(Correspondence AMERICAN ECONOMIST.) WASHINGTON, D. C., May 11, 1899.The work of arranging treaties of reciprocity with foreign nations is progressing at the State Department, under the supervision of Special Commissioner Kasson, who has such matters in charge, he having been appointed for that purpose with full power to act. The making of these treaties is slow work, however, and there is no means of knowing when any of the negotiations will be completed. Mr Kasson now has in hand treaties with a half dozen European nations and others with several nations in South America. The apartments in the State Building assigned to Mr. Kasson are daily visited by representatives of the foreign governments who are engaged in the negotiations, but the whole matter is proceeding with so much secrecy that it is impossible to ascertain what has been done, or what the probable outcome in the case of any treaty will be.

It is well known that negotiations for a reciprocal treaty with France have been in progress for several weeks, and the indications are that this treaty will be completed within the time limit fixed by the section of the Dingley Tariff, which is July 24. Whether the French treaty, or any of those now under consideration, shall be completed within the time limit is not troubling Mr. Kasson or the representatives of the foreign governments, for it is understood upon all sides that the negotiations will be continued and treaties perfected under the general powers of the President to make treaties. This idea was sanctioned by Mr. Kasson the other day in a remark upon the subject. He said:

"It is expected that if the treaties now under consideration are not completed by the end of the two year period mentioned in the Dingley Tariff the treaties will nevertheless be formulated and sent to the Senate by the President under the ordinary treaty-making powers."

It is sufficient to say in regard to the suggestions made by the representatives of foreign governments for reciprocal trade relations that they ask for concessions by the United States upon almost all articles of trade and industry which they have to offer for the markets of this country, but especially ⚫ upon such articles as do not directly compete with products of the industries of the United States. It is impossible to ascertain what lines of goods are offered by any country for reciprocal trade treaties, for the reason that all the treaties under consideration are incomplete, and it is impossible to say what they will contain until they are ready for signatures. Moreover, so close is the watch kept by the representatives here of the different countries, all of whom are making special efforts to obtain advantages for their respective governments, that the officials of the State Department, and those directly connected with the work of framing the treaties, deem it unwise to discuss in a public way the character of the negotiations with any country, or the lines of goods on which reciprocity is asked. This is especially true, also, of the concessions asked by the American authorities in the foreign markets. Certain concessions are asked of one country that are not asked of another, for the reason that the chances for securing favorable consideration for certain lines of goods of American production are vastly better in one country than in another.

The fact is pointed out by the officials that so rapid has been the growth of the export trade of the United States within the past two years that foreign governments are beginning to look upon this country as a factor in the world's commerce that cannot be ignored or even slightingly treated. Marvelous advances have been made in our exports on lines of goods chiefly the product of machinery, and certain goods of this class are of such nature as not to be easily imitated by foreign fabricators. The officials believe that there is a chance to secure concessions from a number of foreign countries on goods of these classes, but they hold that it would be injurious to the interests of the United States to have the facts as to the concessions asked of one country become known to the representatives of another country. The foreign representatives here are watching each other with care and noting every point

that can be secured as indicating what chances a given country may have of securing concessions from the United States by giving advantages to this country in the foreign market.

The negotiations for treaties on reciprocal lines have proceeded so far with several nations on this continent and in Europe that it is deemed certain by the officials that treaties will be arranged. It seems equally certain that, with perhaps two exceptions, these treaties cannot be agreed upon within the two-year time limit fixed by the Dingley Tariff.

As an indication of how sensitive the situation is in respect to reciprocal matters pending between this Government and foreign governments, it is observed that the suggestions thrown out by the Treasury officials that retaliation might be invoked against Canada on account of her prohibition of exports of logs to this country brought a prompt response from the Canadian Commissioners. Commissioner Charleton of the Canadian Commission wrote to a friend here a few days ago that his brother, who is interested in the lumber trade in Canada, would proceed to Washington at once to confer with Chairman Fairbanks of the American Commissioners. Senator Fairbanks is expected here soon to confer with Secretary Gage on the subject. The suggestion by the Treasury officials of an increase in duty on Canadian lumber as an offset to the prohibition of exports of logs from Canada to this country has In met with varying opinions here. some quarters it is suggested that the proposition for doubling the duties on lumber would be against the provisions of the Dingley Tariff. It is reported that Secretary Hay, to whose judgment in the situation Secretary Gage deferred, has advised that nothing be done in the matter of lumber retaliatory duties until after the meeting of the Joint High Commission in August. It is confidently claimed among some of the observing ones here that when the American and Canadian Commissioners meet in August a solution of the lumber problem, together with others before the Commissioners, may be reached.

