PAGE
ENTRANCE TO HAVANA HARBOUR[Frontispiece]
SKETCH-MAP OF THE PROVINCE OF PINAR DEL RIO[8]
SKETCH-MAP OF THE PROVINCES OF HAVANA AND MATANZAS[16]
BATEY OF SANTA CATALINA[22]
SKETCH-MAP OF THE PROVINCE OF SANTA CLARA[28]
SKETCH-MAP OF THE PROVINCE OF PUERTO PRINCIPE[38]
SKETCH-MAP OF THE PROVINCE OF SANTIAGO DE CUBA[44]
ON THE ROAD TO CASTLETON, JAMAICA[50]
CATHEDRAL STREET, SANTIAGO DE CUBA[66]
From a photograph by J. F. Coonley, Nassau, N. P.
CANE CUTTERS[76]
A COUNTRY VILLA[92]
CUBAN "GUARACHERO" (MINSTREL)[96]
A NATIVE HUT[100]
From a photograph by J. F. Coonley, Nassau, N. P.
STREET VIEW, SANTIAGO DE CUBA[108]
From a photograph by J. F. Coonley, Nassau, N. P.
WATERMAN IN THE COUNTRY[112]
MARIANAO WATER VENDOR[116]
SQUARE IN FRONT OF GOVERNOR'S PALACE AT SANTIAGO DE CUBA[122]
A MULE TRAIN, SANTIAGO DE CUBA[124]
From a photograph by J. F. Coonley, Nassau, N. P.
MATANZAS YUMURI RIVER AND ENTRANCE TO THE VALLEY[128]
PANORAMA FROM THE ROAD TO THE CAVES, MATANZAS[132]
THE PLAZA, CIENFUEGOS[136]
HAVANA, FROM ACROSS THE BAY[146]
THE PRADO, HAVANA[150]
YARD OF AMERICAN CLUB, HAVANA[156]
THE PRADO AND INDIAN STATUE, HAVANA[166]
HOUSE OF PARLIAMENT, HAVANA[180]
TACON MARKET, HAVANA[186]
FIRE DEPARTMENT, SANTIAGO DE CUBA[196]
MORRO CASTLE, SANTIAGO DE CUBA[206]
PALM TREE BRIDGE[220]
AVENUE OF PALM TREES, PALATINO[238]
ROAD IN A PINE GROVE OF YUELTA ABAJO[252]
A COCOANUT GROVE[262]
A SUGAR-CANE TRAIN[272]
SUGAR-CANE SCALES[276]
CANE FIELDS[282]
CUTTING SUGAR-CANE[286]
UNLOADING CANE AT A BATEY[290]
CYLINDERS FOR GRINDING SUGAR-CANE[294]
APPARATUS FOR PACKING SUGAR AT THE SAN JOSE CENTRAL[298]
PLANTING TOBACCO[302]
TOBACCO FARM AND DWELLING[304]
WETTING THE TOBACCO LEAF[308]
TOBACCO-DRYING HOUSE[310]
BALING TOBACCO[314]
OLD COPPER MINES AT LA COPERA[318]
MINING CAMP AT FIRENEZA[322]
ORE BANK OF JURAGUA MINES[326]
OX CART[332]
A FOWL VENDOR[334]
ROYAL PALMS, YUMURI VALLEY[336]
SAGO PALM[338]
MAHOGANY CARRIED BY OXEN[340]
CUBAN FRUITS[344]
COFFEE MILL, SANTIAGO DE CUBA[348]
A CONVOY IN THE HILLS[352]
A CUBAN VOLANTE[354]
CUBAN MULE CART[358]
A CURVE ON THE YAGUAJAY RAILROAD[360]
THE HAVANA FLOATING DOCK[364]
A CUBAN FERRY[368]
PIER OF THE JURAGUA IRON CO., LTD.[372]
OLD ARCH OF THE JESUIT COLLEGE, HAVANA[378]
OLD CATHOLIC CHURCH AT LA COPERA[380]
THE CATHEDRAL, HAVANA[384]
THE CATHEDRAL, SANTIAGO DE CUBA[388]
SPANISH FORT ON RAILROAD TO JURAGUA MINES[396]
MAP OF CUBA[416]

INDUSTRIAL CUBA

CHAPTER I
CUBA—POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC

A NATION, like an individual, must be gauged by its endowments, its environment, its opportunities, and the various causes which from time to time accelerate or retard its progress.

