Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1901-05-30
Is NOT RECIPROCAL.
DRAWBACKS ATTENDING SPE-
GAL TRADE TREATY PLAN.
Cogent Reasons Why the Proposed
Program of Reciprocity Will Not
Operate to the Advantage of the
United States-Puzz1e of Economists.

In the concluding portion of the sec
| ond lecture on Economic Aspects of
| Reciprocity" reliyered by Mr.. John P.
| Young, of the San Francisco Chronicle,
before the College of Commerce of the
| University of California, various
| phases of the practical workings of the
reciprocity plan in the United States
! are presented with marked clearness
| and force. The lack of certainty in the
| matter of revenue production which at
| tends the operation of special trade
| treaties is urged as an important Objec-
I ton to that process of charging our
| trade with foreign countries. The ques-
| ton Of revenue is held constantly in
view by Congress when engaged in the
| enactment of a tariff law, and the
schedules are so adjusted as to insure
with reasonable accuracy an amount
! of revenue which, added to that de-
rived from internal sources, will meet
! the requirements Of the government.
Not so in the case of schedules altered
| in miscellaneous fashion through spe-
| cial conventions. If, under these trea-
| ty arrangements. the duties on certain
! articles are materially diminished, so
! must be the revenues. Moreover, the
consequences of this kind Of tariff tin
| kering may prove to be mischievous,
for, as Mr.. Young points out, if we re-
duce the duties on Russian beet sugar
to please the exporters of American
machinery, how shall we deny similar
reduction of duties to other sugar pro-
ducing countries without exciting Jeal-
ousies and retaliation? If, in order to
escape this kind of friction, we make
the reduction Of sugar duties uniform
with all countries, as we must in the
long run, what then becomes OF the
revenue from sugar duties?
Another point of the utmost import
ance is emphasized by Mr.. Young in
this nnection-namely, that while
tariff laws may easily be repealed or
amended at any session of any Con-
gress, commercial conventions consti-
tute contracts and obligations very diff
ficult to retreat from and which often
continue in force long after their work
ings are recognized to be injurious. At
best the process of abrogating COM
mercial treaties is a slow and tedious
one, and the effect is to create rigidity
| in a direction where flexibility is high
ly desirable.
A reciprocity treaty is not necessarily
reciprocal. 1t may prove to be quite
| the reverse. Mr.. Young cites the sup
posititiOus case of wine producers and
| prune growers who were promised pro-
| lection for their industry and are as
much entitled to it as are the makers
| Of machinery We enter into an ar
rangement with a foreign country
which contemplates an increased pur-
chase on our part of foreign wines and
prunes and an increased sale on our
part of machinery. This may or may
not prove to be the outcome under the
arrangement. 1t is quite possible that
the foreigner will send us an addition
al quantity of wines and prunes with
out in turn taking from us an addition
al quantity Of machines. The pract1-
cal workings of reciprocal trade ar
engagements may thus prove to be far
from reciprocal. Mr. Young raises the
question whether it is not an economic
blunder to assist our overgroWn iron
concerns, by means of special trade
treaties, to market their surplus prod
uct in foreign countries, and thus pre-
vent the creation in undevelOped lands
of facilities which would enable the
peoples of those lands to supply them
selves with articles of iron, and at the
same time compel the domestic con-
s11mer in our own country to assist IN
this work Of spoliatiOn by charging
him more for what he uses of the prod
net thus forced out than the foreigner
ia compelled to pay. Herein is sug-
gested an aspect of the reciprocity idea
which the trust smashers have certain
" overlooked.
OF course, so thorough and deep
searching a student of cause and effect
in economics as Mr.. Young has shown
himself to be would not pass by the
pertinent point concerning the true
definition of reciprocity as eXpounded
| in the national Republican platform.
He directs attention to the fact that IL
their platforms the Republicans have
always insisted that true reciprocity
consists in the exchange Of non-com-
peting products. This fact is ignored
| by the advocates of tariff tinkering by
| trade treaties with a persistency that
| carries it out of the domain of accident
and places it in the category of inten-
tional suppression.
| The favorite theory of British Cob
denites and free-traders that II we Wish
! TO trade with foreigners we can only
hone to do so by buying from them as
well as selling to them is disposed of
nv Mr.. Young as scarcely worthy OF
serious consideration in view of the
| facts of commerce as disclosed in the
| statistics of our foreign trade IN the
LAST four wears of adequate protection