The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-07-14
BIG VALUES
 SATURDAY 5 U M M F R w ATS T $ S1 $l.50 $I.95
AN ENGINEERING VIEW OF THE PENDING RECIPROCITY AR
 ENRICHMENT WITH
 CANADA
(Engineering News. }


 Engineering News is not a forum for ahe discussion of questions purely po 1tical in character. The question Of eciprocal~tr relations between Can Ida and the United States, however, is ,ne of economics, of engineering, Of transportation and of manufacturing industry more than it is Cor rather mould be) a question of politics.
 In all the discussion concerning reel .rocity which has taken place, nothing ias been said concerning the geo. sraphical and typographical conditions xhich make trade between the differ snt parts of Canada and the parts of he United States adjacent to them Particularly easy and advantageous {nd trade of the different parts of Canada with each other exceedingly $ostly.
 Few people in the United States real ze the extent to which topogra phical conditions divide the Canadian nation hnto separate parts, remote from each 3ther, each of winch finds its natural somm relations with the part of he United States immediately south If it, rather than with other portions If the Dominion.
 sThe first of these great divisions of Canada Is the Maritime Provinces, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick These are separated from the trade renters of the Province of Quebec, their nearest Canadian neighbor on the westward, by distance of over 500 miles The distance from Halifax to Montreal by the Intercolonial Rail- way is S37 miles, and the road trav- erees hundreds of miles of almost un- inhabited country in the district lying near the mouth of the St. Lawrence River. By the shorter cut across the State of Maine built by the Canadian Pacific Railway some twenty years ago, the distance from St. Johns to Montreal is nearly 500 miles. The water route from the Maritime Prov nces to Quebec by way of the St. Lawrence River Is over 1000 miles in length, and is subject to great risks of fog and ice
 On the other hand, the Maritime Provinces are at all seasons Of the year in quick and direct communities ton both by water and~by ran with Boston and New England markets The natural trade of the Maritime Provinces, therefore, is with Maine and Massachusetts and Rhode Island. 1.-The Canadian financial and commer- gal centers are the cities of Ontario and Quebec, and the bulk of the man. ufacturing industries of the Dominion, with the greater part of the popula- ton, are also located in these prov tnces. The natural trade of this sec ton of Canada is with New York, Ohio, Michigan and other sections of the United States lying immediately to the south. The difficulties of trade hy Ontario and Quebec with the Mari time Provinces have just been noted; and in order to reach that great fer tie section of the Northwest, of which Winnipeg is the center, a railway Journey of 1900 miles from Ottawa dnust be made. For most of this dis lance the railway runs through the harren. urinhabited district lying to the north of Lake Superior.
 The wonderfully fertile and prosper nus section of the Dominion lying in the Central Plains district promises to ,hecorne one of the greatest wheat growing sections Of the world. It Is Increasing in population and wealth at a phenomenal rate, and one of the great economic problems of the pres ent day is how the produce of this vast and. fertile section can be cheaply transported to market.
 The barrier of distance between this Northwest region and Ontario has just been noted. In order to obtain a shorter outlet for products of the Northwest sent abroad, the Canadian Government is now undertaking to build the Hudson Bay Railways scheme which will have to cope with unprecedented weather conditions in order to win success. The natural
 
 ton, destined to support a future pop ulation of many millions, is with the Middle West district of the United States-with the cities of the Great Lakes and of Minnesota and Dakota
 Crossing over to the Pacific Coast, there is a narrow belt of territory ly- Ing to the west of the Rocky Noun tains which is separated from the Plains district by nearly 1,500 miles. It's natural trade is with the districts of Washington and Oregon. lying only a short distance to the south.
 If natural economic laws had been allowed to work unhindered, and if no higher tariff walls had been erected between Canada and the United States than those which existed at the middle of the last century, an enormous trade, vastly profitable to both countries, would have grown up between each Of these various sections of Canada and that section Of the United States inn mediately adjacent. To a consider able extent this natural growth has been prevented by the tariff policy which the United States has adhered to ever since the Civil War.
 With these natural trade channels thus obstructed by tariff walls, the Canadians have bravely made the best of the situation and hewe undertaken the creation of great national high ways, both by rail and by water be- tween the East and West. The Ca nadian policy of government subsidies to railways and great expenditure up- on waterways has been practically forced upon the country through the artificial barriers erected across the natural channels of trade.
 Great credit Is due to the Canadian Government and to Canadian engin- Gers for the work they have done in Overcoming these natural obstacles; but no skill of the engineer, and no amount of investment by capitalists or by the government can make an artf- flcial trade route the equal of @ nat aral one. The development of Can ada, commercial, industrial and agri- cultural, can be fostered in no other tay so much as by opening the nat araI channels of trade and allowing 6ommerce to flow in them without re- 4triction.
 ESpeaking at the annual dinner of the Canadian Society of Civil Engineers, Held at Ottawa in January, 1910, the tditor-in- Chief of Engineering News Expressed the belief that the majority f public sentiment in the United atates would welcome the removal of $ll tariff barriers between that coun- #y and Canada.
 nIt was not foreseen at that time that H long step would be taken in that direction within years time by Heans of the reciprocal trade arrange Kent between the two countries, which