The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-04-05
PRESIDENTS MESSAGE FOR EXTRA SESSION
 GOES TO CONGRESS
Brief Document Wholly Confined to Urgent Request For an
 Early Enactment of the Reciprocity Agreement With Canada

nearly year on the part of both gov ernments to effect g. trade arrange | nent which supplementing as 1t did | the amicable settlement Of various 1 questions of diplomatic and political | character that had been reached | would mutually promote commerce and would strengthen the friendly re- l lations now existing.
 "The agreement, in its intent and in its terms, was purely economic and 1 commercial. While the general sub ject was under discussion by the com
 missioners felt assured that the sen- timent of the people of the United States was such that they would well come a measure which would result in the increase of trade on both sides of the boundary line, would open IF, the reserve productive resources Of Canada to the great mass of our own consumers on advantageous conditions
 and at the same time offer a broader
 outlet for the excess products of our farms and many of our industries.
 Details regarding a negotiation of this kind necessarily could not be made
 public while the conferences were
 pending. When, however. the full
 text of the agreement with the accom- pany1ng correspondence and data ex-
 plaining both its purpose and its scope
 became known to the people through the message transmitted to Congress
 it was immediately apparent that the ripened fruits of the careful labors of the commissioners met with wide spread approval. This approval has been strengthened. by further consid- eration of the terms of the agreement in all their particulars. The volume of support which has developed shows that it's broadly national scope is fully appreciated and is responsive to the popular will.
 "The House of Representatives of the 61st Congress, after the full text of the arrangement with all the details in regard to the different provisions had been before it., as they were be- fore the American people passed a bill confirming the agreement as ne-, gotiated and as transmitted to Con- gress. This meas ilre failed of action in the Senate.
 sIn any transmitting message of the 26th of January, I fully set forth the character of the agreement and en- phasfzed it's appreciableness and Ee- cessity as a response to the mutual needs of the people of the two coun- tries as we'll as it's common advant- ages. I now lay that message and tho reciprocal trade agreement, as in tegrally part of the present message, before the 62d Congress and again in vite earnest attention to the consid- erations therein expected.
 "I am constrained in deference to the popular sentiment and with a. realizing sense of my duty to the great masses of our people whose wei fare is involved, to urge upon your consideration early action on this agreement. Tn concluding the nego- tiations the representatives of the two countries bound themselves to use their utmost efforts to bring about the tariff changes provided for in the agreement by concurrent legislation at Washington and Ottawa. I have felt it my duty, therefore, not to acquiesce in relegation of action until the open :ng of the Congress in December, but to use my constitutional prerogative and convoke the 62d Congress in extra session in order that there shall be no break of continuity in consideration and action upon this most important subject.
 (Signed) "WIILIAM H. TAFT,
 ''The White House, April 5, 1911."