Yes. Mr. President. before that time and since that time. but since that time there has been a greatly accelerated immigration. The people of the United States have gone there and have settled up this Island until. if the Senate can see it [exhibiting a map]. the red colors there represent American ownership of the land and the yellow colors represent Spanish ownershipnot Cuban. but the ownership by Spaniardsof the land of that Island. The few little black specks scattered about the map. amounting to probably not 20.000 acres. represent land belonging to men who were Spaniards and registered themselves as Cubans under the treaty of Paris. Here it is [exhibiting]. We have had various statements from time to time about the American ownership there. At one time it is put down as onefourth. the next time as onehalf. the next time as twothirds. the next time as seveneighths of the island. and now it is ninetenths. showing the accelerated immigration and the increased improvements that have been going on there. and farms have been laid out and houses built. on which money has been expended by the people who have purchased lands in the island. It can not be less than two and a half million dollars which has been expended in their improvements. They have been acting since that treaty was signed upon the statement contained in the body of the treaty. that the United States owned the property and was selling it to Cuba. and they have been migrating there and trying to occupy that country in the hope that they would be able to show the United States that it was better for the people of the United States and better for the people of Cuba and of the world that an honest. enterprising. industrious American citizenship should go there and improve that beautiful and lovely island rather than that it should remain In the neglect which Cuba and Spain had bestowed upon it heretofore.
Keywords matched
immigration