the policy advocated by others, who desired us simply to rule the islands without any thought at all of fitting them for self-government. The islanders have made real advances in a hopeful direction, and they have opened well with the new Philippine Assembly; they have yet a long way to travel before they will be fit for complete self-government, and for deciding, as it will then be their duty to do, whether this self-government shall be accompanied by complete independence. It will probably be a generation, it may even be longer, before this point is reached; but it is most gratifying that such substantial progress toward this as a goal has already been accomplished. We desire that it be reached at as early a date as possible for the sake of the Filipinos and for our own sake. But improperly to endeavor to hurry the time will probably mean that the goal will not be attained at all.

"(Signed)

"The White House,

"January 27, 1908,"

THEODORE ROOSEVELT.

THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS.

The Hawaiian Islands are no longer a political issue. While a Democratic President and Secretary of State planned for their annexation more than a half century ago, while they many years later applied for admission and raised the American flag, and while that American flag was hauled down by the orders of another Democratic President, carried out by a former Member of Congress, they have since that time come permanently under the American flag, becoming a territory of the United States with a delegate in Congress, and the relation of those islands to the United States is no longer a political issue. Yet the effect of annexation upon the prosperity of the people and the prosperity of our own trade with them is interesting and worthy of record. The growth of prosperity in the Hawaiian Islands began with that closeness of relationship brought about by the reciprocity treaty with the United States, which resulted in annexation, and perfect freedom of interchange between those islands, a tropical area with tropical products to sell, and the United States, a temperate zone area desiring tropical products, and having temperate zone products to exchange therefor. The production of sugar, which was formerly almost the sole product, grew from 25 million pounds at the date of the reciprocity treaty to 500 million pounds in the year before annexation; but on the assurance which annexation furnished that the markets of the United States would remain permanently open to this product, the sugar production of the Hawaiian Islands has in the short period since annexation grown to over 800 million pounds, having thus increased over one-half since 1899. The value of the sugar product of the Hawaiian Islands during the decade prior to annexation ranged from 8 to 16 million dollars per annum. In 1899 it crossed for the first time the 20 million dollar line. Since annexation the value has ranged from 25 to 35 million dollars per annum. Practically all of this has been sent to the United States, and in exchange the islands have taken from the United States everything which they import, except certain products of China and Japan especially required by their Chinese and Japanese population, and that class of fertilizers for the plantations which can only be obtained from the nitrate beds of Chile. That the annexation of the Islands and the permanency of trade relations therewith have resulted advantageously to the commerce of the United States is quite apparent from the fact that the value of our shipments to the Hawaiian Islands, which never touched the 10 million dollar line prior to 1900, has been continuously above that line since annexation, and in 1907 was practically 15 million dollars, and in the fiscal year 1908 seems likely to exceed that sum. The total value of merchandise sent from the United States to the Hawaiian Islands in the eight years since annexation aggregates nearly 100 million dollars, while in the eight years immediately preceding annexation the value of our shipments to those islands was but 58 millions, having thus practically doubled as compared with the corresponding term of years immediately prior to annexation.

Meantime conditions in the islands have been greatly improved.

Large investments of capital from the United States

were made immediately following the annexation, which thus assured permanency of government, and permanency of relations with the United States; large additions were made to the population, and new efforts were made towards a diversification of industries. The Department of Agriculture established an experiment station in the Islands, and careful studies have been made of the producing power of the various sections with reference to various tropical and subtropical products, with the purpose of diversifying as much as possible the industries and products of the islands, and thus increasing the earning power of the people, and especially of developing opportunities by which persons of small capital or those desiring to build up prosperous lines of business of their own and own their own homes may be able to do so much more readily than in the production of sugar, which requires large estates and large investments.

The Governor of the Islands, Hon. H. W. Frear, in his inaugural address in 1907, referring to conditions since annexation, said:

"Seven brief years, and yet what grand results if we but pause to view them; years, it is true largely of adjustment to new conditions, but equally years of advancement. The entire body of Hawaiian statute laws has been put into compact and harmonious form and added to by numerous laws, remedial and constructive. * * Local government has been established without the baneful results predicted. * * Recovery has been had from a calamitous pestilence attended by extensive conflagrations in the capital; scientific investigation has been begun for the ultimate eradication of the most dreaded disease; the public health has never been better safeguarded. **The schools have grown in quality of work as well as in number of pupils. Progress has been made in the application of advanced criminological principles, especially as applied to juvenile delinquents. Evidences of moral and religious quickening are apparent on every hand. Much has been accomplished in the construction of public works and preservation of forests, settlement of public lands, introduction of labor, of city-making material, the establishment of diversified industries, the execution of irrigation projects, and utilization of water power. * ** Even before annexation the contract labor system had largely disappeared, a system possessing in some degree the principle of profit-sharing has come into general practice that increases returns to both planter and laborer. The planters have begun extensively to provide the laborers with homes of sufficient size for residence and gardening purposes; a beginning has been made toward co-operation in the establishment of homesteads of sufficient size to support families independently."

PORTO RICO.

