one or the other party. I speak not of forcible annexation, for that cannot be thought of. That, by our code of morality, would be criminal aggression.”
[Illustration: COUNTRY ROAD _Havana Province_]
Recognition of the Cubans as belligerents would have effected a radical change in the situation. It would have given the Cubans the right to buy in the American market the arms and supplies that they could then only obtain surreptitiously, that they could only ship by “filibustering expeditions,” by blockade-runners. In law, the propriety of granting belligerent rights depends upon the establishment of certain facts, upon the proof of the existence of certain conditions. Those conditions did then exist in Cuba. An unanswerable argument was submitted by Horatio S. Rubens, Esq., the able counsel of the Cuban _junta_ in New York. The Cubans never asked for intervention by the United States; they did, with full justification, ask for recognition as belligerents. The consent of this country was deemed inexpedient on political rather than on moral grounds. Had it suited the purposes of this country to grant that right, very much the same arguments would have been made in support of the course as those that were used to support the denial of Cuba’s requests. Recognition of Cuban independence, or intervention in favor of the Cubans, would have been the equivalent of the grant of belligerent rights. But the policy adopted, and the course pursued, did not serve to avert war with Spain. The story of that war has been written by many, and is not for inclusion here. The treaty of peace was signed, in Paris, on December 10, 1898, duly ratified by both parties in the following months, and was finally proclaimed on April 11, 1899. The war was over, but its definite termination was officially declared on the anniversary of the issuance of President McKinley’s war message. On January 1, 1899, the American flag was hoisted throughout the island, as a signal of full authority, but subject to the provisions of the Teller Amendment to the Joint Resolution of Congress, of April 20, 1898, thus:
“That the United States hereby disclaims any disposition or intention to exercise sovereignty, jurisdiction, or control over said Island except for the pacification thereof, and asserts its determination, when that is accomplished, to leave the government and control of the Island to its people.”
At twelve o’clock, noon, on the 20th of May, 1902, there was gathered in the State Apartment of the Palace occupied by many Spanish Governors-General, the officials of the United States, the elected officials of the new Cuban Republic, and a limited number of guests. In that same apartment, General Castellanos signed the abdication of Spanish authority. In its turn, pursuant to its pledges, the United States transferred authority to the President of the Cuban Republic. Four centuries of subjection, and a century of protest and struggle, were there and then ended, and Cuba joined the sisterhood of independent nations.
XI
_FILIBUSTERING_
The term “filibuster” affords an interesting example of the way in which words and their uses become twisted into something altogether different from their original meaning. It comes from a Dutch word, several centuries old, _vrijbuiter_, or free vessel or boat. It got somehow into English as “freebooter,” and into Spanish as _filibustero_. The original referred to piracy. Two or three centuries later, it meant an engagement in unauthorized and illegal warfare against foreign States, in effect, piratical invasions. In time, it came into use to describe the supply of military material to revolutionists, and finally to obstruction in legislative proceedings. In his message of June 13, 1870, President Grant said that “the duty of opposition to filibustering has been admitted by every President. Washington encountered the efforts of Genet and the French revolutionists; John Adams, the projects of Miranda; Jefferson, the schemes of Aaron Burr. Madison and subsequent Presidents had to deal with the question of foreign enlistment and equipment in the United States, and since the days of John Quincy Adams it has been one of the constant cares of the Government in the United States to prevent piratical expeditions against the feeble Spanish American Republics from leaving our shores.”
In 1806, Francisco Miranda, a Venezuelan patriot whose revolutionary activities preceded those of Simon Bolivar, sailed from New York on what would have been called, some years later, a filibustering expedition. His three vessels were manned chiefly by Americans. There are always those whose love of excitement and adventure, sometimes mixed with an active sympathy for an under dog, leads them to engage in such an enterprise. This one was productive of no important results. There were plenty of American pirates and privateers in earlier days, but I have found no record of any earlier actual expedition whose purpose was the creation of a new republic. But during the next hundred years, including the considerable number of Americans who have engaged in the present disorder in Mexico, such enterprises have been numerous. Among the most notable are the several Lopez expeditions to Cuba, about 1850, and the Walker expeditions to Lower California, Nicaragua, and Honduras, a few years later. The steamer _Virginius_, to which reference is made in another chapter, was engaged in filibustering when she was captured, in 1873, and many of her crew and passengers unlawfully executed, by Spanish authority, in Santiago. But that was only one of many similar enterprises during the Ten Years’ War in Cuba. It is very doubtful if the war could have continued as it did without them. During our own Civil War, we called such industries “blockade-running,” but it was all quite the same sort of thing. The Confederate army needed arms, ammunition, medicine, and supplies of many kinds. On April 19, 1861, President Lincoln proclaimed a blockade of the ports of the seceded States, with a supplementary proclamation on the 27th that completed the line, and thus tied the South hand and foot. In his _History of the United States_, Elson notes that raw cotton could be bought in Southern ports for four cents a pound while it was worth $2.50 a pound in Liverpool, and that a ton of salt worth seven or eight dollars in Nassau, a few miles off the coast, was worth $1700 in gold in Richmond before the close of the war, all because of the blockade.
There is, naturally, a lack of detail regarding the many expeditions, large and small, of the Ten Years’ War, but they began soon after the opening of hostilities. In his _Diary_, Gideon Welles notes, under date of April 7, 1869, the prevalence of “rumors of illegal expeditions fitting out in our country to aid the Cuban insurgents,” and states that “our countrymen are in sympathy with them.” In December, of that year, President Grant reported that a number of illegal expeditions had been broken up, but did not refer to those that had succeeded. In October, 1870, he issued a general proclamation, without specific reference to Cuba, warning all persons against engagement in such expeditions. During the years of the war, Spanish warships, at different times, seized American vessels, a proceeding which led to some active diplomatic negotiation, and which, on several occasions, threatened to involve this country in war with Spain. The problem of the industry variously known as filibustering, blockade-running, gun-running, and the shipment of contraband, has two ends. There is, first, the task of getting the shipment out of one country, and, second, the task of getting it into another country. While it is generally classed as an unlawful enterprise, there frequently arises a difficulty in proving violation of law, even when goods are seized and the participants arrested. There is, perhaps, a moral question involved also. Such shipments may be a violation of the law. They are generally so regarded. But they may be, as in the case of the struggling Cubans, struggling against actual and generally admitted wrongs, the only means of serving a worthy and commendable end. There is no doubt that, in Cuba’s revolution of 1895, Americans who knew about the work were prone to regard a successful expedition to the island with satisfaction if not with glee. They were inclined to regard those engaged as worthy patriots rather than as law-breakers.
Under date of February 23, 1898, the House of Representatives requested the Secretary of the Treasury to inform that body “at the earliest date practicable, if not incompatible with the public service, what has been done by the United States to prevent the conveyance to the Cubans of articles produced in the United States, and what to prevent ‘filibustering,’ and with what results, giving particulars, and at what expense to the United States.” A reply was sent on the 28th. It makes a very good showing for the activities of the officials responsible for the prevention of such expeditions, but from all I can learn about the matter, it is quite incomplete. There were a number of excursions not set down in the official records. Sailing dates and time and place of arrival were not advertised in the daily papers.
The official statement shows that sixty reports of alleged filibustering expeditions were brought to the attention of the Treasury Department; that twenty-eight of them were frustrated through efforts of the Department; that five were frustrated by the United States Navy; four by Spain; two wrecked; one driven back by storm; one failed through a combination of causes; and seventeen that may be regarded as successful expeditions. The records of the Cuban _junta_ very materially increase the number in the latter class. The despatch of these expeditions was a three-cornered battle of wits. The groups engaged were the officials of the United States, the representatives of Spain, and the agents of the revolution. The United States employed the revenue service and the navy, aided on land by the Customs Service, the Secret Service, and other Federal officers. The official representatives of Spain employed scores of detectives and Spanish spies. The Cuban group sought to outwit them all, and succeeded remarkably well in doing so. A part of the story has been told, with general correctness, in a little volume entitled _A Captain Unafraid_, described as _The Strange Adventures of Dynamite Johnny O’Brien_. This man, really a remarkable man in his special line, was born in New York, in 1837, and, at the time this is written, is still living. He was born and grew to boyhood in the shadow of the numerous shipyards then in active operation along the East River. The yards were his playground. At thirteen years of age, he ran away and went to see as cook on a fishing sloop. He admits that he could not then “cook a pot of water without burning it,” but claims that he could catch cod-fish where no one else could find them. From fisherman, sailing-master on private yachts, schooner captain, and officer in the United States Navy in the Civil War, he became a licensed East River pilot in New York. He became what might be called a professional filibuster at the time of the revolution in Colombia, in 1885, following that with similar experience in a revolt in Honduras two years later. The Cubans landed a few expeditions in 1895, but a greater number were blocked. In March, 1896, they applied to O’Brien and engaged him to command the _Bermuda_, then lying in New York and ready to sail. Captain O’Brien reports that her cargo included “2,500 rifles, a 12-pounder Hotchkiss field-gun, 1,500 revolvers, 200 short carbines, 1000 pounds of dynamite, 1,200 _machetes_, and an abundance of ammunition.” All was packed in boxes marked “codfish,” and “medicines.”
The _Bermuda_ sailed the next morning, March 15, with O’Brien in command, cleared for Vera Cruz. The Cubans, including General Calixto Garcia, who were to go on the expedition, were sent to Atlantic City, there to engage a fishing sloop to take them off-shore where they would be picked up by the _Bermuda_ on her way. The ship was under suspicion, and was followed down the bay by tugboats carrying United States marshals, customs officers, and newspaper reporters. O’Brien says: “They hung on to us down through the lower bay and out past Sandy Hook, without getting enough to pay for a pound of the coal they were furiously burning to keep up with us. I don’t know how far they might have followed us, but when we were well clear of the Hook, a kind fortune sent along a blinding snow-storm, which soon chased them back home.” General Garcia and his companions were picked up as planned, and that part of the enterprise was completed. The vessel was on its way. A somewhat roundabout route was taken in order to avoid any possible overhauling by naval or revenue ships. The point selected for the landing was a little harbor on the north coast about thirty miles from the eastern end of the island. The party included two Cuban pilots, supposed to know the coast where they were to land. One of them proved to be a traitor and the other, O’Brien says, “was at best an ignoramus.” The traitor, who, after the landing, paid for his offence with his life, tried to take them into the harbor of Baracoa, where lay five Spanish warships. But O’Brien knew the difference, as shown by his official charts, between the Cape Maisi light, visible for eighteen miles, and the Baracoa light, visible for only eight miles, and kicked the pilot off the bridge. The landing was begun at half-past ten at night, and completed about three o’clock in the morning, with five Spanish warships barely more than five miles away. The United States Treasury Department reported this expedition as “successful.” The vessel then proceeded to Honduras, where it took on a cargo of bananas, and returned, under orders, to Philadelphia, the home city of its owner, Mr. John D. Hart. Arrests were made soon after the arrival, including Hart, the owner of the vessel, O’Brien, and his mate, and General Emilio Nunez who accompanied the expedition as the representative of the _junta_. The case was transferred from the courts in Philadelphia to New York, and there duly heard. The alleged offenders were defended by Horatio Rubens, Esq., of New York, the official counsel of the _junta_. One of the grounds of the defence was that the defendants might be guilty of smuggling arms into Cuba, but with that offence the courts of the United States had nothing to do. The jury disagreed. The indictments were held over the heads of the members of the group, but no further action was taken, and two or three years later the case was dismissed by order of the Attorney General of the United States.
