Industrial Cuba Part 6

"During the crop time we employed from one hundred and fifty to two hundred Chinamen; of the balance of the labourers, probably there were more negroes than Spanish, with the white Cubans in a distinct minority.

The Chinamen we have here now make very steady workmen, but they are weak, and not able to do as much work per day as either a negro or a Spaniard can do in the field. The best workmen we have, if we can get enough of them, are the negroes. One negro in cutting cane, can do as much as two of any other cla.s.s; but I do not think this country is adapted for the American negro, from what I have heard of him, as he would have to put up with hardships here, and a style of eating and living which, I imagine, is not as good as he has in the southern part of the United States. The immigration of Chinese is prohibited, although a few manage to get in at a time. I do not know of any other restrictions on immigration. I do not believe the Jamaica negro would make a good workman; for, from what I have heard of him, he is very lazy, and would not be at all a desirable labourer. Thus our only hope for labour is to retain here the Canary Islanders, because they are harder working and can stand the climate better than others. They are men who can save money here, and that in itself is proof that they must be steady workmen, because they earn so little. Galicians are also good workers, but so far as I know of the men working here, the Canary Islanders are the best. The white men are mainly employed as stevedores in the batey, though they are also good labourers in the field.

"As a rule the labourers are not married. The families of the married labourers live in the villages in the neighbourhood. The men must sleep in the batey at night. Sunday they work half a day, and get paid for a full day, provided they have worked five full days during the week; otherwise they only get half a day's pay. The men sleep in large rooms called barracones; sleeping in hammocks, and not taking their clothes off. Many of them possess but one suit, and on Sundays, after breakfast, they go to a stream, wash their clothes, lie around until they are dry, and then put them on again. For the better cla.s.s of workmen, employed in the factory, the machinery helpers, etc., we have bath-houses. These men have rooms, and as a rule they are unmarried. Most of the labouring men, if they have families, when they are paid off, go away for a day, or a day and a half, and take their money to their families, and then come back to work. Those who are not married, keep on working or stay off a few days. It is quite uncommon to find a labouring man who can read and write. Their chief vice is gambling, the Cuban and Spaniard being similar about this, though we try on this estate to prevent gambling as much as possible. The Chinese gamble and smoke opium. The bell rings at 8 P.M., at which time the men are supposed to be in their barracones, and are not supposed to walk around the batey, this rule not being enforced except during the last two years.

"The price of labour, in 1895, for cutting cane, etc., before the insurrection commenced, varied from fourteen dollars to twenty dollars per month, Spanish gold. This has fallen off to from twelve dollars to fifteen dollars, Spanish silver, paid during the past crop for the same labour--in American gold about fifty-five per cent. of this. The maintenance per month per man is nine dollars, Spanish gold. This fall in wages was necessitated by the fall in the price of sugar, and by the fact that but few plantations in the neighbourhood were able to continue working."

Labour seeking employment in Cuba must face these conditions. That the field will prove sufficiently attractive to tempt immigration in large numbers, even from the poorer sections of Europe, is doubtful. Still, with more prosperous times, the Canary Islanders may try their fortunes in the future as they have tried them successfully in the past; and so with Italians, Spaniards, South and Central Americans, and even the Southern negro of the United States, despite the fact, as stated above, that the American negro will not come to Cuba because the work is too hard and the food and accommodations too poor. But the American negro will, unwittingly, no doubt be the pioneer of a new labour era in Cuba.

With the coming of the new order and new people, will come higher ideas of labour, and that which has enn.o.bled labour in the United States will have its elevating influence among the labouring people of Cuba. Herding labourers in barracones like so many cattle, sleeping them, feeding them, bathing them, with less care than is shown to fine cattle, ruling them with whip and spur, making no provision or allowing no time for their mental or moral improvement, regarding them merely as so much live stock, but of less value than cattle, because when too old to work they cannot be slaughtered and eaten, it is small wonder that the crying need of the sugar-planter for two centuries has been sufficient and efficient labour. When the planter, under the newer influences which shall soon prevail, learns that by education, by the adoption and enforcement of sanitary regulations, by the establishment of homes, by the observance of the decent amenities of life, by the liberalising of religious belief, by the recognition of human rights, and by the general uplifting of the sentiment of work, a sufficiency of labour may be easily secured, and its efficiency guaranteed, the problem so long unsolved will be made as clear as day, and Cuba will enter an era of prosperity for all cla.s.ses that will astonish and attract the world.

