Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1901-12-07

United States. Under the existing pro-
visions of the United States tariff law
the prices which can be realized for
Cuban sugar and a large part or CUBAN
tobacco in this market are not suf-
fcient to pay the duties, cost of trans
p~ortation and production, and yield a
living profit to the producer.
I'm reliance upon fair and generous
treatment by the United States. the
Cuban planters have made strenuous
efforts to revive their great industry
and have raised their product OF sugar
from sos, 600 tons In 1899 to $4,000 tons
In 1900, while the output for the pres:
ent year is estimated at something over
800, 600 tons. Incited by our precept
and trusting to our friendship, they
have struggled to retrieve the disasters
under which their country had suffered.
All the capital they had or could bor-
row has been invested in the rebuild
ing of their mills and the replanting
of their land. More than half OF the
people Of the island are depending d.
rectly or indirectly upon the success OF
that industry. If 1t succeeds we may
expect peace, plenty, domestic order
and the happiness Of a free and con-
tented people to reward the sacrifice
OF American lives and treasure through
which Cuba was set free. If 1t fails
VIC may t6pE1L lid lhC Oih wa
again become waste, the mills Will
again be dlsmantled, the great body
Of laborers will be thrown out of en-
ployment; and that poverty and star
walton, disorder and anarchy VIII ent
sue: that the charities and the schools
which we have been building up Will
find no money for their support and
will be discontinued; that the sanitary
precautions which have made Cuba no
longer a dreaded source of pestilence,
but one OF the most healthy islands in
the world, will of necessity be aban-
doned, and our Atlantic seaboard must
again suffer from the injury TO COM
merce and the maintenance of quaran-
tines at an annual cost of many mil
lions.
Our Present Duty.
Cuba has acquiesced in our right
to say thai she shall not put herself
in the hands Of any other power, what
ever her necessities, and in our right
to Insist upon the maintenance of free
and orderly government throughout
her limits, however impoverished and
desperate may be her people. Correla-
tive to this right is q duty of the high
est obligation to treat her not as an
enemy, not at arms length as an ar
gressiVe commercial rival, but with a
WV SPlA SNNA AANA va w
but justice; TO shape our laws SO that
they shall contribute to her welfare as
well as our own.
Our present duty TO Cuba can be
performed by the making of such a
reciprocal tariff arrangement with her
as President Mckinley urged in his
last words TO his conntrymen at Buff
falo On the 5th Of September. A rea-
sonable reduction in u duties upon
4 N.l - a.I " - oh - ~l
for fairly compensatory reductions of
Cuban duties upon American products,
will answer the purpose, and / strongly
urge that such an arrangement be
promptly made. 1t would involve no
sacrifice, but would be as adVanta-
geous to us as ii would be TO Cuba The
market for American products in q
country with such q population, such
wealth and purchasing power, as cuba
with prosperity would speedily acquire,
made certain by the advantage Of pref
erential duties, would contribute far
more to our prosperity than the portion
Of our present duties which we would
be required to concede.
aside from the moral obligation tc
which we committed ourselves when we
drove Spain out OF Cuba, and aside
from the ordinary considerations oil
commercial advantage involved in q
reciprocity treaty, there are the
weightiest reasons Of American public
policy pointing in the same direction;
for the peace of Cuba is necessary tc
the peace of the United States; the
health Of Cuba is necessary to the
health Of the United States; the inde'
pendence OF Cuba Is necessary TO the
safety OF the United States. The same
considerations which led to the wal
with Spain now require hat a com
mercial arrangement be made undei
which Cuba can live. The condition OF
the sugar and tobacco industries ii
Cuba is already such that the earliest
possible action by congress upon this
subject is desirable"