Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1911-03-02
RELATION TO
THE UNITED STATES

I ereign citizen of Illinois. now a voter IN
Canada. is more than likely to tell you
that he is unalterably opposed TO annexa-
ton to the United States. How does that
state of facts agree with your old-tlme-
the-brave-Cncle-Sam orationso
1t is often remarked that Englishmen in
the United States maintain their allegl-
a:cc to the king and their names on the
books of the British consulate for decades
and decades, while Irish and Scotch and
Canadians become naturaliZed citizens al
once on their arrival in America. Ii used
to be hard to understand. We Americans
didn't see why the Enslishman should car.
~ his absurd patriotism so far. And the
linglishman. in his stolid way, had moth
ing but contempt for the Scot and the 9th
ers who so quickly changed the kings
protection for the privilege of voting in
elections in a place where the vote might
not be counted. after all. We used to
think the Englishman stupid, but now
how does it feel to see a hundred thousand
native born Americans becoming subjects
of George V. each year? The shoe is on
! The other foot. and we are becoming, in a
small way. an cmigrating people.
On the other hand, the United States
now receives from Canada an annual i'm
migration of about $4,000. For nearly a
hundred years Canada sent us every year
a great number of her young men who
scugilt the wider opportunities offered by
the rapidly developing republic. These
young lnen are still coming but not in such
numbers. A great number of the Canadi-
ans now coming to the United States are
mill operatives and other laborers. The
Americans going into Canada. however.
are nearly all farmers who are attracted
by the cheap virgin land of the north
west. IL is said on good authority that the
l5.N0 American immigrants 20 Canada
last year took with them an average of
S1,0W each-a total of Sl25 .GG9.000.
Even if this is cut in half, for the sake
of conservatism, the American immi-
grants numbering 5000. last year took
into Canada s62. 5O. COO; while only $4,000
900 was brought into the United States
in 1910 by more than a million immigrants
received from all countries. Our emigrants
take from us at least $500 each. our immi-
grants bring to us an average of $50 each.
Certainly Canada has the advantage here.
OF course, this tremendous tide or
American blood will make western Can
ada American IN its social characteristics.
Some men on this side of the line nave
professed establishment that Canada would.
continue to encourage the American set
tiers in view of this certain result. The
answer is to be found In the fact that
Canada is already American in social
characteristics. Even the French PROV
ince of Quebec is more American than it is
either French or English. There are local
differences of course. South Carolina and
Ontario. Louisiana and Quebec, Maine and
Nova Scotia. Nebraska and Manitoba,
Oregon and British Columbia-they are all
different. but they are not different in the
sense that New York differs from York,
or New Orleans from Orleans. Canada is
i nur world in ,,,,.i ,e u-,1J nr ;, o~-
raphy. The Canadians are entitled to re-
cover damages from us because we nave
pre-empted the adjective american
The Canadians are just like the people
south of their border line in the essential
democracy of their social structure. They
still use two languages, but then the
French never did forget their mother
tongue e~asily-there is New Orleans as our
object lesson. They differ in religion as
we do, but they are much more p~uritanical
than any Europeans, just as we are.
The Canadians do business in the Ameri-
can, not the British. fashion. They rice
in railroad rains like ours, use the tele-
phone as we do, are tremendously alive to
the Importance of doing something to
BOOST their country-in short the whole
spirit of the country is the same as ours
and utterly different from that of Eng
land. They sometimes affect to be more
honest than we are, but there are graft
scai.uals. trust wars, ialfIoau rates us
putes and labor troubles over the line in
the dominion as we'll as IN the republic.
Some of these troublesome things they ap-
pear to handle to better advantage than
we do. but that may be due in part to the
fact that the Canadian population is small
err and the percentage OF successes may
seem to be greater than it really is.
Without saying which is better. for each
| has manifest advantages over the other, it
| remains a fact thai in the form of govern
ment and in all sorts of political activities,
the United States and Canada are entirely
different. Now that American relations
with Canada nav become a question Of
major Importance in our domestic politics.,
every American citizen ought to know
something about how the government
across the border is conducted.