plaints about ruined and starving Cuba, at least to the extent of requesting proof to justify the claim. As a nation, the American people are generous beyond all comparison. They have done in the case of Cuba what never before was done by one nation for another. Never before was a nation known to furnish men, money and ships to help another nation to secure political independence, without reward, or even reimbursement, for either blood or treasure expended. Before consenting, therefore, to change our fiscal policy, in order to make up the deficits of Cuban industries from the public revenues of the United States, the people have a right at least to be honestly informed, first, as to the facts, and second, of the moral or political principle upon which such demand is based. First, then, as to the facts: Is it true, as constantly asserted in the big head-lines of the daily press, that business is being ruined in Cuba and the Cuban people are on the verge of starvation? No mere sentimental statement by Gen. Wood or Secretary Root, or inspired editorials in the daily papers, should be accepted as an adequate answer to this question. We have seen that inspired editors cannot be trusted. The people want the facts. There are certain economic and social symptoms of business ruin and general starvation which no amount of official statement or manufactured sentiment can suppress or obscure. The infallible symptoms of business ruin, and exceptional physical and social hardships in the community, are deserted industries, enforced idleness, pauperism, increased sickness and higher death rate. Thus far none of these symptoms have been known to exist in Cuba. Enforced idleness has not increased, but the demand for labor this year has been greater than for many years, due to the nearly doubled production of sugar. In proof of this, steps have been taken to encourage the immigration of laborers from the Canaries, Porto Rico and Spain. Wages have not fallen, but, according to the planters' own testimony before the industrial commission, they have risen. Indeed, the higher price of labor was assigned as one of the reasons for the diminished profits. Nor is there any reliable evidence that sickness, charity or the death rate in Cuba have increased. If any of these had occurred the facts would have been set forth in convincing form. When famines occurred in India and in the Weyler concentrado camps in Cuba, we had abundant evidence. of the famished condition of the people. Press correspondents photographed the skeleton forms, with their bloated abdomens and other revolting symptoms of starvation; but nothing of the kind is coming from Cuba now. Why? The answer is obvious. All the available evidence tends to show that the people of Cuba are not starving, that Cuba is not worse off than formerly, but, on the contrary, is much better off than for many years. One fact, however, is apparent, viz. : that the Cuban planters, who heretofore have been a sort of landed aristocracy, many of them millionaires, are not making as big profits as formerly, but are being reduced more nearly to an economic basis. The laborers have been practically slaves, living under a quasifeudal system. Two things have occurred which have tended to diminish the previously exorbitant profits of sugar planters. One is the increased demand for labor and a greater spirit of freedom among the laborers in Cuba, with a diminished supply as a result of the war, and the other a decline in the price of sugar, due to the development of beet sugar culture in Europe and this country. For four years following December, 1897, the price of sugar was over four cents a pound, sometimes nearly five. The cost of labor then was even less than now, and the duty was the same. Under these prices their profits were simply opulent. During the last year (since August 22d, 1901), the price of sugar has been below four cents, but as we have already seen, it has never gone below the profit point, but has averaged for the last twelve months a price that would yield a profit on the actual investment of about 20 per cent. It is quite clear, therefore, so far as any available verified facts show, that the only hardship experienced in Cuba is a diminished profit of the sugar planters, but that this is accompanied by increased employment and wages, and material welfare among the masses, and a greater aggregate production. It seems to be for the planters something of a transition from an opulent, lazy, semi-feudal system, to a more legitimate, economic, industrial condition, where the laborers get a little larger and the land owners a little smaller share of the products, and modern methods instead of feudal authority are becoming necessary to successful industry. If there really is a genuine side to the semi-hysterical plea for Cuba, it has not been revealed by any verified facts, but the agitation regarding this matter has done much to disturb public opinion, and has nearly caused a rupture between the administration and conAll this is very bad-bad for business, and bad for the nation; but whether for better or for worse, the Cuban situation will now have to wait until the next session of congress. This will afford an opportunity for testing the validity of these heart-rending statements about Cuba. If half that has been told is true, we may expect to see during the summer months bankruptcy among pro ducers, starvation among laborers, and the concomitant social hardships everywhere in the island. If the president would appoint some one, or better still, a commission of three persons who know economic facts when they see them, and who have no theories to support or policics to defend, and who are familiar with sound methods of industrial investigation, and send such commission to Cuba thoroughly to sift the industrial situation, some reliable information on this subject might be obtained. At any rate, President Roosevelt, who, above all, desires and needs the truth, should not be the victim of sympathy or sentiment or personal pride from any quarter. When in the possession of such information, if the president found his position was not justified by the facts, he has the courage and the manliness to change front. Indeed, that is one of his strongest characteristics. On the other hand, if with the full knowledge of the situation thus ascertained, the president found that his position was justified by the facts, and he laid those facts before the people, he would be many-fold stronger with the nation. Under those conditions the people would believe and support him. But in the present state of facts, there is every reason for the American people to believe that the president is the victim of misinformation, than which nothing can more effectively destroy his influence with congress and the confidence of the nation in his leadership. COTTON MANUFACTURING IN THE NORTH AND SOUTH HENRY G. KITTREDGE The twelfth census presents some very interesting facts regarding the status and progress of the cotton manufacturing industry, North and South, within the decade of 1890 to 1900. It is a revelation to those who have followed intently the phenomenal growth of the industry in the South, especially in the Piedmont section of the south Atlantic states, without giving the same amount of attention to what has been going on at the same time in the state of Massachusetts. The South has exceeded all the early prognostications that were made concerning the position she was to occupy at the end of the nineteenth century as a cotton manufacturing community, not only in her relation to the North, but to the world. Her position was undefined and tentative in the early eighties, and experienced manufacturers-those brought up with New England mill training-regarded her efforts more in the light of local hopefulness and buoyancy than in anything that had a substantial existence. Her mills were showing large and unusual profits on the amount of investment, but this was looked upon as untrustworthy and as an evidence of defective book-keeping, in which the item of depreciation was not properly considered in the cost of production. It was some time before there was a full realization of the advantages possessed by the South for the manufacture of cotton, not only because of her nearness to the cotton fields and to an excellent supply of capable white people upon whom dependence could be placed to furnish her mills with operatives, but also because of her salubrious climate |