"Mitch"

(See front cover)

The mighty Province which has more people, grows more food and manufactures more products than any other in Canada is fabulous Ontario--chiefly famed abroad for the Dionne Quintuplets. It is exactly 1,000 miles long by 1,050 miles wide--so big that the five States of New York, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota string the length of its southern border. Three years ago strapping, vigorous Ontario started taking the orders of a chubby, double-chinned, deep-dimpled, dynamic man she calls "Mitch." Two years ago he left her suddenly for Florida, announcing "I will retire from public life! There is no chance of my changing my mind." However, when the remaining kidney which had thus sent the Hon. Mitchell ("Mitch") Frederick Hepburn flying so suddenly south was cured, he rejoiced with gusto that he had never, even in his most discouraged hours, resigned as Premier of Ontario and with whoops of redoubled vigor tore back to Toronto.

Last week "Mitch" Hepburn had decided to jerk himself up by mighty tugs at the provincial bootstraps of Ontario to the Premiership of all Canada. As a build-up for this, the Premier had deliberately provoked a provincial election which he need never have to fight and was hell-bent to win it Oct. 6. With chances heavily favoring "Mitch," last week Canadian wiseacres agreed that a victory for Liberal Premier Hepburn must severely shake the position and prestige of Canada's Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King. Although both are still nominally Liberals, Hepburn and King have broken violently, thus threatening to split Canada's majority party wide open at the next Federal election, and this week the provincial election show which "Mitch" was putting on fascinated not only Canada but the U. S., for Premier Hepburn is a vehement critic of President Roosevelt. At the age of 3. according to his fond mother, "Mitch" clutched her apron strings and crowed: "I want to be a politician!"

5 -- 2 = 8, In British politics, whether in the United Kingdom or in a Dominion of the Crown, there is nothing improper or unorthodox about springing an election whenever the local premier thinks this might be to his advantage. Thus the last general election in the United Kingdom was sagaciously sprung by Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin at what he correctly judged to be just the right moment for his Conservative Party to take advantage first of patriotic sentiment roused by the Jubilee of George V and second of the 11,000,000 British straw ballots for Peace (TIME, Nov. 25, 1935, et-ante). With victory in Mr. Baldwin's bag his Conservatives had a five-year mandate to do pretty much as they please until 1940, unless their Cabinet were to be unseated on a Parliamentary vote of confidence--and they have since pleased to plump for Rearmament. In Toronto the Hepburn Liberals, returned victoriously to the Provincial House three years ago with a five-year mandate, still have two years to go --but by appealing to the voters now, while Ontario is booming with infectious prosperity caught from the U. S., Premier Hepburn hopes that his Cabinet will be safe not for the five years of its original mandate but for a total of eight, or until 1942. In the simple, orthodox arithmetic of British Parliamentary Government, the sum Premier Hepburn is trying to work is that five minus two equals eight--in case he wins the election.

"Showdown with C. I. O." Ordinarily U. S. citizens would not be much exercised about an election in even Canada's No. 1 Province, but last spring Premier Hepburn bounded into U. S. headlines as a two-fisted fighter on Canadian soil against John L. Lewis and all that the C. I. O. stands for (TIME, April 19 et seq.). The issue was one deliberately seized upon by "Mitch" and plugged ever since until last week he had made it the chief talking point in Ontario's election: Is Big Business to continue relatively safe in the Province of Ontario from having to yield to such labor organizations as C. I. O. or is it not?

Last spring some 3,700 employes of General Motors' Canadian Plant at Oshawa, Ontario went on strike having asked the United Automobile Workers, a C. I. O. affiliate, to aid them in organizing and worming out of their employers a 40-hour week and higher pay. Instantly and before the 3,700 strikers at Oshawa could adopt strongarm tactics, had they ' been so inclined, dynamic Premier Hepburn rushed provincial police and Federal "Mounties" to the scene, roaring "We believe the time for a showdown is at the start!" The Hepburn Cabinet backed this up by decreeing that "No relief will be granted in any form whatsoever" to Oshawa's unemployed strikers, although before this decree was adopted two members of the Cabinet resigned.

