The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-12-15
PORTO RICO AND
COFFEE TARIFF
Commissioners From Caribbean
Couple Request With a
Boycott Threat.

The commission on propaganda for
the protection on coffee, of Porto Rico,
ard the Ponce Branch of the Chamber
of Commerce Of Porto Rico, have is
sued a statement of their case for a
tariff protective duty on coffee address
ed to the Boards of Trade, Porto Riean
press and Porto Rican people, which
concludes with a thinly disguised threat
to boycott the protected goods of the
United States if a protective duty on
coffee is again denied. The commission
in the published statement announced
that it was about to call a convention
of the Porto Rican coffee growers to
consider the matter in conjunction with
the other agriculturists of the island,
the manufacturers, merchants and all
others interested in the welfare of the
island.
four purpose is TO submit to this
convention the draft of a memorial.
which, if adopted, viii be presented at
the opportune moment to the Congress
of the United States in support of our
request for the change in the tariff re-
garding coffee, - announces the commits
sion for the propaganda.
cit is also proposed that IN this con-
vention, there shall be chosen a com
mission whose duty shall be to push
the matter at Washington before the
Committee of Ways and Means, or be-
fore any other committee to which the
matter may be referred.
And as we appeal to the industries
of Porto Rico, so shall we, with even
more insistanee, turn to tfe great indus
trial, mercantile and agricultural organ.
izations of the States, which are con-
cerned as much as we in the prosperity |
of half a million consumers, whom. |
thanks to the tariff, they supply almost
entirely.
SIN this sense the commission viii |
be governed in drawing up the memo
rial, and having determined upon the
general plan, we shall go before the
of coffee growers with the
best of faith; confident that our CLAIM
5 just, we shall exert ourselves to make
he plan and sense of the memorial
express the ends desired and to be
worthy of presentation TO the American
Congress.
"Moreover, aside from the memorial
hat we shall submit to the convention,
We shall also say to all those there
ssembled:
"'Once more we are going to Wash
ngton to seek protection for our coffee.
nasmueh as we are included i'm the
american economic system,.we wish the
eneft Of the tariff for our product.
f, for the second time we fail in so
an undertaking. our voice
ill reach the rice growers, the wine
rowers, the brewers and all the Amer
AN manufacturers, telling them that
lst as our coffee was unknown to the
meriean consumers, so until within
N years past neither the rice nor the
inc nor the beer of the states was
nown here. Very little beer was i'm
orted, and no cotton goods, shoes or
ks.
we have requested from Congress,
lat Is, from your representatives, that
Y the same process by which their
.oduc+S have haau ;mnosaa IN Aha
orto Rican consumer, the coffee of the
land should be imposed on the Amer.
an consumer. But all has been in
in; the tariff continues depressing our
flee growers without offering them
y benefit. However. this indifference
theirs and of the nation, can in no !
Nv be interpreted as implying indif-
renee or unconeern on our part.
- we shall not impassively witness v
e disappearance of the Porto Rican !:
1ustry. Behind the coffee growers =
lnds the whole island, united and dis
sed to make use of reprisals on all
ose who, while they are genera 1siy :.
Dported in their industries by the is
ID. nevertheless look with the most =
solute Indifference upon the future -
the island ; interests which are t.. -
' as much American as their own l.
/ for which the American people
re become inevitably accountable. - 40
--a-%-s-- Il.