Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-09-04
BY WILLIAM F.. CURTIS.

jected: Mr.. Laurier will retire from the
Office of prime minister, which lie has
held for fifteen consecutive years and
Mr.. Borden. a Halifax lawyer, the recog-
nized leader of the minority in the
house. will take Mr.. Laurier's place and
organize conservative cabinet. If the
liberals should elect a majority Of tho
house the conservatives will stop fill
clustering. the reciprocity arrangement,
will be ratified and other legislation pro-
posed by the liberals will he enacted
4 redistribution or rcapportionmen'
bill as We would call it, was pending In
parliament at the time it adjourned
which. If passed. would have given the
western provinces twenty additional
members and twenty additional votes IN
favor of reciprocity. but Mr.. Lauriel
realized that the opposition would fill
buster to prevent it's passage. just "a
they did to prevent the ratification of tho
treaty.
Confusing the Voters.
The conservatives are trying to confuse
the minds of the voters in liberal dis
tricts by Introducing new issues, and II
close districts are offering every argu
ment and objection against reciprocit!
that can be imagined. Some Of them arr
very funny.
The Montreal Star. for example. one
culated papers in the Dominion. has
becomed possessed of the delusion that
the ninety millions Of people in the
United States are on the verge or Il
financial and industrial collapse. and
that President Taft devised the reci-
procity arrangement with Canada In
order to save the nation from -destruc-
ton. 1t reiterates this theory day
after day and pleads with the voters
of Canada not to sacrifice their pros
perity in order to pull the Yankees out
of hole.
Even so well informed a man as Mr..
Clifford SiftOn, who was formerly a
member of the liberal cabinet and
went over to the conservative party
last winter because he did not approve
of the reciprocity treaty. has issued a
manifesto which has been published
in all the newspapers and is being cir
culated in pamphlet form from Halifax
to Vancouver. which he predicts that
If the reciprocity agreement is ratified
the Canadian market will be over
whelmed with American eggs. poultry.
butter. cheese. potatoes. hay. fruit and
other farm produce which our farmers
cannot get rid Of in any other. way. If
Mr.. Sifton would look at the market
morning he would find that the whole
sale prices of the articles he names in
the United States are almost double
what they are in Canada.
He also declares that if the reciproci-
ty arrangement is ratified the farmers
of Canada will be compelled to compete
with the cheap negro labor in our
south and with the cheap farm labor
of the Argentine Republic, Japan. Boil
via, Colombia and Venezuela, which
he evidently believes are. a part Of the
United States.
Step Toward Annexation.
Conservative politicians clubs and
candidates for parliament are giving
similar reasons for opposing the treaty
and the most Of them insist that reel
annexation Of Canada to the United
States. No conservative paper ever
publishes an edition and no conserya-
rive orator ever makes a speech with
out such declaration. made in most
earnest and solemn way. They de-
nounce the reciprocity agreement,
which takes the duty off farm products
from Canada going into the United States
and agricultural implements going
into Canada, as an insidious conspiracy
to divorce the Dominion from England
and add it to the territory of the
United States. The official pronuncia-
mento OF the conservative party gives
as one of the reasons why reciprocity
should be rejected the following:
Because the agreement as proposed
would weaken the ties which bind Canada
to the empire, and because the unrestrict-
ed reciprocity which would naturally fol-
low would still further weaken those ties
and make it more difficult to prevent po-
litical union with the United States
An appeal to the people from the con-
business men of Toronto de-
clares that the object of the reciprocity
is ito segregate and sepa-
rate the provinces of Canada which con-
federation was intended to unite, anu
thus destroy the very meaning of our
1t skaters the ideal and
the hope Of reciprocity within the en-
pire. The President of the United States
has avowed that the main purpose wiz.
which he sought the treaty was to pre-
vent the consolidation. of the British en-
pre-
:. Another paragraph in the same appeal
declares that the reciprocity arrange
ment makes Canada "a commercial APP
pendage of the United States and virtual
~ surrenders to that government the con-
troll Of her destiny. 1t interlocks our his
cal system with that of the United
States and letters the power of parlia
ment to alter our tariffs according to the
just requirements of our people.
Menace to Distinction.
TT will destroy the distinctive char
acter and reputation of our staple prod
ucts, which will henceforth be konwn as
American rather than Canadian prod
ucts.
1T will discourage the higher and more
methods of agriculture by
which the products of the farms are turn
ed out in finished form and the fertility OF
the soil maintained and preserved"
1t is continually reiterated that another
object of the United States government in
Negotiating the treaty is Ito menace and
our internal lines of communities
ton, upon which We have expended $4S1.
OUO. 600 of the peoples money. and destroy
the usefulness for which these public
works were constructed"
And it is also solemnly asserted that IL
this treaty goes through Canada, will be
governed in Washington instead of OF
tawa.
All of which demonstrates that the
Canadians have a strongly developed inn
a gination, but lack the saving sense of
humoR
The conservative party in its platform
pledges itself to a thorough reorganiza-
ton Of the government and TO the prac-