B.C. Saturday sunset, May 15, 1915

              Vol. 11, No. 22 VANCOUVER, B.C., -SATURDAY, HAY 15, 1915 Twelve Pages—Price 5 Cents
"Crisis in B. C."
is Not Answered
ST m
<l If you cannot offer your
own life to protect your
family and your home­land,
give your money
to help those who are
risking and giving their
lives to save you and
yours.
IJ What the Red Cross can
do for the wounded at
the front, if only you will
help them.
i
i
cent will buy iodine to disinfect a
wound.
C ' T h e Crisis in B. C . , " a pamphlet published by
the Ministerial Union and compiled by Moses B.
Cotsworth, holds the attention of the people of
British Columbia. The document
has been attacked bitterly, not
only by Attorney-General Bowser,
but by a certain section of the
Conservative press which invariably takes its instruc­tions
from whatever leader happens to be in power,
yet no effort has been made to disprove the charges
brought against the present administration.
Truly the situation in British Columbia is peculiar.
The prime minister, S i r Richard McBride, is away
from home. He was last reported as in London, await­ing
news of a Dominion election that he might retire
gracefully from the provincial field. This hope has
been shattered by the evident disinclination of the
Canadian people to listen to election speeches, and it
remains for Sir Richard to think up some new way
of avoiding his responsibilities. In the meantime he is
keeping religiously away from British Columbia at
British Columbia's expense and at a time when the
premier, of all people, should be at home.
Furthermore, Sir Richard has not yet explained
the submarine transaction to the satisfaction of the
auditor-general at Ottawa, who is still waiting for the
vouchers in connection with the quarter of a million
dollars which did not go to the builders of the sub­marines.
If our memory serves us right, one of the
premier's main objects i n leaving Victoria was to face
his "detractors" at Ottawa and clear up any doubt
that may have existed as to the details of the purchase.
Why does he not return and let the public know how
matters stand 1
The Ministerial Union's pamphlet has brought
political matters once more to the forefront, however,
and one cannot but wonder why during such a crisis
the members of the government make no attempt to
clear themselves. Mr. Bowser tells us that he will
make his defence when the proper time comes, but
that the proper time has not only come but has passed
is a somewhat general opinion in the province. Mr.
Bowser waited several months before he explained his
position with regard to the defunct Dominion Trust
Company, and one must give him credit for consider­able
ingenuity. Apparently his brain does not work
quickly and he needs plenty of time to think up a
crushing retort. He has promised to "show u p " the
character of his chief accuser, but this vague threat
gives little satisfaction. What the public demands is
a plain statement of facts, showing Mr. Cotsworth's
figures to be inaccurate. Until some such statement is
forthcoming, we must go on believing that Mr.
Cotsworth has told the truth.
We have fed our sea for a thousand years, but she
calls us still unfed,
..Though there's never a wave of all her waves but
marks our British dead;
We have strewed our best to the weeds' unrest, to
the shark and the sheering gull—
*f blood be the price of admiralty, Lord God we have
paid in full.
C Today there rest 'neath the green sod of old Ireland
men, women and babes who sailed two weeks ago in
the full assurance of seeing the other side in a short
week. They did, only to' be
Lusitania Disaster buried there within a compara-
Without Parallel tively few hours. One thousand
more lie at the bottom of the
Atlantic or their bodies are drifting hither and
thither, tossed by the seas that-break on that coast
around which the submarines of Germany prowl
seeking other innocent victims of German kultur. The
land of the Celt has given those poor victims their
last shelter, the graveyard within sight of where they
were sent to their doom is their final haven. And
once again will the Teuton submarine stealthily seek
its prey, and mayhap the deadly torpedo will do its
ghastly work and the Germans gloat over their devilish
ingenuity.
It is somewhat fitting that after life's stormy
passage the victims of this atrocity should be interred
in view of the rolling Atlantic that was their home
for a few short days aboard one of the most palatial
steamships that ever sailed the seas, and the fact that *
they lie in what is practically one common grave adds
to the pity of it all. Their end was mercifully quick, and indecent merriment. So framed are our regula- C It is more than a mere coincidence that in two
One begins to wonder what manner of nation this is tions that what would be tantamount to treason in provinces in Western Canada there should be a politi
cent will pay for enough gauze for
one dressing.
5 cents will buy a bandage.
8 cents will pay for a temporary splint.
