Part 66

He married, January 26, 1876, Elizabeth R., eldest daughter of the late Robert Simpson, at that time of Guelph, but formerly and latterly of Toronto. Mrs. Wright died in 1913. He is survived by his daughter, Mrs. W. E. Hunter of Toronto, a grandson and granddaughter, and a brother, Daniel W., of Cashmere, Washington, U.S. For some time he had been troubled with blood pressure and in September, 1918, sustained a slight stroke at his place in Niagara-on-the-Lake, where he delighted in birds, flowers, and fruit, in the cultivation of which he was well versed. In April he had a severe attack of neuritis, which, together with heart trouble, resulted in his death, June 12, 1919, at his home, 105 Macdonnell Avenue, Toronto. Of him, Dr. James L. Hughes wrote: “A. W. Wright was a vitally progressive force in Canada for half a century. He was a true democrat who recognized the right of women as well as men to freedom. Few men of his time so fully represented and so powerfully expressed justice and consideration for others as the basis of brotherhood. He was a charming comrade, a faithful friend, and an eloquent orator. All who knew him were better for his influence. No man could think a mean or base thought in his presence.” In a touching letter to Mrs. Hunter from Washington, D.C., T. V. Powderly, formerly General Master Workman of the Knights of Labor, wrote, in answer to a notification of Mr. Wright’s death:—“It was withheld from me until this morning; for a good reason, I suppose. . . . Anyway, I want to remember your father as I last saw him at my home here four years ago. His going was a blow to you and all his friends. He drew his sunshine from no niggard store, and spread more of it across life’s dark pathway than any man I ever met. His picture, framed, had a vase of Marie Pavia roses before it this morning. I understood—for your father gave that rosebush to me thirty years ago, and when we moved here from Scranton in 1899 we took it with us; we call it Marie Pavia Wright. I have known your father for forty years, and though for part of that time we were officially associated in the K. of L., our friendship was confined within no official band. . . . For years I had a dream. It was that some day I could so manage as to live close to your father and John Devlin. D. died a year ago. Perhaps we may live together yet—who knows? Soon I shall take up the journey they have begun, and when that hour comes I hope it may be said of me as I now say of your father:—

“Out through the portals of death he passed To that ultimate, Unknown land; The chart of right and of deeds well done, Held in his cold, dead hand. For the words he traced to his latest breath Are unclouded by wrong or ruth; And stamped on all, as he met his death, Was the seal of love and truth.”

Writing in the “World,” W. F. Maclean, M.P., said “The late A. W. Wright was an able man who played a leading part in making the destiny of Canada. . . . He had wit, a beaming way, and a radiant kind of sociability.” The “Hamilton Herald” said:—“Few Canadians of the last generation contributed more to the upbuilding of Canada than A. W. Wright. Much of the success of the Workmen’s Compensation Act is due to his sagacity and clear, swift insight. As a newspaper writer Alex. Wright was one of the most forceful of his time. As a platform speaker, when dealing with a subject with which he was familiar, he was unsurpassed. He had bright, incisive style and a talent for keen analysis. He was at his best when heckled. He courted interruption, for no one could get the better of him in a clash of wits.” In a review of his career, “Saturday Night” spoke of him as “a man of remarkable intellectual powers and charming personality,” and of his youth, “he made a hobby of economics and by the time he was thirty was recognized as one of the ablest writers and speakers on such subjects in this country.” When nickel was discovered in Ontario he urged on the government to establish a customs smelter to treat it, to sell at cost to actual users of it in Canada, and to place a heavy export duty on it, thereby giving Canadians a great advantage in manufacturing high-grade machinery of nickel steel, thus greatly stimulating industry here, and assuring Canada millions of dollars annually from export duty on nickel which outsiders must have at any cost. Instead of this a foreign concern was given a practical monopoly to refine Canadian nickel in the U.S. with the right to sell to Germany or any other enemy of Canada and the empire. Both as writer and speaker he was keenly analytical, logical, and constructive in his chosen style, but in dealing with an unfair opponent he was equally at home in using forceful denunciation, bitter irony, scorching sarcasm, or ludicrous burlesque, while in flashing and apt repartee he was unrivalled. He was widely read in prose and poetry, and, possessing a remarkable memory and facile power of expression, was a charming conversationalist, usually the centre of a group of appreciative auditors in any informal gathering. As raconteur he was inimitable. Continual optimism, constant cheerfulness, and unvarying kindliness were his outstanding characteristics, and won for him the friendship of all who knew him.

