THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1909. AMERICAN INVASION OF CANADA.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9669, 7 December 1909, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1909. AMERICAN INVASION OF CANADA.

Americans have secured threefifths ofc the import trade of Canada, not by any lucky accident of geoI graphical position, but by syste- ' matic, sustained, and well-planned work. England invests more money in Canada to-day than any other land. The English capital is subscribed in the main—apart from mines and real estate—for debentures and preference Bhares, yielding a fair, fixed interest, with very little risk and with no control. The Americans, on the contrary, have laid out their money in acquiring control of iactories and retail businesses. The result is that a large part of the Canadian manufacturing to-day is in American hands, and the policy ot manv stores is dictated by them. In Winnipeg alone there are -200 firms working wholly or in part on American money. In city after city the leading stores have Americans standing behind them. Needless to say, the American manufacturer wh» has sunk money in a Canadian store makes sure that the Koods of his British, rivals are not prominently displayed there. We thus have what is practically the "tied house" system, familiar in the British drink trade. There js systematic publicity in America about Canadian developments and needs, here is an illustration of now this works. In the rapid rise of mining at Cobalt there came a sudden demand for small air-compressor plants. The American power firms were at once on the spot. The demand was so great that many orders were delayed three or four months, to the great inconvenience of the purchasers. British | ma'cers apparently knew nothing j about it until the main rush was j over. They were not on the spot; i they had no effective means of ob taining early information; the Americans were there and secured the trade. The most significant feature of the American trade campaign is not the predominance of American imports of manufactured goods, bit the iblislinvnt t.f branch factories, of big American

concerns in the Dominion. According to a recent return of tne Canadian Manufacturers' Association, there are over 140 Canadian factories owned by Americans. This list is far from complete. Twenty of the American-Canadian factories alone employ 12,000 people. One of the largest, the Canadian branch of the great Harvester Trust, was built on account of the active and successful

manufacturing campaign of mi independent concern, the M-usey-Harris Co., of Toronto. Two leudine; electrical firms, the Westin-lnuse and the Central Electric, employ between H,OOO and 4,000 men. One sweetstuff maker, a branch of the Walter M. Lowney Co. ha* .300 hands.