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Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la m6thode. 1 2 3 32X 1 2 3 4 5 6 ■ i"^: ". "" T 1 Commercial Uuion Trith Canada. SPEECH HON. PvOBEirr R. HITT, OP ILLINOIS, In the House of EErKESENTATivES, /V/(/((.V, Maif.h 1. 1889. On the joint resolution (II. Hes. 12'J) to promote commercial union witli Canad*, Mr. HITT said: Mr. SpkakeR: This joint resolution, for calling up which I desire to Ihank the gentleman Iroiu iowti, to promote commercial union with CantKla, is a timely and practical response, in liberal spirit and lull re- gard of the dignity and independence of all, to a widespread and ex- tending movement now going forward in the Dominion, friendly to ua in tendency and aiming at larger and freer intercourse. It is true the present administration of the Dominion is Tory and hostile to commer- cial union with us. Sir John McDonald, the prim-? minister and real ruler, desires to bind Canada as closely in trade as in politital connec- tion with Great Hritiiiu; and every appliance of power and api)«al to .■sentiment have been used against this movement. Yet the muterial reasons, the businc -^ advantages to every one, are so evident that it goes on. la the CV dian Parliament last spring sixty-seven members, representing districi- that contain more than half the wealth ol Canada, voted lor unrestricted reciprocity. The bye-elections since then show the increasing strength ot the movement. The executive oflScers and prime ministers of the provinces, something like our States, have de- clared for it. • It is time that we give some assurance that such a powerful move- ment of such immense conseijuences interests our people, and will be coo'ldeied in as liberal and practical a spirit on our side. Since this resolution was introduced by me one year ago, March 5, it has been mwt carefully, scrntiniziugly discussed, and almost univers- ii I !y approved by the press ot the country. The Committee on P'oreign Artiiirs, after mudi consideration, reported it to the House without a dis.sentiiig voice, rei«nuneuding its adoption. Itprovides, infew words: Tliat whenever It shnll be ereial union witli the United Stales, linviiii; a uniform revenue sys- tem, like internal taxesto l)e eolleete this resolution the adoption by both countries of iirecisely the same tariff of duties, or taxea to be levied upon goods coming Irora abntad, abolishing altogether our line of custom-houses on the north by which ■we collect tiiritl' duties on goods coming from Canada, abolishing their custom-houses along the same line by which they collect duties upon goods we send into Catiada, and leaving intercourse as unrestrifited l>e- tween this country and Canada as it is between the States. The line of custom-houses would follow the sea and include both countries. The internal-revenue systems of taxes on liciuors and tobacco in the two countiies would also have to be madt- un f )rm in l>()th. The pro- ceeds of taxation thus collected would be e((uitai>ly divided, aud the laircst way would seem to be in proportion to population. The Canadian tariff now levies duties upon goods coming into Canada from all sources, including England. It is not quite as high in the rates of duties as the tarilf of the United States; but it is, like the taritr of the United States, a protective tariff", framed for the express purpose of fostering Canadian industries. If Canada entered into com- mercial union 'vith the United States its taritf, then the same as our own, would uo longer be laid upon goods sent from the United States into Canada, but would fall upon everything coming from England and other countries. To illustrate: In the year 1887 we sold toCanada. 144,802,732 of goods. Of this amount $.S(),578,3H2 consisted of articles on which they levied duties, the average rate being 2;i.7(> percent., amounting to $7,265, 135.73. This burden of over seven millions of tax imposed ujwn goods we sent to Canada to sell would be swept away. England, competing with us for the Canadian market, sold nearly the sjime quantity of goods in Canada during the year, and as they were manufactures of a higher grade, ci)st, and process, they fell under the provisions of the Canadian tariff imposing still higher rates of duty than those imposed upon the imports from the United States. The advantages which would accrue to us from commercial union can readily be seen. If in one hundred millions of imports purchased by Canada during the year the United States were able to sell forty-live millions in that market in spite of the duties imposed upon them, com- peting with the Enelish, who sold goods of nearly similar value, how much great«r share of this hundred millions of trade would our people enjoy if they could send their manufactures and other goods into Can- ada as freely as they now send them from one State to