17 JULY 1909, Page 1

On Friday week at the Lake Champlain Tercentenary celebration Mr.

Taft made a singularly wise and graceful reference to Canada which marks him as a man of the highest wisdom. Speaking of the Canadians in their relation to the United States, he remarked that only a short-sighted view of Canadian progress could make Americans jealous, and added (we quote from the Times) :—" They cannot have a prosperity that we cannot and must not share, and we cannot have a prosperity that they will not derive benefit from. Therefore each may look to the growth of the other with entire com- placency and an earnest desire that the ideals and ambitions they have formed may be carried to fruition. I am glad to feel that these celebrations are a permanent step forward in bringing about that union of feeling, sentiment, and neighbour- ship that ought to be encouraged between those two great Powers in the North American Continent." It is always ridiculous to think that the commercial prosperity of one country means the commercial ruin of another. The more wealth there is in the world, the better for every one. More- over, if Canada and the United States took the short-sighted view of which Mr. Taft spoke, they could not live long together as good neighbours. And yet Mr. Taft will soon be required to assent to a Tariff Bill based on an exactly opposite theory,—that one nation's loss is another's gain ! Could there be a better example of political irony ?