The Republican journal., 1912-09-19
A LITTLE RECIPROCITY HISTORY.

The last speech made by President Nc
Canadian border. 1t was speech in which
the lifelong advocate of protection declared
himself In favor of the policy of reciprocity
When Mr.. Roosevelt assumed the presi-
Dental succession he solemnly pledged him
self to carry out the policies of President
Mckinley for the remainder of the term that
he would have served. From that time down
to his ambition for third term Mr.. Roose-
welt favored reciprocity and, further free
trade with Canada
On July %. 1911, the Senate by vote of So
to 7passed the Canadian reciprocity bill based
on the agreement made between the Taft Ad
minis tration and the Canadian Government.
The House has previou SLY, on Feb. 18th, passed
the bill by vote of 221 to 92 Mr. Roose-
welt favored the bill. Re preventative Long
worth in giving his vote for the bill in the
House said that in voting for it he was "fo-
lowing the lead of Payne, Roosevelt and Taft"
In the time between the presentation of the
measure to Congress and its final adoption the
fight for and against it was carried on with
vigor and ability. 1t is not the intention here
to review that fight but there were two incl
On Feb. 9, 1911, Senator Beverdge opened
the Senate debate the agreement with
speech i'll favor of it. He declared that the
farmer had nothing to fear from the bill. He
said Canadian reciprocity would solve in
measure the high cost of living problem by
making it impossible to corner the food sup.
ply. canadian reciprocity" said he would
steady and regulate prices and do much to end
+ the cruel wrong of cornering the food on
which our people live. With Canadian reci-
procity the food gambler in the pit would have
to corner the product of a continent instead of
country" In another part of his speech he
said: 1--WE do not need to protect our people
from the Canadian people. What we need is
to make it easy for Canada to freely buy from
US things she needs and that we produce in
stead of making it hard for Canada to do So
What we need is to make it easy for our peo-
pie to buy from Canada those things which
our people need instead of making it hard for
them to do So" OF the agreement as whole
he said: "Our Government has done surpris.
ingly well in the concessions it has secured"
In the West the Chicago Tribune fought for
the bill. In its issue of June 2, 1911, in order
to show where the West stood on the question.
it printed poll made up from 4303 answers
received from that number of the 10000 news
papers, daily and weekly, to which it had sent
this question: Are you in favor of the an.
prevail by Congress of the reciprocity agree
ment with Canada negotiated by President
Taft" Of the replies received 31l2 were in
favor of the agreement and 1927 against it, or.
as the Tribune said, NEARLY a three TO one
vote for the policy advocated by President
Taft. shattering he claims of the foes of
reciprocity" Here are other excerpts from
the article in which it summarized the res ult
of the poll. This carrie CONVINCING dis
proof of the theories that the agricu|tura,
States would resent the success of President
Taft if he carried the treaty through success.
fully ana would WISH their dlspleasure the
RannhIIran n6rtV. no all Al,
iustifes President Taft's belief that The
country will support him in endeayorinp to
remove artificial barriers separating natural
markets
In September, 1911, Canada voted against
the agreement, partly because of the effect of
Speaker Clark's quip that reciprocity was but
a step towards ultimate annexation and partly
because of the work done in Canada by Ameri-
can interests hostile to the agreement.
Today Mr. Roosevelt, who has been on every
side OF the tariff question: has about faced once
more and is now condemning reciprocity The
reason for his about facing and his condemns-
ton is that he wishes to win the votes of the
farmers who are opposed to reciprocity. He
is running on platform the tariff plank @
which Is SO general and indefinite as to be cap
able of any Interpretation which the candidate
may think necessary for any locality
Ex-senator Beveridge, who saw in the
re lprocity agreement nothing to hurt the
farmers and step towards the solution of the
hlgner cost Oh hVlng problem, is now support
ing Mr.. Roosevelt. The Chicago Tribune,
which year age, enthusiastically supported
the agreement and saw in it removal of the
artificial barriers separating natural markets .
is supporting Mr.. Roosevelt. No somersault
or broken word of Mr. Roosevelts needs other
explanation than that such are to be expected
from him. But it would be of interest to have
from ex-senator Beverage and the Tribune
dennite statements as to why the reciprocity
agreement was bad thing for farmers and as
to whether farmers are justified in their oppo-
sition to Mr.. Taft because Of it.-Boston Trans
cript. ~