Keys to Prosperity

Rich, pious and a man of his solemn word is the Rt. Hon. Richard Bedford Bennett. Last July he said unto Canadians that if they would return his Conservative Party victorious to Parliament then verily, verily he would build a great tariff wall around the Dominion and behind it there would be plenty of new jobs for Canada's 117,000 unemployed. As everyone knows, it came to pass that Mr. Bennett is now Prime Minister with a clear majority over the Liberal opposition. One day last week he built his Great Wall. In British nations (each Dominion is a "nation") such things are actually done in a day. The Canadian emergency tariff bill, carefully elaborated in advance by members of the Government, was introduced in Parliament by Mr. Bennett, passed swiftly over bitter but impotent Liberal objections, and next morning was law of the land--as U. S. exporters found out to their cost. Hokum. In the well tailored breast pocket of dignified Conservative Bennett is one bulging bit of hokum. Time and again he has accused his Liberal predecessor, ex-Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, of "pusillanimously permitting Washington to write our tariff act!" Matter of fact, under Mr. King, the Canadian tariff was an automatically sliding scale of "countervailing duties"--that is, if the U. S. duty on Canadian cold storage eggs were raised to x cents a dozen, bang would go Canada's duty on U. S. cold storage eggs to x cents. All this Mr. Bennett vowed to change. Proudly last week he pointed out that Canada's new duties are "fixed/' not ''countervailing"--but inspection shows that most of them are fixed at the same levels as corresponding U. S. duties on Canadian imports. Customer's War. Statisticians, who guessed that the Liberal King tariff introduced last spring would cost the U. S. some $200,000,000 in lost Canadian trade this year, guessed again last week that the Conservative Bennett tariff may run this loss up to some $300,000,000. Already U. S. exports to Canada are down $155,000,000 for the first seven months of 1930, a thumping loss due partially of course to "depression." Canadian exports to the U. S., battling to scale the U. S. Hawley-Smoot tariff wall (which provoked Canadian retaliation in the first place) are down $42,000,000. Canada and the U. S., each the other's best customer, are today at grips in deadly tariff war. Producer's Promises. Expounding his bill last week, Prime Minister Bennett said that the Canadian producers whom it now protects have promised his Government not to raise prices. To make them keep these promises the Bennett tariff contains a clause with teeth: "In the event of the producers of goods in Canada increasing prices in consequence of the imposition of any duties under the provisions of this act, the Governor in council may reduce or remove such duty." As well they might, Bennett cohorts boasted last week that this clause is a great, novel, constructive piece of statecraft. Citizens of the U. S. enjoy no such safeguard against price-jacking and purse-gouging by their own protected industries. 25,000 Jobs. As a "minimum" and "immediate" result of his fixed tariff, Mr. Bennett promised Canadians last week 25.000 new jobs. Explaining how he had arbitrarily determined which producers to protect, he said slowly, pompously: "We have taken those that are key industries, those where activity may be stimulated and employment given on a larger scale. We have secured the consumer against exploitation, and the result will do much to meet the emergent conditions for which this Parliament was called together." War Whoop. Like an Indian war whoop rose Liberal King's instant challenge to Conservative Bennett's statement. Scarcely had the Prime Minister sat down when the ex-Prime Minister moved and read a scathing amendment: "This House regrets that the Government has seen fit at a special session called to deal only with unemployment to propose great increases in customs taxation on a wide range of commodities under circumstances which preclude this House and the country from securing adequate information regarding the proposals and present proper parliamentary discussion of them. "In the opinion of this House the tremendous increases in taxation proposed will not end unemployment, but will inevitably increase the cost of living, and will also increase the cost of production in the primary industries, agriculture, fishing, mining and lumbering, thus making it more difficult for Canadian producers in these industries to meet world competition in marketing their products."

This amendment, though red-hot reading, was of course instantly quenched by Conservative majority votes.

"B. P." Scanning the hefty new Canadian schedules, observers noted that Canada continues to have three kinds of tariffs: first and lowest, those collected on goods enjoying "British Preferential" tariff (i. e. imports from nearly all other parts of the Empire); second, "Intermediate Tariff" on imports from countries with which Canada has reciprocally favorable trade treaties, such as Czechoslovakia; third, "General Tariff," the highest, collected on imports from "other countries" such as the U. S.

Example from the new tariff schedule:

"Woven Fabrics wholly or in chief part by weight of silk in the gum, not degummed nor bleached, not less than 20 inches in width, weighing not more than seven pounds for each 100 yards thereof, imported for the purpose of being degummed, dyed and finished in Canada: ["B. P."] /71%, ["Intermediate"] 30%, ("General"] 45%"

In general textiles and clothing, agricultural implements and products, household machines head the list of imports saddled with higher duties. The steel and iron schedules bristle with slight changes, but of U. S. products only iron pipe is jacked up decisively from $10 to $14 per ton. Because Canada's autompbile industry is as yet too infantile to supply Dominion demands if further protected there is no change in this bracket. Motor cars from the U. S. will continue to enter at 20% (those retailing up to $1,200) and 271% (retailing over $1,200).

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