I go to the manufacturer, and I say to him, ’Why don’t you find employment for your hands?’ ‘For two reasons,’ he answers.  ’First, because I have lost my Colonial and some of my home trade through American competition, and secondly, because of the universally depressed condition of every kindred trade throughout 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 we get them, there shall be presented to Parliament before I meet you again practical measures which I honestly and firmly believe will start a wave of commercial prosperity throughout the country such as the oldest amongst you cannot remember.  We have the craftsmen, the capital, and the brains—­all that we need is legislation adapted to the hour and not the last century, and we can hold our own yet in the face of the world.”