Morris tribune., 1894-09-19

net only natural, bat pToiltep'e %
eonoluda the closest trade rein.
fions soon after the Mckinley bill
became a law, reciprocity agreements
were concluded that gave enoourase-
1aent aud q new impulse to cur exports.
Tor the productions Of our fields and
fentaries there was now demand. and
.oypansions Of our foreign eommerce
unsler the influence q reciprocity was
one Of The Most Marked Features
~ i time Of otherwise languishing
internatione trade. Under the Mekin.
lev act commercial treaties We're con-
eluded with Guatemala, Honduras, Sal
yaelor. Nicaragua, Costa Rica, santo
Domingo. Brazil, the Spanish colonies
NJ C,uba and Porto Rico, the British
colonies of jamaica, Trinidad, Barba-
does Guiana and the Leeward and
Windward Stands in America ana
Austro- Hungary and Germany ~ Gu
rome. 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 Tree
from the United States, wheat flour,
corn and corn meal, rye and rye Hour,
buckwheat and barley, butter ana
cheese. lard, hay, oats, cottonseed OH,
picked and sailed pork and bacon, lurl,
her and manufactures of wood, agricul-
tural implements, mining machinery
and a long list of other manufactured
products They admitted at only hall
their regular duties another list OF COM
moaities, such as cutlery and other
hardware, earthenware, furniture, pre-
served and canned goods, and various
minor articles. They admitted atthree
fourths Of Il ,ir 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 exI OFT
of American flour to Cuba, prior to this
arrangement, was almost prohibited by
a duty of over So a barrel, or more than
the entire cost at the points of ship
ment. Reciprocity decreased this duty
to about one-half, with a corresponding
effect upon cur exports. From 1875 to
1891 our imports from Cuba were great
er than our exports to Cuba by $780,
1852. For those 16 years the average
exports to Cuba were $11, 793, 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 S12, 600 GOO; in 1892 they rose to
nearly. $18, 100000 and in 1898 they
amounted to $24, 1877 ,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, 175 in 1892, and to
GIG, 4O6 in 1898. This great body OF
trade
Has Reen Destroyed at Blow.
The nations with which we concluded
reciprocity treaties are justly angered at
our vaoillating policy. As soon as the
new tariff law went into effect Spain
served notice that the reciprocity agree
.nent 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 10 the advantage OF no
one outside of the sugar trust. OF that
loss the farmers and the milling inter
ests Of Minnesota viii have to beag
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
Doubled our Foreign Trade
and made markets all over the world
for those surplus products whose super
abundance affects prices and profits 50
disastrouslY. But I'll this fair scheme
of trade has been oyerthr0Wn
recklessly by the new tariff law,
aud the countries that have made
concessions to us, exasperated
now by this brusque and causeless re-
yersal Of our former policy, viii here
after be as unyielding as they Were
heretofore inclined to be generous. Of
all the rniRous effects of tariff agitation
and tariff legislation within the last two
years, it is doubtful if any can take pre-
eedenoe i'll the sum total OF its evil cone
sequences Of the abandonment of reci-
proeity
Efoonshiners and Onlcers Fight.
= 49, = y, go IL c. II Nexrrs