CONGRESS. (THE TARIFF MEASURE.) 



203 



wise, as will tend to equalize and greatly enlarge our 

 mutual exchanges. 



It will certainly be time enough for us to consider 

 whether we must cheapen the cost of production by 

 cheapening labor in order to gain access to the South 

 American markets when we have fairly tried the Af- 

 fect of established and reliable steam communication 

 and of convenient methods of money exchanges. 

 There can be no doubt, I think, that with these facil- 

 ities well established^ and with a rebate of duties upon 

 imported raw materials used in the manufacture of 

 goods for export our merchants will be able to compete 

 in the ports of the Latin-American nations with those 

 of any other country. 



If, after the Congress shall have acted upon pending 

 tariff legislation, it shall appear that under the gen- 

 eral treaty-making power, or under any special powers 

 given by law, our trade with the states represented in 

 the conference can be enlarged, upon a basis of mutual 

 advantage, it will be promptly done. 



BENJ. HARRISON. 



EXECUTIVE MANSION, June 19, 1890. 



The following is the inclosed report from the 

 Secretary of State : 



DEPARTMENT OF STATE, 



Washington, June 4, 1890. 

 To the President : 



I beg leave to submit herewith the report upon " Cus- 

 toms Union" adopted by the International American 

 Conference. 



The act of Congress, approved May 24, 1888, author- 

 izing the President to invite delegates to this confer- 

 ence, named as one of the topics to be considered, 

 " Measures toward the formation of an American Cus- 

 toms Union, under which the trade of the American 

 nations shall, so far as possible and profitable, be pro- 

 moted." 



The committee of the conference to which this topic 

 was referred interpreted the term '" Customs Union " 

 to mean an association or agreement among the sev- 

 eral American nations for a free interchange of domes- 

 tic products, a common and uniform system of tariff 

 laws, and an equitable division of the customs dues col- 

 lected under them. 



_ Such a proposition was at once pronounced imprac- 

 ticable. Its adoption would require a complete revis- 

 ion of the tariff laws of all the eighteen nations, and 

 most, if not all, of our sister republics are largely, if 

 not entirely, dependent upon the collection of customs 

 dues for the revenue to sustain their governments. 

 But the conference declared that partial reciprocity 

 between the American republics was not only practi- 

 cable, but " must necessarily increase the trade and 

 the development of the material resources of the 

 countries adopting that system, and it would in all 

 probability bring about as favorable results as those 

 obtained by free trade among the different States of 

 this Union." 



The conference recommended, therefore, that the 

 several governments represented negotiate reciprocity 

 treaties " upon such a oasis as would be acceptable in 

 each case, taking into consideration the special situa- 

 tions, conditions, and interests of each country, and 

 with a view to promote their common welfare." 



The delegates from Chili and the Argentine Re- 

 public did not concur in these recommendations, for 

 the reason that the attitude of our Congress at that 

 time was not such as to encourage them to expect fa- 

 vorable responses from the United States in return 

 for concessions which their Government might offer. 

 They had come here with an expectation that our 

 Government and people desired to make whatever 

 concessions were necessary and possible to increase 

 the trade between the United States and the two coun- 

 tries named. The President of the Argentine Repub- 

 lic, in communicating to his Congress the appointment 

 of delegates to the International Conference, said : 



"^The Argentine Republic feels the liveliest inter- 

 est in the subject, and hopes that its commercial rela- 



tions with the United States may find some practical 

 solution of the question of the interchange of products 

 between the two countries, considering that this is the 

 most efficacious way of strengthening the ties which 

 bind this country with that grand republic whose in- 

 stitutions serve us as a model." 



It was therefore unfortunate that the Argentine 

 delegates, shortly after their arrival in Washington, 

 in search of reciprocal trade, should have read in the 

 daily press that propositions were pending in our 

 Congress to impose a heavy duty upon Argentine 

 hides, which for many years had been upon the free 

 list, and to increase the duty on Argentine wool. 

 Since the adoption of the recommendations of the con- 

 ference, which I herewith inclose, hides have been re- 

 stored to the free list, but the duty upon carpet wool 

 remains, and, as the Argentine delegates declared, 

 represents the only concession we have to offer them 

 in exchange for the removal of duties upon our pecul- 

 iar products. 



Only those who have given the subject careful 

 study realize the magnitude of the commerce of these 

 sister nations. In 1888 the combined imports of 

 Chili and the Argentine Republic reached the enor- 

 mous sum of $233,127,698. The statistics of Chilian 

 commerce for 1889 have not yet been received, but the 

 imports of the Argentine Republic for that year were 

 $143,000,000. These imports consisted in the greater 

 part of articles that could have been furnished by the 

 manufacturers of the United States, yet in 1888, of 

 the total of $233,000.000 imports, we contributed but 

 $18,000,000 ; while England contributed $90,000,000 ; 

 Germany, $43,000,000 ; and France, $34,000,000. 



With our extraordinary increase in population, and 

 even more extraordinary increase in material wealth, 

 our progress hi trade with South America has been 

 strangely hindered and limited. 



In 1868 our total exports to all the world were $375,- 

 737,000, of which $53,197,000 went to Spanish Amer- 

 ica, 14 per cent. 



In 1888 our exports to all the world were $742,368,- 

 000, an increase of 100 per cent., while but $69,273,000 

 went to Spanish America, little more than 9 per cent. 

 and the greatest gain (nine millions) has been noticed 

 during the last two years. 



It was the unanimous judgment of the delegates 

 that our exports to these countries and to the other 

 republics could be increased to a great degree by the 

 negotiation of such treaties as aie recommended by 

 the conference. " The practical, every-day experience 

 of our merchants engaged in the trade demonstrates 

 beyond a question that in all classes of merchandise 

 which we have long and successfully produced for ex- 

 port, they are able to compete with their European 

 rivals in quality and in price; and ^ the reiterated 

 statement that our Latin-American neighbors do not 

 buy of us because we do not buy of them, or because 

 we tax their products, has been annually contradicted 

 by the statistics of our commerce for a quarter of a 

 century. The lack of means for reaching their mar- 

 kets has been the chief obstacle in the way of increased 

 exports. The carrying trade has been controlled by 

 European merchants who have forbidden an exchange 

 ot commodities. The merchandise we sell in South 

 America is carried there in American ships, or foreign 

 ships chartered by American commission houses. 

 The merchandise w'e buy in South America is brought 

 to us in European vessels that never take return car- 

 goes, but sail for Liverpool. Havre, Bremen, or Ham- 

 burg with wheat, corn, and cotton. There they load 

 again with manufactured goods for the South Ameri- 

 can markets, and continue their triangular voyasres, 

 paying for the food they are compelled to buy of us 

 with the proceeds of the sale of their manufactures in 

 markets that we could and would supply if we con- 

 trolled the carrying trade. 



France taxes imports as we do, and in 1880 her 

 merchants suffered, as ours do now, for the lack of 

 transportation facilities with the Argentine Republic. 

 Under liberal encouragement from the Government 

 direct and regular steamship lines were established 



