The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-07-29
Protection In Canada.

While Canada issues an annual state
ment showing her exports and imports
in due detail, no figures are available to
show the extent or the value Of her do
nestle trade. Tabulation OF the figures
obtained by the census of 1901 is not yet
completed, and if it were it would fur
nish no more than a general working
basis for use at the present time, because
Of the very considerable increase in pro-
duction and distribution within the last
two years. In view Of a manifest dis
position on the part of a very large ele-
ment in Canada to extend an increased
protection to home manufactures, 1t
would be of interest to know what Canada
has to protect, and just how much OF
that is really worth protecting.
If such a time should ever come it
must be very many years before Canada
will be justified in regarding herself as
a manufacturing rather than an agr-
cultural country. Her farms and cattle
ranges, her forests and her fisheries, and
the products of her mines, are the good
red blood of Canada's industrial life.
Yet, while those must be her principal
sources of strength and wealth, she may
well utilize some portion OF them to her
great advantage in mills, shops and fac
tories which shall produce for home con-
sumption if not for export.
This is notably the fact in the case OF
her iron. Her resources in that metal
are almost without limit. and her faclli-
ties for its manufacture into many forms
are perhaps the equal Of our own in
our most favored sections. Glad as we
might be to control at least share OF
Canadian trade in steel rails, structural
iron, bars and rods, and all the many
appliances in which iron and steel play
an important part, it is not to be ex-
pected that Canada will long continue
to import sSO, 200, 900 year of such ar
ticles when she can create a large home
market for her agricultural products by
the establishment of smelters, foundries
and machine shops.
The foundation for this establishment
has already been laid, and while some of
the companies have encountered the diff
ficulties which usually attend the begin
ming Of vast enterprises, the final out
come of the works at Sydney, at Sault
Ste. Marie and at other points is not a
matter of serious doubt. Their success
would be little short of absolutely guar
anteed were the Canadian Government
to do that which may be done at any
time-impose u protective tariff that
would protect. A nominally free trade
party ia now in power. but even that is
seeking to evade it's professed principles
by granting Government bounties in
place of a protective tariff. The tariff
itself now seems inevitable at no dis
tant day.
This is the only line upon which Canada
would appear to be fully justified in IN
imposition of a high protective tariff
She can and now does manufacture a
very considerable range OF articles in
other lines, cotton goods, woollens, hats,
shoes, clothing, carriages, wagons, DC,
in competition with imported wares.
But her tariff is in reality little more than
q revenue tariff with an incidental mod
crate protection. Of her total imports in
1902, about 40 per cent. were free Of duty,
the average rate on the dutiable goods
27.3 per cent, and the average on total
importation 1875 per cent. There are
doubtless some special lines in which
a high protection could be essayed with
reasonable safety, but if such policy
were adopted all along the line, it would
probably result in disaster, She would
be confronted with an utterly INSULT
Gent supply of skilled labor and an in
creased cost on manufactured wares
affected by the tariff, while, on the other
hand, a cutting off of imports would
dangerously impair her national reve-
nues.
The wise solution Of Canada's difficulty
would appear to lie in very careful
ANALYSIS OF the needs and the conditions
of her home market, the imposition Of a
duly protective tariff rate upon such
lines as seem really worth the cost of
protecting them, and, for the rest. a
broadly based commercial cooperation
with the United States. This need be
neither u general commercial union nor
reciprocity. That the United States can
supply Canada with the greatest guam
tity of the goods that she requires, and
at the cheapest rates, 10 evidenced by the
fact that our sales to her are about double
those of England and Germany COM
bined, notwithstanding the 80 l-3 per
cent. preferential given to England. All
that is needed to hold and to extend that
trade is fair business understanding
with Canada, and the free admission to
our markets of certain Of her products
| which il would be even more to our adj
vantage to buy than it would be TO her
advantage to sell.
II the United States would hold Cana
da' g commercial friendship and Canadian
trade, there must be decided broaden
ing of the lines upon which our relations
with our northern neighbor have been
conducted during recent years. Canada
is no longer suppliant at our doors for
commercial favors. Her present atti-
tude is one Of general indifference. Her