Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1894-10-04

and many other persons of note.
THE cHAIRMAN's SPEECH.
The chairman, in proposing toast to
the President of the United States,
dwelt upon the excellent Judgment
shown in the selection of ministers to
represent the country at the Court of
St. James.
Following this was toast to Mr..
Wilson and the other Americans pres.
ent, in proposing which the speaker re-
ferred to his visit to the United States,
when he had wondered that with the
advanced ideas of the Americans they
had so long tolerated high tariff. The
making of nations generally, he said,
covered long periods of years, COM
pared with which the period of seeking
tariff reform in the United States was
extremely short. There was no reason,
in his judgment, why the United States
and Great Britain should not march
abreast in the cause of freedom, with
which tariff reform must be associated.
When the advantages Of the system
which Mr.. Wilson had had q large
share in introducing were fully known
England and America would unite to
ASASt
MIR. WILSON RESPONDS.
Mr.. Wilson was loudly cheered as he
rose to respond. He was heartily CRATE
full, he said, for this manifestation Of
good will. Nothing less than full sense
of the honor implied by the invitation
of the Chamber would have caused him
to interrupt the rest he had sought by
taking the ocean voyage, and his too
brief sojourn in this historic country.
He felt embarrassed as to how to adj.
dress such gathering Of experienced
business men, and felt conscious that he
could not speak upon the subjects within
the field of their special knowledge. He
preferred to speak solely as an Ameri-
can citizen upon matters with which he
was familiar. Hear, hear.
For 20 years the United States has
been following the policy that China
had adopted. The principle of com
mercial seclusion had clipped the wings
OF her enterprise and fettered her own
industries. Never before in the history
of the world had protection had so fair
an area in which to work out its beneti-
cent results, if it had any, and never in
the history Of the world had il so con.
spicuously demonstrated its falsity and
utter impotence as an economic system,
and its utter incompatibility with pure
government.
The whole generation had been taught
that national and individual prosperity
did not depend upon free and stable
government and the energy and enter.
prise OF the people, but upon acts of
Congress which taxed all for the benefit
OF few. Was it strange then, he asked.
that the intelligent people of the Unitei
states should, in time, reject such a
policy?
APPEALS TO SELFISH INTERESTS.
Every appeal to selfish interests had
been resorted to to bolster the system
up. The working men of America
were constantly told, and for time in
duced to believe, that better wages and
a higher standard of living depended
solely upon the taxation Of foreign i'm.
ports; that any reduction of this taxa
ton would plunge them into the hone.
less condition of the so,caled pauper
labor OF Europe. II was against such
arguments that they had been compelled
slowly and laboriously to maintain a
hght The American people, however,
were not hard to educate when thew
once gave their attention to the great
question of their own taxation, because
they had been trained in the great prin-
ciples of liberty. They quickly learned
that industries supported BY taxntion
never become self-supporting, but rather
peGome more clamorous for public as
slstance. The working people especially
learned That, while taxation upon com
peting products might benefit the EN-.
ployers, yet there was free trade in what
they themselves had to sell, namely.
their own labor.
ME- Wilson said he believed that be
might claim that the protective system
was now oyerthrown. The operation Of
inc new Iarlf bill, though it had not in
user oYerthrown protection, marked
the flrst and most difficult step in the
revolution, which would 60 forward
henceforth oy its own impetus.
AIMS OF THE TARIFF REFoRMERs.
AS regards the aims and objects of
the tariff reformers, he said. thev wero
seeking to emancipate the industries of
inc country. what he had to say might
not DC welcome to his hearers, but he
would not be showing just appreciation
OF their hospitality unless he spoke The
whole truth with the utmost frankness
In the reform contest they had steadilv
aimed, first, to reduce, with view az
their abolition, the taxes levied for the
support OF private industries, and the
establishment of great principle. The
government had no right to impose any
tax except for the support of the govern
ment. Secondly, to free American in.
dustries from those burdens which had
hitherto excluded them from the mar.
kets of the world. He was not sure that
he could call upon his hearers to rejoice
at the accomplishment of tariff reform
In the United States, except inasmuch
as they approved sound principles more
imam they valued selfish advantage.
Hear. hear and laughter.l
THE MANUFACTURING SUPREMACY.
The protectionists of the United States
had built up defences 20 Keep the peo.
pie of Great Britain and Others from
competing with their home markets, but
tine tariff retormers We're now tearing
down these defenccs, in order to let
themselves out So that they might COM
pete with the British and other markets.
The future would prove that the manu-
featuring supremacy of the world would
go to the people who had the largest
supply of basic materials and industry
and the cheapest access thereto, and