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Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la m^thode. irrata to pelure, n d □ 32X 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 ^ / f ■^' V) •- mm wmm fY \si ^ •Z-}! ^ H ^ ^ THE ISSUES ^ / IN THE CAMPAIGN OF 1900 A SHORT AND PLAIN STATEMENT OF FACTS ^»«14.V!«. , ISftyflL'-M « PAST AND PRESENT. No man who has his eyes open can fail to see that a great change for the better has come over Canada since 1896. It would not be reasonable to claim all the credit for the happy conditions which now prevail for the Liberals. Providence has smiled upon the land, and the Lominion is sharing in the prosperity whiwh extends over the world. But this much is at least true : We would not have advanced as we have done if the advent of the Liberal party had not changed ctmditions, and removed obstacles which stood in the way of natural progress. In the first place, the country was in the throes of a racial and religious controversy. The Manitoba School question menaced the peace of the entire Dominion. Who can doubt that if the Conservatives had succeeded in 1896, and had endeavored to carry out their policy of coercion, we should have been in danger of a rebellion 1 The triumph of Sir Wilfrid Laurier at the polls removed that burning and trouble- some question at once and for ever out of the realm of practical politics. We could have no such thing as active and harmonious co- operation among the people of Canada while men of different races and creeds were at each other's throats. For that trouble and danger the Conservatives were responsible, and for their removal the country is indebted to Sir Wilfred Laurier. There was another matter which operated directly against the commercial and industrial growth of the Dominion — the instability of the tariff. Not a session was allowed to pass without changes in the scale of duties. On one hand the Conservatives stood for pro- tection, and yet they were undecided as to how much or how little protection would answer the needs of Canadian trade. They tinkered constantly with the scale of duties. On the other hand, the people had Ix'en taught to be suspicious of the Liberals. They were told, in language calculated to alarm, that if the Liberals once gained power they would immediately adopt free trade as it is in England ; that the industries of tiie country would be ruined, and a commercial revolution be broug'nt about. On another page will be found examples of these forecasts. It is not surp? ising that in such circumstances capital grew more and more sensitive, that enterprise should be checked, that industrial expansion should go on slowly, and that the demand for labor should be fluctuating and unsatisfactory. With the incoming of the Liberals and the introduction of the new tariff a great change spread over the country. Confidence succeeded to uncertainty. Capital flowed in from abroad. Activity began in every branch of trade. The wheels of commerce moved with a new impetus. Better times than Canada had ever known came. Wages increased. Prosperity and progress were everywhere evident. The Dominion assumed a new and attractive status in the eyes of the world. TORY PROPHECIES. Every elector who can recall events between 1878 and 1896 will be familiar with the forecasts of calamity and woe which Conservatives and their press constantly presented to the people. If the Liberals should be placed in power it was said that Canada would go to the dogs. Going no further back than 1896, here are a few of the prophecies which appeared in the colums of the Montreal "Star," which in that year became the chief mouthpiece of Conservative opinion in Canada : — *' Wages of all operatives will fall." ** The money in circulation all over Canada will shrink until scarcity of money will be a national cry." '• Employers of labor would be driven to increase the length of the working hours to compensate for the loss of trade." ** Americans, Germans and Swiss will immediately invade the Dominion as a slaughter market, and when the factories and shops have been destroyed and Canadian mechanics driven from the ceuntry, will put up the prices of all imported goods, with the certain result of increased expense to every family." •• Work for all wage-earners will grow scarcer and scarcer every month, until the whole character of the industrial life in Canada will have been changed, with corresponding depression throughout the country." " All bank and joint stock companies' shares will suflfer continuous impairment." •* All railway and steamboat companies will be aflfected by the vastly reduced number of passengers." " It will take twenty years, even with the abolition of the con- demned revenue tariff, to climb again to the post where Canada stands to-day, and we believe tens of thousands of families will be pauperised beyond the possibility of recovery." Nor was this all. On the floor of Parliament, after Mr. Fielding had introduced the new Liberal tariff (which remains the same to-day) Sir Charles Tupper spoke as follows : — ** The result is that this tariff goes into operation, and the indus- tries of this country are already paralyzed in consequence, while