The Yale expositor., 1911-07-13
CANADIAN RECIPROCITY
Remarks of Hon. William Alden
Smith, of Michigan, in the Sen
ate of the United States,
June l6. 1911.

June l6, 1911.
The Senate having under cOnsidera.
tion the bill Oh. r. 44l2) to promote
reciprocal trade relations with the Do
minion of Canada, and for other pur-
poses.
Mr.. Smith, Of Michigan, said:
Mr.. President, it seems very strange
that measure which is calculated to
bring into unrestricted competition the
natural products of foreign country
larger than our own, and the surrender
of revenues amounting to between four
and five million dollars a year, should
excite no controversy in this Cham
ber.
Has this measure no champion in the
Senate, North or South, on either side
Of the aisle? Then, in the name of
reason, why is it here, and why was it
begotten'
| am surprised that Senators who
have hitherto asserted the right to be
heard upon legislation affecting the
welfare of our cOuntrymen should hest.
tate at this critical juncturc and not
lie willing to come out into the open
and discuss a measure so shorn of act
ual merit, proposition that has been
rejected again and again by the chief
officers Of this Government. This agree
mCht is analogous in almost every de
tail to the one entered into between
GreaJ Britain and the United States in
1Soi on behalf of Canada, and which
the great Lincoln asked the Senate to
repeal. Canada proposed this same
measure to President Grant, and it was
rejected as undesirable. 1t was urged
again and again by Canada upon Har.
rison and Blaine, and rejected by these
great statesmen as inimical to the wei.
fare Of the American people. Perhaps,
after all, no one in the Chamber is
willing to defend it in view of our past
experience in this direction, an expert
ence which met the prompt condemna-
tion of the immortal Lincoln, and which
has met with no public or official favor
since that historic day in January,
1865. when the old agreement was re-
pealed through the efforts of Chandler,
Wade, Sherman, and other great lead.
crs in the Senate.
This is a history making forum, the
record here made is indelible, and fidel-
ity and faithfulness to our own coun.
tIymen will be the sole test which the
future will apply to our course in this
matter. We must not turn the deaf
ear TO the apprehcnsons of our own
people; we must not refuse to be guild
ed by their wisdom and past expert,
ence in this directions; the back of Ia
Dor must not be broken for the we'd
ding feast; the rich soil of our own
country must not be despoiled for the
purpose of adding luster to the crown
of England.
Mr.. President, / can understand why
there should be no affirmative side to
this question, when we are to give TO-
the people of u foreign state all the
rights of membership in the American
Union, and permit them at the same
time to be protected, defended, and
controlled by one of the foremost pow
ers in all the world.
Are we, Mr.. President, to put aliens
upon an equality with our own Ameri-
can citizens, without any power to tax
them or to draft them into the service
of our country in time of peril, with
out reason being given for this eX-
procedure and this unfair
advantage over the people of our own
land?
i am amazed that proposition so
radical should have been so seriously
considered for weeks in the Committee
Dn Finance and appear here without a
favorable report or word of enlight-
and that now no one on the
committee is willing to rise and defend
It.
Mr.. President, what are the privi-
nf IA Hn In
Dor and toll preparing the vineyard
FOR the stranger who only comes to us
1T daybreak and again recrosses our
border as the sun goes DOWN. Have
we no exclusive joys within the con
fines of our own land beyond the pry
ing gaze of strangers whose only mis-
sion among us is to tear down and to
lostioy2 The burdens of this Govern.
nent have in times past been heavy |
md hard to bear; were we able to en-.
ist our northern neighbors when the
lav of reckoning came2 Did they as |
,auge the anguish of broken hearts or |
bind up the exposed wounds; did they |
lefend us on the field of battle along |
iide the farmer soldier whose interest |
$ now in jeopardy; did they pay the
lcbt incurred in the maintenance of |
he Union Of States, the largest ever
assumed by free people? No! 1t fell
lpon the toiler in factory and field, and |
without complaining he has paid it un-
We promised him this
market for his wares, gave him certain
assurance of this land for the exclu
i've exercise of his genius, and now,
when the harvest is ripe, it is to be