New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-05-01

products of whose Independent industry finds its
way TO this country. While nearly all the sugar
ana rum produced in these colonies on the large
plantations by hlred labor is sent to England,
most OF the coffee raised bv the small
settlers for themselves is shipped to the United
states The exports from Cuba TO the United States
Consisting principally of sugar. molasses and manu-
Lhctiiol tpDaccO, are immense statistical returns
showing that from the three principal ports of ship
ent VIZ: Cardenas Matanzas and Trinidad de Cuba;
they amount IN value to about $l7OOOOOO a year:
but the imports from the States are insignificant
IN comparison with the exports hther result
wien w Is owing to the restrictive commercial policy
Oh SPAN toward that island, which is compelled TO
take articles from the mother country which she
mgnt Obtain elsewhere at cheaper rates and of better
44aty and this not to protect the industry of the
Island, but simply TO benefit the royal treasury The
duty IN Cuba on United States -four for example is
SO hlgh-Si per barel-as to be in fact prohibitOry
These remarks apply to Porto Rico likewise.
THE PAST AND THE FUTURE.
AS there IS no fairer region on the face of Gods
earth than the West Indies so no part of the world
has been more terribly cursed by the yaiDy of man.
lime was, indeed, when 80 universal was the reign
OF injustice, tyranny, and cruelty in the Caribbean
and so complete and revolving the decentralization of
society IN all the colonies that the words of the poet
might have been appropriately applied:
Here every prospect pleases,
And only man is vile"
The great bane of the Antilles has been negro Slay-
cry, In sOme of them however an antidOte has been
applied. whose effects have been so far of the most
satisfactory charact ter; and in those parts where the
poison still actively works there is ground for hope
that curative agencies Will soon be in full operation.
WITH Slavery OyerthrOwn in Cuba and Porto Rico,
the West Indies, thereby completely delivered from
the terrible which followed in the wake of the
first slave ship that crossed the Atlantic more than
three centuries ago, Will mt once enter upon new
career What is likely TO be their destiny7 Cuba,
the most important island of them ALL cannot if de-
lIvered from the spanish yoke, stand alone Con-
federation will be forced upon her by the necessities
OF her new position; and Independence will thus
become the stepplngStOne to incorporation with the
United States, the only power to which she can look
for genuine sympathy, and practical aid ia establish
ing Government that shall be at Free orderly,
and progressive. Hayti. weak i'll her isolation and
a prey to internal dissensiOns and civil war; is al
ready feeling her way toward annexation TO this
country. the only means of saving that republican
form Of government which her people love so well,
but which they have been unable to work ont sue
cosstully for themselves well Of developing her
immense resources. With Cuba and Hayti integral
parts of the American Union. the people of the other
islands will perceive it to be their interest to
exchange the dependent condition of cOlOnst5 for
in good Commonwealth and that point
once reached nothing short of annexation will salts
fy their aspirations The signs of the times" clear
~ indicate that the age Of colonies is drawing TO a
close As far as the Western Hemisphere is con-
oerned, through the wTctChed management of Spain |
they have ceased to exist almost throughout the |
length and breadth of the Southern half of this Con-
iinent Other and better agencies will bring the |
colonial system TO end in the Northern half of the
Continent also, and the islands adjacent thereto as
well as in all the tropical regions of the New World
is not improbable that before the rising generation
'hal have passed away the Stars and Stripes will
be floating over the whole of the West Indies.