After the Oshawa strike had lasted through 16 days of negotiation it ended in the workers winning a 44-hr, week with very slightly higher pay--and in a most curious agreement. Since neither their employers nor "Mitch" would treat with any workers affiliated however remotely with C. I. O., and since all the strike leaders by this time were so affiliated, they signed in such fashion as to put after their names labor union titles like "Secretary" or "President" but nowhere mentioned what body or affiliate of C.I. O. they represented. On the face of things, Premier Hepburn had used a sledgehammer to squash a gnat, effectively but with ludicrous melodramatics.

"Mitch" had also secured priceless advertising for Ontario as a haven to which nervous U. S. capitalists might decide to move their plants. Second, many Ontarians believe that the aim of C. I. O. in their province is not only to organize General Motors but is also directed toward C. I. O.-izing Ontario's rich mines. It was in defense of these, they think, that "Mitch" tried to "git his fist in fust" at Oshawa. Finally, since Canada's Prime Minister Mackenzie King, fearing to antagonize Labor, has frowned upon the strident demands of "Mitch" that C. I. O. agents be excluded from Canada as "foreign agitators," Ontario's Premier smells an opportunity to attract to himself nationwide support and contributions from the more prosperous class of Canadians, including the farmers of Ontario who in voting strength still outnumber (and distrust) its factory workers.

"I've been called a Dictator!" roared "Mitch" in a recent typical speech. "If you don't dictate, they call you 'vacillating!' . . . it's hard to please everybody-- but I stand on my record!"

"Crime of the Century." The record of Mitchell Hepburn is as amazing, paradoxical, red-blooded and wild as any to be found in the robust British Dominions. He was born 41 years ago on a St. Thomas farm of sturdy Scotch-Irish stock. After public schooling, which finished with the St. Thomas Collegiate Institute, the farmer boy, aged only 17, proudly became a cashier in a small branch of the Canadian Bank of Commerce in 1913.

Later young "Mitch" returned to farming, plunged into farmer politics and was nominated to stand as an Independent Liberal for a seat in the Federal House. His election was a stirring local triumph --because he was the first Liberal returned in 30 years by the county in which he stood. Ontario at that time had been mainly ruled by Conservatives for nearly a generation. Toronto had become the stronghold of Tories who felt so secure that years of niggling graft were heading the Province for a sudden, swift, pro-Liberal reaction to "throw the rascals out." It came soon, and ebullient young Mr. Hepburn could not have chosen more shrewdly the moment for his political debut. Increasingly sleek, fashionably dressed and attentive to women (although happily married, albeit childless*) "Mitch" at first used to go about saying frankly, "I owe my election to ladies, Liberals and Labor!" In those days he was blatantly the proletariat's friend. In 1930 at 34 years of age, Mr. Hepburn was elected Provincial Leader of the Liberal Party, and just four years later he was swept in as Premier of Ontario in the Liberal landslide of 1934.

Instead of blasting the King's representative in Ontario as he had planned, Premier "Mitch," after the first paroxysms of his triumph, began behaving like the canny farmer he is. at heart. Claiming his Conservative predecessors had left him a budgetary deficit of $3,734,000 which they "falsely represented" as a surplus of $476,000, "Mitch" started balancing Ontario's budget by cutting his own salary as Premier from $12,000 to $10,000, cut his Cabinet Members from $10,000 to $8,000. Further slashing reduced Ontario Government salaries all along the line, cuts in some cases as much as 50% being carried into the Ontario Liquor Board and Ontario Hydro-Electric Power Commission. This last claims to be "the capitalist world's largest public purveyor of power," serving nearly half a million Ontario families at reputedly "the world's lowest electric rates"--about 9-c- per kilowatt hour in Ottawa.

