OCR Text |
Show FOLKETHING WILLING. The Danish folkething has shown its willingness to dispose of the three West India islands belonging to Denmark by approving the treaty recently ncgoti- ated with the United States. The other thing, the landething, is expected to put the seal of its disapproval upon the convention and it now seems probable 1 that the people of Denmark will have I n vote upon the subject before the deal j is consummated. Denmark is a compar atively small country, hut some of the ' citizens like to gaze over the seas upon colonial possessions, even though the ' said possessions do not materially add to their wealth or bring them any considerable consider-able amount of glory. It is pride of possession, pure and simple, for the most, part that is responsible for the objections ob-jections raised to the ratification of the ending treaty. It is expected, however, Hint this feeling will pass away and that , the three islands will come under the American flag. There is no question as to the attitude atti-tude of the United .States senate in regard re-gard to the wisdom of acquiriug the islands at this time, although the price, $'J.",00U,00O, is generally regarded as being excessive. But as their value has been multiplied by five since they were hint put up for sale it mav be flint all hands will be in favor of securing se-curing them before the Dunes begin to 1 hink in such large numbers that the government of t ho United States, rich as it is, would not think of making the investment- As the senate foreign relations re-lations committee is to consider the ; iip;ity almost immediately, the people of this country will soon have the wlivs ;' and wherefores placed bcJ'oiv them. ' While the subject is being considered t e note that this year's Mignr crop of St. Croix promises to be the In rgest that the island luis yielded since l:nr, -mid fhnt in spite of the labor troubles and the consequent increase in wages and the exceedingly high steamship freight rates the cane growers are anticipating an-ticipating greater net profits than they have enjoyed for a number of years. The greater part of the sugar produced by the St. Croix factories is sold in New York, whence it is resold in Canada. Can-ada. The March prices of sugar in St. Croix, which are taken as the average for the season, were about $90 per ton. The 50,000 gallons of rum expected to be produced this season will sell at about fifty cents per gallon, including the packing. The entire product will be shipped to Copenhagen. Formerly there were about 100 sugar estates in St. Croix, but in recent years many of these have been merged into large holdings and the small planter has been almost entirely eliminated. The big plantations, planta-tions, of course, are controlled or directly di-rectly owned in Denmark and the Danish Dan-ish government itself owns one-half of the St. Croix sugar factory. Perhaps the chief ' objectors to the ratification of the treaty by the Danish Dan-ish parliament are the men in Copenhagen Copen-hagen who have heavy financial interests inter-ests in the islands and who do not relish rel-ish the idea of being compelled to observe ob-serve the laws f a foreign country where they have no voice or vote. In case the islands are eventually soijj to the United States it is probable American Amer-ican interests will acquire control of the big plantations in all three of the islands, which will be very small when compared with similar estates in Cuba and elsewhere. We seek the islands for military reasons, not for wealth. |