The Brussels Post, 1891-1-16, Page 11BRUSSELS FRIDAY, JANUARY 16, 1891.
*••••••••••••••••*.....00
SIR RICHARD AT CHATHAM,
Another Masterly Plea for Re,
ciprocity,
Z.IQW P110 TEO 1 0 N Te OBS.
Greaten Freeeelorn Will
Good TitTLOS.
:Nonouncing the Oombinestors' Government-,
, The Demand for Reform Must Gordo
From the Farmers.
• The following is a verbatim report of
the 'epeoch delivered by Sir Rich:reel
Uneeweight et Chatham tee
, Oiteaneteer,-I 'nay say at once thet
• Oleo( my main objects in adclreseing you le
to provoke discuesion. I do floe at you to
Wield, all an: going tp say wiehout
tIon. On elle =teary, the more you ote
mettle my statements -the more you analyse
and criticise and test Wein the better I will
be pleased; knowing as I do that the more
•thoroughly you leveatigtite title question
• the more likely you will be to become
hearty and pi:motel' atter:re:nets of the
• meesures we propose to adopt. (Applause.),
The points to n.itich 1 would more inane.
diately call your attention to -night are
ti etre:- •
. .
First of all / intend to prove that
C4118110,sag.far ab rny rate as all the older
• . !Wein:Isere eodeerued, lute been reduced
tot
it el:edition of erreeted develop -
tient utterly enworthy of a °Qum
ery of our age and latent resew-
le4 ; and this is evidenced among
other things by the fan that in very meaty
pieces we Mid that the growth of population
hes completely ceased and if; either station-
ary or retrograde -that this is especielly
bite case with our rural populatiou and is
• ente :deo, though in 11 lesser degree, of the
of oar teethe and eittes. That
eimultaueouela the same fete haa overteken
our, foreign evade'wheal absolutely and
rel4tivety is less thou it was muny yettrs
ego, 'mid that iit both respeets our progress
'compare, very ill with or fort»er rate of
geotteli or with that whieh prevails In our
sister colonies.
(2) That despite much loud asseveration
to the contrary, it la it matter of grove
doter, whether, in our older Provinces,
,ortmeolleutive nationel weelth has increased
• ems doliar during the last twelve years ;
thet, wnile eertain favored localities and
, certain favored hunted:eels ave beyond
tletilet inech richer that: they were it fete
years, ago, the vast majority of our people
are verydecidedly poorer, and that if you
streak our national balance sheet fairly you
would nine to the conclusion that during
these twelve years our five millions of
. people hem no, rule toiled hard trial nutde
nottieig.„ • Teat, in. Is, wo heve been
reibbing many Petere to thrich oue
Ana while it 14 probable enough that a few
' "thole nallionahes ere ninth meter it is much
morevertain that very large manes of the
•, people are much , poorer than they ought to
be; end Ulla this is es meetly true of our
annum, op, in other Wends that &Wing the
leet twelve years the total 'growth of °eat.
horn was a god dell len then the netural
increeee of births over deaths, and CIrnt-
)ttutn )u one of or Mooprosletroes
ilea is elfgnifinet : but 1101V is it tvith
the 0011114' 811(1110W bi It With
tbe rural populetioteof Ontario at large?
Sir, I have here a, short table, compiled
from your owe meeicipal reeorde, to rehleh
I invite the moat earneet attention of this
audience one which tells.ite °tett tale.
The) list, gives the karat popelation of 26
countiee 10 ()uteri° (comprieleg 52 out of
the 82 rural oonstitnenelea into which OW
Province is divided) in the years 1879 and
1889, and is as follows: -
1879. 1899,
I Ati 30,847 29,816
Nor k 27,772 26,420
25,200 23,870
liald'm ind 18,540 16,603
Welland 19,199 17,965
Introit 51.602 0,461
Oro,
Bruce 547 48
65;12636 541;75499
1Vilddlosax •
Oxford 50,861 60,837
30,106 28,881
Perth 32,719 29,834
-Wellington 37,203 36,079
Llocol 1 15,982 14,311
Halton
Peel 14,910 13,811
18,973 18,145
46,268 39,865
oexoarilleri.
.53,468 •
' 30,496
Durham •
North u re berland 22,f,32 22,617
eseree Mem
P. Edward • 16,474 13,977
Lennox and Addington 18,9,16 18,143
Lone anti r .11 villa 39,852 37,313
;4 leflgaril
18,590 18,113
21,333 20,889
Viotoria 22,112 20,752
740,668 688,508
Showing a 1039 of 52,150, and, even (ilk:W-
ing for now villages incorporated iu that
intervel, a Ices of fully 30,000 on the rural
population of 26 conntied.
You know those eountiese .Are they .the
worst in Ontario ? Are they not rather the
very best, almost thepiek and choice of our
whole country, 7. Anti yet in &oh and every
one of them the rural population has abao-
lutely,anti positively dirninisned within the
last ten years ff there is any truth in your
own municipal inebisties.
Not merely have we lost the entire
natural increase, which ought in those ten
years to have amounted at ordinary rates
of increase to near 170,000 peels, but there
i'
s as you see, an al:isolate decrease
ofover 30,000 at the beet, and after
allowing for the fact that it certain
number of additional villageewere in.
corporate(' M those mantles during
the last twelve years though that is it
coneeesion which I probably ought not to
make in view of the fact that the greater
part of the large alleged immigration in
that interval haa drifted into our towns and
cities and villages, and really displaced our
own population rather than added to it.
