text: UFDC Home | Help | RSS TABLE OF CONTENTS HIDE Front Cover Title Page Copyright Preface Dedication Main Back Cover Title: Buchanan's conspiracy, the Nicaragua canal, and reciprocity CITATION THUMBNAILS PAGE IMAGE ZOOMABLE Full Citation STANDARD VIEW MARC VIEW Permanent Link: http://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00053705/00001 Material Information Title: Buchanan's conspiracy, the Nicaragua canal, and reciprocity Physical Description: 125 p. : front. (port) ; 20 cm. Language: English Creator: Cudmore, P ( Patrick ), 1831-1916 Publisher: P.J. Kenedy Place of Publication: New York Publication Date: 1892 Subjects Subject: Reciprocity ( lcsh ) Genre: non-fiction ( marcgt ) Notes Statement of Responsibility: By P. Cudmore. Record Information Bibliographic ID: UF00053705 Volume ID: VID00001 Source Institution: University of Florida Rights Management: All rights reserved by the source institution and holding location. Resource Identifier: aleph - 003462886oclc - 02669758lccn - 05008930 Table of Contents Front Cover Page i Page ii Title Page Page 1 Copyright Page 2 Preface Page 3 Dedication Page 4 Main Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 84 Page 85 Page 86 Page 87 Page 88 Page 89 Page 90 Page 91 Page 92 Page 93 Page 94 Page 95 Page 96 Page 97 Page 98 Page 99 Page 100 Page 101 Page 102 Page 103 Page 104 Page 105 Page 106 Page 107 Page 108 Page 109 Page 110 Page 111 Page 112 Page 113 Page 114 Page 115 Page 116 Page 117 Page 118 Page 119 Page 120 Page 121 Page 122 Page 123 Page 124 Page 125 Back Cover Page 126 Page 127 Page 128 Full Text BUCHANAN'S CONSPIRACY, THE NICARAGUA CANAL AND RECIPROCITY. BY P. CUDMORE, ESQ., B. H. NEW YORK: FOR SALE BY P. J. KENEDY, No. 5 BARCLAY STREET. 1892. ~------ ----- BUCHANAN'S CONSPIRACY, " THE NICARAGUA CANAL AND RECIPROCITY. BY P. CUDMORE, ESQ., COUNSELOR AT LAW, Author of the "Irish Republic," "The Civil Government of the S.ates" and Constitutional History of the United States," "Poems and Songs," etc., etc. NEW YORK: FOR SALE BY P. J. KENEDY, NO. 5 BARCLAY STREET. 1892. UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 3 1262 07364 610 0 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1892, BY P.-CUDMORE, In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. ST. PAUL, MINN.: THE PIONEER PRESS COMPANY. 1892. PREFACE. N preparing this volume for the public, the author has consulted the gen- eral histories of the world, England, Scotland and Ireland, Coke, Black- stone and other authors on constitutional and common law; English and Irish acts of parliament; the general histories of the United States, Madison Papers, the Federalist, Elliott's Debates, the writings of Vattel, De Tocqueville, Montesquieu, Jefferson, Adams, Hamilton, Webster, Clay, Cal- houn, Benton and other American statesmen. The "Congressional Globe," the "Congressional Record," the platforms of political parties, the "Opinions of the Attorneys General of the United States," the Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States," the writings of eminent statesmen on political economy, the documents of the Cobden Club, reports and proceedings of the Pan-Ameri- can Congress, the published documents of the Bureau of American Repub- lics," consular reports and other documents. The tariff laws of the United States, Mexico, the West Indies, Central America, South America and other countries; the recent reciprocity treaties with Latin America and the West In- dies; the histories and other publications pertaining to Mexico, the West In- dies, Central and South America; the official reports and maps of the Maritime Canal Company of Nicaragua; the correspondence of railway companies, ocean steamship companies, the manufacturers and importers of American tin plate; private letters and documents too voluminous to mention. The author most respectfully hopes that this work will be welcomed by the students of history, the legal profession, editors and statesmen. Those who wish to understand our tariff laws, reciprocity and protection to American in- dustries; the resources, climate and productions of the West Indies, Mexico, Central and South America, will find this volume a useful and reliable book of facts. The author has endeavored to confine himself to facts and figures, regardless of partisan considerations. NEW YORK, May, lo92. DEDICATION. To THE HONORABLE JAMES G.-BLAINE, Secretary of the United States; Author of the Pan-American Congress and Reciprocity, THIS VOLUME IS MOST RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR. BUCHANAN'S CONSPIRACY, THE NICARAGUA CANAL AND RECIPROCITY. CHAPTER I. HE plan for the construction of an interoceanic maritime canal across the states of Central America or the Isthmus of Darien, connecting the At- lantic and the Pacific oceans, has been a matter of deep interest to some of the maritime nations of Europe for three centuries. Since the foundation of the government of the United States, the Federal government has never been willing that England, France or any other European power, should construct and control the maritime canal in Central America. In 1502 Columbus sailed from the Bay of Honduras to the Spanish main (in South America), in search of a passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific. In 1551 it was proposed to Philip of Spain to open a communication between the two oceans by way of some one of the three routes across Tehuantepec, Panama and Nicaragua. In 1825, the Republic of Nicaragua, through the minister of foreign affairs of that country, addressed a letter to Mr. Clay, United States Secretary of State, to aid in the construction of the Nicaragua canal. Mr. Clay said: "That nothing would be more grateful to it than the co-operation of this government, whose noble conduct has been a model and a protection to all Ameri- cans; it would be highly satisfactory to have a participation not only of the mer- its ot the enterprise, but of the great advantages which that canal or communi- cation must produce, by means of a treaty which would perpetually secure the possession of the two nations." Mr. Clay, in his letter to the commissioners of the United States to the congress at Panama, said: "A canal for navigation between the Alantic and Pacific oceans should form -a proper subject of consideration at the congress. The vast object, if it should ever be accomplished, will be interesting in a greater or less degree to all parts of the world, but especially to this continent will accrue its greatest benefits; and to Colombia, Mexico, Central America, Peru, and the United States more than any other of the American nations." The Americans did not fully realize the advantages of a route over the isthmus until the discovery of gold in California attracted American miners, on their way to California, to the waters of Lake Nicaragua and the San Juan river, by BUCHANA 'S CONSPIRACY. the American Transit Company. England having obtained a grant from Spain for cutting mahogany at the "Belize," British subjects formed a settlement of "wood choppers" and lumbermen on the coasC of the "Belize" in Central America. A few English merchants, having obtained a foothold at the "Bel- ize," traded with Indians on the coast. In 1850, England claimed, that by virtue of her protectorate over the Indians she could control the coast. Her fleet seized the mouth of the San Juan river, which is the east end of the proposed canal. She occupied the harbor of Grey- town. England had been encouraged to this aggressive act by the encourage- ment she received from Calhoun and Buchanan, in-their conspiracy of 1844 and 1846; when they entered into a conspiracy which resulted in the dismember- ment of the United States. In 1844, Mr. Polk was elected on the issue of "Fifty- four-forty or fight." While the Democrats in congress, through the press and from the stump, in the presidential election of 1844, were making captial on the issue that the United States would never surrender any part of the territory from Oregon to the Russian possessions of Alaska, Calhoun, as the leader of the slaveholders, Mr. Polk and Mr. Buchanan, were at the same time secretly nego- tiating with the British government for the surrender of all American territory north of the line of forty-nine degrees of latitude, and from Hudson bay to the Pacific ocean. Mr. Buchanan, as secretary of state, with the concurrence of President Polk and his administration, and a Democratic house of representatives, and a Demo- cratic senate, transferred to Great Britain the vast territory extending from the State of Washington to Alaska, and from Hudson bay to the Pacific ocean, with its seacoast, harbors, fisheries, farm lands, minerals and the best timber lands in North America. This Calhoun-Buchanan conspiracy was entered into on behalf of the slave- holders of the South, who wanted to dismember the Republic of Mexico, and to obtain from that republic, as a measure growing out of the Mexican War, terri- tory for the extension of slavery, and for maintaining the supremacyof the South in the national government, and failing in that scheme, to dissolve the Union, and to establish a government with slavery on the Gulf of Mexico! Great Britain promised on her part not to object to the annexation of Texas or to the Mexican War, or to the acquisition of territory from Mexico. England was anxious to obtain the great territory of the Northwest, as a means of extending her vast territory to the Pacific, connecting by railway the Atlantic and the Pacific,-to extend her commerce from the Atlantic to Austia- lia, China, Japan and India,-to establish a naval station on Puget Sound, commanding the commerce of the North Pacific ocean. The Southern slaveholders set little value on territory so far north, as it was unprofitable for the extension of slavery. Moreover, they were jealous of the possibility of free states being admitted into the Union from Northern terri- tory. This vast territory being surrendered and annexed to British America, would limit the further admission of free states. England violated her solemn charters and treaties: "On the seventh of October, 1691, the following territory was made a part of the United States: William and Mary, by the grace of God king and queen of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, etc., we do by these presents, for us, our heirs and successors, will and ordain, that the territories and colonies com- monly called or known by the names of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay and the Colony of New Plymouth, the Province of Maine and the territory called Acadiaor Nova Scotia, and the said Province of Maine be erected, united and in- corporated, and we do by these presents unite, erect and incorporate the same into one real province by the name of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, in New England." Again, by the Treaty of Paris, 1783, England confirmed, by solemn treaty, her former grant to the State of Massachusetts, as follows: "Art. 2. And that THE NICARAGUA CANAL. all disputes which might arise in future on the subject of boundaries of the United States may be prevented, it is hereby agreed and declared that the fol- lowing are and shall be their boundaries: From the northwest angle, which is formed by a line drawn due north from the source of the St. Croix, to the high- lands, along said highlands, which divides those rivers flowing into the St. Law- rence from those which fall into the Atlantic ocean, to the northwest-most head of the Connecticut river, thence down along the middle of the river to the forty-fifth degree of north latitude. Afterwards England disputed this boundary line. The question was submitted to the king of the Netherlands, who decided that the river St. Johns, in the Province of New Brunswick, should be the boundary of the United States." By the infamous Ashburton treaty, in 1842, England acquired Nova Scotia and New Brunswick and the present boundary of Maine, including important fisheries and the naval and coaling station of Halifax, which is connected by cable with Bermudas and the British West Indies. This gives England the power, by her great navy stationed at Halifax, Bermudas and the West Indies, to menace our commerce and the At- lantic and Gulf ports. Again, the vast territory from Oregon to Alaska, and from Hudson bay and the Red River of the North to the Pacific ocean, belonged to the United States by right of prior discovery and occupation. By the treaty of 1783, the boun- dary between the United States and British America extended westward to the Lake of the Woods. Thence, by following a straight line westward to the Pa- cific ocean, it would embrace a part of Vancouver island and the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Puget Sound. Victoria would be an American port and Port Moody would be cut off from the ocean as a Canadian port. England and Canada would be deprived of a coaling and naval station on the Pacific coast of North America, with no other coaling station nearer North America than Sydney or the Samoan islands. The abandonment or surrender of the line of "Fifty-four-forty or fight" and the northwest boundary by James Buchanan, secretary of state, in 1846, will ever be deplored by the American people. 'It gives England the naval port of Victoria to menace our commerce in the Pacific ocean, as well as the American cities on the Pacific coast. The peaceable surrender, dismemberment or partition of a great country without one drop of blood, or the consideration of one dollar, has no parallel in the history of the world! President Harrison and Mr. Blaine have not surrendered our rights to any nation. They have pursued a vigorous foreign policy. The seizure of Greytown and the mouth of the San Juan river was accom- plished to shut out the Americans from navigating the San Juan river and Lake Nicaragua, as the transit route to California, and to prevent them from building the Nicaragua canal. These complications with Great Britain resulted in the treaty of 1850, known as the Clayton-Bulwer treaty, which declares, that neither of the governments will "colonize," or assume or exercise any dominion over Nicaragua, Costa Rica, the Mosquito coast, or any part of Central America. These stipulations were made over forty years ago. During all this time no practical effort or effective steps were taken to build the Nicaragua canal until the passage of the act incorporating the Maritime Canal Company, in 1889. England violated the Clayton-Bulwer treaty of 1850, for in. 1853 the British government appointed a legislative assembly to manage the affairs of the lumbermen of the "Belize;" and in 1862 the "Belize" was declared a colony of Great Britain in violation of the Clayton Bulwer treaty and the Monroe doctrine. This absolves the United States from all obligations or entanglements growing out of the Clayton-Bulwer treaty. The United States is under no obligation by the terms of the treaty, or the laws of nations or good morals, to refrain from promoting in any way it may deem best for its interest the construction of this canal, without regard to anything contained in the convention of 1850. BUCHANAN'S CONSPIRACY. England has not, so far, made any objections to the building of the canal, as it will be open to the commerce of the world. It will open a short route from England to her vast colonies all over the world. Those who are fighting the canal on the grounds that it would be a violation of the Clayton-Bulwer treaty, are ignorant of the policy of Great Britain. The English government has never been known to oppose the interests of her manufacturers and shippers. It would be a blessing if the same could be said of the American politicians. In 1867 the United States entered into a treaty with Nicaragua, by which that republic granted to the United States, for its citizens, the right of transit between the two oceans on any route of communication, natural or artificial, whether of land or water,which might be constructed to be used upon equal terms by the citizens of the two republics. This treaty of 1867 is still in force and would, we think, of itself justify the United States in undertaking to aid the construction of the Nicaragua canal. In 1884 President Arthur made a treaty with theRepublicof Nicaragua, pro- viding for the construction of the Nicaragua canal by the United States, and made arrangements that preserved the sovereignty of Nicaragua and secured to all the Central American republics, as well as the United States, the benefits of the enterprise. This treaty was submitted by President Arthur to the sen- ate in December, 1884. Before its final disposition it was withdrawn by Presi- dent Cleveland, on the thirteenth of March, 1885, and was not submitted again by him to the senate for the reason that he thought it would not be approved by England. He did not want to displease the English government, for he well knew that England rejoiced at the defeat of Mr. Blaine for president-that English and American importers used their great wealth and influence to de- feat Mr. Blaine for president in 1884. We will digress a little. As we have already stated, in 1844 Mr. Calhoun and Mr. Buchanan and the Southern slaveholders entered into a conspiracy with Great Britain to the effect, that in consideration that Great Britain would not object to the annexation of Texas, the Mexican War, the dismemberment of the Republic of Mexico, and the acquisition of territory from that republic, as the result of the Mexican War, as a field for the extension of slavery, Mr. Buchanan, Mr. Calhoun, President Polk, the Democratic house of representa- tives, the Democratic senate, press and party bartered away to Great Britain that vast and valuable territory extending from the State of Washington to Alaska, and from Hudson bay to the Pacific ocean. By the admission of California as a free state the South gained nothing but dishonor from the Calhoun-Buchanan conspiracy. On the failure of the slave- holders to make California a slave state, Mr. Jefferson Davis and the Southern leaders saw too plainly that the extension of slavery into free territory was im- practicable unless there was a reopening of the slave trade and a great falling off of foreign immigration. For to prevent immigration the South opposed the homestead law, and Mr. Buchanan called the public lands into market, so that small farmers could not have the benefit of the pre-emption and homestead laws, that Southern speculators could buy up large portions of the public do- main. On the failure of Jefferson Davis and his followers (for Jefferson Davis suc- ceeded Mr. Calhoun as the great leader of the Southern disunionists) in their attempt to make California a slave state, prepared for secession and war, it was necessary for their purpose to have the aid of Great Britain. One Shep- herd, an American citizen, had obtained from the chiefs of the Mosquito In- dians a grant of 22,500,000 acres of land, including the city of Greytown and the mouth of the San Juan river. This grant was transferred to Colonel Kenney, a citizen of the United States, and other citizens of Pennsylvania, who were organized as the "Central American Land Company." In 1855, Colonel Kenney, under the name of the Central American Land Com- pany, took possession of Greytown, by virtue of the Shepherd grant, and es- THE NICARAGUA CANAL. tablished a colony at Greytown, Nicaragua, commanding Ihe east end of the contemplated Nicaragua canal, the San Juan river and the waters of Lake Nicaragua. By order of President Pierce and his administration, Greytown, Nicaragua,was destroyed by the United States navy, and Colonel Kenney and his colony were dispersed. This was done to gain and maintain the friendship of Great Britain for the Southern slaveholders and disunionists in the forthcoming War of the Rebellion. In 1855, General Walker was invited to Nicaragua by the liberal party of that republic, by Don Patricio Rivas. General Walker was lawfully elected by a majority of the people of Nicaragua as the lawful president of that re- public, and commander-in-chief of the army and navy. President Buchanan, acting under the advice of Mr. Jefferson Davis and other Southern leaders, be- ing indebted to the South for the office of secretary of state under President Polk, minister to England under President Pierce, ordered the commander of the American navy to capture General Walker and his army and prevent the annexation of Nicaragua to the United States, and with it the Nicaragua canal. In this transaction President Buchanan inflicted a severe injury on his country, equaled only to his encouragement of the Southern leaders in their at- tempt to destroy the life of the nation itself. The South was forced to surrender and the slaveholders' government with Jefferson Davis became the Lost Cause!" With the fall of the slaveholders' government came the fall of Maximilian's empire of Mexico. The United States would not in any way recognize this empire, which was established in violation of the Monroe doctrine. Secretary Seward refused to hold any intercourse with the Emperor Maximilian, then striving to establish his em- pire in Mexico, or even to receive from him a letter of condolence on the death of President Lincoln. The fall of Maximilian was a triumph for the United States and the republics of the Western Hemisphere, and the establish- ment of the Monroe doctrine. The Union army gained these important results and saved the Southern people from becoming a petty slave government under British protection. The United States (what would be left of it) and the Southern Confederacy would be cut off from South America, Central America and the Nicaragua canal by Maximilian's empire, acting under the power and influence of France, and Great Britain would absorb all of Central America, including the Nicaragua canal. Thus the Union army saved the people of the South from political and commercial suicide. Since the late Civil War the South has made rapid strides in building rail- ways north and south to Cincinnati, Louisville, Chicago, Cairo, St. Louis, St. Paul, Minneapolis, Kansas City, Omaha, Cheyenne, Denver, Salt Lake City and Helena. Over these north and south roads the farmers of the Northwest and Southwest have lines of railway communication with the ports of Mobile, New Orleans and Galveston, in connectionwith the waterways of the Mississippi and its tributaries, competing with railways and waterways running east and west to Eastern ports. Thus the farmers, with reciprocity, have two competing mar- kets instead of one as before the war. With the Mississippi made navigable for ocean steamers toSt. Louis, and the completion of the Nicaragua canal, and railroads connecting North and South America, the United States will extend her commercial and friendly relations with the Latin American republics. Under Mr. Blaine's treaties of reciprocity there will soon grow up as close a commercial union between the American republics as now exists between the several states of the American Union. We have already stated that Mr. Cleveland withdrew the treaty of 1884, which was negotiated by President Arthur, and which was pending in the senate. In President Cleveland's message, in 1885, he opposed the building of the Nicaragua canal by the United States. BUCHANAN'S CONSPIRACY. Were it not for the opposition of President Cleveland in 1885, the Nicaragua canal would have been built and owned by the government of the United States. And eventually it would become as much a part of the United States as the Mississippi river and the Erie canal, and would enrich the treasury of the United States--it would create a perpetual fund for the support of the national government. This intermeddling of President Cleveland will be deplored by unborn gen- erations. For the time will come when the American people will manufacture nearly everything for themselves, consequently the revenue from import duties will be small; then the national government must resort to direct taxation. The state governments and the national government will grind the people between the "upper and nether mill stones The people do notalways know when they are well off. This opposition of President Cleveland, in 1885, to the building of the canal led to the concessions of Nicaragua and Costa Rica to private persons and the incorporation by the United States Congress of the Maritime Canal Company, in 1889. While the bill for the incorporation of the Nicaragua Canal Company was pending in congress, every vote against it was given by a Democrat. The Nicaragua Canal Association was organized, Dec. 3, 1886, for the purpose of receiving from the government of Nicaragua a concession or land grant with all the rights and privileges for the right of constructing and operating a ship canal from the Caribbean sea to the Pacific ocean. This concession was ratified by the president of Nicaragua on the twenty- fourth of April, 1887, and was approved by the president of the republic. To carry out the plan of surveys for the location of the canal a new company was duly organized, June 10, 1887, under the laws of Colorado, as the Nicaragua Canal Construction Company, with a fixed capital of $12,000,000. In 1887, the Republic of Nicaragua made a concession of the right to build the Nicaragua canal to a private association of citizens of the United States, known as the Nicaragua Canal Association. The Nicaragua Canal Association was chartered by congress, Feb. 20, 1889. The concession provided that the government of Nicaragua should receive six per cent of the issue of stock as a compensation for the grant, and that the company should have the exclusive privileges of building and operating the canal for ninety-nine years. Later the Republic of Costa Rica assented to the arrangements so far as her interests were concerned. On the twelfth day of August, 1887, the Nicaragua Canal Association sold, assigned, transferred, delivered, to the Nicaragua Canal Construction Company, in consideration of the sum of $11,998,000 in capital stock of said company, all the rights, powers, privileges, property, benefits, advantages and franchises of every kind whatsoever which the said association had, in, to, by or under the said concession granted by the Republic of Nicaragua, excepting, how- ever, the right to organize the Maritime Canal Company of Nicaragua and the right of representation in the first board of directors thereof. The construction company having become the owner of the Nicaragua con- cession at once commenced work on the canal. No sooner had the company landed at Greytown than the Republic of Costa Rica filed a protest alleging that, under the treaty of April, 1858, entered into between the respective gov- ernments of Nicaragua and Costa Rica, the latter republic was the owner of certain rights in the port of Greytown and the river San Juan of which it could not be divested by the Republic of Nicaragua without its consent. The questions arising as to the proper construction to be given to the said treaty were referred to President Cleveland as arbitrator, and his award, which was rendered on the twenty-second day of March, 1888, was decided in favor of Costa Rica. In consequence of this award, adverse to Americans building and controlling the canal, the work had to be abandoned, or a concession obtained from Costa THE NICARAGUA CANAL. Rica. The company obtained a concession, which was ratified by the president of Costa Rica on the ninth day of August, 1888. This concession was obtained by the Nicaragua Canal Association, in order to perfect its original title to the route of the canal. As the Nicaragua concession had been transferred to the construction company, the Nicaragua Canal Association, on the twenty-fourth of May, 1889, also transferred the Costa Rica concession to the said construc- tion company. The construction company became absolute owner of both concessions. This gave the Nicaragua Canal Company a perfect title against Nicaragua, Costa Rica and all of Central America. The following is from the evidence of Mr. Hiram Hitchcock, president of the Maritime C mal Company of Nicaragua, before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, June 5, 1890: "The rights to the San Juan river and the boundary question between Nicaragua and Costa Rica always come up when any question of transit across that isthmus arises. You will find that under Tyler's administration, in 1842, this matter was somewhat considered by Mr. Webster, and it has been before every secretary of state in some aspect from that time to this. It involves the canal question. Now, the question of the respective rights in this particular route was supposed to have been settled under the treaty of limits between those two powers of 1858. Under that treaty, while Nicaragua owns the entire route, yet Costa Rica has the right to navigation and has the right to be con- sulted. Now I come down to the point where it concerns this particular con- cession. The Nicaragua Canal Association, which was formed in 1886, sent out early in 1887 to obtain a concession to build this canal. Nicaragua had the right to give this concession, and in it gave us the fullest freedom to locate the route, but for the reason that the treaty of 1858 gives to Costa Rica the right of navigation and that in the construction of the canal waters would be made to overflow Costa Rican territory, Costa Rica took the ground that Nicaragua should have recognized that treaty to the extent at least of obtain- ing the consent of Costa Rica to this concession. Nicaragua did not do that. We accepted the concession in good faith, believing Nicaragua had the absolute right to grant it. The first thing we encountered was a protest, thirty or forty daysthereafter, from Costa Rica, announcing that the concession was of no value because she had not been consulted. The government of Nicaragua could have consulted her before, and have gone on and satisfied her for any damages which the overflow might do to her territory, but we were left to make terms with Costa Rica. We then for the first six months negotiated to obtain a concession from Costa Rica. When this was accomplished Nicaragua immediately protested against our concession from Costa Rica. We assured Nicaragua that w% had accepted the concession from Costa Rica simply in the nature of a quitclaim of any rights she may have; and when we formed our company and accepted the Costa Rican concession we accepted it only in so far as it did not conflict with the territorial rights and proprietary interest of the Republic ofNicaragua. Thus we were entirely open and frank in the whole transaction. Now you will readily see that up to that point it was useless to talk about the sale of bonds with the protest of either government pending. Then when the first expedition, sent out after the Maritime Company was organized, com- menced work on the third of June, 1889, Nicaragua officially notified us that while she would protest against our concession from Costa Rica, yet she would not go beyond protesting, and would not interfere with the construction of the canal. But in July Nicaragua ordered the stopping of the work at Greytown. We did not pay any attention to that order, because she immediately modified it by saying that she would not regard the work as an official commencement of permanent work. The troubles continued and were fostered by parties from England, whose names I know, who wanted to have the twenty-fourth day of October arrive, and the government of Nicaragua not recognize that we had begun our work, so that our concession would lapse. BUCHANAN'S CONSPIRACY. Oa the sixteenth of September, 1889, the governmentof Nicaragua notified us officially that if we did not confine ourselves within her limits, thereby ignoring any rights or claims of Costa Rica, she would not approve our surveys nor recognize the commencement of the work of construction, and on the twenty-fourth of October she would consider our concession as having lapsed. "This course of Nicaragua was so unjust, that I went immediately to the government here, through the state department. I stated the case fully. Mr. Blaine met the question with great firmness and promptness, and immediately wired to the American minister at Central America to go to Nicaragua and say to the Nicaraguan government that he was surprised at the report of the atti- tude of the Nicaraguan government toward this company, and wished him to examine into the facts and report to the state department here, and at the same time to assure the government of Nicaragua that the government of the United States would not remain passive and see the rights'of its citizens threatened. That dispatch of Mr. Blaine had the desired effect. Mr. Mizner and Mr. Hall, our permanent agent there, arranged a plan by which Nicaragua could recede with dignity, which was in the form of a joint declaration on our part; we agreed to go on and build the canal in good faith under the concession, and the Nica- raguan government agreed to approve the surveys and work, so the work of con- struction was recognized officially as commenced on the eighth of last October." The bill incorporating the Maritime Canal Company of Nicaragua provides, that the capital stock of the company shall consist of not less than 1,000,000 shares of $100 each, or $100,000,000, with the right to increase the capital stock to 2.000,000 shares of $100 each, or $200,000,000 on the vote of two- thirds of the stock of said company at any time outstanding. It also author- izes the company in the construction of said canal, and to carry out the pur- poses of the act, to issue its bonds and secure the same by mortgages on its property and rights of property of all kinds and descriptions, real, personal and mixed, including its franchise to be a corporation. The Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, in 1891, proposed a bill to aid the building of the Nicaragua canal, which provides to limit the stock of the Maritime Canal Company to 1,000,000 shares of $100 each and no more." By the concessions of Nicaragua, that country is entitled to six per cent, or $6,000,000, of the stock of the company for the liberal grants made to, and privileges conferred by, that country upon the Maritime Construction Company.. "Costa Rica, for similar concessions on her part, is entitled to $1,500,000 of this stock." The bill proposes that the United States guarantee the bonds of the com- pany to the amount of $100,000,000. The bonds to bear three per cent per annum interest, and running for a period of twenty years. The bonds to be issued, as the work progresses, every sixty days. To indemnify the United States from all liability upon its guaranty, $70,000,000 of stock of the Maritime Canal Company is to be deposited with the secretary of the treasury, and no stock other than already named is to be issued except when, in the opinion of the president of the United States, the in- stallments of mortgaged bonds shall be insufficient to meet the current require- ments of the company in respect to the enterprise. The secretary of the treasury has power, at his discretion, to vote the stock, either in person or by proxy, at any meeting of the stockholders of the said company, and the United States is entitled to have a representation of six members upon the board of directors composed of fifteen persons. The United States can purchase the majority of the stock and become the controlling owner of the canal, its property, tolls and income. The bill met considerable opposition in the senate and failed to pass. But in the debate on the bill considerable light was thrown on the subject. The building of the Nicaragua canal has now become a question of universal importance to the people of the United States, the Latin republics of America and the commercial world. THE NICARAGUA CANAL. The Pacific railroads could not be built in this generation without grants of land from the United States. Without the loan of the credit of the United States to the Union and Central Pacific railroads these roads could not be built by private companies. About 1897 the United States will be entitled to have refunded from the Union and Central Pacific railroads $113,000,000, to be paid in cash into the treasury of the United States, or it may make a large profit by converting the bonded indebtedness into the stock of the company as a perpetual fund, the same as the Erie canal fund. It would be wise to follow, in this respect, the course of Governor Clinton, who inaugurated the great enterprise of connecting the waters of the Atlantic with the Great Lakes and the waters of the Mississippi for commerce and im- migration to the fertile lands of the Northwest and the golden shores of the Pacific, making the State of New York the great empire state and the city of New York the emporium of the Western world. The Nicaragua canal will be to the whole United States what the Erie canal is to the State of New York. The government should indorse the bonds of the Maritime Canal Company and obtain $70,000,000 of stock as a perpetual fund and as a controlling interest in the canal .and to prevent it from being owned or controlled by foreign nations the same as the Suez canal. Those who now oppose the government's aid to the Maritime Canal Company of Nicaragua should remember that congress, in 1852, passed an act donating to the State of Michigan 750,000 acres of land to aid in building a ship canal around the falls of St. Mary, committing the entire control of the work, on certain stipulations, to that state. The St. Mary's Falls ship canal was controlled by the State of Michigan. It was subsequently called Lake Superior canal. The commerce of Lake Superior, in consequence of these canal facilities, increased so rapidly that the demand for enlargements was imperative, not alone for the State of Michigan but also from such other states and the provinces of Canada as bordered on its connecting lakes, consequently the State of Michigan, on the third of March, 1881, passed an act transferring the canal to the United States government, which, by an act of congress of the same year, accepted it as a national canal. The United States government assumed control of operating the St. Mary's Lake Superior canal on June 9, 1881. The Maritime Canal Company purchased for $300,000, of an Italian, a Mr. Pellas, his mail steam line and his franchise to the exclusive internal navi- gation of the San Juan river and Lake Nicaragua; it was called the "Nica- ragua Mail Steam Navigation Company." This exclusive privilege is only for the internal commerce of Nicaragua. The rights of interoceanic canal use reserved by Nicaragua. De Lesseps' Panama canal has proven a complete failure. He made a sad mistake in following the plan of the Suez canal without locks and on a sea- level. The country in Egypt was favorable for a sea-level canal, as there were no floods or inundations to interfere with the canal. He found the waters of the Nile river in connection with the two seas sufficient for the canal. In building the Panama canal he attempted to build a canal at sea-level, the same as the Suez canal, to be fed by the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific, and having no adequate supply of water at a greater elevation to feed it, he was forced to depress the bottom of the canal prism to a level that made it the constant prey of the Chagres river and the enormous floods of the waters that washed down from highlands through the channel to inundate and destroy the canal. The proposed Panama canal crosses the Chagres river seventy-eight times and the Rio Grande river thirteen times. So that the Panama canal is a complete failure. The only depression from Behring strait to the Strait of Magellan suitable for a maritime ship canal is the one now building in Nicaragua, which, when completed, will be the greatest artificial waterway in BUCHANAN'S CONSPIRACY. the world. The canal starts for the first nine miles at the level of the sea, which is a prolongation of the harbor at Greytown, the width allowing ample room for the passage of vessels going in all directions. The excavations of this distance will be entirely through flat, alluvial deposits. The first lock will have a lift of 30 feet. A suitable rise of ground for the site of the first lock is met with in the lower valley of the Deseado. From the head gate of lock No. 1 to lock No. 2 the canal follows the valley of the Deseado; it has a lift of 31 feet and will rest on solid ground. Lock No. 3, with a lift of 45 feet, is located 12t miles from Greytown. The only excavation needed through this basin is cutting across three low hills of red clay. With the river, lake and basin (artificial lakes), by dams and weirs there is a lake level from within twelve miles of the Atlantic to three miles of the Pacific. A dam will be built at Ochoa, on the San Juan river, a distance of thirty miles from Greytown. Where this dam is built it will rest on rock and com- pact gravel at. the bottom. The dam will be built of rock weighing a ton or more, dumped into the river with gravel and boulders. It will be an artificial mountain across the river. From the lake eastward the canal follows the river San Juan for a distance of sixty-four and one-half miles to Ochoa. Where the construction of a dam crosses the river the surface of the water is raised fifty-five feet and slack water navigation secured along that distance, converting that portion of the river to an extension of the lake. Just above the dam the canal leaves the bed