hon. members gloat, vindictively gloat, over the destruction of Canadian industries. I wr.s reading the wail, the sorrowful wail, of these indus- tries in The Mfore intelligent and fair-minded elector.s, the Htronger MkI more convincing becomes the Liberal position. It is only neces- Mtfy to have the facts clearly in hand, and to fully and candidly pnwent them. Taxation in Canada means customs duties. There are other forms of taxation, but they do not enter into the controversy b<;tween parties. In the last analysis the question at issue turns upon whether or Dot the tariff has been lowered or raised. Nothing is easier to eitablish before the people than that the tariff has been lowered, and that tlie rate of taxation has been decreased. Fiere are the facts : — Imports for consumption in 1896, = Duty collected in l(i96, . . .... Imports for consumption in 1900, = Duty collected in 1900, $110,.'-iS7,480 20,:i 19,0;J7 = 18.28 per cent $18.3,209,173 28,866,986 = 15.76 per cent. Reduction, .... .... .... . . 2.52 per cent. A reduction of 2.52 per cent, in the rate is equivalent to a reduction of 14 per cent, of the rate, and to that extent the present Government has lowered the burden of taxation upon the peoi)le. No jog «{ ling of figures can change that fact, which is the essence of the "whole matter. Opponents of the Government, however, never under any circum- stances allude to the rate of taxation. They always speak of volume. They take advantage of the very large increase in the business of the coontry since 1896 to dwell upon the amount of money collected. They say : " The Liberals undertook to reduce taxation, and yet in 1900 they collected $7,500,000 more from the people than in 189o. They have broken their pledge." 2 10 'I'he answer to this unfair presentation of the case is easily madei. The Liberals at no time ever undertook to reduce the volume of taxation. It would have been absurd for them to have done so. The Government has no control whatever over the total amount of moatj that will be paid into the treasury in the form of customs duties. Hm Government can only control the rate of duty, and in the exerciae of that control the present administration lowered the rate to the extant shown. The reason why more money was paid as customs duties in 1900 than in 1896, was because in 1900 the people imported $183,209,273 worth of goods for consumption, whereas, in 1896, thcj only imported $110,587,480 worth. That was a matter which th» Government could not control. The people, in their prosperity, did it iroluntarily. What, however, would have been the result if the Foster tariff of 1896 had still been in force? Instead of paymg $28,866,989 the people would have paid $33,490,655. So that on the business of , 1900 the saving to the people was equivalent to a direct reduction of $4,623,669 in the volume of taxation. They would have paid just that much more under the Tory tariff. And taking into account the busi- ness of the three years since 1897, the year of the tariff changes, ths money left in the pockets of the people, which would have been taken out under the Foster rate of taxation, exceeds $11,000,000. Many analagous cases could be drawn from everyday life to illustrate the absurdity of the Conservative argument in respect of taxation ; 1 )ut this one will suffice : — A new company gets control of the St. Jolm Street Railway on the promise that they will make street railway travelling cheaper. On taking charge they reduce the price of tickets from six for 25 cents to eight for 25 cents. In doing this they absolutely and honestly keep their pledge. They can do no more. At the end of the year, however, Mr. Foster goes to the President cf the Company and says : — •• You have not kept your pledge to make travelling by street railway cheaper. Last year my street railway fares amounted to only $3.00, whereas this year they have gone up to $4.00. Street railway travelling has become dearer instead of cheaper.** Would not every fair minded man see the completeness of the President's answer when he said : — "True, you have paid $1.00 more this year than last. Last year you rode 72 times for $3, and this year you could have ridden 96 times for the same amount. But you chose n to of of leet of your own accord to ride 128 times this year, and therefore yon paid $1 more on the whole. Had the old rate of six tickets for a quarter been kept in operation you would hare paid $5.75 for your 128 rides.** In a nutshell that is the case of taxation. The Conservative view of taxation will not bear consideration in the light of the preferential tariff. It cannot be denied that upon every dollar's worth of dutiable goods imported from Great Britain one-third of the duty is remitted under the new tariff. Then there is the matter of postage. Postage is a form of direct taxation which reaches everybody. Will it be denied that the Liberal! have reduced the ordinary postal charges by one-third 1 If necessary a very long list could be given of articles which were placed upon the free list in 1897, as well as of articles in respect of which the duty was at that time reduced. These reductions must have been felt at the time to have been very considerable, otherwise Sir Charles Tupper would not have felt justified in commenting on the new tariff in the terms which are quoted on a preceding page. It is the custom of opposing speakers and journals to divide the total revenue of the country by the population, and thus figure out j that each family pays so much moro into the treasury than in 1896. 