Showing posts with label Canada. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Canada. Show all posts

Saturday, March 9, 2024

Blog Mirror: On marriage, family, and the Irish constitutional referendum.

Ireland, somewhat like Canada some years ago, is in its bratty teenager years and as part of that it likes to go behind the bleachers, smoke cigarettes, make out, and complain about its parents.  In the case of Ireland, the parents are its former English overlords and the Catholic Church.  In the case of Canada, it's its deeply conservative English and French heritage, the latter of which is deeply Catholic and which doesn't exist without it, and the former of which was deeply Anglican.  

Hence, in the case of Ireland, this:

On marriage, family, and the Irish constitutional referendum

I have no doubt the referendum will pass, and in the case of the “life within the home" language in regard to women, it ought to, in my view.  And frankly, the DeValera constitution's lashing Ireland to the Church was a mistake in the first place, one which the Church tried to prevent.

The thing is, however, that the modern world to which the Irish now aspire is frankly bloody and barbaric.  It's made people weird, and unhappy.  The Irish constitution notwithstanding, the strong connection to the existential that the Irish had, and to a large degree still do, made Ireland one of the very few democratic nations that was able to remain grounded and not teeter between the radical left and right.  The US, which has a different heritage, was able to as well, but that's now floundering badly.  Ireland, from the outside, isn't doing well either, and is starting to have the appearance as all bratty teenagers do who try to keep that status too long, as looking worn and tired.

I hate to pick too much on Canada, which has the massive misfortune of living next to the US right now. As I said the other day on Twitter, living in Canada right now must be like living in an upstairs apartment where the downstairs neighbors are having a large drug and alcohol fueled argument at a family reunion, and their couch is on fire.  Indeed, Canada seems to have passed through its bratty stage, which arrived with Trudeau I, and which may be argued to have ended during the COVID pandemic.  Right now, rather than poking its heritage in the eye, it seems to be taking on the role of the worried 30-year-old who has been saddled with caring for its clearly senile and always somewhat combative uncle, Uncle Sam.  

Je me souviens.

Wednesday, February 28, 2024

Saturday, February 28, 1944. Foreigners in the Wehrmacht.


In what was becoming a late war rarity, German and Estonian's in German service decisively defeated the Red Army's first Narva Offensive.  The Estonian's were mostly recent volunteer conscripts, brought into service after Estonian leaders urged an end to an Estonian boycott of German conscription in hopes of defending Estonia from being retaken by the USSR.

The German 14th Army renewed attacks against the US VI Corps at Anzio.

Ukrainian's in German service carried out the Huta Pieniacka Massacre of ethnic Poles, killing between 500 and 1,200 people.   The actions were carried out principally by police units of the 4th SS Volunteer Galician Regiment and the14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Galician), which were under German command at the time.

The 14th Waffen Grenadier Division continues to have fans in Ukraine today, who deny its association with atrocities.  Many of its surviving members, who surrendered to the Western Allies late in the war, were allowed to immigrate to the United States and Canada in 1947, in part due to the intervention of Polish General Anders who knew some of its commanders due to their pre-war Polish Army service.  In spite of claims to the contrary, the early arrival of the Cold War clouded their association with atrocities, which were accordingly not well known at the time, as Anders intervention demonstrates.  The unit was sufficiently well thought of that a memorial to Ukrainians bearing their unit symbol was put to them in St. Volodymyr Ukrainian Cemetery, Oakville, Ontario.

Aviator Hanna Reitsch visited Hitler at Berchtesgaden to receive a second Iron Cross.  She suggested kamikaze like volunteers there to fly piloted variants of the V-1.  Hitler rejected the idea as a waste of resources.

Reitsch survived the war and went on to a long post-war life. She never disavowed her association with Hitler, but did heavily alter her pre-war racial views.

Sunday, December 17, 2023

Monday, December 17, 1973. Terrorism at the Leonardo da Vinci Airport.

Palestinian terrorists killed 32 people at the Leonardo da Vinci Airport near Rome by seizing a terminal and then throwing grenades in the open doors of a Boeing 707.

Because killing innocent people is a mature and rational way to get what you want . . . 

