YOUNG NATIONS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 336, 24 June 1911, Page 9

YOUNG NATIONS.

HON. DR. FINDLAY'S AMERICAN IMPRESSIONS. A VIVID LETTER. The Hon. Dr. Findlay, Attorney-Gen-eral and Minister of Justice, who is accompanying the Prime Minister on his English visit, was able to renew his acquaintance with Canada and the States during the journey to England, and he has given the benefit of his impressions to his colleague, the Hon. George Fowlds. From this exceedingly interesting letter, the Wellington Times has been able to make extracts which deal vividly with subjects of world-wide importance.

A DOZEN TONGUES. -You will observe that we are crossing the Atlantic in the R.M.S. Lusitania, thirty-two thousand tons register and something over sixty-eight thousand horse-power," writes Dr. Findlay. "I take the lift in the morning from my cabin deck (E) to deck (A) and the climb is what you encounter in a large hotel when, rising to the top floor. This is the fourth day of our voyage, and we have maintained an average speed of thirty land miles a,n hour all the way. What strikes me most is the strange congeries of nationalities on board. There seem to be about a dozen foreign tongues spoken almost as much as one's own. These people, however, but merely represent modern America—forty-nine different tongues are now spoken in New York. One of my*friends who came down to see me off brought with him as a curiosity twelve daily papers, published there that morning ail in a different tongue. We are apt to forget how much America is ceasing to be an Anglo-Ame-rican country. I have, as you know, visited the United States four times in the last eighteen years, and it is impossible to escape noticing how increasingly the foreign element in the population obtrudes itself. My steward at breakfast this morning told me that ninety per cent, of all our vast array of passengers are Americans. So they are in the sense that they are resident in U.S.A.; but when I look at the names on the list one is almost startled to notice how the' Americans have passed away from being an Anglo-Saxon race. You are aware that in IS4O the population was practically wholly of Briti-h origin —more than seven-eighths of it at least came from tiie United Kingdom. Now more than fifty per cent, of the poulation of the whole country from cast! to west is either foreign-born or the offspring of foreigners. In the north the foreign proportion is much larger than this because the south has not been affected to any extent by this foreign iiv vasion. although there' they have from eight to nine million negroes. What do you think of the fact that eighty per cent, of the people of New York are foreign .born or of foreign extraction? While, if you. take thirty-eight of the other great cities of the Union, the foreign element is .sixty-six per cent. Almost every nation in Europe has contributed largely to this congeries of nationalities. Five and a-half mlilion Germans have come in, nearly all during the last fifty years. THE FOREIGN INFLUX. i

•'America still accepts whatever likes to come so long as it has a few dollars in its pocket and cannot he regarded a,s physically or mentally defective. The influx still goes on, and the best estimates made by exports looking in to the future make it clear that within forty years more than seventy-five per cent, of the whole population of the Iniicd States will either he foreign-horn or of foreign extraction. Of course it is impossible to predict what effect this is going to have in producing n new type, hut that it must profoundly modifv the Anglo-Saxon type is perfectly clear It has, as 1 have observed, already done so It chief significance for us is that it impairs that racial sympathy with the Anglo-Saxon nation, which we are disposed to attribute in too great a de-Tee to America of to-day. One of the questions which every British subject feels to be a vital one is what is the national attitude (as regards .friendliness) of America to our Empire? Xo question is harder to answer; and on some of my visits to the States when I have met members and descendants of old families hke the late H. D. Lloyd, I have been disposed to think that there was a iivmnand spontaneous friendliness on the part of the American people for those of our nation.

SENTIMENT TOWARDS BRITAIN. "It is the view of the better class that is most frequently expressed in the leading journals; hut the true measure of a nation's feelings on such a matter as this is not what the best class think but what is the regard of the bulk ot the people-the general attitude of the man-w-thc-street? Now it caiuiot for a moment be denied that the feelings of America have grown more friendly towards us. When I recall the bitterness I saw there eighteen years ago there was abundant room for some such ehaiw but. I am satisfied that we in \e\v 55m'land over-estimate the friendliness of the great bulk of the American people towards .the Empire. We think too much of the fact that the two nations speak the same tongue. We talk loosely of their inheriting the same .traditions overlooking the fact that a considerable majority 0 f the whole population throughout the country, and a very |a r «e majority m all the centres, have not our traditions either from their language or their history, but on the contrary have to a large extent inherited national dislikes and racial antipathies to the British nation.

