Jasper County Democrat, Volume 14, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 June 1911 — PRESIDENT TAFT VISITS NEW YORK [ARTICLE]

PRESIDENT TAFT VISITS NEW YORK

Enjoys Himself Immensely as Orator of Honor at Banquet. SPEAKS TO COTTON SEED MEN Tells Them All About Canadian Reciprocity and Why He Thinks Its Adoption Will Benefit the Country. New York, June 9,—As the guest of honor at the Hotel Astor of the Produce*Exchange and the Interstate Cotton Seed Crushers' association," President Taft had an enjoyable time There was no doubt that Mr. Taft found the evening a pleasant one, for the southern cotton men not only made it plain that they liked him immensely, but that they were strong for his Canadian reciprocity plan. The southerners banged the tables, cheered 'every sentence the president uttered and rose at end of his speech to give a thunderous "aye” when one of their number put the question: “Are we

with the president?” Mr Tatrt appeal to the cotton men was characteristically direct. He told them he believed that reciprocity with Canada would be good business for them, that it would help them rather than injure them, just as it would benefit rather than injure the farmers of the country He asked them to get after their senators and let these legislators understand what their desire was. The president explained also that the farmers' free list should not be tacked on as an amendment to the Canadian reciprocity bill for the reason that it had no relevancy, and because it would drive away from the reciprocity bill enough votes to defeat the proposed agreement with Canada. Mr. Taft began by a reference to the growth of the cotton seed oil industry and to the fact that the Canadian reciprocity bill would secure the admission of the oil into Canada free of duty. He continued: “Under the treaty vegetables and fruits of all kinds enter Canada free. One of the greatest branches of the farming industry in th® south is truck farming and the bringing of early vegetables to the north. The same thing is true of fruits and berries. With the introduction of these free ' into Canada you will secure other cus- , tomers with a valuable trade that will , add greatly to the demand and that , will certainly expand your industry |and maintain the price at which it can be profitably carried on. I ‘The treaty has opponents, how- - ever, vigorous, active and vociferous, ! and the arguments against it and the means taken to defeat it are not always of a direct character. The house of representatives, soon after it passed the hill embodying the reciprocity , aereement, passed a bill known as the farmers’ free list. In my judgment it was unfortunate and unjust that this bill should have been introduced and ‘adopted by some on the theory that it was a sop to the farmers to make up for the injustice and injury assumed

to have been dune them in the Canadian reciprocity bill, for there is no injustice done to the farmers in the Canadian reciprocity agreement. Whether the farmers' free list is a measure which ought to be passed is a question on the merits of that bill and is to be and ought to be determined upon considerations wholly apart from the merits of the Canadian reciprocity. “I am glad to say that Mr. Underwood who introduced the farmer’s free list, repudiated any such idea, but certain it is, that a number of people have assumed that unless the farmers’ free list was passed at the same time the Canadian reciprocity agreement would be an injury or unfair to the farming classes. Nothing could be further from the truth in my judgment. The Canadian reciprocity agreement will greatly aid the farming classes, both . in the north and in the south “The farmers’ free list has no relevancy at all to the Canadian recii prociety agreement because it affects imports from all the world and is a general tariff revision, having nothing whatever to do with the contract . which we have made with Canada. If . it is voted on to the reciprocity agreement it wjjl drive away from the support of the reciprocity agreement a great number of votes, enough to defeat thq, agreement. This, it seems to I me. ought to prove an insurmountable objection to voting a free list as an amendment to reciprocity.”