The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-10-06
The President and tho Extra Session


summon Congress in an extra session
next month, the attitude of Mr.. RoosE-
WELT is most laudable. The settlement
Of the Cuban reciprocity question has
been too long delayed. In his message
to Congress in December, 1901, Presi-
dent ROOSEVELT stated in terse and Wig
orous language the grounds for an i'm
mediate adjustment Of our trade rela-
tons with our West Indian neighbor. In
that message he said: in the case OF
Cuba, there are weighty reasons Of NOR
, atty and of national interest why the
policy (of reciprocity should be held to
have peculiar application. Tho weight
and the validity Of those reasons have
been in no degree lessened by the lapse
of nearly two years
The decision OF the President Is made
the more commendable by the fact that
his step may be taken at some cost to his
political interests. Congress evidently
wants neither to spend an extra month
In Washington nor to face again the
question which now appears as the sole
object OF the assembly. But, whether
the Senators and Representatives meet
to indorse the wishes and the purposes
Of the President or to nullify them as
they have in the preceding sessions, Mr..
ROOSEVELT is right in giving them the
opportunity to pass bill to the enact
ment Of which the United States is NOR
ally committed, and which would also
prove of very material benefit to the
trade interests of the country. That
those trade interests are now suffering
is shown by the recently published report
Of Consul General STEINHART Our
merchandise sales to Cuba were $29, lsl,-
700 in 1890, and $40, 053, 1895 in 1902, a shrink
age of So, OOO, 900,
It is, at the same time, true that Cuba
total purchases for those years show q
falling off of $4,5OO,OOO, but our percent
age of those purchases has fallen from
43.7 to AZ. These facts give additional
weight to another consideration, which
involves that moral issue which should
stand in the American view as of even
far greater importance than the purely
commercial question By the very fact
Of its original intervention in Cuban
affairs, unsolicited by the Cuban people,
and perhaps more than is generally
realized, from motives of self-interest,
this country assumed a moral RESPONSE
bility for Cuba's welfare, economic as
well as political. Mr.. MCKINLEY famous
message Of April II, 1893, contained these
words: In behalf of endangered Ameri-
can interests, which give us the right and
the duty to speak and to act, the war in
Cuba must stop
This view of our responsibility is clearly
and definitely sustained by the language
of Secretary Roof, in his annual report
for 1901. Mr.. Roof there said: aside
from the moral obligation to which we
committed ourselves when we drove
Spain out of Cuba, DC. y" He further said,
1.-THE same considerations which led to
the war with Spain now require that a
commercial arrangement be made under
which Cuba can live.
Behind this moral committal of the
United States to the conservation of
Cuba's economic interests, there stands
a second, equally valid and equally bind
ing. That lies in the still somewhat
mysterious understanding between the
Administration in Washington and the
Commission from the Cuban Constitu-
tional Convention. Regarding that,
Senator o. H. PLATT, than whom there
can be no better authority, said, in an
article in the North American Reuiew for
August, 1902: In the nature of things,
such promise [of advantageous trade
relationsl was impossible; but the con-
vention was asked to act in the premises
and to trust the United States" This
the Cubans did. They accepted the, to
them, offensive Platt amendment, and
trusted the United States.
This moral feature of the issue will
make its appeal to many. To some of
our people only the purely commercial
feature will appeal. Such may roll
under their tongues the sweet morsel
which lies in the fact that Cuba made
prosperous by American action becomes
Q potential customer for moro than