Canada and Denmark signed a treating delineating their territorial waters.

Wednesday, December 13, 2023

Thursday, December 13, 1923. Mexican Federals Mobilize


Ruth Muskrat presented Gustavus Elmer Emmanuel Lindquist′s book The Red Man In The United States to President Calvin Coolidge.  Highly educated, the Oklahoma native had a Cherokee father and an Irish/English American mother.  A pioneer in many ways in both societies, she was a professional educator and died in 1982 at age 84.

The Federal Government was mobilizing in Mexico. 


And booze was flowing south.

Lord Alfred Douglas was sentenced to six months in prison for libeling Winston Churchill.  He had printed a newspaper article claiming that Churchill had been paid to release a false report about the Battle of Jutland in order to cause stocks to decrease in value so that a group of Jewish investors could take advantage of it, all of which was false, as well as racist.

Lawrence Sperry, age 30, inventor of the autopilot and the artificial horizon, died in an airplane accident over the English Channel. Taking off in fog, his airplane simply disappeared.


Sunday, December 3, 2023

Address of His Holiness Pope Francis to the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28)

Pope Francis released this statement yesterday:

Mr President,

Mr Secretary-General of the United Nations,

Distinguished Heads of State and Government,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Sadly, I am unable to be present with you, as I had greatly desired.  Even so, I am with you, because time is short.  I am with you because now more than ever, the future of us all depends on the present that we now choose.  I am with you because the destruction of the environment is an offence against God, a sin that is not only personal but also structural, one that greatly endangers all human beings, especially the most vulnerable in our midst and threatens to unleash a conflict between generations.  I am with you because climate change is “a global social issue and one intimately related to the dignity of human life” (Apostolic Exhortation Laudate Deum, 3).  I am with you to raise the question which we must answer now: Are we working for a culture of life or a culture of death?  To all of you I make this heartfelt appeal:  Let us choose life!  Let us choose the future!  May we be attentive to the cry of the earth, may we hear the plea of the poor, may we be sensitive to the hopes of the young and the dreams of children!  We have a grave responsibility: to ensure that they not be denied their future.

It has now become clear that the climate change presently taking place stems from the overheating of the planet, caused chiefly by the increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere due to human activity, which in recent decades has proved unsustainable for the ecosystem.  The drive to produce and possess has become an obsession, resulting in an inordinate greed that has made the environment the object of unbridled exploitation.  The climate, run amok, is crying out to us to halt this illusion of omnipotence.  Let us once more recognize our limits, with humility and courage, as the sole path to a life of authentic fulfilment.

What stands in the way of this?  The divisions that presently exist among us.  Yet a world completely connected, like ours today, should not be un-connected by those who govern it, with international negotiations that “cannot make significant progress due to positions taken by countries which place their national interests above the global common good” (Encyclical Letter Laudato Si’, 169).  We find ourselves facing firm and even inflexible positions calculated to protect income and business interests, at times justifying this on the basis of what was done in the past, and periodically shifting the responsibility to others.  Yet the task to which we are called today is not about yesterday, but about tomorrow: a tomorrow that, whether we like it or not, will belong to everyone or else to no one.

Particularly striking in this regard are the attempts made to shift the blame onto the poor and high birth rates.  These are falsities that must be firmly dispelled.  It is not the fault of the poor, since the almost half of our world that is more needy is responsible for scarcely 10% of toxic emissions, while the gap between the opulent few and the masses of the poor has never been so abysmal.  The poor are the real victims of what is happening: we need think only of the plight of indigenous peoples, deforestation, the tragedies of hunger, water and food insecurity, and forced migration.  Births are not a problem, but a resource: they are not opposed to life, but for life, whereas certain ideological and utilitarian models now being imposed with a velvet glove on families and peoples constitute real forms of colonization.  The development of many countries, already burdened by grave economic debt, should not be penalized; instead, we should consider the footprint of a few nations responsible for a deeply troubling “ecological debt” towards many others (cf. ibid., 51-52).  It would only be fair to find suitable means of remitting the financial debts that burden different peoples, not least in light of the ecological debt that they are owed.

