among them the annual expenditures. The double problem has presented itself of giving to the larger associations the degree of influence to which they are entitled, and of relieving the smaller and less able ones from an undue burden of expense. Various plans have been proposed for meeting these conditions, and one of them, which had the sanction of the Council as a measure of compromise, was thoroughly discussed by the Board a year ago; this was a proposition that in apportioning the expenses, no constituent body should be reckoned as having more than one thousand members. The Board did not favor this plan, but referred the whole subject back to the Council, by whom it was further considered, and who, on consultation with the delegates of the largest association in the Board, the New York Produce Exchange, decided to recommend as a remedy for the grievance which had been complained of—an alleged disproportion between representation and taxation—a change in the Constitution in respect of the first of these, there being apparently no way of meeting the difficulty with regard to the second. The Council, therefore, while in session in Buffalo, voted to place upon the official programme for the meeting now convened, a proposition to amend the second article of the Constitution, so that those constituent associations which have more than five hundred members, shall be entitled to an additional delegate for every additional three hundred members, instead of five hundred, as at present. If this shall meet the approval of the Board, it is hoped that—the New York Produce Exchange having in the meantime decided to withdraw from the membership— it will afford a solution of the difficulty in question, which will be satisfactory to the remaining members.

II.-NATIONAL STATISTICS.

This is another subject which has been before the Board almost from the outset. In the minds of many, one of the objects had prominently in view in the formation of the Board, was the compilation of statistics—from sources of information within the membership, and therefore to a high degree worthy of confidence-in particulars not embraced in the statistical work performed by the General Government. No endeavor has ever been made at Washington to compile the figures relating to the internal commerce of the country. This is known to be vastly larger than our foreign commerce; the Secretary of the Treasury, in his report just given to the country, says as fifteen to one; Mr. HENRY C. CAREY places it as high as fifty to one; but how large it really is, where the approximate truth. between these extreme discrepancies is to be found, and what its

course is, or what its fluctuations are, no tables exist to supply data for an estimate. In the course of the discussions at Buffalo, it was made apparent that the Board wished the first step to be immediately taken in the work of collecting statistics, and the Secretary was therefore instructed to commence with the month of January, 1871, the publication of a monthly table, showing the movement of the leading articles which enter into the domestic trade of the country. The Secretary was to rely mainly upon the constituent members and other commercial bodies, but was not confined to these sources of information. The publication has taken place monthly, since the beginning of the year; and imperfect as it has been in some respects, it has been favorably received, and gives promise of becoming very useful. It is believed to be the first attempt which has ever been made to tabulate the internal trade of the United States, and at the close of the year it is proposed to issue a summary for the twelve months, which will be still more comprehensive and interesting. Many of the constituent members have furnished the local figures from which to prepare the table, with promptness and completeness; others have made partial returns, others again have been much behind hand in transmitting them, while several, as will be seen by reference to the issues, have contributed no material for them whatever. It need hardly be said that the value of this statistical report depends almost altogether upon the fulness of information which it contains, and the promptness with which it is published. To supply these conditions, the active and sympathetic coöperation of the constituent bodies is essential. Only by the expenditure of a much larger sum annually than the present financial condition of the Board indicates as practicable, can this coöperation be to any considerable extent dispensed with; and even then the publication would be less authoritative, based upon outside information, gathered from all parts of the country, than if founded on the recorded figures of constituent associations, or on statements vouched for by them. An appeal is made therefore to the membership through the delegates convened at this annual meeting, for hearty support in this department of the work undertaken by the Board, in the belief that with such support, something will be brought to pass which will prove of much value to the business men of the country, and to those who are called upon to legislate with reference to its material interests.

III. DIRECT IMPORTATIONS TO INTERIOR CITIES.

No subject has been more frequently before the Board than this; and upon none have its members been so uniformly in full agreement.

At the Buffalo meeting, the Act of July 14, 1870 passed under careful review, and a memorial was addressed to Congress, pointing out particulars in which the law failed to meet the necessities of the business community, and asking for its amendment, so as to make its provisions practically available. This memorial, with the debate which took place on the subject, was printed in pamphlet form immediately after adjournment, and was placed in the hands of members of Congress before the Christmas recess. During the meeting of the Council at Washington in March, a sub-committee waited upon the Secretary of the Treasury, and upon the Congressional Committees on Commerce, and stated the case as it is viewed by the Board, urging the importance of prompt action. Subsequently, some modifications were made by the Secretary of the Treasury, in the instructions which he had issued under the Act. The measure, however, is still regarded as defective by those more immediately concerned; and the importers of foreign merchandise living at a distance from the seaboard, labor under many disadvantages from which they ought to be relieved. A proposition appears on the programme, at the instance of the Philadelphia Board of Trade, for the appointment of a Committee to draft another memorial to Congress, "setting forth such alterations in and amendments to the law," as it now stands, as are necessary to make it successfully effective. It is respectfully recommended that this Committee be appointed early in the session, so that it shall be prepared to report when the subject is reached in

course.

