THIS IS NOT RECIPROCITY

...Like that other revision, too, this is marked by the same trading and bartering that always has worked so much injustice upon the public...

...I believe in reciprocity with Canada...

...It will place us in the dilemma of making similar diplomatic bargains with the great nations of the whole world...

...Wheat is free...

...What avails it, for example, to bring the supply of Canadian wheat and cattle and sheep into our country free when we still must pay the same price for flour to our millers and the same price for dressed meats to our packers...

...And it is scarcely less than criminal to make a scapegoat of the farmer for the benefit of any unlawful combination...

...In the belief that duties should represent the difference in the cost of production at home and abroad, with others I contended, when the Payne-Aldrich tariff bill was pending, for reductions in duties to that level in so far as the information then at hand furnished any safe criteria to determine rates upon that principle...

...No one who investigates the conditions under which the newspapers of this country have been compelled to purchase their supply of print paper can escape the conclusion that the publishers have been subjected to extortion...

...The influential interests, as always were on hand...

...Now, if this new tariff arrangement with Canada is consummated, we shall be placed in the position of establishing a new set of minimum tariff rates, which, under our well-settled diplomatic policy and the maximum and minimum clause, would force the Department of State to enter into negotiations with any country that wished to receive the same treatment as Canada under the "most-favored-nation" clause...

...The milling interests approve of the President's pact...

...but i protest against this diplomatic bargain that is masquerading in the guise of reciprocity...

...The farmer had no voice in this agreement...

...The mutual give and take of tariff concessions between our country and our world neighbors, along the lines laid down by Blaine and McKinley, is a policy that has in view the best welfare of all concerned...

...It is a tariff bill...

...Cannot Support an Unjust, Unfair Pact THE GROSS INJUSTICE of the proposed bill impels me to oppose it...

...The only principle which may be fairly said to find consistent expression in this bill is the principle of free trade...

...It is my conviction that until such time as scientific investigation shall enable us to adjust all schedules on the difference-in-cost principle there should be no effort spared whenever the subject of tariff revision is before Congress to reduce the notoriously excessive duties as a means of affording immediate, even though partial, relief to the consumer...

...It is a tariff trade, conceived in special-interest selfishness, negotiated in secret and brought into the open with the attractive label of reciprocity as a bid for the favor of the American public—a people who believe sincerely in reciprocity that is genuine...

...It will cost the consumer whatever the packer pleases to charge for dressed meats under the President's pact...

...The facts do not warrant the contention that our consumers will be able to purchase manufactured articles any cheaper if this agreement passes...

...In this amendment, however, as in the amendment to Schedule K, I have left a margin in favor of the manufacturer, pending the report of the Tariff Board as a basis for further revision in accordance with the exact difference between the cost of production in this and competing countries...

...It should be dealt with directly and not by indirection...

...Reciprocity—true reciprocity—implies a fair exchange between those whose products are the subjects of the exchange...

...But Not in This Diplomatic Bargain THE INJUSTICE and the unfairness of this one-sided arrangement, when fully understood by all people who believe in justice and fair dealing, will meet with the resentment it merits...

...This home market has been at last developed...

...I refer to the "most-favored-nation" clause of commercial treaties and to the maximum and minimum provision of the Payne-Aldrich tariff law...

...They want the cheaper wheat which will result from a Canadian glut of the northern American market...

...The ad valorem rates proposed in my amendments will wipe out completely the inequality that is found in the existing rates—rates that rise higher and higher as the value of the cloth declines, exceeding 200 per cent on the cheapest while dropping as low as 80 per cent on the most expensive cloths...

...If the statement of President Taft that the cost of produc-tion is substantially alike in the two countries is true as to manufactures, what possible hope is there for Canadian capital to build mills and compete with our great and established industries over a tariff wall...

...Complications Likely to Result THERE ARE already indications that this pact, if ratified by Congress, will involve the United States in serious tariff and trade complications with other countries...

