Attached hereto is a statement showing the duties charged by the South American countries of the largest commerce upon the articles which they import chiefly from the United States, and also a statement showing the meagre amounts of our peculiar exportable products shipped to the several Latin-American states. By a comparison of these statements the effect of the removal of the duties upon these articles by the countries of Latin America will at once be apparent. Fifteen of the seventeen republics with which we have been in conference have indicated, by the votes of their representatives in the International American Conference, and by other methods which it is not necessary to define, their desire to enter upon reciprocal commercial relations with the United States; the remaining two express equal willingness, could they be assured that their advances would be favorably considered. To escape the delay and uncertainty of treaties it has been suggested that a practicable and prompt mode of testing the question was to submit an amendment to the pending tariff bill, authorizing the President to declare the ports of the United States free to all the products of any nation of the American hemisphere upon which no export duties are imposed whenever and so long as such nation shall admit to its ports free of all national, provincial (State), municipal, and other taxes, our flour, corn meal, and other breadstuffs, preserved meats, fish, vegetables, and fruits, cotton-seed oil, rice, and other provisions, including all articles of food, lumber, furniture, and all other articles of wood, agricultural implements and machinery, mining and mechanical machinery, structural steel and iron, steel rails, locomotives, railway cars and supplies, street cars, and refined petroleum. I mention these particular articles because they have been most frequently referred to as those with which a valuable exchange could be readily effected. The list could no doubt be profitably enlarged by a careful investigation of the needs and advantage of both the home and foreign markets. The opinion was general among the foreign delegates that the legislation herein referred to would lead to the opening of new and profitable markets for the products of which we have so large a surplus, and thus invigorate every branch of agriculture and mechanical industry. Of course, the exchanges involved in these propositions would be rendered impossible if Congress, in its wisdom, should repeal the duty on sugar by direct legislation instead of allowing the same object to be attained by the reciprocal arrangement suggested. Respectfully submitted, JAMES G. BLAINE. THE SILVER BILL OF 1890. APPROVED BY PRESIDENT HARRISON, JULY 14, 1890. "THE Secretary of the Treasury is hereby directed to purchase, from time to time, silver bullion to the aggregate amount of 4,500,000 ounces, or so much thereof as may be offered in each month, at the market price thereof, not exceeding $1 for 371.25 grains of pure silver, and to issue in payment for such purchases of silver bullion, Treasury notes of the United States to be prepared by the Secretary of the Treasury in such form and of such denominations, not less than $1 nor more than $1,000, as he may prescribe, and a sum sufficient to carry into effect the provisions of this act, is hereby appropriated out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated. "SEC. 2. That the Treasury notes issued in accordance with the provisions of this act shall be redeemable on demand, in coin, at the Treasury of the United States or at the office of any assistant treasurer of the United States, and when so redeemed, may be reissued; but no greater or less amount of such notes shall be outstanding at any time than the cost of the silver bullion, and the standard silver dollars coined therefrom, then held in the Treasury purchased by such notes; and such Treasury notes shall be a legal tender in payment of all debts, public and private, except where otherwise expressly stipulated in the contract, and shall be receivable for customs, taxes, and all public dues, and when so received may be reissued; and such notes, when held by any national banking association, may be counted as a part of its lawful reserve. That upon demand of the holder of any of the Treasury notes herein provided for, the Secretary of the Treasury shall, under such regulations as he may prescribe, redeem such notes in gold or silver coin, at his discretion, it being the established policy of the United States to maintain the two metals on a parity with each other upon the present legal ratio, or such ratio as may be provided by law. "SEC. 3. That the Secretary of the Treasury shall each month coin two million ounces of the silver bullion purchased under the provisions of this act into standard silver dollars until the 1st day of July, 1891, and after that time he shall coin of the silver bullion purchased under the provisions of this act as much as may be necessary to provide for the redemption of the Treasury notes herein provided for, and any gain or seigniorage arising from such coinage shall be accounted for and paid into the Treasury. "SEC. 4. That the silver bullion purchased under the provisions of this act shall be subject to the requirements of existing law and the regulations of the mint service governing the methods of determining the amount of pure silver contained, and the amount of charges or deductions, if any, to be made. "SEC. 5. That so much of the act of Feb. 28, 1878, entitled 'An act to authorize the coinage of the standard silver dollar and to restore its legaltender character,' as requires the monthly purchase and coinage of the same into silver dollars of not less than $2,000,000 nor more than $4,000,000 worth of silver bullion, is hereby repealed. "SEC. 6. That upon the passage of this act the balances standing with the Treasurer of the United States to the respective credits of national banks for deposits made to redeem the circulating notes of such banks, and all deposits thereafter received for like purpose, shall be covered into the Treasury as a miscellaneous receipt, and the Treasurer of the United States shall redeem from the general cash in the Treasury the circulating notes of said banks which may come into his possession subject to redemption; and upon the certificate of the Comptroller of the Currency that such notes have been received by him, and that they have been destroyed, and that no new notes will be issued in their place, reimbursement of their amount shall be made to the Treasurer, under such regulations as the Secretary of the Treasury may prescribe, from an appropriation hereby created, to be known as 'National bank notes: Redemption account,' but the provisions of this act shall not apply to the deposits received under section 3 of the act of June 20, 1874, requiring every national bank to keep in lawful money with the Treasurer of the United States a sum equal to 5 per cent. of its circulation, to be held and used for the redemption of its circulating notes; and the balance remaining of the deposits so covered shall, at the close of each month, be reported on the monthly public debt statement as debt of the United States bearing no interest. "SEC. 7. That this act shall take effect thirty days from and after its passage." EXTRACTS FROM MR. MILLS'S SPEECH, 1889, INTRODUCING HIS PROPOSED TARIFF-REFORM MEASURE. "MR. CHAIRMAN, during our late civil war the expenditures required by an enormous military establishment made it necessary that the