ENTER THE MOUNTED POLICE
Great bodies are proverbially slow in their movements, and in this
regard all governments seem to be great bodies. It may be that a healthy
difference of opinion within a cabinet tends to cautious procedure, but
that type of caution is rather trying on people whose nerves tingle for
action.
The first Government of Canada under that astute and tactful statesman,
John A. Macdonald, was a sort of composite organization which needed
careful handling to prevent explosions, and some vast new problems such
as the construction of a transcontinental railway were in that day
swinging into politics. So, despite Butler's urgent report in 1871 and
the rumours more or less exaggerated of intertribal Indian fights with
the accompaniments of massacre and scalping-knife torture, the
Government took another year to think over it, and in 1872 sent
Adjutant-General P. Robertson-Ross to make a general reconnaissance and
bring back further expert opinion. And Colonel Ross, after many many
months of travelling, brought in a quite pronounced series of
suggestions pointing out the great need for such a force as Butler had
suggested, and definitely advised the placing of detachments of "mounted
riflemen" all the way from Manitoba to the Rockies, and for that matter
from the boundary line to the Pole.
It is interesting to note in this report of Colonel Robertson-Ross a
reference to the matter of the uniform of the proposed force in the
following paragraph:
"During my inspection in the North-West, I ascertained that some
prejudice existed amongst the Indians against the colour of the
uniform worn by the men of the Rifles, for many of the Indians
said, 'Who are these soldiers at Red River wearing dark clothes?
Our old brothers who formerly lived there (meaning H.M.S. 6th
Regiment) wore red coats,' adding, 'we know that the soldiers of
our great mother wear red coats and are our friends.'"
The Indians like the bright colour, but they also in this case connected
it with the regular regiment that had come to the Red River to keep the
peace. Referring to this same subject of uniform, Mr. Charles Mair,
noted author and frontiersman, recently said: "There is a moral in
colour as in other things, and the blind man who compared scarlet to the
sound of a trumpet was instinctively right. It does carry with it the
loud voice of law and authority so much needed in this disjointed time.
It disconcerts the ill-affected and has no small bearing in other ways."
The Hon. Frank Oliver, of Edmonton, who has known the West from the
early days, wrote not long ago on this point:
"For nearly half a century throughout Canada's great plains, the
red coat of the Mounted Policeman was the visible and definite
assurance that right was might. A red speck on the horizon was
notice to both weak and strong, honest and dishonest, that the rule
of law prevailed; while experience taught white men and red that
'Law' meant even-handed justice as between man and man without fear
or favour."
"The red coat was evidence that wherever the wearer was, he was
there with authority. In any other colour he might have escaped
hostile observation. Not so when clad in red."
Following Colonel Ross' report in 1872 the Government at Ottawa was
subjected to a sort of fusillade on the question from the floor of the
House of Commons. Hon. Alexander MacKenzie (afterwards Premier), Hon.
Dr. John Schultz (later Sir John, Governor of Manitoba, who had been
imprisoned by Louis Riel and had escaped with a price on his head), an
ardent Canadian, Hon. William Cunningham, a newspaper man from Winnipeg,
Hon. Donald A. Smith, a Hudson's Bay Company man (who as Lord Strathcona
was to have such a large share in the making of the West) and the Hon.
Letellier de St. Just were some of the members who wanted to know what
the Government was contemplating in view of all the reports received.
Sir John A. Macdonald, who took special pride in the police in later
years, and the Hon. Joseph Howe, whose office was to look after the
West, said that the Government was fully alive to the situation and
would act in due time. As a matter of fact the Government, especially
Sir John, had been for some time in consultation with experienced
service men, notably Major (later Colonel) Arthur Henry Griesbach, who
was in Ottawa for many months advising in regard to the force of which
he was afterwards to become one of the earliest and most honoured
members. It also emerged later that Sir John and his associates had been
making some study of such famous organizations as the Irish
Constabulary, and that he had set his mind on having a force that would
be distinguished for hardiness in service and readiness in response to
calls of duty rather than for "fuss and feathers," as he expressed it in
his favourite way.
