The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-08-08

OUR LOST OPPORTUNITY.
The United States has cast away, and
lost. we believe, for all time, the great
est opportunity that can ever come to
it for an extension of its territory, it's
population and its power. In the new
dreams of enlargement and acquisition
that have come to US and that are ex-
hibited in the proposition to annex Ha-
wall and the covetous eyes that we
have so long cast upon Cuba, it would
seem that our first look must be north
ward. There, just across the boundary,
was a mighty area of land, rivaling
our own in its -eXpanse and peopled
by hardy settlers Of our own race. No
where on the face of the globe can
there be found a country so like our
own in its resources and the character
of its people, and none whose future
development must so surely proceed on
parallel lines with ours, as the Domin-
ion of Canada. 1t must have seemed
to every statesman with an eye that
could reach beyond the boundaries Of
his own parish that manifest destiny
intended the union of these two peo-
pies and the extension Of our republi-
can government across that boundary
line to the farthest verge OF habitable
land in the frozen north, For decades
after decades this opportunity has
been been open to US, The people OF
Canada have been fun OF grievances
against the mother country. In their
infancy and earlier growth the strong
sentiment of loyalty that accompanies
the sons of Britain wherever they
may SO was practically neutralized by
the careless selfshness of the mother
country; which sought, just as 1t did
in the case of the American colonies a
century ago, to get the most possible
out Of them and give nothing in re-
turn.
In ali those years it was open to us,
by friendly advances, TO build up a
community OF sentiment and of interest
that should break down all differences
of political system, The very first work
of a wise statesman, or even a level
headed politician, would have been to
make the interest of Canada so identi-
cal with ours that the two countries
must eventually blend as one. In
stead of that, We have exhausted effort
in building higher and higher between
us and our neighbors an impossible
barrier, and in forcing the people of
Canada to turn in any direction for re-
lief from the baseless hostility with
which they were met by their more
powerful neighbor on the south. We
have forced them to seek outlets of
their own, instead of relying upon our
facilities. We have absolutely COM
PEELED them to trade elsewhere. A new
er country than ours, where the wages
of labor are necessarily higher, we have
directed against them the full force oP
that protective legislation whose only
poor excuse was that 1t was intended
to exclude the products of ''the pauper
labor Of Europe" With only a. brief
interval of sanity, We have sought to
keep Canada apart from US and to
compel her to seek alliances in other
quarters of the globe; as If the add}-
ton to our Union Of this magnificent
s territory and It's progressive people
q we've the Sreatest evil that could befan
US OUN last tariff bin caps the climax
Its most ubiquitous feature, the tax OF
s. 8 thousand on white pine hanlbe,>.
that bears SO hardly upon every poor
NaSa IN the land, was holSteNed Op bv
the aNgNmSNt that It was NeeessaYv 10
eNeNN($a EN0Sa our markets the pyoauets
NS CaNR&}2N f0geSts> wAerN the NsAAes
Ig0&&>t% as the GlNA & has proved IN
St&<$SsscS tASs have EeNa~ Maam gees,
&2s>e2 or &a@se&, &ra shaped aar conn,
SS>ey>>> az n Sg0&SsN lSesNV eaSt than Nse,
NSSlS NcltSSs the CNsSoA States, TANS
SNos@ erSt a. SSSt, Nc have eaaeANNrea
M'sSN GSsSl coNss,loSe SOccoSS 10 Alternate
The S&clec OF Canada, 10 advertise Il
<AeN s>sat trade or any other relations
OcS~ccO u are 0nwescowe and undo,
s}Ta6le, and 10 put an abyss between
SAeir NaG1Cc and ours.
Gow well We have worked for the in.
forests o. Great Britain and arains,
our owu, We may now clearly see. ii
The great policy of Imperial federation
between Great Britain and her colonies
sG over the world shall become a real.
ity' as now appears probable, instead OF
visionary dream, it will be because
tAe policy ot the United States has ia.
Nored it. We, the Briton-haters, the
t2il-twisters, the main rival for su-
premacy in the Apglo-Saxon race, have