CANADA: Meek Crusader

To most Canadians the Honorable Harry Herbert Stevens means “The Pamphlet.”

“The Pamphlet” means the mimeographed twelve pages of abuse of Canadian Big Business that Mr. Stevens wrote and distributed three months ago, weighted with his authority as Minister of Trade and Commerce, Chairman of the Royal Commission on Price Spreads and Mass Buying and an avowedly Conservative member of Parliament. It loosely and libelously arraigns Canada Packers Ltd., Dominion Securities Corp., Robert Simpson Co., Sir Joseph Flavelle, Imperial Tobacco Co., and T. Eaton & Co., to prove that “our economic structure is just upside down.”

The Pamphlet enraged businessmen and rich, pious Premier Richard Bedford Bennett but it has the wild approval of Canada’s masses. In fear of them Premier Bennett took no steps to discipline his Minister, sailed for Geneva to attend the League of Nations. Emotional Mr. Stevens again called himself “Conservative,” ignored suggestions that he lead a poor man’s rebellion against the Conservative Party chiefs. Last week Premier Bennett was back in Ottawa and Minister Stevens found that he could no longer outface the intolerable situation The Pamphlet had put him into. He resigned as Minister and as Chairman of the Royal Commission.

Since no active Cabinet Minister has resigned in Canada for 17 years, the sensation was terrific. Meekly, however, well-meaning Crusader Stevens accepted an urbane, eleven-page letter from Premier Bennett, thanking him for good work, chiding him for The Pamphlet: “Circulation of such statements was injurious not only to individuals and business institutions aggrieved thereby but also to yourself.”