There is at this time a steady increase in the demand for labour on plantations and, in Santiago Province, for the mines. While in Cuba the author received one cable despatch calling for fifteen hundred labourers for the mines, while three large planters stood ready, among them, to employ a thousand men to work in the sugar fields. In the neighbourhood of the sugar plantations all the able-bodied men had either been killed in battle, died of disease and starvation, or were still in a state of practical dest.i.tution, hidden away in the insurgent camps. Those who offered themselves for employment were, as a rule, too weak to endure the hard labour. Three years of privations and lack of food had destroyed their stamina. To be sure, there is surplus labour in Havana,--able-bodied labour,--but those who applied there had no means of transportation to the localities where they could obtain work.

Through a suggestion made by the writer to an enterprising American concern, four hundred of these Havana labourers were sent to Santiago.

It is estimated that at least three thousand additional labourers could be well employed in these mines at once, if it were possible to send them from the spots where starvation stares them in the face to the localities where work can be obtained for those able to endure, as already indicated, the hardest toil under trying climatic conditions.

Many Spanish soldiers desire to remain in the Island. They have formed alliances in Cuba; some of them have married and have families there.

These men have come before American officials and entreated them to aid in finding them employment of some kind, either as Civil Guards, in the mines, or on the plantations. As a rule they make industrious and faithful labourers. Attention is called to an extract from a letter written by a prominent business man of Havana,--the man, in fact, who in October was employed to send the four hundred labourers from that city to Santiago:

"I advertised for labourers in the Santiago mines in our princ.i.p.al newspapers, and, in consequence, have had for the last three days at least one hundred and twenty men calling at my office for situations. They are willing to accept the price offered, but not one of them can pay the pa.s.sage from this port to Santiago.

"Lots of soldiers, lots of labourers, many of whom have already worked in the Santiago mines and know all about the work, living, and everything else, but were taken away from there as guerrillas, volunteers, and soldiers of some kind, are willing to go; but, as you will understand, the people here have been without work and the soldiers without any pay, and therefore n.o.body can pay the pa.s.sage.

"While I have been writing these lines several men have called on me, but it is the same thing over and over again; they need work, and are willing to work, but they have not got one cent to save their souls."

It is believed this indicates clearly and without exaggeration the present conditions in Havana as regards would-be labourers and their suffering for want of work. During fifteen years' experience in operating iron mines in Cuba, those who know say, the labour question there has always been the unsolved problem, as never during that time have they been able fully to supply their wants in this direction. If the number of labourers has not in normal times been sufficient to satisfy the requirements of all industries in Cuba, how much will it fall short under the new conditions? The only hope for the renewal of prosperity in the Island is, first, the rehabilitation of the sugar industry; second, a revival of work on the tobacco plantations; and third, a full complement of men in the mining districts. These industries are the basis of the prosperity of the Island. A better distribution of labour will aid somewhat, and if this is accomplished intelligently by the United States Government, employment can be found for thousands whose presence in Havana without work is a menace to the city. It should be borne in mind that the Cuban harvest is in the winter months, and therefore plans should at once be inaugurated by which those who want work can be immediately brought to those anxious to give them employment. A small expenditure of money in this direction now will save a large expenditure in the future in some other and less desirable ways.

It is useless to try to create new industries until the old and strong industries of the Island are re-established. If it is difficult, after the Spanish soldiers leave, to secure the necessary labour for the plantations, producing, as they will this year, a maximum of 400,000 tons of sugar for export, where are the labourers coming from to produce the high-water mark of 1,100,000 tons of sugar? The process of industrial reconstruction will necessarily be slow and depend in a large degree upon the stability of the Government and the rapidity with which the people settle down to work. There is no possibility, however, of a surplus labour supply. Work can be found for all capable and willing to perform hard labour now that the affairs of the Island have pa.s.sed into the hands of the United States military authorities and the new customs tariff has gone into force. From this time the work of repairing the dismantled sugar plantations should go forward and thousands of labourers will be required. Whatever may be the future of Cuba, the present must be provided for and life and property and the right to labour be protected.

The disposal of the insurgent troops is so intimately interwoven with the labour problem that it is difficult to separate the two. Some of the insurgent troops should be, and probably will be, utilised as Civil Guards, supplementing the United States forces; but those who are not needed for this purpose should be systematically aided as far as possible in any endeavours they may make to secure work. Men with hardly clothes to cover their nakedness, who have existed for three years on a diet that would kill the ordinary American labourer in three weeks, and who have practically foraged for their daily existence, must be helped a little before they can stand alone--helped at least to the extent of food and raiment and transportation to the locality where there is work in abundance.

Lastly, in this connection, the need of homes in Cuba is one of the most pressing. The condition of those who labour on the plantations is truly deplorable. They literally have none of the necessities of civilisation.

