CHAPTER XXI

SHOULDER TO SHOULDER WITH THE EMPIRE

While the enlistment and equipment of the first contingent proceeded apace, all political ranks united for the war. Militarists and pacifists, fathoms apart in times of peace on the question of a Dominion navy, joined hands. Party lines, as in Great Britain, were instantly obliterated. Sir Wilfrid Laurier, former Prime Minister, and leader of the opposition in the Canadian Parliament, who, at the Imperial Conference of 1911, advocated the doctrine of colonial neutrality, declaring that Canada would not necessarily consider herself bound to take part in wars in which Great Britain might become involved, immediately threw the weight of his influence behind the Government. When the Dominion Parliament met August 19, 1914, to indorse Great Britain's participation in the war, Sir Wilfrid, after announcing that for the present all party lines had been abolished, said:

"So long as there is danger at the front it is our duty, more pressing than all other duties on this first day of debate, to let Great Britain, to let all the friends and foes of Great Britain, know that there is in Canada but one mind and one heart, and that all Canadians stand behind the mother country, conscious and proud that she did not engage in war from selfish motives or for aggrandizement, but to maintain untarnished the honor of her name, to fulfill her obligations to her allies, to maintain her treaty obligations, and to save civilization from the unbridled lust of conquest and power."

Of the Canadian contingent he said it was the opinion of the British Government that the assistance of Canadian troops, humble though it might be, would be appreciated for their material and moral help, and would show the world that Canada, daughter of England, intended to stand by her in the conflict.

Canada's Governor General, the Duke of Connaught, had opened Parliament wearing a general's field uniform in khaki, and reminded the legislators that England was asking for their help. Sir Wilfrid Laurier, in the speech he made, presented a motion proposing that the Dominion be prepared to carry out the duke's suggestion. The motion's seconder was the Premier, Sir Robert Borden, who said:

"We stand shoulder to shoulder with the mother country. With firm hearts we abide the issue. The men who are going to the front from Canada are going as freemen from a free country to serve this Dominion and the Empire. We are giving our best to our country, and we are proud to do it." The press of Canada ardently indorsed the decision.

The Canadian Parliament immediately voted a war credit of $50,000,000, the minister of finance declaring that Canada was prepared to spend her last drop of blood and her last dollar in the defense of the country. This measure, the first contribution from Canada's war chest on behalf of the Empire, signalized an outpouring of gifts in kind, official or private, in rich profusion. From its storehouses the Government presented Great Britain with 98,000 bags of flour; the Provinces thereupon followed with individual gifts of supplies. Ontario gave 250,000 bags of flour; Manitoba, 50,000 bags; Quebec, 4,000,000 pounds of cheese; New Brunswick, 100,000 bushels of potatoes; Saskatchewan, 1,500 horses, valued at $250,000; Alberta, 500,000 bushels of oats; Prince Edward Island, 100,000 bushels of oats; British Columbia, 25,000 cases of salmon; while Nova Scotia at first offered 100,000 tons of coal, a cumbrous contribution, which was later converted to its cash equivalent. These governmental offerings evoked no less handsome responses to the call of the mother country from many cities and towns, corporations, and individuals. Great Britain's sinews of war were further reenforced by $100,000 from the Bank of Montreal; $500,000 from Mr. J. K. L. Ross of Montreal; a battery of machine guns from Mr. J. C. Eaton of Toronto; while Mr. Hamilton Gault of Montreal equipped and raised at his own expense a crack regiment composed entirely of men possessing war medals, and known as the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, or more properly as "Princess Pat's Pets." Having outfitted this force at a cost of $1,500,000, Mr. Gault did not take command, but joined it as one of its officers, while Mrs. Gault closed her home and left for the front as a nurse. Corporations also contributed funds for the war, and many employees gave a percentage of their salaries.

The women of Canada raised a fund of $285,960, one hundred thousand of which was for military hospital purposes, and the remainder for a naval hospital. The Canadian Red Cross sent a fully equipped field hospital and $50,000 to the British Red Cross Society. The Dominion Government provided $100,000 for a Canadian hospital in France. Farmers in different districts gathered vast stocks of flour and farming produce and sent them to England. The Canadians also raised their own Patriotic Relief Fund, devoted to caring for dependents of Canadians fighting at the front and providing a subsistence for their future. Eighteen cities raised considerably over $5,000,000 for this fund within ten weeks of the outbreak of the war. Montreal leading with $2,000,000, and Toronto with nearly $1,000,000.