Have you considered whet this means and
especially hew it effects the values of farm
lands Gentlenten, when the rural popula.
tion was Met -easing the vaLue of yonr farm
lands kopt steadily increasing too, hat just
as surely as the population of the country
defenses so, as you very well .know, does
the selling value of your lane decrease
likewise.
How is it over Ontario collectively 1 I
cen tell you Mutt too, and a yory retnarkable
and higaly suggestive record ie is.
Restrietionists' Broken Promises.
Here are the figures :-In 7,873 the rural
poptentime -of • Ontario was 1,047,812, in
1879 it was 1,128,089, showing it gain of
81,079 in six yeers, not as large as I could
have tvished, Lit still it steady and respect-
able increase pretty evenly distributed all
along the litie
• How nands the recore now? Yon will
farinees and of the neer wens of the smeller
. do '8'011 to' consider It. In 1889, after ten
towns and villages. yeere of a high proteetive tariff,
eat. Thee this is very largely due to after constructing some thoosands of utiles
. most , vicious system of legurlation undor of new reihveys and throwing open large
, entitled.' tile whole fisteal seettee of Ceenue traots 01 new cohntry for settlement, and
; has. become an Instilment of legtdised rob- after a very large alleged immigration
bery en a settle and to an extent, aeselutely which, 11 16 has nettled anywhere at all in
' • . unprecedented fit the history of any other this Dominion, musette, aetbled mainly in
• nentvy so young 26 005 own. Ontario, we find the total rural population
(4) Tenet all things uotisitlorod,by far the of Onterio le now pet :town at. 1,7.32,845,
easiest' end seven even:dile remedy for this showing n wan lo the ten years,
mate ef Menge lies in full, free au 1 from 1879 to 1889, of, just 3,-
•
therestricted Itecineo,city 956. Did ever a yoang country
n'et:11 the Meted States, aud that this great like oars, make a more beggarly exhibit?
',moo can be had by you whenever you Just, think of It t The rural population of
Mteose to ask for it io a proper and busi- °aerie growing at the tete of less than 400
souls a year for ten years
eets,like feehion, (Applause.)
• This tor friends, is what I intend to Murk one other thing. In the six years
from 1873 to 1879 the rural population grew
peeve le.your. %restitution before I take my
end, white d0 eue, mine teat the trt the rate of nearly14,600 n year. In the ten
years from 1879 to 1899 it grew. 400 it year;
..evitleace 1 m about to produce is all
that is, the groWth of farming popula•
efeitally clear, I think I may say that while
• mot, points nee beyeeit dispute, et, ea.. Mon was about 35 bines as great per year
under that tyrant Alexauder Mackenzie and
he established by veey strong ciretunstan-
that other miscreant his late :Minister of
eteclence, even those which are rather
Finance as it was and is under the patens'
• • • Matters of inferenee than directly proven
rule of that great and good team Sit• John
nein • deserve yottr earefill consideration.
A, Macdonald. (Laughter.) • Oe to put it
• Anil if any of you are inclined to ask why
these theligs have not been seen and acted auother way,,farmet.s grew. and multiplied
At:tee:where I eau only say that I think it (and prospered, Moder beereatte of populetion
in their ease meanti. Moralise :of prosperity
' ' was perely Unease the questeons them:
end added value to Miele lanes) more than
i•
eielves were,' in sores instances, father Mei-
meenty times as fast under' Mr. Mackenzie eethe-partly beoause time was neorled to
in six years as they have doneundeeSivJohn
..•. et:Melt:pa the faces-peetly because the ap-
A. elaudonald in tenyeare. (Appleuse.) How
parent pteeperity of a few prominent places
has it fared with other classes e Here, en,
. nee done meth to deceive enrolees observers
tee conrpurition is remarkable and instrum
, , • 95,614 tee. reel. state of. affairs -bra very
•tive and affords Ito small foodfor bhought.
move bonus° it. has been the intereat
netalie infittential parties to deeeive and . As Yon know ene PePeleeeen 111 tkiterio is
' hobdivinir yds for their own profit, and that divided ihto three great groups. •
,ntetty of those persons, tied notably the sub. (1) The ruled population, white: is by far
liaised:prase of this Donileion, hey° coat. the largest and on whom tlis ' ethers rate
• Itinee together, in a deliberate con. nudely depend. '
spirecy to 01 $01111, (Appleuse.) Ott all such (2) The teems add; eilliteee'of which we
peiscine. the regent McKinley teriff has Wive a very large ueinber let" Ontario and
etatititmliken bombehells • It. is a practleal width are very direcely contented With the
e object lesson of the very first force, 16 has n11411 population.
. •lute very sheet space ca. time done more to (3) The reties (eo-called), about eleven in
• elrei1 tee eYes of the Ps0Ple 01 Clarinda mid all, and not qffite in such intimate relations
. to eepeec ' the 'wretched eubteefuges by web our fanners, although eVen these ulti-
Whieli they have been initialed to submit to mately depend foe their pernialcent prosper-
• be pluncleeed. thee could have been effected ity ply the wee -beteg or ;Ilene% of tee
, any other -Piteous in a whole generation. agricultural element.' '
„ Gentleieme. 1 see Lite Itlinisterial mints You have seettlee6 it ivas With the farm-
., are very fond ei 4eielaring that the ing population, let es tern to our towna ene
ley Meier is a blessieg in disguise ane so it 'villages. Here tenon oellectively there is
' they' protieethough trete-exactly in Hie Senso ati increase, thoggh 16 15 not it rapid one,
•'theymerth, if at long last it Awakens the and though it is rather due to the grOwth
peeple,of Canada (as 11 058108 for that matter of a few new towns and. of the suburbs of
to heve pretty effectually awakened. the one or two cities, than to auy general in
-
people of the United States) bo a just 001190 orenee. The figuretegiv,en itre as follows :-
•. ,of infamoue tyranny and extortion to Thepopulation of the 200 (or more) towns
Weice they have leen mi.:footed Masa meaty and villages in Ontario in 1873 was 814,317.