Ladies and Gentlemen, allow me to speak to you, as brothers and sisters, in the name of the common home in which we live, and to ask this question: What is the way out of this?  It is the one that you are pursuing in these days: the way of togetherness, multilateralism.  Indeed, “our world has become so multipolar and at the same time so complex that a different framework for effective cooperation is required.  It is not enough to think only of balances of power… It is a matter of establishing global and effective rules (Laudate Deum, 42).  In this regard, it is disturbing that global warming has been accompanied by a general cooling of multilateralism, a growing lack of trust within the international community, and a loss of the “shared awareness of being… a family of nations” (SAINT JOHN PAUL II, Address to the United Nations Organization for the Fiftieth Anniversary of its Establishment, New York, 5 October 1995, 14).  It is essential to rebuild trust, which is the foundation of multilateralism.

This is true in the case of care for creation, but also that of peace.  These are the most urgent issues and they are closely linked.  How much energy is humanity wasting on the numerous wars presently in course, such as those in Israel and Palestine, in Ukraine and in many parts of the world: conflicts that will not solve problems but only increase them!  How many resources are being squandered on weaponry that destroys lives and devastates our common home!  Once more I present this proposal: “With the money spent on weapons and other military expenditures, let us establish a global fund that can finally put an end to hunger” (Encyclical Letter Fratelli Tutti, 262; cf. SAINT PAUL VI, Encyclical Letter Populorum Progressio, 51) and carry out works for the sustainable development of the poorer countries and for combating climate change.

It is up to this generation to heed the cry of peoples, the young and children, and to lay the foundations of a new multilateralism.  Why not begin precisely from our common home?  Climate change signals the need for political change.  Let us emerge from the narrowness of self-interest and nationalism; these are approaches belonging to the past.  Let us join in embracing an alternative vision: this will help to bring about an ecological conversion, for “there are no lasting changes without cultural changes” (Laudate Deum, 70).  In this regard, I would assure you of the commitment and support of the Catholic Church, which is deeply engaged in the work of education and of encouraging participation by all, as well as in promoting sound lifestyles, since all are responsible and the contribution of each is fundamental.

Brothers and sisters, it is essential that there be a breakthrough that is not a partial change of course, but rather a new way of making progress together.  The fight against climate change began in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, and the 2015 Paris Agreement represented “a new beginning” (ibid., 47).  Now there is a need to set out anew.  May this COP prove to be a turning point, demonstrating a clear and tangible political will that can lead to a decisive acceleration of ecological transition through means that meet three requirements: they must be “efficient, obligatory and readily monitored” (ibid., 59).  And achieved in four sectors: energy efficiency; renewable sources; the elimination of fossil fuels; and education in lifestyles that are less dependent on the latter.

Please, let us move forward and not turn back.  It is well-known that various agreements and commitments “have been poorly implemented, due to the lack of suitable mechanisms for oversight, periodic review and penalties in cases of non-compliance” (Laudato i’, 167).  Now is the time no longer to postpone, but to ensure, and not merely to talk about the welfare of your children, your citizens, your countries and our world.  You are responsible for crafting policies that can provide concrete and cohesive responses, and in this way demonstrate the nobility of your role and the dignity of the service that you carry out.  In the end, the purpose of power is to serve.  It is useless to cling to an authority that will one day be remembered for its inability to take action when it was urgent and necessary to do so (cf. ibid., 57).  History will be grateful to you.  As will the societies in which you live, which are sadly divided into “fan bases”, between prophets of doom and indifferent bystanders, radical environmentalists and climate change deniers…  It is useless to join the fray; in this case, as in the case of peace, it does not help to remedy the situation.  The remedy is good politics: if an example of concreteness and cohesiveness comes from the top, this will benefit the base, where many people, especially the young, are already dedicated to caring for our common home.

