The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1911-02-02
CANADIAN RECIPROCITY.
About 100 Articles Will Come in
Free Under the Bill.

The Canadian reciprocity agreement,
long awaited, has been submitted to the
Senate and House in n special message
by President Taft. The greatest tu-
multi of the session and of the entire
61st. Congress has ensued. 1t is not
a treaty. although often alluded to as
such, but simply an agreement signed
by Secretary of State Knox. acting for
the United States and w 8. Fielding,
Minister of Finance, and William Pat
terson, Minister of Customs, on behalf
of the Dominion of Canada.
Its ratification and consequent en-
forcement can come only by legislation
through the usual channels. 1t must
be enacted by the Canadian Parliament
at Ottawa and by the Senate and House
at Washington. In substance it is a
tariff revision bill and one of its lead
ing features is the placing &C foodstuffs
upon the free list There are about 100
articles, now protected by duty, which
will come IN free If the agreement is
ratified These include cattle, sheep and
hogs, much TO the dissatisfaction of
Senators and Representatives of the
Republican sparty. in the middle West;
wheat, rye, oats and barley, which sets
New York, Minnesota and other grain
growing States along the border by the
ears; fresh fruits, vegetables, dairy
products, honey, cotton seed oil, fish,
lumber, wood, pulp paper, and a few
articles Of iron and steel manufacture
The Democrats have hailed the agree
ment with satisfaction. It is in line
with such a tariff revision as they con-
template. The President has set forth
the advantages of the proposed free list
in his message, and as far as Washing
ton has yet been able to determine the
sentiment of the country, the attempted
reductions please consumers quite gen.
orally. But the producers of the divers
t..1 Lii
publican Representatives. at Washing
ton.
Another feature of the agreement is
the equalization of duties, by which is
meant fixing similar rates of duty for
many articles of manufacture that cross
the border in international commerce.
In other words, Canada reduces in many
instances the duties she has been charg
ing for goods going into Canada to
the same figure that the United States
charges for the same kind of Canadian
goods coming into the United States
The cutlery in Congress is that Canada
gets the greatest benefit therefrom.
However, there is not so much COM
plant on this score as there is on the
proposed free list.
Meat Pays Duty.
The duties are not abolished on
meats. The duties on -four, however,
are reduced. Barley matt, produced eX-
tensively in New York and Minnesota,
is an example. The duty under the
Aldrich-Payne tariff is 40 cents a
busheI. The present Canadian duty is
40 cents per hundred weight. The pro-
posed duty under the agreement is As
cents per hundred weight, The Aldrich
Payne rate on fresh mutton and lamb
is l x cents pound; the Canadian
duty 3 cents a pound. The agreement
makes the mutual rate l cents a
pound, a slight reduction. Our duty
on wheat flour is rs per cent; the Can
adam duty 60 cents a barrel. The
compromise rate is so cents barrel.
The manufacturers of farm machin
cry have been trying to get into the
Canadian market on better terms. The
Canadian duty on most articles of that
class is 20 per cent. BY the agreement
the Canadian duty is reduced to Is per
cent Cotton seed oil is one of the
free list items and that pleases the
South.
President Taft is pressing for early
ratification The Senate is disposed to
resist, and the burning question of the
hour is whether the Senate will or will
not ratify at this session of Congress-
The weight of opinion at present is that
the Senate will not ratify, but that the
House will Representative Mccall, of