Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 June 1892 — RECIPROCITY [ARTICLE]

RECIPROCITY

Has Fallen Far Short of Original Expectations. As Now Enacted, “a Fraud, a Delusion and a Snare.” It Ha* Been in Effect Over a Tear, and New Ask the Ameriean Farmer if He Ha* Felt Any Good Effects of the “New Markets’* Opened for His Products by Such Legislation—He Has Looked in ▼aln. [Written by Judge Lewis Jordan.] Down in Maine there lived on a farm an old man and his wife. The husband did not admire Blaine, but this was not the case with the wife. Everything Blaine did met her enthusiastic approval. One day the old farmer returned from the fields late in the evening and found his good rife in a fearful state of excitement. Inquiring the cause, she gleefully announced that some friend had sent her, as a present, a beautiful bird, and she requested her husband to furnish a name for it. Not being in a very amiable mood because his evening meal had not been prepared by reason of the arrival of the bird, he petulantly sang out, “Name it Blaine, everything is Blaine, Blaine with you.” Bo the bird was named Blaine, A few* weeks afterward the old farmer, upon returning from his work, again found the old lady very much excited, “Blaine,” she exclaimed, “has laid an egg”—reciprocity.

A prohibition'temperance lecturer tells the above anecdote, and it must, therefore, be founded on fact. The kind of bird presented to the old lady is not stated, and its species can only be conjectured from its habits. It is more than probable that it was a cuckoo, which never builds its own, but lays its eggs in , some other bird’s nest. The Blaine reciprocity egg w r as laid in nest, and hatched by him much against his will, but who afterwards claimed the bird with beautiful plumage, as belonging to his brood.

It may have been a snipe, and laid eggs which, when hatched, increased that species of birds used to gull the fellows holding the bag. A wide field for speculation is opened by the' failure to give the species of the bird that brought such joy to the old lady. There can, however, be no controversy over the statements that it was a rare bird, which had never before appeared in the United States, and that it was a native of the “American hemisphere.” When it first appeared, it was claimed that it could live in the bleak climate of Canada* but it is now asserted that it can only flourish in the countries that lie “south of us.” It would even chill in the congenial climates of Europe.

I state these facts upon the authority of the celebrated ornithologist, James G. Blaine, and his student in bird lore, Senator Hale, of Maine. There has been, and will continuqgro be, so much cackling over this reciprocity egg, that it will be interesting to study its paternity, its size and composition, and for whose benefit it was laid. The McKinley bill passed the house May 21, 1890, and provided for free sugar up to and including No. 16 Dutch standard. Prior to this date, Mr. Blaine visited the ways and means committee rooms and wanted to lay his reciprocity egg in McKinley's nest. He was driven away, and in a towering rage fled to the rooms of the senate finance committee, smashed his new silk hat on the floor, and denounced McKinley and the Republican members of the ways and means committee because they would not let him lay his reciprocity egg. Mr. Blaine was opposed to the reduction of the sugar duty, and was thrown into a towering rage by the proportion. His letter to Senator Fry, dated July 11, 1890, denouncing the McKinley bill as it passed the house on the 21st of May, contained these memorable declarations :

It would certainly be a very extraordinary policy on the part of our government just at this time to open our market without charge or duty to the enormous crops of sugar raised in the two Spanish islands. * * * . But there is not a section or a line in the entire bill that will open the market for another bushel of wheat or another barrel of pork. If sugar is now placed on the free list without exacting Important trade concessions in return, we, shall close the door for a profitable reciprocity against ourselves.

It is now apparent that William McKinley, Jr., can not claim the paternity of the reciprocity egg, although he cackled with delight over it during his canvass for governor of Ohio. On the 18th of June, 1890, the senate finance committee reported the McKinley bill to the senate with an amendment providing for a tariff tax on sugar. On the 19th of June, Senator Hale, of Maine, offered an amendment prepared by Mr. Blaine, which read as follows:

And the president of the United States L‘ hereby authorized, without further legisla. tion, to declare the ports of the United' States free and open to all products of any nation of the American hemisphere, upon which no export duties are imposed, whenever and so long as such nation shall admit to its porta, free of all national, provincial (state), municipal, and other taxes, Soar, com meal, and other breadstuffs, preserved meats, fish, vegetables and fruits, cottonseed oil, rice, and other provisions, including all articles of food, lumber, furniture, i and all other articles of wood, agricultural implements and machinery, mining and mechanical machinery, structural steel and iron, steel rails, locomotives, railway can

and supplies, street ears, nlm| petre&MKa, or such ether prod nuts of the Halted States as may be agreed upon. It will be noticed that the above amendment embraced Canada, for it is a “Nation of the American hemisphere.” This is important, because it furnishes Conclusive evidence that James G. Blaine the high priest of protection, was willing to have free trade with Canada, provided that nation would admit free the articles named in his amendment.. But Mr. Blaine soon found his reciprocity egg was too big, and in the face of the language of his amendment, he denied that the bird could live in Canada. Strange as it seems, Senator Sherman stated that if we were to have reciprocity with any country, it should be established with Canada firtt. Mr. Blaine was now in a quandary. McKinley would not allow him to lay his egg in his nest and he fared no better with the senate finance committee. After Senator Hale dumped it down in the open senate, opposition sprung up on all sides, the Republican senators from New England taking the lead. For months the Blaine egg laid in the senate and was vigorously pecked by the senators. It abandoned the principle of protection, and was for disguised free trade. The shell was strong enough to knock over the “home market” sham, and the dyed-in-the-wool protectionists did not propose that this should be done. But Blaine had proposed reciprocity, and it was surmised that he had the administration of President Harrison at his back.

The doctors of the Republican party held a consultation over the Blaine egg, and determined as it was then in a state of decomposition it could not be used. Another egg must be laid by a different species of bird. Fortunately the bird was suggested by the name of one of the senators —Mr. Aldrich. It is well known that one of the characteristics of the ostrich is its hiding its head in the sand when alarmed, thus imagining that its whole body is hid. The new egg would seem to resemble that of the ostrich, and was proposed by Senator Aldrich. His amendment to the McKinley bill was adopted, and is now Section 3of the tariff law. Section 3—That with a view to secure reciprocal trade with countries producing the following articles, and for this purpose, on and after the Ist day of January, 1892 whenever and so often as the president shall be satisfied that the government of any country producing and exporting sugars, molasses, coffee, tea and hides, raw and uncured, and any of such articles, imposes duties or other exactions upon the agricultural ■or other products of the United States which, in view of such free introduction of such sugar, molasses, coffee, tea and hides into the United States, he may deem to be reciprocally unequal and unreasonable, he shall have the power, and it shall be his duty, to suspend, by proclamation to that effect, the provisions of this act relating to the free introduction of such sugar, molasses, coffee, tea and hides, the production of such country for such time as he shall deem just; and in such case, and during such suspension, duties shall be levied, collected and paid upon sugar, molasses, coffee, tea and hides, the product of or exported from such designated country as follows, namely: Here follow the specified rates of duties on sugar, molasses, coffee, tea and hides (now coming to us free by the McKinley bill), which shall be collected ofi those articles whenever the president shall see fit, to-wit: On the best sugar, 2 cents per pound (and less rates specified on lower grades and certain rates on molasses); coffee, 3 cents per pound; tea, 10 cents per pound; hides and skins, 1 1-2 cents per pound. The difference between this ostrich egg and that of the bird of beautiful plumage named Blaine is so marked that the most casual observer will notice it. Under the Blaine proposition our ports were to be “free and open to all products of any nation of the American hemisphere” when such nation shall admit free the long list of articles named in the proposition. The ostrich amendment, which is now the law, confines reciprocity to countries producing sugars, melasses, tea, coffee and hides. Should any country producing and exporting these articles impose duties or other exactions upon the agricultural or other products of the United States, which the president may deem reciprocally unequal and unreasonable, he may suspend the law and collect tariff taxes on their sugar, molasses, tea, coffee and hides. And this is the ostrich egg over which there has been so much cackling. It was laid to increase agricultural exports and give new markets to the American fanner. But these neW markets were only to be allowed the farmer in the countries “south of us.” The door was closed on the north and east. Treaties under the reciprocity clause have been in effect more than a year, and the farmers can answer if they have felt the good effects of the “new markets” for their agricultural products. They are looking in vain for the blessings that reciprocity was to shower down on them.

Reciprocity gives New England free hides and free rubber for manufacturing purposes, and this was one of the reasons it was adopted. The markets “for another bushel of wheat or a barrel of pork” might be found on the other side of the big pond, where the people have no bananas and tropical fruits to subsist upon. South America can not be made to furnish markets for our agricultural products. Reciprocity as now enacted is “a fraud, a delusion and a snare.” A New Yorker has made a clock from 84,000 pieces of wood, comprising over 800 varieties. For sixteen years he has had sailors bringing him rare woods from every quarter of the globe.