Religious Controversy at the Convention

Religious Controversy at the Convention

The most deplorable controversy that marred what was otherwise a successful convention of the International Association of Fire Engineers at Toronto on July 26 to 30 never should have occurred. It matters very little which side was at fault. The fact remains that a religious controversy has no place—certainly not the place of importance that was given to it—in an association devoted to the interest of Fire Fighting and Fire Prevention in this country and Canada. In the present instance—supposing there was no chance of agreement possible between the contending parties—it would have been far wiser to have omitted the religious exercises entirely than to have aroused sectional hatred and sectarian differences among the members of the association. There is very little doubt but that, had the parties met each other in a conciliatory spirit, and had the disagreement been kept out of the public press of Toronto, the troubled waters would have been smoothed and peace restored before matters had gone too far to be remedied. It seems quite clear, however, that there was au undercurrent in the whole deplorable affair that did not appear on the surface and that brought about the crisis in the association.

It is rather a sad commentary upon the example that the chiefs set to their men, that, while in most departments there are strict regulations forbidding the men to discuss religious differences while on duty, that very act was what caused the whole trouble in the Toronto convention.