Your newspaper always gives one reliable facts and food for thought, not least on the vexing matter of Donald Trump’s tariffs (“Will this be Trump’s McKinley moment?”, Letters, April 7).
Trump tirelessly invokes the 25th president William McKinley, forgetting what he said on the subject after his presidency, notably in his “Last public utterance to the people in Buffalo” on September 5 1901.
Here is a short excerpt towards the end of this speech, which Trump and his team should know, and which I was made aware of by an article in Le Monde: “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.”
Before this passage, McKinley mentions “sensible trade arrangements” and the “mutual exchange . . . manifestly essential to the continued and healthful growth of our export trade”, and warned against the “fancied security that we can forever sell everything and buy little or nothing”. Before concluding: “Our interest is in concord, not conflict, and our real eminence rests in the victories of peace, not those of war.”
McKinley was shot by an anarchist a week later, dying from his wounds (tariffs played no part).
But his words still make sense.
Lidia Gazzo
Stuttgart, Germany
