IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) H 1.0 I.I IIM 1112.5 ii;32 |Z2 u 2.0 1.8 1.25 1.4 1.6 -• 6" ► ^ ^ VI c^. c^l /^ ^^ V /A Photographic Sciences Corporation .1 ^^ \ «v \\ ^9) V K"^ Q>\ C^'A^ 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 'i>^\ w %^ ^^S". /<^1% t" . W< C/j ^ CIHM/ICMH Microfiche Series. CIHM/ICMH Collection de microfiches. Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions / Institut canadien de microreproductions historiques Technical and Bibliographic Notes/Notes techniques et bibliographiqoes The Institute has attempted to obtain the best original copy available for filming. Features of this copy which may be bibliographically unique, which may alter any of the images in the reproduction, or which may significantly change the usual method of filming, are checked below. L'Institut a microfilm^ le meilleur exemplaire qu'il lui a 6t6 possible de se procurer. Les details de cet exemplaire qui sent peut-dtre uniques du point de vue bibliographique qui peuvent modifier une image reproduite, ou qui peuvent exiger une modification dans la mithode normale de filmage sont indiqu6s ci-dessous. Coloured covers/ Couverture de couleur □ Coloured pages/ Pages de couleur D D D D D D D D □ Covers damaged/ Couverture endommagee Covers restored and/or laminated/ Couverture restaurde et/ou pelliculde Cover title missing/ Le titre de couverture manque Coloured maps/ Cartes g^ographiques en couleur Coloured ink (i.e. other than blue or black)/ Encre de couleur (i.e. autre que bleue ou noire) Coloured plates and/or illustrations/ Planches et/ou illustrations en couleur Bound with other material/ Reli6 avec d'autres documents Tight binding may cause shadows or distortion along interior margin/ La reliure serr^e peut causer de I'ombre ou de la distortion le long de la marge int^rieure Blank leaves added during restoration may appear within the text. Whenever possible, these have been omitted from filming/ II se peut que certaines pages blanches ajout6es lors d'une restauration apparaissent dans le texte, mais, lorsque cela 6tait possible, ces pages n'ont pas 6t6 film6es. D D D '/ D D D D Pages damaged/ Pages endommag^es Pages restored and/or laminated/ Pages restaurdes et/ou pellicul6es Pages discoloured, stained or foxed/ Pages d6color6es, tachetdes ou piqu^es Pages detached/ Pages d^tachees Showthrough/ Transparence Quality of print varies/ Qualite in6gale de ('impression Includes supplementary material/ Comprend du materiel supplementaira Only edition available/ Seule Edition disponible Pages wholly or partially obscured by errata slips, tissues, etc., have been refilmed to ensure the best possible image/ Les pages totalement ou partiellement obscurcies par un feuillet d'errata, une pelure, etc., ont 6t6 film^es d nouveau de facon d obtenir la meilleure image possible. D Additional comments:/ Commentaires suppl^mentaires; This item is filmed at the reduction ratio checked below/ Ce document est filmd au taux de reduction indiqud ci-dessous. 10X 14X 18X 22X 26X 30X / 12X 16X 20X 24X 28X 32X The copy filmed here has been reproduced thanks to the generosity of: National Library of Canada L'exemplaire filmd fut reproduit grdce d la g6n6rosit6 de: Bibliothdque nationale du Canada The images appearing here are the best quality possible considering the condition and legibility of the original copy and in keeping with the filming contract specifications. Les images suivantes ont 6t6 reproduites avec le plus grand soin, compte tenu de la condition et de la nettet6 de l'exemplaire film6, et en conformity avec les conditions du contrat de filmage. Original copies in printed paper covers are filmed beginning with the front cover and ending on the last page with a printed or illustrated impres- sion, or the back cover when appropriate. All other original copies are filmed beginning on the first page with a printed or illustrated impres- sion, and ending on the last page with a printed or illustrated impression. Les exemplaires originaux dont la couverture en papier eot imprimde sont film^s en commenpant par le premier plat et en terminant soit par la dernidre page qui comporte une empreinte d'impression ou d'illustration, soit par le second plat, selon le cas. Tous les autres exemplaires originaux sont film6s en commenpant par la premiere page qui comporte une empreinte d'impression ou d'illustration et en terminant par la dernidre page qui comporte une telle empreinte. The last recorded frame on each microfiche shall contain the symbol — ^ (meaning "CON- TINUED"), or the symbol V (meaning "END "), whichever applies. Un des symboles suivants apparaitra sur la dernidre image de cheque microfiche, selon le cas: le symbole —^ signifie "A SUIVRE", le symbole V signifie "FIN". Maps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at different reduction ratios. Those too large to be entirely included in one exposure are filmed beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames as required. The following diagrams illustrate the method: Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent dtre film^s A des taux de reduction diffdrents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre reproduit en un seul clichd, il est film6 d partir de Tangle supdrieur gauche, de gauche d droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images n^cessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mdthode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 ••^^•■■y^wir^ AS SUBSEQUKNTLY ADOPTKD UY THE GRAND ASSOCIATION FOR QUEBEC AXn, AS FAR AS RELATES TO FEDERAL MATTERS, BY THE GRAND ASSOCIATION FOR MANITOBA. ^ I I 1st. — Maintenance of British connection. 2nd. — The reservation of the Public Lands for the actual settler. S«"'l — Piirit.v of Aflministrnt.inn and absolute Indeoendence of Parliament. T/O/V. On page 39, erase lines 34 and 35 reading as below — " While raw sugar is admitted free into Canada, it is taxed 40 per cent. ad. val. in the States." And substitute the following :— While raw sugar was admit- ted free into Canada previous to the session of 189.5, a tax of % a cent a pound on it is now imposed." I population will allow. (Declaration of Principles on next paje.) ■'^>Ji^'^:M.:uii:a^i: 2 The Purity and Independence of Parliament. No directf five years. Rigid Economy. The Government House at Ottawa shall be abolished, and the bar-room in connection with the House of Commons and Senate Chamber ehall also be abolished. The system of superannuation, gratuities and pensions, except for military service, shall be abolished. The Mounted Police of the North-West Territories shall be abolished, except in unorganized districts, in which case the expenditure shall be reduced fifty per cent. The Military College at Kingston shall be abolished, and the expenditure on the militia force in the Dominion in times of peace shall be limited to $300,000. The granting of subsidies and bonuses to railroad and steamship companies and other corporations shall be abolished. (Adopted with the interpre- tation that when, however, it is found necessary to extend settlement, or to accommodate settlements already established, the Government shall in lieu of land grants capitalize said land at $1.00 per acre, and assist the said railway or railways to that extent and said land shall be open for settlement with the $1.00 per acre as a first charge thereon). The number of civil servants at Ottawa and their salaries shall be reduced. The High Commissioner in Great Britain shall receive a stated salary with- out any additions for assistance or perquisites. Reduction of the Machinery. The number of Cabinet Ministers shall be reduced, and the Canadian Senate shall be abolished. Tariff and Revenue. Luxuries shall be taxed to the fullest revenue-producing extent, and the fol- lowing shall be admitted free into Canada, viz.:— Cotton, tweeds, wool- lens, workmen's tools, farm implements, fence wire, binder twine, coal oil, iron and corn. m:' ^i^iiitii^^JiigiMikmMmim 3 THE NECESSITY FOR ECONOMY. The objecfc of this little book is to present facts and ligures in support of such of the Patron planks as seem to call for specific consideration. It is not necessary, for instance, to dwell at length on that relating to the purity and independence of Parliameuo. Obviously a member beholden to Govern- ment for pecuniary favor, is not in a position to cast an impartial vote. The acceptance of railroad passes by members is another self-evident evil. Rail- roads expect a qrid pro quo in aonns form from the recipient, and when in addition to putting himself under obligation to the roads for a pass, the member makes believe that he is paying his fare and draws mileage from the treasury, the interests of the taxpayer suffer in more ways than one. The thirteenth constitutional amendment in the batch adopted by vote of the people of New York State, November 6th, 1894, prohibits the issue of passes by railroad, telegraph or telephone companies to public officers. This applies also to members of the Legislature. Other States have adopted similar prohibitions. It has long been apparent that Canada is too much governed. The over-government began on the division in 1791, when two legislatures and two separate governments, each with its own set of office-holders, were set up for a population not nearly as large as that of Toronto at the present time. So long as Britain paid the bill no one here could complain, but the extravagant system then begun has been perpetuated with imposing addi- tions till now this is probably the most expensively governed country of its size in the world. The Dominion Government and the eight local legisla- tures contain 700 paid members, including fifty salaried Ministers of the Crown, who meet annually to grind out laws for five million people. In the same proportion it would require 5,000 members to make laws for the United Kingdom. The number required to legislate for the British Empire would be so great that they would have to meet on Salisbury plain. Everything else is pitched on the same exaggerated scale. The number of office-holders. Dominion, provincial and municipal, is simply enormous, the cost alto- gether beyond our means. It struck the British Government at Confed- eration that the clothes were too large for the man. " A very import- ant part of this subject," wrote Mr. Cardwell to Lord Monck (Session- al Papers, 1865), "is the expense which may attend the working of the Central and Local Governments," and he went on to express the hope that " the arrangements may not be of such a nature as to increase, at least in any considerable degree, the whole expenditure, or to make any material addition to the taxation and thereby retard the internal industry or tend to impose burdens on the commerce of the country." The answer to such objec- tions was that population was going to increase with great rapidity. Some of the fathers of Confederation expected to see eight, ten, and even twelve millions of people by 1891, whereas we have only five with machinery enough for twenty. The old-line politicians do not care to see the available supply of loaves and fishes diminished. Patrons, on the other hand, advo- cate a root and branch retrenchment in the interest of purer politics, and for the relief of the actual toilers of the country, who are impoverished through having to support such a horde of salaried non-producers. Further, they believe the knife could be applied all round in heroic fashion without impair- ing the Federal principle of governmenb, and tlub no reform is more urgently required. Debt and taxation have been increasing at Ottawa at an alarming rate while agriculture, the principal industry, has been suffering from depression consequent on the development of new sources of supply by modern agencies, that is to say, when economy ought to have been the watchword. The fol- lowing table (Public Accounts, 1894), shows the growth of the Dominion debt :— 1867 !$ 70,000,000 1870 78,000,000 1873 1(10,000,000 1876 124,500,000 1879 143,000,000 1882 $ 164,000,000 1885 196,000,000 1888 234,6-0,000 1892 241,000,000 1894 246,000,000 In the United States till the breaking out of the anti slavery war the highest water-mark of the outstanding principal of the public debt was $127,- 000,000 in 1810. The population then exceeded seven and a quarter rail- lions. In 1840, when the population numbered 17,000,000, or ovfr three times ours, the debt was under five millions ; in 1860, when the population was 30,000,000, the debt was $04,000,000. These figures are given merely to show at what a rate we in Canada are travelling. As our net debt stands to-day, every constituency in the Dominion is carrying a mortgage of over a million. It is easy to plead that the Dominion has assumed provincial debts, built railroads, annexed new territory. That does not alter the fact that the debt has been increasing much faster than population Since 1871 the population has grown from 3,000,000 to 4,800,000, an increase of 3."{.