The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1901-12-06

United States. Under the existing pro-
visions of the United States tariff law
Ii prices which can be realized for
Cuban sugar and a large part of Cuban
tobacco in this market are not suf-
hcient to pay the duties, cost of trans
~portation and production, and yield a
living profit to the producer.
In 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, 900 tons IN 1899 to Sis, 900 tons
In 1900. while the output for the pres
ent year is estimated at something e
500, 900 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 n the replanting
OF their land. More than hall OF the
people of the island are depending di-
rectly or indirectly o the success Of
that industry. If it succeeds we may
eNpect 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 it fails
we may expect h a the fields will
again become waste, the mills will
again be dismantled, the great body
Of laborers will be thrown out of en-
ployment: and that poverty and star
walton, disorder and anarchy will en-
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
!nerce 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 that 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 a duty Of the high
est obligation to treat her not as an
enemy, not at arms length as an ag-
gresslve commercial rival, but with a
generosity which toward her will be
"a JuSli|Ss W SIldpG our laws SO luaL
they shall contribute to her welfare as
we'll as u own.
our present duty to Cuba can be
performed by he making of such a
reciprocal tariff arrangement with her
as President Mckinley urged in his
last words to his countrymen at Buff
falo on he 9Th of September. A rea-
sonable reduction in our duties upon
Cuban sugar and tobacco, in exchange
Tor fG1rIV pnTnnanCnfnrv 1sa6110ftnno nf
Cuban duties upon American products,
will answer the purpose, II 1 strongly
urge that such an arrangement be
promptly made. 1t would involve no
sacrifice, but would, be as advanta-
geous to us as it would be to Cuba The
market for American products in a
country with such a 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 thai the portion
OF our present duties which we would
be required to concede.
aside from the moral obligation to
which we committed ourselves when we
drove Spain out of Cuba, and aside
from the ordinary considerations of
commercial advantage involved in a
reciprocity treaty, there are the
weightiest reasons Of American public
policy pointing in the same direction:
for the peace Of Cuba is necessary to
the peace of the United States; the
health of Cuba is necessary to the
health Of the United States; the indie
pendence of Cuba Is necessary to the
safety Of the United States. The same
considerations which led to the war
with Spain now require hat a COM
mercial arrangement be made under
which Cuba can live. The condition Of
the sugar and tobacco industries in
Cuba Is already such that the earliest
possible action by congress upon this
subject is desirable"