contractor got only about twenty per cent. as much work out of them as did the American superintendents. In Cuba a change to American methods and implements, and from oxen to mules as draft animals, has reduced the cost of plowing from $97.50 and $76.50 a caballeria (33 1-3 acres), in two specific instances, to $39.16 and $24 respectively. There is reason to believe that in all industries this factor of supervision and administration counts for as much in Cuba as it does elsewhere. If so, a large part of the relative inefficiency of the Cuban must be charged off to poor management and a wasteful industrial system.
When regularly employed the Cuban works long hours. A chart of the street-railway traffic of Habana shows that during the shorter days of the year the registered number of passengers carried per hour in the whole city is nearly one-half the maximum by 6 A.M., and that it reaches its maximum at just 6 P.M. Considering only those lines running into the city from suburbs occupied by the working classes, the traffic before 6 A.M. is nearly or quite two-thirds the maximum. For most of these men, therefore, twelve hours, with the noon rest deducted, is the usual term of daily labor. On the plantations the eleven-hour day is still the rule. In riding through the country at earliest dawn one sees workers already in the fields. The independent country laborer usually protracts his noon-day rest until the heat of the day is over, and some of the apparent idleness of Cuba is due to the fact that the hours of work are divided by this interval of repose.
In some trades the men work slowly or short hours in order to limit production. Where payment is by piece-work, as in the cigar factories, they do so at their own expense. But this is usually during the slack season, and the motive is to keep as many men as possible employed.
One weakness of the working people of Cuba may be charged in part to indolence, but it is equally due to their love of pleasure and excitement, and to a feeling of irresponsibility as to the future so characteristic of tropical nations. Unless pressed by necessity, the Cuban takes frequent vacations. This is his form of dissipation, his way of going on a spree. The excitement of strong drink does not appeal to him as much as the gentler attractions of more protracted recreations. He is often a gambler, he delights in music and dances and in the little festivals of his neighborhood; he regards scrupulously all the observances of the Church that give promises of sufficient entertainment, especially those of a gala-day character. Weddings and christenings and funerals are important events in his calendar. By dint of a close and constant study of the situation he can usually find a valid excuse for indulging in the relaxations of leisure whenever it is not absolutely necessary for him to labor for his support.
The Cuban is therefore neither thrifty nor frugal. As a workman he responds only to the incentive of necessity. The Spanish laborer in Cuba usually works with the aim of accumulating a competency; not so the Cuban. The one produces and consumes little; the other produces only what he may consume. The Spanish laborer has few and simple ideals, but they are fixed and permanent; the Cuban stores a new fancy in his head every few days, and forgets it. He becomes impassioned over a carnival mask or a polka-dot tie; a month later it has passed out of his remembrance.
This is one principal reason why employers so greatly prefer the Spaniards in their service; they are not necessarily more honest, more active, or more intelligent, but they can be depended upon.
The Cubans are not criminally inclined. Under Spanish rule there were four times as many Spaniards as native whites in the prisons of Cuba in proportion to the total number of inhabitants of each nation in the Island. The Chinese and Spaniards both showed a larger percentage of criminals than the native Cubans of either race. Among the higher class Cubans, especially in the remoter towns, there are many evidences of physical degeneracy due to close intermarriage. Little scrawny men with big bony hands and almost no head at all, are characteristic of this class. But this type is not usually found among the rural or laboring population.
CHAPTER VIII
THE FUTURE OF CUBA
If the economic development of Cuba holds little promise for the people of the country, they have even less to look for in the political prospect. The period of self-government following freedom from the Spanish yoke has been marked by utter failure to meet the demands and the responsibilities of the situation. The Palma administration, ushered in with the highest hopes and the utmost encouragement, was tainted with corruption and cut short by revolution. The present regime can not boast even that weak element of honesty and ability that its predecessor possessed. To quote La Lucha, of Habana, which was the official organ of the Gomez party, the present condition is characterized by “intranquillity in the country, uneasiness in the towns and cities, hatreds, fears, and absolute lack of confidence in the future.... Our rulers refuse to be convinced that they are not the owners, but simply the administrators of the public wealth.” Insurrection has been staved off on several occasions by means of the strong arm or the greased palm. As the year 1911 approaches its close, the rumblings of revolution are heard in many different parts of the Island at the same time. These are not to be taken as popular indications of resentment against bad government,—the Cubans are used to that. They are the organized preparations of the “outs” to unseat the “ins.” Such disturbances are natural incidents of a situation which is controlled by professional politicians. There are in Cuba no political parties based on principle. Instead there are a number of cliques, each headed by a leader who holds his followers by promises of patronage in case of success. Experience has taught that the bullet is more effective than the ballot in Cuban politics. A few shots fired at the moon displaced the Palma government. To quote again from La Lucha: “In Cuba nothing can resist the slightest armed movement, because the first subversive cry raised in our fields is, and ever will be, the death knell of our political state.” The Administration can not place dependence upon the military forces. The keenest rivalry and the bitterest feeling exist between the rural guard and the regular army. In case of a civil war, these bodies would surely take opposite sides, and neither has any sentiment of loyalty to the flag, or allegiance to the government. The chief influence to which they would be amenable is the will of their respective commanders, who are politicians and aim to employ the forces under them as political instruments. The most effective defence of the President is found in placating his enemies by substantial concessions, but this method has naturally created fresh opponents with an appetite for sops, and the Chief Executive finds himself well-nigh at the end of his resources.