\ per cent, whilst the increase in the debt has been ovei" 200 per cent. The rate of interest at which we can borrow has de- clined becausrt in technical language money has grown cheaper all over the world, though some good authorities question whether this is a wholly unmixed blessing for young communities. The interest and sinking fund charges on the debt now amount to $12,500,000 per annum, or within a million of our whole expenditure on consolidated fund account at Confederation. If the rate of interest has fallen, it has not fallen as much as the price of farm pro- ducts. Hence the farmer has really to pay more for the interest on every $100 of the public debt than formerly. For example, the rate o^' interest paid on the public debt in 1877 (any year will do) is given as 4.74 per cent. ; in 1894 as 3.70. But in 1877 the average gazette price of wheat in the Bri- tish market was 50s. 9d. per quarter of eight bushels, whereas in July, 1894, it was only 20 shillings. The drop in wheat has thus been far greater in proportion than the drop in the rate of interest, and wheat, cattle, cheese, etc., are the real counters with which the farmer pays his taxr^s. The poli- ticians are apt to forget that while they have been adding to his burdens, his staple crops, together with his fixed capital or land, have been dimin- ishing in value, so that his candle has been burning at both ends. The amount of interest paid on the public debt in 1877 was $0,800,000, in 1894 $10,200,000, but manifestly the load upon the farmer was greater by a good deal in 1894 than the mere arithmetical difference between the two sums. The growth of the debt to its present serious proportions has taken place, it is important to note, contemporaneously with a large increase in the taxa- tion. The customs, excise, and other taxes have risen from $11,700,000 iii 1867 to $27,000,000, that is, have more than doubled. The country is in the Z ■T" position of a iimn wlio ha.s l)e(!n taking a constantly increasing amount out of liis business to meet his running expenses, yet fincls himself deeper in debt than before. Hero again, of course, the increase in the taxes is much greater, measuring them in farm produce, than the bald Hgures show. The annual expenditure has grown from .f 13,r)00,000 in 1867 to |37, 600,000, an increase of nearly "200 per cent. Patrons take no stock in annexation, bnlieving that we have a good country of our own if it were properly governed. It is incumbent on us, however, as neighbors and competitors of the United States, to observe that the tremendous increase in the debt and spending accounts of the Do- minion has occurred at a time when the pe«)ple there have \yeen reducing their liabilities with self-sacrificing energy. In 1H70 their public debt was $60 per head. In 1890 it was under $lo, and is now about that, loans having re- cently been contracted to meet deficits in the revenue and for other purposes. Since 1870 our debt has jumped from 823 per heail • virtually $50. It is true our debt has been incurred, osten"ibly at least, fo. public improvements whilst that of the United States was contracted forp >v.der and shot, though without doubt an immense economic gain has re'^ 'led from the uolition of slavery and the opening of the South to moderri uidustrialisvn. Anyhow our Federal d-^bf i now over three times greater per head lunthe Federal debt of the United States. It is greater per head, in fn. u, than the Federal deb , State debts, municipal debts and school dic^trirt debts of the United States all put together — a condition of aflfairs which n ; Canadian can view vdth satisfaction. The American figures given in their censu<^ reports of 1890 are as follows : — DEBT. PER HEAO. Federal $14.24 State 3.66 I) BUT Municipal School PER HEAD. $13.80 0.59 $32.38 During that period also the Americans have abolished the internal revenue war taxes, and reduced their customs tariff, and before long the annual payments for war pensions will disappear. Even now the cost of living and of producing is much the same in both countrie<». The continuous growth of our indebtedness is, therefore, bound to be a drawback to our future pro- gress. It is idle to say that we are less heavily indebted than Australia, France or Turkey. It is by the American standard that Europeans and even our own people judge us. RAILWAYS AND CAXAL.S. There were two courses open at Confederation. The United States had just emerged from civil war with a prodigious debt and a Chinese tariff. We had to choose between practising wise economy and persevering with a low revenue tariff so as to make Canada a more desirable home by contrast, or trying to swell ourselves to the size of the ox by means of protection, rail- road bonusing and kindred devices for producing artificial growth. The latter Wcas adopted. It is no use enquiring why the politicians choso the worse instead of the better part. The adoption of the Canadian Pacific Railway scheme on the ent; vnco of British Columbia into Confederation was the beginning of a boom policy that has landed us in a sea of debt without adding commensurately to the population. The outlay on railways and G canals, including the amounts spei^c before Confederation and the expendi- ture by provinces and municipalities, amounts to about $260,000,000, a sum that would be thought extravagant in communities five times our size. As will be seen by a table (p. Ixix.) in the Public Accounts, the cash expenditure by the Dominion on the Canadian Pacific has been $62, G( 0,000, besides the land; on canals, since 1867, $42,000,000 ; on the Intercolonial and con- nected railways $45,000,000 ; on subsidies to other roads $13,000,000; on Dominion lands and the government of the North-West $7,500,000 ; on minor public works $7,000,000, and so on. The land grants voted away to railways amount in round numbers to 50,000,000 acres, an area as large as some (Jld World kingdoms. Nevertheless, as the census only too painfully shows, these magnificent preparations for the reception of population have not attracted population to any great extent. The percentage of increase in Ontario and Quebec between 1881 and 1891 was actually less than the per- centage in an old and over-crowded country like England. In the seaboard provinces there was scarcely any increase at all. In Manitoba and the Ter- ritories the population is not half that of Dakota, which started even with them, all three being mere hunting grounds, in 1 870. British Columbia, ■where colonization began in 1849, has 100,000 inhabitants. The State of Washington, then a vacant space, has now ;i50,()00. Man for man, we have done infinitely more in the way of railroad and canal building by Govern- ment than the people of the United States, yet by comparison with their growth we have virtually nothing to show for our energy or extravagance, call it which you like. It is true, as we are so often told, that transportation rates have been reduced. But has the reduction, say since 1880, been equal to the fall in farm products, and are rates here any lower than they are in the Unit ;d States where the drain on the taxpayer has been relatively less ? According to its published tarilT the Canadian Pacific charges less for conveying wheat from Minneapolis to the seaboard than from Winnipeg, and less for conveying merchandise from the east to Minneapolis than to Winnipeg. Minneapolis is a little nearer the seaboard than Winnipeg, but would the Canadian people have voted $100,000,000 in money or money's worth to the Canadian Pacific if they had supposed for a moment that it was going to treat the settler in Minnesota or Dakota better than the settlei in Manitoba? It is pretty generally believed, though not, we confess, easy of proof, that both the Canadian Pacific and the Grand Trunk (which has got $20,000,000 of public money), deal more liberally with freight going from one point in the United States to another point in the United States via Canada — such as from Chicago to Boston or Portland — than with the same descrip- tion of freight shipped from intermediate points within Canada ; in other words they sacrifice Canadian intei-ests to their through American business, (a) There is no doubt that merchandise rates to San Francisco ftom the At- lantic seaboard by the Canadian Pacific are lower than rates to points in the (a) Patron speakers are no doubt familiar with local iostances. It is difficult to obtain information for publication about such diacriniination. Canadian shippers com- {tlain loudly enough in private, but are afraid to allow their names to be used as vouching or what they relate. It has been thought best, therefore, not to attempt to give proof here, which however accurate would be eure to be challenged by the roads, but to leave Patrons to employ such cases as may have come under their own notice or that of their neighbors. That Canadian shippers should be afraid to tell the truth lest the monopo- lies for whioh the country has done to much should punish them is only one of many evidences of the enormous power wielded by the two great railroads of Canada. Canadian North-West that are passed en rotn,e to San Francisco, Passenger rates in the older provinces are three cents a mile or more. But the Cana- dian roads, on their American lines, give a two-cent rate, the same as Ameri- can railways, Pjven in a paltry matter like the supply of rolling stock when the crops have to be moved, our roads give their American customers the pre- ference ; the Canadian shipper has usually to wait till they are accomodated and prices begin to droop. It is notorious that notwithstanding all our expenditure upon them the Canadian roads use American ports in winter and discriminate against Halifax and St. John. The Canadian Pacific was powerful enough, indeed, to force Parliament to subsidize a road mrough the State of Maine to enable it to get to Boston. It no longer pre- tends to be an all-Canadian route, serving Canada first, last and always. With the purchase and construction of feeders in the United States it is becoming more and more an American institution, cutting through rat<3s in the United States for the benefit of Americans and recouping itself by overcharging the Canadian shipper. In the early days the canals were of greater economic importance than they are now, though in summer they still help to temper railroad rates in Ontario and Quebec, and to cheapen freights to and from the North-West. At their present depth the St. Lawrence canals are unable to accomodate the larger American vessels now plying on the Upper Lakes, and it is proposed by some that they should be deepened at the joint expense of Canada and the United States, the latter country being allowed a joint control in return. The matter is one of importance especially to the North-West. and deserves the best consideration of Parliament. Speaking generally, Canada, single- handed, has spent quite enough on transportation routes for the present. To put it mildly, the results have not come up to expectations, antl in calling for a cessation of the outlay Patrons believe they are consulting the true inter- eats of the taxpayer. Let us try for a wliile to fill the country with inhabi- tants by gi\ ing it economical government and a more liberal trade policy, and by compelling the existing railroads, on which we have spent borrowed money so lavishly, to give Canadian interests fair play. KLOATED SERVICES. The ordinary as distinguished from the capital expenditui-e, has, as stated, increased many times faster than population. There are certain fixed charges, such as the interest and sinking fund account, which now absorbs one-third of the revenue, the subsidies to provinces and the appropriations for Indians under treaty, which it would be dithcult without a complete re- construction to reduce. The subsidies to provinces, as set forth in the Auditt)r General's report, 1894, c. 26, amourt to over .1^4,000,000 per annum. The system of permitting the provinces to draw from the Federal treasury for their local requirements, and periodically to unload their debts upon the Federal taxpayer, does not conduce to provincial economy. The unloading process is unjust to Ontario. In Ontario the municipalities have given liberally to railroads. They also build and keep in repair out of the rates the highways and bridges, jails and court-houses. But in some of the other provinces this expenditure is defrayed almost entirely by the Provincial Gov- ernment. The municipalities in the provinces referred to have given very little to railroads, such local bonuses as have been contributed having been supplied from the Provincial treasury, while the Dominion has been exceed- ingly generous. When, in consequence of such expenditures, these provinces ■MP 8 find themselves in deep water and get the Federal Government to assume their debts, it is obvious that they are compelling the people of Ontario to pay not merely for their own local improvements but in part for those of other people. There »re many branches of the ordinary expenditure, however, which could well stand cutting down, particularly in view of recent deficits. Look, for example, at the growth of the expenditure on civil government, i.e., salaries and departmental sundries at Ottawa (Public Accounts. 