Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 7.djvu/238

 THE WORLD'S FAMOUS ORATIONS South to the North, from New Orleans to St. Louis; yes, as far north as the State of Maine, which reminds me of my own natal province that I represent in the Parliament of Paris, as your Maine is represented in Congress at Washington.

We are of the same family; the only difference between us is that you made the journey here before me and in a time less refined which prepared you, by a merciless selection, to the great and universal struggle of life. So we may look at your progresses without alarm, for in you we find ourselves. Your progresses may perhaps alarm Europe, but not France, guaranteed as we are by the inimitable specialty of our production; there is no real competition possible between France and the United States; and it is Europe, not France, that may be threatened by American competition. And yet this need not be an economic evil, it might become a positive good; for your progress will oblige European nations to abandon their old-fashioned ideas, their red tape, their sterile antagonisms, in order to keep to the level of your economical development, or to find themselves distanced in the race, and thus the fear of American competition may be the beginning of European wisdom. You will have rendered an inestimable service to humanity if that so-called "American peril" may be transformed into the "American cure." You will not confine yourself to selling your goods to Europe; you will give us your examples, the example of your energy and of your wisdom.