The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1892-06-24
HOW RECIPROCITY WORKS.

In his article in the June number of
the Forum Senator Hoar cites some eX-
cellent evidence from English authority
on the benefits that reciprocity is con-
ferring on the United States. He states
that at the meeting of the Associated
Chambers of Commerce in London on the
18th of March last, the President of that
great body, Colonel Hill, reported that
the exports of Great Britain to the
Latin-American countries had decreased
S23, 100, 900 during the year. There was
a shrinkage in almost every item of mer-
chandise furnished by the United King
dom to the South American Republics
and the Colonies, and he declared that
this misfortune was due directly to the
fact that the merchants of these coun-
tries were beginning to 60 to the United
States to buy their goods. He attributed
this result to what he called the pan
American policy, and declared that Eng
land would have to bestir herself if she
did not wish to lose her foothold in
America.
These facts, so alarming to Great
Britain, have been made apparent to our
Government by the development of our
trade. Take Brazil, for instance. Our
trade with her has not only greatly en-
larged, but that of Great Britain has
proportionately shrunk. In 1890 we
contributed to Brazil only $50 per
cent. of all her imports; in 1891 our pro-
portion had grow to 14.49 per cent. In
the former year the share contributed
by Great Britain was II per cent. in
1891 it fell to SOIL per cent. This is
what Colonel Hill calls the beginning
the South American countries are be-
ginning to go to ''the United States to
buy their goods" And the pan-Ameri-
can policy, which has already begun the
transfer of the South American trade
from Europe to the United States, was
pronounced in the platform of the Dem
ocratic party of New York last fall "the
reciprocity humbug." The platform to
be adopted next week at Chicago will be
scanned with interest by American mer-
chants to see whether the Democratic
party of the nation has the hardihood
and the idiotic folly to repeat these
words.
That reciprocity has come to stay is
admitted by England's great political
leader, Lord Salisbury. His speech at
Hastings, in answer to the appeals of
merchants for legislation to check the
rapid departure of the trade of Western
nations, declared in effect that it was
too late to make the attempt with the
hope of successful results. After de-
scribing the efforts of different nations
to secure the trade of their neighbors,
nobody" he said, "cares two straws
about getting the commercial favor of
Great Britain. What is the reason of
that? 1t is that in this great battle
Great Britain has deliberately stripped
herself of the armor and the weapons by
which the battle is fought" This
means that England's traditional Free
Trade policy has proved fatal to her
self. She has nothing to offer which
other nations cannot offer on better
terms, nothing to withhold by the inn
position of heavy duties which othe
nations cannot supply This is tb'
reason why nobody cares two straw
about the commercial favor of Grea
Britain any longer. The nations which
have hitherto depended upon Grea
Britain are making better bargains witt
the United States.
This is the way the Republican polio
of reciprocity works, which has bee
pronounced 'humbug' in Democrat
piatforms.-Troy Times, July 18th.