On the 18th of October of this year, Porto Rico completes the "tenth anniversary of its existence within the jurisdiction of the United States. Of this period a year and a half was under military government and eight years and a half under a civil government established by the Act of Congress of April 12, 1900.

The changes for the better in this period of ten years have been remarkable, and the improvement in education, sanitation, commerce, and the administration of justice has demonstrated the wisdom and far-seeing ability of the Republican party. These improvements have not been made without overcoming serious obstacles. In less than a year after the Americans assumed control, the progress of the island received the worst setback known in its history. On August 8, 1899, Porto Rico was visited by the most severe cyclone that it has ever experienced, as a result of which thousands of lives were lost and millions of dollars worth of property destroyed. Not only was the coffee crop for that year totally lost, but a very large percentage of the coffee trees themselves were completely ruined. In many places the soil on the sides of the mountains was washed away, so that where fertile plantations once existed, but bare rocks remained. The serious nature of this disaster can be understood only when it is realized that the value of coffee alone exported during the last years of the Spanish Government exceeded the combined value of all the other exports. The success of the United States, therefore, has been all the more remarkable when one considers the inauspicious beginning of the administration.

Free trade between the United States and Porto Rico was established on July 25, 1901. All duties collected on goods between the United States and Porto Rico prior to this date were subsequently appropriated by Congress for the construction of schools, roads, and other public improvements on the island.

The value of the exports and imports under the Spanish government reached its high-water mark in 1896, when the total trade of the island amounted approximately to the equivalent of $22,000.000 United States currency. Under American occupation there has been a steady increase in the trade of Porto Rico, which, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1907, amounted to $56,263,472. The value of the exports and imports for that year each amounted to more than the total trade of the island in any one year under the Spanish government. In the same year more than 204,000 tons of sugar, with a total value of $14,770,000, were exported from Porto Rico, as compared with the record under Spain, in 1884, of 109,000 tons. The amount of sugar now produced is more than 320 per cent. greater than it was in 1897, the last year of Spanish rule. The value of tobacco exported in the twelve months ending June 30, 1907, amounted to approximately $5,500,000. The year before the United States assumed control (one of the most prosperous years under the Spanish Government) the value of tobacco exported was approximately $700,000, showing an increase of 700 per cent. in the ten years of American administration. During the past year more cigars were imported into the United States from Porto Rico than from Cuba. The following brief table shows the increase in the trade of the island since the issuance of the last campaign book in 1904:

It will be noted that the total trade in four years has nearly doubled.

In education also there has been a very great advance. More than 70,000 pupils are enrolled in the public schools, and the expenses for educational purposes now aggregate more than $1,000,000 annually. 1,200 school teachers are employed, and great effort is being made to extend opportunities for education in the outlying rural districts. When the Americans took charge of the island, they found but one school building owned by the government. now over 80 buildings completed or under construction, exclusively for school purposes, including a normal school in the city of San Juan and high schools in the important cities. In addition to this number, over six hundred buildings are rented for school purposes. Education is given in English and Spanish and the children are rapidly acquiring a knowledge of the former language.

There are

Much attention has been paid to the question of sanitation, and in the past ten years thousands of people have been cured of uncinariasis, more commonly known as the hookworm disease. Prior to American occupation this disease was generally attributed to malnutrition. In the early days of American occupation. Army surgeons attendant upon the natives suffering from the cyclone, discovered that this sickness was caused by a parasitic worm, and was curable if taken in time. A Commission was created in the winter of 1904, for the study and treatment of this disease. Free stations for the care of patients were established in central locations throughout the island, and a campaign of education as to the prevention and cure of the disease was at once commenced. The Commission estimated that 90 per cent of the rural population of Porto Rico was infected with this form of anemia, which gradually sapped the strength of the patient, frequently resulting in death. In the past four years over 150,000 natives, or one-seventh of the population, have been treated at the expense of the government. The results have been most satisfactory, and many families, disabled by the disease, have been returned to the number of wage-earners. Hopes are entertained that uncinariasis will be eradicated from the island by the efforts of the administration. This result would work a great change in the social and economical status of the inhabitants of the interior.

In order to afford opportunities to the farmers of the interior to bring their produce to the seacoast for shipment to the markets of the United States and elsewhere, the government has bent its energies to the construction of an extensive system of roads. In the past ten years twice as many miles of macadam roads have been constructed by the American government as were built in the 400 years of Spanish control. This policy has opened up lands in the interior which ten years ago were practically valueless. It is not too much to say that in certain sections of the island the value of land has increased 1,000 per cent. In order to carry on this work further, the insular government, in the winter of 1907, disposed of government bonds to the amount of $1,000,000, the proceeds to be devoted exclusively to the building of roads and bridges. This is the first and only debt of the insular government since the American occupation. The splendid financial condition and the economic prosperity of the island was so well recognized, that at a time of considerable dullness in the bond market, when many excellent municipal bonds were not bringing par, these 4 per cent twenty-year serial bonds sold at an average of over 107, the longer term series bringing over 113.