The Democratic theory is never correct in practice, and the disastrous administration of Cleveland from 1893 to 1897 will never be forgotten. It was then that the Democratic party, for the first time since the close of the Civil War, had full control of the Government; and everybody knows what a mess it made of business. The United States is just now progressing most favorably and there is no reason why we should not still further increase our export trade. The business men are reaching out for foreign trade and they are getting it.-Wilmington (Del.) "News."

THE TARIFF AND THE TRUSTS. Combines the Outgrowth of Competition and Low Prices Caused by Protection.

[New York Tribune.]

It is pitiable to see public journals, presumably intended for the use of intelligent people, reiterating the assertion that the multiplication of industrial combinations is mainly due to the Tariff. One can comprehend why a demagogue without honesty or conscience should imagine that such assertions might impose upon the large body of ignorant voters who never read and rarely talk to anybody who does. But why the editor of any journal, even if he has Free-Trade leanings, should elect to be considered an ass by his own readers it is difficult to see. Presumably they have followed the daily dispatches which have told of the formation of industrial combinations in almost everything, Protected or not Protected, and have observed that an oil trust, without any duty whatever to prompt or help it, has been more profitable and powerful than any of the concerns which deal with Protected articles.

Reading people also know that such combinations have multiplied in Great Britain, without any duties to aid them, even more rapidly than in this country. A recent series of articles by "The London Economist," not intended to cover anything like all the corporations of industrial character, but only those which have been in active operation, have paid dividends in some of the last five years and have securities quoted in the market, included one hundred ard eighty-three combinations, but with all the energy of the promoters and sensational rumor manufacturers in this country there are only about one hundred and forty, actual or imaginary, mature, born or only partly born, included in the lists of American combinations. Nor is it so much a question of number as of variety, for the British list includes hotels and sweetmeat dealers, clothiers from Redfern to Baker, warehouses and stores of all sorts, the Armstrong Iron Works, the great shipbuilders, the carriage and car makers, bolt and nut makers and coal mines, manufacturers of thread, like Coates, of cartridges, like Eley, of Pears' soap, jam and dog biscuit.

Combinations have been sufficiently varied in this country also to make it absurd to suppose the Tariff the author of their being. A host of them are in gas works and street railways for cities, which can have no foreign competition; in electric roads and heat and power plants; in breweries of many cities which are not even exposed to competition from other towns in this country,

but do ship beer to Europe; in elevators, which no foreigner offers to import; in ice, which is frozen as cheaply in American water as anywhere; in milk supplies for various cities, oyster beds, peanuts and vinegar. But if combinations are found desirable in scores of such cases where no foreign competition exists or is possible, what sense is there in imagining that others formed in the manufacture of many protected articles are caused by the Tariff?

The story of a coal combination, referring to anthracite only, excites one innocent to say that it is a result of the duty on bituminous coal, there being none on anthracite, which is largely exported to Canada. The brick combination moves somebody to imagine that there might actually be a flood of foreign bricks but for the Tariff. The tin plate combination is called by somebody a child of the Dingley duty, whereas it was formed when American tin plates were under that duty being largely exported to England. The rail combination was formed by men who were then and are now exporting steel rails, and the structural steel combination by, men who were exporting structural beams and angles, and others in the iron and steel industry were formed under like conditions. The main cause in most of these cases was the extreme depression of prices resulting from competition among the home producers. Whether they take a wise way to check that competition or not remains to be seen, but the fact is that under the operation of the Tariff their prices have been so reduced that the product could be exported at a profit. The plain truth is that numerically a large share of the new combinations have been created for no better reason than in order to manufacture securities which could be sold at a profit. But the more substantial and solid, which have an economic reason for being, came into existence almost without exception because home competition under Protective duties had become so great that the competitors themselves tried to limit it by combinations.

