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The Au

We are, Yours confidentially, COLCHESTER, ROBERTS & Co., No. 11 Court Street. Tiffin, Ohio. ON reading A First Acceptance, in the September Contributors' Club, thor's First we wondered if the author Reverse. had ever contemplated a far more surprising experience than the first acceptance, and that is the first rejection after the first acceptance! That is indeed a crisis in the young author's career. Up to the time when he received his first acceptance, the novice, however high his conceit had swelled, as each new plan and aspiration feebly projected itself on paper, had yet in the bottom of his soul realized that his arms were untried, and that he might be riding for a fall. But when tangible proof of his first success had reached him, and the magic words "The check will follow upon publication" had dazzled his vision, how proudly he scanned the future which was his by virtue of the ink bottle!

Idea after idea floated before him; "songs without words " to which he would supply noun and adjective; thoughts inadequately expressed, fancies inhospitably received, which he would succor by the might of his right hand. Or perhaps the didactic devil tempted him, and he fancied the whole world his congregation, to whom he would preach at his leisure. Alas, fellow scribbler, passing through this Fool's Paradise, we pity you; by the Law of the Jungle,

"As high as we have mounted in delight, In our dejection do we sink as low." Perhaps the next step will lead you to the Pons Asinorum which ends in the Via Dolorosa. We have crossed it ourselves, we who had thought our feet so firmly planted on the ladder of literature that we needed only to mount higher and higher till we o'ertopped the stars.

When we had spent our first check a thousand times in anticipation, and at least twice in reality, we decided in gratitude to honor with our continued favor that hospitable magazine which had at last recognized our genius.

No longer stealing out at night to conceal the trembling fingers with which we dropped that long white envelope into the post box, but flauntingly, in the garish daylight, in the face of all men, we sent forth our manuscript as a conqueror demanding tribute.

Then we waited; security is ever serene. Poor tremblers on the threshold may listen with beating heart for the postman's quick peal of the bell, or look longingly at his non-committal gray coat and his fatal bag. All these sensations were of the past for us; they belonged to the era before we were recognized.

Then suddenly a bolt from the blue, -that homing pigeon, our manuscript, returns to us again. At first astonish ment is paramount, there must be some mistake. Next wrath,—it is a conspiracy to defraud us of our just reward; an envious world cannot tolerate our success. Last, a still, small, spiteful voice within us whispers: “Your bubble is pricked. I always told you that there was n't much in you, after all!"

What happens to us then? Where are our visions of thoughts clamoring to be clothed in winged words? Where are the songs only waiting to sing themselves through our lips to a silent world? What has become of our pulpit?

How are the mighty fallen! How doth the city which we would have enlightened sit solitary! Ours is no common sorrow; we are none of those who have only suffered the casual buffetings of fortune; ours is the bitter trial of the man who has faced betrayal in the house of his friend.

Fellow quill drivers, answer us: is there any shock to vanity like unto this, or any lesson in modesty?

THE name and fame of the lamented President McKinley will be identified in American history with the policy of reciprocity, which never had an abler and more sincere advocate. To the very last he remained an unflinching sponsor of the treaties made under his direction, and in his last annual message to Congress (December 3, 1900) he said of them:

"The failure of action by the Senate, at its last session, upon the commercial conventions then submitted for its consideration and approval, although caused by the great pressure of other legislative business, has caused much disappointment to the agricultural and industrial interests of the country, which hoped to profit by their provisions. . .

"The policy of reciprocity so manifestly rests upon the principles of international equity, and has been so repeat edly approved by the people of the United States, that there ought to be no hesitation in either branch of the Congress in giving to it full effect."

There is an element of the pathetic in these words of gentle reproach. Even in his brief second inaugural address (March 4, 1901) Mr. McKinley made passing mention of this subject, so important, in his judgment, for the maintenance of our prosperity, saying:

"Now every avenue of production is crowded with activity, labor is well employed, and American products find good markets at home and abroad.

ever, are increasing in such unprecedented volume as to admonish us of the necessity of still further enlarging our foreign markets by broader commercial relations. For this purpose reciprocal trade arrangements with other nations should in liberal spirit be carefully cultivated and promoted."

