Photograph by Harriet Chalmers Adams 

 RUINS OF THU DAYS OF COLUMBUS : CAPE ISABELLA, SANTO DOMINGO 



These are the ruins of the oldest surviving structure of the white man's permanent occupa- 

 tion of the New World 



ered,. and the debt could not be increased 

 without our consent. 



When the question of a revision of the 

 tariff came up it. was urged by the Amer- 

 ican authorities that the duties should be 

 laid on luxuries rather than upon necessi- 

 ties, upon the things of the rich rather 

 than upon those of the poor. It was the 

 other way around under the old regime. 

 There was a high duty on cotton and a 

 low one on silks, a heavy impost on beer 

 and a light one on champagne. Rice bore 

 a heavy duty and sardines in oil next to 

 none. 



A NEW TARIFF POLICY 



Under the revision supervised by the 

 United States all this was changed. The 

 tariff, as a whole, was cut down, and 

 necessities were admitted at low rates and 

 luxuries at high ones. The general re- 

 duction was 50 per cent on export taxes 

 and 14 per cent on import duties. 



And yet, in spite of this great reduc- 

 tion, in spite of payments of $1,200,000 

 a year on the debt, there was still left a 



greater net income for the use of the 

 government than it had ever had before. 



AN ASTOUNDING PERFORMANCE! 



Not only that, but, under the law 

 which entitled him to 5 per cent for the 

 expense of collections, the receiver was 

 able to reduce the costs to such a point 

 that in seven years he turned into the 

 Dominican treasury $200,000. It was 

 astounding to the Dominicans that any 

 one should turn into the treasurv the sav- 

 ings of an economical administration. 



For a long time it was thought that, 

 deprived of the opportunity of securing 

 customs-house revenues through the seiz- 

 ure of ports, revolutions could not sup- 

 port themselves. But after six or seven 

 years of peace, during which unprece- 

 dented strides of progress were made, 

 trouble broke out again, and during 1914 

 and 191 5 it became so serious that the 

 United States was forced to intervene in 

 behalf of peace and to demand, with ma- 

 rines on shore and naval guns trained and 

 pointed on the ports, that the country re- 



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