have always been to open up new markets, until she has forced her way to the remotest regions of the earth. It is said that the sun never sets on the British flag; it certainly never sets on British manufactures. "In carrying out such a policy for the United States it is evident that the Spanish-American countries offer themselves to us as our natural field for enterprise. As already pointed out, our labours in this field would be of mutual advantage to them and to us, and in more ways than one. While receiving from us our labour-saving machinery and wonderful mechanical appliances of all kinds, they would also imbibe a portion of the spirit which led to their invention and use. We, on our part, would not only receive from them the rich products of their fertile soil, but might also catch, by contact with men of another race, something of that natural grace and refinement in which our national character is said to be deficient." Referring to the fact that the railways in Cuba under English control have had their machinery from the United States, the manager of the English railways in Cuba only so recently as October, 1898, informed the author that they had not only purchased of the United States in the past, but that they intended getting all their railway supplies for the future from the same source. Surely no higher tribute could be paid to the manufacturers of our country than this from an Englishman, whose people for hundreds of years have led all competitors in the industrial manufacturing of the world. And this is but a step in the giant strides of commercial progress the United States will make in Cuba, under the encouraging influence of a reasonable tariff, the abolition of all discrimination, the assurances of a stable government, and that proximity which makes Cuba one with us in temper, in trade, and in territory. CHAPTER XX SUGAR--HISTORY AND FUTURE OUTLOOK Of Cuba's 28,000,000 acres, about 2,000,000 are devoted to the raising of her sugar crop, which in amount is a little less than half of the entire cane-sugar product of the world. Historians differ as to when the cultivation of sugar began in Cuba, but in 1523 Philip I., King of Spain, allowed a loan of 4000 _pesetas_ to each person who would undertake to establish a sugar plantation; and although it appears that the people of San Domingo began cane farming about this time, it is not positively known that the industry had secured much of a hold in Cuba until sixty years later. Indeed, some writers assert that the first cane farm was established in Cuba in 1595. In any event, three hundred years--or, to be exact, two hundred and ninety-nine years--later, that is, in 1894, the year before the last rebellion, during which the sugar industry was almost wiped out, 1,054,214 tons of sugar were produced, the greatest quantity ever raised in any one year in the Island.