There are some who may see in the diminution of exports which is likely to occur a setback for American manufacturers. But the plain, sensible, everyday person who keeps his eye on the main things--production and consumption-will not find fault. When he notes that we are annually consuming twelve million tons of iron within the borders of our own country he will conclude that we are doing infinitely better than when we produced four or five million tons a year less and shipped half a million tons to foreign countries because we were too poor to buy it ourselves.-San Francisco Chronicle."

ALLOPATHIC PROSPERITY.

It Comes in Large Doses and Is Substantial and Enduring.

[Detroit Journal.]

The populist papers have been telling us that the signs of prosperity are illusory; that our good times are only artificial-manipulated by Mark Hanna for political effect; that there is nothing substantial about them-merely industrial bubbles which will burst in a little while if silver is not artificially enhanced in value by legislative fiat. The Populist papers find no gladness in their hearts over the improved and improving condition of wage earners. It is gall and wormwood to their lacerated pride to have all their calamity predictions repudiated and belied by the triumphal progress of the people toward hapiness and contentment. The Populist papers can be joyful only when the people are miserable.

Yesterday's dispatches to "The Journal" brought the cheerful tidings that the wage earners of Cleveland, to the number of nearly 4,000 and embracing all branches of work, had been given advances of wages running from 5 per cent. up to 25 per cent.; that the iron workers of Reading, Pa., had received an increase of from 5 to 10 per cent.; that the workingmen at Birmingham, Ala., had been granted, without solicitation from them, an increase of from 10 to 20 per cent., and that more than 15,000 miners and steel workers are benefited by this advance. From Springfield, Ohio, comes the report that 1,500 employees of a big industry will get 10 per cent. more wages.

If these reports do not indicate that prosperity of the substantial sort has returned to us, there is no virtue in increased wages. If they do not verify and fulfill the predictions made by the Republicans and sound money men in 1896, those predictions can never be verified and fulfilled. If they do not give the lie to Bryanism, and double discount calamity-wailing Populism, they are utterly inveracious. And if they do not turn the shafts of satire and ridicule from Mark Hanna to his calumniators there is no conscience in this country. The "Journal" finds joy and gladness and hope in these reports. They augur enduring thrift and prosperity for the people. When the people are prosperous and contented the public credit is secure.

The Republican party in 1900 will be more of a unit than for many years past. This has been made possible by the excellent auministration of public affairs given the country by President "ReMcKinley.-Williamsport (Ind.)

publican."

Industrial Inquiry Cards.

THE AMERICAN PROTECTIVE TARIFF LEAGUE is sending out inquiry cards to the employers of labor throughout the United States, asking for information as to the number of hands employed and the amount of wages paid during the month of March, 1899, and also the figures for the month of March, 1895. In this way, it is thought, a clear and unmistakable showing may be made of the great advance in material prosperity that has taken place in the last two years. In order that this investigation may be made as thorough and far-reaching as possible, THE TARIFF LEAGUE will take pleasure in mailing these inquiry cards to all who may apply. A summary of these industrial returns will be published in the AMERICAN ECONOMIST.

66

The Irony of History.

'Between prosperity and tradition the choice should be prosperity." Such is the closing sentence of an article of exceptional interest which lately appeared in the New Orleans "States," a Democratic newspaper, over the signature "W. H. R." It is a conclusion full of force and strength. Well indeed it would be for the South if it had long ago chosen for its motto, "Prosperity rather than tradition." The tenor of the article printed by the "States" is Protectionist. Obviously written by a Democrat and a former Free-Trader, its argument is all the more effective in favor of the support of Protection by the people of the Southern States. He says:

If the South forces the Tariff issue to the front again it will be detrimental to the best Interests of this section. . . . It is an inexorable fact that the South now needs a Protective Tariff more than any section of the Union. With cotton and its other agricultural staples at present prices there is no apparent possibility in this section of rivaling the North in the accumulation of wealth as long as the chief local interest is agriculture. The South is naturally the best manufacturing region of the country. It has the ores, the coal, the timber and the intelligent population to compete in industrial enterprises with any portion of the world, and its future prosperity depends more upon the number of factories that are built here than the quantity of cotton which can be raised to the acre.

