The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-10-15
BUREAU FOR
 PHILIPPINES
Continued from First fage.) Colton's Speech
 To Manufacturers


 congress who are capable of discern ing that which is best for their con- st1tuents and the country at large It IS much easier at times to merely vote TOT that which appeals to local pre- Judlce than to take up the real meat of proposition and undertake it's ex- planation, but the latter course is the W1sest for the truth must eventually be known, when the man who has done the work must receive the credit due him.
 Representative Hill, who has visited the Philippine Islands and made most careful study of our trade rela- tlons with them, has seen clearly that the market in and through those isl ands tremendously outweighs any business interests in the United States through competition with Philippine products.
 Since the establishment of civil gov ernment in the Philippines free trade relations with the United States, have been sought by the Philippine people and government of those islands, but up to the time of the recent session Of Congress the subject seems only to nave been investigated with reference to the effect it might have on the su- gar and tobacco interests of the Unit ed States, In other words, the Phil tppine market was kept closed to the United States through the fears of the sugar and tobacco people that the free admission of Philippine products might lnjure their industries. The produc- tion of sugar, tobacco and cigars in the Philippine Islands was, however, 1nf1nitesimal in comparison with the consumption and importation of those commodities into the United States. To allay the fears of the sugar and to- bacco people, therefore, an agreement was made that the free admission of such products into the U. s. should be limited to quantities considerably larger than those representing the production of~the Philippines, and yet sufficiently small so that they would not be regarded as a menace to the industries in the United States, and rates of duty were placed upon those articles when imported into the Phil ippine Islands equal to the rates of duty imposed upon them when import ed into the United States so that it would be impossible to import foreign sugar and tobacco into the Philippine Islands and then send it to the United States without their having paid the full duties assessable here Thus the protection which Congress gives to those in the mainland is not broken or interfered with in the slightest de- gree. In addition to this, the rate of duty in the Philippine Islands upon all leaf tobacco was fixed at the wrap per rate, so that it is impossible to in- .troduce wrapper tobacco into the Phil ippines as filler tobacco, and so es-, cape the duty intended to be impos- ed by the law.
 Again, those who were afraid that the Philippine Islands would be made halfway house for the manufacture of foreign articles were satisfied by a restriction of the free admission of arr ticleS manufactured in the Philippine Islands to those containing not more than twenty per cent. of foreign ma- a,-io 1c o1I r+i ioIn 1f product or manufacture of the United States are admitted into the Philip pine Islands from that country free of duty. Hence, it is plain that in the new trade arrangements between the United States and the Philippine Isl- ands the interests of the former coun- try have not been neglected, and that MT. Hill and his associates who were looking out for the interests of the manufactures of the United States have not failed to protect every inter est in the home country, while secur- ing to it's manufacturers the Philip pine market and extending to the isl andS the benefits of partial free trade with the United States. -1
 That Connecticut is to participate in the advantages of the new arrange ment is evidenced by the fact that Philippine buyers are this very day in Hartford with orders for 1-2 tons of wrapper tobacco, and it is certain that this trade will be large ly extended for Manila cigarmakers will not pay $2.50 pound duty upon Sumatra wrappers when they can inn port Connecticut leaf free.
 The story of our trade relations with the Philippine Islands and the course they should take under recent legis- lation is simple. We are now buy cal and sub-tropical products annual ly from countries that buy from us but half that value of our products, leaving a balance of trade against us in that direction of nearly $500, GOO, 900. In other words, we do not get a fair percentage of the trade of those for eign countries that now furnish us with the greater part of our coffee, cacao, fbers, fruits, vegetable oils, rub Der, silks, spices, sugar, tobacco, cab inet woods, gums, etc
 With the free admission to this country of these products from the Philippine Islands, and they are all produced or may be produced there, such an impetus will be given to pro- duction and industry in the islands that their market for the things we sell and which under the Payne law will be admitted there free of duty, that it twill be worthy of prompt and careful investigation. The protection afforded American products and man ufactories by the Philippine tariff up
 
 trol of that market to American eX- porters, and no time should be lost in taking advantage of the changed con- ditions.
 We have only to examine the trend of trade with Porto Rico since the tar if barriers were removed between that island and the mainland and com pare it with the Philippines to com prehend what substantial free trade, with the Philippines may mean to the American manufacturers and producers, whose enterprise leads them to enter the new market. The value of our exports to Porto Rico before free trade with it was established never exceeded $20OO, 900. During 1907; only six years after the new relations were established, the island bought S26, 100000 worth of goods from the mainland, while the total external commerce of Porto Rico was increas- ed in value from $18,000,000 to more than S56 900, 900. We buy nothing from Porto Rico that we should not other wise have to import from abroad and our sales there represent a clear gain of more than $24,OOO,0 900 annually
 Our purchases of Porto Rican pro- ducts increased in value from S5, ,0OO- 900 in 1901 to $22,0O0,000 in 1907, when we received 80 per cent. of her ship ments and supplied SS per cent of her purcha ses, thus leaving more than an eu11aI return from the trade Amer