Part 11 (1/2)

Chinese navvies first caovernment sections of the Canadian Pacific Railway An immediate outcry followed, and in 1885 a head-tax of 50 was irants not of the official, htly over two thousand {253} a year paid the price of ad prosperity attracted greater swarhtly checked the flow, but when it was raised to 500 in 1904 the nuht But higher wages, or the chance of slipping over the United States border, soon urgedhead-tax rose to sixteen hundred (1910) and later to seven thousand (1913) These rising numbers led British Columbia to demand total exclusion; but, thanks to the diffusion of the Chinese throughout the Dominion, their lack of assertiveness and their employment for the most part in industries which did not coitation did not reach great proportions

It was otherith the newcoressive and enterprising, filled with a due sense of the greatness of japan, aspiring to notposts, they took firratory China power, her obvious sensitiveness, and her alliance with Great Britain made it {254} expedient to treat her subjects more warily than those of quiescent China There was practically no japanese iration until 1904-5, when three hundred entered In 1905 the Dolo-japanese treaty in order to secure favourable terms in japan's market A clause of this treaty provided for the free entrance of each country's subjects into the other country When asked by the colonial secretary whether they wished to reserve the right to restrict iration, as Queensland had done, the Dominion authorities declared that they would accept the treaty as it stood, relying upon seness to stop the flow in japan itself Then suddenly, in 1906 and 1907, a large influx began, aration, which was pro in co-operation with japanese societies, came via the Hawaiian Islands

Alaritators from the United States The climax came in September 1907, when mobs attacked first the Chinese and later the japanese quarters in Vancouver, doingat last routed by Banzai-shouting bands of angry japanese The Doret and in due tier question, Mr Lemieux was sent to japan as a special envoy Cordially supported by the British a a very satisfactory agreereed to restrict iration direct from japan, and to raise no objection to Canadian prohibition of iration by way of Hawaii This method was much more acceptable to japan's pride than direct Canadian restrictions would have been, and proved equally effective, as the nued only six hundred in the following years The Dominion Government's course was open to criticisuard imperial as well as national interests, and the success of Mr Lemieux's diplo to the demands of its new international position Incidentally it was the Governree to coht the loss of every seat, save one, in British Columbia

{256}

After the Alaskan boundary had been settled, no critical issue arose between the two North American democracies for several years There were still questions outstanding which in earlier days would have given opportunity for tail-twisting or eagle-plucking politicians to hbourliness which noned they were settled amicably or allowed to fall into blessed oblivion

A rearded each other came about in this period The abandonment by the United States of its traditional policy of isolation, its occupation of the Philippines, its policy of the open door for China, its participation in the Morocco dispute, effected a wonderful transforn policy and coive and take This led to incidents--such as that in Manila Bay, when a British adainst a threatening German squadron--which made it clear that Great Britain was the one trustworthy friend the United States possessed The steady growth of de {257} experiments in social betterment, her sympathetic treatment of the Irish and South African questions, increased the friendliness and the interest which the majority of Americans felt at bottom for as their motherland

Canada's prosperity awakened respectful interest A country which fifty or a hundred thousand good Americans every year preferred to their own e it once was thought to be

Canada reciprocated thisProsperity mended her querulous rievances of earlier days Her international horizon, too, had widened; the United States was no longer the sole foreign pohich she had to deal, though still thedid not lead to a general desire for freer trade relations Quite the contrary; confident in her oly realized resources and in the possibility of finding markets elsewhere, do cities, Canada became on the whole indifferent to what had once appeared an essential goal In Sir Wilfrid Laurier's phrase, the pilgririton to Ottawa

Washi+ngton did come to Ottawa Notable was the visit of Secretary Root in 1907, to discuss outstanding issues Notable too, in another direction, was the increased interest of the British aton in Canadian affairs This was particularly true of Mr Bryce, who made it a point to visit Ottawa every year of his term, and declared that he was really more the Canadian than the British ae of Aood stead, and quieted the demand which had frequently been voiced for a separate Canadian representative at Washi+ngton

A the fruits of the new friendliness and the more direct diplo fishery disputes

The much discussed Convention of 1818, in respect to the Atlantic fisheries, was referred to the Hague Tribunal in 1910, where it was finally set at rest The controversy as to fur-sealing on the Pacific was settled by international agree with the fisheries of the Great Lakes A comprehensive treaty {259} for the protection and development of these fisheries, drawn up in 1908, was not ratified because of the opposition of sonificant achievement of these years, however, was a broad provision for the settlement of all disputes as to boundary waters

The pressure for the use of boundary rivers for the develop as to division of the power or obstruction to navigation, made necessary such a provision

In accordance with a suggestion from the United States a temporary Waterways Commission was set up (1905); and in 1910 a treaty was ratified providing for a permanent International Joint Commission, to consist of three Canadians and three Americans The treaty provided, further, that any matter whatever in dispute between the two countries, quite aside froht be referred to the commission for settlement, with the consent on the one hand of the United States Senate, and on the other of the Governor-General in Council--the Dominion Cabinet Quietly, with little public discussion, the two countries concerned thus took one of the most advanced steps yet made towards {260} the peaceful settlement of all possible sources of conflict

