Leading Articles in the Reviews. 



585 



WHAT DEFEATED RECIPROCITY. 

 Mk. Peter Mc.\rthur, a Canadian journalist, 

 writes in the Forum for November on, the defeat of 

 Reciprocity. He says that " there is a deep-seated 

 dissatisfaction and dislike of the Americans which led 

 n»any people to vote against freer trade relations. To 

 this more than to anything else the defeat of Recipro- 

 ■ ity was due." 



ANTI-AMERICANISM. 



Xc.\t he seems to place the big interests who 

 were arrayed against Reciprocity. The Canadian 

 system of big interests, the bankers, mergers and 

 railroads, was quite strong enough to dispense with 

 any help from the American Trusts. Their influence 

 told heavily : — 



The people of Canada are the most loyal in the Empire. To 

 have Mr. Taft urge that Reciprocity would check trade within 

 the ICnipire and divert it to the United Slates, and to have Mr. 

 t' lark suggest that it would lead to annexation, was enough to 

 .'.rouse defiance. The loyal Canadians of both parties were 

 "ft'cnded. To say the leaii, the Americans gave the cue to the 

 anti-.\ineric.'in campaign which was waged against Reciprocity. 

 If they are surprised to find that Canadi.ins dislike and mistrust 

 ;hem they have only themselves to thank. 



WHAT IS A " SAW-OFF " ? 



The writer describes a very curious influence at 

 work : — 



It is asserted that the Liberals were defeated because they 

 thought it would be good tactics to conduct a thoroughly 

 virtuous campaign. Keeling sure that the popularity of 

 Reciprocity would carry them back to power, they decided to 

 reserve their campaign fund for the election which, according to 

 .ill Hritish precedents, must follow the passage of the Redistri- 

 bution Bill. If they could win in this way, and the Conserva- 

 tives were indiscreet in the use of money, ihey could cover 

 them with disgrace by refusing to have the usual " saw-off." 

 In past elections it has been the custom of the practical men of 

 both parties to meet and weigh the evidences of corrupt prac- 

 tices that each has secured against the other and have a " saw- 

 otT," by which protested elections are avoided and the evil 

 doings of both parties hidden from sight. It was a most satis- 

 factory arrangcmeni, for the campaigners on both sides could 

 rei>jrt to any means ta win, secure in the knowleilge that their 

 Icidcrs would find a way to hush things up. If, however, the 

 l.iljerals conducted a virtuous campaign and the Conservatives, 

 lulled to false security by past experiences, went on in the old 

 way, it would not be necessary to have a " saw-oft." Virtue 

 would be triumphant and wickedness would be exposed in the 

 courts. 



Even now the defeated Liberals might try their 

 fortune in the Law Courts, were it not that very 

 serious charges of corruption against the late .Minister 

 of the Interior in a previous election had not yet 

 been .settled. 



LOYALTY A TRU.MP CARD. 



.\5 to the future, the writer imaiiines that if Reci- 

 procity ever again became an issue : — 



.\ll that will be ncccsiiary will be to have a few leading men 

 suggest that the real aim is anncx.ilion and the loyal Canadians 

 will have nothing to do with it. Loyalty to the Empire strike^ 

 deeper than I'arly politics, and cannot be shaken even by 

 prospeeL-. .if material gain. 



What Turned Ontario. 

 In the Canadian .^fagazinc fox Xovcmber .Mr. M. O. 

 Hammond describes " the tragedy of Reciprocity." 



He declares that the first offer from Secretary Knox 

 was complete Free Trade between Canada and the 

 United States. Canada felt she could not go so far. 

 The Reciprocity pact was expected to be cordially 

 accepted by both nations. The causes for the unex- 

 pected defeat adduced by Mr. Hammond are a slum- 

 bering mistrust of the United States which prevails 

 widely in Canada, and the menace to Protection of 

 manufactures. The defection of Ontario he thus 

 explains : — 



The Province has an underlying sentiment inherited from 

 United Empire Loyalist days. This sentiment carries «iih 

 it some of the bitter hatreds of the Revolution, with addiiion- 

 from the war of 1S12 and the Fenian raid of 1866. In laritt 

 matters alone there were memories of the abrogation of the lai;t 

 reciprocity agreement by the L'niled States and the enactment 

 of the Dingley and McKinley Hills, in the nineties, with 

 resultant disaster to Canadian industry. In higher politiLS 

 the United Stales Senate had been for years the graveyard ot 

 hopes for arbitration and other measures of good-will, the echo 

 of jingoism towards liritain and Canada. Then came 

 expressions from leaders at Washington in their excess of leal 

 to promote the very reciprocity measure itself. 



CHILD AGRICULTURISTS AND THE STATE. 



In the TweiUkth Century for November .Mr. 

 Flower tells the story of an important development 

 carried out by the great Republic amongst the 

 children in its rural schools, which may be commended 

 to both our boards of Education and Agriculture. 

 From the National -Agricultural Department under 

 Secretary Wilson, it appears that each Congressman 

 receives two thousand packets of vegetable and two 

 hundred packets of flower seeds to distribute amongst 

 his constituents. An Iowa Congressman thought he 

 would utilise these seeds to interest the children in 

 farm life. He first of all interested the teachers, and 

 then, through them, the most ambitious and enter- 

 prising boys and girls of the district, who were 

 formed into groups for competitive agricultural work 

 with the free Government seeds, the boys to cultivate 

 the vegetables and the girls the flowers. He sends 

 the bulletins publislied by the .Agricultural Depart- 

 ments on a great variety of subjects to the schools, 

 and gets the teachers to discuss tliem with the pupils. 

 Secretary NVilson, of the .\gricuitnial Department, 

 entered into the plan with enthusiasm : — 



lie otfered, if a certain number of Corn Clubs should be 

 formed in the district, to send a representative of the Depart- 

 ment to the district to instruct the boys in the cultivation of 

 corn, so as to enable them to get the best possible results from 

 the kind of soil they had to deal with. The requisite number 

 ■ if clul)S was quickly organised and the representative of the 

 iJepartinent sent to the district. 



As a result about six hundred clubs of boys and 

 girls have been formed for the cultivation of the 

 Government seeds. These clubs average about eight, 

 making between 4,800 and 5,000 children in the 

 district actively engaged in competitive work. They 

 are thus brought into intimate touch w itli the Govern- 

 ment at Washington, their patriotism is aroused, and 

 the bulletins issued by the (Jovernmcnt are being 

 read by thousands of young people with avidity. 



