The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-03-28
END OF A MCKINLEY DREAM.

E4ND vi n VI
1t was a part of the policy of Presi-
dent Mckinley to extend our foreign
trade by means of reciprocity treaties.
1t was apparent to him, as it is to any
one who studies the subject, that in
order to increase our trade with other
counties we must make tariff conees-
sions to them if we want concessions
from them. It is true of course that
there are countries which must buy
certain things from US because we are
the only country that has them OF be-
cause we can sell them cheaper than
dent Mckinley knew that there was no
probability of getting Congress to make
a general reduction in the tariff as long
as his party was in power, and it is
certain that he would not have favored
such a reduction because he was high
protectionist.
But it is now authortatively an
nounced that the present administra-
ton will not encourage the negotiation
of any more reciprocity treaties, for
the reason that it has become satisfied
that the Senate will not ratify any of
those which have been negotiated,
with the possible exception of the Gu
ban treaty. What the fate of that
treaty will be is far from certain. 1t
is true that it has been ratified by the
Senate, but an amendment was at
tached to it that prevents it from be-
coming operative until approved by
Congress. Congress- approval is just
as likely to be withheld as granted
Indeed there are suspicious that the
amendment was made to the treaty
with the view of defeating it.
In our Havana dispatches yesterday
it was stated that the Cuban Congress
had been informed that it was the pur-
pose of the President to call an extra
session of Congress some time before
Dec. /, for the purpose of approving
the Cuban treaty. He is so bent upon
having it approved that it is possible
that he may succeed in having his way
in regard to 1t, but there are certain
to be complications growing out of eff
forts to make a general reduction in
the tariff schedules when the treaty
comes up for approval, and it would
not be surprising if the President
should meet with a disappointment.
1t seems that the reciprocity treaty
with Jamaica has been abandoned by
the Legislature of that island, because
of the announcement from the Wash
ington government that there was no
probability that it would be ratified by
the Senate. 1t had been pending
long time-long enough to justify the
conclusion that it would never be rati-
fed. And it was this treaty that call
ed forth the announcement that the
negotiation of reciprocity treaties
would be discouraged by the admins
tration.
a large amount of money has been
spent in negotiating these treaties, sew
eral of which are now pending. There
is no doubt that all of them will be
abandoned. The interests dealt with
in these treaties are so conflicting that
it is practically impossible to get har-
monious action on them. For instance,
the reciprocity treaty with France was
strongly opposed by California, because
it would have let into this country, free
of duty, a number of articles which are
produced in that state, and hence
would have resulted in lowering the
prices of such articles. That was not
satisfactory to the California producer.
Those who fought the Cuban treaty
were the producers of cane and beet
sugar and tobacco. and they may win
their fight yet, as already pointed out.
The task of making changes in the tar
iff is more difficult now than ever be-
fore. That this is true will be discov-
cred when Congress undertakes to
make reductions in the tariff sched-
ules.