"HAS TWELVE O'CLOCK STRUCK?" •'Of course it is impossible to deny even in tin's year of the Christian era that national hatred throughout the world is commoner than national affection and national jealousy commoner than either. America's regard for us has improved largely because her jealousy has decreased—she has already twice the population of the United Kingdom and she has outstripped us in many directions in which we deem ourselves matchless. Everywhere one hears in the United States a self-complacent tone of pitying superiority towards our Motherland. 1 was told by several shrewd men, who are more than usmallv friendly to our Empire, that the British had struck their "Twelve O'clock," and -that America must soon leave her far in the rear as a progressive and manufacturing nation. There seems to be a. general opinion that Oermany, too. is rapidly outstripping „s. One'of ,7 U , \,, w York lawyers pointed out, to me that in the last, twenty years (iermany's manufactures had increased .by eighty-three millions sterling, while 'those in England had increased" by only sixty million;" that in ISIU Ocrniany was losing liy emigration lwenty-d\- out of every ten thousand of her population, while since 1!)07 she has been losing only four. On the other hand, in I S!)4 England was losing only nine out of every ten thousand and is now losing forty out of even- ten thousand; and that to-day the population of both Oermany and the United States is increasing at the rate of over a million n. year, while for seventeen years the population of the United Kingdom lias increased only six and a-half million. I mention these figures to show

vou the kind of tests that are being applied to England's place in the world. And one cannot escape feeling that the reduced bitterness on the part of the States is rather a diminished jealousy than any increase in genuine friendliness. While all this is so, the best minds in America are everywhere striving to improve the relationship between the two nations. The present President is _ a sagacious man with a level-headed desire to°place the horror of war between the States and ourselves outside the region of human possibility, and 1 believe we will find that at least by 1014, when one hundred years of peace shall have continued between these two great Englishspeaking people, an arbitration treaty will be agreed upon referring all questions, including even those of national honor, to some tribunal placed upon the Hague principle. I think that beyond this it is but dreaming to hope for any alliance between the two nations for either defensive or offensive purposes—--1 mean, of course, within the horizon of any man now living. IMPRESSIONS OF THE JOURNEY. '•[ have drifted into this topic from what is going on around me just now on board the Lusitania; let me return to our journey. We readied Vancouver on April 2, three days before our time-table time, and pushed on, spending some six consecutive nights in the train to Toronto. We stopped, however, at Winnipeg for the day and there 1 met one or two of the master minds of Canada. Among these 1 was greatly impressed by Dr. R. E. Macdonald, editor-in-chief of the Toronto Globe, which probably has the largest journalistic inlluence of any paper in Canada, lie spoke at a meeting of the Canadian Club, at which Sir Joseph Ward and 1 were present, and delivered one of the finest speeches I have ever heard . In force, fire and figure he much resembles our dear old friend, the late Dr. McGregor, once, you will remember, one of my professors. For nearly an hour Macdonald dealt with the true ideals of Canada, with her duty and with her destiny. Macdonald is an intimate friend both of President Taft, our Ambassador liryce, and Sir Wilfrid Lauricr, and has, I. know, done much to improve the friendly and commercial relations between Canada and the States. Macdonald combines in himself many various mid important qualifications. First, he is a distinguished scholar, a Canadian by birth and descended from five previous generations of Canadians—a man who has been studying for years the policies nnd social tendencies of both his own country and of its great neighbor. Above all, he possesses a strong, clear, fearless mind , Considering these qualifications I was much impressed by what he told us. THE RECIPROCITY TREATY'.