The South for years has borne what was to this section no doubt a burden in the form of a Protective Tariff, and at this hour when Its industrial development has just begun it would indeed be superlative folly to cast aside what in the future will not be a load, but a fostering influence in the development of its resources.

What the Tariff has done in the past for the North it is calculated to do in the future for the South. The infant industries of the present are located below the Mason and Dixon line, and it is a question if a large percentage of Northern manufacturers would not soon be better off with Free-Trade and unrestricted European competition than with Protection by Tariff and the South doing as much industrially as its resources warrant.

Then follows a stirring appeal to the Democrats of the Southern States to follow Samuel J. Randall's advice and "get together." But it is to be a new sort of getting together. Instead of maintaining an unbroken front for FreeTrade, as they have done for nearly three-quarters of a century, they are now urged to "get together" on the Tariff question and concentrate their strength for the continuation of the Protective policy. Perhaps the oddest feature of this rallying call is the reason cited in support of the plea for prompt action-namely, the possibility that the flourishing industries of the North may, in a few years' time, decide to abandon Protection rather than see its aid extended to the establishment of powerful competing industries in the South. It is the dread of such an eventuality that

impels the writer in the "States to say to his fellow Democrats:

The Republican party is not so wedded to the Protective Tariff theory that It will seek to perpetuate the Dingley or any other it variety of the article a day longer than serves the mercantile interests of the States it controls. It would be the irony of fate, indeed, if Tariff for revenue only, or FreeTrade, became a national policy at the hour when it would blight the infant industries of the South like a Dakota blizzard.

Whatever the irony of fate may have in store for Southern Democrats in the far future, it is the irony of history to find so queer a turn as this in the meandering ways of politics-to find the party which followed Calhoun's lead into the ranks of Free-Trade chiefly because Protection was building up New England and the Eastern States into great manufacturing commonwealths whose potency in national affairs menaced the South's supremacy, now contemplating a swift right-about face to Protection lest that policy should be abandoned by the North through fear or jealousy of a great industrial rivalry from the mills and factories which the South shall build up by the aid of Protection. Politics has furnished few developments more unique than this. In any case, however, it is to be construed as a cheering indication of the dawn of better things in the South. That portion of our common country will prosper mightily when its people shall once for all turn their backs upon a past full of mistakes and stand with their faces toward a future full of promise. As between prosperity and tradition the choice should be prosperity." Undoubtedly.

Protection Times.

The failures in April, 1899, according to "Dun's Review," were the smallest in any month since records by months began, 38 per cent. smaller than in April of last year, not a third of the amount in 1897, and not half the amount in April of any previous year. Both in manufacturing and in trading they were the smallest ever known in that month, and in trading the smallest ever known in any month, as in manufacturing they were if the larger failures were omitted. The ratio of defaulted liabilities to solvent payments through clearing houses was less than 70 cents per $1,000, against 90 cents in January and $1.19 in March, $7.89 in August and $8.02 in September, 1896. A great share of the risk in the business world has been eliminated. Truly these are good Protection times.

With Tammany men forming some trusts and blackmailing others, and with Bryan as the chief agent of the silver miners' trust, the Democratic party asks for the people's trust.-Cleveland Leader."

A Matter of Honesty, Equity and Fair Play.

Waning in circula

In its persistent warfare upon the personal baggage law the "Evening Post" seems to have discovered a fresh reason for its existence. There was need of such discovery. tion, patronage and influence, this foolish foe of all things American had begun to show signs of material decay. It seemed to lag superfluous on the stage of journalism and was apparently approaching a condition where if it were to quietly drop out of existence it never would be missed. The personal baggage question was, therefore, in the nature of a godsend, and the "Post" has made much of it. As a matter of fact it has made much more than could in reason be made of a very small matter, and has done its best to magnify a molehill into a mountain.