In the wake of this munificence came an increased depression. Before the war a temporary check had come to a long and unexampled era of prosperity in Canada. An industrial crisis had set in, and the war brought it to an acute point. There had been an overstimulation of industrial enterprises; land values had been artificially inflated in the Northwest; and capital had been too easily raised. Capital now became scarce; Canadian promotions were viewed with suspicion; and some foreign investments were withdrawn. With the war many Canadians, who were working and giving whole-heartedly for the Empire, saw their enterprises facing ruin for want of capital they could not obtain. The stock exchanges were closed. Shares in some of the soundest industrial concerns were almost unsalable; others were offered for little more than half their market price of a few months before. Canadian Pacific shares, as an example, fell to $157-½; a little over a year previous to the war they had reached $254. Government and municipal undertakings found difficulty in obtaining funds to continue public works, and in consequence had to discharge hundreds of men. A number of establishments closed altogether; others continued on curtailed time and staffs.

Montreal felt an immediate depressing tendency on the outbreak of the war. In Toronto the financial stringency caused by the war brought a more serious phase to the labor situation in that city than had ever before been encountered. All lines of industry were affected, and thousands of men and women paid off. The enlistment of several thousands of Canadians did not appreciably relieve the congestion in the labor market. The building trade was suddenly paralyzed owing to the inability of contractors to obtain advances from banks and loan companies. The same check to all manner of business enterprises and construction work was felt in Port Arthur, Fort William, Sault Ste. Marie, Winnipeg, Regina, Calgary, Edmonton, Prince Rupert, and Victoria. In all these cities the numbers of unemployed grew to extraordinary proportions. So, while military preparations were proceeding without pause, the Dominion, Provincial, and municipal authorities and business interests had to wrestle with the industrial situation. In due time distress was relieved, new enterprises were initiated, wholesale economies instituted, and vigorous efforts made to restore financial stability.

Canada looked suspiciously at the migratory Germans within her gates when the war broke out, but more assuringly at her settlers of German descent, who were not only domiciled but rooted on her soil. Of these Sir Wilfrid Laurier spoke thus in the Canadian House of Parliament: "They have shown more than once their devotion to British institutions, but they would not be men if they did not in their hearts have a deep feeling for the land of their ancestry. Nobody blames them for that. There is nothing, perhaps, so painful as a situation in which the mind and heart are driven in opposite directions. Let me tell my fellow countrymen of German origin that Great Britain has no antagonism to the German people. We respect and admire them, but in the struggle for constitutional liberty which has been universal in Europe the German people have not made the same advances as some other nations. I am sure they will agree with me that if the institutions of the land of their ancestors were as free as those of the land of their adoption, this cruel war would never have taken place."

This sentiment brought a ready echo from Berlin, Ontario, which at least showed that that German colony shared the common aspirations of the Dominion. In a cablegram sent to Lord Kitchener the citizens of this Ontario German settlement said:

"Berlin, Ontario, a city of 18,000, of which 12,000 are German or of German descent, proposes to raise $75,000 or more for the National (Canadian) Patriotic Fund. The German people want to see militarism in Germany smashed for good, and the people set free to shape a greater and better Germany."

Pro-German sentiment undoubtedly lurked in these German Canadian communities, but it was quiescent and therefore harmless. Hence anti-German sentiment, which became demonstrative and dangerous upon the declaration of war by Great Britain, did not direct its attention to the German settlements, but to the consulates. Those at Vancouver and Winnipeg were stoned by mobs, and the German and Austrian consuls were requested to leave the country. There was a fear of spies, and a number of unaffiliated Germans were arrested and interned.

