Speech #550002146

Chairman. how can increased duties upon manufactured articles aid the capital or labor engaged in manufacturing. except by increasing prices. and how can increasing the price enable the consumer to buy more goods than he is able now to purchase at the lower price? And how can it be said that the trouble with American manufacturing c -nsists in foreign competition. when that competition is less today than it ever was in the history of the Republic? How can it be said that the distress of the laboring man engaged in manufacturing is due to the fact of the "importation of foreign goods made by the pauper labor of Europe.." when the real fact is that importations are today less. comparatively. than ever before. and are growing day by day less and less. notwithstanding increased opportunities to import? The startling fact stands out. like Banquos ghost. not to be downed by any amount of sophistry. by any amount of eloquence. by any amount of humor. or by any amount of false statement. that the volume of foreign goods imported into the United States during the last fiscal year was $160.000.000 less than the value of the importations during the fiscal year 1803. which was itself a year of restricted importations. Look on that daggerlike fact!