Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1893-05-12
Width of Protection.

Canada to the United States.
Prominent men in the Dominion
and on this side of the line have
spoken for or against such action.
A friend of mine who is first. last
and all the time protectionist =" and
who is very much in favor of annexa-
ton, lately said to me-" at would be
good thing to do. Manitoba raises
the very best kind of wheat and lots
of it too, British Columbia is rich in
mines, fur and lumber; they grow the
best wheat in the world in Ontario
and along the st. Lawrence River,
butter and cheese of fine quality and
in great in quantity is made.
With view to testing the width of
the policy Of high tariffs, l said in
case our northern neighbor becomes
one of the United States the present
tariff wall erected with SO much care
between that country and ours will of
course, remain just as it is; that as it
averts the catastrophe of free trade
between the people of that section
and our people on this side, it must of
necessity sacredly remain untouched.
His words were, "Why no, if we
admit Canada we're not going to allow
her to put tax on the goods we sell
nor do | think her people would be
willing to come into the Union if we
put a tax on the goods they would
sell here. 1t would not be right, nor
would it be best for us either. Those
people would then be d part of our
country
That is to say, admitting Canada to
statehood would not in the least
change its climate, the character Of its
soil, It's products, Or its people: there
would be no transfer from that people
to this of the title to real Or personal
property; they would go right on, as
we would with the every day business
Of life; but there would be change in
political relations, that is all. Let it
not to be said that the Iowa County
Democrat has failed to warn its read
ers of the cataclysm Of our industries
so sure to follow the annexation of
Canada; for, once the tariff is abolish
ed between that country and this--one
shudders at the suggestion-our farm
ers on the treeless prairies will be
flooded with better and cheaper
lumber, our people will be deluged
with better and cheaper wooden cloth
ing, and worst of all the first thing our
mechanics knew they would be buying
canned goods cheaper, and actually
eating butter and cheese made in
Canada.
Nor have l a doubt that, flushed
with conquest, those wicked Canadian
fellow citizens of ours would take
home with them the iron and steel
goods of Pennsylvania, or the cotton
cloth Of Massachusetts, or the rice of
South Carolina, or beef and pork of
the great western states.
If our statesmen think the working
people of this country are going to
permit their homes to be Invaded"
| with blankets made in Canada, and
sold them for the wages received for
two days work, when they can under
"protection" buy poorer blanket
made in Ohio for the wages received
for four days work, they are wofully
mistaken, for have they not said by
their votes for twenty-five years that
they will have none Of it?
Did it ever dawn on the narrow
mental horizon of the bigots who urge
the admission of Canada as being ga
good thing for US" that all there is of
value for us in that, or any country,
can be obtained by abolishing the
blockade of tariff taxes and permitting
freedom of exchange?
Suppose the United States were to
buy Canada out from England, we
would not even then dare to take
down the tariff wall between US; for is
not the tariff tax the sum of all states
manship? Does not the tax-list show
that nature has denied US The soil and
climate and skill to produce three
thousand commodities needed by the
human race; some of those very COM
modities Canada produces and would
ship here, to take the market away"
from US.
One experience with annexation it
would seem ought to be enough. 1t
was in 1916 that Texas was admitted
into the Union; for nine years before
that it was a republic. During those
nine years the high tax party declared
it to be a calamity for American citi-
! zens to trade on terms Of equal ex-
change with their neighbors across the
Sabine River, just as it is now declar-
ed by the same party to be national
ruin for neighbors to exchange on
equal terms across the Rio Grand
River. Indeed, so great was the dam
age said to be, that by solemn statute
the Government at Washington de-
creed it to be crime to attempt an
exchange on equal terms.
On the 29th of December 1916, when
Texas was admitted to state-hoo cd our
sovereign Government by an equal
ly solemn, not to say stupid enact
ment, decreed all calamity at an end,
and it no longer a crime for these
same neighbors to exchange with each
other the fruits Of their toll on equal
terms. Marvellous craftsmanship,
changing in brief moment a national
calamity into a legal right. But it
was a narrow escape.
Possibly the ardent protectionists"
of Massachusetts, when doing business
with the people Of the new made state
hattered themselves with the idea that
their "money remained at home"
We talk in lofty phrase of annexing
the Sandwich Islands, as if that people
had anything that we desire that can
not be had through free trade, with
out this Government shouldering the
responsibilities of political relation