The Globe-republican., 1901-11-07
DELIBERATE ACTION.
PRESIDENT NOT DISPOSED TO Rush
RECIPROCITY.
Practical Details Results to BE
Carefully Considered Before Any of
the Kasson Treaties Are ResubmItted
to the Senate Ratification

Free Trade and other newspapers
which so gIibly Inisinterpret the late
presidents attitude with regard to for
oign trade extension, and who SO con-
fdentIy count upon President Roose-
Welt to make good their mzsInterpreta-
ton, would do wei to pattern after the
inte11igen reasona bleness of the fol-
lowing statement by the Washington
correspondent of the New York Times
There will be no precipitate action
by the president on the subject of reel
procity- The agitation on this subject
N some of the newspapers, with asser-
tions bolstered up by quotations from
Mr.. Roosevelt's public assurances,
whether intended to help the cause of
reciprocity or to prejudice it, has no
warrant further than that intended in
the promise of the president to adhere
to the policies CT Mckinley The sub
ject s large and compiica ed one an
not even Mr. Mckinney, after years of
experience, was prepared to say just
what the details of reciprocity treaty
with foreign country s1ould be- A
reciprocity policy cannot be defined in
any but the most general terms by the
executive and with the legislative
branch must rest the task of providing
the Details
It is we'll and truly said that the sub
JecC Oh RECIPROCITY Is d S0 anu COI1-
plicated one''-so large and conp1i-
Gated that not even President McKin-
ley, with his wealth of practical
knowledge in tariff matters, could Or
did claim to have mastered it, Unlike
that rather numerous brood of quick
thinkers who imagine they have solved
the intricate problem after having
given it cursory glance, and who
don't trouble themselves about the
working details, Mr. Mckinley consid-
cred it to be his duty to go into the
reciprocity question deeply and thor
ough1y. He had previously turned the
matter over to hands and heads which
he supposed were competent, only to
find out that they were bunglers and
botchers. So, in the last few months
of his life he had devoted himself
studiousIy to the examination of reel
procity, alike on general principles
and in detailed workings The result
of his painstaking investigation was
the Buffalo speech, in which he de-
clared for the enlargement of our for
eign trade through a scheme of re-
ciprocaI concessions such should
not curtai1 domestic production In
his judgment, reciprocity that should
increase the imports of articles which
we ourselves produce was not reel
procity at all; it was free trade in dis
guise.
IL Was ILLS dCSp SO<iCSO COAN4tN1Oh
which animated the statement by
President Mckinley to a c-ose and con-
f1dentia1 friend, in Washington, on the
afternoon of June 6, 1901, to the effect
that he (the president) favored only
that plan of reciprocity sanctioned by
the Republican national platform of
19OO-name1y, reciprocity lin articles
which we do not ourselves produce =
and that he was opposed to any schem e
of trade extension that would take
from a single American workman his
job. There is precisely where William
Mckinley stood at the end of the first
week in June, at time when the quick
thinkers had him all thought out as
ready to abandon protection, and that
is where he stood when at Buffalo in
the first week of September he made
his last great speech
Hence, we say, the overnight theo-
rists would DO well to think again once
or twice before they attribute to the
dead president and to his successor in
Office views and purposes regarding
reciprocity not entertained by either
Mr.. Mckinley or Mr.. Roosevelt. The
policy of Mckinley is to be continued
absolutely unbroken by Roosevelt The
country has this pledge recorded, as it
were, over McKin1ey's coffin Of its
conscientious fulfil1ment by President
| Roosevelt there is no possible doubt.
There will be, as the Times Wash
ington correspondent states, mo pre-
| cipitate action by the president on the
| subject of reciprocity" That is. the
| foolish treaties negotiated by Commits
| sioner KaSSOn will not again be laid
| before the senate for ratification. Other
| treaties there may be, but, if so, they
| will be treaties framed in accord with
| the spirit of American prosperity and
progress, and not free trade folly un-
| der the mask of so-called reciprocity.