be best to suspend the regulations altogether or to have each
separate vessel which needed American papers apply to Congress for
special legislation.

There was another question, and a very important one, which came up, and
that was how far Louisiana and other sugar-producing States would be
affected by the annexation of Porto Rico.

In no State in the Union does a single interest play so important and so
peculiar a part as the sugar industry in Louisiana. Fully two-fifths of
the inhabitants of the State are more or less interested in sugar, and
any great disaster to the crop would injure ninety per cent. of the
population in southern Louisiana.

So far as Porto Rico goes, it is very doubtful if it will injure
Louisiana in any way. As has been said before, the island is densely
populated, small in area, and with little additional land available for
sugar. It is by no means probable that it will increase materially in
its sugar production. American laws will militate against the
importation of contract labor, and will therefore prevent any undue
competition. As the New York Sun very justly observes, the bugbear of
the Louisiana sugar planter is not territorial expansion, but the war
taxes and the possibility of their permanent adoption, bringing with it
the reopening of the old tariff agitation, which they supposed was
permanently closed.

Taking it all in all, territorial expansion has certainly no terrors for
the Louisiana planters.

With the evidence we have given, it is easy to see what Porto Rico has
to offer, or not to offer, to Americans.

With their usual manana, the Spaniards have been slow to evacuate the
island, but a decisive stand has been taken by the President.

The chief intent of the administration is to clear the island of
Spaniards, put at work American methods in sanitary, civic and economic
administration, and, for the purpose of doing this without annoyance, to
have forces enough for police duty.

The day fixed for the hoisting of the American flag over San Juan and
the complete and permanent occupation of Porto Rico by the military
forces of the United States was October 18.

It was possible for the Administration of the United States to take this
step by virtue of war powers and of the establishment of the fact that
Porto Rico is to be wholly and permanently American.

At the present time of writing Porto Rico is still a foreign country, so
far as the laws of the United States are conc