May the year 2024 mark this breakthrough.  I like to think that a good omen can be found in an event that took place in 1224.  In that year, Francis of Assisi composed his “Canticle of the Creatures”.  By then Francis was completely blind, and after a night of physical suffering, his spirits were elevated by a mystical experience.  He then turned to praise the Most High for all those creatures that he could no longer see, but knew that they were his brothers and sisters, since they came forth from the same Father and were shared with other men and women.  An inspired sense of fraternity thus led him to turn his pain into praise and his weariness into renewed commitment.  Shortly thereafter, Francis added a stanza in which he praised God for those who forgive; he did this in order to settle – successfully – an unbecoming conflict between the civil authorities and the local bishop.  I too, who bear the name Francis, with the heartfelt urgency of a prayer, want to leave you with this message: Let us leave behind our divisions and unite our forces!  And with God’s help, let us emerge from the dark night of wars and environmental devastation in order to turn our common future into the dawn of a new and radiant day. 

 Thank you.

I'll be frank that I've gone from being cautious about Pope Francis to being in the "non fan" category.  I do not, however, by that mean that I'm in the flirting with sedevacantism category like Patrick Coffin and the like.  He's the Pope.   I tend to think, however, that as the Pope he represents his generation of Westerner to a very large degree, which has retained a view it formed in its youth that things need to change in a "progressive" direction and be more "inclusive".  The better evidence is that this is in error and we see a strong trend in the young Church in the other direction. The ultimate irony of that is that the mantilla wearing young women at Mass may be much more representative of the future than the young man this state sent to the Synod.

And it's been hard to ignore that while the Pope struggles with his racing into oblivion and potentially apostasy European contingent and some of their American allies, he hasn't suppressed them.  He's done just that with his critics on the right. The recent actions against Cardinal Dolan are shocking, particularly while the leadership of a German church with lots of Euros but emptying pews are given verbal warnings but are not otherwise checked.  

But he continues to surprise in ways. Contrary to what people assert, he's never endorsed things long regarded as sins, even though he seems increasingly willing to tolerate them.  And on greater issues, he certainly remains both catholic and Catholic.

This is one of them.

The Pope here is indeed acting both very catholic and Catholic.  This is going to receive howls of protests in some quarters, including in those quarters of the West where populists assert they are acting on Christian principles.

Some of those howling will be Catholics, but as noted here earlier, in the United States, Catholics are often heavily Protestantized.  Not all Protestants will object to this statement, of course, and I'd be surprised if any serious "main line" Protestant body does.  But people like Speaker of the House Mike Johnson will, and others will object to it along similar lines as he's likely to, assuming he says anything (which he's not likely to, as 1) taking on the Pope is a bad idea, and 2) it's definitely a bad idea if you are from a state with a lot of Catholics).  Other politicians will of course oppose this, and will do so openly if they're in a place that's safe to do it.

And as noted, some rank and file Catholics in the U.S., and I imagine in the increasingly MAGAized Canadian West, will as well.



Friday, November 10, 2023

Wall, eh?

Apparently Vivek Ramaswamy suggested in the GOP debate, which I didn't watch, that we need a border wall with Canada.

Seriously?

Canada may feel it needs a border wall with the US.  Indeed, Canadians must feel that they have an upstairs apartment above a large family of meth addicts who are in a knock-out brawl while they set the place on fire right now.

Anyhow, the Great Wall didn't keep the Mongols out.  A wall the length of the American border with Canada, which would serve only those with a fevered imagination about an imaginary problem, wouldn't keep anyone out, or in, either.

It's a long border.  

No wonder the GOP is an elephant's graveyard right now.

Monday, October 30, 2023

In the nature of a truly random comment, I had no idea that Matthew Perry and Justin Trudeau were schoolmates.

Sunday, October 29, 2023

Monday, October 29, 1973. Les électeurs du Québec ont voté pour le Parti libéral du Québec et donc pour rester dans l'union canadienne.

Voters in Quebec voted for the Quebec Liberal Party and therefore for remaining in the Canadian union.


Les électeurs du Québec ont voté pour le Parti libéral du Québec et donc pour rester dans l'union canadienne.

En effet, pourquoi quitteriez-vous le pays que vous avez fondé ?

The Uruguayan military government closed the Universidad de la República Uruguay in Montevideo due to Marxist agitation.

Thursday, October 26, 2023

Tuesday, October 26, 1943. Extending Conscription.


President Roosevelt extended registration for the draft beyond the 48 states to the territories of Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico.

