Sugar, Hanna, McKinley and War Many businessmen had great influence in politics at the end of the 19th century, but most were content with high tariffs (customs taxes on imported manufactured goods) and freedom from regulations. The Sugar Trust, however, took control of United States politics for profit to a new level: it required war, and it got war. A prelude to the main show was provided by Hawaii, where a treaty had granted U.S. rights to a naval base in Pearl harbor in 1887. In 1893, aided by U.S. troops, American sugar cane growers overthrew the native government and asked for Hawaii to be annexed to the United States. But by the time a bill for that was ready in the U.S. Senate, Grover Cleveland had been elected President. He sent a commission to Hawaii that found most Hawaiians wanted to remain independent. No further action was taken until after a much bigger sugar fight. Sugar magnate Henry Havemeyer had a few problems even after he became fabulously rich and the controlling person in the Sugar Trust. His factories turned raw cane sugar into the crystal white powder that had been a mainstay of world trade for centuries. Not only was very little sugar cane grown in the U.S. (mostly in Louisiana), but some U.S. farmers wanted to grow and refine sugar beets to compete with cane. What the Sugar Trust needed was cheap, untaxed imports of raw sugar, but very high tariffs on competing imported refined sugar. Congress was willing to go along (Havemeyer had perfected the stock-tip bribe: Senators could get rich quick by simply buying and selling sugar trust stock on Havemeyers instructions) on the high tariffs for imported refined sugar, but Louisiana Senators vigorously opposed low tariffs on raw sugar. Various interests in the U.S. had long coveted Cuba and other islands in Spains American empire. Havemeyer determined to buy himself a President and a war. While it is well known that Mark Hanna raised vast sums of money to insure William McKinley triumphed over Democrat William Jennings Bryan in the 1896 Presidential election, the role of the Sugar Trust in that election has been overlooked. McKinley owed Havemeyer a war; many American expansionists like Theodore Roosevelt wanted a war anyway. Delay was necessary only because Havemeyer needed to have Citibank buy up sugar plantations in Cuba and Puerto Rico that would become vastly more valuable after the war. Forget the explosion of the Maine: America was going to war regardless. McKinley made demands of the Spanish, had them met fully, and then made even more aggressive demands that no nation would find acceptable. On April 11, 1898 McKinley asked Congress to declare war, and Democrats and Republicans alike were happy to do it. Spain had already lost the Philippines, excepting Manila, to native rebels, and was barely holding its own against Cuban rebels. On August 12, 1998, the Spanish signed an armistice. 500 Americans had died in battle, while 5000 had died of tropical diseases. In the Philippines the defeat of the Spanish started an even greater war: one against the Filipino people themselves. They fought guerrilla style; probably 1,000,000 died, many of them civilians; and 4,324 American soldiers were killed. In 1901 the Filipino leader, Emilio Aguinaldo, was captured. Most sugar plantations had new American owners. In 1942 the Japanese liberated the Philippines from the United States; in 1946, after driving out the Japanese, the U.S. finally allowed the Philippines to become an independent nation.
Posted on: Thu, 06 Feb 2014 01:39:20 +0000
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