After Failure as a Grocer, He Becomes the Ablest Administrator Quebec
Has Ever Had.
“THE busiest man in Canada,” exclaimed a friend in close touch with
the government, when I told him that I desired to meet the Hon. S. N.
Parent, Premier of the Province of Quebec.
“Parent, you know,” continued my informant, “is not only Premier of
the Province, but is also mayor of the City of Quebec, minister of
lands, mines and fisheries, president of the company that is building
a seven-million-dollar bridge across the St. Lawrence, director in the
Quebec Railway Light and Power Company, director in the Grand Trunk
Railway, and a lawyer with the largest practice in the Province.”
This information as to his surprising range of activities, bespeaking a
man of remarkable achievement, made me more than ever anxious to talk
with Mr. Parent, and I said so to my friend.
“Well,” he exclaimed, “the premier is personally one of the most
approachable men alive, but all day long in the ante-rooms of his
various offices there are crowds waiting to see him. He never appears
in the streets of Quebec on foot, but always in his cab, for the simple
reason that if he were walking so many persons would stop him that he
would be hours getting to his destination. His lieutenants hedge him
in, but once past them you are all right.”
“What would be a good time and place to call on him?”
“In answer to that I will give you an outline of his movement for his
business day, and you may judge for yourself. Promptly every morning
at half-past seven he arrives at his law office in Lower Town and sees
clients there until ten o’clock, when he goes to the City Hall to take
up his work as Mayor. Here he keeps in close touch with every detail of
city administration.
“It has been said that not a nail is driven on public property without
his knowledge. This, of course, is an exaggeration, but it is the
truth that he is the first mayor Quebec has had in sixty years who has
been able to run the municipal government without an annual deficit in
the treasury. And yet with all his economy he has instituted numerous
public improvements. On the strength of this work for Quebec he has
several times been reëlected Mayor and has held the office for eleven
years.
“After an hour at the City Hall he is driven to Parliament House, where
he transacts the business of the Province until half-past one. Here, in
addition to his general work, he gives special attention to the land
and fisheries department, which he has made the most important in the
provincial government. He has so developed it that it yields a larger
income than any other.
“Mr. Parent takes a light luncheon at half-past one, and remains in
Parliament House until four o’clock, when he returns to his law office,
where he gives himself up to cases and to his financial interests
until seven. Now comes a dinner which is hardly more hearty than his
luncheon, and after this he attends the meetings of committees, which
assemble in the evening chiefly to suit his convenience. This schedule
is as regular as clockwork. The Premier makes a point of letting
nothing interfere with it. Exactly at the times and places I mention
you can find him.”
Armed with this knowledge, and with a letter of introduction, I sought
the Premier at the House of Parliament—a stately building of massive
stone, standing out against the sky on the heights of the “Gibraltar
of America,” and commanding a huge panoramic view of the Lower Town,
of the St. Lawrence and St. Charles rivers, of the Isle of Orleans,
the wide valley of St. Anne and the sweeping lines of the Laurentian
Mountains.
The ante-room was crowded, as I had been told it would be, but an
attendant at once took in my letter and almost immediately returned.
“The Premier cannot see you to-day,” he said, “but will be very glad
to meet you at this office at twelve sharp to-morrow. If you would
accept a little word of advice,” he added, official manner giving way
to French-Canadian courtesy, “I would say that it would be well to be
exactly on time. By five minutes past twelve, if you are not here, the
Premier will be engaged with some one else, and then your opportunity
will be gone. He never spends time in waiting. This is what you might
call one of his peculiarities.”
I was on time. At precisely twelve an official passed out of the inner
room and I was invited in. As the Premier swung about in his chair with
the quick glance and motion that are characteristic with him, I saw a
man with a high forehead, a prominent nose, keen gray eyes and a small
mustache. His age is fifty-three, but he appears much younger.
“I am interviewing the most successful men in Canada,” I said, “and so,
naturally, have called on you.”
