The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-09-17
Peace or Ruin.

The island Of Cuba faces ruin as the
alternative of an immediate restoration
Of peace. The industries upon which
the Cuban people are mainly dependent
are in imminent danger Of destruction.
The richest tobacco areas lie within the
zones of the present military activities,
and the dark shadow ( analysis already
hangs over the cane fields.
More than upon all the rest Of her
industries, Cuba's economic life and
social well being derend upon her sugar
crop. The average value of her output
of. this article alone may be given, APP
pFnximately, as t6O,OCO,OCO a year. Her
tobacco crop il worth about tSO,OCO,CCO
q year The loss of either or both Of
these crops for a single season has only
one meaning, commercial s~tagnation,
financial ruin. misery and distress for
many thousands Of people. Unless the
present con let is quickly terminated the
loss of both crops is inevitable. II is not
now a question of months, nor even Of
weeks, but Of days.
gein this country money is needed to
move our crops OF wheat, of corn and
Of cotton. In Cuba money is needed
TO produce the crops of sugar and to-
bacco, and the industries are conducted
on a system of cash advances with the
Irrespective product given and held as
security. Again, as in u wheat fields,
the making of the cane crop and the
grinding of the cane depend upon on
influx, fer the season, of thousands of
hands. Ell AUisddor Commercial of Havana
needed for the cutting, transportation
and grinding OF the cane nov growing
lathe fields. The bankers from whom
the funds are usually obtained are re-
fising u make the customary loans at
any price, and not only is the usual influx
al workmen from Spain and the Ca
nary Islands suspended, but many Of
the resident Spanish laborers are actu-
ally leaving the island, thus adding to
the depletion Of the labor force already
much reduced by the thousands who
have joined the insurgen' army. The
Consequence of the loss = these crops
II 10 impossible to estimate. It would be
comparable only to a total failure Of the
cotton and the cereal crops of this cOun-
try. No man can say what the results
would be.
II this disaster is to be averted relief
must come at once. Peace must be re-
stored, and IL must be an assured pace.
The suppression of the rebellion and the
restoration Of peace are not TO be effected
BY any reiteration Of academic theories
regarding the maintenance Of de fdcto
or de juTe governments. Granting that
IN two months, three months or four
months the Government could crush
out the last remnant Of the rebellion, a
conclusion which now seems most i'm
probable, the price Of its victory would
be the ruin Of the island. The argument
that the Government should be main
tanned at all hazards and at all costs is,
under the circumstances, unsound. The
case would stand in different light, per-
haps, il the title Of the present authori-
kes were somewhat clearer than it is and
their record less open TO criticism. The
wrecking OF a nations industries and
commerce and the suffering Of thousands
~ long price to pay for the maintenance
Of an administration whose right to its
position is open TO very grave doubt.
The demand Of the planters, the mer-
chants, the property owners, OF those
whose interests and activities are the
support OF the people and the source Of
the islands revenues, is for peace, for
peace by compromise, by arbitration
and adjustment. With few and unim.
portant exceptions the press Of the island
echoes and voices this demand. Jour
mails representing such varied interests