This expedition fairly illustrates the science of filibustering in its elementary form, a clearance with some attendant risk; a voyage with possibility of interference at any time; and a landing made with still greater risk and danger of capture. The trip had been made so successfully and with such full satisfaction to the promoters that the _junta_ urged O’Brien to remain with them as long as there should be need for his services, and he agreed to do so. A department of expeditions was organized under the general control of Emilio Nunez, with O’Brien as navigator. Credit for the numerous successful expeditions that followed lies in differing degrees with Nunez, Palma, Rubens, O’Brien, Hart, Cartaya, and others less well known in connection with the enterprises. But for the work they did, the risks they ran, Cuba’s revolution must have failed. All of them risked jail sentences, and some of them risked their lives in ways perhaps even more dangerous than fighting in the field. The success of the _Bermuda_ expedition, carried out by what may be called direct evasion, quite seriously disturbed the authorities in this country, and excited them to greater precautions and wider activity. Whatever may have been their personal feelings in the matter, it was their duty to see that the laws of the country were enforced as far as they could be. The players of the game for the Cubans met the new activities with complicated moves, many of which puzzled the watching officials, and landed a number of expeditions. Meanwhile, minor expeditions continued. The official report notes that on March 12, 1896, the _Commodore_, a 100-ton steamer, sailed from Charleston with men, arms, and ammunition, and landed them in Cuba. The _Laurada_, a 900-ton steamer, was reported by the Spanish Legation as having sailed on May 9, meeting three tugs and two lighters, off the coast, from which were transferred men and arms. The report states that “some of the men landed in Cuba, but the larger part of the arms and ammunition was thrown into the sea,” which may or may not have been the case. On May 23, the tug _Three Friends_ left Jacksonville, took on men and arms from two small vessels waiting outside, and landed all in Cuba. A month later, and again two months later, the _Three Friends_ repeated the trip from Florida ports. On June 17, the _Commodore_ made another successful trip from Charleston.
While these and other minor expeditions were going on, the department of expeditions in New York was busy with a more extensive enterprise. An order was placed for 3000 rifles, 3,000,000 rounds of ammunition, 3 12-pound Hotchkiss field-guns and 600 shells, _machetes_, and several tons of dynamite. The steamer _Laurada_ was chartered, and the ocean-going tug _Dauntless_ was bought in Brunswick, Georgia. A part of the purchased munitions was ordered to New York, and the remainder, two car loads, shipped to Jacksonville by express. Ostensibly, the _Laurada_ was to sail from Philadelphia to Jamaica for a cargo of fruit, a business in which she had at times engaged. Her actual instructions were to proceed to the vicinity of Barnegat, about forty miles from New York, and there, at sea, await orders. The arms and ammunition came down from Bridgeport on the regular boat from that city, and were left on board until night. There was no particular secrecy about the shipment, and detectives followed it. But when, at dark, the big gates of the dock were closed and locked and all seemed over for the day, the watchers assumed that nothing would be done until the next day, and went away. But, immediately after their departure, a big lighter slipped quietly into the dock across the wharf from the Bridgeport boat, a swarm of men appeared and, behind the closed gates, in the semi-darkness of the wharf, rushed boxes from steamer to lighter. The work was finished at midnight; a tug slipped up and attached a hawser to the lighter; and the cargo was on its way to Cuba. Johnny O’Brien was on the tug. The _Laurada_ was met off Barnegat, as arranged, and the cargo and about fifty Cubans put on board of her. She was ordered to proceed slowly to Navassa Island where the _Dauntless_ would meet her. General Nunez and O’Brien returned to New York on the tug, and while the detectives suspected that something had been done, they had no clue whatever to guide them. Nunez and O’Brien started immediately for Charleston, with detectives at their heels. The _Commodore_, a tug then owned by the Cubans, lay in the harbor of that city, with a revenue cutter standing guard over her. She was ordered to get up steam and to go through all the motions of an immediate departure. But this was a ruse to draw attention away from the actual operations. Rubens, meanwhile, had gone to Jacksonville where he busied himself in convincing the authorities that the tug _Three Friends_ was about to get away with an expedition. With one revenue cutter watching the _Commodore_ in Charleston, the other cutter in the neighborhood was engaged in watching the _Three Friends_ in Jacksonville, thus leaving a clear coast between those cities. In Charleston were about seventy-five Cubans waiting a chance to get to the island. O’Brien states that about twenty-five detectives were following their party. Late in the afternoon of August 13, while the smoke was pouring from the funnels of the _Commodore_, the regular south-bound train pulled out of the city. Its rear car was a reserved coach carrying the Cuban party, numbering a hundred or so. Detectives tried to enter, but were told that it was a private car, which it was. They went along in the forward cars. At ten o’clock that night, the train reached Callahan, where the Coast Line crossed the Seaboard Air Line. While the train was halted for the crossing, that rear car was quietly uncoupled. The train went on, detectives and all. The railroad arrangements were effected through the invaluable assistance of Mr. Alphonso Fritot, a local railway man whose authority enabled him to do with trains and train movement whatever he saw fit. He was himself of Cuban birth, though of French-American parentage, with ample reason, both personal and patriotic, for serving his Cuban friends, and his services were beyond measure. By his orders, when that train with its band of detectives had pulled away for Jacksonville, an engine picked up the detached car and ran it over to the Coast Line. A few miles away, it collected from a blind siding the two cars of arms and ammunition shipped some days before, from Bridgeport. A little further on, the line crossed the Satilla River. There lay the _Dauntless_, purchased by Rubens. Steam was up, and a quick job was made of transferring cargo and men from train to boat. Another tug brought a supply of coal, and soon after sunrise another expedition was on its way to Cuba. All this may be very immoral, but some who were on the expedition have told me that it was at least tremendously exciting.
On August 17, the passengers and cargo were landed on the Cuban coast near Nuevitas. The tug then proceeded to Navassa Island to meet the _Laurada_. Half of the men and half of the cargo of the steamer were transferred to the tug, and all were safely landed in a little cove a few miles west of Santiago. The landing was made in broad daylight. There were a number of Spanish naval vessels in Santiago harbor, and the city itself was filled with Spanish troops. The tug then returned for the remainder of the _Laurada’s_ passengers and cargo, all of which were landed a few days later at the place of the earlier landing. The _Laurada_ went on to Jamaica and loaded with bananas, with which she sailed for Charleston. Arrests were made as a result of the expedition, and the owner of the ship, Mr. John D. Hart, was convicted and sentenced to sixteen months in the penitentiary. After serving four months of his term, a pardon was secured. He is said to be the only one, out of all those engaged in the many expeditions, who was actually convicted, and his only offence was the chartering of his ships to the Cuban revolutionists. The _Dauntless_ was seized on her return to Jacksonville, but was soon released. An effort was made to indict O’Brien, but there was too much sympathy for the Cubans in Florida, where the effort was made. A number of minor expeditions were carried out in the next few months, by the _Dauntless_, the _Three Friends_, and the _Commodore_, the latter being wrecked in the last week in December.
In February, 1897, another complicated manoeuvre was successfully executed. This involved the use of the _Bermuda_, the _Laurada_, and no less than seven smaller auxilliary vessels, tugs, lighters, and schooners. Rut the _Laurada_ landed the cargo on the north-eastern coast of the island. As O’Brien tells the story, this successful expedition so angered Captain-General Weyler, then the ruler of the island, that he sent a message to the daring filibuster, through an American newspaper man, somewhat as follows: “Tell O’Brien that we will get him, sooner or later, and when we do, instead of having him shot along with his Cuban companions, I am going to have him ignominiously hanged from the flag-pole at Cabana, in full view of the city.” Cabana is the old fortress across the bay, visible from nearly all parts of Havana. To this, O’Brien sent reply saying: “To show my contempt for you and all who take orders from you, I will make a landing within plain sight of Havana on my next trip to Cuba. I may even land an expedition inside of the harbor and take you away a prisoner. If we should capture you, which is much more likely than that you will ever capture me, I will have you chopped up into small pieces and fed to the fires of the _Dauntless_.” A few months later, this little Irishman, whom Weyler denounced as a “bloodthirsty, dare-devil,” and who may have been a dare-devil but was not bloodthirsty, actually carried out a part of this seemingly reckless threat. He landed a cargo within a mile and a half of Morro Castle.
By this time, vessels of the United States navy were employed, supplementing the work of the Revenue Service. This, of course, added both difficulty and danger to the work. In March and April, several expeditions were interrupted. For the Spanish blockade of the Cuban coast, there was only contempt. Captain O’Brien told a naval officer that if the navy and the revenue cutters would let him alone he would “advertise the time and place of departure, carry excursions on every trip, and guarantee that every expedition would be landed on time.” In May, 1897, two carloads of arms and ammunition were shipped from New York to Jacksonville, but, by the authority of Mr. Fritot, they were quietly dropped from the train at a junction point, and sent to Wilmington, N.C. Their contents were transferred to the tug _Alexander Jones_, and that boat proceeded nonchalantly down the river. Soon afterward, an old schooner, the _John D. Long_, loaded with coal, followed the tug. Two revenue cutters were on hand, but there was nothing in the movements of these vessels to excite their interest. Off shore, the tug attached a towline to the schooner that was carrying its coal supply, its own bunkers being crammed with guns and cartridges. Off Palm Beach, General Nunez and some sixty Cubans were taken from a fishing boat, according to a prearranged plan. Two days later, at an agreed upon place, they were joined by the _Dauntless_ which had slipped out of Jacksonville. The excursion was then complete. About half the cargo of the _Jones_ was transferred to the _Dauntless_ and was landed, May 21, a few miles east of Nuevitas. A second trip took the remainder of the cargo of the _Jones_ and most of the Cuban passengers, and landed the lot under the very guns, such as they were, of Morro Castle, and within about three miles of the Palace of Captain-General Weyler. All that time, a force of insurgents under Rodriguez and Aurenguren was operating in that immediate vicinity, and was in great need of the supplies thus obtained. Some of the dynamite then landed was used the next day to blow up a train on which Weyler was supposed to be travelling, but in their haste the Cubans got one train ahead of that carrying the official party. The row that Weyler made about this landing will probably never be forgotten by the subordinates who were the immediate victims of his rage.
These are only a few of the many expeditions, successful and unsuccessful, made during those three eventful years. The Treasury Department report of February 28, 1898, gives seventeen successful operations. As a matter of fact, more than forty landings were made, although in a few cases a single expedition accounted for two, and in one or two instances for three landings. The experiences run through the entire gamut of human emotions, from absurdity to tragedy. The former is illustrated by the case of the _Dauntless_ when she was held up by a vessel of the United States navy, and boarded by one of the officers of the ship. He examined the tug from stem to stern, sat on boxes of ammunition which seemed to him to be boxes of sardines, stumbled over packages of rifles from which butts and muzzles protruded; and failed utterly to find anything that could be regarded as contraband. The mere fact that a vessel is engaged in transporting arms and ammunition does not, of necessity, bring it within reach of the law. But that particular vessel was a good deal more than under suspicion; it was under the closest surveillance and open to the sharpest scrutiny. The temporary myopia of that particular lieutenant of the United States navy was no more than an outward and visible sign of a well-developed sense of humor, and an indication of at least a personal sympathy for the Cubans in their struggle. Tragedy is illustrated by the disaster to the steamer _Tillie_. One day, late in January, 1898, this vessel, lying off the end of Long Island, took on one of the largest cargoes ever started on a filibustering expedition to Cuba. The cause is not known, but soon after starting a leak developed, beyond the capacity of the pumps. A heavy sea was running, and disaster was soon inevitable. The cargo was thrown overboard to lighten the ship and the vessel was headed for the shore on the chance that it might float until it could be beached. The water in the ship increased rapidly, and extinguished the fires under the boilers; the wind, blowing a high gale, swung into the northwest, thus driving the now helpless hulk out to sea. Huge combing waves swept the decks from end to end. O’Brien tells the story: “We looked in vain for another craft of any kind, and by the middle of the afternoon it seemed as though it was all up with us, for there was not much daylight left, and with her deck almost awash it was impossible that the _Tillie_ should keep afloat all night. The gale had swept us rapidly out to sea. The wind, which was filled with icy needles, had kicked up a wild cross-sea, and it was more comfortable to go down with the ship than even to think of trying to escape in the boats.” At last, when there seemed no longer any hope of rescue, the big five-masted schooner _Governor Ames_ came plunging through the heaving seas, and, by masterly seamanship and good fortune, backed by the heroism of her commander and crew, succeeded in taking off all except four, who went down with the ship. But the work went on. There is not space here to tell of the several vessels whose names, through the engagement of the craft in these enterprises, became as familiar to newspaper readers as are the names of ocean liners today. A few months later, the United States Government sent its ships and its men to help those who, for three hard years, had struggled for national independence.