Finally, on May 3, 1873, the Premier moved for leave to introduce a bill
dealing with the administration of justice and for the establishment of
a police force in the North-West Territories. It was adopted by the
House on May 20, and so the organization of the now famous corps was
definitely on its way. An interesting fact was that this was to be a
civil force in uniform, not a military organization subject to the
Queen's regulations, but dependent for discipline upon the personality
of the officers, the esprit de corps that would be generated and the
_noblesse oblige_ idea that would emerge in the course of service. And
all these things actually developed as we shall see in the process of
this story.
Having finally passed the Act, the legislators rested on their laurels
a few months more, for it was not until September that actual enrolment
of the new force began to take place. The process of enlistment was then
hurried somewhat and later on some sifting was done in order to throw
out any culls. But in the main the men measured up well to the demands
of that most interesting and important clause in the Act, which says:
"No person shall be appointed to the police force unless he be of
sound constitution, able to ride, active and able-bodied, and
between the ages of eighteen and forty years, nor unless he be able
to read and write either the English or the French language."
This was sane legislation, for these men were not going out on a picnic.
They were going to patrol the widest and wildest frontier in the world.
And that frontier has always said in the words of Robert Service:
"Send not your foolish and feeble; send me your strong and your
sane:
Strong for the red rage of battle; sane, for I harry them sore.
Send me men girt for the combat, men who are grit to the core.
Them will I gild with my treasure; them will I feed with my meat;
But the others--the misfits, the failures--I trample them under
my feet."
And in order that readers may have other testimony than that of the
author on the question of the need for strong men, let me quote words
written by the Hon. N. W. Rowell, who, as President of the Council and
Governmental head of the force, had specially studied the history of the
Police:
"When the Canadian West first saw the scarlet jacket the prairies
were in a transition stage which contained grave possibilities of
danger. The old era, in which the Hudson's Bay Company and the
Indians had dealt peaceably together, was breaking up, and the
private trader, irresponsible and often not too scrupulous, was
laying the seeds of trouble in a land where the Indians still were
numerous and powerful. Tribe waged war against tribe, and
formidable hosts, fresh from fighting against the American army,
surged across the forty-ninth parallel."
And the words also of the frontier statesman already mentioned, the Hon.
Frank Oliver, of Edmonton:
"Ordinarily speaking no more wildly impossible undertaking was ever
staged than the establishment of Canadian authority and Canadian
law throughout the Canadian prairies by a handful of Mounted
Police. The population consisted chiefly of warring tribes of
Indians, of whom the Blackfeet Confederacy was the most important,
the most warlike and the most intractable. Next to the Indians in
numbers were scattered settlements of half-breeds, who lived by the
chase; no less warlike although more tractable than the Indian.
Then a few white and half-breed traders and missionaries; and last
and best, the commencement of white settlements at Prince Albert
and Edmonton. An imaginary line separated Canada from the United
States for a distance of 800 miles. South of that line, strategic
points were garrisoned by thousands of United States soldiers; an
almost continuous condition of Indian warfare prevailed; and the
white population in large measure ran free of the restraints of
established authority. There had been an overflow of 'bad men' from
Montana into what is now Southern Alberta and South-Western
Saskatchewan, who repeated in Canada the exploits by which they had
made Montana infamous. In large measure, world opinion took for
granted that lawlessness must accompany pioneer conditions.
Canada's Mounted Police Force was the challenge to that idea."
And as evidence of the way in which the police backed Canada's challenge
nothing finer is written than the following in a letter to me some time
ago from Governor Dr. R. G. Brett of Alberta, who has been on the
frontiers for nearly forty years:
"The manner in which so small a force kept down the liquor traffic,
controlled the savage tribes of Indians, protected the lives and
property of the settlers, affords an illustration of paternal
administration that is probably without parallel in the world's
history."
