Little, James Arthur

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: Mark Kuhlberg, “LITTLE, JAMES ARTHUR,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 16, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/little_james_arthur_16E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Banker, militia officer, businessman, and lumberman; b. 17 Jan. 1868 in Trenton, Ont., son of George Little and Mary E. Foster; m. 16 Nov. 1910 Ethel Marguerite Wardrope in Belleville, Ont., and they had a son and a daughter; d. 17 June 1931 in Port Arthur (Thunder Bay), Ont.
    • For a little over a decade, J. A. Little’s life in Port Arthur was generally unremarkable, but he was making valuable connections. In 1905, while working at the bank, he helped Lieutenant-Colonel Dr Charles Norval Laurie establish the 96th (Lake Superior) Regiment; Little was commissioned with the rank of major. When Laurie retired in 1911, Little was promoted lieutenant-colonel and put in command of the militia detachment, a post he would retain until 1921. The regiment was called on to provide aid to local police during a gun battle with striking coal handlers in 1912. During World War I it was responsible for guarding Port Arthur’s shipbuilding company, grain elevators, powerhouses, and wireless station.
    • Little resigned from the bank in 1919, by which time he and several of his contemporaries, such as Walter H. Russell, had apparently mastered navigation of the murky waters that surrounded access to government-controlled, or crown, resources and privileges. The arrangement typically involved obtaining the desired prize in exchange for making a contribution to the party or a local elected official; the partisan go-between often received a payment for brokering the deal. During the Conservative administration, for example, Little, an avowed Tory, was granted virtually exclusive fishing privileges on Lake Nipigon and allegedly caught and sold sturgeon with little regard for quota regulations. Presumably the presence of his long-time business associate and friend Donald McDonald Hogarth on Ontario’s standing committee on game and fish aided and abetted Little’s cause in this regard. Similarly, Little and two of his partners formed the New Ontario Contracting Company Limited, which harvested lumber with impunity.
    • On the occasions when Little was successful in exploiting his connections, the dividends for him and the members of his cabal were lucrative indeed. During the mid 1920s he and his associates negotiated a secret $100,000 pay-off from the Consolidated Water Power and Paper Company in Wisconsin for ensuring that the firm was granted a timber limit. Little also engineered a truly extraordinary ruse whereby he and Hogarth (re-elected mpp in 1926) delivered to Consolidated a rich pulpwood tract north of Sault Ste Marie. The stratagem, which Ferguson personally approved, involved having senior officials in the Department of Lands and Forests fabricate ludicrous timber cruises to rationalize the deal. Little and Hogarth profited to the tune of $500,000, although they were expected to share their riches by contributing roughly 10 per cent of their return to the federal coffers of Richard Bedford Bennett’s Tories during the 1930 election campaign.
    • Little’s career provides a window into some of the vicissitudes that pervaded the exploitation of crown resources in the early 20th century by entrepreneurs who gained access to them through political channels. Just before his death, Little’s assets were valued at roughly $500,000 – a fortune that reflected the tangible rewards connections could garner. But knowledge of his chequered record in dealing with the government suggests there were even more princely sums available for the taking during those years.
  • Third Great Grandson of United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=7649
  • Find a GRAVE: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/213090162/james-arthur-little