What's Shakin', Johnny Canuck?

Today's Graphical History Tour pays another visit to our neighbor to the north. Understanding Johnny Canuck will become increasingly important if we Yanks intend to welcome Canada as our 51st state.

Or declare war on them. Whatever.

"Enter March, 1925" by A.G. Racey in Montreal Daily Star, March 1, 1925

March, 1925 came in with an earthquake centered in the Charlevoix/Kamouraska seismic zone of southern Quebec at 9:21 the night of Saturday, February 28. Measuring 6.3 magnitude, it caused significant damage to buildings, widespread panic, but no fatalities. It was one of the strongest earthquakes ever to hit eastern Canada, and was felt as far away as La Crosse, Wisconsin and Florence, South Carolina.

"Coolidge's Common Sense Policy" by A.G. Racey in Montreal Daily Star, March 3, 1925

When we last took a gander at Arthur G. Racey's cartoons, he was casting aspersions aplenty across the line; but he greeted the inauguration of Calvin Coolidge with this cartoon recommending the American President's policies to Liberal Party Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King.

Racey, a Conservative Party stalwart, had little affection for King, seen here peering over the wall at Coolidge and his woodpile of waste and expensive deadwood. 

Imagine if Coolidge could have been equipped with a chainsaw instead of an axe! He'd have had time to make that wall taller, then tear it down, then build it up again, and down, and up...

"Has His Eye on It" by A.G. Racey in Montreal Daily Star,  March 30, 1925

By the end of the month, Coolidge was the one peering over Racey's fence, envious of a Scotsman's reputation for parsimony. If there was an actual World Thrift Championship in March, 1925, I have not been able to find contemporary news reports of it.

"What Is He Saying" by A.G. Racey in Montreal Daily Star, March 4, 1925

Racey could easily have chosen to take offense at a February 24 speech at a Women's Conference on National defense and Peace Insurance in Washington D.C. by U.S. Navy Rear Admiral William Phelps, but chose to use the occasion to highlight the alliance between the U.S. and the British Empire. Racey's cartoon paraphrases Phelps: "An Anglo-American War is in sight. It can only be prevented by a strong U.S. Navy."

Phelps's address, given with Coolidge’s Secretaries of War and State in attendance, came amid debate in Washington whether to boost defense construction of battleships or aircraft. His views reflected the isolationist views ascendant in U.S. politics, as well as the Anglophobic drumbeat of William Randolph Hearst's media empire:

"One of the primary objectives of the League of Nations, under the leadership of England, is to devise some policy to destroy the American favorable balance of trade. ... There are serious differences brewing between England and the United States over shipping policies. These differences can be prevented from developing into a conflict only by a strong American Navy. That America determines to build up a great merchant marine fleet has created against us the bitter animosity of the English shipping interests."

"The Wasp's Nest" by Sam Hunter in Toronto Star Daily, March 3, 1925

Phelps's superiors quickly distanced themselves from the Rear Admiral's remarks, and Toronto cartoonist Sam Hunter joined A.G. Racey in downplaying their significance. 

The Daily Gleaner of Frederickton, New Brunswick, editorialized on March 3: "We have no doubt [Phelps] succeeded in keeping his audience awake. For the rest, we surmise that the 'brew' came from a brainstorm or something stronger than salt water."

"Whatcha Mean If" by James B. Fitzmaurice in Vancouver Daily Province, March 5, 1925

Suffice it to say that Coolidge's inaugural address contained no such incendiary predictions of a return to the War of 1812. This cartoon by James B. Fitzmaurice leaves me wondering whether he found Coolidge's vision of world peace inspiring or merely quaint. Is this how culturally nice Canadians mock someone?

"Some Demander" by Sam Hunter in Toronto Star Weekly, March 7, 1925 

For a more forthright critique of American foreign relations, Sam Hunter mocks congressional demands that America's Entente allies step up their repayment of wartime U.S. loans. He also took a dim view of the U.S. prescribing its own European peace and reparations plan after refusing to participate in the League of Nations (the brainchild of an earlier U.S. President).

Opium was the fentanyl of the day. I do not, however, believe that the Coolidge administration or Republican Senate were blaming Canada specifically for the supply of opium to the United States, the way that the present maladministration and Congress pretend is the issue from up north. 

Back to Mr. Racey...

"And Easy to Make It So" by A.G. Racey in Montreal Star, March 19, 1925

Here's another Yankee innovation Racey thought Canadians should emulate: Daylight Saving Time. From the standpoint of keeping Québec and New York in the same time zone, it must have made a great deal of sense to him. He might also have been intrigued by the prospect of daylight hours extending even further into the evening than we're used to south of the border.

Those of us still straining to get used to waking up an hour earlier every morning since springing ahead last Sunday might beg to differ that Daylight Saving Time makes everybody happy, however.

Now, lest you think Racey was going entirely soft on the Yanks:

"Such a Fine Business Proposition" by A.G. Racey in Montreal Daily Star, March 6, 1925

Racey remained suspicious of U.S. designs on Canada's electricity and lumber, as you surely remember from this stop on the Graphical History Tour.

"Super Power" in this cartoon refers to U.S. Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover's proposal to eliminate barriers to interstate transmission of electricity, supplemented as well by power lines bringing in hydroelectricity generated in Quebec and Ontario. 

Racey may also have had in mind efforts by a Chicago speculator who had bought controlling interest in numerous electric companies across the U.S. and was interested in acquiring Canadian power companies as well. To counter the Chicagoan, two Montreal stockbrokers founded The Power Company of Canada in April, 1925 to consolidate Canada's many regional power companies.

In case you're ever asked, the United States is the leading consumer of lumber in North America, and Canada is the leading supplier: Canada supplied roughly 30% of the lumber used in the United States last year. The four largest North American softwood lumber producers operate in both countries.

Little did A.G. Racey suspect that 100 years later, that electrical power and lumber would become a weapon in Canada's battle to fend off United States hegemony.