Industrial Cuba Part 48

(2--CABLE)

"REPUBLIC OF CUBA, "HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY.

"_General Brooke_, _Havana_:

"The conference with Mr. Porter, Commissioner for President McKinley, encourages me to proceed soon to Havana to come to an understanding with you and solve matters for the good of this country. I avail myself of this opportunity to inform you that you may rely on my consideration and distinguished affection.

"GENERAL MAXIMO GOMEZ.

"REMEDIOS, February 1, 1899."

(3--LETTER TO GENERAL BROOKE)

"REPUBLIC OF CUBA, "HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY, "REMEDIOS, February 1, 1899.

"_Major-General John R. Brooke_, _Havana_:

"GENERAL,--Your courteous letter was presented to me by Hon. Robert P. Porter, Commissioner of President McKinley, and although I have telegraphed you that the conference with Mr. Porter encourages me to go to Havana in a short time and confer with you and resolve whatever be best for this country, I do it again through this letter.

"I will be highly pleased to meet you soon. Meantime, I remain,

"Respectfully yours,

"GENERAL M. GOMEZ."

In the afternoon word was sent over by General Gomez that arrangements had been made for a speech at the theatre by Senor Quesada, a reception to your Commissioner and the officers accompanying him, and a ball to which the representatives of the best families of Remedios had been invited. In the evening the little theatre was crowded. The boxes and orchestra were occupied by ladies in evening dress, and the other parts of the house were packed by earnest, intelligent people, intensely interested in the orator of the evening. In the middle of the stage a sort of pulpit had been placed, completely covered with the most beautiful tropical flowers. When Senor Quesada ascended the pulpit a shower of flowers fell from all parts of the house and covered the entire stage. General Gomez escorted your Commissioner to a box, and the General remained throughout an interested but silent spectator. The oration of Senor Quesada was an eloquent one and was devoted to an explanation of the real feeling of the United States towards Cuba. He thoroughly disillusionised the audience of any idea that the United States desired to annex Cuba against the will of the people, and a.s.sured them of the friendship of President McKinley and his advisers. These sentiments were loudly applauded, and it was evident the audience was at heart with the speaker. After the speaking came a reception, and then all adjourned to the ballroom, where General Gomez led off in the dance, and the festivities were kept up until the early morning hours. These facts are given for the purpose of showing the cordiality of the reception given the representative of the United States and as indicating that General Gomez more than met the informal overture of our Government in the spirit in which the recognition on our part was offered. On parting with your Commissioner General Gomez offered the services of Lieutenant Cornill, a brilliant young officer of his staff, as escort to Havana.

Returning to Havana, all these facts were laid before General Brooke, and he expressed himself pleased with the results of the conference. The memoranda discussed and all despatches were placed in General Brooke's hands, and he desired your Commissioner to say he will be ready to take up the matter of distribution of the army relief fund next week with General Gomez in the manner herewith submitted. General Chaffee now has in hand the complete scheme for policing the Island, and the delay in carrying it out is partly due to the lack of funds and partly to the innumerable details necessary to meet the varied conditions of each province. It is more than probable that the convening of such an army relief committee as suggested in this report will have the effect of crystallising these plans and securing a general plan for the rural policing of the Island by native Cuban troops.

The excellent condition of the Island throughout the most trying ordeal it has undergone--the pa.s.sing of the Spanish control--has encouraged our military officials in the belief that the solution of the problem is local policing by Cuban troops. The present situation may be thus briefly summarised. Senator Proctor of Vermont, just up from the most western province, Pinar del Rio, says he has been with General Davis, who reports the most perfect order as being maintained by native troops, and that this has been done without money and without price. In fact, all the police work is now done by Cubans.

