In 1889 250,467,000 In 1890 211,823,000 In 1891 196,667,000 In 1892 166,712,000 In 1893 147,365,000 In 1894 134,210,000 In 1895 158,662,000 In 1896 185,914,000 In 1897 123,417,000 "On the other hand, the exportation of leaf tobacco has increased fifty per cent.; from 177,000 bales exported in 1889 by the port of Havana, the exports in 1895 had increased to approximately 250,000 bales. It is easy, then, to understand the actual condition of the tobacco industry and its dependencies, and that of the numerous families who live by the work that this gives them; their future cannot be promising, unless laws are immediately enforced to protect them and raise them from the abject state in which they find themselves. [Illustration: BALING TOBACCO.] "Cause of decline. Besides the high customs tariffs on imported cigars abroad, among which we may mention those of the Argentine Republic, as well as the internal taxes of those countries where tobacco is a source of government revenue, one of the main reasons of the decline of the Cuban industry originated in the McKinley bill, which compelled many manufacturers to move their factories to the United States, owing to the want of protection on the raw material, thereby causing a considerable decrease in the production of the Island, and increasing in the same proportion that of the United States, in which country the manufacture has reached the enormous sum of 5,000,000,000 cigars per annum. EXPORTATION OF TOBACCO TO THE UNITED STATES In 1889 101,698,560 cigars $3,970,034 In 1890 95,105,760 " 4,113,730 In 1891 52,015,600 " 2,742,285 In 1892 54,472,250 " 2,859,941 In 1893 46,033,660 " 2,424,425 In 1894 40,048,330 " 2,131,981 In 1895 39,579,400 " 2,050,367 In 1896 40,601,750 " 2,091,856 In 1897 34,017,583 " 1,868,610 "Mode of protection. To protect and promote the prosperity of this industry it is necessary: 1st. To maintain the suppression of export duty on cigars ordered by the local Government of this Island on the 31st of last December, both on cigars and cigarettes and packages of cut tobacco, as well as on tobacco in fibre or powdered, which are considered as industrial products thereof.