It is more than possible that an earlier and more noticeable progress in Cuban railway matters will be made than in any other important department of industry in the Island. In addition to the railways herein noted, there are numerous private railways on sugar estates, ranging from one to forty miles in length. These are chiefly used in conveying cane to the mill, but in some instances they extend beyond the limit of the farm and serve a useful purpose in local transportation. These roads are not elaborately constructed or equipped, but they are ordinarily satisfactory to the owners and patrons. There are also a number of short lines in the mining district, connecting the mines with the seaboard or other shipping point.
What margin of profit there may be in the railroad business of Cuba is not definitely known, as figures are not always accessible, though ten per cent. dividends and even higher have not been unheard of in the past. A table from which calculations may be made is presented below, covering the railways of the western part of the Island:
Cuba has over 6,500 miles of coast-line, counting all the undulations of the coast, much of which is practically inaccessible from the outside by reason of long stretches of low-lying coral reefs; but within these natural breakwaters what is virtually inland navigation may be and is carried on by small coastwise vessels of all kinds. There are, however, many miles of open coast, and land-locked harbours, not excelled elsewhere, are frequent. There are fifty-four harbours in all. The best on the north coast are Bahia Honda, Cabanas, Havana, Matanzas, Sagua, Nuevitas, Gibara, Nipe, and Baracoa; and on the south, Guantanamo, Santiago de Cuba, Manzanillo, Trinidad, and particularly Cienfuegos, which has one of the finest harbours in the world. With so favourable a coast-line, added to the long and narrow shape of the Island, which brings points in the interior so near to the coasts, transportation by water is naturally given precedence, and the shipping trade is one of the most flourishing in the Island. Twelve hundred vessels, steam and sail, clear from Havana alone every year, while the tonnage of Havana and eight other ports in 1894 was 3,538,539 tons, carried in 3181 vessels. And yet with such a showing the policy of the Island with reference to its neighbouring islands has been such that if one wishes to go from Cuba to a near-by island, say a distance of seventy-five to one hundred miles, he must first go to New York, and reship to the point of destination. An account of the lines that connect Cuba with other countries and the ports of Cuba with one another appears in the following chapter on navigation.
| Name of Road. | Length in Kilometres. | Traffic. | ||||||
| Number ofStations. | NumberLocomotives. | NumberPassenger Coaches. | NumberGoodsWaggons. | NumberPassengers. | Sugar,Tons. | Tobacco,Tons. | ||
| The Western Railways of Havana, Ld. | 175 | 26 | 19 | 20 | 237 | 300,000 | 10,000 | 10,000 |
| United Railways of Havana and Regla Warehouse, Ld. | 396 | 56 | 80 | 73 | 1,738 | 688,000 | 150,000 | 5,800 |
| Compania del Ferro Carril de Matanzas. | 230 | 26 | 47 | 21 | 984 | 292,000 | 130,000 | .... |
| Empresa Unida de los C. de H. de Cardenas y Jucaro. | 339 | 35 | 49 | 40 | 1,123 | 360,000 | 120,000 | .... |
| Compania del Ferro Carril de Sagua la Grande. | 137 | 15 | 22 | 25 | 482 | 230,000 | 70,000 | 2,100 |
| Compania de F. C. de Cienfuegos a S. Clara | 101 | 13 | 19 | 28 | 438 | 220,000 | 63,000 | 1,600 |
| Compania Unida de los F. C. de Caibarien. | 89 | 11 | 17 | 24 | 583 | 200,000 | 60,000 | 2,800 |
| 1,467 | 182 | 253 | 231 | 5,585 | 2,290,000 | 603,000 | 22,300 | |
FISCAL STATEMENT
| Name of Road. | Products. | Expenses. | Proportion of Expenses. | Number Shares. | Share Capital. | Loans and Debenture. | Interest on Loans |
| Western Railways of Havana, Ld. | $500,000 | $300,000 | 60 % | 60,000 | £600,000 | £390,000 | 6 % |
| United Railways of Havana and Regla Warehouse, Ld. | 2,792,000[1] | 1,557,000[18] | 53 % | 154,000 | 1,540,000 | 1,950,000 | 5 % |
| Compania del Ferro Carril de Matanzas. | 1,250,000 | 610,000 | 49 % | 10,000 | $5,000,000 | 50,000 | 6 % |
| Empresa Unida de los C. de H. de Cardenas y Jucaro. | 1,470,000 | 870,000 | 59 % | 15,582 | 7,791,070 | .... | .... |
| Compania del Ferro Carril de Sagua la Grande. | 700,000 | 350,000 | 50 % | 6,000 | 3,000,000 | 6,400 | 7 % |
| Compania de Ferro Carril de Cienfuegos a Santa Clara. | 600,000 | 400,000 | 66 % | 5,000 | 2,500,000 | $795,000 | 7 and 8 % |
| Compania Unida de los Ferro Carril de Caibarien. | 450,000 | 310,000 | 69 % | 4,542 | 2,271,124 | 285,000 | 7 % |
| $7,762,000 | $4,397,000 | 56 % | 255,124 | £2,140,000 | £2,396,400 | ||
| $20,562,194 | $1,080,000 |
Notwithstanding the dangers of navigation among the keys, there are only nineteen lighthouses on the entire coast, or one for every three hundred and fifty miles, a scarcity that is too dangerous to be allowed to continue. Many of the harbours are badly neglected, being permitted to fill up with sediment; and where there is one good wharf, well conditioned and adequate to the demands upon it, there are a hundred which are not so. In this respect improvement is greatly needed, and American capital should make it.
Although Cuba possesses hundreds of running streams, generally known as rivers, the narrowness of the Island necessarily curtails their length, and the longest, the Cauto, is but one hundred and fifty miles from its source to the sea. Others are considerably shorter than the Cauto; many of them are scarcely more than estuaries putting in from the ocean. The Cauto is navigable for light-draught boats over about six miles of its course, and some of the others will permit short navigation by light craft. The usefulness of these streams as means of communication and traffic with the sugar, tobacco, and other farms of the interior, and with the timber districts, may be greatly enhanced by proper attention from modern engineers and a more extensive acquaintance with River and Harbour Appropriations legislation.