„ years, (Low]. impetuses) In 1878)5 Was 300,998, showing a gain .o)
Coming down to details, while I am quite acme 86,0001 or 40, pen cent, 10 five years,
tu admit that you in Western being at the rate of 8 per ceue per annum,
'Oblates' irre fee less likely tq be seriously le 1590 it had r(sen, (witlt the new towns
.1am:tett by the McKinley or :my other included) to 423,964, allowing a gain of
eerie' thee ether Itrovinces or other portions 41 pee , cont. itt twelve y eerie boil%
at the . rate of leas then 36 per net.
pfeur ()ten Province, T put it to your own
eonseiodefiess lueve you advanced either la Pee Minitel: or lose teen half as mileh pro-
'• the' frown of Chatham or in the good elotnity portionately pestering elm five years from
' of Kent' at all ie feet withia the 'eat. dozen 1873 to 1878. Whet is more notewottily
..Vehaseis '(ole, have had good right to ex. :lathier that if we omit the new tome anti
• petite (ear, hear.t exnanine the rem -plied the town and vie
As to Prosperity.
'egos which were ,in. exiatence. in 1873 down
•
' r , „ Oa the present time ybu will. find that
are, I8r111 lends more V11108010 1 mos thee° to. ,
eyii rubal populetion inoveased ? Have, Rarely One, Town in Ten
leeiegegee • '" fsrins dindiiishnd Ill which bas done tams than retain the natural
• neinibee 00 • extent 1 Hee Chatham 'themes° 0( iliro,4 over and thee
business, centre of ohe ef the most, fer•
telo districts in Ontario, eery tweeeltl,rds ef them all are eithee relit.
geoun es reltelle Lively or tie holutely retrogtading, thee ie,
80 it 011011)tlill that interval ?
lave either , eiositiVely last population Or
• Sjr, I heed here the reeord of yout growth me failed to retain their tatetwal inereatie,
for the lasteixteed years, ana I flail that, en other words,, among oar towns and vile
betweett the entree 180 and 1878 Chatliturt noes, 11 rather small minority have pros-
• inereased, 21 para. eetit, hi five yeere pored, a moderate tailtber have holtt
or the tale of 4.1-5 tent 01311t, their own pea the great majority
per tvontint-Altet tente' 1878 1.0 1,581 Chet. nave gone baeltWavd • (nbeolutely
hale 'grew et the rate of 4 pet• conte in five tempareeively) in the last twelve yams,
yeiree, Or lay IR per nee pet Annum, tied Collectively the towne end villages leve'
from 11107.00 1890' effete 9 pqe Omit, in Oven fitted a geed (lad better thee .the femme
!mare, bait% at tile fate ef le per cone pee thouter individually in erity malty mien
their positioe hi tO the full as bad er mete
"rUern
Ting now to the eleYett Melee -entice
conseltute the third group of our pepule•
Mon'a very cerions etate el 6)1145917 Pretends
iteolf, Oolleetively the growth le large,
In this Me and in this ease only, the rale-
tive growth in the het twelve yeare is
eentewhet gveeter than during the five years
ern mentioned. •
In 1873 the eity population of Ontario
wee 192,105, In 1871116 was 228,367, show-
ing s gee: of 38,252 in five years, beine
au Moron of about, 19 per cent., or at the
vete of 4 per cent per annum ncriely,
In 1890 ID AV118 300,759, showiog
1111 illerealle 01 132,402 soul:), or
about 58 per cent„ being nt the mite
of 6 per ceut, per anutun neerly (though I
may observe that if this calculation were
/natio by periods of OVA years instead of
maseing the whole twelve together the d(f-
ference In the tedio of increase would be
very smell). But what is vary curioue
indeed Is that ween you come Lo
analyse these return you will find th4t Of
this total growth of 132,000 in twelve yenrs
almost the whole (104,000 out of 132,000)
is assigned to two elan, Toronto and.
Ottawa, the other nine collectively not
having by eny means retained their 'lateral
gterwth of births over deaths, though two
or three of them have !told their own fairly
well, and perhape a little more.
I Way observe in pessing that while these
figuees neaten from your min municipal 11-
501-49 269 beyond tiouin relatively correct and
affor4 an absolutely true ludex ot the move-
ment of the population, 1 do not olflim
that they tire positively and exactly 110011r•
ate, thotigli the ptiuciple on which they are
made is very much superior to the fraudu-
lent 'de jure" method adopted for.politi.
cal and freedulent reasons in our Dominion
00/14118. (Bear, hear.) ,
And now, gentlemen, if you will bear in
mind alevays this cardinal fact that I1111,
country:like 'ours the growth of population
is in a roughway a very good measure of
the growth of wealth, eyon will understand
in part why it is that I stated to you that
if we were to atrike a national balance sheet
fairly aud accurately it was very doubt-
ful if we would turn out to 1-111ye
gained one sou on the whole during
the last twelve years -not, remember, be.
cause there luta been no increase of wealth
in certain directions, but banana there has
been a great loss of weelth in or:retain other
quarters, and becaese, in ehore, a great deal
of whet la put deem as increase is simply. a
displacement in, tvitich one mane gain is
very literally another mane loss. (Ap-
plause.)
