The Scotch by John Kenneth Galbraith

·       [There is ALOT of Scotch in Americans]

·       Galbraith was was born and raised in a Hard-shell Baptist community in South Ontario, lands on the western shore of Lake Erie. The area was originally granted to Irish Noblemen- Talbot and Airy*- eccentric and hard-drinking aristocrats who wanted English settlers, especially not Highlanders, but these were the only one’s available: Cambells, McPhails, Grahams, McFarlands, Mckellers, Camerons, Morrisons, Gows, Galbraiths, McCallums, McLeods, Pattersons . . .beginning in 1803.

      The clansmen had a distinctive stamp: One stroke of the axe and there’s a nose. Another and there are lips, the eyes gouged out with a great drill and without smoothing it, nature thrusts these faces into the world saying ‘This will do.’ There hands and faces were covered not with pink or white film but a heavy red parchment designed to give protection in extremes of climate for a lifetime . . . it had the appearance of leather and appearances were not deceptive .  . . additional protection provided for most of the week by a stiff bristled beard. They dressed in working garments: high bibbed overalls of blue denim- sweaters and trousers added underneath during winter.

Their names were Dan, Jim Angus, Duncan, Malcolm bit mostly John . . .   so just about everybody had a nickname which were often disagreeable: Lame, Dirty, Nosey or Piggy John – those who somehow escaped had no objection, those who hadn’t were glad to see others suffer.

Nightly baths were impractical, laundry was a burden: water had to be hauled and heated, the kitchen was the only warm room . . . better a mildly maloderous husband than a dead wife. A traveler in 1837 remarked on these folks clannish attachments, their thrifty, dirty habits, their pride and honesty. Nothing much had changed by Galbraith’s time.

In this community there were two opinions with regard to the size of a family, based on the economic role of offspring: those who regarded children as a valuable earning asset had large families, those ho regarded education as necessary had small families. Sometimes the economic value of a wife was questioned. A movie company producing a film  called ‘Seven Brides for Seven Brothers’ made a worldwide search for a real life situation: they found it in Galbraith’s community.


Virtue and marital fidelity were impressive. There was only one case to the contrary in local lore. The mother of an illegitimate child must inevitably marry a hired man or a drunk. He father of an illegitimate child might sacrifice his ‘citizenship for year. Intercourse under all circumstances was considered a sin, marriage was simply a license for misbehavior. At any rate, there were few places or circumstances  to engage in illicit sex,. There were people around all the time, bad weather, snow and mosquitoes .Uncertainty as to the state of conviction in the other person was a deterrent as well: Watching a bull do his business Galbraith remarked to his sweetheart: ‘ I think it would be fun to do that.’ She said ‘Well, it’s your cow.’

Never-the-less, among the rougher elements there were masters of salacious detail, with wonderfully imaginary stories which were not generally believed but provided a good hour or so of entertainment.

Money was the abiding passion of the Scotch community. Love of money meant that as the other passions receded, a man’s life did not become less meaningful- a man’s emotions were reliably engaged until the day he died. No casual reference was ever made to money. No one spoke of ‘Jack’, ‘Dough’, ‘Lettuce’, or “Long Green’. It was always  referred to respectfully as money or dollars. Some have always wanted money for what it could buy, some for the power it conferred, some for prestige – the Scotch  wanted it for its own sake.

Two technique for accumulating assets have always been in some measure in competition: one is to earn money, the other to avoid spending it- our neighbors enthusiastically employed both. A man who keeps his money has in reality more use from it than he can have by spending it, observed Dr. Johnson. And the passion for money reinforced continence and fidelity- faithful and chaste behavior is the least expensive.

But  just as people expect woman to love a man without being a nymphomaniac so the Scotch expected a man to love money without being a miser-such behavior could cause considerable adverse comment though usually cost one membership in society. ‘Codfish (the cheapest protein)John’ was said to have lifted the cover of his coffin and handed out his coat, waistcoat pants and undershirt. Never-the less an excessively frugal man was always called ‘very scotch.” (The comedian Jack Benny had great success playing an artless miser).Too much town bought food was a mark of profligacy but only the backward clans considered it a mark of merit to live completely from their land.

