Читать книгу Don Quixote in Finance, or Has Canada a Medici? - W. H. P. Jarvis - Страница 3

Table of Contents

In the minds of all men the individual holds a duty to his fellows: in fact, the State holds obligations to the individual. And, undoubtedly, justice for the individual is in the self-interests of the many. Modern cant promulgates the philosophy that questions of State only lie in the general interest; when one man is wronged does not his neighbour ask: "May I not be next?" Should the doctrine obtain that the State holds no duty to the individual, whither shall we drift?—for the State is really the individual and his brother!

The pages that go into this pamphlet tell the story of one who—according to his lights—has tried to hew to line. The astounding lesson to be drawn from the tale is that, not only are the hearts of our real rulers, our money-barons, impregnable against the call of justice, but that the law, always precarious, is much more elusive than one bred to the spirit of British moral sense, was wont to believe.

By our processes in the courts trained minds are necessary to one's guidance; indeed it has been said that the man who takes his own case before a judge has a fool for a client. If then one is compelled, in the pursuit of justice, to place his fortunes and his very soul in the keeping of another, and if justice is the very basis of civilization, then may we fear for our institutions when we feel that one's counsel may be subjected to intimidation or one's solicitors forced into being party to shifty compromises, wherein their client is not considered.

I hold that the general unrest throughout the world is due to the realization that popular government has been tried and found wanting. This may be called Bolshevism, and if I am called a Bolshevist I would point out that I have no desire to unwrongfully dispossess any man of his property, that I do not wish to kill anybody, that I have no ill-will towards His Majesty, our King. I am of complete United Empire Loyalist descent, and so strong is my affection for the British Throne that I believe in extending its powers rather than curtailing them.

To-day we have whole orders of rulers, all of whom must be satisfied at the cost of the public. Let us go to humbler fields for light. A Grand Trunk Railway conductor was once "had up" on "the carpet" for "knocking down" fares. He told his chiefs that he was guilty, but pleaded that now he had a house and everything he wanted in life and was inclined to remain honest for the remainder of his days, whereas, if he were dismissed and another put in his place, the new man would have to get all these things. So it is with our rulers: If one man were dictator and he were held in his position by the will of the people, then we would have only one to satisfy, whereas, to-day, we have scores of vampires and parasites, backed by the press and supported by interests, who must be fed and who are daily becoming more rapacious.

Many of my strongest impressions were gained during my stay in the Klondike. The generality of the men who essayed that wilderness in those days were virile in the extreme, yet each band of miners on the trail elected to its head a boss, who to all intents and purposes was king. The history of the Yukon bears this lesson: in the very early days, when the Mounted Police, under Captain Constantine, held despotic rule, title was given to an immense amount of the richest land, and not one word of scandal grew out of it; but when the politicians took the country over and "Democracy" held sway, official life became one grand carnival of wine, women and song.

Stock Exchange circles should be explored and laid open: the brokers should be made to display to the public the amounts lost through their offices—there is a constant stream of Canadian money flowing to New York Stock Exchange. Canadian Exchanges do not appeal to the speculator, because their committees are too tricky: the slogan of the Canadian Broker is that a sucker is born every day. This is a false doctrine.

In 1814, Sir Thomas Cochrane, "known as Lord Cochrane," and several others were tried on a charge of "spreading false news, thereby to raise the price of the public funds, and thence to enable the principal conspirators to enrich themselves and their meaner agents to be benefitted and rewarded for their respective parts which they had taken in the nefarious transaction."

By a most elaborate and picturesque conspiracy these men had spread the story that Bonaparte had been torn to pieces by Cossacks. They were sentenced each to a fine of one thousand pounds, twelve calendar months in goal and to stand for an hour in the pillory before the Royal Exchange. In sentencing Cochrane, His Lordship spoke of his great regret at finding one of his high rank and one who had been rewarded by His Majesty for distinguished service abroad, allied to a "banditti of depredators of the worst and foulest kind." This "banditti" of "depredators" would be considered clever business men in Canadian Stock-Exchange circles, and the crime of which Lord Cochrane was guilty our exchanges in 1914 closely paralleled and held themselves up as patriots for so doing.

In 1916, a Canadian financier was denounced in Parliament for stating falsely that his company was making 100 per cent. on a munition contract. No criminal proceedings were taken against him: is this progress?