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=Roche, Francis James= (Toronto, Ont.), Clerk of Assize of the Supreme Court of Ontario, was Conservative candidate for Parliament in West Ontario in 1900, as also for North Toronto 1904, opposing Sir William Mulock, then Postmaster-General. He practised law in Toronto for several years, and served as a member of the Collegiate Institute Board of Trustees of Toronto from 1902 to 1905. He was appointed Official Referee of the Supreme Court in 1914. Mr. Roche was born at Whitby, Ont., October 10, 1865, the son of John R. Richmond Roche, M.A., and Sarah Danford Bryan Roche. He was educated at the Toronto Collegiate Institute and University College, graduating as B.A. in 1886 and as M.A. with honours in Natural Sciences in the following year. He married Lena, daughter of Hon. Theodore Bruere, attorney-at-law, St. Charles, Mo., U.S.A., and State Senator of Missouri, November 28, 1894. Mr. Roche is a Past-President of the United Irish League of Toronto, and is a member of the Canadian Military Institute and Empire Club of Toronto. He joined “K” Company, Queen’s Own Rifles in 1882, and served later in the Cavalry, retiring in 1910 from the Governor-General’s Body Guard with the rank of Major. An Anglican in religion and a Conservative in politics.

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=Whitney, Edwin Canfield= (Ottawa, Ont.), one of the leading capitalists of that city, and especially identified with the Canadian lumbering industry. He was born at Williamsburg, Ont., in the St. Lawrence Valley, on October 29, 1844, the son of Richard Leet and Clarissa Jane (Fairman) Whitney. The Whitney family is of United Empire Loyalist stock and descended from Henry Whitney, who came to New England from Herefordshire, England, in 1640. The late Sir James Whitney, Prime Minister of Ontario from 1905 to 1914 was an elder brother of the subject of this sketch. Edwin Canfield Whitney was educated at the public schools of his district, and subsequently moved to Minneapolis, Minn., where he engaged in the lumbering industry, and in the course of years built up a substantial fortune. He later removed to Ottawa, where he engaged in the lumber business as General Manager of the St. Anthony Lumber Company, Ltd., until 1912, when he retired from active business with the winding up of the company. He is also Vice-President of the Crow’s Nest Pass Coal Company. He was also one of the directors of the Keewatin Flour Mills Company, Ltd. He is a Director of the Bank of Ottawa and of the Toronto General Trusts Company, Ltd. The philanthropies of Mr. Whitney have been of a most enlightened character. He is one of the Governors of Protestant General Hospital, Ottawa, and in 1905 erected at an expense of $68,000 and presented to the University of Toronto a residence for male students. In the same year he was appointed a Trustee of the University Residence Fund, and in 1906 became one of the Governors of the University proper. Among his other gifts to the institution have been a valuable collection of works on Egypt and its antiquities, now in the University library. In 1911, he made a standing offer of $30,000 toward the erection of a general hospital in Ottawa, if the balance of the required sum could be raised. The good-heartedness and generosity of Mr. Whitney in connection with charities is indeed proverbial with all who know him, and during the great war his gifts to patriotic and other funds were on a generous scale. In association with Mrs. Whitney, he gave $5,000 to Trinity University (of which his brother, Sir James Whitney, was a distinguished graduate), and also a memorial church to the Anglican parish of Williamsburg, Ont., of which he was a member when a boy. Mr. Whitney is an adherent of the Anglican communion, and has on many occasions been a delegate to the Synods of that church. In March, 1879, he married Sarah, widow of the late Glossop McQuire, C.E., and daughter of the late J. P. Chrysler, M.P.P. Mrs. Whitney is also interested in philanthropic effort, and has been especially active in the Ottawa Humane Society. In politics Mr. Whitney is an independent. He is a member of the Masonic order and of the Country and Hunt Clubs, Ottawa.

