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Professional Apache Tomcat 5 Programmer to
Programmer 1st Edition Vivek Chopra Digital Instant
Download
Author(s): Vivek Chopra, Amit Bakore, Jon Eaves, Ben Galbraith, Sing Li,
Chanoch Wiggers
ISBN(s): 0764559028
Edition: 1
File Details: PDF, 10.61 MB
Year: 2004
Language: english
Professional Apache Tomcat 5

Vivek Chopra
Amit Bakore
Jon Eaves
Ben Galbraith
Sing Li
Chanoch Wiggers
Professional Apache Tomcat 5

Vivek Chopra
Amit Bakore
Jon Eaves
Ben Galbraith
Sing Li
Chanoch Wiggers
Professional Apache Tomcat 5
Published by
Wiley Publishing, Inc.
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Copyright © 2004 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
Published simultaneously in Canada
Library of Congress Card Number: 2004103742
ISBN: 0-7645-5902-8
Manufactured in the United States of America
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About the Authors

Vivek Chopra
Vivek Chopra has over nine years of experience as a software developer, architect, and team lead, and is
currently working on Web Services, J2EE, and middleware technologies. He has worked and consulted
at a number of Silicon Valley companies (including Hewlett-Packard, Sun, and currently Sony) and
startups. He actively writes about technology and has co-authored half a dozen books on topics such as
Apache/open-source software, XML, and Web services. He is also a committer for UDDI4J, an open-
source Java API for UDDI. His other areas of experience and interest include compilers, middleware,
clustering, GNU/Linux, RFID systems, and mobile computing.

Sing Li
Sing Li, bitten by the microcomputer bug since 1978, has grown up with the Microprocessor Age. His
first personal computer was a $99 do-it-yourself Netronics COSMIC ELF computer with 256 bytes of
memory, mail-ordered from the back pages of Popular Electronics magazine. Currently, Sing is a consultant,
system designer, open-source software contributor, and freelance writer specializing in Java technology, as
well as embedded and distributed systems architecture. He writes for several popular technical journals
and e-zines, and is the creator of the “Internet Global Phone,” one of the very first Internet telephones
available. He has authored and co-authored a number of books across diverse technical topics, including
Tomcat, JSP, Servlets, XML, Jini, and JXTA.

Ben Galbraith
Ben Galbraith was introduced to Java in 1999, and has since become something of a Java enthusiast. He
has written dozens of Java/J2EE applications for numerous clients, and has built his share of Web sites.
He actively tinkers on several open-source projects and participates in the Java Community Process. He
has also co-authored a gaggle of books on various Java/XML-related topics, including the one you’re
holding now. He is president of the Utah Java User’s Group (www.ujug.org) and Director of Software
Development for Amirsys (www.amirsys.com).

Jon Eaves
Jon Eaves is the Chief Technology Officer of ThoughtWorks Australia and has more than 15 years of soft-
ware development experience in a wide variety of application domains and languages. He can be
reached at [email protected].
Amit Bakore
Amit Bakore is a Sun-certified Web component developer and Java programmer. He works at Veritas
Software R&D center, Pune (India). Earlier, he was a part of the Server Technologies group at Oracle,
Bangalore (India), as a Senior Member Technical Staff. He has been working primarily on Java, J2EE,
XML, and Linux. His areas of interest include open-source technologies and satellite-launching vehicles.
He can be reached at [email protected]. Amit dedicates this work to his parents, Dr.
Ramkrishna and Sau. Vaijayanti.

Chanoch Wiggers
Chanoch Wiggers is a senior developer with Kiwi DMD, U.K., programming with J2EE and VB. He
previously worked as a technical architect with Wrox Press, editing, architecting, and contributing to
Java books.
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Robert Elliott Erin Smith

Development Editor Graphics and Production Specialists

Kevin Shafer Beth Brooks, Sean Decker, Lauren Goddard,
Shelley Norris, Lynsey Osborne
Production Editor
William A. Barton Quality Control Technician
Carl W. Pierce
Copy Editor Brian H. Walls
Luann Rouff
Media Development Specialist
Editorial Manager Travis Silvers
Kathryn A. Malm
Proofreading and Indexing
Vice President & Executive Group Publisher TECHBOOKS Production Services
Richard Swadley

Vice President and Executive Publisher

Bob Ipsen

Vice President and Publisher

Joseph B. Wikert

Executive Editorial Director

Mary Bednarek
 Acknowledgments

The behind-the-scenes work undertaken to create this book was as critical as writing the book itself. For
this, we would like to acknowledge the efforts of our editorial team: Bob Elliot (our executive editor),
Kathryn Malm (our editorial manager), and Kevin Shafer (our development editor). In addition, we
certainly couldn’t have done this without the expert help of Rupert Jones, our technical reviewer.

We would also like to acknowledge our respective families for all the support they gave us in this project.
 Contents

Acknowledgments vii
Introduction xxi

Chapter 1: Apache and Jakarta Tomcat 1

Humble Beginnings: The Apache Project 2
The Apache Software Foundation 3
The Jakarta Project 3
Tomcat 4
Other Jakarta Subprojects 4
Distributing Tomcat 5
Comparison with Other Licenses 6
GPL 6
LGPL 7
Other Licenses 7
The Big Picture: J2EE 7
Java APIs 7
The J2EE APIs 8
J2EE Application Servers 9
“Agree on Standards, Compete on Implementation” 10
Tomcat and Application Servers 10
Tomcat and Web Servers 11
Summary 12

Chapter 2: JSP and Servlets 13

First Came CGI 14
Then Servlets Were Born 14
Servlet Containers 15
Accessing Servlets 16
And on to JSPs . . . 18
JSP Tag Libraries 21
Web Application Architecture 24
Java Site Architecture 25
Summary 27
Contents
Chapter 3: Tomcat Installation 29
Installing the Java Virtual Machine 29
Installing the Sun JVM on Windows 29
Installing Tomcat 33
Tomcat Windows Installer 33
Finishing the Installation 34
Setting Environment Variables 34
Testing the Installation 34
Installing Tomcat on Windows Using the ZIP File 39
Installing Tomcat on Linux 40
The Tomcat Installation Directory 41
The bin Directory 41
The shared Directory 42
The common Directory 42
The conf Directory 42
The logs Directory 42
The server Directory 42
The webapps Directory 42
The work Directory 43
Troubleshooting and Tips 43
The Port Number Is in Use 43
Running Multiple Instances 44
A Proxy Is Blocking Access 44
Summary 44

Chapter 4: Tomcat Architecture 45

An Overview of Tomcat Architecture 45
The Server 47
The Service 47
The Remaining Classes in the Tomcat Architecture 50
Summary 50

Chapter 5: Basic Tomcat Configuration 51

Tomcat 5 Configuration Essentials 52
Tomcat 5 Web-Based Configurator 53
Enabling Access to Configurator 54
Files in $CATALINA_HOME/conf 58
Basic Server Configuration 60
Server Configuration via the Default server.xml 60
Operating Tomcat in Application Server Configuration 66

x
 Contents
Web Application Context Definitions 76
Authentication and the tomcat-users.xml File 77
The Default Deployment Descriptor – web.xml 77
How server.xml, Context Descriptors, and web.xml Work Together 81
Fine-Grained Access Control: catalina.policy 84
catalina.properties: Finer-Grained Control over Access Checks 87
Configurator Bootstrapping and the Future of Tomcat Configuration 87
A Final Word on Differentiating Between Configuration and Management 88
Summary 88

