western Catholic University a Reality._
Never has the world manifested a keener and more general interest in
higher education. The facilities which Governments offer to place within
the reach of the mass of the people; the benefits of university
education; the enormous sums left by wealthy individuals for the
endowment of chairs and the foundation of scholarships; the eagerness
with which these offers are grasped by men of all classes; the
extraordinary success of the Overseas University in the American Army,
which had a student body of 10,000--these are, without doubt, manifest
signs of public opinion on the matter of higher education. The
world-struggle, we all feel, has shifted to another battlefield, and the
future in every realm of human activity rests on the mastery of ideas.
In that intellectual conflict, the primary school rooms are the trenches
on the first line of defence; the college and university lecture halls
stand out as the strategic heights from which the heavy artillery of
ideas smashes the way to victory. Hold the college and university
heights to-day, and the hinterland of industry, commerce, science, art
and politics will be yours to-morrow.
Catholics throughout our Dominion begin to realize that higher education
is the price of leadership. "Of the many points of contact between the
Church and the modern world, education is the point where Catholicism has
most to gain by energetic thought and action, and most to lose by an
atmosphere of indifference." We are waking up from our deep lethargy and
beginning to understand that we shall not have our share in the shaping
of the destinies of our own Country until our leaders, particularly among
the laity, impose themselves upon the nation by their number and their
value. The magnificent campaign of the "Antigonish Casket" in favour of
higher education and the exchange of views this point at issue brought
from various correspondents, the successful drive in favour of Loyola
College of Montreal, the growing influence of the Catholic student bodies
in the various universities, the creation of Laval, in Montreal, as a
distinct unit from Quebec; the tremendous success this newly born
organization met with in its drive for $5,000,000; all these facts
indicate concentration of forces in the direction of higher education.
The national Catholic conscience is awakened into action. "One of the
most pressing needs of the Church at the present time, is to have a
well-connected body of university-trained Catholics." This statement of
Father Plater, S.J., is true also for Canada and more particularly for
Western Canada. And indeed, this pressing need of higher education has
come home of late to our western Catholics as is evidenced by the great
efforts made to establish colleges in the various Provinces. As this
move is of the greatest importance for the welfare of the Church in that
promising part of our country, we thought to be of some service to the
Western Church in drawing the attention of Catholics to this important
issue and bringing to a focus certain indefinite, hazy views on the
subject.
_Higher Education--Duty of the Hour for Western Catholics._
"When a reflective man of middle life walks along the embowered paths of
Oxford and Cambridge or through their quadrangles whose walls have echoed
to the footsteps of so many brainy men of England, he realizes what these
institutions have been and still are to Great Britain and the Empire."
From the lecture halls of these seats of learning have gone, generation
after generation, the men who framed and directed the course of studies
of other universities, the legislators and statesmen that have shaped the
destinies of the British Empire. "There is not a feature or a point in
the national character which has made England great among the nations of
the world, that is not strongly developed and plainly traceable in our
universities. For eight hundred or a thousand years they have been
intimately associated with everything that has concerned the highest
interest of the country." (W. E. Gladstone.) This example of the power
of Oxford and Cambridge is so typical that one immediately grasps its
meaning and appreciates its full value. On that immense background of
the Empire they stand out indeed in bold relief as the embodiment of
higher education, as the great portals that open on the highway of true
leadership. Is not the affiliation, that subtle intellectual bond which
units our universities of Canada to those two great seats of learning, a
permanent and living proof of this fact?
A university is the vital centre of a nation's life. Around it, by a
gradual process of elimination and a natural force of gravitation, centre
the master minds; from it, as from a fountain-head, flow with true
leadership in every branch of human society, progress, wealth and
prosperity. On the force of this _centripetal_ and _centrifugal_
movement of a university depends its value in the community. "The
increase in number and efficiency of universities," said Bishop Spalding,
"is the healthy proof of the vitality and energy of a nation."
In the educational system of a country the university stands out as the
apex, the culminating and crowning point of its intellectual life. For,
as the college course develops the studious and acquisitive powers of the
mind, the university course has in view its creative and formative
powers. "Glorious to most are the days of life in a great school," says
Morley, "but it is at college that aspiring talents enter into their own
inheritance." "It is the function of education in the highest sense, to
teach man that there are latent in him possibilities beyond what he has
dreamed of, and to develop in him capacities of which without contact
with the highest learning, he had never become aware." (Haldane.) We may
well call the university "the brains of a nation." It equips the student
with standards and tests of objective truth. . . . It makes him dig down
to the bed-rock on which truth in its various manifestations rests. . . .