of the river and enters into a chain of artificial basins, formed by the construction of a series of dams and embankments and short cuts, confining and connecting ad- jacent valleys for a distance of twelve miles to the eastern end of the great divide cut. The heaviest work in the whole line is now encountered in crossing the divide separating the valley of the San Francisco and Deseado creeks. There nearly 11,000,000 cubic yards of rock and earth excavation are contained in a distance of two and three-fourths miles. The rock is needed for the construc- tion of embankments, breakwaters, locks, etc. If not found in that favorable centre it would have to be quarried at other places; so that Nature has supplied all of the rock for building piers, locks, dams, weirs and breakwaters from the cuts or excavations of the canal The summit level of the canal extends from the western end of Tola basin to the eastern end of Deseado basin, a distance of 154 miles. Except the rock cuts in the eastern and western divides, the canal prism will be at all points wide enough for two ships to travel in opposite directions, and its least depth will be thirty feet. In the lake, river and artificial basins vessels can travel with entire free- dom. The capacity of the canal for traffic is estimated at thirty-two vessels per day, or 11,680 in one year-annual traffic of 20,000,000 tons. The Ochoa dam will be as follows: Length of spillway, 1,250 feet; total length, 1.600 feet; greatest height, 70 feet; width at base, 540 feet. La Flor dam, on the Pacific end of the canal, will be, total length, 2,070 feet; length of spillway, 1,600 feet; greatest height, 70 feet. Danta dam, total length, 1,450 feet; length of spillway, 700 feet; greatest height, 67 feet. Deseado dam, total length, 1,050 feet; length of spillway, 650 feet; greatest height, 70 feet. Rio San Francisco dams: Dam No. 1, total length, 2,200 feet; length of spillway, 1,300 feet; greatest height, 61 feet. Dam No. 2, total length, 1,700 feet; length of spillway, 1,200 feet; greatest height, 63 feet. Dam No. 3, total length, 1,650 feet; length of spillway, 700 feet; greatest height, 63 feet. The free navigation of the San Juan river, 64) miles; Lake Nicaragua, 564 miles. The San Juan river from the lake to Ochoa dam has but a fall of three- quarters of an inch to the mile. For the purpose of navigation the river above the dam will be converted into an extension of the lake. Two crib piers or THE NICARAGUA CANAL. breakwaters will be at the entrance of the lake. The distance from the lake to Brito on the Pacific will be seventeen miles. There will be 114 miles ofexcavi- tion and 5 3-10 through the basin in the valleys of the rivers Grande and Tola. There will be a dam at La Flor on the Pacific side. There will be three locks with a lift of 110 feet. The entrance of the canal at the harbor of Brito will be at sea-level similar to that at Greytown. The harbor has an area of 951 acres on the bottom or excavated portion, and with a sea-level section of the canal a total area of 103i acres of water 30 feet deep. The harbor at Greytown will have a pier breakwater .of 2,000 feet; over 1,000 feet is already built. The breakwater will be built of rock taken from the excavation of the canal. The entrance channel will have 30 feet of water. The area of the harbor will be 206 acres and with the area of the enlarged section of the canal at sea- level to the first lock will give a total area of 340 acres of deep water exclusive of the remaining portions of the inner bay not deepened, yet having in many places a depth of 20 feet in which a large number of vessels of ordinary size can lie. The whole length of the canal from the Atlantic to the Pacific, in round numbers, is 170 miles. Canal excavation, in round numbers, 27 miles. The total basin navigation, in round numbers, 22 miles, and of Lake Nicaragua and. San Juan river navigation 121 miles. The estimated time of passage through the canal is 28 hours. Sailing vessels will be towed by a good tug- they can navigate at night as well as in the day, as the canal will be perfectly lighted. The land around the lake, except at the inlet and outlet, is elevated solid land. The canal will be fed by Lake Nicaragua and the San Juan river and its tributaries. The length of the Suez canal is 98 miles. The cost of building it $98,000,- 000 to $100,000,000. The cost of building the Nicaragua canal, a distance of 170 miles, with the endorsement of the company's bonds by the United States, would be about $100,000,000. The Nicaragua canal as a private enterprise, the stockholders will draw no interest or profit until the completion of the canal, which will take about six years. The company will be forced to sell their stock or mortgage at large discount. The estimated expense of the government would be about $100,000- 000. By borrowing the money at a large discount it will cost double that sum, which will cause doubling of the tolls. The United States, by the control of the maritime canal across the State of Nicaragua, would connect our naval fleets in the Pacific and the Atlantic by a saving distance of 12,000 miles. The Nicaragua canal will, in a mili- tary point of view for attack and defense of the coast and adjacent islands of the Western Hemisphere and adjacent seas, be more important than Gibraltar is to) the Mediterranean sea. The completion of the Nicaragua canal will extend our seacoast line in the Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean sea and the Pacific ocean. The Nicaragua canal is one of the most important subjects connected with the commercial expansion of the United States. We have now passed the line of infant or colonial commerce as a mere agricultural people and are making rapid strides to lead the world in agriculture, manufactures and commerce- divers causes may impede our progress for a time--adverse partisan legislation may give us a setback for a few years, but we will overcome all obstacles. The United States government has given guarantees to the governments of Nicaragua and Costa Rica for the sovereign rights of these governments to own and control a maritime ship canal through the State of Nicaragua, under certain conditions, against the interference of foreign powers. We have guaranteed protection to the local governments of Nicaragua and Costa Rica as against domestic strife, that might endanger our commerce and that of other nations while in transit across the isthmus. No European power can intervene for BUCHANAN'S CONSPIRACY. such protection without adopting measures on this continent which the United States would deem wholly inadmissible. If the protection of the United States is relied upon, the United States must exercise such control as will enable this country to protect its natural interests and maintain the rights of those whose private capital is embarked in the work. The United States, by loaning its credit to the Maritime Canal Company, would facilitate the construction of the canal, for one-half of what it can be built by borrowing money in the markets of the world; it would cheapen tolls and prevent foreign capital from owning and controlling the tolls of the canal. The United States has ample security for its indorsements. The Nicaragua canal with its locks or lifts has at its highest elevation or level an abundance and safe supply of water. You search in vain throughout the Western Hemisphere for advantages possessed by the Nicaragua route for a maritime canal. Lake Managua, which is fed by a watershed of over 8,000 square miles, is the great feeder of Lake Nicaragua. The superficial area of Lake Nicaragua is about 2,600 square miles. The highest flood in the rainy season only raises the waters of the lake two feet. It never overflows its banks. A signal from a ship at either extremity of the canal can be read on the Atlantic or Pacific. The Nicaragua Canal Company has completed a large amount of permanent work on the harbor of Greytown, and in building the canal without issuing bonds. The money for the work has been obtained by the sale of stock by persons interested in the company. A railroad has been built from Greytown to the foothills. The land for the canal has been cleared out a distance of twelve miles, and dredges purchased from the Panama Company are at work in the canal and the approaches to it. The pier or breakwater at Greytown extending across the bar has been built for over 1,000 feet. Excellent buildings have been built for the use of the company, including comfortable quarters for the laborers, hospitals, storehouses, warves and machine shops, and a supply of spring water conducted from the hills in steel pipes, a distance of thirteen miles. The forest has been cleared all the way for the ex- cavation of the canal. The United States cannot abandon its influence in the Nicaragua canal without abandoning our interests and influence in the Western Hemisphire, especially the interests of the people of the Western coast, the Atlantic and Gulf ports. The greatest part of the world's commerce will pass through the Nicaragua canal. This canal will be to the United States a part of its coastwise channel from the Atlantic to the Pacific states. There is danger that the stock and bonds of the company would flow into the hands of European bankers, and with them the ultimate control and government of the canal. The interests of the people of the United States are much greater in the proper management of the canal and its free use at reasonable tolls than foreign powers. The business of the canal at the time of its completion, in 1897, based on reliable statistical information, is estimated at $7,000,000 tons, of which more than one-half will be between ports of the United States, or the United States and other countries; but the natural growth and development of the Pacific states and territories, greatly promoted and materially increased by the opening of the canal,will add millions of tons of traffic to the canal which pres- ent information fails to show. The canal would open a market from the western coast of North America, including the western coast of Mexico, Central and South America, and Aus- tralia, China, Japan, India with the Gulf and Atlantic states, Europe, Asia and Africa. The three most important waterways of the Western Hemisphere are the Mississippi and its tributaries, the Lake Superior canal with its connections, THE NICARAGUA CANAL. the Welland and Erie canals, and the proposed Nicaragua canal and the re- mainder coast line. These waterways would, with a canal around the falls at Niagara, give, with reciprocity, great commercial facilities to the United States, and enable her, with friendly legislation, to take the foremost rank among the nations in agriculture, manufactures and commerce The Atlantic and Gulf ports should take more interest in the ownership and control of the Nicaragua canal and not let it fall into the hands of foreign nations. They should consider its vast importance in their trade with the western coast of the Latin republics, the western coast of the United States and with Australia, China, Japan and the East Indies, as appears from the following table of distances: From New York to the eastern entrance of the Nicaragua canal, 2,021 miles; from San Francisco to the western entrance of the Nicaragua canal is 2,578 miles; so that a vessel from South America is nearer to New York than to San Francisco, at the western entrance of the canal, by 387 miles, From Victoria. to the western entrance of the canal is 3,428 miles. Brito, the western entrance to the canal, is nearer to New York than to Victoria by 1,237 miles. This plainly demonstrates the importanceof the canal to the Atlantic and Gulf cities. New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Mobile, New Orleans and Galves- ton, with San Francisco, should subscribe for the whole stock of the Nicaragua canal and prevent its control by foreign nations. The senators, representatives and newspapers of the Northwest who have opposed the bill for aiding the building of the Nicaragua canal should never forget that the unpatented public lands within Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michi- gan and Wisconsin arose from cessions from the states of Virginia, Massachu- setts, Connecticut and New York. That the unpatented lands which comprise the states of Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi arose from cessions from North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. That the original thirteen states that fought the battles of the Revolution and gained American independence have never gained any benefit from the grants of public lands in the North- west, to schools, colleges, railroads, canals and other purposes. That these states that donated their vast territories to the United States have never derived any pecuniary benefit from the pre-emption law, the homestead law, the tree-claim law, and the various land grants to the Western states. The people of the Northwest should do justice to the Atlantic and Gulf states. The farmers should never forget that it is the ocean transportation that carries their farm produce to the markets of the world. In connection with the completion of the Nicaragua canal, the improve- ment of the Mississippi for deep water navigation from St. Paul to the Gulf of Mexico would (with whaleback ocean steamers) give the people of the North- west two markets instead of one. The people are taking more interest in the waterways of this hemisphere- the Nicaragua canal, railroads and the Mississippi and its tributaries. Lake Superior is fed by underground rivers. By cutting a canal from Lake Superior to the Mississippi river, the Mississippi would be an outlet of Lake Superior, making the river navigable for ocean steamers (of the whaleback kind) from St. Paul to the Gulf of Mexico. Chicago should build a ship canal from Chicago to the Mississippi, which would make the Mississippi an outlet of Lake Michi- gan. In the event of canals connecting the waters of Lake Superior and Lake Michigan with the Mississppi and the Gulf of Mexico, the Mississippi towns could send freights to the ports of the world by whaleback ocean steamers. It would bring the farm produce of the West, under reciprocity, to the West Indies, Mexico, Central and South America, and on the completion of the Nicaragua canal, to China, Japan and Australia. This great enterprise would benefit the whole United States and would bind the Union for ever. RECIPROCITY. CHAPTER II. THE WEST INDIES, MEXICO AND HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. HE main lines of communication between the United States and the eighteen Southern republics represented in the Pan-American Congress at Washington run through the West Indies. For steamships plying between the United States, via New York and Brazil, St. Thomas is the coaling station, and Barbadoes the last port before reaching Brazil. Vessels in the Venezuela trade pass between Porto Rico and San Domingo. Havana is the half-way station between New York and Vera Cruz. Nassau, Santiago, Jamaica and the ports of Hayti are in the track of steam communication between New York and the Republic of Colombia and Central America, and the vast trade, on the completion of the Nicaragua canal, in the route to Asia, Australia, China, Japan and South America. Reciprocity will bring the three Americas in closer relations; there will be an improvement of mail communications and development of transportation facilities with the West Indies and the Western Hemisphere. With the exception of Hayti, which is divided into two autonomous native states, all the islands belong to European nations. England and Spain hold the great mass of these islands, and France, Denmark, Sweden and the Nether- lands the few remaining islands. The United States has neglected to secure a part of these islands for the extension of her commerce. She could have pur- chased some of these islands while her treasury was overflowing. The people in the interior have failed to see the vast importance of waterways in facilitating transportation with the markets of the world. It is some consolation to the pride of Americans that in 1857 the island of Navassa, in the Caribbean sea, was taken possession of by a citizen of the United States, by virtue of an act of congress, passed two years previously, providing that if any citizen of the United States discover deposits of guano and takes possession of the islands in the name of the United States, the presi- dent, in his discretion, may consider the island as appertaining to the United States, and the laws of the United States respecting crimes on the high seas shall thereafter apply to crimes committed on such islands. Secretary Cass, in 1859, issued a proclamation declaring this island United States territory, and both before and since that time this country has resisted a claim of sover- eignty set up by Hayti, and has in other ways recognized the island as being subject to the provisions of the act of 1855. In 1891 the supreme court of the United States held that the island of Navassa was United States territory. This island is valuable for its deposit of guano. It is situated in the Carib- bean sea, in latitude 18 degrees 25 minutes north, longitude 75 degrees 2 min- utes west. It is south of Cuba, west of Hayti and east of Jamaica. The flags of the maritime nations of Europe are constantly seen in the waters of the RECIPROCITY. 19 West Indies, and are kept there mainly through state aid. Of the nineteen , republics participating in the deliberations of the Pan-American-conference the United States alone competes with Europe under its own flag for the controlof the West Indian trade. There are five American steamship lines in these waters. The Pacific Mail and the Red D" lines make no intermediate stops in tha voyages to the isthmus and Venezuela. A third line, the United States & Brazil, calls at St. Thomas, Martinique and Barbadoes on the way to Rio and Santos. This is the only direct connection under the American flag with the Lesser Antilles, with the single exception of Curacoa, which is one of the call- ing stations of the Red D line. The Clyde lines, with five steamers, run with regularity to the ports of Hayti and Santo Domingo. The New York & Cuba Mail, in addition to the Mexican service with four steamers and a few tenders, has three vessels in the direct line to Havana, and two more in the south coast trade of Cuba. The last line runs through the Bahamas, stopping at Nassau on the way to and from Santiago and Cienfuegos. The West India service under the American flag is practically restricted to Cuba and Hayti and five of the smaller islands. Jamaicaand all the other islands are reached from the Ameri- can ports, if at all, under foreign flags. There are a few American steamers plying between the ports of the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean coast of Central America, but the bulk of this carrying trade is under the English flag. The north coast of the Republic of Colombia, with the exception of Co- lon, is reached from American ports by foreign lines. BOUNTIES TO FOREIGN STEAMSHIP LINES. The American steamship lines have to compete with foreign lines which receive government subsidies. The chief rival of the Ward Cuban line is a Span- ish company which receives a subsidy of $1,750,000 per annum. Every vessel of this company plying between New York and Havana receives between$4,500aud $5,000 a trip. Each of these rival vessels receives for a single voyage four times as much as is paid to the Ward Cuban line for the entire mail service with the Bahamas, Cuba and Mexico in the course of a year. The official figures show that for the fiscal year ending 1889, the amount paid to the Ameri- can line for mail transportation to the countries above named was $1,138.97. The Red "D" line, which is in competition with the Spanish company, as well as from other subsidized lines in the direct New York trade, received during the same period only $5,774.55 for a tri-monthly service. The Clyde lines for similar service with Hayti and Santo Domingo were paid $1,614.10 per annum. Is the foreign competition to continue, backed by foreign govern- ments, to drive the Americans from the commerce of the West Indies, without the protection of our merchant marine by liberal laws by the government of the United States? The Brazil line received but $24,160.84; the Pacific Mail, for the isthmus service, received only $46,411.96. The whole amount in 1889 paid in the interest of steamers carrying the American flag and the American mail on the high seas was $109,828. The British government paid in 1889, for the West India mail service, $550,000. The British government, in 1889, paid her ships a bounty of $3,184,425. Twenty years ago she paid double this sum so as to ruin the commercial marine of the United States. Spain's ship- ping subsidies are largely used for the destruction of the American carrying trade with the West Indies. France pays a heavy subsidy to three lines running from the isthmus to its own ports. Germany and Holland also subsidize steamship lines in the same quarter. Under these conditions the Americans have to contend with the sub- sidized commercial marine of Europe. The Democrats, before the war, favored granting subsidies to American shippers. The Democratic congress and a Democratic president, in 1855, paid vessels sailing under the American flag $1,936,715, and there was not a year of RECIPROCITY. that decade of Democratic administration when considerably more than $1,000,- 000 was not expended for that purpose-oftener nearer $2,000,000than $1,000,- 000. In one of President Cleveland's years the amount paid to American vessels for mail transportation was $43,319-about one-seventh of the sum contributed to foreign lines. The United States is the only great commercial nation that deliberately neglects its shipping interests. The five American lines now carrying the flag in the West Indies owe their maintenance during recent years largely to commercial concessions and direct subsidies from foreign governments. The United States and Brazil mail line gets an annual subsidy from Brazil of $90,000. The United States, after inviting the eighteen republics to closer commercial union and continental trade, and proclaiming reciprocity, should at once en- courage the development of our commercial marine, which will open a market for the American farmers with these Southern countries- receiving in return the products of tropical climes in return for provisions, machinery and manu- factured goods. This would benefit the farmers, workingmen and business men alike. The Bahamas lie outside the regular course of the West Indian trade, and are approached by narrow and circuitous channels. The group would be cut off from mail communication with the world if the Ward line had not been en- couraged by government patronage to have its steamers call at Nassau on their way to and from the southern coast of Cuba. The British colonial adminis- tration pays for a fortnightly mail service an annual subsidy of $17,500 to this American company, which receives from its own government only from $1,200, to $1,300 for mail transportation to Mexico and Cuba. Bahamas is well adapted for the growth of sisal, a substitute for manilla hemp. The tariff of 1890 takes off a duty of fifteen dollars a ton on sisal hemp, which will surely benefit the American farmers. By the tariff of 1890, which took effect April 1, 1891, the United States aban- dons a revenue on sugar of $55,975,610 per annum. All sugars under sixteen Dutch standard are on the free list, and sugars above that grade pay a duty of one-half a cent per pound, instead of the old rates of three cents and three and a half cents. Seven-eighths of the sugar supply of the United States is imported from for- eign countries. This free sugar will stimulate the growth of sugar in Cuba, as its enormous sugar crop is shipped exclusively to the United States. This free sugar is not a gratuity flung with generosity to Latin America. It is an immense concession made to sugar-producing countries, containing a population of 40,000,000, who import their food supplies and manufactures, but it is a provisional arrangement dependent upon equitable reciprocity. By the tariff act of 1d90 the president is authorized to close this free market for sugar after July 1, 1892, if he shall consider that unequal and unreasonable duties are levied in return upon agricultural and manufactured products of the United States. A contingent schedule for sugar, molasses, coffee, tea and hides is provided, and the president not only armed with power, but it is his duty, to suspend the operation of the system of tremendous gratuities tempo- rarily in force." Latin America is expected to pay well for the free market for sugar. Those sugar-producing countries which neglect to profit by the opportunity will find the free market closed against them during the last nine months of President Harrison's term. The Latin West Indies have been sending the bulk of their exports to the United States. In round numbers, when Cuba and Porto Rico have shipped exports of $54,000,000 to the United States, they have sent less than $10,000,- 000 to Spain and about $5,000,000 to Great Britain, France and Germany. "In return, when $12,000,000 of breadstuffs and manufactures have been RECIPROCITY. received from the United States, over $14,000,000 have been supplied from Spain, and something less than $9,000,000 from Great Britain, France and Germany." In 1888 the imports received in the United States from Cuba and Porto Rico amounted to $53,731,570, while the exports sent out in return were valued at $12,023,178. In 1889 the imports were $55,837,996 and the exports $13,916,242. In 1890 the imports rose to $57,855,217 and the exports to $15,381,952. Hence the necessity of enforcing the "policy of reciprocity- of requiring Spain to take off the exactions on American provisions entering Cuba, to reduce the duties on machinery and hardware, and to place certain lines of American dry goods on a level with home manufactures." There are sugar industries in Mexico, Central America, Peru and Venezuela. Brazil needs to import her food supplies and manufactured goods. Cuba is rich in iron mines. A Pennsylvania company is working an iron mine in Cuba. In order to carry the ore from Cuba to the United States a fleet of twenty steam- ers is employed; they carry cargoes of coal from the United States to Cuba. Before they commenced carrying coal to the West Indies they went out empty or in ballast. The export of American coal has been increased in this way, as the steamers have cargoes both ways. They are displacing English coal in many of the West Indian islands. With reciprocity with Latin America, as well as Cuba and Porto Rico, American steamers can carry freight and pas- sengers at lower rates. Of the steamers carrying ore from Cuba to the United States, seventeen of them carry the English flag; but American steamers will soon find a profitable employment in the Cuban trade, under reciprocity, when they will have outward cargoes of flour, machinery, hardware and certain lines of dry goods. This will stimulate the investment of American capital in ship building. It will reduce the rates of fare and freights to the West Indies. The time is brief when the American people will make excursions to Cuba for pleasure and health. Before Mr. Blaine's reciprocity, Spain taxed American flour about $5.25 a barrel, in the interest of Spanish merchants. Flour shipped from New York to Spanish ports and repacked enters practically without payment or duty, and much of it comes in that way. "The custom laws discriminate sharply against American breadstuffs in the interest of Spanish traders, who are to-day opposing reciprocity from selfish motives and power- fully influencing the home government. The same practice is followed in the lines of merchandise. In cotton textiles Spanish merchants have a marked advantage over American competitors. For example, calico, nankeen, silesia, wrappings of cotton without carding, and analogous textures with straight threads,plain, raw or dyed, are subject to a dutyof $5.65 per hundred kilograms if of Spanish manufacture, but a duty of $11.25 if of American manufacture. The same textures having from 11 to 16 threads are taxed $7.90 if Spanish, and $21 if American, manufacture. The comparison might be extended to every class of dry goods, hardware and general merchandise. American merchants are crowded out of the Cuban market. The tariff discriminates heavily against them without conferring any benefit upon the people of the island, who are taxed heavily for their food sup- plies and nearly every article of foreign importation. This was the state of things before Mr. Blaine's treaty of reciprocity. "Mr. Blaine's reciprocity between the United States and the Spanish West Indies has been a blessing to both countries. It has brought them into closer commercial union. When the McKinley bill was introduced in Washington, Spain increased her import duties twenty per cent. But the reciprocity section of the bill authorizing the president to raise the duty on imports brought Spain to see the folly of discriminating against the commerce of the United States. Under the much-abused McKinley tariff bill, the United States, for the first time in our history, has given the president the power to protect the commercial interests of the American people in their trade with the sugar-producers and RECIPROCITY. coffee growers of Spanish America. It is more convenient to give that power to the.president of the. United States, to deal a direct blow against foreign com- mnercial outrages against American commerce, than to wait the slow action of congress.. The commerce of Havana is almost wholly with the United States. Two steamers of the Plant line supply a tri-weekly mail service via Tampa, and there.are two Ward steamers each way every week between New York and Havana; the vessels of the direct and Mexican lines alternating. There is also a New Orleans line. There is an excellent mail and pa senger service, offering superior facilities for the transportation of freight to Gulf ports and New York. There are more American sailing vessels to be seen in the harbor of Havana than in any foreign port. The bulk of the sugar is carried to New York by the Ward steamers, and by sail under the American flag. The sharpest competitors are the Spanish companies, one of which is heavily subsidized in Madrid, with branch lines to New York, La Guayra, Colon and Vera Cruz. Another Spanish line runs to Liverpool, being virtually owned there. There are now here steamers under the English flag. A French line dispatches two steamers, and a German line one, every month. The communications with Europe are mainly under the Spanish flag. No return freights can be carried in that direction, since the sugar goes in bulk to the United States, and hence few steamers come except those that are subsidized by Spain, and tramps knocking about the West Indies for cargoes to New York. At Matanzas the Spanish steamers and Norwegian and English sailing vessels are actively competing for freight, so that not more than half of the 160,000 tons of sugar and the 60,000 tons of molasses annually exported is carried North under the American flag. At Cardenas and Sagua similar conditions prevail. The Ward steamers stop at these three ports, but not with such frequency as to control the shipping busi- ness, as they do at Havana. The bulk of the export trade of these and the remaining ports of Cuba is with the United States." Spanish officials in Cuba have harassed American shippers by a system of fines for clerical errors and shortage of cargo in which there is no intention to defraud the government of the island. A Ward steamer in loading cargo at the New York wharf left ashore two plows. The error was discovered and a dispatch sent to the custom house at Matanzas announcing that the plows called for on the manifest would be sent by the next steamer. The telegram was received before the steamer arrived, but a fine of four hundred dollars was imposed, although the plows were shipped the next week. Another steamer was fined eight hundred dollars for a shortage of four tierces of lard under similar circumstances. The Ward steamers to Cuba have been fined for trivial clerical errors. At the first port which they enter they employ and pay a cus- tom house official to examine the manifest and find out if it be correct in form; but-fines are levied for incorrect translations and clerical errors. Each cus- tom house has its own system of interpretation and special phraseology, and a manifest that will pass inspection at one will not at another. Spanish vessels entering Cuban ports are not subjected to. these harassing annoyances. American vessels alone are fined for technical errors." In the United States penalties are never imposed when there has evidently been no breach of faith on the part of the shipper. This system of fining is virtually a discrimination against American vessels in Spanish ports. In consequence of Spain levying a higher tariff in Cuba, upon cargoes under the American flag in 1884, merchandise in Spanish bottoms was sub- jected in American ports to an ad valorem duty of ten per cent. The retali- atory duties were more prejudicial to the interests of Spanish than to those of American shipping, for the reason that the volume of the exports from Cuba greatly exceeded that of imports received in return. Spain had at last to yield to fair trade and fair dealing with the United States, for Spanish vessels had no return cargoes to Europe, as ninety per RECIPROCITY. cent of the sugar went to the United States, and it was impracticable for them to take freight to New York when there was a discrimination of ten per cent against them there. In order to relieve the Spanish shippers, Spain consented to the removal of discriminating flag duties. American ships were placed on terms of equality with Spanish ships in Havana and other Cuban ports. The Spanish government raised the duty on American flour from $2.44 per barrel to $4.69. Even then the Spanish government was not wholly satisfied with its bargain, for in 1890 it increased the duties on foreign flour until the tariff discrimination in 1891-amounted to $5.631 per barrel. The United States takes over ninety per cent of the exports of Cuba. So it is in a position to protect the interests of the American people in Cuba. This refutes the arguments of the free traders. Reciprocity has changed this state of things. What Paris is to France, Havana is to Cuba. It is the centre of the island's life, activities and recreation. There is more genuine-Spanish blood in Havana than in Buenos Ayres, Mexico, Santiago, Montevideo or Lima. Cuba is now a great resort for American tourists. They come from the East, West, North and South, every season. The Ward and Plant steamers are crowded with incoming travelers. The journey to Cuba is the pleasantest that Americans can make during the winter. Those who dread seasickness can reduce the risk to a voyage of twenty-four hours by going in the Tampa steamers. The best route from New York is by the Ward steamers, either by the direct line to Havana or by the Nassau and Southern coast line. The natural resources of Cuba have been but little developed. The total area is about 43,000 square miles. About one-tenth is under cultivation. At the western end of the island is a population exceeding 1,000,000; the remaining districts, of which Puerto Principe and Santiago are the capitals, are not much settled, having between them less than 500,000 whites, negroes and Chinese. Only within five years has iron mining been begun in earnest. The forests are unexplored. There are vast tracts of unreclaimed lands available for future industry. There are broad savannas now abandoned to tropical thickets, where sugar, tobacco and corn could be cultivated. Where there is now 1,500 sugar plantations there could be 15,000. The number of tobacco plantations could be multiplied. Coffee farming is restricted to the mountain slopes. The reciprocity policy of the United States will bear favorably upon the industry of Cuba and the other sugar-producing countries of Latin America. While the planters were sure of a free market for their sugar they were indif- ferent to the operation of the McKinley bill as it was originally introduced. Now, with reciprocity, Cuba will have the benefits of commercial union with the United States. The Spanish reciprocity treaty was made public July 31, 1891. The fol- lowing is from President Harrison's proclamation: The products or manufactures of the United States to be admitted into Cuba and Porto Rico free of duties: TRANSITORY SCHEDULE. Meats, in brine, salted or smoked, bacon, hams and meats preserved in cans, in lard or by extraction of air (jerked beef excepted); lard, tallow and other greases, melted or crude, unmanufactured; fish and shellfish, live, fresh, dried, in brine, smoked, pickled; oysters and salmon in cans; oats, barley, rye and buckwheat and flour of these cereals; starch, maizena and other alimentary products of corn, except cornmeal; cottonseed oil; hay, straw for forage, and bran; fruits, fresh, dried and preserved, except raisins; vegetables and garden products, fresh and dried; resin of pine, tar, pitch and turpentine; woods of all kinds, in trunks or logs, joists, rafters, planks, beams,' boards, round or RECIPROCITY. cylindric masts, although cut, planed, tongued and grooved, including floor- ing; woods for cooperage, including staves, headings and wooden hoops; wooden boxes, mounted or unmounted, except of cedar; woods, ordinary, manufactured into doors, frames, windows and shutters, without paint or varnish, and wooden houses, unmounted, without paint or varnish; wagons and carts for ordinary roads and agriculture; sewing machines; petroleum, raw or unrefined, according to the classification fixed in the existing orders for the importation of this article in said island; coal, mineral, ice. Products or manufactures of the United States to be admitted into Cuba and Porto Rico on payment of the duties stated: Reduced Rates-Corn or maize, 25 cents per 100 kilograms; cornmeal, 25 cents per 100 kilograms. Wheat from Jan. 1, 1892, $1 per 100 kilograms; products or manufac- tures of the United States to be admitted into Cuba and Porto Rico at a reduc- tion of twenty-five per centum; butter and cheese, petroleum (refined), boots or shoes in whole or in part of leather skins. SCHEDULE A. Products of manufactures of the United States to be admitted into Cuba and Porto Rico free of duties: Marble, jasper and alabaster, natural or artificial, in rough or in pieces, dressed, squared and prepared for taking shape; other stones and earthy mat- ters, including cement, employed in building, the arts and industries; waters, mineral or medicinal; ice, coal, mineral, resin, tar, pitch, turpentine, asphalt, schist and bitumen; petroleum, raw and crude, in accordance with the classifi- cation fixed in the tariff of said islands; clay, ordinary, in paving tiles, large and small bricks and roof tiles unglazed, for the construction of buildings, ovens and other similar purposes; gold and silver coin; iron, cast in pigs, and old iron and steel; iron cast in beams, rafters and similar articles, for the con- structionof buildings and in ordinary manufactures; iron, wrought and steel, in bars, rails and bars of all kinds, plates, beams, rafters and other similar articles for the construction of buildings; iron, wrought and steel, in wire, nails, screws, nuts and pipes; iron, wrought and steel, in brdinary manufactures and wire cloth manufactured; cotton, raw, with or without seed; cottonseed oil, tallow, books, pamphlets, printed, bound and unbound; woods of all kinds, in trunks or logs, joists, rafters, planks, beams, boards, masts; wooden cooperage, includ- ing staves, headings and wooden hoops; wood boxes; woods, ordinary, manu- factured into doors, frames, windows and shutters, wooden houses; woods, ordi- nary, manufactured into all kinds of articles, turned or unturned, painted or varnished, except furniture; implements, utensils and tools for agriculture, the arts and mechanical trades; machines and apparatus, agricultural, motive, industrial and scientific of all classes and materials; wagons, carts and hand- carts for ordinary roads and agriculture; material and articles for public works, such as railroads, tramways, roads, canals for irrigation and navigation, use of waters, ports, lighthouses and civil construction of general utility, when intro- duced by the authorization of the government, or if free admission is obtained in accordance with local laws; materials of all classes for the construction, re- pair, in whole or in part, of vessels subject to specific regulations to avoid abuses in the importation; meats, in brine, salted and smoked, includingbacon, hams, and meats preserved in cans, in lard or by extraction of air (jerked beef excepted); lard and butter, cheese; fish and shellfish, live, fresh, dried, in brine, salted, smoked and pickled; oysters and salmon in cans; oats, barley, rye and buckwheat and flourof these cereals; starch, maizena and other alimentary products of corn, except cornmeal; fruits, fresh, dried and preserved, except raisins; vegetables and garden products, fresh and dried; hay, straw for forage, and bran; trees, plants, shrubs, garden seeds and tan barks. RECIPROCITY. SCHEDULE