A Memorial to the Honorable the Senate and the House of Representatives of the United States (1903)

A MEMORIAL t

Honorable The AND 'l'HE j

House of Rc~rcsentath;cs

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Un.11ied. &1ia.'te a · I I

. . llY T~E j PqXCE. llRANCII loF 'HIE

CHAMBER OF COMl\IERCE '.

OP PO::n.TO B.%00

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COLE'C',... ,.

NoSE P"'-.:.. . ..

TO THE

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Tlte · ~eoa~ an~ Tl!e .House of Re~r~cn~tives I

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OFT ..~ 1JN TED STATES I

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Your petitioners, the PONCE branch of the CHA E& of CoMMERCE Of Po&To-Rido, having at heart the welfare of th~,Islarld at large and specially all what concerns thiA city of Ponce, de~ire to submit to your careful ·study, and considerati6n, certain matters intimately connected I with the interests represented by this Chamber of Commerce and to which we assign a. gl'eat importance for the future of this Island.

Conscious, as we are, G~ntlemen, of the close union of all social interests, we cannot remain indifferent before the · evils of an economic nature which, the present critical condition of our .·coffee induRtry and the deffi.cient arid unsa.tlsf~WtOry character of the transportation facilities with the United States, bring, upon the Island, and the poor accommodation of its harbor brings very particularly upon tlie city of Ponce. , · This Chamber of Commerce believes that, if great are the evils caused by.the crisis ""bjch our Coffee is undergoing, those produced by the deffi.Qlen'Jy of our means of communication and by the neglected condition of the harbor of Ponce, are no leas deservb:ig of consideration. .

Thia Memorial is inttnd~d to call the attention of the Congress to tbeae evils and to make such anggeations as in

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.. . oor judgment wi!l obviate t the fDd 8'0tight is equally le . ~Ye, . tbe~fore, rely fo.r the JU&tleti of our complamt .American people.

em · if honest are out motivea itimate.

1 ' · e success of this petition, upon and upon the &inceri y of the

. If you coll.8ult Statistics 1comparing them with those . of other times, you will be f~vorably impr~BBed at the first glance; but on examining the sever~l item11, it becomtlB manif.est that Coffee, the .value of which represented in former timep two thirds of O'Df exportP1 nOW appears with a value of $· 31195.602 in a to~al export of $ 12.309. 7GO. · And those figures are }J~rfectly natural. Cqffee which consti~oted for.many years tlie principal product of Porto Rico and ita most important .Outce of wealth, is threatene2 with annihilation : Coffee bas ~ot been able fo elude, as liave. others of our more fortunate products, under the pro. tection of the Dingl~y Tariff, the effects of an unprecedented· supply, r~ndered more di~astrous to us by 'the ~onseqminces of the most terrible phenomenon of ~be last ceptury which destroyed plantations involvjng years of labor to bring to high state of production, and the · in~,estment of a ~8t amount of capital. · . ·. , · · .And in this. connection also, we cannot rely on St tistics to arrive at the true extent of out falling-off in the pr~duction of the berry. l ' , According to Statistics, last year's production as 27.000.000 pounds, or 50 p.g Of our former croX!s, but that only !!bows to a fl.mited extent its decreas~, for it must be borne . i-n mind I that, when the cyclone occurred, the is!and had bello p.reparing for a produc~ion .of about 100.000.000 pounds; such had been tl,l.e efforts of our planters. .

• · And said assertion, Gentlemen, is not .far from the truth a8 the last Census of Porto Rico clearly demonstrates; for ou~ of the 425:ooo acres of .land reoorted ip same as under cultivation 19.7.000 or 4,6 • w re devoted to Coffee. at sa~e Oen.us a so ~&hows a .cult1va e area of 69.boo acres in bananas; and we mention this product becau~~;e, as· a general rule, Coffee and bananas are CoD· colhitant1 aud where from any cause the cultivation of one plant decline., or j. .abandoned, the other follows in its wake. · .

Without being peBBi~istic, such an abandoning in ..

Porto Rico may, and sorely will, come, if the universal depreciation which the excess•of production brings ·to Coffee, continues much longer.

Another circom'stahce that must ndt be lost sight of, · Gentlemen, is that, not-withst&J;lding all that may be l!aid'to the .contrary,.the prices at pr~sent ruling for Coffee are in

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years a:bove ment,ioned wa~

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In 1872.the sugar prddncl ion of t he ~~te of LouiRlan. waa (}6.193 tone; and in 1 90, it had reached 136.503 tone.