Residents of those territories had until the end of the year to register.

Today in World War II History—October 26, 1943: US Thirteenth Air Force and US Navy bombers and fighters attack Japanese-occupied Bougainville in the Solomon Islands in advance of the Allied invasion.
From Sarah Sundin's blog.

They'd been arriving at various locations in the US this week as well.

The Polish Home Political Representation created Social Anticommunist Committee to combat activities of the Polish Workers (Communist) Party.

Today was the first flight of the Dornier Do 335 of which a mere 37 were built.

The U-420 was sunk by a Canadian B-24.  She was one of 15 ships lost on this day.

The 1943 Hurricane Season came to an end when the last storm dissipated.

Sunday, October 22, 2023

Fiday, October 22, 1943 Kurt.

Today in World War II History—October 22, 1943: Maj.-Gen. Robert Laycock becomes British Chief of Combined Operations. A German meteorological team lands in Labrador, to establish weather station “Kurt."

From Sarah Sundin's blog. 

The automated weather station would operate for only a month before failing due to unknown causes.  It was discovered in 1977.

Royal Navy HMS Charybdis which was lost in action on this day.

The Battle of Sept-Îles was fought near the French coast between the Royal Navy and the Kreigsmarine when British ships were ambushed in the Channel Islands area. The Royal Navy lost a cruiser and a destroyer to no German losses as a result of the action.

Tuesday, September 26, 2023

A room full of toddlers.

The Canadian Speaker of the House of Commons praised a person in the audience, a Ukrainian, for fighting the Russians.

It turned out that the Ukrainian had fought the Russians in World War Two in a unit allied with the SS, which is horrible, and they were horrible.

The Speaker, however, was likely unaware of that, and said it out of inexcusable ignorance.

He's now resigning.

Marjorie Taylor Greene remains in the House of Representatives after having once said that Californian forest fires might be due to Jewish Space Lasers.  She also once compared something to the "gazpacho", apparently meaning the Gestapo.

The only recently divorced Lauren Boebert of Colorado was just videoed allowing a date to grope a boob in public.  This after cheerfully revealing her son's impregnation of a teenage girlfriend.

A certain Senator Menéndez won't resign, even after being allegedly involved in a pretty shocking monetary scandal.

Donald Trump, a serial polygamist, is under multiple indictments and still running for the Oval Office.

Canada must feel like it's trapped in a North American room full of toddlers.


Monday, August 21, 2023

Saturday, August 21, 1943: Bob Hope and Patton.


John Curtin, Prime Minister of Australia, retained his position as the Australian Labor Party took 49 of 74 seats in the Australian House of Representatives and 19 out of 36 in the Australian Senate.

Australian troops on New Guinea took  Komiatum, southwest of Salamaua.

Frankly Roosevelt and McKenzie King announced that U.S. and Canadian forces had retaken Kiska.

The recapture effectively put the continental United States and the Canadian provinces out of reach of Imperial Japanese forces.

Hal Block, Bob Hope, Barney Dean, Frances Langford and Tony Romano met General George S. Patton at a USO show in Sicily at which Patton asked Hope to tell his radio audience “that I love my men", perhaps hoping to counter the bad publicity that the slapping incident had caused.

You didn't see that in Patton.

From Sarah Sundin's blog:

Today in World War II History—August 21, 1943: First “UT” convoy sails from New York, heavily escorted convoys carrying troops to England in build-up for Operation Overlord (D-day).

Saturday, August 19, 2023

Sunday, August 19, 1923. Ada Delutuk Blackjack.

Ada Delutuk Blackjack was rescued from Wrangel Island.  A Native Alaskan, she had survived alone on the island since September 15, 1921.  The only native member of an expedition to the Arctic island, which sought to claim it for Canada, she had been hired as a cook and because she was good at sewing.  The other members of the expedition died on the remote island or disappeared seeking to walk the 90 miles to Siberia to obtain help.


She was not completely alone. The expedition's cat, Victoria, also survived.

She took the job to raise money for her son's treatment for tuberculosis, and in fact upon her retrun moved to Seattle so that he could be treated there. Divorced from her first husband prior to the expedition, she remarried and ultimately returned to Alaska and died in Palmer at age 85 in 1983.