another, while the English manufacturers and merchants, competitors with ours, would have to submit to the tariff when they landed, amounting to from 25 to 40 per cent. ? Is it not evident that the sales we would make to Canada would speedily leap to seventy-live or perhaps a hundred millions of dollars per annum ? The advantages which would be reaped by Canadians — farmers, artisans, and mechanics — from the enormous impulse given to business and to every element of prosperity are for them to consider. I am now discussing the proposition only from the jwint of view of the people of the United States. In all trade arrangements which have been made by our stAt«smen heretofore with Canada — the reciprocity treaty of 1 854 and several subsequent attempts with the same purpose — the result has been onesided. ket:ipiocity was provided for natural products which the agriculturists of Quiada desired to sell to us, but ours could never sell to them, as that is not a market for Rgricoltural protlucts. They only sell and send away. But good care has been taken to never admit the goods produced by our manufacturers to the great market of Cannda. Tliat market, if opened to n« by rommerclal union on terms of peifeit Ireedoni, would l)e to the husineas intereHta of thin coniitry of enonnons value; hut our people will iievei agtiin con- sent to any partial or one-sided arranucment by whiih ('anadiannsliall ^njoyour market lor their products, while our niauufacturerashall he to a great extent excluded from Canada, to be still supplied from Kuglaud. The advaiitajt* 8 we give to Canada should be for advantages received, und 1 ha^•e tin nfore opposed the policy which would strike olf dnties amounting tc $1,800,000 per annum on Canadian pnxlncts sent to this country without any couctts.sion being made on their part in striking off duties U]xin goods we send to Canad.'i. Jf s\u'h an improvident policy is pursued, all uuilive on the part of Canadians to give us any jidvantage whatever in their markets will be taken away. English bnsinc'ss influence and English capital will remain domiuiint in Canada while our laws are being changed to conform to their interests and •wishes. When they permit our iron and steel, cotton iind woolen manufactures free entry into their market it will be time to talk of free lumber, free llsh, and free salt, but until then no jot or tittle of our tarilTupon imports Irom Canada should be abated. The assimilation of the Canadian taritf to our own would not he a violent change. An elaborate computation made at my request by the Bureau of Statistics, issued Alay ;jl, 1H88, giving the rates of duty imposed by Canada upon each article making up the $;$(), 000, 000 of ."0 per capita of our population, while Canada collected from tariff and excise $6.(15. Let me give the precise facts in detail from the otticial reports. During the year ending .hine HO, 1887, our Government collected by the tarifTSJn.'iHO.H.'Hi, and from internal revenue $1 I8,H2:{,391, mak- ing altogether $:5.".f). 110,'28V from a population, according to the census of IHSl, of $0,15r>,78;{ persons, making $(1.70 from every person in the United States. During tiie same year the Canadian Covernment colle,- :{08,20l, making together ^^8,6^7.00^ which was collected from the population of Canada, that according to the census of 1881 numbered 4,;fe'l.810, or a fraction above $(i.(iO from every person. As the amounta collected from the respective peoples are almost exactly identical per taipita, diirering by a decimal scarcely appreciable, would it not he the simplest and the fairest way when the revenues are to be all collected under a common tariff and a unilbrm internal-revenue system to dirtde the ))roceeds by population? This would leave the revenues of each (iovernment derived from tarilT and internal revenue exactly as they .stand now, and each treasury would receive next year from these .-ourte.s the same sums proportionally for the support of the Govem- meuls that they received in 1887. I do not mention receipts from other sources, such as public lands, postotKce, public works, etc. Each Government would mauage them to suit itself. Undoubtedly tlie re- ceipts from duties atCauadian purta might change, because the market of Canada being largely sapplied with goods trum the United iStaien, the large sums they now collect upon importations from across the sea might be decreasetl, but the equitable division of revenue by popula- tion would maintain the Canadian Government in undiminished linau- cial resources. The Dominion of Canada, vast as it is in territorial extent, contains but a long string of feebly connected groups of population upon the southern border. The power and value of a country are measured by its strength in men and by their activity, not by square nnles within its borders, whether they be capable of high cultivation or wide stretches