10 cents will provide chloroform for an
operation.
25 cents expended as above may save
a limb or a life.
$2.40 will pay for 100 yards of gauze.
$19.00 will pay for 100 pounds of absor­bent
cotton.
$21.00 will pay for 1000 sterilized band­ages.
$40.00 will purchase 100 pounds of
chloroform.
$60.00 will provide a nurse for onemonth.
$166.66 will provide a surgeon for one
month.
is.
that has arrayed itself against the whole civilized Germany on the part of a Britisher is looked upon
world, that stops not, even at wholesale murder, the on the'Pacific Coast with a lenient eye. There has,
murder of babes, the slaughtering of old men and it is true, been a sign of unusual activity on the part
women. Youth has a fighting chance to survive, but of the authorities to adopt measures which will have
the infants and the feeble and the aged must go down the effect of putting a period to these scenes of
in that awful swirl of waters caused by the sinking revelry. But in the opinion of the people of this
of a mammoth steamship. It is hardly conceivable that country these measures are altogether too mild. What
human nature should be so debauched and depraved are we to think of the threats that have been used
as to be divorced from all sentiments of humanity, against residents of the city and district by these
Yet so it has proved to be, and judging by what has Germans who have accepted the hospitality of British
alreadv taken place, so will it continue to be until Columbia, but whose object in coming here was to
German methods and German ideas receive—which institute B system of espionage unknown in the annals
they unquestionably will—that thunderbolt sent of any country? The German of today is the same _ . . . . . . . . . ..
straight and true with all the force at the command as the German of forty years ago, and the German a n ( i seek t o brazen them out. There is no length to
of the allies, which shall forever shatter any dream of of forty years hence will have all the brute attributes ^-hieh the Tory party will not go to cling to the fruits
the Kaiser and his fellow-murderers. and the vulgar instincts of his predecessor. Isn't the 0 f office. Public opinion is sometimes disregarded.
Today the world, outside of Germany, stands time ripe to strike m a way that shall carry greater i n t},e e a s e 0 f Messrs. Roblin and Rogers, they appar-aghast
and horrified at what is probably the most f o l*ce and conviction than the existing namby-pamby e n t i y failed to recognize the limits of license and there
dastardly crime of the century, committed.in cold methods, which are utterly inadequate to cope with t ] , e y mflfc t n e j n fatal mistake. License has its limits,
blood and in broad daylight. Reason might well totter an evil compared with which the yellow peril is a a f a c t of which they are thoroughly cognizant now.
on its throne when it attempts to contemplate that mere bagatelle? British Columbia has no room in And today they stand condemned, discredited in the
which to house the exponents of German kultur whi<*h
sent fifteen hundred men, women and children to their
graves a week ago.
cal upheaval at the present time. That the movement
that has resulted in the downfall
Political Situation of one government and the com-in
Two Provinces ing disgrace of another should
be supported by both Liberals
and Conservatives was only to be expected. Matters
in Manitoba came to such a pass that popular feeling
could no longer tolerate the low level to which the
people's parliamentary representatives on the govern­ment
side had descended. The revelations which are
certain to be made arising out of the parliament
buildings transaction will be of such a character that
no government could with decency remain in office
fiendish act with equanimity. It is without a parallel.
Pirates in the olden days were more considerate of
their victims than were . the Germans of the two
thousand souls that were aboard the Lusitania. They
at least gave an alternative. The Germans gave none.
And yet out here in British Columbia we have per­mitted,
these aliens to glory i n British reverses, to
make a defeat of the allies the occasion fbr riotous
C What Kitchener and French and Joffre need are
a few hints how to carry on the war. If there is no
election i n June General Sam Hughes is going to the
front. The country is safe.
eyes of not only their own constituents, but in the
eyes of Canada, discredited not only as politicians but
as individuals, men who were ready to sell the birth­rights
of the people for their own personal gain and
aggrandisement. It is a sad commentary on public
life in some parts of the Dominion, particularly in
those districts where the Conservative party holds the
reins of office, that methods* are followed which leave
Tourist Traffic
and Vancouver
a bad taste in the mouth and which unfortunately
leave a heritage to their successors in office that is
by no means to be desired.
