ut the country, which keeps
people poor and prevents their having money to spend.' Just now I am not
considering the question of why the American can send salable boots and
shoes into this country, although the reasons are fairly obvious. They
have nothing to do with my point, however. We are dealing to-night with
immediate causes!

"And now as to that depression throughout the country which keeps people
poor, as the boot manufacturer puts it, and prevents their having money
to spend. I am going to take several trades one by one, and ascertain
the immediate cause of their depression--"

He had hold of his audience, and he made good use of his advantage. He
quoted statistics, showing the decrease of exports and relative increase
of imports. How could we hope to retain our accumulated wealth under
such conditions?--and finally he abandoned theorizing and argument, and
boldly declared his position.

"I will tell you," he concluded, "what practical means I intend to bring
to bear upon the situation. I base my projected action upon this
truism, which is indeed the very kernel of my creed. I say that every
man willing and able to work should have work, and I say that it is the
duty of legislators to see that he has it. To-day there are one hundred
thousand men and women hanging about our streets deteriorating morally
and physically through the impossibility of following their trade. I
say that it is time for legislators to inquire into the cause of this,
and to remedy it. So I propose to move in the House of Commons, should
your votes enable me to find myself there, that a Royal Commission be
immediately appointed to deal with this matter. And I propose,
further, to insist that this Commission be composed of manufacturers and
business men, and that we dispense with all figure-heads, and I can
promise you this, that the first question which shall engage the
attention of these men shall be an immediate revision of our tariffs.
We won't have men with theories which work out beautifully on paper, and
bring a great country into the throes of commercial ruin. We won't have
men who think that the laws their fathers made are good enough for them,
and that all change is dangerous, because Englishmen are sure to fight
their way through in the long run--a form of commercial Jingoism to
which I fear we are peculiarly prone. We don't want scholars or
statisticians. We want a commission of plain business men, and I
promise you that if w