ductions of those islands; in the case of the Philippines, reduced rates of duty on articles coming from those islands, and in the case of Cuba, a reduction in rates of duty on products coming from that island and in return therefor reduced rates of duty on articles from the United States entering that island, It will be seen that the value of tropical and subtropical merchandise brought into the United States, including that from our own islands, has grown from 145 million dollars in 1870 to 567 millions in 1907, and that a very large proportion of these articles are of classes absolutely required for manufacturing or for foods and in most cases of a class which are not produced in the United States, or at least not sufficient for our own requirements.

Value of principal imports of tropical and subtropical articles at quinquennial periods from 1870 to 1907.

a Only cane sugar not above No. 16 Dutch standard in color, and molasses. b Includes articles from Hawaii and Porto Rico.

Quantities of principal articles of tropical and subtropical growth imported from 1870 to 1907.

a Cane sugar under No. 16 Dutch standard in color only; figures of 1907 include sugar from Hawaii and Porto Rico,

Trade of the United Kingdom with its Colonies.

The table which follows showing the trade of the United Kingdom with its Colonies is suggestive and interesting, especially in the showing which it presents as to the market which that country finds for its merchandise in the communities with which it has relations of this character. It will be noted that while the total exports of the United Kingdom have barely doubled in the period from 1869 to 1906, the exports to her colonies have nearly trebled during the same period and that the value of her merchandise sold in the colonies in that period aggregates 16 billions of dollars.

Statement showing the total imports and exports of the United Kingdom, and the amount imported from and exports to her Colonies during the past thirty-eight years, 1869 to 1906.

Ten Year.

Total exports of United Kingdom to colonies from 1869 to 1906, $16,064,055,170.

We are no more against organizations of capital than against organizations of labor. We welcome both, demanding only that each shall do right and shall remember its duty to the Republic.-President Roosevelt at Milwaukee, Wis., April 3, 1903.

Any unjust discrimination in the terms upon which transportation of freight or passengers is afforded an individual or a locality paralyzes and withers the business of the individual or the locality exactly as the binding of the arteries and veins leading to a member of the human body destroys its life.-Hon. Wm. H. Taft, at Columbus, Ohio.

The course of the Republican party since its organization in 1856, and its real assumption of control in 1861, down to the present day, is remarkable for the foresight and ability of its leaders, for the discipline and solidarity of its members, for its efficiency and deep sense of responsibility for the preservation and successful maintenance of the government, and for the greatest resourcefulness in meeting the various trying and difficult issues which . history of now a full half-century have presented for solution.-Hon. Wm. H. Taft, at Kansas City, Mo.

RECENT TEMPORARY GOVERNMENT

OF CUBA BY THE UNITED STATES
AND ITS EFFECT ON THE CONDI-
TIONS IN THE ISLAND.

a

On May 20, 1902, the military government of Cuba, by order of President Roosevelt, issued in compliance with the promise made by the United States Congress in the Teller Resolution, transferred the government of Cuba to its newly elected President and Congress. Under the presidency of McKinley, brief war with Spain had secured Cuba's freedom from Spanish dominion. Three years of military administration had established order, constituted a government, placed the finances of the country on a sound basis, and the new Republic entered on its national life under the best auspices. But one circumstance distinguished it, in its relation with the United States, from other Latin American Republics; namely, the existence of a law of the American Congress, known as the Platt amendment, which had been adopted by the Cubans as a part of their constitution, and was later embodied in a permanent treaty between the two countries. According to the law and treaty, the Republic of Cuba undertook to enter into no compact with foreign powers which would tend to impair the independence of the Republic, to contract no public debt to the service of which it could not properly attend, to lease coaling stations to the United States, and to execute and extend plans for the sanitation of the cities of the Island, and consented that the United States might exercise the right to intervene for the preservation of Cuban independence, the maintenance of a government adequate for the protection of life, property, and individual liberty, and for discharging the obligations with respect to Cuba imposed by the Treaty of Paris on the United States which were now to be assumed and undertaken by the Government of Cuba.