And as it has been in Manitoba, so it is in British
Columbia. Today we in this province arc confronted
witli a condition of affairs unparalleled in the history
of the Dominion, Manitoba excepted. Mr. Bowser may
introduce the personal element into his denials of
some of the charges which have been levelled, and
may refer with contempt to the social standing of
those who are arrayed against him. Similar subter­fuges
to evade the real issues were employed in Mani­toba,
but they failed to achieve the object desired.
To draw a red herring across the trail lias ever been
the last resort of a political trickster, and today the
terms Conservative and trickery are looked upon as
synonymous. Roblin, egged on and abetted by Rogers,
carried the game too far. Bowser is an apt emulator.
The Conservative politician of today recks not of
those he is supposed to represent, and hence it is that
in British Columbia as in Manitoba there has at last
taken place that uprising so long expected, but so
dilatory in materializing. Roblin reminds us of
Sextus, though with this difference, that whereas the
Roman returned to the scene of his infamy, the former
Conservative boss in Manitoba has turned tail and
fled. Here on the coast, time, as with the allies at
the front, is fighting on the side of the Liberals, and
time will bring with it to that party the decisive
victory which will be sweet though long delayed.
C If ever there was a time when public bodies should
be up and doing to make provision for, the reception
of tourists who will visit this coast i n the coming
summer, it is now. The time has
passed for talking and the time for
action has arrived. While other
cities on this coast have been
quietly working to secure the lion's share of the
patronage that the thousands of tourists will extend
going to and coming from the exposition, Vancouver
has been twiddling its thumbs and waiting, Micawber-like,
for something to turn up. There how appears to
be a movement among the dry bones, but it is of such
a negligible character that further steps will have to
be taken i f Vancouver is to be numbered among those
cities which shall receive benefit, monetary and other­wise,
arising out of the holding of the exposition. So
far it has been left to individuals to take what action
they consider in the best interests of this city in
this connection. The board of trade, it is true, has
taken cognizance of the fact that tourists may pass
through the city, while the city council in solemn con­clave
have accorded their moral support to a company
which has been incorporated for the purpose of enter­taining
the stranger within the gates. So far as our
public bodies are concerned, there the matter lies,
and the probability is that it will continue to lie
unless a more aggressive method is adopted of
attempting to bring them to a sense of their duty on
this important subject.
C Germany anticipates another winter campaign.
This is characteristic of the Kaiser. Divinely ap­pointed
and anointed, Wilhelm is the Alpha and the
Omega of Europe. He has issued orders for the troops
to be clothed in uniform of grass green, and not satis­fied
with this, goes even further. This man who calls
the Almighty his friend has decided that the color
of the uniform next winter shall be field grey. In
other words, he has made up his mind to carry on
the carnage. But in this he has reckoned without his
host. Of'course the fact that the allies are ready for
the great forward move does not enter into the calcula­tions
of the man who ranks himself in importance
next to God. It is sufficient that he has so ordered
things. But the best-laid plans of men sometimes go
wrong. This the Kaiser evidently has yet to learn.
And the probabilitj' is that lie will acquire that
knowledge, not on the plains of Flanders or on the
slopes of the Carpathians or the highways of France,
but in the valley of the Rhine.
C If it is plain that the British Government desires
to check the prohibition movement it is equally evident
that the movement had acquired a troublesome
momentum. We find British news­papers
advocating "moral sua­sion,"
much as American journals
of the same way of thinking have
clone. The London editors draw the line between tem­perance
and prohibition, and point to all the horrible
examples of hypocritical treatment of liquor regula­tions
that come to hand. One editor remarks that
whatever other effects prohibition might have it cer­tainly
would cut off $100,000,000 a year in revenue
and would throw three millions of men and women
out of employment. This is the economic argument,
which is followed by another, that prohibition is
''tin-British." From a variety of editorial expressions
the following may he selected as embodying the
British view:
Tt is ridiculous for us to profess that we
are fighting for freedom if we are to submit to
a restriction of freedom without any actual
justification, for no one really believes that it
is sinful to drink a glass of beer, or even a
whisky and soda. Prohibition, too, always leads
to secret, drinking. When the bar is closed the
back parlor becomes a tap room. The whole
suggestion, indeed, is unpractical, tyrannical
and utterly un-English. We are all vociferous
in our loose talk about drunkenness. The world
listens with amazement, and begins to believe
that Great Britain is really a land of drunken
sots. Thousands of people are busy libelling
their countrymen, and if other countries accept
these libels as truths we have only ourselves
to blame.
Libel on British
Workingmen