Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1893-06-19
CONTINENTAL UNION.
GOODWIN SMITH CONSIDERS SOME
OBJECTIONS TO 1T.

the Standpoint of the American and the
Canadian-The Four Divisions of Canada
Viewed as States.
Our good Canadian people are always be-
ing told that they live under the gigantic
shadow of rapacious neighbor who is
sleeplessly planning their annexation by
force or fraud. The very name of Wash
ington is apt to excite their suspicion. They
do not think of Washington as what it now
is-a beautiful and attractive city with
brilliant aristocracy, the rising Paris of this
hemisphere; they think of it only as a cen
ter of political mischief. If any Canadian
Liberal goes there, though it may be mere
" for his enjoyment, they fancy that a plot
is on foot, as though American presidents
and ministers of state were in the habit of
entering into plots with any unaccredited
visitor who may present himself at their
doors They cannot be made to understand
that the general attitude of Americans on
the Canadian question is one of indiffer
ence, and that you may spend weeks at
Washington even in political society with
out hearing the subject me1Honed. OF the
forcible annexation of Canada never heard
an American speak
Not only have the majority of Americans
hitherto been indifferent, but some of them,
as have reason to know, are unwilling to
admit Canada into the Union, even if she
were to come of her own free will and with
the consent of her mother country. For this
unwillingness, however, l submit there is
no good reason. Some suppose that Canada
if admitted into the Union would form po-
litically a compact and intrusive mass, dis
turbing the balance of urpolitics or dom
mating them in a Canadian interest. Moth
ing can be less likely. The four regions of
which, le Dominion consists-the maritime
provinces, old Canada. the Northwest and
British Columbia-are separated by wide
harriarS each nj her
They have no interest in common. There is
but little trade among them, notwithstand-
ing the pains taken to force it by protection
There is still less interchange of population
Between the British provinces and the
French provinces there is not only no nat
ural bond, but there is an antagonism of
race, history and religion. The different
parts of the dominion are held together by
the political tie, which requires to be
strengthened by such means as recent rev.
Citations have disclosed. With their adj
mission to the Union all their solidarity
would be at an end. Each of them would
obey its natural bias and be drawn toward
the states which it adjoins. A political
league between the British and French
Canadians, above all, is Uncomfortable.
Into which of the American parties-the
Republican or Democratic-most of the
Canadians would oft is impossible to say,
when they have hitherto been strangers to
ooti, parties, ana there has been nothing TO
foreshow their choice. All that can be said
is that, having so long had n separate his
tory and tradition, they would be favora-
BILE to self government and opposed to any
encroachments of the federal power. As
they have remained strangers to any sin
lister influences which may exist in tie
Union they would on their entrance, at all
events, probably be n reinforcement to the
general party of reform.
\ - Il
Canada remain separate neither of them
can control emigration, because while one
of them shuts the front door, the back door
will be opened by the other You make
laws excluding the Chinese, and the result
seems to be that the Canadian government
raises small revenue on their importation
through Canada into your country.
Observe, too, that the Canadian north
west, if the line We're removed, would prob
ably be filed by American emigration,
whereas it is now being filed with Men
nonites, Icelanders, crofters from Skye and
other elements not less alien to American
civilization than the French population of
Quebec. Some day all of these will have
to be taken in and digested by the Union.
Inextension of territory there can hardly
be any danger, so long the extension IS
natural In the present cases ii is not only
natural, but is imperatively enjoined by
nature, which has clearly made this North
American continent q territorial and eco
nomic whole.
Politically the system of federation COM
| bining local self government and self de-
| velopment with the external security and
| internal freedom of trade and intercourse
| assured to all the members of the federal
| power seems capable of indefinite extern
| sion. Mere enlargement adjustment of
! the central administrative and judicial ma
| chinery at most is required. OF disruption
1 thara hardly he danger unless
| there is line of cleavage, and, the tariff
| question settled, there is no visible or as
| signable line of cleavage, saving the old one
| between the wholly white and the partially
| black states, the Importance of which
| would be diminished by the accession of
Canada to the Union.
Against any additional liabilities con-
sequent on territorial or political extension
| is to be set the more than countervailing
| advantage of assured immunity from war
| Let continental union take place, and 1T is
| hardly conceivable that hostile foot
| should ever be set upon this continent, or
| that it should not remain forever securely
| dedicated to peaceful industrial and pro
| gressive civilization.
The commercial objection that market
| of G., 600 600 would be given for market OF
5,OO0,0 900 hardly calls for examination 1t
would imply that the admission of Dakota
was a commercial loss to the rest of the
| OndOu IL Wouiu lIupiy tusie eHe ieoS VI tHe
union would be made richer by the eXclu-
sion of the state of New York.
| Let the objector look at the map, which
Is the one great teacher on this Canadian
question. Let him suppose that the four
territories of which the Dominion consists
were in the Onion, what would he say to
anybody who would propose to take them
out of it and form them into separate and
antagonistical power? When, if union ex-
listed, division would be madness. is not re-
| union wiSdOmf-Goldwin Smith in New