...My amendments to this schedule contemplate an average reduction of 7 per cent ad valorem...

...The fair exchange of commercial privileges between the people of two great producing and consuming and interdependent nations must result in good for both...

...but there is provided a tariff of 1 1/4 cents a pound on fresh meats, bacon, hams, and dried or otherwise prepared meats, of 20 per cent on canned meats, canned poultry, and extract of meat...

...Consumer Gains Nothing THIS AGREEMENT is not in the interest of the consumer...

...The removal of this duty, in justice to the users of paper, should be the direct and deliberate action of Congress...

...While Canada is our formidable competitor, actually and potentially, in agriculture, we have now such an overwhelming advantage that we need never fear that Canadian manufacturing will threaten our supremacy on this continent...

...Such revision downward, while reducing our Government revenues less than $10,-000,000 annually, will effect a reduction in the cost of living by lowering prices to the consuming public aggregating more than $200,000,000 a year...

...Trusts Stand Between Consumer and Producer THE COMBINED FORCES that stand between the American farmer and the full enjoyment of his own market— that home market he suffered so much to create—will continue to interpose between the consumer and the necessaries of life...

...It is not the duty, nor should it be made the privilege, of the Executive to secure this concession from Canada at the expense of our agricultural interests...

...These conditions call for action which will afford immediate relief...

...The millers are safe...

...He is asked to sell what he produces in a free trade market and to buy what he needs in a protected market...

...The price of flour will not be affected...

...I shall continue to advocate tariff legislation based upon that principle...

...But not the farmer...

...The American farmer through years of patient toil has given his support to protection to build up the manufacturing interests of the country...

...It was made to benefit the railroad, the miller, the packer, the newspaper publisher...

...Our Government has steadfastly and consistently pursued the policy in negotiating tariff treaties that when the "most-favored-nation" treatment is accorded to one country it is also, and as a matter of right, accorded to any other country that extends to us similar concessions...

...Hill's railroad to larger dividends, the millers and the packers to larger profits, and the newspapers to free themselves from trust extortion, then we should avail ourselves of this opportunity to reduce in some reasonable measure the excessive tariff burden and the high prices which the farmer and other consumers are required to pay for all they buy...

...No relief from the excessive cost of living will result from the changes in the tariff on the manufactures covered by this agreement...

...I respectfully submit that no man who believes either in a tariff for revenue only or in a protective tariff can consistently give it his support...

...Farmer Pays the Bill OUR GREAT CONSUMING PUBLIC must still buy what it uses in a highly protected market...

...I shall ask that all duties on manufactures of wool in Schedule K be placed squarely on an ad valorem basis, with an average reduction of 25 per cent...

...To refuse these demands would be to abandon our traditional policy, would precipitate international tariff complications, and may imperil our whole tariff structure...

...It is true the hearings of the committees of Congress contain many denials by paper manufacturers of the existence of this trust, but against these are the indictments, pleas of guilty, convictions, and fines, all of record, in more than 50 instances...

...That there is real danger in this direction is indicated by the fact that the question has been raised in the British Parliament and the fact that there have been inquiries, understood to have come from Germany, as to the answer of the United States on the question of extending the rates provided in the Canadian agreement to the products of that country...

...The Beef Trust regards President Taft's Canadian deal as a good thing...

...Big Interest...

...It is not the farmer, it is not the consumer, for whom these negotiations were made...

...The pending measure is not a treaty...

...Something far different from this arrangement, with regard to foodstuffs, is needed to reduce the cost of living...

...That is all...

...However just the demands of the publishers to be relieved from the oppressive prices fixed by the paper makers' combination, it does not outweigh the gross injustice of this pact...

...It is a matter of common knowlege that the newspaper publishers have had to accept whatever contracts the Print Paper Trust offered them to sign or be denied a paper supply with which to continue business...

...It is not necessary to wrong any class or do injustice to any interest in order to benefit the consumer...