Chapter 6: Web Application Configuration 91

The Contents of a Web Application 91
Public Resources 92
The WEB-INF Directory 94
The META-INF Directory 95
The Deployment Descriptor (web.xml) 96
Servlet 2.3-Style Deployment Descriptor 97
Servlet 2.4-Style Deployment Descriptor 110
Summary 125

Chapter 7: Web Application Administration 127

Sample Web Application 128
Tomcat Manager Application 129
Enabling Access to the Manager Application 130
Manager Application Configuration 132
Tomcat Manager: Using HTTP Requests 134
List Deployed Applications 135
Installing/Deploying Applications in Tomcat 4.x 136
Deploying a New Application 136
Installing a New Application 137
Installing/Deploying Applications in Tomcat 5.x 139
Deploying a New Application Remotely 139
Reloading an Existing Application 142
Listing Available JNDI Resources 143
Listing Available Security Roles 144
Listing OS and JVM Properties 144
Stopping an Existing Application 145
Starting a Stopped Application 146
Removing an Installed Application (Tomcat 4.x Only) 146
Undeploying a Web Application 147

xi
Contents
Displaying Session Statistics 148
Querying Tomcat Internals Using the JMX Proxy Servlet 149
Setting Tomcat Internals Using the JMX Proxy Servlet 150
Tomcat Manager: Web Interface 150
Displaying Tomcat Server Status 151
Managing Web Applications 151
Deploying a Web Application 153
Tomcat Manager: Managing Applications with Ant 154
Possible Errors 157
Security Considerations 158
Tomcat Deployer 160
Summary 160

Chapter 8: Advanced Tomcat Features 161

Valves — Interception Tomcat-Style 162
Standard Valves 162
Access Log Implementation 163
Scope of Log Files 163
Testing the Access Log Valve 165
Single Sign-On Implementation 166
Multiple Sign-On Without the Single Sign-On Valve 166
Configuring a Single Sign-On Valve 169
Restricting Access via a Request Filter 170
Remote Address Filter 170
Remote Host Filter 170
Configuring Request Filter Valves 171
Request Dumper Valve 172
Persistent Sessions 172
The Need for Persistent Sessions 172
Configuring a Persistent Session Manager 173
JNDI Resource Configuration 176
What Is JNDI? 176
Tomcat and JNDI 177
Typical Tomcat JNDI Resources 178
Configuring Resources via JNDI 179
Configuring a JDBC DataSource 182
Configuring Mail Sessions 184

xii
 Contents
Configuring Lifecycle Listeners 187
Lifecycle Events Sent by Tomcat Components 187
The <Listener> Element 187
Tomcat 5 Lifecycle Listeners Configuration 188
Summary 191

Chapter 9: Class Loaders 193

Class Loader Overview 194
Standard J2SE Class Loaders 194
More on Class Loader Behavior 199
Creating a Custom Class Loader 199
Security and Class Loaders 200
Class Loader Delegation 201
Core Class Restriction 201
Separate Class Loader Namespaces 201
Security Manager 202
Tomcat and Class Loaders 202
System Class Loader 203
Common Class Loader 203
Catalina Class Loader 204
Shared Class Loader 204
Web Application Class Loader 205
Dynamic Class Reloading 206
Common Class Loader Pitfalls 206
Packages Split Among Different Class Loaders 207
Singletons 207
XML Parsers 208
Summary 209

Chapter 10: HTTP Connectors 211

HTTP Connectors 212
Tomcat 4.0: HTTP/1.1 Connector 212
Tomcat 4.1: Coyote HTTP/1.1 Connector 212
Tomcat 5.x: Coyote HTTP/1.1 Connector 216
Configuring Tomcat for CGI Support 220
Configuring Tomcat for SSI Support 222
Running Tomcat Behind a Proxy Server 223
Performance Tuning 224
Summary 226

xiii
Contents
Chapter 11: Web Server Connectors 229
Reasons for Using a Web Server 229
Connector Architecture 230
Communication Paths 230
Connector Protocols 231
Choosing a Connector 233
JServ 233
JK 234
webapp 234
JK2 234
Summary 235

Chapter 12: Tomcat and Apache Server 237

Introducing the JK2 Connector 238
The mod_ jk2 Apache module 238
The Apache JServ Protocol (AJP) 238
Coyote JK2 Connector 239
Understanding Tomcat Workers 239
Plug-In versus In-Process 239
Multiple Tomcat Workers 240
Types of Workers 240
Connecting Tomcat with Apache 241
Installing the Apache mod_ jk2 Module 241
Configuring the AJP 1.3 Connector in server.xml 243
Configuring Tomcat Workers 243
Adding Directives to Load the jk2 Module (httpd.conf) 247
Configuring the jk2.properties File 247
Testing the Final Setup 248
Configuring SSL 250
Configuring SSL in Tomcat 250
Configuring SSL in Apache 251
Testing the SSL-Enabled Apache-Tomcat Setup 254
Tomcat Load Balancing with Apache 255
Changing CATALINA_HOME in the Tomcat Startup Files 256
Setting Different AJP Connector Ports 256
Setting Different Server Ports 257
Disabling the Coyote HTTP/1.1 Connector 257
Setting the jvmRoute in the Standalone Engine 257
Commenting Out the Catalina Engine 258
Tomcat Worker Configuration in jk2.properties 258

xiv
 Contents
Tomcat Worker Configuration in workers2.properties 259
Sample workers2.properties File 263
Testing the Load Balancer 265
Testing Sticky Sessions 266
Testing Round-Robin Behavior 267
Testing with Different Load Factors 269
Summary 270

Chapter 13: Tomcat and IIS 271

Role of the ISAPI Filter 272
Connecting Tomcat with IIS 272
Testing Tomcat and IIS Installations 273
Configuring the Connector in Tomcat’s server.xml file 274
Installing the ISAPI Filter 274
Updating the Windows Registry for the ISAPI Filter 275
Configuring Tomcat Workers (workers2.properties) 277
Configuring the jk2.properties File 280
Creating a Virtual Directory Under IIS 280
Adding the ISAPI Filter to IIS 283
Testing the Final Setup 285
Troubleshooting Tips 287
Performance Tuning 289
Web Site Hits per Day 289
Keep Alive and TCP Connection Timeout 290
Tuning the AJP Connector 291
Load-Balanced AJP Workers 291
Using SSL 291
Summary 292

Chapter 14: JDBC Connectivity 293

JDBC Basics 294
Establishing and Terminating Connections to RDBMSs 295
Evolving JDBC Versions 295
JDBC Driver Types 296
Database Connection Pooling 297
Tomcat and the JDBC Evolution 298
JNDI Emulation and Pooling in Tomcat 5 299
Preferred Configuration: JNDI Resources 300
Resource and ResourceParams tags 301
Hands-On JNDI Resource Configuration 304
Testing the JNDI Resource Configuration 310

xv
Contents
Alternative JDBC Configuration 311
Alternative Connection Pool Managers 312
About PoolMan 312
Deploying PoolMan 313
PoolMan’s XML Configuration File 313
Obtaining JDBC Connections Without JNDI Lookup 315
Testing PoolMan with a Legacy Hard-coded Driver 316
Obtaining a Connection with JNDI Mapping 317
Testing PoolMan with JNDI-Compatible Lookup 319
Deploying Third-Party Pools 319
Summary 320

