tively limited distance of about 3,000 miles without opportunity for relay. Under these conditions it was not until a single nation came to control a line of islands which would serve as landing places or relay stations for such a cable that any individual or group of capitalists were willing to undertake the building of a Pacific cable. When the United States came in possession of these islands, President McKinley recommended to Congress the construction of a Pacific cable by the United States, or such other legislation as would render the construction of such cable practicable. Congress subsequently passed an act authorizing the landing of a Pacific cable on the shores of the United States and its various islands-Hawaii, Wake Island, Guam, and the Philippines-and in the latter part of 1902 the construction of this cable line was begun by The Commercial Cable Company, with Mr. Mackay at its head. By the end of the year it had been completed as far as the Hawaiian Islands, and on July 4, 1903, it was opened to Manila with appropriate ceremonies, including a message by President Roosevelt to Governor Taft and the people of the Philippine Islands, and another brief message sent literally round the world, passing from New York across the continent, under the Pacific, thence across Asia and Europe to the Atlantic, and under that ocean again to New York, in an incredibly brief space of time. Thus the Republican party in obtaining control of this line of islands, in conjunction with its favorable legislation, rendered possible this great service not only to the nation but to the world-a direct cable connecting America with Europe and Asia across the Pacific Ocean.

Rapid Growth in Our Sales to Asia and Oceania.

1896.

1897.

1898.

1899.

1900.

1901.

1902.

1903..

$673,043,753 $116,567,496 $36,297,671 $42,827,258 $13,870,760 $882,606.938 813,385,644 124,958,461 33,768,646 61,927,678 16,953,127 1,050,993,556 973,806,245 139,627,841 33,821,701 66,710,813 17,515,730 1,231,482,330 936,602,093 157,931,707 35,659,902 78,235,176 18,594,424 1,227,023,302 1,040,167,703 187,394,625 38,945,763 108,305,082 19,469,849 1,394,483,082 1,136,504,605 196,534,460 44,400,195 98,783,113 25,542,618 1,487,764,991 1,008,033,981 203,971,080 38,043,617 110,202,118 33,468,605 1,381,719,401 1,029,256,657 215,482,769 41,137,872 106,770,591 38,436,853 1,420,141,679

Our Exports to the Orient in 1903 Compared with 1890. The following table shows the exportation of leading articles from the United States to China, Hongkong, Japan, Asiatic Russia, Australasia, Hawaii and the Philippine Islands in the fiscal years 1890 and 1903, respectively:

I have not been for either peace at any price or war at any cost.

I have been steadfastly for peace if it could be maintained honorably and for war if the national dignity and honor required it. Hon. C. W. Fairbanks, in U, S. Senate, April 14, 1898,

Commerce of the United States with Oceania, 1889 to 1903.

-20.54

+ 2,787,97

+235,47

EXPANSION AND ITS RESULTS.

The opposition to the control by the United States of noncontiguous territory, which was such an important feature of the campaign waged against the Republican party in 1900, has practically disappeared. Commerce between the United States and its noncontiguous territory already aggregates, in the brief time since the additions of those territories, 100 million dollars per annum. Of this sum about 40 millions is in the form of shipments to those various noncontiguous territories under the flag and government of the United States.

HAWAII.

In the case of the Hawaiian Islands, which a Democratic President, Franklin Pierce, and his Secretary of State, Mr. Marcy, attempted to annex in 1853-54, and in which President Cleveland caused the American flag to be hauled down in 1893, the annexation completed in the early part of President McKinley's Administration has been fully justified. Not only have conditions in the islands improved, increased sums of American capital been invested there, and new areas brought under cultivation, but markets for increased quantities of products from the United States have been made in the islands in exchange for the increased contributions of these islands to our tropical requirements. The commerce between the Hawaiian Islands and the United States has more than doubled in the brief period since the inauguration of a Republican President, McKinley, assured | the people of those islands that their long-deferred hopes for annexation to the United States were to be realized. In 1896 they supplied the United States with $11,575,704 worth of tropical products required by our people, and took in exchange $2,985,707 worth of our merchandise. In 1903 they contributed $26,242,869 worth of tropical products (chiefly sugar) to our requirements and took $10,840,472 worth of the products of our farms and factories. Thus in this brief period, from 1896 to 1903, we have increased our purchases from the Hawaiian Islands 127 per cent. and have increased our sales to them 175 per cent, while the figures of 1904 will exceed those of 1903 both as to purchases from and sales to the islands. Investments of capital from the United States in the Hawaiian Islands now aggregate nearly or quite 100 million dollars.

