Message to the Congress Directing Attention of Congress to the Reciprocal Tariff Agreement Between the Dominion of Canada and the United States

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

I transmitted to the Sixty-first Congress on January 26th last the text of the reciprocal trade agreement which had been negotiated, under my direction, by the Secretary of State with the representatives of the Dominion of Canada. This agreement was the consummation of earnest efforts, extending over a period of nearly a year, on the part of both governments to effect a trade arrangement which, supplementing as it did the amicable settlement of various questions of a diplomatic and political character that had been reached, would mutually promote commerce and would strengthen the friendly relations now existing.

The agreement in its intent and in its terms was purely economic and commercial. While the general subject was under discussion by the commissioners, I felt assured that the sentiment of the people of the United States was such that they would welcome a measure which would result in the increase of trade on both sides of the boundary line, would open up the reserve productive resources of Canada to the great mass of our own consumers on advantageous conditions, and at the same time offer a broader outlet for the excess products of our farms and many of our industries. Details regarding a negotiation of this kind necessarily could not be made public while the conferences were pending. When, however, the full text of the agreement, with the accompanying correspondence and data explaining both its purpose and its scope, became known to the people through the message transmitted to Congress, it was immediately apparent that the ripened fruits of the careful labors of the commissioners met with widespread approval. This approval has been strengthened by further consideration of the terms of the agreement in all their particulars. The volume of support which has developed shows that its broadly national scope is fully appreciated and is responsive to the popular will.

The House of Representatives of the Sixty-first Congress, after the full text of the arrangement with all the details in regard to the different provisions had been before it, as they were before the American people, passed a bill confirming the agreement as negotiated and as transmitted to Congress. This measure failed of action in the Senate.

In my transmitting message of the 26th of January I fully set forth the character of the agreement and emphasized its appropriateness and necessity as a response to the mutual needs of the people of the two countries as well as its common advantages. I now lay that message, and the reciprocal trade agreement as integrally part of the present message, before the Sixty-second Congress and again invite earnest attention to the considerations therein expressed.

I am constrained, in deference to popular sentiment and with a realizing sense of my duty to the great masses of our people whose welfare is involved, to urge upon your consideration early action on this agreement. In concluding the negotiations, the representatives of the two countries bound themselves to use their utmost efforts to bring about the tariff changes provided for in the agreement by concurrent •legislation at Washington and Ottawa. I have felt it my duty, therefore, not to acquiesce in relegation of action until the opening of the Congress in December, but to use my constitutional prerogative and convoke the Sixty-second Congress in extra session in order that there shall be no break of continuity in considering and acting upon this most important subject.

WILLIAM H. TAFT.

The White House, April 5, 1911.