Sir, the statemene is a strange one and
en unpleanint one. Unhappity , it is erne.
There has been a great growth. of wealth,
but where Y There. has tilso been a great
loss of wealth. Where el These figures will
give the answer :-Two or three cities have
thriven greatly. Twelve to -twenty towns
have done well. These ere largely plus. .
Who Are Minus e
pia:a:ally the great inajority of the other
cities and towns and villages, and .tho
great mass of the rurat municipalities. (Ap.
,
Put on oue side what those favored 1°,61 -
Ries. have gained. Put me the other hind
the deprecietion in the actual selbng value
of your farms, which in Ontario alone ire I
fear, decieedly underestimetecl at 510 pee.
acre, or, say 5200,000,000 on tho twenty
odd millions of apres . now occupied by tee
.1
farmers of „thee Province ; considette,
reduced value of property in threetfeffie ha
of our cities, towns and villages ; allow 'for '
the immense Morose of debts chiefly due.
abroad ; councup how much. our Federal,.
our Provincial and mut municipal debts
have inereand ; how much our mortgage or
mortgage debentuve debt ; how much our
railway debt ; allow for capital wasted in
silly euterprises under the N. P. :; and in
wild specalations in the Northwest -put
these, I say, on one side, and on the other,
a few large forttines accumulated by a few
private persons who have bought /rola
Government the power to tax the whole
community for their private benefit; add eo
these the gain ref it few cities and the con-
struction of certain railway lines, anti,
waiving for the moment the question of the
;vise distribublon of the nation's wealtleeeity
it is a metter of very graee doubt indeed
evliether, so far as the older Provinces go,
they are not on a balance absolutely and
positively poorer than theywere before
youe proteceive tariff 08,1710 into existence.
(Hear, hear.) That they have retrograded,
relatively speaking, there is no posse.*
room fqr doubt.
Sir, some may sey all this is matter of
opinion, 130 it so. We will (Mimes this
hereafter. In one or two points there may
be room for honest difference of opinion. - .
But as to the loss of populationin current'
districts there is nob ; as to the decree:led
value of farming Iambi from one end' of
Ontario to the other there is not ; rut to the
decrease in value of property in the uldjority
of our towns end villages there ie nob; as
to the rapid and enormoue increase ' of
moregageindeeteriness there is not ; ad to
the morease of our peblic debts of all Norte
there is nob; not as to the immense in-
crease of the imbue' taxation. extorted from
the community. All these facts are beyond
questionne is alsmin my opinion and that bf
many °there, this most pregnant and signi,
ficant fact to which I call the eepecial at.
tention of evory fanner ,here Present, and
which I most lteartily with I could engrave
on the mind of every farmer in Catio:da,
that in the long rea all teeter'
are finally peid out of the Jana
and out of tho pockets of those who
cultivate it -at any rote that this is sub-
stantially the nee iu a country like Careale,
and most especially in a Province like Ow
tario. (C)teers.)
Why, friends, remember this; The far.
neer minuet thift his 'bunion even in .the
lea.st degree on anyone else. (Re-
newed applause.) All others may -or at
any rate 'natty may e- take them-
selves away with oomparatively little loss.
Metchants, artisene, leborers, professional
men are, as oompered with the farmer, free
agents. He, as 8 rule, is anchored feet to
hie land -et least as times now go. If he
shifts, he must do if, at great loss -loss of
capital, less of experience, loss of comfort,
loes in .every" way. (Applause!) .
These things •are nob •Inetters of opinion.
They are hard and bitter facts which the
farmers of Canada will do well to ponder Ort
and ley to heart while there is yet time. '
Sir, our farmers are in great danger'. !elle
toile ere cluing round them. Yet an-
other ten years--tety anothetfive years --end
let the internee of mottge.ge ludeeteditess
and 'the depreciation of farm prof:arty in Ote
tario•go ori in the fame ratio as it Mos dorm
for the last ten ov twelea yeete and we will
sea the sorry and pitiful spectoole of hal)
otur fatthers sane feom the positionof free
and. inclopeodent, landlipltlehe tO that . of
sells or tonanta, oe what is perhape worse,
of Illet1 so hopelesely and
Helsel:nay Moetgaged '
thee they ere utiterly mode:: to extricate
themselves, ' This is tut itneginary (Comer,
Itr Is meetly what is coining to pass ec: a
very large exteut in the adjoining
St1;t04, lecre are the official saute.'
mains Of the American vonitniesioitere
in miners of their States which hive ett•
joyee the ethefitee?) ot tt high proteoelee
tariff for some 30 years,
The Labot nevem of C0111100;1011t 1108 1;b0i,11
by el:investigation 51 533 enirokontetive forms
tlgltv9ittrtgf!stm
pnoeiiliV=fenre eniiueeet
,muele mid Male ie 881 31, vItilethe05004e
minuet weeguPes o
f thserdluary hiredman
e
rt44. . Maaascliosebt 1,114 .se a
4440,9t1cbla
A pleaent state of 611)1156, is ft nets for
,1.f.ryof
Ontario to look for-
ward to ? How do you like the
eresneet, any of you, of making aboue
half 80 much out of your farms
ue the Matrege wages of your own hired
men 5 lbw do you like the poesibilite, as
stated by eir, Colby, Preettiont of the Gout:l-
oll, of treeing }Moe Janne selling for en, fer
$5 afid for $10 per sere, witieli Mr. Colby
publiely erielatier le the male with eorne ef
'the very beet farnie in -Vermont after 30
years aotual experience of a high protective
tariff ? (Applateme Give Mr. Colby and hie
frienes time and you will arrive there too.
