The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-04-06
DESTINY OF CANADA.

NFNNAANNNN~
 United States is now talking or think,
 ing of that question. Nor does it seen likely that anybody, either in Canada
 or in the United States, will be talking or thinking about it for some years tC come. No octogenarian has any prac- tical interest in it. The idea that the people of the United States have any design aginst Canadian independence
 may be entirely dismissed, The pre-
 sent writer has for nearly forty years 1 iconyersed with Americans of all class les and parties without hearing anything
 of the kind, or encountering any ap-
 pearance of hostility to Canada. The
 Irish quarrel was embraced by Ameri-
 can politicians for the sake of the Irish
 vote, the importance of which has of
 late greatly declined, so that little or
 nothing is heard of it in the mastering
 of forces for Presidential elections.
 In attempting a forecast, several
 things must be taken into account. One is the state of American institutions,
 which shows the truth of Bacon's say ing that what man does not change for
 the better. Time, the great innovator,
 will be changing for the worse In the
 United States Time has been concent-
 rating power in the Senate, while the Senate, in which the smaller states
 have equal representation with the
 greatest, has become conclave of
 special interests with no policy but | cta of fo, i.a
 or pursuing any great design. Nor can we yet tell what effect the Panama Canal, if it succeeds, or extened rela-
 tions with Mexico may have in drawing the United States southward. The awakening of Japau, probably with China in her train, and her apparent tendency to get a footing on the Paci- fc Coast are also to be considered in casting the horoscope of the futre,
 The movement at present on foot and apparently gaining strength is that of commercial reciprocity only, leaving the question of political relations un- touched. Protectionism has never de- fined its area. The political area is de- fined by nationality. Nature has de- fined the commercial area as simply that of profitable exchange.
 On the other hanl, events march and natural forces show their power The action of the great forces ofter is long Isuspended by that of secondary forces; but in the end the great forces prevail. It was so In the case of Italy and Ger many Statesmen renowned for saga city said after the failures in each case that union would never come, It came, with the hour of destiny and with the man, So to all appearances It will be in the case of this northern continent of America.
 To know what Canada really is, the inquirer must use not the political but the physical map. The political map presents her as an unbroken expanse embracing half of the North American Continent, including the North Pole; colored red in the Jubilee stamp, and more than equalling in extent all the rest of the British Empire. In reality the Dominion consists of four different sections of territory forming broken line across the continent and separated from each other by wide spaces or great barriers of nature, while each of them is closely connected in every way with the country to the south. The railway which links them has to carry wide unpaylng tracts as well as the liabilities of a subarctic climate. Apart from the present movement into the newly opened wheat fields of the North west, there is little interchange of population.
 There is already to great extent practical fusion of the people of Canada with the people of the United States. There are 1,2O0,OO native Canadians on the south of the line A Canadian boy thinks no more of going to New York or Chicago for start in life than a Scotch or Yorksire boy thinks of going to London, and the Canadian in the American market finds himself at a premium. Of French Canadians there are believed to be 15O,0OO in Massa- chusetts alone. There Is a counter current of Americans into the North west Churches interchange ministers Associations and fraternities of all kinds span, some totally ignore, the line The sporting worlds of the two countries are one. The summer resorts are in common. Canadians read Ameri- can magazines. American newspapers have considerable circulation in Canada, American currency circulates everywhere but in government offices. New York is the Canadian Stock Ex- change. American investments in Canada are rapidly increasing. Inter marriage is frequent; and as Canada, in difference to the Catholics, is without a divorce court, Canadians resort to the divorce courts of the United States
 That there is such a thing as anti American feeling in Canada is true, It resides chiefly In certain circles es- pecally those of the descendants of U. K. Loyalists or of the Family Compact. Perhaps certain sense of social speriaroty also is hattered by looking down upon the Yankee. We have had some efforts of late to stimulate this but they were very limited in their range and very meagre in their fruits Distinct from anti-Amerlcan- ism, though akin to 1t and connected l with imperialism, is the worship of the l flag which in the United States has | reached an extravagant height and has It's evangelists in Canada. It cannot be | supposed that sentiments or fancies of | this kind will in the end prevail over the manifest interests of the great l body of the people on both sides of the line.
 Of imperial federation 1t hardly neces- sary to speak, It has been preached | for a generation without presenting a | olan We have only been exhorted to