These are tributes from men who know. And Governor Brett goes on to
commend the idea of a history of the Police when he adds:
"Every Canadian cannot but be a better citizen after reading the
history of the lives of the modest heroes, whose devotion to duty
and even-handed distribution of justice have commanded the
admiration of the civilized world."
From the beginning the officers of the force have been almost invariably
of outstanding strength who won the respect of the men under their
command by their willingness to share all the perils of the service and
by being always ready to be in front of the troop when there was danger
ahead. Not long ago a veteran hospital Sergeant of the Force, Dr.
Braithwaite, of Edmonton, said finely, "I know of no officer in the
force who would order any man to do any work at all, that the officer
would not do himself. A man would not be asked to ride a refractory
horse that his officer would not or could not ride. This is what has
given the Force its reputation--the absolute confidence of the men in
their leaders, and the complete esprit de corps that was always there."
That the general spirit of the original legislation which insisted on
good physique and respectable character in the men of the force was
carried out in practice, those of us who have known these men in almost
all circumstances and places can testify. To illustrate, I recall in
Winnipeg seeing the men who were going over to form part of the Empire's
tribute on the occasion of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. After a
stop-over for a couple of hours they fell in to the bugle call on the
railway platform. The men looked like models for the statue of Apollo,
and with the clear eye, bronzed faces and alert movement born of their
clean and healthful outdoor life on the plains, they were goodly to
behold. And when I remarked to Major (now Commissioner) Perry, who was
in command, that it was generally looked on as rather a dangerous thing
to let a body of men loose amid the temptations of a strange city, Perry
replied: "That has no bearing on these men, even though there was a
saloon on every corner. Every man feels that the honour and good name of
the force depend on his individual conduct, and so he can be trusted."
And when in London, the Mounted Police won golden opinions, not only for
their splendid appearance, but for their gentlemanly bearing.
Still another general remark may be made here. It will be remembered
that Butler had recommended that the force to be organized in support of
constituted authority be independent of any party or faction either in
Church or State. And here also Butler's advice has been borne in mind.
Governments have come and gone in regular cycle of years according as
they were thought worthy or otherwise of the people's support. And
partisan politics have played a considerable, and not always a
creditable, part in Canadian history. But the Mounted Police force has
never been in the game. Mounted Policemen have always been strictly
non-partisan in politics and no interference with them by politicians of
any party would be tolerated for a moment. These law-enforcers have
always been absolutely independent of any local or other influences
except the commands of their officers in the line of duty, and to this
in large measure is due the remarkable reputation of the force for
giving every man a square deal, regardless of race or creed or colour.
Mounted Policemen have never been respecters of persons. They treat
every one alike. Referring to political parties, for instance, it is
recalled that the corps was scarcely organized when Sir John Macdonald
was retired by the Canadian electorate and the Hon. Alexander Mackenzie
was elevated to the premiership. But this made no change in the matter
of the force which from the beginning has been the servant not of any
political party but of the nation. It is historically correct to say
that Sir John Macdonald started the organization, but it fell to Mr.
Mackenzie's lot to perfect the organization, and start it definitely on
its Western career. Governments may come and governments may go, but the
Police have kept on the even tenor of their way throughout all the
years.
[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL SIR A. C. MACDONNELL. K.C.B., C.M.G.,
D.S.O., KNIGHTED FOR SERVICES TO THE EMPIRE.]
[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL SIR SAMUEL B. STEELE, K.C.B., etc.,
KNIGHTED FOR SERVICES TO THE EMPIRE. _Photo. Elliott & Fry._]
[Illustration: SUPERINTENDENT A. H. GRIESBACH. The first man to enlist
in the Mounted Police. "The Father of the Force."]
[Illustration: INSPECTOR J. M. WALSH. Who handled the Sitting Bull
situation. _Photo. Murray, Brockville._]