18 THECUBAREVIEW 



CUBA AND THE PANAMA CANAL* 



THE MARKETS OF THE ORIENT PLACED WITHIN CUBA's REACH THE 



republic's future secure 



The opening of the Panama Canal to the commerce of the world in 1915 promises to 

 make great changes in the trade relations of the island republic of Cuba with the trading 

 world. In the first place it will open to the new republic the markets of the Pacific coast, 

 and of the Orient, which have hitherto been practically closed to her, on account of the 

 immense distance to be covered in order to reach them. The distance has not been 

 prohibitive to the larger nations of the earth, whose wealth has enabled them to push 

 their enterprise to the uttermost bounds of trade. But for a small nation like Cuba, 

 struggling in the throes of a new birth, and confronted with problems of every description 

 in her fight for life, it has been practically impossible to join in the fight for the Far 

 Eastern trade. .She has had quite enough to do to settle matters within her own boun- 

 daries, and but little power left to engage in a struggle to take advantage of the Pacific 

 markets. 



All this will be changed with the opening of the "big ditch." This joining of the 

 Atlantic and Pacific by the Panama Canal will bring the markets of the Orient within 

 reach of Cuba, and she is certain to receive from them a good share of the goods which 

 they offer. She will secure them at much lower prices than she has been forced to pay 

 hitherto, because the expense of transporting them to her shores will be reduced greatly 

 by the shortening of the distance to be travelled. Under these conditions, Cuba will 

 become a bidder for the merchandise of the west coast of South America, and China and 

 Japan, and the Philippines, and will thus add to the volume of international trade with 

 those sections of the world, from which she has practically been excluded under the con- 

 ditions which have prevailed in the past. 



But Cuba will not only enter this new zone as a purchaser. She will become a seller 

 as well. Her sugar and her tobacco will become active competitors with the sugar and 

 tobacco of the Philippines, and this fact will, without doubt, result in the cheapening 

 of prices, to an extent, at least, of these commodities in the Far East. Many Cuban 

 products will find a ready sale in the Orient and on the Pacific coast of the Americans 

 to which they have hitherto been strangers. International trade with Cuba will receive 

 an impetus which will be astonishing. It matters not that the Cuban trade will perforce 

 be accommodated by foreign bottoms. It will be pushed, just the same, and to the canal 

 will be due, and credited, its advance; but Cuba will receive the benefit, just the same. 

 But it is not only through the increase of her trade with the Orient and the Pacific 

 coast states that Cuba will reap untold advantages from the operation of the canal. She 

 lies directly in the ocean steamship course of the commerce of all European nations 

 which will be served by the canal. Vessels coming to the canal from Great Britain, 

 Germany, France and all the other European commercial nations, must pass directly 

 by the island republic, and many of them, without the slightest doubt, will make her 

 a sort of half-way house, at which they will renew supplies, and prepare for the passage 

 of the canal, and their further voyage. This means a great increase in the trade of 

 the republic, the volume of which it is impossible to estimate. The admirable facilities 

 of the harbor of Havana, now that the wreck of the "Maine" has been removed, make 

 it an ideal place for this purpose, and foreign navigators will not be slow to recognize 

 this fact. So that, in this view, the opening of the Panama Canal promises to prove 

 of inestimable value to the island republic. It will reap this advantage from vessels 

 entering the canal, both on the outward and inward trips, so that the benefit will be 

 two-fold. 



As a matter of fact, scarcely any nation on the face of the globe can look forward 

 with more hope for participation in the benefits of the canal, in proportion to her size, 

 than Cuba. Of course, her international trade, so far as the service of the canal is 

 concerned, will be insignificant, compared to that of this country and other big commer- 

 cial nations, though it will be large, considering the size of the island and its trade 

 facilities. But the incidental trade produced by the opening of the canal will be large, 

 and practically certain of development. The building of the canal will prove for Cuba 

 the beginning of a career of prosperity, which can be seriously interfered with only by 

 a failure of the Cubans to conduct the government in a statesmanlike manner, so as to 

 retain its control within their own hands, and the indications that they will do this are 

 more than promising. They are engaged in a governmental experiment, which requires 

 but the exercise of true patriotism to make it a success. They are under the watchful 



* See July issue of The Cuba Review for map of Cuba, United States gulf poits and the Panama 

 Canal. 



