OCR Text |
Show inaike;. in the Antilles from which our trade, has nlniost beeu excluded. It is only eight months since the plan of reciprocity was proposed by Secretary Ki.aink. It had often been talked of in an indefinite indefi-nite manner but Mr. ISi.aink formulated a definite proposition. The. tariff bill had been passed by the house and had reached the senate when the secretary's famous lotter to Senator liye was given to the public. In that letter Mr. Maine insisted that it was folly not to make provision in the bill fur becuring reciprocal trade advantages advan-tages with the Latin-American countries. coun-tries. Tbe logic of the situation as presented pre-sented by him was irresistible. The result was that tbe reciprocity clause was adopted by both houses, and in this brief space of time it has proved itself it-self to be one of the greatest triumphs of modern statesmanship. PKOIillESS OF RKCIPKOCITY. The reciprocity agreement that has been arranged between the United ites aud Spain in regard to Cuba, eanuot fail to give American merchants great advantage in that market. Cuba now pays $11 a barrel for flour and consumes half a million barrels annually, an-nually, purchasing it all from Spain. Under the new arrangonieut the price will go down to ?ti, the consumption j will go up to a million barrels, and the 1 I'nited States will furnish it all. A few I days ago President Harrison-, in ad- I dressing a southern audience, remarked that it was no violation of official eli-quett eli-quett for him to suggest that tho lira-zilian lira-zilian treaty would not remain long in a state of lonesomeness. He no doubt knew who was likely to be, divulged when tho result of the work done in Madrid should be made public, but if he had told the audience what sweeping advantages would be secured se-cured by American merchants the statement state-ment would scarcely have been believed. be-lieved. TheJ treaty covers a long list ; of articles and will open a varied j |