Canadian railway companies, too, are awake to the importance of providing for the mental and social improvement of their men. They are spending money in Y.M.C.A. buildings, in libraries, in giving free transportation to car schools, and the Grand Trunk has recently initiated a system of train libraries for the benefit of its patrons. Canadian employers in the mining and lumbering industries have spent in the last few years over $50,000 for the amelioration of their employees.36

In spite of Fitzpatrick's occasional attacks on the length of the working day of frontier workers, the sanitary conditions in the camps, etc., his overall message could only have been received with sympathy among the new "corporate-liberal " fraction of employers. Even as he decried some employer practices, he clearly minimized their significance by identifying lliteracy as the primary source of the problems of campmen. Moreover, there was a distinctly religious tone in Fitzpatrick's writings, conveying a sense of missionary activity rather than of political activism. 37 (This was probably both a conditioned habit, given his background of church training, and a calculated tactic, in view of the fact that the Reading Camp Association depended to a large degree on contributions from churches and church members. Overall, Fitzpatrick's reformism was one that employers could live with, given the alternatives.

Therefore, it is not surprising to find that in 1903:

a deputation of employers, prominent educationists and clergymen. ..waited upon the Ontario Premier and the Minister of Education. A grant of $100 was asked for each camp instructor.....The Premier promised the fullest possible consideration. The Ontario Government spent $1200 the first year, and $2000 last year, in initiating a system of camp libraries. An item of $4000 is placed in the estimates for the current year, for the purpose of extending the system.38

(Lest these grants be seen as anything other than what they are--tokens--it must be pointed out that there were more than 50,000 men labouring in the lumber industry alone in Ontario in 1903.) 39

Through their support for Fitzpatrick's work, employers could appear as 'concerned' and 'responsible'. However, in addition to the legitimation function, we must not overlook what were more mundane, but significant material benefits derived by employers. Fitzpatrick wrote:

The Vice-President of the Parry Sound Lumber Company, Mr. John McLelland, told the Premier and the Minister of Education, on the occasion of the recent visit of the reading camp deputation, that his company "had spent nearly five hundred dollars in three buildings for this purpose, and that after the test of two seasons, he believed it was money well spent, that it tended to bring in a better class of workmen, and to improve the men generally."40