1 Intelligent electors will smile at such tactics. They know that taxes are not paid in that way. Taxes under our system are paid on imports, and the man who buys a basket of champagne, or a cabinet of silverware, pays more into the Dominion treasury than the average working man or farmer need do in ten years. It could be very easily shown that nearly the entire increase in customs receipts has come from the importation of luxuries. In good times the people who are making more money will buy what under other circumstances they would do without. ike ^ay to 12 THE EXPENDITURE. One of the charges upon which opponents of the Government hope to largely influence public judgment is, that while the liberals were committed to reduce the annual expenditure account, they have increased it. This allegation they expect to establish by doing three things : — First — By misrepresenting what was the pledge of the Liberal Party in respect of the expenditure. Second — By unwarrantedly minimizing the figures of 1896 and •xaggerating those of 1900. • Third — By concealing the facts in relation to the accounts of 1900, and the circumstances under which increases have taken place. As this is a matter respecting which there is much need for light and information, touching as it does the important question of capacity to govern, under new and rapidly changing conditions, it is well to study carefully the facts. Let it first be clearly borne in mind that the Liberal Party, in adopting a general platform in 1893, did not say a single word about reducing the expenditure. The exact words of the resolution placed on record are as follows : — " We cannot but view with alarm the large increase of the public debt and of the controllable annual expenditure of the Dominion, and the consequent undue taxation of the people under the governments that have been continuously in power since 1878, and loe demand the itricteat economy in the administration of the government of the country." It is of no consequence that individual Liberals may have ex- pressed other views on the subject. This was the pledge of the liberal Party, and the only pledge in that regard. What were the circumstances which, in 1893, warranted this demand for the strictest economy 1 They were sufficient to make the situation exceedingly grave. The Conservatives had assumed office in 1878 on a clear and definite pledge to reduce the expenditure. The outlay in Mr. Mackenzie's last year had been $23,503,158. This the new economists ran up year by year until in 1893, when the Liberals met in convention, it stood at $36,814,052. At the same 18 time the public debt grew from $140,362,069 in 1878 to $241,681,039 in 1893. Nor was this all. The outgo was iu many yeai^s larger than the incoma The results for the three years following tilt Liberal convention amply justified the note of alarm which ■onnded at that time. Here are the figures : — 1893-4, 1894-5, 1895-6. Total deficit for 3 years, Average «jinual deficit, Deficit. $1,210,332 45 4,153,875 58 330,551 31 $5,694,759 34 1,898,253 11 At the same time the debt was increased very largely, the figures being 1894, 1895,.... 1896, $4,501,989 6,891,897 5,422,505 Large as were these additions, they were nevertheless below thi of preceding years. In fact, for the entire eighteen years of the Con- servative regime the increase to the public debt averaged $6,500,000 a year. Very soon after the accesion of the Liberals to power the circum- stances of the country underwent a great change. Notwithstanding the reductions made in the tariff, the public income began to go rapidly upward as the result of increased imports. In 1893, when the demand for economy was made the conditions were precisely the reverse. The income was coming down and the outgo going up. Here are the facts : — Income. Expenditure. 1892, $38,168,608 $36,814,052 1893 36,374,693 37,585,025 In the three years following, that is between 1893 and 1896, matters grew still worse, as the deficits given above show. Then came the Liberal period, for which the record is as follows : — 1897, 1898, 1899, 1900, Income. $37,829,778 40,555,238 46,741,249 51,175.000 Expenditure. $38,349,759 38,832,525 41,903,500 43.175.000 14 It will be seen at once that the new Government operated well within their means. They out their coat according to their cloth. They spent much less than they received ; so that as compai-ed with their predecessors the residt stood : — Dbpicit. Surplus. 