The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1902-06-28
CUBAN RELIEF
IS DEFEATED
SENATE CONFERENCES CON-
CLUDED WITHOUT
AGREEMENT.
PRESIDENT MAY PRESENT g
TREATY.
Seeking to Reach by This Method what
He Has so Far Been Unable to Get
Directly.

/
Directly
! WASHINGTON June 20.-The con-
| feTenCes of the Republican Senators On
| the subject of Cuban reciprocity are a.
! an end, and an agreement is as far off
/ as ever. Now 1t is rumOred that the
! President, in order to force action, will
| send a treaty with Cuba to the Senate
within ten days. Senator Bard said
tonight he believed the President
would take such action. He did not
| indicate the basis for his opinion. II
the treaty should be submitted there
may be an indefinite prolongatiOh of
! Congress, although the treaty itself
would be considered in executive ses-
sion and the Democrats would accord
lngly have no chance to exploit the sit
uation, as they are anxious to do.
Today's conference was attended by
forty Republicans. 1t lasted three
hours Senators favoring reciprocity
had the floor nearly all the time. For
aker, Hale, Beveridge, Aldrich. Nc
Comas and Hanna were speakers for
| reciprocity They were answered at
considerable length by Burton, ard
briefly by Burrows.
Hale I1ade a speech that could not
have been entirely comforting to the
reciprocity people. He said that while
he would support the reciprocity bill be
cause, in his judgment, no American
industry would be injured by the 20 per
cent reduction, he believed Congress
should go slow in the reciprocity bus
ness, as reciprocity and protection were
we'll nigh Numerically opposed. lie
said the Republican party's idea of rec
iprocity was tariff reduction only in
cases where American industries were
not affected injurously. Hale referred
to Cleveland and Hills speeches in New
York last night and cautioned Repub-
licans against giving the Democrats a
chance to attack the tariff
Burton of Kansas, speaking for the
stalwarts, declared that the majority
had utterly mistaken the sentiment of
the country. General Wood and the
sugar trust and this man Thurber have
been spending d,1csfs thc%fssndab Of dollars"
and they have grossly misled the oeopi"
as to the real situation. WaiA ur-
til we can let the public know ne
truth about Cuba and this reciprocity
. scheme and you'll find out how the
public stands. We are not spending
money to educate leaders of thought,
but the public will get the facts just
; the same"
Senator Burton said it was not true
that the beet sugar men were not
willing to extend a helping hand to
the people of Cuba if they needed
help, but he contended that there was
no need for assistance to the people
of that island at this time. Nor did
he believe that if the contemplated
: legislation should be enacted the
Cubans would secure the benefit. Bur-
, ton said that Platt in defending the
committees action in striking the
Houses action for the extension of the
labor laws, had said that Cuban labor
is as well paid as farm laborers in
l Kansas or any port of the United
States. Burton said that If this was
true the Cuban laborer certainly was
not in need of aims from the people
= of the United States. He also urged
4 that if the plantation owners were
= able to pay Kansas prices they could
not be in desperate straits, as had beer
represented. Nor he added, could II
be said that the Cuban government
was in a position to ask assistance
t from anyone, for when Governor WOOD
= surrendered the reinS Of Government
r at Havana there were $S00,00O in the
. Cuban treasury and the Government
0 had an insured income of $4,000, 900
'. His conclusion was that as neither the
= government the planters nor the
y Cuban laborers had any need of the
: proposed assistance it was unfair anC
|, unjust to ask the formers of this
? | country to sacrifice their own interests
!. Tor principle. OF granting an an
!. nuity of five or six million dollars.
6 Perkins, in a discussion with Aldrich
a declared that If the reciprocity bill wer,
% passed the people of tne Philippines
. our own people, would be discrimina tee
c against in favor of the Cubans, for
eign country. The Philippines get 3nl!
20 per cent tariff reduction, and the cos
of freight on their sugar to American
Z markets is more than that. Aldricl
: sidestepped this phase of the discussion
e and declined to enter into 1t,
Burrows made a short speech. "W
are not Boxers or insurgents" he said
We are true friends of reciprocity a
l. set forth by Mckinley at Buffalo an
n Roosevelt in his first message to Con
= gress."
& Burrows then read from Mckinley
speech and from Roosevelt's message
= and said the stalwarts were ready I
follow out these recommendations I
the letter. Both Presidents recon
mend reciprocity provided no Ameri
can industry is injured.
Senator Perkins after the conference
said: I'm my judgment this ends tn
conferences. We are no nearer a
agreement than before. There was tn
utmost good feeling but the other sid
seems to think we must make all tn
concessions. They are willing to 90
together providing we concede every
thing. AS things stand no action wi
be taken during this session, an m
I'd opinion"
"They We're fine speeches" said Ser
IN ator Bard, with twinkle in his ey
very fine speeches. No votes wei
X changed. but the speeches were yer
logical. No attempt at coercion wa
made, nor was anything said that rt
vealed bad feeling.
Il believe" continued Bard, that III
President win send to the Senate With
n a few days a treaty for reciprocity wit
ii Cuba That would tend to bring ma
ters to a focus this session. II that
not done we will probably get away
July 4th without action on the Cuba
question"