The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-06-21
CUBA AND UNITED STATES.

From the Chicago Tribune.]
The strength of the opposition to the
reduction in the tariff on imports from
Cuba has been explained The n embers
of the senatorial eaba1 whose covert
enmity to President Roosevelt has been
suspected from the time of his nomina-
ton as vice president have allied them
selves with the few senators who are
sincerely interested in the protection of
the beet sugar industry for the purpose
of injuring the administration
When the president first announced to
congress that he was determined to
carry out the Cuban policy which his
predecessor had inaugurated there were
senators from beet growing states, like
Spooner, who opposed reciprocity but
when they understood the nature of the
opposition they refused to act as tools
of the eabal and rallied to the support
of the administration. AS the fight be-
came more bitter the men who were
back of the attempt to undo the presi-
dent came forward The work in be-
half of the beet sugar manufacturers
was taken from the hands Of the sen
ators from the beet growing states and
placed in the hands of Senator Elkins
of West Virginia OF the seventeen Re
publican senators who are fighting
Cuban reciprocity only ten are from
beet growing states. The remaining
seven have Joined them to hurt the
president or for reasons which they have
not seen fit to explain.
| The administration leaders need four
votes to pass the Spooner compromise
bill as a party measure. Without the
votes they feel certain that the bill can
be passed with the assistance of the
/ f,oI hos DETER
mined to prevent vote on the bill.
| Senator Ell1ins' proposal that Cuba be
annexed, the rebate bill introduced by
| Senator Dietrich. and the proposition
that the president negotiate a reciproef-
ty treaty with Cuba are all plans to de-
feat the object of the administration
and to discredit the president.
The country has expressed itself I'M
equivocally in favor of justice to Cuba
The men who have deliberately set out
to injure the president will be dealt
with by the party as they deserve. The
men who are apparently sincere in their
opposition will find that the gratitude
of the beet interests viii not repay
them for attempting to defeat the ex-
| pressed viii of the people in regard to
Cuba.
No movement to defeat the president
| for denomination in the interest OF Wall
street will find supporters among the
Republicans of the middle west. It is
not too late for some of the beet sugar
senators to cut away from Elkins. Bur-
ton Of Kansas may yet conform to the
expressed wishes of the Republicans OF
Kansas voiced in the state convention
The blow at the president has missed It's
mark. The country is with him in this
fight. and the politicians who think tC
further their own interests by their al
lance with Senator Elkins, and who
prepared to make a football of the vel
fare of Cuba in the hope Of weakening
and discredittng the president, will &C
home to meet angry and implacab bic
constituents.
The president should keep up the fight
So should his supporters in the senate
They should force the fighting and put
on record the men who are co-operat
ing to ipjure one republic and disgrace
| another.