Mr. WILLIAMS. I Presume so; I make no question about that; but it is necessary that some tariff should be imposed upon foreign irot to protect those who are engaged in the manufacture of iron in the U.S., and that is the main reason, I Presume, why a tariff is imposed upon the importation of foreign iron. But that is not a parallel case to the one now before the Senate. There is a certain business in the U.S., the ship building business, and the object of this bill is to protect as far as possible all kinds of business. It is necessary that this business should be protected, and this is the way in which the business can be protected; and it seems to me that it can be protected in no other way. The reason that this provision may very properly apply to sailing vessels and not to steamboats upon the rivers is, as I have stated, that there is a foreign competition as to the one, and there is none as to the other. That is one reason that influenced my mind; it may not be a sufficient reason to operate upon the minds of other Senators. The idea that this is simply brought forward here by those who are interested in building up the interests of the East, for the purpose of opPressing the interests of the West, I regard as a very great mistake. I do myself not consider more identified with the interests of NewEngland than I am with the interests of Iowa or Missouri; nor are the members of the committee. One of the members of the committee lives in the West; another lives in the South; another lives on the Pacific coast; and a majority of the members of that committee are men who are not interested in any way in NewEngland any more than they are in any other State or portion of this country. I do not wish to exPress any opinion whatever, I do not Presume to exPress any opinion as to the mode in which thesematters shall be discussed; but I am very sorry to see so much apparent and, as I conceive, unnecessary hostility mani fested here between what is called the East and the West. So far as I aun individuall concerned, I am just as much identified. one as the other, and the interests of the East and the interests of the West are equal in their importance to me, and I believe to my section of the country.