roved the wide range of action of fast cruisers
based on European waters, while on the other hand the raids of the
_Emden_ proved the need of cruisers for defence on every sea; and the
exploits of the _Sydney_, sister ship of Canada's unbuilt Bristols,
ended all talk of tin-pot navies. The lessons of the war as to ships
and weapons and strategy were all important for the reconsideration of
the question. Still more vital for the decision as to this and
weightier matters were the secrets the future held as to the outcome of
the war, as to the future alignment of nations, and, above all, as to
the possibility of building up some barrier against the madness, the
unspeakable sufferings, and the blind, chaotic wastes of war, more
adequate than the secret diplomacy, the competitive armaments, and the
shifting alliances of the past.

[1] Report of Annual Meeting, Canadian Manufacturers' Association, in
_Industrial Canada_, 1912, p. 334.

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CHAPTER XIV

FIFTY YEARS OF UNION

The Dominion of Canada's first fifty years have been years of momentous
change. The four provinces have grown into nine, covering the whole
half-continent. The three million people have grown to eight, and the
west of the wandering Indian holds cities greater than the largest of
the east at Confederation. From a people overwhelmingly agricultural
they have become a people almost equally divided between town and
country. The straggling two thousand miles of railways have been
multiplied fifteen-fold, forming great transcontinental systems
unmatched in the United States. An average wheat crop yields more than
ten times the total at Confederation, and the output of the mine has
increased at even a more rapid rate. Great manufacturing plants have
developed, employing half a million men, and with capital and annual
products exceeding a thousand {322} million dollars. Foreign trade has
mounted to eight times its height of fifty years ago. The whole
financial and commercial structure has become complex and intricate
beyond earlier imagining. The changes, even on the material side, have
not been all gain. There is many a case of reckless waste of resources
to lament, many an instance of half-developed opportunity and even of
slipping backwards. With the millionaire came the slum, and the
advantages of great corporations were often balanced by the 'frenzied
finance' and the unhealthy political influence of those in control.
Yet, on