XII
_THE STORY OF SUGAR_
Chemically, sugar is a compound belonging to the group of carbohydrates, or organic compounds of carbon with oxygen and hydrogen. The group includes sugars, starches, gums, and celluloses. Sugar is a product of the vegetable kingdom, of plants, trees, root crops, etc. It is found in and is producible from many growths. As a laboratory process, it is obtainable from many sources, but, commercially, it is derived from only two, the sugar cane and the beet root. This statement, however, has a certain limitation in that it omits such products as maple sugar, malt sugar, milk sugar, and others having commercial or chemical uses on a limited scale. But it is only with the crystallized sucrose, the familiar sugar of the market and the household, that we are dealing here. The output of the other sugars is measurable in hundreds or even thousands of pounds, but the output of the sugar of commerce is measured in millions of tons. Long experience proves that the desired substance is most readily, most abundantly, and most cheaply, obtained from the juices of the plant commonly known as sugar cane, and from the vegetable known as the sugar beet.
The mechanical processes employed in producing sugar from cane and from beets, are practically the same. They are, broadly, the extraction or expression of the juices, their clarification and evaporation, and crystallization. These processes produce what is called “raw sugar,” of varying percentages of sucrose content. Following them, there comes, for American uses, the process of refining, of removing the so-called impurities and foreign substances, and the final production of sugar in the shape of white crystals of different size, of sugar as powdered, cube, loaf, or other form. In the case of cane sugar, this is usually a secondary operation not conducted in the original mill. In the case of beet sugar, production is not infrequently a continuous operation in the same mill, from the beet root to the bagged or barrelled sugar ready for the market. The final product from both cane and beet is practically the same. Pure sugar is pure sugar, whatever its source. In the commercial production, on large scale, there remains a small fraction of molasses or other harmless substances, indistinguishable by sight, taste, or smell. With that fraction removed and an absolute 100 per cent. secured, there would be no way by which the particular origin could be determined. For all practical purposes, the sugar of commerce, whether from cane or beet, is pure sugar. It is doubtful if an adulterated sugar can be found in the United States, notwithstanding the tales of the grocer who “sands” his sugar, and of the producer who adds _terra alba_ or some other adulterant. In some countries of Europe and elsewhere, there are sugars of inferior grades, of 85 or 90 or more degrees of sugar purity, but they are known as such and are sold at prices adjusted to their quality. Sugars of that class are obtainable in this country, but they are wanted almost exclusively for particular industrial purposes, for their glucose rather than their sucrose content. The American household, whether the home of the rich or of the poor, demands the well-known white sugar of established purity.
There is still obtainable, in this country, but in limited quantity, a sugar very pleasantly remembered by many who have reached or passed middle age. It was variously known as “Muscovado” sugar, or as “plantation sugar,” sometimes as “coffee” or “coffee crushed.” It was a sugar somewhat sweeter to the taste than the white sugar, by reason of the presence of a percentage of molasses. It was a superior sugar for certain kitchen products, for pies, certain kinds of cake, etc. It has many times been urged in Congress that the employment of what is known as the Dutch Standard, now abolished, excluded this sugar from our market. This is not at all the fact. The disappearance of the commodity is due solely to change in the mechanical methods of sugar production. It would be quite impossible to supply the world’s sugar demand by the old “open kettle” process by which that sugar was made. The quality of sugar is easily tested by any one who has a spoonful of sugar and a glass of water. If the sugar dissolves entirely, and dissolves without discoloring the water, it may be accepted as a pure sugar.
In his book on _The World’s Cane Sugar Industry–Past and Present_, Mr. H.C. Prinsen Geerligs, a recognized expert authority on the subject, gives an elaborate history of the origin and development of the industry. His chapters on those branches are much too long for inclusion in full, but the following extracts tell the story in general outline. He states that the probability that sugar cane originally came from India is very strong, “as only the ancient literature of that country mentions sugar cane, while we know for certain that it was conveyed (from there) to other countries by travellers and sailors.” The plant appears in Hindu mythology. A certain prince expressed a desire to be translated to heaven during his lifetime, but Indra, the monarch of the celestial regions, refused to admit him. A famous Hindu hermit, Vishva Mitra, prepared a temporary paradise for the prince, and for his use created the sugar cane as a heavenly food during his occupation of the place. The abode was afterward demolished, but the delectable plant, and a few other luxuries, were “spread all over the land of mortals as a permanent memorial of Vishva Mitra’s miraculous deeds.” In the time of Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C.) there appear tales of “a reed growing in India which produced honey without the aid of bees.”
The early references are to sugar cane and not to cane sugar. While there may have been earlier experiences, the history of sugar, as such, seems to begin in the 7th century (A.D.). There is a story that the Chinese Emperor, Tai Tsung (627-650 A.D.) sent people to Behar, in India, to learn the art of sugar manufacture. The Arabs and the Egyptians soon learned how to purify sugar by re-crystallization, and to manufacture sweetmeats from the purified sugar. Marco Polo, who visited China during the last quarter of the 13th Century, refers to “a great many sugar factories in South China, where sugar could be freely bought at low prices.” The Mohammedan records of that period also show the manufacture, in India, of crystallized sugar and candy. The area of production at that time covered, generally, the entire Mediterranean coast. The crusaders found extensive plantations in Tripoli, Mesopotamia, Palestine, Syria, and elsewhere. The plant is said to have been introduced in Spain as early as the year 755. Its cultivation is said to have been a flourishing industry there in the year 1150. Through China, it was early extended to Japan, Formosa, and the Philippines. The records of the 14th Century show the production and distribution of sugar as an important commercial enterprise in the Mediterranean region. The Portuguese discoveries of the 15th Century carried the plant to the Azores, the Cape Verde islands, and to possessions in the Gulf of Guinea. The Spaniards took it to the Western Hemisphere in the early years of the 16th Century. The Portuguese took it to Brazil at about the same time. While a Chinese traveller, visiting Java in 424, reports the cultivation of sugar cane, it was not until more than twelve hundred years later that the island, now an important source of sugar supply, began the production of sugar as a commercial enterprise. By the end of the 18th Century there was what might be called a sugar belt, girdling the globe and extending, roughly, from thirty-five degrees north of the equator to thirty-five degrees south of that line. It was then a product of many of the countries within those limits. The supply of that time was obtained entirely from cane.
The early years of the 19th Century brought a new experience in the sugar business. That was the production of sugar, in commercial quantities, from beets. From that time until now, the commodity has been a political shuttlecock, the object of government bounties and the subject of taxation. In 1747, Herr Marggraf, of the Academy of Sciences, in Berlin, discovered the existence of crystallizable sugar in the juice of the beet and other roots. No practical use was made of the discovery until 1801 when a factory was established near Breslau, in Silesia. The European beet-sugar industry, that has since attained enormous proportions, had its actual beginning in the early years of the 19th Century. It was a result of the Napoleonic wars of that period. When the wars were ended, and the blockades raised, the industry was continued in France by the aid of premiums, differentials, and practically prohibitory tariffs. The activities in other European countries under similar conditions of governmental aid, came a little later. The total world supply of sugar, including cane and beet, less than 1,500,000 tons, even as recently as 1850, seems small in comparison with the world’s requirement of about twelve times that quantity at the present time. The output of beet sugar was then only about 200,000 tons, as compared with a present production of approximately 8,000,000 tons. But sugar was then a costly luxury while it is today a cheaply supplied household necessity. As recently as 1870, the wholesale price of granulated sugar in New York was thirteen and a half cents a pound, or about three times the present average.
Cane sugar is produced in large or small quantities in some fifty different countries and islands. In many, the output is only for domestic consumption, or in quantity too small to warrant inclusion in the list of sources of commercial supply. Sixteen countries are included in the list of beet-sugar producers. Of these, all are in Europe with the exception of the United States and Canada. Only two countries, the United States and Spain, produce sugar from both beet and cane. British India leads in the production of cane sugar, with Cuba a close second on the list, and Java the third. In their total, these three countries supply about two-thirds of the world’s total output of cane sugar. Hawaii and Porto Rico, in that order, stand next on the list of producers. Under normal conditions, Germany leads in beet-sugar production, with Russia second, Austria-Hungary third, France fourth, and the United States fifth, with Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Sweden, and Denmark following. The island of Cuba is the most important source of commercial cane sugar. Immediately before the revolution of 1895, its output a little exceeded a million tons. The derangement caused by that experience covered several years, and it was not until 1903 that so large a crop was again made. Since that time, the output has more than doubled. The increase is attributable to the large increase in demand in the United States, and to the advantage given Cuban sugar in this market by the reciprocity treaty of 1903. Practically all of Cuba’s export product is in the class commonly known as 96 degree centrifugals, that is, raw sugar of 96 per cent, or thereabout, of sugar content. Under normal conditions, nearly all of Cuba’s shipments are to the United States. The sugar industry was introduced in Cuba very soon after the permanent settlement of the island, by Spaniards, in the early years of the 16th Century, but it was not until two hundred and fifty years later that Spain’s restrictive and oppressive colonial policy made even its fair extension possible. In 1760, two and a half centuries after the first settlement, the sugar exports of the island were a little less than 4,400 tons. In 1790, they were a little more than 14,000 tons. Some relaxation of the laws regulating production and exportation, made possible an increase to 41,000 tons in 1802, and further relaxation made possible, in 1850, an output somewhat unreliably reported as 223,000 tons. It reached 632,000 tons in 1890, and the stimulus of the “free sugar” schedule of the United States brought it, in the next few years, to more than a million tons. Production in recent years has averaged about 2,500,000 tons.
In forty years, only a little more than a single generation, the world’s supply of sugar has been multiplied by five, from a little more than three million tons a year to nearly eighteen million tons. The total world output in 1875 would not today supply the demand of the United States alone. This increase in production has been made possible by improvements in the methods and the machinery of manufacture. Until quite recently, primitive methods were employed, much like those used in the production of maple sugar on the farm, although on larger scale. More attention has been paid to varieties of the plant and some, though no very great, change has been made in field processes. In Cuba, the cane is planted in vast areas, in thousands of acres. Some of the estates plant and cultivate their own fields, and grind the cane in their own mills. Others, known as “_colonos_,” are planters only, the crop being sold to the mills commonly called “_centrales_.” In its general appearance, a field of sugar-cane looks quite like a field of corn, but the method of cultivation is somewhat different. The slow oxen are still commonly used for plowing and for carts. This is not because of any lack of progressive spirit, but because experience has shown that, under all conditions of the industry, the ox makes the most satisfactory and economical motive power, notwithstanding his lack of pace.
The Encyclopaedia describes sugar-cane as “a member of the grass family, known botanically as _Saccbarum officinarum_. It is a tall, perennial grass-like plant, giving off numerous erect stems 6 to 12 feet or more in height, from a thick solid jointed root-stalk.” The ground is plowed in rows in which, not seed, but a stalk of cane is lightly buried. The rootlets and the new cane spring from the joints of the planted stalk which is laid flat and lengthwise of the row. It takes from a year to a year and a half for the stalk to mature sufficiently for cutting and grinding. Several cuttings, and sometimes many, are made from a single planting. There are tales of fields on which cane has grown for forty years without re-planting. A few years ago, ten or fifteen years was not an unusual period. The present tendency is toward more frequent planting, but not annual, as offering a better chance for stronger cane with a larger sugar content. The whole process of cultivation and field treatment is hard, heavy work, most of it very hard work. Probably the hardest and heaviest is the cutting. This is done with a long, heavy-bladed knife, the _machete_. The stalk, from an inch to two inches in thickness, is chopped down near the root, the heavy knife swung with cut after cut, under a burning sun. Only the strongest can stand it, a wearying, back-breaking task. After cutting, the stalk is trimmed and loaded on carts to be hauled, according to distance, either directly to the mill or to the railway running thereto. The large estates have their own railway systems running to all the fields of the plantation. These are private lines operated only for economy in cane transportation. Most of the crushing mills measure their daily consumption of cane in thousands of tons. While every precaution is taken, there are occasional fires. In planting, wide “fire lanes,” or uncultivated strips are left to prevent the spread of fire if it occurs.