...It is not framed upon any principle heretofore recognized in the history of the tariff legislation of this Government...

...It represents neither the principle of protection nor that of a tariff for revenue only...

...I purpose to offer amendments providing for a complete revision of the wool and cotton schedules of the present Payne-Aldrich tariff law, revision of the rates on structural iron and steel, and certain other paragraphs of that schedule...

...These amendments will not affect the woolgrower...

...Flaxseed is free...

...That it is framed to give effect to a tentative agreement between this and the Canadian Governments in no wise changes its character...

...There will be no reduction in his international freight rates...

...It is not the product of the Tariff Board...

...i believe in reciprocity," he says...

...This proposed agreement does violence to that principle...

...This strengthens the position of the trust and makes it easier to hold down prices for American cattle and sheep...

...It will put from $12 to $18 in the pocket of the packer to remove the duty from the fat steer...

...It is not scientific...

...Like the wool tariff, the cotton tariff—Schedule I—lays its unreasonable burdens upon the backs of the great mass of people who can not afford the expensive cotton goods...

...but there will be a tariff of 50 cents a barrel upon flour...

...But I protest against this proposed revision of our tariff by Executive mandate...

...Live stock is free...

...Now, it is proposed that he shall divide this market with Canada...

...If, however, it is to be enacted into law, it should not pass without amendments in the interest of the great body of consumers, including the farmers, who are compelled to carry all the burden of the President's lopsided pact...

...The character of Schedule K as to all manufactures of wool is well known to the public...

...He hungers for the big tonnage to flow from Canadian wheat into a free American market...

...The proposed method of doing this, however, can not in justice be approved...

...It can not be defended even as an attempt to lower our excessive duties on a schedule-by-schedule plan...

...This traditional policy was complicated by the maximum and minimum provision of the Payne-Aldrich tariff act...

...Prices have been arbitrarily fixed for them, and to keep their enterprises going they have been forced to submit to exactions unwarranted by conditions in the wood-pulp and paper-making industries—conditions rendered possible only because of the unlawful trust organizations of the paper manufacturers...

...This is not the kind of tariff revision demanded by the American people...

...It is perfectly consistent for one who believes in free trade to support it...

...I protest against this diplomatic bargain that is masquerading in the guise of reciprocity...

...Therefore, I believe we should, in accordance with the principle that the tariff should be based on the difference between the cost of production here and abroad, remove the present duty from print paper...

...He had no part in the changing of the schedules, though he is more seriously affected than all others...

...It does this through the complex classifications providing enormous duties on certain articles and relatively insignificant duties on other articles...

...I Believe in Genuine Reciprocity" I BELIEVE IN RECIPROCITY...

...The conditions under which the publishers of newspapers are forced to conduct their business are intolerable...

...President Taft and the Congress had ample opportunity to benefit every consumer and substantially reduce the cost of living in every home by revising duties downward as promised when the Payne-Aldrich tariff bill was enacted—and that, too without impairing the just measure of protection on any article of production in any industry...

...President Taft's Canadian pact will increase the profits of the railroads, the milling interests, and the beef trust...

...Canadian flour can not come in free to compete with them...

...The consumer is no longer left completely at the mercy of the manufacturer...

...It singles out the farmer and forces free trade upon him, but it confers even greater benefits upon a few of the great combinations sheltered behind the high rates found in the Payne-Aldrich tariff...

...Give Newspapers Relief from Extortion THE NEWSPAPER publishers are promised a free market for print paper, for which they expend about $55,000,000 annually...

...i believe in reciprocity with canada...

...The injury to our agricultural interests that will result from such an arrangement will be appalling—not alone the tens of millions of dollars annually, great as that will be, but also in the incentive to apply to our lands the intensive cultivation and scientific management which alone will enable our business of tilling the soil to be successfully continued at all...

...All of the evidence sustains the contention for the immediate removal of the duty...

