196 AMERICAN FARMS, 



order that a nation may be created is it necessary for an 

 intelligent people to be moulded into the required con- 

 dition through the existence of a fiscal policy that is 

 destitute of the principles of equity, that is scientifically 

 and economically false, — a policy towards which our best 

 feelings must be in constant rebellion ? Is this the true 

 national policy for civilized beings ? 



And we may also ask, Is it a true and upright policy to 

 strive to warp any intelligent community into any politi- 

 cal change through the workings of a false fiscal policy? 



What does protection undertake to do for the indus- 

 trial classes ? We have but to glance over the speeches 

 and writings of its advocates to learn that it assumes the 

 office of protecting labor, to secure to industrial classes a 

 profitable market for their productions that national 

 labor may not be exposed to the keen competition of the 

 foreign rival. This being its aim, why should this pro- 

 tection not be extended to the laborers who till the farms, 

 who cultivate the orchards, and who tend the flocks ? 

 That this object, the creation of a necessity for labor, 

 without regard to its effect upon the masses, is a prin- 

 ciple of the Canadian national policy, may be seen in 

 many ways. We have an illustration in the peculiar 

 sugar duties, which cause the import of raw sugars, 

 which require refining, from countries to which she ex- 

 ports nothing, instead of encouraging the importation of 

 sugars which may not require refining, and from coun- 

 tries which buy her natural products from her. 



We must certainly admit that labor may not compose 

 the total exchange value of productions, though it does 

 in the main, but we contend that in our farm productions 

 labor should be considered as important, both as regards 

 its nature and extent, as in any of the manufactures for 



