The Daily News. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1911. THE CANADIAN ELECTIONS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 80, 25 September 1911, Page 4

The Daily News. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1911. THE CANADIAN ELECTIONS.

After holding office for fifteen years, the Laurier Government have been swept from office. In 1908, when the last elections were held, they were returned with a majority of forty-eight; on Friday the position was practically reversed, the Conservatives and Independents gaining a majority of fifty-three over the Government. The Government appealed to the country on the issue of trade . reciprocity with their neighbors in the United Slates, and x did so apparently with every confidence that the treaty would meet with endorsement at the hands of the people. Judging by the results of the elections, however, Canadians are not yet prepared to enter into what is practically free trade with the United State.", preferring to go on as they havo been, giving preference to Britain and other countries with whom reciprocal trade relations have been established. But, apart from reciprocity, evidence was not lacking that the Laurier Government had outlived its period of usefulness and were getting out of touch with the people. In nothing was this more pronounced than in Imperial affairs. In the old days, Sir Wilfrid Laurier was an ardent Imperialist, taking the lead among colonial statesmen in many important questions of imperial concern, but of recent years he lias been far from sound, from the view point of the Imperialist, veering, if anything, to the other extreme. His "heads I win, tails you lose" statements in regard to local autonomy, the Canadian naval programme, and non-participation in the wars of Britain, were particularly unsatisfactory. Undoubtedly, the Government's attitude on these matters has had a good deal to do with their defeat. Manv, like the farmers in the Western provinces, were strongly in favor of reciprocity with the States—providing, as it would, a handier and cheaper market for their products, and a. lowering of the duty on many of the goods they required—but more strongly against anything that tended towards weakening the bonds with the Old Country and leading to closer political relations with Washington. There were other factors operating to bring about the downfall of the Government, not the 'least important being tiie charges of graft directed against Ministers, whose hands, as far as one could read, were none too clean, though the Minister who figured mostly in the '-'graft," charges, Mr. Oliver, Minister of the Interior, has, curiously enough, survived the elections. One correspondent said (lie Government supporters denounced the charges from the public platform as being baseless, but in private conversation they tacitly admitted their truth, while condoning them on the ground that the other party would be quite as bad if they had the chance, and, further, that in a young country like Canada one I could not expect to obtain the services of really able men in politics unless one were content to allow such men to make handsome fortunes for themselves whilst in the service of the country. If this was the real condition, the Government deserved to be trounced, and trounced severely. Then the manufacturers were up in arms against the proposed treaty, as were the railroad interest#, the influence of both being considerable. In the circumstances, the downfall of the Government is easy to understand. If the defeat leads to a purification of administration and adherence to what one of the London papers refers to as "the old Imperialism," the rejection of trade reciprocity with the United States, admirable as it it in principle, f# not too

big a sacrifice- The new administration J enters office pledged to ths imposition of a liigh tariff, particularly against the States, and a tariff war between the two countries will probably follow. Tariff wars between neighboring countries 'like Canada and the United Slates cannot benefit the people of either.