The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-08-07
PORTO RICO
AND HAWAII
What Former May
Get From Free
Trade.
CITING OUR
EXAMPLE NOW
The Remarkable Growth Which
Followed Adoption Of Our
Reciprocity treaty.

WASHINGTON, D. c.. July 2o-The ac-
ton of the Porto Ricans in promptly ac-
cepting that feature of the Porto Rican
act which authorizes free trade between
the island and the United States is likely
to give them great advantages over their
sister islands of the West Indies. At
least, this is the reasonable conclusion
from an examination of some figures
Just made public by the Treasury Bureau
of Statistics regarding the prosperity
which Hawaii enjoyed after the reciproc-
| ity treaty which admitted the sugar of
| those islands into the United States free
| of duty. These figures show that the sugar
production of the Hawaiian Islands has
| increased over 1900 per cent. under the
| free admission of their sugar to the mar
kets of the United States, while the other
cane-sugar producing islands and coun-
| tries have during that time suffered
great depression, and, in many cases,
heavy losses.
1t was in 1876 that the reciprocity
| treaty was made between the United
| States and the Hawaiian Islands
Prior to that date the average production
of sugar in the Islands was about 25,GOO,-
900 pounds per annum. In years the
prOductOn mad DGen lTeDlSd, IN 10 years
it was 10 times as much, and in 20 years
20 times as much as before the treaty.
Within less than ten years after the
ratification of the treaty more than S2O,-
600 600 of American capital had been in
vested in the islands, and the total value
of the sugar production of the Islands
since the treaty is $3.50, 900.
THE advantages which Hawaii has had
over other sugar producers by reason of
h. hnr- of lI1tXy
in the United States is illustrated by the
following table, which shows the della
| tive growth of sugar production in Ha-
wall, Porto Rico, Cuba and the entire
cane and beet-sugar sections of the
world, from 1870 to 1899. 1t will be seen
that Porto Rico has decreased her pro-
duction slightly in that time; that Cuba
increased her production from 1870 to 1895
| cher greatest sugar year, but As per cent;
that the cane-sugar production of the
world increased from 1870 to 1899 but so
| per cent, and the beet-sugar production
$40 per cent, while during the same time
the Hawaiian production increased over
1900 per cent.
QUANTITY PRODUCED, 1870 AND 1899.
| 1873 1888. Pc't
Worlds cane su-
| gar :. ..........1, 5S5, 600 2,S62, 900 $50 81
Worlds beet
sugar :. ........ 831, 900 5,575 900 $3.50 So
| 1875
Hawaii :. ........ 11,196 243 40 .*2074 60
| **IncreaSe. Decrease.
The increase in commerce between the
| Hawaiian Islands and the United States
which followed the free movement of
merchandise between those islands and
our ports is also illustrated by the fact
| that the exports to the Hawaiian Islands
from the United States prior to 1876
amounted to less than 81 000,0 900 annually,
but rapidly increased until in 1900 they
We're about $l4,000,O00 and a recent re-
port from the collector of Honolulu es-
| Inmates the figures for the present year
at 100000 900. The commerce of the ISL
ands is, according to the American Cy-
| clopedia, an accepted authority, larger
per capita than that of any other coun-
try in the world, and nearly all of it with
| the United States and carried in Ameri-
can vessels.
| The fact that this enormous increase in
production and commerce and wealth of
the Hawaiian Islands has followed the
freedom of trade with the United States
established by the reciprocity treaty of
&c., suggests that the Porto Ricans are
| likely to benefit by the same close trade
relations which they will have under the
new law which they have asked Presi-
dent Mckinley to put into operation on
| the 18th of the present month The Ha-
Wa1lan Islands are 1000 miles from the
Pacific Coast and 5000 miles from the
great consuming centers of the United
States, while Porto Rico is but few
hundred miles distant. The sugar pro-
duction of Porto Rico Is now double that
OF the Hawaiian Islands in the year prior
to the adoption of the reciprocity agree
ment, while the tobacco, tropical fruits
and other productions of Porto Rico will
also nave the same advantages of free
ADMISSION to the markets of the United
states IN competition with the dutiable
products of her sister islands of the West
| Indies and of the world