B. Products of the United States to be admitted into Cuba and Porto Rico on the payment of duties stated: Corn or maize, 25 cents per 100 kilograms; cornmeal, 25 cents per 100 kilo- grams; wheat, 30 cents per 100 kilograms; wheat flour, $1 per 100 kilograms; carriages, cars and other vehicles for railroads or tramways, where the authorization of the government for free admission has been obtained, one per centum ad valorem. SCHEDULE C. Products df manufactures of the United States to be admitted into Cuba and Porto Rico at a reduction of duty of fifty per centum: Marble, jasper and alabaster of all kinds cut into flags, slabs or steps and the same worked or carved in all kinds of articles, polished or not; glass and crystal ware, plate and window glass, and the same silvered, quicksilvered and platinized; claysin tiles, large and small, and mosaic for pavements, colored tiles, roof tiles, glazed and pipes; stoneware and fine earthenware and porcelain; iron cast in fine manufactures or those polished, with coating of porcelain or part of other materials, iron, wrought and steel, in axles, tires, springs and wheels for carriages, rivets and their washers; iron, wrought and steel, in fine manu- factures or those polished with coating of porcelain or part of other metals not expressly comprised in other numbers of these schedules, and platforms, scales for weighing, needles, pins, knives, table and carving razors, penknives, scissors, pieces for watches and other similar articles of iron and steel; tin plate in sheets or manufactured; copper, bronze, brass and nickel, and alloys of the same with common metals in lumps or bars and all manufactures of the same; all other common metals and alloys of the same, in lumps or bars, and all manufactures of the same, plain, varnished, gilt, silvered or nickeled; furni- ture of all kinds of wood or metal, including school furniture, blackboards and other materials for schools, and all kinds of articles of pine wood not ex- pressly comprised in other numbers of these schedules; broom corn, willow, straw, palm and other similar materials manufactured into articles of all kinds; pastes for soups, rice, flour, bread and crackers and alimentary farinas not comprised in other numbers of these schedules; preserved alimentary substances and canned goods, not comprised in other numbers of these sched- ules, including sausages, stuffed meats, mustards, sauces, pickles, jams and jellies; rubber and gutta-percha and manufactures thereof, alone or mixed with other substances (except silk and oilcloths and tarpaulin); rice. SCHEDULE D. Products or manufactures of the United States to be admitted into Cuba and Porto Rico at a reduction of twenty-five per centum: Petroleum, refined, and benzine; cotton, manufactured, spun or twisted, and in goods of all kinds woven or knit, and the same mixed with other vegetable or animal fibers in which cotton is an equal or greater component part, and clothing exclusively of cotton; rope, cordage and twine of all kinds, colors, crude and prepared with or without oils; ink of all kinds, shoe-black- ing and varnishes; soap, toilet and perfumery; medicines, proprietary or pat- ent, and all others and drugs; stearine and tallow manufactured in candles; paper for printing, for decorating rooms, of wood or straw, for wrapping and packing, and bags and boxes of the same, sandpaper and pasteboard; leather and skins, tanned, dressed and varnished or japanned, of all kinds, including sole leather or belting; boots and shoes, in whole or in part of leather or RECIPROCITY. skins; trunks, valises, traveling bags, portfolios and other similar articles in whole or in part of leather; harness and saddlery of all kinds; watches and clocks of gold, silver or other metals with cases of stone, wood or other material, plain or ornamented; carriages of two or four wheels and pieces of the same. It is understood that flour, which on its exportation from the United States has been favored with drawbacks, shall not share in the fore- going reduction of duty. The provisional arrangement as set forth in the transitory schedule shall come to an end on July 1, 1892, and on that date be substituted by the definitive arrangement as set forth in Schedules A, B, C and D. And the government of Spain has further provided that the laws and regulations adopted to protect its revenue and prevent fraud in the declarations and proof that the articles named in the foregoing schedules are the product or manufacture of the United States of America, shall place no undue restrictions on the importer, or impose any additional charges or fees therefore on the articles imported. MEXICO. Mexico raises coffee successfully, sugar on a small scale,which does not com- pete seriously with Cuba and the beet sugar of Europe. It raises various fiber plants with unrivaled facilities, and a great variety of tropical products. It has in its elevated plateau a temperate zone available for wheat growing and cattle raising, and its mountains are stored with silver, gold and lead. SReciprocity with Mexico must be something different from reciprocity with Brazil. Mexico has two zones and two climates, and agricultural and mineral resources competing with those of the United States. When the Grant-Romero treaty was concluded, in 1883, sugar was taxed in the United States. Put- ting Mexican sugar on the free list was one of the main concessions on the part of the United States. A free market for sugar, under the McKinley act, to all the Southern countries which comply with the reciprocity amendment. If Brazil, Santo Domingo, Venezuela and the British West Indies share in the benefits of the free market, Mexico, which does not now produce sugar for her own consumption, will not derive much advantage from it. This is one of the altered conditions since 1883. Another is, the removal of duties on heniquen and textile fibers in the United States. By the treaty of 1883 these fibers, which formed one of the largest groups of Mexican exports, were admitted free of duty; by the tariff act of 1890 they are now on the free list. The reciprocity amendment of the McKinley act of 1890 his only a re- stricted application to Mexico. It covers three classes of exports-coffee, sugar and hides, and carries the authority of a withdrawal of the free market if reciprocity engagements are not made in 1892. As Mexico is importing sugar from Cuba, the list is reduced to coffee and hides; there is not a large surplus of either for exportation. Reciprocity is not as effective in Mexico as against Brazil and Cuba. The steady investment of American capital in Mexico is favorable to reciprocity. English and Germans are competitors in the import trade, but railways have transformed the conditions of government and inland commerce. These railroads are American in construction, equipment and management. The mines and cattle ranches are fully under the control of Americans, and the public works and new industrial enterprises are under American direction. There are more Yankees in Mexico than in South America. There are larger investments of American capital in Mexico than in any other foreign country. Reciprocity implies a large flow of American energy, labor and money. The rejection of a second treaty would involve the conversion of Mexico into a commercial dependency of Great Britain and other commercial countries of Europe. The objection to the first treaty raised in congress was that it did not benefit either the Southern or Western states, but only Ea- tern m:,nuihinturers. Since its rejection the manufacturing, as well as the agricultural, .interests of the Southwest are demanding reciprocity with Mexico. The abandonment of the Grant-Romero treaty was a blunder for which the West has paid more dearly than the East. The United States would have been greatly benefited by that commercial agreement. The rejection of a second treaty would be a stupen- dous blunder. Of the population of Mexico, 4,000,000 are Indians, 6,000,000 are mixed blood, out of the entire population of 12,000,000. The upper strata of the mixed blood have received Spanish civilization. The Spaniards of Mexico did not inaugurate the policy of extermination, as in the United States. There is a race of mixed blood in Mexico capable of making social and political progress. The sisal industry of Mexico will soon enrich the country. It is one of the products which will be exported largely into the United States. The Americans are now investing largely in railroads, mines and smelting. American smelting companies are now constructing extensive works at San Luis Potosi and Monterey. The Compania Metalurgica Mexicana, as the Kansas City combination is known, will have within a year ten furnaces in operation, and will have the largest smelting plant on the continent. All these works will require large quantities of coke and coal, and as soon as there are harbor and wharfage facilities, a great trade will spripngupbetween Tampico and the Alabama coal fields. Coal is now very high in Mexico, owing to transportation charges and heavy duties. As soon as the harbor of Tampico is improved, a great field will be open for American lumber. The export trade of Tampico and Vera Cruz is largely with the United States. Three-fourths of the merchandise shipped from Tampico goes to New York and New Orleans. The exports include textile fiber, fustic, hides, precious metals, coffee, sarsaparilla, caoutchouc, hair, crude gum, asphalt, honey, fruits and deerskins, dyewoods and many other tropical productions. A fair pro- portion of this trade is under the American flag. With protection and reci- procity, this proportion will be largely increased, for the Ward steamers are now competing with subsidized ships, and the Morgan line is competing to divide the coffee freights with the English steamers. Americans have an opportunity of enlarging their commerce with Mexico. Congress should en- courage our merchant marine; then, with reciprocity, we would have practically commercial union with Mexico as absolutely as if it had been annexed to the American Union. With commercial union the United States would have a foreign market for agricultural and mining tools and machinery, railway equipment, and engines of all kinds, and also for a large class of manufactured articles, mineral oils, stoves, household furniture, barbed wire for fencing, window blinds, iron beams, hydraulic lime, water pipe, carts, carriages, clocks, fire pumps, and many other manufactures and hardware. The Americans are supplanting the English in Mexico. The railways, with one exception, are American in management, and even the English company, after a long and persistent struggle, is abandoning its clumsy engines on the Vera Cruz road and ordering American locomotives. The mining districts are largely controlled by American capital. Even when the investors are English, French or German, the. superintendents, mining engineers and practical ex- perts are Americans. Monterey, in the north, is rapidly becoming an American city. Four new smelting works, from which Mexico is expecting the establish- ment of a great home industry, are conducted by Americans; two of them represent a solid mass of American capital. The remarkable progress made by Mexico during the last ten years is caused by the Americans swarming across the border. With thousands of Americans across the frontier, and actually RECIPROCITY. - 27 RECIP20CITY. developing the resources of Mexico, every commercial concession made by treaty will enrich both countries. The trade relations of the United States and Mexico ought to be regulated by treaty-makers more than by tariff- makers. The grain fields of the temperate zone are separated by rich pasture lands for cattle and sheep, and by vineyards of maguey, from which pulque is made. Forests of fir, oak and pine are followed by clumps of olives and cedar, and further along by royal palmettos, ebony and rosewood. Orange groves are constantly seen, with patches of wild cotton on the borders of the woods. Then come the coffee plantations, heavily shaded with bananas, and further down fields of sugar-cane and indigo and orchards with all the fruits of the hot lands. The coast belts are narrow and uninhabitable, but upon the slopes of the mountains on the Pacific side, as well as at Orizaba and Jalapa on the Gulf side, are coffee, sugar and tobacco lands of the highest productixeness. Mexico, like every other Spanish-American country, has agricultural re- sources capable of extraordinary development, but those who have traveled by railway lines, are conversant with the conditions and drawbacks, are not dis- posed to take a hopeful view of the future of this farming industry. The tropical belts flanking the coasts luxuriate in perpetual summer, and the main plateau is favored with a temperate climate and twelve months of genuine spring weather, without frosts or cold winds. The obstacles to successful agri- culture are partly natural, but largely the result of social and agrarian tenden- cies. The water supplyis deficient throughout the elevated tableland, forming nine-tenths of the arable territory. Mexican farms are largely dependent upon artificial irrigation for their productiveness. The land tenure is unfavorable to farming, as the country is divided into immense plantations owned by a few rich Mexicans. The system of taxation operates here, as in Chili, to prevent the sale of land. The labor on the farms is done by peons, a class of Indian laborers, who work for small wages. Free schools have been opened. There are 475,000 pupils in the public schools and 240,000 in church and charity schools; this, in a population of 12,000 000. The English language is taught in the schools, and grown people are picking it up when they have a chance to learn a word. The construction of the railways and the investment of American capital is increasing; $300,000,000 of American capital in Mexican mines, ranches and enterprises of all kinds have created a stable government here and opened a new era of industrial development. Railways and telegraphs have facilitated the transportation of troops and have established the supremacy of the federal government. There are few revolutions, and it is to be hoped that civil war is at an end. The credit of the country is in a flourishing condition. Mexico is situated immediately south of the United States from latitude 14 degrees 30 minutes to 32 degrees 42 minutes, and from 86 degrees 46 minutes 8 seconds, 117 degrees 7 minutes 8 seconds. Its area is 751,494 square miles; its population, 11,601,347. About 19 per cent of the population are of Spanish descent, 38 per cent Indians, and 43 per cent mixed races and foreigners In 1888 there were 10,726 primary schools, with 543,977 pupils. In 1889 there were open to traffic 5,812 miles of railway and 27,861 miles of telegraph, of which 14,841 miles belonged to the federal government. Mexico maintains active commerce with Germany, Spain, the Ufiited States, France, England, Belgium, Italy and Central and South America. There are ten fine ports on the Gulf of Mexico and ten on the Pacific coast. The imports are machinery, manufactures of cotton and wool, house furnishings, carpets, curtains, window shades, wall papers, fancy articles and furniture of all kinds. England furnishes three hundred per cent more than the United States of carpets, rugs, window shades and curtains, and the United States supplies more furniture than any other country trading with Mexico. RECIPROCITY. The price of public lands in the states, the federal district and in the ter- ritories of Tepic and Lower California is regulated for 1891 and 1892 according to first, second and third class and the locality. In Mexico, as well as in the other Spanish republics, the government is a military system. The following is a brief description of the Mexican congress, somewhat after the plan of the British parliament: The Mexican congress holds its ses- sions in the evenings. The seats of the members are arranged in semicircular rows and the presiding officer and officials of the house sit upon a large dais or platform. At each side of this platform is a sort of pulpit, from which very formal addresses are delivered, but unpretentious discourses taking a conversa- tional and unimpassionate form are conducted on the floor of the chamber. The orchestra and the galleries are divided into boxes which are reserved for spectators, but it is only a rare occasion that brings outsiders to listen to the de- liberations of their rulers. A government of pens and ink, to be frank about the matter, is not a body to stir the emotions of the ordinary Mexican; their minds are charged with recollections of a government that ruled only by the clink of iabers and booming cannon. Nevertheless, when they shall have be- come thorough disciples of the gospel of peace, and have thoroughly tasted of its blessings, they will give more attention to what their rulers do in the legis- lative building. There is etiquette in the congress in spite of the public apathy. Members appear in evening dress, giving to the chamber somewhat the appearance of a social hall. There is no confusion in this body; there is sel- dom any rude or improper language like that which so often disgraces our own deliberative assemblies, but speakers are courteous, even tempered and appar- ently conscious to a full extent of the dignity of their position. More than three- fourths of the assembly are white and the Aztec blood is hardly traceable in the remainder. As a rule, men of character, means and social position seek legislative honors, and hence it is a strong point with them to be careful about their honor. I cannot find a record of any well-authenticated case of corrup- tion in these later years, and the hateful system known as lobbying among us is practically unknown in Mexico. The members, says Mr. Curtis, never tilt their chairs back, nor lounge about the chamber; their feet are never raised upon the railings or desks; there is no letter writing going on; the floor is never littered with scraps of paper; no spittoons are to be seen, and no conversation is permitted. Extreme dignity and decorum mark the proceedings, which are always short and practical, and the solemnity which prevails gives a funereal aspect to the scene. The legisla- ture meets each year, in the spring and in the fall. The house of representa- tives has one member for every 40,000 inhabitants, and the senate has one senator for each state in the republic. The states of the republic which have been the heaviest producers of the precious metals thus far are in the order named: Zacatecas, Hidalgo, Guana- juato, San Luis Potosi, Chihuahua. Then follow Durango, Jalisco, Michoacan, Oaxaca, Guerrero, Puebla and Coahuila. Wrought-iron in Mexico is scarce and high, yet Mexico has the most remarkable single deposit of iron in the world. Adjoining the city of Durango is the Cerro de Mercardo, a mountain 3,600 feet long by 1,000 feet wide- an area of 90 acres and 640 feet high. It contains, approximately, 200,000,000 tons of iron ore of remarkable purity. It is con- trolled by an American company. In addition to gold, silver and iron among the mineral treasures of Mexico, may be named petroleum and asphaltum, cop- per in immense quantities, sulphur, antimony, lead and tin. Agricultural products consist of cotton, Indian corn, wheat, oats, sugar, beans, coffee, tobacco, straw, rice, cocoa, and the following articles peculiarly Mexican, red pepper, heniquen,vanilla, Spanish pea, chicken pea, indigo, sarsa- parilla, etc. RECIPROCITY. The maguey plant, a species of cactus, forms no inconsiderable item among American products. It produces, in enormous quantities, pulque, the national beverage; 250,000 pints of this are consumed daily in the City of Mexico alone. Each plant produces about 125 quarts of juice, after which it dies. From the maguey plant is also manufactured a brandy known as "tequilla." After pulque has been extracted, the plant possesses its greatest value. It can be made to yield an excellent quality of molasses, superior to that yielded by the cane. Perhaps the most valuable product of the plant is the fiber yielded by the leaves, which is equal in quality to the best yucatan jute. A pulp un- equaled for making paper is also produced. With only the maguey plants as a source, Mexico might become one of the greatest cordage, matting and paper-making countries in the world. The ramie plant, to which the climate of Mexico is especially favorable, is cultivated ex- tensively, and produces a fiber stronger and finer than flax or cotton, and must bear a prominent part in the commercial future of Mexico. Mexico has a variety of climate and productions. The products of every fruit-bearing zone may be found, according to elevation, in a single state. Upon the great central plateau, which is traversed from end to end by the Mexican Central Railway, are situated many of the principal cities of the republic, and its most prolific farming lands. Every tree, fruit or plant of America or Europe will grow there. The silver deposits of Mexico are metals, not ores, and chemical manipula- tions are not necessary in their reduction. As a consequence, they can be more easily handled. Boiling and mineral springs abound. Sandstone and porphyry are found in large quantities. The foothills of the Sierra Madre abound in beautiful ravines and valleys and are plentifully supplied with tim- ber-pine, oak, cedar, larch and hard woods peculiar to Mexico. The climate of the valley is that of Italy; of the ridges, that of northern Pennsylvania. The intermediate slopes have that of Southern France. Rising above this are still the great grazing regions, millions of acres being covered with nutritious grasses. These embrace nearly all Chihuahua. In all this country of infinite variety of soil, productions and climate it is a noticeable fact that the inhabitants seek the slopes, uplands and high eleva- tions. Three-fourths of the people of Mexico live in the pure air and sunshine, almost as high as they can get, while only some ten per cent of the entire population live in the hot lands. Mexico can give us much that we do not and cannot produce for ourselves, while upon the other hand she can receive from us a vast quantity of manufac- tures, some of which she will herself produce later on--some of which she can never produce. An enormous amount of American capital has found its way into Mexico. It is astonishing that the people of the United States were so slow in opening their eyes about Mexico. SANTO DOMINGO. Santo Domingo is the name of the eastern portion of the island of Hayti, originally Espanola or Hispanola, which, next to Cuba, is the largest of the West India islands. Its area is 18,045 English square miles. Population in 1888 was 416,871. The country is divided into provinces and maritime dis- tricts. The capital, Santo Domingo, has a population of 25,000. Puerto Plata, the chief port, has 15,000 inhabitants. Spanish is the prevailing language, though both French and English are spoken. Education is obligatory. There are 300 schools and 10,000 pupils. The revenue is principally from custom duties. RECIPROCITY. The chief products are tobacco, coffee, cocoa, cotton and sugar-cane, the cul- tivation of which is increasing. There are several large sugar factories, the principal estates being in the vicinity of the capital, Macoris and Azua. Santo Domingo is rich in mines, cabinet and dye woods, tropical fruits and vegetables. There are about seventy-two miles of railway completed. The interior of the country has good wagon roads. There are telegraphs. Cable communi- cation is by means of the French Submarine Telegraph Company, and the cable for South America crosses the islands. There is steamship communication with the West India islands, Europe, North and South America. The commerce of the island is principally with the United States, Spain, England, France, the Danish Antilles and Germany. The principal exports are coffee, cacao, tobacco and sugar. The main imports are cotton, linens, woolens, hardware, machinery, railway materials, rice, bread food, canned goods. The United States imported from Santo Domingo, in 1890, sugar, hides and skins, dyewoods and coffee, and exported to that island iron and steel manu- factures, wheat, flour, wood and its manufactures, cotton and lard. The new treaty, 1891, between Santo Domingo and the United States was made known, Aug. 1, 1891, by President Harrison's proclamation. SCHEDULE A. Articles admitted free of duty into the Dominican Republic: Animals, live; meats of all kinds salted or in brine, but not smoked; corn or maize, cornmeal and starch; oats, barley, rye and buckwheat and flour of these cereals; hay, bran and straw for forage; cottonseed oil and meal cake of same; tallow in cake or melted, and oil for machinery; resin, pitch and tur- pentine; coal, ice, machines, including steam engines and those of other kinds and parts of the same; implements and tools for agricultural, mining, manu- facturing, industrial and scientific purposes, including carts, wagons, hand-carts and wheelbarrows; material for the equipment and construction of railroads; iron, cast and wrought; steel in pigs, bars, rods, plates; beams, rafters and other similar articles for the construction of buildings; wire, nails, screens and pipes; zinc, galvanized and corrugated iron, tin and lead in sheets, slates and other materials for roofing; copper in bars, plates, nails and screws; copper and lead pipe; bricks, fire bricks, cement, lime, artificial stone, paving tiles, marble and other stones in rough, dressed or polished, and other earthy materials used in building; windmills; wire, plain or barbed, for fences, with hooks, staples, nails and similar articles used in the construction of fences, telegraph wire, and telegraphic, telephonic and electric apparatus of all kinds for communica- tion and illumination; wood and lumber of all kinds for building, in logs or pieces, beams, rafters, planks, boards, shingles, flooring, joists, wooden houses, mounted or unmounted; cooperage of all kinds, including staves, headings and hoops, barrels and boxes; materials for ship building, boats and lighters; school furniture, blackboards and other articles exclusively for the use of schools; books, bound or unbound, pamphlets, newspapers and printed matter, and paper for printing newspapers; printers' ink of all colors, type, leads and all accessories for printing; sacks, empty, for packing sugar, gold and silver coin and bullion. SCHEDULE B. The following articles are admitted into the Dominican Republic at a reduc- tion of duty of twenty-five per centum: Meats not included in Schedule A and meats of all kinds, except lard, but- ter, cheese and condensed or canned milk; fish and shellfish, salted, dried, smoked, pickled or preserved in cans; fruits and vegetables, fresh, canned, dried, pickled or preserved; manufactures of iron and steel, single or mixed, RECIPROCITY. not included in Schedule A; cotton manufactured, spun or twisted, and in fabrics of all kinds, woven or knit, and the fabrics mixed with vegetable or animal fibers in which cotton is the equal or greater component part; boots and shoes, in whole or in part of leather or skins; paper for writing, in envel- opes; ruled or blank books; wall paper, paper for wrapping and packing, for cigarettes, in cardboards, boxes and bags, sandpaper and pasteboard; tin plate and tinware for arts, industries and domestic uses; cordage, rope and twine of all kinds: manufactures of wood of all kinds not embraced in Schedule A, in- cluding wooden ware, implements for household use and furniture in whole or in part of wood. And that the government of the Dominican Republic has further provided that the laws and regulations adopted to protect its revenue, and prevent fraud in the declarations, and proof that the articles named in the foregoing schedules are the product or manufacture of the United States of America, shall place no undue restrictions upon the importer, nor impose any additional charges or fees therefore on the articles imported. HAYTI. The Republic of Hayti occupies the western portion of the island formerly known as Espanola or Hispanola, a rich and beautiful island of the West Indies next in size to Cuba; longitude 68 degrees to 75 degrees, latitude 18 degrees. Through the centre of the island is a mountain range. There are several lakes. The soil is rich, well watered and productive. The population is of African, part of mixed African and of European, descent. Their language is French. The area of that portion of- the island which comprises the Republic of Hayti is about 10,204 English square miles. The population in 1889 was 960,- 000, mostly negroes and mulattoes, and a few of European descent. Port an Prince is the capital. Elementary education is free. There are fourteen school districts and four hundred national schools. Products are coffee, cotton, cocoa, sugar, mahogany, logwood, cedar and other woods; honey, hides, wax, tropical fruits, goat skins, cottonseed, orange- peel, old metal, turtle shell, fustic, lignum-vitae, rags, pickled limes. Trade is principally with Great Britain, the United States, France and Germany. The imports are principally manufactured dry goods from Great Britain; flour, rice and provisions from the United States; beer from Germany and Hol- land, and fancy articles and fine goods from France. Duties have been increased on coffee 50 cents per 100 pounds, on cocoa 25 cents per 100 pounds, and on log- woods $1 per 1,000 pounds. In 1890, the United States imported from Hayti to the amount of $2,421,221 and exported to the amount of $5,101,464. HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. The group of islands constituting the kingdom (the "Sandwich Islands") lie in the Pacific ocean, between latitude 19 degrees and 22 degrees 20 minutes north; longitude 155 degrees and 160 degrees west. The principal islands are Hawaii, Oahu, Maui, Kauai, Molokai and Lanai. All forms of religion are protected; nearly all the natives are Christians. The area of the island is 6,677 square miles. In 1884 the population was 80,578. The number of schools, 178; attendance, 10,006. There are 56 miles of railway and 250 miles of telegraph. Nearly every family in Honolulu has its telephone. Mr. Blaine has made a reciprocity treaty with this country. The Americans are getting more friendly and commercial relations with these islands. We may say that we have now friendly and com- mercial union with the Hawaiian Islands. RECIPROCITY. MEXICO. Oh! why did man leave his sunny home For the regions of the frigid zone? Where Boreas sheds his wintry gloom And where flowers and blossoms never bloom; Where the Storm King chills the heart with fear, Spreading destruction both far and near; Where summer sheen there is never known, But dreary winter and eternal snow. Alas! that man should leave Eden's bowers, Its vine-clad hills and fragrant flowers, And flowers and blossoms and vernal bloom, For the frozen north and wintry gloom. The New World will meet a happier fate; The great republic will be rich and great. Southward! southward! soon will be the go, To the land of the Aztecs-Mexico! Where the balmy air is serene and clear, And snow and frost never enter here, But on mountain peaks, majestic, tall, grand, The pride and glory of this sunny land, Their hoary heads, robed in winter's snow, Frown in grandeur on the plains below. Here the storm rolls in-wintry gloom Above the plains where fragrant blossoms bloom, And orange groves with their fruits of gold Bloom like the Hesperides of old; The splendor of tropical vegetation Is not rivaled in all creation. Rose, honeysuckle, banana and the bean, Aromatic shrubs and the evergreen, And dyewood of rich and brilliant hue, Grand and glorious is this fairy view. Aloes, cacao, vanilla, here abound; Cochineal, that brilliant dye, is found; Indigo, figs and the cocoanut tree, And the magnolia and the laurel green, Almonds, olives and coffee of the best, Rival Java and "Araby the Blest." Life-giving perfumes are wafted on the breeze From fragrant flowers, groves of orange trees; RECIPROCITY. From Cape Dios to Campeachy bay, Groves of logwood, the woodman's toil repay. Palm, cedar, oak and the feathery pine, Grand and majestic, ever flourish here. Here the cypress and the tall sycamore Lift their tall heads like giants of yore. Midst buds, blossoms, flowers and sweet perfumes, Gaudy birds display their brilliant plumes; Humming-birds, butterflies, ever on the wing; Prattling parrots talk, but they never sing; The mocking birds display their genius rare, Their various notes resounding far and near; The scarlet cardinal's exquisite song In this land is heard the whole day long. There happy birds fly from tree to tree, The air resounds with their sweet melody; Here the scenery is glorious and grand, Which makes Mexico an enchanted land. Snow-capped mountains emit smoke and fire, Like some gigantic funereal pyre; Sierra Madre with its lofty pines, Orizaba towering to the skies. From these mountains glorious is the view, The Atlantic looks like a sheet of blue; These fires are seen by mariners at night, Filling their souls with exquisite delight; The Cordilleras from the Andes expand, An extensive range of rich tableland. And valleys, plateaus, with sloping sides, To where the Pacific in glory glides. Now where wild cattle roam the boundless plain, Will grow rich cotton and the golden grain. Verdant valleys hid from winter's storms, There will flourish cultivated farms. And where the Aztecs in wild freedom roam, The sons of Europe will find a happy home; The sons of toil from the northern land Will flock in thousands to this sunny strand. And on the Pacific's golden shore Cities will flourish -many a happy home- Montezuma's empire its rich domain; Its fertile valleys and its boundless plains, With the march of civilization, Will be the field for immigration. And from Europe the sons of moil and toil Will occupy Mexico's virgin soil. Man's industry and thrift will yet explore The richest mines of silver and copper ore. And all o'er Mexico's fertile land Towns will spring as by a magic wand. RECIPROCITY. And we,&enild horses roam the plain Will yet be farms; focks and golden grain. There are forest lands an.ri.ia domain, And vine-clad hills -land arabrekfrgrain. Sinaloa's land, Sonora's virgin soil, Will bless the husbandman's daily toil. And these fertile provinces in time will yield Bounteous harvests, abundant flocks and fields. And vine-clad hills will smile with verdant bloom, Vales where no winter ever casts a gloom. And in the mountains lofty, grand and bold, Are hid treasures of silver and of gold. In the mines of Tasco tin is found, In Anahuac marbles there abound. In the Cordilleras' broad expanse Are El Dorados of golden sand. The sea of Cortez and the Pacific shore Will bloom as the Hesperides of yore! -Oudmore. THE FALL OF MEXICO. Let American progress never cease, Fling the starry banner to the breeze, And at civilization's most stern call, Plant the starry flag on Montezuma's hall. Forward! the army of occupation; Hurrah! for Mexican annexation. American unity will expand And embrace Mexico with iron bands. Forward! south! you busy sons of toil, And possess Mexico's virgin soil. Southward! southward! will be the coming rage With the iron horse and the progress of the age. Stolid ignorance will meet its doom, The land of the Aztecs in beauty will bloom; American unity long will stand The pride and glory of every land. The starry banner, emblem of the free, Will wave o'er Columbia's isles and seas. That flag'll wave o'er Mexico's hills and towers Until the silver lands will all be ours. Ho, for Mexico! forward the leading van! Forward, march! go South, go South, who can! -Cudmore. CHAPTER III. CENTRAL AMERICA. GUATEMALA. Guatemala, the nortnernmost of the Central American republics, lies be- tween 13 degrees 45 minutes and 17 degrees 45 minutes north latitude and 88 degrees 10 minutes and 93 degrees 12 minutes west longitude. Guatemala lies south of Mexico. It enjoys a great variety of climates; there are hot zones, temperate and very cold regions. Its present constitution was amended in 1889. Its area is 46,800 English square miles. In 1880 the population was 1,224,602. Primary education is obligatory and maintained by the state free and secular. In 1887 there wexo 1,030 primary schools and 49,247 pupils. The main products of the country are coffee, cacao, hides and woods. Cof- fee is the most important. , There are sixty different species of fine hardwoods suitable for cabinet- making, mahogany and cedar. Guatemala has a high tariff on custom duties. Exports coffee, hides, rubber, sugar, bananas and spirits. The coffee is principally exported to Germany and San Francisco. Imports from the United States were $1,337,400; from England, $1,207,625; from France, $923,586; from Germany, $715,240. In 1890 imports from the United States were iron and steel and manufactures thereof, $346,392; wheat flour, $202,411; cotton and its manufactures, $100,109; explosives, $65,972; other articles, $47,346; household furniture, $44,648. There is a railroad from San Jose to the capital of 72 miles; and another line of 27 miles from Champerico to Retalhulen. In 1891 there were 1,991 miles of telegraph. The capital is Guatemala. With a railroad connecting the three Americas, increased ocean transporta- tion, and reciprocity, the United States will have a large trade with this republic. SALVADOR. Salvador lies between Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, with a frontage on the Pacific ocean of 139 miles. Its area is 7,255 square miles. Its population in 1888 was 664,513, which gives 89 people to every square mile. It is divided into 14 departments. San Salvador is the capital. In 1888 there were 375 schools for boys and 184 for girls; total attendance, 21,101 pupils. The revenue is derived principally from import duties and taxes on govern- ment monopolies. There is a railway line of 15 miles from Acajutla to Sonsonate, which is to be extended to the capital, total length of 120 miles. Products-Coffee, indigo, sugar, medicinal plants, woods, gold, silver, iron, copper, mercury. Of mines and quarries there are worked more than 180. In 1889 there were 1,467 miles of telegraph. The principal exports are coffee, sugar, gold, silver, cocoa, indigo and balsam of peru. RECIPROCITY. Exports from the United States into Salvador for 1890 were: Flour, $208,312; manufactures of cotton, $120,481; firearms, $95,858; iron and steel and other manufactures of, $130,341; wood and manufactures of, $46,925; and explosives, $41,052. With a railway connecting the three Americas, increased and cheap ocean transportation and reciprocity, the United States will have a large trade with this republic. COSTA RICA. Costa Rica is situated between 8 degrees and 11 degrees 16 minutes north latitude and 81 degrees 40 minutes to 85 degrees 39 minutes west longitude. The present constitution dates from 1871. The republic is divided into five provinces and two comarcas, and these are subdivided into cantons and districts. There is in each province and comarca a governor and a commandant at arms, named by the president, and in each canton there is a municipality elected by the people, and a political chief, who is appointed by the president. The area is 23,233 English square miles, and it has a population of 213,785. The constitution makes primary education compulsory. In 1888 there were 201 primary schools, with an attendance of 12,733 pupils. The revenue is derived from custom duties, stamped paper, liquor and to- bacco taxes, sale of lands and registration fees. The products are coffee, bananas, maize, rice, potatoes, beans, sugar-cane. The forests abound with valuable timber, plants, medicinal plants, dyewoods, textile plants, rubber, and all products of the tropical zone. The live stock in 1887 was 233,217 cattle, 45,662 horses, and other domestic animals. The exports are hides, skins, mother-of-pearl and caoutchouc. There are mines of gold, silver, copper, zinc, nickel, iron, lead and coal. The republic has granted to the Nicaragua Maritime Canal Company the free disposal of all lands and places within the republic necessary to construct the Nlcaragua canal, and the right to take, free of charge, from the lands be- longing to the republic whatever material may be found on them. The term of concession is for ninety-nine years, and at the expiration of that time all the property of the company that may be located on the territory of Costa Rica will become the property of the government. There is a railway between Limon and Carrillo, seventy miles in length, a line of fourteen miles long connecting the Port of Puntarenas with the town of Esparta. There are six hundred miles of telegraph. There is a cable communication with the world from San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua. The commerce is principally with Great Britain, Germany, France and the United States. The principal importations are: Silk, wool, linen and cotton goods, ma- chinery and agricultural implements, tools, furniture, glassware, tinware, hard- ware, fancy articles of domestic use, beer, wines and liquors, flour, sugar, canned goods,, coffee sacks, clothing, shoes, saddles, harness, books, furniture and scientific instruments. Costa Rica imported from the United States in 1889, breadstuffs, iron and steel and manufactures of, cotton and manufactures