Without stopping to inquire what the present imports of Cuban sugar on the
Pacific coast amount to, or how far Hawaiian sugar is likely to find its way
overland to the Atlantic States and so compete directly with that of Cuba, I
merely call your attention to the remedies proposed, namely, peace in Cuba
and a commercial treaty with the United States.
The whole question of the sugar-production of Cuba and Puerto Rico is one
which now excites much interest here, it being generally regarded as the
first duty of the government to foster it in every practicable way; and much
satisfaction is felt at the circumstance that the exportation of sugar from
Cuba has not been diminished by the ravages of the war.
[Inclosure.—Translation.]
Editorial article on the sugar industry of Spain and
her colonies.
[From La Epoca,
Madrid, October 1, 1876.]
the sugar-raising industry.
It does not admit of doubt, as the Diario de la
Marina seasonably asserts, that if the island of Cuba is to
combat the obstacles in the way of its reconstruction it needs order and
repose and great watchfulness, without which there is no possibility of
recovering its lost equilibrium. The untiring endeavors to bring about
the discredit of the island by exaggerating the evils caused by the
insurrection, and holding up the government as being absolutely impotent
to overcome it, have not, it is true, accomplished diminution of the
faith and perseverance consecrated to their labor by the loyal producers
of that Antilla, who see the reward of their efforts in a visible
augmentation of production and in the sterility and fruitlessness of the
resources which the incendiaries bring into play against the decided
protection given by the government to the honest activity of the
laborious inhabitants of the island. But, in spite of all this, it is
unquestionable that order and repose alone constitute the most solid
future guarantee which has to mark the progress of the island.
The protraction of the struggle is causing the production of sugar to be
fomented in other parts in the hope that foreign production will soon
annul the predominance of this crop in the island. This scheme of
competition, which at the present moment offers no danger whatever, may
give rise to future peril, if efforts be not made to avoid it in time by
putting into action the means which patriotism and experience counsel.
The remarks in this relation made by El Cronista,
of New York, remarks whose judicious discretion suggests to the Diairo de la Marina the article which, under the
heading of “competition,” is published in its number of the 2d instant,
ought not to be passed unheeded by our readers, since it comes as a cry
of alarm against the stratagems of which our sugar-trade is the object.
No less a thing is referred to than the celebration of a treaty of
commerce between the President of the United States and the King of the
Hawaiian Islands, a treaty which Congress has definitively approved,
giving to the productions of those islands free entrance into the
neighboring republic through its Pacific ports. The sugar-raising
industry, as our appreciable contemporary observes, is there “in the
hands of American producers, and the President and Congress have
doubtless sought to stimulate their spirit of enterprise in favor of
that concession, whose most legitimate and certain result will be to
encourage the cultivation of the cane in that most fertile archipelago
and to strengthen the influence which the United States already exercise
in their administration and government.”
So very clear are the data and observations wherewith El Cronista presents this matter that we can do no less than
reproduce those which, in our judgment, are invested with the most
important.
“Taking as a basis,” our contemporary writes, “that the convention in
question is invested with a character of permanence which will
strengthen the interests that spring up in its shadow, the Cronista would not fulfill its duty of watching
in behalf of those of Spain and her Antillas did it not at once suggest
the unfavorable consequences which this treaty may have for us, and the
simplest means of modifying them, at least, now that preventing them is
no longer within our reach.
“The consumption of sugar in the Uuited States, according to the latest
data just published by the Statistical Bureau of Washington, is as
follows:
|
Tons. |
|
Tons. |
| In 1867 |
468,393 |
In 1872 |
673,471 |
| In 1868 |
498,649 |
In 1873 |
689,249 |
| In 1869 |
503,812 |
In 1874 |
755,728 |
| In 1870 |
591,538 |
In 1875 |
787,941 |
| In 1871 |
583,147 |
|
|
“The population of the United States during these same years, likewise
taken from official documents, was—
|
Souls. |
|
Souls. |
| In 1867 |
36,211,000 |
In 1872 |
40,604,000 |
| In 1868 |
36,793,000 |
In 1873 |
41,704,000 |
| In 1869 |
37,756,000 |
In 1874 |
42,850,000 |
| In 1870 |
38,558,371 |
In 1875 |
44,060,000 |
| In 1871 |
39,555,000 |
|
|
“These data show with mathematical accuracy that, while the population of
the United States has increased 21.67 per cent. in the course of these
nine years, their consumption of sugar (deducting sirups, to which,
however, like reasoning could apply) has increased 68.22 per cent. in
the same period. It is needless to say more for our
[Page 465]
readers to appreciate the vast importance
of this question to the consuming country and the producing nations.
“Well, then; in 1875, when the United States consumed, according to
official statistics, 787,941 tons of sugar, our island of Cuba exported
thither 545,395 tons, and Puerto Rico 55,011; that is, 600,336 between
the two, or 76.17 per cent. of the total consumption of those States.
Estimating at 120,000 hogsheads, of 1,400 pounds net each, the
sugar-crop of Louisiana, which, through circumstances which it is
foreign to the subject to examine here, will not be increased in the
coming years—nor, perhaps, equal that of last year—we have from this
source about 84,000 tons; that is to say, 10.66 per cent. of the total
consumption. To 13.17 percent., therefore, amounts the required
importation from foreign countries to cover the difference.
“The islands of Hawaii helped to make good the deficiency in that year
with 10,804 tons of sugar, or only 1.36 per cent. of the consumption,
which shows that they have hitherto been far from formidable as rivals.
But ought we to infer from this that they will not become such in the
course of years? It is to be borne in mind that Cuban sugars, which form
the main stock in the markets of the Union, are subject to a gravamen of
2½ cents in gold per pound at least, in the form of impost-duties, and
it is to be considered that this represents an income for the Federal
Treasury of $12,458,618.40 in years like the last one, an income which
cannot be and ought not to be willingly foregone; and that consequently
the privilege of free trade with Hawaii is equivalent to a premium of 2½
cents in gold, paid by the American Government for the encouragement of
the sugar-production in those distant islands, one day, perhaps, to be
theirs; and our readers will agree that, those islanders being incited
by so powerful a stimulus, the cultivation of the sugar-cane in the
Sandwich Islands will receive so great an impetus that in a few years
they will come to be for Cuba and Porto Rico, in the markets of this
country, a country which high reasons of policy would counsel them to
retain as the principal consumer of their products, an extremely
troublesome competitor, which soon afterward would be converted into a
constant and dangerous adversary.”
In order to combat this new and terrible competitor, which presents
itself to view for the first and most important of the productions of
the island, the Cronista observes that there is
no other way than to furnish the government with the means needful for
the prompt ending of the war, the sole conquest which will restore
tranquillity to the fields and peace and contentment to the cities. We
agree with the opinion of our contemporary, but to so absolute a pitch
that we do not for a moment doubt the success of the remedy. The
resources for the approaching campaign being assured, as they now are,
and the sugar-raising district being saved from the dangers which
threatened it, we hold the conviction that there will not long have to
be awaited a measure of an international character which will yield
mutual advantage to the commerce of the United States and of Spain,
saving our colonial production from the competition which threatens it.
To the advantage offered by the geographical position of Cuba, and by
the natural influences of the climate on the cultivation of the cane,
will be added those springing from improvements in manufacture, which
allow of greater yield than that now obtained. Six months of peace will
realize all these gains.