1894, p. liv.):— 1868 $ 6C0,000 1873 750,000 1878 820,000 1883 $ 987,000 1888 1,258,000 1894 1,400,000 The superannuation of civil servants should be considered in connection with the cost of civil government. By the Act of 1871 four per cent, per annum was deducted from salaries of $600 and over, 2^ per cent, from sal- aries under $600, and on this basis the fund, it is believed, was self-sustain- ing. But shortly afterwards the ratio of payments was altered, salaries of $600 and over paying from 4 down to 2 per cent., salaries under $600 from 2^ to 1|, which iiad the effect of greatly reducing the receipts of the fund, and, conjointly with the practice of superannuating officials merely to make room for fresh appointees, has involved the country in heavy loss. From 1871 to 1894 the receipts have been in round numbers $1,240,000, and the expen- diture no less than $3,770,000, In order to entitle officials whose places are wanted for clamorous party " workers " to a larger allowance than they have earned by length of service, the length of service is sometimes arbitrarily increased, which is a fraud upon the taxpayer. Again, as implied, it is a common thing to superannuate a man quite capable of discharging the duties of his office, in which case the country has virtually to pay two men for the work of one. For example, Mr. Lesslie, postmaster at To- ronto, was superannuated in 1879 while perfectly hale and hearty and has since drawn $40,000 from the treasury. His successor in the same period has been paid $60,000 or thereabouts. The office is thus costing not $4,000 a year as Parliament intended that it should but over $6,000. In a num- ber of instances the person superannuated has drawn many thousands for contributing a few hundreds, and has not done yet. Patrons contend that if the fund cannot be made self-sustaining it should be abolished. Civil ser- vants are better paid considering the hours they have to work and the char- acter of the work than any other class, and it is not right that the taxpayer should be drawn upon for provision for sickness and old age, which most of them have abundant means of providing if they choose to live as economically as the rest of us are obliged to do. As to pensions, those for military ser- vice are deserved, but there is no sense in pensioning county court judges and others who were handsomely paid during their tenure of office for all they had to do. THE MILITIA. The expenditure on the militia has averaged of late a million and a- quarter per annum. But a large amount (it is hard to find out exactly how much) goes to maintain the permanent corps, which from being mere schools of instruction have blossomed into a miniature standing army. The bona fide volunteers, especially the rural battalions, are neglected and allowed to run down whilst money is lavished on the permanent force, probably be- i ne\ of sto str Th« Th< sys i 9 and a- tly how schools 'he bona allowed ■)ably be- cause it yields more patronage of various kinds. General Herbert (Militia Report, 1891, pp. 9-10), made the following important recommendation : — " In the year 1862 a royal commission enquired into the measures to be taken for the defence of Canada. The outcome of its report, presented in that year, and of cer- tain political events occurring about that time, was the embodiment in the Militik Act of a form of organi^ation based upon the requirements and resources of the North Am- erican Colonies as then existing. The immense progress which has raised the Dominion of Canada to its present position has entirely altered the social, political and strategical conditions which then existed and formed the basis of calculation. That the Militia Act. has not fulfilled the expectations formed 25 years ago, is sufficiently evident to anyone who carefully examines the present condition of the force, and compares that condition with the objects, held in view by the Commission to which I h«ve referred. This is due to many causes, not the least of which is indicated by the fact that many important sections of the Act have remained wholly in abeyance. Tliey never could and lever can be practically applied, and their existence is calculated to give a delu- sive character to the power of defence possessed by the Dominion. The time seems to have arrived when a fresh enquiry s^iould be made into the working of the Militia Act, in order to ascertain how far it has provided an organization capable of adapting itself to ever-changing conditions and increasing responsibilities. Such an enquiry would furnish a fresh starting-point and firm ground for those who are called upon to guide the policy of the Dominion on the question of the defence of its territoty. In plain English the country has not a satisfactory force to show for its expenditure, and the matter should be looked into. But the General's recommendation has been ignored whilst Ministers have been developing the permanent corps. The Military College at Kingston should be abolished. It was shown in a speech delivered in Parliament (Mr. Mulock, June 29, 1894), that the cost of each graduate to the taxpaycjr, after deducting the graduate's payments, exceeds |5,000. Of the 195 graduates since the col- lege was founded only thirteen are attachfd to the permanent corps. The rest are in the British army, the civil service of Canada or in private posi- tions here or in the United States. Why should we spend $5,000 on a young man to educate him for the civil service, or to fit him for a career in Britain or the United States ? The Patron platform is sufficiently explicit on the subject of Mounted Police expenditure. It reaches upwards of $600,000 a year, and could be reduced with safety. Since 1880 nearly $4,000,000 has been spent on im- migration, partly in attracting farm settlers with bonuses to the North-West. The results, as the census only too plainly shows, have been divcappointing. The expenditure for outside printing ($225,000, Auditor General's Report, 1894, p. Hi.), appears to be scandalously large considering that there is a Government printing bureau at Ottawa. The payment of considerable sums for printing to newspapers which support the Ministry, but which cannot in the nature of things possess first-class printing offices, e.(/., Halifax Herald, $5,600, Moncton Tunes $14,000, wears a suspicious look, especially when we find payments for advertising totalling $45,000 last year being distributed chiefly amongst party organs. It is no excuse to say tliat the Provincial Governments "look after their friends" in the same manne*'. Subsidizing newspapers out of the treasury by whomsoever done is poisoning the wells of information, and is a practice which reputable papers must desire to see stopped. The Franchise Act, which Sir John Thompson promised to recon- struct in the interest of economy, entails a gigantic cost at every revision. The three revisions down to 1891 cost $900,000, and there has been one since. The cost to individuals cannot be ascertained, but must be very great. The system in vogue is altogether too burdensome. With regard to a cognate 10 subject, the so-called Gerryniandering, would it not be well for the Do- minion and the Provinces to relegate the readjusting of the constituencies to a non-partisan commission, judges or others ? The expenditure for administration of justice is given in detail in the Auditor-General's Report for 1894, h-2 and subsequent pages. The total, including the cost of the Justice Department at Ottawa and of Peniten- tiaries, amounts to $1,298,000, of which no less than $664,000 is absorbed by the pay and travelling expenses of judges. There has been an. ex- traordinary increase in the expenditure on this service of recent years. It may be true, as alleged, that the Superior Court Judges of Ontario are hard-worked, but that cannot be said of the sixty odd county jud- ges of this province, most of whom have too little to do. Reform of the expenditure on justice at Ottawa should go hand in hand with reform of the expenditure on justice by the provinces. In a paper printed in the minutes of the County Council of the County of Ontario (June Session, 1893), Mr. G. H Grierson gives an interesting account of the way in which the lOSt of administering the law has been augmented for the benefit of the office-hold- ers, and how the number of oiii e-holders and the range and amount of their fees, etc., have been increased through the supinenes'? of the taxpayer. Some- thing should be done, too, towards reducing the yearly payments to outside lawyers for Government work. The Ottawa Cabinet is full of lawyers, and lately a new law office, the Solicitor-Generalship, has been created. Neverthe- less, in the five years 1890-4 the country had to pay $540,000 to outside law- yers. The amount in 1894 was $101,000. An Ottawa firm has been draw- ing $19,000 a year foi- the past two years whilst the Solicitor-General has been running round on the stump with his $5,000 a year in his pocket. (iOVERNMENT HOUSE, ETC. To be effective, however, economy should begin at the fountain-head with a reduction of the number of Ministers. Our system of government differs from that of the United States in regard, amongst other things, to the responsibility of Ministers to the legislature. It might not be quite fair, therefore, to say that as eight Cabinet Officers at Washington, dra^ving $8,000 a year each, manage to transact the business of that country there ought no!) to be more than eight at Ottawa. However that may be, no one has ever demonstrated the necessity for thirteen or fourteen jdiis two Controllers and a Solicitor-General, aided from time to time by outside law- yers and royal commissions (a). Prior to 1873 the Liberal party advocated a reduction of the number of Ministers, and spoke scornfully of the cohort of messengers, clerks, extra-clerks, deputies, etc., with which each was sur- rounded. But when it got into office it forgot its good intentions, and now (a) A Westetn Ontario writer pays : — " So great is the demand on the part of fol- lowers in the House for the looked-for reward that the Cabinet must be extended from time to time to ssktisfy them. And who are chosen ? There must be an Irishman or two who wear the gteen and show their hatred of the orange, but only on useful ocoa- eions ; then there must be some of the other kind of Irishmen, who wear the lily and consign the Pope properly on lodge nights ; then two or three kinds of Frenchmen aie taken in because thayare Frenchmen of different kinds ; a brewer is added judiciously, and a temperance advocate follows. No one of all these is chosen as a true (Janadian, or because of any peculiar ability to serve the state. A man may be made a Finance Minister who never knew the use of a ledger. Tho Minister of Agriculture is likely to have obtained his knowledge as to the raising of barley in the malt-bouse or from BUck- stone. " 11 of fol- )d from man or il ocoa- ily and ten aie oiously, ,nadian, Finance ikely to BUck- the Conservative party makes that an excuse for increasing the number and enlarging the retinue of subordinates. The Premier has a salary of $8,000, plus $1,000 sessional allowance ; the others, $7,000, and $1,000 ; the Con- trollers and Solicitor-General, $5,000, and $1,000. In the Commons there are now two Speakers, the chirC drawiug $4,000, his deputy, $2,000, in addition to the sessional allowance of $1,000 and mileage. The Governor-General's salary, paid by the Canadian people, is $50,000 a year. Since Confederation he has cost altogether an average of $114,000. A return presented to Parliament gives the items down to 1892, in bulk, as follows : — Repairs to Rideau Hall. . $547,000 Furniture for Rideau Hall 109,000 Wages for Grounds 94,000 Fuel and light, etc 1 5 1 ,000 Salary $1,217,000 Travelling Expenses 146,000 Salaries of Secretaries . . 270,000 Expenses of Secretaries 217,000 Purchase of Ridejiu Hall 82,000 Rent for Rideau Hall . . 8,000 I $2,841,000 It is right that the official head of the country should be well provided for, but this is paying too dear. There are eight other representatives of royalty in the persons of tlie eight lieutenant-governors, usually active politi- cians seeking rest and refreshment, whose salaries, paid from the Dominion treasury, aggregate $70,000 a year. Eight little Rideau Halls are supported for their benefit at the expense of the provinces. The total annual charge for vice-royalty and sub-vice-royalty, including residences, A.D.C.'s, secre- taries, tfec, is not far from $250,000. What Patrons propose is that hence- forth the salaries alone should be paid and the nine imitation courts abolished. They are of no practical or theoretical value in a democratic age among a democratic people, but tend, if anything, to bring our institutions into con- tempt. The salaries themselves are too high. The Governor-General, with functions principally ornamental, gets as much as the President of the United States. Here are other anomahes : — The Lieutenant-Governor of Prince Edward Island gets $7,000 a year. The Governor (ther-e is no Lieutenant- Governor) of the neighboring State of Maine gets $2,000. The Lieutenant- Governor of the North- W'est Territories gets $7,000. The Governor of Min- nesota gets $5,000, and the Lieutenant-Governor $1,000 for serving as head of the State Senate. The Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario gets .$10,000. The Governor of Michigan $4,000, the Lieutenant-Governor $3 per day during the sitting of the legislature. The Lieutenant-Cxovernor of QueViec, population l,500,0CO, gets $10,000. The Governor of Illinois, population 3,800,000, gets $6,000 and the Lieutenant-Governor $1,000. The conferring of Old NA orld titles is a subject with which Patrons have no particular call to deal. The highest reward a Canadian politician can obtain, the only reward .some of the best of them care to seek, is the approval of the Canadian people. It is to be hoped, however, in view of the exhibi- tion of petty boodling on a recent occasion that we have seen the last of State funerals for public men {a). Nor is it desirable that Parliament should vote (a) The bill for the State funeral of Sir John Thompson amounted to $25,600. About $17,000 of the amount has been paid so far. The charge for decorating the church at Halifax, the whole of which was allowed by the official at Ottawa who exam- ined the accounts, was no less than $8,771.3.5 — sufficient to build a substanlial church. The undertaker and other tradesmen supplied themselves with a considerable stock hi trade at the expense of the taxpayer. Ttie affair seems to have been regarded on all hands as a grand chance for plunder. One Montreal firm sent in a bill for $1,925 for flowers, including rosea at 30 cents each. 12 money to the families of deceased Ministers except in cases of extreme neces- sity. The number of members of Parliament as well as of the legislatures might be reduced with advantage. In the House of Commons there is one member for every 22,500 people ; in the House of Representatives at Wash- ington one for every 174,000. The Senate at Ottawa contains practically as many members as the Senate at Washington. We can imitate American economy without danger to our British institutions, rather indeed to their greater security. THE SENATE. In its published platform the Liberal party advocates reform of the Senate. Patrons demand its abolition. It is a fifth wheel, and reform it as you may a fifth wheel it will remain. The constitution of 1841 established an upper house whose members were nominated for life, as senators now are, by the Crown, that is by the leader of the dominant party. The arrange- ment did not work well primarily because thei'e was nothing for an