New-York tribune., 1907-11-14
TRADE AND FRIENDSHIP
ambassador Reds Speech to Not
tinghamI Chamber of Commerce.

Reid made effective use OF commercial statistics
20 illustrate the community OF interests be+v,~nn
Great Britain and the United States
The invitation to attend the dinner was nre-
ssnted 70 the American Ambassador last spring
BY the Duke or Portland who is the president
of the chamber Mr.. Reid and his family ar
rived in Nottingham this afternoon and viii be
fhe rest of the week
The Duke of Portland introduced the guest
Of the evening in terms OF hearty and enthu-
siastic greeting, after which Mr.. Reid spoke as
follows:
These words Of generous welcome are gladly
and gratefully accepted, in the only sense in
which. as well know. they could be warranted
not as personal, but as a convenient way of
expressing your sentiments toward the great
country l have the honor to represent In that
sense am doubly proud to receive them 1t il
q great country; it fills a larger place now everv
succeeding year in the worlds horizon. and we
derive much pleasure from thinking that It
seems larger nowhere and Is nowhere more es-
teemed than with the very people in whose eyes
would gladly look our best-those of the land
from which we had our origin and early nurture
institutions and our language and from
which has come so large a part of our composIte
blood.
II was pleasure TO receive your invitation.
= Nothing could be more natural than desire TO
come TO Nottingham. There are a dozen rea-
sons Fer one, TO start with, any man who
knows the magnitude and character of the In
dustries centred here cannot but feel a reason
nble curiosity to the town that created them,
as well to see what they, in the course Of
years, have done to the town. 1t must be well
worth while. for example. to know something of
a place that has six hundred separate
establishments and over twenty-five thousand
workpeople all engaged in a manufacture that
IS also an art--in fact, one of the most artistic
and one OF the most delicate manufactures IN
the WORTHWHILE at the time It rivals even
this achievement. in extent If not in beauty.
with variety Of its other products.
So. again. no man could recall the history OF
this town and county. whether I'm government
or in literature, without the keenest interest.
To us beyond the seas who cherish the bill ot
rights and parliamentary government as the
special and priceless part Of the great inherI-
t9nce we derived from you, IT is a privilege to
see place where English parliaments often as
sembled in the days when the Mother Of ParIa-
ments herself was young. Then, again. we get
a lesson in the principles by which the world IS
coming more and more to be governed in the
reflections suggested by a visit to the spot where
The first Charles began the momentous struggle
which, In Its unforeseen sweep. vitaly changed
the British constitution and has largely affected
the course of National and Imperial develop
ment from that day TO this.
It can never cease TO be another attraction OF
he hac a home. Of one of the most brilliant poets
Of the great Georgian choir. Tempestuous and
lurid he may have been at times. but his
achievement and his fame are such that while
genius commands homage Newstead Abbey
must always be Of the worlds shrines.
There is a very different kind Of radiance mild
and sweet shed on Nottingham by the young
scion OF your working Glasses. Henry Kir5e
White. who was cut off almost at his dawn. He
loft zr,TV fam 4g,.@
verdict OF some noted men Of letters Of that
period that he deserved to rank near If not
next to Chatterton. and the memory Of your
extingushed hope for q great career. Then
again recalls the fuller favored work OF
another OF Nottingham. once enormously
read in your country and still more in ours. He.
100, has left verse which the people will surely
not let die matter what the critics OF these
later days may say about 1t. TWO lines OF this
Nottingham poet which known wherever
the English language is known might well be
taken as motto for the town and a high sum
mons TO its succeeding generations:
We live in deeds not years He most lives
Ayho thinks most, feels the nobest acts the best
There is Z more prosaic reason for American
interest In Nottingham. We do business with
you-do il on such scale that we take full
fourth out OF your export Of the greatest of all
your products and a good large proportion OF
some Of the others. There is another reasoII-
"og do business with US and do 1t on the scale
that might be expected from q town whose
manufactures are worth hundred millions cf
dollars a year. In fact I told that you are
so good 4 customer OF ours as to take from Us
as large 4 proportion OF your total IMPORTS as
from any other part Of the world and probably
in greater variety. The noted Nottingham
hosiery itself Is made up American sewing
machines. almost TO the exclusion Of any others;
the very operatives that these machines
come to their work shod with American shoes.
and they are timed for the beginning of the
days work and for its end with American
clocks and watches You live largely on Amer
lean breadstuffs: you take from US the meats,
canned and picked vegetables, and even the
fresh and preserved fruits, you eat yourselves
as ycI as the breakfast foods" which pre-
sumably you feed to your helpless children!
Well, gentlemen. we are neither Of us trading
With the other out Of benevolence or philan-
thropy We are doing it on both sides mainly
because we think we are thus getting the best
and the most for our money. II we are, would not
lie who for spleen. for paltry political dena-
EOgisn should utter word or 90 an act TO IN
terrupt the present friendly relations between
such customers be one OF the most disagree
able as well as one Of the most pernicious OF
public enemies?
These are merely local reasons for perpetual
peace between US. There are larger ones haVo
you quite realized that the British Empire sofa
us its products last year to the value OF nearly
seventy-fve million pounds and bought from US
of to the value Of over one hundreu anu
torty-one million pounds? What we sold you was
over one-third. between that and one-ha4I' oi ali
We sold 10 the whole world, outside our own Dor
cha 1fapF q