The Oskaloosa herald., 1903-10-01

| would be correspondingly multiplied.
{! To obtain these terms, IL will be nee
| essary that certain of the products OF
| Canada shall be allowed to come into
| the United States under lower duties
than. now prevail Her coal, her iron
ore, and pig iron should come in free
| as raw material and the natural pro-
ducts of her soil can be well admitted
upon the best terms we can secure II
thereby this great dominion can be
opened up to the enterprise OF Amer
lean manufacturers. We have no need
to fear the competition of Canada In
our own markets in those products
which constitute our chief exports, nor
is there any time to lose in pressing
forward the negotiations for these
freer relations with Canada. Joseph
Chamberlain, England's great states
man, sees the future with clearer
vision than his associates, and ere
long his plan will be the plan of the
English administration. He knows
that if England were to impose duty
upon the agricultural imports from the
United States and permit those same
exports from Canada to enter free,
and thereby induce Canada to raise
still higher her barriers against the
United States in manufactured articles
and lower still more the barriers
against the imports from England
in manufactured articles, he would
at once deprive the United States
of its best customer, promote
the business of the English man
ufacturer, and bind the colony
to the mother country with chains
rNf str orfh
thwart the designs of Great Britain,
and reciprocity is our most effective
weapon. Confronted by such an emer-
gency, the democrats are helpless and
powerless, for when they have insti-
tuted their system of free trade, we
are at the mercy of the intelligent
statesmen of Europe.
France may be instanced as another
nation with which diplomacy can work
wonders for American trade. Sub
stntially all our agricultural pro-
ducts, and many others, now en-
ter France under a discriminat-
ing duty against us ,of rs per
cent as compared with the ia
vored nations A treaty, negotiated
upon our part by the most illustrious
son that Iowa has given to the field of
international politics, is now before
the senate. 1t gives us equality in
France, and what we surrender is so
little that it would not create ripple
upon the industrial waters. 1t ought
to be ratified, and doubt not will be
so soon as the republican voice is fair
ly heard upon the subject. Should the
democrats prevail, however, it must
fall into oblivion, for when free trade
comes in we have nothing to give and
therefore can take nothing save that
which we conquer in hot commercial
warfare. 1t is quite true that our ex-
port trade is insignificant compared
with our home trade, and so it will al
ways be, but to keep it and increase
it, is absolutely essential to our con-
tinued prosperity Least of all can we
afford to adopt a policy that will per-
nit the gradually developing re-
sources of other countries to drive our
agricultural products from foreign
markets or impose upon them dis
eliminating duty; and the administra-
ton which, by the introduction of free
trade or the neglect of opportunities
for reciprocal trades allows this con-
sequence to fall upon the farmers of
the United States, will go down into
history under the fierce condemnation
of a'l the people. / have not hitherto
meTt oned, nor can I develop at any
length the beneficial effects of reci-
proc,ty with the South American coun-
tries. One has but to examine the in
creasing trade which followed the re-
ciprocal treaties which were so sense
lessly abrogated by the democrats in
10 hot &c ApI In,
which our statesmen can employ their
abilities with greater rewards than in
the cultivation OF closer commercial
relations with the South American
continent. With American lines of
steamships established between the
ports of the United States and the
ports of South America, and with fair
trade arrangements, we can comIn1
cially dominate these undeveloped
lands for all time to come. Mark my
prediction, that in the ensuing quarlGr
of a century, trade arrangements, b.
whatever name they may be called
will be the most prominent and i'm
portant subjects of discussion and de-
cision, not only in our own countr.'
but in every country of the civilized
world How indispensable and unpa-
triotic II would be to cast away in the
very beginning of this great struggle
the only weapon with which we can
fight our way to victory.
Before | close my consideration If
the tariff and of reciprocity | must e
fer to some peculiar conceptions
which my friend Sullivan Has of its OPP
Grafton and effect. There was a diff
ference of opinion in 1897 among re-
publicans, and still is, respecting the
wisdom of putting the duty on lumber.
II is one of those differences which
will always exist, and | am not COO.
tending against the modification of the
duty | desire. however to point out
the exaggerations for which Mr.. Sui
Ivan seems to be responsible. TAX
ing the prices of lumber In 1897 as a
guide, the average duty put upon 1t
was less than 5 per cent of its selling
price. and yet, in the fervor of his love
for free trade, Mr. Sullivan says:
There is not a man within the
sound of my voice who does not know
1T to be fact that when the Dingley
''act passed, the price of lumber in
every form was Increased from 20 to
40 per cent"
He may be right about the increase