In Havana Province General Lee has the entire confidence of the people, while a Cuban police force under General Menocal is being formed for Havana. This force is now drilling every day in the public square of Havana, and they appear to be a fine body of men. In Matanzas Province it was your Commissioner's good fortune to meet General Pedro Betancourt, who says all is tranquil throughout that province, a fact certified to by General Wilson in a despatch published Sat.u.r.day. In Santa Clara Province General Monteagudo, in command of the Cuban forces, boarded the train, and in a conversation lasting nearly two hours explained the conditions in that province. He had nearly three thousand men who since January 1st have kept order and policed the entire province. He has a complete scheme for continuing this work with about half the number of men. This plan has been laid before General Bates, and by him referred to General Brooke at Havana. General Chaffee has the plan now before him with all the other plans, and it will be immediately considered and acted upon. In Puerto Principe the Cuban army has disbanded, law and order prevail, and the people are rapidly getting to work again. In Santiago General Leonard Wood and the Cuban General Castillo are masters of the situation. So great is General Gomez's confidence in General Wood that he expressed a hope to your Commissioner that General Wood would be in Havana at the conference of United States and Cuban officers, because he (General Gomez) wanted to consult him in relation to matters in that province. The situation may change, but the above represents the conditions at the present moment. Some of the leaders will object, for various reasons, some perhaps selfish ones, to the present att.i.tude of General Gomez, but it is not likely that their views will prevail if once the United States and Cuban military leaders in each province can get together and meet around a table with General Brooke and General Gomez. If this can be brought about at an early date all outside opposition will surely disappear and the Cuban problem will be in a fair way of solution.

The following message was sent to your Commissioner at Remedios, and was translated into Spanish and submitted to General Gomez:

"_Hon. Robert P. Porter_, _Havana_:

"The President sends his hearty congratulations and thanks for your despatch. Convey his cordial greetings to General Gomez and his grateful appreciation of the General's frank and friendly message.

The co-operation of General Gomez in the pacification of Cuba will be of the greatest value for both peoples.

"JOHN HAY,

"Secretary of State."

It is respectfully suggested, in view of the facts above given, that the sum of money ($3,000,000) a.s.signed by the President for the relief of the Cuban troops and to aid in the disbandment of the army be at once placed at the disposal of General Brooke, Governor-General in command of the United States forces in Cuba.

All of which is respectfully submitted,

ROBERT P. PORTER,

Special Commissioner for the United

States to Cuba and Porto Rico.

This chapter may be fittingly concluded with a few words as to the personality of General Gomez, who in appearance is as absolutely unlike the photographs of him as his manner and action toward strangers are unlike the accounts we have so often heard of him. The photographs published--and there is nothing General Gomez dislikes so much as having his photograph taken--are invariably harsh and belligerent looking; whereas the man himself, while in manner and expression a soldier, has a sympathetic side to him which makes him altogether a different being to the one so often pictured. This side came out at the ball, to which reference was made in the foregoing pages, when he was talking to twenty or thirty children prettily dressed, who carried bouquets of flowers and walked around the room. He had something to say to all these little misses, and was most affable to them. General Gomez is very fond of dancing; in fact, it is his chief recreation. He dances well and with great agility, enjoying it fully. The people of Remedios, men and women, are very fond of him, and his social side, which can be studied to advantage there, gives quite a new light to his character.

CHAPTER XXIX

CONCLUSION--A LOOK AHEAD

In the opening chapters of this volume we have seen Cuba as it is and speculated on what it should have presented to the world at the close of the present century. The past, it is to be hoped, is a closed book. The future is more hopeful, perhaps, but replete with difficult problems and many dangers. The war has emanc.i.p.ated the people of Cuba from Spain, made them a self-governing people protected by a great nation, the flag of which is a symbol of freedom and a guaranty of the fruits of individual endeavour. The fate of Cuba and the Cubans no longer rests in the hands of a small cabal of mediaeval and selfish statesmen at Madrid, intent only upon enriching the mother country. It rests with the people of the United States who are to-day actively and impartially discussing the future of the Island. The question is not how much the United States can make out of Cuba, but how best to make a prosperous, peaceful, and useful neighbour of an island within a hundred miles from the sh.o.r.es of the Great Republic. The people of Cuba must disabuse themselves of the idea that the future of their native land is in the hands of some one man or any set of men. They must comprehend, on the contrary, that it has been committed to the care of a liberty-loving people as jealous of popular rights as those Cuban patriots who, like Marti and Gomez and Maceo and Garcia and Quesada, risked their lives to make their country free. That the people of the United States will deal justly and fairly with the people of Cuba does not admit of doubt, and the closer the people of the two countries come together on a platform of mutual trust and confidence, the sooner a stable government will be established. It may be well for our Cuban friends to remember that a considerable number of the seventy-five millions in the American Republic have, themselves, exchanged for the Stars and Stripes flags that mean as much to them as the Cuban flag to the most patriotic Cuban, and around which cl.u.s.ter as tender memories as those which the flag of the Cuban Republic suggests.