IV.-FREEDOM OF INTERNAL TRADE.

This subject is related logically to that which has just been treated. That assumes that the merchants of the seaboard cities are entitled to no privileges other than those which their geographical position naturally and inevitably ensures to them, over their brethren in the interior, and insists upon the justice of enacting laws which shall, so far as possible, place all upon a level of equality in their dealings with foreign countries. This declares that for purposes of domestic traffic all citizens shall similarly stand upon a level of equality. Both are based upon the broad principle of equal commercial rights and privileges for all the citizens of the United States. The Constitution expressly provides that "the citizens of each State shall be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States; " yet, as business men travel from State to State, and in some parts of the country, from city to city, in the prosecution of their calling, they are in many instances met with local laws requiring them to

take out and pay for licenses, and they are otherwise taxed, to their own cost, and to the injury of the community in the midst of which they desire to transact business, although possibly for the temporary benefit of some classes of local traders. Such license laws are certainly inconsistent with an equal and common citizenship, and they can be shown to be prejudicial to the best interests of those for whose protection nominally they are made. Political economists of all schools now agree in this, that all trade within a nation and among its own people should be free. Those dwelling on the same soil, and under the operation of the same laws, need no protection, and are entitled to no immunities as against each other. Two quotations taken from writers representing both sides of the tariff controversy, will suffice by way of illustration. The first is from the Elements of Political Economy, by Professor PERRY, of Williams College :

"After long centuries of meddlesome and vexatious interference with the freedom of industry and the rights of exchange; by limiting the number of apprentices to each artizan; by dictating what should and what should not be manufactured or grown; by attempting to determine what should and what should not be imported and exported; and by arbitrary burdens on certain classes, and arbitrary privileges granted to others, the more enlightened nations of the world have come at length to perceive that wealth, and power and progress, are dependent on free exchange, at least within their own boundaries. Common sense reigns now, for the most part, in this thing, within the limits of the individual nations." (p. 86.)

Our second authority is Mr. ERASTUS B. BIGELOW, of Boston, who, in his work, entitled, The Tariff Question, says:

"The vast advantage of a trade wholly unobstructed between the different parts and members of the same country, has been used as an argument for similar freedom in the commercial intercourse of different nations. The cases are wholly unlike. The people in one case are homogeneous in character, language, manners and interests, and, what is far more important, are subject to the same laws and the same general authority. In the other case there may be no correspondence in any one of these respects; and there must be the all important difference of separate and independent governments." (p. 73.)

The advantage of free commercial intercourse is an argument invariably pressed, when any question of territorial extension or aggrandizement is brought forward, and, considered in itself, it is not usually controverted by business men. But there is no absolute freedom of commercial intercourse in States or cities where a person is obliged to buy a license before he can open negotiations to trade with his own fellow-citizens; where, coming for purposes of trade, he is treated as a stranger to be watched, or rather as an enemy to be feared. It is a

matter of common congratulation among us, that year by year we are multiplying and making more complete the means of intercommunication everywhere within the limits of our widely extended national domain; but why are we doing this, except to facilitate and promote general interchange? MACAULAY says that "of all inventions, the alphabet and the printing press excepted, those inventions which abridge distance, have done most for the civilization of our species." "Every improvement," he adds, "of the means of locomotion benefits mankind morally and intellectually, as well as physically." It may be asked, however, is the abridgement of distance to be desired, and is improvement in locomotion really a blessing to be thankful for, if they only necessitate the erection of new barriers in the form of taxes and license fees, to discourage the approach of those whose coming will disturb the established order of things? Should not the aim be to lengthen rather than to abridge the distance, so that the accustomed course of trade may be continued, and the interference of would be competitors permanently excluded?

The National Board of Trade has taken national ground on this subject, and has twice given expression to its disapproval of all restrictions on internal domestic trade, and has asked for the abrogation of all laws discriminating against non-resident traders or agents, whether enacted by municipal or State authority. In both instances its action has been communicated to those State governments under which restrictive laws are in force. At Buffalo, the Council was requested to adopt such other measures, looking to repeal, as it might think expedient, and at its meeting in Washington, it voted to make mention of the subject in the present report, and the Secretary was directed to communicate with the constituent bodies in reference to it. Accordingly in Circular No. 23, issued on the 18th of April, after recalling the resolutions adopted by the Board at Richmond and at Buffalo, in condemnation of restrictive local legislation, it was said:

"As the Board has decided to seek for the repeal of the laws referred to, by the direct action of the States which have enacted them, rather than by the intervention of the Federal Congress, by the passage of a general statute overruling and superseding them, it must depend mainly on the interest and endeavor of the local bodies in the matter. For this reason the Council desires such information as the mêmbers may be able to give, both as to what has been done by them, and as to any probabilities which there may be that the laws objected to will, in any particular instances, be repealed at an early day."

A few answers to this circular were received, but the Council was not advised definitely that any State wherein the restrictive policy has been prevailing had really abandoned it, although it was understood