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=Vaughan, Marshall= (Welland, Ont.), is one of the leading business men of the Niagara peninsula, and was born at Elcho, Gainsboro township, Lincoln County, Ont., on March 16, 1884. His father was Wilford Vaughan, and his mother’s maiden name was Orpha Augusta Evans. The Vaughans and the Evans were United Empire Loyalists, who came to Canada from New Jersey and Virginia after the American Revolution, and the names in both cases indicate Welsh descent. The subject of this sketch was educated at Smithville Collegiate Institute, and later commenced his business career in Welland, where his firm deals extensively in wholesale seeds and are growers, re-cleaners and exporters of those commodities. Mr. Vaughan has also taken an active part in the municipal affairs of Welland. He had the honour of being elected Mayor of that municipality for 1917, the year in which it achieved the status of a city, and on July 1, of that year presided over the inauguration proceedings in connection with that happy event. He also filled the office of Mayor for the year 1918, having been re-elected by acclamation. He takes an active part in all movements for the advancement of Canada from every standpoint, and is especially interested in proposals to obtain increased agricultural production. Mr. Vaughan is an Anglican in religion, and a Conservative-Unionist in politics, and during the great war was the representative of the Royal Flying Corps for the promotion of recruiting in his district. He is a member of the Masonic and Orange orders, and also of the Knights of Pythias, and belongs to the Welland Club, the Temple Club, the Country Club of Lawrence County, N.Y., and the Buffalo Automobile Club. On December 13, 1911, he married Evelyn Maud, daughter of Albert House, of Ancaster, Ont.

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=Wylie, Newton= (Toronto, Ont.), Journalist and Student of and Lecturer on Social and Political Economy and Affairs, son of John H. Wylie and Mary Jane Bernhardt, was born on September 12, 1892, at Toronto, and received his education at the Orangeville High School, Calgary Normal School, University of Toronto and Harvard University, graduating in 1917. When but a boy in his early student days, he interested himself in public affairs, and early gave evidence of talent both as a writer and a public speaker. Mr. Wylie is noted particularly for his work as a prohibition propagandist. He was the chief instrument in organizing the Ontario Young Manhood Association, which in 1914 presented a petition signed by 10,000 young Conservatives in Ontario to the late Sir James P. Whitney, then Prime Minister of the Province, asking provincial prohibition, and which contested unsuccessfully the constituency of Parkdale in the general election of June in that year. Mr. Wylie is also credited with having originated the Citizens’ Committee of One Hundred, of which he became General Secretary, and organized the six months’ whirlwind campaign throughout Ontario which resulted in the passing of the Ontario Temperance Act in March, 1916. Previous to that he had

## participated in the provincial prohibition campaign in Alberta in 1915,

touring that Province and speaking in all the chief cities, as well as invading some of the mining districts. Mr. Wylie is a close personal friend of “Billy” Sunday, and has spoken on “No Booze” in the noted evangelist’s tabernacles in Trenton, Baltimore, and Boston. For some years he was a member of the staff of the “Globe,” Toronto, and wrote over the pseudonym of “Will Silo.” He has also contributed to several other newspapers and magazines. Twice since the outbreak of the war he offered his services to the army, but each time was rejected on account of injuries received in a serious automobile accident in 1913. He has, however, taken a prominent part in recruiting work, giving his services freely as a speaker and as an organizer in various schemes for raising funds, especially in connection with the 126th, 182nd and 201st Battalions. He is a member of the following clubs:—Canadian Club, Toronto Board of Trade, Walt Whitman, Harvard Union, Toronto Press Club, Toronto Canoe Club, Ontario Young Manhood Association, Citizens’ Committee of One Hundred, Canadian Suffrage Association, National Brotherhood Federation, Social Service Council of Canada, Canadian Red Cross Society, Canadian Patriotic Fund Association, Y.M.C.A., A-R Men’s Association. In religion Mr. Wylie is a Presbyterian, and in politics an independent.

