"WHY WE WANT LOW TARIFFS."

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue 10764, 12 May 1911, Page 6

"WHY WE WANT LOW TARIFFS."

WHAT RECIPROCITY MEANS TO CANADA.

(By a Western Grain Grower.)

There has recently been concluded between the Executives of Canada and the United States a wide agreement for reciprocal trade: it still awaits ratification by the two Legislatures, and some bitter opposition is already assured. But on both sides of the line public opinion is gathering so strongly in favor of the new agreement that the probabilities <)f its acceptance grow daily stronger. UTie local effects ot the treaty in North America arc a subject of widespread discussion and dispute, but its effect upon the Imperial problems of the British race has a more serious interest for Britons. There has been a vast quantity of unduly alarmist criticism in the Conservative Press of Britain on the subject of the treaty; some of it bears the stamp alike of bad taste and bad' political judgment. Too much attention is paid-to the opinion of men who are either directors or servants of corporations interested:" in the maintenance of a high tariff for Canada. It is stated that under the new conditions the Canadian transcontinental railways will soon become "lines of rust" ; but Sir Donald Mann approves of the agreement, and "Mr William Whyte, the Canadian-Pacific Railwav Vice-President in the West, accepted it as inevitable sooner or later. If the railways were to be ruined these railway magnates would not hesitate to say so. J—The Power of the GrainGrowers. —

; It is a fact 7 too commonly forgotten that Canada is part of tlie/North American Continent, and it is impossible to make her. part of Europe. That the Canadian people should desire to trade with their nearest neighbor ought not to be matter for surprise and reproach. The permanent maintenance : of a high tariff between Canada and''the United States is as impossible as-its erection between England and Scotland. But the treaty which tears down part of this tariff wall does not mean the break-up of the British Empire nor the ruin of British trade in Canada. The moving forces in favor of lower tariffs and reciprocity have been the graingrowers' associations of Western Canada, powerful bodies of organised l farmers with thirty thousand members. They constitute the backbone of Radicalism in Canada, and the Liberal Government at Ottawa lias been brought to realise that it must listen to their demands if it aspires to another term of office. Now these grain-growers' associations have as their avowed objects a series of democratic reforms almostas far reaching as the projects of the Australian Labor Party. They are engaged in an effort to build up a gigantic system of agricultural co-operation, which may in time eliminate the middleman from the grain and lumber trades as well as other forms of enterprise. The tariff is said to be a solid buttress against union with the United States, but if the grain growers establish the co-operative fabric which theyplan they will have raised a more solid and enduring rampart. If they succeed in their schemes their success will be in part due to the comparative compactness and symmetry of conditions found in the Western Provinces. In the United States co-operation lias never •prospered, and the corporations still are supreme. * For this reason the grain-growers will undoubtedly be loath to see their cooperative system ever submerged in the individualist organisations of the United States and facing a fight with a new series of corporations, which would be a certain sequence of the removal of the boundary line. A North American tariff is a structiirc which one party can- render partly ineffective at will—if the threatened diversion of the grain trade means ruin, the United States could effect it at any moment by the abolition of their duties on wheat, and the Canadian farmer would never tolerate an export duty in reply. But the grain growers may be able to erect a buttress of the Imperial system which will have its roots deep in the life of a large part of the Dominion. Now they are firmly convinced that a low tariff is an absolute necessity for the success of their schemes, and a low tariff their leaders, who are men of character and abilit.y, are determined to secure. And every carload of settlers which passes through Winnipeg brings reinforcements to their side. -Tariff-created Monopoly.— For the West the problem is one of hostility to the monopolies created by the tariff even more than enmity to the tariff itself. The present treaty may avail but little to reduce the high cost of living, but it will accomplish other ends. Until the last decade the Canadian Pacific Railway has enjoyed a monopoly of Western traffic; it is in many respects -an admirable corporation, but it has piled on excessive freight rates to the cost of every import. Even with the advent of competition there were few signs of amelioration, the railways were masters of the economic situation, and the consumer Moaned under their despotism. But the new treaty means an end of this state of affairs, as it opens up new outlets for Canadian produce. The Canadian Pacific Railway has recently paid a 10 per cent, dividend, and it has surely now an excellent opportunity of serving the Empire bv reducing its freight rates and popularising the Canadian trade routes. Furthermore, a close "combine" of cattle shippers working in alliance with the railways has strangled the live stock trade; they found it profitable, but the wastage on the long railway journey to the coast was ruinous, and the stockyard facilities were deplorably bad. _ If the agreement is ratified there will have to be a vast and' immediate improvement in the Canadian system to meet American competition. It is anticipated that there will be an. enormous revival of the live stock industry, which will give encouragement to the mixed farming now so necessary in the older districts of the West-. t • —Transporting the Grain. —- Similarly in the grain trade the monopoly of the milling and elevator companies will disappear to the advantage of the farmer and producer. The transportation system of the Dominion whereby all the trade between East and West had to pass, as it' were, through the neck of a bottle at Winnipeg and-Fort William is peculiarly favorable to monopoly, and the burden is already acutely felt. The _ astonishing increment of land values in which so many .shared had served to conceal its actual extent, but the truth is gradually permeating the popular mind. The treaty will wipe out these monopolies of the middleman and carrier, and it is surely right -and proper that a Government which calls itself Liberal should set the interests of thousands of hardworking settlers whom it had invited to the West before any consideration of the dividends of a few strong and wealthy corporations. The net result of the treaty is to relieve the Western Provinces of-certain harassing burdens. The people who imposed and maintained these burdens used the pretext of Canadian Nationalism and Imperialism to cloak their private interests, and the process could not make either of these two policies popular. This lessening of some of the burdens imposed by the Imperial system will not hasten its end but rather conduce to its permanence. And this mutual lowering of the tariff wall has yet another aspect worthy of contemplation in Britain. "Both in Canada and America. the farming elements of the population will henceforth lose ;ill protection for their own products. As a natural result, which some of the shrewder American manufacturers realise and fear, they will becorne enthusiastic advocates of a similar treatment to others and force the gradual abrogation of duties on manufactured goods. There is a widespread revolt, confined to no single part of North America, against tile existing high tariff system—the special interests have vainly endeavored to conceal or minimise its vigor. Absolute free trade may he a distant dream for both countries. but tile era of high Protection has izone never to return, and the reciprocity treaty will strengthen and encourage the activities of the low parties. A lowering of the tariff on manufactured troods means a vast extension of British markets, and it .s sound sanity for the British people to welcome such an extension. | —Preference and Geography.— Imperial preference as advocated by

