The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-05-31
Porto Rico.


 After sketching in detail the history of Porto Rico. since this country took
 hold, Secretary Taft said: There is
 complete free trade between Porto Rico and the United States, and all
 custom duties collected in the United States on Porto Rlcan products subsc- quent to the date of Spanish evacua- ton. amounting to nearly $S00O,O OOO, have been refunded to the Island
 treasury. The loss to the revenues of
 the United States from the free ad- mission of Porte Rican products is 5,0000O0 annually In the making of tobacco into. cigars and cigarettes and
 of cane into sugar, a considerable number of the laboring class find me-
 ehanical employment, but the wealth of the Island is directly dependent upon the cultivation of the soil, to cane, tobacco, coffee, and fruit, for which we in America provide the mar Iket. Without our fostering benevol- ence, this island would be as unhappy and prostrate as are some of the neigh
 boring British, French, Dutch and
 Danish Islands. During the last two years of Spanish domination the trade
 balance aginst the Island was over
 s12,50O, ,O0O, while the present balance of
 trade in favor of the island under
 American control is $2,50O,O00. The to- tai of exports and imports increased l from about s25,O0O,00O under Spain, to $44, 100000 under our sovereignty. At the date of the American occupation, the estimated value of ali agricul- ! tural land was about $S0,000,000. Now the appraised value of the real prop erty in the Island reaches $1o0,0OO oOo." " The Philippines,
 Senator Taft in his reference to the Philippines, of which he was Governor,
 gave this brief explanation of why this
 country is there in control: 'oFhe for tune of misfortune of the Cuban war
 carried us to the Philippines The ex- agencies of the situation brought us itl- to such relations with Agulnaldo and the Filipino troops in insurrection against Spain. that when peace came,
 we could not turn the Islands back to
 Spain. Our international obligations, and the welfare of the people of the country prevented us from turning the government over to the military forces commanded by Aguinaldo. His att tempt to carry on a government had | been failure. The failure wousA have | been colossal, had he been giveln more | responsibility.
 Speaking of the progress the United
 States government has made in the far | east, Secretary Taft said: "As soon as I the Americans reached the islands,
 even while war was fragrant, schools
 were established, and now there are
 reading, writing and reciting in Eng llsh in the Philippine Islands, one-half | million of children daily. The unfor- tunate conditions under which the use
 of some seven or eight different lan- guages in different islands and different parts of the same island prevented a l common medium of communication is | gradually to be remedied. More people speak English than Spanish now, and I in a generation the language of the
 islands will be English unless the pres
 ent policy is changed. .. We have | secured the construction of street car
 system in the city of Manila, thirty-fve l miles in length, which greatly relieves l the expense of living in that city, aris- ing from the necessary use of cabs in l the absence of street railway. We are constructing great waterworks and a comprehensive sewer system for Ma nila. We have constructed costly har- bor works at the three great ports of | the islands--Manila, Iloilo, and Cebu. We have added many hundred miles to 1 the road mileage of the islands, and have now contracts for the construc- 1 ton of railways, so that within a few years, under contracts now in force, I the mileage of the railways will have been increased to near a thousand miles, though it was but 124 when we entered the islands"
 Secretary Taft has been an aggres-
 sive critic for the United States Sem ate towards & fairer tariff schedule
 with the Philippines In that connec-
 ton he said: "The Congress of the United States has discriminated in fa- vor of the islands to the extent of per- hitting it's products to be introduced into the United States at 25 per cent.
 reduction on the Dingley rates. It has been proposed to increase this reduc,
 tion so as to make it 75 per cent. on the DingIey rates, and ultimately. in 1909 to take off the duty altogether on
 the products of the Philippine Islands.
 Such bill passed the house of repre- sentatives; was not voted on in the | senate, but was strangled in commit tee. In the history of this bill for the first time is heard a note of selashness < in the policy of the United States to- ward any of her Spanish dependencies. 1 The snoar and tnha ncn iri4arestS nf ttn