this toast. All the signs of the times seem to indicate
that the commercial sceptre of the world, held by the Phoenicians for
1,000 years, held by the Romans through a whole millennium, held by the
Venetians during five centuries, held by the Portuguese for three
hundred years, and since held by the English--whether that sceptre is
not rapidly to pass into the hands of the American merchant; and when
that is an accomplished fact, we shall hear less of the decline of
American shipping or that the balance of trade is against us.
[Applause.] Our vast domain, our immense resources, our unparalleled
productive capacity, all seem to prophesy that we are largely to feed
and clothe Adam's innumerable family. [Applause.] If so, then any calm
and sagacious mind must realize that our present methods of forming
commercial treaties should be radically changed. If it has been found
necessary to have a Department of Agriculture, a Department of
Education, why not a Department of Commerce, connected with the National
Government, and from which shall come the suggestions, the facts, and
the influence for the formation of commercial treaties, and at the head
of which shall be a wise and prudent merchant conversant with the
products of all lands and familiar with the best interests of our own
country? [Applause.] The science of political economy is so profound, so
complicated, so far-reaching as to transcend the capacity of the average
statesman. It has become a specialty. Congressional committees on
Commerce and on Foreign Relations are hardly adequate to the task. Not a
few of the members of such know more about ward elections than tariff
laws, and know as little about products and trade of foreign lands as of
the geography of other nations. Let us lift the whole subject of
commerce from the arena of partisan politics. [Applause.]

This toast looks forward to the friendship of nations. The merchant is
the chosen John the Baptist of that better day. The merchant is the true
cosmopolitan--the citizen of the world. Farmers with their products of
the soil, flocks and herds are local; miners with their metallic mines
and mineral mountains are local; manufacturers with their fabrics of
skill are local; inventors with their manifold contrivances to lift the
burden of toil from the shoulders of humanity, are local; artists, with
their canvas that glows and their marble that breathes, are local;
authors, with their mighty thoughts of truth and fi