THE FEDERATION OF TEE ENGLISH – SPEAKING PEOPLE.

Wairoa Bell, Volume V, Issue 190, 24 March 1893, Page 7

THE FEDERATION OF TEE ENGLISH - SPEAKING PEOPLE.

A closer examination of the language used and the ideas expressed by Mr Stead’s supposed speakers in the great meeting at Chicago shows us even more forcibly how those of us who live in the Southern Colonies, perhaps best ot all, those of us who live in New Zealand, can by virtue of our position and the surroundings of our lives, better correct some of the speeches. It is taken for granted that it is desirable to unite our race into one vast confederation : the question is ‘ Will the American section take the lead, or will the centre of authority be fixed in London F Mr Stead evidently believes in the movement ever westward : but there are so many parts of the great struggle to he 'considered that it is not safe to jump to a conclusion hastily : the issues are of such transcendent value as to lift them far above the region of our ordinary politics : and our minds expand as we are lifted in the contemplation. Mr Stead uses one argument -'n favour of the American lead by saying the colonies have copied America in their fiscal policies. It is unfortunately too true, that because the United States have grown so .-'ipidly whilst pursuing a more and more rigoro s • protection ’ custom’s policy, that our protectionist advocates have declared that it is the policy that has made the mighty nation, therefore we must copy. Freetraders are inclined to laugh as they point out that ours has been a very poor copy. "We have set up customs tariffs between colonies (States) and sometimes lamented that we could not ‘ protect ’ some pet ‘ industry ’ even within a part of a colony, and whilst clamouring for this protection that the Americans by their actions condemn, we dread that increase of population which really has been the cause of the marvellous development of the resources, and consequently the growth of the Great Republic. But happily for us the world has moved in the right direction in the past twelve months : we stand in a very different position now from that we stood in a few years ago. The election of Mr Grover Cleveland will stand out as one of the events of history. Our minds are not strong enough to anticipate the results of the next few years of legislation and adminstration. The advocates of Federation, whether applied to our Empire first or to the English speaking people, had better learn as speedily as possible that the Custom-house is the block house that bars their progress. It would not be difficult to show that it is being made use of as one of the misrhtiest engines for evil in the world to-day. No' one can be working to bring about ‘ peace on earth ’ and at the same time be a ‘ protectionist ’ in our colonial sense. When our eyes are opened we shall be able to see the selfishness it its ugly form, and the stupidity that kept in company. The world moves : as we try to understand the present, so as to anticipate something of the future, we can cast our minds back over

the past, and discern pretty clearly the direction in which we are moving. About thirty years ago, within the memory of middle aged men now living, slavery existed in full force under the Stars and Stripes. Every right-thinking man and woman outside of America as well as many of the Americans themselves knew that the system could not last : the weight of its enormity would force a solution : the question was ‘ how ?’ The world moved : it became necessary to extend the Slave States or they would be stifled : the decision was, after years of guerilla war in Kansas, ‘ ./Vv extension !’ The decision precipitated the crisis, and then the war. The Negroes’ legs also moved, and he or she used them to get into the Free States. This called for the passing of the Fugitive Slave Act, which gave the Southern Slaveowners the right to pursue the fugitives in the free States. Mrs Stowe's ‘ Uncle Tom’s Cabin ’ told the world about this, and we know what followed. The very circumstances of the case would not allow of slavery being permanent in its old location ; the Southerners knew tills, and used gigantic efforts to expand : their efforts hastened their ruin. The Fugitive Slave Ac! helped very materially to snap the chain. Some people may be inclined to ask where the Fugitive Slave Act and the McKinley Tariff are connected. To begin with they are two pretty big specimens of the Collective legislative capacity of our American kinsmen. Mr itead had better tell them that if tney aspire to lead they must show us better work than these The groundwork of the two measures au intense overhearing selfishness. The American war once for all decided that one should not live on the blood and sweat of another man, but that labour is compatible with freedom. The Me Kinley tariff is selfish in several ways. Depending on John Bull being irretrievably wedded to Free Trade it makes the trade with England a game of grab ; a system of get as much as you can for as little as possible : all the time using the benefits desired for the building up of collossal fortunes for a certain class to the ruin of the many—Slavery being fast brought back again in another form. But the most despicable form of the selfishness is shown in the dealing's with Canada : the gigantic strength of the great nation is openly and unhlushiugly used to crush the loyal feelings of the Colonists, and to force them into the ‘ Dnion.’ Mr Stead has another task in hand, to tell our anxious cousins that we are uot anxious to come tinder such a sway as that. Buchanan blackened the last few months of his administration by removing war-like stores to southern arsenals, and in other ways helping the Southener for the struggle he could see was coming. By so doing helped to make the struggle longer and more deadly : his reward has followed him. The outside world have always wondered how it was that the Yankees with all their cuteness did not see what Buchanan was about, and stop him. Harrison has disgraced the latter part, perhaps we may say the whole, of his