Mill installations vary on the different plantations, but the general principle of operation is the same on all. The first process is the extraction of the juice that carries the sugar. It is probable that this was originally done in hand mortars. Next came the passing of the cane between wooden rollers turned by ox power, the rollers standing upright and connected with a projecting shaft or beam to the outer end of which the animal was attached, to plod around and around while the cane was fed between the rollers. The present system is merely an expansion of that old principle. At the mill, the stalks are dumped, by carload or by cartload, into a channel through which they are mechanically conveyed to huge rollers, placed horizontally, arranged in pairs or in sets of three, and slowly turned by powerful engines. The larger mills have a series of these rollers, two, three, or even four sets, the stalks passing from one to another for the expression of every possible drop of the juice, up to the point where the cost of juice extraction exceeds the value of the juice obtained. The expressed juices are collected in troughs through which they are run to the next operation. The crushed stalks, then known as _bagasse_, are conveyed to the huge boilers where they are used as fuel for the generation of the steam required in the various operations, from the feeding and the turning of the rollers, to the device from which the final product, the crystallized sugar, is poured into bags ready for shipment. All this is a seasonal enterprise. The cane grows throughout the year, but it begins to ripen in December. Then the mills start up and run until the rains of the next May or June suspend further operations. It then becomes impossible to haul the cane over the heavily mired roads from the muddy fields. Usually, only a few mills begin their work in December, and early June usually sees most of them shut down. The beginning of the rainy season is not uniform, and there are mills in eastern Cuba that sometimes run into July and even into August. But the general grinding season may be given as of about five months duration, and busy months they are. The work goes on night and day.
The next step is the treatment of the juices expressed by the rollers and collected in the troughs that carry it onward. The operations are highly technical, and different methods are employed in different mills. The first operation is one of purification. The juice, as it comes from the rollers, carries such materials as glucose, salts, organic acids, and other impurities, that must be removed. For this, lime is the principal agent. The details of it all would be as tedious here as they are complicated in the mill. The percentages of the different impurities vary with the variation of the soils in which the cane is grown. The next step, following clarification, is evaporation, the boiling out of a large percentage of the water carried in the juice. For this purpose, a vacuum system is used, making possible a more rapid evaporation with a smaller expenditure of fuel. These two operations, clarification and evaporation by the use of the vacuum, are merely improved methods for doing, on a large scale, what was formerly done by boiling in pans or kettles, on a small scale. That method is still used in many parts of the world, and even in the United States, in a small way. For special reasons, it is still used on some of the Louisiana plantations; it is common in the farm production of sorghum molasses in the South; and in the manufacture of maple sugar in the North. In those places, the juices are boiled in open pans or kettles, the impurities skimmed off as they rise, and the boiling, for evaporation, is continued until a proper consistency is reached, for molasses in the case of sorghum and for crystallization in the case of plantation and maple sugars. There is an old story of an erratic New England trader, in Newburyport, who called himself Lord Timothy Dexter. In one of his shipments to the West Indies, a hundred and fifty years ago, this picturesque individual included a consignment of “warming pans,” shallow metal basins with a cover and a long wooden handle, used for warming beds on cold winter nights. The basin was filled with coals from the fireplace, and then moved about between the sheets to take off the chill. He was not a little ridiculed by his acquaintances for sending such merchandise where it could not possibly be needed, but it is said that he made considerable money out of his enterprise. With the covers removed, the long-handled, shallow basins proved admirably adapted for use in skimming the sugar in the boiling-pans. But the old-fashioned method would be impossible today.
The different operations are too complicated and too technical for more than a reference to the purpose of the successive processes. Clarification and evaporation having been completed, the next step is crystallization, also a complicated operation. When this is done, there remains a dark brown mass consisting of sugar crystals and molasses, and the next step is the removal of all except a small percentage of the molasses. This is accomplished by what are called the centrifugals, deep bowls with perforated walls, whirled at two or three thousand revolutions a minute. This expels the greater part of the molasses, and leaves a mass of yellow-brown crystals, the coloring being due to the molasses remaining. This is the raw sugar of commerce. Most of Cuba’s raw product is classed as “96 degree centrifugals,” that is, the raw sugar, as it comes from the centrifugal machines and is bagged for shipment, is of 96 degrees of sugar purity. This is shipped to market, usually in full cargo lots. There it goes to the refineries, where it is melted, clarified, evaporated, and crystallized. This second clarification removes practically everything except the pure crystallized sugar of the market and the table. It is then an article of daily use in every household, and a subject of everlasting debate in Congress.
XIII
_VARIOUS PRODUCTS AND INDUSTRIES_
The Encyclopaedia Britannica states that “although the fact has been controverted, there cannot be a doubt that the knowledge of tobacco and its uses came to the rest of the world from America. As the continent was opened up and explored, it became evident that the consumption of tobacco, especially by smoking, was a universal and immemorial usage, in many cases bound up with the most significant and solemn tribal ceremonials.” The name “tobacco” was originally the name of the appliance in which it was smoked and not of the plant itself, just as the term “chowder” comes from the vessel (_chaudiere_) in which the compound was prepared. The tobacco plant was first taken to Europe in 1558, by Francisco Fernandez, a physician who had been sent to Mexico by Philip II to investigate the products of that country. The English, however, appear to have been the first Europeans to adopt the smoking habit, and Sir Walter Raleigh was notable for his indulgence in the weed. He is said to have called for a solacing pipe just before his execution. Very soon after their arrival, in 1607, the Virginia settlers engaged in the cultivation of tobacco, and it soon became the most important commercial product of the colony. Smoking, as practiced in this country, appears to have been largely, and perhaps only, by means of pipes generally similar to those now in use. The contents of ancient Indian mounds, or tumuli, opened in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa, show the use of pipes by the aborigines probably centuries before the discoveries by Columbus. Many were elaborately carved in porphyry or some other hard stone, while others were made of baked clay. Others, many of them also elaborately carved and ornamented, have been found in Mexico. Roman antiquities show many pipes, but they do not show the use of tobacco. It is assumed that they were used for burning incense, or for smoking some aromatic herb or hemp.
The first knowledge of the use of the plant in Cuba was in November, 1492, when Columbus, on landing near Nuevitas, sent his messengers inland to greet the supposed ruler of a supposed great Asiatic empire. Washington Irving thus reports the story as it was told by Navarete, the Spanish historian. Referring to those messengers, he says: “They beheld several of the natives going about with firebrands in their hands, and certain dried herbs which they rolled up in a leaf, and lighting one end, put the other in their mouths, and continued exhaling and puffing out the smoke. A roll of this kind they called a tobacco, a name since transferred to the plant of which the rolls were made. The Spaniards, although prepared to meet with wonders, were struck with astonishment at this singular and apparently nauseous indulgence.” A few years later, a different method was reported, by Columbus, as employed in Hispaniola. This consisted of inhaling the fumes of the leaf through a Y-shaped device applied to the nostrils. This operation is said to have produced intoxication and stupefaction, which appears to have been the desired result. The old name still continues in Cuba, and if a smoker wants a cigar, he will get it by calling for a “tobacco.” The production of the plant is, next to sugar, Cuba’s most important commercial industry. Its early history is only imperfectly known. There was probably very little commercial production during the 16th Century, for the reason that there was then no demand for it. The demand came in the first half of the 17th Century, and by the middle of that period tobacco was known and used in practically all civilized countries. The demand for it spread very rapidly, in spite of papal fulminations and penal enactments. For a time, in Russia, the noses of smokers were cut off. The early part of the 18th Century saw Cuba actively engaged in production and shipment. In 1717, Cuba’s tobacco was made a monopoly of the Spanish Government. Under that system, production was regulated and prices were fixed by the agents of the government, in utter disregard of the welfare of the producers. As a result, several serious riots occurred. In 1723, a large number of planters refused to accept the terms offered by the officials, and destroyed the crops of those who did accept, a condition repeated in the State of Kentucky a few years ago, the only difference being that in the Cuban experience the monopolist was the Government, and in Kentucky it was a corporation. A few years later, in 1734, the Cuban monopoly was sold to Don Jose Tallapiedra who contracted to ship to Spain, annually, three million pounds of tobacco. The contract was afterward given to another, but control was resumed by the Crown, in 1760. Finally, in 1817, cultivation and trade were declared to be free, subject only to taxation.
[Illustration: STREET IN CAMAGUEY]
In time, it became known that the choicest tobacco in the market came from the western end of Cuba, from the Province of Pinar del Rio. It was given a distinct name, _Vuelta Abajo_, a term variously translated but referring to the downward bend of the section of the island in which that grade is produced. Here is grown a tobacco that, thus far, has been impossible of production elsewhere. Many experiments have been tried, in Cuba and in other countries. Soils have been analyzed by chemists; seeds from the _Vuelta Abajo_ have been planted; and localities have been sought where climatic conditions corresponded. No success has been attained. Nor is the crop of that region produced on an extensive scale, that is, the choicer leaf. Not all of the tobacco is of the finest grade, although most of it is of high quality. There are what may be called “patches” of ground, known to the experts, on which the best is produced, for reasons not yet clearly determined. The fact is well known, but the causes are somewhat mysterious. Nor does the plant of this region appear to be susceptible of improvement through any modern, scientific systems of cultivation. The quality deteriorates rather than improves as a result of artificial fertilizers. The people of the region, cultivating this special product through generation after generation, seem to have developed a peculiar instinct for its treatment. It is not impossible that a time may come when scientific soil selection, seed selection, special cultivation, irrigation, and other systems, singly or in combination, will make possible the production of a standardized high-grade leaf in much greater quantity than heretofore, but it seems little probable that anything so produced will excel or even equal the best produced by these expert _vegueros_ by their indefinable but thorough knowledge of the minutest peculiarities of this peculiar plant. Thus far, it has not even been possible to produce it elsewhere in the island. It has been tried outside of the fairly defined area of its production, tried by men who knew it thoroughly within that area, tried from the same seed, from soils that seem quite the same. But all failed. Science may some day definitely locate the reasons, just as it may find the reason for deterioration in the quality of Cuban tobacco eastward from that area. The tobacco of Havana Province is excellent, but inferior to that of Pinar del Rio. The growth of Santa Clara Province is of good quality, but inferior to that of Havana Province, while the tobacco of eastern Cuba is little short of an offence to a discriminating taste.
Tobacco is grown from seeds, planted in specially prepared seed beds. Seeding is begun in the early autumn. When the young plant has attained a proper height, about eight or ten inches, it is removed to, and planted in, the field of its final growth. This preliminary process demands skill, knowledge, and careful attention equal, perhaps, to the requirements of the later stages. Experiments have been made with mechanical appliances, but most of the work is still done by hand, particularly in the area producing the better qualities of leaf. From the time of transplanting, it is watched with the greatest care. A constant battle is waged with weeds and insect life, and water must be brought if the season is too dry. If rains are excessive, as they sometimes are, the crop may be partly or wholly destroyed, as it was in the autumn of 1914. The plant matures in January, after four months of constant watchfulness and labor, in cultivation, pruning, and protection from worms and insects. When the leaves are properly ripened, the stalks are cut in sections, two leaves to a section. These are hung on poles and taken to the drying sheds where they are suspended for three or more weeks. The time of this process, and its results, depend upon moisture, temperature, and treatment. All this is again an operation demanding expert knowledge and constant care. When properly cured, the leaves are packed in bales of about 110 pounds each, and are then ready for the market. Because of the varying conditions under which the leaf is produced, from year to year, it is somewhat difficult to determine with any accuracy the increase in the industry. Broadly, the output appears to have been practically doubled in the last twenty years, a growth attributed to the new economic conditions, to the extension of transportation facilities that have made possible the opening of new areas to cultivation, and to the investment of capital, largely American capital. The exports show, generally, a material increase in sales of leaf tobacco and some decline in sales of cigars. The principal market for the leaf, for about 85 per cent of it, is in the United States where it is made, with more or less honesty, into “all-Havana” cigars. This country, however, takes only about a third of Cuba’s cigar output. The United Kingdom takes about as much of that product as we do, and Germany, in normal times, takes about half as much. The remainder is widely scattered, and genuine imported Havana cigars are obtainable in all countries throughout the world. The total value of Cuba’s yearly tobacco crop is from $40,000,000 to $50,000,000, including domestic consumption and foreign trade.
