Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1905-08-22

les or by modifying the existing tariff
so as to present maximum and mini
| mum schedules offering advantages to
the nations admitting our products on
favorable terms and imposing penal
ties for those discriminating against us
seemed to the practical members oil
the conference a matter of indifference
so long as some form of protection was
devised. The main object of the gath
ering was to put an end to the long per-
iod of congressional neglect of the ma
TONS foreign trade interests--to i'm
press upon that body the fact that our
export trade is ir vital and increasing
danger, that unless the foreign outlet
for our surplus production in score of
lines is defended it may be cut off with
inevitable economic disaster to the
home market and to the entire mer-
camille and industrial community.
The Review is surprised at the large
number of business men to whom reci-
procity appears in the nature of an
experiment. In point of fact the Re-
view asserts it has been a factor in the
commercial history of this country for
more than half century and has been
given frequent and Instructive trials"
Since 1855, when the Canadian rec1-
procity treaty went into effect, forty
commercial agreements between this
and other countries have been nego-
tiated. OF these seventeen failed of
ratification. OF the twenty-three that
went into effect the Review selects fif-
teen that continued in effect long
enough to furnish basis for IAN intel
ligent conclusion as to whether reel
procity is or is not a valuable means of
promoting and protecting our foreign
trade" and concludes that the verdict
must be favorable. Too many of the
treaties We're crude and unscientific to
afford test of the policy and the Re
view especially calls attention to the
ton 8 of the tariff of 1897 as "too
trivial to repay statistical lnvestiga-
ton: in fact, were so farcical as to
seriously discredit the reciprocity idea
in the minds of foreign statesmen -
America seemed to them to be offering
to remove the duties on acorns II they
would take off the duties on chest
nuts" The Cuban treaty under it's
nineteen months trial seems to the
Review to have been in the main
success.
Continuing, the Review says:
The maximum and minimum tariff
plan, in view Of this practical difficult
treaty satisfactory to all branches of
domestic industry, is appealing more
and more strongly to intelligent bust
ness men. Some defense we emphat-
ically must have if our exports are to
hold their own in the era Of universal
tariff discrimination that is about to
begin. In the minds of its trainers the
fourth section of the tariff of 1897 was
intended to put in operation what
would have virtually been system of
maximum and minimum tariffs, altho
the treaties negotiated under that
clause have always been termed recl-
treaties. Senator Cullom's as
surance that congress is disposed to
see what can be done in behalf of our
export interests by modifying our pres
ent tariff policy in the direction of the
-minimum tariff idea Is
therefore encouraging. American man
ufacturers and the vast agricultural
interests of the west and southwest
whose interests in export markets now
exceed billion and a half annually
are not concerned with the name or
the form of congressional support,
they are only anxious that some form
of protection should be devised-before
it is too late-that will adequately de-
fend and maintain the vast trade al
ready secured, and will serve in rea-
sonable degree to promote and extend