administration by acts of pettj tyranny, especially towards Canada ; he too will have his reward in the pages of history. Happily for the world the fiist great check to this protection iniquity is given by thSAmericans themselves ; they have declared openly and squarely against the mad selfishness of President Harrison and his hungry c.rew. Notwithstanding all the lying statistics published, and all the influence that attaches to those who really hold the reins of power, the party has been badly beaten. "We have had a few evidences from the other side ; we may depend on it that when the power and pigeon-holes passes into the other hands we shall have more revelation . But if American protection has been selfish, it has to he acknowledged that British Eree Trade has something of the same character. If this is considered to he another startling assertion let any one ask ‘ Why do the Home British people value Eree Trade ?’ and the answer will be, ‘ Because they like a cheap loaf. ’ That is to say the British peojile, in order that they may feed their teeming millions cheaply, and so be able to manufacture cheaply, and successfully compete in the world’s markets, have freely opened their ports for produce of every kind. The desire for cheap food has been so strong that every available help has been gladly welcomed. The bonus supported sugar refiners of France and Germany have driven many of the British refiners out of existence ; especially in the matter of loaf sugars, but John Bull has turned a deaf ear to the cries of the suffering ones, counted up the money value of the bonuses, and chuckled as he called the French and German fools. Just now the whole of the agricultural interest is suffering from various causes to a degree unknown for many years ; hut the dear old gontleman, farmer though he may be in his stout appearance, proposes still to go on in his present course though the heavens fall. Now this may be British determination ; some people will say that it is the stupid part of it ; Sir C. Tupper among the number. Here again the world moves, and time tells : even English stubborness is powerless to resist. The Home people cannot possibly maintain their present position as free traders ; doing nothing towards helping the Colonies out of their muddles ; allowing the Colonies to drift into fresh troubles ; and yet expecting to keep the Empire together | We know that very many even leading, socalled Statesmen at Home, would not hesitate to still go what they call forward, though they knew that their policy meant dismemberment. And right here as our American brethren would say it has to be noted, that it is not the John Bull thaf Mr Punch has made us familiar with that would be guilty of the stupidity : the stout old bucolic gentleman may have done many foolish acts in his time, but even bis worst enemies will acknowledge that he has a big heart, and does not willingly go wrong. It is time for some of our caricaturists to draw the old man’s renegade son, that has stayed at

home and grown little in mind as well a 3 slim in body ; will some of our artists take the hint ?’ Mr Stead, living so close to the home of this stubborness, considers the cure to be hopeless, at least until the Colonies one after the other have become States in the American Union ; and then the Home countries will have to follow the off shoots. With great reverence the great majority of Colonials will say ‘ God forbid,’ and yet something has to be done ; the present position is untenable, or rather the road on which we are now travelling will lead ns to where we would rather not be. The calamity is that those who have charge of our Imperial affairs do not see the danger. Mr Cecil Rhodes says that they are busily engaged in mending the village pump. If a small band of men were but to band themselves together, and, without departing in the least from the lines of strict righteousness, so use the collossal, political and financial power of the Home countries, as some of our fathers used the comparatively puny powers that they could wield ; why the inter-Imperial Customs houses would fall at once—the taking over of the whole of our Colonial debts, eyen forgetting our assets, would be less than the cost of one of the big useless wars. The material at hand, and the surrounding circumstances, are such as to afford opportunities for daring noble acts, that will bless not only our Empire but the world. But, to come back again to sub-lunar affairs, when our Empire is one so far as Customs house is concerned, and consequently when Canada is relieved from the pressure that afflicts her now, we may rely on it that ‘ Uncle Sam ’ will not keep out of the family gathering, big though he may be he could not bear the isolation ; the money argument would touch him first, but he is also open to far taore loveable influences.