In addition to the roads, communication has been greatly increased by railroad construction, the mileage of which is at present approximately double what it was ten years ago.

The insular government operates the telegraph lines, the number of offices of which have increased since 1904 from 39 to 128. Practically all of the operators are Porto Ricans, who have been carefully trained in this work under the supervision of the government.

A number of charitable institutions have been established since American occupation, and the Porto Ricans, always a philanthropic people, have heartily supported the efforts of the government on these lines. In the past few years a blind asylum has been opened for the care of the indigent blind, the government insane asylum has been enlarged and greatly improved and a reform school for boys has been commenced. This latter institution is exceedingly important, as it will remove youthful violators of the law from the corrupting influence of hardened criminals.

An important step taken by the Congress of the United States some years ago was the establishment of the Porto Rico Provisional Regiment of Infantry. Organized in 1899, the enlisted and non-commissioned force of the regiment, consisting of two battalions, is composed exclusively of Porto Ricans. In addition, many of the junior officers are natives of the island, and the force is supported entirely by United States funds. Prior to the American occupation no such regiment was found in Porto Rico. The military forces which Spain maintained in the island were composed of Spaniards and paid from Porto Rican funds. In this way not only does the United States put into circulation annually a large sum but it provides an institution which gives most excellent moral, mental, and physical training to the natives of the island. On account of the physical improvement, due to regular exercise and good food, the habits of discipline and knowledge of the English language, acquired during the terms of enlistment, former members of the regiment find their services in great demand in various important positions throughout the island.

Public order is excellent, and is maintained by a force of some 800 police, composed entirely of Porto Ricans, with the exception of the chief and assistant chief.

Financially, the United States government has done much for Porto Rico. The customs revenues on foreign articles imported into the island are paid into the insular treasury. The internal revenue laws of the United States are not extended to Porto Rico, but the local legislature is vested with the power of enacting insular internal revenue laws, and the proceeds from these taxes go to swell the revenues of the island, and are not deposited in the United States treasury.

Harbor improvements in the port of San Juan, costing more than three-quarters of a million dollars, have been authorized and begun, and a public building. to cost $300,000, is under process of construction in the capital.

American capital is being invested in various enterprises, the most important of which are railroads, the construction of sugar centrals, or factories for the extraction of sugar from the cane, electric lighting plants, trolley lines, and in various agricultural enterprises, the most recent and successful of which is the cultivation of citrus fruits and pineapples.

There has been adopted an excellent system of laws based on codes in force in various parts of the United States and made adaptable to conditions existing in the island. Among the most important are codes of criminal and civil procedure, and a civil and criminal code, which do away with many provisions of the former laws repugnant to the ideas of American jurisprudence.

The object of the Republican party in conducting affairs in Porto Rico has been twofold: first to increase the prosperity of the island and to enforce impartial justice, giving equal opportunity to all for advancement; and second, to educate the natives of the island to the standards and principles of American administration, so that increased self-government may be granted them as soon as they show their capacity for it. The administration not only has for its purpose the establishment of good government, but it endeavors to educate the people so that they can take more and more part in that government. Great steps in this direction have already been made. The 66 municipalities of the island have complete autonomy. The officials of the municipalities are elected by popular vote, and have full power to enact ordinances with regard to municipal affairs.

In the judicial branch, the Supreme Court is composed of 3 Porto Ricans and 2 Americans. The judges and district attorneys of the district or trial courts are composed of 13 Porto Ricans and 3 Americans, while all the municipal judges and justices of the peace are Porto Ricans. The legislative assembly is made up of two houses, the lower house or House of Delegates, consisting of 35 members, or 5 from each of the 7 districts of the island, are elected by popular vote, and are all Porto Ricans. The upper house, or Executive Council, consists of 11 members appointed by the President, "at least five of whom shall be native inhabitants of Porto Rico." It will therefore be seen that no act can be passed except with the approval of the lower House of Delegates, composed entirely of Porto Ricans and elected by popular vote.

The number of Americans in positions supported by insular revenues is comparatively small, being less than one-ninth of the total number of employees. Should the municipal employees be included in this number, the percentage of Americans would of course be very much smaller. It will be seen therefore that the Porto Ricans have a very important share in the government. Never before in the history of the island have they been allowed such a large and influential part in the administration as they have at the present time.

The wisdom of the policy of the Republican party during the past 10 years, as directed by President McKinley and President Roosevelt, has been fully demonstrated, and has more than justified the expectations of even its warmest friends. It is safe to say that in no other tropical country in the world has there ever been, in so short a time, such rapid and marked increase in sanitation, order, prosperity and education.

THE PANAMA CANAL.

From Christopher Columbus to Theodore Roosevelt, a period of 400 years, man sought in vain for a means of transferring ocean vessels, carrying men and merchandise across that narrow strip of land which separates the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, known as the Isthmus of Panama. Scores of surveys were made; thousands of lives were lost; millions of dollars expended in futile attempts, and it remained for the Government of the United States, under a Republican President and Secretary of War, to take the preliminary steps and with the assent of Congress to actually enter upon the work of