The revival of the tariff issue was the most spectacular and most important episode in the new relationshi+p The revival started in the Republic For soitation in favour of reciprocity with Canada had been carried on in the New England and Northwest states Nothing itation, however, had not the Payne-Aldrich tariff of 1909 cootiation and opened up the whole broad issue Under that tariff the system of ned to serve as a club to compel other nations to yield their lowest rates

The president was directed to enforce these higher duties against all countries which had not agreed by April 1910 to grant the concessions dehwayman's methods and ethics even more than is usual in protectionist warfare; and it ry faces that one by one the nations with ive the United States their lower rates France and Germany were the last of European nations to accept Canada {261} alone reranted other parts of the Eainst the United States, but it was contended that the concessions iven to the United States

Canada resented this demand, in view of the fact that the her than the maximum of Canada, and it was proposed to retaliate by a surtax on Aoods

In the United States there ide sympathy with this attitude; but under the act the president had no option but to enforce the higher duties if the concessions were not given Fortunately he was left to decide as to the adequacy of such concessions, and this reement possible at the eleventh hour President Taft proposed a conference at Albany; the Doreerace but one Canada conceded to the United States its intermediate rates on a few articles of lass, feathers, nuts, prunes, and other goods--and the United States accepted these as equivalent to the French concessions Then, to complete the comedy, Canada at once eneral tariff, applying to any country, so that the United States in the end here it started--enjoying no special concessions whatever Canada had gone through thea concession, and that sufficed

This agree President Taft, who recognized too late that he had antagonized the growing low-tariff sentiment in the United States by his support of the Payne-Aldrich tariff, decided to attempt a stroke for freer trade He proposed a broad revision of trade relations with Canada In negotiations which began at Ottawa and were concluded at Washi+ngton in January 1911, an agreement for a wide measure of reciprocal free trade was effected It was nearly as broad as the treaty of 1854 Grain, fruit and vegetables, dairy products, live stock, fish, hewn lumber and sawn boards, and many minerals were put on the free list Meats, flour, coal and other articles free in the earlier agreement were subjected to reduced rates, a limited number of manufactured articles were included, some of thereeislation for an {263} indefinite period The Canadian Governranted all parts of the British Eislatures President Taft had great difficulty in securing the consent of Congress Farmers and fisherents, opposed this sudden reversal of a traditional policy Only by the aid of Deress was the measure adopted, late in July Meanwhile the Opposition in the Canadian parliarowing force They resorted to the obstruction which the Liberals had practised in 1896, and compelled the Governress had accepted the agreement

After parliament, the people Apparently the Governain would be welcomed by nearly all Canadians That expectation was not without warrant It was such a treaty as Canada had sought ti the last fifty years, and such as both parties would have accepted without question twenty years before

Every important leader of the Conservative party was on record as favouring such an {264} arrangement Yet it was received first with hesitation, then more and more freely denounced, and finally overwhelmed

On the econoreeood case The farain from it, not so notably as they would have done twenty years before, but yet undoubtedly to gain It was contended that the United States was itself a rival producer of most of the commodities in question, and that Canada would be exposed to the competition of the British Doues of the arrangeain would accrue and a large trade north and south be created, to the destruction of trade east and west, was in fact made by the opponents of the treaty the chief corner-stone of their econoument It was held, too, that the raw products of farht not to be shi+pped out of the country, but ought to be kept at hoh the arrangement scarcely touched the uht {265} with theht, to a still wider measure of trade freedom which would expose them to the competition of American manufacturers

But it was the political aspect of the pact that the Conservatives most emphasized Once more, as in 1891, they declared Canadian nationality and British connection to be at stake Reciprocity would prove the first long step towards annexation Such was the intention, they urged, of its Aiven so of the ways' speech and by Speaker Clark'sto annex Canada' And while in Canada there ht be as yet few annexationists, the tendency of a vast and intimate trade north and south would be to make many Where the treasure was, there would the heart be also Thein the United Kingdom, would be for ever defeated if the American offer should be accepted Canada e

The advocates of reciprocity denounced these arguments as the sheerest buncombe Annexation sentiment in the United States {266} they declared to be rapidly disappearing, and in any case it was Canada's views, not those of the United States, that mattered Reciprocity from 1854 to 1866 had killed, not fostered, annexation senti of imports from the United States in recent years had not kept national and i to flood-tide, why now should an increase of exports breed disloyalty?

Canadian financiers and railway operators were entering into ever closer relations with the United States; why should the farht? The reciprocity proposed in 1911, unlike the prograainst Great Britain, but in fact went along with a still greater preference to the mother country The clailess in face of this actual fact

Moreover, the British tariff reformers proclaimed their intention, if Mr Cha reciprocity treaties with foreign countries as well as preferential arrangements with the Dominions, so why should not Canada exercise the same freedom?