The Columbia Address*
delivered by
Gene Grossman
On the Occasion of
Jadgish Bhagwati’s 70th Birthday Celebration
Four score minus ten years ago Justice and Mrs. Bhagwati brought forth,
on a distant continent, a new economist, trained at Cambridge and MIT,
and dedicated to the proposition that all countries gain from trade.
Now we are engaged in a great public debate, testing whether this nation
or any nation so open, and with such high wages, can endure the effects of
globalization. We are met on a great battlefield of that debate. We have
come to celebrate a hero who has given of his wit and wisdom so that this
nation and other nations might enjoy higher aggregate welfare. It is
altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger
sense, we cannot celebrate, we cannot commemorate, we cannot honor
these writings. The wise man, present and still active, who teaches and
researches here, has distinguished himself far above our poor power to add
or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here,
but it can never forget what is written in “In Defense of Globalization.”
It is for us the students rather to be honored to be present and to await
the unfinished works of this great trade theorist who toils here and who
continues to pursue the cause of free trade that he has thus far so nobly
advanced. It is rather for us to be honored to contribute to the great task
remaining before us--that from honoring our esteemed teacher we take
increased devotion to that cause of free trade for which we should give the
last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that he shall not
have published in vain, that this gathering of students and colleagues shall
have a new burst of productivity, and that the government of the people,
by the people, and for the people shall not introduce any new trade
barriers, nor sign any further regional trade agreements.
* I am grateful to Alan Blinder and Abe Lincoln for useful suggestions.