of, provisions, comprising meat and dairy products, chemicals, drugs, dyes, wood and manufactures of, leather and manufactures of, mineral oils refined, amounting to $4,146,511. The capital is San Jose. With a railway connecting the three Americas, in- creased and cheap ocean transportation and reciprocity, the United States will have a large trade with Costa Rica. RECIPROCITY. HONDURAS. Honduras is situated in latitude 13 degrees 10 minutes to 16 degrees 2 min- utes north, longitude 83 to 90 degrees west, having on the north the Caribbean sea and the Gulf of Honduras. The country is well watered, its principal rivers flowing into the Caribbean sea, on which are most of its ports. Amapala is the only port on the Pacific coast. The president is elected for four years. He must be a native of Central America, and a resident of Honduras for five years; thirty years of age, and not in holy orders; he must have one child; and at least $5,000 invested in real estate in the republic. The secretaries of state must be natives of Central America, residents of Honduras for two years, thirty years of age, of recognized education and good habits, and the owner of at leat $1,000 worth of real estate. Honduras is the second in size of the five Central American republics, hav- ing 47,090 square miles and a population of 431,917. The country is divided into thirteen departments. There are two universities, several colleges, and 573 public schools with 20,518 scholars. The revenue of the country is derived from import duties and taxes upon certain articles of government monopoly. Products of the country are such that nowhere in the world can a greater variety be found, as the staples of all climates grow naturally and abundantly. The mineral resources are enormous. There are 69 miles of railway connecting Puerto Cortez with San Pedro Sula, but only 37 miles are in operation at the present, owing to the destruction of a bridge across the river Chamelicon. The three other lines are projected, one between Puerto Cortez and Truxillo, 150 miles; between Truxillo and Juti- calpa, 200 miles; and the third between Truxillo and the Roman river, 20 miles. There are 1,717 miles of telegraph in operation, owned by the government. These lines are connected with the cable to North and South America at La Libertad, Salvador. Hardware, silks and cotton are the principal imports. The exports are bananas, cocoanuts, cattle, indigo, hides, india-rubber, bar silver, gold bullion, sarsaparilla and various woods. Honduras imported from the United States, in 1890, to the amount of $522 631. The capital is Tegucigalpa. Steamers from the Gulf ports run to Honduras. The distance from New Orleans or Mobile to the Patuca river, the Mississippi of Central America, is about 900 miles. Chicago is nearer to Patuca than to California. The dis- tance from Chicago to the Perry colony, on the Patuca river, is 1,815 miles. The distance from Chicago to San Francisco is 2,573 miles. There are parties in Chicago who are now shipping passengers, provisions and machinery to Honduras by railway from Chicago to Mobile and New Orleans and by ocean transportation to Honduras and other points in Central America. This is a great enterprise. Chicago, St. Louis, Mobile, St. Paul and Minneapolis, New Orleans and Galveston will, under the stimulus of reciprocity, encourage cheap transporta- tion to Central and South America, the West Indies and Mexico. The time is brief when the ports along the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean sea and the Atlantic ocean, the West Indies, Central and South America, will be under commercial reciprocity, the same as an extension of our coast line. Every American, regardless of politics,'should help to encourage ocean transportation. All parties will derive equal benefit from our vast commerce in the Gulf of Mexico, the West Indies, Central and South America. The Honduras Land Company of Chicago, Ill., has established colonies ex- tending along the seacoast of the Caribbean sea, for fruit farms. The com- RECIPROCITY. pany is encouraging immigration to their colonies. They can be reached from New Orleans and Mobile. The climate of Honduras and Nicaragua is healthful. The trade winds (strong sea breezes) sweep across the country, and land breezes, coming down from the mountains, a hundred miles off, blow in the opposite direction through the night, thus purifying the entire district. The passage from Honduras to New Orleans and Mobile is made in three days and to New York in six days. In Central America are two seasons, the wet and dry. The rainy season begins in June and lasts until December, when the dry season begins. During the rainy period the showers are frequent, lasting usually but a short time. The rains seldom interfere with work in the fields. During the dry season occasional rains fall, which are sufficient to nourish vegetation. The greatest rainfall is on the coast of the Caribbeansea, consequently droughts are unknown in Honduras and Nicaragua. Until the fruit industry, the principal attraction for foreign capital to Hon- duras has been the precious metals locked in the bosom of the Cordilleras or in the sands of river bottoms. Until quite recently, little attention has been paid to colonization for agricultural purposes. The Spanish industry for a long time was placer mining. English companies are engaged in gold and silver mines. Mines of im- portance are now worked by Americans, with great results. NICARAGUA. The Republic of Nicaragua is bounded on the north by Honduras, on the south by Costa Rica, on the east by the Caribbean sea and on the west by the Pacific ocean. The Republic of Nicaragua is the largest of the Central American republics and has an area of 49,500 square miles, with a population in 1883 of 350,000. The territory is divided into nine departments. The central portion of the country is occupied by the main Cordillera, running from north to south, with an altitude hardly ever greater than 1,000 feet. West of this is a great valley about 125 feet above the level of the sea; in it are situated the great lakes of Nicaragua and Managua. Managua is the capital; the other chief towns are Leon, Granada, Rivas and the principal ports, Corinto and Greytown. In 1887 there were 251 schools, with an attendance of 11,914 pupils. Nicaragua has no foreign debt, and her local debt amounts to $1,592,000. The products of Nicaragua are numerous and valuable. In the region of the northwest coffee is grown in large quantities. Brazilwood is found in abundance in the forests. Plantations of sugar, indigo and cacao abound everywhere between the lakes and the Pacific. Potatoes and maize thrive in the uplands, while on the eastern side of the lakes is a great grazing country, supporting thousands of cattle. Dense forests, rich in rubber, cedar, mahog- any and dyewoods, are common. All over the country maize, plantains, bananas and other tropical fruits grow in abundance. Rich mines of vari- ous metals are abundant. By the recent discovery of gold, a new mining law has been adopted by the government. There is only one line of railway in operation. It is divided into two sections. The first, from Corinto to Momotombo, runs for fifty-eight miles, and the second, from Managua to Granada, for thirty-two miles. It is pro- posed to build a line from San Juan del Sur, via Rivas, to San Jorge on Lake Nicaragua. Also, a line from Chinandega to El Viejo, nineteen miles, from Matagalpa to the east side of Lake Managua, and a concession has been given to build a line which will connect Matagalpa with the eastern coast, a distance of ninety miles. Telegraphs in 1890 were 1,549 miles, and united the cities of Mangaua, Granada, Rivas, Corinto, Masaya, Leon, San Carlos, Greytown and San Juan del Sur. From San Juan del Sur a cable dispatch can be sent all over the world. RECIPROCITY. The exports are principally coffee, rubber, woods, gums, indigo, sugar, cacao and bananas. The exports to Great Britain in 1888 were 665,000 pesos; Germany, 253,000 pesos; France, 246,000 pesos; the United States, 234,000 pesos; to Central America, 196,000 pesos. Nicaragua imported from the United States in 1890 iron and steel and manufactures thereof, $292,748; wheat flour, $115,154; wood and manu- factures thereof, $105,783; provisions, comprising meats and dairy products, $104,489; chemicals, drugs and dyes, $69,500. With the completion of the Nicaragua canal a railway connecting the three Americas, and reciprocity and cheap ocean transportation, the United States will have a large trade with this country. NICARAGUA. Why did Jove, Jehovah or stern fate First drive mankind from their happy state? From the happy land where the sun's bright ray Cheers the world the long, long summer's day! The Esquimau on stormy Labrador Fixed his rude hut on the frozen shore, Where the rude tempest rolls o'er the deep, Breaks on the shore in snow, rain and sleet. To fruits and bread a stranger he's indeed; He draws his food from the ocean deep. The Canadas enjoy a happier state, In glades, forests, and in their sea-like lakes. We leave the Canadas their barbarous coast, For a happier land, where freedom is no boast. Land of the generous, the brave and free! New England, New England, all hail to thee! Land of the Puritans, the free and brave, Who left their country on the ocean wave; They left England's tyranny and power, To build new homes in the forest bower, New England's hills along the frozen sea, To worship God and be forever free! Land of the Pilgrims with an iron will, Who vanquished the foe on Bunker Hill; Land of peace and industry and arts, Your sons will fly to distant parts; The hive is full, to stern necessity yield, Your sons will seek the distant tropic fields. Where the Atlantic drinks the Hudson wide, Delaware and Potomac's silvery tide; Forests, mountains, hills and verdant vales, And the foaming billows where the ocean breaks, The sons of Europe left their country dear, To seek new homes and build an empire here. The sons of Erin, generous, brave and strong, Forced from their homes by England's cruel wrong, The patient Hollander, Finn and hardy Dane, Germans, Swiss, crossed the briny main, Italians, Spaniards and the Huguenots, English, Welsh, Swedes and the sturdy Scots. The Atlantic cities are in dire distress, And the workingmen are by want oppressed; They fly by thousands to the Western wilds, RECIPROCITY. To the wild Missouri and Alaska's frozen tide, And from Winnipeg to the frozen zone, Where hyperborean winds for ever blow. Man has been tempted to this wintry gloom By lies and fraud (landsharks call a "boom"). But now mankind from this dream have woke, And "landsharks' boom" is forever broke. Emigration will take another route To the balmy fields of the sunny South; Southward! southward! soon will be the go, To Nicaragua by way of Mexico. Nicaragua will yet be grand and great, Wealth and grandeur will crown her sea-girt state, And in her wealth her people will rejoice, "El Dorado! "-"Mahoma's paradise!"- In Nicaragua's fertile sunny land, Her mountain streams roll down her golden sand. Her vales and forests and her sylvan plain And vine-clad hills proclaim her rich domain. Her crystal fountains where the gods would drink, And her rills and streams flowing from the hills. Here the forest its richest dyewood yields, And sweet perfumes are wafted on the breeze! Rich golden fruits ever here abound, Trees with their loads are bending to the ground. The banana, the citron and the lime, Lemons and oranges are in profusion here; Pineapples, plantains, tobacco, beans and corn, Sugar and coffee grow on every farm! Pomegranate, citron, jocotes, nisperos, The flowery lotus and the richest rose, Cluster together in cot and farm, Safe from the frost and the winter's storm; Mahogany, rosewood, satinwood grow here, India-rubber, Braziletto rich and rare, Nicaragua wood, palm, oak, tall and grand, And the magnolia, the pride of Southern land. Stately cedars, the shelter of the hills, Cool the streams, the fountains and the rills. Fountains of hot springs gushing from the earth To the invalids give both life and health. There is health and life in the balmy breeze, And healing virtue in the herbs and trees. Indigo, logwood and the cochineal, Richest dyes indigenous grow here. Vegetation is ever blooming fair, And stormy winter never enters there. The sloping hills and the fertile fields To the farmers the richest pasture yield. Fish abound in river, sea and stream, And game is plenty in this rich domain. Alligators, turtles, are abundant here, And in the forest the wild boar and the deer; Sea-cows, sea-wolves, sea-hogs here we find, Dolphins, mermaids gambol in the tide. The white heron flutters on the wing, The parrots talk but they never sing. RECIPROCITY. The mountain cows in numbers roam the plain, And here the monkey has lost his tail. The chattering monkey, imitative, gay, From tree to tree climbs and skips and plays; He lives secure from the winter's storm, Only cruel man fills him with alarm. Man is the foe of every creature, For all we know of animated nature. Mines of rubies, jacinths and diamonds pure, And silver mines that rival rich Peru. In her mountains the precious ores abound, Iron, copper and agate there is found. Mountains of rich quartz- the bloodstone shines With the rainbow colors sparkling in the mines. Here the turquois in their varied hue, Grand as the rainbow, green and deep-sea blue. Emeralds, topazes, sapphire, jasper, spar, For to gain them the Spaniards waged cruel war. Nicaragua with her salubrious clime, " El Paraiso del Mahoma is here. Brilliant flowers here are ever fair. And their sweet fragrance flow on the liquid air. Midst flowers and blossoms youth skip and play, No stormy winters chill the blood of age. In those balmy bowers all rejoice, Oh, happy land! "MLahoma'sparadise!" * Nicaragua, grand, divine the plan, To link two oceans with a ship canal; Grand, immortal will be thy future fate, Thy name well known to every state. And every ship that floats on the ocean wide, Will find safe transit o'er your silvery tide, From the polar seas to the Southern cross Your noble state in safety will pass. Ye gods! what president, grand and great, Will be the founder of this infant state; Who'll aid this great work-grand and sublime, And stamp his name on the fleet wings of time, That the historian, poet, and the sages Will hand his name to the remotest ages. The British flunkies may rave and sputter About Kinney, Walker fillibuster "- But Yankee pluck and Yankee enterprise Will soon possess "Mahoma's paradise." -Cudmore. ANNEXATION OF NICARAGUA. Nicaragua! What grand and glorious plan, To connect two oceans with a ship canal! Soon the world's commerce with its precious freight Will pass in safety thro' your golden gate. In your harbors soon will be unfurl'd, The sails of commerce of all the world. Nicaragua's wealth soon will be explored- Mountains of silver and of precious gold, RECIPROCITY. 43 Copper, iron, lead and gems of many hue - Agate, granite--marble, red, white, green and blue. This is the land for acquiring wealth, Its mineral springs give life and health. There the scenery is glorious and grand, Its enchantment rivals every land!- And arable land and flowery meads, Life-giving plants, grand and lofty trees! Oranges, lemons, pineapples here are found, Sugar and coffee of the best abound. Snugly sheltered from the wintry storm Flowers and blossoms bloom on every farm. There man is happy-far from snow and ice, Ah! happy land, Mahoma's paradise! There the sons of labor who toil and moil, Soon will possess that rich and virgin soil. American commerce soon will expand, And embrace Nicaragua in iron bands. Pan-American unity is the go And the doctrine of far-famed Monroe! Southward, southward, soon will be the rage, With the iron horse and the progress of the age. Hurrah! for American civilization, And for Nicaragua's annexation! A loud hurrah for the Pan-American plan, Ho! Nicaragua! go South, go South, who can. -Cudmore. CHAPTER IV. SOUTH AMERICA. BRAZIL. Reciprocity with Brazil is grounded upon a free market in the United States for coffee, sugar, molasses and hides. In return a large class of American food products and a limited number of manufactures are admitted without duty, and a reduction of twenty-five per cent is made upon a mixed schedule of pro- visions and manufactures. The free list includes: Wheat, flour, barley, potatoes, beans, peas, hay, oats, salt, pork, bacon (ex- cept hams), cottonseed oil, anthracite and bituminous coal, resin, tar, pitch, turpentine, agricultural tools and machinery, mining and mechanical imple- ments, and all machinery for manufacturing and industrial purposes, except sewing machines, scientific instruments and railroad construction material. This reduction of twenty-five per cent applies to lard, hams, butter, cheese, canned and preserved meats, fish, fruits and vegetables, to manufactures of cotton, iron and steel, to leather and its manufactures (except boots and shoes), to lumber and manufactures of wood, to furniture of all kinds, wagons, carts, carriages, and to the manufacture of rubber. Reciprocity with Brazil is important, as the country lies within the tropics. Its area is 3,209,878 English square miles. It is divided into one federal dis- trict and twenty states. Its population in 1872 was 9,930,478; with an Indian population of 600,000, principally in the northern states. In four states negroes are numerous. In the seaports the population is chiefly of European descent. Brazil is holding out great inducements to immigrants. Of the immigrants in 1889, more than fifty per cent (or 34,920) was Italian and about twenty- seven per cent Portuguese. In 1889, the number of private and public schools was 7,500, with a total attendance of 300,000. The natural resources of the country are undeveloped; only a small part of the soil is under cultivation. Coffee and sugar are the chief products of the country. Both its forests and mines are of great value, but scarcely anything has been done to bring them into use. Iron abounds, but the lack of coal in the vicinity prevents the working of mines in the interior on a large scale. In 1888 the cotton mills numbered ninety, and the number is increasing. There are about 17,000,000 head of cattle. The coffee is cultivated princi- pally in three provinces, and its value in 1887 was $65,000,000. In 1889, the railways were of a total length of 5,582 English miles; 984 miles were in process of construction, and about 5,000 miles projected. The commerce of Brazil is principally with Great Britain, the United States, France and Germany. The principal articles of import in order of their value are: Cotton goods, wines and spirits, preserved meats and fish, woolen goods, farinaceous food, iron, steel, coal and manufactures of hides and leather. The exports of the country are coffee, india-rubber, sugar, raw cotton, hides and tobacco. In 1886-1887 the exports of coffee from Rio" alone were 413,756,000 pounds. The government levies an export duty on certain national products and import duties are high. RECIPROCITY. The trade with Brazil is valuable. It stands next to the United States in population, having 14,000,000 of people. It has an area greater than the United States without including Alaska. Of the export trade the United States has the largest share, taking nearly one-half of the coffee, sugar, hides and rubber. Of the import trade England gets about one-half. The United States buys from $58,000,000 to $60,000,000 worth of her raw materials annually and sells her only about $8,000,000 worth of our products. The reason for the present condition of Brazil is the lack of transportation facilities. Trade follows the means of communication. There are five steamer lines making regular voyages from Brazil to the United States and a number of tramp steamers making irregular trips, while there is but one line of American steamers bringing coffee, sugar, rubber and hides. The exports from Brazil to the United States during the fiscal year of 1888 and 1889 were brought in 71 American vessels and 497 foreign vessels. Our exports to Brazil were sent in 75 American vessels of 63,000 tons, and 151 foreign vessels, mostly sailing ships, of 83,000 tons. Most of the latter were small sailing craft and were partially loaded. Of our imports from Brazil, $43,000,000 were brought in foreign vessels and $10,000,000 in American vessels, while nine-tenths of our exports were carried in American vessels. With the establishment of adequate means of communication and a reci- procity treaty under which our peculiar products are to be admitted free of duty to Brazil, our trade with that country is expected to increase. Our exports to Brazil now consist chiefly of breadstuffs to the value of $3,000,000; provisions to the value of $500,000, cotton goods to the value of $700,000, iron and steel to the value of $700,000, petroleum to the value of $800,000, and lumber and furniture to the value of $400,000. The following are Bra- zilian citizens: 1. Natives of Brazil, though of foreign parentage (father), provided he be not in the service of his nation 2. Sons of a Brazilian father and illegitimate sons of a Brazilian mother, born in foreign parts, if they take up their residence (domicile) in the republic. 3. Sons of a Brazilian father, who may be in another country in the service of the republic, although they do not make their domicile in Brazil. 4. Foreigners who, being in Brazil on the fifteenth of November, 1889, shall not declare, within Six months from the time when the constitution enters into force, their desire to preserve their original nationality. 5. Foreigners who possess property (real estate) in Brazil, and are married to Brazilian women and have Brazilian children, unless they shall declare, be- fore the proper authority, their intention of not changing their nationality. 6. Foreigners naturalized in any way. The laws relating to naturalization may be enacted solely by the federal congress. The Republic of Brazil occupies nearly half of the continent of South America. It is bounded on the north by Guiana, Venezuela and Colombia, on the northeast, east and southeast by the Atlantic ocean, on the west by Peru, Bolivia and Paraguay. Its greatest length is about 2,600 miles and the extent of its coast line nearly 3,800 miles. Brazil has the largest number of navigable rivers of any country in the world. The Amazon and its tributaries have over 40,000 miles of navigable waters. The Amazon basin is the most fertile and extensive timber plain in the world. Although Brazil is situated mainly in the torrid zone, the climate is agreeable and not unhealthful. Brazil, from the nature of her climate and productions, will have to import her breadstuffs and provisions mainly from the United States. The West Indies, Central America, a part of Mexico and all of South America except a part of Chili and the Argentine Republic, have tropical or semi-tropical cli- mates, consequently they will not be wheat-growing countries. As their popu- lation increases they will import vast quantities of breadstuffs and provisions RECIPROCITY. from the United States. In a few years Chili will not export wheat or flour, as her wheat-growing land is limited to a strip from 30 to 40 miles, between the Andes and the Pacific ocean. In Mexico the farms must be irrigated. The only country south of the United States to compete with her in breadstuffs and provisions is the Argentine Republic. Reciprocity will open the Southern markets to the American farmers. Now they will have two markets, where before reciprocity they had but the Euro- pean market. Europe can no longer set the price or dictate the price of the products of the American farmers. They will have a bettor market in their own country and in Latin America. The railroads running east and west will have to compete with railroads running north and south, as well as with vessels from the ports of Mobile, New Orleans and Galveston. The opposition be- tween railroads running east and west and roads running north and south, as well as the traffic by waterways, will cheapen transportation. This will in- crease business and enrich the farmers, manufacturers and business men. The vast business done by railroads will .compensate them for cheap freight and passenger fare. The capital is Rio de Janeiro VENEZUELA. Venezuela, next to Brazil, is one of the great sugar-producing and coffee- growing countries in South America. It is situated in the torrid zone, be- tween 1 degree 40 minutes south, and 12 degrees 26 minutes north, latitude. Its longitude, from the meridian of Caracas, is 10 degrees 20 minutes east and 6 degrees 25 minutes west. It is bounded on the north by the Caribbean sea and the Atlantic ocean, on the south by the Republic of Brazil and territory in dispute between Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, on the west by Colombia and on the east by British Guiana. Venezuela has an area of 632,695 square miles. It is three times the size of France and of Germany, five times that of Italy, and, excepting Russia, larger than any country in Europe; it is about one-seventh the size of the United States and could support a population of 100,000,000 of people. Its coast has an extent of 1,500 miles, indented by five gulfs. The territory of the republic is divided into three belts: cultivated, pastoral and the wooded. In the first are cultivated coffee, cocoa, sugar-cane, bananas, cotton, indigo, cocoanuts, Indian corn and all the products of the torrid zone, and many of those of the temperate zone. The cultivated regions are mostly extensive valleys, surrounded by high mountains and watered by abundant rivers. The pasture lands are vast plains where many kinds of grasses abound which are in many places traversed by rivers, some of which are navigable. The wooded belt is situated near the Orinoco, and contains rich gold mines. Here are produced, without the necessity of cultivation, caoutchouc, the tonka bean, copaiba, and other articles much prized in foreign markets. The great mountain chain of the Andes, which commences to the west of the straits of Magellan, after skirting the entire Pacific coast of South America, sends out two of its ranges toward Venezuela, their great altitudes furnishing varied climates. In the 1,500 miles of coast line, Venezuela has fifty coves and thirty-two ports, besides numerous anchorages. Among these ports there are some which could give anchorage to the combined fleets of Europe. The territory of Venezuela is traversed by 1,059 rivers, the greatest being the Orinoco, which is one of the greatest in the world. Its length is 1,300 miles, almost entirely navigable, and in some places being twelve miles wide. Its narrowest point is in the front of Bolivar City, and it there measures 3,000 feet in width, which is one-fourth of its average width. The Orinoco has many tributaries, rendering navigation to the neighboring republic of Colombia easy, and a branch, called the Casiquiare, unites it with the Negro RECIPROCITY. river, a great tributary of the Amazon. So that from the mouth of the Orinoco on the Atlantic there is established water communication which crosses Venezuela, Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru, and which goes far into Brazil. There are only two seasons in Venezuela-summer and winter. The first is dry and the latter is rainy, but the trees retain their verdure and produce the entire year as if it were perpetual spring. The climate of Venezuela is varied. On the coast it is hot, but there are never-failing breezes, and on the highlands it is cool and delightful, and there are localities where the mountains are covered with snow. Although Vene- zuela is situated in the tropic zone, the temperature does not rise as much as it does in corresponding latitudes of the North of Africa. The average heat reaches 80 degrees on the coast, and the highest temperature felt on the high- lands is 71 degrees. In some parts of the coast the climate is not healthy, but in the rest of the country it could not be surpassed. Venezuela is one of the richest republics of South America as regards natural resources and easy means of developing them, for although its territory is crossed by three mountain systems, their configuration presents many prac- ticable means of communication with the plains and valleys. The greatest wealth of Venezuela consists in her agriculture; coffee and cocoa are her principal products. The value of the annual export of coffee is estimated at $12,000,000, and that of cocoa, $3,000,000. The breeding of cattle is another source of wealth for Venezuela. There are at the present time in the country about 11,000,000 head of cattle. They roam over the plains all the year round. The exportation of hides amounts to $1,200,000 a year. The population of Venezuela is about 2,500,000, of which 326,000 are native Indians. It is divided into eight large states (each subdivided into sec- tions or districts), a federal district, eight territories and two national settle- ments. Venezuela abounds in mines of gold, silver, copper, iron, lead, quicksilver, coal, petroleum, asphalt, kaolin and several other minerals. The nation maintains 1,346 public schools, and there are besides municipal and private schools, national and private colleges, universities and the academy of arts and trades. Venezuela has prospered in building railroads; it has good telegraph and telephone service, and is connected with Europe and the United States by cable. Agriculture, cattle raising, mining and commerce attract capital, to which Americans contribute. Foreigners are well received here; and the greatest fortunes in this country have been made by foreigners. Venezuela is one of the South American republics which have increased their commerce with the United States in the last ten years. In 1880 Venezuela exported products to the United Strtes to the amount of $6,000,000, and im- ported merchandise to the amount of $2,270,000. In 1889 her exports to the United States amounted to more than $10,000,000. She bought in the same time merchandise valued at $5,000,000, which is more than she annually sells and buys from England, France, Germany and other nations. The direct steamship communication existing between Venezuela and the' United States has brought this about, and the friendly relations, daily growing closer, which unite the two republics, contribute to the growth of their mutual commerce. Venezuela has a high tariff on imports. The capital is Caracas. COLOMBIA. The Republic of Colombia is our next neighbor of the South American re- publics. Its trade and commerce is of importance to the farmers of the United States, as it lies within the tropics and can be reached by steamers from the Gulf ports and the Atlantic cities. The Panama Railroad passes over it at the RECIPROCITY. isthmus, connecting the commerce of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The republic occupies the northwestern portion of South America. It is bounded on the north by the Caribbean sea, on the east by Venezuela, south by Brazil and Ecuador, and west by the Pacific ocean. It is traversed by three great Andean ranges and many navigable rivers. The climate varies with the eleva- tion; the coast is hot and tropical vegetation rank, but toward the mountain- tops the products of the temperate zones grow to perfection. The mineral wealth of Colombia is great. Gold and silver are known to be abundant, and the best emeralds known are found in the State of Boyaca. The area is about 504,773 English square miles, and the population (1881) 3,878,600, including 220,000 uncivilized Indians and 80,000 of the population of the territories. Bogota, the capital, 8,564 feet above the level of the sea, has a population of over 100,000. There are two universities, several colleges and technical schools, 16 normal and 1,278 primary schools, with an average attendance of 75,029 pupils. The revenue is mainly from custom duties. Colombia has made some progress in railroads since 1888, when there were only 148 miles of railway under construction. The means of foreign communication are by the way of the Port of Savanilla. There are seven lines of steamers touching monthly at the port; of these four carry the English flag, one is German, one is Spanish, and the other French. The inland navigation is furnished by the Magdalena river and its tributaries. The value of imports into Colombia for the year 1888 reached 11,777,624 pesos, and the exports 16,199,718 pesos, making a total of 27,977,342 pesos. The imports at the free ports of the isthmus are not included. The larger part of the imports are of European manufacture, and the principal articles imported comprise cotton goods, linen, woolens, iron, wrought and unwrought, clothing and small fancy articles. The peso is valued at seventy-seven cents United States gold. Colombia imported from the United States, in 1889, wheat flour, iron and steel manufactures, provisions (comprising meat and dairy products), manu- factures of cotton, wood and its manufactures, refined sugar, drugs, chemicals, dyes and medicines, and all other articles amounting to $3,728,961. The capital is Bogota. The country is intersected bythree ranges of the Andes, known as Western, Central and Eastern Cordilleras. The latter is by far the largest, consisting of a series of vast tablelands, cool and healthy. This temperate region is the most densely populated portion of the confederation. Its forests are extensive; among the trees are mahogany, cedar, fustic and other dyewoods and medici- nal plants. Its mineral productions are gold, silver, copper, iron, lead, coal and precious stones. Its agricultural products consist of tobacco, coffee, cocoa, plantains, bananas, vegetable ivory, indigo and cereals. Its manufactures for home consumption consist of woolen and cotton stuffs. The plains yield large quantities of hides; jerked beef is obtained from cattle feeding. The chief exports are the precious metals, cinchona bark, tobacco, coffee, cocoa, hides, caoutchouc, straw and dyewoods. ECUADOR. Ecuador is bounded on the north by Colombia, on the south by Peru, on the west by the Pacific ocean and on the east by Brazil. The climate is varied; on the coast it is hot, and as the elevation increases until it reaches 11,000 feet, perpetual snow is reached. The cultivated lands are in the Quito Valley, Ambato Valley and Cuenca Valley, where there is spring the year round. The country is undeveloped for lack of transportation facilities. The republic is divided into seventeen districts. Its population is 1,004,657, besides a great many uncivilized Indians. There is a university in Quito and colleges in other cities. There are 856 schools, 1,137 teachers and 52,839 students. Primary education is compulsory. RECIPROCITY. The exports for 1887 were $7,286,031 and the value of imports $8,253,016. Cocoa, india-rubber, coffee, cinchona bark, vegetable ivory and some of the precious metals are exported, principally to Great Britain, and the principal imports consist of cotton goods and wearing apparel. The United States, in 1891, exported to Ecuador provisions, meat and dairy products, iron and steel and manufactures of, cotton, wheat flour, drugs, chemi- cals, dyes, leather and manufactures of, jewelry, etc., amounting to $714,924, and imported from the republic, cocoa, india-rubber and crude gutta-percha, coffee, hides and skins, amounting to $533,994. It has fifty miles of railroad. Ecuador is connected by wire with Colombia and by cable with the world. There is an internal river communication by wayof the rivers Guayes, Daule and Vinces and other streams which flow into the Amazon. Its area is 118,630 square miles. Quito, the capital, has a population of 80,000 inhabitants. BOLIVIA. The republic is divided into 9 departments, which are subdivided into 44 provinces. Its area is 784,554 square miles. Its population is 2,333,350, of whom 1,000,000 are Indians of pure blood, 700,000 half castes, and the other 600,000 of Creoles, descendants of Europeans. Public schools, 460, with an at- tendance of 25,460 children. There are 19 colleges and 4 universities. The wealth of the country is very great. In the animal kingdom there are in the cold regions the alpaca, the llama, the guanaco, the vicuna, the chinchilla, the nutria, and other fur-bearing animals, the hairy goat, also cattle, horses and mules. The African dromedary is acclimated in the south of Bolivia, where he lives and breeds. In the hot regions there are found besides the ordinary cattle, the sloth, the auta (or great beast), a great variety of deer, birds of all kinds, and many kind of fish in full-flowing rivers. The vegetable kingdom is also extremely rich and varied, furnishing very fine cabinet, dye and building woods. The coca, whose medicinal properties the pharmacopeia utilizes as the best local anaesthetic, the coffee of Tungas, which competes with that of Mocha; vanilla, sugar-cane, gum elastic, or caout- chouc, corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes, yucca, plantains, cinchona, jalap, sarsa- parilla, matico, tamarind, palma christi, copaiba, ipecacuana, gum arabic, camphor, tobacco, balsam, cotton, cork-tree, wax-tree, the canamo, quillay, or vegetable soap, linseed, agave, hemp, etc. Gold, silver and copper ore found in abundance; tin, lead, bismuth, mer- cury, platinum, iron, zinc, coal, rock, crystal or alum, magnetic ore, talc.. Of the precious stones are emeralds, opals, agates, lapis lazuli, alabaster, berenguela, jasper, marbles of all kinds and colors, slate, pumice-stone, granite, syenite, porphyry, basalt, chalk, saltpeter, borax, common salt and magnesia. Bolivia imports her foreign products through the Peruvian port of Arica, the Amazon, and the Plata river. The direct trade between the United States and Bolivia is small, in conse- quence of the cost of transportation. The trade of Bolivia is with England, France and Germany. Bolivia has a telegraph communication with the Argentine Republic; on the north, Peru. The railroad from the Argentine Republic will soon reach the Bolivian fron- tier. The railway line, which starts at Antofagasta, has nearly reached Oruro, situated in the centre of the elevated plateau of Bolivia, more than 400 miles from Antofagasta. A concession has just been made for the extension of a Bolivian line from Arequipa, Mollendo and Puno as far as La Paz. The climate is healthful. With a railroad connecting the three Americas and reciprocity the United States will have an extensive trade with Bolivia. La Paz is the capital. RECIPROCITY. PARAGUAY. Paraguay is situated in the central part of South America, between 22 degrees 4 minutes and 27 degrees 35 minutes south latitude and 54 de- grees 32 minutes and 58 degrees 40 minutes of west longitude. It is di- vided by the Paraguay river into eastern and western Paraguay, or, as the latter is called, Chaco. It is completely surrounded by the republics of Brazil, Argentine, Bolivia and Uruguay, from which it is partly separated by the rivers Parana, Paraguay and Pilcomayo, and from Brazil by the river Apa and a range of hills not over 2,200 feet above the level of the sea. Paraguay is about the size of England and one-twenty-fifth that of the United States. Arable land, 42,600; hills and forests, 27,000; yerba fields, 5,000; besides 15,360 miles of private lands, making a total of90,000 square miles. There are about 500,000 acres under cultivation. The population is 430,000, besides a large number of uncivilized Indians. In 1887 there were 138 public schools, with an attendance of 15,180 scholars. The customs duties are very high. In 1887 there were 730,000 sheep, 32,000 horses, 62,000 goats and other domestic animals. Besides yerba, the principal products are tobacco, corn, rice, manioc, cotton and sugar. In 1887 there were about 158,100 acres of land under cultivation. There is no country in the world with a greater variety of woods of all kinds applicable to industry. Among the indigenous textile plants is cotton, ramie, jute, palm, pineapple, mapajo and other fibrous plants. Copaiba, rhubarb, sassafras, sarsaparilla, nux vomica and licorice. Animals-the monkey, tapir, peccary, armadillo, carpincho, deer, tiger cat, nutria, chinchilla. Birds, in endless variety, fill the air with their songs. The rivers abound with fish. The sea fowl, wild geese and ducks and the American ostrich abound. Minerals-quartz, agate, onyx, granite, basalt, saltpetre, white clay, car- bonates, gypsum, kaolin, magnesium, iron, copper and quicksilver. From Asuncion to Villa Rica is a railway ninety-two miles in length, with a telegraph connecting Asuncion with the Argentine Republic. Several fine lines of steamers connect Paraguay with Buenos Ayres and Montevideo, through which ports the commerce of Paraguay is carried on. Imports- the raw material produced in Paraguay is exported to, and manu- factured articles are imported generally from, Montevideo and Buenos Ayres, which monopolize the trade with Paraguay. The exports are yerba, mate, tobacco, cigars, hides, oranges, timber, starch, preserved fruits, lumber, railway sleepers, essences, sarsaparilla, horsehair, ostrich plumes and deerskins. Im- ports, sugar, fodder, flour, salt, beer, wine, crockery, calicoes and all kinds of dry goods. The following are on the free list: Machinery, agricultural implements, seeds, mineral, coal, bar iron, printing presses and types, books, typographical and lithographic appliances, scientific articles, art materials, soda, etc. These