Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-11-21

an excellent Que, anu VIII. Id our opinion,
prove in practice to be a powerful agency
for good.
THE COMING RECIPROCITY POLICY.
We have already called attention to the
indications manifest in the earliest calm
expressions of the Eastern press received
since the election, that the drift of public
opinion is setting strongly in favor of the
reciprocity policy as opposed to the doc
trine Of the present tariff law. We have
said it is evident that the country is COM
ing into line with the reciprocity policy
suggested early last summer by the Secre-
tary of State, and that this judgment will
vindicate the PRESENCE of that statesman.
As the later expressions of the press be-
yond the Missouri are received it is more
and more evident that this was correct
conclusion, and that the next tariff debate
will be along the line of reciprocity, and
that the Republican party will be COM
PEELED to take the affirmative and in favor
of it, il it is to maintain its footing.
1t is a significant fact that neither Mr..
Blaine, nor any of his friends, have under
taken to deny the statement of Mr.. Black
burn that the Secretary of State early last
summer expressed mis- indignation over the
propositions of Mr.. McKinley's bill Nor
have we been able to discover in any of
the leading Republican opponents of pub
lie opinion at the East any rebuke to Mr.
Blaine for his antagonism to the tariff BILL
The entire country appears to be waiting,
and with good deal of hopeful anxiety,
for the promised letter from the Secretary,
in which he will fully set out his ideas
concerning the doctrines of reciprocal in
terchange of commercial products that
will become the settled policy of the
United States sooner or later, and which
will be, all are convinced, the part of WIS
dom.
If, instead of the Mckinley bill as it
passed, the Republican party had with
sincerity and understanding advocated
such policy as the Secretary is known to
have advised from the first, policy of
reciprocal relations in exchange of COM
modities with other nations, the defeat
that met the party on the 4th inst. would
probably have been avoided.
Last June the State Department sent to
President Harrison letter submitting the
report upon the "Customs Union" adopted
by the International American Conference.
In that letter the Secretary pronounced |
his opinion most emphatically to be that
at least
Partial reciprocity between the American |
| Republics was not only practicable, but must |
necessarily increase the trade and the develop
ment of the material resources of the countries |
adopting that system, and 1t would in all prob |
ability bring about as favorable results as those
obtained by free trade among the different |
| States of this Union
The quotation is from the declaration of
the Committee of the International Amer
lean Congress, to which the reciprocity
proposition was submitted. The Confer
ence itself recommended that the several
Governments represented negotiate reci-
procity treaties upon such basis as would
be acceptable in each case, taking into
consideration the special situations, condi-
tions and interests of each country, and
with view to promote their common well
fare"
But our Congress was at that very tine
considering propositions which, if adopted,
put reciprocity with the Latin American
States wholly out of the question. This
afforded the Secretary of State opportunity
to enter his protest, and to point out that
commercial progress and trade prosperity
would be infinitely fostered BY such re-
stricted reciprocity treaties as the Ameri-
can Conference proposed. The same prin-
ciple underlying the reasons for reciprocity
with South American States are substruct-
ural Of the whole reciprocal scheme, no
matter what the nations with which it
may be made operative.
When the Secretary last September told
the Boot and Shoe Club of Boston that
with reciprocity the West, for instance,
can annually sell many hundred thousand
barrels of flour in Cuba and Porto Rico,
together with large mass of other agri-
cultural products, but without reciprocity
she will be driven more and more from
those markets, he clearly indicated what
he believed the true policy of the country
to be- That is TO say, that it is not de-
manded that we shall open our markets
free of all charge to Latin-American States
or the West Indies, but that where mutual
interests are conserved, there may be in
I terchange upon a basis that will tax
neither the foreign nor the home con-
sumner
1t is becoming clearer every day, as the
Secretary put it in his notable letter, that
reciprocity is equally beneficial to farm
and to shop, and that business and indus
trial interests will alike be promoted by
it. In Just what degree and in what form
all business interests will be conserved by
the policy cannot be fully known until
there has been some trial of it nor is it
policy that is TO develop its benefits at
once. II protectionist Republicans desire
the defeat Of absolute free trade, the
means to that end are those that recip-
roeity offer.
|, If the Indian uprising now threatened
on the plains and borders should take
place, the Government should shroud the