Chapter 15: Tomcat Security 321

Securing the Tomcat Installation 321
ROOT and tomcat-docs 322
Admin and Manager 322
Further Security 323
jsp-examples and servlets-examples 323
Changing the SHUTDOWN Command 323
Running Tomcat with a Special Account 324
Creating a Tomcat User 324
Running Tomcat with the Tomcat User 324
Securing the File System 326
Windows File System 326
Linux File System 328
Securing the Java Virtual Machine 328
Overview of the Security Manager 328
Using the Security Manager with Tomcat 332
Recommended Security Manager Practices 335
Securing Web Applications 337
Authentication and Realms 337
Authentication Mechanisms 337
Configuring Authentication 340
Security Realms 341
Encryption with SSL 362
JSSE 363
Protecting Resources with SSL 366
Host Restriction 368
Summary 368

xvi
 Contents

Chapter 16: Shared Tomcat Hosting 369

Virtual Hosting 370
IP-Based Virtual Hosting 370
Name-Based Virtual Hosting 372
Virtual Hosting with Tomcat 375
Example Configuration 375
Introduction to Virtual Hosting with Tomcat 377
Tomcat Components 377
Tomcat 5 as a Standalone Server 378
Tomcat 5 with Apache 381
Fine-Tuning Shared Hosting 386
Creating Separate JVMs for Each Virtual Host 387
Setting Memory Limits on the Tomcat JVM 391
Summary 393

Chapter 17: Server Load Testing 395

The Importance of Load Testing 395
Load Testing with JMeter 396
Installing and Running JMeter 396
Making and Understanding Test Plans with JMeter 397
JMeter Features 401
Distributed Load Testing 413
Interpreting Test Results 414
Setting Goals and Testing Them 414
Establishing Scalability Limitations 416
Further Analysis 416
Optimization Techniques 416
Java Optimizations 417
Tomcat Optimizations 418
Exploring Alternatives to JMeter 419
Summary 419

Chapter 18: JMX Support 421

The Requirement to Be Manageable 421
All About JMX 423
The JMX Architecture 424
Instrumentation Level 426

xvii
Random documents with unrelated
content Scribd suggests to you:
League. He was at the time a Cabinet Minister, and came from
Ottawa to Toronto solely to attend the dinner, and it was at such a
crisis in his career that he wrote out his resignation from the
Government on the train while coming up. His speech is worth
reproducing:
Mr. President and Gentlemen of the National Club,—I think it is
fit, I think it is proper, that French Canada should be represented at
a gathering like this. I am not here this evening as a member of the
Dominion Cabinet. Am I a member of the Dominion Cabinet? That is
the question. That is the question I very diplomatically declined to
answer when I was leaving Ottawa to come here. Being a Minister is
not the most care-free life in the world. It is an occupation that is
exposed to accidents of all kinds. A Minister is exposed to
tremendous hazards—to the fire of the newspapers, to the bad
temper of members of Parliament, to the assaults of opponents, and
occasionally to the tender mercies of your best personal friends.
I am present to-night as a British subject of Canadian origin—of
French-Canadian origin—proud of British institutions, and feeling in
that pride that he is speaking the sentiments of his countrymen in
the Province of Quebec. I have been connected with the British
Empire League since 1888. I am not prepared to say that I have
approved all the speeches made by all members of the League, or
that I have always agreed with the speeches that members of the
League make here. I have in mind the fact, however, that decent
speeches of other people have not always been properly
appreciated. I was agreed from the start and am agreed now with
the primary object of the League, which is to promote British
interests abroad and at home, to bring about a better knowledge of
our needs and a better understanding between all portions of the
Empire. We belong to a great Empire; great through its power, great
through its wealth, but especially great through its free institutions.
I have now been thirty years in public life, as a newspaper man,
as a member of the Legislature of my native province, and as a
Cabinet Minister. After having travelled pretty extensively, observing
as I went, after having visited several exhibitions of the world, I
have come to the conclusion that British institutions are the best
adapted to bring about the greatness of this country, as they make
for happiness, safety, prosperity, progress, and permanency.
Since I have been in office as Minister of Public Works, and that
is six years and three months, I have endeavoured to the best of my
ability to build up British and Canadian commercial independence on
this continent. I have done my best to improve and develop trade
between the Empire through Canadian soil, through Canadian
channels, in Canadian bottoms, and through Canadian railways.
Let us not be satisfied, continued Mr. Tarte. Let us make up our
minds to make ourselves at home from a national as well as a
commercial standpoint.
Col. Denison, who is allowed to speak of things of which other
people fear the consequence, has spoken of the tariff. Col. Denison
has spoken of Chamberlain, and has quoted Chamberlain’s words on
the tariff. Chamberlain is not Minister of Finance—he is Colonial
Secretary. He has spoken of the tariff, mind you. I think he should be
dismissed. He has violated the Constitution of England, and doesn’t
know what he has done. He has spoken on the tariff, and he has
spoken for Protection. He is a dangerous man. He has said foreign
nations had formed combinations, and were maintaining hostile
tariffs and that the English nation was suffering by reason of this. He
will be punished.
This was a satirical allusion to the fact that he was being forced
out of the Cabinet, because, as Minister of Public Works, he had
discussed in public meetings the question of tariff policy. He was put
out of the Cabinet the next day.
 CHAPTER XXVII

