Sacramento daily record-union., 1889-06-15
A DIRECT ASSAULT.

We publish this morning an article from
the pen of the distinguished pubIicist and
statistician, Joseph Nimmo, Jr., who was
for so many years connected with the Ma
tional Bureau of Statistics, upon the ag-
gressions of British influences upon the
commerce, and possibly the national
strength Of the United States
We invite our readers to give it a care
ful perusal, and to submit it to the analysis
of thoughtful reason. 1t viii not be found
dull and prosaic reading by any means
but to possess an interest that will awaken
the concern Of every well-wisher of the
country, In no other paper has the subject
of British aggression from the north been
50 forcibly set forth, or It's details more
clearly debated.
Mr.. Nimmo shows that the policy that
begat the Canadian Pacific Railway is a
political and military one, long considered,
deepiaid and dangerous, not only to our
commercial interests, but TO our internal
development and trade, and if there should
come about clash of arms between Eng
land and the United States, that the road
will prove dangerous to our national su-
premacy upon the continent. \ purpose
Of the construction Of the road was to shut
railway extensions by Americans out of
the Dominion. So far as that is concerned
We have no right to complain, But a
further purpose was to rob American car
riers of their home traffic. A third pur-
pose was to establish a military road be-
tween Pacific and Atlantic ports, that in
case of difficulty would put US TO defense
Of the longest frontier line upon the conti-
nent More than this, another purpose in
the building Of the road was to relate it to
line of Pacific steamers competing on
terms that to us are unequal for the Oriental
trade, these steamers being subsidized
under the express condition that they
shall be of a character to enable them to
be used, upon sudden CALL as "armoerd
cruisers"
When the British Government, through
the agency Of lis American dependencies,
subsidized the Canadian Pacific Railway.
it did so upon gigantic scale. No other
corporation has in the history Of the world
been so richly endowed, or by direct gift
of money, lands and credit, and complete
freedom from taxation, been so admirably
equipped for the impairment Of American
commerce and the dangerous crippling of
the American system of transcontInental
railroads. By means that certainly Justify
governmental inquiry this foreign road has
acquired the privilege Of way through
the State of Maine, giving it an Atlantic
terminus By this agency it has hoped to
carry transcontinental freight in bond, and
escape the barrier of the tariff, but recent
advices are to the effect that the refusal of
the Washington Government to permit
this bonded passage has had very dis
piriting effect upon the Canadian competi-
tors of the handicapped American roads.
Mr.. Nimmo, in his article, which
we publish this morning upon canadian
Aggression" establishes these important
facts That the Dominion, by a system of
rebates of tolls on produce of the United
States passing around the lakes by the
Canadian canals, is engaging in a system
of stealing our commerce, since it is in d.
rect violation of the covenants of recip-
rocity in the Washington treaty. That
by building the tax-free and enormously
subsidized Canadian Pacific Railway, it
places the American railroads at unfair
advantage disadvantage so great that
fair competition for transcontinenta
freight carriage is out of the question. As
a result the American roads can operate
and meet their obligations only by charges
upon local traffic, and thus the people of
the United States are to be made to pay
directly into the Golfers of the English
company, sum equal to its gains by rea-
son OF the through business it wrests from
the American roads.
The Canadian road is subsidized for
S2l5,000,000; a sum greater than the ag-
gregated subsidies and grants made to all
the transcontinental American railways.
The Canadian road, thus equipped and
with subsidized steamers and guaranteed
debt, and free from obligation to pay
taxes or to meet any serious interest calls,
has now the assurance to demand of the
American Secretary Of the Treasury that