MILLIONAIRE MINISTER

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXII, Issue 19454, 13 November 1925, Page 2

MILLIONAIRE MINISTER

A CANADIAN SENSATION. VINCENT MASSEY IN POLITICS A REMARKABLE CAREER. TORONTO, September 26. The sensation of the Canadian election campaign has been in the announcement of the entry into the King Cabinet of Mr. Charles Vincent Massey. From the personal aspect, nothing more .interesting in Canadian affairs has happened in the present generation than Mr. Massey’s decision to go into political life.

Vi?icent Massey is the most interesting young man in Canada to-day. He is only 38 years old. He is an artist, a scholar, an academician, a graduate of Balliol College, Oxford, a patron of the arts, a devotee of music, an actor of no mean parts. He is one of Canada’s formost capitalists, president of the Massey-Harris Company, the largest manufacturers of agricultural implements ?n the British Empire. He isl a Democrat to the hilt, an idealist who dreams dreams. He has the appearance and many of the standards cf an ascetic.

Four years ago he assumed the presidency of the Massey-Harris Company, which has been founded three generations ago by his grandfather in a little machine shop in the village of Newcastle. An artist and scholar invading business gave the community a thrill. Now the artist and scholar invades politics Long List of Distinctions.

By entering the King Cabinet Mr. Massey adds the title of honourable to a list of distinctions that would gratify most ambitious men at the end of a career. He is, or has been, colonel (O.C. musketry), Dean of Burwash Hall, a governor of the University of Toronto, a director of Ridley College for Boys, a councillor of Toronto Art Gallery, a regent of Victoria College, a trustee of the Toronto General Hospital, vice-chairman of the Massey Foundation, president of the Arts and Letters Club, a syndic of Hart House Theatre, a director of the Government Repatriation Committee, president of the National Council of Education, a director of the Canadian Bank of Commerce, a director of the Montreal Life Insurance Company, as well as president of the 50,000,000 dollar MasseyHarris Corporation. Why has he taken a plunge into the rough and tumble of politics, particularly when his disposition and tastes are the very reverse of those of the ordinary seeker of the limelight? In the heat of an election campaign, motives will be ascribed that will be far from the truth. Those who know him have no hesitancy in afiiming that it is purely his idealism, his desire to be of public service in the largest sphere possible that has impelled this son of fortune to sacrifice comfort and ease and peace of mind for the worries and buffets of politics. This is why the event is so stimulating. While Canada produces men of Mr. Massey’s spirit, there is no need to be apprehensive of her future. A Unique Institution. When this young millionaire returned from Oxford, scarcely more than a dozen years ago, he slipped unobtrusively into life in his home tow r n as lecturer in history in the University oi Toronto and dean of residence in Victoria College. A modest academic lif> setzned to have cast its spell upon him but his amazing versatility quickly found many avenues of activity. Th' chief among these was Hart House, ai institution which would require a vol ume to describe and detail. Briefly, Hart House is a students’ and graduates’ union for the University of Toronto in all colleges and facilities. Other universities have students’ unions, but no other university in the world has an institution like Hart House. The funds to build it were supplied by the millions made available under the Massey foundation, a bequest for education made by Harr. Massey, the pioneer. The idea was con- ' eeived by Vincent Massey, the young grandson, and to it he devoted not merely the money he held in trusteeship. but years of sustained study and application. The result is distinctive, unique and inspiring alike in equipment, architectural design and spirit. The Tariff on Implements. Mr. King’s appointment of Mr. Massey is admitted by political opponents to be a clever move—a manoeuvre they call it. The danger to the Government in this campaign is the demand from industry far a higher tariff, accompanied by the charge that Mr. King’s lowering of duties has been the chief cause of industrial depression from which the country has been suffering. But the chief \toiu on which two years ago the Government lowered duties was .agricultural implements. Consequently Mr. Massey '.j adhesion to the Government invites the inference that the implement manufacturers arc satisfied and that industry has not been hurt by the present Government. Regardless of the outcome of this campaign, Mr. Massey’s advent into politics introduces a factor of real and permanent importance. If his physique will carry his mental power he will go far. In avoirdupois he is but a boy. But his leanness is accompanied by great agility and tenseness. Is he too much of a dreamer for politics? While he is an idealist, ho is not Utopian. He has seen too much of the world from too many angles to have illusions. Besides, he has a sense of humour. In Imperial affairs Vincent Massey probably represents at its best the dominant Canadian point of view. He is permeated with respect and affection for British traditions and institutions. His wife is a daughter of Sir George Parkin, head of the Rhodes Foundation, and one of the most ardent Imperialists. The Massey home provides hospitality perhaps to more English visitors than any other home in Canada. But Vincent Massey is an intense Canadian. In art, he is an ardent patron of the distinctive Canadian “School of Seven,” whose guiding genius is Lawren Harris, a grandson of the founder, of the other side of the Massey-Harris firm.