airman of the board of directors of the Canadian Pacific, Sir William
Van Horne, who made on this occasion one of his few public entries into
politics. The banks, closely involved in the manufacturing and railway
interests, threw their weight in the same direction. They were aided
by the prevalence of protectionist sentiment in the eastern cities and
industrial towns, which were at the same stage of development and in the
same mood as the cities of the United States some decades earlier. The
Liberal fifteen-year compromise with protection made it difficult in a
seven weeks' campaign to revive a desire for freer trade. The prosperity
of the country and the cry, "Let well enough alone," told powerfully
against the bargain. Yet merely from the point of view of economic
advantage, the popular verdict would probably have been in its favor.
The United States market no longer loomed so large as it had in the
eighties, but its value was undeniable. Farmer, fisherman, and miner
stood to gain substantially by the lowering of the bars into the richest
market in the world. Every farm paper in Canada and all the important
farm organizations supported reciprocity. Its opponents, therefore,
did not trust to a direct frontal attack. Their strategy was to divert
attention from the economic advantages by raising the cry of political
danger. The red herring of annexation was drawn across the trail, and
many a farmer followed it to the polling booth.

From the outset, then, the opponents of reciprocity concentrated
their attacks on its political perils. They denounced the reciprocity
agreement as the forerunner of annexation, the deathblow to Canadian
nationality and British connection. They prophesied that the trade and
intercourse built up between the East and the West of Canada by years of
sacrifice and striving would shrivel away, and that each section of the
Dominion would become a mere appendage to the adjacent section of the
United States. Where the treasure was, there would the heart be also.
After some years of reciprocity, the channels of Canadian trade would
be so changed that a sudden return to high protection on the part of the
United States would disrupt industry and a mere threat of such a change
would lead to a movement for complete union.

This prophecy was strengthened by apposite quotations showing the
existing drift of opinion in the United States. President Taft's
reference to the "light and imperceptible bond uniting