A complete state of savagery would be preferable to the condition of those employed on the sugar estates, who toil from early sunrise to sunset on rations of the plainest sort, and live in huts built of the bark of palm trees and thatched with the palm leaf.

CHAPTER VII

THE POPULATION OF CUBA

The number and the characteristics of the people of Cuba are matters of doubt. If not of doubt exactly, at least there seem to be many discrepancies in relation to the numerical side of the problem, and great variation in opinion as to the qualities and peculiarities of the several cla.s.ses of inhabitants which const.i.tute the people of the Island. Before attempting to discuss the traits of the people, it may be advisable to ascertain, as far as practicable, the component parts of the population, and for that purpose recourse must be had to such statistical data as may be found available. The census report of Cuba can be obtained, but it is not issued, like our own, in book form, or even as printed reports. The results, moreover, are not worked out with any degree of detail as to age, s.e.x, race, marital condition, occupation, and such other data as make an a.n.a.lysis of the population of the United States a comparatively easy task. The first census of Cuba was taken as far back as 1774, and since then the population has been enumerated at various periods, apparently when it suited the convenience or desire of the authorities at Madrid. The last count of the people was in December, 1897, but the returns from this enumeration have not been tabulated. The authorities admit they are imperfect in the four provinces of Pinar del Rio, Havana, Matanzas, and Santa Clara, and that they lack entirely the population of Puerto Principe and Santiago de Cuba. It may, therefore, be expedient that this work should be abandoned and that the United States authorities should take a complete and satisfactory census of the Island in December (for it cannot be taken in the month of June), 1899, or December, 1900, either of which dates will be near enough to the date of our own Twelfth Census, which will be June 1, 1900--the earlier date will probably be better for Cuba and nearer our own census. Such an enumeration should elicit information in relation to occupations and such social topics as will aid in constructing a suitable government for the people of Cuba. The method of taking the Cuban census has been crude and the returns not very reliable. The organisation for the work has always been made in Spain and delegated to a Central Board in Cuba, which board is presided over by a Cabinet Minister--the last by Mr. Montoro, Secretary of State. The Secretary to this Board is the Director of Census. The schedules are then forwarded to the munic.i.p.alities, who thus control their own enumerations. Fortunately for Cuba, there are no "boom towns," so the returns are not unduly padded. The schedules for the rural districts are handled from the capital of the province. When the schedules are filled, they are sent to Havana, where the work of tabulation is performed. The completed work is sent to Spain for approval and promulgation. The method seems roundabout and c.u.mbersome and must result in a large percentage of errors. The official who had charge of the last census admitted it was not exact--excepting possibly for some places where the munic.i.p.al authorities took pride in the work. This was the case in Matanzas, where a census was taken in 1893, which seems on the face to be careful statistical work. A study of the census columns of unfortunate Cuba reveals the story of that Island in unmistakable terms.

(See table on page 92.)

Disease and war have performed their fatal work and from time to time decimated the inhabitants. The cheerful side of the picture is the constant increase of population from 1852 to 1867. These few years were called the Golden Age of Cuba. The cholera visited Cuba at the end of the year 1868, and the Ten Years' War began October 10, 1868, at which time many Cubans emigrated. This will explain the decrease of the year 1869. From 1870 to 1877 Spanish soldiers poured into the country, and not less than 200,000 Spaniards were sent there to crush the insurrection of 1868 to 1878 (Ten Years' War).

POPULATION OF CUBA AT THE SEVERAL ENUMERATIONS OF THE POPULATION OF THE ISLAND

----------------+-----------+-----------+---------- | | Increase | Decrease YEARS. | TOTALS. | Per cent. | Per cent.

----------------+-----------+-----------+---------- 1774 | 171,620 | .... | ....

1787 | 176,167 | 2.64 | ....

1792 | 273,939 | 55.49 | ....

1804 | 432,000 | 57.69 | ....

1810 | 600,000 | 38.88 | ....

1817 | 635,604 | 5.93 | ....

1819 | 553,033 | .... | 12.99 1825 | 715,000 | 29.28 | ....

1827 | 704,487 | .... | 1.47 1830 | 755,695 | 7.26 | ....

1841 | 1,007,625 | 33.33 | ....

1846 | 898,754 | .... | 10.80 1849 | 945,440 | 5.19 | ....

1850 | 973,742 | 2.99 | ....

1852 | 984,042 | 1.05 | ....

1855 | 1,044,185 | 6.11 | ....

1857 | 1,110,095 | 6.31 | ....

1859 | 1,129,304 | 1.72 | ....

