essary to import sugar from Cuba and other sugar-producing
countries.

When the treaty was before the committee for consideration, it was
amended by inserting the following proviso:

"Provided that while this convention is in force, no sugar exported
from the Republic of Cuba and being the product of the soil or
industry of the Republic of Cuba, shall be admitted to the United
States at a reduction of duty greater than twenty per centum of
the rates of duty thereon as provided by the tariff act of the
United States, approved July 24, 1897; and no sugar, the product
of any other foreign country, shall be admitted by treaty or
convention into the United States, while this convention is in
force, at a lower rate of duty than that provided by the tariff
act of the United States, approved July 24, 1897."

The effect of this amendment was not only to prevent a greater
reduction being made on Cuban sugar, but it had a more important
effect that it made reciprocity treaties with the sugar-producing
countries, including the West Indies, impossible so long as the
Cuban treaty remains in force.

I had charge of this treaty in the Senate, and addressed the Senate
at considerable length explaining its provisions.

There was a spirited contest in the Senate over the ratification
of the treaty, but there was more of a contest both in the Senate
and the House when the bill to carry the treaty into effect came
up at the next session of Congress, it first having been considered
at a special session called by President Roosevelt in November,
1903. A provision was inserted in the treaty (which I opposed, as
I thought it was unnecessary), that it should not go into effect
until it was approved by the Congress. The bill was passed in the
House and came to the Committee on Foreign Relations, was considered
there, and favorably reported to the Senate. The bill, of course,
was considered in open session, and I again made some remarks,
probably more in the nature of a report than a speech, trying to
show where the treaty was not only absolutely necessary, if Cuba
was to be prosperous at all, but that it would open a considerable
market for American products.

The Cuban reciprocity treaty has increased very materially our
trade with that Republic. Since that treaty went into effect our
imports from Cuba have increased from $62,942,000 in value to
$122,528,000 in value; and our exports to Cuba have increased from
$21,000,000 in 1903,