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Show Live and Let Live. IOUH YEARS ago about this time all eyes were directed to Cuba and all ears listening to the magical mag-ical appeals in her behalf sent up from the congress appeals which rarely find their equal in literature and tamped their creators as foremost in oratory. That was four years ago. These orations fired the patriotic heart and urged intervention in behalf of the struggling Cubans. Then came the blowing up of the battleship Maine, followed by the war with Spain. The result is Cuba for the Cubans. Do we speak aright? Is Cuba really free and independent? Not long ago an election was held, a president and congress con-gress chosen, and to all appearances government established by the popular will of the people. But Cuban independence inde-pendence still has a string to it. The conditions imposed upon that island by the United States are 1. Cuba can make no treaties with foreign nations without the consent of the United States. 2. Cuba must contract no debts without with-out permission of the United States. 3. Cuba must assent to the intervention inter-vention of the United States at any time in her internal affairs, even in the matter of police regulation. These terms to which the United States have subjected Cuba have put that island back into a condition, politically, poli-tically, similar to that which existed under Spanish rule. The "war of liberation" lib-eration" has resulted merely in an exchange ex-change of masters. And in this exchange ex-change the former Spanish taskmaster task-master was less exacting than the one which holds the tariff whip over Cuba's head, and for lack of a better designation we might call the beet sugar master. Cuba is indeed free, endowed with the privilege of starving starv-ing to death under the conditions imposed im-posed by the country which beat back the Spaniard from her island shores. Let us come to definite facts. Cuba is an agricultural country. Her two principal products are sugar and tobacco to-bacco in the raw material. Her chief importations are from the United States. Of her total exports, the annual an-nual value of which is $63,000,000, not less than $43,000,000 is drawn to the United States. On all imports from the United States to Cuba the people of that island have to pay duties fixed by United States officials; and on all Cuba's importations to the "United States the Cubans, under a law of congress approved by the president, are obliged to pay duties as high as any duties imposed by the United States on the least favored foreign nations. na-tions. If Cuba were really independent she would be in position to enter into such commercial regulations with the United Unit-ed States and other nations as best suited her interests. If she were a state in the Union she would be, as Utah is, free from the exactions of our tariffs, which, in her case, instead of protecting, practically operate as a prohibitory tariff. But now, in this and in other matters, her purse must be regulated as if the strings were ours. The president is in patriotic sympathy sympa-thy with the efforts of Cuba to gain a foothold in the commercial world, 1 and pointed out to congress the necessity neces-sity of some mitigation in the existing tariff laws. The secretary of war lately said: "The prosperity of Cuba depends upon finding a market for her principal princi-pal products sugar and tobacco at a reasonable profit. . . Under the existing ex-isting lll'nviKiiino f tUa lTnitol Oataa tariff law the prices which Can be realized for Cuban sugar and a large I part of the Cuban tobacco in this ! (American) market are not sufficient ... to yield a living profit to the producer." The fact is amplified by President Pa'ma, the first executive officer of the island. It is also strengthened by the report of Major General Wood, who acted as military governor of Cuba. The united business interests of the island have jietitioned for concessions, asking congress only to enact a olicy of live and let live. But how are these entreaties for simple justice and a pe-titjon pe-titjon to be allowed to live met by the sellis'h portion of the American people? Here in Utah, for instance, we raise sugar beets. It pays to raise sugar beets. At the time it did not pay so well as raising alfalfa, or turnips, or other farm products, the state paid a bounty to the man raising sugar beets. The alfalfa farmer kicked, but he was an enemy to home industry and all other patriotic fads. So he was accordingly ac-cordingly taxed to pay the beet bounty and taxed on the sugar produced from the beet, in order to keep out foreign sugar. Utah's representatives in congress are joining hands with the representa- I tives of other sugar beet states to starve the Cuban. The heartless dec- i laration is made that America has done j enough' for Cuba. Even Senator Rawlins Raw-lins is with the crowd to uphold the tariff and deny any concession to Cuba, if we can place reliance on special spe-cial dispatches to the Salt. Lake press. That sounds strange, recalling one occasion oc-casion when in a speech contemptuous of tariff, he asked defiantly, "Who's afraid of free trade?" Alas, poor Cuba! Hungry and gaunt. with your plaything of "freedom." your appeals fall upon listless ears in the beet sugar belt. Not a voice is raised in your behalf by either sugar raisers or sugar eaters. You must take care of yourself, but you can make "no treaties with foreign nations without the consent of the United States." We have done all we can for .you. Look to Spain tor an example of "Live and let live." I |