No country is great with only one industry. Agriculture is our most important, but it cannot be our only staple. All men are not fit to be farmers; there are men with mechanical and manufacturing genius who desire to become operatives or manufacturers of some kind, and we must have means to employ them; and when there is a large body of successful and prosperous manufacturers, the farmer will have a home market for his produce, and the manufacturer a home market for his goods, and we shall have nothing to fear. And therefore I have been urging upon my friends that we must lay aside all old party quarrels about old party doings. Those old matters are matters before the flood, which have gone by and are settled for ever, many of them settled by governments of which I was a member. Why should parties divide on these old quarrels? Let us divide on questions affecting the present and future interests of the country.
The question of the day is that of the protection of our farmers from the unfair competition of foreign produce, and the protection of our manufacturers. I am in favour of reciprocal free trade if it can be obtained; but, so long as the policy of the United States closes the markets to our products, we should have a policy of our own as well, and consult only our own interests. That subject wisely and vigorously dealt with, you will see confidence restored, the present depression dispelled, and the country prosperous and contented.
[ 52. PRAIRIE GREYHOUNDS.]
Poem by E. Pauline Johnson.
The Canadian Pacific Railway was completed in November, 1885.
(1) C.P.R. Westbound.
I swing to the sunset land,
The world of prairie, the world of plain,
The world of promise and hope and gain,