(Hear, )tear.) If twelve years bane brought
your ferm population to an absolute stead -
still and heve cost you it cool third of the
eetuel :telling value of your farms, what will
30 yeers do fer you? Work out that prob.
1em for yourselves. (Load appleusee
' 1n all thia there is very grave danger to
the well-beitig of the whole State.
Agrieulture in Canada must prosper or
tee whele engem faust euffer, aud no
elanmore surely next after the
fatiners ehennelves then the people of the
smaller towns, • :titles and villages whose
Prosperity i4 direotly bound up with that of
the rural populetion with whom they do
business.
And new, sir, what are the causes of thie
Meet painful, nay, of this most disgraceful,
slate of things?
Is Ontario over -peopled? Is there no
more room here for tillers of the eoll ?
Sir, according to the bandbook published
by. the Dominion Government Oman° on -
taunt(' 181,000 square miles, or, nay, 115,-
000,000seres, It has st the very outside
180,000 families actually engaged in culti-
vating the soil (probably not neue as many,
as a large section of those put down
55 forining the rural populatiou are not
farmers, bet handicraftsmen).
These occupy by actual returns about
21,000;000 acres 009 01 the 116,000,000; say
libout oneeixth of the whole, and a great
deal of that 1. not cultivated.
The Goodly Land of Ontario.
Now, I do not say thee the whole of the
remeining 95,000,000 ef acres is good land
05 6580 one-half of it, but I most assuredly
do say and I challenge any Minister to con.
:tradict me, that there is enough good land in
Ontario to find profitable employment under
an honest Government and a wiser and juster
lieeal 'system for not one million but for
several inillione of prosperous fariners-(ap.
alenee)-for five millions, or it may be for
Aux or seven or eight millions of a thriving
rural population, wore our land anything
like as well (=Riveted As it might be, or as
land ie; for the matter of that, in :leveret
other countries far Iwo favored by nature.
For: you have a good country, a right
good country, here in Ontario, and it is not
the niggardliness of nature but the folly and
, wickedness' of corrupt men that have
brought it to pass that with such a country
at yeter disposal there are toalay.1,0(10,000
of Canadian born .denizens of the United
States. Let rim read to you what an eminent
American, Mr. David Wells, haa to say ef
Ontario in a passage which I have quoted
mare than once before and which I will not
Hesitate to quote again to you to -night gee-
ing- teet itex:attune the testimony of au
,emineut man :to certain' facts which every
tree Cauadien, 310,009 or old, must always
-poetise With plesaureand with pride. Mr.
'Walla speaks thus :--
. .
North of Lakes Erie and Ontario, and of the
. River Rt. Latvrence, and east el Lake Huron,
south of the 45th parallel et latitude, end in-
. eluded mainly ill the present Dominion of Can-
ada, then is as fair a country as exists on tile
American continent -nearly as largo in aromas
Now ;York, Pennsylvania and Ohio combined,
and equol, if not superior, as a whole, to those
States..in agriculturist capabilii
ty. t. lithe
natural habitat en tbie continent of the comb-
eheep. It is the land where grows the
, finest /Arley, which the brewing inter* of the
Onitedlitatos mind have (1 11 ever expects to
rival Great Britain in its annual export of
eleven minimise:toning of malt products. It
raises and grazee the finest of cattle, with
:qualities epeolidly desirable to make good the
deterioration of stock in other sections, and Sts
eonditions, created by an almost en-
oireleine.ht of tho great lakes, especially flt It to
grow men. Simla a country is one of the great,
est gift‘i of Pro Vidence to the human race bet-
ter thole bonanza!' of silver or rivers whose
sands run gold.'
(Lend' and prolonged applansea And
adk youreelves if that be so how
comee it that you cannot keep your sons at
)tarfietkow is it that well-nigh every third
adult male Canadian now alive is to be
found in the United States ? Is it then
bedauee the farmers of °uteri° are too
eitipid and tee ignorant to turn their noble
heritage to good account? Well, air, look.
algae the way in which some of them have
for meny years submitted to be robbed and
pluffilored, I won't deny but there may ,be
eolticielfifig in that. Still to do them bere
etstice-Lbelieve even our American. neigh -
hers, admit that so far as Ontario is tom
earned our ferment as a rule will stand cont-
.
,parison with the best of theira.
Me. Chaiernau, if the land be good and
the peeple be good, we most look further.
An eiteiny' bath done this. Whileyou
slept Item° ane' has sowed tares and Can -
adieu thistles in your wheat fields.
*A true there.are mere reesons than otio.
teethe state of things I have depicted.
Several name have been at work and some
Wimps hot altogether under your ciontroL
Bet one cauee is under your control,
Mkt it . towers high in evil pre.eminence
toVer; all . others, and that is the unjust
ane,excessive the:tenon to which you have
been auejeatectand which falls worst and
heaviest oil the farm and on the fanner.
(Leda 'applause.)
What Taxes Mean.
Gentlemenelea me ask you a few (Ws.
t'i0D,m,'
o,y;on kow W\iltt taxes you really end
trulapay, and by Out I nteen do you know
whet' couies eel) of peer pockets and net
not Merely What is acknowledged to 1111170
'gone eithe the treasury?
Del,e,ou know how fast your actual taxa•
fien,eaa increased withia the last ten or
twelee years 7.
