3

CANADA AND THE EMPIRE.

Any measure therefore which offers the least
obstacle to that development would clearly be
detrimental to Canada’s interests, and would be
met with violent resentment in Canada. This
places Britain out of the running, as far, at any
rate, as her great staple industries of iron and
steel, cotton and wool are concerned. At the
present moment, thanks to the preference, British
wool and cotton compete successfully with the
home made product, with the result that those
industries are suffering from it.! At one of the
largest and most efficiently managed cotton mills
in Canada, fitted throughout with the best and
most modern machinery from Oldham, driven by
water power, we found 600 looms standing idle,
due, it was alleged, not to shortage of cotton, but
to British competition. The cordage and woollen
trades, we were informed, are in a still worse plight,
and many mills have had to close down. These
are, however, peculiar cases, and in most of the
other lines of business we heard a very different
story. The British manufacturer never seems to
have made any serious attempt to cope with the
requirements of the Canadian market; he has
never tempered his astonishing unadaptiveness to
Canadian conditions.
This is the real reason why people have said the
oreference has been of little use to Britain. In

t This was the case, at least, before the latest alterations
in the Canadian tariff,