THECUB A REVIEW 17 



1906 1909 1916 1917 1918 



Cubanas 78 67 69 85 87 



Americans 30 38 71 70 67 



Spanish _ _ 40 37 33 



Others 73 65 19 10 12 



Totals 181 170 189 202 200 



In the data for 1906 and 1909 Spaniards are included among "Others," and in the figures 

 corresponding to the years 1916, 1917 and 1918, mills owned by Cuban-American capial are 

 included as Cuban. 



The increase m the average producing capacity of the mills is shown by the following: 

 In 1907 the average production was about 8,000 tons, or 56,000 bags per mill; in 1909 it was 

 about 9,000 tons or 63,000 bags per mill; in 1915, it was about 12,700 tons or 89,000 bags; and 

 in 1917, it was about 16,000 tons, or 112,000 bags. This average capacity will be increased as 

 soon as some of the large mills that are in construction begin operations and add their excess 

 to the production already being obtained. 



Of the influences in Cuba that have tended to build up the productive possibilities ot the 

 Island, perhaps none has been stronger than the building of the Cuba Railroad. Previous to 

 the War of Independence, there was good rail communication throughout the western pro- 

 vinces of the Island, that is in Pinar del Rio, Habana, Matanzas, and the western part of Santa 

 Clara Provinces, but east from Santa Clara city to far away Santiago de Cuba, only short 

 lines of railroad connected Camaguey with Nuevitas, and Santiago with town on the southern 

 slope of the mountains of Oriente Province, another short hne connecting Guantanamo with 

 her shipping port at the mouth of the harbor of the same name. All the rich expanse of country, 

 fertile, moderately well watered, clothed with virgin forest on both sides of the comparatively 

 open central plain, was without other transportation than that of the slow ox cart and saddle 

 ponies. A goodly number of mills existed along the coasts of this region, where they could 

 provide their own means of covering the short distance that separated them from their shipping 

 points, but hundreds of thousands of acres of as fine land as covdd be desired for cane cultiva- 

 tion were Ijdng idle, waiting the magic touch of the railroad builder to give it life. Immedi- 

 ately after the road was built, and as practically part of the same development, the mills at 

 Jatibonico and Jobabo were built, but aside from these development was slow. Nevertheless, 

 the establishment of the line enabled the rapid building of centrals that has taken place in this 

 territory since the beginnig of the European war. 



Another and very potent factor in the recent great development that has taken place is 

 the European War and the effect that it has had upon the production of sugar the world over. 

 It seems almost needless to take this up in detail, so it will be touched on only lightly. At 

 the time that the war broke out, about the finishing of the crop of 1913-1914 sugar prices in 

 Cuba had about touched rock bottom, and there seemed to be little hope for their lifting them- 

 selves to a higher plane. Low prices had been the rule for one or more previous seasons, and 

 conditions seemed all but favorable to the planters and mill men. The commencement of the 

 war, with the reaUzation shortly thereafter that the struggle was to be a long one, and that 

 it would be fought out on what was theretofore the producing ground of a goodly part of the 

 beet sugar of Europe, and that production from the other producing territory not directly 

 touched would be greatly reduced, came as a life saver to the sugar men of Cuba, and caused 

 the beginning of what has since proved to be a vast development in her production. The 

 good prices realized for their crops since that date have put the industry firmly on its feet, 

 enabled every wise mill owner to throw out the old and inefficient apparatus, and to install the 

 very best that money can buy, so that he is now in a position to face years of leaner prices 

 with the confidence that the results secured in the factory will enable him to produce sugar at 

 lower costs than ever before, after the price ot supplies, labor, etc., once more become normal. 

 That there will be a drop in prices of sugar after the war ceases, is known to all, but the general 

 opinion seems to be that there \xi\\ be at last a period of three or four years of good prices 

 before the beet growing regions of Europe can reestabUsh their industry and prove active 

 competitors. 