The story that all Cubans, men and women alike, are habitual and constant smokers, is not and never was true. Whatever it may have been in the past, I am inclined to think that smoking by women is more common in this country than it is in Cuba, particularly among the middle and upper social classes. I have seen many American and English women smoke in public, but never a Cuban woman. Nor is smoking by men without its exceptions. I doubt if the percentage of non-smokers in this country is any greater than it is in the island. There are many Cubans who do smoke, just as there are many Americans, Englishmen, Germans, and Russians. Those who watch on the street for a respectable Cuban woman with a cigar in her mouth, or even a cigarette, will be disappointed. Cuba’s tobacco is known by the name of the region in which it is produced; the _Vuelta Abajo_ of Pinar del Rio; the _Partidos_ of Havana Province; the _Manicaragua_ and the _Remedios_ of Santa Clara; and the _Mayari_ of Oriente. Until quite recently, when American organized capital secured control of many of the leading factories in Cuba, it was possible to identify a cigar, in size and shape, by some commonly employed name, such as _perfectos, conchas, panetelas, imperiales, londres_, etc. The old names still appear, but to them there has been added an almost interminable list in which the old distinction is almost lost. Lost, too, or submerged, are many of the old well-known names of manufacturers, names that were a guarantee of quality. There were also names for different qualities, almost invariably reliable, and for color that was supposed to mark the strength of the cigar. An accomplished smoker may still follow the old system and call for a cigar to his liking, by the use of the old terms and names made familiar by years of experience, but the general run of smokers can only select, from a hundred or more boxes bearing names and words that are unfamiliar or unknown, a cigar that he thinks looks like one that he wants. It may be a “_superba_” an “_imperial_” a “Wilson’s Cabinet,” or a “Havana Kid.”
There is a wide difference in the dates given as the time of the introduction of the coffee plant in Cuba. One writer gives the year 1720, another gives 1748, and still another gives 1769. Others give various years near the end of the century. It was doubtless a minor industry for fifty years or more before that time, but it was given an impetus and began to assume commercial proportions during the closing years of the 18th Century. During that century, the industry was somewhat extensively carried on in the neighboring island of Santo Domingo. In 1790, a revolution broke out in that island, including Haiti, and lasted, with more or less violent activity, for nearly ten years. One result was the emigration to Cuba of a considerable number of refugees, many of them French. They settled in eastern Cuba, where conditions for coffee-growing are highly favorable. Knowing that industry from their experience with it in the adjacent island, these people naturally took it up in their new home. The cultivation of coffee in Cuba, prior to that time, was largely in the neighborhood of Havana, the region then of the greater settlement and development. For the next forty years or so, the industry developed and coffee assumed a considerable importance as an export commodity, in addition to the domestic supply. In 1840, there were more than two thousand coffee plantations, large and small, producing more than seventy million pounds of coffee, the greater part of which was exported. From about the middle of the century, the industry declined, in part because of lower prices due to increase in the world-supply through increased production in other countries, and in part, because of the larger chance of profit in the growing of sugar, an industry then showing an increased importance. Coffee culture has never been entirely suspended in the island, and efforts are made from time to time to revive it, but for many years Cuba has imported most of its coffee supply, the larger share being purchased from Porto Rico. It would be easily possible for Cuba to produce its entire requirement. There are few more beautiful sights in all the world than a field of coffee trees in blossom. One writer has likened it to “millions of snow drops scattered over a sea of green.” They blossom, in Cuba, about the end of February or early in March, the fruit season and picking coming in the autumn. Coffee culture is an industry requiring great care and some knowledge, and the preparation of the berry for the market involves no less of care and knowledge. The quality of the Cuban berry is of the best. It is the misfortune of the people of the United States that very few of them really know anything about coffee and its qualities, notwithstanding the fact that they consume about a billion pounds a year, all except a small percentage of it being coffee of really inferior quality. But coffee, like cigars, pickles, or music, is largely a matter of individual preference.
Cuba produces a variety of vegetables, chiefly for domestic consumption, and many fruits, some of which are exported. There is also a limited production of grains. Among the tubers produced are sweet potatoes, white potatoes, yams, the arum and the yucca. From the latter is made starch and the cassava bread. The legumes are represented by varieties of beans and peas. The most extensively used food of the island people is rice, only a little of which is locally grown. The imports are valued at five or six million dollars yearly. Corn is grown in some quantity, but nearly two million dollars worth is imported yearly from the United States. There are fruits of many kinds. The banana is the most important of the group, and is grown throughout the island. It appears on the table of all, rich and poor, sometimes _au naturel_ but more frequently cooked. There are many varieties, some of which are exported while others are practically unknown here. The Cuban mango is not of the best, but they are locally consumed by the million. Only a few of the best are produced and those command a fancy price even when they are obtainable. The aguacate, or alligator pear, is produced in abundance. Cocoanuts are a product largely of the eastern end of the island, although produced in fair supply elsewhere. The trees are victims of a disastrous bud disease that has attacked them in recent years causing heavy loss to growers.
[Illustration: PALM-THATCHED ROOFS A PEASANT’S HOME]
Since the American occupation, considerable attention has been given, mainly by Americans, to the production of oranges, grape-fruit, and pineapples, in which a considerable industry has been developed. There are several varieties. The guava of Cuba makes a jelly that is superior to that produced from the fruit in any other land of my experience. If there is a better guava jelly produced anywhere, I should be pleased to sample it, more pleased to obtain a supply. But there is a difference in the product even there, just as there is a difference in currant or grape jelly produced here. It depends a good deal on the maker. Some of the best of my experience is made in the neighborhood of Santa Clara, but I have tried no Cuban _jalea de guayaba_ that was not better than any I have had in the Far East or elsewhere. The _guanabana_ is eaten in its natural state, but serves its best purpose as a flavor for ices or cooling drinks. There are a number of others, like the _anon_, the _zapote_, the _granadilla_, the _mamey_, etc., with which visitors may experiment or not as they see fit. Some like some of them and others like none of them. An excellent grade of cacao, the basis of chocolate and cocoa, is produced in somewhat limited quantity. The industry could easily be extended. In fact, there are many soil products not now grown in the island but which might be grown there, and many others now produced on small scale that could be produced in important quantities. That they are not now so produced is due to lack of both labor and capital. The industries of Cuba are, and always have been, specialized. Sugar, tobacco, and at a time coffee, have absorbed the capital and have afforded occupation for the greater number of the island people. The lack of transportation facilities in earlier years, and the system of land tenure, have made difficult if not impossible the establishment of any large number of independent small farmers. The day laborers in the tobacco fields and on sugar plantations have been unable to save enough money to buy a little farm and equip it even if the land could be purchased at all. Yet only a very small percentage of the area is actually under cultivation. Cuba now imports nearly $40,000,000 worth of alimentary substances, altogether too much for a country of its productive possibilities. It is true that a part of this, such as wheat flour for instance, cannot be produced on the island successfully, and that other commodities, such as rice, hog products, and some other articles, can be imported more cheaply than they can be produced locally. But the imports of foodstuffs are undoubtedly excessive, although there are good reasons for the present situation. It is a matter that will find adjustment in time.
The island has mineral resources of considerable value, although the number of products is limited. The Spanish discoverers did not find the precious metals for which they were seeking, and while gold has since been found, it has never appeared in quantity sufficient to warrant its exploitation. Silver discoveries have been reported, but not in quantity to pay for its extraction. Nothing is ever certain in those industries, but it is quite safe to assume that Cuba is not a land of precious metals. Copper was discovered in eastern Cuba as early as about the year 1530, and the mines near Santiago were operated as a Government monopoly for some two hundred years, when they were abandoned. They were idle for about a hundred years when, in 1830, an English company with a capital of $2,400,000 reopened them. It is officially reported that in the next forty years copper of a value of more than $50,000,000 was extracted and shipped. During that time, the mines were among the most notable in the world. In the meantime, ownership was transferred to a Spanish corporation organized in Havana. This concern became involved in litigation with the railway concerning freight charges, and this experience was followed by the Ten Years’ War, in the early course of which the plant was destroyed and the mines flooded. In 1902, an American company was organized. It acquired practically all the copper property in the Cobre field and began operations on an extensive and expensive scale. A huge sum was spent in pumping thousands of tons of water from a depth of hundreds of feet, in new equipment for the mining operations, and in the construction of a smelter. The best that can be done is to hope that the investors will some day get their money back. Without any doubt, there is a large amount of copper there, and more in other parts of Oriente. So is there copper in Camaguey, Santa Clara, and Matanzas provinces. There are holes in the ground near the city of Camaguey that indicate profitable operations in earlier years. The metal is spread over a wide area in Pinar del Rio, and venturous spirits have spent many good Spanish pesos and still better American dollars in efforts to locate deposits big enough to pay for its excavation. Some of that class are at it even now, and one concern is reported as doing a profitable business.
The bitumens are represented in the island by asphalt, a low-grade coal, and seepages of petroleum. At least, several writers tell of coal in the vicinity of Havana, but the substance is probably only a particularly hard asphaltum. The only real coal property of which I have any knowledge is a quite recent discovery. The story was told me by the man whose money was sought to develop it. It was, by the way, an anthracite property. In response to an urgent invitation from a presumably reliable acquaintance, my friend took his car and journeyed westward into Pinar del Rio, through a charming country that he and I have many times enjoyed together. He picked up his coal-discovering friend in the city of Pinar del Rio, and proceeded into the country to inspect the coal-vein. At a number of points immediately alongside the highway, his companion alighted to scrape away a little of the surface of the earth and to return with a little lump of really high-grade anthracite. Such a substance had no proper business there, did not belong there geologically or otherwise. The explanation soon dawned upon my friend. They were following the line of an abandoned narrow-gauge railway, abandoned twenty years ago, along which had been dumped, at intervals, little piles of perfectly good anthracite, imported from Pennsylvania, for use by the portable engine used in the construction of the road. My friend declares that he is entirely ready at any time to swear that there are deposits of anthracite in Cuba. A very good quality of asphalt is obtained in different parts of the island, and considerable quantities have been shipped to the United States. Signs of petroleum deposits have been strong enough to induce investigation and expenditure. An American company is now at work drilling in Matanzas Province. The most extensive and promising mineral industry is iron, especially in eastern Cuba. Millions of tons of ore have been taken from the mountains along the shore between Santiago and Guantanamo, and the supply appears to be inexhaustible. The product is shipped to the United States, to a value of several millions of dollars yearly. A few years ago, other and apparently more extensive deposits were discovered in the northern section of Oriente, The field bought by the Pennsylvania Steel Company is estimated to contain 600,000,000 tons of ore. The Bethlehem Steel Company is the owner of another vast tract. The quality of these ores is excellent. In Oriente Province also are deposits of manganese of which considerable shipments have been made.
