Morning journal and courier., 1884-12-27
News by Telegraph
 FROM ALL QUARTERS. THE SPANISH TREATY "A Plea For Secretary
 Frelinghuysen. AN EXTRA SESSION PROBABLE Unless The Senate Backs Down.
 THE EARTHQUAKE IN SPAIN. Many Lives Lost And
 Towns Destroyed.
THE EARTHQUAKE IN SPAIN

THE TREATY. A word From The AdminfstratfOn-
 Secretary FrelInghuysen Answers
 The objections Against It's Adop-
 tions
 WASHINGTON, Dec. 26.-Secretary Freling- huysen in a letter written to-day to Hon. John F. Miller, chairman of the Senate Com mittee on Foreign Relations, respecting the Spanish commercial treaty, after urging the importance of the treaty as opening up the markets of Cuba and Porto Riea to our pro- ducts, refers to the objections made against the treaty as follows:It is said we thereby give up a revenue on sugar of from twenty- five to thirty-five millions of dollars in return for 8 reduction of duties upon our products inn ported into Cuba and Porto Rico estimated on the basis of the existing tariff at from three to five millions. The relinquishment of line of national policy. Hitherto it was done in the case of tea and coffee, which by the act of May 1, 1872, were placed upon the free list without attempt to obtain there for any equivalent whatever and solely in obedience to the popular demand for ''free breakfast table," By this measure the treasury of the United States has lost during the last twelve years a revenue of some one hundred and forty-four millions of dollars on coffee alone; and, besides, let us not forget that Brazil availed itself of the ac- ton of this government to impose an export tax upon coffee which deprived the people of the United States of the benefit of our reduction. Article V of this convention prevents similar action by Spain. The treaty now under consideration tends to cheapen the cost of the necessaries of life by reducing the cost of a staple of
 daily consumption of which we are one hundred million dollars in value to make up for the inadequate production of our soil which amounts to only
 about twelve per cent. of the whole consump- ton, and at the same time we secure grow ing market for our products in the Spanish
 Antilles coupled with especial privileges to
 our merchant marine. It is also said that
 the importation of free sugar from Cuba and, Porto Rico, when added to
 our domestic production and to the importation from the Sandwich Islands, AOA | home consumption and the price will be l ruled by that of the part remaining liable to duty, so that the profit from the removal of
 duty will go to the Cuban and Porto Rico
 planter and not to the consumers If this be 1 true the treaty will not affect the price of sugar in Louisiana. The price of commodity is lessened by the
 supply being greater than the demand. But | he is frank to say that other conventions
 have been negotiated or are in progress of ne gotiationI which will provide an adequate i'm portation from the sugar regions,
 Again the privileged introduction of to- baeco at reduced duties has been objected to as reducing the revenue and removing pro tection from the American product and maa. | ufacture. As to this it seems enough | to say that the convention leaves discrimination against the imported articles | from four to five times the interna revenue duties on the American product anG
 secures market hitherto denied for the special manufactures of tobacco in which we | excel and which command a profitable market 1 wherever importation is permitted. A re | duction is urged in ma | ny quarters of the internal revenue tax o1 l the manufacture of tobacco and this would en
 tail loss of $25, ,000 900 annually to the public treasury. This treaty taken with others ot | the same character stimulates our genera | exports and thereby promotes the interest O | our manufactures. The Secretary says These conventions * en 1 large the foreign market for our surplus | productions which it is the policy of protec | tion to secure and they stimulate our com | mercial operations and our carrying trade b,
 reserving to our vessels the privileges conced
 ed. *K** x The claim that the Mexican
 treaty is unconstitutional because it affect the revenue and did not originate in tn House of Representatives is singularly un
 tenable. It did so originate. The first actiol
 of this government toward it's negotiation | was the appropriation by Congress for tn salaries and expenses of a commission to ne gotiate commercial treaty with Mexico
 The precedents are agains
 the position that negotiations of this cIas
 are unconstitutional.
 | A Protest From the Tobacco Trade
 BOSTON, Dec. 26.-At a meeting of tn