''Vnu will remember Mr.it reciprocity between the States ami Canada is just now the iniestion (if the hour, Upon it the people of Canada «re greatly divided, although there seems to be little doubt that both countries will adopt the proposed treaty. This aims at ultimately establishing free-trade for the principal raw products and some of the manufactures of each country. Macdonald is ardently in favor of the treaty, and "ave some striking illustrations of the absurdity of the existing tariil's. Kcsidenls on each side of the border line—each producing what the other wants and able to supply it far cheaper than it could ne got elsewhere—being prevented by a tari.. wall from seeking their mutual ad-1 vantage. IVhind the proposed reciprocity tarill' many Canadians have raised the bogey of annexation, or, at least, of the merging of Canada into her greater neighbor. Macdonald strenuously ridicules this bogey. Spea-king from America's interest-, he seemed to me to make out a conclusive case against either annexation or merging. First, he emphasised the fact that the traditional policy of the States was against further territorial extension. The American people entered upon the. 'Spanish war of 1898 with no idea whatever of extending her territories. You perhaps are aware—at least Macdonald made it perfectly clear that the taking of the Philippines and Puerto Rico was really no matter of choice but of national compulsion. However, 1 will not weary you with the proofs Macdonald adduced of the sincerity of this policy. He was even more interesting when he dealt with America's permanent interests. What both Canada and the States fear is no trouble on the Eastern hut on the Western coast. There is a genuine and growing apprehension of trouble with Japan and China.

THE CLOUD IN THE WEST. "Von are it ware that the. States have, irtartly by legislation and party by treaty arrangement, shut out both Chinese and Japanese immigration. But with the growth of Japan's sea power and with Die possible combination of China and Japan, there is in the minds of many of the leading men both in Canada and America a genuine apprehension of trouble from the East. It is felt by many of the leading Americans that in view of this spirit it is in the highest degree desirable that a British dominion, like .that of Canada, should be united with the States in strong protective action against this possible invasion. I think Maedonald was voicing—when he repeated the words of one whom he called a great American—the opinion of President Taft himself. This was: 'We American* deem it essential to our best protection against Eastern trouble that we should have united with us in a common defence a strong, growing, independent British dominion like that of Canada, and that it is therefore almost treason to his country for any American to suggest the annexation of Canada.' A closer alliance between Canada and the United States in the proposed reciprocal treaty would, he maintained, help to bring America and England closer together. Canada, the greatest daughter of the Empire, should Decome the closer friend of America and so help to bring—perhaps only in the far future—the grent , Western English-speaking peoples into one union with ourselves to secure the peace of the world. CANADA'S OUTLOOK'.

••The Canadian future is difficult to foretell. Sim has trodden in the footsteps of lier great neighbor. A continuous and immense volume of foreign immigration is now pouring into Canada. Xo doubt 'a large factor of her present immigration is British, but the forebm element is larger still. Canada opens her gates even more wideh- than the Slates to this element. Alr'cadv in her large cities a, great foreign (dement is louml. In Winnipeg there is in one quarter of this centre forty thousand loreigncrs; ami, as you are aware, (lie foreign element in Montreal is larger still, ft seems to me 'that Canada, too will one (lav—and that not a very distant one-have less Anglo-Saxon' than foreign stock within her borders The influence of this stock unoii Imperial solidarity and loyalty may alveaov be seen in'the 'French element of Canada to-chv T have travelled Canada from east 'j 0 west and have slaved in various cenlivs on two occasions since the lloer war. and one caimol. help questioning whether the loyalty of Canada, to the Motherland lias flic same strong genuine spontaneously, which marks the lovallv of Xew Zealand. The Canadians aiv proud of our Empire and of their association with it, but they are certainly not British people in the full degree to which Xew Zealanders are. So sagacious a man as Bryce, the British Ambassador, declares .that within the limit of existing

lives America may have three hundred millions of people. Canada may have one hundred millions, and if the two nations,, totalling four 'hundred million souls, stand together with all the power tlieir wealth, intelligence and vigor imply, their ability to promote and secure some means of universal arbitration m place of war will be incalculable. One thing in clear, that the Americans are, and will be, wholly on the side of peace. They hate the aggressive military spirit of the Germans and believe that our Empire stands for peace. Rut this is a long way .from feeling inclined to join us in any struggle to maintain peace."