PORTO RICO.

In the case of Porto Rico the growth has been even more striking. In 1897, the year prior to annexation, Porto Rico contributed to the tropical requirements of the United States $2,181,024 worth of her products, and in 1903 $11,057,195, or more than five times as much in 1903 as in 1897. In exchange she took in 1897 $1,988,888 worth of products of the United States and in 1903 $12,246,225 worth, or more than six times as much as in 1897. Money from the United States aggregating from 10 to 15 millions of dollars has been invested in the island, and general conditions not only as to commerce but in education, government, legislation, road making, and general prosperity of the people have greatly improved.

THE PHILIPPINES.

With the Philippine Islands commerce has also grown rapidly and gives promise of further great development. The total imports into the United States from those islands have grown from $4,383,740 in the fiscal year 1897, that which immediately preceded their control by the United States, to $11,373,584 in 1903. Exports from the United States to the islands in 1897 were $94,597 and in 1903 were $4,039,909, and in the fiscal year 1904 will considerably exceed those of 1903.

The question of applying the coastwise laws of the United States to commerce between the Philippine Islands and the ports of the United States was further considered at the last session of Congress, and an act passed which extends to July 1, 1906,

the provision of the act requiring all commerce between the United States and the islands to be carried in American vessels. The determination of the class of vessels which shall be used in the commerce between the islands themselves was left to the Philippine Commission.

ALASKA.

Alaska, a noncontiguous area whose purchase was severely criticised by the Democrats when it occurred under an earlier Republican administration, is becoming an important factor both in its gold supply, which amounts to about $5,000,000 annually, and in its contributions of fish, furs, and other merchandise amounting to $10,228,069 in 1903, while in return it has made a market for $9,479,721 of merchandise from the United States. Large sums of capital from the United States are being invested in Alaska in the opening of mines, in the fisheries, in building railroads to the interior by which the mining facilities will be greatly improved, and the Department of Agriculture gives assurance that considerable sections will in time prove valuable for agricultural purposes to such an extent as to supply a considerable share of the local requirements of what promises to be a large and industrious population. The explorations thus far justify the belief that the gold-producing area and possibilities of Alaska are very great, and that it will not only supply large quantities of the precious metals to the United States, but in turn increase its takings of the products of our farms and factories for the people employed in the mines and in the other industries now growing up in that section.

TARIFF RELATIONS BETWEEN THE ISLANDS AND THE UNITED STATES.

Regarding the collection of duties on merchandise passing between the United States and its noncontiguous territories, it is proper to say that no customs duties exist except with reference to the commerce between the Philippine Islands and the United States. Alaska has been for many years a customs district of the United States, and therefore merchandise passing between that territory and the various ports of the United States is considered as coast wise commerce and pays no duty on entering the ports, whether it be merchandise from Alaska to the United States or from the ports of the United States to Alaska. This is also true of the Hawaiian Islands and Porto Rico. For many years under the reciprocity treaty practically all of the products of Hawaii seeking a market were admitted free of duty into the United States and a large share of the products of the United States were admitted free of duty into the Hawaiian Islands, but on the admission of the Hawaiian Islands as a Territory of the United States our coastwise laws were extended to the islands, and the same freedom of intercourse between the islands and the various ports of the United States now exists as is the case in ocean transportation between New York and New Orleans or between any of the coast or interior cities of the country. This is also true at the present time of Porto Rico. Originally the rate of duty on merchandise passing between Porto Rico and the United States was reduced to 15 per cent, of the regular Dingley law rates. The duties thus collected on merchandise entering the United States from Porto Rico were refunded (less the cost of collecting the same) to the Porto Rican Government, while, of course, the tariff collected in Porto Rico from articles entering that island from the United States also went to the support of that government. The act provided that "whenever the legislative body of Porto Rico should enact and put into operation a system of local taxation sufficient to meet the necessities of the government of the island, the President might terminate the collection of all duties on merchandise passing between the island and the United States in either direction and that in no event should such duties be collected after March 1, 1902. The Porto Rican legislature on assembling immediately passed an act providing for the collection of sufficient funds for the support of the local government, and the President, having been notified of this fact, terminated on July 4, 1901, by proclamation the collection of duties on merchandise passing between the island and the United States,

The tariff relations with the Philippine Islands are at present as follows: A reduction of 25 per cent. in the rates of duty has been made on all merchandise entering the United States from the Philippine Islands, and a bill is now pending in Congress increasing that reduction to 75 per cent. of the regular Dingley law rates. All of the duties collected in the United States on merchandise coming from the Philippines, as well as the tonnage dues, are turned over by the United States Government to the Philippine treasury for the benefit of the islands; also the Philippine government is required to refund the export duties upon hemp and any other products of those islands bearing an export duty in the event the same are exported to the United States.