upper house to do, though partly because, as happens in the Senate, its members being beyond reach of the people resisted popular measures, such as the abolition of the feudal tenure in Lower Canada. After a time the legisla- tive council was made elective, that is, was composed of old life members and members elected by large electoral districts for a term of years. But this worked no better than the old plan, which was revived at Confederatior only to be found absurd again. Liberals seem to think that the American method of having senators elected by the provincial legislatures would prove satisfactory. But that method succeeds in the United States because under their form of government the Senate has important functions to discharge, whereas no upper house, whatever the mode of constituting it, would have any Special or useful function here. The House of Lords represented the landed aristocracy in an age when the aristocracy was the only curb upon the monarch, the only buffer between the people and absolutism. But it has nothing particular to do now, and accordingly its days are numbered. The notion that two chambers are indispensable to the proper working of representative institutions has been upset in this country by the example of Ontario, where a single chamber does the work as well and much more economically than two in Quebec. The abolition of the Legislative Council in Manitoba has in no way injured that province. The most plausible argu- ment for the Senate is that worked out so laboriously by the late Senator Trudel (NosChambres Hautes, 1880), that it is the bulwark of the smaller provinces against Ontario. Ontario and Quebec are each represented by 24 members, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick by ten each, Manitoba and Prince Edward Island by four each, British Columbia by three, the Terri- tories by two, and the theory is that by combining their votes the smaller provinces can successfully resist Ontario. But Ontario is not grasping or aggressive. Her rote in Confederation is not that of the predominant part- ner but of the patient milch cow. Some of the Australian colonies have •discovered like ourselves that upper houses are an expensive superfluity, ren- dering no service worth speaking of and often running counter to public opinion. In 1893-4 the Senate cost $133,000. The detailed items are given in the Auditor-General's report, i-2, etc. In the lump they are as follows :- Speaker $ 4,000 Indemnity and Mileage . . . 75,000 Salaries and Contingencies. $ 54,000 $133,000 neces- atures ia one Wash- ally as terican o their of the n it as blished aw are, rrange- upper lembers as the legisla- )ers and 3ut this eratior merican Id prove le under scharge, |ld have ed the 3 upon it it has be red. working example more Council !h e argu- Senator smaller dby 24 )ba and Terri- smaller sping or ,nt part- es have ity, ren- public iven in 54,000 5133,000 13 A feature of the Senate is the restaurant which the taxpayer has to main- tain (a). Nomination by the party leader has led to a curious result. One party having been in office since Confederation with the exception of a spell of five years, the chamber is composed to the extent of 90 per cent, of mem- bers of that party. It can no longer pretend to be a court of review judging questions impartially.' It initiates nothing but divorce legislation and fre- quently adjourns for days at a time till the Commons can find something^ for it to do. The newspapers seldom report its deliberations, which are of no public interest. Senator Trudel confessed that in his day no politician with a future cared to sit in the Senate and instanced the case of members resign- ing from it to i-un for the Commons. Matters have not improved in this respect. The Senate, in fact, is now virtually nothing but a gorgeous club for the ancients of the governing party. GENERAL REMARKS ON EXPENDITURE. It is impossible within the limits of a pamphlet to point out all the items of expenditure in which a saving might be effected or an abuse exists. The Patjron stump speaker can readily discover many for himself ; those just given wiU supply him, however, with cogent texts. The case can be made all the stronger by dwelling on the rapid growth of the expenditure in recent years as shown by comparing one year with another and contrasting it with the slow growth of population. Let it be said again, no reform is so urgently needed in Canada as a reduction of the cost of government in all three spheres, Federal, provincial and municipal. Thei-e is a swarm of de- partmental officials at Ottawa, and a still greater swarm of outside Federal officials, judges, customs and revenue officers, postmasters, fishery officers, Indian agents, canal employees, railroad employees and so on ; there is another host of well-paid clerks in the eight local machines, and still another «)f county attorneys, jail and asylum officials, division court clerks and bailiffs, sherilTs, registrars, license inspectors, school teachers, coroners, &c., and below or behind these the tremendous host of municipal officials ; our 700 legislators are iricreased to several thousand by the county, city, town, village and township councils, of which Ontario alone contains 800 ; while high over all, amid their archaic state and trappings, sit the Governor-General and lieutenant-g(jvernors with their considerable retinue, the whole consti- tuting a hierarchy of tax-handlers such as no other five million people on earth have to support out of moderate resources. It is not " revolutionary " for Patrons to declare that this immense edifice of officialdom ought to be reduced to a footing somewhat in keeping with our means and requirements. (a) Here is a specimen restaurant bill taken from the Auditor- General's report for 1892 : — Body for freezer $1.42, boilers and bowls $22.05, brooms and butter spades $2.90, champagne glasses $17.10, claret glasses, $21.38, committee on the restaurant $100, cups and saucers $0.09. dishes $1.50, engraving silver-ware $9, feather dusters $2, furnace scoop $1 , gridirons $1.50, hamper and hatchet $3.02, hock glasses $14.25, ice (61,4l0 pounds) $115.92, ice picks, &c., $10.18. jarsaad jugs $3.50, kni<'e polish 60 cents, l&rdiog needles 90 cents, liqueur glasses $11.70, mattress $4, moulds $2.98, oil 80 cents, padlock and p^ils $1.50, pans and pie plates $2, pillow $1, p 'lish 50 cen's, port glasses $8.31, potato mashers 50 cents, powder 33 cents, rat trap 75 cents, repairs to kitchen utensils $23.40, refrigerator $16.25, rollers $2.85, salad bowl and scrubbers $1.65, scrub- bing flannel $1.14, sherry glasses $11.40, spirit measure $2, steel $2.45, silver snap 40 cenis, steel skewers and strainer 96 cents, table oil cloth $1.52, table forks $24 22. tea- pots $4.34, tin dishes and tin pot $5.35, toasters $2.85, tiles $3.37, tumblers $8.07, vegetable boilers $5.70, vinegar bottle 50 cents, wire basket 60 cents, wood spoons 38 cents, wool mops $3.60, washing $89.67. See report for any year. MB 14 i ! Patron speakers might do well also to enlarge upon the fact that our public debts have grown to portentous proportions in a period when, as the census shows, little real progress has been made. To the Federal debt of $250,000,000 and Provincial debts amounting to $20,000,000 more, heaped up notwithstanding the great increase in taxes since 1879, must be added the municipal debts, which in Ontario reach nearly $50,000,000. A return just issued by the Bureau of Industries at Toronto (Part 6, Municipal Statistics, August, 1895), shows that between 1886 and 1893 the population in the organized mnnicipalities increased from 1,828,000 to 1,910,000, or less than five per cent., while in the same period the amount of taxes rose from $9,000,000 to $12,500,000, an increase of nearly 40 per cent., and the de- benture debt from $29,900,000 to $48,000,000, an increase of GO per cent. And while we have thus been piling up burdens with so little to show for it, our American neighbors have reduced their public obligations till, keeping in view their rate of development, they owe but a bagatelle by comparison. Here, we may be sure, is one of the causes of the exodus which every Canadian deplores. With a population of five millions, Can- ada, according to the American census, has sent nearly a million native Canadians to the United States. How many persotis of European birth have gone there is no means of knowing. Per contra, according to our census figures, the United State?, with a population of 63,000,000, had sent only 80,000 native Americans to Canada. These are considerations than which surely none more weighty ever pleaded for reform in the government of a country, not by exchanging one set of politicians for another set who will leave things substantially unaltered, but by electing new men favorable to bold measures. It adds a pang to refiect that no inconsiderable proportion of our indebtedness has gone in peculation and boodling. An English writer, while giving the party system credit for what good there is in it, does not believe it to be the "final or permanent type of government in civilized na- tions," because it is attended with dangerous evils which he proceeds to de- scribe as they have presented themselves in England. Here in Canada it has engendered to a greater extent than in England, or even the United States, an insensate partisanship which in its extreme form glories in " voting once for the party leader when he is right and twice when he is wrong." This sinister spirit is chiefly responsiljle for the misgovernment and down- right rascality, manifested on both sides of politics, that have at length over- whelmed us with burdens, disgraced us in the eyes of other people, and left us with an uncertain future. at our as the lebt of heaped added return inicipal lulatioii or less 56 from the de- ;r cent. ;o show Dns till, telle by I exodus US, Can- n native rth have r census ent only m which lent of a who will jrable to roportion jh writer, does not J.ized na- ds to de- iaaada it United " voting wrong." ^d down- jth over- hand left THE TARIFF QUESTION. • The fanner is deeply interested in the tariff. He was induced to vote for protection in 187H ty promises which it may bo well to examine briefly in tlie light of ascertained results. First, it was to augment the selling price of his wares. Mr. Haggart, now Minister of Railways, said in Parliament (Hansard, March, 1, 1878) : — "What they contended was that by a protective tariiFthey could so arrange matters that the produce raised by our agriculturists would be greatly in- creased in value." This was the burden of all the protectionist speeches and of resolutions introduced in the House. Prices were to be increased by keep- ing out cheap American produce and by creating an all-consuming home market within Canada. Cheap American produce, so Mr. Haggart contend- ed in the same speech, was the bane of Canadian agriculture and he gave examples which others on the same side multiplied. In saying this the protectionists, as any one can see, were blasting their own argument, for if a long trial of protection in the United States liad left the American farmer without an all-consuming home market so that instead of obtaining iiigh prices at his own door he was obliged to export his oats, pork, wheat and corn for what he could get to revenue tariff countries like Canada, what sense was there in the Canadian farmer trying so worthless a remedy ? We all know that the price of farm products has not increased since 1879. Can- ada like the United States is an exporting country and the price of the staples is determined by the law of supply and demand abroad, which is as much beyond the jurisdictifn of protectionist legislators as the phases of the moon. The reports of Mr. Giffen, statistician of the Government Board of Trade in England, notably that issued in 1888 (" Recent Changes in the Prices of Exports and Imports,") are interesting reading in this connection. Going back to the Crimean war, a halcyon period for the Canadian farmer, the average price of the wheat imported into the United Kingdom in 1854 and 1855 was 16^ shillings per 112 pounds, of oats nearly 10 shillings, wheat flour 23 shillings, liams 63 shillings, and so on. The price of wheat and flour has never been so liigh since. In the three years preceding the adoption of protection in Canada the price of wheat was as follows, per 112 pounds — SHILLINGS. 1876 10.43 1877 12.49 1878 10.99 In 1880 the price rose and Canadian protectionists made themselves be- lieve that it was their work, but in 1882 it fell to 10.67 shillings and has since gone lower. In the calendar year 1894 the declared value of the British imports of wheat ^total imports 70,126,232 cwts. value £18,760,505) was under 5.4 shillings per cwt. {a) The all-absorbing home market has also (a) There are no offioial price Btatistics in the Canadian blue books bub the following from the New York Tribune almanac for 1895 will answer as well. Tha Tribune being an out-and-out protectionist : — In 1877, the average price of No. 2 red winter wheat at New York was $1.43, in 1893, 73 cents. Oats No. 2 mixed, 42 cents in 1877, 3«j cents in 1893. Extra mess beef $13.13 p3r barrel in 1877, in 1893, $8.17. Bacon and hams M smsmm 16 disappointed U8. In 1878 we exported .