Authorizing and Completing the Purchases

• Author: C. Ian Kyer
• Pages: 27-37

27

two

Authorizing and

Completing the Purchases

O   Farmers of Ontario (UFO) government had

determined that higher succession duties could help fund

the government and that the existing succession duty–free

bonds represented a problem, the question arose as to what to do

about them.1 The diculty in answering that question was that the

coalition UFO-Labour government had no f‌inancial expertise in the

Cabinet. The treasurer, Peter Smith, may have been a progressive in

his farming, but he was no business whiz or f‌inancier. He did, how-

ever, know someone who might be able to help. Several years before

in the spring of 1917, Smith had met A.H. Pepall, a salesman for Delco

Light. Pepall had convinced Smith to install electric lighting on his

Stratford farm. They had become good friends, and Smith had helped

Pepall sell lighting to other local farmers in return for a commis-

sion. At the time, neither had expected that Smith would be elected to

the Ontario legislature or be named provincial treasurer. But in 1919

that happened. Smith recognized that his friend knew much more

about business than he did. He also knew that A.H.’s brother, Harry,

understood high f‌inance through his work at Aemilius Jarvis & Com-

pany. This f‌irm, led by the noted businessman and sportsman, adver-

tised that they were “dealers in high grade bonds and debentures and

stocks for investment.”2