The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1890-04-11
A MUTUAL BENEFIT. /,
Substance Of the Proposition for
Reciprocity With Central and
South American Countries.

Substance Of the Proposition for
Reciprocity With Central and
South American Countries.
WASHINGTON, Special telegram
There has been a great deal of rumor in
connection with the tariff schedules, and
Secretary Blaine's influence in order to es-
tablish reciprocity with South and Central
American countries. The secretary has
submitted to the majority members of the
ways and means committee a proposition
relative to the South American imports,
which is as follows:
The president shall by proclamation declare
all ports of the United States free to all products
OF any independent nation on the American
levied so long as such nations admit free of all
duties brecdstuffs, provisions, preserved meats,
fish. vegetables. fruits, and in fact all articles OF
food, lumber, refine petroleum, and such other
products peculiar to the United States as may
be agreed upon: provided, however, that this
concession shall apply only to merchandise
transported in vessels of the United States or of
the other countries entering into this agreement.
This may not be the exact language OF
the proposition, but it contains all the ma
terial facts, and the ways and means COM
mittee are now considering it. It means
free carpet wool. free sugar and free hides
from the countries on the American CONT
nent. Some facts about South American
commodities are submitted with the propo-
sition. South American countries export
$40, 600, GOO in sugar and import $3.50, 600, 600
in goods, only about 10 per cent of which is
purchased in this country. There is no
produce or breadstufs raised in those coun-
tries, wheat bread being a luxury. A barrel
of flour worth SIS in New York is
BY REASON OF TRANSPORTATION
and a duty of S., worth $15 in Rio Janeiro;
hams and bacon are SO cents per pound;
cod fish and other American fish are a lux
ury, owing to the duty. Petroleum, worth
5 cents a gallon at Philadelpl a, is 80 cents
a quart in South America. There is no coal,
bly, made, hence there would be a market
for United States oils. As to lumber. com
non pine, hemlock and spruce is worth 10
cents a foot, and is more expensive than
corrugated iron for building purposes. The
concessions which the United States would
have 20 make would be the admittance free
of duty from these countries of wool, hides
countries is carried on by free labor, and
has not been able to compete with the slave
labor of Cuba. The wool raised is
entirely OF the coarser grades, suita-
BILE only for carpets, and the proposition
is that it can only be taken out of custom
houses by carpet manufacturers. The hides
are mostly of the coarser grades suitable Tor
shoes. 1t is claimed that the products of
South America are OF such a character that
they will not interfere with products Of the
United States, and ever in sugar cannot
more than compete with the dutiable sugar
from slave countries. The plan is the South
American policy of Secretary Blaine, who
proposes to build a protection wall along
the coast line of the Americas for the
mutual benefit of those sections, and at the
same time to stimulate the American mer-
chant marine by prohibiting the carrying
of goods to be admitted free III anything
but in American vessels.