New-York tribune., 1900-01-03
COFFEE GROWERS RUINED.
PUERTO RICAN PLANTATIONS De
STROYED BY THE HURRICANE.

THE OWNERS THREATENED WITH FORE
CLOSURE. AND THEIR MARKETS LOST
NEED OF RELIEF POINTED
OUT BY GENERAL. STONE.
[BY TELEGRAPH TO TIE TRIBUSE.l
Washington. Jan 2-GeneraI Roy Stone. who
has just returned from Puerto Rico. said to-
day:
The story OF the Puerto Rican coffee planters
is short. but it is OF the saddest in the his
tory Of misfOrtunes Two years ago they were
rich and prosperous and their dependents, near
ly two hundred thousand in number. were COM
Portable and cOntented. Their estates were
worth 100000 pesos. or over S4OOOO.OOO. and
were paying them a high rate Of iECOme that
valuation. They owed a few millions OF dol
lars, which they We're paying from 10 to "A
per cent interest to the Spanish money lenders,
but they paid the interest easily. and, as the
business was so good instead OF paying on the
principal. they constantly cleared more land
and planted more coffee This unwise. per
haps but II was enterprising and entirely hu-
man.
The war came. 1t cut of their open Spanish
market, and, largely, the European market,
which had been reached through Spanish chan
nels; cut of their Cuban market and their
coffee unknown and unsalable in America.
The crop OF 1898 thus left on their hands.
and when the storm of August last came II un-
rooted their warehouses, demolished their dwell
ings, mills and machinery, soaked and DESTROYED
the old crop of coffee and whipped the growing
crop off the trees In one night they lost go
100000
In view merely Of their lost markets General
Henry in January last had decreed a years
propagation OF their debts but this naturally
hurt their credit and after their hurricane loss
es they could not get a dollar TO hire labor;
their plantations were neglected. and the rank
tropical underground has made them tmpene-
tTable jungles wherein the next crop viii De
lost unless they get help Immediately TO put
an army of labOrers at work cutting away the
vines and weeds
THE SITUATION CRAVE
Meanwhile their creditors are preparing TO
foreclOse next month. under the Spanish law,
which only takes thirty days TO a final eviction
General Davis does not feel authorized to grant
another extension. There is no one 10 buy. and
the property viii pass into the hands OF the
creditors unless Congress intervenes, and the
creditors are sending agents here to prevent
that, while the planters have no money to pay
agents and no one to plead for them They are
trusting TO the care OF Congress and the Amert-
people, who know little or nothing about
be one can tell Hundreds OF well 10 do
families will be turned penniless on the world
and their ignorant and eXCitable dependents lefr
to their devices There is wild talk or de-
stroying everything rather than have the Span
fards get possession. byft there is no danger OF
that. The planters love their island, and would
not ruin 1t for their own revenge The situation.
however, is very serious 1t involves halr the
agriculture Of the island and the support OF
more than half the rural population
Just what should be done is not easy 20 say.
tension Of payments Tt must provide the
means for restoring the cultivation Of planta-
tiOns. and must assure demand for the
product.
This will be "paternalism'' Of the plainest
type, but If not TO make the islanders
full Americans we may certainly give them ev-
cry other benefit in our power. and not be
frightened at our own benehcence- In any
case the problem is a pressing one and At
subject for study by thinking men In this
season of leisure and good wilt