The small basis of fact upon which the "Evening Post" has depended as the foundation for its elaborate superstructure of exaggeration and falsehood is apparent in a report recently submitted by one of the customs officials at the port of New York after a careful examination of the subject matter. In the comparative statement given below are shown the duties collected on passengers' baggage, the appraised valuations, the number of declarations of value and the number of ships arriving for the six months beginning August, 1896, 1897 and 1898. It has been ascertained that an average of about SO out of every 100 first-class passengers file declarations of value of their personal effects, the remaining one-fifth of the passengers being those having in their baggage no dutiable articles, and hence making no declarations. On this estimated basis of 80 declarations to every 100 passengers it appears that the first-class passengers for the six months beginning with August, 1896 (Wilson Tariff period), numbered about 4,545, and that the average duties collected per passenger amounted to $12.80. For the six months beginning August, 1897, under the Dingley Tariff, the total number of first-class passengers was about 9,275, and the average duties collected $28.62. For the corresponding period beginning August, 1898, the average number of passengers was 5,680, and the average duties $23.02. From these figures it becomes evident:

First, that the duty collected upon passengers' baggage is relatively too small a matter to justify the great uproar created by the "Evening Post."

Second, that the duties collected under the Dingley Tariff in 1897 were more than double the average collected under the Wilson Tariff.

Third, that chiefly owing to the ex

istence of war conditions in 1898 the number of passengers decreased and the individual duties fell off from $28.62 to $23.02 per passenger.

Fourth, that while this may seem a very small matter in actual dollars and cents as a part of the customs revenues, it is at the same time a very important matter alike to legislators and to the merchants of a great city who are concerned in the question whether people who can afford to indulge in the luxury of foreign travel shall be permitted to bring in free of duty the goods purchased abroad, when, with the addition of lawful duties honestly collected, they could more advantageously purchase

Justifiable Homicide.

these same goods of the legitimate importer.

BARGE OFFICE.

APRIL 15, 1899.

Following is a comparative statement of the duties on passengers' baggage collected at the Port of New York for the six months beginning with August, 1896, 1897 and 1898:

1896. Ships. Dec's. App'sm'ts. Duties. August........ 86 1,034 $45,610 $15,306.54

September..... 86 October... November.

80

78

371

December...... 75 233 January, 1897.. 61 175

17,525 61,657 9,764

18,900.97 12,403.49 5,123.28 3,598.96 2,828.70 $58,161.94

Totals...... 469 3,636 $232,272 Average duty collected per passenger.....$12.80

figures and facts relating to the personal baggage question it would seem that the average American citizen ought to see that the fearful hullabaloo raised by the "Evening Post" and its small coterie of sympathizers is a plain case of "much ado about nothing," so far as concerns the interests, rights and privileges of returning American tourists. There is, however, involved in this mat'ter a question of deeper significance and far larger importance. It is the question of the interests, rights and privileges equally of the importer who pays full duties upon the foreign merchandise purchased abroad by him, of the merchant who deals in these dutypaid goods and of the domestic producer of competing articles. Rightly understood, the enforcement of the personal baggage law cannot but meet the sanction of every man and woman who shares in the national American characteristic of always standing for honesty, equity and fair play.

The Satisfaction of Cravings.

In an extended article entitled "Custom House Tyranny," in which wrong information, lack of information and bald misstatement run a close race and make a "dead heat" finish, the "Evening Post," always frantic with rage at the very thought of a Protective Tariff, fumes forth this proposition:

The duty on embroideries of linen, cotton, or other vegetable fibers is 60 per cent. ad valorem, a rate sufficiently monstrous, one would think, to satisfy the cravings of THE PROTECTIVE TARIFF LEAGUE.

Yes; one would think that such a duty, if honestly paid and collected, would suffice for the purpose for which that duty is imposed-namely, revenue to the Government and Protection to competing home producers. But how if this duty be not honestly paid and honestly collected? How if payment were evaded and collection thwarted by undervaluation? How if the systematic pursuit of this nefarious practice had cheated the Government of its rightful revenue under the law, and at the same time had given to certain dishonest importers an unfair business advantage over importers who turned in honestly valued invoices and paid full duties on them? Certainly such a state of things 10,038.24, would not "satisfy the cravings of THE AMERICAN PROTECTIVE TARIFF LEAGUE" or of any body else who insists upon honesty, fair play and the collection of the revenue to which the Government is by law entitled. It is because of a vigorous interference with precisely this state of things that the Free-Trade "Evening Post" froths at the mouth.

$47,058.09 92,825.23 74,083.93 32,595,43

7,888.49 $264,479.41

Totals..... 513 7,420 $725,116 Average duty collected per passenger......$28.62