1896-7 S519.981 44 1897-8 $1,722,712 33 1898-9 4,837,749 00 1900 (in round figures) 8,000,000 00 $14,560,461 33 519,981 44 Net surplus for four years $14,040,479 89 Average annual surplus 3,510,119 97 Deficit three years, 1893 tn 1 «96, $5,694,759 34 Surplus four year 14,040,479 89 Betterment $19,735,239 23 The deficit for the first year of Liberal rule, it may be explained, was occasioned by the unpaid bills left by the outgoing Government, which really should have been charged to 1896. Before a comparison can properly be made between the record of the two governments, it is necessary to see just what would have been the expenditure of the Conservatives in 1896. It will be remembered that in that year they were defeated before they could even get all their estimates before Parliament, and in discussing the question they persistently under-state the correct figures. They had brought down their main estimates ; but they did not reach the stage of bringing down the supplementaries. Happily, however, the figures are in possession of the Government as drafted by Mr. Foster, and they amount to $4,660,000 ; so that had the Conservatives been able to go ahead, their bUl for 1896 would have been : — Main estimates $38,358,548 Supplementaries 4,660,000 xotal #43,018,548 16 To this should be added the proposed capital expenditure for the year and other items, which would make the total account stand as follows: — Ordinary expenditure $43,018,548 Capital " 2,819,000 Fast Atlantic service 750,000 Railway subsidies 2,772,000 Government Branch Railways 2,500,00€' Crow's Nest Railway 1,650,000 Total $53,459,000 Conservatives now speak of their total expenditure for 1896 as kaving been $41,000,000. The above figure? show how grossly they ■Intate the facts. If they had been returned to power they were vnder engagement to spend more in 1896 than the present 'government, wiMler vastly altered ^cumstanoes, proposes to spend this year, with tbli exceedingly important diflTerence — that while they would have bMn obliged to add perhaps $10,000,000 to the public debt in order to carry out their undertakings, the Liberals will not be called upon to IxMTOw one dollar. One of the most wulpable features of the Conservative campaign li tbe deliberate - plied to me by the Interior Department, which may be taken as sub- atantially correct. It covers the years 1897-8, 1898-9, and the mix months of the year 1899-1900, up to December 31 last ; and what do we find? That in the various departments we have expended in th« Youkon during those two and a half years $3,215,765. Oh, hon. gentlemen say, see how these people are increasing the expenditure — > three millions and odd expended in the Youkon ! Yet hon. gentle- men forget to say that though that swells the total expenditure of the country, it does not add a cent to the burdens of the people. On the contrary, so far as the people of old Canada are concerned, it is ft positive relief, because against that expenditure we have received iron the Youkon $3,867,000." Combining the increased outlay on the Intercolonial and Youkon $3,000,000 of the increase is accounted for at once, in return for which the Government receives back into the treasury more thnn $3,000,000. Add to that the loss of revenue in reducing the rate of postage from three to two cents, and very little rembine of the increase. Strictly speaking, and having regard to the correek figures for 1896, there has been a substantial reduction. Assuming, however, that there has been an increase, are tbture not ample and satisfactory reasons therefor ? The annual expencBture in all countries must always bear some relation to populati(m and trade. In Canada there has been a substantial growth in popnlatioii since 1896 and a very large increase in trade. While the aggregate trtuie of the Dominion increased $66,000,000 during the eif^bietm years of Conservative rule, the annual expenditure increased by m(we than $18,000,000; whereas, for the small nominal increase of expend^ ture since 1896, the total trade of Canada has increased $142,000,0001 Will any reasonable man say that growth like this does not add to iha demands upon the public revenue ? Taking the accounts for the past twenty-one years, the expenditsrt chargeable to Consolidated Fund has been as follows : — 17 Ybab. Expenditure Conaolldated Fund. Population. Expendltor* per Oap. 1880, $24,850,634 45 4,215,389 $5 90 1881, 25,502,554 42 4,336,504 5 88 1882, 27.067,103 58 4,383,819 6 18 1883, 28,730,157 45 4,43.3,363 6 48 188-t, 31,107,760 25 4,485,395 6 94 1885, 35,037,060 12 4,538,790 7 72 1886, 39,011,612 26 4,589,414 8 50 1887, 35,657,680 16 4,638,109 7 69 1888, 36,718,494 79 4,688,147 7 84 1889, 36,917,834 76 4,739,617 7 79 1890, 35,994,031 47 4,792,605 7 51 1891, 36,343,567 96 4,846,377 7 50 1892, 36,765,894 18 4,899,273 7 50 1893, 36,814,052 90 4,953.5.57 7 45 1894, 37,585.025 52 5,009,296 7 50 1895, 38,132,005 05 5,066,562 7 53 1896, , 36,949,142 03 5,125,436 7 21 1897, , , 38,349,759 84 5,185,990 7 39 1898, , , 38,832,525 70 5,248,315 7 39 1899, 41,903,500 54 5,3 12,. '300 7 88 1900, 43,175,000 00 5,400,000 7 99 It may be explained that the lower expenditure of 1896 is due to the fact that in that year the general elections occurred. The fiscal year ends on 30th June, and many accounts were left unpaid by the outgoing Government. They appear in the year 1897. That the expenditure of the present Government has been proper and defensible is shown by the fact that the Opposition have not at any time dared to challenge it in Parliament. They have talked loudly about