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ADDRESS

AT THE DINNER GIVEN BY THE FRENCH SOCIETIES OF MASSACHUSETTS TO HON. WILFRED LAURIER, LEADER OF THE LIBERAL PARTY OF CANADA, NOV. 17, 1891.

I

AM glad, Mr. Chairman, to partake of your generous hospitality, and to join with my fellowcitizens in extending a cordial welcome to your distinguished guest and his friends who to-night honor us with their presence.

We recognize in this compliment to him not only the great influence he, as an orator, statesman, and leader, exerts in the public affairs of his own country, but the wide reputation he has established, far beyond her limits, for distinguished public service.

Speaking for a large and worthy body of our fellowcitizens who are bound to you, our guests, by closest ties and warmest sympathy, and bound to our old Commonwealth as faithful, loyal citizens, devoted to her institutions, active in her progress, earnest in all her work, proud of her history, her honor, and her prosperity, I know I voice their sentiment when I say they feel especial pride and pleasure in welcoming you to our State. But speaking also for all our people, and for the Commonwealth herself, I gladly extend to you this welcome.

We know the ability and merit which have distinguished your public life. We also know to-night you come to us representing a neighboring, friendly country,

which has much in common with us, and which each year is coming into closer relations with our Nation and our Commonwealth. To you personally, and to you as a distinguished son of Canada, our welcome is extended.

It is a pleasure, after weeks of earnest party strife, where public questions have divided us on party lines, to-night to touch upon a question, suggested by the presence of our guests, upon which our business interests and our people are substantially agreed, quite clear of party division.

Our country and Canada, separated by only an imaginary line for three thousand miles of contiguous territory, interlocked by railroads and waterways, each blessed with special advantages in producing and selling what the other needs, bound together by many interests in common, these two great neighbors, I believe, were intended to be friends, and, as friends, to have the closest trade and commercial relations, which cannot but be for their mutual interest.

Notwithstanding the restrictions which in both countries have been imposed by the hand of man as limitations upon natural conditions, still a trade of nearly $100,000,000 annually exists between us, fairly evenly divided into exports and imports.

We purchase of Canada necessaries of life for our people and materials for our industries, and she of us, in return, food, manufactures, and crude materials which add to the comfort of her people and to her own growth and prosperity. In this trade Massachusetts and New England have a great and growing interest. To us in this State it means a benefit God intended for us through our sea-coast location, a greater prosperity for our industries, a larger market for their products, and easier conditions of life for all our people.

It means, as this trade becomes fuller and freer, that we, too, can have natural advantages now enjoyed by other sections of our country, and can offset their competition, which we are beginning to feel, by opening up wider markets on the north for our manufactured products.

With existing restrictions removed, or largely modified, I do not doubt great benefit will come to both countries, and Boston, with her enterprise, her energy and industry, can be the commercial metropolis, not only of New England, but of the great country beyond.

Much of the prosperity of our country is due to that wise provision of our Constitution which compels absolute freedom of trade between all our States. Under it all sections of our country have grown, their resources been developed, and their industries established and diversified.

Such policy established between this and neighboring countries, but wisely modified and limited to meet necessary conditions, I believe would foster a larger trade between us, whose benefits all would reap.

The views I have expressed are but a repetition of the opinion often stated by our Press, our business interests, our people, and by leaders of both parties in every section of our country.

In the fall of 1889, at hearings here before a committee of the United States Senate, the heads of our commercial organizations and leading business men and manufacturers, without distinction of party, were united in their opinion in favor of some policy which should lead to fuller and freer trade with Canada.

There was, and perhaps is, a difference of opinion as to the means by which this shall be accomplished. In view of our experience with Canada under reciprocity, and the evident growth of sentiment in recent years in

that direction, for one, I firmly believe that a large and liberal policy of reciprocity would establish those closer commercial relations between our countries, equally desired, I trust, by both, and certain to be for the benefit of both.

Because, Sir, I know the sentiment of this Commonwealth is one of cordial friendship to your country, because I believe it is her earnest wish that this friendship may ripen into closer relations of advantage to both, 1 extend to you and your associates her heartiest welcome, and her wish that your stay among us may be both pleasant and useful. Massachusetts is always proud to welcome any distinguished stranger, and to extend to him her right hand of fellowship. This welcome you have fully earned. But the welcome is the more cordial because you represent that liberal spirit which would bind nations together in trade and friendship, and so promote the peace of the world and the happiness and prosperity of all its people.

ADDRESS

AT THE OPENING OF THE NEW BUILDING OF THE BOSTON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, JAN. 21, 1892.

MY part to-night is a simple but a very pleasant one,

to extend the hearty welcome of the Commonwealth to the distinguished guests who honor us with their presence, and our cordial congratulations to the Chamber of Commerce, as to-day, in its new and better quarters, it enters upon a new lease of life, filled with hope and with promise, and then to enjoy with you the words of wit and wisdom of those who follow me.

Most gladly I extend the greeting of the Commonwealth to all our guests. We know they come to rejoice in our rejoicing, to bind still closer the sisterhood of States, not only in trade and commerce, but in friendship and good-will.

As we welcome them, and especially the distinguished gentleman who filled so conspicuous a place in the cabinet of President Cleveland, we regret that we are not able to welcome also his distinguished successor and the President of the United States.

Had their responsible duties permitted them to attend, I know that Massachusetts, with her greeting, would wish me to assure them that whatever measures they deem wise and necessary to sustain our flag and to uphold our national honor will receive the undivided and earnest support of this patriotic old Commonwealth. 1

1 The reference is to complications then pending with Chili, which threatened war.

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