Custer County Republican. (Broken Bow, Neb.) 1882-1921, 1904-07-21

manufactures of the United States has
been repeatedly urged by the Ameri-
can Economist as fatal to the hopes
and purposes of those who yearn for
free trade between the Dominion and
the Republic. Time and again we
have endeavored to make clear the
futility OF such a project because of
Canada's determination to build up
her own industries and not to insure
their destruction. How accurately the
Canadian attitude toward reciprocity
in manufactured products has been
estimated by the Economist is now
demonstrated by an official notifica-
ton to the effect that Canada will re-
fuse to submit longer to the dump
ing" process. In the New York Jour
nal of Commerce of June 10 Is printed
dispatch from Ottawa in which 1t is
stated that the announcement by
Mr.. Fielding, the Minister of Finance,
in his budget speech, of the intention
of the government to place counter
vailing duty on goods sold in the
United States and incidentally other
countries "for export" has attracted
general discussion and enthusiasm in
industrial circles throughout the Do
minion. Canadian industrial circles
have for years been complaining of
the competition they have been COM
PEELED to meet in the way Of foreign
Surplus" goods, for which Canada
has become veritable dumping
ground" The countervailing duties
are designed to end this by adding an
amount equal to the difference be-
tween the invoiced price and the real
value of to so per cent of the duty
In general lines, and Is per cent in
the iron and steel items.
The Canadian plan is to meet cut
prices by the imposition Of additional
tariff duties. Under this plan it will
be no longer possible for American
producers to sell in Canada cheaper
than they sell to American consumers.
Plainly Minister Fielding avows the
stalwart protectionist doctrine that
control Of the home market for the
home producer is of greater import
ance than cheapness. Evidently he be-
lieves that in the long run nothing is
cheap which is purchased abroad
when it might have been produced at
home. Unequivocally he declares that
cheapness may, and probably will,
prove to be at best but temporary,
while in the end it turns out to be
costly and injurious. On this point
the Canadian finance minister said in
his budget speech:
An tN- hot ri
countries have adopted that method
of trade which has now come to be
known as Strengthening or perhaps
the word more frequently known now
is dumping That is to say, that the
trust or combine, having obtained
command and control of its own mar
ket, and finding that it will have
surplus Of goods, gets out to obtain
command of the neighboring market,
and for the purpose of obtaining con-
troll of neighboring market, will put
with regard to the cost or fair price
aside all reasonable considerations
of the goods; the only principle is that
the goods must be sold and the mar
2let obtained.
IF those trusts and combines in the
high tariff countries would come I'M
der obligations with sufficient bonds
to supply us with these goods at low
est prices for the next fifty years, it
would probably be the part of wisdom
for us to close up some OF our indus
tries and turn our people to other
branches. But surely none of us i'm
AGNES that when these high tariff
trusts and combines send goods into
Canada at sacrifice prices they do so
for any benevolent purpose. They
are not worrying about the good peo-
pie of Canada. They send the goods
here with the hope and the expecta
ton that they will crush out the ma
tive Canadian industries, and then
with the Canadian industry crushed
out, what would happen? The end of
cheapness would come and the begin
ming of dearness would be at hand
Artificial cheapness, obtained to-day
under such conditions, at the expense
of dearness at very near day, is not
a system that we could approve, or
that any of us on either side of the
House should encourage"
Completer coincidence with the pro-
tectionist claim that only through the
upbuilding Of home industry can per-
manent economy be secured, com
pleter condemnation of the free trade
sophism that it pays best to buy in
the cheapest market, could not be put
in words than has been done in this
practical statement of the value of
domestic competition. Minister Field
ing is protectionist from the ground
up, from top to bottom.
In this program there is no hint of
a disposition on the part of Canada
to invite larger volume Of manufac-
tured imports. On the contrary, Can
ada proposes TO take less and less of
such imports. Canada intends to do
more of her own work.-American
Economist.