The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-09-10
THE FUTURE OF CUBA.

From, the N. Y. Times
The probability that Cuba will become,
sooner or later, an Independent State and
the clear possibility that she may become, in
certain contingencies, State of our Union.
make the problem of her commercial future
both to her and to us one of the highest in
terest and Importance.
Before the insurrection, the Custom Houses
in Cuba collected annually something like
SIG, GOO, 900 of import duties and So, SO0,00
of export duties on American trade, while the
officials and traders secured additional sums,
estimated as high as $S,000,000. All these
annual revenues were drags on the produc-
tive energies of the colonies. 1t is clear that
with such charges and exactions abolished
as they would be, for example, with anneXa-
tion-these energies will be powerfully as
sisted. And again. with free institutions
established in the island, either with or with
out annexation, American capital enterprise
and labor will find larger field and Anne
rican productions and manufactures a better
market.
Cuba saved from devastation and properly
governed will, whether independent or an
neXed, Ilnquestionably add to the prosperity
| of our people But it is impossible not to
note with apprehension the gradual destruc-
| tion of property at present in the island
| Recklessness and frenzy are now at work to
PROSTATE its productive powers. Soon after
| the first revolutionary movements, Valmaseda
| began the destruction of property; the
| patriots attacked and paralyzed the copper
| mines; estates were burnt or confscated;
| the volunteers seized authority regarding in
ternal management from the hands of Spain;
| executions, murders, and sequestrations be-
came general. At such rate, the ''Pear"
has been rapidly diminishing in price
| What we must do, however, in our present
discussion is to take the normal condition of
| Cuba in time of peace. In considering the
productive capability of the island we sup
pose that the following might be a fair esti-
mate of its tarGtiOa, official and otherwise: -
| The sum officially published in Madrid,
marking the SG perti9n n OF Cuba in the gene
H' AMOUNT AMOUNT Collected from
Additional itSsi' paid by the c''''O''''O
community for the
| same. .............,.'...' IUo'Oo"
Total .............sl .slO,OOO,Ooo
Less % per cent Of the S9,3OO-
| OC0 included in the general
budget Z,o-t,"uu- 'iu'OVuU
Total. Observation-Disclosures. .s4O52 283
Two per cent. additional on income tax for
private donations iSiH paid for smuggling arti-
not reported at Custom-house. ......... 100000
Total sum in gold paid by Cuban
population before the war. $50 404, ,STI
There is no more striking proof OF the i'm
portance of the present wealth of the Queen
of the Antilles than the foregoing figures,
and nothing can so we'll Justify all efforts
made to save Cuba from destruction in the
interest of the commercial world, even were
there no reasons of humanity to move our
better feelings.
If, out of the $40, 900 slaves of that island,
250, COO were TO be found able-bodied laborers,
their wages, at the rate of $50 per month,
would amount to $4,000, OOO-or little over
! one-third of the exactions heretofore borne.
These figures will show that to abolish
slavery is not to curtail the prosperity OF
Cuba, provided prosecutions, war and incen-
dialism are stopped at once. But there Is
very little time to lose in stopping the work
of destruction which has already gone so far
The aggregate exports of the nine more i'm
portant ports for the six months ending on
the 30th of last June give the following items,
showing marked decline:-
1862 1863
Boxes OF sugar. 10000 1,090,52.
HogsheadR OF sugar. ........... 365,21S 486, 40
HOgsheads of moasses mn. 29l, 1922 337, III
| fos fha al,p. aOO DOO