Speech 28
TARIFF AND RECIPROCITY

FROM THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE AT THE OPENING OP THE FIRST SESSION OF THE FIFTY SEVENTH CONGRESS, DECEMBER 3, 1901

THERE is general acquiescence in our present tariff system as a national policy.  The first requisite to our prosperity is the continuity and stability of this economic policy.  Nothing could be more unwise than to disturb the business interests of the country by any general tariff change at this time.  Doubt, apprehension, uncertainty are exactly what we most wish to avoid in the interest of our commercial and material well being.  Our experience in the past has shown that sweeping revisions of the tariff are apt to produce conditions closely approaching panic in the business world.  Yet it is not only possible, but eminently desirable, to combine with the stability of our economic system a supplementary system of reciprocal benefit and obligation with other nations.  Such reciprocity is an incident and result of the firm establishment and preservation of our present economic policy.  It was specially provided for in the present tariff law.
Reciprocity must be treated as the handmaiden of protection.  Our first duty is to see that the protection granted by the tariff in every case where it is needed is maintained, and that reciprocity be sought for so far as it can safely be done without injury to our home industries.  Just how far this is must be determined according to the individual case, remembering always that every application of our tariff policy to meet our shifting national needs must be conditioned upon the cardinal fact that the duties must never be reduced below the point that will cover the difference between the labor cost here and abroad.  The well being of the wage worker is a prime consideration of our entire policy of economic legislation.

Subject to this proviso of the proper protection necessary to our industrial well being at home, the principle of reciprocity must command our hearty support.  The phenomenal growth of our export trade emphasizes the urgency of the need for wider markets and for a liberal policy in dealing with foreign nations.  Whatever is merely petty and vexatious in the way of trade restrictions should be avoided.  The customers to whom we dispose of our surplus products in the long run, directly or indirectly, purchase those surplus products by giving us something in return.  Their ability to purchase our products should as far as possible be secured by so arranging our tariff as to enable us to take from them those products which we can use without harm to our own industries and labor, or the use of which will be of marked benefit to us.

It is most important that we should maintain the high level of our present prosperity.  We have now reached the point in the development of our interests where we are not only able to supply our own markets but to produce a constantly growing surplus for which we must find markets abroad.  To secure these markets we can utilize existing duties in any case where they are no longer needed for the purpose of protection, or in any case where the article is not produced here and the duty is no longer necessary for revenue, as giving us something to offer in exchange for what we ask.  The cordial relations with other nations which are so desirable will naturally be promoted by the course thus required by our own interests.

The natural line of development for a policy of reciprocity will be in connection with those of our productions which no longer require all of the support once needed to establish them upon a sound basis, and with those others where either because of natural or of economic causes we are beyond the reach of successful competition.

I ask the attention of the Senate to the reciprocity treaties laid before it by my predecessor.