Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 February 1891 — PADDED RECIPROCITY. [ARTICLE]

PADDED RECIPROCITY.

WHAT WE GAIN STUFFED OUT WITH WHAT WE HAD. In Order to Make Blaine’s Diplomacy Look Big. The Facts About Our Brazilian Trade— What the New Concessions Amount To Our Sh ppers Must Study the South American Markets if They Are Going to Increase the Trade. [National Democrat.] Secretary Blaine has negotiated a padded reciprocity treaty with Brazil. He had to pad it a good deal to make it look Urge: when the sawdust is let out it shrinks. It will probably increase our exports to Brazil somewhat, and to that extent it is a good thing, but Mr. Blaine’s literary bureau has made a lot of boards of trade think that the new treaty is going to revolutionize South American commerce. This is absurd. The chief effect of the treaty will be to stimulate the demand for subsidies, though if the agreement were really going to expand our commerce it would destroy the only plausible excuse for subsidies. Mr. Blaine’s extraordinary diplomatic talents, operating under the wholly unconstitutional reciprocity codicil of Mr McKinley’s last political will and testament has led Brazil to consent that American wheat shall bo admitted to that country free of duty. Observe the gratitude of the American farmer to Mr. Blaine! Observe also that in the Brazilian tariff, published by our State Department in 1887, wheat is already on the free list.— Our wheat gams no new privilege and no K'vilege over the wheat of the Argentine public and Chili. Mr. Blaine has won another great victory for American trade. He has secured the free admission of American coal into Brazil. But then according to the aforesaid Brazilian tariff coal from all countries was already on the free list. According to statistic, compiled under the direction of the Secretary of State for the use of the late Pan-American Congress Brazil in 1888 imported coal worth $ 1,312,563 from England and none at all from this country. In 1889 Brazil took $347 woith of our coal. A thi d great concession secured from Brazil bv Mr. Blaine’s extraordinary diplomatic talents is that no duties shall be imposed upon agricultural implements. Bui. then, the Brazilian tariff already cited recorded the fact th it agricultural implements were already on the free list. And as if this were not enough he has also induced Brazil to concede free entry to railway construction material and equipment. Railway bass were already on the free list, and in 1889 we didn t export a pound of them to Brazil But there are concessions that the Blaine-Mendonca agreement really does secure for us. They are mostly on articles of food, and in breadstuffs and provisions we already controlled the Brazilian market. Of course the removal or the reduction of th. duties will make it easier for us to sell our breadstuffs aud provisions, but as Brazil is already buying from us about all the food she has to import this agreement isn’t going to work won ders. According to ho Blaine-Mondonca agreement, in addition to wheat, on the free list, flour, com, and cornmeal and starch, oats, rye, barley and buckwheat are to go on the free list. It happens, however, that the existing duties are not very hi te, and that in 1888 Brazil imported breadstuffs worth $2,812,281 from thej United States, $15,708 from Germany, and none from anywhere else so far as reported in our documents. - When the Argentine Republic has wheat to sell the probability is that she can beat is in the Brazilian market But practically the entire Brazilian demand forfc r* eign breadstuffs is already supplied by the United States, so that this new concession means some reduction, but not a great one, in the price of flour in Rio ds Janeiro, and whether it means any increase in the shipments of flour from this country remains to be seen. The Brazilian duty on flom is 39.2 cents on the flour, plus an extra 69 per cent, called the consumption tax, and plus an extra 5 per cent, called the emancipation tax, and the general custom in South America is to levy toe duty on the gross weight, so that the barrel would pay the same tax as the flour— In 1888, as stated above, our breadstuffs exports to Brazil amounted to $2,812,281; but in 1889 we sent Brazil flour alone worth $3,651,908. Our wheat export amounted to $384,337, and all our other breadstuff exports to Brazil amounted to $54,846.