The tariff of the Philippine Islands is described in the chapter upon the islands and their present condition. Under it merchandise from the United States entering the Philippine Islands pays the same rates of duty as me.chandise from any other country. This insistence upon full rates of duty on merchandise from the United States entering the Philippine Islands is necessary under the provisions of the treaty with Spain by which the Philippines were transferred to the United States. That treaty provided that "The United States will for ten years from the date of exchange of ratifications of the present treaty admit Spanish ships and merchandise to the ports of the Philippine Islands on the same terms as ships and merchandise of the United States." This, therefore, prevents a reduction or removal of duties on merchandise from the United States entering the Philippine Islands until 1909, the exchange of ratifications having occurred April 11, 1899. This does not, however, prevent a further reduction or removal of the rates of duty on articles from the Philippines entering the United States and, as above indicated, a bill reducing the rates of duty on such articles to 25 per cent. of the Dingley law rates is now pending in Congress.

Western Coast Brought Much Nearer to European Markets.

The following table shows the distances between the various great centers of Europe and the Pacific coast cities of the United States by the Panama and Cape Horn routes, respectively, and suggests the value which thi canal will be to the great Pacific coast in bringing it into direct touch with European markets:

9,727 15,632
9,290 15,195
8,933 15,090
8,667 14,594
8,613 14.416
8,932 14,602
8,694 14,485
9,213 14,893
8,989 14,659
8,959 14,629
8.746 14,434
9,154 14,267
8,294 13,598
8,464 13,577

10,046 16,388 10,504 15.243 10,662
9,745 16,090 10,203 14,945 10,361
9,308 15,653 9,766 14,508 9,924
8,951 15,548 9,409 14,403 9,567
8,685 15.052 9,143 13,907 9,301
8,631 14,874 9,099 13.729
8,950 15,060 9,408 13,915
8,712 14,943 9,170 13,798
9.231 15,351 9,689 14,206
9,007 15,117 9,465 13,972 9,623
8,977 15,087 9,435 13,942
8.764 14,892 9.222 13,747
9,172 14,725 9.630 13,580
8,312 14,056 8.770 12,911 8,928
8,482 14,035 8,940 12,890 9,098

9,247 9,566 9,328

9,847

9,593 9,380 9,788

15 Gibraltar.

16 Naples. 17 Triest

18 Constantinople 19 Odessa.

20 Alexandria..

21 Tripoli..

22 Algiers..

23 Tangier

24 Funchal. 25 Habana

15,544 9,657 15,614
15.107 9,220 15,177
15,002 8,863 15,072
14,506 8,597 14,576
14,328 8,543 14,398
14,514 8,862 14,584
14,397 8,624 14,467
14.805 9,143 14,875
14,571 8,919 14,641
14,541 8,889 14,611
14,346 8,676 14,416
14,179 9.084 14.249
13,510 8,224 13,580
13,489 8,394 13,559
14,475 9,380 14.545 9,450 14,563 9,468 15,021 9,926 13,876 10,084
15,170 10,075 15,240 10,145 15,258 10,163 15,716 10.621 14,571 10.779
15,326 10.231 15,396 10.301 15.414 10.319 15,872 10,777 14,727 10,935
15,673 10.578 15,743 10,648 15,761 10,666 16.219 11,124 15,074 11,282
15,294 10,199 15,364 10.269 15.382 10,287 15,840 10,745 14.695 10,903
14,582 9,487 14,652 9,557 14,670 9,575 15,128 10.033 13,983 10.191
13,898 8,803 13,968 8,873 13,986 8,891 14,444 9,349 13,299 9,507
13,489 8,394 13,559 8,464 13,577 8,482 14,035 8,940 12,890 9,098
13,001 7,803 13.071 7,873 13,089 7,891 13,547 8,349 12,402 8.507
13,858 5,082 13,928 5,152 13,946 5,170 14,404

5,628 13,259 5,786

NOTE-The distance through the Straits of Magellan is from 400 to 500 miles shorter than around Cape Horn.

A full day's work must be paid in full dollars.-Maj. McKinley at Canton, 1896.