BoletiÌn mercantil de Puerto Rico. (San Juan, P.R.) 18??-1918, 1902-09-06
Jo|10iG1 For AnleIlfQi
Trinidad, Too, Taking Lessons
From Our Rule in Porto Rico

N--NAN>N>b, w oiNlliS, LOOSOllS
From Our Rule in Porto Rico
Correspondence Of the Associated Press
Kingston, Jamaica, Aug. 26-The
past two Or there months have witness
ed remarkable recrudescence of the
American annexation idea in at least
two of the largest and most important
British West Indian possessions Trini-
dad and Jamaica. The leaders of the
agitation are generally planters and
business men. These point to the
growing prosperity of Porto Rico, and
denounce the system of British colonial
government. They also point to the
desperate state of the sugar industry
and to the deplorable condition of the
people of the islands, and seriously sug-
gest annexation to the United States
as the only possible chance of reviving
their fallen fortunes Such is the view
of the planters and business men; and
both together form very influential
class-perhaps the most inhuetial class
of the community. The natives, on the
other hand, resurrect stories of lynch
ings and the workings of the anti-negro
laws in the southern states, and declare
themselves emphatically against an
nexation, and strongly in favor of the
British rule, which gives them a free.
dom that has become to them even
more precious than industrial and fnan-
clal prosperity.
Between these two factions comes
another Glass; influential, though in a
hopeless minority, holding that fede.
ration with Canada is the only remedy
for the ills from which the islands are
undoubtedly suffering. And between
them all the newspapers have been
kept busy publishing letters and recon-
mendations and protests. One paper
had finally to decline to publish any
letters bearing on the subject.
The truth of the matter is that intel
igent people here are becoming al
together sick of the British colonial pol.
lcy-a policy that has resulted in the
almost total destruction of the sugar
industry of the islands. The fruit trade
with the United States is the most pro-
htable undertaking in Jamaica to-day.
Its growth is continuous and phenome-
nal: 1t is the mainstay of the island
Nobody attempts to deny that without
the United Fruit Company ian Ameri-
can concern), the island must long ago
have given mp the struggle.
The depression over the country is as
acute as it is real. Government depart
mental reports teem with references to
it. Taxes are becoming harder to col
lect because people are daily going out
OF work in consequence of the failure
of the sugar industry. Within the past
two months thousands upon thousands
of persons have been prosecuted for
n-payment of taxes. They generally
obtain a month or two in which to paw
up their dues, or in default take a term
OF imprisonment, which does not cancel
the debt
It is the opinion of good many
intelligent men that if the expensive
system OF government which obtains
here were superseded by system of
the kind being introduced into Porto
Rico the island would not be long in
recovering itself. The salary of $4,000
besides numerous exemptions and pri.
vileges), which the governor receives.
TegaFdasGda IS ha fg 4sysne
be increased. Import duties are at tha
llghest possible point, and the govern
nent dares not to raise them higher.
It is, therefore, not at all surprising
o o ma the whole island seething with
llscontent, shouting for reforms-re-
ormS which, like the governments
tandlng promise of better times -
ever come. 1t is realized that the
olony is rapidly nearing the partino
the ways. And the future will de,
end almost entirely on the future 90.
g OF the imperial authorities with re. t
ara to this and the other islands of 3
le west Indies. The following editor
comment by one of the most con. o
rVativs newspapers of this CITY oives a
me further idea of the conditions at R
esent obtaining here e,
A curious phenomenon a. rrace,t re
Jamaica is the discrepancy between az
optimistic writings and lectures of N
oPle and the actual circumstances of Iac
country What is the actual silua. vi
n Depression on every side, SUGAR Is
q coffee estates going out of cult;va. 10
a, the people without money and
n only sufficient to eat, large mum. of
IS OF persons leaving the coIonv for ST
1erlca and elsewhere, and everywhere frs
! among all classes the gloomiest fin
lcipaIlons regarding the future. r lido
y pc said that this has always been wa
situation, bu. certainly the pessimis- ito
note mas never been SO prominent to
u u present We are not commenting int
=, we simply state what is fact to
sas n. on. one slde we have the promise, ma
On the other we have the actual hos
ulnsLance, and the discrepancy be. we
en- the two is what we are callino bes
ntion to- 1 apT
---s ton