of icy desolation. The maritime provinces, containing 870, 696 people, are separated by an uninhabited waste of hundreds of miles and by the wedge-like State of Maine from the central provinces, Qnebec and Ontario, containing 3,282,255. Then comes the long, rocky journey around the lakes to Manitoba, which has probably a hundred thousanil people. They again are separated by more than a thousand miles oit the west by plains and mountains from British Columbia. Eiich oi these groups of population lies close upon the people of the United States, and enormous effort by great expenditure has been made to in- troduce iiiterprovincial trade over Qovernment railroads and subsidize I roads, but in vain. The laws of nature and the laws of trade are against it, and the $200,000,000 spent for this purpose could not accomplish it. The prov- inces had almost the same things to sell. How could they sell them to each other? Each one of them is interested in every way in the affairs, in the markets, in the business of the great near neighl)or on the south, to whom they wish to sell, from whom they wish to buy, rather than from any other province, the nearest hundreds of miles sway. The products of Canada, from Qnebec to the mountains, are st> nearly the same that they can not sell to each other nor supply each other's wants. They export agricultural products and wish to pur- cha.se their merchandise from abroad, either from England or the United States. The natural lines of commerce are North and South, each supplying what the other lacks, rather than East and West along lines of similar products. Nature herself sends the Canadians to our market, so near at hand, to purchase what they need, to sell what they have to disposes of. In spite of the tremendous influences against it, the spirit of their govern- ment, the dominant social forces there, and the invested Etaglish capi- tal, all endeavoring to constrain the people to trade with England, halt their commerce is still with us; and in spite of the high duties levied by them upon our goods and by us upon their products, we sold them in 1886 over $50,000,(100, largely of manufactured goods. Can there be any question that it would be in the interest of our people to have free admission to that market for the sale of American goods, to have the preference, in fact, in that market by the escublishmeut of the tariff against importations from ony other route? It is said that the price of labor in Canada is now lower than in the- United States, and we would have cause to dread the free admission ot Canadian products incompetition with our own. That criticism would appeal to me as an American and as a protectionist if the price of labor in Canada was made lower than here l)ec8use of the overpopulation of the country. If there were scores of millions there, as in P^nrope, con- tending for existence and pressing for employment, then to let in thft • 6 ; • 6 I flood of their producta would he nnwine. But, in fuct, population in Oinuda in HpiiiHe, and ihe reason the price ot lahor in Caiuidn in low in not hetiiust! there uie millions seeking em]iloynient and crowding e^icli «)lher, hut heeuuse hnsiness there in atuanant, nioney is wiirce, and jjrotitH are low. Thty under for want ol u market, for wantof civpiUd; epterpriNe not hein;: t^ntonruf^ed, the price ol Inhor in in some places lower than here. Those who lived in the Western States in theeitrlier daya when we liad no acceas to markets can reuieniher a similar Ktnte of things, when Hhnndnnceof land and raw material and a va^ue splen- did future in sijjht were all inef'ectuul to hring good prices for any- thing. Ijihor wiw ill paid, wugeu were low, money wa« scarce, husi- uesH was dull. Hut when the railroads were opened and the market came to our Western farmers, an er.i of gixnl prices, ((enernl prosperity, and rapid, steady growth ensued, as it would to the vast depressed ag- ricultural regions of Northwestern Canada if a market were afiordeti them. The prosperity of our Western farmers did no injnry to New Eng- land or any part of the East, It increased the prosperity of all, af- torded them ahundant supplies, gave to them a wider market for the product** they had to sell, and promoted the growth of hoth the East and the West with immense strides. So the opening of the great ag- ricultural regions of Canada, now sparsely peopled a.id depres-sed in hu.siiiess, will widen our market, give new regions to American enter- prise and profitahle investment, and heneflt all parties. The price of labor in Canada as soon as activity and prosperity touched those lands would ri.se as in the Western States. This is not a question of admit- ting the millions of Fluropean jwuper laborers to our n)arket nor any- thing akin to it. I have liiith that the capital and lalxir of the United States, sixty millions strong, can easily take care of