The agriculture of the Scotch did less for the landscape than most. Their architecture was intrinsically an eyesore, like themselves. They minimized gross outlay, hired few men, exchanged labor with neighbors, arranged tasks to avoid peaks and valleys in the need for labor. Each tried to keep himself reasonably employed year round. They had little experience in industrial drudgery but they did compare those tasks which had to be done every day with those that were related to the more spacious cycle of seasons and thus had to be performed but once year. These they preferred. The Scotch regarded the whole enterprise of W.W. I with great reserve – not regarding the slaughter as noble or necessary and they had instinctive misgivings about tye men who were in charge. It was said of those who went to fight (and, inevitably, were killed) that ‘he went because he was tired of doing chores.’

Just about everybody worked for himself. “It’s hard work but a man’s his own boss’ yet it was a highly stratified society. They talked constantly, clinically, unabashedly about each other: one’s farming methods, marketing decisions, livestock and machinery, wives, family, relatives, temperament, dinking habits, stomach complaints, tumors, personal expenditures, physical appearance, political, social and economic views – all dwelt on in detail by one’s neighbors. Out of this came a consensus- an agreeable certainty as to  where a man stood. At the top: men of standing, at the bottom: the average Scotsman[‘Scot’ as opposed to Scotch was pejorative].

Men of standing usually owned more than one hundred acres- but this was not a qualification if the extra acres were farmed badly. Thus he was a competent farmer, strictly sober and diligent, came from one of the better clans, was a very large size (tall, etc.), possessed distinguished animals: beef cattle, sheep, collie dogs of the best breed (not horses or cows.)He  possessed a useful wisdom. Every community needs a great many communal services. To pay for them is expensive and only a poor class of talent is available for money . . .men of standing acted to improve the community, bringing roads, telephones, making cooperative purchases, managing market fairs, bearing in mind neighbors’ concerns for saving money. Such work was rewarded with honor and esteem.

At the bottom were renters and hired men, a  50-acre man who was ignorant, who didn’t have the ability to put knowledge to a useful purpose, didn’t make any sense, drank too much, was un-neighborly or dishonest. A good man did not shrink from tasks of pure drudgery. though some indolent fellows could escape  condemnation if friendly enough. Excessive piety –wasting time in prayer- was not, however, an excuse for arriving late in the fields. These poor farmers, hired men or mail carriers- the outcasts and untouchables- often gathered at the country store for mutual sustenance and support. They didn’t say much that was important for, as they well knew, they weren’t suppose to have anything important to say. They favored topics not that engaged the mind but freed it from all pretense of effort.

Hannah MacBride, the store-keepers wife was spare, sallow and sharp-featured: the best informed woman in two townships. Her specialty was human frailty and personal disaster .If someone had consumption ,a quarrel with his brother, brother-in-law or hired man, was afraid her last baby was not quite bright or someone had been thrown in front of a disc harrow by an unruly horse, you herd about it first from Hannah. Once, no doubt she had passed along these grim tidings with a certain appearance of sorrow. But she was an honest soul and in time she abandoned pretense and came to issue her bulletins with the joy she really felt.

The average clansman got his views not from newspapers, magazines or books but from men of standing. Men of standing with some exceptions didn’t read either but they did keep a close watch on the Toronto Globe – the Bible of the Scotch- which was published by George Brown, Liberal Party. It was suspicious of wealth, influence and social position, stood for small enterprise, independent farmers, low tariffs and the Manchester School ((radicals and free traders originating in that City’s Chamber of Commerce and sponsors of the Anti-Corn Law League, supported Laissez-Faire and was against the growth of the colonial empire, led by Cobden and Bright. It advanced commercial Union with the U.S., defended the Sabbath and opposed alcohol. It was for public owner ship of utilities and suspicious of trade unions.