Then the popular imagination became scared by the remote possibility of an invasion of Canada by German and Austrian Americans. A feeling of nervousness over the supposed danger was reported along the Canadian frontier, though the fears of the border communities were accounted as groundless. The Government was fully cognizant of conditions along the border and military activities kept at least 40,000 men either mobilized or under arms in various parts of the country, composed of 10,000 as guards for home defense and 30,000 in training for oversea service. The danger, fanciful or not, caused extra precautions to be taken against any invasion across the Niagara River. Guards were stationed at Fort Erie, directly opposite Buffalo, and the whole river front from there to Niagara Falls and Queenstown was patrolled day and night by between 500 and 600 members of the newly organized home guards—in automobiles or on motorcycles. The guard on the Welland Canal was doubled.

There had been occasional trouble with alien workmen at munition factories, some of which, incidentally, were hemmed in by three successive fences of barbed wire, outside of which marched armed sentries. A railroad bridge in the Northwest had been blown up. Later a sentry on guard at a lock in the Soulanges Canal, near Montreal, had been shot.

Then followed an attempt to blow up the international bridge between Maine and New Brunswick. Here were sporadic manifestations which called for the services of the new home guards to protect railroads and canals, not only to safeguard Canadian commerce, but because any destruction of canals and bridges might seriously hamper the work of forwarding supplies to England. Much of England's food passed through the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence, and the wreck of one lock by explosion during the navigation season would be a serious disaster. After navigation closed the means of forwarding supplies and troops became even more limited. The Intercolonial Railroad, which is owned by the Government, was the only line extending to the Atlantic seaboard without crossing American territory, and for that reason was the sole artery available for the transport of troops. The entire 700 miles of its main line therefore had to be patrolled.

When found, however, alien enemies were well treated in Canada. They were but little molested, and unless under actual suspicion were allowed comparative freedom, being only required to register and report at certain intervals. Detention camps were subsequently established for those suspected of plotting and spying and for those in want. Some Germans and Austrians succeeded in fleeing the country when the war broke out. A ticket agent at Montreal was tried for treason—an offense punishable by death—on a charge that he had assisted them to leave Canada. German and Austrian workmen who did not leave were not permitted to depart, even to the United States, lest they should find means of returning to their own countries to join their armies. Most of them were unemployed; and as alien enemies were not supposed to be provided for by charitable organizations, they were assembled in camps to protect them from starvation.

Germany's attitude toward Canada was indicated in a statement credited to Count von Bernstorff, the German ambassador in Washington, regarding the scope of the Monroe Doctrine. The curious contention was therein made that Canada, by sending troops to fight against Germany, had violated that doctrine. The alleged violation was not very clear, unless, from the German viewpoint, it consisted in giving Germany cause for attacking Canada, which would at once test the effectiveness of the Monroe Doctrine. But this, the statement said, Germany had no intention of doing, nor of attempting to colonize Canada after the war if she were victorious.

Canada refused to take seriously this promise of Germany not to annex her. Most of the Canadian press waxed sarcastic, and those who dealt seriously with the German statement seized upon it as an excuse to beat the recruiting drum for the British army, especially the implication that, because Canada had sided against Germany, there was nothing in the Monroe Doctrine to prevent her landing an armed force in Canada. "Possibly he" (Count von Bernstorff), commented the Montreal "Herald," "expects the United States will now go out of its way and tell him how cordially they would welcome such delightful neighbors on the Canadian side of 3,000 miles of unfortified territory."

The unexampled conditions created by the war with Canada, of which the foregoing is a survey—her activities, turmoil, welding of political cleavages, industrial sacrifices, benevolences, and needless precautions against unsubstantial dangers—merely featured her real achievement. This was the creation of an army in being for the European battle field.

PART IV—CANADIAN WAR INDUSTRIES

CHAPTER XXII

BEHIND THE GUNS AT HOME

When the war broke out in 1914, Great Britain looked to Canada for a supply of munitions as well as men. Not a shell, cartridge, nor fuse had ever before been made by a Canadian manufacturer. A new industry immediately sprang into being, assuming quite large proportions by the middle of 1915, by which time there were approximately over 400 establishments in full blast. From a modest output in 1914 representing a value of $28,164, the Canadian munitions factories piled up a record of production which stood at over $1,000,000,000 in value with the war's close in November, 1918.

