The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1899-08-20

that there is some prospect that the Porto Rico
tobacco trado can take It's normal course. the
planters will begin planting In October and
November. and with q big tobacco crop next
year the strinRency caused by the spelling Of
the coffee plantations can be tided over.
The banana trees have rather dubious roots
that give them very little hold on the soil and
most Of those that saw were torn mp. To
Porto Ricans the banana is n main article
OF food They boil 1t and bake II. to &
used instead OF bread. On these troes that were
blown down there were OF course thousands
OF green bananas. The people cut them on and
hung them IN and they can live on the fruit
Tor several weeks. or until relief reaches them
from the United States: but whom those green
bananas, cut from the uprooted trees, are gone,
there Will be no more bananas Under such
circumstances 1t Is all nonsense to say that
starvation Is impossible in Porto Rico. It is
possible and imminent. Too much In the way
OF food and clothing cannot be sent there to re-
IleVe present necessities until trade gets on it's
feet again.
What is possible for Porto Rico with its ex-
port trade ro-establlshed is shown by the
Island OF Santo Domingo. forty miles away
across the strait. The people there have as
sassnated their President and are running the
Widest kind OF revolution. hut they are so
prosperous that they offer free transportation to
athousand laborers II they will come from Porto
Rico. They have advertised for these laborers
and hundred or more have already come over.
The spectacle OF a Government like that Of
Santo Domingo enjoying such prospe rty isn't
the best thing In the world for Porto Rican
sentiment toward us. incidentally.
"One way In which the island is going to
work out its own salvation is in the raising OF
vegetables for tho winter market In the United
states. At present. the Porto Ricans do not
even raise vegetables for their own use, but
once they can be taught to raise them. there
will be an immense trade in vegetables be-
tween the colony and the homo country.
In the meantime we must try to understand
these people. and they must become used
to our ways OF doing business. Hero
Is story that is travelling tho length
and breadth OF the island. A planter came
into the office of the Porto Rico Company,
which is trying 10 do legitimate development
business down there. and Offering excellent
land security. asked for a loan at 10 per
cent. The manager looked over the security
and said he would make no loan on it at 10
per cent. The planter said he was sorry and
started out. The manager called him back.
1--WE won't make that loan at 10 per cent
he said but we will make 1t at 8 per cent
and he did.
Tho Porto Ricans tell that story to each
other 10 prove that all Yankees are essentially
lunatics. Within the last year loans on
security have been made. on good secur-
ity. at 10 per cent. month. A reasonable
year to year way OF doing business. carried on
without Expressing the man who is down. 10
clear out of their experience. While there is
no question but that our disposition toward
Porto Rico is very different from that Of Spain.
we have as yet really done little or nothing to
show 1t. Gen. Davis has even been forced to
discharge the $1,000 men who were working
on the roads because there was no way OF pay
ing them. Their idleness Is an additional
item in the distress following the hurricane.
And 1t all leads up to the same end. Let US re-
lleve distress with charity while we must but
let us as soon as we can and so far as We can
remove the cause OF the distress by removing
the hndrances from the building up Of Porto
Rican export trade"