The McCook tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 1886-1936, 1897-07-23

gentine, Mexico and Canada, and pos
sibly Brazil Less than half this num-
ber have filed formal protests at the
state department, but there has been
sundry grumblings and mutterings
among the others, either in their leg
islative bodies, in the individual utter
ances of their representatives here and
elsewhere, or in the public press.
The practical business question with
regard to these people and govern
ments is whether they can afford to
take any retaliatory steps against
tariff which makes no discrimination
as between countries or which does not
discriminate against any one of them
individually. If they were to attempt
retaliation by adverse legislation
which should exclude American prod
ucts from their markets or discrimi-
nate against Our productions in any
way it would be expected and very
properly, that the United States would
return the compliment by excluding or
discriminating against the products OF
the country which had taken such ac-
tiCn. The practical business results OF
an occurrence Of this kind would be
that nearly every one of the countries
in question would suffer a greater loss
If the sale of her products than would
the United States Of the fifteen cOun-
tries included in the above list thirteen
sell more goods to the United States
ho E,yy nd total
sales of the fifteen countries in ques-
ton to the United States are hundreds
of millions of dollars greater than are
our sales to them. The result would
be that if they should undertake to ex-
clude our goods from their ports SINH
lar action on our part would cut Off
a much larger market for their pro-
ducers than would their action affect
the markets of our own producers. An
attempt at retaliation by the countries
in question, with possibly. two excep-
tions would therefore be much more
disadvantageous to them than to the
United States. Hence the improbable
ity that the nations which are offer
irg these protests have the slightest
expectation that their action will be
anything more than a mere bluff or be
followed by any attempt at retaliation
by them in case their protests are un-
needed
A few examples of the commercial
relations existing between some of the
nations in question and the United
&1 oh hot
there is no probability that they are
going to endanger their own business
and the markets for their own pro-
ducers by any steps which might pos
sibly close the ports of the United
States against their productions. In
the statements which follow ten
years period has been covered in
showing the commercial relations be-
tween the United States and the coun-
tries in question, in order to give
fair average showing of the sales of
those Countries to people of the United
States and the return sales of our
products to those countries. 1t will be
observed in the statements which fol-
low that in practically every case the
countries now suggesting retaliation
which would affect commercial rela-
tions have sold us very much more
OF their productions than We have sold
to them, and therefore any action on
their part disturbing or closing these
relations would cut off a larger mar
ket for themselves than they would de-
stroy for us.
Japan has sold to us in the past de-
cade $212, 100000 worth of goods and
bought from us 45,OO7,117 worth of
our productions.
China's sales to us in the past ten
years are S1S9,246,S49 and her pur-
chases from us s54,219,71O.
Austria-Hungary's sales to us in the
past ten years are SS3,301, ,4S1 and her
purchases from us S1O,993,224.
The total sales to us of the fifteen
planning, formally or otherwise, of our
tariff, have been in the past ten years
81, ,S43 ,943, ,523, while the purchases from
us in the same length of time have
been only s9,O59, ,22O,7S2. Thus they
have sold us in the past decade ST.
7S4, 4,722,S41 worth of goods in excess
of what they have bought from us, or
an average of s17S,472 ,2S4 per annum
The following table shows our pur-
chases from and sales to each of the
countries in question during the past
decade:
Imports into U. Exports from
S. QSS6-'96) U. S. (1SS6-'96)
from protest to protest
Ing countries. ing countries
Greece ....S 1O,184,600 S 1872 ,5S4
Turkey -. 46,97S,714 1,762,357
Argentine 57,9O3,7SS 57,235. sos
Australia S3,3O1 ,4S1 1O,99S, ,224
Swit1or'd 100 Q1Q e7o oeo 400