The Portland daily press., 1888-02-13


its passing l have had little bit OF ex-
perienee in this matter. Like the other
speaker am somewhat advanced In years
and have gone through many business enter
prises in the eastern part of the State; L
have also spent sometime in this city and
know something Of its business and what is
needed for its welfare.
In 1864 or about that time bill was before
Congress similar to the one before it now.
Hon. William Pitt Fessenden [applausel was
| then your Senator and John Lynch repre-
sented you in the House two honest, bright,
earnest men representing your interests and
the interests of the State Of Maine. Hon.
| Israel Washburn represented the eastern
| part of the State where / resided. / was
| then engaged In my professional business
| and in numbering. What money had was
| invested largely In timber lands, lumber and
( vessels How was your delegation In Con
| gress divided at that time? The two gentle
/ men whose names first mentioned were In
favor Of the reciprocity treaty, and did all Ia
| their power to aid its passage. And why did
/ they do it? Because they considered 1t OF
such vital interest to the city Of Portland
K that 1t ought to pass. But the whole OF the
rest Of the delegation were opposed to It.
/ They said the rest Of the State was interested
| in lumber and agricultural products produ-
cling just what Canada produced and
If they all sought the same
| market and our products were brought
| in competition with the products Of Canada
| it would result in an injury to us. / was ad-
| vised to get out Of the lumber business as
| quick as possible; to sell my timber land be-
| fore it became worthless But did not get
| round to 1t In season; l was little slow and
/ kept it,. What was the result? That reci-
/ procity treaty lasted ten years. Spruce
| stumpage that was selling for Sl.50 a thou
/ sand before the treaty sold for S3 before II
/ nd 9fumUaQe
| SO TO So, and there never was such season
/ Of business prosperity In the lumber inter
| ests in the whole State Of Maine as there
| was In that ten years. ,-a
| The city Of Portland advanced its valuation
/ one million a year, or ten millions In ten
/ years; and 1t Is only thirty millions Tor all
this time Its population increased one
thousand to twenty-nine thou sand. You
| that lived here then, was 1t not season OF
| prosperity for you? Don't you remember 1t?
The effect Of that reciprocity treaty was to
products of Canada that she wanted to ship
| away; they came TO Portland and were
placed on deposit for distribution to the peo-
pie. In other words, it brought Montreal to
| u.s. And that Is so in every Instance when
ever any legislation has been inaugurated to
| establish free trade. That Is bad word
about this time, for 1t has got rather sharp
significance since the parties have got II into
/
to call it free trade, If you throw apples at
me. We want the world for market. We
are too smart for protection, and we don't
need any. | hate the word protection; II
makes me feel cheap, and we don't want II.
(Applause] Give us the world for market
and we have got the enterprise, the intelli-
gence, and we can beat the world. Said
man the other day, "Glve us free trade and
we will make antiquities Tor the Bazar az
| Rome: we will erect Yankee notion stands
| upon the banks Of the Jordan, and upon the
| banks Of the Ganges." PTotecti0nl / hate
it. Why is it so? The moment you move
merchandise i comes to aS. the line and some
now?" You have got a duty to perform:
| You have got TO stop and be examined, and
after using yard after yard Of red tape you
discover that your duty Is to pay some mon
ey and then you can go along. Don'tyou see
udice between nations? Don't you
see that this antagonizes business?
This is not all about the duty. We have
set of men going through the country acting
as detectives. / have lived down east and
know something about this detective busi-
ness. 1Laughter.] When the government
has got all it wants and the Inspectors and
detectives have got all they want IL will be
ter Washington County imports from the
/ Provinces horses hay, sheep and very large
ly the products Of Canada. sharp fellow
comes along and swaps horses with a poor
|
| farmers horse and sklps back to the Prov
| inces. Soon along comes one OF these de-
tectives and seiZes the farmers horse be-
cause there has been no duty paid upon him;
There are hundreds Of such Instances. /
will give you an instance to show how much
the government got out of one of those
horses. A district attorney not thousand
miles from this city with one Of the commits
siOners and some detectives about the time
the war closed in Andy Johnson's time,
seized horse from farmer and he was
brought to Machias was called upon pro-
fessionally to get the horse released ap-
every possible way, but no, the
government was poor and they
must have 1t. The farmer lost his horse and
as soon as Andy Johnson's collector came in,
OF a short time afterwards, felt at liberty
TO go into the custom house and see now
much the government Of the United States
got out of the horse. The collector showed
me the whole account. The horse brought.
sixty dollars. The marshaPs fees, the COM
\ missiOner's fees and the district attorneys
fees amounted to one hundred and sixty
nine dollars. rLaughter.l You in Cumber-
land county don't know anything about the
| revenue laws and never will until you live
| on the borders.
| Now hope, gentlemen, that this organ
| lied body, this Board Of Trade, viii do what
they can and take action as may be necessa-
ry to see that the reciprocity treaty passes
| for it underles all our industries. lt Is the
| great encourage and protector of all your
| industries. 1t relieves your business and
trade from a thousand and one perplexities.
1t relieves you from all the dangers that may
follow from the smuggling Of goods, for no
matter If you have the consuls certificate as
| TO the market value Of your goods, no matter
If they are spread out before the collector
and he counts every sheepskin yet after
| wards if some detective comes along and
shows that there was one more skin than ap-
pears to have yielded duty or that the adj
yalorem is ten cents below the market value
they are seized just the same. [Applausel
Vice President IVtnslOlc:
We have a gentleman with us tonight who
may not be so well posted in getting horses
across the line, but he is we'll posted in the
affairs Of this city and is interested in the
promotion Of her welfare. / call upon Col.
John M. Adams.
SPEECH OF COL. JOHN NJ. ADAMS.
Mr. President and Gentlemen Of the Board
of Trade;
[ Iistered with great deal Of interest to
the remarks Of Mr.. Shaw, and | think he
has presented to us the situation very fairly
and well. But as the gentleman who fol-
lowed him said that is all well as far as it
goes, but there must be something more
While he was going back to the days when
the Atlantic & st. Lawrence railroad was
started he was covering ground with which
am familiar. attended the first meeting
IN Portland with some fifteen or twenty
others, which was the beginning of that or
ganization. l well remember the feeling
that then existed among the people OF Port
land There was real enthusiasm. They
said this thing must go, and they took hold
and made 1t 90. was young man then
without means, except what had picked up
teaching school and otherwise, but / sub
scribed for two shares, and so it went all ov-
er the country. We went around soliciting
subscriptions, and went on with 1t and made
a success Of it. We took right hold and put
our hands in odr pockets to the best OF our
ability.
Then came the Portland Company; that
was thought to be good thing and we all
told hold and subscribed to the stock, atten-
ded the meetings and helped them on, and
we now see very important industry eS-
tablished and prospering. Now we must
| make a point TO concentrate cur efforts up
- a -. ham Il In 0FtW