rmer. Almost invariably, a year of large export sales is followed by a
year of heavy import purchases. The fact that our imports from Cuba are
double our sales to Cuba, in the total of a period of years, has given rise
to some foolish criticism of the Cubans on the ground that, we buying so
heavily from them, they should purchase from us a much larger percentage of
their import requirements. No such obligation is held to exist in regard
to our trade with other lands, and it should have no place in any
consideration of our trade with Cuba. There are many markets, like Brazil,
British India, Japan, China, Mexico, and Egypt, in which our purchases
exceed our sales. There are more, like the United Kingdom, France, Germany,
Italy, Canada, Central America, and numerous others, in which our sales
considerably or greatly exceed our purchases. We do not buy from them
simply because they buy from us. We buy what we need or want in that market
in which we can buy to the greatest advantage. The Cuban merchants, who are
nearly all Spaniards, do the same. The notion held by some that, because
of our service to Cuba in the time of her struggle for national life, the
Cubans should buy from us is both foolish and altogether unworthy. Any
notion of Cuba's obligation to pay us for what we may have done for her
should be promptly dismissed and forgotten. There are commodities, such as
lumber, pork products, coal, wheat flour, and mineral oil produces,
that Cuba can buy in our markets on terms better than those obtainable
elsewhere. Other commodities, such as textiles, leather goods, sugar mill
equipment, railway equipment, drugs, chemicals, and much else, must be
sold by American dealers in sharp competition with the merchants of other
countries, with such assistance as may be afforded by the reciprocity
treaty. That instrument gives us a custom-house advantage of 20, 25, 30,
and 40 per cent, in the tariff rates. It is enough in some cases to give
us a fair equality with European sellers, and in a few cases to give us a
narrow margin of advantage over them. It does not give us enough to compel
Cuban buyers to trade with us because of lower delivered prices.

Cuba's economic future can be safely predicted on the basis of its past.
The pace of its development will depend mainly upon a further influx of
capital and an increase in its working population. Its political future
is less certain. There is ample ground for both hope and belief that the