...He promises to offer amendments to revise downward the flagrantly excessive tariff on cotton, manufactured wool, sugar, iron and steel, so as to make a saving to the consumer of more than $200,000,000 a year...

...but on its product, linseed oil, there is a tariff of 15 cents a gallon...

...If there is any justice at all in a protective tariff it must be found in the impartial application of it to all industries...

...Through all those years there was held out to him the promise that if he would pay the higher prices necessary to maintain a high wage scale for the men in the factories he would be compensated by the better market for his produce—the home market at his own door...

...The history of this pact discloses the same sort of influences, the same secret conferences, the same consideration for powerful interests that characterized the framing of the Aldrich schedules...

...Get Benefits THE RAILROADS, particularly the Hill line, have 15 or 20 branches extending far up into the wheat-producing sections of Canada...

...Strip if of the enticing name that has been given to it and it is plain tariff revision...

...Downward revision mandates will not be satisfied by such administrative bargaining...

...I recognize no canon of right and fair dealing that would permit me to support it in its present form...

...The trifling reduction of duty on dressed meats will in nowise interfere with the firm control of the price of dressed meats by the packers...

...Why cut off the low duties on farm products that oppress nobody and leave untouched the flagrantly high and burdensome duties on trust-made necessities...

...It means free cattle and sheep for the packing houses...

...They provide reasonably ample protection for all manufacturers of wool...

...The effect of this competition on our farmers does not concern him...

...Amendments to Benefit Consuming Public THIS IS A TARIFF MEASURE...

...And as tariff revision it is even more iniquitous than the Payne-Aldrich revision...

...Its fraudulent compensatory duties, its unfair discrimination against the carded-wool manufacturers in favor of the worsted-goods manufacturers, and its iniquitous discrimination against the poor man's cloth in favor of that of the rich man have all been exposed in detail...

...If adopted, they will, at a stroke, eliminate from this schedule the excesses and discriminations which cost the consuming public, and particularly that portion of it least able to pay the price, not less than $50,000,000 annually...

...Hill is one of the strongest supporters of the President's pact...

...Beginning with personal conferences between the big beneficiaries and the administration, and coming before us now with all the pressure of administrative influence behind it, we are confronted with a situation not unlike that of two years ago in the Senate...

...The protective tariff directly benefited his own industry to a far less degree than any other great interest in this country...

...If agriculture is to be legislated out of $60,000,000 to $70,000,000 to help Mr...

...The farmer can take his cut in prices...

...I am satisfied from the recent investigations made by the Tariff Board that, with the exception of wood pulp, we can manufacture paper on an even basis with Canadian manufacturers...

...I HEREWITH respectfully submit to the Senate the reasons which compel me to oppose House bill 4412 in its present form...

...It is not a fair exchange of tariff advantages between our citizens and the citizens of Canada...

...This is not Reciprocity Senator La Follette, as a member of the Committee on Finance, tells the Senate, in a brief statement of his views, why he opposes the trade agreement with canada which the administration is pressing congress to ratify...

...It is the duty of Congress to put print paper on the free list...

...It is a revenue bill...

...It is not reciprocity...

...Relief from the high cost of living is not to be found in such a tariff compact as that represented in the pending bill...

...President's Pact is but a Tariff Trade FURTHERMORE, this scheme of tariff revision is an invasion of the legislative branch of our Government by the Executive...

...It is our right and duty to fix a tariff on certain varieties of pulp and paper so as to best serve the interests of our country...

...This compact, the ratification of which is demanded without change, without the exercise of legislative judgment on the part of Congress, is, in plain English, an Executive bargain, the terms of which require the farmer to surrender his market at an enormous loss to secure valuable concessions to a few prosperous special interests...

...also amendments revising the sugar schedule...

...So, in the present instance, we have the opportunity to reduce to a considerable extent the cost of living by revising downward a few of the most excessive schedules, such as manufactured wool, cotton, sugar, iron, and steel...

...And the farmer, as a consumer, gets no compensating benefit in what he has to buy...