Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-10-02
EXTENSION OF OUR TRADE.
A Letter from Secretary Blaine that
is of Unusual Interest Just at
This Time.
Reciprocity Recommended as Help
Especially to Western Ameri-
can Products.
And Also as One of the Strongest Sup
ports Of the Grand Protective
System.


Boston, Sept. 16.-In response to al
invitation to the annual banquet OF the
Boot and Shoe club, of Boston, Col. Clapp
editor OF the Journal, has received letter
from Mr. Blaine in which the secretary OF
state, referring to portion of the invita-.
ton saying the members of the club are in
hearty sympathy with his views regarding
the best method of extending the Ameri-
can trade, he regrets that engagements
will not permit him to address the meet
ing. The members Of the club, he says,
can do great good by counteractiEg a
certain phase of New England opinion
which he regards as hurtfuL to New Eng
land interests. New England is to receive
In the new tariff the amplest protection
for every manufacturing industry within
her borders and it will be in the Judgment
of the secretary of state, both ineXpedient
and injurious for her representatives to
disregard the measure which will promote
western interests. Mr.. Blaine refers to a
letter recently received from the president
of the late convention of millers at Mime
apolis, referring to the excessive duties On
American -four in Cuba and stating that
Americans will be unable to retain any
part of the Cuban -four trade unless imme-
diate relief is secured. In view of these
facts, says Mr.. Blaine, it is possible that a
protectionist congress can even think of
opening our markets to Cuba's products
free, white allowing that the great western
industry will be absolutely excluded
from her markets by d prvhibi-
tory tariff? With reciprocity the
west can annually sell many thousand bar
rels of flour in Cuba and Porto Rica to-
gether with large mass of other agricul-
! tural products. Without reciprocity she
will be driven more and more from these
markets. Giving the fullest protection to
all eastern interest as the proposed tariff
! bill does, surely no man of good
! Judgment, certainly no protectionist of
wise forecast, wishes to expose western
interest to serious injury; especially when
it is manifestly easy to protect and pro-
mote it-manifestly easy because at this
very time boards of trade, chambers of
commerce and public opinion In Havana
are demanding reciprC cal trade with the
| United States. Certain wise
men ask how can we sell farm products
in South America when the same
things are produced there? Cereals are
undoubtedly grown in the southern por-
ton of South America, but the wise men
will remember that cereals and sugar do
not grow in the same soil and the sugar
countries of South and Central America
and the West Indies are forty millions of
people who import.the largest part of their
breadstutfs. Indeed, the largest portion of
the product of Latin-hmerlca is flour and
we can greatly enlarge our exchanges there
if congress will give us an opportunity for
reciprocal trade Another class observe
that they want time to study the system
70 this ] might reply the best method of
studying the system is to observe its
practical working. While studying in
the abstract and in refusing some object
lessons, these lessons propose to open our
market to Latin-American products free of
all charges, without asking Latin-Ameri-
ca to give US In turn some freedom in
their markets. The object lesson i'm
mediately before us is a treatment of
the sugar question. Shall we make Latin
America a gift of that trade? When we
have studied that lesson we shall be pre-
pared for the second. The worst prop
osition of all is put forth by those who
say, Let us put sugar on the free list
now and next year take up the subject
of recipoc ity." If | understand their
logic it is to make sugar free this year
without condition and next year to ask
Spain if she will not kindly consent to
grant Us ciprocal trade. Holding COM
plete vantage ground themselves they pro-
pose a policy to transfer the vantage
ground to Spain. Those who take this
ground belong to the classof careful
guardians of property who prepare a
strong lock for the stable after the horse
is gone. do not mean In anything
have said to imply that reciprocity is only
a western interest. 1t will prove bene-
fetal and improbable both to the farm and
the shop. Many forms in which our bust
ness interests will be promoted by recip-
r. city can not be known until the active
commercial men of the United States shall
have developed those forms by investiga-
ton and experience We shall not re
alize the full benefits of the policy in a day
or a year but shall we, therefore, throw
away the countless millions of trade In adj
dition to the sixty millions we have al
ready thrown away and then ignorantly
declare without trial that the system won
work.?
Finally, there is one fact that should
have great weight especially with pro-
tectionists. Every free trader in the SEN
ate voted against reciprocity. Free trade
papers throughout the country are showing
determined hostility to it. 1t is evident
that free trade senators and free trade
papers have specific reason for then
course. They know and feel that with q
system of reciprocity established and
growing their policy of free trade receives
a most serioCs blow. The p1otectionist
, who opposes reciprocity In the form II
which it is now presented. knocks away
one of the strongest supports of his system
The enactment Of reciprocity is the oppor
tunity of free trade.
Distinguished CIestiaI Ladies'
. Washington Letter in Cleveland Leader
I The other day while strolling along the
shady walks Of Dupont Circle | suddenly
encountered two Of the women of the
Chinese legation One was the spouse Of
the minister himself the other that of the
, chief secretary. It was almost painful t.
see them walk because of the custom O.
their people whereby their feet had beer
compressed in early youth so that they
were scarcely larger than those of a gOoC
5 sized babay. They did not seem to be
r three inches long and the women really
: walked as though they had club feet. The
| two women had dark skirts, but the over
: dress of fulidowing sleeves was, in the cast
of the minister's wife, of white, and that
! of the secretary's light blue While
watching the awkward effort Of the wo
/ men 10 walk gracefully noticed Chi
f nese lad with long pig-tail and sky-biut
: garments running across the greensward
D jumping over small bushes and other bar
D riers that were in his way. He was The
: ministers son and had been looking fol
, his mother, when, suddenly espying hel