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SATURDAY, (ULY 3, 1948 THE DAILY TIMES:GAZETTE PAGE NINE Biography of Rf. Hon. W. L. Mackenzie King Writer Reveals Intimate "Glimpses of King on Eve of Retirement By REGINALD HARDY Parliamentary Press Correspondent Chapter I -- Putting The Jig-Saw Together Prime Minister W. L. Mackenzie King, descendant of an illustrious Canadian family and no less illustrious in his own right, has announced his retirement after leading the Liberal Party of Canada for thirty years and his country as Prime Minister for 21 years. This unique record has been achieved by one who has always been in the public eye and yet is little known to the ordinary Canadian. Reginald Hardy, Parlia- mentary Press writer, has undertaken in his biography to reveal King the man as well as King the politician and states- man. The first 20 chapters in this irteresting document fol- lows. The series is printed in The Times-Gazette by arrange- ment with The Southam Newspapers of Canada. Mackenzie King, to those who do npt know him -- and that means practically everybody -- is a jig- saw puzzle, the pieces of which they have sought, time and again, to put together, but always without success. No matter how carefully they try to reconcile the perplexing angles and curves of his personality, one with the other, they never seem to be able to match them up and al- ways there are bewildering blind spots 'left in the half-completed picture. Perhaps if a little more patience were egercised by those who seek to solve the riddle more progress would be made, but usually after half a dozen tries the player throws up his hands in despair, convinced that the problem is impossible of solution. Certainly, as one lays the queer looking pieces out on the table, one is amazed at the variety of their shape and coloring. It would seem almost as if two entirely different boxes had become jumbled up to- gether with astonishing results. The player becomes confused and, in the end, frustrated and annoyed. ® >-- Thus it is that you will find one person visualizing King as a modest, somewhat retiring old gentleman-- "The Hermit of Kingsmere," while his neighbor sees him as a domin- eering and spotlight-seeking politi- cian "The Scene-stealer of Parliament." Could they but get the pieces together they would find that each, to some extent, is right, and that, conversely, each is partly wrong. + kb It has been said of King that his success has been due in great- est part to his "political sagacity and systematic industry." It has also been said of him that his suc- cess has resulted from the lucky turn of Fortune's wheel." He has been described times without number as "a great party leader." He has been called a "ruthless politician" who. exercises over his ministers and the members of his party "a stern discipline never approached by Laurier, or Borden, or Bennett." He has been called a "moralist" and a "preacher," and he has been called a "political oppor- tunist." He has been called a "fussy old woman" and he has been dubbed a "tyrant" and a "dictator." I have heard one of his own back bench- ers refer to him as "a spoiled brat." THE RIGHT HONOURABLE WILLIAM LYON MACKENZIE KING, O.M., C.M.G. The Mackenzie King children. Billy standing, right, already displays a stance which became familiar to Canadians everywhere and to members of the opposition in Parliament. He has been referred 40 by one American journalist as "one of the most self-effacing and camera-shy world leaders," and I have heard him described as "vain and self- opinionated." When King makes a long speech in the House--and most of them are long -- he is referred to as "Wordy Willie," but when he calls a press conference -- and he seldom does--he is called "the Sphinx of th> East Block!" King has been calldd a senti- mentalist, a hangér-on-in-office, a practical idealist, a charlatan, a fence-sitter and tight-rope-walker, a slacker, an annexationist, a 'tee- totaller, a demagogue and a dreamer. LE BR J He has been called "sagacious and shrewd" and "sly and cunning." He has been called "weak and vacil- lating" and he has been called "stubborn and determined." He has been called "soft-hearted and sen- timental" and he has been called "hard-shelled and cold." "They say? What say they? Let them say!" and King goes on his way very little, if at all, perturbed at this conflux of opinion. Mr. King is old in wisdom, wise in the ways of politicians and par- liaments, There are few possible situations which he has not been called upon to face, few shining re- wards within the gift of statesman- ship that he has not sampled and enjoyed. He has fought his battles and has celebrated his victories. The "glory and the grandeur" lie be- hind, and there is little now left tellectual satisfaction to pique his f~acy. He has reached the point in the road where he is ready to hand over the reins to another. The hést of his life lies behind him and he is too much of a philosopher not to realize that the greatest satisfac- tions in the future will be