The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1912-04-23

by vote of 1873 to l04. Twenty-four
Republicans voted for the bill and
seven Democrats voted against it,
The bill is now before the Senate. Its
fate in that body is a matter of deep
concern to the million and a half
inhabitants of the island of Porto Ri
co. Already, by a unanimous vote
the insular Legislature has express
cd disapproval of the bill and the
Representatives of the island in Wash
ington have been instructed to do all
within their power to defeat the pass
age of the measure In its present
form. For sugar raising is the ISL
and's greatest industry, and the Por-
to Ricans fear that by allowing free
entrance Of foreign sugar into the
United States their chief source of in
come would be severely crippled if
Lot entirely.
Porto Rico is an ideal sugar grow
ing country. Two centuries ago the
royal rhymester included it among
those isles.
Where first the muse beheld the spiry
cane.
Supreme of plants, rich subject of
my song
Ever since the first mill was erect
ed for some Of the followers of old
Ponce de Leon, sugar has been the
chief product of the island, and, to-
day, no visit to Porto Rico is complete
without a horseback ride through the
fields devoted to this supreme of
plants"
After you pass old Moro and are
fairly in the Bay of San Juan, but
before you reach the wharf huge
tanks loom up on the edge of the
shore, and if you ask why, in a city
lighted exclusively by electricity,
these gas tanks should be there, your
neighbOr, if he is a native, will tell
you that the unsightly things are not
for gas, but for the temporary stor-
age of molasses, and that if you will
look more closely you will see long
pipes running from the tanks to the
schooners at the next dock And he
will add that through these pipes the
brown fluid is slowly oozing into the
receptacles for it in the holds of the
vessels.
When you auto across country,
fields of waving cane will salute you
on every side. Wherever you stop you
will be invited to "refresco" of cane
juice. The children you pass on the
roadway are chewing the tender stalks
in place of taffy. Those wide fat
carts, drawn by bullocks down the
hillside, are filled with cane. As you
near the refineries or "centrales" you
will see long trains of cars packed
to overlooking with the sweet punches
of cane on the way to the mills;
and at the Playa docks, at Ponce, on
the other side of the island, brawny
porters, stripped to the waist, are bal
ancing on their heads 300 pound sacks
Of the completed product, which they
fling into barges that carry them out
to the ships waiting in the open.
The machinery that comes down on
the steamer with you is for the sugar
refinery; the capital subscribed for
the commerce of the island is secur-
ed especially for the cane interests
Sugar is the topic at the club the
hope of the planter; the mainstay Of
the peon; the plaything of the mer-
chant and the delight of the citizen
and the stranger within his gates.
Porto Rico is divided into sixty-six
municipal districts. all but eight of
which are devoted in a greater or less
degree to the growth of sugar cane
or its manufacture into sugar. In
fifty-two of these districts sugar is
the chief product of the province.
Scattered over the island are a num-
her of large centrales, the Guanica,
the Aguirre, the Fajardo and the Jun
cos being among those best known.
Special spurs of the island railroad
running out from these refineries con
meet them with the main line that
skirts the entire island
There are in Porto Rico twenty-four
domestic and fourteen foreign sugar
corporations, ranging in individual va
luc from $4,000 to 100000 The larg-
est devoted to sugar alone is a New
York concern, the Fajardo, having a
paid in capital of $2,OOO,OO0; and the
largest molasses company also has it's
| home in New York and is valued at
million and a half, More than one
third of the foreign cor porations are
owned in and operated from New
York and represent high values. For
example, the Colonial Sugar Com
pany has a paid in capital of only
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