CORRESPONDENCE WITH MR. CHAMBERLAIN

As I have said, we felt that the result of the Conference had been
a very serious set-back and discouragement to all our wishes. I
therefore watched public opinion very carefully and with
considerable anxiety, and I noticed two or three uncomfortable
indications. In the first place a restlessness manifested itself among
the manufacturing classes in Canada, particularly in the woollen
trade, against the British preference which pressed upon them, while
Canada received no corresponding advantage, and a discussion
began as to whether the British preference should not be cut off.
The next thing which alarmed me was that during the following
winter a movement arose in the United States to secure the
establishment of a reciprocity treaty with Canada. Suggestions were
made to renew the sittings of the High Joint Commission which had
adjourned in 1898 without anything being done. This was evaded by
our Government, but a strong agitation was commenced in the
Eastern States, and supported in Chicago, to educate the people of
the United States in favour of tariff arrangements with Canada.
The more far-seeing men in the United States were uneasy about
the movement for mutual preferential tariffs in the British Empire.
They saw at once that if successful it would consolidate and
strengthen British power and wealth and would be a severe blow to
the prosperity of the United States, which for fifty years had been
fattening upon the free British markets, while for thirty years their
own had been to a great extent closed to the foreigner and
preserved for their own enrichment. I felt that the failure of the
Conference would give power to our enemies in the United States
and aid them to enmesh us in the trade entanglements which would
preclude the possibility of our succeeding in carrying our policy into
effect.
Every week I became more and more alarmed. It will be
remembered that there was then no Tariff Reform movement in
England. That Lord Salisbury was dying, that Mr. Chamberlain had
not yet openly committed himself, and that nothing was being done,
while our opponents were actively at work both in the States and in
Canada. The small faction in Canada who were disloyal were once
more taking heart while the loyal element were discouraged.
Still further to cause anxiety the Imperial Federation Defence
Committee took this opportunity, through Mr. Arthur Loring, to make
an imperious demand upon the Colonies to hand over at once large
cash contributions in support of the Navy, or practically to cut us
adrift. Had the desire been to smash up the Empire, the attack could
not have been better timed than when everything was going against
the Imperial view. I wrote a reply which appeared in The Times on
the 2nd March, 1903:
Sir,
With reference to your issues of January 9th and 10th which
contained the letter of Mr. Arthur Loring, Hon. Secretary of the
Imperial Federation (Defence) Committee, and your leading article
upon the question of colonial contributions to the Imperial Navy, I
desire to send a reply from the Canadian point of view.
Mr. Loring’s proposition is practically that the Mother Country
should repudiate any further responsibility for the defence of the
Empire, unless the Colonies pay over cash contributions for the Navy
in the way and under the terms that will suit the Imperial Federation
(Defence) Committee. The British Empire League in Canada and the
majority of the Canadians are as anxious for a secure Imperial
Defence as is Mr. Loring, but the spirit of dictation which runs
through the publications of his committee has always been a great
difficulty in our way, by arousing resentment in our people, who
might do willingly what they would object to be driven into. Because
we hesitate to pay cash contributions we are attacked as if we had
made no sacrifices for the Empire. Mr. Loring seems to forget our
preference to all British goods, which has caused Germany to cut off
the bulk of our exports to that country, to forget that we imposed a
duty on sugar in order by preference to help the West Indies in the
Imperial interest, that we helped to construct the Pacific cable for
the same reason, or that numbers of our young men fought and
died for the cause in South Africa. We have proved in many ways
our willingness to make sacrifices for the Empire, and yet, because
we will not do just exactly what Mr. Loring’s committee suggest, they
wish to cut us adrift.
This is a very impolitic and dangerous suggestion. It is so
important that we should understand each other, and that you in
England should know how we look at this question, that I hope you
will allow me to say a few words upon this subject.
The British Empire League in Canada requested me as their
president to go to Great Britain last April to advocate a duty of 5 to
10 per cent. all round the Empire on all foreign goods in order to
provide a fund for Imperial Defence. This proposition was approved
of at a number of meetings held in various parts of Canada, and by
political leaders of all shades of politics and I am certain it would
have been confirmed by a large majority in our Parliament had Great
Britain and the other Colonies agreed to it.
I addressed a number of meetings in England and Scotland, and
discussed the question with many of the political leaders in London.
I soon discovered while the audiences were receptive, and many
approved of the proposition, that nevertheless it was new, contrary
to their settled prejudices, and that it would take time and popular
education on the subject before such an arrangement could be
carried in the House of Commons. When Sir Wilfrid Laurier came
over just before the Conference, knowing that I had been discussing
the subject for two months, he asked me if I thought the proposition
I had been advocating could be proposed at the Conference with
any prospect of success. I replied that I did not think it could, that
Great Britain was not ready for it, that Australia at the time was
engaged in such a struggle over her revenue tariff that she could not
act, and that if I was in his place I should not attempt it. He did,
however, make a number of suggestions at the Conference which, if
accepted by the home Government, would have gone a long way to
place the Empire on a safer footing. The Mother Country would not
agree to relieve Canada from the corn duty, but was quite willing to
accept and ask for contributions for defence. This Sir Wilfrid refused;
and a large portion of our people approve of that course, not
because they do not feel that they ought to contribute, not because
they are not able to contribute, but because they do not feel
disposed to spend their money in what they would consider a
senseless and useless way.
We feel that to save our Empire, to consolidate it, to make it
strong and secure, there are several points that must be considered
and that, as all these points are essential, to spend money on some
and leave out others that are vital would be a useless and dangerous
waste. If our Empire is to live, she must maintain her trade and
commerce, she must keep up her manufactures, she must retain and
preserve her resources both in capital and population for her own
possessions, she must have bonds of interest as well as of
sentiment, and she must have a system of defence that shall be
complete at all points. An army or a navy might be perfect in
equipment, in training, in weapons, in organisation, in skilled
officers, &c., and yet if powder and cordite were left out all would be
useless waste. If food were left out it would be worst of all, and yet
Mr. Loring asks us to contribute large sums to maintain a navy, and
to have that navy directed and governed by a department in which
we would have little or no voice—a department under the control of
an electorate who in the first war with certain Powers (one of which
we at least know is not friendly) would be starving almost
immediately, and would very soon insist on surrendering the fleet to
which we had contributed in order to get food to feed their starving
children. They might even be willing to surrender possessions as
well. While you in England maintain this position, that you will not
include food in your scheme of defence, do you wonder that we in
Canada should endeavour to perfect our own defence in order to
secure our own freedom and independence as a people, if the
general smash comes, which we dread as the possible result of your
obstinate persistence in a policy, which leaves you at the mercy of
one or two foreign nations.
I wish to draw attention to the following figures, which seem to
show that there is weakness and danger in your commercial affairs
as well:
1900.
United Kingdom imports (foreign) £413,544,528
United Kingdom exports (foreign) 252,349,700
——————
Balance of trade against United Kingdom £161,194,828

