New-York tribune., 1900-03-19
THE PUERTO RICAN TARIFF
BETTER OUTLOOK FOR THE BILLS PAS
SAGE-THE NEED OF ACTION.
[BY TELEGRAPH TO THE TRIBUNE.

TELEGRAPH TO THE TRIBUNE.
Washington. March 1s.-It is expected that the
Harmony Committee. of which Senator Foraker is
the chairman will hold a meeting tomorrow for
consultation and to try 10 find basis for an
agreement on the Puerto Rican Tariff bill Sew
era of the members of the committee have been
busy since Friday with the subject and one or
suggestions will probably be submitted at the
meeting Senators who are expected to do so are
not inclined to discuss the subject except with
other Senators or with the President and members
of the Administration. There is to believe
that the latter still adhere to the views expressed
by them when the House of Representatives passed
the bill now pending in the Senate, which in
favor of the measure.
There some indications that several Senators
who were more or less strongly inclined in favor
of free trade between the United States and Puerto
Rico have modified their opinions somewhat, and
the advocates of the bill appear to be more
hopeful of its passage than they did three four
days ago. This favorable change they attribute in
part to a gradual subsistence of the sentiment in
opposition to the bill. which they say was mainly
due first TO misundersta nding and misrepresen-
tation by free tradcrs and anti-expansonists gener
ally of its provisions and OF existing conditions and
revenue necessities in Puerto Rico, and second, to
misrepresentation concerning the present attitude
of the President and members Of his Cabinet in
gard TO the measure. There is doubtless good
deal truth in this explana tion. and the ignorant
and senseless clamor against the Sugar Trust
and the Tobacco Trust might be specifically
llpnef as one OF causes or the Op-
position so far as the action of a majority of the
Committee Ways and Means, and Of the House
of Representatives. well of the Senate Com
mttee the Pacific Islands and Puerto Rico were
concerned.
ISLANDERS URGING n DECISION.
The public demonstrations in Puerto Rico in favor
of the pending tariff BILL while gratifying to the
advocates of the measure in both branches of Con-
gress, were not unexpected surprise to many
of them. AS one of them remarked
l should have been somewhat surprised, know
Ing Ing s 90 if e 81 there 6nd o IN
pressed such views as soon as they game to under
business men elsewhere would that uncertainty
as to future transactions is prime cause of busi-
naturally anxious to have 1t removed speedily
a IN hd eos
and the country more than any change OF tarif
duccd.
In the interviews with business men of San
Juan reproduced In The Tribune several days ago.
well as in the action Of the San Juan Chamber
of Commerce yesterday, the leading idea expressed
is that It is above all necessary to have the
istirg condition of uncertainty removed, and that
tariff rates tariff rates is a question of
minor Importance or OF no Importance. The ques-
ton of revenue. however is of much and
immediate Importance ever. fact which is
keeny realized by the Puerto Rlcans who
in Washington it must be by those at
home, especially since it became known that the
municipal revenues of San Juan have already fallen
far below the estimates of the year that
II has been found necessary to have recourse to
the insular treasury to meet the deficit. If the
latter empty it would not be practicable for
the municipality to meet it's necessary current
expenses without running into debt elsewhere.
The municipality of San Juan depends upon excise
and other direct taxes for its municipal income
and they have proved inadequate. II the insular
Government, well San Juan, Ponce Maya
guez and all the other municipalities in the island
had to depend wholly upon direct taxation for the
support of the insular and municipal governments
it seems pretty clear that all of them would speed
lily be in the disagreeable and unsatisfactory
financial condition that San Juan already is with
a bankrupt treasury.
It is expected that the Puerto Rican Relief bill