National Affairs: The Neighbors

To live in peace and harmony with your neighbor and to love him as yourself is no easier for nations of men than it is for men. Canada and the U. S. are traditionally amicable neighbors, but this does not spare them from having back-fence arguments. Last week the problems between the two countries had accumulated to an extent that might well have shaken the amity of two less level-minded neighbors.

U. S. Secretary of State Stimson and Canada’s Minister, the Hon. Vincent Massey, had among other matters the following things in common to think about last week:

Prohibition. Minister Massey delivered to Statesman Stimson Canada’s formal note of protest against the sinking of the Canadian registered rumrunner I’m Alone, sunk by U. S. Coast Guards men 200 miles off the Louisiana coast (TIME, April 1, et seq.}. Statesman Stim son described the epistle as “temperate and conciliatory.” He sat himself down to prepare a reply.

Simultaneously the Department of Justice, in New Orleans, released Capt. John Thomas Randall and the crew of the I’m Alone from a charge of conspiracy. The U. S. found it had “insufficient evidence” for conviction. Captain Randall talked of a $250,000 damage suit against the U. S. for the loss of his ship and its liquor cargo.

At the same time, the Canadian Gov ernment permitted U. S. agents to stand on the Windsor, Ont., liquor export docks as a means of checking rum-running to Detroit, which cut the flow to” the low ebb of 500 cases per day. This, Canada considered, was part of “neighborly co operation,” whereas the I’m Alone case involved a major international principle.

Tariff. Great was the agitation last week in Canada at theprospect of an in crease in U. S. tariffs, particularly on farm products. Last year the U. S. sold Canada, its best customer, $916,000,000 worth of goods, mostly manufactured, buying inreturn some $489,000,000 worth of Canadian exports, chiefly wood and paper ($237,000,000), fish and meats ($88,000,000), farm products ($57,960,170). Loud was last week’s talk of raising the Canadian tariff in retaliation. Premier McKenzie King called for “cool heads” in dealing with these international economic matters, but Canadian newspapers suggested that it was the King feet which were “cool” (see p. 25).

Agriculture. Any U. S. plan for disposing of crop surpluses involves”dumping” abroad. Canada sees herself as a sort of backyard for this dumping, and considers it not neighborly to dump things over a neighbor’s fence.

Immigration. Last week the U. S. Supreme Court set aside the Jay Treaty of 1794—on the ground that the treaty had died in the War of 1812—and declared that aliens resident in Canada or naturalized Canadians could not under the 1924 U. S. Immigration Act commute across the U. S. border to daily work. Minister Massey had protested to the U. S. on this interpretation, originally made by the Labor Department, on the ground that it goes behind Canada’s citizenship laws, discriminates between native and foreign-born citizens of the Dominion. The Supreme Court’s decision immediately barred some 600 Canadian workers at Detroit.

St. Lawrence Waterway. President Hoover has long urged international development of a Lakes-to-Atlantic route, but Canada, suspicious, has held back. Quebec and the Maritime Provinces are either hostile or indifferent. A complicating issue is hydro-electric power. Canada fears that the U. S. will secure control of most of the St. Lawrence power sites, with no chance for Canada to increase its share to meet future needs. Said one Canadian newspaper: “What Uncle Sam has he holds. Our whole relationship with our big neighbor proves that truism.” Radio. “Sheer presumption,” declared Arthur 0. Smith, Canadian speakerto a Washington Rotary Club last week, was the U. S. Radio Commission’sassignment of a mere handful of radio wavelengths to Canada. The prediction was made that the Canadian Government would soon kick over the U. S.distribution scheme by taking all the channels it needs regardless of chaosor interference produced in the U. S.

Sulphate Fog. Just within Canada on the western border is a copper plant which belches forth a fog of copper sulphate, destructive to orchards in the State of Washington for miles around. Washington, D. C., has, so far unsuccessfully, attempted to dispel this sulphate fog. but control over the winds seems the solution.

Newsprint. Some 90% of Canada’s woodpulp and paper production goes to the U. S. International Paper & Power Co., a U. S. concern with holdings in the Dominion (see p. 40), has developed such a grip over the U. S. supply that last year the threat of a Canadian embargo made U. S. newspaper publishers shudder.

Annexation. The bugaboo of Annexation has lost its political potency in Canada and in its place has been raised a cry against the “Americanization” of the Dominion. ”Americanization” runs from U. S. bathtubs to U. S. comic strips, each item of which is at one time or another anathematized in the Canadian press, pulpit and political forum (see p. 40).