Mr. Parent smiled, with a slight shrug of his shoulders, but made no
comment.
“Would you mind telling me how you made your start toward success?”
The light of reminiscence came into the Premier’s eyes and his smile
was more pronounced. After a very brief pause he said:
“You flatter me by the use of that word success; but if you want to
know how I began my career I will assure you that I began it with a
failure. My father was a merchant across the river in Beauport, where
I was born, and before I was old enough to appreciate how much I did
not know I branched out into business for myself. I started a grocery
store. It failed, and I decided that I was unfit to be a successful
grocer.
“A fair education gained at the normal school enabled me to obtain a
place in a law office of S. B. Langois here in Quebec. After I had
been with him a short time he strongly advised me to take up law as a
profession. I was beginning to feel a pronounced inclination in this
direction, and, stimulated by his encouragement, I began to study hard.
I took the course at Laval University, and after graduation commenced
to practice chiefly at first in the police courts.
“Gradually my clients increased in numbers and my cases in importance.
Politics had always interested me. I became somewhat active in this
field, and, although I have never tried to practice the art of oratory,
for which I have no gift, I was elected to the County Council of Quebec
in 1890. Three years later I was made Mayor of the city and not long
afterwards Premier of the Province. My career since then has been
largely official and a matter of record.”
“It is said that you have given the province and the city the best
business administration they have ever had. You know more about
business now than when you ran the grocery store, for instance.”
“Oh, yes,” laughed Mr. Parent, “a great deal more. For one thing, I
have learned that the price of a business success is eternal vigilance.
I have found that the only way to conduct affairs of a municipality
along strictly business lines is to watch the committees—to watch their
every move. It is in these bodies that the financial leaks are most
likely to occur. Not having to carry the main responsibility for public
expenditures, committees are inclined to be too generous, too confident
of the resources of the treasury. I have no doubt that this is as true
in your country, the United States, as in Canada.
“We have ten committees which are meeting constantly. During the eleven
years I have been in office I have not missed a single meeting, which
is one of the main causes, I think, of whatever success I may have had
as a public administrator.”
“Your position as the representative of a large population of both
French and English must have its difficulties,” I remarked.
“These are not nearly as great as you might imagine,” quickly replied
the Premier. “I don’t pretend to try to please everybody, but I do try
to treat all alike. I myself, as you know, am of French descent. French
was the language of my childhood, but whether a man is English, or
Scotch, or French-Canadian, whether he is a Protestant or Catholic,
has absolutely no weight with me in my attitude toward him in the
discharge of my official duties.
“We French hold to our language and customs because we are proud
of them, but there is complete sympathy between the two races
in the Province of Quebec. The Anglo-Saxon Canadian admires the
French-Canadian because of his honesty, industry and thrift, and the
latter admires the former for virtues too numerous to mention. A union
between the two, already close, is constantly becoming closer, and
it gives me pleasure to think that perhaps I have done something to
advance this movement for the common good.
“We are all working for the prosperity and progress of the province and
city of Quebec. In this connection the possibilities are so great that
even if we were inclined to racial prejudices, which is not true, we
would realize that we could not afford to entertain them.
“Quebec is on the threshold of a new era. The great bridge across
the St. Lawrence will bring important improvements in the railroad
facilities of the city. The harbor, already one of the finest in
existence for vessels of large tonnage, will be made even better by
the extension of the dock system and by other projects now in hand.
The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, which is about to be built across
the continent, will have its eastern terminus at Quebec, and will
bring to us for export to the markets of the world a vast quantity of
the products of the great Northwest. All this will mean a remarkable
stimulus to our city.
“As for the province as a whole, the fertility of the soil,
particularly in the neighborhood of Lake St. John, warrants the
prediction that it will become the granary of Eastern Canada. The
enormous water powers within our boundaries, harnessed for the
generation of electricity, will mean the rise of many industries. There
is, moreover, an immense wealth of money to be gathered from the many
thousands of miles of territory which offer pulp wood for paper making.
