id not draw closer, they would
inevitably drift apart. A further increase of L26,000,000 a year in the
trade with the colonies might be obtained by a preferential tariff, and
this meant additional employment at home for 166,000 workmen, or
subsistence for a population of a far larger number. His positive
proposals were: (1) no tax on raw materials; (2) a small tax on food
other than colonial, e.g. two shillings a quarter on foreign corn but
excepting maize, and 5% on meat and dairy produce excluding bacon; (3)
a 10% general tariff on imported manufactured goods. To meet any
increased cost of living, he proposed to reduce the duties on tea, sugar
and other articles of general consumption, and he estimated that his
scheme would in no case increase a working-man's expenditure, and in
most cases would reduce it. "The colonies," he said, "are prepared to
meet us; in return for a very moderate preference, they will give us a
substantial advantage in their markets." This speech, delivered with
characteristic vigour and Imperialistic enthusiasm, was the type of
others which followed in quick succession during the year. At Greenock
next day he emphasized the necessity of retaliating against foreign
tariffs--"I never like being hit without striking back." The practice of
"dumping" must be fairly met; if foreign goods were brought into England
to undersell British manufacturers, either the Fair Wages Clause and the
Factory Acts and the Compensation Act would have to be repealed, or the
workmen would have to take lower wages, or lose their work. "Agriculture
has been practically destroyed, sugar has gone, silk has gone, iron is
threatened, wool is threatened, cotton will go! How long are you going
to stand it?" On October 20th he spoke at Newcastle, on the 21st at
Tynemouth, on the 27th at Liverpool, insisting that free-trade had never
been a working-class measure and that it could not be reconciled with
trade-unionism; on November 4th at Birmingham, on the 20th at Cardiff,
on the 21st at Newport, and on December 16th at Leeds. In all these
speeches he managed to point his argument by application to local
industries. In the Leeds speech he announced that, with a view to
drawing up a scientific model tariff, a non-political commission of
representative experts would be appointed under the auspices of the
Tariff Reform League to take evidence from every trade; it included many
heads of businesses, and Mr Charles Booth, the eminent stud