The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1891-02-27
LETTER FROM WISCONSIN,
The Re ciprocity Racket.

EDITOR GREAT WEST
The partisans of Mr.. Blaine are now
hurrahing wildly over his Brazilian
reciprocity scheme. A new golden
age, we are told, is about to dawn.
But all this talk is a gorgeous farce
the thinnest bubble of inflated and
glittering nonsense. The design is to
gull farmers, to draw them away from
their reform movement and to lead
them back into the Republican fold.
Reciprocity is well enough; the new
arrangement VIII be of some benefit to
a few eastern manufacturers. But it
can do nothing for the farmers. Mr..
Blaine, with all his treaties, can no
more restore the lost prosperity of
American agriculture than he can ir-
rigate the deserts of Nevada with a
watering-pot.
The public are being duped by an
ingenious and yet simple device.
Amidst all this buster the fact is care
fully kept out of sight that so far as
our agricultural exports are concern
ed, the present Brazilian tariffs very
low one. 1t is tariff for revenue
only, and not for the enrichment of
mill-bosses and monopolies. High
duties are laid upon luxuries, very
low duties upon the necessaries of life.
The reduction upon our farm products
to be made by the new arrangement is
fhorof0ro n x,orxy 90 4r.Ao
In a communication dated Feb. 10,
Mr.. Blaine has published a table of
duties according to the latest Brazil
ian tariff. But he cunningly forgets to
mention that the duties on our agri-
cultural exports are levied upon a
merely nominal valuation. On flour,
for instance, the duty, National
and State, is Is per ct. upon fixed
valuation of 10 reis per kilogram in
gold. That is about 10 cents per bar
rel. Last year we exported to Brazil
475,OOO barrels of flour; the gain
through reciprocity will therefore be
about $47,5OO per annum. That
would be just about one-tenth of
cent for each farmer in the United
States.
The duty upon potatoes is Is per
cent. upon a fixed valuation Of 5
refs per kilogram or little more than
one cent a bushel. We exported po-
tatoes to the value of $50; and re-
ciprocity will give us one cent BUSH
ell upon that amount. Still the Chi
cago Tribune, Mr.. Blaine's chief organ,
grows poetic over the reduction upon
potatoes; hencefortb our suffering
farmers are to be rich and happy.
Turn now to the list of articles upon
which the duties are to be reduced 25
per cent by reciprocity. Lard is the
only thing upon this list in which our
Western farmers are much interested.
The present duty upon lard is 20 per
cent upon fixed valuation of 12O
refs per kilogram; that is about one
cent pound. This duty is to be re-
duced 25 per cent in our favor by the
new treaty. We export to Brazil lard
to the value of 1911 ,399; and upon
this beggarly sum we are to have
reduction of less than quarter of
cent per pound!
1t is claimed, however, that we shall
gain by the immense increase of our
agricultural exports to be brought
about by the advantages which the
new bargain will give us over other
nations. But all this is exquisite fool
cry. The total value of all cereals
excluding wheat, because that
is already free of duty flour,
pork, hams and lard imported in Bra
iii last year was $6,O24,OOO. OF this
total we sent to the value of So, 216,-
600. Suppose that reciprocity should
enable us to monopolize all the rest
$2,8O8, OOO-what mere drop in the
bucket it would be in comparison with
our immense surplus. a.
But we have not the faintest pros
pect of getting even this drop in the
bucket. The Argentine farmers are
even now undertaking us in the mar
kets of Europe. Their shipments of
breadstuffs, already immense, are in