The object of a Canadian claim to the island was quixotic at best, as it is well off of Siberian Russia.  The large island features flora and fauna, including large numbers of polar bears, but remains uninhabited by humans.  It is believed the world's last surviving mammoth populations lived on the island, dying out only perhaps as recently as 2,000 years ago.  Musk ox and reindeer have been introduced to the island for some weird reason, and wolves have reintroduced themselves.

Thursday, August 17, 2023

Tuesday, August 17, 1943. Messina falls. Quebec Conference starts. Schweinfurt and Wewak bombed.

The U.S. 7th Army and the British 8th Army met in Messina.  Sicily was conquered.

Italian civilian returning home after German departure from Messina.

On the same day, Allied artillery began to bombard mainland Italy.

The Quebec Conference opened in Quebec City between Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and William Lyon Mackenzie King.


King's role was only ceremonial.  Stalin had been invited but could not attend.  Military topics were the purpose of the meeting.

A target date for May 1 1944 was picked for the invasion of France, and September 3, 1943, for an invasion of Italy.


The U.S. Army Air Force carried out its first raid on German war production, bombing Schweinfurt.   The 376 plan raid lost 60 of its members.

B-17s over Schweinfurtt.

On the same day, the USAAF 5th Air Force began a five-day bombing campaign on Wewak on New Guinea.

The nocturnal engagement of the Battle off Horaniu saw the Japanese lose four auxiliary ships but evacuate 9,000 troops from Kolombangara in the Solomons.

Friday, August 17, 1923. Diplomatic moves.

French Prime Minister Raymond Poincaré announced he was willing to reduce the amount of reparations owed by Germany in a reply to an aggressive note by British Foreign Secretary Lord Curzon.

The Washington Naval Treaty was ratified by the U.S., U.K., France Italy and Japan.

Treaty delegates.

The Home Bank of Canada closed, wiping out the savings of thousands of Canadians.


Wednesday, July 26, 2023

Thursday, July 26, 1923. Harding visits Vancouver.

President Harding disembarked at Vancouver, becoming the first U.S. President to visit Canada.   While there, he delivered this speech:

Citizens of Canada: I may as well confess to you at the outset a certain perplexity as to how I should address you. The truth of the matter is that this is the first time I have ever spoken as President in any country other than my own.

Indeed, so far as I can recall, I am, with the single exception of my immediate predecessor (Woodrow Wilson), the first President in office even to set foot on a politically-foreign soil. True, there is no definite inhibition upon one doing so, such as prevents any but a natural born citizen from becoming President, but an early prepossession soon developed into a tradition and for more than a hundred years held the effect of unwritten law. I am not prepared to say that the custom was not desirable, perhaps even needful, in the early days, when time was the chief requisite of travel. Assuredly, too, at present, the Chief Magistrate of a great Republic ought not to cultivate the habit or make a hobby of wandering over all the continents of the earth.

But exceptions are required to prove rules. And Canada is an exception, a most notable exception, from every viewpoint of the United States. You are not only our neighbour, but a very good neighbour, and we rejoice in your advancement.

I need not depict the points of similarity that make this attitude of the one toward the other irresistible. We think the same thoughts, live the same lives and cherish the same aspirations of service to each other in times of need. Thousands of your brave lads perished in gallant and generous action for the preservation of our Union.

Many of our young men followed Canadian colours to the battlefields of France before we entered the war and left their proportion of killed to share the graves of your intrepid sons. This statement is brought very intimately home to me, for one of the brave lads in my own newspaper office (Harding owned the Marion, Ohio Star) felt the call of service to the colours of the sons of Canada. He went to the front, and gave his life with your boys for the preservation of the American and Canadian concept of civilization.

When my mind reverts and my heart beats low to recollection of those faithful and noble companionships, I may not address you, to be sure, as “fellow citizens,” as I am accustomed to designate assemblages at home, but I may and do, with respect and pride, salute you as ”fellow men,” in mutual striving for common good.