imports may be proportioned as follows: From England forty-eight per cent, and the remainder from France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Argentine Republic, Uruguay and Belgium. Asuncion is the capital. PERU. Peru is situated between latitude 3 degrees 25 minutes and 18 degrees south, longitude 67 degrees 30 minutes and 81 degrees 20 minutes west, having Ecuador on the north, Bolivia and Brazil on the east, on the south Chili and on the west the Pacific ocean. The climate of Peru is agreeable and healthful in the interior. In summer the temperature ranges from 80 to 84 degrees and in the winter from 60 to 64 degrees Fahrenheit; the climate of the coast is sultry and the soil for the greater part arid and destitute of timber. RECIPROCITY. There are 1,177 primary schools. The principal income was formerly derived from custom duties and the sale of guano. There are two forms of direct taxation--a poll tax for every man between the ages of twenty-one and sixty years, and a tax on the rental from real estate at the rate of three per cent. The revenue in 1889 and 1890 was derived from customs, direct taxes, railways, postoffices and telegraphs. Its area is 463,747 English square miles. Its population, 2,621,844, not in- cluding 350,000 uncivilized Indians. Minerals, the salt deposit on the coast, near Huacho, some 50 miles from Callao, and at Sechura, on the northern coast, is sufficient for all of the American continent. It is formed into masses by percolation of the sea through a peculiar porous rock. Sulphur, gypsum, petroleum, cinnabar, coal, silver and gold are abundant. Arable lands of Peru are very limited compared with the extent of desert and mountain; the great bulk of the lands cultivated is on the coast and in the Sierra. Sugar is the most extensive crop planted. In the northern coast provinces the cane is set but once in six years; in the latitude of Lima once in three years. Cotton is quite an important crop. In the north it grows on a tree which bears when two years old, and continues bearing perennially for any number of years. On the same plant may be seen the flower, the boll and the full-blown pod. This growth is of coarse texture and is used largely for admixture with wool. In the south the cotton grows as in the United States. Rice grows on the north- ern lowlands. Grapes, the finest in the world, grow in the southern provinces of Ica and Mocagua. Coffee is of a very fine quality; it grows in the lower levels anywhere. Irish potatoes grow anywhere-they grow wild. Corn grows everywhere except on the greatest elevations. Wheat is grown in certain localities of the Sierra, but it is little cultivated. Barley is grown in the Sierra for pasture; the cold does not permit it to ripen. Oats are grown in limited quantity on the mountains. Coca, of which cocaine is made, grows wild, and is cultivated to a considerable extent; it flourishes best in the hot, deep valleys of the Eastern Cordillera. Wool is an important product, chiefly of the moun- tain districts. A good deal of low-grade stock is reared in some mountain dis- tricts. Cinchona, or Peruvian bark, grows here. The coast country and the sheltered valleys of the mountains and the regions east of the Cordillera Are rich in fruits and vegetables, which are abundant the year round. Caucho, or india-rubber, is the chief export from the forest of Montana though there are many others, including sarsaparilla and ivory nuts. Peru has 1,625 miles of railway and 1,382 miles of telegraph wires. It has cable communication with the whole world. The commerce of Peru is mainly with Great Britain, but of late years it has considerable trade with Germany. The principal imports are machinery, cotton, coal and woolen goods. The exports are guano, cubic niter, sugar, wool, ores and raw cotton. Peru imported from the United States in 1890 iron and steel manufactures, wood and manufactures of, provisions (meat and dairy products), mineral oils, refined, chemicals, drugs and dyes amounting to $773,244. With a railway connecting that country with the United States, the completion of the Nicargua canal, and reciprocity, the Unites States will have a good trade with Peru. Grace Brothers of New York have rented the railroad from Lima to Oroyo, in the Andes, and the Cerro del Pasco silver mines, the richest in the world. This railway crosses the Andes at an elevation of 15,046 feet above the level of the sea. When completed, it will reach Puno in Bolivia. Another railway starts from the port of Mollendo, on the Pacific, and is com- pleted to Bolivia. It has an elevation of 14,050 feet above the level of the sea. It is 325 miles long and cost $135,000 per mile. The silver yields from $40 to $100 per ton, and the cost of working it is about $3 per ton. When the railway reaches this mine it will make cheap silver. The capital is Lima. RECIPROCITY. CHILI. The Republic of Chili extends from Pern to Cape Horn, 2,600 miles; its breadth, from 40 to 200 miles. Chili is bounded on the north by Peru, on the west and south by the Pacific ocean, on the east by the Argentine Republic. It enjoys a variety of climate, from the tropical heat of Atacama to the perpetual winter of Cape Horn. The fruits of the several zones abound. The country is divided into twenty-three provinces and one territory. Its area is 293,970 English square miles. Its population, in 1889, 2,665,926, and 50,000 Indians. Chili has 1,029 schools with an attendance of 84,385 pupils. The public revenue is mainly derived from custom duties. The products of the country are mineral and agricultural. About 21,000,000 bushels of wheat are raised annually, besides other grains, fruits and vegetables, including figs and grapes. Over 500,000 head of cattle and 2,000,000 sheep and goats are born every year. The produce of niter in 1888 was 800,000 tons. Gold, silver, copper and coal are mined in great quantities. The deposits of copper are inexhaustible. The country produces mercury, iron, zinc, nickel, antimony, arseniG, bismuth, manganese, sulphur, iodine, borate of soda and cobalt. There are a number of flour mills and other manufacturing establishments, sugar refineries, woolen and paper mills. Chili has 1,748 miles of railway, and in 1889, 10,640 miles of telegraph; 7,030 belongs to the republic. A railway starts from Valparaiso, on the Pacific coast, across the Andes by Santa Rosa and Cumbra Pass, at an elevation of 15,000 feet above sea-level. It reaches Mendoza, in the Argentine Republic. The distance from Mendoza to Buenos Ayres is about the distance from St. Louis to New York. Great Britain has most of the trade with Chili. The principal exports from Chili are copper, wheat, barley, wool, etc. In 1888 the United States exported to Chili to the amount of 3,133,173 pesos. With the completion of the Nica- ragua canal, ocean facilities and reciprocity, the United States will have a large trade with Chili. The capital is Santiago. URUGUAY. Uruguay, or Banda Oriental del Uruguay, is bounded on the north and north- east by Brazil, east by the Atlantic ocean, south by the Rio de la Plata, and west by the Uruguay river,which separates it from the Argentine Republic. It is in latitude 30 degrees to 35 degrees south, longitude 53 degrees to 58 degrees west. It is a vast undulating plain, well watered by fine navigable streams. The central part of the republic is broken by hill ranges, which are composed of clay, slate, gneiss and granite. The climate is generally humid, but tem- perate and healthy. The plains have vast herds of cattle and horses. Its area is 72,110 English square miles. Its population is 648,299. The country is divided into nineteen provinces. There are 330 public schools and 32,731 pupils. Cattle and sheep raising is the chief industry of the country. Its mild climate and vast pasture lands show annually a great increase of stock. The soil is capable or great agricultural development. Maize, wheat, tobacco, olives and grapes are grown. There are mines of gold, silver, copper, lead and marble. There are over sixty varieties of marble. In 1889 there were 445 miles of rail- way and 2,234 miles of telegraph. Europe has the monopoly of trade with Uruguay. In Paysandu there is an American firm having connections in Baltimore, which is doing a successful business. This firm imports pitch pine, white pine, spruce, kerosene, resin, shooks, cotton goods, sugar, ropes, machinery for factories, mainly from Chicago. RECIPROCITY. The principal exports to the United States are: Bones, bone ash, dry cow- hides, dry skins, salted hides, calfskins, horse hair. Uruguay exported in 1889: Wool, value, 9,150,000 pesos; hides and skins, value, 7,039,000 pesos; meats, 3,826,000 pesos; and tallows, 1,926,000 pesos. Uruguay imported from the United States, in 1890, wood and manufac- tures of breadstuffs, mineral oils (refined), iron and steel, and manufactures of agricultural implements, cotton, manufactures of chemical drugs, dyes, pro- visions, comprising meat and dairy products, amounting to $2,027,383. The capital is Montevideo. With reciprocity and cheap ocean transporta- tion, the United States will have a large trade with this republic. THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. The Argentine Republic is bounded on the north by Bolivia, on the east by Brazil and Uruguay and the Atlantic ocean, on the south by the Atlantic ocean and Chili, and on the west by the Andes, which separates it from Chili. It extends from latitude 21 degrees to 55 degrees south, a distance of 2,400 miles, and is mostly included between 53 degrees and 70 degrees west latitude. Its average breadth is 700 miles. The climate is healthy, the soil fertile, valuable forests lie along the river banks, and on the extensive plains millions of sheep and cattle roam. By a treaty negotiated some years ago, the archipelago of Terra del Fuego was divided between Chili and the Argentine Republic. The islands are in- habited mostly by tribes of wild Indians, who are said to be cannibals. Re- cently, gold has been discovered in that portion of the islands belonging to the Argentine Republic, and several mines have been worked there. The resources of the Argentine Republic are great. It is one of the most prosperous of the South American Republics. Its area is 1,125,086 English square miles. Its population in 1887 was 4,046,654. The number of foreigners in the republic, in 1887, was 600,000--280,000 Italians, 150,000 French, 100,000 Spaniards, 40,000 English, 20,000 Germans. Buenos Ayres, in 1889, had a population, including the suburbs, of 538,385, of whom 150,000 are foreigners. In 1888 there were 3,227 public schools, with 254,608 pupils. The value of the harvest in 1889 amounted to $100,552,000 gold. In 1888 there were 4,398,000 horses, 22,869,000 oxen and 70,453,000 sheep. The length of railways in 1889 was 6,940 miles, which connect the principal cities with the capital. In 1889 there were 28,550 miles of telegraph. The commerce is with Great Britain, France, Germany and other European countries and with the United States, as well as with the other republics of South America. The exports are wool, tallow, hides, skins, bones, cattle, sheep, agricultural products and minerals. The imports are wearing apparel, textiles, canned goods, iron manufactures, tools, furniture, liquors of all kinds, railway and telegraph materials, machin- ery, pottery, crockery, glassware, coal, coke, oil, chemicals, toilet and fancy articles. The Argentine Republic imported from the United States, in 1890, wood and manufactures of, iron and steel and manufactures of, agricultural imple- ments, mineral oils (refined), carriages, horse and railroad cars, cotton (manu- factures of), chemicals, drugs, dyes, tobacco and manufactures of, provisions (comprising dairy products), to the amount of $8,376,077. The capital is Buenos Ayres. With increased ocean steamship communication between the United States and the Argentine Republic there will spring up a lively trade with that im- portant and progressive country. RECIPROCITY. SOUTH AMERICA. Chimborazo's grand and lofty cones, Where the snows of centuries ever blow, Its snow-capped domes soaring to the sky, Where the eagle and the condor fly. Grand the scenery! Enchanted is the view! The land of the Inca-far-famed Peru! Land of copper, silver and of gold; El Dorado in time will be explored, And verdant valleys and fertile plains Will grow sugar and the golden grain. Peruvian air is ever fair and clear; Fogs and fevers never enter here. Life-giving perfumes are wafted on the breeze From sweet perfumes and aromatic trees. This is the land of beauty and of health And rich Potosi, with its mineral wealth. There the llama furnishes as fine a coat As the Canadian beaver and the Syrian goat. The emerald and the pearl there abound; In abundance guano rare is found. Peru's tropical clime and mineral wealth- This is the land for avarice and health. The tide of immigration will advance To these golden realms of old romance; The tide of commerce in wild commotion Soon will float in the Southern ocean. The tropic sun casts its golden sheen- Caxamilcas Valley broad and green. The vale of Cusco like a fairy land, Its scenery is beautiful and grand. In the mountains is hidden treasure, Which future miners will work with pleasure. From the Andes to the Atlantic side The Amazon in stately grandeur glides. The Amazon Valley with its forest plain - Rich and fertile is its broad domain! And its luxuriant vegetation Is the richest in creation! Brazil is famous for its rivers wide, And for gold and silver-precious mines. Iron, copper, lead and tin abound. Brilliant diamonds in her mines are found; Vast are her forests, fertile are her plains, Her table-land is arable for grain. Her tropic fruits, flowers and sweet perfumes, There the birds display their brilliant plumes; There grow the sugar, cotton, tea and rice, Tobacco, lemons, oranges and the lime, And on her highlands and on the Atlantic coast, A healthful climate is the people's boast. RECIPROCITY. SRio's" fine harbor-on its silvery tide Merchant ships there in safety ride. Rio Janeiro is this beautiful town, For excellent coffee has won renown. The sails of commerce of the Southern world. In this fine harbor will be unfurled. South America will be grand and free, Land of the Spaniards and the Portuguese. Venezuela's forest and prairie land, And her mountains with their golden sand - And where the Orinoco in grandeur glides, Nature's wealth the immigrant invites! On her llanos rich and fertile ground, Cotton, sugar and coffee there abound; Tobacco, indigo, fruits and flowers, And rich spices and enchanted bowers. Pineapples, olives and the cocoanut tree, Almonds, lemons, bananas and the bean, Palm, rosewood and the india-rubber tree And rich dyewood ever flourish there, And sweet fragrance is wafted on the breeze From orange groves, flowers and balmy trees. Bounteous nature's rich and virgin soil, Will repay the husbandman's daily toil. Cattle and horses scamper o'er the plain, For snow and frost never chill the air; In Buenos Ayres the air is good and clear, For no malaria ever enters here. And Chili with its salubrious clime, And Bolivia with its silver mines, Beds of niter and Peruvian bark And other trees and valuable plants. The La Plata and the Parana, Their placid floods flowing to the sea. The Plata Valley-its fertile lands Invite millions to this sunny strand. Now where wild cattle in freedom roam Will flourish farms and many a happy home, Far from the storms and the northern snow, And the terrors of the frigid zone! Paraguay and its Eden bowers, Its medical plants and sweet flowers; And where mild zephyrs are wafted on the breeze Through orange groves, flowers and forest trees. In this land nature has stored great wealth, And its mild climate gives both life and health; And where monkeys climb from tree to tree, In abundance grows the native tea! The sails of commerce of all the world On the "Rio Plata" soon will be unfurled. Montevideo, the city of good health, And Uruguay is a land of wealth. Here rich pasture lands and rich virgin soil Yield abundance without toil and moil! Droughts, cyclones, tornadoes, are unknown, And the terrors of the winter's snow. Man is remote from snow, frost and ice, Ah! happy land, Eden's paradise! -Cudmore. CHAPTER V. RECIPROCITY WITH THE BRITISH WEST INDIES. While the free trade English and American papers were making so much noise about "freedom of trade," the tariff laws of the British West Indies were framed to discriminate against the United States in favor of Canada and England. In the Leeward islands (consisting of the islands of Antigua, Montserrat, St. Christopher, Nevis and Dominica, with their respective dependencies, and the Virgin islands) a tax of 23 per cent was levied on American flour, and 8 per cent on English cotton goods. Canadian fish was taxed 7 per cent, and Ameri- can pork 18 per cent, and American salt beef 20 per cent. In the Leeward is- lands the United States takes 79 and England 9 per cent of the total exports of that group. In return the United States supplies 33 and England 62 per cent of the imports. This result was produced by low duties on English manufactures and high duties on importation of American food products. The average rate of duties on American food was 351 in comparison with 8, the average rate on English imports. The free list favored English against American imports in the pro- portion of 10 to 1. The same principles applied to the entire group of the British West Indies, from which England buys 40 per cent, and sells in return 58 per cent, while the United States buys 58 per cent and sells 32 per cent. The tariffs of these islands are virtually devised by the British governors, sent out to rule over them and make them self-supporting. England's policy involves cheap food at home and dear food for her colonies. The British West Indies have been governed at the expense of American exports. The United States gives a large measure of free trade to the British West Indies. Under reciprocity treaties these islands will have cheap food. The British West Indies were forced to make reciprocity agreements with the United States, when the treaties with Brazil, Cuba and Porto Rico were pro- claimed. Barbadoes took the lead. The colonies of British Guiana and Trinidad followed. Next followed the colonies of the Leeward and Windward islands. The Windward islands consti- tute St. Lucia, St. Vincent and their dependencies. Reciprocity with the colony of Jamaica shows that the duties have been re- duced 25 and 50 per cent, or wholly removed from articles which comprised dutiable exports from the United States to that colony during the year ending March 31, 1891. Reciprocity with the British West Indies will cheapen food supplies to the population and cheapen sugar and coffee to the people of the United States. Feb. 5, 1892, President Harrison issued a proclamation announcing that re- ciprocal trade relations were established with the British West Indies. That the agreement went into effect on the first day of February, 1892, as far as it re- lates to Trinidad and Tobago, Barbadoes, the Leeward islands and the Wind- ward islands. Schedule A-Articles to be admitted free of all custom duties, and any other national, colonial or municipal charges: Animals, alive, to include only asses, sheep, goats, hogs and poultry, and horses for breeding; beef, including tongues, smoked and dried; beef and pork preserved in cans; belting for machinery, or leather, canvas or india-rubber; boats and lighters; books bound, or unbound, pamphlets, newspapers, and 56 RECIPROCITY. printed matter in all languages; bones and horns; bottles of glass or stoneware; brans, middlings and shorts; bridges of iron or wood, or both combined; brooms, brushes and whisks of broom straw; candles, tallow; carts, wagons, cars and barrows, with or without springs, for ordinary roads and agricultural use, not including vehicles of pleasure; clocks, mantel or wall; copper, bronze, zinc and lead articles, plain and nickel plated, for industrial and domestic uses and for building; cottonseed and its products; crucibles and melting pots of all kinds; eggs; fertilizers of all kinds, natural and artificial; fish, fresh or in ice, and salmon and oysters in cans; fishing apparatus of all kinds; fruits and vege- tables, fresh and dried, when not canned, tinned or bottled; gas fixtures and pipes; gold and silver coin of the United States and bullion; hay and straw for forage; houses of wood, complete; ice; india-rubber and gutta-percha goods, in- cluding waterproof clothing made wholly or in part thereof; implements, utensils and tools for agriculture, exclusive of cutlasses and forks; lamps and lanterns; lime of all kinds; locomotives, railway rolling stock, rails, railway ties, or all materials and appliances for railways and tramways; marble and alabaster, in the rough or squared for building purposes or monuments; medi- cinal extracts and preparations of all kinds, including proprietary or patent medicines, but exclusive of quinine or preparations of quinine, opium, gauge or bhang; paper of all kinds for printing; paper of wood or straw, for wrapping and packing, including surface coated or glazed; photographic apparatus and chemicals; printer's ink, all colors, printing presses, types, rules and shapes, and all accessories for printing; quicksilver; resin, tar, pitch and turpentine; salt; sewing machines and all parts and accessories thereof; ship building materials and accessories of all kinds, when used in the construction, equip- ment or repair of vessels or boats of any kind, except rope and cordage of all kinds, including wire rope; starch of Indian corn or maize; steam and power engines and machines, machinery and apparatus, whether stationary or porta- ble, worked by power or by hand, for agriculture, irrigation, mining, the arts and industries of all kinds, and all necessary parts and appliances for the erection or repair thereof or the communication of motive power thereto; steam boilers and steam pipes; sulphur; tan bark of all kinds, whole or ground; telegraph wire, telegraphic, telephonic and electrical apparatus and appliances of all kinds for communication or illumination; trees, plants, vines and seed and grains of all kinds, for propagation or cultivation; varnish, not containing spirits; wall papers; watches, when not cased in gold and silver, and watch movements uncased; water pipes of all classes, materials and dimensions: wire for fences, with hooks, staples, nails and the like appliances for fastening the same; yeast cake and baking powders; zinc, tin and lead in sheets and tar paper for roofing. It is understood that the packages or cover- ing in which the articles named in the foregoing schedule are imported shall be free of duty if they are usual and proper for the purpose. Schedule B- Articles to be admitted at fifty per cent reduction of the duty designated in the respective customs tariff now in force in each of said colonies: Bacon and bacon hams; boots and shoes made wholly or in part of leather; bread and biscuit; cheese, lard and its compounds; mules, oleomargarine, shook and staves. Schedule C Articles to be admitted at twenty-five per cent reduction of the duty designated in the respective customs tariff now in force in each of said colonies: Beef, salted or pickled; corn or maize, cornmeal, flour of wheat; lumber of pitch pine in rough or prepared for buildings; petroleum and its products, crude or refined; pork, salt or pickled; wheat. It is understood that No. 4 of this schedule shall not apply to the colony of Trinidad, but it is stipulated that the duty on flour in said colony shall not exceed seventy-five cents per barrel. RECIPROCITY. Schedules applicable to Jamaica are different from the above in the follow- ing items: Schedule B excludes boots and shoes, mules, oleomargarine and shooks and staves, and includes butter. Lumber of pitch pine, in rough or prepared for buildings, to be reduced to nine shillings per 1,000 feet. Schedule C excludes flour of wheat and pine lumber. Jan. 2, 1892, the president issued his proclamation announcing reciprocity agreement between Salvador and the United States. Fifty articles which were subject to duty are admitted free. The agreement took effect Feb. 1, 1892. The following articles are admitted free of all customs, municipal and any other kind of duty: Animals for breeding purposes; corn, rice, barley and rye, beans; hay and straw for forage; fruits, fresh; preparations of flour in biscuit and crackers not sweetened; macaroni, etc.; roman cement, hydraulic lime, bricks, fire bricks, marble, dressed for furniture, statues, fountains, gravestones and for building purposes; plows and all other agricultural tools and implements; machinery of all kinds for the construction and equipment of railroads; materials of all kinds for the construction and operation of telegraphic and telephonic lines, material for lighting by electricity and gas; materials for the construction of warves; wood for building, for boxes, barrels; houses of wood or iron; wagons, carts, carriages, barrels, casks, tanks of iron for water supply; iron for build- ing; kettles for making salt and sugar; boats, sails and all other articles for vessels; printing materials and presses; printed books, pamphlets, maps and newspapers, and several other articles. Dec. 31, 1891, a reciprocity agreement was signed between Costa Rica and the United States. It has to be ratified by the congress of Costa Rica. President Harrison, through Secretary Blaine, has notified Austria-Hun- gary, Colombia, Hayti, Nicaragua, Honduras, Spain (for the Philippine islands), and Venezuela that, after March 15, 1892, he will issue his proclamation placing duties, as provided in the tariff of 1890, on the articles therein enumer- ated, the products of the above countries. March 15, 1892, President Harrison issued his proclamation, in accord- ance with the provisions of section 3 of the tariff act of 1890, known as the reciprocity section. A commercial arrangement with Nicaragua has already been accomplished. It is expected that Honduras will follow Nicaragua; also, Austria-Hungary and Spain (for the Philippine islands). This leaves only Colombia, Hayti and Venezuela subject to the action under the tariff law, and as to these countries the president, on the fifteenth of March, 1892, issued his proclamation, declaring the duties set forth in section 3 in force as to sugar, molasses, coffee and hides, the products of or imported from them. (See section 3 of the tarif act of 1890.) Germany and France have also made reciprocity treaties in accordance with the tariff act of 1890. The party opposed to Mr. Blaine's reciprocity policy should learn how European nations are protecting their manufactures and commerce by recipro- cal treaties. On the continent of Europe, under German influence, has been formed a zollverein. Germany, like England, lowers its duties on breadstuffs, meat, swine, butter, malt and wine on the general theory that its food product does not suffice for an increasing population. Austria-Hungary, whose agricultural products will have a large market. Germany furnishes equivalents in the reductions of duties on manufactures of iron, steel, paper, silk and other fabrics, in which German exports will be admitted on preferential terms. The same principles are embodied in the commercial treaties with Belgium and Italy. This zollverein corresponds in essential features with what has been attempted RECIPROCITY. 59 on this continent in the reciprocity policy of the Pan-American Congress. The Pan-American Congress, while declaring that a continental custom union on the broad basis was impracticable, strongly advised negotiation of reci- procity treaties between states. The United States acting upon this recom- mendation has arranged a scheme of partial reciprocity. The general effect is similar to that produced in Europe by the zollverein. Food products are cheapened in Brazil and the Spanish West Indies and also sugar and coffee in the United States, and at the same time American exports and manufactures are admitted into Southern markets on preferential terms. The effects of the zollverein upon American export trade cannot be immediately forecast. Europe is largely dependent upon American food supplies that these special provisions for facilitating exchanges on the continent will not be likely to diminish exports from this side. Russia and France are the chief granaries in Europe and these are excluded from the zollverein, which is hostile to them as the armaments of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy. Reciprocity with Germany on the basis of free sugar is a substantial gain for American export trade. Preferential trade treaties are the order of the day. Free trade is falling into disfavor. Soon England will stand alone as the advocate of free trade. France has also made a reciprocity treaty with the United States. Austria-Hungary and Guatemala have recently made reciprocity treaties with the United States. CHAPTER VI. IRELAND AND FREE TRAbE. IRISH VOTERS OF THE UNITED STATES, FREE TRADE RUINED IRELAND'S MANUFACTURES. CHE American free trade papers as well as the Democratic "tariff reform" papers endeavor to make the Irish voters of the United States believe that the present Cobden Club free trade measures are the same as the free trade advocated by Henry Grattan and his copatriots. It will be seen from the Irish statutes at large, that Ireland had to pay both import and export duties. That Henry Grattan and his copatriots wanted the Irish parliament to be free to regulate import and export duties, so as to pro- mote and protect the manufactures, trade and commerce of Ireland. They wanted freedom of trade with the world, in their own way, for the interest of Ireland-free from England's dictation; while England wanted such legisla- tion as would ruin the trade, manufactures and commerce of Ireland. The following is from the Irish statutes at large: . S. D. Export duties on Irish merchandise, beef, the barrel..................... 1 0 0 Candles, the hundred weight ................................. .. 1 0 0 Cheese, the hundred weight.................... .................................. 0 10 0 Barley, quarter, 8 bushels.................................... .................... 0 10 0 Beans, quarter, 8 bushels........................................ ............... 0 10 0 Malt, quarter, 8 bushels.................................................. 0 10 0 Oats, quarter, 8 bushels..................... ................ .. 0 6 8 Pease, quarter, 8 bushels......................................... 0 10 0 W heat, quarter, 8 bushels......................................................... 1 0 0 Rye, quarter, 8 bushels................................. .......... .. ... 0 10 0 Buckwheat, quarter, 8 bushels.................... ................................ 0 10 0 Codfish, the barrel........................ .......... 0 10 0 Salmon, the tun...... ............................... 8 0 0 Herrings, full fish barrel........ .............................. .............. 0 10 0 Sprats, the tun.................................... ....... ................ 0 10 0 Freezes, the yard .................... ........ ........ ............... 0 0 3 Garters, of worsted, 12 dozen............................ ........... ........ 0 2 6 Girdlers, of leather, 12 dozen............................ ............. 0 16 0 Glass, for windows, the chest...................................... ........ 0 10 0 Goose quills, the thousand........................................ 0 2 0 Haberdashery, 112 rounds............................................ .. 1 0 0 Hides, tanned or untanned, per hide ..................................... 0 10 0 Stag's horns, the hundred......... ........................................ 1 12 0 Horses, into England, Scotland, or English plantation, the piece...... 2 0 0 Horses, into foreign parts, the piece................... .. ....... 20 0 0 Hoops, for barrels, the thousand ........................................ 0 13 4 Hogs, alive, the piece..................... ............................. 0 1 0 Iron, wrought, axes, adzes, knives, scissors, carpenter tools, 112 bbs.. 0 10 0 Iron, the tun......................... .............. ... .. .................. 6 13 4 Lead ore, the tun........................................ ..................... 2 0 0 Linen shreds, the maund or fat.................................................. 2 0 0 Lead, cast or uncast, 20 hundred............................................ 20 0 0 60 RECIPROCITY. 61 S. D. Oatmeal, the barrel.................................................................... 0 6 8 Oxen, cows, steers, the head........................................................ 1 0 0 Pork, the barrel..................................................................... 1 10 0 Saffron, the pound..................................................................... 1 10 0 Sheep, the score, alive, into England.......................................... 2 6 0 Sheep's skins, with the wool, the hundred containing six score......... 20 0 0 Cat's skins, the hundred............................................................. 1 6 8 Soap, lard, Irish-making, 112 pounds........................................... 0 10 0 Steel, 112pounds...................................................................... 1 0 0 Sugar, 112 pounds..................................................................... 0 10 0 Tallow, 112 pounds.................................................................... 1 10 0 Tin, unwrought, 112 pounds........................................................ 7 6 8. Wax, Irish, 112 pounds .............................................................. 4 0 0, Hard wax, the pound................................................................. 0 2 0' Irish wool, into England, the stone containing 18 pounds............... 1 5 0' Broadcloth, the piece containing thirty-six yards......... ................. 3 6 8; Kersies and other stuffs ................................... 0 15 0) For every pack of linen yarn containing four hundred weight at six score to the hundred......................................................... 20 0 0) Goods inwards and outwards, not rated, to pay five pounds. Ireland had also to pay import duties, as follows: Coffee, the hundred weight........................................................ 20 0 0> Drapery (woolen) from foreign ports, per yard............................. 8 10 0> All other stuffs of wool from England, per yard.......................... ... 3 4; Thus discriminating in favor of the English manufacturers. White sugar, foreign, 112 lbs....................................................... 9 6 8 Refined, in England, 1121bs....................................................... 6 0 0O Thus discriminating in favor of the English manufacturers. Tobacco, Spanish and Brazil, per pound.................................... 0 10 03 Tobacco, from English plantations, per pound.............................. 0 1 8- Tin of Cornwall and Devonshire, per hundred weight.................... 2 0 0, Pewter, per hundred weight....................................................... 4 0 0. ' The term, "free trade," is of very recent origin in Great Britain and& Ireland, as appears from the following: "The rates of merchandise, that is to say, the subsidie of poundage, and' the subsidy of tunnage, as they are rated in this book, to be paid to the use of his Majesty, his heirs and successors, forever."--(Statutes of Ireland, Vol. I. page 524.) Thus, in the reign of Charles II., import duties are called rates inwards and. export duties are called rates outwards.