Brazil also proposes to put our salt pork on her free list, and take a quarter off the duties on our hams, lard, butter and cheese. This is undoubtedly a gain for us; the cheaper we Can sell those articles the more of them we hope to sell- — We have one formidable competitor in this line—Fraice. In 1888 we sold Braziljs43b,39s worth of provisions, including dauy products; England sold her $125,a 49, while France sold her $1,574,347. A reduction of duties on these articles may be expected io increase our trade, but without any concessions at all our exports of these commodities increased in a year mere than a third, and a grega.ed $604,503. Lard alone was more than threefourths of this. Among the manufactured goods we are to have a concession made on cottons, but none on woollens. As we ha<e an advantage over England in raw cotton, while in raw wool the English manufacturer has an advantage over the Am rican manufacturer, we need concessions on woollens more than we do on cottons. If our cotton manufacturers would only study foreign markets, they could >robably compete very well with Englishmen in South America and Asia. It is only fair to add, however, that Brazil is a much better market for cottou th n for woolen goods. ■- We are to receive a concession from Brazil on leather and its manufactures, creep* boot* and shoes, which constitute the principal manufacture of leather. We are to receive concession on lumber, timber and the manufactures of wood, including cooperage, furniture of all kin is, wagons carts and carriages. The Br. zilan imports of th* manufactures of wood

in 1888 were as follows (not including carriages, carts and cars): United States, -.-- $384,495 Franco, ----- 119,515 England, - - - - - 36,776 Germany, ----- 26,418 So that we have the big end of the Brazilian lumber market anyway. The Brazilian duty on carriages and horse cars is 40 per cent, plus 65 per cent of that, and on Eteam cars 10 per cent, plus 65 per cent, of that, or 16.5 per cent, on the valuation. We exported to Brazil in 1888 carriages, carts and cars worth $78,925, and England sent Brazil the same articles worth $.2,387, steam cars wortn $275,853, car wheels worth $9,703 and locomotive engines worth $272,155, without any-special concessions. In 1889 we exported to Brazil agricultural implements worth $31,848, these were on the free list; colored and uncolored cottons, $602,858, on these Brazil promises to reduce duties 25 per cent.; hay $925, this is to be put on the free list; cutlery, firearms and hardware $66,992; on these there is no concession; paper $36,034, no concession; beans and peas, $46,565, and potatoes, $lB4, duties to be token off; furniture, $50,816, duties to be reduced; miscellaneous machinery, $233,233, concessions on some of it and not on others; saws and tools, $135,890, duties to be reduced on a part; sewing machine, $78,751, no concessions; illuminating oil, $890,012, no concession; lubricating oil, $45,444, no concessions; cotton seed oil, $7,237, duties to be taken off. Mr. Blaine’s literary bureau announces that several other treaties are in the shop and will be delivered soon. But wo take occasion to repeat what wo have said before, sustained by the highest commercial authority, that the South American trade is not to bo captured by reciprocal treaties, nor by subsidies to steamers, but by the same business methods that are employed by the manufacturers of England. France and Germany. The Dry Goods Economist has just issued its Year Book for 1891, and on page 18 of this book we find the following: “An American merchant who recently returned from a business tour in Central and South America, records these observations; “If every point of importance in the South was in weekly communication with the United States, and manufactured goods carried free of freight, and invoiced 10 per cent, less than corresponding European goods, there would then be few if any more purchases than now, or as long as the present imperfect Knowledge of exporting exists in the United States. In Central America and several other countries duties on manufactured goods are by gross weight—the box, barrel or case, and contents, alike subject to duty ranging from 20 cents to $1 50 a pound. Native merchants who had been beguiled in giving orders to the United States business houses showed the heavy, clumsy boxes in which the goods came. Duty on them was 50 cents per pound. The unnecessary weight of the box added 22 per cent, unnecessary cost to the contents. Goods are packed up without any consideration of the internal means of transport. Packages of 500 pounds -weight are made up, where the only means of transportation is by paniers on mules. Because Europeans are well informed how to pack Southern merchants suppose the American soliciting for his business is also. The American shipper not having instructions ships as he twould to Chicago or St. Louis. All over the South one hears complaints against American ways of forwarding.— In Guatemala or in Ecuador one is equally sure to hear, ‘yes, your prices, are low; but no one can tell what United States goods wilt cost till they ue on the shelves.’” Blaine’s claim for “reciprocity”, so far as its operations with Brazil is concerned is a ‘sham’. But it is a good ‘missile* to fling at the heads of monopoly protectionists who go into spasms at the mere thought of tariff reform. ‘Reciprocity, ’ pure and simple, is but “free trade” under another name.