those he can salvage from the past. 1 gathered from King when I visited him on the occasion of his seventy-second birthday that he had long since arrived at this con- clusion. We were alone, and he was in a reminscing mood. Already one could see, he was looking back upon the past with a wistful eye, counting up his successes, weighing his re- wards, balancing up his books--and always with a wary eyes on the dwindling sands in the hourglass. de BP Habits of a lifetime -- habits of work, of study, of leadership -- still drove him relentlessly to meet the challenge of the present, and of the future, too, for that matter, but more and more the desire was for a little more time to himself, for some degree of release from the constant pressure of statecraft, for more opportunity for social inter course and the cultivation of per= sonal friendships. But on that particular occasion he was ready enough to justify the busy years, to sweep away with one single gesture any regrets hz may have entertained from time to time along the years as to the joys and pleasures he might have missed. Going to the bookcase he. pulled out a slim volume. It was "The Happy Profession," written by El- lery Sedgwick, a former editor of the Atlantic Monthly and one of King's greatest friends. With a little smile of satisfaction King thumbed through the volume until he came to the passage he was seeking, 'Then he looked up. "You might take this down," he suggested. "I think it just about expresses how I feel about things on my seventy-second birthday. " 'Boys in their third generation have nothing on me,' " he read. " 'My past is secure, which is more than their future is. I have my memories, rich ones, I think. I have had the fun I have had.' " There is was! With 20 years as a prime minister behind him, with the record of having led his Party since 1919, and with the added dis- tinction of having served his coun- try in an official capacity, either as civil servant or parliamentarian, under no less than five sovereigns, King was ready to rest upon his laurels and let the future take care of itself. . in the way of achievement or in- (To be continued daily) The Early Story of The Oshawa Christian Church Because, next to the home, the church is the most important institution of any community, Ahe story of a local church should always be interesting. So here is the story, not the history, of the Oshawa Christian church, now the Centre Street United. The writer points out who the people were and where they came from that were content to call themselves by the simple name "CH RISTIANS" Just at the close of 18th century there began three simultaneous religious move- ments for greater religious freedom in quite widely sep- ated sections of the United ates. All three were a revolt against the denominational rigidity of the time. In New England a man named Abner Jones thought "close com- REV. W. P. FLETCHER, B.A, D.D. munion" was unbrotherly, and, as practised there, cruel. He soon had a number of sympathizers and* followers. In Virginia and North Caro- lina under Thomas Kelly and David Purviance a similar ovement took place, this Phe from the Methodist Epis- copals. The United States had tasted the joy of their repub- ll licanism. Bishop Asbury was to them a bishop of decided monarchical tendencies. So a group banded together and called themselves Republican Methodists. Over in Kentucky the Presbyterians had been providing leadership in a noted revival of religion. The meetings were over and the scramble began for the con- verts. Barton W. Stone and others thought that this should not be and formed a new presbytery with "Chris- tian" the only name and the Bible the only creed. In just a few years the people of all three movements had adopted Christian as their only name, soon heard of one another and joined their forces. When the movement was a little less than thirty years old, or in 1821, it reached On- tario and the first church was established at Keswick. Very soon after another organiza- tion was affected at Darling- ton, and shortly after a mis- sion of this church was start- ed in the then village of Osh- awa, but the mission soon be- came the stronger and the permanent church. Now some names occur that persisted for many years as prominent in the new movement, and will be familiar to many read- ers. Here are a few: Rolphs, Gamsbys and Halls in the township of Clark, VanCamps and Trulls in Darlington, and Henrys, Rogers, Annises, and Bator, Stones, Dearborns, Mc- GiMs and others in Whithy, as the. Oshawa work was then callgd. Great-Great-Grandchild In the present Centre Street Church, after all the years, there are still descendents of some of the originals. With the death a few years ago of Mrs. L. J. Dickie the last of the VanCamp name dis- appeared from the church rolls, and the Rogers descen- dents are also gone. There is at least one great - great grandchild of the first Annis, but the largest group of de- ! CENTRE STREET UNITED CHURCH, OSHAWA scendents are of Elder Tho- mas Henry, the man who