EDITORIAL 



429 



Lumherrrvan, in its editorial comment 

 on the article of Mr. Innes, refers to 

 the fact that foreign staves made from 

 southern pine by negro labor can be 

 sold in Ontario, which they enter free 

 of duty, at prices which prohibit the 

 manufacture of staves in Canada. This 

 condition was brought about by the de- 

 cision of the customs department that 

 staves were lumber and entitled to free 

 entry into Canada. 



Further discussing conditions in this 

 country, our contemporary says that 

 the negro laborers live on wages which 

 would not enable the Canadian to feed 

 himself decently. How much this re- 

 minds us of the argument in regard 

 to protection of our products against 

 the pauper labor of Europe. 



The Canada Lumberman has another 

 article discussing reciprocal trade rela- 

 tions with the United States and ex- 

 pressing the opinion that there will be 

 much less interest than heretofore 

 among Canadians in reciprocity with 

 the United States. The recent approach 

 of the United States in this matter is 

 treated as being of very little interest 

 to Canada. The Lumberman remarks 

 that Canada has been selling her goods 

 in foreign markets against the compe- 

 tition of every nation and has been 

 selling them to Englishmen in many 

 parts of the world. The emphatic 

 statement is made that Canada does 

 not need reciprocity to-day, that she 

 needs instead caution against too easy 

 access to her home markets for the 

 products of the United States. "There 

 is no feeling of prejudice," says the 

 Lumberman, "against the people of the 

 United States in Canada, but there is 

 a well founded belief that United 

 States goods are produced in too many 

 instances under economic conditions 

 which are not satisfactory to Canadian 

 ideals, and that, therefore, unless sim- 

 ilar ideals are to be introduced into 

 Canada, these goods must be prevented 

 from flooding our markets." 



Having said this upon the general 

 question of reciprocity, the Lumberman 

 goes on to take up the question in its 

 relation to the conservation of the nat- 

 ural resources of Canada, presenting 

 the view which we have already cited 

 in American Forestry that the protec- 

 tion of Canada and her interests in 

 her natural resources, and especially in 

 her forests, requires great caution in 

 dealing with the United States. It says 

 that it is a question even to-day whether 

 Canada would not be better off if it 

 sold less lumber in this country and 

 made more certain of a continuous sup- 

 ply for its own needs. The closing par- 

 agraphs of the article are extremely in- 

 teresting, and we quote them in full : 



In the United States the political situation 

 is marching rapidly toward something which 

 looks Hke a tariff revolution. The west is 

 feeling the size of its muscles and is training 

 seriously for a tussle with the east on the 

 question of protection. The east is attempt- 

 ing to improve its position by various 

 methods, not the least interesting being the 

 proposed reciprocity negotiations with Can- 

 ada, bearing promise of some tariff rear- 

 rangements which will be acceptable to the 

 whole country, and appear in the light of a 

 fulfilment of recent anti-election pledges of 

 cheaper goods for the consumers of the im- 

 portant necessities of life. 



If Canadians understand their own wel- 

 fare now as thoroughly as they have in the 

 past, the hopes of the Republicans in the 

 United States will not be greatly gratified by 

 reciprocal trade arrangements. Canadian 

 sentiment is growing rapidly against it, and 

 in Regard to lumber, which will be one of the 

 storm centers of discussion, there seems to 

 be no question that Canadians already look 

 upon freer access to United States markets 

 as something of a gold brick. The immedi- 

 ate future, therefore, is full of interest and 

 importance to the people of both countries 

 and events are sure to be followed by Canad- 

 ians with a watchful eye. 



In discussions of questions of the 

 forests and their protection, we gen- 

 erally look at our own side of the case. 

 It is interesting, sometimes, to have 

 the light turned upon the "other fel- 

 low's" point of view, and for this reason 

 we cite the article which we have re- 

 viewed. 



