New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-11-24
n1nn1EEERExcE, TOWARD cANADA.

Mr. Goodwin Smith, our readers will be In
terested to observe now adopts The Trbunes
view Of the attitude of the United States tow
ard Canada. Indeed. he goes somewhat beyond
it. TO an extent which seems to us extreme. In
commenting upon various more or less senSa-
tional but invariably futile attempts TO work
up" a Canadian annexation movement in this
country We have expressed the opinion that
Americans as a rule, do not desire such an
nexation, that they certainly are not disposed
10 try to compel it or even to seek il by any
means. and that even If Canada, with Great
Britain's permission, should make a free offer
of herself 10 the United States. it is not at all
certain that a majority Of the American people
would vote TO accept her. Some Of the hotf0ot
annexation schemers have professe1 to he
astounded at such opinions, and have sought to
characterize them as unwarranted and absurd.
But here is Mr.. Smith who has made the sub
iect the study Of years, who knows both the
United States and the Dominion better than
most men, and who is indsputably a very high
authority. making the same statement in an
even more emphatic form. During thirty years
familiar intercourse with Americans Of every
class and party. he says, he has never heard
single word expressive Of the slightest desire
Ito agrees upon Canadian independence" And
he adds that the general feeling about US
about Canada and Can&dians-''is one of in
difference"
The first statement We have quoted from Mr..
Smith seems to us quite judiciOus and correct
The studied, elaborate and detailed emphasis
Of its phraseology is none too strong 1t means
of course that in these thirty years Mr.. Smiths
wide and intimate association with Americans
has brought him into contact with sober minded
and thoughtful men, and not With the visionary
schemerS and sef-seekerS who have tried to
boom Canadian annexation and who are
Toll
ment is the one which we have already spoken
of as seeming to us little extreme. We should
not say Americans regard Canadians themselves
with Indifference. On the contrary. they re
gard them with much esteem, as uncOmmOny
progressive and enterprisng folk, whose ac
quaintance is worth cultivating, whose friend
ship is to be priced, whose rivalry in industry
and commerce is not to be ignored and whose
material development presents many object
lessons which Americans might well take TO
heart. We have ourselves frequently pointed
out Canadas superiority to the United States
in the matter of developing systems of inland
waterways, and have shown how, through such
means the Dominion has made serious inroads
upon our foreign commerce, Nor is that the
only respect in which our Northern neignbors
have given Yankee enterprise" cause to blush
with shame at its own backwardness.
What Americans do regard with indiffer-
Canadian annexation. With that amendment
which is probably what he meant, Mr.. Smiths
statement is TO be cordially approved. Also
TO be approved is his statement that If an
nexaton comes it will be through the
work of Canadian statesmen With all the
recent talk, most of it grotesquely i'll advised,
about American expansion" and Imperial
ISM" there is in this nation no land hunger
We do not want another rood Of land just for
the sake of increasing Neither is
there any fear of Canada nor of any of our
neighbors. or any desire to annex new territory
as we did Florida for the sake Of self-protection
and self-defence. The United States can well
contemplate with tranquil equanimity the pros
pect OF a perpetually separate Canada, whether
as n colony of the British Empire or as an IN
dependent state 1t might not refuse an earnest
application of Canada for admission into this
Union, but IT would not grasp it eagerly or with
out recognition Of the grave problems which
would thus be assumed for solution. For, as
much alike "a Canada and the United States
in many respects there are some radical
constitutional differences between them. and rbe
very fact Of their iikenesses and OF the high
standard OF civilization and character that pre-
walls in CANADA would make those differences
all the harder TO reconcile
II IS TO be hoped our Canadian friends win 40.
feel sighted by such manifestations Of Ana
lean Indifference. They should not do 50 ne
course, 1t might be fattering TO their national
pride TO think that America was an eaoo.
wooer earnestly desiring and seeking 10 effact
union, But then they have or many Of them
nave ni'lerto pretty strongly protested against
"n"t lney nave imagined 10 be American de-
SIGNS upon canadian independence Those i'm
aglhatlohs OF theirs We're vain and baseIess T.
! 70 wen 'N"' 'hey were. 1t is we should say.