themselves in the opening of the market with five millions of Canadians. Would the adoption of a common tiritf along the seacoa^t and unre- stricted intercourse over the inland Iwrder lead to fraud ? Would goods be admitted by Canadian custom-hou.se oflicials without paying duty and thus evade our tariff? Would it be safe to allow a part of our custom-houses, those along the Canadian l)order, to be beyond the con- trol and jurisdiction of onr Treiisury Department? I answer, what ground is there to apprehend fiand ? The Canadian custom-house sys- tem bears a gd name and is well administerena of detail Hhould be treated need not now be discussed. The conimi(»woner8 contemplated by the resolution are for the express purpose of getting all the views and all the facts l>eariug upon this question. The amount of our import ; from Canada in moat of the articles we pnrcluute there Ih so small compared with the vast consumption of our people that it does not atfect the price percejuildy. and as Canada is comparatively depressed in business the prices of artic-les sold us and on which wo lay a tarill" are generally lower in Canadiv by just the amount of our tarilT. This is not the case with all articles, but it is true in many cases, and there the Canadians will get an immediate bemifit. And, on the other hand, there would bo a lar/e absolute gain in market range and in prices for American mannlartnred goods pur- i-haoed from us by Canada iu place of purchases now made by theia in Europe. The business advantages on both sides are so evident on examination that the more this is discussed the stronger the movement. It is now going forward at such a rate that before long public opinion in Canada and iu the United States will be in accord that new:uid better an ango- nients than the present can be made; and once the people have reached this contilusion they will (juickly find a way of carrying it out. Already the precise question— a common taritf and excise system — is becoming familiiir to tlie people, and it is discuss* d in a friendl,y spirit. We have in the United States perhaps one million Canadians born, and they are excellent citizens. There is a friendly feeling gen- erally. The recent discu.ssions iu Canada have awakened discussion here, esprcially on the business aspect. Less interest is felt in annexation, for we know our country is now very large, and there is enouKh to do in assimilating the diverse elements we already have. Hut the en- largement of trade and improved business both north and south of us everybody welcomes, becanse everybody expects to profit by them. It is ea.sy to conjure up ditticultiesof detail that will arise in arrang- ing a common tarilV, but these are (juestions similar to those we have been dealing with a century, and certainly they are very slight com- mred with the difficulties certain to arise in tlie future between the t^o nations if we continue the barrier, 4,000 n»iles long, with parallel lines of custom-houses and fortifications, between peoples almost ex- actly alike in business, in feelings, and in race. There will be and there must be an enormous and immense intercourse consequent upon their geographical position and the mutual business interests of both sides; and if vexatious barriers are kept up, irritation and trouble must constantly arise. Will it be said that England will not consent to any arrangement which would give a preference in one of her colonies to American goods over British goods? Her Government, in a noted instance, did thia very thing not many years ago. In 1874, when the reciprocity treaty was being negotiated by Minister Thornton, the English Government instructed him to modify it at the suggestion of the Canadian ministry and make such additions to the list of American goods to be admitted free into Canada as the Canadians desired. Me did so, and made outa long list of American articles to be admitted free of duty, so long that It was almost free (nule. Not one of tlicse nrliolej* cominf); from Eng- land waHtohoiuliiiitted fretrol duty. Thmdianahtol a treaty wiwsent to I^ord Derby, wlioaimwcred that tlie wliolti iiroccediniu; wax approved and tlie KnuliMh tioveriiineHt iiNmuted to the arriintrt'inent admitting Ainorican j{<><>«'8 free to u Itritish cnlDny, where a taritV of "JO to 40 per ceut. was to be laid U{)on thn s;ime kind of ^oods coming fioin England or any other country than the United HtatcH. CommercitU union is not in hostility to Kn^land. She has no better cnsloiuer than the United Stat<«. and the entrance of Canada into our coniniereial s.vsleni and onr business aetivities would stimulate her prosperity and make her trade in ail directions more valuable. 