^;i2,000,000 of animals and farm pro- duce raised within Canada, whereas in 1894 the exports were $52,000,000. So far from protection creating a secure home market for the farmer he is more dnppudent than ever upon the foreign market where competition is unrestrained. The answer of protectionists is that if cash prices are lower Julian they were the cost of factory gfwds has declined so that the farmer is 1 tter or no worse off than before, and they even suggest, some of them, that Q,rotection has brought about the decreavse in the cost of factory goods. But this is quite another question from that under consideration just now, which is Mr. Haggart's promise that) " the produce raised by our agriculturists would be greatly increa ed in value." The meaning intended to be conveyed by ** greatly increased in value " was that the cash price would be exalted, as plainly appears from the speeches made in Parliament and from the famous cry, "I'm for a policy that has raised wheat to $1.49." The red herring ab lut the fall in the cost of the goods the farmer has to buy with the sugges- tion that the N.P. has caused it will be considered in its proper place. It is not necessary to dwell on the change for the worse in the state of agriculture due to the shrinkage in prices. All over the world it is in a bad way and will no doubt remain in a bad way till it has adjusted itself to the new conditions of production and transportation. In Ontario, according to the census reports, there was a decrease in the wheat area between 1880 and 1890 of 500,000 acres— from 1,930,000 to 1,430,000— in Quebec, Nova Scotia and New B-everaI provinces. Take, for instance, the interests of the Province of Ontario. Can any one desire anything else than that their white wheat, their barley, sawn lumber, cattle, and a vast variety of other things should go free inio the United States, (heir best and most convenient market ? Can any one say that it would be less advantageous to Ontario that such should be the siatnof things rather than what obtains now ? Certainly it must be that frte aocss to ihe American market would be better, and, protanto, what woud be betttr for Ontario would uoquestionably be so for the of er provinces. The Province of Quebec ha* felt these rentrictioDS upon trade more than any other province. The productions of Quebec are not of achat actrr that will bear export to Eui ope, and the interests of that piovime are unquestionably in the diieC'on of a rcstoiation of free trade wiih the United States as early as possible. I therefore a»k the members from Quebec to cuuxidet very deliberately whether ihey are pursuing a wise policy in sustaining the Goveinn ent in anything that will have a ten- dency to excite the animotity of the p*ople on the o'her side of the line, and thereby postpone the restoration of free trade re ations, which the interests of this (.rovince most fctroDgly demand. New Brunswitk und Nova Scotia have the same inte'est in the question. There is the very important queotion of the employment of the shipping, the sale of fish, and the p oduoion nd the earliest poesi* le d»y ; Hnd I tell hon. gentlemen that any chantte in *he policy of tMs country in regard o curi'ts upon Amnri> an pro- duce, anything in thnway of retaliation, is a moat unwi^Aand unsta esmaalike policv to adopt." (Pari. Debates, Ottawa 7 tmes Reports. 1870, Vol, I. p, 571 ) Gait had been Finance Minister for years, and was one of the ablest of public men. It was said in 1878, however, that as the Amerioins would not admit our products it was the part of a high spirited people to tax theirs. The cry is repeated still. Because his barley, beans, calves, etc., are struck with a duty at the frontier, much to his los>* and that of the people of the United States, the farmer has been induced to strike at American manu- factures so that the cost of his implements, coal oil, barb wiie, cottons and other necessaries and conveniences of life is enhanced, and wha \/as bad mar'.o worse. The protected manufacturers laud this egregious piece of folly as '• patriotism," " true Canadianism," and so on till their dufie in some cases imagines he has done a tine thing for himself and the country. The "fair traders " or protectionist survivals in England propose a similar plan. *' Tax the goods of the foreigner," they cry, '' retaliate, make him squeal, force him to open his markets to us." What they are looking for is what the manu- facturers of Canada looked for and got, power by law to raise prices upon the home consumer. But Englishmen are not to be yuHed. •' Supfmse foreign countries," said Mr. Chamberlain, "are not persuaded by tie hon gentle- man or by his retaliatory policy to take off their duties'? How long is the 18 '! oxperiuQcnt to IhhI ?" Uetaliation in England would have to take the form of duties on food and raw material, and this, Mr. ChnmbcM-lain added, " would do us more harm than the foreigner." (a) Ueciprocity lias not Iwen achieved by coercion. All wo have got is an increased American tariff on some of our stuff. The protectionists probably never meant to aoci'pt a liberal reciprocity, even if offered. They are willing that the treaty of 1854 8lu)uld be resuscitated and free interchange of natural products established, but will not hear of manufactures being included. OTHER UNFULFILLKD PUOMIMKH. AVe set out also to promote foreign trade by steamship subsidies, iilng- land gives subsidies to mail steamers which were pointed to by our protec- tionists as proof that siie believes in artificially encouraging commerce. But the money is fairly earned, is part and parcel of the regular post office expenditure, and wherever practicable tenders for doing the work are called for. Supposing the money were paid as a subsidy to the vessel instead of 'being as it is remunei-ation for carrying the mail, there would be nothing very illogical about it. England as a free-trader seeks tiado everywhere, selling wherever she can, and in return admitting products free from every corner of the earth. We in Canada, however, subsidise steamships in order to cheapen rates for the Canadian exporter and then delibei-ately increase the rates by placing tariff obstacles in the way of return cargoes. 80 too Canadians and Americans build bridges across the St. Lawrence and Niagara rivers to promote closer commercial intercourse and then blockade them by putting a customs officer at each end. In 1894 (Auditor-Ueneral s.-4), a subsidy of $121,700 was paid to a steamship line running between Australia and Vancouver. The exports to Australia amounted to only $320,000, po that the cost to the taxpayer of selling the g(»ods was nearly 40 per cent. Of the $.'320,0C0, only $770 represented Canadian faru". products. The items were : Canned fruits $113 Canned vegetables 11 Animal produce 646 $770 There is not much, therefore, for the Canadian farmer in the export trade to Australia to which such a large bonus is paid. The imports from Australia in 1894 were $143,000, and if the bonused steamships are main- tained are likely to grow. Official returns, later than the regular trade re- turns, show that butter, tallow, canned meats, frozen mutton, fruits, etc., are being landed at Vancouver and Victoria. The frozen mutton landed at Vic- toria (Return from July 1, 1894, to Feb. 1, 1895), was worth 3^ cents a pound laid down there, the butter 17| cents. The total imports of farm pro- ducts at these two places during the seven months amounted to $10,000. Is a protectionist Government justified by protectionist principles in bonusing ships to bring foreign competition upon the home farmer in the home market? Of the exports to Australia, mannfactures constituted nearly one-third and the principal item was implements, $79,000. Patrons have it on good autho- rity that the Canadian Pacific has carried implements from the place of manu- facture in Ontario across the continent to Vancouver and thence by the (a) Speech on Fiench Tiealy, Hiuse ol Cdnmcnp, Aug. 12, 1881. orin of would t is an -obiibly willing natural 1. . Eng- : protec- :e. But 38t office re called ;8tead of ling very e, selling ry corner order to rease the So too 1 Niagara a them by fil S.-4), a 1 Australia •20,000, so per cent. The items ;he export ports from fare main- trade rc- Is, etc., are led at Vic- Ji cents a farm pro- 1 0,000. Is bonusing je market 1 [third and lood autho- le of manu- Ice by the 19 bonused Hhips to Sidney, 8,000 miles further on in a direct lino, for lesK than it chargeH to carry them from Ontario to points in Manitoba like Winnipeg »nd Brandon. The Iwauses paid to steamships engaged in the West India trade amounted in 18!)1 to ^96,000. The ships run from Halifax to St. John, ports which we are trying to build up in this way. The tratlic can-ied by tne Canadian Pacitic from the North-western States to the Atlantic seaboard is '/astly greater than our njodest trade with the British and Spanisli West In- dies ; but, as said before, these ports are discriminated against in the pub- lished tariffs of the Canadian Pacific, and the North- westein traffic goes to fioston and New York. It is no wonder that in the last census decade the population of Halifax increased only seven per cent while that of St. John actually fell off five. From I87.'i to 1877 our gross trade (t'xports and im- ports) with the West Indies averaged a good deal more than it has average list for a t on all the )n, that the only weak s rules, aad 168. I have lis question, vuice of the it a commu- ) increase, if 3 railroads ons that it ) cents per ibly a cent our favor, ■j dialect we But Canada ral, provin n the form latural pro- the N. P. (urchases to at in 1875 |-e igGO.OOO,- lited Stites ;onsist in insequently iported in ere taxed were to be Inports and ]al abstract 1875, and Ireas in the [from i>95,- with of 30 lious con- itish demo- )V man, we igh author- tf trade per tittde, "Re man but the aggregate amount of trade, including not only the actual amount of trade at the present moment, but the recent progre.-s of trade as indicat- ing its pi'obable future." In 1865 the Confederation Council which met at Quel)ec urged the necessity for establishing closer trade relations with Cuba, Brazil and Mexico. We have pent roving commissions to those places, to the Argentine, the Brit- ish West Indies and elsewhere, but not with much success. A treaty with France has lately been secured whicii may affect Canadian wine-growers but is not likely to have any other important result. Our entire foreign trade in 1875 was |197,O00,( 00, in 189-1, . compel him to pay in gold for their exports. They made the mistake of supposing that a nation can buy without selling, and did not perceive that jrold and silver are not wealth in themselves Vjut mere instruments for trans- Hence arose the " balance of trade " theory, was profitable to export much and import little (a) as well as the policy of diminishing imports by putting heavy duties on them known as protection. In course of time most men saw they had been in error about gold and silver being wealth, but protective duties were maintained because they enabled the home manufacturer to extort high prices from the consumer on the plea of developing home industry. If we keep these elementary truths before us it is easy to see why the N.P. has failed to bring prosperity. It has turned us into a nation of Crusoes. We began to manufacture aM kinds of goods which we could have got at a less expenditure of labor ard capital in exchange for the products that we can raise to better advantage than the foreigner. A vast amount of capital (and there is nothing a new country ne(ds so much as capital), has been lost by those who started factories under the wing of the N.P. Some did not understand the business they embarked in but trusted to the duties to pull them through. All soon discovered that the Canadian market was too small for the plant at work, and us they could not sell their dear goods abroad in competition with foreign goods except at a sacrifice, many had to succumb. The European emigrant noted the increase in the cost of living and either kepi away or moved out after lieing here a while. We all know how politics have been bedeviled. The " infant industries " have bought and paid for their license to fleece the Canadian people with campaign subscriptions em- ployed to corrupt them into submitting. The bonusing of public works, car- ried to such excess with so little to show for it, has been the natural corollary of protection, precisely as scandals affecting Parliament have been the inevit- able outgrowth of the l)onusing. But by odds the worst evil is the load im- posed upon agriculture at a time when in consequence of the world-wide de- pression it has been least able to bear burdens. The other natural industries f\ (a. ) The unsoundness of the balance-of- trade theoiy may be illustrated thus : — A Canadian exporter ships ten thousantl dollars worth of products to Jamaica and «xchange8 them for$12,r)00 worth of sugat -vnd fruits, which he brings back. The tran- aactinn has been remunerative, but on the 'anceof-trade theory Canada is a loser. But if the vessel containing the sugar and t ui -> is lost at sea then Canada is a gainer, for we have exported more than we nave imported. g» peak in borrow - He can .n get it. nt which jtures or riwise, a ist which id so the b perhaps ago Mr. ! System, •alth, and urpose of iigner, £0 ; mistake eive' that for trans- " theory, ell as the jnown as ror about id because trom the why the Crusoes. got at a that we ►f capital [been lost did not fs to pull ,00 small Ibroad in ;uccumb. id either politics [paid for Ions em- |rks, car- jorollary inevit- load im- ide de- lustries Ihus :— A lica and The tran- a loser. gainer, 26 have suffered, but agriculture has been cruelly bled. Why wonder at the deplorable failure in the North-West when the pioneei', dependent on a single pair of rails to carry his stuff to the seaboard 2,000 miles off, and excluded from the natural market and the nearest market for much that ho raises, is on top of these grave disabilities compelled to pay fancy prices for everything he has to buy in order to support distant industries not half so important to the body politic as his own that regard him as a sort of statutory vassal 1 And what is he but a vassal 1 Human slavery deprives a man of the right to sell his labor freely, and protection of the right to exchange the products of i' freely. The difference between tiie two thraldoms is only one of degree. A low tariff would give the farmer cheaper goods, ie , would reduce cost of production, i.e., would increase the net return. The high tariff has, of course, diminisho I the net return from every acre of