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=Mackenzie, Daniel D., M.P.= for the riding of North Victoria, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, is one of the most prominent representatives of the Liberal party in the House of Commons, and served as Parliamentary leader of that party following the death of Sir Wilfrid Laurier in February, 1919, until the return to the House of Hon. W. L. M. King, the leader elected by the National Liberal Convention which assembled in the summer of the same year. He was born on January 8, 1859, at Lake Ainslie, in the heart of the Highland Scottish settlements of that island, the son of Duncan and Jessie (McMillan) Mackenzie. He was educated at the Public Schools and at the Sydney (C.B.) Academy, and became a barrister and attorney-at-law, practising at North Sydney. He early became prominent in politics, and has been a most successful candidate. In nearly a score of elections, municipal, provincial and federal, where he has been a candidate, he has never met defeat. He served as Commissioner of Schools for Cape Breton for a time, and was elected ten times to the Municipal Council of North Sydney, serving as Mayor for five years. He was elected to the Nova Scotia Legislature in 1900 as a Liberal, and again at the general elections of 1901. Prior to the general elections for the House of Commons in 1904, he resigned his seat in the Legislature to become a Federal candidate and was elected. He resigned, and was appointed Judge of District No. 7, County Court of Nova Scotia, on February 16, 1906, continuing in that office until October 15, 1908, when he retired and became again a candidate for the House of Commons. He was elected, and was equally successful at the general elections of 1911 and 1917. When the House assembled after the latter contest, he was the chosen desk-mate of Sir Wilfrid Laurier, then leader of the Opposition; and on the death of that statesman was elected by the Liberal caucus to the Parliamentary leadership. At the National Liberal Convention of August, 1919, he unwillingly allowed his name to go before the delegates chosen to elect a leader, yielding to pressure from his Scottish friends in Nova Scotia, but on the election of Mr. King extended to the latter his heartiest co-operation and support. At the conclusion of the regular Parliamentary session of 1918-9, he had the honour of seconding Sir Robert Borden’s resolution of thanks to the Canadian troops who had fought and died on the battlefields of France and Flanders. In religion he is a Presbyterian, and on January 28, 1891, he married Miss Florence N. McDonald, by whom he has one son, Charles Russell Mackenzie, born May 5, 1895. His home is at North Sydney, C.B.

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=Coristine, Major Stanley B.=, is a member of the Board of Pension Commissioners for Canada, with headquarters in Ottawa, and had a distinguished career in the great war. He was born at Montreal, Que., the son of James Coristine, a prominent business man of that city; was educated at the Royal Military College, Kingston, Ont., from which he graduated in 1906, and also took a course at McGill University, Montreal. After graduation he was for a time connected with James Coristine & Co., Ltd., but on the outbreak of the war immediately offered himself for service overseas, and on September 10, 1914, was gazetted Captain of the 5th Royal Highlanders of Montreal, becoming Adjutant of the regiment on October 1 of that year. On permission being granted to organize the 42nd Battalion, R.H.C., he was appointed adjutant for the period of organization and when the Battalion went overseas was at his own request placed in command of a company. The 42nd Battalion was transferred to France in October, 1915, and took part in much heavy fighting. In June, 1916, during the heavy fighting at Ypres, known as the “June show” he was seriously wounded and after two months in hospital was sent home to Canada. In April, 1917, he was discharged as permanently unfit for further service at the front, and in May of that year was appointed Secretary of the Pensions Board of Canada. He showed a very exceptional capacity for dealing with the problems which came before the Board, and his military record gained him the confidence of the many injured soldiers with whom his duties brought him in contact. In 1918 he was appointed a Commissioner to fill the vacancy created on the Board by the resignation of Major J. L. Todd, and the choice was generally approved in military circles throughout Canada. He is a Protestant and a member of St. Paul’s Lodge, A.F. & A.M. His recreations are golf and tennis, and he is a member of the following clubs: St. James and University, Montreal; Rideau, and Country, Ottawa. In 1909 he married Nina, daughter of John McLean, Montreal, and has three sons: Philip, born 1910; Edward, born 1912; and James, born 1918.

