| Show REED AM IKIEEY The exSpeaker Explains and Defends the Tariff Bill IT FELL ON UNPROPITIOUS TIMS Voters Were Deceived as to its EffectaAn Attempt to Make the Worse Appear the Better Reason I LONDON May 16 1GThomas B Reed ex speaker of the United States House of Representatives talking to a representa tive of the Associated Press in Italy concerning con-cerning the McKinley bill said in part I will stimulate our foreign commerce by the largo number of articles on which duties have been reduced or which are added to the free list It will stimulate our domes tic industrieas by reason of the reduction in the duties on raw material and increased duties on a very few articles of necessity which have been largely imported but which we have hitherto been unable to manufacture profitably I was extremely unfortunte that the bill went into effect efect in time of or was followed soon by a most severe financial panic when the failure of Baring Bros seemed to shako tho foundations of the strongest houses when general irmnlvnnnv seemed to stare the whole commercial world in the face Going into effect under such circumstances it was not a difficult matter to convince thousands of voters that the financial difficulties diffi-culties were duo solely to the inherent ef fects of tho measure Why look at tho case of Austria whose merchants complain merchant so loudly of the ruin that tho McKinley bill wrought to their trade They com plained that their Industries were affected to such an extent by tne measure that tie through their efforts the Austrian govern ment was forced to seek to draw other nations into a measure of reprisal against the United States Notwithstand Stats Notwihstand ing these complaints the facts proved that exports for the first three months under the operation ol frst operaton bill were increased 60 per cent over the corresponding quarter of 1890 Here in Italy merchants and the press reechoed the wailings of the balance of the European press until they discovered that had the bill been specially devised for the purpose it could not have been hotter devised to in crease her trade with the United States for by its provisions 50 per cent of our purchases from here are on the free list a per cent is admitted to a reduced rate of duty 12 per cent at the same rate while the duty whie was advancad on but 4 per cent A commercial alliance of the central states of Europe which certain powers are en deavoring to bring about is evidence that commercial nations are not slow to take every possible precaution to protect and stimulate their trade and that is exactly the policy on which to pDlcy McKinloy bill is founded I am very confident that the next few years will bo years of great pros perity to the United States and that they will prove to be favorable both to our do commerce mastic manufacturers and to our foreign |