the total ; but they have been silent in relation to the items which make up that total. No later than during the last session of Parliament Sir Richard Cartwright said : — " Now, sir, again and for the last time, I repeat my challenge to those honoiable gentlemen. It they dispute our policy, I invite them to vote it down on the floor of this house. If they do not like our preference grant to England, I invite them, when the budget is brought down, to bring in a measure to repeal the preference grant to England. If they object to the railway subsidies which, under the wm u circumstances, we have thought fit and proper to grant to certain poi- tions of the country that needed railways, I invite them to do what, it my memory serves, they did not attempt to do, last session or any session before, I invite them to move to strike out those particular subsidies to which they object. I invite them again, if they object to any item of our expenditure, be it for public works, be it for rail- ways, be it for agriculture, be it for immigration, be it for what you will, I invite them to move to strike them out. I repeat, if they da not choose to give emphasis to the views they hold by their votes, I invite them, at any rate, to be quiet and leave us to govern th coun- try as best we can." This challenge was not at any time taken up. In their efforts to make out a case against the Government in respect of expenditure, it must never be forgotten that the Conserva- tives rely very largely upon misrepresentation and concealment. They will not tell the whole story. The Liberals undertook to be economical and they have kept their pledge, since true economy has strict reference to means on one hand and needs on the other. If the present ministers had, in the face of an abounding income, pursued a niggardly and parsimonious policy, disregai'ding the public needs which sprang up with the new and larger life of Canada, the very men who now complain would liave been the first to accuse them of incapacity and unfitness to govern — and rightly so, too. A misconception exists in the minds of many persons as to tlie so-called *' controllable " expenditure. Frequently the dovernment ia criticized on the assumption that the whole of the outlay is con- trollable. The fact is that a very large proportion of the expenditure is governed by statute. The following items from the accounts of 1899, chargeable against revenue, do not come within the control of tiie Government : — Interest on debt, .... $10,855,111 Administration of Justice, 815,454 Penitentiaries, .... 416,939 Legislation, .... .... 892,354 Superannuation, .... 325,560 Pensions, .... .... 96,128 Militia, .... .... 2,112,291 Lighthouse service, .... 330,254 Carried forward, $15,844,091 19 Brought forward, Fisheries, .... .... Subsidies to Provinces, .... Indians, .... .... Govt. N. W. Territories, Total, $15,844,091 412,367 4,250,636 986,219 357,025 021,850,338 When to this is added the cost of those public services which must go on, such as the Post Offices ($3,603,799), the Intercolonial ($3,696,612), Civil Government, Customs, Mounted Police, Steamship Subsidies and many others, slthci'gh in a email measure they are sub- ject to control, it will be found that less than $10,000,000 remain respecting which, as a matter of policy, the Government of the day has '"V voice. THE DEBT. The Liberal party has a record in respect of the public debt of which it need not be a.shamed. Contrary to the oft-repe«ted statement of opponents, the Liberal Convention which met at Ottawa in 1893 did not declare in favor of reducing the debt. The exact words of the resolution adopted on that occasion have been given on a preceding page, and may also be found under the heading : " Liberal Pledges," The party was merely committed to the "strictest economy," and that undertaking they have conscientiously carried out. The story may be told in few words : 1878 TO 1896. Net debt, Ist July, 1878, . Net debt, 1st July, 1896, Increase for 18 years, Average increase per annum, $140,362,069 91 258,497,432 77 118,135,362 86 6,563,975 71 1896 TO 1900. Net debt, 1st July, 1896, . Net debt, 1st July, 1900, . Increase for 4 years, per annum. Avera''e increase $258,497,432 77 266,273,446 60 7,776,013 83 1,944,003 45 20 The fact that any incroMe at all was made is due to tbe pheDO- menal growth of trade and the demand which arose from all parts of the country for increased facilities. For the very small addition made the Government has accomplished a great deal. The accounts haTe not yet been made up and apportioned for the fiscal year 1 900 ; but between 30th June, 1896 and up to 30th June, 1899, the following payments had been charged to cajquivalent to 28 per cent., or slightly more than the increase in respect of our whole imports from that quarter. On the other hand, our in- creased imports from the United States have been almost wholly of things which Englnnd cannot supply, and to which the new tariff has no application at ail. ^m 32 To sura up, we have shown that under the preferential tariff our imports from England increased between 1897 and 1899 by $7,647,935 ; that this incr(>a.so was very largely in products into which