The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-06-13
A BREAKFAST TABLE TAX.


When we took the Island of Porto
Rico from Spain we did not forsee
that the Porto Ricans would demand
that the entire American people should
be taxed for their benefit. We simply
supposed that we should get the trade
of Porto Rico and would be benefited
by it,
But the Porto Ricans. being a wide
awake people, have been studying the
Dingley tariff, and to very good pur-
pose. from their point of view. They
have addressed a memorial to Con-
gress through their Chamber of Conn
merce, in which they point out that
they are entitled 10 have a tariff placed
upon coffee. They ask for this not
from a selfish motive, but simply that
the prosperity of their island may be
reflected on the United States.
The American people have been en-
joying the benefits of free coffee for a
number of years, and their desire for
the well-being of the Porto Ricans
would not be increased If they were to
be compelled to pay one or two cents
pound more for coffee in order that the
coffee industry of Porto Rico might
become more prosperous and the wages
of the farm laborer of the coffee plan
tations of that island might be in
creased few cents a day.
OF course a tariff on coffee would i'm
crease our revenue but just at present
we have no particular need of an in
crease in the revenue. And if a tariff
were to be placed on coffee it would be
a difficult matter to find an article
from which Congress, as at present
constituted, would be willing to take
the tariff, or any number of ar
ticles on which Congress would be
willing to reduce the tariff, in order to
cut down the revenue to the extent
that a tariff on coffee would increase
it.
Just at present the West is demand
ing a reduction of the tariff on many
articles, particularly those which are
believed to shelter trusts. II is hardly
probable, therefore, that that section,
or, in fact, any other, would consent to
a tariff on coffee.
And yet there is some justice in the
demand of these Porto Ricans. They
point out that the cultivation of coffee
is not now remunerative, that, in fact,
1t barely pays expenses, although labor
employed in it is paid wages that bare
ly suffice to keep body and soul to-
island is declining, the production last
year being only about $1,000. 900
pounds. Before the great cyclone thnt
ruined many of the coffee plantations
the exports of coffee were about two
thirds of the exports of the island.
Coffee now makes only about one
quarter of the exports. For the year
of the cyclone the planters cultivated
land, which in ordinary years, would
have yielded 100,0O0,0OO pounds of cof-
fee. The cyclone year has been fol-
lowed by extraordinary yields of coffee
in other coffee producing countries,
and, consequently, there has been a
great fall off in prices of coffee. The
coffee industry in Porto Rico has
therefore languished and threatens to
die out altogether, and with it the ba-
mana industry, which is in sympathy
with it.
This is a nice little tariff problem
which the Republican party is called
upon to solve on the eve of a presi-
dental campaign. Porto Rico is a
possession of the United States and the
Dinghy tariff has been extended to it.
The coffee industry is an infant indus
try, and therefore, according to the
Republican doctrine, is entitled to pro.
lection. The fact that these infant
industries never get to the point where
they can get along without protection
does not seem to have weight with the
Republican party. The great trusts,
with their hundreds of millions of dol
lars of capital, are just as insistent in
their demands for protection as the
most insignificant industry is. 1t will
be interesting to note whether the Re-
publican Congress will favor taxing
the whole American people in order
that a few coffee planters in Porto
Rico may get CT or two more a
pound for their coffee.