Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1877-04-14
From the Boston Comm srcial Bulletil
Reciprocity with Canada.

Inc Vigorous DSioW uSols uSu W
prove the fallacy Of the assumption that Canadian
reciprocity would be of advantage to our indus
trial interests, We commend to the careful con-
sideration of those manufacturers who have re-
Gently been coquetting with this reciprocity idea.
Undoubtedly nearly all our New England inter-
ests at least would be considerably benefited at
first by the adoption of free trade with the Do
mnon but as our correspondent points out, the
ultimate injury to us would vastly more than out
weigh this temporary gain.
1t begins to be more and more apparent that
however great the temptation may be in special
cases, no protcctionist can with consistency sup
port reciprocity with any country, any more than
he can consistently call for free trsde in his raw
material at the same time that be advocates the
imposition oil duties upon his manufactures.
This is true equally of France, Brazil and Mexico,
and even more so Of Canada whose political re-
lations render the problem Of reciprocal trade re-
aions peculiarly difficult one to solve in her case
To the Editor OF he Commercial Bulletin:
II is assumed as certain that we should gain by
reciprocal free trade with Canada 10 manufactures,
and that this would be fair compensation for
what Canada might gain by reciprocal free trade
in raw materials. This is doubtless true in the
present condition OF things, the United States be-
ing much the more advanced 10 manufactures, but
how long would it continue to be so, with recip-
rocity fixed by treaty for considerable term of
years Canada has great advantages as a manu-
featuring countiy,-sn iDvigorating climate, cheap
labor low taxes, and ample water. 1t lacks capi-
tai and trained skill, but they both abound and SUI
pefabound in England, and they are both of them
mobile In their ma ure. What Is to prevent their
prompt transfer and upon great scale from Eng
land to Canada if to the latter is secured free ac
cess to the ma kets Of rapidly growing nation,
already numbering forty four millions of people 7
We have seen in recent years an enormous trans
fer Of British capital to cotton mills in india
Bombay, where the first was built in 1868, has
now mills enough TO consume annually one hun
bred and fifty thousand bales of cotton, and more
than half this growth is within three years. This
is going to the antpodes to invest money, and to
country with many elements Of insecurity, social
and political. Every mill in Bombay is built over
a mine OF gowpowder. The investment may pay
before tue explosion comes, and it may never
come, but the gunpowder is there. 1t is not TWEEN
~ years back 10 the Sepoy rebellion. 1t is n long
line from the docks of England to India. To
strengthen it at Suez q British minister, with the
ready approval of the British nation, has Just paid
twenty millions of dollars, and at this moment
the British iron clads lie at Dardsnelles, ready on
the instant for death grapple with Russia to up
hold British power in India by keeping the road
open by the Red Sea-
The Englishmen have built cotton mills in Bonn
bay, not TO get new mari et but to supply an old
market at better profit, and every mill they have
built there is in competition with mills already ex
isting at home. How long will they hesitate
about building mills in Canada, with such near
market as the United States free and open under
a reciprocity treaty, which uncoDstitutionally sus-
ponds, for the term Of it, the inherent power of
Congress TO impose duties Bombay is remote !;
Canada is near; Bombay is alien in race, lam
guage, religion, and climate; Canada is, in all
these particulars. only another Great Rritaip Of
ten days sail across the sea Bombay is subject to
internal CONFUSION and to foreign inirgues, and
Is held, at best, upon the indispensable condition
oil the British command of the ocean: Canada as
field for the investment of capital, has every ee-
ment Of social and political stability for a period
beyond the reach of human foresight
With reciprocity, New Brunswick is beyond
comparison a better field for cotton mills than
Maine. 1h' ir water powers are nearer to the
tide, at lie Preux and numerous other points on
the Bay of Fundy. Coal is cheaper, labor is
cheaper and above all general and local taxes are
comparatively light. National feeling would car
ny the Englishman 10 New Brunswick if the chan
ces were only equal but the truth is that they arc
so unequal and so wholly in favor of the British
province, that the American capitalist would 90
there in preference to going to Maine. On the
water power OF the dividing river, the St. Croix
which, In the combined particulars of magnitude
safety, steadiness, and favorable position, is not
surpassed IN America, there is no capitalist, Brit
mill by choice on the British side, with reciprocity
as an established policy.
What would be true of cotton would be true of
other manufactures, and peculiarly, perhaps of
of iron. In New Brunswick and Nova Scotia
the ores are 10 abundance aud in close proximity
TO fuel and the needed huxes. That industry il
undeveloped there because the free importation of
British iron has crushed it out But give to those
provinces, for their iron wares the American
markets, and the business would become great
not by degrees, but single bound. Iron and
iron wares could be produced more cheaply than
10 Pennsylvania. For the supply of New Eng
land freights are less than from PENNSYLVANIA and
they would not be higher for the West and North
ives, by the way of Montreal after the Wellapd
canal is enlarged. Nothing would be lacking bnt
capital. and hundreds of British ironmastcrs, now
struggling with hopeless difficulties, would hasten
to this new and inviting field
The difficulty with Canada now is that il has no
markets. If commanding its own by protective
tariff as 1t might but does not, the mar ket would
be small at the bet and will all the precarious
ness aud fluctuations of such a market Rut
with an outlet so vast and so expanding as the
United States, 1t would utilize all its advantages
of climate, cheap labor, and access to English
capital. The dream Of finding in Canada only
convenient market for manufactures under reel
procity, Is one from which we should speedily
awake to the reality OF having given to British
capital and aimed skill the opportunity to plant
themselves 10 manufacturing establishments along
the three thousand miles of our Northern and
Northeastern frontiers. and, with the advantage
OF cheaper labor and taxes, to sap our revenues
and monopolze our markets.
American as well as English manufacturers
would transfer their operations to Canada on a
large scale, and for the simple reason that, pre-
serving the same market on this side of the line
they could produce many things cheaper. Pre-
esey that would happen in manufactures which
happened Ia raw materials under the reciprocity
treaty of 1854 Then 1t was Americans, rather
Than Canadians, who started sawmIlls in Canada
to supply the United States with lumber, and who
invested capital 10 the coal mines Of Nova Scotia
aud Cape Breton to supply the United States with
coal. The last fact Boston knows to its cost. 1t
Is pfoht and not PATRIOTISM which governs invest.
mert'. The national taxes in this country abso