It is not possible in so brief a survey of Cuba’s resources and industries to include all its present activities, to say nothing of its future possibilities. At the present time, the island is practically an extensive but only partly cultivated farm, producing mainly sugar and tobacco, with fruits and vegetables as a side line. The metal deposits supplement this, with promise of becoming increasingly valuable. The forest resources, commercially, are not great, although there are, and will continue to be, sales of mahogany and other fine hardwoods. Local manufacturing is on a comparatively limited scale. All cities and many towns have their artisans, the bakers, tailors, shoemakers, carpenters, and others. Cigar making is, of course, classed as a manufacturing enterprise, and so, for census purposes, is the conversion of the juice of the sugar-cane into sugar. A number of cities have breweries, ice factories, match factories, soap works, and other establishments large or small. All these, however, are incidental to the great industries of the soil, and the greater part of Cuba’s requirements in the line of mill and factory products is imported. While little is done in the shipment of cattle or beef, Cuba is a natural cattle country. Water and nutritious grasses are abundant, and there are vast areas, now idle, that might well be utilized for stock-raising. There are, of course, just as there are elsewhere, various difficulties to be met, but they are met and overcome. There are insects and diseases, but these are controlled by properly applied scientific methods. There is open feeding throughout the entire year, so there is no need of barns or hay. The local cattle industry makes possible the shipment of some $2,500,000 worth of hides and skins annually. Other lines of industry worthy of mention, but not possible of detailed description here, include sponges, tortoise shell, honey, wax, molasses, and henequen or sisal. All these represent their individual thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars, and their employment of scores or hundreds of wage-earners. Those who start for Cuba with a notion that the Cubans are an idle and lazy people, will do well to revise that notion. There is not the hustle that may be seen further north, but the results of Cuban activity, measured in dollars or in tons, fairly dispute the notion of any national indolence. When two and a half million people produce what is produced in Cuba, somebody has to work.
XIV
_POLITICS, GOVERNMENT, AND COMMERCE_
The British colonists in America were in large measure self-governing. This is notably true in their local affairs. The Spanish colonists were governed almost absolutely by the mother-country. A United States official publication reports that “all government control centred in the Council of the Indies and the King, and local self government, which was developed at an early stage in the English colonies, became practically impossible in the Spanish colonies, no matter to what extent it may have existed in theory. Special regulations, decrees, etc., modifying the application of the laws to the colonies or promulgating new laws were frequent, and their compilation in 1680 was published as Law of the Indies. This and the _Siete Partidas_, on which they were largely based, comprised the code under which the Spanish-American colonies were governed.” There was a paper provision, during the greater part of the time, for a municipal electorate, the franchise being limited to a few of the largest tax-payers. In its practical operation, the system was nullified by the power vested in the appointed ruler. It was a highly effective centralized organization in which no man held office, high or low, who was not a mere instrument in the hands of the Governor-General. Under such an institution the Cubans had, of course, absolutely no experience in self-government. The rulers made laws and the people obeyed them; they imposed taxes and spent the money as they saw fit; many of them enriched themselves and their personally appointed official household throughout the island, at the expense of the tax-payers.
A competent observer has noted that such terms as “meeting,” “mass-meeting,” “self-government,” and “home-rule,” had no equivalent in the Spanish language. The first of these terms, distorted into “_mitin_,” is now in common use, and its origin is obvious. Of theories, ideals, and intellectual conceptions, there was an abundance, but government based on beautiful dreams does not succeed in this practical world. Denied opportunity for free discussion of practical methods, the Cubans discussed theories in lyceums. Under the military government of the United States, from January 1, 1899, to May 20, 1902, there was freedom of speech and freedom of organization. The Cubans began to hold “_mitins_,” but visions and beautiful theories characterized the addresses. Prior to the Ten Years’ War (1868-1878), there were organizations more or less political in their nature, but the authorities were alert in preventing discussions of too practical a character. In 1865, a number of influential Cubans organized what has been somewhat inappropriately termed a “national party.” It was not at all a party in our use of that term. Its purpose was to suggest and urge administrative and economic changes from the Cuban point of view. The suggestions were ignored and, a few years later, revolution was adopted as a means of emphasizing their importance. The result of the Ten Years’ War was an assortment of pledges of greater political and economic freedom. Much was promised but little if anything was really granted. There was, however, a relaxation of the earlier absolutism, and under that there appeared a semblance of party organization, in the form of a Liberal party and a Union Constitutional party. There was no special difference in what might be called their platforms. Both focussed, in a somewhat general way, the political aspirations and the economic desires of the Cuban people, much the same aspirations and desires that had been manifested by complaint, protest, and occasional outbreak, for fifty years. National independence had no place in either. That came later, when an army in the field declared that if Spain would not grant independence, the island would be made so worthless a possession that Spain could not afford to hold it. A few years after their organization, the Liberals became the Cuban party, and so remained, and the Union Constitutionals became the Spanish party, the party of the immediate administration. Later on, the Liberal party became the Autonomist party, but Spain’s concession of the demands of that group came too late, forced, not by the Autonomists but by the party of the Revolution that swept the island with fire and sword from Oriente to Pinar del Rio. The Autonomists sought what their name indicates; the Revolutionists demanded and secured national independence.
Shortly before the final dispersion of the Army of the Revolution, there was organized a body with the imposing title of _La Asamblea de Representantes del Ejercito Cubano_, or the Assembly of Representatives of the Cuban Army. It was composed of leaders of the different military divisions of that army, and included, as I recall it, thirty-one members. This group made no little trouble in the early days of the American occupation. It gathered in Havana, held meetings, declared itself the duly chosen and representative agent of the Cuban people, and demanded recognition as such by the American authorities. Some of its members even asserted that it constituted a _de facto_ government, and held that the Americans should turn the whole affair over to them and promptly sail away. But their recognition was flatly refused by the authorities. At the time, I supported the authorities in this refusal, but afterward I felt less sure of the wisdom of the course. As a recognized body, it might have been useful; rejected, it made no little trouble. Transfer of control to its hands was quite out of the question, but recognition and co-operation might have proved helpful. That the body had a considerable representative quality, there is no doubt. Later, I found many of its members as members of the Constitutional Convention, and, still later, many of them have served in high official positions, as governors of provinces, members of Congress, in cabinet and in diplomatic positions. I am inclined to regard the group broadly, as the origin of the present much divided Liberal party that has, from the beginning of definite party organization, included a considerable numerical majority of the Cuban voters. In the first national election, held December 31, 1901, this group, the military group, appeared as the National party, supporting Tomas Estrada y Palma as its candidate. Its opponent was called the Republican party. Realizing its overwhelming defeat, the latter withdrew on the day of the election, alleging all manner of fraud and unfairness on the part of the Nationals. It is useless to follow in detail the history of Cuba’s political parties since that time. In the election of 1905, the former National party appeared as the Liberal party, supporting Jose Miguel Gomez, while its opponents appeared as the Moderate party, supporting Estrada Palma who, first elected on what he declared to be a non-partisan basis, had definitely affiliated himself with the so-called Moderates. The election was a game of political crookedness on both sides, and the Liberals withdrew on election day. The result was the revolution of 1906. The Liberals split into factions, not yet harmonized, and the Moderate party became the Conservative party. By the fusion of some of the Liberal groups, that party carried the election of 1908, held under American auspices. A renewal of internal disorders, a quarrel among leaders, and much discontent with their administrative methods, resulted in the defeat of the Liberals in the campaign of 1912 and in the election of General Mario Menocal, the head of the Conservative ticket, and the present incumbent.
A fair presentation of political conditions in Cuba is exceedingly difficult, or rather it is difficult so to present them that they will be fairly understood. I have always regarded the establishment of the Cuban Republic in 1902 as premature, though probably unavoidable. A few years of experience with an autonomous government under American auspices, civil and not military, as a prologue to full independence, might have been the wiser course, but such a plan seemed impossible. The Cubans in the field had forced from Spain concessions that were satisfactory to many. Whether they could have forced more than that, without the physical assistance given by the United States, is perhaps doubtful. The matter might have been determined by the grant of the belligerent rights for which they repeatedly appealed to the United States. At no time in the entire experience did they ask for intervention. That came as the result of a combination of American wrath and American sympathy, and more in the interest of the United States than because of concern for the Cubans. But, their victory won and Spain expelled, the triumphant Cubans naturally desired immediate enjoyment of the fruits of victory. They desired to exercise the independence for which they had fought. Many protests and not a few threats of trouble attended even the brief period of American occupation. There was, moreover, an acute political issue in the United States. The peace and order declared as the purpose of American intervention had been established. The amendment to the Joint Resolution of April 20, 1898, disclaimed “any disposition or intention to exercise sovereignty, jurisdiction, or control over said Island except for the pacification thereof,” etc. The island was pacified. The amendment asserted, further, the determination of the United States, pacification having been accomplished, “to leave the government and control of the island to its people.” There was no pledge of any prolonged course of education in principles and methods of self-government. Nor did such education play any appreciable part in the experience of the American military government. The work of the interventors had been done in accordance with the specifications, and the Cubans were increasingly restless under a control that many of them, with no little reason, declared to be as autocratic as any ever exercised by Spain. Transfer and departure seemed to be the politic if not the only course, and we transferred and departed.
That these people, entirely without experience or training in self-government, should make mistakes was quite as inevitable as it is that a child in learning to walk will tumble down and bump its little nose. In addition to the inevitable mistakes, there have been occasional instances of deplorable misconduct on the part of individuals and of political parties. For neither mistakes nor misconduct can we criticize or condemn them without a similar criticism or condemnation of various experiences in our own history. We should, at least, regard them with charity. There are, moreover, incidents in the two experiences of American control of the island that, at least, border on the unwise and the discreditable. The only issue yet developed in Cuba is between good government and bad politics. The first President started admirably along the line of the former, and ended in a wretched tangle of the latter, though not at all by his own choice or direction. Official pre-eminence and a “government job” make quite the same appeal to the Cubans that they do to many thousands of Americans. So do raids on the national treasury, and profitable concessions. We see these motes in Cuban eyes somewhat more clearly than we see the beams in our own eyes. A necessarily slow process of political education is going on among the people, but in the meantime the situation has afforded opportunity for exploitation by an assortment of self-constituted political leaders who have adopted politics as a profession and a means of livelihood. Cuba’s gravest danger lies in the political domination of men in this class. The present President, General Mario Menocal, is not in that group. The office sought him; he did not seek the office. Some of these self-constituted leaders have displayed a notable aptitude for political organization, and it is largely by means of the many little local organizations that the Cuban political game is played. Although, I believe, somewhat less now than formerly, the little groups follow and support individual leaders rather than parties or principles. Parties and their minor divisions are known by the names of their leaders. Thus, while both men are nominally of the same party, the Liberal, the adherents of Jose Miguel Gomez, are known as Miguelistas, and the adherents of Alfredo Zayas are known as Zayistas. Were either to announce himself as a Conservative, or to start a new party and call it Reformist or Progressive or any other title, he could count on being followed by most of those who supported him as a Liberal. This is a condition that will, in time, correct itself. What the Cuban really wants is what all people want, an orderly, honest, and economical government, under which he may live in peace and quiet, enjoying the fruits of his labor without paying an undue share of the fruits to maintain his government. For that the Cuban people took up arms against Spain. For a time they may be blinded by the idea of mere political independence, but to that same issue they will yet return by the route of the ballot-box. The game of politics for individual preferment, or for personal profit, cannot long be successfully played in Cuba, if I have rightly interpreted Cuban character and Cuban characteristics.
“We, the delegates of the people of Cuba, having met in constitutional convention for the purpose of preparing and adopting the fundamental law of their organization as an independent and sovereign people, establishing a government capable of fulfilling its international obligations, maintaining public peace, ensuring liberty, justice, and promoting the general welfare, do hereby agree upon and adopt the following constitution, invoking the protection of the Almighty. Article I. The people of Cuba are hereby constituted a sovereign and independent State and adopt a republican form of government.” Thus opens the Constitution of the Republic of Cuba.
