Page:Problems of Empire.djvu/195

THE CANADIAN NORTH-WEST. for the existing proportion under other crops, is only one-fifth of the estimated area of arable land in the north-west of Canada. Therefore there is not the slightest question that the ideal of making the Empire self-supporting as to its food supply could be realised, as far as wheat is concerned, from Canada alone.

The next question I wished to inquire into was as to what would be an effective preference for the Canadian farmer as compared with the farmer in the United States or in the Argentine Republic? I was informed by one of the leading grain merchants in Winnipeg, who was good enough to draw up a memorandum for me on the subject, that three cents a bushel, or one shilling a quarter, would be a fairly effective preference for the Canadian farmer, but that six cents a bushel, or two shillings a quarter, would be much better. You will gather, therefore, that Mr. Chamberlain's preference of two shillings a quarter would be adequate to secure the object in view. That is a point of very considerable importance on which many Tariff Reformers have had great doubts.

The third point into which I wished to inquire was as to whether the fears to which I have alluded with regard to the influx of American settlers were justified. I gathered from those whom I met that the American farmers—the farmers from the United States who settled in Canada—became satisfied with Canadian institutions, and were loyal to Canada, but there was no reason why they should be loyal to the connection with this country. With the British settlers and their descendants the tie of sentiment is strong. There is no such tie of sentiment in the case of those 177