The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-11-29
AS CANADA IS TO-DAY.
Edgar Wallace Asks If the Dominion is a Colony or a Nation-''Ldke
 e Boy of Sixteen"
Edgar Wallace. in London Mall.


 1 Edgar Wallace. fin London Mail.
 TORONTO-Canada is sensitive. She shares l this weakness with every young colony we | possess. And while much of what Canada complains of in the present British attitude to- | ward the people of the colonies is but the re- l suit of supersensitiveness, much is very Justi- liable and very lamentable.
 For 1t. no less than Australia and South Africa, 10 gaining upward to maturity, and 1t is in that transition stage where to have it's acts questioned Is almost an insult; to hear criticised is the worse of sights, and when it's national nerves atense to such an ex- tent that a great deal of perfectly innocent comment Is construed into disapprobAtion. Canada today is like a boy of c, neither child nor man. Before her-forgive the change of gender-strstches future that is almost which needs a present-day Washington to gauge; today. with the knowledge of her pos abilities. with her resources indicated rather than revealed. with the memory of her single handed struggles. her many humiliations. and her hard won triumphs behind her-what won der is it that the criticism of Manchester but irritates her by it's impertinence, and the fears of Croydon but move her to contempt? The time when she could be very greatly moved by the pompous opinions of statesmen whose excursions into the realms of colonial sentiment were of the Saturday to Monday or der the time when her destnes were in the hands of younger sons, when her Govern ors were the result of time-honored political patronage-these days have passed.
 Canada is no longer a plaything for the fool of the family: the best England can give 10 only good enough for figurehead. Canada Is a nation, as no other colony in the world is a nation. Admit her love for the mother land admit the patriotism that sent 1000 men, the flower of her manhood. to serve the empire's need; admit her desire to be still tighter drawn to the side of Great Britain, and this fact remains as palpable and as con- vincing as the very existence of Great Britain herself Canada Is a separate, distinct. and unique nation. It is not colony any more than India is a colony It is like nothing have seen; It's independence of external pro- ducts its vigor. its nationality. amaze me; it's great strength and it's possibilities rather frighten me
 If could take you who read this paper. or the millions of your fellow subjects who will never read 1t. and If I could take you only from Quebec to Toronto, and get you to real ize that you hae only seevn one corner of Canana! I would not argue with you or give you statistics to ponder over, but would take you down to New York. and from thence across 10 San Francisco. and l would say: This Is the United States which British folly lost to the empire: behind us we have left Canada, which is ours still" Then I would let you 20 back to your homes in England, and should rest content in the knowledge that I, without argument or statistics, had secured a million or forty million converts to the i'm perial idea: forty million men determined that no matter what sacrifice had to be made no matter what ancient shibboleth must be re- nounced or whose reputation must go by the board. Canada, the fairest portion of the Western Hemisphere. must be saved to the mother country
 You think there ts no danBert ptopdDly, ana will vote me an alarmist when l say that Canada, loyal as she Is, must very soon change her relations with the mother country. That is because you have but one precedent for the secession of a colony, and you can imagine no other declaration of independence than that which could be delivered across the bristing bayonets of insurrectionists. Imagine no bloody repetition of the American War Of Independ- ence-that would be too absurd. It would be an independence which only a tariR war could procure for the best armed eombatant.
 For years England has waged war with the United States. and for years Canada has beon @ faithful ally of the motherlnd England. with her free imports. could never retaliate; but Canada. with heavy tariff club fin her hand. struck blow for blow, Tho Mckinley tartff was designed to strike at Great Britain. but its worst blows were aimed at Canada. It was at the instigation of certain unpatFiotic Canadians, who imagined that the blow to Canada would be 30 crushing that an agitation for admission into the Union must naturally follow that this terrible tarin wall was raised against Canadian produce.
 It seemed likely, too, that the schcme would he successful But all that was British in Canada stood up against the injustice of the American tariff. Industries were ruined, but the Conservatives, who returned to power on the strength of the Macdonald exposure of the Canadian Liberals' trick. returned blow for blow. Tariff met tarln. Heavy import duties