The oonaumptiou of aug in .the u nited States for the 6 7

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'VV1:n.e · When th·e .current price of wine in foreign markets· .fluctuates from 15 to ~W ctt1. per gallon for gr·adM similar to the Califorpia.'wine, which ·we import he e, tl1o latter is aided by a -Tariff tax of -!0 eta. per gallon, vhich 'in the majority or ca&es reprel!ents a tax o'f 200 p.g upon the value of the same grades in foreign markets.

In t\.tis manner only,. is it accountable that an industry":4ioh is of comparatively reoeut date, has already reached an· output ·of about' 36,000.000 gallons, ·

neither thtl C lifornia wine, nor the Louisiana rice or "'agar were, at thE! time of tha enactment of tile Dingley Tariff

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B7 the dteJaration Clf Free Tra between ~or~o Bfco alld the ·unittd Statea, there fa JIO oabt that great ad vuata1e1 were derived, bat at the aame time, it il an- · 10

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which hu brought em eo many advantages and a few.u.dnnteger, you endeavor to remove those obataole wldela hinder the fa development of the island, by promot· U.., l~atJon tend g, to foster the growth of our merchant marin•, and, thereb , the increase of American shipping in our porta. · ·And With reg s to the comfort and health of the pauengere travellie by the boats p}¥ing between Porto Bieo and the Unite States; '!'e ask that, taking into COD· eideration the long distance separating both countries, which .takes, under resent conditione, four or five days to travel, f.ll boats en d in the p888enger traffic, between those ports, be com lied to carry a medical officer, and the Deceuary medici es aDd appliances, to meet ' y COD· tingeney which mig occur in tbe health of the pa engers during the voyage.

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• The Insular Go mment,l ast year, thong it advisable and arranged, to ha a competent, Enginee visit Porto Bicio, with the view f inspecting the three principal ports of the island:_ San J an, Ponce and MayagUez-and after a thorongb eiaminat on, to'report and recomm~nd the Engineering · works ne ded to give t'.> each of them good Conditions of shelter nd depth of water, as·well as, suggest ·the means of increas g the facilities for the loading and diechat.ring of car oe&, according to their respective importance. · · Engineer W. · H Burr wafl sel~cted for t'he purpose, and he ·accordingly c me to the Island. When he was in Pon~ this Chamber f Commerce had a conference with him and submitted t him its views on· the sobjec4 We will not'exp tiate on the· ~mperative n~ · 'ity of carrying into· eftect r. Burr's . recommendatioD!J, .

COD· taJned in his ·Rei>ort, garding the Port of Ponce, me of . the w~rke required coming witJiin tbe provi of the Federal Governmen and others pertaining to the In1111lar authorttiee, but we · eem it .a duty to impreas upon you, Gentlemen, that the mprovement of our harbor is a very eeriota1 matter to its ery Ufe u .a shipping port.

And, moreover, e1-e ie every probabiHty that the Port 12 I

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..,f PoQce will become, a.t no distant date, of the m ita importance, both ~mmercialJy and strategic8lly. geographical positfon, now that the negotiat.ione for the acquisition of the Danish West Indhte have fallen t rough, and the building of the P~nama Canal by the United States is an,8,88ored fact. . Thie Corporation, therefore, taking as a b is the exhaustive technical Report submitted by Mr. orr, in , which are set forth the Engiqeering works needed for the · Port of Ponce, cannot refrain fro'm insisting on the n ,cessity that, by the Department conoeme~, the prep·arator works tending to reqder the anchorage safe,· be construct with as little delay .as possible, and that with an s ed the harbQt: 'be dredged in order that the discharging a d load· iog of vesseJs be not ·delayed, BR often happens, by the lighters not being able, when loaded, to me ke the shor , 1 or viceversa for 'vant of depth of water. . This matter is of such itnperative importance, G tle . men, that we may say, withont hesitation or fear f contradiction, that, if presenttcondttions are not remed ed the ·• Port of Ponce ·will tiOt have tcithin a couple of y~ra, s ffi. ·ent depth of water :in the foreshore to carry on its com ercial traffic, 0\ving to circumstances, on which w_e will n t dwell here, the foreshore of the harbor has undergon such a change of late years, that 1t very o.ften occurs that t nshipments in mid-harbor from lighter. to l!gbter, hav to be resorted to, involving loss of time and aonsider}'ble e rpense, and it fometimes happens that part of load b to be thrown overboard, as ocpurred a short time ag with a lighter laden with molasses in puncheons.

