The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1892-01-01
A Letter from Ontario.
PoRr PERRY. ONT, Dec. 26, 1879

PORT PERRY. ONT, Dec. 26, 1891
Mr.. Edst0r.-In a former letter |
intimated that the young men of this
country were content to settle in the
land OF their birth; but a better ac-
quaintance has convinced me that this
condition is true only of those bred to
farming. In this village, of two thous-
and inhabitants, it would be difficult
to find family without some represent
alive in the United States. In Ontario,
the old country system of appretice-
ship is adhered to with the result of a
large supply of mechanics clerks ETC..
who find employment on your side of
cities-Rochester, Buffalo, Cleveland,
Detroit etc contain the greatest mum.
Der, but they can be found all the way
from the eastern termini of the great
railroads, the G. p. II. and the G. T.
r. to the Pacific coast; the oil fields of
the middle States having large dele
CATION of successful operators. Ma
tives of this village, which is hardly
half century old, occupy prominent
positions in San Francisco and Chica-
go. One of them, who is vice president
of the heaviest bank in the former
cities, visited his old home here. He
has brother here who was formerly
the leading business man here, but
now retircd-not to idleness however;
for he has just invented and patented
a car-coupler, which displays so much
ingenuity that L suspected there was
Yankee drift in it and found that his
father came from the Champlain side
of Vermont. In residence of eight
months here this is the nearest | have
come to the discovery of native of
the United States living here.
1t is surprising that with so much in
tercourse as really exists, socially-in
spite of the trade and political antag
onism-between the two communities,
there should be such lack of informa-
ton in each in regard to the other, on
your SIDE, as to the resources of the
Dominion and the extent of their de-
velOpment; and on this side, in re-
ference to the feeling of your people
toward them and their country. There
seems TO be an almost universal be-
lief here that you "Amerians" as you
are always termed, as Il S1h the two
countries were on differenTcontinent
have an irrepressible hankering for
the annexation of the Dominion. The |
truth is, the Tory party, which has
been in power SO long, has made this |
alleged sentiment of your people its
chief stock in trade in all it's contests
before the people. In the last election
its leaders succeeded in making a
majority of the voters believe that the
"McKinley Bill" was conceived and
enacted for the express purpose of
forcing them to seek a connection with
the United States.
Occasionally man turns up who is
sane and intelligent upon other sub
jects, but welded TO the theory that
the consumer always pays the duty"
He seems to enjoy the privilege of
paying twenty cents to get his barley
across the Line, five cents for his eggs,
besides the freight. In, such "bliss'
as his it certainly would be "folly to
be wise In Justice to the intelli-
gence of the people of Ontario, am
constrained to say that the number of
this class is much smaller here than on
your side. The business men OF this
desire free trade awith the
United States, and the time is ap.
preaching when the majority of the
people of this splendid Province will
accept any fate that will free them
from connection with the Province
Of Quebec, with which they have no
characteristics in common, while the
population of Quebec, whose first
allegiance is to its church, and is a
menace to the magnificent re-
Igious and educational iniututions of
This Province.