period and to
so little apparent purpose, on the need for cleaning up civic government.
The difference between Mr. Ames and the average public-service expert in
Montreal on this question is that Mr. Ames has never been worldly-wise
enough to become an avowed cynic on the question. He probably knows as
well as anybody that to clean up Montreal is in the same category as
making Europe safe for the League of Nations; a much harder city to
regenerate than even Philadelphia. Muck-raking has no effect, when
two-thirds of the population read French papers which never use the rake,
and when the boss of three-fourths of the rest is himself often a target
for the yellows. Mr. Ames should long ago in this connection have
propounded a thesis, Hugh Graham, What Is It? He would then be free to
dissect the ethics of Mederic Martin and the late L. A. Lapointe.

Martin rules Montreal in spite of Lord Atholstan, the Archbishop and the
International Union, because in his own person he interprets the
distinction between Anglo and Franco. In Montreal a dominant minority
controls three-fourths of the commercial wealth. A couple of dozen men
control big industries, railways, electric and water powers, finance and
newspapers. When these men want the City Hall they consult the
directory. To them Montreal is a convenient sea-wharfing spot to conduct
big business; otherwise a French Canadian city and so, hopeless. The
chief common bond between this group and the city at large is the labour
market. The elections are a mere superficial disturbance. The old
courteous alternative of a French mayor, an English mayor, and an Irish
mayor has been discarded. The mayors are all French now. The population
is overwhelmingly French. The City Hall is as French as the courts. The
civic jobs are given to Frenchmen. As a rule there are plenty of jobs.
It is a fair compromise--that if the Anglos will monopolize most of the
big productive business, the civic administration must go to the Francos
who are the elective majority.

Sir Herbert Ames, who was born in Montreal and is the only man who has
ever undertaken to theorize openly as to its redemption, knows exactly
why the place is so absorbing to the cynical mind. He understands that a
man cannot have the same geometrical and diligent enthusiasm for Montreal
as he has for Toronto. To be a thoughtful citizen of Montreal stimulates
the imagination and disgusts the economic sense. For the past t