-(Ib., page 524.) It will be seen that Ireland had to pay import and export duties for the benefit of the King of England. That the tariff laws and navigation acts were made to enrich the people of England and to impoverish the people of Ireland; yet some half-informed, but honest, people, are under a delusion as to the import of the term "free trade," as used and understood in the days of Grattan. The people of Ireland wanted export "free trade," the same as in the United States. The ruin of the Irish manufactures, trade and commerce caused the famine in Ireland in 1846-7-8-9-50. No patriotic independent Irishman should vote for the party that is hostile to the manufactures, trade and commerce of the United States. Thousands of Irishmen depend on labor and employment for their support. Every well-informed person knows that. what is manufactured in foreign countries does not give employment to the workingmen of the United States. The Irish vote can defeat the free traders. The head of the Democratic party is in the solid South combined with the Cobden Club in London, England. Morrison, Carlisle, Cleveland and Mills follow the arguments of the Cobden Club. Daniel O'Connell and Smithl O'Brien would not wear any clothing but what was of Irish manufacture. CHAPTER VII. THE TARIFFS OF FOREIGN NATIONS. SHE American free traders and anti-protectionists should learn something of the tariffs of foreign nations. Our neighbors to the north, the Canadians, in order to build up Canadian manufactures and other interests, enacted, some years ago, the Foster tariff, which discriminates, with the greatest strin- gency, against the United States. In Santo Domingo the revenue is principally from customs duties-the tariff is highly protective. (American Republics, page 207.) Guatemala has a high protective tariff. (American Republics, page 151.) The Republic of Honduras has a high protective tariff. There is an export duty on mahogany and cedar of eight dollars per thousand superficial feet, an export duty of two dollars per head on bulls and steers and sixteen dollars on cows. A vast amount of machinery and mining implements is admitted to the country duty free, with a view to encouraging the development of her mineral wealth. Import.duties are calculated at so much per pound, according to the class, upon merchandise. For liquors the duty is sixteen cents per pound, and for spirits twenty-eight cents per pound. There is a government tax of two dol- lars per head on the sale of cattle, and a municipal tax of fifty cents on every animal slaughtered. The government of Honduras is supported exclusively by import duties. Our immediate neighbor south of the United States, the Republic of Mexico, has a high protective tariff. In 1891 a duty of $2.25 a head for American hogs and two dollars.on cattle was imposed at the border. The federal government is sustained by import duties, by the stamp tax, and by the federal contributions. The last being an additional duty levied on all taxes collected by the states. It has, besides, other sources of revenue, such as export duties, the mint duties and duties on nationalized property. The state governments are sustained by excise duties levied on all foreign and domestic merchandise, and by certain relatively small direct tax: The city governments are sustained by direct taxes, in some cases they receive also a percentage of the duties collected by the states. The following is from a letter from the Mexican minister, M. Romero, to the author, May 4, 1891: "The tariff laws of my country are highly protective. The national gov- ernment levies in the federal district a land tax of two per cent upon rents, a portion of which belongs to the municipality, and I understand that the states levy also a small land tax." The following is from a Mexican traveler: I was in a Mexican city two or three days ago, and saw him (an officer) collecting duties on everything that came into the town for sale. A donkey- load of grass paid a penny, and a peon with a dozen eggs had to stop and settle with the officer before he went in. I met an American dentist here who was practicing his trade in San Luis Potosi, and he told me something about pro- fessional taxes. Said he, I pay five dollars every two months to the govern- ment for the right to pull teeth and fill them, and every profession has to do likewise. The doctors pay the same as I do, and carpenters and masons are 62 RECIPROCITY. taxed. Carpenters in San Luis Potosi give a percentage of their wages to the government, and we have our federal tax, our state tax, and our town tax. The state taxes about twenty-five per cent of the amount of the federal taxes, and then there is a ten per cent tax, or about one-tenth of the amount of the federal, which goes to the state, and which is called material improvement tax. You have to pay your taxes before the fifteenth of every month, and if you don't pay them by that time there is a fine of six per cent of the amount of your taxes added to them, and if you keep on not paying, the officer will give you three days' notice and sell you out. "All goods brought into San Luis Potosi have to pay a state import duty, and if a man makes a saddle here in Monterey and sends it to me in San Luis I will have to pay a percentage on it before I get it. Mercantile drafts pay about one per cent tax on the amount for which they are made; and in short everything that I know of pays a tax except land." Lands are free from taxation, unless they are in cultivation. If you own 1,000 acres and cultivate 10, you pay a tax on the 10 and the other 990 go free. This is the great curse of Mexico, and it prevents the big estates being divided up and sold. There are men in Mexico who own over 100,000 acres, and I know of one or two who own 1,000,000. Still one of these men does not pay as much taxes as I do. He has to keep his accounts and let the government officials look them over and they tax him on his income from the land and. not for the land itself. A few thousand men own all the land in Mexico, but these few are so influential that the government dares not impose a general tax upon the lands, and the states ought to regulate the matter. The Governor of Zaca- tecas thought he would begin it. He tried it, but was assassinated. Taxation in Mexico is altogether in favor of the rich instead of the poor. I know of great blocks of buildings which stand idle and pay no taxes because they are not rented. If a man lives in his house he has to pay a tax on it. If he has a tenant he pays a tax, but if he chooses to have no one in it he pays nothing. "Every carriage pays a tax and every theatre ticket and railroad ticket must have a stamp upon it. All men in business have to keep account, and each page of the day book and ledger must have a stamp. Tanneries pay fifty cents a month, soap factories in some parts of the country pay one dollar, and every billiard table pays a certain amount monthly. Pulque shops in the city of Mexico all pay taxes. The gambling houses bring in a big income and there are other houses more wicked which are also licensed. In some parts of the country you have to pay for the privilege of shipping things out of the country as well as for bringing them in. The Hon. David A. Wells secured a copy of the tariff guerrero in West Mexico and published it not long ago. This showed that horses, mules and cattle shipped out of Mexico paid one dollar a head. If they were taken out of the town into the country they had to pay a shilling a head. Every time a horse or a mule was taken out of the town twenty-five cents had to be paid, and for every beef hide taken out of the town three cents. In that city every man who received a salary of over one hundred and fifty dollars a year paid a shilling a month to the town; public officials had to pay one and a half per cent of their salaries to the town. All kinds of imports were taxed proportionally high, and every man over eighteen had to pay a poll tax of twelve cents a month." Cuba and Porto Rico have a protective tariff which discriminates against the United States. The other Spanish dependencies in the West Indies have high protective tariffs. Duty on flour in Cuba and Porto Rico is $5.83 per barrel, and the duty on wheat $3.15 per hundred weight. Reciprocity treaty has made a change in favor of the United States. The United States, Mexico, Central and South America have port charges. RECIPROCITY. In Nicaragua the revenues are mostly derived from custom house duties and government monopolies on spirits, tobacco and gunpowder. It has a protective tariff. (American Republics, page 180.) Costa Rica has a protective tariff. The revenues are derived from custom duties, stamped paper, liquor and tobacco taxes, sale of lands, registration fees, etc. (American Republics, page 135.) In Salvador there is a protective tariff. The resources of the nation are de- rived principally from import duties and taxes on the articles of government monopoly. (American Bepublics, page 203.) The Republic of Colombia has a protective tariff. The duty on flour is $2.30 per hundred weight. (American Republics, page 120.) The revenue is mainly derived from custom duties. (American Republics, page 123.) Venezuela has a high protective tariff. The duty on flour and other bread- stuffs is $2.21 per hundred gross weight. The duty on cornmeal is $6.63 per hundred weight. (American Republics, page 120.) Brazil has a protective tariff. Cotton drill, dyed blue, used by the laboring class as cotton clothing, which sold in New York City free on board the vessel at 9 cents per yard under the old treaty, after adding port charges in Brazil the total charges of duty were 9 %\, or nearly 10 cents a yard. Under the present treaty, 25 per cent reduction is made. Uruguay has a high protective tariff. The congress of Uruguay has in- creased the duty on breadstuffs to the following figures: Maize (corn), 80 cents per 100 kilos; wheat, $1.35 per 100 kilos; wheat flour, $2.70 per 100kilos; clover and forage, $1 per 100 kilos. The revenue of Uruguay is mainly derived from custom duties, property or direct tax, licenses, stamps and stamped paper. (American Republics, 2d Ed. page 229.) The Argentine Republic has a protective tariff. (American Republics, 2d Ed. page 37.) The Republic of Chili has a high protective tariff. The public revenue is mainly derived from custom duties. (American Republics, 2d Ed. page 113.) The Republic of Ecuador has a protective tariff. More than half of the revenue it derives from custom duties. (American Republics, 2d Ed. page 145.) Peru has a protective tariff. The principal income was formerly derived from the sale of guano and from customs. There are two forms of direct taxa- tion--a poll tax for every man between the ages of twenty-one and sixty years, and a tax on the rent from real estate at the rate of three per cent. The revenue of 1890 was derived from custom duties, direct taxes, railways, post- office, telegraphs and other miscellaneous receipts. (American Republics, 2d Ed. page 192.) The Republic of Paraguay has a protective tariff. The revenue is derived from custom duties, receipts from various sources, receipts from the sale of public lands and "yerbales." (American Republics, 2d Ed. page 186.) The government of the Hawaiian Islands has high custom duties on im- ports. The revenue is derived from custom duties, internal commerce, inter- nal taxes, fines, fees, perquisites, government realization and receipts of bureaus, from loans and postal saving. (American Republics, 2d Ed. page 163.) In the British Bahamas islands, a dependency of Great Britain, the revenue is derived principally from custom duties. (American Republics, 2d Ed. page 256.) The colonial government of Barbadoes, a dependency of Great Britain, de- rives its revenue principally from custom duties. (American Republics, 2d Ed. page 257.) The colonial government of Bermudas, a dependency of Great Britain, de- rives its revenue principally from custom duties. (American Republics, 2d Ed. page 260.) RECIPROCITY. The British colonial government of British Honduras derives its revenue principally from custom duties, excise licenses, land tax and the sale and lease of crown lands. (American Bepublics, 2d Ed. page 266 ) The colonial government of Jamaica levies import duties. (American Re- publics, 2d Ed. page 272.) The colonial government of Trinidad and Tobago levies import duties. (American Republics, 2d Ed. page 276.) The British colonial government of the Windward islands, a dependency of Great Britain, levies import duties. (American Republics, 2d Ed. page 280.) The colonial government of the Leeward islands, a dependency of Great Britain, in the West Indies, levies import duties. (American Republics, 2d Ed. page 274.) The Dutch colonial government of Curacao, comprising the islands of Cur- acao, Bonaire, Aruba, parts of San Martin, St. Eustache and Saba, a depend- ency of Holland, derives its revenue principally from export and import duties, and excise duties and some land and indirect taxes. (American Republics, 2d Ed. page 285.) Thus, it will be seen at a glance, that while the United States, under the tariff laws of 1883, had several articles of the production of the West Indies, Mexico, Central and South America on the free list, these countries had very high protective tariffs. The consequence was, that while the balance of trade be- tween the United States and Europe was on the side of the United States, the balance of trade between the United States and the Latin republics was against the United States. This fact prompted Secretary Blaine to advocate his famous policy of reciprocity, which will open a new market with the Latin republics through the ports of Mobile, New Orleans and Galveston and by railroads running North and South, which will unite the South and West more closely in commercial union. This with the mineral and manufacturing enter- prise of the New South will cement the Union forever. Though it is usual to reckon England as a free trade country, she has high custom duties on tea, tobacco, malt, hops, spirits and wines. Her other source of revenue is derived from stamp duties, property and income tax, land and assessed taxes, house duties, legacy and succession duty. Germany, Austria, Italy, France and Russia are manufacturing under high tariffs. Formerly the Russians bought their guns of Krupp, but now they make them themselves. Germany and Austria are now commercially hostile to Russia. Russia is enacting protective tariffs, which affect the manufacturing and mercantile in- terests of those countries. Commercial hostility cannot long precede a clash of arms. The manufacturers and the traders are the ruling elements in Germany and Austria. They mean to force Russia to recede from the protective system. Spain has a high protective tariff, and Portugal and Denmark have high tariffs. CHAPTER VIII. FREE COINAGE. C HE advocates of free coinage should consider what constitutes money. I quote for their benefit the following from Blackstone: "Money is the medium of commerce, it is the king's prerogative, as the arbiter of domestic commerce, to give it authority, or make it current. Money is a universal medium, or common standard, by comparison with which the value of all merchandise may be ascertained; or, it is a sign which repre- sents the respective values of all commodities. Metals are well calculated for this sign, because they are durable and are capable of many subdivisions; and a precious metal is still better calculated for this purpose because it is the most portable. A metal is also the most proper for a common measure because it can easily be reduced to the same standard in all nations; and every par- ticular nation fixes on it its own impression, that the weight and standard, wherein consists the intrinsic value, may both be known by inspection only. "As the quantity of precious metals increases, that is, the more of them there is extracted from the mine, this universal medium or common sign will sink in value and grow less precious. Above a thousand millions of bullion are calcu- lated to have been imported into Europe from America within less than three centuries" (this was when Blackstone wrote) (Blackstone's Commentaries were published in 1769, consequently the value of silver has greatly depreci- ated since he wrote), and the quantity is daily increasing. The consequence is, that more money must be given now for the same commodity than was given a hundred years ago. And if any accident were to diminish the quantity of gold and silver, their value would proportionably rise. A horse that was formerly worth ten pounds is now, perhaps, worth twenty; and by any failure of current specie, the price may be reduced to what it was; yet is the horse, in reality, neither dearer nor cheaper at one time than another; for, if the metal which constitutes the coin was formerly twice as scarce as at present, the commodity was then as dear at half the price as now it is at the whole. The coining of money is in all states the act of the sovereign power, for the reason just mentioned, that its value may be known on inspection. And with respect to coinage in general, there are three things to be considered therein-the materials, the impression and the denomination. "With regard to the materials, Sir Edward Coke lays it down that the money of England must either be of gold or silver; and none other was ever issued by the royal authority till 1672, when copper farthings and half-pence were coined by King Charles the Second, and ordered, by proclamation, to be current in all payments under the value of sixpence, and not otherwise. But this copper coin is not upon the same footing with the other in many respects, particularly with regard to the offense of counterfeiting it. And as to the silver coin, it is enacted by Statute 14, Geo. III., Chap. 42, that no tender of payment in silver money, exceeding twenty-five pounds at one time, shall be a sufficient tender in law for more than its value by weight, at the rate of 5s. 2d. an ounce. "As to the impression, the stamping thereof is the unquestionable preroga- tive of the crown; for though divers bishops and monasteries had formerly the privilege of coining money; yet, as Sir Matthew Hale observes, this was usually done by special grant from the king, or by prescription which supposes one; S66 FREE COINAGE. and therefore was derived from, and not in derogation of, the royal prerogative. Besides that, they had only the profit of the coinage, and not the power of insti- tuting either the impression or denomination; but had usually the stamp sent them from the exchequer. The denomination, or value for which the coin is to pass current, is like- wise in the breast of the king; and if any unusual pieces are coined, that value must be ascertained by proclamation. In order to fix the value, the weight and the finenessof the metal are to be taken into consideration together. When a given weight of gold or silver is of a given fineness, it is then of the true standard, and called Easterling or sterling metal. "The king may also, by his proclamation, legitimate foreign coin, and make it current here, declaring at what value it shall be taken in payments. But this, I apprehend, ought to be by comparison with the standard of our own coin; otherwise the consent of parliament will be necessary. There is at present no such legitimate money; Portugal coin being only current byprivate consent, so that anyone who pleases may refuse to take it in payment. The king may also at any time decry, or cry down, any coin of the kingdom, and make it no longer current." (Blackstone's Commentaries, Vol. 1, pp. 276-7-8.) The foregoing shows clearly that gold and silver coins pass for their com- mercial values at the money centres of the world. There are divers opinions on the free coinage of silver. Some public speakers and writers seem to think that it is the "government stamp" that gives value to the gold and silver coins of the United States and "creates money." I refer such people to the act of congress, April 1, 1792, which provides that every fifteen pounds weight of pure silver shall be of equal value in all payments with one pound weight of pure gold, and so on, in proportion as to any greater or less quantity of the respective metals. This is the proportion of fifteen to one. The government of the United States in 1792, just one hundred years ago, treated gold and silver in accordance with their market value, the same as other merchandise. The act of 1837 provides the amount of alloy for gold and silver coins. The aforesaid act of 1792 provides that the silver dollar contain 416 grains of standard silver, or 371A grains of pure silver. That the eagle ($10) contain 270 grains of standard gold. The act of 1837 provides that the silver dollar shall be of the value of 4121 grains of silver, and the gold eagle shall contain 258 grains of gold. This shows a fluctuation in the values of gold and silver as metals in the market of the world. The United States cannot legislate for the commercial world. The act of 1799 provides that all foreign coins shall be estimated at the following rates: Each pound sterling of Great Britain, at $4.44; each livre of France, 181 cents; each florin or guilder of the Netherlands, 40 cents; each banco of Hamburg, 33J cents; each rix dollar of Denmark, 100 cents. The acts of congress of 1801, 1806, 1823, 1834, 1846 and 1857 estimate the value of foreign coins. The act of 1834 made the proportion between gold and silver nearly as one to sixteen. That is, one ounce of gold had the commercial value of sixteen ounces of silver in the market of the commercial world. Thus the United States has treated foreign coins as so much bullion, according to their commercial value. Great Britain sets a commercial value on the coins of the United States and other countries. In Great Britain the present value of the United States dollar is four shillings twopence, British. The gold and silver coins of the United States, as well as the coins of other countries, are weighed the same as other metals. They are counted in local transactions only and in small sums for local payments; but in the payment of large sums, at home and in the money centres of the world, they are weighed as bullion and pass for their commercial value, the same as wheat and pork. All the value that coins have over the same weight of silver bullion is the stamp of the government designating the amount, quantity and quality of the metal and its legal tender in the payment of debts in the United States only. FREE COINAGE. The proportional output of silver is now, as compared with gold, greater than it was in 1873, when silver lost its legal tender quality in the payment of debts, by the act repealing the free coinage act of congress. The present com- mercial value of silver bullion, April, 1892, in the New York market is sixty- nine and one-half cents of gold for the weight in bullion of the present silver dollar of the United States. The present silver dollar contains 3711 grains of pure silver. With improved machinery in the United States, Mexico, Central and South America, the proportion between silver and gold will still be greater. Soon the proportion between gold and silver will be as one to thirty. Chem- istry and electricity have cheapened the production of silver. Ores which were rejected twenty years ago as "too refractory for any use are now made valu- able by the diamond drill, improved smelters, crushers, concentrators, great pumps, hoisting machinery and dynamite. Under this improved process the old Spanish silver mines in Mexico, Central and South America, which were abandoned, will be worked with profit. So long as the proportion between gold and silver fluctuates the question must rest on commercial value and not on the government's stamp. The United States cannot legislate for the com- mercial world. If the proportional value between gold and silver would not fluctuate there would be no trouble about "free coinage." In 1890 the mines of the United States produced $32,845,000 worth of gold. There were used during that year, for purposes other than money, $18,- 105,901 worth of gold, which left $14,730,099 to be added to the amount used for money. In 1890 the silver mines of the United States produced $57,225,000 worth of silver; of that amount $9,231,178 was used in the arts, leaving $47,993,822, which was used for coining purposes during the year. The rest of the world also produced large quantities of gold and silver a very much larger amount than is used in the arts. The amount of these metals has increased faster than the population. The proportion of gold used in the arts is greater than that of silver, consequently gold will each year become scarcer for money. The paper money," such as greenbacks, gold and silver certificates and bank notes, are mere promises to pay in gold and silver. The government of the United States has outstanding $346,000,000 in greenbacks. The government keeps always in the treasury $100,000,000 in gold with which to redeem the greenbacks. Instead of putting the gold and silver in circulation the govern- ment for years has been issuing gold and silver certificates. By this process there are to-day over $600,000,000 of these certificates in circulation. The gold and silver deposited to redeem these certificates held by the government belong to the people who hold these certificates. A little reflection will con- vince any intelligent person that all of the "paper money" in circulation in the United States, including United States bonds and bank notes, is based upon gold and silver, in which it must be redeemed. If the government from any cause should fail to redeem its obligations, the United States bonds, greenbacks and bank notes would be as worthless as the bonds and greenbacks of the Southern Confederacy. How strange it is that so many intelligent persons who remember the fate of the paper money of the Southern Confederacy should still have such fallacious notions that the govern- ment can make "fiat money" equal to gold and silver. Stranger still, that they should forget the old paper money of the state banks; that they cannot see thatwe have now the best paper money that we ever had. The greenbacks, bank notes, gold and silver certificates are on a par with gold and silver coins. Is there an intelligent person who does not know that the government of the United States cannot compel foreign nations to take our money for more than its value. The following is the Latin Union of Europe on coinage of silver: "The Latin Union is the agreement between France, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Greece, Servia and Roumania to regulate the amount of silver to be FREE COINAGE. 69 coined each year and to keep an international coin in circulation. This coin was the franc, which, under different names, was current everywhere in the Union. The agreement was begun in 1865, extended in 1880 and in 1885. It expired in 1890, but the states are still obeying it, and will do so until they choose to break it, which any state may do on six months' notice. They stopped coining silver in 1874, and have not taken it up again to any extent." The International American Conference, in session at Washington from Oct. 2, 1889, to April 19, 1890, at which all of the independent nations of North, Central and South America and the Republic of Hayti were represented. At this conference it was proposed to adopt a silver dollar which would be current in the nations represented. Unfortunately, in consequence of the agitation on the free coinage of silver in the United States, the plan fell through. President Harrison has been endeavoring to get an international congress to meet in Washington to regulate the coinage of silver. This is a very wise plan to settle the coinage of silver as a legal tender, its amount and quality in the commercial nations of the world. CHAPTER IX. PENSIONS, BOUNTIES AND LAND WARRANTS. HOSE who are opposed to the giving of pensions to the Union volunteers, whoargue that pensions,bountiesand land warrants are a" public charity,'' should know and remember that the officers, soldiers and sailors, their widows and minor children, of the War of the Revolution, the War of 1812, the Mexican War and several Indian wars, received land warrants, bounties and pensions. Some of the original thirteen states granted to the officers of the Revolutionary War bounty land warrants. The legislature of North Carolina granted to Major General Green, in 1782, 25,000 acres of land for his services in the Revolutionary War. The public records show that General Grant got a land warrant for services in the Mexican War; General Sherman got two land warrants for services in the Florida and Mexican wars; President Lincoln got a land warrant for services in the Black Hawk War; General Scott got a land warrant, while commander-in-chief of the American army, for services in the War of 1812; Jefferson Davis, while secre- tary of war under President Pierce, got a land warrant for services in the Mexican War; Franklin Pierce, while president of the United States, got a land warrant for services in the Mexican War; John A. Logan got a land warrant for services in the Mexican War. Do the opponents of pensions to the Union "volunteers" consider them the recipients of "public charity? " The act of Congress, March 3, 1855, provides that each of the surviving officers, non-commissioned officers, privates, whether of regulars, volunteers, rangers or militia, who were regularly mustered into the service of the United States, and every officer, commissioned or non-commissioned seaman, ordinary seamen, flotilla man, marine, clerk and landsman in the navy, in any of the wars in which this country has been engaged since 1790, and each of the sur- vivors of the militia or volunteers or state troops of any state or territory, called into the military service and regularly mustered therein, shall be en- titled to a land warrant. This act extends to wagon masters and teamsters. It embraces officers, soldiers and marines of the army and navy, during the Revolutionary War, their widows and minor children. The land warrants to be issued for fourteen days' service. Will the opponents of pensions say that the officers, soldiers and sailors of the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812 and the Mexican War were the recipi- ents of public charity ?" The act of Congress of 1885, which was signed by President Cleveland, granting pensions to the soldiers and sailors of the Mexi- can War, authorizes the secretary of the interior to place on the pension roll the names of surviving officers and enlisted men, including marines, and volun- teers of the military and naval service of the United States, who being duly enlisted, actually served fourteen days in the army and navy of the United States. Thus discriminating in favor of the Mexican soldiers as against the Union soldiers, as the Union soldiers have to furnish more evidence to prove a claim than is ordinarily required to prove a civil action in the state and federal courts, causing years of delay. Will the opponents of pensions to the Union soldiers dare say that the Union soldiers and sailors have not equal rights to pensions, bounties and land warrants as the soldiers and sailors of the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812 and the Mexican War? Will they say that the soldiers of the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812 and the Mexican War were the recipients of "public charity?" 70 PENSIONS, BOUNTIES AND LAND WARRANTS. The fourteenth amendment of the constitution of the United States pro- vides, that the validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for the payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion against the United States, shall not be questioned." Are the opponents of pensions, bounties and land warrants loyal to the constitution? What is disloyalty to the constitution but treason, secession and rebellion? The Union soldiers and sailors never obtained their land warrants; consequently they are now due and unpaid. Great Britain, Germany and other countries give pensions to their soldiers. The kings, nobles and land owners of Europe derive their titles and lands from military service. Republics in ancient and modern times have been overthrown by standing armies, under the leadership of some great military leader. The military power has controlled the republics of Mexico, Central and South America, which has led to revolutions and dictators. To guard against military despotism the fathers of the Revolution provided for a militia in time of peace and for "volunteers" in time of war, invasion or rebellion. As volunteers have to be mustered on a sudden, all inducements of honor, fame, public offices, bounties and land warrants were given to the nation's volunteers of the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812 and the Mexican War. So that the grant of land warrants, pensions and bounties to the nation's volunteers is a part of the common law of the United States and enters into a part of the compensation of the volunteers as a part of their pay. Until the late Civil War of 1861, no one was hostile to the nation's vol- unteers, or opposed pensions, bounties and land warrants. But for the past few years a great political party, at the head of which stands the Confederate army, have been opposed to pensions in congress, through the press and from the stump. Their standing argument has been the great amount of the pension appropriations. But they do not consider that if the amount is large that the services rendered are proportionally great. The number of volunteers who enlisted in the War of the Rebellion was equal to the population of any of the following countries: Denmark, Norway, Bulgaria, Servia, Greece, Roumania, Montenegro, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Salvador, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chili, Paraguay, Uruguay, San Marino, Andorra and Monaco and other countries. Of course the ignorant and selfish care little for the services of the boys that saved the Union during the late Civil War which robbed the cradle and the grave." We had the Confederate army in front, the Indian war in the West, rebel sympathizers in the North and in Canada in the rear, and Eng- land's blockade runners and piratical cruisers on the ocean. The monarchs of Europe, except the Emperor of Russia,were unfriendly to the United States, and were in sympathy with the Southern Confederacy. South of us, in Mexico, France, England and Spain took advantage of our situation, and established Maximilian's empire on the ruins of the Republic of Mexico. As early as Oct. 31, 1861, France, England and Spain entered into a treaty for the joint occupancy of the coast and fortresses of Mexico. In December, 1861, the squadrons of France, England and Spain arrived at Vera Cruz. In March, 1862, the French forces attempted the subjugation of Mexico. In 1863, the French army of occupation numbered 40,000 men. President Juarez abandoned the capital and retreated to the frontier of the United States. On July 10, 1863, Maximilian, Archduke of Austria, was pro- claimed Emperor of Mexico. He arrived in the City of Mexico, June 12, 1864. At the instigation of Bazaine, Maximilian published a decree, Oct. 3, 1865, de- claring all prisoners found in arms against the imperial government should be shot, without trial. Several Mexican officers were shot for defending the liberty of their country. The death blow of Maximilian's empire came from the United States. On Nov. 6, 1865, Secretary Seward forwarded to Paris a dispatch, informing the PENSIONS, BOUNTIES AND LAND WARRANTS. French emperor that the French army in Mexico was a source of grave reflec- tion" to the government of the United States; that the United States could not tolerate an imperial government, maintained by foreign support, in Mexico. On the plain information by the secretary of state of the intended armed inter- vention of the United States in favor of President Juarez, Napoleon, on April 5, 1867, abandoned his position and ordered the evacuation, in November, 1867, of Mexico, of French troops. The City of Mexico surrendered, and President Juarez, with the officers of his government, entered the capital July 15, 1867. In 1871, Juarez devised a system of railways and telegraphs, which united the several parts of the republic in close commercial union with the United States. This has been accomplished by Americans and with American capital. In the event of the independence of the Southern Confederacy, the North would have to pay the whole of the public debt of the United States, pensions and bounties; the Southern Confederacy would have to pay the Confederate debt, pensions and bounties. The bonds and greenbacks would be at a discount. The United States would not have made such rapid strides in building up our various industries and material wealth and population, especially factories, railways, towns, cities, farms and public buildings. The Southern Confederacy would be a slaveholding oligarchy, under the protection of Great Britain, their slaves continually running over to the free North. It would be necessary for both governments to keep a standing army on the frontier, with fortifications and bristling cannon. Maxinilian's empire would in time swallow up Central America, with the Nicaragua canal, and eventually would conquer and annex Texas and the territory which Mexico lost, as the result of the Mexican War. The North would be isolated from the Gulf ports, Mexico, Central and South America. The United States would not own or control the Nicaragua canal-could not enforce the Monroe doctrine. There would be no Pan-American congress or Pan-American policy, no interna- tional railways connecting the three Americas, and no Blaine reciprocity. The United States, in time, would break up into several small republics, the same as Central and South America. England and Canada would dictate terms to the United States on the fisher- ies and the boundary questions. The monarchs of Europe would combine and control the governments of the New World politically and commercially. The victorious arms of the Union army saved the United States, Mexico and Central and South America from this direful catastrophe. The surrender of the Confederate army saved the South from political and commercial ruin. Since the late war the North and South have advanced in population, agriculture, railways and manufactures. The South and North are connected by railways; and commercial union and reciprocity, a community of industrial interests, the improvement of the Mis- sissippi and its tributaries for whaleback ocean steamships, the completion of the Nicaragua canal, and ocean steamships from St. Louis to the ports of the world, in conjunction with railways north and south and railways connecting the three Americas, will make the United States the greatest country in the world, ancient or modern, in agriculture, manufactures, trade and commerce. With these great advantages the United States will have a preponderance in the Western Hemisphere which would never be accomplished were it not for the victories of the Union army and the surrender of the Confederate army. The South shares in the general prosperity. The opponents of pensions should ponder on the above facts. THE BRAVE SOLDIER LADS WHO ARE GALLANT AND TRUE. A MARCH. Our banners were flying, And drums they did rattle, What a glorious sight is the red, white and blue; While off to the wars, The boys were advancing, The brave soldier lads that were gallant and true. With drumming and filing, The crowds were rejoicing, To see the brave soldiers all dressed in blue; But mothers were crying, And lovers were dying, For the brave soldier lads that were ga'lant and true. For soldiers are jolly, And up to some folly, Then out with the lights at evening tattoo; They were laughing and joking, For the boys will be sporting, The brave soldier lads that were gallant and t ue. On guard and on duty, They charm some beauty, They make a grand show on parade and review; For marching and drilling, The boys are all willing, The brave soldier lads that are gallant and true. In war and in slaughter, Brave boys never falter, They will stand to their colors, the red, white and blue; And their country's foes, They will surely conquer, The brave soldier lads that are gallant and true. o --Cudmore. THE Boys THAT SAVED THE UNION. AIR-"THE DAYS WE WENT A GYPSYING." On the field of slaughter our banner then did wave, And the noble volunteers the Union's life did save; The boys in blue were firm and true when duty bid them go, The boys that saved the Union twenty years ago. The brave volunteers were then in prime of years, They left mothers and sweethearts in a flood of tears; Their hearts were light to march and fight, they knew no grief or woe, The boys that saved the Union twenty years ago. On the field of battle, amidst shot and shell, Gallant were their charges, loudly did they yell; Many of those heroes in the grave lie low, The boys that saved the Union twenty years ago. Around the camp fire many a joke went 'round, 'Midst laughter of the soldier boys lying on the ground; But their merry jokes we never shall hear more, The boys that saved the Union twenty years ago. Where are the soldier boys who then were full of fun, And for the sake of a good joke many a trick was done; When I think of those jolly boys my heart is sad and sore, The boys that saved the Union twenty years ago. Where are the merry lads whose hearts were full of glee, When they gobbl'd a chicken or went on a spree; But those merry boys we never shall see more, The boys that saved the Union twenty years ago. And the volunteers who then were proud and gay, Now are quite feeble -getting old and gray; Few'll be theirnumbers-twenty years or so; The boys that saved the Union twenty years ago. -Cudmore. CHAPTER X. THE FRUIT AND COFFEE FARMS OF THE TROPICS. IN Central America, the West Indies, a part of South America and a part of Mexico, tropical fruits and coffee can be raised with little labor. The climate of Honduras, which is but three days' sailing from New Or- leans, Mobile and Galveston, is well adapted for fruit raising. The climate, as well as that of Guatemala, Salvador, Nicaragua and 'Costa Rica, is healthful. Even the coast of Honduras is fully as healthful as any part of the United States, and the climate, owing to the strong trade winds by day and land breezes from the mountains by night, is very agreeable. The hottest day on the coast is 86 degrees in the shade. In Honduras the rainfall is distributed over a large part of the year. From May to December showers frequently fall, usually passing quickly, leaving the sky sunny and the ground watered enough to force a luxuriant growth of crops. In September and October heavier rains fall, but even then work can be carried on with little or no more interruption than usually occurs in the Northern states in October and November. In what is called the wet season there are often days, and sometimes even weeks, when no rain falls. As a whole, the worst of the rainy season resembles late autumn weather in the Northeastern states. The dry season (winter season in the United States) is almost perfect, every day being clear, bright, breezy and even in temperature. As Central America, especially Honduras, is timber land, the first thing to be done for a fruit farm is to clear the land. The timber and brush are cut down and allowed to lie until the dry season, which takes but a few weeks; fire is then started and leaves, twigs and branches are consumed. Then the sprouts or suckers, which can be bought of the natives for one dollar a hundred, are set out in shallow holes about fifteen feet each way. No more is to be done; nature does the rest. It is better to cultivate the land and keep it clear of weeds, but good crops can be raised without stirring or plowing the land, so that a poor man with a very small capital can make a start in Honduras with an axe, machete, spade, hoe, brush scythe, mattock or grub axe. The banana and the plantain are much alike in manner of growth and ap- pearance of the plant and fruit, except that the fruit of the latter is larger and more angular. Both are of easy culture, and both produce abundance of nu- tritive food to the acre every year. Nine months after they are planted the fruit begins to ripen, and can be harvested every month thereafter for many years without replanting. The original sprout grows a stalk, or tree, which bears a bunch; this is cut down when the fruit is gathered. While this was growing several young shoots have been coming up, some of themmore than half grown. Thus a single plant will yield from four to six bunches every year. In Honduras few banana fields show any signs of cultivation. Culture, of course, would improve the crop, as it does all others. During the growing period the grass and brush spring up and should be cut down. The stumps and logs which did not burn up will crumble in a few years, when the ground can be plowed. This plan saves the expense of grubbing, and 'meanwhile consider- able salable fruit can be raised. The old stalks are cut up and cast at the roots to enrich the soil. On rich ground bananas can be grown for fifteen to twenty years without replanting. Nearly all of the suckers or plants will mature a bunch of fruit. Meanwhile a number of young suckers will have sprung about the parent stalk. As they appear they should be cut down until about the RECIPROCITY. third month after planting; then one of these young plants may be allowed to live, and three months later another, and so on. At intervals of three months new plants should be suffered to live to take the place of those that have borne fruit and been cut down. If managed in this way there would always, after the first three months, be four growing stalks in each stool, or four for each plant. The roots grow on, year after year, for fifteen or twenty years, without replanting. With the slight care above indicated it is safe to estimate that, even the first year, an acre of bananas will yield two hundred bunches, and the suc- ceedingyear at least three to four times as many. These even at forty cents a bunch amount to $80 the first year and $240 to $300 the following years. As the clearing, planting, caring for and harvesting of the fruit does not exceed $25, there is a net profit of $55 the first year and more than $225 to $300 the succeeding years (clearing and planting being saved these years). The pineapples will not grow on pulverized coral as does the cocoanut, but requires a deep, rich soil. Hence, it is found mostly in low lying lands or lit- tle hollows nestling among hills and rough spurs. They grow pretty thickly together; indeed they often form a tangle through which it is impossible to pass. The leaves, too, are armed with sharp spikes, as if Nature had intended that so delicious a fruit should be protected from marauders. The pineapple tree is not more than three feet high; its branches are many and spread wide apart. In the heart of the cluster grows one apple. After the plant pro- duces its apple it dies, but a number of shoots remain after in the ground. These are taken up and transplanted, and thus the growth is propagated. The pineapples are indigenous to Honduras and grow luxuriantly, as well as in the West Indies, Central and South America. The sugar loaves and the Indian pines attain large size and are of excellent flavor. The "crowns" or sets cut from the top of the fruit are set out in rows, usually 2x3 feet apart, or 7,260 to the acre. They fruit in sixteen to eighteen months. While the pineapple requires a little more cultivation the gain per acre is even larger than that obtainedfrom bananas. In Honduras, the land along the coast being some- what sandy, is well suited for growing pineapples. The variety known as the sugar pines is especially worthy of attention, being very large and sweet on the sandy land between Caratasca lagoon and the Patuca river. They often reach a circumference of 17 to 18 inches by 27 to 30 inches long and a weight of five to seven pounds. In some places the pineapple sprouts are planted in rows 3J feet apart, the plants being set 21 feet apart in rows. This gives 4,080 to the acre, from which 4,000 pines should be obtained in sixteen to eighteen months after planting. The land owned by the Honduras Land Company, known as the Perry Grant, is well adapted for fruit farms, especially pineapples. The usual price for common pineapples on the Honduras coast is six and one-fourth cents each. The large sweet sugar pines will bring at least ten to fifteen cents each when supplied in quantities great enough to make it an object to keep them separate from the others in handling. A crop of 4,000 pines at six and one-fourth cents will bring $240, a net profit of fully $200 to the acre. If theplants are only eighteen inches apart, they should yield at least 10.000 salable fruits for the sixteen to eighteen months, worth $625, of which $575 should be net gain, which is equal to $385 for a year per acre. In raising cocoanuts, such nuts as are wanted for planting are gathered into heaps or placed under sheds, where they are allowed to remain until the sprout shows itself through the husks. When planted in regular order, holes about three feet deep and about thirty feet apart are dug. In the holes the nut is placed with care, and covered with about one foot of soil. The hole is filled gradually as the sprout grows until it reaches the surface, when it is left to itself, requiring no further attention. Boring its way downward, the root fastens itself so deep and firmly in the ground that no tornado, no matter how severe, has ever been known to wrench RECIPROCITY. it from its moorings. On grows the tree, sending deep into the ground its roots, and high into the air its trunk, until after a lapse of from five to eight years, it has attained a height of from forty to sixty feet, and then pays tribute to Mother Earth by bearing its fruit, and, under favorable circumstances, continuing to yield for more than a century, giving its owner from one hundred to two hun- dred marketable nuts a year. Through the centre of the trunk of the cocoanut tree is a soft, fibrous heart, which furnishes the life of the tree and acts as a great pump in forcing to the nuts the immense quantity of water required to fill them. This fibrous heart hasa won- derful filtering power, for no matter in what location the tree may be growing, either upon the beach or in the malarial swamps near the pools of stagnant. water, when Nature has done her work she deposits in the nut a sparkling liquid as clear as crystal, and as cool as if drawn from the deepest wells in our Northern yards. Having no particular season for fruiting, but bearing all the year round, blossoms, ripe and green fruit may be found on the same tree. The blossom of the cocoanut tree is a most beautiful and peculiar work of Nature's art. Appearing at the base of the long, ragged leaves is a gourd-like. sheath, green in color, and standing erect until its own weight causes it to. bend downward, where it hangs until the stems it incloses, which are to bear and sustain the nuts, are sufficiently matured to proceed on their journey without protection. When this outer covering splits open, it reveals a cluster of ragged stems, upon which you will find miniature cocoanuts requiring about fourteen months to ripen. The cocoanut and other palms thrive all along the sea and around the lagoons. Each cocoanut tree bears from eighty to three hundred nuts per year, the crop from one acre being worth from ninety to two hundred dollars. There are trees that will average a nut a day the year round. It has been said that the cocoanut tree furnishes food and drink to support one person con- tinually. The cocoanut trees are usually set thirty feet apart each way. Bananas and plantains may be set in between them if the soil is suitable. It is five or six years before the trees begin to bear, and continue to do so for many years; they require no cultivation. The husks of the nut supply a fiber of good quality for matting, rope and the like. To those who have patience and can afford to wait, the cocoanut is prefera- ble to the banana. The nuts ripen throughout the year and are not perishable like the bananas, and are not liable to damage from rough handling or delays in shipping. THE PRODUCTS OF HONDURAS. The products of this soil and climate include most varieties grown in the United States, and tropical fruits find a congenial home here. Most of the pro- ducts of the temperate climate can be raised on these lands better than in the United States. Two crops of corn can be raised each year. Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes, pears and all kinds of vegetables can easily be grown. Man- goes, cashews nuts, soursops, papayas, alligator pears, rose apples, guavas, plums, almonds, grapes, tomatoes, figs, date palms and other fruits thrive in Honduras; most of them are indigenous. Two crops of oranges grow per year in Honduras. Both the size and flavor of these will make them a strong rival in the markets when properly packed and shipped. There are but few orange groves in Honduras thus far. The trees are raised from the seed without culture, and the fruit is of excellent flavor and of good size. Mr. Tusal has an orange grove on the Salado river, in the Perry Grant, in Honduras, from which he gets an average crop of 6,000 oranges per tree annually, some of these weighing three pounds each. Oranges may be propagated from the seed, by layers, budding or graft- ing. The seed may be sown in drills about twenty inches apart, in a nursery, and when the plants are three years old, set out in rows about thirty feet RECIPROCITY. apart. Choice varieties are best propagated by budding on seedlings. It takes seven or eight years for trees to come into bearing when started from the seed; by the process of budding there is a gain of several years. The oranges grown in Honduras warrant the conclusion that with care and culture they could be made to equal any Messinas imported. Even "seedlings " are large, juicy, sweet and well flavored. They will yield a crop in January and another the first of July, coming into market at a favorable time to command high prices. The orange tree is eight or ten years old before it bears profitably. Bananas or pineapples can be grown in between the rows of orange trees, and in this way they pay for cultivating the land and supply a comfortable income besides. An orange tree once in bearing will yield for centuries. Other members of this family are indigenous, such as the lemon, lime, cit- ron and shaddock. Each of these can be cultivated with good returns. Oranges on the Perry Grant were all seedlings. The trees had never received any care, and the grass was three feet high all through the grove. But in spite of this the fruit was the best that I had ever seen, and I have never yet seen its equal. With little attention oranges of the best quality can be raised there in great abundance. In Honduras, the orange trees grow from the seed, without care, and yet the fruit of these seedlings is of a flavor and size that will make them strong rivals of the fruits of the States. The lemon tree thrives in Honduras. The choice varieties can be grown with profit. The lemon may re- quire more cultivation than the orange to produce good fruit, but it is a ne- cessity to all civilized countries, and there will always be a demand for them. In Honduras, oranges, limes and lemons, wild and uncultivated, grow in great abundance on the pine hills. The trees yield well, and the fruit is thin-skinned and of good quality. Pineapples, larger and better than you have ever seen in the Northern markets, grow here in the woods without cultivation. Pineapples will grow anywhere in Honduras. Rice grows well in Honduras, the low lands around the sounds and lagoons being especially adapted to its cultivation. Honduras rice sells for better prices than are paid for rice grown in the Southern states. It is sought for seed. Arrowroot, much valued as a delicacy, is extracted from several plants of the genus Maranta. They flourish in Hon- duras. Logwood is the heart wood of a tree that is found in Central America. It attains a height of twenty to thirty feet. It is the most important dyewood ex- ported. Sugar-cane is very productive in Honduras and Nicaragua. The stalks grow large and are tender and full of juice. As it grows year after year without planting, little labor is required to raise large quantities of cane. The cane is planted every fourteen years. During this time the land need not be plowed. Cultivation would improve the production. The cotton plant is in- digenous. Cotton growing in the West Indies was introduced there from Hon- duras, and was estimated above others. It forms a tree twenty or more feet high, yielding a good staple, fine and strong, year after year, for fourteen years, without cultivation. Large quantities of sarsaparilla and vanilla are found in Honduras and Nicaragua. The tobacco plant in Honduras and Nicaragua produces large, broad leaves, which, when properly cured, make tobacco said to be equal to that raised anywhere. Two good crops of Indian corn are raised in Honduras and Nicaragua yearly. On the upper Patuca and its branches (as well as in Nicaragua and several parts of Central and South America), large quantities of rubber are gathered every year. A rubber tree yields about eight gallons of milk, which makes sixteen pounds of rubber, worth ten to twelve dollars. The milk is coagulated by a decoction of the juice of the moon plant. Cattle raised on the grass of the pine-covered savannas of Honduras and Nicaragua compare favor- RECIPROCITY. ably with stock grazed on prairies anywhere. Cows which have suckled their calves for months are plump and vigorous at the end of the dry season. Pigs can be fattened on wild fruits of the forest, on roots which can furnish tons of food per acre which cost nothing but planting, and on cocoanuts and bananas. In Honduras and Nicaragua the farmer derives an income, without much labor, from a great variety of woods useful for building purposes. There is an abundance of yellow pine, cedar, cypress, mahogany, rosewood, lignum-vite, sandalwood, white and black ebony, walnut, sapodilla, mulberry, copaiva, live oak, tuna, mangrove, iron wood, locust, algarroba, copal, rubber and many others suitable for many uses, and Santa Maria, which is better suited for houses than pine, being easy to work and less liable to the attacks of insects and decay. THE WEST INDIES. The climate of the West Indies is divided into wet and dry seasons. The latter commences about the middle of November and continues until May. Dur- ing this time the days are bright, dry and clear, with a full blue sky overhead -the temperature about 70 degrees. At sea it is tempered by the trade winds, which blow from east-northeast. On shore we have the delicious, soft, soothing land breeze by day and the tonic sea breeze by night. This free circulation of dry pure air and rich and abundant sunlight renders the climate during this season both exhilarating and salubrious. The variations in the temperature are very slight, and it might be truly said there are no evil winds, such as siroccoor mis- tral, which is so trying on the shores of the Mediterranean. The country has a combination of clear sky (sunlight), warmth (not of the rays of the sun, but of the lower level of the atmosphere) and equability, or freedom from violent changes of temperature and chilling inds. CUBA. The following is from one who has spent many years in Cuba: "I cannot see why capital seeking for good investment should be content with four per cent in this country when there are so many spare acres of land in Cuba that might be turned into sugar plantations. "But it is in coffee growing, perhaps, that the greatest promise lies for en- terprise. It may not be generally known, but it is an undisputed fact, that in extensive districts of Cuba the very best coffee in the world can be raised and sold at a good profit. "The range of the coffee plant extends only between the isothermals of 25 degrees north and 30 degrees south, so that Cuba is altogether within these limits. But the region specially adapted for coffee lies on the west side of the island. There is here the precise heat, moisture and elevation, and, owing to the climate, the berry has a marked excellence of flavor and peculiar coloring. HOW COFFEE GROWS. "It is raised from the seed when green or dried in the air and then planted in the ground, where it is left to grow for forty days, at which time the shoots appear if the weather is favorable. The number of seeds planted in one hole is a dozen, the hole being made with a knife or pointed iron. "These are made in regular rows, being carefully marked out with a space of four inches between each plant and four and a half inches between each row (this in the nursery-the plants are afterward transplanted). The shoots having begun to appear and gain size are carefully weeded once a month for two years, at the end of which time these plants, having attainedtheheight of thirty inches, are cropped. At the end of the third year they begin bearing in small quantities; at the end of the fourth year they are in full bearing, and continue giving crops, if the land is good, for twenty-five or thirty years. At RECIPROCITY. the end of the sixth or seventh year they require pruning, and after ten years they only bear good crops every alternate year. At the end of February the bearing plants begin to blossom, and in cold places even as late as Marchand April, continuing even up to June. Now is the time to see a coffee place in its beauty, for as far as eye can reach is one vast sea of green or wax-like looking leaves, upon bushes the branches of which are now, in their luxuriant growth, mingling one with another; and scattered over this sea of green are beautiful white blossoms looking, at a distance, like millions of snow drops, or, on being closely examined, resembling a most delicate Maltese cross of milky wax. As they cluster around the stem in bunches, they resemble the flower of the jessamine-are possibly even more delicate. It is hard to conceive anything more beautiful, particularly if, looking overhead, you see the banana tree, with its clusters of green and red and golden fruit peeping out from the large green leaves. At the end ofeachbunch there is a curiously formed, acorn-shaped and regal purple-colored bud or blossom. Add to this sight the red, yellow and purple fruit of the cacao and the rosy-checked pomegranate, and you have an idea of this land flowing with milk and honey, the milk, if you desire it, being found in the clusters of the green cocoanuts that hang far above your head, beneath the branches of the slender cocoa tree. "The coffee blossom remains in flower about two days, and then are formed the berries, the size of a gun shot, until at maturity they attain the size and ap- pearance of very small cherries, or, to be more exact, of cranberries. This, nat- urally, is attained usually by the month of September, and the picking season then begins, although it is now the rainy season. As the berries are ripening all the time, the picking season lasts as late as November sometimes. If the months of July and August are dry months, with no rain, the berries become scorched with the hot sun. Coffee is a fruit which requires a genial but even temperature, there being hardly any possibility of its having too much rain. The best trees yield half a pound, but the average is a quarter of a pound per tree." VENEZUELA COFFEE. Venezuela may fairly be called the coffee land, since it has no other pro- duction nor export, except cocoa, worth mentioning. Every one raises coffee, deals in coffee or talks coffee, and it will not do to pass by the most important industry of the land without a few words. Upon the mountains that encircle the valley of Caracas, upon the slopes leading up to them and in the valley quite within the city, the fragrant berry grows. One of the largest and most valuable estates at hand is La Guia. There are no coffee trees. The berry grows upon a scraggy bush, looking like an antiquated lilac, beneath the thick shade of bucare trees, for it cannot bear the direct sun heat. After five years it begins to bear, and continues to be a source of income for a long time after, say for thirty or forty years. When the fruit is ripe, it looks like cranberries, two beans lying close together in a husk or burr. This husk is removed by machinery, and the beans are washed and spread out to dry upon the cement floor of a "patio" or inclosed court. When dry it is carefully assorted as to size and quality and sent to the storehouses, where it is again divided into classes. The amount of coffee shipped from La Guayra, the seaport of Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, is an average of 25,000,000 pounds each year. HONDURAS COFFEE. The cultivation of pineapples and oranges maybe advantageously combined with bananas and cocoanut plantations. These, as well as lemons and limes, appear to be indigenous. Coffee is grown in the uplands of the interior with great success. The question of transportation thence to the seacoast but needs RECIPROCITY. to be.solved, in order that coffee plantations, similar to those of Costa Rica and Guatemala, may be begun upon the mountain sides. The coffee grows best at an elevation of one to foir hundred feet. The best kind of land is a slope, affording easy drainage and some shelter. On level ground the coffee trees must be planted in alternation with bananas, which will provide shade for them. The young trees are usually set out when they have attained a growth of eighteen inches. The holes should be dug a few days before the plants are placed in them. The coffee plantation needs the most watchful care. Weeds must be constantly removed, and insects looked out for. The coffee blooms in March. The blossom is a delicate white flower, with the faintest imaginable fragrance. It lasts but a few days. Fields of coffee in bloom are very beauti- ful. During the rainy season the fruit is growing and ripening. In Novem- ber, with the beginning of the summer season, verano, the harvest is gathered or ready to be gathered. COFFEE IN MEXICO. Even in Mexico the coffee tree and banana plant grow wild. The following is from a Mexican traveler: "The coffee tree ranges in size from little sprouts to great bushy trees, six or eight feet. They have dark green leaves and out of these bright red berries shine. These berries contain coffee, and they are now ready for picking. The average bush will produce one pound a year. The trees do not begin to be profitable until they are five years old, but after this time they become a gold mine to their owner. They are carefully pruned, and they would grow to a height from fifteen to twenty feet were it not for this fact. The plants are started in a nursery and they are then transplanted, and they are three years old before they begin to bear at all. You can have about nine hundred trees on one acre, and when you have gotten them into bearing you have a sure income for years. Coffee here can be raised at an expense of about seven cents per pound. The profit is immense. Some of the best coffee in the world is raised in Mexico, and there is no better place for the investor and the money maker. I went to see the process of preparing the coffee berry for the market and saw these round berries, which are as big around as small chestnuts, put into a sort of small mortar, in which an Indian boy pounded them with a wooden pestle until the hulls were crushed into dust and the hard berries dropped out. Each berry contains two beans, and after they are hulled in this way, the beans are winnowed and dried for the market. In some parts of Mexico there are machines for curing the coffee, and the methods I saw were the rudest of the rude. Still some of the best coffee known is produced in Mexico, and it ranks high above the Brazilian coffee among experts. Some people like it better than Arabian coffee, and coffee drinkers here tell me that the demand for coffee in- creases every year. Up until 1690, the only coffee known was from Arabia, and it was about this time that the Java coffee was first planted. About half a century later the plant was introducedinto the West Indies, and from thence i. spread to Brazil and Mexico. At present Brazil exports more coffee than any other country in the world, and we buy more than 2,000,000 pounds of her every year. We take the bulk of the Mexican coffee, and it brings higher prices than the Brazilian, and it will bring more as it becomes better known. Mexico al- ready raises over $3,000,000 worth every year, and the prospects are that we will buy the most of her output for years to come. We drink more coffee than any other people in the world, except Belgians, Norwegians, the Danes and the Dutch, and our average is over seven pounds a head every year. The French drink about two pounds a head, and their chief drink is wine. The British drink tea, and they only average a pound of coffee per head a year. The Dutch (Hollanders) drink seven timesas much as the average American, or twenty- one times as much as the Englishman, and the Danes drink on an average thirteen pounds a year apiece." 82 RECIPROCITY. In Honduras the coffee trees are set out three feet apart in rows and the rows four feet apart. The trees begin to bear the third year. The average crop of trees five years old is from four hundred to six hundred pounds per acre. The land for the coffee crop should be well cleared. Coffee is raised from the seed (the same as cabbage plants). The land should be kept clear of weeds. The fifth year the trees will yield a full crop, for fifty or seventy-five years without further cultivation. The tree is a scrubby bush. The berries when picked are separated from the hulls or burrs by machinery and then washed and packed for market. With the same care and cultivation as corn in the United States, on very rich ground, the coffee tree will yield a pound of good coffee per tree each year for several years. The trees are set out in rows three feet apart and four feet between the rows. Forty acres of coffee trees in Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica is far better than a thousand-acre grain farm in the United States as a source of revenue. A forty-acre coffee plantation is estimated to be worth $6,000 annu- ally. There are men in Mexico who make from $40,000 to $50,000 every year on their coffee plantation. A coffee plantation is one of the best investments in the world. CHAPTER XI. ENGLAND A PROTECTIONIST. NGLAND was a protectionist as long as she was building up her infant in- dustries. She hoisted the banner of free trade when she was able to under- sell the manufacturers of other countries, even in their own markets. Those who follow the arguments of the Cobden Club on free trade, and who admire free trade, should look back to history and see how England has gained her commercial and manufacturing supremacy over the nations of the world - by her navigation laws and the protection of her infant industries. In the reign of Richard II. an act was passed for the encouragement of English ship- ping, "That the king's subjects should ship no merchandise out of the realm, but only in ships of the king's allegiance on pain of forfeiture." In the reign of Richard III., various laws were made for the inducement of clothmakers from abroad to settle in England and for their protection. In the reign of Edward III. none but clothes of home manufacture were to be worn, the texture, sizes and the proportions of which were defined by a par- ticular statute in the twenty-fifth year of this king, called the Statute of Cloth. Besides, artificers were put under severe restrictions -the apparel of all ranks was regulated. In the reign of Edward VI. the interests of trade and manufactures were also provided for by various enactments in affirmance of the statutes of former reigns. In the reign of Richard III. trade and commerce became objects of consid- eration of the king in imitation of his predecessors; he was solicitous to put them on such footing as would be conducive to the interests of the nation. All merchants, English, Welsh or Irish, were prohibited from exporting goods on pain of life and limb, and the forfeiture of their goods and chattels to the king, and of their tenements to their chief lords. The king's object was that the people of England would be self-sustaining, and be able to provide for their own wants and be independent of the manufacturers of the world; to keep the people employed and to keep money at home in circulation, so that the king could defend himself and his people in case of a foreign blockade. It was also done to supply the home market in consequence of the statutes of laborers passed in various reigns and to regulate the price of wages and provisions. England favored protection by her navigation laws under Cromwell. In 1699, it was enacted, "that no wool, yarn or woolen manufacture of American plantations shall be shipped thence, or even laden, in order to be transported, on any pretense whatever." In 1719, the English parliament declared the erecting of manufactories in the colonies tends to lessen their dependence on Great Britain." In 1742, the British board of trade reported to parliament that the Ameri- cans had begun to manufacture paper, which, they said, "interfered with the profits made by the British merchants." Parliament instituted an inquiry through the colonial governors, in relation to the progress of American manu- facturers, which resulted in showing that leather, a little poor iron, and clothes for domestic use were manufactured; all of which was considered to be prejudicial to the trade and manufactures of Great Britain. In response to the board of trade, parliament, in 1732, prohibited the exportation from the colonies of such articles of manufacture as interfered with like articles in England. No person was allowed to make hats in any part of this country who 83 RECIPROCITY. had not served an apprenticeship, and the number of apprentices were limited to two in each case, and those had to be white, as colored apprentices were for- bidden. In 1750, the English parliament prohibited the erection of mills for rolling iron. in the colonies, and also the making of steel. If such mills were found in any part of the colonies, the colonial governors were requested to treat them as nuisances and to destroy them under severe penalties for disobedience. The navigation laws did not allow any articles of colonial manufacture to be exported, or any foreign commodityto be imported, except in English ships. The free traders, who are aiming to establish English commercial supremacy, should not forget that Spain, in the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, imported fine wool from England into Spain, to be returned to England in manufactured cloth. So England has built up her commercial and manufacturing interestby protection. Now, when she is able to undersell the world, she wants free trade. England made it a penal offense to sell to the American colonies a loom or tools to manufacture linen. If a British workingman went to a foreign country he was ordered home, and in default it was a penal offense. If a British me- chanic went abroad to work at his trade in a foreign country, he was ordered home, and in default his goods were confiscated and he was put out of the king's protection. It was made a penal offense to teach the Yankees how to manufacture cot- ton. This shows England's methods of protection of her infant industries. This is a lesson to free traders. The Irish ought to know, from the history of Ireland, that Irish manufac- tures and commerce were ruined by English laws. No patriotic Irishman should vote for free trade (or for injuring the industry or business of the United States) or for any system that would give any foreign country a supremacy over the trade and commerce of the United States, or that would take the bread out of the mouths of labor. We want to encourage manufactures in the South and West. In a few years the farmers in the South and West would have a home market. The farmers of New England and the Middle states have a home market; they do not depend on the markets of Europe. The people of the West should encourage manufactures and increase population, which would create a home market. If the free traders, or those who are now, tinkering the tariff laws, would first pay off the public debt, build a navy, fortify the coast, abolish the internal revenue, and fall back on the policy of Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe and Jackson, and collect from im- ported goods the money necessary to the support of the government, then they might see what articles could be put on the free list which would not interfere with American industry. By her protective tariff laws England has acquired her enormous wealth, trade and commerce. She has acquired her vast territories, extending from the north pole to the south pole, and from the rising to the setting sun. In short, the sun never sets upon the dominions of Great Britain. Her empire in various parts of the globe, including the protected states of India, has been esti- mated at eight and a half millions of square miles, and the population at three hundred millions. Nearly a sixth of all the land on the surface of the earth, and more than a fifth of its entire population are under the jurisdiction of the British crown. Great Britain rules over a territory sixty-five times as large as itself, and over a population nearly eight times as numerous as its own. In India she rules over 250,000,000 of population. She has acquired a monopoly over the colonial trade of over 300,000,000 of people, besides the trade she gets from all other countries in the world. By selfish and unfriendly laws she has ruined Ireland's trade, manufactures and commerce. With the aid of Irish taxes and Irish soldiers and sailors, England has acquired her territories, wealth and power. But England has used this power and wealth to ruin the manufactures and commerce of Ireland, so that the English manufacturers have RECIPROCITY. been able to undersell the Irish in their own country and market. Ireland, having been ruined in her trade, commerce and manufactures, has to depend upon agriculture almost exclusively. The principal part of her produce goes to England to pay rents to alien landlords, the balance to pay taxes and to pur- chase manufactured goods of English looms Hence the cause of the Irish famine in 1847-8-9-50. There was during these years an abundance of wheat, oats, barley, rye and other grain, beef, mutton, pork and butter in Ireland, while nearly one-half of the population either died at home of famine or were forced to emigrate to foreign lands. One of the great causes of the poverty of Ireland can be traced to the union between Great Britain and Ireland in 1800, which established free trade between England and Ireland. Great Britain, by her protective laws and the vast monopoly of her colonial trade, has acquired great capital and transporta- tion facilities that her merchants and manufacturers can undersell the Irish in their own country. It has been said that "cotton is king." Yes, England's cotton goods have driven the poor hand-loom weavers out of Ireland, at least out of employment, to work as laborers, or to emigrate. The farmers of Ireland have by these means been deprived of their home market and the home industry of the peo- ple, and have now to depend nearly entirely on the markets of England. The English, having the Irish market under their exclusive control, charge their own price for their merchandise and regulate the price of all kinds of farm produce. In 1846 England proclaimed free trade, and abolished her corn laws. She saw that other countries, especially the United States, were endeavoring to supply their own wants, and to manufacture for themselves. England wants to. ruin the infant industries of all other countries, hence she wants to break down the walls of protection. She wants to keep the United States an agricultural country the same as Ireland, depending on the English manufactures, so that the English merchants can regulate the money, trade, commerce and prices of the markets of the world. England derives an annual revenue from India of over 70,000,000 pounds sterling a year. Her national debt amounts to about 763,000,000 pounds ster- ling; that is, about a fifth of the sum total of the national debts of all the states of Europe. The annual value of her imported goods and merchandise into the United Kingdom of Great Britian and Ireland amounts to 400,000,000 pounds sterling and the annual exports were about 300,000,000 pounds sterling. The imports exceed the exports by 100.000,000 pounds sterling. The national income, or the produce of all kinds of industry and property, is estimated at upward of 500,000,000 pounds sterling a year. This shows that in consequence of the United States and other countries having turned their capital, labor and industry to home manufacture, Eng- land is now at a standstill. Soon she will fail to control the manufactures, trade and commerce of the world. She has to import materials for manufac- ture, principally raw cotton, wool, raw silk, flax, hemp, hides, tallow, timber, dyestuffs, etc.; articles of food and consumption, as tea, sugar, coffee, tobacco, spirits, wines, corn, flour, oils, spices, etc., and guano for agriculture. She exports in large quantities to purchase her raw materials and food, manufactured goods, metals and coals, cotton goods, woolen goods, hardware, cutlery, steam engines and machinery of every kind, leather, silk goods, linen, glass, earthenware, beer and ale. What wonder that she wants free trade! The following is from Mr. Blaine's excellent book: When by long experiment and persistent effort England had carried her fabrics to perfection; when by the large accumulation of wealth and the force of reserved capital, she could command facilities which poorer nations could RECIPROCITY. not rival; when by the talent of her inventors, developed under the stimulus of large reward, she had surpassed all other countries in the magnitude and effectiveness of her machinery, she proclaimed free trade and persuasively urged it upon all lands with which she had commercial intercourse. Maintain- ing the most arbitrary and most complicated system of protection so long as her statesmen considered that policy advantageous, she resorted to free trade only when she felt able to invade the domestic markets of other countries and undersell the fabrics produced by struggling artisans who were sustained by weaker capital and by less advanced skill. So long as there was danger that her own marts might be invaded and the product of her looms and forges un- dersold at home, she rigidly excluded the competing fabric and held her own market for her own wares. England was, however, neither consistent nor candid in her advocacy and establishment of free trade. She did not apply it to all departments of her enterprise, but only to those in which she felt confident that she could defy competition. Long after the triumph of free trade in manufactures, as proclaimed in 1846, England continued to violate every principle of her own creed in the protection she extended to her navigation interests. She had nothing to fear from the United States in the domain of manufactures, and she therefore asked us to give her the unrestricted benefit of our markets in exchange for a simi- lar privilege which she offered to us in her markets. But on the sea we were steadily gaining upon her, and in 1850-1855 were nearly equal to her in aggre- gate tonnage. We could build wooden vessels at less cost than England, and our ships excelled hers in speed. When steam began to compete with sail, she saw her advantage. She could build engines at less cost than we, and when, soon afterward, her shipbuilders began to construct the entire steamer of iron, her advantage became evident to the whole world. "England was not content, however, with the superiority which those circumstances gave to her. She did not wait for her own theory of free trade to work out its legitimate results, but forthwith stimulated the growth of her steam marine by the most enormous bounties ever paid by any nation to any enterprise. To a single line of steamers running alternate weeks from Liver- pool to Boston and New York, she paid $900,000 annually, and continued to pay at this extravagant rate for at least twenty years. In all channels of trade where steam could be employed she paid lavish subsidies, and literally destroyed fair competition, and created for herself a practical monopoly in the building of iron steamers and a superior share in the ocean traffic of the world. But every step she took in the development of her steam marine by the payment of bounty was in flat contradiction of the creed which she was at the same time advocating in those departments of trade where she could conquer her competitors without bounty. With her superiority in navigation attained and made secure through the instrumentality of subsidies, England could afford to withdraw them. Her ships no longer needed them. Thereupon, with a promptness which would be amusing if it did not have so serious a side for America, she proceeded to inveigh through all her organs of public opinion against the discarded and condemned policy of granting subsidies to ocean steamers. Her course in effect is an exact repetition of that in regard to protection of manufacturers, but as it is exhibited before a new generation the inconsistency is not so readily apprehended nor so keenly appreciated as it should be on this side of the Atlantic. Even now there is good reason for believing that many lines of English steamers, in their effort to seize the trade to the exclusion of rivals, are paid such extravagant rates for the carrying of letters as practically to amount to a bounty, thus confirming to the present day (1884) the fact that no nation has ever been so persistently and so jealously protective in her policy as England, so long as the stimulus of protection is needed to give her the command of trade. What is true of England is true in RECIPROCITY. greater or less degree of all other European nations. They have each in turn regulated the adoption of free trade by the ratio of their progress toward the point where they could overcome competition. In all those departments of trade where competition could overcome them, they have been quick to interpose protective measures for the benefit of their own people." (Blaine's "Twenty Years in Congress," Vol. 1, p. 210.) Mr. Blaine's argument that protection makes cheap goods to the consumer: "The American protectionist does not seek to evade the legitimate results of his theory. He starts with the proposition that whatever is manufactured at home gives work and wages to our people, and that if the duty is even put so high as to prohibit the import of the foreign article, the competition of home producers will, according to the doctrine of Mr. Hamilton, rapidly reduce the price to the consumer." (Ibid, p. 211. ) THE TARIFF MEASURE OF 1789. July 4, 1789, the second act of congress, passed under the constitution, was an act to pay all of the expenses of the national government by duties on imported goods. The bill was signed by President Washington. The revo- lutionary fathers-Washington, Jefferson, Madison, the leaders of both parties, including Hamilton-settled down on theprinciple of a tariff from import duties for the support of the national government and for the payment of the public debt-" to provide for the common defense; promote the general welfare." The states had a repugnance to the national government taxing the farm- er's land, or even collecting an internal revenue tax, as undemocratic and a violation of states rights. Even South Carolina, in 1808, in her legislature, passed the following: "Whereas, the establishment and encouragement of do- mestic manufactures is conducive to the interests of a state, by adding new in- centives to industry, and as being the means of disposing to advantage the sur- plus productions of the agriculturist; and, whereas, in the present unexampled state of the world, their establishment in our country is not only expedient but politic, in rendering us independent of foreign nations." This was the spirit of the Democrats, the fathers of the constitution and South Carolina, until John C. Calhoun and his faction hoisted the banner of nullification. Presi- dent Madison, the father of the constitution, signed the tariff bill of 1816. Even Calhoun voted for the tariff bill of 1816 as a Democratic measure. The Southern planters, as well as the farmers and land owners of the North, were opposed to the national government raising a land tax. James Monroe signed the tariff bill of 1824. Calhoun and his faction opposed the tariff bill of 1828 on sectional grounds. He drew the sectional line between the North and South, which culminated in nullification in 1832, and in rebellion in 1861. President Jackson signed the tariff bills of 1832 and 1833, which caused South Carolina, under the evil spirit of Calhoun, to pass an ordinance of nullification, which was stamped out by the patriotic energy of President Jackson, to break out again in 1861. The result of the late Rebellion is fresh in the minds of this generation, and should be a lesson to avoid sectionalism under, every disguise. We should follow the counsels of Washington against arraying the North against the South, the East against the West. Follow the fathers a little longer. CHAPTER XII. AMERICAN TARIFF LAWS. IT is strange that after a century of debate on the manner of levying a federal tax on import duties, that the American people should be divided to-day into two great parties on this issue. A reasonable human being, not im- bued with American partisan politics, would have certainly solved the ques- tion a long time ago. Up to 1828 the representatives of the cotton states favored high import duties. When it became evident that slave labor was not adapted to the fac- tory and that white labor would not work with slave labor without high wages, the leading slaveholders of the South turned against the manufacturing interest, and henceforth legislated solely in the interest of agriculture. This led to sectional debates in congress from 1828 to the present time, threatening the Union itself. The question of levying a tax on import duties, as the second act of Washington's administration, in 1789, by the first congress under the federal constitution, by men who had just been engaged in framing the con- stitution, fresh from its councils and debates, gave general satisfaction to the American people as the best system for raising a revenue to support a bank- rupt government; for, indeed, Washington's administration, in 1789, did not command a single dollar of revenue before the passage of the tariff act of 1789, but it inherited a debt of the Revolution, without means to pay it or to main- tain the government, except the revenue from the sale of public lands in the Northwest. As these sales were few, without a tariff the Federal government would have to levy a land tax. But at that time the landowners of the South were opposed to a federal land tax. James Madison, the father of the constitution and protection, was the most conspicuous in favor of a tariff. He had arrayed with him Richard Henry Lee, Theodorick Bland, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Rufus King, George Clymer, Oliver Ellsworth, Elias Bou- dint, Fisher Ames, Elbridge Gerry, Roger Sherman, Jonathan Trumbull, Lambert Cadwalader, Thomas Fitzsimons, Abraham Baldwin, Jeremiah Van Rensselaer, and many other leading men both North and South. The first tariff law enacted under the Federal government set forth its ob- ject in the preamble and was advocated by James Madison, "the Father of Pro- tection," thus: It is necessary for the support of the government, for the dis- charge of the debts of the United States, and for the encouragement and protec- tion of manufactures, that duties be levied on imported goods, wares and mer- chandise." The men who agreed to this declaration were among the most conspicuous of the founders of the constitution. It is a most curious fact that nearly all the arguments used to-day by the protectionists and anti-protection- ists were presented in the debate on the tariff of 1789. The ad valorem sys- tem of levying duties was maintained against specific" rates, almost in the same language employed in the discussions of recent years. The "infant manufacture," the need of the fostering care of the govern- ment for the promotion of "home industry," the advantages derived from "diversified pursuits," the competition of cheap labor of Europe," were all rehearsed with familiarity and ease, which implied their previous and constant use in the legislative halls of the different states before the power of levying imposts were remitted to the jurisdiction of congress. A picture of the in- dustrial condition of the country at that day can be inferred from the tariff bill RECIPROCITY. first passed. The first tariff act was a second declaration of independence." It was approved by President Washington on the fourth of July, 1789. This act aroused the anger both of the English statesmen and English manufac- turers, as they saw the late colonies, now the United States, were beginning to manufacture for themselves and to emancipate themselves as commercial dependencies of Great Britain. The separate states had indeed possessed the power to levy imposts, but they had never exercised it in any comprehen- sive manner, and had usually adapted the rate of duty to English trade rather than to the protection of manufacturing interests at home. The action of the Federal government was a new departure of portentous magnitude, and was recognized at home and abroad."