The Imperial Ministry of Munitions, which threw out its lines from London to obtain munitions whence it could, asked much of Canada and got much. "Who would have dreamed," said a member of the British Government in 1915, "that Canada would have produced more munitions than any country in the world except Germany prior to the war?" Of the projectiles used by all the British armies in the third year of the war, Canada was producing 55 per cent of the shrapnel shells; 42 per cent of the 4.5-inch shells; 27 per cent of the 6-inch; 15 per cent of the 8-inch; and 16 per cent of the 9.2-inch. In fact, when the Germans complained that the Allied armies were being munitioned by the United States, they lost sight—or did not know—of the fact that many of the shells they objected to as American really came from Canada. In addition to shells and fuses and related products, there were vast exports of explosives and chemicals, metals, and spruce and fir for airships and other purposes. The war contracts which started all this activity were spread over a thousand contractors and called for the employment of from 200,000 to 300,000 workers.

The table of achievement, as it stands in the Government records, was as under

VALUE OF MUNITIONS AND MATERIALS EXPORTED FROM CANADA

1914to December 31$28,164
1915" 57,213,688
1916" 296,505,257
1917" 388,213,553
1918" 260,711,751
———————
$1,002,672,413

QUANTITIES EXPORTED

Shells65,343,647
Fuses29,638,126
Fuse parts16,174,073
Cartridge cases48,627,673
Percussion primers35,386,488
Exploder containers13,285,000
Shell and adapter forgings6,412,115
Explosives and Chemicals—Lbs.
T. N. T.14,754,950
Cordite28,542,157
Other (more than)41,000,000
Metals and Compounds—
Steel bars43,077,923
Zinc35,412,413
Nickel1,792,000
Other (more than)27,000,000
Lumber for Aeroplanes—Feet
Spruce16,289,227
Fir6,801,324
Other Lumber—
Douglas fir11,530,315
Pine—various kinds and qualities10,360,566
Spruce8,345,675

This table bears a little amplification, more especially as to the disposition of the huge volume of lumber logged. Much of it, as will be seen, went into the manufacture of aeroplanes. A plant at Toronto, financed with British capital, but organized and operated by Canadians, manufactured 2,050 complete machines, turning out 350 a month. The airships represented a value of $6,700,000, and required over 2,000 workers in their construction. The plant also provided a number of flying boats for the United States Navy.

Canada's shipbuilding record was no less notable. Her yards turned out 103 vessels (45 steel, 58 wooden) with an approximate dead-weight carrying capacity of 367,367 tons. In addition, the Department of Naval Service undertook to build a number of small warcraft for various Allied governments. These little vessels were produced at various points on the St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes. For the British Government Canadian yards supplied 12 submarines, 60 armed trawlers, 100 armed drifters, 550 coastal patrol motor boats, and 24 steel lighters for use in Mesopotamia; for the French Government, 6 armed trawlers and 36 coastal patrol motor boats; for the Italian Government, 6 submarines; and for the Russian Government one large armed ice breaker and some submarines.

The outstanding feature of all the munition making was, as the table shows, the production of shells. It needed nimble feminine fingers to turn out the very nub of a shell, namely, the fuse. Consider the record of a huge factory near Montreal, which engaged in loading and assembling time and percussion fuses, completing in all 8,400,000. The work involved the blending of fast and slow burning powders; forcing the powder into the time rings under a pressure of 68,000 pounds per square inch; assembling the fifty-two component parts which made up the complete fuse; the packing, checking, and shipping the completed product. Women became expert in the work of fuse making, which meant being careful even to the 1-1000th of an inch.

"A shell with a defective fuse," wrote one observer of their work, "is worse than no shell at all. It may fail to explode, it may explode in the wrong place, at the wrong time, or in the wrong way." Canadian women made fuses that made the perfect shell. Not only in fuse making did they excel; heavy work became easy when machines, at the suggestion of the women themselves, were changed in position. Finally there was no difference in the work done by men and women. Within five weeks of the time they first heard of a 9.2-inch shell 400 women in one factory were successfully turning them out, performing every operation from that subsequent to the fabrication of the metal to and including that of shipping.

