The Washington times., 1901-10-17
Circulation Statement.
The President and Reciprocity.

II President fsooseVelt's secretaries
and the clipping bureaus keep him
properly informed as to what is said of
him, and what predictions are made
concerning his future policy and so on,
he must have occasion to rub his hands
with surprise about dozen times a
day. For instance, what must he think
on reading the statement, ascribed to
Colonel Dick, of Ohio, that in Buffalo a
month ago he begged Mir. Hanna to be
20 him what ne had been to Mr.. McKin-
ley, and especially pleaded for the coun-
tenance and support oil AIr Hanna's
machine. To the public ear that sounds
a great deal like Dick, and not in the
least like President Roosevelt.
Then it must edify him TO be told,
through the columns of the provincial
press. that, in his first message to Con-
gress, he Will certainly avoid the pit
fall which he would walk into were
he to say anything ineligible on the
subject OF reciprocity. OF course, we
have not the remotest idea what he will
say. but unless he depart radically
from the policy he outlined in his Min
neapoiis speech and from Fis prede-
cessor-s clean-2ut declaration on the
same topic made at Buffalo on Septem-
Der 3, we fancy that the anti-reciproci-
ty prophets will be badly disappointed.
According to the signs of the times
the Mckinley and Roosevelt reciprocity
propaganda is likely to meet with
strenuous opposition in the present
Congress. The people generally are in
hearty sympathy with it except where.
here or there, small numbers are inter
ested il the maintenance Of some local
monopoly out of which they profit
little perhaps, and the protected manu-
facturers Of their raw products a great
deal. Thus, it is evident that any at
tempt to establish fair basis of reci-
prOcity with the Island Of Cuba will be
viciously antagonized by Senators. Rep
resentatives, and lobbyists identified
with the sugar, tobacco, and other
growers or manufacturers Of the United
States
a liberal arrangement with Cuba
which should let in her sugar product
almost free of duty would affect only
the Sugar Trust appreciably The
duce enough TO cut any great figure,
and the sugar beet farmers still less.
But cheaper sugar would transfer the
centre of the preserving industry of
Great Britain TO the United States. es-
tablish a wider home market for our
small fruits, and prove general bless
ing to the poor. In the same way the
free Introduction into this country of
the superior and sui generis Cuban to-
bacco would be an unmixed good. 1t
would permit the American consumers
of cigars to escape the oppression Of the
oak leaf. rope end, and oil rag abomi-
nations Of the day, and TO enjoy a lux
ury greatly desired by millions of
American citizens from which they are
now debarred. But the Connecticut
Valley cabbage planters are up in arms
already, and in ALLIANCE with the stogy>
rollers of Pennsylvania, and the pen
ny dib" makers Of everywhere, are pre-
pairing to combat the entrance Of de-
cent Havana cigars at any but a pro-
hibitive price.
So it is with rum. The West indies
turn out a better article of that ex-
hilaraung fluid than the New England
rum distillers can at the same or any
cost What will the poor Puritans cf
Medford do if Porto Rican and Cuban
rum is to be brought here on terms
which will allow it to compete with
their output on the coast of Africa?
Cuban fruits, too, win be found bone
Of contention. Florida and California
would resent the idea of low-priced
bananas. oranges, guavas. pineap-
pies, and cocoanuts which but recent
ly reeked with the aroma of Spanish
rule and cruelty. And so on all along
down the line. Any kind of reciprocity,
and with any foreign State, viii be
fought to the bitter end by advocates
Of a system Of senseTess monopoly
which, if continued much longer, must
plunge America into economic war with
the whole civilized world