the largest amount of skill and labor had entered ; that while we had increasod our imports from the United States it had been almost entirely in articles on the free list, many of them in the nature of raw materials, and in other articles which England is unable to supply. These facts cannot be successfully controverted, and with them in view the Opposition case falls to the ground. It does not leave them with a word to say in defence of their misrepresentations. The policy they have condemned has been eminently successful. More recently an effort has been made to alarm Canadian manu- facturers by suggesting that the preferential tariff is calculated to injure native industry. Such tactics cannot possibly succeed, since our intelligent maunfacturers know that a very large percentage of all our imports from Great Britain consist of goods which are not pro- duced in Canada — such as cutlery, chinaware, laces, silks, gloves, fine woolen fabrics, linens, feathers, fancy goods and so on. Even on these and many other classes a substantial duty remains after the pre- ference is deducted THE RACE CAMPAIGN. Nothing in the history of our Canadian political life has been so despicable as the attempt of the present Opposition to arouse racial prejudices, except it be the further effort to excuse themselves behind the unfounded assertion that the campaign in this regard was begun by Liberals. The temptation to adopt a course of this character lay in the fact that the present Prime Minister is a French-Canadian, and in that sense the representative of a people in the minority. In order to make capital out of this fact, and to stir up a prejudice against him in the English-speaking Provinces, no inuendo has been considered too mean, no invention too unscrupulous, no misrepresentation too flagrant. For months past the Conservative press has teemed with stories and statements calculated to set English-spe.iking electors against the Government on racial grounds. Tiian this, no agitation could be 33 ake tho too mt. and th(5 be fraught with greater danger to the highest interests of Canada.. It ia not perhaps of deep consequence to many whether the doinitiant party at Ottawa is called Liberal or Conservative ; but it is of the first im- portance to everybody that there should be hearty and sympathetic co-operation between the two great races into which our population is divided. Upon that harmonious action depend the progress and destiny of our Dominion. The story of this campaign, and its double character, is so well told by the Toronto *' Globe " in its issue of 23rd August, that ^he article is appended in full : — The Race Campaign. • ** No public man within the British dominions has ever more pitifully misinterpreted the true spirit of Imperialism has than Sir Charles Tupper during the last twelve months in Canada. " Out of a sky theatening, but not quite overcast, came suddenly the Boer ultimatum. We are convinced that while the British Ministers were very determined to secure some substantial redress of the grievances of British subjects in the Transvaal they did not mean war, and they did not aim to subvert the independence of the repub- lics. They believe that a republic could not refuse equal rights to any element of its population, and mere sanguine that persistent and de- termined pressure would induce the Pretoria oligarchy to surrender and force the concession of the franchise and the mitigation of abuses and monopolies which for years had fed upon the non-Dutch-speaking people of the country. But the British Ministers misjudged the tem- per of President Kruger and his associates. These held out against all persuasion and all pressure. And the war came. Then the old land braced herself for the battle, and the colonies moved to her side and a united empire fronted the belligerent republics and those foreign pi^wers that seemed to menace the old mother of free communities. " What was the part played by Sir Charles Tupper and his press in Canada? Here we have two races, as they have two races in South Africa. Here, too, the race spirit is easily touched, and estrange- ments easily made, and nationial solidarity easily broken. We have a French-speaking Province and a French-speaking Prime Minister. While as in a moment, the British spirit in Ontario darned into the red heat of war, in Quebec the war spirit found less fuel to feed upon, and Imperialism had less open and less decisive expression among the people. This was an opportunity for statesmen to speak words of concilliation, and by prudent utterance to win the people of Quebec to greater sympathy with the aggressive Imperialism of Ontario. Tt was a time to moderate faction and sectionalism, and to take care T 34 m that in putting down race tyranny in South Africa we did not breed racial aniniositie.s and create racial divisions in Canada. " But far dilTerent was the course of tln> Conservative press and the Conservative politicians, and no word of rebuke or renionstranco came from >Sir Charles Tupper. All over the En^dish-speakin^ Provinces a shriek of disloyalty was raised against Quetjec. {Sir Wilfrid Ijtiurier was cartooned as a skulker and a coward. Great bundles of