than legalized liquor had ever done. And
one of the worst features of the situation was that the bulk of our
luxury buying was done in the country which had the only remaining
standard of value on the exchanges. Canada had convenient access to
the country which alone had a surplus of factory goods. Our tremendous
buying average in the American market was even used as propaganda in
the interest of keeping the peace with Britain.

Hence the devil of exchange and Drayton's dilemma. The things Drayton
said to this country even before he presented his first budget were as
comfortable as what the doctor prescribes when you are overfed. On
went the unpopular luxury tax and sales tax. The general principle was
that the more people bought, the more they got out of living, and the
more they should pay for the privilege. It was not merely a tax on
improvements, but an impost on being alive. Accustomed as we had been
to war taxes which never came off, this was a sanctioned way of
"passing the buck" such as we had never known. The advantage is that
when we pay 14 cents for a box of matches that used to cost five cents,
we can read "5 cents War Excise Tax Paid" on the wrapper.

Sir Henry Drayton had no superb suavity with which to beguile those who
made complaints. He heard the howlings of all the babies in the
national dormitory and went ahead. He did not impress us as a
financier, but as a plain doctor of homely common sense. He said in
public many things which threw much instructive light upon our buying
and selling. He spoke some blunt but kindly truths even in the United
States at whose supremacy in our markets his policy was aimed.

"The men who save the world," says _The Onlooker_, "are those who work
by rule of thumb; who do the day's work by the day's light and advance
on chaos and the painful dark by inches; in other words, the practical
men."

Such a motto might be Drayton's crest. He is very practical; too much
so to be an interesting personality to the average man. But by his
dull and diligent practicality he has done rather more than his bit in
helping to re-establish Canada. He would, if he could, cut our imports
from the United States in half in order to rectify exchange. Whenever
he dies the Canadian $ par on exchange will be found graven upon his
heart.

Drayton's tariff tour was one of the most characteristic things he ever
did. In this, however, there may have been an element of politics. A