I recall an intensely dramatic moment connected with the closing phrase of the preamble. I have used a translation published by a distinguished Cuban. That phrase, in the original, is “_invocando el favor de Dios_,” perhaps more exactly translated as “invoking the favor (or blessing) of God.” When the Constitution had been drafted and broadly approved, it was submitted to the convention for suggestion of minor changes in verbiage. One of the oldest and most distinguished members of the body proposed that this phrase be left out. Another member, distinguished for his power as an orator and for his cynicism, in a speech of considerable length set forth his opinion that it made little difference whether it was included or excluded. There was no benefit in its inclusion, and no advantage in excluding it. It would hurt none and might please some to have it left in. Immediately across the semi-circle of desks, and facing these two speakers, sat Senor Pedro Llorente, a man of small stature, long, snow-white hair and beard, and a nervous and alert manner. At times, his nervous energy made him almost grotesque. At times, his absorbed earnestness made him, despite his stature, a figure of commanding dignity. Through the preceding addresses he waited with evident impatience. Obtaining recognition from the chairman, he rose and stood with upraised hand his voice tremulous with emotion, to protest against the proposed measure, declaring “as one not far from the close of life, that the body there assembled did not represent an atheistic people.” The motion to strike out was lost, and the invocation remains.
The result of the deliberations of the Constitutional Convention is a highly creditable instrument. It contains a well-devised Bill of Rights, and makes all necessary provision for governmental organization and conduct. One feature, however, seems open to criticism. In their desire to avoid that form of centralized control, of which they had somewhat too much under Spanish power, the new institution provides, perhaps, for too much local government, for a too extensive provincial and municipal system. It has already fallen down in some respects, and it has become necessary to centralize certain functions, quite as it has become desirable in several of our own matters. Cuba has, perhaps, an undue overload of officialdom, somewhat too many public officers, and quite too many people on its pay-rolls. The feature of Cuba’s Constitution that is of greatest interest and importance to the United States is what is known as the Platt Amendment. The provision for a Constitutional Convention in Cuba was made in what was known as Civil Order No. 301, issued by the Military Governor, on July 25, 1900. It provided for an election of delegates to meet in Havana on the first Monday in November, following. The convention was to frame and adopt a Constitution and “as a part thereof, to provide for and agree with the Government of the United States upon the relations to exist between that Government and the Government of Cuba,” etc. Against this, the Cubans protested vigorously. The United States had declared that “Cuba is and of right ought to be free and independent.” The Cubans held, very properly, that definition of international relations had no fitting place in a Constitution “as a part thereof.” Their point was recognized and, under date of November 5, Civil Order No. 310 was modified by Civil Order No. 455. That was issued to the delegates at the time of their assembly. It declared as follows: “It will be your duty, first, to frame and adopt a Constitution for Cuba, and, when that has been done, to formulate what, in your opinion, ought to be the relations between Cuba and the United States.” Taking this as their programme, the delegates proceeded to draft a Constitution, leaving the matter of “relations” in abeyance for consideration at the proper time. Yet, before its work was done, the Convention was savagely criticized in the United States for its failure to include in the Constitution what it had been authorized, and virtually instructed, to leave out. The Constitution was completed on February 11, 1901, and was duly signed by the delegates, on February 21. A committee was appointed, on February 11, to prepare and submit plans and proposals regarding the matter of “relations.” Prior to that, however, the matter had been frequently but informally discussed by the delegates. Suggestions had been made in the local press, and individual members of the Convention had expressed their views with considerable freedom. Had the United States kept its hands off at that time, a serious and critical situation, as well as a sense of injustice that has not yet entirely died out, would have been averted.
Before the Cubans had time to put their “opinion of what ought to be the relations” between the two countries into definite form, there was presented to them, in a manner as needless as it was tactless, a statement of what the American authorities thought those relations should be. The Cubans, who were faithfully observing their earlier instructions, were deeply offended by this interference, and by the way in which the interference came. The measures known as the Platt Amendment was submitted to the United States Senate, as an amendment to the Army Appropriation bill, on February 25, 1901 The Senate passed the bill, and the House concurred A storm of indignant protest swept over the island The Cubans believed, and not without reason, that the instrument abridged the independence of which they had been assured by those who now sought to limit that independence. Public opinion in the United States was divided. Some approved and some denounced the proceeding in bitter terms. The division was not at all on party lines. The situation in Cuba was entirely changed. Instead of formulating an opinion in accordance with their earlier instructions, the members of the Convention were confronted by a choice of what they then regarded as evils, acceptance of unacceptable terms or an indefinite continuance of a military government then no less unacceptable. A commission was sent to Washington to urge changes and modifications. It was given dinners, lunches, and receptions, but nothing more. At last the Cubans shrugged their shoulders. The desire for an immediate withdrawal of American authority, and for Cuban assumption of the reins of government, outweighed the objection to the terms imposed. A Cuban leader said: “There is no use in objecting to the inevitable. It is either annexation or a Republic with the Amendment. I prefer the latter.” After four months of stubborn opposition, the Cubans yielded, by a vote of sixteen to eleven, with four absentees.
In many ways, the Cuban Government is like our own. The President and Vice-President are elected, through an electoral college, for a term of four years. A “third term” is specifically prohibited by the Constitution. Senators, four from each Province, are chosen, for a term of eight years, by an electoral board. Elections for one half of the body occur every four years. The House is chosen, by direct vote, for terms of four years, one half being elected every two years. The Cabinet, selected and appointed by the President, consists of eight Secretaries of Departments as follows: Agriculture, Commerce, and Labor; State; Government; Treasury (_Hacienda_); Public Instruction; Justice; Public Works; and Health and Charities. There is a Supreme Court, and there are the usual minor courts. The Constitution also makes provision for the organization and the powers of the Provincial and Municipal Governments. To the Constitution, the Platt Amendment is attached as an appendix, by treaty arrangement. As far as governmental system is concerned, Cuba is fairly well equipped; a possible source of danger is its over-equipment. Its laws permit, rather than require, an overburden of officials, high and low. But Cuba’s governmental problem is essentially one of administration. Its particular obstacle in that department is professional politics.
The whole situation in Cuba is somewhat peculiar. The business of the island, that is, the commercial business, the purchase and sale of merchandise wholesale and retail, is almost entirely in the hands of Spaniards. The Cuban youths seldom become clerks in stores. Most of the so-called “_dependientes_” come out as boys from Spain. It is an old established system. These lads, almost invariably hard workers, usually eat and sleep in the place of their employment. The wage is small but board and lodging, such as the latter is, are furnished. They are well fed, and the whole system is quite paternal. For their recreation, education, and care in case of illness, there are organizations, half club and half mutual protective association, to which practically all belong. The fee is small and the benefits many. Some of these are based on a regional plan, that is, the _Centro de Asturianos_ is composed of those who come from the Spanish province of Asturia, and those from other regions have their societies. There is also a general society of “_dependientes_.” Some of these groups are rich, with large membership including not only the clerks of today but those of the last thirty or forty years, men who by diligence and thrift have risen to the top in Cuba’s commercial life. Most of Cuba’s business men continue their membership in these organizations, and many contribute liberally toward their maintenance.
This system more or less effectively bars Cuban youths from commercial life. Nor does commercial life seem attractive to more than a very limited number. This leaves to them, practically, only three lines of possible activity, the ownership and operation of a plantation, a profession, or manual labor. The greater number there, as elsewhere, are laborers, either on some little bit of ground they call their own or rent from its owner, or they are employed by the proprietors of the larger estates. Such proprietorship is, of course, open to only a few. The problem, which is both social and political, appears in a class that cannot or will not engage in manual labor, the well-educated or fairly-educated sons of men of fair income and a social position. Many of these take some professional course. But there is not room for so many in so small a country, and the professions are greatly overcrowded. The surplus either loafs and lives by its wits or at the expense of the family, or turns to the Government for a “job.” It constitutes a considerable element on which the aspiring professional politician can draw for support. Having such “jobs,” it constitutes a heavy burden on the tax-payers; deprived of its places on the Government pay-roll, it becomes a social and political menace. If a Liberal administration throws them out of their comfortable posts, they become noisy and perhaps violent Conservatives; if discharged by an economical Conservative administration, they become no less noisy and no less potentially violent Liberals. But we may not criticize. The American control that followed the insurrection of 1906 set no example in administrative economy for the Cubans to follow.
The productive industries of the island have already been reviewed in other chapters. The development of Cuba’s commerce since the withdrawal of Spain, and the substitution of a modern fiscal policy for an antiquated and indefensible system, has been notable. It is, however, a mistake to contrast the present condition with the condition existing at the time of the American occupation, in 1899. The exact accuracy of the record is questionable, but the returns for the year 1894, the year preceding the revolution, show the total imports of the island as $77,000,000, and the total exports as $99,000,000. The probability is that a proper valuation would show a considerable advance in the value of the imports. The statement of export values may be accepted. It may be assumed that had there been no disorder, the trade of the island, by natural growth, would have reached $90,000,000 for imports and $120,000,000, for exports, in 1900. That may be regarded as a fair normal. As it was, the imports of that year were $72,000,000, and the exports, by reason of the general wreck of the sugar business, were only $45,000,000. With peace and order fairly assured, recovery came quickly. The exports of 1905, at $99,000,000, equalled those of 1894, while the imports materially exceeded those of the earlier year. In 1913, the exports reached $165,207,000, and the imports $132,290,000. This growth of Cuba’s commerce and industry is due mainly to the economic requirements of the American people. We need Cuba’s sugar and we want its tobacco. These two commodities represent about 90 per cent, of the total exports of the island. We buy nearly all of its sugar, under normal conditions, and about 60 per cent, of its tobacco and cigars. On the basis of the total commerce of the island, the records of recent years show this country as the source of supply for about 53 per cent, of Cuba’s total imports, and as the market for about 83 per cent, of its exports. A comparison of the years 1903 and 1913 shows a gain of about $87,000,000 in Cuba’s total exports. Of this, about $75,000,000 is represented by sugar. The crop of 1894 a little exceeded a million tons. Such a quantity was not again produced until 1903. With yearly variations, due to weather conditions, later years show an enormous and unprecedented increase. The crops of 1913 and 1914 were, approximately, 2,500,000 tons each. The tobacco industry shows only a modest gain. The average value of the exports of that commodity has risen, in ten years, from about $25,000,000 to about $30,000,000. The increase in the industry appears largely in the shipment of leaf tobacco. The cigar business shows practically no change, in that time, as far as values are concerned. This resume affords a fair idea of Cuba’s trade expansion under the conditions established through the change in government. That event opened new and larger doors of opportunity, and the Cubans and others have been prompt in taking advantage of them. Toward the great increase shown, two forces have operated effectively. One is the treaty by which the provisions of the so-called Platt Amendment to the Cuban Constitution are made permanently effective. The other is the reciprocity treaty of 1903.
By the operation of the former of these instruments the United States virtually underwrites the political stability and the financial responsibility of the Cuban Government. That Government cannot borrow any important sums without the consent of the United States, and it has agreed that this country “may exercise the right to intervene for the preservation of Cuban independence, the maintenance of a government adequate for the protection of life, property, and individual liberty, and for discharging the obligations with respect to Cuba imposed by the Treaty of Paris on the United States.” This assumption of responsibility by the United States inspired confidence on the part of capital, and large sums have been invested in Cuban bonds, and in numerous public and private enterprises. Railways and trolley lines have been built and many other works of public utility have been undertaken. The activities of old sugar plantations have been extended under improved conditions, and many new estates with costly modern equipment have been created. The cultivation of large areas, previously lying waste and idle, afforded both directly and indirectly employment for an increased population, as did the numerous public works. The other force, perhaps no less effective, appears in the reciprocity treaty of 1903. This gave to Cuba’s most important crop a large though by no means absolute control of the constantly increasing sugar market of the United States, as far as competition from other foreign countries was concerned. The sugar industry of the island may be said to have been restored to its normal proportions in 1903. Our imports for the five-year period 1904-1908 averaged 1,200,000 tons a year. For the five-year period 1910-1914 they averaged 1,720,000 tons. In 1914, they were 2,200,000 tons as compared with 1,260,000 tons in 1904. It is doubtful if the treaty had any appreciable influence on the exports of Cuban tobacco to this country. We buy Cuba’s special tobacco irrespective of a custom-house advantage that affects the box price only a little, and the price of a single cigar probably not at all. On the other side of the account, that of our sales to Cuba, there also appears a large increase since the application of the reciprocity treaty. Using the figures showing exports from the United States to Cuba, instead of Cuba’s records showing imports from this country, it appears that our sales to the island in the fiscal year 1903, immediately preceding the operation of the treaty, amounted to $21,761,638. In the fiscal year 1913 they were $70,581,000, and in 1914 were $68,884,000.
