Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1911-05-03
Two Points Of Of Wow.
(New York Tribune),

| 1t IS instructive to contrast the point
Of view from which it's advocates and
opponents regard the policy Of recipro-
| city with Canada. one point Of view is
national; the other is local and paro-
chial. In recent speech in the house
OF repres entatives Mr. Kinds, of Maine,
stated the argument against reciprocity
! in it's narrowest and most localized
| form. He said that the farmers Of the
| United States We're now more in need
OF protection than any other class of
| producers. because after suffering for
| many decades from an oversupply of
cheap lands in the west they We're just
beginning to reap the advantages or
an extinction Of that oversupply, as
witness the notable advance in the
prices of agricultural products in the
last decade and the increase in the
value of farm lands and buildings be-
| tween 1900 and 1910, which has ranged
from 35 per cent in New England to
100 and 200 per cent in the great agri-
cultural states of the west. Mr.. Kinds
thinks that the equilibrium now being
established would be disastrously upset
by admitting 10 the American market
the surplus farm products of Canada.
Without accepting Mr.. Kinds estt-
mate of the economic consequences of
the proposed arrangement with Canada,
we may fairly say that the gist of this
argument is that the prices of food
products in this country should be kept
as high as they are and even forced
higher. as our population increases, by
the exclusion of all foreign food pro-
ducts. Ny. Kinds probably regrets that
the thirteen colonies ever permitted the
northwest territory TO be carved into
. -. Jr,, \ owl
ton. He must also look upon the ac-
uuisition of Louisiana territory. of
Florida and of Texas as an economic
misfortune He must depore the ex-
tension of American sovereignty from
ocean to ocean. for all these successive
endorsements of our boundaries in
creased the available supply of arabic
land and put upon the farmers OF the
original union an increasing burden or
competition. 1t might or might not
have been more profitable for the FAR
-ne~s Of the thirteen colonies If they
had been left 70 furnish the food sup
plv OF nation i0closed by iron bands
within the boundary lines Of the United
states as they existed after the con-
ClusiOn OF the treaty Of peace with
Great Britain. But what would have
been thu status on this continent or in
the World OF SnCN mutton hal
question answers itself and also the
argument that the economic policy of
the United States should have been
governed from the first or should be
governed now by the prime constdera-
ton Of furnishing a closed market for
a single class of it's producers.
Contrast the narrowness OF view with
President Taft's broad gagged states
mansl1ip In his speech in this city on
| Thursday last he said:
The question which We now have TO
answer IS vh@-her We propose to main
tain a = artificial wall across the coun-
rite height 10 prevent the natural trade
-hat would flow between two great ma
tons of reople of the same langua ge,
Of similar character traditions. bust
ness habits and moral aspirations when
the removal OF the wall would furnish
70 each country the economical advant-
age of its corresponding enlargement
Of prosperous population and territory.
without the added responsibility or
government and political control"
That is the spirit in which the states
men Of the past worked who looked 20
The upbuilding of the nation in all its
-rrts and were not afraid to push Its
borders to the Mississippi and then to
the Pacific Who now regrets that
expansion. and who ten or twenty years
hence will regret the similar expansion
Of our economic boundaries northward,
= President Tafts courage and fore
sight brings it about