1901.
United Kingdom imports (foreign) £416,416,492
United Kingdom exports (foreign) 234,745,904
——————
Balance of trade against United Kingdom £181,670,588
We see the result of this great import of foreign goods in the
distress in England to-day. The cable reports tell us of unemployed
farm labourers flocking into the towns, of unemployed townsmen
parading the streets with organised methods of begging, of charity
organisations taxed to their utmost limit to relieve want. We see the
Mother Country ruining herself and enriching foreign nations by a
blind adherence to a fetish, and we begin to wonder how long it can
last.
Adopt the policy of a duty upon all foreign goods, bind your
Empire together by bonds of interest, turn your emigration and
capital into your own possessions, produce ten or twelve million
quarters more of wheat in your own islands, no matter what the cost
may be, and then ask us to put in our contributions towards the
common defence, for then an effective defence might be made.
Yours truly,
George T. Denison.
I was so alarmed at the state of affairs that on the 23rd March,
1903, I wrote to Mr. Chamberlain the following letter, which shows
my anxiety at the time:
Dear Mr. Chamberlain,
There are one or two very important matters I wish to bring to
your attention.
Just before the Conference I had a conversation with you and
Lord Onslow in reference to Canada’s action. You considered that it
would be useless at the time to attempt to carry the proposition that
I had been advocating in Great Britain, of a 5 to 10 per cent. duty
around the Empire for a defence fund. You told me what line you
thought the most likely to succeed, and advised me that Canada
should try to meet your views by further concessions to Great Britain
in return for advantages for us in your markets. I urged this upon Sir
Wilfrid Laurier, and I understand that he was willing to meet you, if
possible, on the lines indicated. Unfortunately, nothing was done. I
fancy your colleagues got frightened, for I know that you personally
had a clear insight into the matter, and fully appreciated the
importance of something being done.
Now I wish to tell you how matters stand out here. Our people
are very much discouraged. Many of our strongest Imperialists in the
past are beginning to advocate the repeal of our preference to Great
Britain. The manufacturers who were in favour of the preference,
provided we had a prospect of getting a reciprocal advantage in your
markets, are, many of them for their personal ends, now desirous of
stopping it. All the disaffected (there are not very many of them) are
using the failure of the Conference to attack and ridicule the
Imperial cause. This is all very serious. The gravest danger of all,
however, is that the United States will never give our Empire another
chance to consolidate itself if they can prevent it. They are already
agitating for the reassembling of the High Joint Commission to
consider, among other things, reciprocal tariffs. Only the other day a
member of the Massachusetts House of Assembly declared in that
house that he had assurances from Washington that the passage of
a resolution in favour of reciprocity with Canada would be welcomed
by the administration. We see the danger of this, and our
Government have made excuses to delay the meeting of the
Commission until October. Now if nothing is done in the meantime
towards combining the Empire—if nothing is done to make such a
start towards it as would give our people encouragement, what will
happen? The United States will give us the offer of free reciprocity in
natural products. What would our people be likely to do in that case?
All along the frontier our farmers would find it very convenient to sell
their barley, oats, hay, butter, poultry, eggs, &c., to the cities on the
border. In the North West it would appeal to our western farmers,
who would be glad to get their wheat in free to the mills of
Minneapolis and St. Paul. Such a proposition might therefore carry in
our Parliament, and would probably bind us for ten or fifteen years.
This would be a dead block against any combination of the Empire
for preferential trade, for then you could not give us a preference, as
we would be debarred from putting a duty on United States articles
coming across our border, which would be necessary if an Imperial
scheme were carried out.
A proposition for reciprocity with the United States was made in
1887. At the dinner given to you in Toronto that year I fired my first
shot against Commercial Union, and ever since I have been probably
the leader in the movement against it. My main weapon, my
strongest weapon, was an Imperial discriminating tariff around the
Empire. We succeeded in getting our people and Parliament and
Government to take the idea up and to do our side of it, and we
have given the discriminating tariff in your favour. We hoped that
you would meet us, but nothing has been done, and our people feel
somewhat hurt at the result. Where will we Imperialists be this
autumn when the High Joint Commission meets? The people of the
United States will be almost sure to play the game to keep back our
Empire, and we will be here with our guns spiked, with all our
weapons gone, and in a helpless condition.
I feel all this very deeply and think that I should lay the whole
matter before you. I do not wish to see the Empire “fall to pieces by
disruption or by tolerated secession.” I do not wish to see “the
disasters which will infallibly come upon us.” I wish to see our
Empire “a great Empire” and not see Great Britain “a little State,”
and I do urge upon you as earnestly as I can to get something done
this Session that will give us a preference, no matter how small, in
order that our hands may be tied before the High Joint Commission
meets, so that we may escape the dangers of a reciprocity treaty, for
if we are tied up with one for ten years, our Empire may have
broken up before our hands are free again.
If something was done on the preference, I believe we could
carry large expenditures for Imperial Defence in our Parliament. I
enclose a letter to the Times which appeared while you were on the
sea, which I believe pretty fairly expressed the views of most of our
people.
I send my hearty congratulations on the success of your mission
to South Africa, and on the magnificent work you have done there
for our Empire,
Believe me,
Yours, &c.
The Right Hon Joseph Chamberlain, M.P.
 On the 16th April, 1903, I received a letter from Mr. Chamberlain
which was quite discouraging. I wrote to him again on the 18th
April, and on the 10th May received an answer which was much
more encouraging.
I was not surprised when, on the 15th May, Mr. Chamberlain
made his great speech at Birmingham, which resulted soon
afterwards in his resignation from the Government, and the
organisation of the Tariff Reform movement, which he has since
advocated with such enthusiasm, energy, and ability.
The result of this speech was like the sun coming out from
behind a cloud. Instantly the whole prospect brightened, every
Canadian was inspirited, and confidence was restored. Such an
extraordinary change has seldom been seen. The Toronto
correspondent of the Morning Post, 17th May, 1903, said:
Canada has seldom before shown such unanimity over a
proposed Imperial policy, as that which greets the project of Mr.
Chamberlain for the granting of trade concessions to the British
Colonies in the markets of Great Britain.
It is this hope in the ultimate triumph of Mr. Chamberlain’s policy
which has caused the Canadian people to wait patiently for that
result. The extraordinary defeat of the Unionist party in the elections
of 1906 has not destroyed this confidence, and the Empire has yet a
chance to save herself.
The 6th annual meeting of the British Empire League took place
on 19th May, 1903, in the Railway Committee Room, House of
Commons, Ottawa.
A very unpleasant event occurred about this time in the Alaskan
Award. I had looked into the matter very closely while Sir Wilfrid
Laurier was in Washington engaged in the negotiations over the
dispute, and I felt confident that we had a very weak case for our
contentions, in fact I thought we had none at all. I saw Chief Justice
Armour, who was to be one of the Canadian Commissioners, just
before he left for England. He was a friend of mine, and one of the
ablest judges who ever sat in the Canadian Courts, and I told him
what I thought. He evidently felt much the same. I said to him that I
wished to make a remark that might be stowed away in the back of
his head in case of any necessity for considering it. It was that when
he had done his very best for Canada, and had done all that he
could, if he found that Lord Alverstone would not hold out with him,
not to have a split but if the case was hopeless to join with Lord
Alverstone and make the decision unanimous. I said if Lord
Alverstone went against us the game was up, there was no further
appeal, no remedy, and there was no use fighting against the
inevitable, and it would be in more conformity with the dignity of
Canada, and good feeling in the Empire, to have an award settled
judicially, and by all the judges. Unfortunately the Chief Justice died,
and the Government appointed a very able advocate Mr. Aylesworth,
K.C., who happened to be in England at the time, to fill his place. Mr.
Aylesworth had been the advocate all his life. At that time he had
absolutely no knowledge of political affairs. The award was better
than I expected and gave us two islands, which the United States
had held for years, and on one of which a United States Post Office
had been long established. Mr. Aylesworth forgetting there was no