Before October, 1916, no women had ever worked in Canada as producers in a metal plant. There was a prejudice against employment of women. The need of shells and the need of shell makers dissipated prejudice and put women into Canadian munitions plants. At first they were given the light work to do and were set to tending a machine; work that required little intelligence on the part of the operator, but was extremely trying on the nerves. It soon became apparent that women excelled in work that required accuracy and delicate handling.

Women worked cheerfully and long. In the time of greatest need there were 35,000 women at work in the munitions factories of Canada; after the first call there was no shortage of women help. For various good reasons it was decided to give a badge without charge to any woman who worked for thirty days continuously. For each additional six months' service a bar was added. In all, 18,999 badges and 8,032 service bars were used in Canada. They were earned as follows: One bar, 4,003; two bars, 1,135; three bars, 447; four bars, 84; five bars, 16; six bars, 2.

In addition a commemorative badge was awarded to all workmen in the various plants who served continuously for a year or more. Far from disturbing labor conditions the entry of women into munitions plants aroused the most wonderful cooperation and enthusiasm and actually dispelled what might have been a serious drawback in "serving the man who serves the gun."

It began with a Shell Committee, composed of honorary members, which was formed when the British Government decided that Canada was a good field for producing shrapnel shells, especially as basic steel—the only steel Canada turned out—proved serviceable for shell making. The Shell Committee placed contracts on behalf of the British War Office, but the volume of business expanded to such a degree that the committee only gave place to a board directly responsible to the Imperial Ministry of Munitions. The work of this Munitions Board developed a number of auxiliary departments, directed by business men located in Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver, and Victoria, who handled enormous purchases of materials for use in munition making, supervised construction, conducted logging operations, and checked and rectified all engineering gauges. The forging of steel had to be arranged and the forgings and components distributed to the machining plants situated in the various Provinces. Shipbuilding required the acquisition of much timber and supplies for the hulls and the construction of engines and boilers.

These national plants were erected at Trenton, Renfrew, and Nobel for producing nitrocellulose, cordite, and T. N. T., with acid plants, and a factory for turning out acetone and methyl-ethyl-ketone. In the forging operations steel turnings had to be melted in electric furnaces, the steel thus subsequently produced being converted into forgings. The manufacture of aeroplanes for the Royal Air Force included a constructional section which built all aerodromes, machine shops, barracks, and officers' quarters at the various camps. The logging operations, which were conducted in British Columbia, produced spruce and fir for aeroplanes, and called for fleets of tugs which delivered the logs to cutting mills. Every kind of material that could be made available for war purposes was explored for by the Munitions Board in areas of natural resources hitherto undeveloped, with the result that industries new to Canada were established. One development was an extensive production of alloys used in the manufacture of high-speed cutting tools. Another achievement was the creation of the explosive and propellent industry.

The manufacture of munitions spread over the whole of Canada, with the exception of Prince Edward Island—which is exclusively agricultural—and even invaded the island of Newfoundland. From the first factory in the east to the last factory on the Pacific coast was a journey of 4,500 miles.

"Steel," it was recorded, "was purchased wherever it could be obtained. It was shipped 1,000, 1,500, and 2,000 miles to have it forged. From the forging plant it was shipped back again 500 or 600 miles or forwarded 2,000 miles to machining plants. Other component parts were purchased from manufacturers as far south as Florida. They were sent to remote points in order that every Canadian manufacturer engaged in munitions contract might sustain delivery of finished shells."

The policy pursued in all the complex operations thus briefly outlined aimed at the elimination of the middleman and dealing direct with those who performed the work. Raw materials of every description were purchased and passed on from one contractor to another, saving the contractor large investments of capital otherwise necessary to produce complete shells, and enabling a proper distribution of the materials available to insure maximum production. Subsequently the war munitions business was placed on a competitive basis.

All the work accomplished was due to the initiative of the Imperial Munitions Board, which was presided over by Sir Joseph Flavelle. There was, of course, a governing stimulus in all it did, namely, the needs of the war, which evolved the board's creation on broad lines when, in November, 1915, the British Government placed munition contracts in Canada amounting to $300,000,000. Manufacturers adapted their plants to munition making; thousands of men and women toiled at the lathe and in places of great responsibility and danger; patriotic Canadians freely gave their services when called upon with no other reward than the satisfaction of serving the state. The board's administrative staff numbered close to a thousand men and women, and of them Sir Joseph Flavelle declared that no body of men charged with serious duty ever received more loyal and efficient support. The same tribute was bestowed on the great home army of eager participants in munition making of all ranks, though, like the good workers they all were, they found duty its own reward.