What an object lesson of peace is shown today by our two countries to all the world! [Applause.] No grim-faced fortifications mark our frontiers, no huge battleships patrol our dividing waters, no stealthy spies lurk in our tranquil border hamlets. Only a scrap of paper, recording hardly more than a simple understanding, safeguards lives and properties on the Great Lakes, and only humble mile-posts mark the inviolable boundary line for thousands of miles through farm and forest.

Our protection is in our fraternity, our armor is our faith; the tie that binds more firmly year by year is ever-increasing acquaintance and comradeship through interchange of citizens; and the compact is not of perishable parchment, but of fair and honourable dealing which, God grant, shall continue for all time. 

An interesting and significant symptom of our growing mutuality appears in the fact that the voluntary inter-change of residents to which I have referred, is wholly free from restrictions. Our National and industrial exigencies have made it necessary for us, greatly to our regret, to fix limits to immigration from foreign countries. But there is no quota for Canada. [Applause.] We gladly welcome all of your sturdy, steady stock who care to come, as a strengthening ingredient and influence. We none the less bid Godspeed and happy days to the thousands of our own folk, who are swarming constantly over your land and participating in its remarkable development. 

Wherever in either of our countries any inhabitant of the one or the other can best serve the interests of himself and his family is the place for him to be. [Applause.] A further evidence of our increasing interdependence appears in the shifting of capital. Since the armistice, I am informed, approximately $2,500,000,000 has found its way from the United States into Canada for investment.

That is a huge sum of money, and I have no doubt is employed safely for us and helpfully for you. Most gratifying to you, moreover, should be the circumstance that one-half of that great sum has gone for purchase of your state and municipal bonds, — a tribute, indeed, to the scrupulous maintenance of your credit, to a degree equalled only by your mother country across the sea and your sister country across the hardly visible border.

These are simple facts which quickly resolve into history for guidance of mankind in the seeking of human happiness. “History, history!” ejaculated Lord Overton to his old friend, Lindsay, himself an historian; “what is the use of history? It only keeps people apart by reviving recollections of enmity.”

As we look forth today upon the nations of Europe, with their armed camps of nearly a million more men in 1923 than in 1913, we cannot deny the grain of truth in this observation. But not so here! A hundred years of tranquil relationships, throughout vicissitudes which elsewhere would have evoked armed conflict rather than arbitration, affords, truly declared James Bryce, “the finest example ever seen in history of an undefended frontier, whose very absence of armaments itself helped to prevent hostile demonstrations;” thus proving beyond question that “peace can always be kept, whatever be the grounds of controversy, between peoples that wish to keep it.” 

There is a great and highly pertinent truth, my friends, in that simple assertion. It is public will, not public force, that makes for enduring peace. And is it not a gratifying circumstance that it has fallen to the lot of us North Americans, living amicably for more than a century, under different flags, to present the most striking example yet produced of that basic fact?

If only European countries would heed the lesson conveyed by Canada and the United States, they would strike at the root of their own continuing disagreements and, in their own prosperity, forget to inveigh constantly at ours. 

Not that we would reproach them for resentment or envy, which after all is but a manifestation of human nature. Rather should we sympathize with their seeming inability to break the shackles of age-long methods, and rejoice in our own relative freedom from the stultifying effect of Old World customs and practices.

Our natural advantages are manifold and obvious. We are not palsied by the habits of a thousand years. We live in the power and glory of youth. Others derive justifiable satisfaction from contemplation of their resplendent pasts. We have relatively only our present to regard, and that, with eager eyes fixed chiefly and confidently upon our future.

Therein lies our best estate. We profit both mentally and materially from the fact that we have no “departed greatness” to recover, no “lost provinces” to regain, no new territory to covet, no ancient grudges to gnaw eternally at the heart of our National consciousness. Not only are we happily exempt from these handicaps of vengeance and prejudice, but we are animated correspondingly and most helpfully by our better knowledge, derived from longer experience, of the blessings of liberty. 

These advantages we may not appreciate to the full at all times, but we know that we possess them, and the day is far distant when, if ever, we shall fail to cherish and defend them against any conceivable assault from without or from within our borders.

