The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-05-03
CUBA AND
ITS SUGAR
Lower Duties Are
Asked for as
Quid Pro Quo.
OFFSET FOR PLAT
AMENDMENT
Pres. Schurmann of Cornell in
Favor of Opening American
Sugar Market.

ITHACA, N. Y, April 25-President
j. G. Schurmann spoke last night be-
fore the students of Cornell University
in Liberty Hall on the Cuban situa-
ton. His recent return from the island
where he spent two weeks, enabled him
to make the subject one Of particular
interest After review of the general
condition of the people, he touched di-
rectly upon the live question of the Gu
ban opposition to the Platt amendment
He said in part:
1T is the revolutionary army and it's
supporters who are represented in the
constitutional convention. That body
is more radical than the Cuban people
as whole. If it hesitates to adopt the
Platt amendment, the people who own
property on the island would not They
feel that the Platt amendment is in
dispensable to the peace and protection
Of the island, and the prosperity of its
people. Still I think that great consid-
Grafton should be shown for the men
who won Cuban independence, and af-
ter ALL the constitutional convention is
the only organized body authorized to
express Cuban sentiment and opinion. I
had the honor week before last of com
ferring with two large delegations from
the convention, in which were includ-
ed all Of the members of the committee
now at Washington. Their complaint
was three-fold-they objected to the
manner In which the Platt amendment
was forced upon then;- secondly, they
criticised it as limitation OF the SOW
ereign rights of Cuba; thirdly, they dep
recated the omission of clause pro-
viding for freer commercial relations
between Cuba and the United States
The first objection which is matter
| of form rather than of substance, is
now irremediable. and we need not dis
cuss its merits. 1 believe the second
objection rests on a misrepresentation,
which President Mckinley will, in all
probability, be able to remove in a
conference with the committee, for the
/ Platt amendment, while continuing the
historical policy of the United States
toward Cuba, may be fairly described
as a guarantee of the independence of
Cuba and the formation of the means
necessary to protect it, both against
foreign invasion and domestic disorder.
The third objection will, in my judg-
ment, prove the hardest to overcome.
But the convention is not in a way
of success when they propose lower
duty on sugar as quid pro quo for
| their acceptance of the PIatt amend
ment, which is quite as advantageous
to Cuba as to the United States. Let
them, on the contrary, accept the Piatt
amendment, which, in substance, is in
dispensable to Cuba as it is expedient
| 6
peal to the great heart of the American
people to furnish a market, with proper
protection for home industries, to the
exports of their neighboring sister Re-
public, which has suffered untold agon-
whose prosperity is bound up with the
prosperity of the United States, and I
believe they will win the case. The
Cuban problem is at the bottom an
economic and financial one And the
United States has the control of it in
its own hands. There are two meas
Iures, by the enactment of which Con-
gress might win the heart of Cuba One
is the reduction of the duty on sugar.
The other is a loan at a low rate of in
terest of some s15,000,000 for the pay
ment of soldiers honorabIy discharged
from the Cuban armies. Would not
both in the long run be investments
for us? Neither in Cuba nor in the
United States do the people desire an
nexation at present. Let US aid the
Cubans to set up their own Republic.
With the establishment of Republic
under the guarantees of the Platt
amendment, with consequent influx
Iof capital, which is now generally
needed, and with market for sugar in
the United States, the island of Cuba
would become one of the richest and
happiest communities in the world"