BoletiÌn mercantil de Puerto Rico. (San Juan, P.R.) 18??-1918, 1904-05-30

tween two peoples 80 decicedly dis
|tinct in products and industries, with
such disproporsionate economic con-
|ditions Il IS impossible that condi-
|tion Of free trade should exist with
bringing about in the end the CON-
plete absorption and iniquituous ruin
of the smaller cf the two countraes by
the greater.
The foregoin is a truth which can
| not be denied, and can easily be
bought about by people with the wide
Experience in the markets Of the world
that the American nation has had.
Free trade is nothing more than hol-
low mockery when applied between
the United States and Porto Rico. and
ESPECIALLY when it does nothing to
protect our coffe. II is species of
protection which fails to protect. The
actual existing laws show that no
consideration whatever has been given
Porto Rico in framing treaties, ETC.,
and no endeavor to ameliorate the
awful condition has been honestly
made.
Porto Ricos coffee constitutes the
real fountain source of her wealth and
prosperity. Take away the coffee
markets and we are ruined people.
This is precisely what the American
| Congress has done and given us in
exchange the right of free trade with
people do not know our product and
are loath to learn its true value as a
household commodity. Our coffe has
name and a reputation throughout
Europe, and has acquired immense
credit after long years of arduous
labor and jus when it seemed to have
securd firm footing we are compel
lied to relinquiSh that which we have
acquired and begin a retrograde mo-
vement which unquestionably means
| our ultimate ruin. Our coffee is the
most celebrated and most sought after
lin European markets but owing to
countervailing duties it cannot be
bought for even a fair price, and our
product has been driven from these
markets by and inferior one.
It is now high time that the repre-
sentativeS of the American people
came to appreciate the fact free trade
between Porto Rico and the United
States is mere farce; full grown
|absurdity, after having closed to US
1.-THE markets of the world. Those
people who knew our product and
sought it are now deprived of same,
and the American people have done
nothing up to the present time to show
an appreciation of it, We have prac-
|tically been abandoned by both Eu-
ropean and American consumers. The
former because of the high price
lcaused by duties imposed upon our
product because of American protec-
ton, and the latter because the Anne
rican people are customed to a cheap
grade of coffee. They listen to its
praises in much the same manner that
they listen to the pattering of the
raindrops upon tin root, and continue
buying the Brazilian berry.
The matter is simply this. We
have been the victim of all unut-
terable, inconcievable folly on the part
of the Congress of America through a
lack of knowledge and acquaintance
with our products, and the right of
free trade as granted us, without
making a special provision for the
protection of Porto Rican coffee by
the Dingley tariff amounts to nothing
more than another screw in the lid of
oury ycoHin.
We are compelled to use American
products, paying heavily for them,
when we could secure them in other
parts for less than half of what we
pay for most of them, and in exchan-
pc the American CcngTes absolutely
|forbids us the right of market for
our coffee. Is this jus1 Is it natural2
Is it reasonable7 Is it correct? Is it
human7 No. A thousand times mol
Once ruin us completely and we will
never be able to recover from the
blow. Now is the time to give us
that which we seek, if not with the
United States then with Europe
through the medium of treaties of
reciprocity, favoring foreign food
|stuffs in exchange for favorable rate
on Porto Rican coffee.
The question must present itself to
the Representatives. of the United
States in a clear and unequivocal
manner. Either protect our coffee or
av+a,d RI nc fhe riohf of bt1vino Oi1r