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=Watson, Senator Robert=, moved from Ontario to Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, in 1876, where he built a mill, and later built another mill at Stonewall. He prospered, became popular, and was well received and appreciated by the entire community, irrespective of politics. Owing to his enterprising activities, his generosity, and his sympathetic and tangible conduct towards those less fortunate than he, he was soon elected to the Municipal Council, and as a councillor was instrumental in the adoption of municipal measures that aided in a marked degree the progressive and harmonious state of affairs in that thriving town. The Provincial Government and the Province’s representative in the House of Commons had been Conservative from the time, July 15, 1870, the Province entered Confederation, and with the return of the Conservatives to power at Ottawa in 1878, and Hon. John Norquay as Prime Minister, President of the Council, and Provincial Treasurer at Winnipeg, and four Conservative spokesmen for the Province occupying seats in the House of Commons, the young Province was but a helpless political toy in the hands of those who were elected to, and should have, looked after its best interests. Suffering for want of proper railway facilities, the situation became unbearable. Led by Hon. John Norquay, Provincial railway charters were being issued, only later to be disallowed by the Dominion Government, all of which, while the public was being led to believe differently, was fully understood and agreed upon beforehand by both Governments. Something had to be done to save the Province, and to place it on a higher plane. An agitation arose, several indignation meetings were held and finally, in the town of Portage la Prairie, the Provincial Rights Party was born, and Robert Watson, Portage la Prairie’s millwright, became the ideal candidate of the party to carry the banner for Marquette at the general Dominion election. In each of the five Manitoba Dominion constituencies (a new constituency for the Province had been created by the Dominion Government), a Provincial Rights Party candidate was nominated, and three of the five were elected, Winnipeg and Provencher, with Captain Thos. Scott and Joseph Royal, remained Conservative, but Lisgar, Marquette and Selkirk, with A. W. Ross, Robert Watson and Hugh Sutherland, became Provincial Rights constituencies. Out of these three, however—Ross, Watson and Sutherland—from and including 1882 and 1887, Mr. Watson was practically the only Liberal member in the House of Commons west of Lake Superior, and he is just as true and reliable to-day as he was when he first entered political life in 1882. Senator Robert Watson is the son of the late George Watson, of Edinburgh, Scotland, who came to Canada in 1847, and his wife Elizabeth McDonald, of Inverness-shire, Scotland. He was born at Elora, Ontario, April 29, 1853. In 1876, he moved to Manitoba, and was elected to the House of Commons for Marquette at the general elections in 1882, 1887 and 1891. He resigned to accept the portfolio of Minister of Public Works in the Greenway Administration, 1892, and was elected at the general elections of that year to the Legislature for Portage la Prairie, and again at the general election of 1896. At the general election of 1899 he was defeated. January 29, 1900, he was summoned to the Senate. July, 1880, Senator Watson married Isabella, daughter of Duncan Brown, of Lobo, Ontario. He is a Presbyterian, and his home address is Portage la Prairie, Manitoba.

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=Sutherland, Fred C.=, Stock Broker, 12 King St. East, Toronto, was born March 17, 1880, in West River, Nova Scotia, and received his education at Pictou Academy. He entered his present business in 1909 and became

## actively engaged in the development of Northern Ontario’s natural