OCR Text |
Show I ' WILL THE UNITED STATES ' f I AND CAN AD A UNITE?: g t ; x i t t : BY Ci.Sl;riI3 s : ' t : : ! t , 't : t ' ' - ' Briton and Ainerlcaa. being1 now "fully agreed tHat those attempt "to tax the American . colonlea aalnat their protest were wrong, and thatln resisting this the colonlata Tlndlcated their right as "British cltJiens, and therefor only did their duty, the question arises: la a separation forced upon one of the parties, and now deeply regretted by the other, to be permanehtt I Cannot think so, and crave permission to present some considerations la support of my belief that the future Is certain to bring reunion of the separated parts, which will probably come about In this way those born north, and south of an Imaginary line, between Canada and the United States, being all Americans, Ameri-cans, muft soon merge. It were as great folly Tt remain divided as for England and Scotland to have done so. It need not be feared that force will ever be used or required to accomplish this union. It will come mast come In the natural order of things. , Political, as well as rraterlal, bodies obey the law of gravitation. Canada'a destiny la to annex the Kepublie. as Scotland did England, and then, taking the hand of the rebellious big "brother and that of the mother, place them in each other's grasp, thus reuniting the then happy family that should never h&ve known separation. To accept 'this -view, the people of the United Kingdom have only to recall re-call the bloody wars arising from Scotland and England floating separate flags, and contrast the change today, there being but one. . f . . - u - The Canadians and Americans may be trusted to follow the example of the motherland and have but one flag embracing our whole race In America. Present Pres-ent p:' 'ealousles melt away as the population North and South become In great rce bom Americans. s The . nlted Kingdom Increased last decade more than three times as much as Canada and Australia combined. It Is not to her colonlea therefore, that Britain can look for much Increase of population or trade. The growth of Australasia, Aus-tralasia, small as It was In the last decade, so far as reported in this decade. Is even less. Canada Is growing faster only In the far Northwest, which la sep-arated sep-arated by a thousand miles of barren land from the English-speaking province of Ontario. Last decade Ontario province (English) declined In British population; popula-tion; Quebeo province (French) slightly Increased. The census of 1900 shows fewer British born residents In all of Canada than that of 1890. The wheat fields now reached by rail are being settled by Americans, who cross the border, selling their American farms and buying new farms there at a tenth of the 1 price realised for the old. Except for this Influx, about 70,000, so far, the rate of increase of population in Canada will be about as last decade. When we come to the population of the United Kingdom, we And already In England and Wales 558 per square mile. What thoughtful man could wish much further Increase, even If It were possible? pos-sible? A denser population must cause deterioration. The density of population popula-tion In England and Wales Is not reached by an European country except the small State of Belgium. France has only 188, Germany 270 (or one-half). Italy 298. Japan has only 29$. The authority agreo that England and Wales are fully populated. Ireland proves that it Is practically so by the small increase. Scotland has Increased 6teadily for Some decades, but little scope Is left for further fur-ther increase. Substantially, Ireland and Scotland have today the population they can maintain In comfort. Mark the contrast. America has only twenty-one people per square mile. 1.18 that of the United Kingdom. 1 for every 28 In England and Wales. These figures Include Alaska, which resembles most of Canada, and Is not likely to support many people. 'Excluding Alaska, the American population is twenty-eight per square mile one-twentieth of England and Wales. U is evident evi-dent that Green was right when he wrote years ago that the home of the English-speaking race was not to be on the Clyde and the Thames, but upon the Hudson, the Delaware, the Ohio, the Mississippi and the St. Lawrence. There Is not room for it in the dear old home, but there is, fortunately. In the new lands of her children in Canada and America. When we note the development Britain has attained industrially we are amazed. It Is wonderful almost beyond belief; we doubt and investigate to assure as-sure ourselves that we have. the facts. This little kingdom has today more shipping and about as many spindles turning as ail the rest of the world. She Is the rich .-st of all nations per capita. She makes more iron and more oil per capita than any nation. Marvelous nothing comparable to her in history. She positively dwarfs all previous records a dwarf more powerful than most giants. Who is there, then, who can expect her to do more, what she has accomplished being scarcely credible? It is physically impossible that much further Increase can come to Britain and in addition to this conditions otherwise are unfavorable to further development. develop-ment. Other nations, by the use of her inventions, are more and more supplying supply-ing their own wants, and will continue doing so. They will also compete with her more and more, especially In Iron and steel and in cotton manufactures, owing ow-ing to her lack of the cotton plant and of needed Iron-stone. If Britain succeeds in maintaining present production In these fields, great will be the credit due to her captain of industry. As with population, therefore, so with industrials-much industrials-much Increase Is Impossible. This is the age of consolidation. Industrially and nationally. Consider the recent consolidation of Italy, and the more recent consolidation and rapid growth of the German empire. Who can Imagine that the process has stopped? On the contrary, we are on the eve of further consolidations in Europe of great extent. The successes of the American Republic, forty-five States consolidated into one Union, with free trade over all. and that of Germany, with Its Zoll-vereln, Zoll-vereln, are too significant to pass unheeded. The day of small nations Is passing. Their Incorporation with larger areas is to be hailed by lovers of progress, provided always that one point be carefully care-fully preserved. The national sentiment of the small powers should not only be guarded, but fostered in every way, so that, as in the American Union and in Britain, the Virginian and the Scotchman remain as intensely Virginian or Scotch as ever, rride in and loyalty to the wider empire do not supplant, but supplement love of the part where he was born. He loves the part and Is proud of the whole.11 The day is coming when Britain will have to decide on one of three courses. First shall she s.'nk comparatively to the giant consolidations into a third or f vwth-rate power Holland or Belgium comparatively? Here note that we do not postulats her actual decline, but the increased growth of other powers. Or second, shall she consolidate with a European giant? Or. third, shall she grasp the cutstrctched hand of her children In America and become again, as she was before, the mother member of the English-speaking race? Assuming that other powers are to increase their present population (as Germany and Russia have yet room to do), or by further consolidation, it being evident that there is not room in the 110,000 square miles of the little crowded United Kingdom for further increase of moment, then the conclusion Is Inevitable Inevi-table that one of these three courses is the only possible alternative, for Britain hits no adiolnlng territory she can annex. Some have been disposed to regard British federation as a possible fourth alternative but the figures given, which convinced Rothschild and Rhodes we submit, compel Its exclusion, especially to such as seek for my motherland, as f do a destiny worthy of her-a future commensurate with her glorious and un-r.flrjled un-r.flrjled Dost - Let us rejoice that this Is open. Her Canadian and Republican rhiiSncTos. theAUantic will hall the day she takes her rightful place in thi hTgh council of her reunited race-that race whose destiny. I be-ieve with taith uhakab e. is to dominate the world for the good of the world. |