burdens of taxation should be laid heavily in all directions authorized by the Constitution. The internal-revenue and direct taxes were called into requisition to supplement the revenues arising from customs, to aid the Treasury to respond to the heavy demands which were being daily made upon it. The duties on imports were raised from an average on dutiable goods of 18.84 per cent. in 1861 to an average of 40.29 per cent. on dutiable goods during the five years from 1862 to 1866, inclusive. This was recognized at the time as an exceptionally heavy burden. It was stated by the distinguished gentlemen who then presented to the House the bill so largely increasing the duties, and which to-day bears his honored name, that it was demanded by the exigencies of war, and must cease on the return of peace. In his own words he said: "This is intended as a war measure, a temporary measure, and we must as such give it our support.' More than twenty years have elapsed since the war ended. A generation has passed away and a new generation has appeared on the stage since peace has returned to bless our common country; but these war taxes still remain; and they are heavier to-day than they were on an average during the five years of the existence of hostilities. The average rate of duty during the last five years-from 1883 to 1887 inclusive-on dutiable goods, amounts to 44.51 per cent., and during the last year the average is 47.10 per cent. Instead of the rate of taxation being reduced to meet the wants of an efficient administration of government in time of peace, it continues to grow and fill the coffers of the government with money not required for public purposes, and which rightfully should remain in the pockets of the people. "The greatest evil that is inflicted by it is in the destruction of the values of our exports. Remember that the great body of our exports are agricultural products. It has been so through our whole history. From 75 to over 80 per cent. of the exports of this country, year by year, are agricultural products. Cotton is first, then bread-stuffs, pork, beef, butter, cheese, lard. These are the things that keep up our foreign trade, and when you put on or keep on such duties as we have now-war duties, which were regarded as so enormous even in the very midst of hostilities that they were declared to be temporary-when you put on or retain those duties, they limit and prohibit importation, and that limits or prohibits exportation. It takes two to make a trade. All the commerce of all the countries of the world is carried on by an exchange of commodities-commodities going from the country where they are produced at the least cost to seek a market in those countries where they can either not be produced at all or where they can be produced only at the highest cost of production. We are the great agricultural country of the world, and we have been feeding the people of Europe, and the people of Europe have got to give us in exchange the products of their labor in their shops; and when we put on excessive duties for the purpose of prohibiting the importations of their goods, as a necessary result we put an excessive duty upon the exportation of our own agricultural products. And what does that do? It throws our surplus products upon our own markets at home, which becomes glutted and oversupplied, and prices go down. So it is with the people of Europe who are manufacturing and producing things that we can not produce, but which we want. Their products are thrown upon their home markets, which are glutted and oversupplied, and their prices likewise go down. And whenever, from any cause, prices start up in Europe, our tariff being levied mainly by specific duties upon quantity, not upon value, the tariff goes down, and then we see large importation, and, as a result, large exportation. Then we see a rise in agricultural products; then we see the circulation of money all through the whole of our industrial system; we see our people going to work, our manufactories starting up, and prosperity in every part of the land. We are the greatest agricultural people in the world. We exceed all others in the products of manufacture, but we export next to nothing of our product. Why should we not export the three hundred and seventy-five millions of cotton goods which England is now exporting? She buys her cotton from us, pays the cost of transportation to her factories, makes the goods, and sends them all over the world. That trade, at least the most of it, is ours whenever we get ready to take it. Why should we not make and send out the hundred millions of woolen goods which she is annually exporting? We have the advantage of her in almost everything except cost of materials. Why should we not make and export the hundred millions of iron and steel which she is making and sending away annually? There is no reason except that high tariff and trusts and combinations are in our way, and they muster all their forces to prevent us from taking the place which our advantages entitle us to take. We are the greatest people in the world. We have the highest standard of civilization; we have the highest and best diffusion of knowledge among our people. We utilize the power of machinery more than any people in the world. We produce by our labor more than any people in the world. We have everything to command success in any contest over any rival. We are the first cotton-producing country. We have wool, flax, hemp; our country is full of coal and ores and lumber, and yet with all these advantages over all others we have pursued a suicidal policy of protection, which has closed the markets of the world against us; and not content to stop here, we have plundered the great body of our agricultural people out of a large part of their wealth. We must make a departure. Instead of laying the burdens of taxation upon the necessaries of life, instead of destroying our foreign commerce, we should encourage it as we would encourage our home commerce. We should remove every unnecessary bur den. We should lay taxes to obtain revenue, but not restrict importation. We should place every material of manufacture on the free list, start up our fires, put our wheels in motion, and put all our people to work at good wages.' After arguing that it is increased production that makes cheap goods and high wages, Mr. Mills said, in regard to the effect of the existing tariff on labor: "I have taken from the first annual report of the Commissioner of Labor and the report of the census on wages some figures given by manufacturers themselves of the total cost of the product and the labor cost of the articles they are making. I have put the tariff duty by the side of them to show whether in the little reductions we are asking in this bill we have gone beyond that pledge we as a party have made that we would not reduce taxation so low as to injure our laborers, or as not to cover the difference in cost of labor between American and foreign products. This will show, and I ask your attention to it, that the tariff is not intended to, and does not, benefit labor. It will show that the benefit of the tariff never passes beyond the pocket of the manufacturer, and to the pockets of his workmen. "I find in this report one pair of five-pound blankets. The whole cost, as stated by the manufacturer, is $2.51. The labor cost he paid for making them is 35 cents. The present tariff is $1.90. Now here is $1.55 in this tariff over and above the entire labor cost of these blankets. Why did not that |