The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1894-09-20

inc 8Slo u VU1 AGRICULTURAL p1OAUoVSS
has always been the high duties on such
commodities imposed by nations which
would otherwise look to us a. their
principal source Of supply. To remove
this barrier, partly or wholly, at the
same time that we made necessary re-
auctions in our own tariff rates, was q
master stroke Of the highest statesman
ship. 1t was provided, accordingly, in
the Mckinley bill that while sugar, tea,
coffee and hides were to be admitted
free of duty, this should only apply to
such countries as imposed reasonable
tariffs upon our own products. If the
duties Of any country were held to be
unreasonable, the entry from it Of these
articles could be suspended. This is
The Only Wise Policy Of Trade,
Not to give things away, but to barter
one advantage for another. The time
was too short for this policy to work
out its best results, and the period dur
ing which it was in force was one of
general and increasing commercial de.
preston. It proved, nevertheless, to be
of the highest benefit to the United
States. It made this country the IA
vored market for purchasing by those
who produced sugar, tea, coffee and
hides; it turned the eyes Of all the
South American people to the United
States as the country with which it was
not only natural, but profitable to
conclude the closest trade rela-
tiQns. Soon after the Mckinley bill
became law, reciprocity agreements.
were concluded that gave encourage
ment and a new impulse to our exports.
For the productions of our fields and
factories there was q new demand. and
expansion OF our foreign commerce
under the influence, Of reciprocity was
One of the Most Marked Features
of a time Of otherwise languishing
international trade. Under the McKin-
ley act commercial treaties were con-
Guided with Guatemala, Honduras, Sal
vador, Nicaragua, Costa RIGA, Santo
Domingo, Brazil, the Spanish colonies
of Cuba and Porto Rico, the British
colonies of Jamaica, Trinidad, Barba-
does, Guiana and the Leeward and
Windward islands in America, and
Austro-H Hungary and Germany in En-
rope. By these treaties the countries
named secured the free admission into
the United States for their sugar, tea.
coffee, hides, rubber, and certain other
products; they in turn admitting free
from the United States, wheat flour,
corn and corn meal, rye and rye -four,
buckwheat and barley. butter and
cheese, lard, hay, oats, cottonseed oil,
picked and sailed pork and bacon, lum-
Der and manufactures of wood, agricul-
tural implements, mining machinery,
and long list of other manufactured
products. They admitted at only half
their regular duties another list Of COM
modities, such as cutlery and other
hardware, earthenware, furniture, pre-
served and canned goods, and various
minor articles. They admitted at three
fourths of their regular duties still an
other list, somewhat shorter and less
important than the foregoing.
A sinxle and Striking Illustration
may stand for the whole: The export
of American -four to Cuba, prior to this
arrangement, was almost prohibited by
duty of over s. barrel, or more than
the entire cost at the points Of ship
ment. Reciprocity decreased this duty
to about one-half, with q corresponding
effect upon our exports. From 1879 to
1891 our imports from Cuba were great
or than our exports to Cuba by $685.
192.512. For those IL years the average
exports to Cuba were 81, 79S, 400, but
commencing in 1891, the year Of our
reciprocity agreement, there was an
enormous increase in all lines OF trade.
In that year our exports were slightly
over 81, 000, 900; in 1899 they rose to
nearly $18, O00, 900, and in 1898 they
amounted to ga, 167, sos, or moro than
double what they had been in any year
under the old system. The effect OF
the new policy upon the whole trade is
shown by an export Of ia, AT barrels
in 1891, rising to 500, 175 in 1892, and to
GIG, 406 in 1898. This great body OF
trade
Has Been Destroyed ut . Blow.
The nations with which we concluded
reciprocity treaties are justly angered at
our vacillating policy. As soon as the
new tariff law went into effect Spain
served notice that the reciprocity agree
ment could no longer be enforced; and
already the old prohibitory duties upon
imports from the United States to Cuba
has been restored. By stroke Of the
pen we have signed away that market
for our products to the advantage of no
one outside of the sugar trust. OF that
loss the farmers and the milling inter-
ests of Minnesota will have to bear
more than their share.
Second to none of the advantages of
reciprocity was the opening of the mar
kets in Austria and Germany for our
provisions and breadstuffs in exchange
for free entry for their beet root sugar.
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