| Show COLONIAL PREFERENCE AND for the Utah Independent by S. H. 29 Faraday Many of our present day imagine Colonial Preference is something quite but such is not the It is like all the other newly named nostrums of the modern it is as old as protection As far back as in the reign of Charles II there was a much heavier duty placed up on foreign lumber than upon colonial so much the higher duties were then known as alien's rates In the year 1661 the government of England was so foolish as to absolutely prohibit imports of lumber from the north of with the disastrous results of harming all our home trades which used lumber and also greatly injuring the British It will be well for modern protectionists to remember that it was under our old mercantile which embodies Colonial that we lost the North American Again in a select committee of the house of commons strongly condemned Colonial Een so recently as 1902 Joheph when addressing the premiers of the self-governing referring to the preference which the Canadian government had decided in 1897 to grant to on British taxable goods imported into the used these substantial results have been altogether disappointing to I they must have been equally disappointing to its This is the same Chamberlain who twelve months later advocates Colonial but English workingmen gave Chamberlain their answer when in 1906 the protectionists were routed at the polls and received such a crushing blow that they are not likely to recover for some time to The Theory of Colonial As a Colonial Preference can easily be proved to be a bad because those who advocate it maintain that at present we are being ruined by importing too many manufactured articles from the and that by giving our colonies a preference for raw materials the colonies will in return give our manufactures a there is only one logical conclusion to be drawn from this argument if we are being ruined by importing too many manu then we are going to ruin our colonies by compelling them to import our manufactures in for if they dc I not import them in excess of the present where does oui preference come So assuming the that excessive imports of manufactures injure a coun try's trade this is not then we are going to save England by ruining our and that Is how our are going to cement the British Empire and give us closer union with Now for Some Two-thirds' of the necessities of life which we import in the state of raw materials come from the so to give preference to the colonies we would be ruining our home industries as well as violating the principles of political Three-quarters of the food we import comes from the so a preferential tariff would mean increasing the price of the people's and this would indeed be most Three-quarters of our whole commerce is with foreign and is it wise to injure three-quarters of our trade for the sake of trying to encourage the other English workingmen don't think and they don't intend to be swindled by any such insane our colonies can only offer up preference in their small but we should have to give in exchange preference in our market of over forty-four millions of in other we should have to give much to gain a the colonies really buy very little from the with the exception of goods which we are unable to of preference would not increase our natural What About Retaliation sounds but it really is just another of the protectionist's high sounding terms which practically means Very often a protectionist tells us that he wishes for import duties so as to protect our home that he wants the foreign goods kept But sometimes he tells us that he desires these import duties so as to retaliate on the foreigner and so cause him to reduce or abolish his import duties on our is to he only wants to put these duties on our imports so as to be able to take them off again when by this retaliation he has reduced the foreigners' Splendid mode of reasoning of quite consistent with the other ridiculous arguments which the protectionist from time to time puts before Of we know from experience that the imposition of import duties never does reduce foreign on the other increases Let us look at what happened when Germany last increased her practically every one of the other continental countries put higher duties upon German That is retaliation in and being somewhat practical I prefer to profit by the experience of rather than to imagine that if we tried retaliation it would work different to what it has done for If a foreign nation was making a serious attempt to destroy our British then I would certainly advocate but it would be retaliation of a far more drastic type than by the imposition of an import for an import duty never could accomplish such an I strongly endorse the opinion of Sir Robert who will consider our own and meet hostile tariffs with free t l Is Retaliation Compatible with Colonial Suppose we did try what then becomes of our Colonial We will even assume that retaliation I is going to do all that its exponents claim for cause a reduction or abolition of the foreigners' import Let me give you a concrete We will first retaliate on the United and the result is highly The States we will allow your imports to come in duty if you continue to allow our produce to enter Britain duty I becomes of our to the How can we give Canadian wheat preference on our while at the same time we are United negotiating with the States to let American wheat Where does Canadian preference come Ire are so-called telling us Z are in favor of both Colonial Preference and is just one of Mr Balfour we have Ion to treat his utterances ceased since just let me extracts from one or two of his and then will see what nonsensical contradiction these protectionists are capable Speaking in October Balfour said-The object of protection is to encourage home industries' Tte means by which it attains that object is by the of a system to raise home The same Mr addressing his constituents on January do not desire to raise home But he really excelled himself in another when he verily believe that a small tax upon wheat will make bread I think this is quite sufficient to show what an ever-changing creed these so-called reformers are endeavoring to but the average English workingman sees through all this and knows too well that free trade is the tried and sound What Canadian Farmers Think of In just allow me to quote to you from an eminent Canadian When the Canadian minister of heard of our brilliant free trade victory in this is what he said on behalf of the Canadian farmers of Canada want no preference in the English England has not adopted and I think she did It would mean a tax on imported goods and that would mean the obstruction of her own increased and the entering into the complicated problem of a protective It in England's be a radical change for the and it is a calumny to say that unless Canadian products are granted a preference in the English Canada would be likely to break away from the |
