PAGE. Resolutions on Trade Relations with the Dominion of Canada................... 141 Addresses by Delegates from the Dominion Board of Trade....... 143 Debate on Protection of the use of the Telegraph, and on the Postal Debate on State Inspections..... Debate on Quarantine Regulations.... Debate on Duties upon Canadian Lumber... Resolution relating to the Fisheries.... Resolution relating to the Payment of the Public Debt.. INTRODUCTORY NOTE. THE following pages contain an almost verbatim report, as taken by Mr. YERRINTON, of the proceedings of the National Board of Trade, at its fourth annual meeting. An examination of the volume will show that while many subjects of general interest were considered, the time of the Board was given on this occasion as previously, mainly to the discussion of a few of the leading questions which particularly affect the business community in the United States at the present time, namely, internal improvements, the shipping interest, the tariff and the currency. There are points of difference however between the debates now published and those which appear in the previous volumes of the Board, and it may be proper to advert briefly to some of them. In the first place, in its action at St. Louis, the Board has gone further than at any other annual meeting, in making definite recommendations in relation to some of the difficult commercial and financial problems now seeking solution in this country. It presents a plan for renewing and perpetuating relations of commercial amity and intimacy with our neighbors of the Dominion of Canada; it urges the adoption of the first and most simple and rational step to be taken for the immediate restoration of our alienated and otherwise diminished tonnage; it suggests the principles which should govern the revision of the tariff; and it proposes something specific and practical for bringing about the resumption of specie payment. Secondly, it is worthy of note, and it adds to the value of what is thus suggestively put forth, that on the various propositions adopted by the Board, the vote was more frequently unanimous than ever before. The By-laws require a twothirds vote at all times, to secure action; but at the St. Louis meeting, the delegates in attendance, whatever their theoretical divergences may have been, were enabled to vote with absolute unanimity on the limit to which the national debt should be reduced year by year; on the expediency of admitting foreign built vessels to the registry of the United States, for the foreign trade, and of restoring American built ships now under foreign flags; on the necessity of adopting measures for the protection of our foreign commerce against the irresponsible control of local quarantine officers; on the importance of enacting laws to give practical effect to that part of the Treaty of Washington, which relates to the fisheries; on the proposed Zollverein between the United States and the Dominion of Canada; on tariff revision ; on the abrogation of State inspection laws, and on other important questions. The resolution in favor of allowing ships engaged in the foreign trade to withdraw from bonded warehouses, without payment of duty, articles of subsistence and those necessary for repairs, was carried by a vote of forty to four; and that recommending a contraction of the currency, by a vote of thirty-three to eleven. In the third place, the Board defined its position at St. Louis more exactly than it had done at its earlier meetings, upon the means by which the public works needed for the material development of the country should be carried forward to completion. On every occasion of the assembling of the Board, the great question of public improvements has been discussed at length, and much valuable information respecting the resources of the country and the deficiencies of the transportation facilities now existing, has been elicited in the course of the debates. At Buffalo, however, in 1870, and still more emphatically at St. Louis in 1871, the Board expressed its unwillingness to call upon the General Government to assist pecuniarily in the construction of railways or canals, preferring that all such works shall be built by private and corporate enterprise, and feeling confident that the representations of those particularly interested in them, locally or in other ways, will be sufficient to attract the attention of capitalists to their merits. Consistently with this view, the Board refused to give its approval to any proposition for the payment of bounties or subsidies, or to any measure looking to the expenditure of money for local or personal purposes from the national treasury. The impressions of one delegation in attendance at St. Louis are given in a paragraph which it will be appropriate to quote in this connection, confirming, in part at least, what has been said above, and bearing testimony to the increasing usefulness of the National Board of Trade. At the late annual meeting of the Boston Board of Trade, Mr. JOSEPH S. ROPES, the Acting President, who has been present at every annual meeting of the National Board, spoke as follows: "It may, indeed, be asked and with some plausibility, what can one city or one set of men accomplish in influencing the affairs of a great nation? But the reply to this question is no longer doubtful. The National Board of Trade meets the difficulty referred to, as completely as our National Government meets the difficulties of conflicting State interests; the one, like the other, has already passed triumphantly beyond the region of experiment, and has become an accomplished fact-nay, more, an assured success. It might well have been doubted at the outset, whether such apparently discordant and even antagonistic elements could be reconciled; but the undoubted and ever increasing harmony of action among our great commercial centres has settled this doubt for ever. New York and Boston, Philadelphia and Baltimore, Chicago and Milwaukie, Detroit, Cincinnati and St. Louis, Charleston and New Orleans, all combined in free discussion, in patriotic purpose and honest desire for truth, have shown by their mutual respect, by the perfect harmony of their mutual relations and by the constantly increasing unanimity of their conclusions, that truth and honesty will ultimately prevail in a fair field over every obstacle." In conclusion, a word is due to the commercial organizations and citizens of St. Louis, recognizing the many courtesies extended by them to the Board and to the delegates personally, during the progress of the sessions. The formal invitations are not referred to specifically in the record of the proceedings, and many of them it was found impracticable to accept; but whether accepted or not, the spirit of cordial hospitality and friendliness which prompted them was duly appreciated, and the unvarying kindness which marked all the intercourse of the good people of St. Louis with the delegates, left an impression upon the latter which will not soon be effaced, and contributed to make the St. Louis meeting one of the pleasantest and in all respects most successful commercial convocations which has ever been held. H. A. H. BOSTON, February 23, 1872. CONSTITUTION OF THE NATIONAL BOARD OF TRADE, ADOPTED AT PHILADELPHIA, JUNE 5, 1868. AND AS SINCE AMENDED. DECLARATION. In order to promote the efficiency and extend the usefulness of the various Boards of Trade, Chambers of Commerce and other chartered bodies, organized for general commercial purposes, in the United States; in order to secure unity and harmony of action in reference to commercial usages, customs and laws; and especially, in order to secure the proper consideration of questions pertaining to the financial, commercial and industrial interests of the country at large, this Association on this fifth day of June, 1868, is hereby formed by delegates, now in session in the city of Philadelphia, representing the following named commercial organizations, to wit: Albany Board of Trade, Boston Board of Trade, Boston Corn Exchange, Buffalo Board of Trade, Detroit Board of Trade, New York Chamber of Commerce, Milwaukie Chamber of Commerce, Toledo Board of Trade, Newark Board of Trade, Troy Board of Trade, New Orleans Chamber of Com., Wilmington (Del.) Board of Trade. |