Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-05-08
INNER INFLUENCES
Some Of Those Affecting Cuban
Affairs.
COMMERCIAL MOVEMENT HERE
The Island Now Decided to Be a
Foreign Country.
ITS ECONOM FUTU RE
ITS ECONOMIC FUTU

| Written for The Evening Star
! Some of the inner influences affecting Gu
ban affairs are beginning to see light. The
! cuban commission itself let In a little
| While it's members were in the United
| states, but they were unconscious OF what
they were doing. They disclosed that there
Is very powerful commercial element in
| the United States which is advocating Gu
pan statehood. Because Of this powerful
| element the Cubans wanted to carry back
to the constitutional convention the as
surance that annexation is not the policy
| OF the national administration. That they
got this assurance pretty emphatically the
| developments in Havana seem to indicate
The proposition. as it has been put to
| the Cubans on behalf of the commercial in
| terests, was that they would do much better
| to seek outright annexation as a state than
| to accept the Platt amendment. Possibly
II was not meant to embarrass the admin
1stration in bringing the Cuban situation to
a settlement, but that was the effect.
| The Commercial Movement.
AS to whether Cuba would be better off
as state of the Union than with an in
dependent existence under the paramount
control Of the United States there may not
be two opinions. Most Americans and many
| Cubans can see only one side to that ques-
| ton. They think Cuba would be better Off
and they honest in saving so but that
| the United States might not be the gamer
does not seem to occur to them. The COM
| merc1al movement to induce the Cubans to
seek statehood rests simply on the broad
| assumption that uncertain questions OF
| tariff and of trade relations would be set
| tied Immediately. The inconvenience of
working out such a program does not occur
| to the prime movers, for business men do
| not look very far into the future Appar-
| emily they do not realize that If the Cubans
| could be persuaded to ask annexation I'M
der the promise of statehood and if the
| United States could be induced to grant 1t
| there would still be many troublesome
| questions. The greatest need of the people
| Of the island is education and training in
| the practice of Self-gOvernment, but with
| Cuba a state the American Union would
| be powerless to exercise even restraining
| influence, such as it may exert under the
Cuban government which may be establish
ed in compliance with the terms of the con-
greSSional amendment.
There is also the overshadowing ques-
| ton of taxation. AS state Cuba would
collected from the customs duties. This
would go into the national treasury. For
| island administration additional taxes
would have to be laid on the land and on
productive enterprises. Land taxes In
| Cuba, it is possible, are too light and a
| sound economic policy in the future may
call for their increase. But during the
present period of reconstruction it is Just
as well that the taxes should be light.
The Tax Commerce.
| Outside of the customs revenue under the
| Spanish system most of the government
| income was drawn from what was known
| as the industrial tax or the tax on COM
merce. 1t was supposed to be laid on
| trade in proportion to the income derived
| from any particular business, but its ap-
| plicaton was villainously unfair and a con-
slant source of corruption. The most en-
lightened men in the island who have
studied the economic conditions except to
Shift this tax to some extent to land but
not of them believes that Cuba could
afford to give up her customs revenue
and be dependent entirely on internal tax
alton for the island administration. Yet
that is precisely what statehood would
mean. Seemingly the American advocates
of the state of Cuba have not bothered to
bridge this difficulty. They have simply
shut their eyes to it.
do not mean to say that the movement
for Cuban statehood, SO long as the great
mass of the inhabitants of the island are
in their present intense mood for independ-
ence, can become living issue vet phases
of 1t recur and the blindness of capitalists
and syndicates to national policies when
they think their own interests can be ad-
vanced by certain course makes it neces-
sary to go to the foundation of the ques-
ton. 1t Is certain that some Of the lead
Ing men in the republican party look with
alarm on these tendencies.
w uHe the SuDdUS were IN WASHINGTON
I heard two United States senators who
have taken part in shaping legislation
with regard to Porto Rico, Cuba and the
Philippines, say that the time was coming
when specific declaration would have TO
be made that there was to be no extern
sion of statehood beyond the continental
mainland.
Neither Of them had any notion how the
supreme Court was going to decide the in
sular cases, though perhaps both feared
that the decision might not be what they
would like to see it. But whatever the
decision might be they were agreed that
there must be a firm stand against any
| recognition of inchoate statehood One of
these senators told me he had been observ-
ing and studying public opinion closely and
he believed that the American people were
getting ready for such a declaration. This
must necessarily be a matter of personal
opinion and private judgment, and of
course declaration of such policy this
year would not mean that 1t might not be
changed in the course of four or five years
What struck me as significant was that
visibility of taking the stand on their con.
victions at this time.
Island a Foreign Country,
With regard to Cuba the embarrassment
which might come from Supreme Court
decision does not exist, for the island, by
the opinion of the court rendered in the
Neeley case, is foreign country. At least
this was the construction put by the Gu
bans on the decision and the members Of
the commission which came to Washing
ton were satisfied that the national ad-
ministration SO regards It,
do not know how far it was brought out
In the conferences with President McKin-
ley and Secretary Root, but some Of the
members OF the Havana convention had the
fear that the acceptance Of the Plat
amendment was meant to keep foreign
| countries from recognizing the republic of
Cuba when it came to be established. Only
the Latin mind could distort a plain propo-
sition in such a manner. The members of
the convention now know that SO far from
this being the case the formation of Gu
ban government under the terms Of the
resolution of Congress is the surest way
to secure the recognition of their indie
pendence by foreign governments, and it
Is on this recognition that they have set
their hearts. That no European country
is going to recognize the Cuban republic
until the United States has done so thew
are well aware. When they found that the
American policy would lead to the APP
pointment of minister from the United
States oCuba and from Cuba to the