St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-03-21
His Argument Last Evening
for Commercial Union
With Canada.
Further Maintenance Of Gus
toms Barrier Deprecated
by This Financier.
st. Paul'S Solid Business Men
Gather in Large Numbers
to Listen to Him.

faces of st. Paurs intelligent business
men gathered there to hear Hon
Erastus Wiman's dissertation or
commercial union with Canada
The prominence of those who
composed the audience was indeed
compliment to the speaker, and the hal
was crowded.
The opening cerem onies were brief
Capt. Russell Blakeley, president of the
chamber of commerce, introduced the
speaker tie rsely, as follows:
Gentlemen, this is Mr.. Wiman; lis
ten to him."
Mr.. Wiman appeared in neat suit
of black, and on the lapel of his Prince
Albert coat he wore boutOnniere. He
is rather portly gentleman, with the
conventional side whiskers and mus
tache affected by Canadians, and
is one Of the most pleasin
takers that has ever appeared
before a st. Paul audience. His
address was like ordinary conversation,
interesting and, on account of its Fl uent
delivery, to a great degree fascinating.
Behind the speaker hung large map
of the Dominion of Canada, and a silver
headed cane served him to point out the
various geographical points as his talk
proceeded.
Mr.. Wiman, after expressing the great
qualification he felt at the opportunity
afforded him to address the merchants
of st. Paul on question of such great
Importance as Commercial Union Be
tween the United States and Canada -
proceeded to explain what the term
meant. He SAID that it meant the COM
plete
oBLITERATIoN OF THE BA RRIERs
to trade and commerce between the two
portions of the North American CONT
nent now divided by a political line.
1t meant that the customs line which
ran athwaTt the continent 1000 miles
long should be lifted up, and having
been made of uniform height, should be
stretched right around the continent.
1t was a general impression that Can
ada, being portion of the British en-
pire, do not exact an import duty from
British goods; and naturally if the Gus
toms line between Canada and the
United States were obliterated, English
goods might come into the United States
through Canada. Such, however, was
not the case. Canada had for many
years been fScally independent, as in
dependent of England in tina respect as
is the United States. She had, in
order to provide a revenue to carry
on her great public works to enact a
tariff almost as high as that of the
United States, which tariff was enforced
as well against English goods as against
goods from the United States. The
spectacle was thus presented of one
part of the British empire taxing the
goods of anotl e.. part of the same en-
pire for the privilege of admission. 1t
dependence thus granted to Canada to
she continued to charge duty on En-
glish goods precisely uniform with that
which the United States exacted. The
proposition was, therefore, that pre-
cisely the same duty should be eXacted
on all foreign goods, including English,
at Montreal, Quebec and other Cana
dian ports, as was levied at New York,
Baltimore, Boston and other ports in the
United States, In other words, that a
tariff precisely of uniform height should
prevail all over the North American con-
tinent. The result of this would be
that, so far as trade and commerce were
concerned, the whole continent would
be one and indivisible, and that all the
advantages which would follow a politi-
cal union would be enjoyed by mer-
chants, manufacturers bankers, farmers,
transportation agencies and all other
interests. Commercial union means
that which would have been accom-
pliShed, so far as trade and commerce is
concerned, by the extension of the
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
over the whole continent, instead of
over less than one-half of it.
The extent and character of the tariff
would necessarily have to be left to the
congress of the United States, they be-
ing the larger representative body,
while the total amount realized from
its enforcement, and also from the en-
forcement of similar internal revenue
taxes, should be put into one pool and
the sum realized divided by per capita
proportion according to population.
This plan of distribution of revenue
would be similar to that of the German
ZOllverein, which mas worked so advan-
tageously for that great empire. The
results to the United States from such
a union as is proposed would be,
without the drawing of a sword. with
out the shedding of a drop of blood or
the expenditure of a single dollar. to
almost double the prospective area of
of commerce.
To cities such as st. Paul and other
frontier localities, the
pROCpECT IS ID A PTIrITT DIT Az Trnr.-<,
Canada is forty times as large as Eng
land, Wales and Scotland; sixteen times
as large as the German empire, and has
an extent three times the size of British
India. Excluding Alaska. the United
States has an area of 3,036,0OO square
miles, while the area of Canada is 3. 300
600 square miles. Between these two
vast areas, existing side by side for a
distance of nearly 1000 miles, the sales
of American merchandise and manu-
features are less than the annual sales
of two jobbing houses in great West
ern city. Exchanges between two such
cities as Toledo and Hartford are greater
than the exchanges between the two
great divisions of the North American
continent.
To increase the business and enlarge
the area of the commerce of the two
countries is the object sof the CONNER
cial unionist. Canada is the natural
market for the manufacturers of the
United States. The duty of the protec-
ZIONIST is as clear in the direction of
creating new market in this quarter,
if he can without disturbing the equi-
librum of taxation, as it is to preserve
the market which already exists. The
United States have enjoyed the advan-
tages of both systems of political econ
Omy in remarkable degree, while their
industries have been stimulated to a
vast extent by the hign protection tariff,
and they have been enriched beyond
compare through the development of
natural resources. They have at the
same time illustrated the advantages
which have flowed from the
MOST PERFECT FREEDOM OF TRADE
within their own limits. Trade has
been free and unrestricted over large
space of earth's surface within the
United States, and among a greater
hn6V nf trnharc tban anvmhora olca ~,