Universities are indeed the nurseries of the higher life, the living
sources from which knowledge and culture flow in abundant streams. They
do the thinking for the teeming masses who have neither the leisure nor
the opportunity to think for themselves and who live on that mental
atmosphere we call "public opinion." From the heights of our
universities, ideas and principles gradually filter down into the lower
strata of the nation. The novel, the Sunday supplement, the stage, the
cinema screen--these post-graduate courses of the working man--are
popularizing to-day the theories and ideals that were yesterday honoured
in our secular institutions of higher education. It may take time,
perhaps centuries, for this process of intellectual filtration; but
ideas, like the stream, are bound to follow the incline of the water-shed.
If the change that takes place in the mind and conscience of the
individual is a slow and subtle process, what should we not expect when
there is question of a nation? Yes, the process is slow but it is sure.
The permeation of evolutionism into every domain of human thought is a
recent and most striking illustration of it. This fact stands out
conspicuously on the pages of history. "Lord Acton's view of history,"
said Shane Leslie, "was that ideas, not men or events, made the
differences between one era and the next." The mind is always the storm
centre of revolutions, the breeding ground of the most conflicting
theories. The great storms that sweep over humanity always gather on the
high summits of religion and philosophy, blackening the mental horizon;
sooner or later, they break out on the lower plains of the economic
social and political world, spreading everywhere revolution and
destruction. The blasphemous Proudhon gave utterance to a great truth
when he wrote: "It is surprising how at the bottom of every political
problem we always find some theology involved." We lay stress upon this
aspect of universities, for, in our mind, from a catholic view-point, it
is of the greatest importance in the discussion of the present issue.
The university is not only the focus of the intellectual life of a
country; by its research work, by its applied science it becomes also the
very fountain head of all national progress and prosperity. The natural
resources lie dormant, the soil--that perennial source of wealth, is
stagnant, the export-trade of manufactured goods and agricultural
products is at its lowest ebb, until touched by the magic wand of the
university expert. It is he who discovers, develops and shows how to
make use of with profit, the hidden wealth of the land. The research
bureaus instituted by the Government of Canada and the United States,
co-operating with the various universities, are now considered as the
most important factors of national prosperity. The Reclamation Service
of the U.S. by irrigation, drainage and the pulling of stumps will
reclaim nearly 300 million acres for colonization. To bring the economic
value of a university nearer home to us, who does not know the beneficial
influences of Saskatoon University on the agricultural pursuits of
Saskatchewan? This relation of the university and the material
prosperity of a country is so marked that the Mosely Educational
Commission sent by England to the United States, most strongly emphasized
that living connection and necessary correlation between the universities
and the industrial and manufacturing prosperity of the United States.
A university is therefore not a mere luxury, but rather a necessary asset
in a nation's life. "The development of the true spirit of the
University among a people is a good measure of the development of its
soul, and consequently of its civilization" (Haldane). "No country," we
will conclude with "Catholic" in the Antigonish Casket, "ever attained to
any degree of political influence, nor have any people ever risen from a
lower to a higher level of intellectual and social culture, without the
light and inspiration that flow from a genuine university." This vision
was before the eyes of Cecil Rhodes who founded scholarships throughout
the British Empire. These scholarships glean every year in the wide
fields of the Empire the brightest minds and throw them as a beautiful
sheaf at the foot of the great English Alma Mater, Oxford. Millions and
millions have been left for the same purpose to the American Universities.
