San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-02-08
Canadian Annexation.

obdy IOL " baI PN0O $500
annexation scheme is urged it would
be very difficult to say, there being
outside of the provinces of Ontario
and Monitoba nothing that is really
desirable for the United States to pos
sess. There is no doubt that these
two provinces are more AmeriCanized
than any other provinces of the Do
minion, and that there is an active
party in these provinces agitating for
annexation is not to be denied. Those
who imagine that Canada grows more
American in becoming more liberal in
her politics are not intimately &C
quainted with the temper and
spirit OF the Canadian people. The
Canadians are intensity loyal to Great
Britain and none the less so because
| they have been very largely left to
manage their own internal affairs
unmeddled with by the home govern
ment, Could the two provinces above
referred to, with their 100000
square miles out of the total 500, 900
square miles included in the whole of
the British possessions in America
could these be separated from the rest
and annexed to the United States
there might be some sense in seeking
annexation. The first difficulty to
meet the anneXationist is the pro-
vince Of Quebec and some of the mar
atime provinces which are essen
TALLY French in language, religion,
national feeling and all else, as much
so as when the heroic Wolfe fell upon
the rugged plains of Abraham.
Were the United States lacking in
agricultural area some thousands of
square miles of very valuable farm
ing lands would be added to her pub
lie domain, but this is not a want of this
country today, and the Dominion
with her public debt of 100000, 900
and revenue all told of about one
eighth the public debt is not a desir-
able acquisition for the United States
The advocates of annexation offer
convincing proofs of the undesirable
ness of the lands in the Northwest |
territory, by showing how those
lands are deserted for lands in Min
nesota and Dakota, and yet this fact |
is made to stand sponsor as an argu-
ment tor annexation. The public
d3bt of Canada is is $50 per capita,
three times the debt per capita
of the United States. The rea-
sons adduced by annexation adj
vocates are reasons why Canada
should seek annexation, not reasons
why the United States should grant
it. This country has had free reCip-
rocity with the Canadians and has
lost by it, the advantages inuring to
the peoples north Of the border.
When the Dominion is dissolved and
Ontario and Manitoba come to us as
independent states, or provinces. ask
ing admission to the American union,
and will assume their own indebted |
ness, 1T will be time for the govern
ment of the United States to take |
action concerning annexation. The !
wisdom of present action leads away
from the north border to the south |
border. Leads away from Canada and
futile and proftless annexation
schemes, to free trade relations and
close communication with the Latin
American republics. The interests of
to-day lie, for the United States, along
the Mexican border and not along the
Canadian frontier.
THOSE southern statesmen(?J who -.
flout at the Blair bill as an insult to
the south are very seriously brought |
to bay by the New Orleans Daily
Item in late issue, in which review
ing the whole legislative course of
this bill that journal says:
Prominent among its eminent
southern supporters i'll the senate
were such undoubtedly patriotic and
able statesmen as Lamar, of Georgia,
now on the supreme bench; George,
of Mississippi, still worthily repre-
senting his state in the senate; Gar
land, of Arkansas, the late attorney
general in President Cleveland's cab
met; Pugh, of Alabama; Vance and
Ransom, of North Carolina; Brown, Of
Georgia. Hampton, of South Carroll
ma; Jones aud Call, of Florida; Jack