OBJECTIONS TO RECIPROCITY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XV, Issue 45, 2 March 1888, Page 31

OBJECTIONS TO RECIPROCITY.

(From the Boston Pilot.)

The speech of Congressman M'Kenna, of California, at the Boston Merchants' Aesociat'on dinner, last week, is a powerful argument againutfche form of freetrade which takes the name of reciprocity. It is not from any ill-will towards Canada that thoughtful Americans like Mr. M'Kenna oppose reciprocity. As he very truly says, the nearness of Canada to the United States is an argument against, rather than in favour of, Freetade with that country, since the cost of transporation, which might tend to help us against a distant competitor, is reduced to nothing with one whose territory adjoins our own. The only condition of freetrade Bhould be political union, an division of responsibilities as well as of benefits. President Babson, of the American Fisheries Association, raises another and a serious objection, when he says :—": — " In the event of a commercial union with Canada, with every custom house and official connected therewith in sympathy with the interests of Great Britain, the United States having no power except to receive and admit their accounts, would there not be better facilities for undervaluation or appraisement ? And while bearing in mind the performance of the blockade-runners of 1861 and 1865, when the whole American fleet wbb defied and evaded, with how much greater facility could wholesale smuggling be pursued with the whole coast of Canada open and the people in sympathy with the operations. English manufacturers and merchants could afford to pension every official on the coast, and the United States merchants would soon find that commercial union and grand facilities for smuggling were one and the same thing. The successful introduction of goods into Canada would solve all difficulties, and the honest importer would find his occupation gone, while the American manufacturer would find himself competing with free English manfacturers in his own market." We do not believe that President Cleveland is in sympathy with the Freetraders and other Anglomaniacs, who wish to make reciprocity an entering wedge for a more disastrous revolution in our tariff ; but Secretary Bayard's unauthorised commission will strive to achieve that end by one means or another, and the Administration, unfortunately, will have to bear the odium of the attempt. The best friends of the Democratic President are those who will oppose the conspiracy no matter by whom it is supported.