I find that, quite unconsciously, I am speaking of our two countries almost in the singular when perhaps I should be more painstaking to keep them where they belong, in the plural. But I feel no need to apologize. You understand as well as I that I speak in no political sense. The ancient bugaboo of the United States scheming to annex Canada disappeared from all our minds years and years ago. [Applause.] Heaven knows we have all we can manage now, and room enough to spare for another hundred millions, before approaching the intensive stage of existence of many European states.

And if I might be so bold as to offer a word of advice to you, it would be this: Do not encourage any enterprise looking to Canada’s annexation of the United States. [Laughter.] You are one of the most capable governing peoples in the world, but I entreat you, for your own sakes, to think twice before undertaking management of the territory which lies between the Great Lakes and the Rio Grande. 

No, let us go our own gaits along parallel roads, you helping us and we helping you. So long as each country maintains its independence, and both recognize their interdependence, those paths cannot fail to be highways of progress and prosperity. Nationality continues to be a supreme factor in modern existence; make no mistake about that; but the day of the Chinese wall, inclosing a hermit nation, has passed forever. Even though space itself were not in process of annihilation by airplane, submarine, wireless and broadcasting, our very propinquity enjoins that most effective cooperation which comes only from clasping of hands in true faith and good fellowship. 

It is in precisely that spirit, men and women of Canada, that I have stopped on my way home from a visit to our pioneers in Alaska to make a passing call upon my very good neighbor of the fascinating Iroquois name, ”Kanada,” to whom, glorious in her youth and strength and beauty, on behalf of my own beloved country, I stretch forth both my arms in the most cordial fraternal greeting, with gratefulness for your splendid welcome in my heart, and from my lips the whispered prayer of our famed Rip Van Winkle: “May you all live long and prosper!” 

He gave the speech at Stanley Park, and attended a state dinner at 7:00.  After that, he reembarked on the USS Henderson and must have remained hungry, as he dined on some crab while the ship steamed to Seattle and shortly thereafter became very ill.

High waters brought disaster near Shoshoni.


The Tribune also reported that the French had lifted the blockade of the Ruhr, and they updated the curious case of Father Grace, who apparently objected to prohibition to some extent.  He had apparently forged an order for ten barrels of whiskey for the J. H. Mullen Home for the Aged in Arvada, Colorado.  He was turned over by another Priest.  Fr. Grace was the pastor at St. Anne's in Arvada, having been installed at the newly built church on July 4, 1920.

Catholic theology would hold that under some circumstances there's no obligation to comply with an unjust law and Fr. Mullen did not seem to be, at least at first, sorry for his act.  Maybe there's more to this story than it might at first seem.  This story isn't one that's easy to follow, however, so what became of him and what he later thought, we don't know.

Sunday, July 23, 2023

Monday, July 23, 1923. Disasters. First ascent of Clyde Peak. French Foreign Legion failure. Squamish Nation, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw amalgamation. Sigsbee funeral.


I'm often amazed, particularly in regard to weather disasters, how often headlines from 1923 read like those from 2023.

That't not to draw a conclusion that I do not intend to suggest, I m'just noting it.

Clyde Peak, left, Blackfoot Mountain, right in 1925.

Norman Clyde became the first man to climb Clyde Peak in Glacier National Park.

Clyde Peak, now. By Owen Jones - File:Red Eagle Lake.jpg, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=109050999

A French Foreign Legion attack on the Moroccan town of Tagzhout Hill was unsuccessful.

The Labour Parties attempt to have the House of Commons call for an international conference was rejected by the Conservatives.

Canada's Squamish Nation, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw, were politically amalgamated and adopted a democratically elected council.

The funeral of Rear Admiral Sigsbee was held.  He had been the commander of the USS Maine when it fatefully exploded in Havana.






Saturday, July 1, 2023

Sunday, July 1, 1923. Chinese exclusion and untimely death.

For those who may have followed yesterday's drama about a policeman (actually sheriff's officer) shooting into a car that refused to dim its headlights, the story plays out today:


The paper was just packed with accidental and untimely death, for that matter.

The Chinese Immigration Act, which we posted about earlier, and which banned Chinese immigrants from entering Canada, save for a few exceptions, came into effect.

A Rin Tin Tin movie was released.