Do you kfitiw how it compares with the
taxetioe of the United States when their
population was four times an greater:yeas
Do you know what even your nominal
tanetioe, let, alone youv Actual taxation,
weuldirunoetie to if added together for the
ttiiob bwelve years?
Let. us take It in gross. Lee .111
tater, it in.. detail. Let ,to see • what
it nveuld immeni, to if we put ,it 60 the
thape, of to mortgage on every Imre of Quite
Meted fatui in Ontario, Let us lee what it
Weald be 50en'aunual rout charge per acre.
' tee he LIAM it by Preeincie-by coutity-e-
-ey toWnehipe-by concession -by each metes
intletieual feemenind then, perhaps, yon
.tteill be able to judge why it iti that .farmoria
eneiti no headway, end Why le is that at the
mid 6Leeety, year hard toil poly too often
tba mth.40,0 is bigger end the fehm iteele
'lees valuable than it was at the beginning.
Now; tn. follow Ina in this caloulation you
Mint dist oir ell graep firmly tins plain. feet,
thee it is neoesary and Of. the very eseence
pf oeery aystem of protective taxation that
,pvery nempeye fitt larger nun of taxes
'thee Ben goes into the teee.stiry-otheretise
of necessity there Is and can be no imitate
'tion, It ietrete the amount taken miry Vary,
Under. it 'veteenoderete eystem of pronto.
:Dien the itottentner may only ptty 52 for $1
Gee Pee into the treesury, but the is :mite
'get:Maltreat, Otten the tax is in the ratio
'of $3 for $1 or $5 0010 for $1 ; find if, as
lery atoll heefeent, the tax Is a nrehiletore
one, the unhappy consunfor May be taxed
Millione without one cent finding les wey
inte the public exohequer.
Done, make tho mistake or thinking that
if the teriff ie my 38 par cent, you eseape
with 36 per ent. on the iiinoune of goods
imported into the eminery. Pottelbly yeu
may If by good Moe there ie na petted
monopolleti who has set up to fectory to
melte euch geode yet iu Canede ; but, if
there Is such a patriot euel let Met
nob a manufactory, then prepere to
Weed. (Appleasea In the firet place,
if he is a reenther of • the rod parlor,
lie will !runty have a 4001 above a
pitiful 35 per owe, •and the tariff
will go up and up it: eue proportiou 50
his tillbSCriptiOn tO the election fund, but
even if he 18 ;10t and if milder 00Ver of this
huge tax he only manufaeteres say three
Ulnae an many of this special 01488 Of g00,18
84 We bIlPOri. than, you will perceive ehet you,
the oonsumers, will have ist mit a caee 60
pay just four clollers for every ono that
goers into the treasury, for of 0110 thing you
may be bhorouglely certain, 4114l 0111,t Is thee
your patnotle aol loyal Canadian inanufac.
term (having once shut out the Hritieh
goods which are him most dengeroue wove.
titora) will inevitably take out of you
The Very Lase Copper
the tariff will enelle him to exact vtithout
being undersold by his Entglith antagonist,
while as for domestic male Who were
to keep down pricea for the bone.
fit of the native consumer, you
have all heard of "theists, gentlettion,
and you m
know something ,
thing of. ' combines"
aud we have a most renuerleable and aocom.
modating system of anemias regulations,
elm:mildly adapted to keep off interlopers
from the ground oonsecratedeo the Cana'
dem manufacturer, and in feet-eakiog it
all round -about as effective a set of legal
racks and thumbscrews for etveatins
the unfortunate consumer as it is
well possible to imagine. (Applause.)
Sir, we hear a great deal from
time to time of the difficulty ef raising it
revenue by direct taxation, aerie ,looking
at the incomprehensible elemtdiey of tier.
tain of our taxpayers, 1 am bound to atintit
bhat the objection to dieect taxation has
weight ; but when I regard the itetnal re-
sults of the other process I feel well con-
viriced that II wise nation, so far from pro,
earring indirect modes of raising revenue,
would, if it well advised, reverse the
usual custom and reserve all in-
direct modes of taxation for great
national emergencies to he used then only
as temporary expedients said ttnder protest.
(Cries of "Hear, hear.")
Meantime in Canada we are far enough
away from any such ideal perfeetion,
In the Waive years from 187$ to 1890 we
have paid into the treasury $313,000,000,
and we have allowel ourselves to be taxed I
for the benefit of mama few hundred pro- j
Meted meakfacturers in at least an equal 1
amount ie addition, making inane stuntotal
of $626,000,000 wrung out of 'the people of
Canada in that interval. • This amount, I
aro Well persuaded, is under the nark, but,
for Inere argument's sake and to stop all
omen, let us say that the eum taken out of
the people's pocket's is only 5500,000,000 in
twelve years, though I know title is it grave
undereetimithe. What don that amount to
for you in Ontario ?You pay at
least three-fifths of all the Min, so
that your share would come to
a cool $300,000,000. Now we lave in On.
tario about 83 rural conatituencies which
average 20,000 People each (including towns'
and villages) and contain sornething Over
200,000 acree of cultivated or fairly
good cultivable laud apiece. Recolleot
whet I told you and how in the ultimate
reeult the lands pay the taxes; arid work
the sum out for youreelveee But suppose
for argument's flake we tueke a liberee de:
duetion for sums paid in ehe thee instance
by the cities, still eath ruled constituency
in thostt ttvelve years has had to ,pay mount
of nearly $3,000,000 ie actual taxes with-
out counties interest, Stant:ices I
ought to °barge if I woule give you a fair
idea of the sort of inattbee you have been
suffering under.