as- sisted in the organization of the Oshawa church and was its pastor for many years. In this group there are at least four grandchildren, as many great grandchildren and a few more great-great grandchil- dren. And there are descen- dents. of those who came into the work later. Member of General Board After over one hundred and thirty years of preaching free- dom and union of all the fol- lowers of Christ the Christian Church merged with the Con- gregationalists under the title of Congregational Christian Church, and the writer will have a joy, a two-fold joy, that will gladden his life to the end. First, that as one of the two Canadian members on the General Board of his Church, he moved the motion that precipitated the active effort for the merger: and, second, that at the following special general convention of his: people, meeting in Piqua, Ohio, the merger was passed without one dissenting vote. And that brings us again to our Ontario work 'and the present relationship . of the Oshawa church. Now that the merger of the parent church has taken place, what shall our little bunch in Ontario do? Shall we become just a tiny handful of a large United States Church, or shall we seek to unite with the Con- gragationalists of Canada? But to do that we had to seek them in the United Church of Canada, now three years old. Some of us felt that the lat- ter was thé natural and the effective thing to do. A com- mittee was formed and we met the committee on union of the United Church. Noth- ing more cordial, brotherly or generous could have been of- fered to a church, insignifi- cant in size to their great union. The reeommendations were carried to the largest conference our people. had probably ever held, certainly the largest in fifty years. But at the present time New- foundland is illustrating our conference action. 'Our small- ness, isolation, prejudices of years gone by were too much to be overcome, and the mo- tion to unite was defeated by a small majority. Unison Approved: But there was a saving ac- tion taken. A 'motion was made and carried, that the president and secretary of the conference he authorized to give credentials to any minis- ter desiring to unite with the United Church, and also to sign a deed of transfer of the property of any individual church desiring to become a unit in the same church. Our delegates returned from con- ference, a 'meeting of the Oshawa church was held, the conference 'action reported, and a-motion to unite with By Rev. the United Church carried with just two voting against, and both of them went with the church into union. Thus in September of 1928 the Oshawa presbytery, meeting at Claremont, received us in- to their fellowship as .the Centre Street United Church, and at the following Bay of Quinte Conference meeting in Napanee the writer and his son were received as minis- ters into the same church and later others were received in- to the Toronto conference. Only Two Church Homes During the many years this organization has had but two church homes. In the early years they had their meetings in private homes, and when they held a conference or general meeting they would 80 to barns. But on May 28th, 1843 they opened their first chureh building. It was a structure 54 by 48 feet and cost them $2,450, about' the W.P. FLETCHER B.A, D.D. cost of an automobile now. It stood on Church Street, and it is possible contributed to the naming of that street, and from what older members have told it was situated near to where Hogg and Lytle's warehouse now stands. In the early years of 1870 the pres- ent church building was be- gun. Rev. Jesse Tatten, was then the pastor, and it was said that he toiled with the other workers day by day. It just may be that he worked too strenuously, for he died in 1874, just before the church was dedicated, in the house still standing at the S. W. corner of Ontario and Col- borne Streets. Recently the church has been thoroughly renovated and is now in first class condition and an honor to its present supporters. Many Ministers During these long years there has been a long list of ministers following the resig- NS nation of Elder Henry. He was succeeded by Elder (as they then called their minis- ters) J. F. Wade and for many years, apparently, by other ministers from the United States. One recalls such names as Burnham, Hayward, Hoag, Nelson. Later Ontario born and trained men provid- ed the leadership, and some of the older members will recall the names of Tatten, Prosser, Hainer, Shoults. The present writer became pastor fifty- three years ago, and new names follow more familiar to all, Terry, Chidley, Fockler, Sharpe, Hall, Felton, Cotton, Fletcher again, and then the United Church men McQuade, Kemp, and Anderson. July 1st a new man, Rev. F. J. White- ly, comes, a young man trained and eager, and so we look forward to a great new life for the church of nearly a century and a quarter of Christian service. The Times-Gazette Average Daily Circulation for June 8,233 Ontario County's DAILY NEWSPAPER "ars A GOOD NEWSPAPER"