Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1901-02-28
NO EXTRA SESSION
CONGREssMEN WILL AVOID THIS
IL POSSIBLE.
Efforts VIII BE Made to Pass Cuban
Liquidation Before Adjournment
Situation in the Island Exciting
Attention and Some Uneasiness.
Washington Correspondence

easiress. The president is evidently
much worked up about it. According
to the most reliable information the
state of affairs in the island is any
thing but satisfactory. Although the
urgency of this situation is beginning
TO be generally acknowledged by con-
gressmen, there is no abatement or
their desire to avoid an extra session,
and they will make a strong effort to
stave it oT Some of the senators are
now busily engaged in studying over
the matter and trying TO formulate
some plan by which the necessary Gu
ban legislation can be secured before
March 4. This will be difficult on ac-
count of the complexity n great i'm
portance of the subject. Any serious
mistake made by us now in regard to
Cuba might be irr~eparable, n might
result in allowing Great Britain OF
Germany to get in their hooks where
Spain formerly had hers, in which
case the last state of the West Indies
would be worse than the first.
Shipping BiI's Importance.
All p~artisanship aside, it is of the
highest Importance that the people
should understand the fundamental in
dustrial situation upon which the pro-
posed shipping bill is based. This is
pre-eminently an industrial nation. Eek
cept at the very outset, when every
citizen earned a bare living for himself
and his family by the sweat of his
brow, the nation has always produced
more than 1t has consumed. This fact.
his tendency, was perceived by our
early statesmen and leaders as far
back as Washington, Hamilton and
Jefferson, who framed the laws in their
time so as to provide for this situation
Of affairs. 1t is true that, for many
years, our imports exceeded our ex-
ports, such as they We're, representing
even then an exportable surplus. This
surplus, at first small, has been steadi-
ly increasing for a century. until It has
now reached the gigantic dimensions OF
one billion dollars 81, 900. 900, 000) in val
ue, and constitutes nearly, IL not quite
one-third of u total productions.
More h nine-tenths of this i'm
mense exportaple surplus-psactically
all of it's now carried to foreign ports
in ships belonging to other nations.
h foreign service is irregular, un-
sympathetic. costly, and is liable to be
seriously curtailed, If not absolutely
cut off. at any time by the Intervention
Of a war. Most of these ships are Eng
lish, Germakl and Norwegian. In case
Of a genenerA European war, or a war
between this c, intry and any Of those
European powers. our export trade, IL
still carried on by the present system,
would be instantly crippled and very
likely completely paralyzed.
The present system is very uneco-
nomical. The foreign shipowners dis
crimipate In their rates against us, ana
we are paying them now at the enor-
rate of nearly $500, 600, 900 a year
for carrying out goods across the seas.
All this money ought to be kept at
home, and it would be If we had an
adequate American merchant marine.
The people canno understand too
quickly or too clearly the vital i'm
portance of securing a regular. reliable,
reasonable means of access to foreign
markets for their surplus productions,
and the only way to secure this is by
the building up of a large and compe-
tent merchant marine. The construc-
ton of such a merchant marine would
give employment to thousands and tens
of thousands of operatives, and when
constructed it would carry our exports
to the four quarters of the globe. The
carrying trade would be under the con
troll of our own citizens, instead of for
eigners, as now. We should see 1t en-.
trusted to American captains and
American sailors, and on the other side
there would be American agents and
American ranch houses and American
bankers, all deeply interested in the
extension Of American foreign trade:
whereas, now all our foreign export
trade exists pom sufferance. as it
were, and whatever growth 1T has at
tanned has been in spite Of the very
d~iscouraging conditions under which 1t
has been carried on.
This country, in the opinion OF the
wisest and best-informed business men.
will soon have to face an industrial
crisis if a better outlet for our surplus
products is not obtained. Producing
now one-third more than we can con-
sumo at home, the surplus of food
products, cotton n manufactured ar
ticles, amounting annually to 81, 0O0,-
0O0, 900 in value, and constantly in
creasing every year., must be readily
and steadily distributed in foreign
markets, or what will be the alterna-
tive? What will happen If any consid-
cradle portion of this billion dollars
worth of goods is u~ndisposed of, re-
naming here and quitting the home
market? Any ~schoolboy can answer
hat question.
Inaugural Preparations.
The preparations for the Inauguration
continue on a most generous scale. II
the clerk Of the weather is Ia a kindly
mood, the celebration will go ahead
of ANY Of its predecessors by a large
majority. Already there s a great
scramble for a j tickets, programmes,
souvenirs, etc, and the demand for
lodgings and eligible viewpoints prom
ises to be unprecedented. Among out.
side visitors. Ohio people will be much
in evidence, of course. Among the nov
ell features will be a naval display, al
though owing to the and
shallowress of the Potomac, only the
smaller light-draught vessels, like the
monitors and torpedo boats, can safely
work their way up to the city. Anoth-
er unusual feature is that the president
will prohably ride alone in the prO-