Presidential addresses and state papers, Volume 3 (of 7)Roosevelt, Theodore
History
Presidential addresses and state papers, Volume 3 (of 7)
Roosevelt, Theodore
Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919; United States -- Politics and government -- 1901-1909
It is impossible to state with anything like approximate accuracy the
present population of the Dominican Republic. In the report of the
Commission appointed by President Grant in 1871, the population was
estimated at not over 150,000 souls, but according to the Statesman’s
Yearbook for 1904, the estimated population in 1888 is given as
610,000. The Bureau of the American Republics considers this the
best estimate of the present population of the Republic. As shown by
the unanimous report of the Grant Commission the public debt of the
Dominican Republic, including claims, was $1,565,831.59¼. The total
revenues were $772,684.75¼. The public indebtedness of the Dominican
Republic, not including all claims, was on September 12 last, as the
Department of State is advised, $32,280,000; the estimated revenues
under Dominican management of custom-houses were $1,850,000; the
proposed budget for current administration was $1,300,000, leaving
only $550,000 to pay foreign and liquidated obligations, and payments
on these latter will amount during the ensuing year to $1,700,000,
besides $900,000 of arrearages of payments overdue, amounting in all to
$2,600,000. It is therefore impossible under existing conditions, which
are chronic, and with the estimated yearly revenues of the Republic,
which during the last decade have averaged approximately $1,600,000,
to defray the ordinary expenses of the Government and to meet its
obligations.
The Dominican debt owed to European creditors is about $22,000,000, and
of this sum over $18,000,000 is more or less formally recognized. The
representatives of European Governments have several times approached
the Secretary of State setting forth the wrongs and intolerable delays
to which they have been subjected at the hands of the successive
Governments of Santo Domingo in the collection of their just claims,
and intimating that unless the Dominican Government should receive
some assistance from the United States in the way of regulating its
finances, the creditor Governments in Europe would be forced to resort
to more effective measures of compulsion to secure the satisfaction of
their claims.
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