The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-03-04
OVER THE CHINESE WALL.

While our government is reaching out
to foreign countries an empty hand ant
inviting a reciprocity which is a hollow
sham, it is interesting to see how oul
efforts are viewed by the people whom
We have shut out by our trade barriers
The Winnipeg Commercial, the leading
trade journal OF the Canadian northwest,
reads us a severe lecture on the one
sidedness Of our reciprocity proposition
to hat country. The dominion nov
collects one-third of its entire customs
revenue, or over S1,O0O,0O0, from the
United States. 1t is asked to forego this
revenue for what? TO help the manu-
facturers OF the United States to get rid
OF their surplus stocks. And what
would Canada gain by such an arrange
ment? Nothing at all, says our Winni-
peg contemporary. and it adds, "Under
an arrangement OF this nature there
would be absolute free trade between
Canada and the United States, but it is
obvious that the customs duties of the
two countries would have to be made
the zane That is, goods would pass
between the dominion and the republic
free, but goods coming into either Can
ada or the United States from a third
country, would be subject to the same
duty. As goods would pass between the
two countries free, manufacturers in
each would have to be placed on the
same footing as to duties upon raw
or other materials imported from other
countries by them. AS Canada is a
much smaller country than the republic,
it is natural to infer that we would be
obliged to adopt the United States tariff,
as we could not expect that country to
adopt our tariff. Our tariff would,
therefore, be regulated at Washington,
and Canada would become, commercial
ly, simply a part of the United States"
Thus, it argues, as the tariff of the
United States is much higher than that
of the dominion, Canada would pay an
increased price for commodities coming
from other countries and would gain
free trade with the United States by
striking a deadly blow at her trade re-
lations with Great Britain. Our CON
temporary across the border does not
see why it should get a pair of CONNER
cial stills as high as Mr.. McKinley's
simply to oblige the manufacturers of
the United States. It thus states the
case from it's own point of view:
While the greatest possible freedom of
trade between the two Notwithstanding
countries of America IS very desirable, it
hardly seems possible that Canadians are
prepared to sacrifice their trade with the
rest of the world, i'll order to enter into a
tariff combination with the most extremely
pTotect.onlst country on earth. Western
Canada must look to Great Britain rather
than to the United States for a market for
her principal commodities. While greater
freedom of trade with the country to the
south is to be desired it can hardly be de-
sirable OIL a basis OF a tariff compact with
the republic, which would cause US to dis
criminate violently against Great Britain.
The motto for Western Canada should be
to encourage the very freest trade relation
ship not only with our neiehbor to the
south, bat with all the world. We do not
want our trade restricted by artificial bar
riers in any direction. II we must adopt
the obnoxious tariff of the most highly pro-
tectsd country in the world. including the
Mckinley bill and all, in order to trade
with the United States, then we had better
drop the idea at once of extending trade to
the south. The question involved in the
commercial union or unrestricted reciproc-
ity is, the United States against the world.
Will we choose the whole world, or form a
compact with the United States against the
vorld1
Comments of foreign journals and the
discussions in the various legislative
bodies Of European governments show
that the enactment of the Mckinley
law is regarded as tantamount to "a
declaration by Jul government Of com
mercial non-intercourse with other
countries-as much so as though we had
shut out foreign vessels from our ports
and blockaded our harbors. These i'm
p%ressions OF us may be- wrong but they
prevail almost universally and they un
questionably tend to cripple our foreign
and strain our relations with
all European nations. Here is the way
We look through the spectacles of am
English publicist, Mr.. w. S. Lilly:
/ am no believer in Mr.. Cobden's free
trade nostrum and calico millennium. That
weighty political considerations may be
urged on behalf of q protectionist policy in
America, and. indeed in most other coun
tries, l am far from denying. That such
considerations have really had anything
whatever to do with the passing of the Nc
Kinley act, no American with whom ! have
talked on the subject 80 much as pretends.
Here is q measure which impoverlshes the
largest industry in the republic, which sell
sibly increases the general cost of living,
which confers upon the president-and all
men can judge whether the way in which
the presidential office is attained should
lead Us to expect in it's occupant an Aristides
or a Cincinnatus-wEich ~confers, | saw,
upon the president the power of imposing
or renting taxes TO the amount of fifty
or sixty millions of dollars annually: /,
power certainly exercised by no European
monarch. And what is the explanation o.
this singular measure? As | am informed
the explanation is simply this: that it hal
been devised in order to put money int
the already overfiowing purses of a gang o
monopolists and driven through the two
houses of congress by the most nefarioul
means. In the almighty dollar is the mo
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