Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1911-04-26
RECIPROCITY PASSES The HOUSE
Letter From Former Citizen on the Sub
ject Of Trade Pact With Our NeishbOr

On Saturday last, the reciprocity pact
between this country and Canada, attrac-
ted attention in and out of congress for
many months, was passed by the House
of Representatives by the decisive vote
Of 264 to 49, 1t is now pending in the
United States Senate, with some un-
certainty as to the disposition that will
be made there. Ten democrats and
seventy mine republicans voted against
the measure. From Wisconsin Kopp,
Lenroot. Esch and Nelson voted against
reciprocity.
Below we print letter contributed
by former resident of Viroqua on the
subject of reciprocity. The author is
man of sound judgment, a far-seeing
farmer and careful business man, whose
judgment we must respect although we
do not fully agree with him on this i'm
portant question. What he has to say
is of interest because we know he has
no political axes to grind and has done
things worthy of emulation in his career
besides agitate and hold office, like too
many of the political spouters of this
Lenroot brand:
EDITOR CENSOR: | notice in a recent
issue of the CENSOR that you cast your
vote against reciprocity. / find that
many other honest intelligent men are
taking the same stand on this question,
but also find an equal number of just
as honest and capable men taking the
opposite side and favor reciprocity.
Then again, when you read what they
are saying across the line there is just
as much difference of opinion there as
here, and while some claim great bene-
fits to them, others see only disaster.
Now out of all these different opin-
ions and argument it looks to me like
neither country was getting any great
advantage in the deal, and the vital
question to consider is would this coun-
try and Canada be better off with a re-
ciprocal agreement or free trade be-
tween them than it is with tariff wall
so high that in many cases it is prohi-
bitory. | have always believed in pro-
lection, and do yet to a certain extent
to protect new industries, and to equal
ize the difference in wages, but great
corporations that have become monopo-
lies should have their wings clipped by
cutting off the tariff, in my opinion. But
when we consider the question with
Canada it may be, and think it is quite
probable, would prove benefit to both
countries to do away with the tariff
wall entirely. A free exchange of COM
modities would in many ways benefit
both, and what little we would loose on
one thing we would make up on some
thing else. AS it now is it looks to me
like the expense of collecting the duties
and watching the line, the amount we
pay Canada on our exports, would
amount to more than all we receive,
and if that is the case we are money
out besides losing much business that
we would gain by free trade | expect
to start farming in North Dakota this
spring on a larger scale than | ever
have been, and if | was as much afraid
of reciprocity as some are | suppose
would be selfish enough to be bowling,
but am inclined to think the president
is right when he tells them they are
seeing ghosts.
As there is no danger of anything of
this kind happening, and not likely
that we will soon see reciprocity, as
there is too much politics on hand to
attend to much else just now, therefore
there is no danger of anyone's opinion
doing any good or harm; | will say that
if | was gong to cast a vote for some
kind of trade agreement with Canada
! would say to them as long as you
keep your tariff with foreign countries
about the same as ours we will main
tain free trade with you.
Yours truly,
/. w. SwITzER.
Minneapolis, February q, 1911.