The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-10-24
What Do Canadian Liberals Near
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An English gentleman. Mr.. ARTHUR
SHADwELL, has spent, Of late, some weeks
in Canada for the purpose of ascertaining
whether the Liberals, now in power at OF
tawa, are working toward the attainment
of free trade with all nations, or moving to-
ward the formation OF an Imperial Zoll-
verein. The new Tariff act and the decla.
rations recently made by Sir W1LFRID
LAURIER in London have received conflict.
ing interpretations. One view, put forward
in many Jubilee speeches, is that the pres.
ent Government Of the Dominion is in favor
Of preferential trading with the mother
country. On the other hand, the Golden
ties regard the Premier's utterances and
the fiscal legislation to which we have re.
ferred as proofs that Canada Is determined
to secure free trade, and is, consequently,
opposed to the preferential idea. Mr.. SHAD-
WELL tried to find ont which of these views
is correct, but he seems to lave failed to
acquire any certainty on the subject, for, in
an article called THE Canadian Enigma"
contributed to the London National Re1is,r,
he admits that the position Of the Liberal
party is ambiguous.
There is no doubt that the denunciation
of the German and Belgian treaties has
rendered it possible for Canada to give
England preferential tariff rates. But has
such a preference been given by the recently
enacted measured The relevant clause in
the act runs as follows when the GUS
IONS tariff of any country admits the
products of Canada on terms which, on the
whole, are as favorable to Canada as the
terms of the reciprocal tariff herein re-
ferred to are to the countries to which it
may apply, articles which are the growth,
produce, or manufacture of such country,
when imported direct therefrom, may be
imported direct into Canada, or taken out
of warehouse for consumption therein, at
the reduced rates provided in the recipro-
cal tariff set forth in schedule D." The
schedule d here mentioned provides for
a reduction of one-eighth Of the stand
ing duties up to July, 1898. and there
after Of one-fourth. Now, it is obvi-
GUS on the face Of the clause quoted
that it Is 4 general offer of reciprocal
trade to all and sundry, the effect of which
must be to work toward the gradual adop-
tion Of q reduced scale of duties, that is to
say, in the direction of free trade. Sir Will.
~ hAAA H"o go" Shb'
while the clause does not give England a
preference by name, it does in fact. "Be'
fore bringing in our tariff" he has ex
planned, 1--WE looked carefully round the
world and we found England to be prac
tically the only country which receives oul
products freely. We desired to show Eng
land our gratitude, and at the same time
go as far as we could at the moment in the
direction Of free trade, and we framed
our preferential clause with this enc
in view" While, however, the Liber
ais have practically given preferen
tial treatment to England, they canno,
ask for it in return, because this would b.
to repudiate the principles of free trade, t.
which they affirmed their traditional fdel
ity in the last general election which re
turned them to power.
1t Is the Canadian Conservatives VIII,
frankly avow their desire for an inter
imperial customs union, the essence o
which would be discrimination against tn
products of foreign countries, In favor o
similar commodities produced by the com
ponent parts of the empire. Especially d.
Conservatives desire discrimination in til
English market against the United States
They hold that it would lead to a great ex
pansion of agriculture in the Dominion
They point out that, although last yea
the United Kingdom imported ten times a
much wheat from the United States a
from Canada, the latter country, If encoul
aged by discriminating duties, could in
few years produce it all. They maintai
that the effect of even a slight preference
in the English market would be to brin
over hundreds of farmers from the Dakota
! and other Northern States, who would b,
come Canadian citizens and settle in Maj
itoba and the Northwest provinces {
British North America. Now it is t
be noted that Sir WTLFRID LAURIEI
although he will not ask England to di
criminate against the United States /
favor of Canada, does not deny that sue
an arrangement would be popular in til
Dominion. When he was lately in Londo
II reporter for the Daily Chronicle put
: him the following query: "You would NJ
say No il England proposed to tax whet
and beef from the United States and Ru
= sla and the Argentines, while admittiI
free of all duty your Manitoba No. / haI
3 wheat, your Alberta ranch beef, and yo,
1 rosy apples from Annapolis Valley p S
WMFRID hcsitatcd, but lie finally reptile,
d, "Well, no, perhaps not. If England we
willing TO give rs a preference over 9TH
nations, taking our goods on exceptional
4 favorable terms, | would not object.
: would not be for Canada to shut herse
out from the advantage. But" he adde
! 81 have too much belief in English cor
8 mon sense to think they will do any sue
thing. We know that the English Peep
Q will not interfere with the policy of fir
n trade. and we do not desire them to do 9