The Dominion. TUESDAY, AUGUST 9, 1910. CANADA AND FREE-TRADE.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 890, 9 August 1910, Page 4

The Dominion. TUESDAY, AUGUST 9, 1910. CANADA AND FREE-TRADE.

A couple of cable messages—one printed on Saturday and one to-day —bring us news of a movoment in Canada which may have interesting and far-reaching results in the near future. This is nothing less than a campaign to end the era of Protection in the great Dominion. Sie Wilfrid Laubier, replying to a large deputation of Saskatchewan wheat-giwers who complained that the tariff is enriching the manufacturers at the expense of the producers, has given tho Free-tradb movement a fillip by denouncing Protection as nothing less than "a great, wrong." "It made millions dishonest, one with another," ho said, "and inculcated the vicious principle of expecting value where none had been given." This cannot have been much plcasantcr reading for the Tariff llctormcrs than the il/oniMif/ Post's account of tho strength and vigour of the Western Grain-growers' Association. This Association, in addition to fighting Ear chp.aDer elevator rates and better

treatment from the wheat-buyers, has been carrying on its war against the high tariff for some time. It is long ago that the wheat-growers uf the Canadian West realised that the duty of 12 cents a bushel on foreign wheat is- of no real benefit to them. It does not "keep'out the American stuff," for the very sufficient reason that America cannot export wheat any longer, so great is the demand of her enormously increasing home population. The Canadian farmer cannot see that Protection does anything for him save to augment the cost of production by enhancing the prices of the necessaries and conveniences for raising the crops. He imports most of his implements from the States because, despite the tariff on thorn, he linds them better and cheaper than the Canadian article. On his mowing-machine, harvester and binder lie pays a tax of 17A per cent., on portable engines 20 per cent., on his putalo-digg'er, fockieicutter, and fanning mill 25 per cent., And so on to spades and shovels, on which the tariff is 32A per cent. I'he development of the Western wheat fields is proceeding apace. In 1895 the imports of colonial wheat, into Britain were only 14 per cent, of the total. For the four years 1905-8 the average had risen to 32 nor cent., a result mainly achieved by the extension of the Canadian wheat areas. And as y«t only the fringe of land capablo of growing wheat in the West has been touched; there remain 300,000,000 acres to be exploited. The Protectionist forces in the East, however, arc very strong, anil, cjuilo -apart from the influence that the Canadian Manufacturers 1 Assoiilatiou can exert m Parliament, there arc few people who will havo the courage to demand the sudden restoration of the old tariff that succumbed to the Protec-" tionist theory in 1878. Since: that time the industries nurtured by the tariff, and still sustained by it, have grown enormously. To quote an Ottawa correspondent, "the holhouse process turns.out an array of industries which could hot. be exposed to free competition without entailing heavy loss among banks' and' kindred institutions, and demoralising labour." The latest mail, however, which left just as arrangements were being completed for" SIR Wilfrid Laukier's present tour, unables us to see that the Graingrowers' Association and the newlyformed Canadian Free-trade League will appeal for an immediate reduction at least of the more oppressive duties. .There is every prospect of a very pretty struggle, and, strange though it may appear to a world that has hitherto regarded Canada as almost solidly Protectionist, the chances seem to be turning-in favour of the advocates of a revenue tariff. It is an important fact that after the census of next year the' West, so it is estimated, will havo about 60 members in a House of Commons of 200 odd, and every.one of these may be regarded as a Free-trader.