An important factor in the manufacture of munitions was the work of the Canadian War Trade Board. Its functions braced the supervision and control of the Dominion's industries, and the direction of all essential trades, occupations, and materials to the conduct of the war. It was especially valuable in reaching outside of Canada for needed materials for munitions, particularly from the United States.

The War Trade Board was born of a crisis. Until the United States entered the war Canada had been able to obtain raw materials and half-finished products necessary in the munitions industry without difficulty from her southern neighbor. The situation changed when the United States began to conserve every raw material and product which could be used in the war. To present her case effectively Canada had to organize on national lines. The two countries were not independent, American industries needing nickel matter, asbestos, pulp, and power from Canada, and Canadians requiring pig iron, iron ore, steel sheets, coal, cotton, etc., from the United States. By both countries appointing a War Trade Board composed of outstanding business men in both countries, and by means of a Canadian War Mission established in Washington, the two countries were able to present a solid industrial front to the enemy and still preserve their respective national interests intact.

Drastic elimination of nonessentials was the first essential so that the railroads of the continent and the shipping of the world could devote their energies to carrying necessaries for sustaining the Allied war effort. The Canadian Board saw that no company imported any material when stocks in Canada could be utilized for its needs. This was not only to fulfill its obligations to the United States War Trade Board, but to keep down imports to the lowest possible figure so that Canada's trade balance with the United States should be as little adverse as possible. For the same reason a number of imports were placed on the restricted list.

Every day from all over Canada came anxious men and constant streams of letters and telegrams informing the board as to stocks of raw materials on hand, and explaining the needs. The War Trade Board undertook to see that the materials were forthcoming, if possible, and to secure them from within Canada or from the United States or elsewhere. It purchased and distributed tin plate in Canada, negotiated for the reopening of dormant blast furnaces and the construction of new undertakings for the production of pig iron, and obtained huge supplies required from the United States. It controlled the sale, purchase, and use of platinum. It financed the purchase and allotment through the Wool Commission of 46,208 bales of Australian wool weighing 15,573,542 pounds and valued at ten and a half million dollars, as well as five and a half million dollars' worth of tops and noils from the United Kingdom. It had power to pay bounties on the production of linen yarns in Canada. It also controlled the production and distribution of iron and steel and their products in Canada, and was empowered to take over and carry on the management of chrome ore-producing properties for a period of five years.

The Board also served as a clearing house for industrial information to manufacturers, keeping in constant touch with the various industries, either individually or through such bodies as the Imperial Munitions Board, the Canadian Wool Commission, the War Purchasing Commission, the Canadian Tanners' Council, the Canadian Pulp and Paper Association, and the Canadian Wool Growers' Association.

Had it not been for the existence of such a body, there were many raw materials and products which Canadians could not have secured at all, as the British, United States, and Australian Governments would not have permitted their shipment but for assurances as to the use to which they would be put or of a substantial cash advance. The shortage of shipping made it necessary in some cases to secure a vessel to go to South America or some other country to get materials urgently needed in Canada, and only a government body could have induced the admiralty to permit it.

The securing of steel plates for Canadian shipbuilding industries was one of the board's most arduous and continuous tasks. Profiteering in steel-plate and boiler-tube stocks was sternly checked in the cases where complaints were well founded. Canadian steel companies were induced to make all the car plates necessary for the Government's car program. The pyrites exports were increased to meet the needs of the sulphuric acid makers in the United States. Nitroglycerine was conserved by restricting the content in commercial explosives.

The commandeering powers of the board were not often exercised, its authority to do so alone being amply sufficient to obtain the ends for which it was created. Most of the money made by the board was in connection with its wool purchases. The money obtained for the tops and noils from the United Kingdom it sent to the British Treasury. With the proclamation of peace the board passed out of existence.