The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-12-10

THE NAFASSA RIOTS.
The island of Navassa in the West In
! dian group, has, under the provisions o
title - of the Revised Statues, been recog
niZed by the president AS appertaining tC
! the United States II contains guano de-
| posits, Is owned by the Navassa Phosphate
company, and is occupied solely by it:
employees. In September, 1889, Il revolt
/ took place among these laborers, resulting
| in the killing of some of the agents OF tht
! company, caused as the laborers claimed
| by cruel treatment These men were
arrested and tried in the United States
court at Baltimore under section 55I of the
| statute referred to, as If the oHenSes had
been committed on board a merchant
vessel of the United States on the high
seas There appeared on the trial, and
otherwise came to me, such evidences OF
the bad treatment of the me that, in con.
sideration of this and of the fact that the
men had no access to any public officer oil
tribunal for protection or the redress oil
their wrongs, | commuted the death SEN
tence that had been passed by the court
upon three of them.
In April last my attention was again
called to this island, and to the unregu-
lated condition of things there, by letter
from a colored labOrer who complained
that he was wrongfully detained upon the
island by the phosphate company after the
expiration of his contract of service. A
naval vessel was sent to examine into the
case of this man and generally into the
condition of things on the island 1t was
found that the laborer referred to had
been detained beyond the contract limit
aud that condition of revolt again existed
among the laborers. A board of naval Off
GERS reported, among other things, as fol
lows:
1--WE would desire to state further that
~ ha II.
seems to be that of a convict establish
ment, without its comfort and cleanliness,
and that, until more attention is paid to
the shipping of laborers, by placing it
under government supervision. TO prevent
misunderstanding and misrepresentation,
and until some amelioration Is shown in
the treatment of the laborer, these dis
orders will be of constant occurrence"
/ recommend legislation that shall place
lBbor contracts upon this and other islands
having the relation that Navassa has to
the United States under the supervision of
a court of commissioners, and that shall
provide, at the expense of the owners, for
a board OF officers to reside upon the island,
with power to judge and adjust disputes
and to enforce ust and humane treat
ment of the employees. 1t is ineXcuSable
that American laborers should be left
viii hin our own jurisdiction without ac-
for their protection and the redress of their
wrongs.
INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT.
international copyright has been Sc
cured, in accordance with the conditions
Of the act of March 3, 1891, with Belgium
France Great Britain and the British pos
sessions and Switzerland, the laws of these
countries permitting to our citizens the
benefit of copyright on substantially the
same basis AS their own citizens or sub
jects. With Germany a special conven-
tion has been negotiated upon this sub
ject, which will bring that country within
The reciprocal benefits of our legislation.
OPERATIONS OF THE TREASURY
The general interest in the operations of
the treasury department has been much
augmented during the last year by reason
of the conflicting predictions which ac-
companied and followed the tariff and
other legislation of the last congress affect
ing the revenues, as to the results of this
legislation upon the treasury and upon
the country. On the one hand, it was
more contended that imports would so fall
off as to leave the treasury bankrupt and
that the prices of articles entering into
the living of the people would be so en-
hanced as to disastrously affect their COM
fort and happiness; while, on the other, it
was argued that the loss to the revenue,
largely the result of placing sugar on the
free list, would be direct gain to the peo-
pie: that the prices of the necessaries of
life including those most highly protected,
would not be enhanced; that labor would
have larger market and the products of
the farm advanced prices, while the treas
ury surplus and receipts would be adj
equate to meet the appropriations, includ-
ing the large exceptional expenditures for
the refunding to the states of the direct
tax and the redemption of the AZ per cent.
bonds.
1t is not my purpose to enter at any
length into a discussion of the effects of
the legislation to which | have referred;
but brief examination of the statistics
of the treasury and general glance at the
state of business throughout the country,
will, I think, satisfy any impartial in
quirer that its results have disappointed
the evil prophecies of its opponents and,
in a large measure, realized the hopeful
predictions of its friends Rarely, if ever
before, in the history of the country has
there been a time when the proceeds of
one days labor or the product of one
farmed acre would purchase so large an
amount of those things that enter into
living of the masses of the people | be-
lieve that full test will develop the fact
that the tariff act of the Fifty-first con-
gress is very favorable in its average on
the prices of articles entering into common
use.
FOREIGN COMMERCE.
During the twelve months from Oct. /,
1890, TO Sept. 80, 1891, the total value of our
foreign commerce imports and exports
was Sl,747 500, ,406, which was
the largest OF any year in the
history of the United States.
The largest in any previous year
was in 1890, when our commerce amount
ed to 81. .641 ,139 933, and the last year eX-
ceeds this enormous aggregate by over one
hundred millions. 1t is interesting, and
TO some will be surprising, to know that
during the year ending Sept. 80. 1891, our
imports or merchandise amounted to 1884,
1l5,2 20, which was an increase of more
than eleven million dollars over the value
Of the imports of the corresponding
months of the preceding year, when the
imports of merchandise were unusually
large, in anticipation of the tariff leglsla-
ton then pending The average annual
value of the imports of merchandise for
the ten years from 1881 to 1890 was S6Q2.-
1852, and during the year ending Sept
30, 1891 this annual average was exceeded
by 1882, 52S, ,469.
The value of free imports during the
twelve months ending September 80, 1891,
was Sis 092, ,3ST more than the value of
Tree imports during the corresponding
twelve months of the preceding year, aud
there was during the same period de-
crease of SlO6 $40, sos in the value of i'm
ports of dutiable merchandise. The per-
centage of merchandise admitted free OF
duty during the year 10 which / have ref
erence (the first under the new tariff was
IS. Is, while during the preceding twelve
months (under the old tariff the percent
age was 421, an increase OF 1891 per cent.
II we take the six months ending Septem-
ber SO, last, which covers the tine during
which sugars have been admitted free of
duty, the per cent of value OF merchan-