“A conspicuous evil in the present day life of North America is hurry. Young men, in haste to achieve success, force themselves. The able ones rise with a rapidity which, I think is the reverse of beneficial in the long run. A reaction, an aftermath, is apt to come. Their mental and physical elasticity is apt to prematurely disappear, with the result that they will too soon find themselves past the summit of their careers and traveling the declivity on the other side. The great cities on this continent, and particularly those of the United States, have a voracious appetite for the vitality of youth. They develop a man, yes, but they also exhaust him.
“The mistake of this lies principally in the industrial and social pace of the present. Young men, influenced by the city life about them, spend a good deal more money on their living and enjoyment than they did in the days of my own youth, and in their keen desire to keep in the hunt, so to speak, they seek the goal of wealth cross-lots instead of by the more roundabout but much safer highway. The young women who become their wives have great power in the matter of keeping them away from the dangerous short-cuts. A wife should have an intimate knowledge of the varying conditions in her husband’s business, in order that she may properly adjust her expenditures to these conditions. This seems obvious, but the wife’s failure in this respect has been the cause of the undoing of many a man.
“The spirit of materialism and commercialism which is so marked has been, perhaps, a necessary factor in the development of the resources of this continent, but I believe that it is gradually losing its position as the commanding influence in our New World civilization, and that it will become a subordinate element in a broader and higher attitude toward life.”
“This development will come sooner, I think, in the United States than in Canada, for the reason that the former country has had the start of us in the evolution. The rough work of subduing rebellious nature, of clearing land, of breaking virgin soil for agriculture, of building railroads, has been nearly completed across the border, while on our side it is just beginning. We have a great Northwest, still in large degree a wilderness, to cover with farms and homes and the other appurtenances of civilization. We have yet large sections of our East to dot with the towns and the industries which this territory will bountifully support.
“It is only within a very few years that we have begun to take hold of this work with the zeal and determination that brings success. With this twentieth century there has been born in Canada a new spirit of enterprise. Even here in the University its effects have been strongly felt. It was not long ago that a large proportion of our graduates became teachers, or entered some other professional sphere, and in these fields most of them sought their opportunities in the United States. At the present time the majority of our students have turned toward commercial, mechanical or scientific pursuits, and they are finding their openings within our own domain. The standard of pecuniary compensation is advancing, not only in commerce but also in the professions. For example, even as comparatively a short time as a decade ago the largest fees or salaries for legal services never rose above a very few thousand dollars. Now we often hear of Canadian lawyers receiving many thousands in single fees or in yearly salaries from railroad, banking and other corporations. The general tendency is in this direction, and it is a direct result of our industrial expansion. The interests of Canadian employers of brains and labor are becoming larger. They want more men, and better trained men, and are willing to pay them more than in former years.
“Since a university does not completely fulfil its functions unless it keeps in touch with the life of the people and the currents of broad activity, we of the University of Toronto are aiming to keep pace with the new development in Canada. We are equipping young men for many practical pursuits, and are even establishing close relationships with numerous specific industries. Often of late we have had applications from employers for young men capable of assuming responsibilities. We keep track of the demand for youthful brains and university training, and make a point of being always ready to supply it. A notable factor in the practical work of the university is the Agricultural College, which is located at Guelph, Ontario, and controls 550 acres of land, upon which all phases of farming are carried on and taught to nearly six hundred students. We feel that this college is doing work which is very important. Much of the future wealth of Canada will be derived from agriculture, and especially from wheat growing in the Northwest, where hard wheat, the finest in the world, can be produced in sufficient quantities to supply all the markets of the earth. To adequately develop the possibilities of this territory we must have scientific farmers, and this is the kind we are doing our best to train.
“But with all this effort along material lines, we are by no means forgetting at the University of Toronto what we used to call the broad humanities. The play of the spirit, the exercise of the imagination, the stimulus of literature and art, a tolerant and cheerful philosophy are, after all, the things which make life worth living.”