The university may well then be called the Alma Mater--the nursing
mother, of the leaders of a nation. From its halls "emerge those who
have that power of command which is born of penetrating insight. Such a
power generally carries in its train the gift of organization, and
organization is one of the foundations of national strength." (Lord
Haldane.) The belief that the self-made men were the real successful men
is a thing of the past. A careful investigation has proved that ninety
per cent of the men who stood at the head of large financial, political,
philanthropic, economic, industrial and commercial institutions of the
world were graduates of universities.[2] The self-made man as a leader
is the exception and has necessarily his limitations which he is the
first to feel and acknowledge. Munsterberg in his book "The Americans"
has a page which is very much to the point. "The most important factor
of the aristocratic differentiation of America is higher Education and
culture and this becomes more important every day. The social importance
ascribed to a college graduate is all the time growing. It was kept back
for a long time by unfortunate prejudices. Because other than
intellectual forces had made the nation strong, and everywhere in the
foreground of public activity there were vigorous and influential men who
had not continued their education beyond the public grammar school, so
the masses instinctively believed that insight, real energy and
enterprise were better developed in the school of life than in the world
of books. The college student was thought a weakling, in a way, who
might have fine theories, but who would never help to solve the great
national problems--a sort of academic "mug-wump," but not a leader. The
banking house, factory, farm, the mine, law office and the political
position were thought better places for the young (American) man than the
college lecture halls. . . . This has profoundly changed now, and
changes more, with every year. . . . The change has taken place in
regard to what is expected of the college student; distrust has vanished
and people realize that the _intellectual discipline_ which he has had
until his twenty-second year in the artificial and ideal world is after
all the best training, less by its subject-matter than by its methods, is
the best possible preparation for practical activity. . . . The leading
positions are almost entirely in the hands of men of academic training
and the mistrust of the theorizing college spirit has given place to a
situation in which university presidents and professors have much to say
on all practical questions of public life, and the college graduates are
the real supporters of every movement toward reform and civilization."
(Munsterberg--"The Americans" 600-602.)
The true _leaders_ in society are like the snow-capped heights of a
mountain range: they are the first that the new light of a breaking dawn,
of a coming period, is wont to strike with its rays, to be then reflected
on the silent and sleeping valleys. The men who hold to-day the pen or
draughting pencil in the university are the men who will handle the
levers of the world's intricate machinery. There they grapple with the
various problems of the scientifical, economic and political world and
their views, later on, will gradually influence the whole mental attitude
of the masses, who, in their daily life, are confronted with these same
problems.
This leadership of _thought_ and _action_ is no more the privilege of a
few; in our democratic country every one can aspire to it. The days when
primary education was for the masses, secondary or college education for
the middle classes and university training for "the quality," have passed
away and gradually the benefits of higher education are being extended to
all. The _equality of opportunity_, not that of wealth and position, is
_the test of true democracy_. This condition has created the aristocracy
of brains and character before which the aristocracy of wealth, of blood
and lineage fade into insignificance.
The predominance of the "vocational feature" over the "cultural" in the
scope of our modern universities, the vast "extension work" [3] carried
on in the various fields, the multiplicity of "free scholarships" open to
the competition of the brainy and ambitious boy, are other proofs of this
democratic trait of our modern higher education.
* * * * * *
Since higher education is the stepping stone to leadership, the question
most vital to Catholics in this particular and most momentous period of
our history is: "What share have we in the college and university life of
the country?" "The progress of the Church in any country is attributable
to the _indwelling Spirit_ which guides the Church.--Next, to the piety,
zeal and education of its _priesthood_,--and lastly, though in no mean
degree, to the devotion, activity and education of the _laity_. Where
these three features combine, then the Church is writing the brightest
pages of Her history." (Archbishop Glennon.)
I will not repeat here what "Catholic" in the Antigonish Casket, and
Henry Somerville in his pamphlet, "Higher education and Catholic
Leadership in Canada"--have been writing on for the past year or so.
With them we conclude that outside of the Province of Quebec, the
Catholics of the Dominion have not the influence they should wield.
Naturally there are many reasons to explain this fact. But we will say
with the Editor of the North West Review, "facts cannot be ignored with
impunity, the sooner they are admitted and faced with courage the more
readily shall difficulties be overcome. And the necessity for an
awakening to the demand for higher education is very real."
In the firing line of the world's gigantic struggle we shall never hold
the strategic points to which our number gives us a right in our Canadian
Democracy, unless our leaders are strong in number, and in power.
Catholic leadership will give us the occasion to present, explain and
promote "our solution" to various problems confronting the world. During
this period of universal upheaval and momentous crisis, when all the
ingredients, we would say of the social and economic fabric are in a
state of flux,--like bronze in fusion,--Catholic leaders should be to the
front to supply the casts of Christian civilization. If in the public
press, the legislative assemblies, the labor meetings, public gatherings,
where mind meets mind, ideal clashes with ideal, knowledge with
knowledge, where facts are being examined and weighed, where ideas are
thrown into the melting pot of public debate, if then and there, there is
no one to stand for Catholic views in the various matters under
discussion, can we be astonished that we are absolutely ignored, and our
views not considered? "We believe that an attitude of merely destructive
criticism, of aloofness, scepticism, pessimism, is a deplorable mistake.