Under the Ontario Conservatives and during the pre-boom years, the Hydro-Commission had made four major, long-term contracts with power companies in the Province of Quebec. Liberal "Mitch" roared his opinion that these were foul, false and stank. Ontario, he claimed, had contracted for more power than she could use and at too high prices. It would cost the Province some $400,000,000 over a period of the next 40 years to pay what she owed under these contracts--so in effect "Mitch" simply tore them up by having his Parliament pass the Power Act of 1935 by which he declared the contracts "illegal, void and unenforceable."

In capitalist Canadian circles this was "the Crime of the Century." The next time Premier Hepburn wanted to sell a few Ontario bonds the big Canadian brokerage houses ganged up and boycotted him. Yet, after a few months of fury, the three of the Quebec power companies whose contracts had been torn up quietly made new contracts with Ontario at lower rates. All this left "Mitch" more popular than ever with most Ontario voters and users of electricity. Last week some of these wealthy Canadian interests which had flayed Premier Hepburn for tearing up the power contracts were now arrayed behind him because of his fight against C. I. O. According to orthodox Canadian newsorgans, the Premier has now indisputably balanced Ontario's budget, retired $33,000,000 in bonds of the Province and augmented revenues while reducing taxes. This has been possible partly because of the return of better times, partly because "Mitch" discovered that numbers of wealthy Ontario families have been systematically cheating on the Province's stiff inheritance taxes for years and forced them to disgorge. The active Premier has abolished the amusement tax, extended pensions to the blind and allowances to mothers, and lowered motor license fees.

"Right on Top!" If Ontario had any real Labor political organization it would now be able to make plenty of trouble for "Mitch." But he himself was so recently Labor's chief champion that Ontario's proletariat has been caught napping. Up to last week one and only one candidate affiliated with C. I. O. had offered himself for election against "Mitch's" Liberal slate, Alfred Mustin, President of Local No. 67 of the United Rubber Workers of America, standing at North Waterloo as an Independent Laborite.

Sole worthy political foes of the Hepburn Liberals in this election are the Ontario Conservatives. These are led by stolidly handsome and inarticulate The Honorable William Earl Rowe, M. P., chosen disciple of the nearest approach to Herbert Hoover ever produced in Canada, namely pompous Richard Bedford Bennett who as Prime Minister disastrously lost the last Dominion election (TIME, Oct. 21, 1935). Mr. Bennett, having picked Mr. Rowe to achieve high office, had King George V make him a Privy Councilor and groomed him carefully, but quite failed to develop a popular Conservative leader in Ontario.

Last week Mr. Rowe and his Conservatives were painfully putting on a campaign in which they could offer Ontario citizens almost nothing not already handed out, too lavishly, by "Mitch." If victorious, they as Conservatives ought to honor the torn-up power contracts--but they dare not promise that, since it would up electricity costs to Ontario voters. As Conservatives they ought to balance the budget--but "Mitch" already has. Again as Conservatives they can hardly champion the C. I. O. against Premier Hepburn yet, ludicrously enough, since "Mitch" has made C. I. O. what is supposed to be the main issue of Ontario's campaign, the Conservatives were valiantly trying last week to straddle on this and put themselves forward as Labor's friends. Since "Mitch" is too flamboyant for a good many people's taste, Conservative Leader Rowe has tried to attack him by demanding just where he does stand on C. I. O. The Premier's platform reply: "Mr. Rowe asks where I stand on C. I. O.? Well, I'm standing right on top of them, and I'll keep on standing there. . . !"

The nonsense in this is that Canada's Federal Cabinet alone could take the drastic measures against C. I. O.--such as total exclusion from Canada -- which "Mitch" wants to take and talks as if he had taken. In fact Premier Hepburn is not standing and cannot "stand right on top" of C. I. O. unless ultimately he should become Prime Minister of the whole Dominion. Today an estimated 20,000 Ontario toilers have C. I. O. affiliation and are unmolested--but gusty, voracious "Mitch" knows how to sound as if he had eat them alive.

