Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1910-04-28
COMMON SENSE VIEW
HOW A VETERAN CANADIAN EDI.
TOR REGARDS OUR TARIFF.
Or. J. A. Mcdonald Explode S the Worn
Out Theory That "The Foreigner
PAYS the Tariff" Says American
People Have Been Hoodwinked by
Politicians in Interest of Trusts.

Dr. j. a. Macdonald, the veteran
editor of the Toronto Globe, which
is generally regarded as the. most
influential newspaper published in
Canada, recently delivered an address
to the Canadian Society of New York
in which he expressed the following
common sense views regarding the
tariff:
1--WE stand for closer and freer
trade relations with every country
whose people want to buy Canadian
products and whose people have pro-
ducts Canadians want to buy. We
believe trade is an exchange of COM
modities. We believe trade is a
good thing, and should be as free as
possible, not bad thing to be tax
ed and obstructed at every turn. We
believe, too, that trade is an indiv-
idual thing, not national thing.
Your tariff advocates talk as though
your nation was in business and as
nation sold so much goods to Can
ada and bought so much less from
Canada. In their blindness they call
the difference between your exports
and your imports your trade advan-
tage' over Canada.
''If it were not that two genera
tion of economic ignorance have
shrouded your people in Egyptian
darkness no intelligent man and no
intelligent journal would talk such
tariff twaddle. How can you in
crease your selling trade if you re-
strict your buying trade?
do you think Canadians suffer
by your prohibitive tax on wheat
and barley and cheese and bacon?
Bless your dear American soul, there
are mouths in Britain and in Europe
and in Asia as hungry as any in the
United States. Our foodstuffs do
not rot in the fields because your
politicians and trusts combine to
make it hard for your people to buy
them. If we cannot trade across the
lakes and the boundary line we can
trade across the Atlantic and the
Pacific.
"When the masses of your people
come to see how they have been
hoodwinked by the politicians and
led by the nose by the protection
seeking trusts they will show them
selves to be the free citizens they
now call themselves.
mo, quite frankly, people are not
free who are not allowed the full
rights of freemen. There is more
freedom, more real personal freedom,
in monarchy ruled old Britain than
in either Canada or the United States
There to a far greater degree than
here responsible citizen can speak
what he thinks, go where he pleases,
work at what he will and buy what
he wants. If you buy what you
want in Toronto your customs Off
Ger will hold you up at Niagara
Falls.
Eyes, I believe the days for pro-
hibitive tariffs are numbered. Bri-
tain will go free trade, and by her
freedom of trade. when her people
have become industrially efficient,
Britain will beat both Europe and
America in her staple industries. The
tendency in Canada in both parties
is against higher tariffs. Your trust
cursed politics will have to re rad
ically reformed before you will have
government of the people, by the
people, for the people. When that
day comes your customs laws and
our customs laws will allow people
to buy what they want where they
can get it to their best advantage.
ooh, yes, Canada could hold her
own in a fair field with no favors.
We ask for no advantages. If your
politicians will not allow your people
to buy our goods we can do all our
business elsewhere. When your peo-
pie come to govern themselves and
send your politicians and your tar
lifted trusts to the right about,
then Canadians will be ready to eX-
change commodities all along the
boundary. That will be good busi-
ness for the people of both coun-
tries