The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-10-07
WILSON S. RESELL
 DIES IN BUFFALO
FORMER POSTMASTER GENERAL
 UNDER MIR. CLEVELAND SINKS INTO DEEP SLEEP AND EX- PIREs-HAD BRlGHT's DISEASE.

Buffalo. October 6-Wilson E. Bissell, former postmaster general, died at 10:lO o'clock tonight. About noon he sank into a deep sleep, and 1t was with difficulty that he was aroused at intervals during the afternoon for nourishment and medi- cine. The end came easily and peaceful ly. Dr. Dewitt Sherman, the physician who has been attending him during his recent illness, and members of his fam fly were at his bedside.
 Bissell suffered from complications thought to be akin to Bright's disease, although not well understood.
 On June 1, MT. Bissells trouble be- came so serious that he was sent to New York to consult specialists. It was thought an operation wodld be performed, but, after examination, the specialist de- cided that 1t would be better for the pa- tient first to rebuild his strength. He was sent to his summer home, Bar liar bor, where he spent several weeks. He spent most of the time there In bed, and it was realized that his case was hope less. In September, he returned to Buff falo. Some important legal matters in which he was interested were disposed of and MT. Bissell was again forced to bed. He suffered no pain, sleeping most of the time
 When awake, his mind was always clear and he conversed with members of the family and the physician. During the latter part of his illness, numerous mes sages of inquiry were received from for mer President Cleveland and members of the cabinet in which MT. Bissell served as postmaster general
 ------~----------- cognize your right to develop your indus tries so as not to be dependent upon for eign supplies; but there are many things you don't know how to make for which we have a great capacity of production; leave them to us; do not increase the tariff walls against us; let us exchange with you for your productions; we will rely upon your patriotism and your af- lection that we shall not be losers there by"
 Reciprocity Needed.
 Suppose we had made such an offer to the United States and Germany ten or twenty years ago. Do you suppose that we should not have been able to retain a great deal of what we have now lost and can not recover. I will give you an illustration. America Is the strictest of the protective nations. It has a tariff, which, to me, is an abomination, and al- though America has profited enormously, l think 1t has been carried to excessive lengths, and I believe that a great num- Der of intelligent Americans would glad ly negotiate with for its reduction. But, until very recent times, even this immoderate tariff left us the great tin plate trade, amounting to millions of pounds per annum, and which we might have kept if we had given some recipro- cal advantage.
 If we had made some such concessions to Germany, we should still have been ex- porting to that country many articles the market for which IS now closed to us.
 Were we to lose the colonies, as we lost our foreign trade, we should have arrived at the parting of the ways. If the opportunity is not seized now. 1t will not occur again. Canada will fall to the level of the United States; Australia to the level of Canada and South Africa to the level of Australia, and that would be the beginning of a general decline which would rob us of our most important trade.
 Colonies Ready for Trade.
 MT. Chamberlain said he believed that the colonies ''are prepared to meet us in return for very moderate preference. They would reserve to us the trade we already enjoy and would also arrange their tariffs in the future in order not to start industries in competition with those already in existence in the mother coun- try, and not only would they enable us to retain our trade with them, but they would give us preferences, on all trade done with them by our foreign competi- tors"
 The colonial trade thus secured, said the speaker would be sufficient to afford employment to 615,000 workmen at thirty shillings per week. That had been called a squalid argument, therefore, he ap- pealed on the higher ground that the privileges of empire brought with them great responsibilities He had spoken with many colonists who believed that the present colonial relations could not be permanent. They must either be drawn closer together. or they would drift apart -an opinion shared by Lord Roseberry, a statesman whose instincts were always right, though his acts often Jagged behind his instincts. He believed that it was on- ly by a commercial union and reciprocal preference that they could lay the founda- tions of federation of the empire to which they all looked as a brilliant pos- sibility
 He wished to repeat explicitly that he did not wish to tax raw materials used in British manufactures. It was evident ->>~-~-------<