Even drink Scotch favored Prohibition. Scotch drank for one reason- to get drunk. A man did not get dead drunk but fighting drunk and the resulting battles- especially at the McIntyre house, the chief resorts of drinking Scotch- became part of folk history. Empty whiskey bottles, whole and broken , were the preferred weapons. The demonic shrieks of highlanders charging to their doom was often heard. These bars-theatres of combat- were the principal target of Prohibition.

Elections had the elements of a sporting contest – the matching of wits, lung power, talent for persuasion and insult, they justified belligerence in the high name of public service, constitutional government and effective democracy. And the imagined and hoped Tories suffered terribly in defeat. All public offices went to men of standing.

Galbraith’s father was a leading klberal in the communityfor50 years. He considered patronage even more damaging than public works. The better class of clansmen stuck to their farms, they could not be seduced by a job on the roads or running the post office. As a result government jobs went to the laziest and most feckless members of the community. These in turn became for the voters the exemplars of the government party.

He argued that only men of exceptionally inferior character sold their votes. Better have such people vote in response to a straight forward commercial transaction than in accordance with their own political convictions which were so patently nil.

The view of the community towards technological progress was that they were disinclined to gamble. ‘If it was good enough for my auld man its good enough for me’ combined decent respect for one’s ancestors with economy of thought. They had the conservatism of men with a small margin of error, for what was fully proven within the range of their eyesight, thought it was better to try for less and be safe. They scorned improvements which would add little of their income. They did not like accepting the council of men (farm agents) who did not have to live by the results of their advice. If things worked, they were copied. Most tried to avoid experiment which, should they turn out badly, might preclude eating for a year.

In  religion the Presbyterians were a full scale enterprise- Sunday school, morning and evening Sabbath services (evening somewhat a mating enterprise), choir practice and Wednesday prayer meetings. Their affairs were of interest even to those that did not belong. But Galbraith and the better clans belong in the Old School or were Hardshell Baptists. Their churches contained nothing but square oak pews and a plain wood pulpit, no choir, no organ, no collection (money  was weekday faith), no mission, no Sunday school, no salary for the minister. Usually the minister served four congregations. The held to uncompromising  predestination: one was saved or not. May meetings were large clan gatherings. After church meetings were  important secular colloquia. God was not talked about , public displays of piety frowned upon .

·       The conflict in education was between those who believed that education had an independent utility for improving a man’s position in the community and preparing for a profession and to who viewed education as a necessary but burdensome and even dangerous supplement to a strong back. These last wished to run the school at minimum expense- since it did little for them anyway- they opposed higher salaries for teachers and improvements, especially those that added comfort or convenience which they felt added to the debilitating effects of education. The issue was always compromised between the two groups. Progress in school, Galbraith says, was facilitated by a curriculum which was from from frills., ‘we were taught reading, arithmetic, and the geography and history of Canada.

A health book  sent down from the central government was discredited because of its utterly impractical advice that one should bath every night, which everyone knew was silly. The lesson which aid we should pick out as a partner in life a healthy person of good character whom we loved was discounted because no mention was made of property which we all knew to be very important.

The school yard itself was very rough and steeply sloped- no chance that it could be used for baseball, football, basketball, volleyball or any other group game. Few things, by the commonly advocated standards, are so bad for the youngsters of impressionable age as team sports. Instead of causing him to think first of his own self-interest they turn his mind to the problem of the group. He ceases to be an individualist and becomes a mere cog in a social machine. We were safe. Our only form of organized athletics was seeing how long, with the aid of snowballs, we could deny access to the girl’s outhouse.

The Scotch were handicapped by the belief that learning was not meant to be painless and the line between a stern task-master and a mere bully is not an easy one to draw.

When Galbraith returned to his community as a grown and successful man he was often asked if he ever found a place as good as this. He always said no for this could have been the truth and, when he faced up to it, he did not wish to have the people there think him irresponsible.

·       *Airy ordered the charge of the Light Brigade