It is not by standing aloof from the movements of our day, but by going
fearlessly into them with the message of truth entrusted to our charge,
shall we best fulfil our high mission towards our fellow countrymen. We
must seize these opportunities in the spirit of high confidence and
dauntless zeal which befits those who have the Truth, know they have the
Truth, and are assured that the Truth is great and shall prevail."
(Universe--June 13, 1919.)
Never has a greater opportunity challenged the Church and her leaders
than at this great turning of the tide in the history of the world.
Canada itself is on the threshold of the most eventful and decisive
period of her national life. "The war has brought our country into the
broad stream of internationalism . . . and a new _national consciousness_
is being born and is sweeping over the land." In the future, as in the
past, our Dominion will remain divided by race and creed. But let us not
forget that the various religious and ethnical groups will have only the
influence that gives true leadership. The value and the measure of
higher education among Catholics will therefore give the value and the
measure of their participation in the remodelling of their great country.
If such is the case of Catholics throughout Canada, what would we not say
of Catholics in our Western Provinces. In this reconstruction of our
Dominion the prairie Provinces are without doubt to play a preponderant
part. One has only to open his eyes to see the trend of our national
policies, and immediately grasp the growing importance of our Western
Provinces. The West is gradually passing from the pioneer conditions and
becoming conscious of its importance. With the beautiful qualities and
unlimited resources of youth, it has also its dangerous shortcomings.
Daring, venturous, over confident, the western mind is easily and
frequently hasty and radical in its conclusions. Intoxicated with wealth
and success, inspired and aroused by the great possibilities of his new
home, the Westerner is ever tempted to experiment in legislation, make
extreme views prevail and believe the newest is always the best. He will
boast of broadmindedness, of love of freedom and at the same time will,
under the deceiving tyranny of number, suppress the most sacred rights.
Nowhere we claim in our Dominion, is Catholic leadership and therefore
higher education, more needed at the present hour than in the West. Our
Catholics there need indeed higher education, for, at this hour
particularly, the nation's business is our business; they cannot remain
an isolated factor in presence of the tremendous issues that stare the
world and our country in the face. But if we wish to make our influence
as Catholics felt, let our leadership come from "_Higher Catholic
Education_" as from its fountain head.
_Higher Catholic Education for Catholics in Western Canada._
There is a decided distinction between higher education for Catholics and
higher Catholic education. This leads us to place before the reader the
principles upon which rests the catholic ideal in matters of higher
education and to suggest means of its speedy realization in Western
Canada. A friendly exchange of ideas on this most important and very
interesting topic will be profitable to all at this juncture, and help,
we hope, to clear up hazy notions and cloudy conceptions which some may
entertain on the subject.
* * * * * *
In matters of Catholic education, the most weighty argument is that of
the authority of the Church. Her views and practices, particularly on
questions of education, should be the views and practices of every good
Catholic. In the New Canon-Law, in the Councils and Letters of the
Popes, is to be found the only authoritative direction in this momentous
problem. The Church is most emphatic and most precise in its
pronouncements on the matter of higher education. The Canon 1379,
paragraph 2, of the new Canon-Law, is very explicit on the subject. "If
the public universities are not imbued with Catholic doctrine and
surrounded with a Catholic atmosphere, it is most desirable to found in
that country or region a Catholic University." The Plenary Councils of
Baltimore and of Quebec (Tit, VI-C, VII) command in the most pressing
manner the Catholic youth to frequent only Catholic universities. When
circumstances necessitate attendance at non-Catholic universities,
safeguards are exacted to minimize the danger. These recent dispositions
of the Church's legislation reflect the stand the Church has always taken
on this ground of higher education. Is She not "_Mater universitatum_?"
Modern civilization owes its universities to the Catholic Church, as the
very stones of Cambridge and Oxford still proclaim . . . _lapides
clamabunt_! And in these days of religious indifference, after heroic
efforts and great sacrifices, in spite of the allurement of our wealthy
state and independent institutions, the Church counts in every country
seats of higher learning, where her children may receive the benefit of
university training without danger for their conscience or their faith.