It follows that if these conatituencies
were divided into four townships avetu.ging
6,000 people each every ouch township
would have had to peer $70,000
(three - quarters of .n million of
rnoney) In that time. Andfurther
that if these townships 'were to average 60,-
000 acreadivided into 500 flume of 100 acres
each, every single farm would have .had to
pay $1,500 in that Mine. Now, thi8 1501114
be eqUIVilleta to a mortgage of $16 pet' acre,
or nay 53,0,00 me every 200 acre farm, and
half that amount on a 100 acre one.
Or, if you. like to look at et as ' a, reirt•
charge on your farms. We pet, $81,000,000
or 530,000,000 of taxes every year into the
treasury, and we are really taxed to the
tune of • $50,000,000 or $60,000,000 a year,
counting what we pay to the
Legalised Robbers,
whose hand s are never out of your pockets
at youv downaittine or your uprising -
whether you eitt or drink, or work or pley,
or sleep 05 9511 sick even.
Your share in Outario is well over $30,-
000,000 a year. You have abetit 20,-
000,000 of acres of occupied and
cultivable though noe. .of cultivated
land, Assume that I am correet, es I
substantially am, atid thet taxes do tie
timately fall on tha land. •Then,. if Ontario
pays thirty milliere of hetes a year end if
Outario farmers own twenty millions of
acres of cultevable land, allowing a very
moderate percentage for utterly wasteland,
it followe that your yearly taxes equal a
rent of nearly one dollar and mintlf per acre
00 every acre you possess of tvoodland,
wheat 5sld, meadow or pasture, (Applause,)
Think of it,I say, Diecsuiss tbe cptestion be
all ineons, and them I think, you will come
to have some understanding, how it hi that
in ea fair ited fertile a region, tithe it, all awe
all, as you will find from the Atlantio to the
Pacific, from the Gulf of Meek° to liudeon
Bay, you find it so difiloult yetir by year to
make both ends meet -why it is the
V111110 of your Mud is decreasing by hun-
dred of millions of dollars ht 'elm, and tviry
yoer ehildren will not stay at home or help
you to tight your bat tees when old age over.
takes you --why it is,1 repeat,that hi the laet
ten years, with near 100,000,000 troves um
occumed, the rural popollitioa of ()uteri°
has kopt on increttsing oolleetively ut the
rate of 400 wills a year--wity it ie that
out of 88 reesb coestitheecies the papule.
Mon in 62 of the richest lied most fertile of
all has decreased hy 52,000 sinee 1879,
Sir, I tell you the farmovs of Canada are
being bled white, as liisioarek mettle 'say,
and there ie yet aeother serious eggvave.
tiou of Ole Mil.
Still Further 'Tribute.
I spoke jest elow of the Men 310» paid
Govetntriont 511(1 their vile preettitoe, bet
yoc liave yet other taxer: to }thy. ..Can -
ads, remember, is it tribute.• paying
country... We aro tugh 111:15 11figlalid,
creditors general of the world at Mega We
ewe and trat owe heavily Mr, eveeything we
hates oonstettoted and more or hole we hetet
to Pee
The ateount 15 iientense. There 16 put
Feeeral ()the Mainly held hi Eng:Meld,
There are oar Provinces' anti memelpal
debts, also held Meetly abroad. A very
greet deal of out mortgage debt and of oer
mortgage eoliontates, ehtell are viretelly
the smite thiege are likewise held einead.
Aatt to these railway 'Mottles and dein:Mane,
stud report the aum total. atenoteohtieta
exnee ligeres, but / doubt, if all told the eol•
leetive eudelneation of Canada to foreign
nut:tries can well 00 put et lealetbee $8001.
00/) 890.
rhu rate" of lutereet vary, but one Ivey oe
Other we probrible have ter Mee 550,000,000 io
Year OO tble semonnt 0(0:00, i with I coald
leelieve we hue good vele° ter cur mone)'.
Now I aek you, ell tide being so, Wee
Ib not 4 mord menatrote folly, Wes
lb hot It trebly ferolielt pulley for us,
thus eerthened (48 we were, to deliberately
Menne our debt end tp mid hugely to our
texetieet as we have done during, the lase
few rare (Applause and " neer, hear.")
You all know my opinion of proteetion. 1
vertly believe for rny part thee had high
protective teriffs been knoiren 3,000 70191-5
5$0 when the prophet Olfered King Devitt
his choice ef the three great einetnities
known to the ancient world Ile would am
suredly hate added a protective teriff ea a
fourth altereative, arid one in no wise he
ferior lo ite devasteting effeete either
wee, famine or pestilence. (Applause.)
, 1 cannot thy whet, David might
have doe, but I am very sum
i that if the offer had been made to Solomon
and that were monarch had hied the upper -
twisty of :town the efferne of 30 yeare of P
high protective tariff le the United States
aud of 12 years of the seine in Canada, he
would have said to the divine map:engin,
" Let :no have &mine, let me have pesti-
lence, let me have red war -nay, if 7 must,
let me have all three together, but epee
me, ell spare me, a high proteotive tariff le
`• (Loud cheers and laughter.)
Sir, the wiee king woeldheve been doubly
right, for, wholly apart from the huge
economic watate whioh it involves, no man
who lute studied the practical working of a
protective tariff tan doubt that it is Mu
most corrupt and demoralising influenct
that bee ever contaminated the political 1
institutions of a so•called free country and is
the certain came of political as well as he
duetrial slavery wherever and whensoever
It prevaihls.
