The Savannah morning news., 1901-12-04

der, out of which anarchistic sentf-
ment inevitably springs. Finally. all
persons should be excluded who are
below a certain standard of economic
fitness to enter our industrial field as
competitors with American labor.
There should be proper proof of person
al capacity to earn an American living
and enough money to insure a decent
start under American conditions. This
would stop the influx of cheap labor.
and the resulting competition which
gives rise to so much of bitterness In
American industrial life; and it would
dry up the springs of the 2estilential
social conditions in our great cities.
where anarchistic organizations have
their greatest possibility of growth
Both the educational and economic
tests in a wise immigration law should
be designed to protect and elevate the
general body polite and social. very
close supervision should be exercised
over the steamship companies which
mainly bring over the immigrants, and
they should be held to a strict account
aolllty for any infraction of the law.
Tariff and Reciprocity.
There is general acquiescence in our
present tariff system as a national pol
icy: The first requisite to our pros
perity is the continuity and stability
be more unw!se than to disturb the
business interests of the country by
any general tariff change at this time
DOUBT, apprehension, uncertainty
are exactly what we most
wish TO avoid in the interest
OF our commercial and material we'll
belng. Our experience in the past has
shown that sweeping revisions of the
tariff are apt to produce conditions
CLOSELY 3nnf7Qa ching mi in he lD,,s,
ness world. Yet it it not only posi-
Bile, but eminently desirable, to com
pine with the stability of our economic
system a supplementary system of re-
ciprocal benefit and obligation with
other nations. Such reciprocity is an
incident and result of the firm estab-
hshment and preservation of our pres
ent economic policy. 1t was specially
PROVIDED for IN the present tariff law.
reciprocity must be treated as the
handmaiden of protection. Our first
duty is to see that the protection
granted by the tariff in every case
where it is needed is maintained and
that reciprocity be sought for so far as
1t can safely be done without injury to
our home industries. Just how far this
is must be determined according to the
individual case, remembering always
that every application flour tariff poll
cy to meet our shifting national needs
must be conditioned upon the cardinal
fact that the dutiese must never be re-
duced below the point that will cover
the difference between the labor cost
here and abroad. The WELL being of the
wage work er is a prime considera ton
of our entire policy of economic legis-
lation
Subject to this proviso of the proper
protection necessary to our industrial
well-being at home, the principle of
reciprocity must command our hearty
support. The phenomenal growthof our
export trade emphasizes the urgency of
the need for wider markets and for a
liberal policy in dealing with foreign
nations Whatever is merely petty and
VeXatious in the way of trade restric-
lions should be avoided. The customers
to whom we dispose of our surplus pro-
ducts in the long run, directly or indi-
reetly, purchase those surplus products
by giving us something in return. Their
ability to purchase our products should
as far as possible be secured by so ar
rang .ng our tariff as to enable us to
take from them those products which
we can use without harm to our own
industries and labor, or the use of
which will be of marked benefit to us.
II is most important that we should
maintain the high levi of our present
prosperity. We have now reached the
point in the development of our inter
ests where we are not only able to sup
ply our own markets, but to produce a
constantly growing surplus for which
we must find markets abroad. To Sc
cure these markets we can utilize eX-
listing duties in amy case where they are
no longer needed for the purpose of
protection. or in any case where the
article is not produced here and the
duty is no longer necessary for
civ a4H f,,,~ -. @f
fer in exchange for what we ask. The
cordial relations with other nations
which are so desirable will naturally
be promoted by the course thus requr-
ed by our own interests.
The natural line of development for
a policy of reciprocity will be in con-
nection with those of our productions
which no longer require all of the sup
port once needed to establish them
upon a sound basis, and with those
others where either because of natural
or of economic causes we are beyond
the reach of successful competition.
| ask the attention of the Senate to
| the reciprocity treaties laid before it
by my predecessor.
Needs of Merchant Marine.
The condition of the American mer-
chant marine is such as to call for i'm
mediate remedial action by the Con-
gress. 1t is dscreditable to us as a
nation that our merchant marine
should be utterly Insignificant in CON-
parison to that of other nations which
we overtop in other forms of business.
We should not longer submit to condi-
tions under which only a trihing por-
ton of our great commerce is carried
in our own ships. To remedy this state
of things would not merely serve to
build up our shipping interests, but it
would also result in benefit to all who
are interested in the permanent estab-
lishment of a wider market for Ameri-
can products, and would provide an
auxiliary force for the navy. Ships
work for their own countries just as
railroads work for their terminal
points. Shipping lines, if established
to the principal countries with which
we have dealings, would be of political
as well as commercial benefit From
every standpoint it is unwise for the
United States to continue to rely upon
the ships of competing nations for the
distribution of our goods. 1t should be
made advantageous to carry American
goods in American built ships
At present. American shipping is UNI
der. certain great disadvantages when
put in competition with the shipping
or foreign countries. Many of the fast
foreign steamships, at a speed of four
teen knots or above. are subsidized:
ana all our ships, sailing vessels and
steamers alike, cargo carriers of slow
speed and mail carriers of high speed
have to meet the fact that the original
cost of building American ships is
greater than is the case abroad: that
the wages maid Apnaricon