204 



CONGRESS. (RECIPROCITY WITH CUBA.) 



June 13, the President sent to the Congress the 

 following message on the subject: 



To the Senate and House of Representatives: 



I deem it important before the adjournment 

 of the present session of Congress to call atten- 

 tion to the following expression in the message 

 which, in the discharge of the duty imposed 

 upon me by the Constitution, I sent to Congress 

 on the first Tuesday of December last: 



" Elsewhere I have discussed the question of 

 reciprocity. In the case of Cuba, however, there 

 are weighty reasons of morality and of national 

 interest why the policy should be held to have 

 a peculiar application, and I most earnestly ask 

 your attention to the wisdom, indeed to the 

 vital need, tof providing for a substantial reduc- 

 tion in the tariff duties on Cuban imports into 

 the United States. Cuba has in her Constitution 

 affirmed what we desired, that she should stand 

 in international matters in closer and more 

 friendly relations with us than with any other 

 power, and we are bound by every consideration 

 of honor and expediency to pass commercial 

 measures in the interest of her material well- 

 being." 



This recommendation was merely giving prac- 

 tical effect to President McKinley's words, when, 

 in his messages of Dec. 5, 1898, and Dec. 5, 1899, 

 he wrote : 



" It is important that our relations with this 

 people (of Cuba) shall be of the most friendly 

 character and our commercial relations close 

 and reciprocal. . . . We have accepted a trust, 

 the fulfilment of which calls for the sternest in- 

 tegrity of purpose and the exercise of the highest 

 wisdom. The new Cuba, yet to arise from the 

 ashes of the past, must needs be bound to us by 

 ties of singular intimacy and strength if its 

 enduring welfare is to be assured. . . . The great- 

 est blessing which can come to Cuba is the res- 

 toration of her agricultural and industrial pros- 

 perity." 



Yesterday, June 12, I received, by cable from 

 the American minister in Cuba, a most earnest 

 appeal from President Palma for " legislative re- 

 lief before it is too late and [his] country finan- 

 cially ruined." 



The granting of reciprocity with Cuba is a 

 proposition which stands entirely alone. The rea- 

 sons for it far outweigh those for granting reci- 

 procity with any other nation, and are entirely 

 consistent with preserving intact the protective 

 system under which this country has thriven so 

 marvelously. The present tariff law was de- 

 signed to promote the adoption of such a reci- 

 procity treaty, and expressly provided for a re- 

 duction not to exceed 20 per cent, upon goods 

 coming from a particular country, leaving the 

 tariff rates on the same articles unchanged as 

 regards all other countries. Objection has been 

 made to the granting of the reduction on the 

 ground that the substantial benefit would not 

 go to the agricultural producer of sugar, but 

 would inure to the American sugar-refiners. In 

 my judgment provision can and should be made 

 which will guarantee us against this possibility; 

 without having recourse to a measure of doubt- 

 ful policy, such as a bounty in the form of a 

 rebate. 



The question as to which, if any, of the dif- 

 ferent schedules of the tariff ought most properly 

 to be revised does not enter into this matter in 

 any way or shape. We are concerned with get- 

 ting a friendly reciprocal arrangement with 

 Cuba. This arrangement applies to all the arti- 

 cles that Cuba grows or produces. It is not in 



our power to determine what these articles shall 

 be; and any discussion of the tariff as it affects 

 special schedules, or countries other than Cuba, 

 is wholly aside from the subject-matter to Avhich 

 I call your attention. 



Some of our citizens oppose the lowering of the 

 tariff on Cuban products, just as three years 

 ago they opposed the admission of the Hawaiian 

 Islands, lest free trade with them might ruin 

 certain of our interests here. In the actual 

 event their fears proved baseless as regards Ha- 

 waii, and their apprehensions as to the damage 

 to any industry of our own because of the pro- 

 posed measure of reciprocity with Cuba seem to 

 me equally baseless. In my judgment no Amer- 

 ican industry will be hurt, and many American 

 industries will be benefited by the proposed ac- 

 tion. It is to our advantage as a nation that 

 the growing Cuban market should be controlled 

 by American producers. 



The events following the war with Spain and 

 the prospective building of the isthmian canal 

 render it certain that we must take in the fu- 

 ture a far greater interest than hitherto in what 

 happens throughout the West Indies, Central 

 America, and the adjacent coasts and waters. 

 We expect Cuba to treat us on an exceptional 

 footing politically, and we should put her in the 

 same exceptional position economically. The 

 proposed action is in line with the course we 

 have pursued as regards all the islands with 

 which we have been brought into relations of 

 varying intimacy by the Spanish War. Porta 

 Rico and Hawaii have been included within our 

 tariff lines, to their great benefit as well as ours, 

 and without any of the feared detriment to our 

 own industries. The Philippines, which stand in 

 a different relation, have been given substantial 

 tariff concessions. 



Cuba is an independent republic, but a repub- , 

 lie which has assumed certain special obligations 

 as regards her international position in compli- 

 ance with our request. I ask for her certain spe- 

 cial economic concessions in return, these eco- 

 nomic concessions to benefit us as well as her. 

 There are few brighter pages in American history 

 than the page which tells of our dealings with 

 Cuba during the past four years. On her behalf 

 we waged a war. of which the mainspring was 

 generous indignation against oppression, and we 

 have kept faith absolutely. It is earnestly to be 

 hoped that we will complete in the same spirit 

 the record so well begun, and show in our deal- 

 ings with Cuba that steady continuity of policy 

 which it is essential for our nation to establish 

 in foreign affairs if we desire to play well our 

 part as a world power. 



We are a wealthy and powerful nation; Cuba 

 is a young republic, still weak, who owes to us 

 her birth, whose whole future, whose very life, 

 must depend on our attitude toward her. I a>k 

 that we help her as she struggles upward along 

 the painful and difficult road of self-governing in- 

 dependence. I ask this aid for her because >!io 

 is weak, because she needs it, because we have 

 already aided her. I ask that open-handed help. 

 of a kind which a self-respecting people can ac- 

 cept, be given to Cuba, for the very reason that 

 we have given her such help in the past. 



Our soldiers fought to give her freedom ; and 

 for three years our representatives, civil and 

 military, have toiled unceasingly, facing disease 

 of a peculiarly sinister and fatal type with pa- 

 tient and uncomplaining fortitude, to teach her 

 how to use aright her new freedom. Never in 

 history has any alien country been thus admin- 

 istered with such high integrity of purpose, such 