land in the Dominion and from evei'y car-load of cattle, grain and cheese sold 8t home or abioad. If a horde of bandits had roamed through the land levying tribute of every farmer's wagon going to market, we should have thought it hard, yet the N. P. has done that in reality. It has done more. To recur to our brief account of the nature of trade, the Englishman, when he finds that he cannot readily exchange product for product with a foreign customer owing to obstacles in- terposed by such politicians as ours, goes elsewhere if he can do so without incurring greater loss and annoyance, and starts a commerce with some one of moi-e sense. If there were two stores near a farmer, and the road to one was rendered impassable by the stupidity of the storekeeper, he would resort to the other provided the prices of both were about ecjual. So with England. Other things being equal, she prefers to buy, i.e., exchange her manufactures for food and raw material, fi-om countries where the largest measure of free trading exists. And of late years, with that object in view, she has been pouring capital into India and the Argentine Republic, whose tariffs are com- paratively low, to develop their food-growing capabilities anrl pave the way for a larger commerce with them. Nevertlieless we hoar N. P. advocates wondering why the price of food products is so low, and why England does not inv st more of her surplus funds in Canada. We put sentiment out of •sight when we struck her products with exorbitant imposts to our own heavy loss. Why should she be guided by it in seeking new fields for investment 1 What right have we to complain if in her efforts to secure more rational cus- tomers she labors for the development of agricultural countries whose com- petition we can scarcely face and live? Carlyle tells of a forlorn widow and her children who were left to perish of fever in a great city. She cried : " Behold I am sinking, bare of help, ye must help me, I am your sister, bone of your bone ;" but they refused. " Notlrng is left but that she prove her sisterhood by dying and infecting you with typhus; .seventeen of you lying dead will not deny guch proof that she really was flesh of your flesh." It is so with agriculture. Instead of lightening its load in its dire extremity the protectionists have regarded it as a natural-born beast of burden, till it has proved its transcendent importance as a Canadian industry by infecting the favored industries with its depression atid making the entire community i^hare its misfortunes. ALLEGED ADVANTAGES TO THE FARMER. Protectionists maintain, to be sure, that they benefit the farmer. As we have seen, they are not protecting him against Australian competition when they coax it by bteamship bonuses to come here. At present his only possible 2« . • competitor in the (Jaimdian market is the American farmer. Canadian pro- tectionists say in effect that, although he has been protected up to the eyes for years, the American farmer does not possess a home market in which he can sell all he raises at remunerative prices, but is obliged to export vast quantities dirt-cheap against which it is necessary to protect the Canadian farmer. They allow, in short, that so far as the farmer is concerned protec- tion in the States is a failure. American protectionists like McKinley say, in turn, that notwithstanding the N. P., which was to increase its price and furnish it with a home market, Canadian farm produce is so miserably low that the American farmer must be protected against it, or he will starve. They pronounce Canadian protection a fraud so far as the interests of the Canadian farmer are concerned. If there were two yellow-wagon doctors at a fair vending the same lightning oil and if each declared it to be a hum- bug in the hands of the other, we should have little difficulty in coming to the conclusion that both were (juacks. The cheese industry has grown rapidly in Canada, and protectionists say gleefully : "Yes, cheese is protected three cents per pound." In the States it is pi'otected four cents. On protectionist principles it must be dearer there than here, so that our duty is useless. Practical cheese-men like Mr. D. M. Macpherson, Patron M.P.P. for Glengarry, say wiUi truth that if our duty had never been imposed at all the industry would have thriven with no less vigor. '\he natural conditions existing here, the climate, soil and water, coupled with the energy of the factory owners and the farmers, who had to resort to some other staple wh^n wheat became unprofitable, have made the industry what it is. Protection simply handicaps it. There were over a thousand factories in operation in this province in 1894. In each the machi- nery, piping, cloth, thermometers, curd knives, etc., are taxed ; the duties on coal and iron increase railroad rates, the tariff on imports increases ocean rates, while the farmer who supplies the milk is taxed right and left. Alto- gether, Mr. Macpherson calculates tliat protection does the farmer out of about a cent per pound on all the clieese made in the country, and out of halt' a cent or so on all the butter. According to the Bureau of Industries, (irJ, 800,000 pounds of factory cheese were made in Ontario in 1894. "Anyway" the protectionist cries, " you must admit that the duty of 7^ cents per bushel on corn increases the price of corn." No doubt it does, and more's the pity. The cattle-raising and dairying industries, of so much importance to the country, require cheap feed above everytliing. It is their essential raw material. Corn is relatively the best and most economical of feed. This year the American crop amounts to two thousaml five hundred million bushels, much of which will be converted into beef and pork that will compete with our beef and pork in Europe. France, like Canada, raises .^ ' lit not sufficient for her wants, and this is how the experiment of ;■: s turning out there. (British Foreign Office report, 189.'), :v ' uce) : — •^ ".■■ling the Btnall production of maize, which hardly exceeds 7,000,000 .nee, agriculturists succeeded in putting a duty of three francs ou this ^i&in iii the eyes- which he cport vast Canadian ed protec- inley say, price and irably low ill starve. sts of the m doctors be a hum- coming to ionists say the States ;arer there Ir. D. M. our duty ith no less md water, ho had to made the ire over a Jie machi- ; duties on sea ocean ft. Alto- er out of ul out of iidustries, |ie duty of »t it does, so niuch It is. their domical of hundred 3ork that Ida, raises riment of )rt, 1895, 7,(X)0,000 fraacs on takers and laintained. |:ee[>ing up ree trade buntry to for pro- ' , . , . 27 lucts which they cannot raise at all or only at an excessive expentlituro of effort. With free trade between Canada and the States we could barter barley for their corn and both would profit by the transaction. Under any circumstances it would pay us to obtain corn at first cost instead of with a duty added. The Ontario hay crop of 1894 was a short one, that of 1895 was still more deficient, and to clieck a supply of cheap corn, to be paid for in barley, beans or some other Canadian product, is not Aviso. It is worth noting in this connection that the number of hogs in Ontario in 1 ^^4 was not as large as the number in 1891, while this year we have had to resort to extraordinary measures in order to keep our cattle alive. By Section 12 of the tariff the Government offers to admit corn free fi'oni the States when they admit our barley free, Because we suffer along with the American consumer from the United States tax on our good barley, it is of advantage that we should suflFer still more by taxing their cheap corn — such is the logic of protection. Except to throw dust in the farmers eyes, wliat is the use of the 15 cent duty on wheat or the 30 per cent, duty on barley 1 Does the farmer's wife make anything by the duty on eggs or poultry ? We have but to compare prices at Buffalo with prices at Toronto or Montreal to see that we are " pro- tecting " ourselves against poultry, eggs, barley, wheat, beans, potatoes, etc., that fetch more over there than here and consequently do not compete with ours in this market. So cattle (20 per cent. ad. val.) and live hogs (a cent and a half per pound) bring more, as a rule, at Buffalo or Chicago than in Canada. When live hogs are dearer at Chicago than Toronto, pork at Chicago is often cheaper, a phenomenon explained by the fact that the Chi- cago packers do an immense business with the maximum of economy and turn the refuse, wasted here, to good account. It is said, by way of a jest, that they utilize everything but the squeal. (a) Certain farmers in the United States are agitating for a bounty on the export of farm products as compensation for the loss inflicted by protection. Canadian farmers ask for no favors, in Government butter dealing or otherwise. All they desire is the elementary right to buy in the cheapest market, where they are obliged to sell. Ic is said that the farmer gets back from the enhanced profits on the "small truck " he sells in factory towns all he contributes under the tariff to the maintenance of the factories, and more. If a factory or any number of factories depending for existence on the tribute levied by the N. P. were to return to the farmers as niucli as they took from them, how could they live? It is safe to say the farmers in the vicinity of Montreal, Toronto or Hamilton do not get their own back, much less those remote from large centres. Then it is said : — " But look at the deplorable condition of the British farmer under free trade." Britain is a huge importer of food. Canada is an exporter. Duties would undouVjtediy raise tlie price in England and starve the masses ae they were starved under the Corn Laws, but, as happened then, the beneficiary would not be the working farmer so much as the idle land- lord. Between 1820 and ]8.'57, the Corn Laws being in full blast, Parlia- ment tippointed five different coniniittees to investigate the causes and pos- sible remedies of agricultural distress. In years of scarcity when the price (a) It is not worth while giving comparative price lists here for by the time this pamphlet reaches the reader they would be out of date. The Patron speaker can read- ily obtain a copy of the Buffalo Commercial, a daily paper, and compare its quotations with those of the Toronto Mail avd Empire for the fame day. I ! 28 of wheat was very hifih the landlords fixed rents in proportion, so that when the price fell the tenant could not make both ends meet. Under free trade the British farmer has to face world-wide competition, but so have the farmers of Canada and the United States. He gets higher prices than they get, and his position as a rent-payer is not much if any worse than that of thousands of farmers on this side who are cari-ying mortgages. If Government does not help him it does nothing to crush him. He procures factory goods at the lowest price in exchange for his products. Combines cannot live in the bracing air of competition ; their habitat, the place where they thrive, is the protectionist hothouse. France imports food, though not nearly so much as Britain, and taxes her imports. Yet the British l^reign Ofiice i-eport above ijuoted speaks of a '' strong protectionist " in the Chamber of Deputies be- moaning the pj'ostration of French agriculture, the fall in prices, the multi- plication of mortgages the depreciation in the value of land, " eviction following eviction, and finance companies being obliged in spite of themselves to i-econstitute large domains akin to those of feudal times." Where the French fanner suffers is in the taxes he has to pay to the manufacturing in- dustries, and, as in our own case, the duties have provoked retaliation on the part of neighbors, who have excluded his products from their markets by- higher tariffs. We need not go to Fiance, however, for proof ihat pT-otection is not a cure-all for agricultural distress. In addition to the municipal statistics already (juoted from the Bui-eau of Industries, the agricultural statistics for 1894 just issued throw light on the depression in Ontario. Since 1883 the value of farm lands has decreased $67,500,000, nowithstanding that the cleared land has increased from 10,500,000 acres to 12,300,000. In the same period farm buildings have increased by $41,000,000, implements by |8,000,- 000, live stock by $11,500,000, but, as the Bureau says, "these improve- ments have no more than kept pace with the progress of clearing." As a last bid for the support of the farmer it is said that even if pro- tection does him harm he should remember that it was by protection Eng- land became a great manufacturing and maritime nation. In The Xineteenth Centuri/, February, 1880, Mr. Gladstone replies briefly to this wild assertion. He takes the cotton industry, and shows that while during the protection era it was the most powerful of British manufacturing industries, it was also the least protected. He says : — *' The pretended benefit of protection during the first minority of a trade is just what it had least of all enjoyed, and, consequently, it had grown beyond any other trade. The other trades of the country were kept in swaddling clothes while cotton had its right hand free. Is it possible to contend that the swaddling clothes were the secret of strength in face of the fact that the child but half swaddled grew the most, and that, when the whole was removed from the rest, and the residue from it, then Hs brothers and sisters began to catch up? Protection, if a (>uardian, is a guardian who carries to his own banking account the proceeds of the minor's estate ; and the favor now shown to protection in America and elsewhere is simply endowing such a guardian with an annuity instead of ensconcing him in the prisoner the dock." ' ITS (JKNERAL DISADVANTAGES. While it adds nothing, then, to the market value of crops, let us enquire how protection affects the cost of producing them. On this point the