THE WORLD'S FAMOUS ORATIONS
If there be two bales of goods side by side, made by the same kind of machinery and with the labor of human beings in both of the same degree of skill, and if the labor of one bale cost only half, for example, as much as the other, that other bale can never be sold until the extra cost of the costlier labor is squeezed out of it, provided there is an abundant supply of the product of the cheaper labor. If the bale with the cheaper labor of England in it meets the bale with the dearer labor of America in it, which will be bought at cost of production? I leave that problem just there. The sale of the English bale will be only limited by England's production.
Some men think, indeed, this biU and its author's speeches proceed upon the supposition that the first step toward gaining the markets of the world is to give up our own: just as if a fortified army, with enemies on all flanks, should overturn its own breastworks as the first preliminary to a march into the open. Even the foolish chivalry of the Marquis de Montcalm which led him to his death on the Heights of Abraham had not that crowning folly. Such is not the history of the world ; such is not even the example of England. Tariff duties, whether levied for that purpose or for revenue, become a dead letter when we are able to compete with the outside world.
We are the only rival that England fears; for we alone have in our borders the population and
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