Devils Lake inter-ocean. (Devils Lake, Ramsey Co., Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1905, 1900-04-13

creased opportunities for the
legitimate and profitable use Of
American capital. Many persons
still question this, but it is only
because they have not considered
with sufficient care the new condi-
tions. Without American enter
prise or labor or capital, sup
pressed in every energy and in
|dustry for centuries by Spanish
rule, these islands have already
bought from other countries pro-
ducts worth over 800, O00,000in a
year, and have exported to other
countries products still more
valuable. Every month men have
been counting it a great thing for
this country that its exports have
been rising above $100,000,00O
and exceeding purchases from
other countries by $4O,0OO,O0O or
$50, 0O0,00 Part of this change
already realized is because exports
from this country to the islands
are larger by some millions than
they ever were before. In seven
months ending with January ex-
ports of domestic merchandise
alone to the islands we're $25,450,-
$40 in value, against $13,383,425
in the same months of the previous
year, and yet the exports in that
previous year were more thar
$3l. 900, 900 in value and from this
country greater than in any other
year on record, though as yet not
a third of the value which the
islands have purchased from all
other countries.
What does this increase of over.
$11. 100000 in seven months
nearly $2o,ooo,o0o a year-mean
for the people Of this country? A
greater demand for their products,
a greater and permanent demand
for their labor, an increase su&-
Gent to support forty thousand
more workers or a smaller number
with higher skill and better wages.
But that is scarcely a beginning.
The islands r not yet buying a
third of the goods in value they
bought a few years ago. When it
is considered that they are all
Frustrated in their industries, just
relieved from Spanish rule and
the devastations of war, and have
not yet recovered their former
productiveness and purchasing
power. the increase of $4,000, 600
promises several times as much,
and yet it is already large enough
to count on the right side in the
international exchanges which fix
the position of the United States
as a debtor or a creditor nation.
But as yet these islands have
scarcely felt the touch of Ameri-
can enterprise and capital in
developing their resources.
Cuba is about the size of Penn
sylvania, and of its thirty-fve
million acres only two million
have ever been cultivated. Even
its thirteen million acres of
primeval forest are mines of
wealth, while no one can guess
how extensive are it's mineral
deposits, of which only two sent
to this country nearly all of the
$4,000 tons Of iron ore imported
in seven months ending with
January. Puerto Rico is about
three times the size of Rhode
Island, and yet SO undeveloped
that not a third of it's area can be
reached by roads available for
profitable industry. The Philip
pines have an area nearly three
times that of New York, and so
rich that instead of about seven
million inhabitants it is stated
that they could support as many
as Japan, over forty-two millions.
When American enterprise and
capital begin to develop the
enormous resources of these