The great newspaper press of the United States is discussing all sides of the Cuban question as intelligently and vigorously, and as fairly and honestly towards Cuban interests, as it does our own important domestic questions, and no Cuban need for a moment fear that the conclusions reached will be other than for the best interests of all concerned. If, at the conclusion of military occupation, Cuba is made an independent republic, it will be because the people of Cuba and the people of the United States, acting jointly, so decide. If, on the contrary, the future of Cuba shall lie in the still greater independence of American Statehood, it will be by the mutual consent of the people of the two countries. There are no other possibilities in the final solution of the political future of Cuba.

The more stable the government of Cuba, the more certain the industrial development. The closer and stronger the ties which bind Cuba to the United States, the greater the prosperity and the more rapid the reconstruction of the Island. To the outside world Cuba has become part of the United States, and the arrangements in respect of the government of the Cuban people a domestic affair. Whether the present government be termed Military Protectorate, Military Occupancy, or Statehood, the fact remains that the strength of Cuba to-day is in its close alliance with the United States. Commercially and industrially, as has been repeatedly shown in this volume, the two countries fit perfectly. The products Cuba produces can all find a market in the United States, while the needs of Cuba can all be supplied by its continental neighbour. The Cubans have had a taste of the prosperity which followed reciprocal commercial relations with the United States. The golden possibilities of absolute free intercourse between Cuba and the United States must be apparent to the more intelligent Cubans. That sentiment for a flag and a country is natural and laudable cannot be denied, but in the final and mutual coming together of Cuba and the United States, the single Star becomes not less bright by reason of a.s.sociation or companionship with the other Stars, together making an harmonious whole and representing all that is best and most hopeful for mankind.

A great change has already taken place in Cuba in the six weeks of United States occupancy. The author has had opportunity to study three stages in the recent history of Cuba. He visited the four western provinces soon after the signing of the Protocol of Peace and before the Spanish had relinquished control. He was in Santiago after six months of American occupancy, and in the chapter on that province has made note of the good work inaugurated by Major-General Leonard Wood, Governor of the province. Again after six weeks of American control he travelled over much the same ground as in September and October, and has noted in the preceding chapter the improved condition. A good deal of honest and intelligent work has already been done by the United States for Cuba.

A new tariff has been framed and put in operation by the War Department, aided by experienced officers from the Treasury Department. The Post-Office Department has inaugurated an improved mail service. The telegraph lines are rapidly being put in order. The United States sanitary authorities are laying their plans for a vigorous campaign against epidemic disease this summer. The governors of cities are as rapidly as possible cleaning up the streets and preparing plans for modern sewerage and drainage. Under the direction of General Brooke and the immediate supervision of General Chaffee, a complete system for policing the rural districts of the Island with Cuban police is in progress of organisation. For this purpose the Cuban army will be utilised as far as possible. The United States has abolished many onerous taxes, stopped the draining away to Spain of the resources and revenues of Cuba, and rigorously applied all available methods and instruments to build up the Island and to improve the condition of the people. It has endeavoured to establish the principle that the Island should be governed in the interest of Cuba, by Cubans, for the people of Cuba.

There still remains a great deal of work to do. The thin end of the wedge of the stronger civilisation has been inserted, but time and patience and strength will all be required to drive it home. The programme mapped out is a long and expensive one and more money than is at present in sight will be required to carry it through. The building of public roads, the establishment of public schools, and the inauguration of sanitary work are three branches of the civil government that must be pressed forward with all possible vigour, immediately after the scheme for policing Cuba has been completed. The importance of teaching English in all Cuban public schools must not be overlooked, because the Cuban people will never understand the people of the United States until they appreciate our inst.i.tutions. A complete reform of the judiciary must follow. The laws relating to ownership and transfer of property must be revised, safeguards added to the laws relating to mortgages, and some of the old customs repealed. Savings banks must also be established, for no people can become permanently prosperous where thrift is unknown and where there are no opportunities for saving the surplus earnings of the population. The Government of the United States, acting in conjunction with the Cuban people, has a serious and important work to perform.