Cuba is richly endowed with natural resources, it is within a short distance of the best and most profitable market in the world, and its opportunities, under favourable conditions of trade, should have made its population contented and prosperous. Had it not been for the numerous causes which have retarded all progress in this Island, what would have been its industrial, commercial, and social conditions at the close of the present century?

Numbering over a million population fifty years ago, the Island of Cuba, at the rate of growth common to the more prosperous countries of the western hemisphere, ought to number at the present time between four and a half and five millions of inhabitants. With this population, and a government giving everyone the right to the fruits of his own labour, Cuba’s sugar crop alone would have been more than double the high-water mark of the last prosperous year, exceeding two millions of tons, with a value of one hundred millions of dollars.

Tobacco, coffee, tropical fruits, iron ore, other minerals of various kinds, lumber, cattle, and innumerable other products which form the commercial wealth of this marvellous Island, would have increased the annual value of its products to figures ranging between two hundred and two hundred and fifty millions of dollars, and thus more than doubled, perhaps trebled, its commercial importance. Laws favourable to trade, and a government interested in development of home industry would have retained for Cuba a large proportion of this wealth, and there would have sprung up an industrial system giving actual employment to as many people in the gainful occupations as will be found in all Cuba when the last Spanish soldier departs from the desolate and prostrate Island.

Cuba should have developed some diversified industries, if only those branches of manufacture which are necessary to supply the requirements of its own population. In its mineral resources it has the basis for the manufacture of iron and steel and for the establishment of machine-shops to supply home demands. In its untouched forests of excellent hardwood, Cuba possesses the chief raw material for the manufacture of furniture and other articles for which the Spanish race are justly famous. With steel and wood for the first quality in abundance, and a water tonnage of considerable magnitude, there should have sprung up, in many of the unequalled harbours of the coast of Cuba, shipyards of no mean dimensions. Without becoming a manufacturing country, except in sugar and tobacco and a few other products in which Cuba excels, it might, under favourable conditions, at this period of its industrial history have been producing many articles of home consumption which, by reason of the unhappy management of its affairs, it has been compelled to purchase abroad. Not abroad in the open markets of the world, for that is another story; but of Spain, because the most infamous discriminating duties have shut Cuba out of the cheaper markets; and while thus gagged and bound, the Island has been plundered and despoiled by the mother country. In this manner have resources and revenue alike been drained away and nothing left, either for home enterprise or improvement, nor for reserve capital with which to do business.

Cuba should have established a central railway system running the length of the Island from east to west, with branches extending on all sides, like its rivers, to the many good towns and harbours on both north and south coasts. Instead of this it has a little less than a thousand miles of line, operated by seven timid companies, extending in various directions, but leaving the two ends of the Island farther apart in actual days of travel than are New York and San Francisco. The capital city of Cuba, Havana, has within it the possibilities of a great and beautiful city; the commercial and industrial city of a prosperous country of five millions of people, and the winter health-resort for the rich and fashionable families of all North America. Its public buildings should have been of the best, its tropical parks and gardens the most fascinating in the world, its streets and pavements the most substantial, its healthfulness unquestioned, and its harbours and docks thronged with shipping and resonant with commercial activity. The merchants of Havana should rank among the richest and most prosperous in the world, and the business, manufacturing, and social interests of the place be equal to those of Boston or Baltimore or San Francisco. What applies to Havana applies only in a lesser degree to the other cities of Cuba, many of which are excellently located and should be important industrial and commercial centres, with numerous fields for the modern municipal enterprise which has done so much to improve the condition of the urban population of Europe and of the United States. Last, though not least, the Island should have been dotted over with the trinity of civilisation—the home, the schoolhouse, and the church. It is the lack of these three great elements of national strength and progress, underlying Cuba’s ills, that is the cause of much of its misfortune.