The weekly chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Craig County, Okla.) 1905-1913, 1911-02-17
BY Associate d Press.

oAb NNANhNC0 NAAC PAOPOoNN ANNAPAOS
ity agreement with Canada in an ad-
dress before the Illinois legislature
here today as logical conclusions of
the protection plank in the last repub-
lican national platform.
He defined the protection theory as
one that should impose tariff not
exceeding the difference in the cost of
production in this country and abroad
and allowing a fair margin of profit
for the home producer.
We agreed, therefore, that inasmuch
as the conditions of production from
the United States and Canada were
substantially the same, the widest lati-
tude was given Secretary Knox and
the commissioners who represented the
United States in offering Canada a
reduction of duties on goods and prod
ucts coming into this country from
Canada in consideration of the estab-
lishment of the same duty, or freedom
from duty, on similar goods going into
Canada"
The president explained that it was
thought wiser on behalf of both gov
ernments not to make formal treaty,
"but to make an agreement between
the executives by which each should
submit the agreement in the form of
a statute to be enacted and to go into
force on condition that a similar statue
was passed by the legislature of the
other country" He said in part:
This form of agreement makes it
lone from which either country can
withdraw at will by simply changing
the statute by new legislation.
Il am a protectionist. That is, be-
lieve there are certain industries in
this country which need the encourag-
ing effect of a tariff upon imports
from foreign countries to enable them
to pay good wages and furnish rea-
sonable profit to those who engage in
them. The difference in condition
which generally makes this tariff nee
essary is the lower price of labor in
the foreign country as compared with
the price of labor in our own.
There was a time when leading re-
publicans thought there was no dan
ger of having a tariff higher than nee
ncc fO In
thought that if the country was made
dependent on manufactures behind the
tariff wall the competition between
the manufacturers would atimulate
the reduction in the cost of production
and thus reduce the price
But the temptation to combine by
which the price could be controlled
and thus the excessive tariff taken ad-
vantage of, led to a modification of
: the protection theory and to a declar-
alton that the protection of any indus
try ought not to exceed in the tariff
i imposed, more than the difference be-
tween the cost of production abroad
d the cost of production here and en-
ough to give fair profit to the domes-
tic producer or manufacturer.
This limitation necessarily took
away any grounds for tariff between
this country and any country in which
the conditions of production were sub
stantially the same. The conditions
of production and manufacture in the
4 United States and in Canada are sub
stantially the same. Wages may diff
fer in one part of Canada from another
part, just as wages differ in different
states in this country, but the price
paid them per unit of work is not
substantially less in Canada than in
this country.
'In other words, the plank in the
platform of the last republican con-
IVention, carried to its logical conclu-
sion would lead to substantial free
trade with Canada.
'In many cases where the agree
ment has been criticised for not max
ing greater reduction, we could not
secure them because in the judgment
of our Canadian friends the trade or
industry which they desired to foster
would suffer by a greater reduction
thus with respect to meats, we would
have been glad to put them on the
free list. Canada objected and we OBJ
tanned the best figures we could"
The president said the criticism
that reductions had been avoided pur-
posely on manufacturer articles was
wholly unfounded and that a reciproc-
ity agreement between the United
States and Canada must Of necessity
relate more to agriculture products
than manufactures.
"The suggestion that the opening
of our markets to Canadian wheat and !