-(Blaine's Twenty Years in Congress," Vol. 1, p. 18b.) The duties under the act of 1789 were not high, but England was disturbed that the power was given to the Federal government to levy any duty which would enable the Americans in time to produce everything for themselves and gain commercial independence. In 1816 Mr. Clay was a protectionist and Mr. Webster a free trader. Mr. Calhoun, in 1816, was in favor of protection. He said, The farmer will find a ready market for his surplus products, and, what is almost of equal conse- quence, a certain cheap supply for all his wants." The tariff of 1816 was "moderately protective," but it encountered the op- position of the commercial interest. Mr. Webster opposed protection because it tended to depress commerce and curtail the profits of the carrying trade. When the New England states were largely engaged in manufacturing, Daniel Webster joined Mr. Clay as a protectionist. When the "New South" engages more and more in manufacturing the South itself will become the advocate of protection. When Calhoun saw that slave labor could not be profitably em- ployed in manufacturing, and that the South would, for an indefinite time, remain agricultural, with England as her chief customer, he became the leader in the South of the free traders, or anti-protectionists. In 1828, Mr. Calhoun was elected vice president, with Jacksonas president. Mr. Van Buren was appointed secretary of state, and became the head of Jackson's cabinet. A quarrel arose between Van Bnren and Mr. Calhoun which caused Mr. Calhoun to resign from the vice presidency. He was elected a United States senator from South Carolina, as the leader of nullification, in 1832. Nullifica- tion and treason were vigorously stamped out by President Jackson in 1832. Then Calhoun took up the slavery question as a more potent question for unit- ing the South against the North and for leading the solid South to treason, secession and rebellion. In 1833 a compromise tariff bill was passed, which was a sliding scale of duties. In consequence of the tariff act of 1833, the financial crisis of 1837 followed which brought on universal distress from 1837 to 1842. This distress and financial and business depression defeated the Democrats and Van Buren in 1840. In 1844 the Democrats abandoned the tariff issue and took up the annexa- tion of Texas and the Northwest boundary-the line of "Fifty-four-forty or fight." Mr. Polk was elected by a false and fraudulent issue and misrepresentation. The Democrats passed the anti-protection or free trade tariff law of 1846. It is a remarkable fact that, in 1846, England became a free trade country, so far as food and the raw materials for manufacturing were concerned; but she re- tained high duties on tea, coffee, sugar, tobacco, malt, spirits, etc. She adopted free trade to crush the infant industries of competing countries, especially her best customer, the United States. England taxes only that class of imports which meet no competition at home and which she does not produce in sufficient quantities. Strange that RECIPROCITY. our American anti-protectionists cannot see this distinction. She has always studied the best interest of her people in the trade and commerce of Great Britain. The ambition of English statesmen for over five hundred years has been to make their own country supreme in manufacturing so long as protection was needed to give her the command of trade. She has adopted partial free trade when she could overcome competition." In 1846, Mr. Calhoun, James Buchanan, a Democratic supreme court, Democratic senate and house of representatives, with Polk's administration, favored the wishes of England. Indeed, the same can be said of Pierce, Buchanan and Cleveland, that they were subservient to the British govern- ment. They outrivaled the Federalists of the Hartford Convention in the memorable war of 1812. The reader should pause here. Mr. Calhoun,James Buchanan, Jefferson Davis and the Southern leaders of the slaveholders entered into a conspiracy with England in 1846, that in consideration that England would not object to the annexation of Texas, the Mexican War and the annexa- tion of Mexican territory, Polk's administration would surrender the disputed territory of "Fifty-four-forty or fight," and adopt the line of forty-nine de- grees of latitude, thus surrendering the vast territory from Washington state to Alaska,and from the Red River of the North and Hudson bay to the Pacific ocean to England. The other article of this secret compact was the free trade tariff act of 1846. Loyal Democrats, what do you now think of Calhoun, Buchanan, the Cobden Club and free traders? After the election of Pierce,in 1852,the Democrats had control of the Federal government. That party has been drifting gradually as a free trade party. Since the Southern leaders got control of the Democratic party, after the Civil War, they have thrown aside all disguise and are in open hostility to the manufacturing interest of the United States, notwithstanding that Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee and Mississippi are engaged in the manufacturing of iron and steel, and that some cotton factories have been recently started in Alabama and Mississippi. The Democrats in the closing session of Pierce's administra- tion passed the tariff act of 1857, placing duties lower than they had been since 1812. In consequence of the low tariff of 1857, in the autumn of that year a finan- cial panic swept over the country, bringing ruin to banks, merchants, farmers and workingmen. The wholesale depression of all kinds of business followed from 1857 to 1861. The business of the country was as much paralyzed as in 1837. No new enterprises were spoken of; all was at a standstill. Wages were low, employment was scarce; all kinds of farm produce had a sudden fall; the price of real estate was at a low rate. There are now many millions of people living who remember the hard times during Buchanan's administration, from 1857 to 1861, as compared with good times under a high protective tariff from 1861 to 1883. At no time in the history of the United States did the country grow in every branch of business. Wages were high and employment steady and active. Real estate and farm production commanded a higher price than under a low tariff. At the same time, under the protective tariffs of 1861, 1883 and 1890, the prices of all kinds of protected manufactured articles be- came cheaper than under the low tariffs of 1846 and 1857. Besides, our pro- tective duties compelled the foreign manufacturer to pay a large federal tax and sell his goods cheaper than under the low tariff of 1846 and 1857. The pro- tective tariff gave employment to the American workmen and kept a large amount of money for home circulation and provided a home market for the American farmers. The free traders argue that the country was prosperous between the enact- ment of the tariff of 1846 and 1857. The protectionists say that directly after the passage of the tariff of 1846, the great famine occurred in Ireland, fol- lowed in the ensuing years by short crops in Europe. The prosperity which came to the American agriculturist was, therefore, from causes beyond the sea RECIPROCITY. and not at home -causes which were transient; indeed, almost accidental. Moreover, an exceptional condition of affairs existed in the United States in consequence of our large acquisition of territory from Mexico at the close of the war, and subsequent and almost immediate discovery of gold in California. A new and extended field of trade was thus opened in which we had a monopoly, and an enormous surplus of money was speedily created from the products of the rich mines on the Pacific coast. At the same time, Europe was in convul- sion from the revolutions of 1848, and production was materially hindered over a large part of the continent. This disturbance had scarcely subsided when three leading nations of Europe, England, France and Russia, engaged in the wasteful and expensive war of the Crimea. This struggle began in 1853, and ended in 1856, and during those years it increased consumption and decreased production abroad, and totally closed the grain fields of Russia from any com- petition with the United States." (Blaine's Twenty Years in Congress, Vol. 1, p. 203.) ENGLISH FACTORIES IN CHINA AND INDIA. During the last quarter of a century more English money has been invested in foreign countries, in foreign enterprises, than at home. India is the country that is sucking English capital out of its natural channels. It shows that im- ports to England from India are steadily increasing, and exports from England to India are as steadily decreasing. The same thing is taking place with China. English capital is being invested in that country in an ever-increasing volume. Labor is so cheap in India and in China that factories can be run in those coun- tries at less than half what would be required to run them in England. It appears that threepence British or about six cents in American money would buy as much labor in India as two shillings would in England. It would be a terrible retribution if England had to pay for the wrongs done India by mak- ing that country rich, while she herself was becoming poor. If the English nationality could be transferred to India, the change of eco- nomic positions of both countries would not be so gallingto England. But India cannot be colonized by England, because India is one of the most densely pop- ulated countries in the world. Neither can the English people, or any consid- erable part of them, be transferred to India, for even if there were room for them the climate is such as to preclude the possibility of English emigration to that country. But money heeds neither sun nor malaria, and English money has no patriotism. A few men will always be found, for big pay, willing enough to take charge of factories in China or India, but the English themselves cannot go where their money goes. They seem destined to stay at home and starve, while the country they conquered grows rich at their expense and with their money. There is hardly a branch of manufacture that cannot be carried on as well in India or China as in England. The natives of these countries are very peaceably disposed, they hardly ever go on a strike. They can live, work and get fat on such wages as an European would starve on. China and India have unlimited supplies of cash; they grow cotton in abundance; the supply of cheap labor is so great that men can be found to work for almost anything that is offered them. It is not the pauper labor of Europe, so called, that we in this country may soon have to protect ourselves from, but the pauper labor of India and China, that have, between them, well onto 700.000,000 of inhabit- ants. England may find that introducing factories into China and India will most likely be the ruin of even the capitalists in the long run. The natives of those countries are poor organizers but great imitators. English manufacturers will not be long without opposition. The natives will soon find out the superi- ority of machinery over hand power. Plenty of natives will soon be found to build and run factories on the European plan, and dispense with the services of the English overseers. The temptation of the English capitalist to employ RECIPROCITY. cheap labor is driving English money out of England, not only to India but to other lands of rich soil, cheap labor and easy subsistence, that will drain out capital and trade. Should England decline to protect her country against the alienation of capi- tal and trade, another half century may see England the retreat of the old age of a small aristocracy of millionaires, who will have made their money where labor was cheapest and return to spend it where life was easiest and most pleas- ant. No productive work will be possible in England but such as is required for personal services will be procurable at a cheap rate, owing to the reluctance of labor to emigrate with capital. We look forward to a revived feudalism in England, in which the retired industrial baron will rule with absolute sway the more sentimental or less ad- venturous menials who shall cling to their own country in preference to follow- ing into India or China, Africa and other landsof cheap labor. England will get her manufactured goods from India and China, where she can employ labor in her factories for about ten cents a day, and dump them in the United States to compete with American labor. No wonder that English free traders want the United States to throw down the bars of protection and flood the country with goods manufactured by the cheap labor of India and China, and other lands of cheap labor; thus ruining the American manufacturers and the American working people. The American people must guard against the cheap labor of India and Chi- na as much as against Chinese immigration. Free trade would ruin American manufacturers and the workingmen of the United States as completely as it ruined the manufactures, trade and com- merce of Ireland, and in time the cheap labor of India and China will reduce the workingmen of England, Scotland and Wales to the deplorable condition of the Irish workingmen. Then the world will hear of famine in the island of Great Britain. The American workingmen should protect themselves at the ballot box against free trade and starvation wages or no wages at all. England is now sending her capital to Mexico, Central and South America and to her vast colonies, including Africa, India, China, and other cheap labor countries of the world. All of this drain of English capital will deprive the workingmen of England of employment and wages, and will build up peon and coolie labor all over the greater part of the world. For over one hundred years the wealth of the world has been flowing into England, making England the first country in the world, ancient and modern, in money, manufactures, trade and commerce, and giving the workingmen of that country the best wages of any other country in the world except the United States. CHAPTER XIII. SHIP BUILDING AND THE CARRYING TRADE- COALING STATIONS- AMERI- CAN NAVY- COAST DEFENSES BRITISH FORTIFICATIONS. MERICAN shipbuilding has declined since the Civil War in 1861. Dur- ing that war England's piratical cruisers depredated on American com- merce, nearly driving the American flag from the ocean. Consequently American capital found safer investment in federal, state, county and city bonds, railroads, mortgages, mines, manufacturing, farms, town lots and inland navigation, than in building ocean steamships. With reciprocity with Spanish America and the West Indies, and by railroads North and South, the South and West will have an outlet from Mobile, New Orleans and Galveston to the markets of the world. This will encourage ship building in the United States. The people should encourage ship building by liberal subsidies. We have over 64,000,000 of a population. Five cents from each person in the United States for five years would give us a merchant marine superior to that of any other country, and would open new markets for the American 'farmer. When the navies of the world were sailing vessels, the United States did not need coaling stations. Since the Civil War of 1861, ironclads have super- seded wooden vessels. England was prepared for this change,as she had colonies all over the globe, where she could have all kinds of naval supplies. She could ; protect her flag and subjects in the ports of the world. The United States hias no coaling station from Florida to California, or a harbor for our sick soldiers, or for the repairing of our war vessels, except at the Samoan islands. We have to beg, either from enemies or neutral powers, coal and provisions, and for permission for repairing our national vessels. A few years ago the United States could have purchased the island of Cuba for $10,000,000. We could have acquired from Denmark the island of St. Thomas, in the West Indies. The treaty for its purchase was rejected in the senate. In 1884, President Arthur made a treaty with the Republic of Nicaragua, which provided that the United States could build and own the Nicaragua canal. The treaty was sent to the United States Senate in 1884, but when President Cleveland got into power, in 1885, he withdrew the treaty from the senate. Were it not for the withdrawal of this important treaty the United States would have built and would now own the Nicaragua canal. We would have coaling stations at Greytown and Brito. Our navy could go through the Nicaragua canal in twenty-eight hours, saving a distance of several thousand miles around South America. With the Nicaragua canal and naval stations at Greytown and Brito, our minister would not have been in- sulted and our marines murdered in Chili. It is about time for the United States Congress to wake up to this danger- ousstate of affairs and pass the senate bill for aiding the construction of the Nicaragua canal. It should pass a bill for the purchase of the island of Cuba and the island of St. Thomas, a bill for leasing from the Republic of Nicaragua and the Nicaragua Canal Company a coaling dock or pier at Greytown and Brito, and a suitable harbor in Peru, as a coaling station and as a place for repairing war vessels. A bill for fortifying the harbor of San Francisco. A coaling station is now as necessary for a navy as a woodyard and water tank for a railway. No party should vote against the means of protecting the Ameri- can flag and American people in foreign lands. With reciprocity with Spanish RECIPROCITY. America, our trade and commerce will increase all over this hemisphere. Our people will immigrate in great numbers to Mexico, Cuba, Central and South America and invest their capital and labor in commerce, mining, fruit farms, lumber, railways and canals. Their rights can be protected only by a powerful navy. We may have trouble with England on the fishery and boundary question. We should heed the warning of Washington, "In peace we should prepare for war." Let every good and loyal American citizen encourage the building of a powerful navy and the defense of the Pacific coast and the build- ing of the Nicaragua canal. The tide of commerce, as the West Indies, Mexico, Central and South America increase in population, will seek an outlet from Chicago, St. Louis, New Orleans and Galveston through the Gulf of Mexico to the rich countries south of us, by railways north and south, and ocean steamers. Congressmen and senators of the South and West should throw nothing in the way of the United States navy and commercial marine. No party should prevent Americans from obtaining the supremacy of the ocean. The British naval force in the Gulf of Mexico, Carribean sea and the Atlan- tic is a menace to the Atlantic and Gulf cities of the United States and to our trade and commerce. In 1772, the British admiral, Rodney, addressed a letter to the British government on the advantage of making the West Indies, espe- cially St. Lucia, a naval station. The French, in the time of Napoleon, consid- ered St. Lucia as the Gibraltar of the Gulf of Mexico. When the Panama canal was first proposed, British military and naval offi- cers called their government's attention to the condition of its West Indian de- fenses, and renewed the suggestions of Admiral Rodney. Each of the colonies then contained two or three companies of troops, whose chief business it was to hold the black population in subjection. It was obvious enough that a handful of soldiers in each island offered no obstacle to the descent of foreign foe. The empire's defense came up for investigation in 1879. Halifax was converted into one of the strongest fortifications in the world. Vast additions were made to the naval plant at Bermudas; and elaborate fortifications were erected at St. Lucia and Jamaica, directly confronting the mouths of the surveyed Panama and Nicaragua canals. These strongholds are encircling the American coast by cable. The principal harbor of St. Lucia is well fortified. It is a beautiful land- locked harbor, second in natural defenses among the West Indian harbors only to the Mole St. Nicholas. The mouth of the harbor is formed by two high hills about a third of a mile apart. One contains three concealed fortifications, armed with two six-inch, quick-firing rifles and two heavy nine-inch guns, all of the most approved metal. On the other hill are forts armed with four heavy guns, and each on three mountain spurs; behind the town of Castries are as many re- doubtsnow in courseof construction, each having full command of the harbor and all its approaches, and each to be mounted with heavy ordnances. Far to the rear of these defenses is another lofty battery, consisting of three heavy guns commanding both sides of the island. Under the protection of the forts, at the mouth of the harbor, England has constructed a magnificent dry dock, capa- ble of lifting all but her heaviest battle ships. She has established a coaling station, and has built barracks for 1,500 men, intending to bring hither all her West Indian forces, excepting those posted at Kingston, Jamaica; there she holds 1,800 men and seven large and powerful forts. A larger force is maintained at the Bermudas, where she has constructed the largest dry dock beyond the borders of the United Kingdon, 381 feet long and 124 wide and 53 feet deep, easily capable of lifting the heaviest ironclad in her service. There, too, she has a perfectly appointed shipyard, coaling station and harbor fortifications, which, according to the official Colonial Year book, "are mounted with the heaviest guns and render Bermudas quite beyond the reach of hostile attack." Stronger than any of these are the forts at Halifax, RECIPROCITY. which have been enormously strengthened within the past few years, and are proclaimed by the highest military authorities of the empire to be "as impreg- nable as Gibraltar." This newly built chain of fortresses, drawn directly across the coast of the United States from Portland to New Orleans and Galveston, fitted with navy yards and coaling stations, and armed with the latest and most formidable guns, connected with electric cables, is held at times of peace by 7,500 troops and six- teen of England's best ships. In six days' time England could launch a fleet of cruisers, fully equipped, from Jamaica to New Orleans, from St. Lucia to Charles- ton, from Bermudas to New York, and from Halifax to Boston, while the entire length of the American coast line is almost destitute of modern guns, and wholly unprepared for anything like an attack which, within the last ten years, England has been constantly, quickly, but effectually preparing herself to make. A railroad across Canada connects Halifax with Victoria on the Pacific coast where England has her coaling and naval station for her North Pacific naval fleet. She has the United States completely surrounded by her military and naval forces. Congress should immediately provide for our coast defenses so that our Atlan- tic, Gulf and Pacific cities will be secure from the hostile attacks of the mari- time powers of the world. The new navy, as it is popularly known, received its first start in 1881, under a Republican administration, under the direction of the secretary of the navy, William H. Hunt. The first naval advisory board was appointed to report upon the appropriate vessels required to replace the old wooden vessels, many of which were too far gone for repairs. The lack of interest in naval development for fifteen years following the close of the Civil War was limited in congress almost exclusively to the representatives from the Western states, who could not be made to see that a navy was really needed as a part of the defense of the United States; and their votes, together with those of the Democrats who pre- ferred that the United States should be wiped from the list of naval powers than that the Republican administration should have the money to spend for the recuperation of the navy, allowed it to fall into a condition of decrepitude and decay. The cry of the Democrats in congress was, "What do we care for a navy?" The advisory board appointed by Secretary Hunt numbered fifteen officers of recognized ability, experience and attainments, respecting the branches of the service particularly interested in the construction and equipment of hulls, machineryand armament. The president, Rear Admiral John Rogers, assembled the board early in June, 1881, to determine: first, the number of vessels which should now be built; second, their class, size and displacement; third, the material, and form of construction; fourth, the nature and size of the engines and machinery required for each; fifth, the appropriate equipment and rigging for each; sixth, the internal arrangements of each, and such other details as might seem necessary and proper; seventh, the probable cost of the whole of each vessel when complete and ready for service. The board submitted a report in November following, upon which was based the construction of the first batch of steel cruisers. The number of vessels of all classes recommended was seventy, but so much adverse criticism was made that a second board was appointed by Secretary Chandler. The total number of vessels recommended by this latter board included the first four steel vessels: the Chicago, Atlanta, Boston and Dolphin. The dates of the acts authorizing these vessels were Aug. 5, 1882, and March 3, 1883, and the contracts were taken for all four vessels by John Roach & Sons, in July, 1883. As this was new work in this country, the vessels were really experimental, at least so far as their designs, materials and construc- tion and mechanics employed upon them were concerned. These vessels were the first of the modern or rebuilt navy, and they infused new life into many industries in the country, which gave the ship builders much encouragement. By the close of Secretary Chandler's administration of the navy department RECIPROCITY. naval architecture and naval engineering had advanced materially, and the navy had got such a start that Secretary Whitney found congress and the people in a disposition to go on. The next ships, beginning with the Baltimore, on Dec. 17, 1886, were the Petrel, Charleston, Yorktown, Vesuvius, San Fran- cisco, Newark, Philadelphia, Concord and Bennington. The Baltimore was the first protected cruiser to be built for the new navy, and she and the Charles- ton, Philadelphia and San Francisco were reproductions from designs pur- chased in England. The torpedo boat Cushing, which was built in 1888, is the only other vessel of the new navy now in commission. The armored steel cruiser Maine, from designs drawn in the navy department, and the battle ship Texas, from designs purchased from England by Secretary Whitney, were the next vessels laid down. The Maine has since been launched, and the Texas will probably be launched in the early spring (1892). The next vessels launched were the coast-defense vessel Monterey, the armored cruiser New York, the cruisers Detroit and Miantonomah, and the gunboat Machias. The four last named have been launched since October, 1891, and are being made ready for service. There are now (January, 1892) on the stocks, in course of construction, the Texas, the protected cruiser Raleigh, the battle-ships Indiana and Massachusetts, and the all-round-the-world commerce destroyers, Pirate and No. 13, the battle- ship Oregon, the protected cruiser No. 6, the steel harbor defense ram and gunboat No. 6, cruiser No. 11, the protected cruiser Cincinnati, the naval academy practice ship and torpedo boat No. 2. The new ships now building do not represent any specific class or model existing abroad, although they have some.points of resemblance; but in everything essential they are individual in character, and are intended to surpass such types as they may be called upon to encounter. Under Secretary Tracy's naval administration the vessels of the new navy are of American materials. The vessels are building at the following places: at Cramp & Sons, Philadelphia; the Union Iron Works, San Francisco; Bath, Maine; Columbian Iron Works, Baltimore; New York Navy Yard; Moore & Sons, Elizabethport, N. J.; the Iowa Iron Works, Dubuque, Iowa; and the Norfolk Navy Yard. CHAPTER XIV. PRICES UNDER A PROTECTIVE TARIFF -PROTECTION CHEAPENS THE HOME MANUFACTURED ARTICLES AND INCREASES PRODUCTION, AND GIVES EMPLOYMENT TO WORKINGMEN. N 1860, under low tariff, nearly every carpenter used English hand saws. The cross-cut saw, in 1860, cost two dollars and twenty-five cents; now it can be bought for one dollar and fifty cents. This has been caused by protective legislation, which protected the American manufacturers and stimulated Americans to compete with the English in the manufacture of hard- ware. This has caused increased production. No law can prevent the cheap- ening of articles by increased production. Had the Democrats their way, we would find the industries of the country ruined and our mechanics forced to go on the farms-everybody doing that and no one to sell to. How would such a state of things help either our farmers or mechanics? The price of salt has been constantly cheapened since Americans began to produce it, under the tariff laws of 1861. Salt is now at the very lowest possible point in price consistent with good wages to the men who make salt. The great bulk of the salt consumed in this country is made in the United States; and any foreign salt maker who gets into our markets must do so by paying the duty himself. Consequently the duty on salt has not been a tax on the Ameri- can people but on the foreign importers. A duty levied on the protective plan is seldom, if ever, paid by our own people. We do levy a simple reve- nue duty on a large number of articles, but only on such as are luxuries; and such duties all come out of the rich, none out of the poor. The moment any- one will show a protectionist that any duty comes out of the laboring classes, on any article,he will be for putting it on the free list. That was the reason we put sugar on the free list. We were compelled to do it against the vote of every free trader in congress. A protective tariff is always in favor of the laboring classes; never against them. It is enacted, among other things, for the purpose of securing good wages and cheap goods. It does both. The wages in this country are the best which are paid on the face of the earth, and the cost of all articles to ultimate consumers has been cheapened by the building of industries in the United States and making those goods here at home. There is not a single exception to this rule. That is a single question of fact, not of theory. Protection may advance the price for a short time only, but no one can men- tion a single article that we manufacture under a protective system which has not been cheapened since we built up the industry in this country. Wire nails were six dollars when a duty of four dollars a keg was levied on the importation of all foreign wire nails. Without a duty no man would have invested his capital in that industry in the United States because the men who work in nail factories here get nearly twice as much per day as they do in Europe. But with that duty, which secured the home market for our manufac- turers, our business men went to work. They improved the machinery and soon cheapened the cost of production and there followed the lower price for wire nails to all our people who consume them. They kept doing this and kept driving the price down until they are now sold at the factories as low as two dollars and twenty-five cents per keg. This low price is the result ofa healthy competition among our own producers. 97 RECIPROCITY. Our manufacturers demand protection against foreign cheap labor in order to build up the industry here in the first place, and cheapen the price of goods to our own consumers. Having done that, they now demand that the duty may be maintained in order that they may still have control of the markets, so as to keep down prices and still live at that kind of work, and pay the higher wages that workingmen demand and receive in the United States. Wire nails were on the free list before 1861. While on the free list they were $6 a keg. We put a tariff of $2 a keg on wire nails. Not one wire nail had been made in this country-not a wire nail. Then it was expected that wire nails would be $8 a keg, but they went down to $5 the next year; then down to $3 and so on, till to-day we can get wire nails at $2.40 per keg. Cut nails are a Yankee invention. They were manufactured in five states. We made the cut nail machines used abroad and we also exported enormous quantities of cut nails. The McKinley bill provides a free importation of ten per cent greater than the Mills bill. The McKinley bill has not raised the prices of protected articles. The free trader will search a long while, and probably without success even then, if he tries to discover any class of articles which command a higher price than a year ago. Some of the reasons he may not be able to comprehend, and others he will obstinately refuse to admit; but it may be profitable to mention a few of them, nevertheless. This country hasbeenthemostimportant and profitable customer of foreign producers in many branches of industry. When it was proposed by means of higher duties to stop undue dependence upon foreign production, the manufacturers abroad said that they were obliged to give up the American market, or to sacrifice the whole or a part of their profits. In scores of cases already known they have reduced their selling price fully as much as the addition to the duties, and are now delivering goods at exactly the same price, duty paid, that they charged before the new tariff went into effect in 1890. This is the explanation of increased or unincreased imports of important class of goods in spite of the higher duties now imposed. In some products the foreign manufacturers have been helped by a remarkable decline in cost of raw materials. But this decline has not been accidental. A material part of the whole world's supply had been taken for many years to meet the American demand. The new duties threatened to cut off that demand. The foreign manufacturers thereupon named the figures they could afford to pay for the materials, in view of the new duties, and the producers found themselves forced to take those prices or lose a great market. It is a literal fact, thatthreat- ened withdrawal of American custom has put down the prices of some of the most important products in the Western world. The protectionist believes that the people of the United States should grow and make every article that can be possibly grown or madeeconomically in the United States. Tea can be grown in a hot house at great expense, but it would not be profitable for our people to engage in tea culture. A protective tariff is not a local matter. It is wholly national, and must always be considered from a national point of view. To be just and fair, it must be applied to every industry in the United States which needs protection against cheap labor of other nations. It is our only method of maintaining the higher wages paid for labor in the United States. The free trade papers admit that the wages are higher in the United States than in Europe. But they say that the right way to increase wages is by shutting out immigration. The free trade papers, as well as Mr. Mills, say that if the United States should manufacture everything for themselves, England would not buy the farmer's produce. This is a false argument, as any intelligent American knows that the European nations willbuy their food in the cheapest market. The free traders said that European nations would not buy our food in consequence of the high duties on foreign manufactures Contact Us | Permissions | Preferences | Technical Aspects | Statistics | Internal | Privacy Policy © 2004 - 2010 University of Florida George A. Smathers Libraries.All rights reserved. Acceptable Use, Copyright, and Disclaimer Statement Last updated October 10, 2010 - - mvs