Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1879-03-09
lseolPROCAL TRADE WITH CUBA

he GGcetG, a journal published in Havana,
duoa, announces the appointment of a spe-
eial committee there to investigate the SUBJ
iect Of entering into a reciprocity treaty with
the United States. A year ago a number of
American merchants visited that city with
view Of promoting trade between Cuba and
lis country, but the obstacles in the way of
Ilicrcourse were too numerous and important
!sr anything then to be done. The obstacles
were not of natures placing, for nothing
.uuld be more natural than that Cuba should
SIND to us products we cannot pro6tably
produce, and we TO Cuba such as they cannot
row with advantage. But foolish or inter-
c d people have decided that the natural
o. ate of things shall be violated, so that peo-
rle may pay more for what they eat, drink
and wear than it is necessary they should do,
III order that the extra payment may create
a monopoly by which particular parties may
UyCft. This Is done 10 Cuba by forbidding
Ctler -four to be brought there than such as
~ the product of Spain, and United States
Il, ur is thus taxed out of the Spanish mar
bet. The United States, following policy
equally benighted with that of Cuba,
places a heavy tax on the sugar
Cuba produces to advantage, on pur-
pose to protect sugar grown in this
country at great disadvantage, ewing to frost
and otherinjurious influences. If Spain would
send her surplus -four to England, and allow
Cuba TO take our western -four, we taking
Cuban sugar, is it not evident that all parties
would gam by the arrangement? "But, ;"
the protectionist objects, would you leave
our home grown sugar unprotected?" 1t Is
sufficient reply to this to say that the wheat
crop is as much entitled to every advantage
,e'slation can give it as the sugar crop, and
tbat to favor sugar at the expense of flour is
rSsurd, especially when every man and
". juan that uses sugar has to pay over cent
y IRE for every pound they buy than they
would if we were allowed to send our -four to
Luha and Cuba was allowed to send their
SCAR to us. The times are hard; the people
2 short of money, yet every meal they take
3 must pay more than it ought to cost,
and that payment is not for the support of the
national government, but to keep up sys-
tenn By which the wheat-grower is kept out
OF the Cuban market. How that system works
is shown by the fact that, out of three hun
dred and ffty-nine thousand barrels of -four
imported INTO Havana the past ten years,
only ninety thousand barrels came from the
United States. Those who visited Cuba on
the expedition we have mentioned, a |
portion of whom were from Memphis, |
had clearly lying open before them |
the fact that the American people |
are shutting out from their commerce |
valuable market By our pursuance OF false
aud short-sighted policy. Whether what |
that delegation did had some effect on the |
minds of The more sagacious Cubans we can
not tell, but we now see that, by the au-
thority Of the Spanish government itself,
committee is at work to bring about a re-
eiprocal commerce between Cuba and the
United States, and on that committee are
three prominent merchants of Havana Now
that Cuba is ready to give up an erroneous
nolicy, will our country be sufficiently en-
Iiobtened to act with equal intelligence, or
are ''the dark-browed sons of bigot Spain
to 90 beyond us in good sense and just policy3
A. Memphis we have a strong interest in
ms question. When Eads's jetties are fol-
owed by the application of the same system
ear no the river, so that the stream is made
'eper and vessels can sail direct between
Ana and St. Louis, Memphis will be
Inaas rich and prosperous from the COM
meroe daily passing from above and below.
Therefore the opening of trade with Cuba is