But while economically, with the assistance of the United States, the progress of Cuba was highly gratifying, in political inatters, where the Cubans were left to themselves, the result was not so satisfactory. It was soon evident that political passion was becoming more and more intense, and personal ambition keener. To such an extent was partisanship carried in the Cuban Congress, that the minority party, availing themselves of the provisions of the constitution which require the presence of two-thirds of the total membership of each branch to open sessions and of the omission of the constitution to provide means for compelling the attendance of absent members, remained away from the meetings of the Congress and prevented sessions except at irregular intervals. During the term of Congress lasting from April 4th to October 20th, 1904, a period of 199 days, the Lower House was, due to the obstructive tactics of the minority, able to hold but sixteen daily sessions and the Senate but twenty-six daily sessions; and a similar rcord of infrequent and irregular sessions continued throughout 1905.

For the administration of the executive departments no law whatever has been provided. The Cuban Congress, engrossed in its political squabbles, took no steps to remedy the situation beyond passing an electoral law, the defects of which made extraordinary fraud possible, and a skeleton provisional law. Those who had criticised the military government for promul gating legislation instead of leaving all legislative matters for the action of the Cuban Congress, were effectively silenced. barren of legislative results were the sessions of Congress, that in five years of the self-administered Republic only two annual budgets were passed; the three remaining budgets being pro

So

vided, when Congress had failed to act, by the doubtful expedient of executive order.

Another source of bitterness was the policy of the government, in the hands of the Moderate party, to dismiss the officeholders of the opposition party, the Liberals, and to reserve the positions in the public service for its own followers. Local pride was especially outraged by the action of the Moderate government in turning out the Liberal town councils, by illegal or technical interpretations of the irritating municipal law, and substituting Moderates.

But what most exacerbated the strained relations between the political parties were the intimidation and colossal frauds practiced at the elections of 1905. The Liberals claimed that the Moderates used the rural guard and municipal police to intimidate the voters, that the assaults to which the Liberals were exposed were such as to make it dangerous for them to appear for registration, and they accordingly refrained from registering, and withdrew from the elections. Nevertheless, the returns made by the Moderate election judges showed that 432,313 persons had voluntarily appeared for registration. That the electoral lists had been padded to the degree of absurdity is made evident by the fact that the census of Cuba just completed shows that there are now in the Island only 419,342 persons of all parties entitled to vote. It is probable that 200,000 names were fraudulently inserted in the registration lists.

Even during the elections there had been armed encounters between individual Moderates and Liberals. In Cienfuegos, an attempt made by the Moderate chief of police to arrest a Liberal congressman resulted in the death of both, and the government was bitterly blamed. A few months later a post of the rural guard near Habana was attacked and several guards murdered while asleep, and prominent Liberals were charged with this deed. But it was not until August, 1906, that open revolt against the government began. On that date a small armed force took the field, and uprisings immediately followed throughout the country led by prominent leaders disaffected with the government. The ranks of the insurgents were augmented on account of the natural tendency to insurrection that had been cultivated by a long period of insurrection in Cuba, as well as by the inclination of many to secure relief from daily toil and live on the country and property of others. The power of this irregular force to do damage was incalculable. The greater part of the wealth of Cuba lies in its sugar plantations and sugar mills, most of which are owned by foreign capital, and the flaring of a few matches could in a short time have destroyed property of this kind to the value of millions of dollars.

The government of Cuba found itself entirely unprepared. Its artillery and rural guard force was comparatively small, and so scattered as to be unable to cope with the insurrectionists. The government made desperate efforts to organize militia, but with very unsatisfactory results. President Palma, in a letter to a friend a few weeks later, thus summarized the situation:

From the first days of the insurrectionary movement I understood the situation and was able to appreciate it with a serene mind. I saw before me numerous masses, tired of the order and legality to which they appeared to have submitted during the four years of the Republic, eager for license and forays, follow like a mob the first adventurer who invited them to rise; I saw everywhere persons who sympathized with disorder and encouraged disturbances; I saw the press in the morning, afternoon, and at all hours, assisting with unparalleled cynicism the secret conspiracy organized in behalf of the rebels; I suddenly found myself in the midst of a tremendous social disorganization, with thousands of insurgents in three provinces and the menace of rebellion in two others, without sufficient regular forces to undertake immediately an active campaign against the former and to beat and disorganize them; at the same time I constantly feared that they would carry to the great sugar plantations of Santa Clara the measures of destruction already realized on railroad stations, locomotives, bridges, culverts, etc.; I saw the customs revenues fall off by one-half and the other income of the State to 25 or 30 per cent., and that the millions of the Treasury were being spent in streams with uncertain result and to very doubtful advantage, a large part being used for keeping up hastily improvised militia, which, for that very reason, could not inspire sufficient confidence as to their reliability for undertaking the labor, the privations, and the dangers of a constant persecution of adversaries, who were also Cubans and in a great number of cases friends and comrades.

The Appeal for Intervention by the United States.

By the beginning of September the Cuban government realized the helplessness of its situation, and applied to the United States Government for American intervention; and President Palma announced his irrevocable intention to resign his office in order to save his country from complete anarchy. The American State Department did all in its power to discourage the request, but the pleas of the Cuban government continued. On September 14, 1906, President Roosevelt sent an official letter to Señor Quesada, the Cuban Minister to Washington, in which he described the terrible disaster imminent in Cuba and the evils of anarchy into which civil war and revolutionary disturbances would assuredly throw her, and pointed out that the only way in which Cuban independence could be endangered was for the Cuban people to show their inability to continue in their path of peaceable and orderly progress, and that our intervention in Cuban affairs would come only if Cuba herself showed that she had fallen into the insurrectionary habit. He solemnly adjured all Cuban patriots to band together to sink all differences and personal ambitions, and to rescue the Island from the anarchy of civil war. He said that, under the treaty with Cuba, as President of the United States he had a duty in the matter which he could not shirk; that the 3rd article of the treaty explicitly conferred upon the United States the righ♦ to intervene for the maintenance in Cuba of a government adequate for the protection of life, property, and individual liberty; that the treaty conferring the right was the supreme law of the land and furnished him with the right and means of fulfilling the obligation he was under to protect American interests; that his information showed that the social bonds throughout the Island had been so relaxed that life, property, and individual liberty were no longer safe; and that, in his judgment, it was imperative for the sake of Cuba that there should be immediate cessation of hostilities and some arrangement which would secure permanent pacification of the Island. He closed the letter by announcing that he would send to Habana the Secretary of War, Mr. Taft, and the Assistant Secretary of State, Mr. Bacon, as special representatives of the American government, to render all possible aid toward securing peace.

The Peace Commission.

Secretaries Taft and Bacon arrived in Habana September 19, 1906. The task confronting them was extremely serious. Though there was no doubt that the American naval forces assembling in Habana harbor could in a short time disperse any large bodies of insurgents, it was quite evident that the employment of force would certainly give rise to guerilla warfare, which would have caused an immense destruction of property, and cost much blood and money to suppress.

The Peace Commission, constituted by Secretaries Taft and Bacon, gave hearing to prominent men of the Island, and had many conferences with the leaders of the different political parties, it received and considered suggestions for the settlement of the pending differences, and finally proposed a compromise which it made earnest efforts to have accepted. The compromise contemplated the resignations of the Vice-President, Senators, and Representatives, Governors, and Provisional Councilmen elected at the fraudulent elections of December 1905; the laying down of the arms of the insurgents; the constitution of a commission for the purpose of drafting laws most urgently needed; and the holding of elections under the provisions of the electoral law to be drafted by such commission. Their endeavors to have the plan accepted by all parties were without avail. The President insisted on resigning, all the cabinet officers resigned, and the President called a special session of Congress to submit his own resignation and that of the Vice-President. Pursuant to the call, Congress met September 28, received the resignations, and adjourned on the same day without electing a successor to the President. The country was thus left without a government, and President Palma