inflam- matory partisan literature were sent into the English-speaking com- munities. In some cases the reports were even specially doctored for English consumption. All that could bo done to defame the French Prime Minister, to inflame public feeling against Quebec, and to turn British sentimenl against the Li])eral leaders was done, and wjus done rashly, inteinperately and most vociferously by the press and spenkers of the Conservative party in Ontario and the other English-speaking Provinces. *' But the Government stood firmly and moved steadily. The Premier spoke wisely and in the true temper of a British statesman. He appealed to the chivalry of Quebec and t(j the justice of Ontario, and soon won the whole country to recognition of the necesssity of sending out a Canadian contingent to South Africa. The contingent was promptly and splendidly equipped, and almost summarilly despatch- ed, and it moved down the St. l^wrence with the enthusiastic cheers of the people of the old French capital ringing in its ears. Feeling in all the P.ovinces had now been moderated and harmonized, and, so far as we could see, a united Canada offered her sons to the cause of a united empire. Reverses came, l^attles were lost. There was gloom and recrimination at home. In the dark hour Canada spoke sigain. We sent out a second contingent, and gave irrefutable evidence of the concern of the Liberal Goveiiiment for British prestige and of the zenl of that Government in the cause of British unity and British freedom. ** Then what happened 1 For months the Ministers had been flogged for an alleged lack of zeal for Imjierial concerns, and an al- leged want of appreciation of their duties and obligations as the administrators of the affairs of a great British colony in a time of war and a day of peril to the empire. It was found that the action of the Government had satisfied all reasonable people in the English-speaking Provinces, and it was vain further to attempt to make party capital by denouncing Sir Wilfred Laurier and his colleagues as pro-French and non-Imperiai. And, lo, what a change ! J ust than Sir Charles Tupper went down to Quebec, and made a speach at the Garrison Club. He took advantage of the occasion to present Sir Wilfred Laurier to the French-Canadian people as the High Priest of Imperia- lism, and as the visionary advocate of a scheme of Imperial federation that would destroy the Independence of Canada and mulct us in tens of millions of dollars annually for Imperial defence. As in a moment every anti-Imperialist in Quebec rushed to his standard, party :::i__-^:_,ffi: 35 campaign documents were got out denouncing Sir Wilfred Laurier m a traitor to the free institutions of Canada, and as hearing upon his conscience the responsibility for the blood of every Canadian who had fallen in the cause of the empire in South Africa. Daily the French- Canadian Conservative press repeats these charges, pillories the Prime Minister as a traitor of his race and creed, as a patron of Britsh ag- gression, as the friend of an Imperial fwleration that will destroy aelf- government in Canada and put us under the heel of Westminister. •' Now, we say that Sir Wilfred I^urier, thoughout all this South African controversy, has sought to hoal and to unitcessary improvements and enlarge- ments of the harbor facilities at Montreal. " It has developed and improved the system of cold-storage for Canadian shipments to British markets. " It has extended the Intercolonial from Levis to Montreal and abolished deficits on the national railway. " It has improved the relations between Canada and Great Britain and between Canada and the United States. " It has a bill before Parliament to prevent new railways side- tracking existing towns on the line of construction. " It has before Parliament an improved law of copyright which will promote and protect the publishing interest in Canada. "It has secured from the British Government authority for trustees in Britain to invest trust funds in Canadian securities. " It is constructing branch railways in Prince Edward Island, to which the country was pledged, and which are badly needed. " It has hushed the cry of settlers' grievances in the West, and is filling the prairies with a prosperous and contented population. " It has introdnced the postal note system, to the great convenience of all persons who have to remit money in small amounts. " It has increased the population, and, by adding to the number vi the burden-bearers, lightened the load of the individual taxpayer. fl' "It has set an example to all future Governments by proposing that the constituencies shall be delimited by High Court Judges. "It has given us for the 1894-1896 deficits of $5,694,000 •urpluses for 1898-99 of $7,500,000 for 1900. •'It has given us the growing time for the blowing time, and prosperity in farms and factories for prosperity in statistics and adject- ives. " It has lowered Imperial and domestic postal charges, and yet has reduced the deficit in the Postrottico Department from $780,000 to 1389,000. *' It has ordered the railways to abandon discriminating rates in favor of a corporation which for years controlled the railways of the Unite