To
Warmer leooee the Bill.
But it itr upon f erniers of all others it
falls tnost heavily. They are fleeced every-
where. It has utterly failed to keep up the
prices of their products or the value of their
fame, but when they have any article to
buy ie plunders them at every polat.
Does a farmer want, a keg of nails? He
caultave itbut he must pay 40 per nee more
then it 15 worth in opeo market, part of the
excess going to the Dornitilon Treasury stud
part to some tunopolist or other.
Does he wish to build a Wirt) fence? Ile
tnust pay 30 per cent. above the real value
of the article:
Does he need iron goods of any deeorip•
tion (end no large close now-e-daye commas
more iron teem Canadian ferment) 1 Why he
is fleeced to the tune of 60, 70, or i1 may
he 86 per cent. on the very tools he uses.
Does he want it paten of coal oil ? It
will cost him from 150 to 200 per cent. more
than he could buy ib for if he had free trade
with the United Stater:.
Don he leant a stone of auger ? He will
pay 75 per oent. extra, half te Government,
hell M the auger combinee.
Does his wite want to make a rine pud-
ding 1 It will cost 66 per cent. more Mum
it ought. Does she waut a dress 2-86 per
cent. extra.
Does he want to coat for himself ? It is
40 or 60 per cent, more than it should bo,
while, by %refinement of roguery under our
precious tariff with its specific duties 50
arrangedes invariably tO favor the rich at
the expense of the poor, a wealthy pur.
Meaner pays llbbIs ovet ' 20' per cent. on Ms
broadcloth.
And so it goes. Why the very Melee
tvith which he harvests his crops is charged
40 per cent., antl in the Northwest,
to encourage rapid settlement, the pioneer
pays 36 per eent. on all ham innobinerY,
so espeoially needed ia a prairie =wary.
Why need 1 speak of 125 per nat. on the
kind of -wall paper a fermer wen ? of the
taxes on crockery und 011 Willa0W 04881
Why, air, if lm Bee down end dies
he can't go to his lase, long home
but he must psy 35 or 40 per cent. on
the rieryeittinge of his coffin. (Hen-, hear.)
This is the farmer's fate in his own coun-
try, and when he crosses the border he
meets another teriff which demands $30 ou
eaoh horse, $10 on each horned beast, 30c
a bushel on his barley, 406 on his beans, So
a pound on his poultry, 54 a ton on his hay
anden on id intiniturn, till between Foster
and McKinley, between the upper and the
nether 'millstone between truste and com-
bines andemavisb politicians, it has come to
pan Mutt a million of you have fied the
oountry and those who remain see them-
selves fast sinking inte serfdom. (App)ause.
Restriction is Prosperity's Poe.
Sir, lee us hear the eeticlusioa of the
whole matter. Proteetion can and does ada
enormously to the price of everything the
Canadian farmer has to buy, but 60 fails
ueterly in keeping up, much less in Int:reus-
ing, the price of whet he has to see ht
fact, looking at the way it les effected the
dietribution of the population, in the great
majority of cuaes eo far Mem findiug him a
better local home market It has injured the
one he used to have.
Tlie truth is, elr. Chairman'the protec. as'
the vetoer the•new world is a different
and much move de:teethes thin than the
protective system ef the old world, end
we all, farmers (especially, are suffering am
cordingly.
The one at Re worst was in a sense
natural disease, easily knoWn and com-
paratively easily treatee. What you
are suffering from is rather .
virulent poison administered by en.
scrupuloue scomadvels and needing very
active treatment huleed if le10 to be extir.
tatted from the body politic:
You' have to deal with a gang of com-
bines, highly paid and eighty thillsd met,
canaries, who have enslaved you and who
mean to keep you enslaved if fraud tuna,
corruption elm do It.
nom° of 5'01111/1re asked me once Or twice(
if this be so how came a therp and intellai
gent people like the ioliabitente Of thee
, United States to submit to such a se:stelae! '
so long. Gentaetnen, thereby hangs a Wee,
American stateernen thentmelves flame uree'
folded it of late nue have testified that this
whole protective system was avowedly
adopted only aa a ever iticarntre-as a tem.
porary ea:penitent inteuded to be abentionecl
ite non as the emergeney was at au
and -but the sinister and dishOnast
termite to which the eystem gave
birth grew 00 fast and lauded
themselves together eo thilfully that foe
mar 30' years they have held the America,,
people itt effiustrial bondage. But now ete
Mug Ian the oup has run over. Yon saw.
what the American funnels did oh the 4th
Of November, and its yea Wore led teway 4
theie example a dozen yeers ego tio note
with iefitately better reasons you can proet
ey them etetinple to -day. (Ap(tlemee.)
et. Divided Administration.
It ie out -sly time. You have harl ti dottlele
°bake loom You eave the McKinley tar.
110 to tot by the stern teaching of ainattl
fact the 'wovtli of the false premien made
to yott and to expon the wt etehea aelfeecon
tradiet ions of those Who made thoul. Why,
sir, it hes bourne their riaily and, hoeely
employment to eet their men worths.
(Loud appleusee Not only do their imbeiellie
561 newspeners deter every other day 'whet
they have allegel the aay before,
hut ehe very Ministate in the sante Cebinet
eteroutt stick ta the wee :story tat the ranee
Lima, Iltette eveuet had Mt. Colby ofeeirels
ly sintering in his throe thee "Beelprocity
le egrioultutal roeucts would be the wet*
thing thet CQ(I11 imppen to the freteeere