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SEVEN Victory at Queen's Park It was probably the Breithaupt group that was initially the more astounded. The decision was beyond their wildest dreams; indeed, it was one that they hadn't even requested. In the corridor outside the committee room one reporter said that they looked like small boys standing longingly under a peach tree suddenly being hit on the head by an enormous peach. As for the jingoists, the initial shock quickly turned to fury. The traitorous Scully was surrounded by irate aldermen, and one of them (one guesses either Hallman or Cleghorn) gave vent to his fury. The Toronto Telegram description, slightly sanitized for family consumption, catches the flavour of the scene: "'You'll get out, blank you,' shouted one of the aldermen. 'Perhaps I will and perhaps I won't,' said Mr. Scully. 'You'll get out. I'll see that you're fired, and fired mighty quick too,' roared the alderman." On the other side of the corridor Breithaupt, Bowman, and McBride had been backed up against the wall and were receiving similar treatment. You're a lot of blank Germans, that's what you are. We'll show you whether you can lobby a committee and have a bill thrown out. We'll drive you out of town, that's what we'll do to you. Huh! You people loyal? Why, the elements take your hides, you don't know what loyalty is. But what had gone wrong? Verbally assaulting Breithaupt and his crew for being "Hun" lovers, for playing dirty pool, for having the temerity to lobby provincial politicians—which was, after all, no more than Williams had been doing—was a reflex action to the immediate debacle, but were the actions of these gentlemen the only reason why 33 votes had quietly vanished 100 Victory at Queen's Park 101 like an early morning mist? Clearly more sinister and more powerful forces had been secretly at work. Speculation about what these forces were began almost immediately. The Telegraph reported one political tea-leaf reader as declaring that it had something to do with byzantine backroom deals connected with the prohibition campaign then in progress. He'd observed a committee member studying the names on the official petition and heard him say, "This seems to be a sort of temperance petition ," causing his friends to snicker. Another noticed that the most vocal opposition came from the Toronto M.P.P.'s, and that it was probably an attempt to undermine Berlin industry by rival interests in the provincial capital. But fingers were more seriously pointed at C.H. Mills. It was remembered that when he introduced the rival delegations he was studiously impartial, which was clearly not the democratic way to proceed. He should have come out strongly in favour of the elected council of the largest city in his constituency. Why didn't he? In such a situation impartiality was tantamount to opposition. Obviously he was secretly against the name change and, it was soon put about, had himself lobbied the committee and, according to one supporter of the counter-petition, "had things pretty well fixed." But did Mills have sufficient clout for this sort of power-broking? Maybe there was somebody even bigger lurking in the shadows of the throne itself. Winkling out guilt at the very top, which might today be known as the Watergate Syndrome, has always been popular; it adds a touch more frisson to the scandal and, in cases such as this one, helps to justify defeat. In fact there was a prime candidate for the role of Mr. Big, none other than Sir Adam Beck. Born in Baden and educated in Gait, Beck had many friends in Berlin. Well of course he did. The man was himself of German extraction. And as Minister without Portfolio in the Hearst government and long-time chairman of the Hydro-Electric Power Commission he was a figure of considerable influence. And wasn't Lucas one of his fellow commissioners ? The plot was as plain as the nose on your face. Sam Williams later went public with the inside story in a letter to the News-Record—though unfortunately his information was second -, possibly third-hand. According to Williams, there had been a meeting at the Walper House (or maybe it was Toronto's Walker House; no one seemed to be quite sure) attended by Sir Adam Beck, Scully, Mills, McBride, and eight members of the Private Bills Committee, and...

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