The honorable Delegate from the Argentine calls attention to the fact that "of $741,000,000 of merchandise imported into the United States $484,000,000 are subject to duty;" in other words, he states that "65 per cent. of the importations by the United States are burdened by duty," and that "the revenue on such importations amounts to $220,576,000." The honorable Delegate by giving these figures has brought into prominence the favorable conditions enjoyed by the producers of South and Central America in the distribution of their products in the United States. While the United States levies a duty, according to the figures which he presents, on 75 per cent. of the importations from all other countries, only 12 per cent. of the products imported into the United States from the countries to the south represented in this Conference. are subject to duty, 87 per cent. having been admitted free. It is gratifying to note that the disposition which has been shown in the United States to place the sister republics of America on a more favorable footing than all other countries has been manifested within our time; for by the statistics of 1870, the details of which I will place on file but will not now occupy your valuable time in reading, it appears that of the total importations into the United States from the independent countries of the South, in the year ending June 30, 1889, amounting to $45,000,000, less than $1,500,000 were admitted duty free and over $40,000,000 were subject to duty. It would therefore appear that within the past twenty years the tariff of the United States has been so changed that while the articles subject to duty from the independent countries to the South in 1870 represented over 90 per cent. of the total importations, it has since been reduced to only 12 per cent. In partial exchange for these imports, amounting in all to $120,560,328, of which all but $14,738,187 were admitted into the United States free of duty, the represented countries buy from the United States $50,623,941, of which the countries to the south levy duties on over 90 per cent., admitting less than five millions free of duty. Surely my friend, the honorable Delegate from the Argentine, will admit that the Government of the United States has already placed her trade relations with the southern States of America on the most liberal basis; and we hope, in addition, as the result of this Conference, to wipe out the duty on the South American products now subject to duty by fair and honorable treaties of reciprocity. It has often been charged that the United States is illiberal in her trade relations in the South American countries when compared with European countries. I ask my honorable friend if he can name any European country or countries that purchase $120,000,000 of the produce of the South and Central American Republics and levy duties on such a small percentage of the importations. He has referred to the South American trade with France and Germany. I have not been able, within the short time at my command, to procure exact statistics, but I feel warranted in stating that if all of the products now exported by the independent nations to the South were shipped to France or to Germany the duties on such products would aggregate more than double the amount of duty on the same products if brought into the United States of America. But I can say to the honorable Delegate that if he differs from the representatives of the United States on commercial and industrial details, I am sure he differs as a friend. In another and important, I might say the most. important, field of the Conference, that of substituting arbitration for war as a means of adjusting international disputes, the honorable Delegates from the Argentine Republic and from the United States of Brazil, powerful and progressive nations, representing an advanced civilization, have not only taken the best course to insure the political independence of the Republics of America, but they have done more to establish confidence, which is the basis of all commerce, than could be accomplished by any other measure which could be proposed in this Conference. We welcome them as co-workers in that great cause which aims to banish war from all America, and by America's great example to discourage it throughout the world. Mr. HENDERSON. At the last meeting the honorable Delegate from the Argentine intimated that if the minority report which had been presented should be regarded as not actually responsive to the act of Congress, there would be no objection on his part and on the part of Chili to amend or reform that report. Of course I have no right, nor will the Delegation from the United States claim the right in any manner whatever to dictate to the gentlemen the form of their report. We repudiate any such idea; but in response to his own suggestion I desire to call to his attention the language of the act under which we are holding the sessions of this Conference. In the first section, if gentlemen will examine the act, will be found the following words: Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the President of the United States be, and he is hereby, requested and authorized to invite the several Governments of the Republics of Mexico, Central and South America, Hayti, San Domingo, and the Empire of Brazil to join the United States in a conference to be held at Washington, in the United States, at such time as he may deem proper, in the year eighteen hundred and eightynine, for the purpose of discussing and recommending for adoption to their respective Governments some plan of arbitration for the settlement of disagreements and disputes that may hereafter arise between them, and for considering questions relating to the improvement of business intercourse and means of direct communication between said countries, and to encourage such reciprocal commercial relations as will be beneficial to all and secure more extensive markets for the products of each of said countries. And now comes the language to which I call attention: * * and to encourage such reciprocal commercial relations as will be beneficial to all and secure more extensive markets for the products of each of said countries. The act then reads: SEC. 2. That in forwarding the invitations to the said Governments the President of the United States shall set forth that the Conference is called to consider First. Measures that shall tend to preserve the peace and promote the prosperity of the several American States. Second. Measures toward the formation of an American Customs Union, under which the trade of the American nations with each other shall, so far as possible and profitable, be promoted. Now, when we examine the minority report we find it in these terms: To reject the project of a Customs Union between the Nations of America. Now, I desire to suggest to the honorable Delegates who have signed that report, that it is scarcely responsive, in my judgment, to the act of Congress, nor is it responsive to the action of a majority of the committee. A majority of the committee assume that the object of the committee, the object of the Conference, the intention of the law and the object of the body itself, the committee to which I refer, was to respond directly to the act of Congress; and that is that we are called here for the purpose of considering measures "to encourage such reciprocal commercial relations as will be beneficial to all, and to secure more extensive markets for the products of each of said countries." I assume that the Delegates in rejecting the Customs Union understood the words "Customs Union" to mean simply and solely the establishment of free trade absolutely between the different nations here represented. That, let me humbly suggest, was not the intention of the Congress of the United States. The idea is that we are to consider whether it be possible to establish a Customs Union, but it is not the opinion of the American Delegates in this body that a Customs Union necessarily means free-trade between the nations adopting it. Not at all. You may adopt a Customs Union by allowing any particular nation that desires to encourage a special industry to levy an additional or superior tax upon it, but when you come to divide the proceeds of the importations into the respective countries or into the entire territories adopting the commercial union, of course, that fact must be taken into consideration, and the country imposing the superior tax for the protection of an isolated or a particular industry will not be permitted to have an equal division, but first, a superior tax collected upon a given article must be deducted before that particular country receives its entire share. Now, Mr. President, that is our understanding, and that is the sort of a Customs Union that we have invited, or have intended to invite the honorable Delegates to this body to consider. Not only that, but we went further in the act of Congress, and while we invited you to consider the possibilities of a Customs Union tending towards free-trade between the Western Republics, yet we go further and ask you to consider, not a Customs Union alone, but such measures as might encourage reciprocal commercial relations between the nations here represented. Now, my |