time as those necessities changed. Increased revenue was its original object, and protection was merely incidental. In the rapid growth of the country conditions are materially changed. We have now reached a point where great and immediate reductions are absolutely demanded. It is at such a period that we call our sister Republics to consider the propriety of reciprocal trade. We do not call them to consider a barren impossibility. We have a Treasury surplus of $70,000,000. This must be stricken from our revenues. I have already shown that our entire dutiable importations from the Republics represented here to-day are as follows: From South America From Central America.. Total... $8,989, 719 6, 289, 117 226, 523 15, 505, 359 The duty on these importations, at the average tariff rate of 45 per cent., would be $7,000,000. We can safely dispense with that sum and there still remains a surplus of $63,000,000. With this large sum we shall be able to comply with the hard conditions imposed on us by the Argentine as a condition of reciprocal commerce. The honorable Delegate, it will be remembered, demands as a condition precedent to free trade with his Republic that we admit free of duty raw material not only from the Argentine but from all the world. Without this he claims that the United States can never be able to compete with European nations in foreign markets. Human reasoning can not disturb the multiplication table, and one cold fact sometimes robs rhetoric of all its beauty. At the moment the gentleman was making his speech in this body the following notice was coming to our State Department: Twenty-five thousand tons of American steel rails have recently been imported into Mexico for use in the construction of the Monterey and Mexican Gulf Railroad. The president of the road says that the cost was less than it would have been on the same quantity of European steel rails of the same grade. This occurs, too, when the tariff on ore is 75 cents per ton, on pig-iron $6.72 per ton, on steel rails themselves $17 per ton. What is here said is equally true in respect of iron and steel in every form, of boots and shoes, of furniture, of agricultural implements, of cotton manufactures in all the forms of ordinary use, of locomotives and railway-cars, and of numberless other articles where the tariff duty is swallowed up in the competition between domestic producers. The honorable member finds among our importations certain articles similar to those manufactured in the United States, and without reflection rushes to the conclusion that the laws of interest alone prompt these importations. Other motives may, and often do, control the purchase of the foreign articles at even higher prices. Where great individual wealth prevails, the promptings of taste, and even vanity, may induce the importation. On no other theory is it possible that foreign ales and beer to the extent of 2,500,000 gallons should be brought to this country. We produce these articles in all varieties, in unbounded quantities, and at the lowest possible cost of production, yet consumers are found willing to pay an impost tax of 52 per cent. for the foreign article. The same may be said of other articles which are largely imported, while domestic products of the same kind are still more largely exported. The first stage of national growth is agricultural, the second is manufacturing, and the third is commercial. The first two stages with us have been reached, and we now enter upon the third. The same restless energy, the same enterprise, and the same inventive genius which gave success to agriculture and manufactures will mark the development of commerce. The census of 1890 will disclose an annual manufacturing product in the United States of $8,000,000,000. The products of the farm will be vastly greater. The use of these products at home shows accumulating wealth and comfort among the people and marks the highest stage of civilization. But even these vast products may be increased by slight exertion, and we admit that we seek other markets. Surely this desire is a legitimate one, and if we can furnish these products to other nations at the lowest price their interest and ours will both be promoted by the transaction. If we can not furnish them cheaper than others, reciprocity treaties will not compel the contracting nation to take them. The Argentine is now offered open ports for all her products in return for what may prove an empty promise to us. We make no complaint that she rejects the offer. The golden opportunity, however, may not come again. The old Scythians Painted blind fortune's powerful hands with wings In conclusion, Mr. President, I beg my friend to cast. away his gloomy fears concerning the future of the United States. Our seeming prosperity is not an unsubstantial mirage, a painted illusion which vanishes before approach, much less is it the brilliant electric flash to be followed by blinding darkness. If all our foreign trade were entirely lost, we should not be as one who sorrows without hope. We would still have forty-two rich and powerful nations for the free interchange of commodities. Our lands would be no less fertile, our mechanics no less ingenious, our mines no less productive. Industries would soon be diversified and adapted to the changed conditions. Happily we have among ourselves all the elements of wealth, all the requisites of supreme independence. The denial of a few accustomed luxuries would not derange our finances, founded as they are upon a specie basis. It would silence no workshop, stop no locomotive, furl the sail of no inland ship, nor damp the fires of a single furnace. Children would still attend the schools and human charities would not be neglected. We should still retain our institutions of freedom, with all their guaranties of human happiness. The soil would still bring forth abundant crops, while the manufacturer and artist would continue to supply means of comfort and objects of beauty. The climate would be unchanged, and the air still be breathed by freemen only. But why do I contemplate, even for a brief moment, such impossible things as suggested by the honorable Delegate. The mission of America is higher and nobler than this. Our Congress is now proposing to tender reciprocity to the Canadian provinces. Mexico at last turns away from revolutions and bloody strife, and devotes her energies to the development of resources rich beyond human conception. Under the administration of a wise President, the victories of peace claim higher honors than those. of war. It is still true that "when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn;" "and when the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice. The spirit of enterprise begins to spread like contagion into Central America. Imagination already paints on her canals the commerce of the world. The locomotive is there a messenger of peace, the steel rail a bond of friendship. Columbia and Venezuela and Brazil and Ecuador and Peru already feel the irresistible impulse which impels to a closer union. The Argentine and Chili may hesitate for a time, but finally they too will join hands with their sister Republics, and joyfully assist to fulfill the bright destiny that awaits us all. SESSION OF MARCH 29, 1890. Mr. FLINT. I move that the honorable Delegate from Mexico be requested to read a paper which he has prepared, and, as I understand, copies will be furnished to the Argentine Delegates and to Mr. Henderson, and to others who are absent. The FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT. If there be no objection, the motion of the Hon. Mr. Flint will be consid ered as approved. The chair hears no objection, and the motion is approved. REMARKS OF MR. ROMERO. Mr. ROMERO. Considering the importance of the question of a customs union to all the American nations, and especially to Mexico, and in view of the opinions which have here been expressed upon it, I believe it advisable to make some corrections and explanations regarding them. I shall begin with the remarks made by Mr. Delegate Flint in the session of the 17th instant. For the purpose of sustaining the statement he made. in a speech at the banquet which took place in Chicago on the 22d of last October, in which he maintained that 80 per cent. of the products of the American nations consumed by the United States are imported free of duty, and that only 20 per cent. are subject to duty, which was contradicted by the Delegate from the Argentine, Mr. Flint read statistics published by his Government which revealed a result still more favorable. Having taken the trouble to copy the figures of that commerce from the latest publication of the Bureau of Statistics of the Treasury Department of the United States, which includes the fiscal year of 1888-1889, I discovered radical differences between the figures cited by Mr. Flint in his speech and those of the publication referred to, and for this reason I interrupted his speech to ask where he had obtained his figures. Mr. Henderson understood my question to refer only to the statistics of trade with Mexico, which was an error, as it comprised those of the entire trade of the United States with the American nations. From the explanation of Mr. Flint it appeared that he had taken his data from a publication made by the Bureau of Statistics of the Treasury Department, entitled, "Commerce of the United States and other foreign nations with Mexico, Central America, the West Indies, and South America," which publication contains statistical data up to the fiscal year of 1887-1888, while I copied them from another publication, also official, entitled, "Annual state |