Year by year the pulp industry is extending, but it is as yet at the
very beginning of its development. It will bring many millions of
dollars to the province and its people. Young men now at the outset of
their careers will grow rich from the new industrial activities.
“But in Quebec we have not yet been educated up, or down, to the idea
that the most desirable thing in the world is wealth. We have other
standards of success. None of us have what would be considered from
the American point of view great riches, and we are well content that
this is so. Money, of course, is an excellent thing, and we have no
prejudices against its possession, but we are in no feverish haste to
acquire it. For example, none of our professional men or politicians
are very rich. Political life here offers practically no financial
opportunities. The politician who attempted corrupt practices would
find himself in an isolated position. There would be no coterie to
support him. He would be subjected to adverse opinion that would
quickly terminate his career. In my administration of public affairs in
the province and city of Quebec there has not been, I am happy to say,
five cents’ worth of scandal.
“No, as yet, at least, we are not worshippers of the golden calf. All
we want in our careers and community is a healthy progress. We desire
to keep the city of Quebec, for instance, abreast of the times, to
infuse her veins with new blood, but certainly not at a sacrifice
of the flavor of the past which makes her the most interesting and
picturesque city on the continent. We respect the old, and intend to
keep it and the new in harmonious balance.”
“How were you impressed with Mr. Parent?” inquired my friend when I
informed him that I had had my interview.
“Excellently well,” I answered.
“I knew you would be. He is a high grade man, and is very
representative of the French-Canadians of this generation. He believes
in progress, but not in haste. He has good intentions, and the ability
to carry them out. He is much more of a listener than a talker, but
when he says a thing, or makes a promise, you may depend upon it.”
“You have found, haven’t you, that his political opponents admit
that they respect him? I thought so. It has been said here in Quebec
that in his character there is the combination of the canniness of
the Scot, the progressive energy of the Englishman, the conservatism
and sentiment of the French-Canadian, and the geniality of the Irish
gentleman.”
L
Canada’s Leading Economist Tells Her Sons To Seek Fortune in Her Own
Domain.
SIR WILFRID LAURIER, Premier of Canada, said that in matters pertaining
to railways the Hon. Andrew George Blair was the Dominion’s greatest
authority. Whenever in Canada you mention the name of Mr. Blair,
whether among his friends or political opponents, the comment is,—an
able man.
Since his entrance into political life in 1878, after twelve years
of notably successful practice as a lawyer in his native city of
Fredericton, New Brunswick, he has continually risen. Though defeated
in his first candidacy for the New Brunswick House of Commons, he was
elected the second time he ran, in 1879, and since then has always been
victorious at the polls.
As a matter of course, through the force of his personality and without
apparent effort, he became leader of the minority in the New Brunswick
House, and this minority he changed from weakness to strength. His
personal following grew so steadily that in 1883 the majority was
defeated and Mr. Blair became Premier of the Province. In three
general elections, those of 1886, 1890 and 1894, his leadership was
sustained. “By this time,” remarked a friend of his to me, “Blair was
the whole thing in the Province of New Brunswick.”
However this may have been, it is true that Mr. Blair had become a
figure of national prominence. Long before this he had attracted the
attention of Sir Wilfrid Laurier, and when the latter became Premier
of the Dominion in 1896 he made Mr. Blair a member of his Cabinet,
appointing him to the important place of Minister of Railways and
Canals.
It was in this position that he acquired the mastery of railroad
problems that has made him Canada’s leading authority on
transportation. In 1903, because he disagreed with the governmental
powers on the subject of the projected Grand Trunk Pacific line across
the continent, he resigned his portfolio.
But it very soon became evident that Mr. Blair was a man with whose
services it was difficult to dispense. For the purpose of regulating
the railroads in their relations with the public more specifically
than had been possible by the Ministry of Railways and Canals a Board
of Railway Commissioners was provided for by Parliament early in 1904.
