CANADA AND THE UNITED STATES.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1021, 10 January 1911, Page 5

CANADA AND THE UNITED STATES.

—; <r- — : — : THE RECIPROCITY CONFERENCE. • By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. New York, January 8.. A. banquet in connection with the Reciprocity Conference will be held.,ori Wednesday. President Taft, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, and other visiting Ministers are expected to attend. Earl Grey, GovernorGeneral of Canada, has-been invited, but it is probable that he will not be, able to be present. ' RAILWAY COMMISSION. Ottawa, January 8. The Hon. G. P. Graham, Canadian Minister for Railways, is conferring with the United .States ' authorities regarding tho establishment ~of an' international commission to supervise the international railways. ,

AN AMERICAN DREAM. . The meeting of the reciprocity conference at Washington lends an interest to the following which appeared some timo back in tho "Independent" (New York). Writing of the relations of Canada and the United States the journal said:— "Social fusion is pretty nearly complete. We meet as if we were one people. Wo do not feel separated. •On both sides we move across the border, and still feel at home. Just ono thing separates lis, not f forts, not soldiers, nor vessels of ,war on the lakes riady to spring one on the other—thore is nothing ot all that, nothing but tho unfortunate, tariff wall, wliich ought to bo shaved down' as low as possible. Fortunately, .as President Taft tells us in his message, every diplomatic question which lias arisen between the two nations is in process of tettlement by arbitration or other agreement. "Annexation we never ought to think 6r speak of; and it, is not of any present use to talk of. .union, for just now there is a drift of feeling in, Canada toward emphasising the sentimental bonds that unite the Dominion with the Mother Country. To be sure, Canadians do not care to do too much for Great Britain. They may build a battleship or two, but they desire to keep them in their own waters, and under their own orders, ready to givo what defensive help they can in of ivnv. They want to be allowed to run tbeir own tariff—even against tho Mother Country, but giving it some preferential ndvantage, .treating it a little better than the United States, but yet. making imposts on British goods help fill the Cnnadian exchequer. "But wo ought/ to keep in mind that political fusion as well &'social'fusibn, that is, the union of the two Englishspeaking nations on this continent, is greatly to be desiivd What a nation that would bo! From the Arctic to the Gulf, from (ho Atlantic to tho Pacific one nation, speaking one language, a social and a political fusion, the mightiest nation on the face of the globe, until Northcm Eurasia, Russia and Siberia shall fill its wastes with n mighty population! May our children see the day!"