The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-04-28
President Emphatically De- clares Treaty Will Bene-
 fit the Farmer
NOW OR NEVER BILL
 MUST BE ADOPTED
President Makes First of Series of Speeches He Intends Delivering In Order to Invoke Sentiment
 Favoring Reciprocity

 never and must stand or fall by it's own terms. So declared President Taft in an address at the Waldorf Astoria . tonight at the fourth annual banquet of the Associated Press and the Ameri can Newspaper Publishers association.
 His address was the first of series in which he plans to evoke public senti- ment In support of his policies and he appealed to the company of editors and newspaper owners, gathered from the length and the breadth of the land to impress on the public mind that reef procty should stand alone and ought not to be affected in any regard by other amendments to the tariff law.
 His recommendations were warmly oheered.
 All talk of annexation he character ized as "bosh1 and said the United States has all 1t can attend to with the territory 1t is now governing. He praised the House of Representatives for its passage of the agreement; de- clared that 1t would not injure the. farmer nor any special class, answered in detail the objections that have been raised to reciprocity and begged for at least a ''kind of test to dispel the ghosts" exhibited to frghten the agri- cult,.Tss, classes.
 T have said that this was a critical time In the solution of the question of reciprocity" concluded the President. Tt is critical because unless it is now decided favorably to reciprocity it is exceedingly probable that no such op- portunity will ever again come to the United States. The forces which are at work in England and in Canada will derive an impetus from the rejection of the treaty, and if we would nave reel procity with all the advantages that I have described and that l earnestly and sincerely believe will follow its adoption, we must take it now or give 1t up forever"
 Other speakers of the evening were Manuel De Zamacona. Mexican ambas- sador to the United States. who urged intelligent and deliberate consideration of the forces that have shaped the pres ent insurrection; William Barton North rup, kings counsel and a member of the dominion parliament. who analysed Canadian sentiment with reference to reciprocity; Nicholas Murray Butler of Columbia university, and J F. Mckay, president of the Canadian Press, limited.
 Oswald Garrison Willard. proprietor of the New York Evening Post in in- troducing the President, praised MT. Taft for his abstention from the short CT and uglier word" in, his characteriza- tion of those who differ with him, and lauded his charity and judgment and advocacy of international peace The signing of the pending treaty of arbi- tration with Great Britain, to be fol- lowed, the President had promised. by similar agreements with other nations, would inaugurate, he said, new era in American history, if not of the world with which your name, sir, will forever be most honorably and ndis- solubly connected"
 Invites Criticism
 Yours is the privilege" he informed the President, of telling us to our faces, Just what you think is wrong with us, or saying what you can in our behalf to a larger public, which some times has it's doubts about us and our methods" He then proposed the health of the President and Mrs. Taft who was in the galleries, and the toast was drunk standing.
 The President smiled broadly at MT. Villard's invitation to criticse tho press but did not choose to take ad- vantage of it.
 President Taft devoted the greater part of his address to the Canadian re- ciprocity agreement. On this subject he said in part:
 'I am glad to have the opportunity of speaking to a body which fully rep resents the most important agencies for the formation of public opinion in this country, upon question which has now reached a critical point in its set clement. The agreement is a commer- cial one and affects the duties on inl- ports from each country into the other and therefore 1t is difficult to say that detailed discussion of tariff sched- ules is not relevant and important in considering it's wisdom. But the gen eral commercial, economic and social arguments in its favor are so convinc- ing that I may be pardoned If I do not dwell on specific rates.
 The treaty provides for free trade in all agricultural products and in rough lumber, down to the point of planeing. It reduces the duties on sec ondary food products by very sub stantial percentage and 1t makes such reductions of a number of manufactul cd articles that those engaged in mak- ing them have assured us that the re- auctions will substantially increase the already large, Canadian demand for them.
 We rendered to the Canadian com missioners absolute free trade in all products of either country, manufac- tured or natural but the Canadian com missioners did not feel Justified In go- ing so far. It Is only, reasonable to infer, therefore, that with respect to these articles upon which they refuse free trade to us, they felt that the pTOIltdplS price dI Wnlcn they COulC be sold by our manufacturers in Can ada was less than the price at which their manufacturers could affo.d to sell the same, either to their own people or to us. Hence it follows that their | refusal to agree to free trade in these 1 articles as we proposed is the strong est kind of evidence that If we should take off the existing duty from such articles coming into the United States 1t would not affect in the slightest de- gree, the price at which those articles could be furnished to the public here. Thus the reason why meats were not put on the free list on the Canadian agreement was because Canada felt that the competition of our packers would injuriously affect the products of their packing houses If that be true. how would it help our customers or lower the price of meat in our mar kets if wellet in their meat free, while they retained a duty on our meat? Benefits Farmer
 'sThe same thing is true of flour. And q yet, gentlemen insist that the farmer s has been unJustly treated, because we haven't put Canadian flour and meat on the free list. And 1t is proposed to satisfy the supposed grIev<nce of tho farmers by now doing so without any -----~