The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1891-02-20
tuba Aroused.

NEW YORK, Feb. 17.-While the
latest papers from Spain seem to in
dictate that the Madrid government is
not yet inclined to include its colonies in
the commercial treaties which it is
anxious to sign with other powers, they
also contain more evidence of the desire
of Cuba for the improvement of trade
relations with the United States. The
views expressed by The Tribune CORE
spondent in his letters from the Antilles
are receiving valuable confirmation
from Madrid,
1t is known that representatives of the
trades interests in Cuba have been sent
to plead before the home government
the cause of those material interests in
Cuba and Porto Rico For the first
time the autonomist liberals and con-
servatives are united in making efforts
to secure measures which are considered
by all parties as absolutely necessary for
the welfare of the two Spanish islands.
The principal leader of the delegation.
Senior Rafael MontOnero, a lawyer and
an autonomist deputy of Cuba to the
Madrid corteS, has had many confer
ences with Premier Canovas del Castillo
and with the minister for the colonies.
de has summed up his views on the
question in the following words:
The question in fact is that of pre-
serving our market in the United States.
and this is a question of life or death to
the Antilles. The United States takes
about 81 per cent. of our sugars,
on per cent, OF our tobacco and 20 per
cent. OF our other products. The United
States has decreed, by the Mckinley bill,
that five foreign products, notably sugar,
shall enter duty free until 1882, and that
they will he heavily taxed later if The
foreign countries producing these sugars
do not grant a reciprocal Treatment to
American imrOrtations.
Neither Spain. which consumes 65,-
900 tons of foreign and colonial sugar
and mQlasses of all kinda, nor Europe
will take our 100000 or SEQ, 600 tons of
sugar yearly at the same price as that
paid by the United States. Therefore.
If we lose the American market, we
deal a terrible blow to the principal
resources of Cuban budgets. that is the
customs houe duties, which art the
gu .rantee of our loans and the clearest
source of our receipts,
The United States and its present
sOveFnmet do not desire 81 eciaI treaty
of reciprocity with the Antilles They
would prefer simple arrangement, an
q few articles, these witch the Mckinley
bill allows the president to load or I'M
lead, to tax or declare duty free There
b tho salvation of agriculture, commerce
and finances of Cuba-and tie solution
depends more upon the Spanish parlia-
ment than upon the United States.
''After having discussed these points
fully withSenor Canovas and the colonial
ministers we have reached the convic-
| tien that the government recognizes, in
principle, that cur claims are well
grounded, and that it would te an zious
to give Us satisfaction, but that it has to
struggle with the resistance of the home
industry and agriculture, which fear
American competition in our markets of
Cuba and Porto Rico.
1.-THE government has offered us some
| insignificant concessions, and it finds
itself very much embarrassed ON ac-
count of the evident conflict existing 1e-
tween our own and tho Peninsular
| lSpain's) intere Il. 1t Is not an easy
matter for a Conservative government
In Spain to keep the roInises which it
has made to Spanish protectionists and
to give satisfaction at the same time to.
the Antilles