Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1891-02-18
CUBA AROUSED
To the Necessity of Reciprocity
With Uncle Sam.
Representatives Sent to Spain
to Plead Her Cause.

Autonomist Liberals and Conservative
Which IL Absolutely Necessary for the
Welfare of the Islands-We Do Not De
sire Special Treaty.
NEW YORK, Feb 18.-While the
latest papers from Spain seem to in
dictate that the Madrid government il
not yet inclined to include its colonies in
the commercial treaties which it il
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 a 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
DJ uIl Ijttl DlGD Cbo cboOlulG1J llOCGbSdIy lOL
the welfare of the two Spanish islands.
The principal leader of the delegation,
Senor 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.
He has summed up his views on the
question in the following words:
lETT r. =. Il.
serving our market in the United States,
and this is question of life or death to
the Antilles. The United States takes
about 80 per cent of our sugars,
80 per cent. of our tobacco and 70 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 1899, and that
they will be heavily taxed later if the
foreign countries producing these sugars
do not grant a reciprocal treatment to
American importations.
Neither Spain, which consumes Co.
600 tons of foreign and colonial sugar
and molasses of all kinds, nor Europe
will take our 800 coo OF 900, 900 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 house duties, which are the
guarantee of our loans and the clearest
source of our receipts.
1.-The United States and its present
gOvernmCt do not desire special treaty
of reciprocity with the Antilles. They
would prefer a simple arrangement, an
agreement, as they call it, bearing upon
a few articles, those which the Mckinley
bill allows the president to load or un-
load, to tax or declare duty free. There
is the salvation of agriculture, commerce
and finances of Cuba-and the solution
depends more upon the Spanish parlia-
ment than upon the United States.
after having discussed these points
fully with Senior Canovas and the colonial
ministers we have reached the convic-
tion that the government recognizes in
principle, that our claims are well
grounded, and that it would be anxious
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.
"The government has offered us some
insignificant concessions, and it finds
itself very much embarrassed ON ac
count of the evident conflict existing be-
tween our own and the Peninsular
(Spain's) interests. 1t is not an easy
matter for a Conservative government
in Spain to keep the promises which it
has made to Spanish protectionists and
to give satisfaction at the same time to
the Antilles