THE GENERAL ELECTION 187 



sacrificed to those of New York and Boston. Indirect 

 taxation affected farmers less than other classes, 

 whilst direct taxation would be correspondingly 

 heavy, and all this in view of the fact that farmers 

 were doing well. 



" Our Western country is being filled up as fast as 

 we can assimilate the additions. Railways are being 

 constructed, our factories are busy, our country's 

 credit never stood so high. And what of the farmer > 

 In the West he has grown rich in a decade ; in the 

 Niagara Peninsula his land values have increased 

 tenfold ; throughout Canada he gets 50 per cent, more 

 for his grain and fodder than he did a decade ago, 48 

 per cent, more for his meat and 35 per cent, more for 

 his dairy produce, and this at a time when the cost 

 of manufactured goods has, as a whole, remained 

 stationary or decreased." 



Before the above particulars had gone into type 

 the result of the Canadian elections came to hand. 

 The Liberals fought the battle on the question of 

 Reciprocal Relations with the United States, and 

 they lost, and lost heavily. Thus the long tenure 

 of Government under Sir Wilfrid Laurier comes 

 to an end, and determined by an issue on which 

 he confidently expected to secure a following that 

 would reinstate him in power. How far the result 

 was determined by the fiscal question per se, or 

 the larger issue of a fiscal alliance with the United 

 States which might become the thin end of the 



