Exhibition Addhusses. 167 



the same productive 2^0 wer in Great Britain, or a rate wliicli is 

 almost double the average rate of interest in the latter country." 



The rate of interest on capital in the United States is, on an aver- 

 age, double its rate in England and in the other manufacturing 

 countries of Europe. Capital is the basis of all business; and 

 nowhere is it more essential to success than in the creation and con- 

 duct of manufacturing establishments. When it costs us twice as 

 much as it costs our foreign competitors, we set out at a disadvan- 

 tage of 100 per cent. 



But for these inequalities of condition, our manufacturers could 

 enter the race of competition with little fear of being distanced by 

 any foreign rival. It is mainly upon this ground that they need and 

 ask for protective duties. They seek no monopoly — no exclusive 

 privilege. Give them an even chance in the game, and they will 

 take care of themselves. Not until the cost of labor, taxation, and 

 capital, through a gradual approximation, or by some great altera- 

 tion here or there, shall have become nearly the same in Europe and 

 America, will it be safe to abandon the present policy. 



In view of such facts, you will readily perceive the mistake of those- 

 who adduce the rates of duties in other countries as examples and 

 guides for us. The conditions of wages, taxation, and capital in the 

 manufacturing nations of the European' continent (Russia excepted) 

 are so nearly'- alike that high duties, as between themselves, would be- 

 inoperative. Under such duties their international trade would cease.. 

 In France, Belgium, Austria, and Prussia the cost of manufacturing 

 the leading articles is so nearly uniform that a duty of ten per cent 

 protects them against each other as effectually as our higher rates 

 defend us against them. The same, in effect, may be said of the 

 Anglo-French Treaty, so loudly vaunted as a great step in the pro- 

 gress of liberal ideas. It can be proved that French producei's under 

 that arrangement receive more protection aga,inst British industry 

 than is afforded by our tariff to American manufacturers, in their 

 sharp competition with France and England. 



So long as our local taxation shall depend on the will and action of 

 the several States; so long as the rates of wages and of interest in 

 our country are kept up by the abundance of land and the demand 

 for labor, neither skill nor assiduity on the part of our producers can 

 remove the cause of that disparity which places them at so great dis- 

 advantage. The remedy, the only remedy, is in the hands of our 

 national government. With that power it rests to say whetlier, in 