evi- dence is irresistible. Protection was engineered through the polls and through Parliament by the manufacturers, and they have financed it ever since. On the eve of a general election, it will be remembered, a leading politician likened himself to a man in a tree shaking the fruit to the ground for the I hat when trade the J farmers ' get, and housands lent does goods at .'e in the ve, is the much as •rt above I u ties be- le multi- eviction lemselves here the uring in- ation on irkets by rotection statistics istics for ice 1883 that the the same 18,000,- improve- L if pro- n Eng- neteentlt sertioii. itection .vas also is just Y other cotton 'ere the b, aud (then its ]an who ^e favor lardian Inquire lie evi- irough On itician >r the 29 Vjenelit — it was not a polite simile— of a lot of hogs; and, adding that it was their duty to see that he did not lark the sinews of war, forthwitli passed the hat. It would have sounded no worse if he had compared himself to one of those Turkish Pashas who stand in with the brigands and share the ransom they get for their captives. Only, under the taiiff system the victims are not rich men exclusively, but rich and poor together ; and, as will be shown in a moment, the poor man has frequently to pay a greater ransom than the rich. In the House, in 1878 (Hansard, March 1) Mr. Haggart declared that the price of store goods would not be dearer in Canada by reason of protection than elsewhere, but the contrary : — " Mtntion was made of the poor coDsumer who, it was said, would have to pay more taxes under a protective tariff. Protectionists did not advocate anything of the kind, and did not in' end that the consumer ehould pay any more taxes than at present. They simply desired to secure such a re-aHjuBlment of the tariff as would encourage manufactures that would thrive in this country ; and the manufaci urers said to the Can- adian people : ' If you will grant us adequate protection we will not only sell to you as cheaply as other countties can, but in course of time more cheaply.' " In one cf the resolutions submitted to the House by Mr. Haggart's leader, the N.P. was going to " prevent Canada from being a sacrifice market.'' That is, foreign goods were to be excluded for being too cheap, while the Canadian manufacturers were to sell them as cheaply and in course of time more chaaply — a promise which has not been fulfilled and probably was never meant to be. If Mr. Haggart ever cons that old speech, how does he recoti- * cile it with the existence of the combines ? A manufacturing combine may Vie formed to reduce cost of rent, plant and management, in which case, like a combination store, it is beneficial. But most of the manufacturing com- bines which have arisen since 1879 are of the predatory kind, and the farmer is their favorite quarry. It is not worth while naming them in detail. Time was when they kept under cover, but now they flaunt themselves in the light of day and hold their periodical meetings for determining to what amount he shall be "held up " on salt, cotton, barb wire or nails with as much flour- ish as if tSey were benefactors of the race instead of parasitic bodies preying on honest industry. The cost of manufactures has declined everywhere since 1879 owing to new processes and discoveries, but it is undeniable that protection hinders the Canadian people from getting them as cheap as they sell for elsewhere — that, indeed, is its raison d'rire. How much the farmer is " held up " for every year it is hard to say. The customs duties, let it be borre in mind, represent merely the sum added to the pi'ice of foreign goods import ed. But fully as great a sum is added under cover of the tiriffto the cost of goods manufactured in Canada. In England, practically all that the great mass of the people pay are the bare excise and customs duties. They are ex- empt from the income tax. The excise duties are collected principally from liquors and tobacco, which nobody is obliged to use. The following is a list of the articles (other than tobacco, beer, wine and spirits, and substances con- taining spirits) subject to customs taxation in, England, from the British trade returns for 1894 : — Chicory I2d. per pound). Playing Cards (3s. 9d. per doz. packs). Cocoa (Id.). Cofiee (14s per cwt. on raw). Dried Fruits (various rates). Tea (4d. per pound). Roasted Coffee and Chicory (2d. per pound) There is not a shred of protection. The duties levied on foreign beer, .spirit** cards, etc. are balanced by the excise duties which the home producer It.ll 30 i M t has to pay, so tliat he derives no beuetit from them. Tea, ootFee, (hit^l fruits, etc , are not, of course, produced in Enj^land so tliat the duty on them is not protective. In 189 I, Enghind admitted foreign articles free to the amount of i::{89,000,000 and tax* d £28,000,000 worth, whereas our free list was $50,000,000 and our taxed foreign gootls $03,000,000. In Canada as in Knghind, payment of the excise duties is optional in the sense that one need not smoke or drinl<. P>ut customs taxation in Canada is imposed on many Imndred articles, including all the neces.saries of life and production, and on lop of them the home manufacturer exacts his s{)ecial tribute by charging us moi'c ft)r the goods he makes than we could get them for abroad in ex- change for our wheat, cattle or cheese. In his famous tariff reform message to Congress in 1887, President Cleveland put this important point clearly : — " The amount of the duty measurea the tax paid by those who purchaae for use these imported articles. Many of these things, however, are raised or manufactured in our own counti'y, and the duties levied upon foreign goods atd products are called pro- tection to the home manufactures because they render it possible for those of our people who are manufacturers to make those taxed articles and sell them for a price equal to that demanded for the imported goods that have paid customs duly. So it happens that while comparatively few use the imported articles, millions of our people whenever use and never saw any of the foreign products, purchase and use things of the same kind made in this country, and pay for them nearly or quite the same enhanced price which the duty adds to the imported articles. Those who buy imports pay the duty eharged thereon into the public treasury, but the majority of our citizens, who buy domestic ailicles of the same class, pay a sum at least approximately equal to this duty to the home manufacturer." Two propositions may be laid down as tolerably sound, and they sum up the Patron platform on this subject : First, taxes imposed on the people, as in England, wholly and solely for the support of government, and with due regard to each citizen's ability to pay, and in- such manner as to put most into the treasury with the least waste, are just and equitable. Second, taxes imposed on the people not for the support of government alone, but to enable a particular few to benefit at the expense of the many, are robbery, no matter how named. Recollect also that, as just shown, these tariff obstacles tend to lose us the custom of great food-buying countries in the Old World, notably of Eng- land, who goes where she can do better and spends her surplus capital in works of development. Further, protection wastes capital. The prospect of roaring profits leads to excessive investment in manufactures, the local mar- ket is soon glutted, and, as exporting in the face of cheaper foreign goods is ilifhcult, notliing remains but fierce competition at home, from which the consumer derives but little benefit because prices are still higher than foreign, followed in due course by the formation of combines for restricting the out put and maintaining [>rices at the highest notch. The Canadian home mar ket consists of only five million customers scattered over a vast area. 'J he cost of selling goods through commercial travellers journeying from Van- couver txj Cape Breton is high, the cost of shipping the goods is high, and the moie remote the customers the greater the risk and the less frequent the turn-over. If we had free trade on this continent the manufacturers and merchants of Toronto would not trade with communities like Nova Scotia and British Columl)ia, who would be supplied nearer home, but with the far larger populations immediately to the south, in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan, with some of whom they can converse by telephone and all of whom they could reach in a few hours by rail or water. Considei', too, 31 and oil lose us oreigii, le out le mar 'Jho 11 Vaii- h, and ent the s ami Scotia he far Ivania, le and 51', too, the immorality of protection and its baneful inllueiicc y earninj^ it hut l)y j^cttinj^ Parliament to lej^islate it from the pockets of the people into their [)ockets, corruption with its Red Parlors, hired newspapers, cmpaiffn Ixtodle and " tomelhing for the l)oy" is inevitable. To revert to the actual material loss, if we assume that in addition to the $'20,000,00 ) a year paid in custom duties !ii;20,000,000 a year goes to the home manufacturer in high-tariff prices, the Kum he has done us out of since 1879 exceeds the gross Federal, debt. Yet protection- ists, in alarm at the depression now pievailiiig, ask as if it were a hard ques- tion to answer : — " J low is it that the farmer is so poor ,' " It is impossible to show the working of each of t' e hundretis of duties that increase the coit of farming and diminish the purchasing oi- exchange power of the farmer's products. A few salient instanc(vs will be given and the rest must be judged from them. THE IMPLK.MKNT DUTIKS. Let us take the case of the implement industi-y in which farmers are l)articularly interested. First of all, however, a prevalent error needs cor- recting. It is commonly said that the duty on implements has been reduced to 20 per cent. This is not so. The duty on mowing machines, self-binders, harvesters without binders, reapers, sulky and walking ploughs, harrows, cultivators, seed-drills, horse-rakes, is now 20 per cent., but the duty on scythes, hay knives, lawn-mowers, pronged forks, hoes, small rakes, mattocks, grub hoes, etc., remains at 35. The implement industry took root in U{)per Canada over forty years ago. As the province does not possess coal, the iron manufacture could not be pursued with advantage, and iron, steel and other materials were admitted free or at nominal rates while the duty on foreign implements was low, the highest rate being 17^ per cent, just prior to 1871). In 1879, the duty on foreign implements was raised to 25 and three yisirs later to 35 per cent. The high duty attracted a superabundance of capital, and there was soon plant enough in Ontario ti, supply implements to a far larger market than we possessed, even with the opening of the North-West. Then a war of each against all broke out among the manufacturers till the following were driven out of business, permanently or temporarily, or retired to escape loss : — Globe Mfg. Co., London. Elliott, London. Crawford, London. Harvester Co., Chatham. Maxwell, St. Mary's. Watson, Ayr. Haggart, Brampton. Joseph Uall Works, Oshawa. Harvester Works, Dundas. Gurney Manfg, Co., Dundas. Brown h capititl as does exist by i»asting a portion of it in occapatious or emp'oynicnts wh ch a e imperfectly productive, and which need, despite the ratural advantages attached to the fiome pioduction, the artificial assistance of legislative protection in order that they may exibt " l);uk lit tlie faniior all t.lin)u;,'h ilw Doininioii in I lie sluip*- of dour <,'«mh1s aiinlements to Kurope, Australia and South America, which last yeai- amounted to !?4t'»."),00(), Ontario's shore being !i?4.")2,- 000 worth. The (Jovernment has, tlierefore, granted implement as well ns other raanufacturers a drawback of !)9 per cent, of the (hity paid on imported materials entei-ing into the ccmstruction of art icl(!s destined for export. That is to say, wIumi an implement tiruj pays $100 duty on pig iron from CMiicago it gets iji^i^ back when the binder or mower fabricated from tht^ pig is shipped to Sydney or Huenos Ayres. But if tlu; machine is sold in Canada it gets nothing back ; the whole amount of the (Uity is retained l)y the (JovernnKuit and exacted in the last analysis from the Canadian fai-mer. In this par- ticular, therefore, the Canadian farmei- is discriminated against. Tt is not pretended that, because of tlie di'awl)ack, Canadian-made implements are sold for less abroad than at home. Tiiere arc various reasons why a higlier price can be demanded from the foreigner. I>ut the Government should not single out the foreigner for extraordinary favors. Manifest! ', as the di-awback of 99 per cent, of the duty enables the Canadian manufacturer to sell cheaper to the Argentine farmer than before, the removal of 99 per cent, of it by legislation would enable him to sell cheaper to the Canadian farmer than now. Why should the latter be passed over when taxes .are being remitted ? The Nova Scotians complained when the 99 per cent, drawback was insti- tuted because it deprived them of any chance they may have had of supply- ing pig iron for the Ontario export trade in implements, and to that extent was contrary to N. P. doctrine. It has had another efTect which they scarcely anticipated. The raanufacturers cannot keep their foreign and Canadian pig iron separate in the process of making implements, and rather than risk the loss of the drawback to their foreign trade they use as litth* as they can of Canadian iron in manufacturing for the home market. Thus the drawback is unjust on protectionist principles to the Nova Scotia furnace- man and unfair on every principle to the Canadian farmei-. By Section 591 of the United States tariff, Congress ofFers free trade between the two countries in "plough.s, tooth and disk harrows, harvesters, I'eapers, agricultural drills and planters, mowers, horse-rcakes, cultivators, threshing machines and cotton gins." The Ottawa