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Show ECONOMIC CUBA. Senpr Palma, who is to be the first president of Cuba, in his -recent -nter-view on Cuban needs, laid appropriate emphasis upon the fact that economic development is now the pre-eminent and urgent need of the island. The political revolution has. i-en effected. ef-fected. The new and indepen.'.it government gov-ernment is . about, to be jnst i'Iert. Ho wise have been the prep-n tions of General Wood so small is the miml er of Americans now engaged in adnvnis-trative adnvnis-trative positions that . the transition will make no special .demands upon the thought and energies of the. people. The nation which has during the last eight years sacrificed so much for a political revolutiomis now really, therefore, there-fore, to devote itself to economic reconstruction recon-struction and expansion. . . Thfc prospective national executive accepts these, as -the distinctive aims of todayi j Starting put with. the afRrm- . ."" ' ' "' " ' ation that "there will 'be no ostentatious ostenta-tious government,;' and that "every j employe must work - for his country j with the same unselfishness that was I displayed during the days of the revo-! revo-! lution,',', he. declares that his task will be "to develop the natural. resources of Cuba and to provide work of some sort for every able-bodied Cuban." To this end,' however, lie regards it as a prerequisit that "close relations" should be .maintained between Cuba and this country as reciprocal markets. I He does not ask that Cuban products be admitted to the United States free, but "that a reasonable reduction shall be made in the duty on sugar and tobacco, to-bacco, the two staples of Cuban agriculture,'' agri-culture,'' and -in the case of sugar he believes that one-na-Jf th present duty would be a reasonable impost. The world's product of sugar in 1S40 was 1.150,000 tons. Now it is something like eight time that amount. - Consid-. ering this tremendous and still advancing advanc-ing increase in the world's per capita consumption of sugar it seems a policy as uncalled for as imprudent to deprive consumers, by trade barriers, of Cuba'3 unparalleled capacity for'sugar production. produc-tion. On thiJ' broad ground, on the ground also of promoting internal peace and prosperity in Cuba, and on the further fur-ther ground of realizing steadily enhancing en-hancing reciprocal trade advantages witn an lsiana capaoie or supporting five or ten times its present population, popula-tion, the customs duties of our government govern-ment on th'e chief products of the 'lew nation should' plainly be materially reduced. Chicago Tribune. |