d with enthusiasm for the glorious chance that
Rockefeller seemed to have to make a new Magna Charta of brotherhood
between Capital and Labour. In this he was a tremendous idealist. In
many respects one was forced to regret that the world somehow did not
seem quite so full of brotherly intention as Mr. King said that it was.

"The common ground of both capital and labour is humanity," he said
over and over in various form. "The antagonism of each will be
forgotten when both unite in an effort to forward the interests of the
whole community without which neither can prosper."

"Right!" I felt like screaming, had there been a moment to do so.
"Bravo!"

The idea found expression in his book which he was then engaged in
writing. And it is doubtful if any book on the subject of political
economy was ever the source of greater happiness to its author than
"Industry and Humanity" was to Mackenzie King. On the merits of
democratic statesmanship as revealed in that book, Mackenzie King
should be Premier of Canada in 1922. Alas! men are often greater in
what they say than in much they are able to do. Mackenzie King is a
species of rather emotional idealist. He has studied economic humanity
somewhat at the expense of his perception of human nature.

During the evening King talked with equal gusto upon his intimate
knowledge of a certain popular song writer in Chicago, the story of
whose life he told with vivid strokes of descriptive pathos; and upon
his still more intimate acquaintance with the late William Wilfred
Campbell, poet, whom he had seen in the same moment feed his pigs in a
near suburb of Ottawa, and create a line of poetry--which King
quoted--"The wild witchery of the winter woods." He was seized with
the idea that a Foundation such as the Rockefeller should subsidize
poets and song-writers. The pity of it always is that the world is far
too desperately cynical in high places to accommodate such generous
impulses. Mackenzie King's fervent advocacy of a reform sometimes
creates more antagonism than the cold attacks of an adversary. His
passion for the betterment of humanity often outruns his judgment. His
statements smack of exaggeration even when they are absolutely true.
He lacks a sense of proportion and a capacity for restraint. "Better
is he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city." But a
political leader must do both.

Had he expected the Liberal leadership, the close of the war and a