New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1894-09-19

the sale M or agricultural products,
has always been the high duties On sn6h
commodities imposed by nations which
would otherwise look to US as 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 .
master stroke of the highest statesman-
ship. It 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. 1t 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
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 "a
vored market for purchasing by those
who produced sugar, tea, coffee and
hides; it turned the eyes Of all the
South Am arican people to the United
States as the country with which it was
not only Natural, but profitable to
conclude the closest trade rela-
tons. Soon after the Mckinley bill
became law, reciprocity agreements
were concluded that gave encourage
ment and d 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
Que of the Most Marked Features
of a time of otherwise languishing
international trade. Under the McKin-
'sy act commercial treaties were con-
cluded 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-
NOCS, ~ OAAL dllu UllC ACCW d1A duu
Windward islands in America, and
Austro-Hungary and Germany in Eu-
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 flour,
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 a 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 Single and Striking Illustration
may stand for the whole: The exT ort
of American flour to Cuba, prior to this
arrangement, was almost prohibited by
a duty of over SIS barrel, or more than
the entire cost at the points Of ship
ment. Reciprocity decreased this duty
to about one-half, with corresponding
effect upon our exports. From 1876 to
1891 our imports from Cuba were great
er than our exports to Cuba by $780,
1852. For those Ii years the average
exports to Cuba were Sill, 1893, 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 $12,OOO,00O; in 1892 they rose to
nearly $1S,OOO,OOO, and in 1898 they
amounted to $24, 157 ,69S, or more 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, 447 barrels
in 1891, rising to 366, ITS in 1892, and to
6l6,406 in 1893. This great body Of
trade
Has Been Destroyed at 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 SPAN
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 chat
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.
It is undeniable that, if this policy had
been permitted to develop naturally and
complete its work, it would in time
have -'