The Nineteenth Century , No 182, Apr 1892 [‎22r] (48/244)

1892
HOW TO FEDERATE
533
He knew Canada and Manitoba well, and he believed that during the next ten
years they would be able to supply all that amount of grain which the population
of England required, and which could not be supplied by England itself. If that
was so supplemented by grain from other colonies, we should see ourselves abso
lutely independent of any grain coming from Russia, the United States, France, or
any other countries that put on prohibitive duty.
The New York Sun in a recent issue went into a series of calcula
tions wliicli show that in about seven years the surplus corn of
the United States will be required for the consumption of its own
population. All this points to the necessity of stimulating the pro
duction of corn in India, Canada, and Australasia in such a way as fully
to meet the demand in this country. The imposition of a small duty
in the meantime will not stop the supply from the United States, for
the best of reasons, that they have no other market so good, even if
they had to add 5s. a quarter to the freight and insurance they now
pay. It does not matter to the buyer whether the wheat pays ten cents
freight, as it may do if grown near the sea-coast, or forty cents if grown
in Manitoba. The cost of getting it to market is paid by the seller,,
whether freight or duty. In 1887, wheat in London brought 3d.,
in 1890 4s. per bushel, a difference of 45 per cent., yet this fall in
price did not lessen production. I will now endeavour to show
Sir Michael Hicks-Beach how both England and the colonies may be
benefited without an increase in the price. The State of Dakota, in
the United States, and the Province of Manitoba lie side by side, and
are both famous for the production of the finest wheat in the world.
Where will the hundreds of thousands of agriculturists seeking
homes annually in the New World go if the wheat raised in the
Canadian North-West comes into this great mart free, while that
grown in Dakota pays 5s. a quarter before it can compete with it ?
In a short time a large number of men would, under these circum
stances, take their capital and industry to build up Canada, who would
otherwise go under a foreign flag instead of becoming a source of wealth
and strength to the Empire. But what will be the effect upon the
artisans of this country ? Let me answer that question in the words
of Sir William Leng at a recent meeting of the Sheffield Chamber of
Commerce. He said :—
In other words, one Australian settler, with a wife and three children, is about
as good a customer as sixty Americans, seventy-five Germans, or seventy French
men. One million such families would be worth as much to British labour as the
whole American nation. Twenty shillings' worth of colonial produce secures a
demand for nineteen shillings' worth of British labour products. Every quarter
of wheat imported from Australia secures from fifteen to twenty times the trade
and employment a quarter of American wheat does; and every quarter from
Canada thirty-five times as much as one from Eussia.
I think I have shown that the price would not be increased by the-
imposition of the duty, but even if it were it would be to an insig-