Fair play., 1891-12-12
THE RECIPROCITY CLAUSE.
It Docs Not Apply to tht Relations Be
tween Blaine. sser and the Major.

Whatero' ,nay be meant by the pol
icy OF reciprocity" which i- inter
preted in 50 many wa:s by the repub-
lican statesmen and organs, it IS plain
that il does not include reciprocal good
feeling between the three great repub-
lican leaders, Blaine. Mckinley and
Harrison. As a matter of fact, there
is nothing in the Mckinley tariff pro-
viding for reciprocity directly. There
is only a clause giving the president L
limited power of retaliation upon ro"-
ernmc nts which do not accOrt! what he
regards as fair concessions 70 thr
United States That powc" las never
been explicitly rsesl. Whether there
has been !. tarcat Of using il o.: not we
cannot say. Mr E'aine. in his cen:
letter. iEtimatrd that there had bCen
such a threat made tn Germnny. that
German bee. sugar had hecn ''lef' free
of duty in considerat .on OF the cdnnis-
sion 10 Germany of American pork.
Eut il that hr the Ease tbv public has
not been informed Of it Mr.. Harrison
is authority for the statement that the
do with amy question Of reciprocity.
bn; y based upon the acceptance by
the German Go:crnm amt of the inspec-
ton of meats by this government und II
the law % the last congress"
This is not the only sign of fatal
want Of agreement between the presi-
dent and his nominal secretary of
state on This point. Il will h. REM ,n-
hcred that when Mr.. Harrison was on
his famous trans-contincntal tour last
spring he claimed all the credit fer the
insertion of the reciprocity clauses in
the Mckinley b.ll. Bat neither he or
Mr. Blaine be really the father of This
Legislation it is impossible to tell.
What is entirely clear is that they are
quarrciing over its character and effect
ns openly Us the conventionalitir5 of
official life and the cxgencics of party
politics will permit. Meanwhile poor
Mai. Mckinley has become sadly
tangled in the difficulty" The demo
cratic papers in Ohio were quoting Mr
Baine's famous letter denouncirg the
Mckinley bill because there was mot
a section or line in the entire bill
that will open Il market for another
hashel of wheat or another barrel Of
pork Whereupon Mr.. Blaine writes
10 say: Before the bill was finally
passed the reciprocity cause was in
serted and large addition was made
to the free list. 1t will therefore. be
seen from what said in my letter that
the objection which | made to the Me
kinlcy bill WAS entirely removed be-
fore the bill became n lau. |
am not, therefore. an opponent to the
Mckinley bill as the democratic pa
pers of OHIO are constantly ailc% ing
On the contrary, have cordially sup
ported it rrtr since il was perfected by
the insertion OF the reciprocity
clause"
AS we have already pointed ont, this
is very cold comfort for Mr.. Mckinley
so far from cXpla ming or rctracting his
savage criticism of tho bill, Mr.. Blaine
rcit rates and instiiics it. ipon the
bill as Maj Mckinley male it. carried
it through the house. aud s'nt il to the
snnate, Mr.. Blaine now passes tie
Stillt iiCIit tutt III
July If last year. He has nothing
good to say of tn. law except for the
reciprocity clause of which he claims
to be the parent. So far as We have
been able to get at the facts in the
very confused record. Mr. Blaine y
claim has very slight foundation in
fact. and the so-callcd reciprocity
clause was in reality due to Mr.. llar-
rison, who did not care very much for
it. bnt who wanted to head off any up-
position that Mr.. Blaine and his friends
:ght make. MIR. Mckinley. however
is entirely out of the whole affair, and
can only claim that he killed .Ir
Eianc's original notion Of putting
hides on the dutiablc list in order to
give Mr.. Blaine somethin" to trade
on" Considering the utter futilitv OF
the "reciprocit-' legislation the heated
dispute carried on around i: is 4 curl
Gus indication of the state of the repslb-
lean mind. N. Y. Times.