THE READING OF MACKENZIE KING by MARGARET ELIZABETH BEDORE A thesis submitted to the Department of History in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Queen’s University Kingston, Ontario, Canada January 2008 Copyright © Margaret Elizabeth Bedore, 2008 ABSTRACT This study observes Mackenzie King as a reader. By examining the marginalia in the books preserved in his library and his responses to that reading recorded in his diary and correspondence, this study shows that King was a critical user of texts and that he worked all his life to improve himself. King habitually read for information and inspiration; he sought to perfect the mind, the body and the soul. Three case studies trace out important phases in King’s development. King learned from reading political biography and, in particular, he studied the life of Gladstone to prepare himself for the role of prime minister. He found in the psychology of William James new ways to achieve psychic health; he enlarged his outlook and deepened and broadened his faith. In a final phase, King turned to the reading of spiritualism which complemented his Christian idealism and provided solace to a lonely man. The newly opened files on spiritualism at the National Archives reveal King to be a man who seriously explored psychical research. Reading was an important part of King’s life; it informed his politics and it shaped his religion. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am grateful to Professor Ian McKay, my thesis supervisor, for his help, his advice and his encouragement. I thank him for his time and patience. I must also express my gratitude to the staff at Laurier House for their assistance. In particular, I want to thank Mr. Bernie Roche, who made every effort to accommodate my needs and made my visits very worthwhile. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS iii CHAPTER ONE Introduction 1 CHAPTER TWO Literature Review 39 CHAPTER THREE King’s Reading on William Ewart Gladstone and Other British Liberals 63 CHAPTER FOUR King’s Reading of William James 117 CHAPTER FIVE King’s Reading on Spiritualism 193 CHAPTER SIX Conclusion 301 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 305 APPENDIX I The Face of Gladstone in Ectoplasm 323 II Chart II 324 Chart Illustrative of Progress in Industry III Chart III 325 Chart Illustrative of Important Contributing Factors of Industrial Relations IV Chart IV 326 Chart Illustrative of Nature and Scope of Important Contributing Factors in Industrial Relations V Chart V 327 Chart Illustrative of the Law of Peace, Work, and Health in Relations Within and Without Industry VI Chart VI 328 Chart Illustrative of the Action and Reaction of Discovery, Invention, Government, Education and Opinion in Relations Within and Without Industry VII Chart VII 329 Chart Illustrative of Factors Influencing Relations Within and Without Industry iv VIII Chart VIII 330 Chart Illustrative of the Parties to Industry and Suggestive of Factors and Influences IX Chart IX 331 Chart Illustrative of the Terms and the Working-Out of Industrial Agreements, and Important Contributing Influences X Marginal Markings by King 332 v CHAPTER ONE Introduction Mackenzie King stands out as the consummate Canadian politician. He mastered the techniques of power as no other and held office longer than any other prime minister. Historians have readily acknowledged King’s political skills but even his greatest admirers have held their praise in reserve. Detractors have viewed King as long on cunning but short on intellect and have had enormous difficulty understanding how King’s Christian faith shaped and defined this political opportunist. This thesis intends to approach King as a working intellectual responding to the challenges of his world with an active program of exploration. Accessing not only an unrivalled body of writing and reflection in the diaries and the recently opened files on spiritualism at the National Archives but also the rarely-explored treasure of King’s library at Laurier House in Ottawa, this thesis attempts to reconstruct King as a critical user of texts who worked to define himself against the almost infinite dangers of modernity. When King was a young student at Harvard in 1899, he was acutely aware of his intellectual inadequacies - “I feel daily that I am very poorly read, a scholar who has read nothing especially do I feel it, when with those who are cultured & scholars themselves.”1 All his life he made a concerted effort to improve himself and though King’s education at the University of Toronto and Chicago and at Harvard has been well documented, he has never been accorded the intellectual credit his record demands. His success in the traditional field of political economy and the new field of sociology led to a career in practical administration in the civil service at the age of twenty-five. King set up Canada’s first Department of Labour and became its first Deputy Minister. During this time he edited the Labour Gazette and his activities as an industrial conciliator made him a national figure. In 1908, King made the transition from civil servant to elected Member of Parliament and took his seat in the Cabinet of Sir Wilfrid Laurier as Minister of Labour. As Minister he drafted legislation for the 1 National Archives of Canada (hereafter NAC), William Lyon Mackenzie King, Diary (hereafter W.L.M.K. Diary), 28 December 1899, W.L.M.K. Papers, Series J13. 