Evening star., 1902-02-22
AN APPEAL FROM CUBA
PETITION FROM REPRESENTA-
TIvEs OF TOBACCO INTERESTS.
Claim That Pledges Were Made When
Platt Amendment Was Pre-
sented for Adoption.

The President has received a petition
from Ramon Rivera and other representa-
tlVes OF the assembly of the delegates from
the various tobacco-working industries of
Cuba which met in Havana on the 9th in
slant.
The tobacco workers realize" says the
petition. that it is impossible to be indif-
ferent to the efforts made by all economic
organizations to interest the government
of the United States in granting tariff re-
ductions to the products of this island
which are threatened with destruction un-
less they obtain that which with justice
this country requests.
The people of Cuba are at present on
the verge of bankruptcy, and being thus
face to face with the ruin which threatens
it is necessary for all classes of society in
this country to employ every influence to
inform the authorities of the United States
as to the true sentiments Of those who live
here, and in requesting the United States
that it save us we are guided by an in
stinct of self-preservation. and with the
hope which we still have that the gener-
osity of the American people has not been
exhausted
1.-THE special circumstances in which the
Cuban people now find themselves econom-
ically bound to the United States by the
Platt amendments, now an appendix to
our constitution, forbid us from going be-
yond the narrow limits of said amendments
to try to save our threatened production.
'The government cannot and should not
forget, as we do not forget, the promise
made to our constitutional convention Of
tariff reforms for the products of the An
TILES in exchange for the acceptance of
the Platt amendments, because should that
r1dlculinp
credulity in said premises. the American
nation showing itself Indifferent to the just
petitions of this impoverished people, will
only secure universal criticism in the final
decree of history.
"The tobacco industry, one of the chief
resources of wealth of this island, has for
crisis caused by the prohibitive tariff i'm
posed upon it's products upon entry into
North American ports.
But these prohibitive tariff rates which
still obtain, were defensible before the in
terventton of the United States in Cuban
affairs but cannot be defended now that
both countries have mingled their blood on
common battle fields in defense of liberty,
monious action founded on the Platt
amendments, the source of future treaties
and which insure for the future as firm a
basis Of reciprocity between the great re-
public of the north and the small republic
of the Gulf of Mexico.
IF England, Germany and other Euro
pean nations, Notwithstanding they have
not the obligations toward the Cuban peo-
pie contracted by the Platt amendments by
the government of the United States, have
tariff rates much lower for our products
than the nation last named, is it not logi-
cal to believe that when the government of
Cuba is established there will be inaugu-
rated tariff wars by said European ma
tions with which the Platt amendments
forbid us to treat, and yet at the same
time the injustice of the United States will
throw us into bankruptcy?
"In the name of about 80, 900 WOrkingmen
who hear hunger calling at their doors this
commission, by the express direction of
their representatives, indorse in all of its
parts the petition which the commission
of the economic corporations of Cuba have
made to the government of the United
States. Of which you are the President.
and we trust that the result of the inves-
tigation will save this country from the
ruin which threatens it,
This petition was forwarded to Wash
ington by Gen. Wood, military governor,
for the consideration Of the President and
Secretary of War in connection with other
papers in regard to the reduction of tariff
duties on United States products LAS l
have already repeatedly stated" says Gen.
Wood. 'these reductions are of vital i'm
portance, and such as are to be granted
should be granted with as little delay as
practicable