When the young man, entering financial life, learns the rampant dishonesty of our financiers, and sees them exalted by the press, he feels that ideas of honour are a mistake and that, if Sir Camouflage This or Sir Camouflage That has made his money outside law and decency, he may do the same: no doubt but that the press would be equally as servile when he could afford to pay. And then he imbibes the doctrine that one must live—without work—and that one cannot remain honest and succeed.

It is time that our middle classes, those who comprise the decent element in our land and from whose ranks are recruited the self-sacrificing, should organize. They are between the mill-stones. They have been taught that their duty to themselves is to mind their own business and that patriotism is limited in its call to resistance of aggression from without and the maintainance of the status quo within. Our middle classes should realize, on the principle that charity begins at home, that it is the duty of a man to fight wrong wherever he sees it.

It is well to hold to constitutional methods and such, but, if our press and our Parliament are in the power of the money cult, how long will it be before they can be ousted, if the middle classes don't organize to obtain basic facts? Let us take the case of Sir Thomas White! There is no doubt but that this man entered Parliament for the particular purpose of serving—not his country—but his friends, of loading the Canadian Northern incubus on the broad shoulders of the Canadian People: that his name should be advanced as a candidate for the premiership is bluff—capitalistic effrontery.

To my mind the greatest enemy that a land may have is he who corrupts its government. Such a man is a traitor: he is a traitor to that greater thing called Civilization. When a people elect a government as a choice between two evils, there is the element of chance as to what the muddlers will do, and being of sporting instincts we are prepared to take what is given us; but when the muddlers are swayed by blackmail or bribes, or both, then should our virility be aroused.

Our education teaches us to seek a living without work and, as the ranks of the educated increase, the premium on brains is lost and is carried to those who labour with their hands. So the labouring man finds himself a power, and so he may talk freely and think. And he has made the discovery that money-getting ability is not an endowment of Heaven, but an inspiration of evil, that capital is shifty and that most capitalists are not wizards, but plain crooks.

If the money-cult blocks investigation into its ways, perverts the workings of our processes of law, in short, does everything it can—stopping at nothing—then it can hold sway and rule as it has been ruling.

If the great middle class is wise it will turn the limelight on the ways of our money-lords; it will not be dissuaded by Sir Camouflage This or Sir Camouflage That being a savant of Art: it will remember that Modern Paris is largely the work of that scoundrel Napoleon, that the late Emperor of Germany had a genuine interest in archaeology, and that Rameses II., the Pharaoh who oppressed the Israelites, had such an appreciation of art that he scored the names of his predecessors from much of the Temple of Karnack, and substituted his own, a piece of effrontery that remained unrivalled until a Canadian Financier caused a practiced writer to compile a volume and stamped it with his own name as eye-witness to the war.

The capitalist has learned to commercialize public regard; he will put through a rascally deal, which he knows will be recognized by many, and then by a gift to a charity, seek to gain more than he has lost; so he runs a process of debit and credit. To the politician and the capitalist it is the plaudits of the mob that is the thing.

If a rising against our capitalistic government occurs, and we are drifting to it, and our people begin to kill, the trouble is that things will be carried to excess. My own idea is that the man who bribes a politician should be hanged, and, from what I feel I know of our capitalists, I could see some of them shot and feel no regret, but with passions turned loose an undue number of people would suffer.

There is no doubt but that the capitalist would rather see our country torn by civil strife than give up his practice of corrupting governments. He is like the Jew of whom a story is told. When the Islander struck among the Alaskan Islands and passengers were rushing to the boats, this Jew ran to his cabin for his gold. When he arrived on deck the boats had pushed from the ship's side; he jumped into the water, still holding to his gold—and sank.

As to the Stock Exchange! Our people should take warning by the attempt recently made to steal from the taxpayers of the City of Toronto some $20,000,000 by inducing them to buy the Toronto Street Railway assets for $40,000,000. The basis of this deal was to be the price at which Toronto Rails sold at in the market, and this price was undoubtedly fraudulent.

It has long been my opinion that more than one of our banks has been interested in the fortunes of Mackenzie and Mann. In the Street Railway purchase campaign five out of six of Toronto's papers were brought into line to betray their patrons, and it is unreasonable to believe that one bank could effect this.

The workings of our mining companies demand very thorough looking into.

These pages have been hurriedly put together, and they are not issued with any idea that they hold literary merit. Indeed, my story has been abridged, but, with the knowledge that this might have been made stronger, the reader may judge of all things.

Toronto, W. H. P. J.

March, 1920.