THE CUBA REVIEW 



23 



RAILROADS AND MINING 



SANTIAGO LIGHT AND TRACTION CO. 



Lawrence Turnure and Co., bankers of 

 New York, offer $3,000,000 Santiago Elec- 

 tric Light and Traction Company First 

 Mortgage 6 per cent Gold Bonds, due 

 January 1, 1959, at 98% per cent and 

 accrued interest. 



The bonds are in denomination of $500 

 with coupons attached payable January 

 1st. They can be registered as to principal. 

 Both principal and interest are payable in 

 United States gold coin at the Equitable 

 Trust Company, New York, which is also 

 trustee under the mortgage. 



The company reserves the right to re- 

 deem all or any part of the issue at 105 

 per cent on any interest date commencing 

 January 1, 1919. 



The earnings of the company in United 

 States currency for the year ended De- 

 cember31st: ^^^^^ ^^^ 



1909 (11 months) $243,750 $129,520 



1910 304,881 155,830 



1911 356,916 171,468 



For the first seven months of 1912, gross 



earnings amounted to $227,964 against 

 $175,446 for the same period last year, an 

 increase of about 30 per cent. The com- 

 pany has no floating debt. 



The double-tracking of the railway line 

 to the suburb Vista Alegre has been ren- 

 dered necessary by the large and growing 

 traffic. The cost of this, as well as of 

 six new cars building at the company's 

 own shops, and of a new 1,000 K. u. tur- 

 bine for the power house, will be met 

 from the proceeds of some of the com- 

 pany's treasury stock. 



Mr. Frank Steinhart, president and 

 general manager of the Havana Electric 

 Railway, Light and Power Co., and repre- 

 sentative in Cuba of Messrs. Speyer and 

 Co., will be largely influential in the man- 

 agement of the Sanitago Company. By 

 the application of more modern methods 

 of obtaining business and by instituting de- 

 sirable economies, he expects to increase 

 its profits considerably. 



The company owns 11 miles of standard 

 gauge railway in the principal streets of 

 the city and suburbs. The greater part of 

 the railway is laid with 87 lb. steel rail 

 with steel cross ties embedded in concrete. 

 The power transmission poles are nearly 

 all of steel. Exclusive of the six cars now 

 building, the railway stock consists prin- 

 cipally of 26 semi-convertible Brill pas- 

 senger cars, each equipped with two Gen- 

 eral Electric 40 horse-power railway mo- 

 tors. 



The power plant, repair shops, storage 

 tracks and coal receiving wharf are well 

 located on 40 acres of land owned on the 



shore of the bay south of the city. The 

 plant and shoos are housed in steel, con- 

 crete and brick structures, and contain 

 modern apparatus capable of generating 

 considerably more power than is now re- 

 quired. 



The population of Santiago is about 

 55,000 and is increasing. 



The company owns the only street rail- 

 way and electric plant in Santiago. There 

 is no gas plant in the city. The company 

 has a contract with the city for public 

 electric lighting. 



CUBAN ORE DEVELOPMENT 



All indications point to the increasing 

 importance of the island of Cuba as a 

 source of iron ore supply for the eastern 

 iron and steel industry, says the New 

 Castle (Pa.) Neius. The island is now, 

 and has been for some years, the principal 

 source external to this country from which 

 iron ore supplies have been drawn. The 

 movement has been on an increasing scale 

 in recent years and since 1909 has been run- 

 ning well over 1,000,000 tons annually. 



The shipments from Cuban properties 

 during the past four years, all of which 

 have been consumed by eastern furnaces, 

 were as follows: 1911, 1,162,787 tons; 1908, 

 538,862 tons. 



The state of trade conditions in the iron 

 and steel industry is clearly reflected in 

 these figures. From the poor year of 1908, 

 the shipments ascended to the record high 

 point in 1910, v/hen the industry enjoyed 

 a limited period of prosperous conditions. 

 In 1911, the imports again fell in response 

 to the reduced operations in the east and 

 elsewhere, but under the present active 

 revival of trade, they are again on the rise 

 and a heavy year's record for 1912 is now 

 indicated. The practically full furnace 

 operations at present at Sparrows Point, 

 Steelton and South Bethlehem suggest a 

 heavy movement of this ore over the re- 

 maining months of the year, since the 

 largest Cuban operations are controlled by 

 the Pennsylvania Steel Co.. with its com- 

 panion company, the Maryland Steel Co., 

 and by the Bethlehem Steel Co. 



An interesting development in the Cuban 

 ore situation this year is the offering and 

 absorption in the east of a comparatively 

 large tonnage of merchant ore from that- 

 country, more than 200,000 tons of eastern 

 merchant furnaces for delivery during the 

 current year. This is the heaviest move- 

 ment in merchant ore from Cuba that has 

 yet taken place. The offering of this ore 

 follows from the enlarged operations and 

 productiveness of the properties controlled 

 by the two leading steel-making owners. 



