St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-05-13
THE ABsURDITY OF 1T.

1t is not needed to import a visitor
from Saturn who comes free from the
preconceived notions which ENVIRON
ment creates, to make plain the absurd
lily involved in the fact that a conven-
ton of delegates from Canada and the
States will meet here in lew days to
discuss the question of methods to be
used to get freedom of trade between
our own and that country. 1t is SUM-
Gent to present the naked picture of
existing conditions to bring out in all
its hideouspeSS this survival in the
midst of the material progress of nine
teen centuries of that other twin relic
of barbariSm which shackleS the limbs
of commerce as the obliterated relic
shackled the limbs of men.
Across our northern border is 'for
eign" country. 1t is peopled by men of
our own race, speaking our own Ian
guage, owning the same origin. No
great natural obstruction exists which
would indicate that nature had decreed
the separation of the peoples on either
side; one may step from the jurisdiction
of the United States into that of the
is in a foreign land. There, as here,
men are engaged in producing what
other men want; giving to the produc-
ton their labor and their capital. What
they produce more than they need for
support is useless to them unless they
can exchange it for what other men
are making and they want. There
men are growing wheat and barley;
here men are making implements of
industry, clothing and the thousand and
one articles of life's needs and com
forts Each feels that impulse of our
natures to exchange that which we
have made and can't use for that which
others have made and we want. Each
feels that this is not only an inherent
right of men, but the basic condition of
civilization. Each feels the need of faeil-
itating these exchanges. They aid in
building roads which make cheaper and
more rapid the transit of their products
to points of exchange. Each reSentS all
distractions which increase the expense
of making the exchanges. They feel
that they are wronged by it
AT the border, where only row of
white posts marks the change from one
country to another, stand officers of the
law of either country. The Dominion
officer says to the Canadian producer:
''Before you can bring home the
goods for which you have exchanged
your products you must pay to
the government tribute levied
on their value" On this side
of the line stand officers of the
United States customs, demanding of
our citizens payment of tribute on the
things they have taken in exchange for
their products. Each government is
trying to make more expensive the ex
changes for the cheapening OF which
he people of each have built long lines
of railroads. The governments neutral
iZe the efforts of their citizenry.
What is this reciprocity convention
for? To give expression to this innate
sense of the right of men to exchange
freely what they produce. They wish
to convince their governments, that is
themselves and their neighbors, that
they should consent to this freedom. Is
1t not absurd that there is need of such
a convention? Is not the convention an
aDsurdity? If men were really free to
exercise the most vital right of freedom,
would there be need of it? DIvest your
selves Of your habits of thought bred of
false environment, and look at it free
from notions and preJudices about tariffs
and protection, your native sense of
right liberated from these clogs, and
not only is the convention seen to be
absurd. but greater is seen to be the alb
surdity, the crime, of the laws which
give the need for it.