Norwich bulletin., 1912-12-04
Pages Nine to Twelve

LO UG Iut NlltcI NUullDOulLltS lOTmluk the volume of our augmented exports, the demands of our own people for consumption requiring that an increas- ing proportion of our abundant agri- cultural products be kept at home. In the fiscal year 1911 the exports of ar ticles in the various stages of manu- facture. not including foodstuffs partly or wholly manufactured, amounted ap- lroximately to $907 7,500,0O0. In the fiscal year 1912 the total was nearly $1, ,022, 100000, gain of $114.O00,O00. Advantage of Maximum and Minimum
 Tariff Provision.
 The importance which our manufac- lures have assumed in the commerc0 of the world in competition with ths manufactures of other countries again draws attention to the duty of this government to use its utmost endeav- ors to secure impartial treatment for American products in all markets Healthy commercial rivalry in inter national intercourse is best assured by the possession of proper means for protecting and promoting our foreign trade. It is natural that competitive countries should view with some con- cern this steady expansion of our com merce If in some instances the meas ure taken by them to meet it are not entirely equitable remedy should be found.
 | In former messages I have described the negotiations of the department of state with foreign governments for the ] adjustment of the maximum and mini mum tariff as provided in section 2 of the tariff law of 1909. The advan- tages secured by the adjustment of our trade relations under this law have continued during the last year, and some additional cases of discrimina- i tory treatment of which we had req son to complain have been removed. The department of state has for the first time in the history of this couN- ! try obtained substantial most-favsrea- nation treatment from all the countries of the world
 There are. however, other instances which. while apparently not conststut- ing undue discrimination in the sense of section 2, are nevertheless excep- tons to the complete equity of tariff treatment for American products that the department of state consistently has sought to obtain for American commerce abroad
 Necessity For Supplementary .LesisIa.
 ton.
 These developments confirm tho cpin- ion conveyed to you in my annual mes sage of 1911. that while the maximum and minimum provision of the tariEE law of 1909 has been fully justified by the success achieved in removing pre- viously existing undue discriminations against American products, yet expert ence has shown that this feature of the law should be amended in such way as to provide fully effective means of meeting the varying degrees of discriminatory treatment of Ameri. can commerce in foreign countries still
 encountered, as well as to protect against injurious treatment on the part of foreign governments through either ] legislative or administrative measures, the financial interests abroad of Ameri- can citizens whose enterprises enlarge the market for American commodities.
 cannot too strongly recommend to the congress the passage of some such enabling measure as the bill which was recommended by the secretary of state in his letter of Dec. IS, 1911. The ob- ject of the proposed legislation is, In brief, to enable the, executive to apply,
 as the case may require, to any or all commodities, whether or not on the free list from a country which discrim- mates against the United States, . graduated scale of duties up to the
 maximum of 25 per cent ad valerem
 provided in the present law.
 Flat tariffs are out of date. Nations no longer accord equal tariff treatment to all other nations irrespective of the treatment from them received. Such flexible power at the command of the executive would serve to moderate say
 unfavorable tendencies on the part of those countries from which the impor-
 tations into the United States are sub stantially confined to articles on the
 free list as well as of the counties which find a lucrative market in the
 United States for their products under
 existing customs rates. It Is very nec- essary that the American government should be equipped with weapons of negotiation adapted to modern eccnom- ic conditions in order that we may st all times be in & position to gain not
 only technically just but actually equit- able treatment for our trade and also for American enterprise and vested in- terests abroad.
 Business Secured to Our Country by Direct Official Effort. As Illustrating the commercial bene-
 its to the nation derived frpm the new diplomacy and its effectiveness upon the material as well as the more ideal side, it may be remarked that through direct official efforts alone there hava been obtained in the course of this ad- ministration contracts from foreign governments involving an expenditure ] of S50,000,000 in the factories of the . United States. Consideration of this
 fact and some reflection upon tho nec- essary effects of scientific txriff sys- tenn and a foreign service alert and
 equipped to co-operats with the busi- ness men of America carry the eonvtc-
 ton that the gratifying increase in the l: export trade of this country is in sub
 stantisl amount due to our improved governmental methods of protecting
 and stimulating it.
 It Is gsrmane to these observations ts
 remark that ID the two years that hsTc
 elapsed since the successful negotiap
 ton of our new treaty with Japan,