THE CUBA REVIEW 



15 



Projected Sixteen-Room Public School for Cuba. 



What the Census Shows. 



'I"he Cuban census nn education, child la- 

 bor, early marriages, wage-earners and 

 their work yields the following interest- 

 ing information: 



"There has been excellent progress made 

 in public education. 



"The public school system, organized un- 

 der the first intervention in Cuba, is pro- 

 ducing excellent results. Of the population 

 10 years of age and over, 56.6 per cent, 

 could read, showing a decided gain in that 

 respect since 1899. Of the native whites, 

 58.6 per cent, could read, and of the col- 

 ored 45 per cent, were similarly educated. 

 The proportion of literates was naturally 

 much greater in the cities than in the coun- 

 try, and highest of all in Havana. 



"Of the whole population 37.7 per cent. 

 were wage-earners — a proportion but slight- 

 ly less than in the United States, where it 

 was 39 per cent. Of all males 65 per cent, 

 were wage-earners, and of females only 7.5 

 per cent. Child labor was prevalent ; of boys 

 between 10 and 14 years of age, 27.8 per 

 cent, were wage-earners, and of those be- 

 tween 15 and 19 years not less than 87.1 per 

 cent., or about seven-eighths." 



By distributing wage-earners among cer- 

 tain great groups of avocations one gets ?.n 

 idea of the relative importance of the in- 

 dustries which they represent. Thus farm- 

 ing, fishing and mining, collectively, em- 

 ployed 48.5 per cent., or nearly one-half of 

 the wage-earners ; domestic and personal 

 service claimed 16 per cent. ; manufacturing 

 and the mechanical arts, 16.3 per cent. ; 

 trade and transportation, 17.6 per cent._, or 

 about one-sixth each, and the professions 

 claimed 1.6 per cent. It appears that trade 

 and transportation, manufacturing and do- 

 mestic and personal service employed about 



equal numbers, and collectively they claimed 

 about the same number as farming, fishing 

 and mining. 



It is popularly supposed that Cubans, like 

 all Latin races, marry young, but as_ far as 

 the figures show they marry but little, if 

 any, younger than the people of the United 

 States. — From a paper by Henry Gannett, 

 read before the American Society of Geog- 

 raphers. 



Cuba Can Stand Alone. 



General Carlos Garcia Velez, the Cuban 

 ^Minister to the United S'tates, has written to 

 U. S. Representative Harvey Helm, of Ken- 

 tucky, in reply to the latter's resolution in 

 the House relative to the annexation of Cuba 

 and giving reasons why the island should 

 not be annexed. In his letter. General 

 Garcia says : 



"The Cuban people do not wish for the an- 

 nexation of the island to the United States or to 

 any other country. We feel that a half century 

 of almost constant struggle for independence and 

 sovereignty entitles us to enjoy the blessings of 

 our government or even the mistakes that in- 

 experience may bring during the infant period of 

 our nationality. We are desirous of developing 

 closer commercial relations with the .American 

 people; we hope that these relations will never 

 interfere with the political status of both coun- 

 tries, and we will look forward, in all times, to 

 a better understanding of the character, condi- 

 tions and aims of both peoples. 



"There are many other reasons less important 

 to us than those of sentiment (which are un- 

 mistakably the principal ones for us), viz., com- 

 petition of products, difference of language, race, 

 etc., that would be sufficient to make impossible 

 the annexation of Cuba to the United States." 