appeal, and that the matter was final, prevailed on Lt.-Governor
Jetté who was with him to make a most violent protest, and a direct
attack upon Lord Alverstone. Owing to this, the award created a
good deal of resentment in Canada. The people were very much
aroused, and believed they had been betrayed.
By the time Mr. Aylesworth arrived in Toronto he had time to
think the matter over. The Canadian Club had organised a great
banquet in his honour, and I am of opinion that when he arrived at
home, he was astonished at the storm he had aroused. He at once
allayed the excited feelings of his audience by a most loyal, patriotic,
and statesmanlike speech, and quieted the feeling to a great extent,
although it is still a very sore question in Canada, and Lord
Alverstone is placed on the same shelf with Mr. Oswald of the treaty
of 1783, and Lord Ashburton who gave away a great part of the
State of Maine; but had I been in Lord Alverstone’s place, and I am
an out and out Canadian, with no sympathy whatever with the
United States, I should have done as he did.
In the spring of 1903 a controversy arose between Mr. Joseph
Chamberlain and the present Lord Salisbury in which I was able to
intervene on Mr. Chamberlain’s side with some effect.
Mr. Chamberlain had said in a public letter that the late Lord
Salisbury had favoured retaliation and closer commercial union with
the colonies. The present Lord Salisbury wrote to The Times saying
that his father profoundly dissented from Mr. Chamberlain’s fiscal
policy. Several letters followed from Mr. Chamberlain and Sir Michael
Hicks-Beach. I published in The Times on the 18th May, 1905, the
following letter:
Sir,
The controversy which has been lately going on in the Press in
Great Britain over the question of the late Lord Salisbury’s view on
protection and preferential tariffs has excited considerable interest in
this country. As I am in a position to throw some light upon the late
Premier’s opinions on these questions, I would ask your permission
to say a few words.
I was for some years president of the Imperial Federation League
in Canada, and since it was merged in the British Empire League I
have held the same position in that body. In 1890 I was appointed
specially to represent the Canadian League in England for the
purpose of advocating the denunciation of the German and Belgian
treaties, and of urging the establishment of a system of preferential
tariffs between Canada and the Mother Country. In two interviews
with Lord Salisbury, I urged both points upon him as strongly as
possible, and pointed out to him that our League had taken up the
policy of preferential tariffs in order to counteract the movement for
commercial union or unrestricted reciprocity between the United
States and Canada, which at that time was a very dangerous
agitation. After hearing my arguments, Lord Salisbury said that he
felt that the real way to consolidate the Empire would be by a
Zollverein and a Kriegsverein. This was substantially our policy, and I
begged of him to say something on that line publicly, as it would be
a great help to us in the struggle we were having on behalf of
Imperial Unity. He did not say whether he would do so or not; but a
few months later at the Lord Mayor’s banquet at the Guildhall in
November, 1890, he made a speech which attracted considerable
attention, and which gave us in Canada great encouragement. He
spoke of the hostile tariffs and said: “Therefore it is that we are
anxious above all things to conserve, to unify, to strengthen the
Empire of the Queen because it is to the trade that is carried on
within the Empire of the Queen that we look for the vital force of the
commerce of this country. . . . The conflict which we have to fight is
a conflict of tariffs.”
At Hastings on May 18th, 1892, he made another speech still
more pronounced the terms of which are well known.
We carried on a correspondence for many years, and I saw him
on several occasions when I visited England. We discussed the policy
of preferential tariffs and the denunciation of the German and
Belgian treaties, which were denounced by his Government in
August, 1897. His letters to me show how strongly he was in
sympathy with us; but he was a statesman of great caution and
evidently would not commit himself to practical action in regard to
either preference or fair trade, as long as he believed that the
prejudice against any taxation on articles of the first necessity was
too strong to be overcome.
The following extracts are taken from letters received by me from
Lord Salisbury, and they give a clear idea of what his opinions were.
In the early days of the movement I was probably the only one who
was pressing on Lord Salisbury the urgent need of some action
being taken, and he may not have had occasion to express his views
upon the subject to many others.
In a letter dated March 21st, 1891, in reply to one from me
telling him of the danger of reciprocity or commercial union with the
United States, he wrote:
 “I agree with you that the situation is full of danger, and that the
prospect before us is not inviting. The difficulties with which we shall
have to struggle will tax all the wisdom and all the energy of both
English and Canadian statesmen during the next five or ten years. I
should be very glad if I saw any immediate hope of our being able to
assist you by a modification of our tariff arrangements. The main
difficulty I think, lies in the great aversion felt by our people here to
the imposition of any duties on articles of the first necessity. It is
very difficult to bring home to the constituency the feeling that the
maintenance of our Empire in its integrity may depend upon fiscal
legislation. It is not that they do not value the tie which unites us to
the colonies; on the contrary, it is valued more and more in this
country, but they do not give much thought to political questions
and they are led away by the more unreasoning and
uncompromising advocates of free trade. There is a movement of
opinion in this country, and I only hope it may be rapid enough to
meet the necessities of our time.”
In another letter, dated November 22nd, 1892, he wrote:
“I wish there were more prospect of some fiscal arrangements
which would meet the respective exigencies of England and Canada,
but that appears still to be in the far distance.”
“In another letter written nine years later, dated March 1st, 1901,
a little over a year before his final retirement from office, referring to
a report of the speeches at the annual meeting of our League in
Canada, which I had sent to him, he wrote:
“It is very interesting to read Mr. Ross’s address about the error
into which free trade may run, for I am old enough to remember the
rise of free trade, and the contempt with which the apprehensions of
the protectionists of that day were received. But a generation must
pass before the fallacies then proclaimed will be unlearnt. There are
too many people whose minds were formed under their influence,
and until those men have died out no change of policy can be
expected.”
 “These extracts show very clearly Lord Salisbury’s views, and
prove that personally he would have favoured preferential tariffs in
order to save and preserve a great Empire.”
Yours,
George T. Denison.
This was much commented on in the British Press.
The Times said:
The extraordinarily interesting letter which we publish from
Colonel Denison, the president of the British Empire League in
Canada, shows how deeply sensible was the late Lord Salisbury of
the obstacles which prejudice and tradition offer to the adoption of a
genuine policy of tariff reform, and how conscious he was of the
difficulties to a practical statesman of overcoming them.
The London Globe said:
Few more remarkable contributions have been made recently to
the controversy over fiscal reform than the letters of the late Marquis
of Salisbury, which Colonel Denison, of Toronto, has communicated
to The Times.
The Outlook said:
The invaluable letter in The Times from Colonel G. T. Denison, of
Toronto, has disposed once for all of Lord Hugh Cecil’s theory that
the system of free imports ought to be regarded as a Conservative
institution. Passages cited by Colonel Denison from unpublished
letters and forgotten speeches prove that the late Lord Salisbury’s
agreement with the principles of Mr. Chamberlain’s policy was
complete.
Lord Hugh Cecil had the following letter in The Times of the 20th
May, 1905.
Sir,
 I have no desire to enter into any controversy with Colonel
Denison as to Lord Salisbury’s opinion in 1891 or 1892. The extracts
from the letters published by Colonel Denison do not seem to me to
have any bearing on Lord Salisbury’s attitude towards any question
that is now before the public.
I myself think that it is undesirable to quote the opinions of the
dead, however eminent, in reference to a living controversy. But
since the attempt continues to be made by tariff reformers to claim
Lord Salisbury’s authority in support of their views, it is right to say
that I have no more doubt than have any of my brothers that Lord
Salisbury profoundly dissented from Mr. Chamberlain’s proposals so
far as they were developed during his lifetime. Not only did he
repeatedly express that dissent to us, and to others who had been in
official relations with him, but he caused a letter to be written in that
sense to one of my brothers.
In conclusion, may I point out that it would have been more
courteous in Colonel Denison, if he had at least consulted Lord
Salisbury’s personal representatives before publishing extracts from
Lord Salisbury’s private correspondence?
Yours obediently,
Robert Cecil.

