THE CUBA REVIEW. 



13 



GENERAL NOTES. 



Interesting Items from Various Sources Regarding the Island's Activities. 



Cuba Is Contented. 



W. A. Merchant, vice-president of the 

 National Bank of Cuba in Havana, who is 

 in New York, gave out April 30 an inter- 

 view about the criticisms of the Cuban gov- 

 ernment expenditures. He said : 



"The articles recently published regarding the 

 alleged discontent and criticism of government ex- 

 penditures in Cuba have no foundation in fact. 

 The people of Cuba are satisfied with their inde- 

 pendent government, and, with the exception of a 

 few discontented office-seekers, who have not re- 

 ceived government positions, are contented and dis- 

 posed to support the government against all odds. 

 The few malcontents are fully aware of the ener- 

 getic measures taken by the president to preserve 

 public order and to maintain a stable and orderly 

 government. 



"Well-informed people in the United States are 

 aware of the condition in which the American gov- 

 ernment of occupation left the Cuban Treasury. 

 For the fiscal year ended June 30, 1908, treasury 

 receipts from all sources amounted to $27,427.- 

 601.56, against disbursements of $39,763. -126. 75. 

 Their large deficit was due to extensive road- 

 building and other important public works per- 

 formed by the government of intervention. At a 

 recent cabinet meeting in Havana it was definitely 

 decided that the government expenditures for the 

 next fiscal year should be reduced to a parity with 

 estimated revenue." — Journal of Commerce. 



May Leave Cuba. 



As a result of Cuba's discrimination 

 against the United States in the matter of 

 armament orders, Charles M. Schwab, it is 

 understood, will devote more time to the 

 development of iron ore bodies in this coun- 

 try, at the expense of curtailed operations 

 in Cuba. This action is due to the fact 

 that Cuba has sent representatives to Eu- 

 rope for the purpose of contracting for sup- 

 plies of guns and other classes of ordnance, 

 without giving steel companies in this coun- 

 try an opportunity *o bid for the work. 



Mr. Schwab has invested heavily in iron 

 ore properties in Cuba, and is spending at 

 the rate of $3,000,000 a year on the island, 

 and he believes that the United States 

 should receive a percentage of the steel bus- 

 iness contracted for by Cuba, but so far 

 the island has been favoring Europe. 



A representative of the Bethlehem Steel 

 Corporation, when asked whether or not it 

 was true that the corporation would curtail 

 its operations in Cuba, said : 



"Cuba has been favoring other countries 

 at the expense of the steel companies in this 

 country. The people do not seem to realize 

 that we are contributing millions of dollars 



each year toward the island's development. 

 We believe we ought to get some of Cuba's 

 steel business, and if we do not it would 

 only be natural for us to look to other fields 

 for our iron ore supplies. I can say that 

 we control some valuable iron ore deposits 

 in this country, and have already planned 

 development work on a large scale. In 

 other words, the more ore we mine from 

 our local deposits, the less ore we will ship 

 from Cuba." — Wall Street Journal, April 

 29, 1909. 



Cuban Studying United States Prisons. 



Antonio Duzue, special representative of 

 the Cuban government, is in the cities of 

 the United States studying the system of 

 prisons, reformatories and juvenile courts, 

 and is favorably impressed. He spent a 

 month in New York and other Eastern cities 

 and will also go West. 



A White Cuba. 



Sir Harry Johnston, the eminent English 

 traveler and authority on Africa, is confi- 

 dent that Cuba is to be a white man's coun- 

 try. And this is due not to immigration 

 coming from this country since Spain's ejec- 

 tion, but from Spain herself. Galicia, Astu- 

 ria and the Basque provinces and the Ca- 

 nary Islands have been sending thither 

 sober, thrifty, moral, peasant workers since 

 1898, who have prospered, multiplied and 

 prevented Cuba from degenerating into a 

 Haiti or San Domingo. — Boston Herald. 



The Carreta in Cuba. 



The "carreta" is a clumsy, high, two- 

 wheeled cart. The two wheels are six or 

 seven feet in diameter, have narrow rims 

 and tires, and are so set on the axle that 

 the outer rim has a play of six or eight 

 inches out of the perpendicular. This wheel 

 skew is the active principle of the carreta. 

 When the wheels get stuck in the mud, con- 

 stant, pulling will work the wheel first to 

 one side, then to the other, until the rut is 

 wide enough to permit the cart to proceed. 

 What such a system does to a soft dirt road 

 may be imagined. From two to ten oxen 

 are used on these carts to pull a load that 

 should be readily handled by two mules, 

 and days are taken to make trips that should 

 be accomplished in hours. 



It is these narrow-tired, heavy carts which 

 make road building so expensive in Cuba. 

 A road built of ordinary macadam, such as 

 would be called a good highway in the 

 United States, was utterly destroyed in one 

 year by the carretas. Efforts are being made 