1 settlement of industrial disputes by compulsory investigation into their causes. In 1911, along with the Liberal Party, he went down to defeat but rose again during the war as the head of the new Department of Industrial Relations for the Rockefeller Foundation. King was chosen by the Foundation, upon the recommendation of Charles W. Eliot, President of Harvard University. At the time he was considered “a leading authority in industrial problems” and the “best man available,” because he brought to the task “the mind of a scientific investigator, the sympathy of the social worker and the practical experience of a man of affairs.”2 This new work brought King into association with the wealthiest and most influential businessman in the world, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and the two men remained close friends for the rest of their lives. King’s first task in his new position was to restore industrial peace to the strike- torn Rockefeller mining properties in Colorado, which he did with conspicuous success. Part of King’s contract with the Rockefeller Foundation resulted in the publication of Industry and Humanity. Though not an obvious success as a writer because his ponderous style and habit of moralistic argument too often obscured the originality and force of his ideas, King was the first major political leader in Canada to examine and write about the industrial experience. Appended to Industry and Humanity were nine unusual charts constructed by King to illustrate the social forces that were shaping industrial relations. They also revealed King’s vision of modernity and an idealistic, progressive and spiritual view of the world where all discord was changed to harmony by reconciling man to God.3 The year 1916 proved to be a troubled one for King. He suffered a serious depression that forced him to look for outside guidance. With the help of the world- famous psychiatrist, Dr. Adolf Meyer, King recovered sufficiently to complete his book and move on to a short but lucrative stint as an industrial consultant for large American corporations such as General Electric. However, King’s intention was always to return to political life and when Laurier died in 1919 he sought and won the 2 NAC, W.L.M.K. Papers, Industry and Humanity Draft and Notes, Report of Committee to the Rockefeller Foundation, 4 August 1914. 3 See Margaret Bedore, “The Infamous Charts of Mackenzie King from Industry and Humanity” (MA thesis, Queen’s University, 2003). 2 leadership of the Liberal Party and in 1921 became Prime Minister of Canada’s first minority government. Over the next twenty-seven years King was to hold the office of Prime Minister for all but five years. His achievements as leader were legendary. He developed a separate foreign policy for a more independent Canada. He rebuilt a divided Liberal Party into a formidable governing machine by finding compromises acceptable to all regions of Canada. King presided over the prosperity of the 1920s, was defeated at the onset of the Depression, but returned again in 1935 to lead Canada out of the Depression and into war. By King’s careful calculation Canada entered the war in 1939 with the support of Quebec and King held the country together through the war and survived to win his last election in 1945. He then presided over a period of economic adjustment and introduced a number of social measures that strengthened the support for the Liberals and thus assured the succession of Louis St. Laurent. King died at his much-loved Kingsmere retreat in the Gatineau Hills on 22 July 1950. This thesis examines some of what King read and commented on in order to understand the perspective from which he viewed the world. Gladstone once remarked that “it is but rarely that we can trace the influence exercised by particular books upon particular minds through the medium of actual record.”4 Gladstone himself stands as one of the most striking exceptions to his own generalization. King also represents an exception. His diary and some of his vast correspondence allow the student of his mind to identify when and sometimes what he thought of specific works. Beyond the diaries, however, are the actual books King read, most of them preserved in his library at Laurier House or at the National Library of Canada.