19th May.
I replied to this in the following letter to The Times, which was
published in the issue of 13th June, 1905:
Sir,
I have seen to-day, in The Times of the 20th inst., Lord Robert
Cecil’s letter in reply to mine, which appeared on the 18th inst. As
his letter contains a reflection on my action in publishing extracts
from the late Lord Salisbury’s letters to me, I hope you will allow me
to make an explanation.
 Mr. Chamberlain had claimed that the late Lord Salisbury had
approved of his policy of preferential tariffs, while the present Lord
Salisbury held that his father “had profoundly dissented from Mr.
Chamberlain’s fiscal policy.”
As Lord Salisbury and his brothers had published their father’s
private opinions, which may have referred more to the time and
method and details of Mr. Chamberlain’s action than to the general
principle of preferential tariffs, I had no reason to think that there
could be any objection to publishing the late Premier’s own written
words on the subject. The letters from which I quoted, although not
intended for publication at the time, contained his views on a great
public question, and did not relate to any person, or any private
matter, and as he was not here to speak for himself, I felt that it was
desirable to publish the extracts in order to show clearly what his
views were.
Lord Robert Cecil says that it would have been more courteous in
me to have consulted with his father’s representatives before
publishing, but in view of their own action in publishing his oral,
private opinions, it would seem discourteous to assume that they
could, under the circumstances, desire to suppress positive evidence
on a matter of grave public importance to our Empire.
Yours, etc.,
George T. Denison.