The Government, however, cannot be depended upon to do it all. The people must get to work again themselves and help in every possible way in the work of reconstruction. To be successful this work should be begun in the right way from the foundation up, or it will become top-heavy, and the second condition of the Cuban people will be worse and more helpless than the first. The population must be got to work again in its strong industries and the fields must be made to yield in abundance before enterprises, of which so much is heard, and the success of which depends so largely upon the prosperity of the people, can be made to pay. In the chapters on Sugar, Tobacco, Mining, Agriculture, Timber, Fruit-Production, and Miscellaneous Industries the reader may learn the true source of Cuban wealth. The industrial and commercial future of Cuba depends upon how thoroughly and how persistently these industries are worked, and not upon distribution of foreign capital in enterprises which in the end must be fed by the wealth coming from the soil. For judicious investment there is opportunity in Cuba, but the scramble for franchises of various kinds has inflated values, and unless conservatism prevails there is danger of repeating in Cuba some of the follies with which the New South is strewn. The basic industries must be vigorously worked in Cuba. Unless this is done the author sees only trouble and disaster ahead.

To do this successfully the labour market must be enlarged by immigration, and to attract immigration the condition of the labourer must be improved. The chapter on Labour aims to give an idea of Cuban labour as it is. The picture is not attractive. Where is the labour to come from to build up the wasted fields of Cuba? It is a hard question to answer. Efforts are being made by those who best know the needs of Cuba to entice labour thither. They should be encouraged, for unless more labourers can be found the return of prosperity will be painful and prolonged over many years.

The opportunities for American labour in Cuba are circ.u.mscribed. If the climate were more temperate and the dangers of disease less there would undoubtedly be an influx of labour from the United States. Just as the restless and hopeful population of the Eastern States has migrated westward and to some extent southward in our own country, so it would find its way to Cuba if conditions allowed of extensive settlement and home-making. In the opinion of the author they do not, and hence the industrial rehabilitation of Cuba must rely upon other sources than the United States for its supply of labour. Of course Americans will settle in Cuba and do business in Cuba and possibly make their fortunes in Cuba. Not in the way they have settled up our own unsettled area by purchasing farms and building homes, but in projecting and pushing enterprises. In Cuba, sugar production has become two distinct industries: one the sugar factory and the other the _colonia_, or cane-raising farm, or estate. The central, or sugar factory, often owns large areas of land, but does not depend wholly upon its own acres for cane. Some factories depend more largely upon the colonias, or small farms which supply the cane. This cane the central brings to the sugar-house by the aid of narrow-gauge railways, extending over the estate and into adjoining farms. There are opportunities for farm labourers who can withstand a tropical climate, to settle on small areas of land and raise sugar cane. Every possible encouragement will be given this cla.s.s of immigrants. Mr. J. White Todd, who lived twenty years in Cuba, has informed the author that in his opinion industrious immigrants from Southern Italy and Southern Spain will find ample opportunities in Cuba to establish homes and make a profitable living raising cane for the sugar factories. If they are willing to work, the owners of the centrals or factories will gladly secure them the land and tide them over the first crop. This cla.s.s of labour and the Canary Islanders are the only ones likely to take up and work small sugar farms in Cuba.

Heretofore the experience with the negroes has not been satisfactory, though under a better system of government it may be different. The success of the sugar factory depends so largely upon the available sugar cane of the district that the central is always glad to aid a labourer likely to become a thrifty _colono_.

In coffee and tobacco there are possibilities on a small scale, and also in fruit-growing, when roads and highways have been sufficiently improved to get the product to market. Herein lies the only feasible opportunity for small American capitalists who desire to live in a tropical climate. It is true, only a small portion of this wonderful Island is under cultivation. In time it might all be utilised, the larger part, of course, in sugar. In the chapter on Sugar the possibilities of this crop and its relation to the sugar-production of the world have been fully discussed. When continental Europe tires of paying a bounty for producing sugar, Cuba must take its place as the first sugar-producing country of the world; a place it would never have lost had it not been for misgovernment, war, and failure promptly to adopt modern methods when beet-sugar first became a factor in the world's supply.

The particular lines in which the enterprise, ingenuity, and capital of the United States can be utilised in Cuba will undoubtedly be in the establishment of public and semi-public works and in the improvement of methods of production. Here are some of the enterprises likely to be taken up by American and English capitalists:

Sanitary Improvements and Water-works.

Street Railways and light railway transportation in suburban districts.

Gas-works and Electric Lighting.

Unifying and extension of railway system.

Establishment of better facilities for coastwise transportation.