At any rate, never before has a campaigning British political leader so heartily abused the White House occupant. According to Premier Hepburn the sum of $500,000 was contributed to Franklin Delano Roosevelt's political fortunes by John L. Lewis. Ontario farmers grin, figuring that "Mitch" is only having his fun when he makes such charges, but the Premier continues roaring at Washington from public platforms: "Is it any wonder that [Lewis] can corrupt governments with a slush fund of that size!"

Sounding Board for Premier Hepburn is a new and potent force in Canadian journalism, launched with the money of bleak, eccentric William Henry Wright, onetime butcher, soldier and prospector, today credited with having Canada's largest annual income ($6,000,000). This comes from the famed Wright-Hargreaves Mine, largely developed by Old Prospector Wright, who lives 90 miles north of Toronto in the small town of Barrie.

Two years ago the Old Prospector shrewdly agreed to help give "Mitch" a leg toward Ottawa and the Prime Ministry. Mr. Wright was persuaded by his onetime mining broker, rambunctious young Clement George McCullagh, who bought two newspapers and today Canadian journalists call him "an incipient Hearst." Far from rich himself, Mr. McCullagh paid $2,325,000 for the Toronto Mail and Empire. Its 120,000 circulation was the largest of any Canadian morning paper, and he merged it with the Toronto Globe (85,000) which he had bought for just under $900,000. Today another $4,000,000 is being spent on "journalistic improvements" and to run a skyscraper in Toronto to house the combined Globe and Mail. This building is to bear the name of Old Prospector Wright.

Paradoxically incipient "Hearst" McCullagh has recently had a behind-the-scenes quarrel with Premier Hepburn, but the Globe and Mail continues to support "Mitch" as vociferously as ever. It claims to have heard that desperate C. I. O. thugs from the U. S. are ready to kidnap the Premier's adopted children. Such charges are typical "Dominion journalism" (in Australia even wilder words are flung), and on the side George McCullagh has done something regarded as bravura even by the Canadian press by deciding to devote huge editorial space in the Globe and Mail to his past adventures with strong drink and present successes in vanquishing Demon Rum.*

Significance. Obviously the Ontario election today resembles not so much a contest between parties as the sort of plebiscite staged by a Dictator when he wants the blanket approval of the people for his measures. About such a poll, honestly conducted as it will be in the Province of Ontario, there is nothing illegal but there is something new. In the streets of Toronto alarmed C. I. 0. adherents shout "Herr Hepburn!" at the Premier and with catcalls give him derisive Nazi salutes.

"Mitch" has the alert flexibility of mind and purpose, and the ruthlessness which have gone to make up many a Dictator. Of the 90 seats in Ontario's House, the Hepburn Liberals held 72 at the time of dissolution. "Mitch" claims he will win 70 or more, but last week in Toronto best guesses were that he will get about 50, thus emerging from the polls with a five-year majority, but hardly with the overwhelming majority a Pocket Dictator craves.

*He later adopted a son and daughter.

*"The Publisher of The Globe and Mail," editorialized the Globe and Mail recently, "has been able to help many men regarded as chronic alcoholics or pathological drinkers. To date at least a score of them of his own age and over can testify that through his personal efforts they have been able to master liquor and boast of total abstinence.

"Much as he has found personal comfort and inspiration in parting with liquor, the publisher of The Globe and Mail is not attempting to make himself a judge of other men. He has no desire to legislate for mature manhood under the prohibition rule. He is tolerant of every man's personal rights. He will serve a drink at his home to a guest of the age of discretion, if it is desired. By the same token he will use his utmost resources to spare the growing youth of this country from the pitfalls of alcohol. This, he believes, is the inner feeling also of those men who claim they 'can handle it.' "

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