Evening star., 1932-03-27

states. 1t was to the effect
that during 1881 more than 100 Amer
lean industries had established branch
factories in Canada. Supporting this,
an official report from the Dominion
Bureau of Statistics shows that United
States industries are now coming to
Canada at rate of more than two a
week
This, however, is not the only Cana
dian development which should chal-
lenge attention in the United States.
There are the further and significant
facts that the Dominion government is
negotiating preferential trade treaties
with Australia and New Zealand, wag-
ing a campaign to have Canadians
buy more of home and empire goods,
preparing for the great Empire Trade
Conference which is to be held in Of
tawa this Summer
Further, and as a part of the new
imperial economics, Canadians are
being exhorted to substitute British for
American manufactures, empire grown
fruits and vegetables-the products of
Australia, South Africa and British
West Indies-for fruit from California
and Florida, for vegetables from other
States.
Follows Vain Protests.
This, according to the best Canadian
opinion, is the elimination, the direct
consequence of two decades of futile
Canadian effort TO secure better trade
arrangements with the United States
the result of fruitless protests against
the Fordney-M -McCumber and HaWley-
Smoot tariffs.
Nor do Canadians lack for facts to
back up these arguments. Between
1911 and 1921 Canada's trade with the
United States mounted steadily. Can
ada's exports grew from $139, ,000, 900 to
$542, 100000 annually. At the same time
United States sales to the Dominion in
creased to 1856, 5000. Canada, in
fact, was buying practically one-fourth
OF the total of American exports.
Then, without warning to Canada or
negotiations, came the Fordney-Mc-
Cumber tariff. Its effect was that in
one year Canadian exports to the
United States dropped from $542, ,000, 900
to 1922 100000. So severe was the
shock the commercial structure Of the
Dominion was shaken to its founda-
tions; Canadian costs of production had
to be drastically reduced; farmlands
decreased in value by $1,400,000,000.
Between 1880 and 1880, 1,07l United
States branch factories established
themselves in Canada. Tho repre-
These factories crossed the li6s to get
over Canadian tariff walls, 10 obtain
benefits from empire preferenceh Today,
with the Canadian tariff again& Amer
lean products the highest in the Domin-
ions history, this export of United
States factories gains in momentum,
has increased its speed by about 500
per cent. Every week sees at least two
new American industries being set I'D
somewhere in Canada, bringing mil
lions of capital, work and wages for
Canadian workers, purchasing power
for the Canadian people, home markets
for Canadian farmers, traffic for Ca
madam railways, business for Canadian
ports. This development has been one
Of the main factors in tiding the
Dominion over the existing depression.
outgrowth Of q. S. Policy.
No exact figures are available as to
the number of Canadians employed in
these branch factories. 1t is estimated,
however, that taking into account the
purchases made from other and allied
industries, with extra employment thus
afforded. the addition to the Canadian
wage bill runs into hundreds of mil
lions of dollars year.
This development, good for Canada,
not so good for the United States, is.
curiously enough, a direct outgrowth
Of the United States policy. 1t can
be traced, and unmiStakably, to the
Fordney-McCumber and Hawley-Smoot
tariffs.
Those who desire proof Of this can
fnd it In the public speeches of Mr..
Bennett.
In his keynote election speech of
1880, for example, he said:
THE United States learned a long
time ago that to become a great ma
ton 1t must look to itself. 1t devel-
oped its industries and it's natural re-
sources, encouraged and protected its
agriculture, so that out of a slow be-
ginning it has grown to those gigantic
proportions where. If the countries af-
fected do not take action, its strength
will overflow its border and battle
with the under countries it Is its
avoWed purpose industrially to subdue.
That is the story of the United States
Today it Is more powerful than we, but
unless you are content to become its
economic vaSsal, you must do as 1t did,
you must fight for your own"
Mr.. Bennett, undoubtedly, but voiced
the conclusion of a majority of Ca
nadians. Rightly or wrongly, they be-
came convinced that the United States
did not want to buy Canadian products,
that it had gone in for economic i'm
periahsm, that it aimed to make Ca
nadians its hewers Of wood and drawers
Of water.
There was the record OF what looked
like deliberate fiscal aggression against
the Dominion. On at least three oc-
caSions between 1921 and 1880 Canada
lowered her duties on American prod
CctS. Time and again, too, Mackenzie
King, the then prime minister of Can
ada, made reciprocal trade gestures to
Washington. Finally, in 1929, Canada,
as an act Of friendship to the United
States, and probably hoping for better
tariff terms, prohibited the export of
liquor to the Republic, Lnereby losing
millions Of revenue. Washingtons only
answer was the Hawley-Smoot tariff,
completing what had been begun 10
years before by the Fordney Cumber
schedules.
This was the beginning of the rise
Of Mr.. Bennett, with his gospel of
empire trade. The beginning of in
creased Canadian duties against the
United States; with campaign for
empire preferences; an influx of Ameri-
can industries to CANADA.
Existing Canadian duties against
American goods are the highest in the
history OF trade relations between the
two countries. Put into Office on a
high-tarif platform, and particularly
on a platform which caiied for tariff
retaliation against the United States,
Mr. Bennett has carried out his man.
date with a resolute energy. ms first
act was to revise the tariff upward
on $50 American commodities. Later
on he increased duties still higher. in
some cases by as much as 100 per cent.
In addition, and proceeding to copy
United States fiscal methods, he Sc
cured flexible tariff, issued 60 or more
orders-in-council boosting rates
Purchases Reduced.
Mr.. Bennett achieved his ends. In
one year, 1881, he cut Canadian pur-
chaseS from the United States by more
than a quarter of billion dollars.
Nor is MFR Bennett satisfied with