us a reduction of her tariff on certain enumerated articles, some few of them being placed on the free list. The latter country gave us the advantage of the general low rates of duty which had been granted to Germany and other nations in the commercial treaties negotiated with them by Austria-Hungary. The articles upon which we secured a reduction in the German trade included cereals of various kinds, among them corn and wheat, meat products, except pork and bacon, most kinds of cheese, oleomargarine, flour and certain live animals. On the free list were placed undesignated agricultural products, hides and skins, tan bark and wool.

The treaty with Austria, by which we were placed on the same basis as sundry other nations, gave us considerable reductions on machinery, manufactures of cotton, chemicals, brass, earthenware, fruits, glass, iron and steel manufactures, paper, wood and wood manufactures, woolen yarn and a variety of other articles. Thus the treaty made with Germany was primarily favorable to our agricultural interests, while that with Austria gave essential advantages to manufacurers, but did little, comparatively speaking, for the American farmer. No other reciprocity treaties were negotiated with European countries under the McKinley Act. It scarcely needs to be again pointed out that the reason why Germany and Austria were willing to enter into such agreements was wholly a desire to secure an opening for their sugar. Neither of the countries, of course, was a producer of coffee or tea, and neither had hides for export. The fact that they were straining. every nerve to promote the interests of their beet-sugar industry was, however, a sufficient motive to induce them to undertake reciprocity arrangements. That being the case, it

May 2 the Austro-Hungarian Minister proposed concessions on the basis of the "favored-nation" principle which were accepted by the United States. "The Austro-Hungarian government.' ." wrote Mr. de Tavera (Note of May 2, 1892, Ibid., p. 123), "is consequently prepared to grant such reductions of duties as have been, or may hereafter be, granted to other States by commercial treaties so far as such reductions are applicable to all countries enjoying the usage of the most-favored nation, to similar productions from the United States of America on their importation into Austria-Hungary."

would naturally have been expected that some of the other European countries would have sought the same means of promoting the interests of their sugar industry. Such an effort was, in fact, made by France, but without success.

Some of the controversy that has arisen concerning the actual effects of reciprocity has been due to the fact that it has often been attempted to discuss the subject on the basis of aggregate export and import statistics. It requires no elaborate discussion to see that whatever might be the justice of this point of view, under circumstances where reciprocity had been secured either in all of our main exports and imports, or in so large a group of them as was represented, for instance, in the Canadian reciprocity treaty, it would be distinctly unfair to base the discussion solely upon such grounds, in those instances where the reciprocity in question was confined to a single limited group of commodities imported to the United States, and to a group of exports formed of similar and not widely extended classes of goods. The general course of trade is important, but it requires interpretation in the light of special statistics.

It is necessary, in considering reciprocity of the kind which existed under the McKinley Act, to study the exports and imports of special kinds of commodities whose movements were likely to be stimulated by the treaty, bearing in mind the fact that in some instances an increased exportation of particular kinds of goods almost necessarily implied a decreased exportation of other goods to those same countries, so that what was gained in one direction was lost in another. As we have seen in reviewing the McKinley treaties, those which were negotiated with the South American countries, while admitting their sugar, molasses, coffee, tea and hides free from the countries in question to the United States, provided for the admission of two general groups of commodities from the United States to these countries. The first of these groups was agricultural in its nature and included certain grains, flour, sundry meat

products, and ordinarily certain forms of lumber. The second group was of a manufactured character and comprised chiefly building materials, railway iron and equipment and machinery. It would naturally have been expected, therefore, that the advantage, if any, gained by our producers, would have been gained by those who were engaged in producing these particular classes of commodities.

Considering first the gross statistics of trade with the South American countries which entered into reciprocity agreements with us under the McKinley Act, it seems in most cases to be a matter of great difficulty to recognize any particular effect directly traceable to our new treaty arrangements. Cuba, however, forms an exception. In the case of that Island it appears that during a treaty period lasting from September 1, 1891, to August 27, 1894, exports from the United States largely increased, rising from $13,084,415 during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1890, and $12,224,888 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1891, to $17,953,570 during the fiscal year 1892, and to $24,157,698 during 1893. Exports fell off again during the year ending June 30, 1894, when they were only $20,125,321, but the effect of the termination of the treaty was apparently seen during the year July 1, 1894 to July 1, 1895, when exports amounted only to $12,807,661, although a part of this decline must be attributed to general disturbances in the Island. There was thus a marked upward increase of trade with Cuba during the life of the reciprocity treaty. Taking the fiscal year ending June 30, 1893, when our trade reached its largest proportions, some idea of the effects of the agreement may be gained by examining the details of our exports. Of the $24,157,698, which represented our gross shipments to Cuba, the largest items were wheat flour to the amount of $2,821,557, general machinery $2,792,000, miscellaneous manufactures of iron and steel $1,344,000, lard $4,024,000, lumber $1,192,000, hams $761,000, illuminating and lubricating oils $546,000, bacon $557,000, and