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when at the same time we suppress international commercial relations?

Such a situation would be proper for the encouragement of and interchange of ballast, but not of products; and if there is to-day in New York a vessel which secures $14,000 of freight and does not secure in all the Argentine ports $1,800 for the return voyage, as I was told not long since by the honorable Mr. Flint, we may be assured that the vessels which are to sail under our flag will float with empty holds, sustained only by the generosity of two Governments who have the means but do not seek the end.

To facilitate transportation and at the same time to raise the tariff is to create the means to afford one's self the

pleasure of strengthening resistance. Tariffs were resorted to as a consequence of the establishment of communications. They constituted the national defense against the invasion of foreign products. Tariffs and communications represent two tendencies and two forces antagonistic to each other, which never were fostered by the same government. A noted economist, Mr. de Molinari, has just explained to us in a brilliant article published in the Diario de los Economistas, which he edits, how Europe defended itself by tariffs when the United States perfected their means of transportation and became able to carry on the Atlantic all the products of the west to cross the seas and invade the markets of the Old World. The transportation represented the attack and the tariff the defense, as in the everlasting struggle between the projectile and the armor. But my confusion will be explicable if the spectacle is given me of defense and attack being combined under the protection of the same and identical governments. To lower the duties in favor of exporters and raise them against importations is to combine two acts in one contradiction.

The Argentine delegation respects, as much as any other, the sovereign acts of a friendly nation, but it has the right to judge them when they affect the international relations of commerce, which we have been bidden to consider, and especially when they require national sacrifices and assistance. Our Government does not subsidize a

single steamer of all those which connect us with Europe, and meet, however, all the demands of transatlantic commerce-eighteen to twenty steam-ships entering our ports daily and a total of 13,500 vessels entering annually. This is not the effect of subsidies, it is the result of freight; and there is freight because there are no high tariffs to prevent or impede interchange. But we desire communication with our friends of the North, and now that the tariff policy does not aid commerce or sustain freights, we accept the sacrifice of sustaining it artificially, but upon the following declaration, of which the secretaries will please make note: The Argentine delegates give their vote in favor of the plan under discussion upon the basis of the present tariff, but they will recommend to their Government not to approve it if the tariff should be altered to the injury of the Argentine products.

This vote is the result of a formal agreement I arrived at with my honorable colleague, and should be inserted in full in the minutes, with all the explanatory remarks.

At the conclusion of Mr. Saenz Peña's speech the President left the chair, which was then occupied by Mr. Zegarra, of Peru, the first vice-president of the Conference.

Mr. HENDERSON. Mr. President, if I understand the interpretation of the honorable gentleman's speech, he indicates that there is a bill pending before Congress now to tax raw hides. I am not aware that there is such a bill pending before Congress. I am not aware that the committee on the tariff has reported at all. There has been no report made to the House of Representatives whatever upon the subject as yet, and I do not really know what that report will be. There is an intimation in the press that the committee had agreed to report in favor of taxing raw hides, but I saw this morning that a manufacturer of boots and shoes had gone before the committee and spoken against that. The committee has not made any report

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whatever, and I think it is quite unfair for the gentleman to claim that the impressions of a committee, consisting of eleven members, should be considered an act of Congress. I do not understand that any bill has been reported upon the subject of the tariff at all.

Mr. SAENZ PEÑA. I did not say that the bill had been reported to the House of Representatives. Had that been already done, you may depend upon it that the Argentine delegation would not vote conditionally but negatively and finally.

The Committee of Ways and Means has prepared this bill; this bill is public property; the press has discussed it and some protests have been made by parties interested in the free entry of these articles. When such demonstrations are made within this country itself, the Conference will understand why the Argentine delegation, whose interests are deep in this bill, should take note of it, comment upon it, and enter its exceptions thereto.

If this bill is not passed by the Federal Congress no damage will be done either to the Argentine delegation or to the United States, because our conditional vote would do no harm; but should the bill become a law, then our conditional vote will prove to have been necessary.

The FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT. If no delegate desires to take the floor, the vote will now be taken on the report. The vote will be had upon the report as a whole, as required by the rules, the proposition to be passed upon being that formulated in the communication of the honorable chairman of the committee. The Secretary will read that communication.

The SECRETARY read the same as above printed. Mr. ALFONSO. I desire simply to ask the Chair whether what has just been read is all that is to be adopted upon this subject, or whether it is intended to proceed as in other cases of reports consisting of more than one article, which were discussed and voted on article by article. I believe the present report contains fifteen articles, each embodying a distinct provision.

The FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT. The Chair proposed to take first a vote upon the report as a whole, in the form presented by the chairman of the committee, because the Chair is not authorized to change that form; but after that there will be no difficulty in discussing and voting on article by article, as has been done in the case of other reports.

Mr. ALFONSO. Then I have no objection to interpose.

The PRESIDENT. The Secretary will read the report as presented by the committee.

(The Secretary reads.)

The PRESIDENT. The vote will be taken.

VOTE.

The vote being taken, resulted in the approval of the report as a whole, by 16 affirmative votes, as

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The PRESIDENT. The resolution presented by the

committee has been unanimously adopted.

COMMUNICATION ON THE PACIFIC.

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON COMMUNICATION ON THE PACIFIC OCEAN.

[As submitted to the Conference March 14, 1890.]

TRANSPORTATION COMPANIES.

The Committee on Communication on the Pacific has the honor to propose that it be recommended to the Governments represented in the Conference whose territories bor. der on the Pacific Ocean, with reference to transportation companies:

First. That the nations lying along the western coast of the American continent, and represented in this Conference, agree to subsidize one or more lines of steam-ships of the first-class, which shall make regular voyages between the port of San Francisco, in the State of California, United States of America, and that of Valparaiso, in the Republic of Chili, and the intermediate ports. Said vessels shall make bi-monthly round trips, at least, to each port; shall be of not less than 4,000 tons capacity, with triple expansion engines of not less than 3,500 indicated horsepower, and a minimum speed of 15 knots an hour. The vessels so employed shall be suitably constructed for the transportation of passengers as well as freight, and firstclass in every respect, with all modern improvements.

Second. That the companies or individuals owning said vessels shall transport both passengers and freight thereon between all the ports of said coast which can be safely visited; and that they shall not enter directly or indirectly into any arrangement or combination with any other company or individual to increase the rate of passage or freight by sea or land, and no preference shall be given one ship over another.

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