'Hjo live hundred millions of Knnlii; peace, the wjlution it will afford at once to all the exasperaiinji dilltrences that have been in dispute for generations, the vastly extended pros|)erity itassures tothe Enfjlish-speakinit people of this continent dwelling to;{ether in haruKmious activity, increasing power, and unbroken peace. * * « » « » * Mr. IIITT, from the Committee oa Foreign AfTairs, March 16, 1888, submitted the following report to accompany joint resolution (H. Kea. 129): The Committee on ForeiRii Affairs, to whom was referred Tlouse joint resobi- tion 129, to proniolecoiuiuerciiil union with Canada, beg leave to Hubuiit the fol- lowing report: Our ooiiimf rcial relations with Canada have recenlly awake-ned a deeper In- terest and reoeivod a more thorough diHousnion than ever before, on botli Hides of the iMirder. The tendrnoy of public opinion is plainly towards the eulurge- lucnt of trade Itelweon th« two coiintric^s. In Canadn the muveinent has nd- vmieed from wliat was a few years ago an effort for partial reciprocity, to a wide expresulon in favor of unrestricted intercourse and commercial union. The evi- dence of this fsct is al)uiidant. The Uight Ilonoialile.Ioseph Chamberlain, high commissioner from Her MaJ- esty'H Ooverniiient. is reported to have recently stated in a speech : •■ The arrangement Ijetween the colonies and Great Britain isessentially a tem- porary one. It can not remain as it is. * • • Already you have in Canada, th(< greatest of all the colonies, ai\ agitation for what is called <-ommercial union with Ihe t'nitetl HIates. Commercial union with the United States means unre- strieled trtvle In'twcen the United Htatesand the Dominionof Canada, and a pro- teclivi- tariff against the mother country. If Canada desires that, Canada can have It." Ar. ,' speaking of the relation of Canada tothe United States and Grert Brttain on » s.|lMKN)tienl ocntsioii the right honorable gentleman further said that — "(Vi.uiiiercial iniion with the United States meant that ( 'anada was to give {iroferencc lo every ariicle of manufacture from the United States over mann- iiotures friini (ireat Hrllaiii. If the people of Canada desired an arrangement of that kind he did not doubt that they would be able to 8ec\iro it." Witliin in a few weeks a conference was held at Quebec of the prime ministers of all the provinces constituting the Dominion of Canada, ntid after a very full exchange of views these representatives of the executive powers of all portions of tlie Dominion luiHiiiniously adopted the following declaration : "This conference, comprfsitigall politicil parties, is of the opinion that a fair measure, provided under proper conditions, for unrestricted trade relations be- 8 tween the United States anrl the Ootninion of Oaniida, would be of advantage to all the provinces of the Do.ninlon, and would, in connection with an adjust- ment of the tishery df»pute, tend to happily settle the Kiave dilHoultles Mrhich have from time to time arise* between U?eat Britain and th» United States." The chanibera of commerce and boardsoftntde of the leading cities of Canada, and more than fiftj- farmers' institutes and conventions, have adopted resolu- tions doclarini; in favor of commercial union or unrestricted trade between the. two countries. The answerinade by their opponents and those most closely attnched to En- Klish trade and EnRlish rule has been that the United Slates has uiven no Indica- tion that it would rsceiveor even consider any proposal, however friendly In spirit or however favorable to us in its terms it mi»!;ht be. Tlie joint resolution now sMbmitted does not contemplate any action on our part at present; but whenever the Dominion of Canada shall have declared a desire for commercial union, with a common taritr, like Internal-revenue taxes, like duties on articles imported into either country from abroad, and no duties on trade between the United states and Canada, then the President is author- ized to appoint three commissioners to meet those who may be designated to represent Canada, in order to prepare a plan for commercial union, l)y a^simi- Inting the tariP's and internal-revenue tuxes of the two countries, now not very widely dill'erent, and an equitable method of dividing: the receipts, which thcv shall report to the President, who shall lay it before Congress. The whole sub- ject of our relations with Canada is kept ui.der the control of Congress. It is notdeemed necessary to here discuss the great merits of commercial union or the details of arrangement that will be necessary. Your committee believe that the power heroin conferred upon the President can do no harm, that it will bo wisely useJ, and will ;?ad to beneficent results, promoting the independence, proipcrity, and peace of twt, great peoples. The committee therefore recommend the adoption of the joint resolution. March 1, 1889, thejoint resolution vras take« up by oiianimous con- sent, onkred to be engro.ssefl and read athird time; and being engrossed, it was accordingly r<^d the third time, and passed. ^ ^~.~