the Tariff Reform Party had certain vivid attractions, but as far as Canada's share is concerned, geographical conditions form an insurmountable barrier. Between Sudbury in Ontario and Winnipeg lie a thousand miles of barren country; rock and morass, strings of lakes and fringes of dwarf timber as its salient features. The railways can never rely on local traffic from this region, and in these sections the expense of maintenance is enormous. The Imperial Preference scheme would endeavor to force all the traffic into this expensive trade route; it might help the dividends of the transportation companies, but it would never give the British consumer cheap food or the Western farmer cheap manufactured goods. In each case there , would be cheaper sources of supply available, and the temptation to seek them would be irresistible. If the British Empire chooses to nationalise its transportation system, Imperial preference might be feasible, but as long as they are in.private hands its lasting success is impossible. The talk of bargaining for Canada's trade and loyalty was more than dangerous for the simple reason that the' United States can always offer the better bargain, and as her industries expand and attract population her terms will be even more alluring. On the other hand, the Western Provinces of Canada can never advance beyond a certain limited stage of development without access to the Western States, and those who seek to deny them this access are not counselling the best interests of Imperial unity.

—Agitation of the .Low Tariff' Men. —

The ratification of the agreement does not mean that the low tarff party in Canada will cease its agitation. On February JO the National Council of Agriculture, on which both Eastern and Western agricultural associations are represented, met at Regina, and, after cordially supporting the treaty, passed another strong resolution demanding an immediate increase in the British preference to 50 per cent, and further arrangements which would establish free trade with the Motherland within ten years. They recognise that trade in manufactures with the United rotates, where the cost of production is high, would afford the*consumer little alleviation from his present burden as compared with the free importation of British goods, and they are seeking the easiest and most profitable remedy. And yet these leaders of the graingrowers are the men who have been accused of conspiracy with Mr .J. J. Hill, the American railway magnate, to disrupt the Empire. The organised farmers have the voting power to force free trade within the EmpTre, and they are determined to carry the idea to a successful issue. Who can deny that such a result coul'd far surpass any huckstering preference as a bond ot Imperial unity, and what true Impenalist will not wish them success ? But such writings, full of tears and reproaches, as have-emanated during the last fortnight from a certain section of the English Press and have been dulv reported in Canada are not calculated to. give encouragement to or win the respect of the Farmers; their sole effect will be to consolidate thenopposition to the Imperial prcfeience schemes which are to be set before their own plans. .. Tariff reform will suffer rather than benefit hy such an attitude. It is to the obvious interest •of the British people to disregard the ill-timed mailings l of misinformed fanatics and lie-, stow its sympathy and .approval upon these new movements and tendencies in North America. The' immediate reward may-not be apparent, but is nonethc less certain.