Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 10.djvu/838

 822 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

seems a grand thing to vow loyalty to the country of our fore- bears, to swear fealty to a myth of a monarch across the sea. This is something that in emotional moments makes all our bosoms swell. We love it; we claim this shadowy semblance of authority far away. Our fathers fought at Bannockburn and Culloden, at Waterloo and Blenheim ; and now we live united to our glorious past. The tie appeals to all. Our British blood runs fast and warm while we throw metaphorical flowers at the feet of our beloved mother-land. But let that mother-country raise her voice in unwelcome command, and we should see the erst- while loyal child snarling out the venom of rebellion, as surely as freedom is in the blood of New World peoples. There are many English-born living in the Dominion, especially in the larger cities, where through wealth or social position they tend to dominate colonial sentiment. They scoff at the United States ; they make ponderous jokes at her expense ; and they even curse the country that is the mainstay of Canadians when she dares to criticise Brit- ish policy. This was very apparent when the South African war was in progress, and the modest colonial who ventured to join the Americans in protest was treated with calumny and scorn. The "sentiment-breeders" were bitter those days. It is a fixed con- viction, on the part of many who are thinking seriously in regard to the future of Canada, that the really earnest, native-born Canadian is beginning to feel that some kind of a change is needed, and, in spite of his avowed objections to the southern republic, he cannot help comparing conditions there and at home. The thinkers see that individual prosperity follows in the wake of American institutions and American enterprise.. Sentiment at best is evanescent, and when faced with fierce facts is apt to shrivel into discontent.

Now as to the third query, viz. : What would be the probable effect of union ? What do we see that would indicate the need of change ? Two countries, practically equal in area and age ; 10 the one rich, prosperous, and peopled by many millions; the other poor, of indifferent prosperity, and sparsely settled; the one the world's industrial center; the other the seat of infant efforts in

"Thii has reference to first colonization.