1860 | 1,199,429 | 6.20 | ....

1862 | 1,396,470 | 16.42 | ....

1867 | 1,426,475 | 2.14 | ....

1869 | 1,399,811 | .... | 1.86 1874 | 1,446,372 | 3.32 | ....

1877 | 1,521,684 | 5.20 | ....

1887 | 1,631,687 | 7.23 | ....

1899 (est.) | 1,200,000 | .... | 2.65 ----------------+-----------+-----------+----------

[Ill.u.s.tration: A COUNTRY VILLA.]

Then came the last war, which has been even more disastrous, and many competent authorities put the loss by disease, starvation, and slain at 400,000. It is impossible to verify these figures until we shall have an accurate enumeration of the population, so it must remain guesswork until then. Whatever the result of the next census may show, the fact remains apparent that the population of Cuba, by reason of its misfortunes, is far behind the natural increment; that is, the growth by excess of births over deaths. This is shown by the following table, giving the estimated population of the Island of Cuba from 1774 to 1894, by decades, taking the average rate of increase of the _native_ population in the United States by census decades:

-------------------------+-------+------------|------------------- |YEAR. | Estimated | | |Population. | -------------------------+-------+------------|------------------- |1774 | 171,620 |As by Mr. Bonnet's |1784 | 216,928 |table as increased |1794 | 274,197 |by United States |1804 | 346,585 |census rates, |1814 | 438,083 |estimated averages.

|1824 | 554,537 | |1834 | 700,934 | |1844 | 885,981 | From 1850 to 1890 native |1854 | 1,119,880 | and foreign were given |1864 | 1,459,204 | separately by census |1874 | 1,772,718 | takers; previously no |1884 | 2,336,442 | such count was made. |1894 | 2,869,150 | -------------------------+-------+------------+-------------------

In the opening chapter of this volume the point was made that Cuba, had it been permitted to remain in peace and enjoy its advantages, should have had a population ranging from 4,500,000 to 5,000,000. That this statement is borne out may be noted in the subjoined table, which gives the estimated population of the Island of Cuba from 1774 to 1894, taking the average rate of increase of the _total_ population in the United States, by census decades:

--------------------------+-------------|---------------------------------- YEAR. | Estimated | | Population. | --------------------------+-------------|---------------------------------- 1774......................| 171,620 | As per Mr. Bonnet's table.

1784......................| 231,687 } | 1794......................| 312,777 } | 1804......................| 378,460 } | 1814......................| 516,144 } | 1824......................| 686,832 } | Increased at United States census 1834......................| 917,264 } | rates for decades, estimated 1844......................| 1,216,934 } | averages.

1854......................| 1,653,448 } | 1864......................| 2,241,745 } | 1874......................| 2,749,051 } | 1884......................| 3,575,965 } | 1894......................| 4,464,950 } | --------------------------+-------------|----------------------------------

The rate of growth of the Western Hemisphere, had Cuba been allowed to enjoy her natural advantages, would have found her at the close of 1900 with close upon 5,000,000 population and a country as flourishing as that pictured in the early part of this volume.

The population of the Island of Cuba, as enumerated on the 31st of December, 1887, was 1,631,687. This population was scattered over an area of about 122,606 square kilometres. These figures give an average density of population of 13.31 inhabitants to the square kilometre, the maximum of which appeared to be in the province of Havana (52.49), and the minimum in the province of Puerto Principe (2.10).

CENSUS OF DECEMBER 31, 1887

----------------------+-------------+-------------+------------- | | | Density per PROVINCE. | Number | Square | Square |Inhabitants. | Kilometres. | Kilometre.

----------------------+-------------+-------------+------------- Havana | 451,928 | 8,610 | 52.49 Matanzas | 259,578 | 8,486 | 30.59 Pinar del Rio | 225,891 | 14,967 | 15.09 Puerto Principe | 67,789 | 32,341 | 2.10 Santa Clara | 354,122 | 23,083 | 15.34 Santiago de Cuba | 272,379 | 35,119 | 7.76 |-------------+-------------+------------- | 1,631,687 | 122,606 | 13.31 ----------------------+-------------+-------------+-------------

Distributed as white population and coloured people, the latter comprising negroes and half-breeds and Asiatics, the proportions were as follows:

CENSUS OF DECEMBER 31, 1887

-----------------+-------------------+------------------+------------------ | NUMBER | DENSITY PER | | INHABITANTS. |SQUARE KILOMETRE. | PERCENTAGE.

+---------+---------+--------+---------+--------+--------- PROVINCE. | Whites. |Coloured.| Whites.|Coloured.| Whites.|Coloured.