The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-06-04
RECIPROCITY NOBLY
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(CoNTINUED FROM PAGE D

(CONTIN Il ELI FROm IANEh 4t its adoption will be forgotten. or will only be remembered as exaggerated in- stances of perverted imagination l say this because I have examined the arguments and compared them With the actual statistics and also because of similar experiences that the people of the United States have had in re- spect to the adoption of partial reef procity with Cuba and of complete reciprocity with Porto Rico and the Philippines
 Cuban Reciprocity
 Under reciprocity with Cuba. at which reduced rates the duties on each side 20 per cent, our trade with that country has doubled. Under complete reciprocity or free trade with Porto Rico our trade with that island has increased nearly 10 times; under reciprocal relations with the Phil ippine islands our mutual trade has near ly doubled in less than a year; and yet in the case of each of these changes there was vehement discussion, bitter op- position, and wild prophecies of disastrous results.
 For 10 years I engaged in the struggle l for Philippine free trade and for 10 years I was regarded as the enemy of the az ricultural interests of this country en- | gagged in the raising of beet and cane sugar, and yet, since the adoption of the Payne tariff bill, which extended free trade to the Philippines, have not heard a single complaint as to the effect of that | feature of the Payne tariff bill
 l "A careful analysis of the arguments. pro and con. over the Canadian reciprocity agreement will convince any fair-minded l economist who is well informed as to conditions in both countries, that six months after the agreement is adopted there will be no complaint from any, where
 From what source does the opposition proceed? In the first place 1t comes from two classes of the business interests of the country, those who own and control the lumber supply of the United States and those who are engaged in the manu- fracture of print paper, and of whom the largest manufacturers own much of the spruce wood supply of the United States from which print paper is made And the second class opposed to the treaty are those who claim to represent the farmers and agricultural interests of the coun- try.
 Object of Treaty
 "In the consideration of these three classes of opponents to the treaty I should promise that one of the great objects of the treaty, one of the great reasons for it's making and submission to Con- gress, was the conservation of our natural resources. It is perfectly evident from the statistics that our general lumber supply, and our supply of spruce wood for papermaking, are being rapidly ex- hausted, and that the effect of the diminu- tion of supply and the increase of de- nand is to put too high a price upon the rough lumber and wood pulp. Under the Payne tariff bill rough lumber is dutiable at s1.25. Under the reciprocity agreement that duty is removed
 T submit that as lumber is essen- tial to all classes. farmers and mer- chants, as the price has gone far be- yond what it was in the past, and as our supply is being exhausted. we ought when we can, to enlarge the sources from which our people may secure It at reasonable prices. The re- port of the chief of the bureau of cor &tions shows that the control of lumber in the United States is in com paTatively few hands and that they are so friendly to each other that the possibility of a monopoly is neither re- mote nor improbable. unless we bring to the markets of the United States the relatively inexhaustible supply to be found in Canada.
 Print Paper
 Second, as to print paper. The tariff board has made a most exhaustive ex- animation of the comparative cost of production of print paper in the Unit ed States and in Canada. Indeed, the report is so complete as to vindicate l the judgment of those who proposed | tie use of a board for the purpose of determining the difference in the cost of articles at home and abroad with a view to assisting the Congress in a