But it was in his farewell words to the American people, in his masterly speech at Buffalo, delivered on the eve of his martyrdom, that President McKinley gave the fullest expression to the results of his four years of deliberation on the subject of reciprocity. This is what he said :

"By sensible trade arrangements which will not interrupt our home production, we shall extend the outlets for our increasing surplus. A system which provides a mutual exchange of commodities is manifestly essential to the continued and healthful growth of our export trade. We must not repose in fancied security that we can forever sell everything, and buy little or nothing. If such a thing were possible, it would not be best for us or for those with whom we deal. We should take from our customers such of their products as we can use without harm to our industries and labor. Reciprocity is the natural outgrowth of our wonderful industrial development under the domestic policy now firmly established. What we produce beyond our domestic consumption must have a vent abroad.

The excess must be relieved

sell everywhere we can, and buy wherever the buying will enlarge our sales and productions, and thereby make a greater demand for home labor.

"The period of exclusiveness is past. The expansion of our trade and commerce is the pressing problem. Commercial wars are unprofitable. A policy of good will and friendly trade relations will prevent reprisals. Reciprocity treaties are in harmony with the spirit of the times; measures of retaliation are not.

"If, perchance, some of our tariffs are no longer needed for revenue or to encourage and protect our industries at home, why should they not be employed to extend and promote our markets abroad?"

The query in the final sentence suggests the current agitation in favor of a revision of the existing tariff law, applicable at least to certain schedules.

LEGISLATIVE REVISION.

The leading proposition for legislative revision of the tariff is known as the Babcock Plan. Representative Babcock, of Wisconsin, a Republican member of the Committee on Ways and Means, introduced in the last (Fifty-Sixth) Congress a bill providing for placing upon the free list all manufactures of iron and steel imported from abroad, the like of which are made in the United States by a "trust," without attempting to define what is a trust. This bill was never reported, but, since the adjournment of Congress, a far more radical scheme of revision has been discussed extensively in the press. It has been proposed to place either on the free list or on an exclusively revenue-producing basis all articles, now dutiable, which were formerly largely imported, but are now produced in this country and exported and sold abroad, under conditions of free competition. In other words, the mere fact of the exportation and sale in a foreign market of a given article of American manufacture shall be accepted

as proof that the said article no longer stands in need of any protection by the United States tariff laws. This test of the efficiency and necessity of protective duties would be manifestly inadequate and unfair to many domestic industries that are struggling, against heavy odds, to place their surplus products in foreign markets, and must rely on absolutely stable conditions in the home market. It must be remembered that much of our export trade is still in the experimental stage, and that many manufacturers are making considerable sacrifices in order to find new outlets abroad for their goods. We have ouly to consult the formidable list of articles of American manufacture which have, in recent years, come within the scope of such a test, to realize the far-reaching application of the plan. It would involve a complete reversal of the economic policy of the government, and constitute virtual free trade. The industrial stagnation prevailing under the Wilson tariff is only one indication of the disastrous conditions which would surely follow a change of policy of that character.

Moreover, such a scheme of tariff revision would involve the sacrifice of an unknown amount of needed revenue. This release of revenue would be a sheer gift on the part of the United States at the expense of American producers. It is all very well to allege that a remission of duties by the government is simply a forbearance in the taxing of American consumers, but the fact remains that the principal beneficiaries in the transaction would be the European manufacturers, whose sales would be enlarged and profits swelled in American markets. It is surely idle to assert that the American people who emphatically voiced the merits of the protective tariff system in their electoral verdict of 1896, and again, at their very last opportunity, in 1900, are now prepared to sanction a desertion of that policy in the midst of an era of unexampled national prosperity.