Speech #620008280

I voted for the reciprocity bill. believing that that would. in a large measure. reduce the cost of living. and I still believe that it will. I agree on that question with what the distinguished gentleman from Connecticut said in his address. when discussing this matter. He said: I think I demonstrated beyond dispute. for no reply has yet been made by anybody to the proposition. that the higher cost of living which now obtains in this country was due to an enormously increased demand for food products and a proportionately decreased productive power- on our part. and that this great change. due largely to Immigration and a transition from agriculture to manufacturing. had begun on the Atlantic coast and was steadily moving westward. until now its influence was effective and controlling in the Central West. I pointed out also that the transference of millions upon millions of the foodproducing clacses from the nations of Europe into the manufacturing industries of this country had made the tendency to a higher cost of living worldwide. and I expressed my sincere belief that the continuation of high prices for food products was inevitable and that the only possible effect of complete freedom of exchange of all natural products between the United States and Canada would be to temporarily retard the rapid advances and to steady the fluctuations of the prices of the fastdiminishing export surplus of many of the food products of both countries. and that a considerable period of time would be necessary for a permanent readjistment of the present worldwide conditions of the cost of living. I believe.