CANADIAN RECIPROCITY.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 95, 12 June 1911, Page 3

CANADIAN RECIPROCITY.

The passage of the Reciprocity Bill by t.ho House is (wrote the Washington correspondent of The Times on 23rd April) noteworthy for the fact that, in spite of the President’s exhortations,; 78 Republicans—one less than a majority of the party—voted against it, while only (it supported it. The cleavage in the Republican ranks is still further illustrated by the fact that those who opposed did, so for diametrically opposite reasons—the Insurgents because the Bill did not go far enough, the “Standpatters” because it w6nt too far. To the Insurgent contention that the measure exposed the farmers to competition and offered them no relief in the way of cheaper manufactured articles, Mr Underwood, tlio tactful and clever loader of the Democrats, replied by referring to the Farmers’ Free List Bill, which the House will now take up. The debate oa this Bill is likely to show the Republicans in a very different' alignment. ft may also discover in opposition more than the 11 Democrats ,’wlio voted against Reciprocity. But at present the Democrats can rejoice in tlio spoctaelo of the failure of so many Republicans to support their own President—a failure which is likely to prove highly embarrassing to the party in IDI2. The prospects of Reciprocity in the Senate are generally considered favourable, though the tlppei 1 House will not emulate tlio despatch with which the Lower House disposed of the question. The quarrel which has broken out between tlio Insurgent and Regular Republicans over the organisation of committees affords further proof of the want of harmony equally prevalent in both Chambers in this muchdistracted party, without, however affecting the chances of the passage of Reciprocity.