1886.] 52 * [Dudley. 



manufacturer, who pays no taxes in the United States, the right to supplant 

 our manufacturer with his commodities, made in England and by English 

 workmen ; leaving our own people to pay their taxes and to live as best 

 they can without work. If we do not do this, they say, the English peo- 

 ple will not buy our surplus agricultural products. 



It must be noted here that every dollar's worth of manufactured goods 

 brought from England and sold in the United States, takes just one dol- 

 lar's worth of work from our people. If it is made or produced in Eng- 

 land the workman there gets the benefit, that is, the wages for its produc- 

 tion. If made in this country, the workman here gets the benefit, the 

 wages for making it. 



When it is remembered that, if it is extended to all our industries, it will 

 amount to hundreds of millions of dollars ; and to hundreds of thousands of 

 working people who will be affected by the transfer of our manufacturing to 

 England, the importance and magnitude of the question is seen, especially 

 upon the working people of this country, the men who have to earn wages 

 by labor in order to live. 



But the subject we are considering is that of reciprocity ; and as so 

 much stress has been laid upon it by the free traders in England, as well 

 as by those who sympathize with them in this country, it is of some im- 

 portance to learn whether as a principle it is true or untrue. In other 

 words, whether it has the effect upon trade that is claimed for it. 



The foreign commercial relations or dealings between nation and nation 

 are never carried on* by the governments, that is, one government dealing 

 with another government, but by individuals. The individuals of one 

 nation dealing with the individuals of another nation. 



If it were the English government dealing directly with the American 

 government, then she might say to us : If you do not repeal your 

 tariff laws and buy your manufactured commodities of us instead of 

 making them yourselves, we, the English, will not buy of you what we 

 may require in agricultural products or anything else. But unfortunately 

 for the argument, it is not the English government dealing with the United 

 States government, or with our people, but it is the English merchant 

 dealing with the American merchant, and the whole transaction is busi- 

 ness with both. It is a question of price that governs all their transac- 

 tions. The English merchant, whether it is provisions or cotton, buys 

 wherever he can purchase what he requires the cheapest. He never looks, 

 considers or cares about the balance of trade, whether it is on the one side 

 or the other. His object in doing business is to make money. And all 

 his contracts and dealings are based on this idea, and he buys wherever he 

 can buy to the best advantage without regard to reciprocity. If it is ten 

 thousand bushels of wheat that he requires, and he can buy it cheaper in 

 New York than he can in Odessa, he buys it in New York ; if on the 

 other hand he can buy it cheaper in the Crimea or India, he buys it there, 

 and not in New York. It is price, and it alone, that controls the matter. 

 And so with every other product or commodity that the English merchant 