Government has refused this offer because, as it confesses by granting the drawback on machines going abroad, the duties levied on the raw materials enhance the cost of manufactur- ing implements in Canada. So long as those duties are maintained, free trade in implements cannot be brought about without loss to this long-established (a) Sir Henry Tyler, lately Pre«ident of the Grand Trunk, said the soft coal duty cost that eompauiy $350,000 a year. « 34 industry. Tlie first step, therefore, is to {^ei the raw material duties repealed. It is absurd from a protectionist point of view that they should be higher than the duty on the oon)pleted article. Cheaper implements are a necessity. In the Argentine the duty on them is 10 per cent., in the Australian colonies the highest duty appears to be 15 per cent. Transportation rates on imple- ments to tliose countries from Ontario are no higher than rates from Ontari<» to points in Manitoba and the Territories. On the other hand, the wheat i-ates fi'om the Ai'gentine to Liverpool are lower than the wheat rates from any part of Manitoba, indeed than the wheat rates from most parts of Ontario. In the light of facts like these it is idle for protectionists to keep telling us that implements are cheaper to-day than they were ten or twenty years ago. What is wanted is a still greater cheapness, that the Canadian farmer may heave a chance with his competitors in the countries just named and in the United States, and that can be got by the repeal (»f the raw material duties. The implement duty can then b'i reduced or repealed with justice to all concerned. " But," protectionists say, " repeal of the raw material duties would close the Nova Scotia furnaces and the furnace about to be stai'ted at Ham- ilton." This Hamilton furnace, by ihe way, will when in blast be all Ontario has to show for eight years of iron and steel protection during which S20,- 000,000 has been collected from the Dominion in duties, and several millions more abstracted from our pockets by the furnace men, casting works, nut and bolt combine«<, barb wire combines, nail combines, and other monopolies. The answer to the cry that the furnaces would have to shut down is that Patrons are out for the greatest good to the greatest number, (a.) All the "infant" furnaces in Canada, including the charcoal ones in Quebec that have been running since the middle f^f last century, are of no account by the side of the implement and other iron-using industries which are being severely injured, and less than none, viewed as factors of production and prosperity, by the side of the 700,000 farmers who want cheaper tools. In 1894 (Auditor-General, s. 42), $125,000 was paid as bounties on pig iron. About 60,000 short tons were produced in Canada. The imports of pig iron for home consumption were 45,000 short t(ms , the duty collectes the present duty is not 70, but something under 32, another instance of discrimination against the poor. Nevertheless the cheaper pearl buttons are not manufactured in Canada. There, was some talk of an " infant " being set up in Montreal to manufacture them, and the enormous I 41 duty was probably imposed for its benefit, but the project fell through. The duty on buttons is a burden on the manufacturers of ready-made garments and a tax on us all. Rubber-buttons, ■which are sold abroad at from 40 cents to $4 per gross, are taxed 4 cents per gross and 20 per cent, ad val., still an- other instance of taking more from the consumer of cheap than from the consumer of dear goods. Section 109 of the tariff admits wall paper ungrounded not including borders at 35 per cent. The next section taxes " all other paperhangings and borders, per roll of eight yards and under, and proportionately for greater lengths," a cent and a half per roll and 25 per cent. Three "infants "are operating under the latter section, one at Toronto and two at Montreal. All three manufacture cheap papers, such as are sold in country stores. Cheap papers can be bought abroad as low as six cents per roll, and on these the duty is therefore 50 per cent. Well-to-do people buy stylish papers from the United States, England, France, Germany, Switzerland and Japan. A roll of English " leathers " i.e. paper the background of which looks like fancy leather, or a roll of Japanese, costs all the way to $3.50 per y^rd or more. If we take a twenty -dollar roll the duty of a cent and a half per roll and 25 per cent, is only 25 per cent, and a minute fraction instead of the 50 per cent, charged to the farmer. It is class legislation to empower three or four individuals to tax us all to keep their factories goin"^ ; it is class legislation again, of the worst sort, to authorize them to tax the poor man more than the rich. . LET us HAVK TARIFF KKFORM. These instances must suffice. Let the farmer get a copy of the l7-07i Age, a weekly newspaper of New York, and compare its quotations with those of the Monetary Times of Toronto, in order to see how he is " held up" by the nail and barb wire combines. Prices vary so much that it would be useless to give a table here. A short time ago a manufacturing comp^my in Toronto, which uses a great quantity of wire nails for packing, found that it was cheaper to bring them in car-load lots from Newcastle, Pa., paying 13 cents per 100 pounds for transportation and the duty of one cent per pound at the frontier, which was equal to 75 per cent. ad. val., than to get them from an " infant " within a few doors of its own factory. Not many persons, how- ever, can afford to import in large quantities or to import at all, and these are ground by the combines. His wagon, buggy, horse-shoes, clock, tweed suit, harness, pump, soap, vinegar, baking powder, starch, axle grease, boots, carpets, churn, washing-machine, clothes wringer, mangle, crockery, cutlery, furniture, grindstone, axe and hammer, gloves and mitts — everything, in short, which he has to buy is taxed so that an •* infant " may live upon him. A drop of one or t*-o degrees in temperature is enough when the weather is cold to turn water into ice, and when his products are low and the value of his land declining the lo'=s he sustains from protection is quite enough to bankrupt many a farmer and make all a good deal poorer than they would be if allowed to buy ii? the cheapest market where they have to sell. Protectionists say, " Yes, bat the American farmer is taxed even more heavily." This is a half truth. They acknowledge by levying duties on American goods that many manufactures are cheaper in the United States than here notwithstanding the higher average of the American tariff The chief reason is that it is cheaper to manufacture for a large than for a small market. In the one, the manufacturer has to devote himself to several lines; 42 in the other, consumption being so much greater, he can adapt his labor and machinery to the production of a single article. Besides, in the United States coal and iron, the basis of most manufactures, are cheaper than in the manufacturing province of Ontario where our protectionists take pains to make them exceptionally dear. It is undeniable also that, owing to the vastly larger population, the farmer in the States gets a better price than the farmer here for most of the wares he sells at home. Our competitors in the Argentine are much more lightly taxed. On agricultural machinery they have hitherto paid but live per cent., quite lately, however, the duty has been raised to ten. The duty on cotton goods is twenty per cent. On iron and steel goods the duty ranges from five to fifteen per cent. The valuation of imported goods on which the duty is collected has recently been reduced, so that the ad. valorem taxation is less than it was. When the Argentines emerge from the slough into which they have been plunged by over-booming and issuing currency with nothing behind it they are certain to prosper. As it is, they rank second among wheat- exporters and are well up in wool, mut- ton and corn. " The increase of area cultivated," says a British Foreign Of- fice report (^o. 1,495, Argentine Republic, 1895), "has been astonishing in the last few years. In 1869, cultivation only covered 180,000 acres; in 1891, the probable area was 7,500,000 acres ; this year it is doubtless double that amount, or 15,000,000 acres. The area estimated to be suitable to cereals has been put at 375,000 square miles, of which only five per cent, is now cultivated, so that there is practically unlimited room for extension in the future.'' There is no prospect in Europe at present of any abiding rise in the price of farm products ; in fact, with Britain laboring to develop India and Argentine and France and Italy to develop Northern Africa, from which the old Romans drew food, the chances are that wheat at any rate will continue low. The British farmer is turning more and more to dairying, so are those of Denmark, Norway and other continental countries. Australia is just en- tering the field, and the Americans are likely to increase their surplus. Under such conditions it is of prime moment to the Canadian farmer that he should enjoy greater liberty in exchanging his wares for factory goods and be no longer preyed upon by monopoly.(a) Bear in mind that the importer, who has to pay the duty in the first instance, charges his profit on it when he sells the goods. The dealer in bar (a) Protectionists talk as if a majority of the Caoadian people were dependent upon the " infants." The census commissioner tries to lend color to this view by class- ing the thousands of shops belonging to blacksmiths, carpenters, butchers, &c., who are directly or indirectly injured by the tariff, among the "industrial establishments." The Statistical. Year Book, 1893, p. 180, gives the following classification of the 1,659,000 persons reported by the census as engaged in occupations : — Agriculture, mining and fishing 790,210 Trade and transportation 186,695 Manufacturing and mechanical pursuits 320,001 Domestic and personal services 246,183 Professional avocations 63,280 Non-productive class 52,986 1,659,365 There are 13,417 miners. If any of them are benefited by protection they would be benefited still more by free trade with the United States. Of the 320,000 persons in manufacturing and mechanical pursuits not more than 60,000 at the extreme outside are engaged in induBtries that benefit by protection. 48 iron who has to pay a duty of ten dollars a ton, the dry-goods man who has to pay 30 per cent, on his cottons, has to employ just so much more capital in carrying on his business, and is justified in getting a return for it. Thus the tribute which the "infants" have the power to exact is of ten greater ■ than the amount of the duty, high as that is. After sixteen years of this legalized plundering they are as vehement as ever in protesting that they are too weak to shift for themselves and must be pi'otected a little longer. If we were foolish enough to protect them sixteen years more, or sixty, they would still clamor for the spoon. There is no instance in history of an " infant " voluntarily relinquishing it. But, it is said, tariff reform would cause disturbance. " Look," cry protectionists, " at the panic in the United States when the Wilson bill was proposed and passed." The panic there arose, as every intelligent person knows, from silver and overtrading. It soon passed away and business is recovering while in Canada it is still dull. The wages of over 350,000 men have been increased since the passage of the Wilson bill (August 16, 1894). The Bureau of Statistics at Washington shows that the exports of manufac- tures from January 1 to August 31 of the present year were greater than the exports during the same period of 1894, and, if they keep up till December, will be greater than the exports in any previous twelvemonth in the history of the United States. These and other results which the protectionists never expected to see are discrediting McKinleyism, The other day the Republicans of Massachusetts, in dealing with the tariff plank, declared that they were as ready to learn wisdom from their enemies as from their friends, and pointed the way to a new industrial era and a new political shibboleth. Patrons ask that trade shall be free in the following articles : Cottons, tweeds, woollens, workmen's tools, farm implements, fence wire, binder twine, coal oil, iron and corn. The freeing of cottons, woollens and iron would greatly augment trade with Britain, who would take more farm products from us, besides diminishing the household expenses of the farmer. Britain, a truly generous parent to Canada, has been shabbily treated by Canadian protection- ists. The liberation of the other articles would reduce the cost of raising crops and increase trade with the United States. Patrons want all the free trade, reciprocity and tariff reform they can get. They understand, of course, that a large revenue has to be raised — for the last two years there have been serious deficits — but they recommend the heavier taxation of luxuries. Protection never yields without a struggle. When first imposed it is going to be only temporary, but it clings to its special privileges and upholds the abuses to which they give birth till the people rise in their might and by a supreme effort terminate its unjust reign. Its overthrow in England was brought about in part by the Irish famine. But for that catastrophe it might have withstood the efforts of the reformers for another generation. We all know how bitter the fight has been in the United States even to reduce a tariff framed to meet the necessities of war. We know, too, the powerful influence which protection wields in Canada, with its money wrung from the consumer, its subsidised newspapers, its well-paid speakers retailing the old sophistries ; above all, in being the accepted policy of a political party in a community where party worship is strong. But let us not be dismayed. Our cause is righteous, God is just, and the times are ripe for change.