which
bought their wheat at open world prices in competition with cheap wheat
countries like Russia, and their cattle at prices dictated by the
Argentine; when both cattle and wheat were cheapened to the producer by
the long-haul railways which Laurier and the Tories had built.

And although the "Old Man" had scant knowledge of business, he had the
wisdom of the serpent to translate the signs of the times; yet lacking
somehow the vision to foresee that a play for the western vote by a
measure of reciprocity would resolve itself into a boomerang at the
polls. Laurier had a wonderful Canadian vision. In 1904 he refused a
Liberal M.P. from the Pacific Federal interference in the Oriental
problem, saying, "The day will come when we shall be glad of Japanese
warships on our Pacific coast." Yet in 1912, in a letter to a friend,
he gravely minimized the German menace. He understood America and Asia
better than Europe. His vision was keener in power than in defeat.

And then the war, which in a few strokes finished the almost complete
picture of Laurier. His support of the Government in going to the aid
of Britain was at first a flash of the old generously impulsive Laurier
who loved England. That love he never lost. He expressed it in the
House down near to the end of the war. He loved England a thousand
times better than some Englishmen do. For the Empire it is doubtful if
he was ever profoundly enthusiastic except as he saw in it the glorious
evolution of self-governing democracies such as Canada, his first love.
He understood this country. It is not remarkable that he did. Any
public man of Canada should. But Laurier's love for his own country
was of an especially intense character, because it was for a long while
so deeply romantic.

As he grew older the original veneration he had for England as the
mother of democracy was more and more transferred to Canada as an
experiment in that form of government. The more he won elections, the
greater grew his passion for democracy and for interpreting his native
land. The pity is that a man cannot go on winning and losing elections
without suffering some damage to his clear love of country. The
highest patriot is he who knows best how to lose himself and his
election, all but his conscience and his cause, for the sake of the
land he loves. Laurier did not remain till the end of his life the
highest patriot. Weary as he is said to have been of public life as
far