At frat the Secretary of State and Inter-departmental committee which he dominated proceeded with extreme caution. Small countries were tackled first whose trade, one way or another, made little difference. A trade treaty was also made with Cuba, which In view of the peculiarly close relationship between that country and the United States. was a fairly simple matter. Finally, with much hesitation and with extreme and painful caution, "negotiations were opened with Canada. From the point of view of population Canada fa a small country. "Her 10,000,000- odd population places her below the! state of New York. Yet from the point of view of trade she is America's Second largest customer, and on occasions has ousted Great Britain, from first place. The total Canadian trade with the United States is greater than that of the whole of South America or all of Asia.
The trade negotiations between America and Canada began late in 1934. Finally on November "15, a trade agreement was signed and presented to the "American public apologetically, in fear and trembling. 7nd with infinite caution. President Roosevelt. and his Administration finally had decided that the Democralic Party stood, with qualifications, for a lower Tariff, and tke view that the President was just allowing Mr. Hull to play with' small countries at mutual tariff reductions in order to appease his low tariff conscience had to be abandoned. In order to remove the whole question, if possible, from the realm of party polities, the President announced the conclu: sion of the trade agreement in his 'Armistice Day speech. He didn't' Advocate it on grounds as sell as "Yankee trading." but on the higher grounds that it was a concrete step towards peace. This was the first time that Mr. Roosevelt openly and emphatically Ead supported his Secretary of State in tariff matters.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.