Even small boats ~arrying passengers have exp hardshi{>S when·the tide islowet than usual~ Annexed herewith will be found a Table of the onnage enter.ed at our port during the year 1902, togethe with a comparative Table of ExportiJ for the last tw.o yea • By the Statistics we have before us, the mports during 1902 were (rom 40.000 to 45.000 tons of mere andiee, and there were Exported during the same perio , from ao.oo~ to 32.000 tons, or a total of about 75.000 tont:. of trafHc. ' The increase in Expc)rts 'which has set in do og th~ past year, is expected will continue if the plantation which 1nffere.d from the hqrricane of 1899 again beco e folly IJ

productive, and eo e industries to J>e established shortly, are In exploitation.

Nohdthatandin the drawbacks above referred to, the advant-.re• of our bor over the other harbors and porta Of' the leland, are dent! not ·only by ita geographical poeition, b1;1t by it depth of water and good holding ground at the anc rage, and its· roominess. These advantages were recse1 ly IJhbwn wben dnraqnadron composed of the" keareage"l "Iowa.", and other large ahipe, safely came to an anchor our. port.

1t ml18t be men ioned, however, that the berth selected for these ehipe w~ ot the one taken by the freight and pauenger steamers which ie directly in front of t~e landing place at a co paratively abort distance f j shore, . while 't he men-of-w r were anchored at about t miles .

In a IJOuth-weeterly JreQtion.

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Believing that we are·riot mieta"en, and that on claim ia baaed upon principles of justice to which we•bo , we ·entrust our cause to the Honora'Qle, the Seh$te. 1d tb~ House of Repreeentives, with the. ft:nit hope, that It ill be decided with the wisdom, equity and foreeig~t, whic have always been. the guiding light of the measures enact ad by . ·toe .Congress of the United States.

And your petitioners will ever vray,

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·The PoNcE Branch of the GH AM liE OF CoMMERCE oFPORT Rico,

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ored to shorten our arguments ~· mnch as posaible, b the ~atn_re of the matter is such as . to render .brevity im racticable. .

However, befor ending, your petitione~e ~iJt submit, that whatsoever refe herein to our Coffee, th1s ·Chamber · of CommerCe does ot claim for the Portorican article anything more than. bat the settled fiscal policy of the · Nation, h.as recogniz d as th~ right one, and is. granted, as the proper treatmen to sim11ar interests in other sections of the ·United States · In asking, the.n, hat we believe to be our ri~t, that is, Protection for a nine domestic product, we laborreaaed ing for the best inte eta of the Nation; for, as by the Honoratile · aries H. ·Dietrich, Senator m Ne- . b~a, in tlie brilli t speech. dE-livered Febrn , Y ~3t~ Jut, before the te of the ·United Bt.t.tee: "it " ~.z, -.eifair, • 't~U~like alld ~rapatriptic, to admit· · tritAot&t' t~tar from Qtl r co.utnu, prodw:t. tcAiCll oOwld ·be grotDJ. or ._,.tl/acttJr i" ow~"""' for tMy are Ot£rMJH10pk"· · . . .·

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APPENDlX

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Ta•le ef'Ve•ele .e atered at tile P9rt oCPoaee,. · P. •· ........ 18" ••~ ~lleiJi to• •••e

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O la ...

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'1:o n nit ae

Numb e 1•

Steamera •••.••.. : . .

SaWDr.veeeela ......

110 24

219.940 11.806

Total ... ; ..

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231.746

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Steamer• .•••.......

Sailing veeaela . ~ . .. .

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Total . .....

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General Total. .

237.94( 7.350

162

245.290

296

O oza.paraU"V'e

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T o nn a

114 48'

224. ..

72

Steamera .... ~ ...... .

SaWDg veuel~ ... . . .

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A•TIC'LCD

Tab1e

I N 1802

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Colree ...... 2.95L921 • t20.683 10.012.434 Sapr .. . ... 30.i6L652 L076.816 34;214.454 llolalleB ..•. 9.N4Ul4 320.800 10.275.930 118;391 470.815 TobMco .... ' Lli13.234 Onugee .... 2.51'-323 48,141 968.658 mete..: .....

188.'178 128.426 2'-480 Cattle .•••.. 2.48UM 216.146 2.01L~ Sudriel: ... 2.675.334 _119.445 9M.1~

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4 77.036 Tqns.

1'901 & 1902 from July to Jane respectively '

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· 45'7.455 Tons.

19.256 do.

Ezwr.tll from the Por.t of Ponce, P. R., daring the years IN ·1.801

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28.038 'i-~7 368 32.932 24.668 17.102 I

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1.32.021

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53.038.901 .2.M0.001 59.047.446 .8.032.~

DIFFElENCE IN FAVOR OF 1902 $·692.349 '

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2632-0.

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