c.—Public schools and education, 10 per cent.
d.—To pay the bonds and other obligations issued by the Provisional Government of Cuba and its duly authorised agents since February, 24, 1895, which in the aggregate must not exceed $2,500,000, and to pay amounts due the soldiers of the Army of Liberation, 20 per cent.
e.—Development of the Island by the building of railroads, properly constructed highways, and other means of communication, 25 per cent.
f.—The repayment of the cost to the United States of the temporary military occupation pending the establishment of the proposed stable and independent government, 15 per cent.
As all the expenses of the municipal and local government can be readily provided from taxes on real estate, income tax, liquor licences, and other internal-revenue taxes, the customs revenue can, without embarrassment, be devoted to and amply satisfy all general governmental requirements as scheduled above. The percentages above suggested are, of course, tentative, and must not be regarded as more than a rough apportionment. The widest possible latitude should be given each provincial governor in the expenditure of the share of the general funds allotted him for sanitary and other improvements, public schools, for building railroads, and constructing highways. A study of the Jamaica budget, presented in Chapter IV., might help in a fair apportionment of funds for the new budget of Cuba. The subject has not yet been taken up systematically by the United States Government, but will soon need attention, or the old haphazard Spanish methods will receive a new lease of life. Such a contingency would indeed prove a misfortune.
CHAPTER XIX
COMMERCE
SPEAKING in round numbers, the commerce of Cuba during the last normal year aggregated about $100,000,000 of exports and a trifle over $60,000,000 of imports. From these figures it would seem that the balance of trade is about $40,000,000 in favour of Cuba. But this is more apparent than real. In one way and another Spain has annually turned away from the Island $40,000,000, which, had it been expended in Cuba every year, would have added immeasurably to the prosperity of the country. This money went to Spain in a variety of ways. Ten and a half millions of it were used in payment of a debt which did not justly belong to Cuba, and with which the people of the Island had been arbitrarily burdened without their consent. Large sums also went to Spain through the constantly changing Spanish civil and military officials, who regarded Cuba as their legitimate field for plunder.
It has been estimated elsewhere in this volume that the total commerce of Cuba, had the affairs of the Island been honestly and economically administered, would have reached from $200,000,000 to $250,000,000, so prolific is the country, and so valuable in the world’s markets are its two staple productions, sugar and tobacco.
To indicate more definitely the extent of Cuban commerce, the reports for 1893, which was a good year, are given below, presenting, among the principal exports from Cuba to the United States, the following:
| Fruits and nuts | $2,347,800 |
| Molasses | 1,081,034 |
| Sugar | 60,637,631 |
| Wood, unmanufactured | 1,071,123 |
| Tobacco, manufactured | 2,727,030 |
| Tobacco, not manufactured | 8,940,058 |
| Iron ore | 641,943 |
| Total | $77,446,619 |