Not all of this quite remarkable gain may properly be credited to the influence of the reciprocity treaty. The purchases of the island are determined, broadly, by its sales. As the latter increase, so do the former. Almost invariably, a year of large export sales is followed by a year of heavy import purchases. The fact that our imports from Cuba are double our sales to Cuba, in the total of a period of years, has given rise to some foolish criticism of the Cubans on the ground that, we buying so heavily from them, they should purchase from us a much larger percentage of their import requirements. No such obligation is held to exist in regard to our trade with other lands, and it should have no place in any consideration of our trade with Cuba. There are many markets, like Brazil, British India, Japan, China, Mexico, and Egypt, in which our purchases exceed our sales. There are more, like the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, Central America, and numerous others, in which our sales considerably or greatly exceed our purchases. We do not buy from them simply because they buy from us. We buy what we need or want in that market in which we can buy to the greatest advantage. The Cuban merchants, who are nearly all Spaniards, do the same. The notion held by some that, because of our service to Cuba in the time of her struggle for national life, the Cubans should buy from us is both foolish and altogether unworthy. Any notion of Cuba’s obligation to pay us for what we may have done for her should be promptly dismissed and forgotten. There are commodities, such as lumber, pork products, coal, wheat flour, and mineral oil produces, that Cuba can buy in our markets on terms better than those obtainable elsewhere. Other commodities, such as textiles, leather goods, sugar mill equipment, railway equipment, drugs, chemicals, and much else, must be sold by American dealers in sharp competition with the merchants of other countries, with such assistance as may be afforded by the reciprocity treaty. That instrument gives us a custom-house advantage of 20, 25, 30, and 40 per cent, in the tariff rates. It is enough in some cases to give us a fair equality with European sellers, and in a few cases to give us a narrow margin of advantage over them. It does not give us enough to compel Cuban buyers to trade with us because of lower delivered prices.
Cuba’s economic future can be safely predicted on the basis of its past. The pace of its development will depend mainly upon a further influx of capital and an increase in its working population. Its political future is less certain. There is ample ground for both hope and belief that the little clouds that hang on the political horizon will be dissipated, that there will come, year by year, a sane adjustment to the new institutions. But full assurance of peace and order will come only when the people of the island, whether planters or peasants, see clearly the difference between a government conducted in their interest and a government conducted by Cubans along Spanish lines.
INDEX
A
Adams, President John, 127
Angulo, Governor de, 59
Animals, wild, 50
Asphalt, 232, 233
Autonomy, 143, 178
B
Babeque, 6, 7
Bacon, Hon. Robert, 160
Bacon’s Rebellion, 144
Ballou, M.M., 31, 32, 71
Banes, 113
Baracoa, 12, 91, 100, 114
Batabano, 12, 116
Baths, 52
Bellamar, Caves of, 42,110
Belligerent rights, 136, 140, 157, 158, 181 _Bermuda_, 189, 197
Bertram, Luis, 14
Betancourt, Salvador Cisneros, 174
Black Eagle conspiracy, 147
_Black Warrior_, 131
Blanco, General Ramon, 178
Bolivia, 126
Bolivar, Simon, 124, 185
Bonds, Cuban, 175
Boston sugar plantation, 113
Buchanan, President, 130
C
Cabana, 57, 60
Cabinet, Cuban, 250
Cabrera, Raimundo, 135
Cadiz, 20
Caibarien, 102
Callahan, James M., 125, 139, 152
Camaguey, city, 105, 110, 111
Camaguey, province, 40, 109
Cardenas, 101
Casa de Beneficencia, 24
Castillo del Principe, 57, 60, 71, 83 Cathay, 3
Cathedral, Havana, 63
Cattle, 17, 235
Cauto river, 43
Caves, 42
Cemetery, Colon, 83
Census Reports, United States, 27, 35, 44, 144, 236 Cespedes, Carlos Manuel,154, 155
Channing, Edward, 142, 143
Chaparra sugar plantation, 113
Ciego de Avila, 106
Cienaga de Zapata, 43, 51
Cienfuegos, 102
Cigars, 224, 225, 254
Cipango, 2, 5
Clerks’ Associations, 251
Climate, 45 et seq.
Coal, 232
Coffee, 23, 36, 226, et seq.
Colonies, American in Cuba, 12, 120 Colonies, British, 19, 236
Colonies, Spanish, 19, 21, 123, 126 Columbia, 124, 145
Columbus, Christopher
Death and remains, 63
Describes Cuba, 3, 4, 7
Discovers Cuba, 2
Extract from journal, 2
Letter to Sanchez, 3
Memorial to, 64
Mistaken belief, 2, 3, 5, 8
Report to Spanish sovereigns, 7
Second expedition, 7
Commerce, 21, 22, 35, 36, 156, 253, 254, 257 _Commodore_, 193, 195, 197
Constitutional Convention, 247
Constitution, Cuban, 154, 245, 246
Constitution, Spanish, 29, 145, 159 Copper, 231, 232
Cordoba, de, 12
Cortes, Hernan, 13, 58
Cortes, Spanish, 29, 176
Crittenden, Col., 150
Cuba:
Aborigines, 14, 15.
Advice to visitors, 55.
American attitude toward, 135, 137, 140. Annexation proposed, 125 et seq.
Animals, wild, 49.
Area, 37.
Climate and temperature, 45 et seq. Colonized, 12.
Commerce, 21, 22, 35, 36, 156, 253, 254, 257. Conquest by Velasquez, II.
Described by Columbus, 3, 4, 7.
Description, general, 37 et seq.
Discovered, 2.
Expeditions from, 13, 14.
Flora, 48.
Forests, 49.
Future of, 258.
Insects, 51.
Intervention by United States, 25, 160, 182, 242. Mineral springs, 52.
Monopolies in, 20, 144, 220, 231.
Monroe Doctrine, 127.
Nineteenth Century, 142.
Population, 17, 23, 34.
Railways, 89, 91.
Relations with United States, 122 et seq., 247, 248. Republic of, 182.
Revolutions, 141 et seq.
Roads, 87, 95, 96.
Self-government, 243.
Slavery in, 15, 16, 23, 125, 145, 155. Spanish Governors, 24, 32.
Spanish policy in, 17, 19 et seq. 24, 31. Trade restrictions, 20, 21, 24, 25, 30. Taxation, Spanish, 24, 27, 28, 30.
Villages, 85, 93, 94, 100
_Cuba and the Intervention_, 154, 164 Cushing, Caleb, 138
Custom house, 62
D
_Dauntless_, 193, 194, 197, 199, 200
Delicias sugar plantation, 113
Dexter, Lord Timothy, 216
Domestic life, 80
E
EARTHQUAKES, 53
Elections, 240, 250
Elson, Henry William, 186
England, 19, 128, 130, 139, 145
Everett, Alexander H., 130
F
FILIBUSTERING expeditions, 148 et seq., 184 et seq. Firemen, 83
Fish, Secretary, 157
Flora, 48
Florida, 13
Forests, 48, 49
Fortifications, 59, 60
France, 128, 145
Fritot, Alphonso, 196, 199
Fruits, 5, 229
Fuerza, la, 17, 58, 59
G
Garcia, General Calixto, 84, 190
Geerligs, H.C. Prinsen, 206
Gibara, 112
Gold, 2, 6, 231
Gomez, General Maximo, 84, 158, 164, 172, 174. Proclamations, 167 et seq. Government, 250
Grant, President, 135 et seq.
Guane, 101
Guantanamo, 91, 115
Guines, 90
H
Haiti, 9, 10, 144
Harbors, 44
Hart, John D., 191, 197
Hatuey, 8 et seq.
Havana:
Bells, church, 65.
British occupation, 20.
Capital, 20, 59.
Cathedral, 63.
Changes in, 66, 67, 82, 85.
Commerce limited to, 20.
Destroyed, 17, 58, 59.
Discovered, 12, 57.
Early conditions, 61.
Excursions from, 97 et seq.
Firemen, 83.
Fortifications, 59, 60.
Homes in, 77 et seq.
Las Casas as governor, 24.
Market, fish, 74.
Name, origin of, 58.
New City, 70 et seq.
Old city, 54 et seq.
Parks, 70, 71.
_Paseo_, 75.
Public buildings, 62 et seq.
Sanitation of, 63.
Settled 12, 58.
Shopping in, 68.
Streets 61, 71.
Suburbs, 85.
Sunrise in harbor, 54.
Theatre, Nacional, 71 et seq.
Havana, province, 38, 41
Hayes, President, 136
Hazard, Samuel, 33, 65, 111
Henry, Patrick, 143
Heredia, Jose Maria, 146
Hill, Robert T., 39, 48
Holguin, 113
Hotels, 91, 111
Homes, 77 et seq.
Humboldt, Baron Alexander, 8, 14, 15, 16, 35, 53 Hurricanes, 53
I
Imports and Exports, 253, 256
Independence, 162 et seq.
Insect life, 51
Intervention, First, 25, 182, 242
Intervention, Second, 160
Iron ore, 233, 234
Irving, Washington, 4, 5, 6
Isle of Pines, 8, 116, 117 et seq.
J
Jefferson, Thomas, 122
Joint Resolution of 1898, 242
Jolo, 54
Juana, 2, 4
Jucaro, 106
Junta, 164, 174, 188
K
Kimball, R.B. 32
L
Las Casas, Bartolome, 9, 14
Las Casas, Governor Luis de, 24
_Laurada_, 193 et seq.
Lemus, Jose Francisco, 146
Llorente, Pedro, 246
Lodge, Henry Cabot, 123
Lopez, Narciso, 148 et seq.
Ludlow, General William, 63
M
Maceo, General Antonio, 99, 164, 172, 174 McKinley, President, 122, 178, 179
Magoon, Charles E., 160
_Maine_, battleship, 179
Maisi, Cape, 7, 8, 38, 115
Malecon, 75
Manufactures, 234
Marti, Jose, 164, 166
Marti, the smuggler, 72 et seq.
Martinez Campos, General, 158, 165, 166, 177. Maso, Bartolome, 165, 174
Massachusetts rebellion, 144
Matanzas, city, 41, 101
Matanzas, province, 41
Menocal, General Mario, 241, 244
Mexico, 13, 58, 124, 145
Minerals, 231 et seq.
Mineral springs, 52
Miranda, Francisco, 126, 185
Monopolies, 20, 144, 220, 231.
Monroe Doctrine, 127
Monroe, President, 129
Monuments:
Firemen’s, 83, 84
Students’, 84
Moret law, 16
Morgan, Henry, no
Morro Castle, 17, 57, 59, 60
Mountains, 5, 41, 93
Murielo, 13
N
NARVAEZ, 13
Navigation acts, British, 19, 144
Nelson, Hugh, 127
Nipe Bay, 2, 91, 113, 114
Nuevitas, 2, 3, 110, 111, 112
Nunez, General Emilio, 191, 192, 199
O
O’BRIEN, “Dynamite Johnny,” 189, et seq. Ocampo, Sebastian de, 8, 12, 57
Oriente, province, 40, 41
Ostend Manifesto, 133
Otis, James, 143
P
PALACE, Governor’s, 64
Palma, Tomas Estrada y, 162, 174, 192 Palms, 5, 7, 48, 49
Panama Congress (1826), 126