Toronto, Canada, 31st May, 1905.

This closed the episode.
 CHAPTER XXVIII

CONGRESS OF CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE OF

THE EMPIRE

In 1906 I went to England again, and once more the Toronto

Board of Trade appointed me as one of their delegates to the Sixth
Congress of Chambers of Commerce of the Empire to be held in
London. I arrived in London on the 27th June, and the next evening,
at the Royal Colonial Institute Conversazione, I met Mr. and Mrs.
Chamberlain, and it was arranged that my wife and I were to lunch
with them a few days later. Mr. Chamberlain had wished that we
should be alone. After lunch the ladies went upstairs, and Mr.
Chamberlain had a quiet talk with me for about an hour. He gave me
the whole history of the difficulties he had encountered and
explained how it was that he was not able to carry out the
arrangement we had discussed in 1902, just before the conference.
He told me that Sir Michael Hicks-Beach objected to throwing off the
one shilling a quarter on wheat in favour of the colonies, because he
had put it on only a short time before as a necessary war tax to raise
funds for the South African War, that the expenses were still going
on, and that it would be inconsistent in him to agree to it at the
time.
Shortly after Sir Michael Hicks-Beach resigned from the Cabinet
and Mr. C. T. Ritchie (afterwards Lord Ritchie) was appointed
Chancellor of the Exchequer. In the autumn it was considered
advisable, so Mr. Chamberlain told me, that he should pay a visit to
South Africa, which would take him away for some months, and he
went on to say: “On my return from South Africa we called at
Madeira, and I found there a cablegram from Austen saying the corn
tax was to be taken off. When I arrived in London the Budget was
coming up very soon. I could not do anything for many reasons. I
did not wish to precipitate a crisis, and I had to wait.” He was
evidently annoyed at the matter, and explained it to me, because he
had held out hopes to me that if Sir Wilfrid Laurier would meet him
with further preferences, he would give us the preference in wheat.
This he had been unable to do.
I asked him if he could explain why Ritchie acted as he did. He
did not seem to know. I suggested that I thought either Mr. Choate,
the United States Ambassador, or some other United States
emissary, had frightened him and he had taken off the tax to head
off any movement for imperial trade consolidation. Mr. Chamberlain
asked me why I thought so, and I drew his attention to the fact that
shortly after the corn tax was taken off Mr. Ritchie went down to
Croydon to address his constituents, and in justifying his action used
the argument—apparently to his mind the strongest—that a
preferential corn tax against the United States would be likely to
arouse the hostility of that country and be a dangerous course to
pursue. The audience seemed at once to be struck with the
cowardice of the argument, and there were loud cries of dissent,
and then they rose and sang “Rule Britannia.” Mr. Ritchie did not
contest Croydon in the next election, but was moved to the House of
Lords shortly before his death. Mr. Chamberlain apparently had not
thought of that influence.
Mr. Chamberlain was then looking in perfect health, and left the
next day for Birmingham, where great demonstrations were made
over his 70th birthday. He told me he was anxious to have a rest, as
the burden of leading a great movement was very heavy. I urged
him strongly to take a holiday, and I had pressed the same idea
upon Mrs. Chamberlain as I sat next to her at lunch. He took ill,
however, before a week had passed. The strain at Birmingham was
very heavy.
The meeting of the Congress of Chambers of Commerce of the
Empire took place on the 10th, 11th and 13th July. We had but little
hope of doing anything to help the preferential trade policy, for the
General Elections had gone so overwhelmingly against us that it
seemed impossible that in England our Canadian delegation could
carry the resolution they had agreed upon in favour of Mr.
Chamberlain’s policy. We expected to be badly defeated, but decided
to make a bold fight. After the discussion had gone on for some
time, Sir Wm. Holland and Lord Avebury, who led the free trade
ranks, approached Mr. Drummond, who had moved the Canadian
resolution, and suggested that if we would compromise by the
insertion of a few words which would have destroyed the whole
effect of what we were fighting for, the resolution might be carried
unanimously. Mr. Drummond said he wished to consult his
colleagues, and he called Mr. Cockshutt, M.P., and me out of the
room and put the proposition. I said at once, “I would not
compromise to the extent of one word. Let us fight it out to the very
end, let us take a vote. We will likely be beaten, but let us take our
beating like men. We will find out our strength and our weakness,
we will find out who are our friends and who are our enemies, and
know exactly where we stand.”
Mr. Cockshutt said immediately, “I entirely agree with Denison.”
Drummond said, “That is exactly my view. I shall consult with no
others but will tell them we will fight it to the end.”
I spoke that afternoon as follows as reported in the Toronto
News, 23rd August, 1906:
There were a few remarks, said Col. Denison, which had fallen
from previous speakers, to which he desired to call attention. In the
first place, his friend Mr. Cockshutt, said that Canada had given
England the benefit of five million dollars annually in the reduction of
duties, in order to help the English manufacturer to sell English
manufactured goods in Canada, and stated that that was a
contribution in an indirect way towards helping the defence of the
Empire. Mr. Cockshutt, however, left out one important point. If
Canada had put that tax on, collected the money, and handed over
the five million dollars to England in hard cash, what would have
been the result? The greater portion of the trade would have gone
to Germany, would have given work to German workmen, would
have helped to build German ships, and it would have taken more
than the five million dollars annually to counterbalance the loss
thereby caused to this country. He felt that every day the British
people were allowing the greatest national trade asset that any
nation ever possessed, the markets of Great Britain, to be exposed
to the free attack of every rival manufacturing nation in the world
without any protection, without any possibility of preserving those
great national assets for the use of their own people, and in his
opinion such a policy was exceedingly foolish.
He had heard a gentleman from Manchester say that it was all
very well for Canada, and that Canada wanted it. He was one of the
very earliest of Canadians who advocated preferential tariffs. In
1887 he began with a number of other men who were working with
him, to educate the people of Canada on the subject. When they
first began they were laughed at; they were told it was a fad, and it
was contrary to the principles of free trade. When he came to
England years ago he could find hardly a single man anywhere who
would say anything against free trade. He was perfectly satisfied
that for years English people would have listened much more
patiently to attacks upon the Christian religion than they would have
to attacks upon free trade.
Why did they advocate the system of preferential tariffs in
Canada? Because the country was founded by the old United Empire
Loyalists, who stood loyal to this country in 1776, who abandoned all
their worldly possessions, who left the graves of their dead, and
came away from the homes where they were born into the
wilderness of Canada, and who wanted to carry their own flag with
them. They wanted to be in a country where they were in
connection with the Motherland, and it was the dream of those
loyalists to have a united Empire. Canadians were not advocating
preferential tariffs for the benefit of Canada.
He said, further, that if England would not give Canada a
preference, although Canada had already given England one, at
least it was advisable that England should have some tariff reform
which would prevent the wealth which belonged to this great Empire
being dissipated among its enemies. That was the reason they were
advocating the resolution. It was said that they desired to tax the
poor man’s food. He said it was of the utmost importance to have
food grown in their own country. England in the past had had no
reserves of food. Fortunately they were now in such a position that,
if they kept the command of the sea, Canada would be able to grow
enough in a year or two for the needs of the United Kingdom. Seven
years ago England was in such a position that, if a combination of
two nations had put an embargo on food, she would have been
brought to her knees at once. Australia and Canada were now
growing more wheat, but everything depended upon the navy; and
if England allowed her trade and her markets, and the profits which
could be made out of the markets, to be used by foreign and rival
Powers to build navies, they were not only helping those foreign
nations to build navies at their own cost, but at the same time the
people of this country had to be taxed to build ships to
counterbalance what their enemies were doing.
Canadians felt that they were part of the Empire. They had
helped as much as their fathers did; but after all, they had only
added to the strength of the Empire, because their fathers went
abroad to other nations, carrying the flag and spreading British
principles and ideas into other countries. He therefore contended
that Canadians had a great right to urge upon the people of England
to do all they could to preserve the Empire, as Canadians were doing
in their humble way.
As had been already said, Canada was giving preferences. For
instance, she was giving a preference to the West Indies, so that
nearly every dollar that was paid for sugar in Canada went to the
West Indies. A few years ago it all came from Germany, and the
profits that were made out of Canadian markets went to Germany,
and, although they were not comparable with the profits made out
of the English markets, such as they were they helped Germany. The
trade gave her people employment; gave her navy money, and
enabled her still further to build rival battleships. Was that wise?
(No.) Canada asked England to remedy that; but Canada did not
want it if England did not, because England wanted it five, ten,
fifteen, or thirty times more than Canada did. Free trade at one time
existed in Canada. When he was a very young man he was a free
trader, but he was now older and wiser. What was the condition of
the country then? It was a country with the greatest natural
resources in the world, with the most magnificent agricultural
prospects, with mineral and every other resource, such as he
believed had not been paralleled anywhere else on the globe. Yet,
for twenty years, when they had only a revenue tariff, what
happened? The Yankees in 1871 put on a large protective duty, and
commenced to build up their manufactures. The result to Canada
was that in a few years, in 1875, 1876, and 1877, the Americans not
only made for themselves but introduced their goods into Canadian
markets. The result was that Canadian manufactories were closed
up, the streets of the cities were filled with unemployed, and during
that early period of their history nearly one million Canadians left the
country. It was so well known that it was called “the exodus.” People
used to wonder what was the matter, and enquired whether there
was a plague in the country. They used to enquire how it was that
Canadians could not succeed, and how it was there were so many
people starving in the streets.
An agitation was started for a national policy—a protective
agitation. Canadians decided that they must protect their own
manufactures, and they had done so since 1878, with the result that
there were now no starving people in the streets, no want in the
country, no submerged tenth, and no thirteen million people on the
verge of starvation. The exodus had ceased from Canada to the
States, and Canadians were now coming back in their tens and
twenties of thousands. Canada was now prosperous. A great deal
had been done in the last twenty years. For instance, Canada had to
come to England to get an English company to build the Grand
Trunk Railway. They did not do it wonderfully well, but still they did
it, and it was now a fine railroad. But what had Canadians done?
They had built the Canadian Pacific Railway to the other side; two
gentlemen in Toronto were building another trans-continental
railroad right across the continent, and the Government were
assisting a third project, the Grand Trunk Pacific. The Canadian
Pacific Railroad, a Canadian institution, managed in Canada, had its
vessels on the western coast at Vancouver, carrying goods and
passengers through to Japan, to the Far East, and Australia and New
Zealand. All that had been done since Canada took up the policy
which enabled it to prevent the enemy from bleeding it to death.
He hoped he had made the point clear. Surely England would
desire to follow the example of Canada in that respect. “The exodus”
was now taking place. The Right Hon. John Morley, in reply to a
speech that he (Col. Denison) made, referred to the wonderful
prosperity of Great Britain, which depended on free trade. Now he
would tell the delegates the other side. The Right Hon. James Bryce
went to Aberdeen just at the time the Government put the tax of a
shilling a quarter on wheat. The Right Hon. James Bryce, who was a
very able and clever man, made a powerful and eloquent speech,
but he had not lived long enough in Canada. He said that the tax of
a shilling a quarter on wheat would make a difference of 7½d. per
annum to each person in the United Kingdom, and that it would be a
great burden upon the ordinary working man of the country: but
when they thought of the lowest class of the people, about 30 per
cent. of the population, or 13 millions, as Sir Henry Campbell-
Bannerman had said, who were living upon the very verge of want,
then he said it would mean reduced subsistence, frequent hunger,
weakness of body, and susceptibility to disease. Was that not an
awful fact for a prosperous country? Was it not an awful fact to think
that 8d in a whole year would mean reduced subsistence, frequent
hunger, weakness of body and susceptibility to disease to 13 million
of English people? That was the condition of England. The exodus
was taking place; the people were going to Canada, where they
enjoyed sane conditions under which people could live. They were
going to Canada, instead of going to hostile countries, as they had
done in the past.
Canada was getting a good many of such people, but not half
enough; and if she had preferential tariffs in that sense, it would
keep the blood and bone and muscle in this country under the
common flag: it would keep them from helping to build up hostile
nations, and would in that way be a source of strength to the
Empire. He hoped that would be considered an answer to his friends
from Manchester, on the point that there would be give and take,
and not as had been said, simply “take” on the part of the colonies.
He thought that was a most unfair statement to make; but he had
now presented the Canadian side of the question.
Another extraordinary thing had happened. A gentleman whom
the people of England had appointed to take control of English
affairs with reference to the colonies, had lately declared that the
colonies ought to make a treaty among themselves, leaving Great
Britain out. That was rather a flippant way to meet offers of
friendship, sympathy, and loyalty. Two hundred and seventy-four
members of Parliament, he believed, had written requesting that no
preference should be given. He desired to ask what had Great Britain
done to those men that they should want to prevent England getting
an advantage? Why should they object? Why should they interfere?
What had Great Britain ever done to them?
His friend, Mr. Wilson, had told the delegates of the French
manufacturer who said, ‘Why do you not come over and build your
factories in France?’ British factories were already being built on the
Continent to-day. British factories, with British money, British brains,
British enterprise, and British intellect, were now being built in the
United States; but while that was the experience of England,
Canada, on the other hand, was able to say that United States
capital was being utilised in Canada and giving work to Canadian
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