Mr. Blair had been very active in advocating the organization of the
committee, and it was obvious that there was no man in Canada who could
approach him in fitness for the place of chairman. Yet his opposition
to the government in its great scheme for the new transcontinental
road was a very formidable objection to his selection. This difficulty
caused much hesitation on the part of the ruling spirits, but in the
end it was decided that the Government could not get along without Mr.
Blair, and so he was appointed chairman of the committee. After a few
months of very successful work he resigned his place, an act which
threw the party in power into a state of astonishment and consternation.
In his office in Ottawa I called upon Mr. Blair, and was at once
impressed with what might be called his bigness. His face, the lower
part of which is covered with the luxuriant growth of beard which is
characteristic of the Scotchman, is broad. His forehead is high and
wide. His eyes are unusually large. He speaks slowly, and every word
has weight.
If one were to make a military comparison it might be said that he has
much more of the blunt strength of the cannon than of the glittering
sharpness of the sword. And yet this military simile, except at times
of heated debate in the House of Parliament, or when his indignation
is aroused, is not a fair one, for no man’s ordinary manner is more
quiet and benign. His energy is not obtrusive, nor of the kind called
nervous. It seems to have a far deeper source than this. The truth
is, Mr. Blair impressed me as possessing more of the equipment of
the scholar and philosopher than of the lawyer giving and parrying
quick thrusts in court litigation, or of the politician devising ways
and means to hold and increase his power. It is difficult to imagine
him indulging in airy flights of eloquence calculated to arouse
the admiration of the crowd. Indeed, he never indulges in what is
ordinarily called oratory. He depends for effectiveness in his speeches
upon the force of fact and logic, with which in Parliament he has
shattered numerous soaring bubbles of forensic sentiment.
“I don’t care to talk about myself,” he remarked to me. “Those good
friends of mine who differ with me on matters of public policy are
doing that. But I have no objection to saying something on the topic
of success, although the subject is so vital and has such an intimate
relationship to a young man’s ambitions and career that I should have
liked to have a little time to consider it.
“I will say, however, that I have been strongly impressed within very
recent times with the fact that it is no longer necessary for young
Canadians to go to the United States to seek their success. At one
time there were much greater opportunities for them there than here,
and Canada lost many of her best minds and most promising youths.
Not a few of these have achieved distinction in the States, and many
young Canadians, inspired by their example, are still seeking fame
and fortune across the border. But a larger number are now coming in
this direction. The tide has turned. Men with capital, in money or in
brains, are beginning to realize that in this twentieth century Canada
is the land of opportunities.
“Even in the profession of law, which feels the effect of new
conditions rather less quickly than do commercial pursuits, there
has been a marked advance toward more business and larger fees. For
electrical, mechanical and civil engineers there is more and more work
in Canada because of the constant installation of new manufacturing
plants and the extension of the railway systems.
“In the field of railroad construction in particular, on account of
the necessity of thousands of miles more of track in the new territory
which is being opened up, there will be a great deal of work for young
men within the next few years. I do not myself believe that it is
necessary to build new lines with the haste thought advisable in some
quarters, but it is inevitable that sooner or later the country will be
covered by a network of railroads. All this railway building and the
resulting development of new communities will mean, of course, business
and professional openings for a great number of energetic men.
“This will be especially true of our immense Northwest, which is
virtually a new country of a wonderful productivity in grain and
minerals, and of a vastness in territory difficult to imagine. In the
flourishing little city of Edmonton, in the province of Alberta, I
happened to meet a man not long ago who was installing mills for the
grinding of wheat in the territory to the north, and asked him as to
the location of the most northerly mill that he was building. In reply
he mentioned a place which, to my astonishment, was over twelve hundred
miles north of Edmonton. From this you will see that there are wheat
fields nearly sixteen hundred miles north of the boundary line between
Canada and the United States.
