22 The Illumination of Joseph Keeler, Esq. 



rentals, too many in the real-estate business, too many middle- 

 men handling supplies, the high cost of transportation on rail- 

 ways, the shiftlessness of the farmer in not producing enough, 

 with the boys leaving the farm, the waste through highly paid 

 and wretchedly trained cooks and similar reasons, all more or 

 less correct. Joseph Keeler listened intently and with his recent 

 rural observations in mind said but little. 



The professor in turn spoke with academic conviction, while 

 all listened reverently, inspired with awe, as he talked of chang- 

 ing world conditions, of how the early settlers in Canada had 

 mostly been of the peasant class, too often of the pauper and even 

 criminal classes, who were ignorant and content merely to labour 

 or simply to exist. He recalled how, late in the last century, 

 many of those had become well off; had grown ambitious for 

 their families, sending sons to college, while others went into 

 towns from the farm. Though all this did seem directly asso- 

 ciated with the high cost of living, yet in the great world 

 processes of evolution, self-culture, social illumination, and the 

 cultivation of the amenities and graces were all important; while 

 the many conveniences and even luxuries, which were within the 

 reach of the whole people, whether in city or country, after all 

 more than compensated for what at times did seem a difficulty 

 on the part of people in making ends meet. In fact, the time 

 had now arrived for society to begin to employ the inferior races; 

 in the East, the Pole, the Finn and Galician; in the West, the 

 Chinaman, Jap and Hindoo. Brain must ever rule over brawn, 

 and if only John Stuart Mill's policy of laissez faire were allowed 

 to operate freely and leave all these matters to be privately set- 

 tled by "competition" such temporary difficulties would, in the 

 end, right themselves. It had been remarked concerning this 

 professor of practical affairs, born, bred and educated in the 

 Old World, that he busied himself with his teaching duties very 

 seriously during the college term, only to hie away in the spring- 

 time to English or Alpine fields from which he might study at 

 long range the agricultural, industrial and social conditions of 

 the several Provinces of Canada, extending from ocean to ocean. 

 But apart from his rather irritating ipse dixit, he was scholarly 

 and companionable, and was capable of becoming interested in 

 social problems when directly set before him. 