“The climate here is tempered by the winds which come through the
passes of the Rocky Mountains from the warm Japanese current of the
Pacific. This makes it possible to grow wheat in the region just east
of the Rockies at a latitude much higher than in the section farther
east, where the balmy winds do not reach, but the fact that there
are wheat fields sixteen hundred miles north of the border will give
you an idea of the marvelous extent of the wheat growing country of
northwestern Canada.
“I have not the slightest doubt that in the course of the next
twenty-five years a great commonwealth will have been developed here,
and this means that many thousands of young men who are honest and
energetic and wide awake enough to see and seize their chances will
acquire comfortable competencies for themselves and families. Some will
unquestionably make large fortunes.
“I do not, however, regard the accumulation of a great deal of money
as a criterion of success. I think that a man who has been able to
build for himself a comfortable home, presided over by a good wife and
enlivened with the presence of a moderate number of children, is apt to
be far more content with his lot than the man who must carry the burden
of a great fortune.
“In the Northwest the conditions will not be such as to enable a man to
amass the fabulous wealth which has marked the industrial development
of the United States. For one thing, we are so regulating our railroads
in their relations to the public that it will be quite impossible for
favored shippers to obtain the preferences in freight rates which, in
the United States, have been the chief source of the menacing wealth of
certain conspicuous capitalists.
“To make impossible all discrimination in rates on the part of
railroads has been one of my principal cares in the discharge of my
official duties as Minister of Railways and as Chairman of the Railway
Commission. If it can be truthfully said that I have accomplished
something in this direction I shall feel that my labors have not been
in vain.”
“What,” I inquired, “do you consider the chief requisite of success in
political life?”
Mr. Blair paused, and turned his eyes reflectively toward the window.
“This is a difficult question,” he answered slowly. “There are,
of course, numerous qualities that combine to give a man success
in politics as in any other pursuit. But I am sure that the prime
essential of the man who is ambitious to hold any lasting influence in
political life is character.
“If he possesses character he is bound to gain and maintain the
respect, not only of his friends, but even of his enemies, and will be
able to keep himself afloat on the tempestuous sea of politics long
after those who have not been able to resist the temptations of a
political career have been engulfed.
“In Canada the political life carries with it no great financial
rewards. The young man who enters politics and devotes himself
zealously to affairs of state must not expect affluence. If his aim
in life is to acquire riches he should by all means keep clear of the
political arena until, at least, he has made his success in business.”
In his administration in the office of Minister of Railways and of
Chairman of the Railway Commission, Mr. Blair showed a pronounced
simplicity and unconventionality in his methods. His aim being to
accomplish as much as possible, he went straight to the mark, with
little regard for formality or red tape. Many times, in his work of
railway supervision, he has traversed the length and breadth of Canada,
preferring to see conditions for himself rather than to judge of them
on hearsay evidence. A single episode may be given as characteristic
of his manner of obtaining results. There had been numerous complaints
about the dangers of a certain crossing on one of the railways. Some of
these complaints had been sent to the office of the Commission, but in
the ordinary routine of business some time would have elapsed before
action upon them could be taken. Meanwhile the railroad was doing
nothing in the matter, and the lives of many children were daily in
danger. Mr. Blair, however, had heard unofficially of the crossing. One
day he happened to meet on a train the superintendent of the road in
question. The train was approaching the dangerous place, when Mr. Blair
suddenly remarked to the superintendent: “By the way, Mr. ——, I have
heard that you have a bad crossing on the line not far from here. Let
us get out and take a look at it.”
The superintendent acquiesced, and when the crossing was reached the
train was stopped and the two gentlemen alighted. For a few moments
they surveyed the woods that concealed the approach of trains and the
other conditions which made the crossing hazardous.
“I think we have seen enough, Mr. ——,” remarked the Chairman. When they
had resumed their seats in the car he said, “Now, see here, it is just
as obvious to you as it is to me that this place should at once be
made safer. It can be done easily. I wish you would interest yourself
personally in the matter.” Within a day or two a gang of workmen had
made the crossing safe.