THE CUBA REVIEW 



their own special steamer arrived here the fore part of the present month on one 

 of the ships of the United Fruit Company and they ^YilI be followed by several other 

 similar excursions during the balance of the present tourist season. The heaviest 

 movement of winter tourists does not take place until February and March, so 

 Havana is managing to take care of present requirements. This will be difficult 

 later on, although lists are being prepared of families having rooms to rent, so that 

 when the hotels cannot accommodate more, tourists may be taken care of in this 

 manner. 



STRIKES: Oi^ Sunday afternoon, December 2Sth, a meeting of working men 

 w^as held in one of. Havana's parks and afterwards a parade was started in which 

 several thousand took part. The organizers of this demonstration, however, had 

 neglected to secure the necessary permit to allow" the parade, with the result that 

 shortly after they started the police stopped them and ordered them to dissolve. 

 During the excitement which ensued, shots were fired and a bystander was killed. 

 Several others were injured by bullets and missiles which were thrown. The fol- 

 lowing day at the funeral of the man who was killed on Sunday, who was a laborer, 

 the various unions of working men were represented in large numbers, and while 

 the procession from the house to the cemetery was passing through a section of the 

 business district of Havana shots were suddenly fired by some of the participants, 

 with the result that in an attempt to preserve order in the riot which immediately 

 followed, the police were forced to charge the crowd and shoot, causing the wounding 

 of several policemen and a number of the crowd, although none fatally. 



During all this time, as a mark of sympathy, there were no street cars in opera- 

 tion, and it was reported that the harbor workmen would inaugurate their threatened 

 strike. This proved to be the case, as they did not return to their work the following 

 day, December 30th. The strike embraced steved.ores working on the ships, those 

 handling import cargoes on the wharves, crews of tow boats in the harbor, including, 

 the Regla and Casa Blanca ferries, and the men on all lighters and barges. In addi- 

 tion to this the truck drivers refused to haul away import shipments from the- 

 steamers and wharves. Efforts were begim shortly thereafter to reach some kind 

 of an agreement between shipping interests and the harbor workmen, but the latter's 

 demands were so great, both as regards increase in pay and hours of work and 

 manner in which their work was to be performed, that the employers felt it was 

 out of the question for them to consider complying with their demands. Suggestions 

 of arbitration were made but apparently did not meet with much favor. 



About January 10th the Rotary Club of Havana, which has always taken an 

 active interest in the welfare of the city in general, also interested itself in this 

 matter and endeavored to accomplish something with the strikers, but, being unsuc- 

 cessful, they then enlisted the co-operation of the shipping companies and importers 

 of Havana with the idea of breaking the strike, and offered their services to the 

 merchants to operate their carts and automobiles and also assist in handling goods 

 on the wharves. The merchants in turn sent as many of their employes as could 

 be spared to the wharves to help in the same work, and in many cases members 

 of the firms themselves donned overalls and assisted on the docks. The Government 

 also furnished a considerable number of convicts, as they have done during several 

 past strikes of this character, while the police offered any protection that might be 

 required. Fortunately there have been no acts of violence done during this strike. 

 As a result, goods commenced to again be taken aw-ay from the wharves and lighters, 

 and it is interesting to note that these volunteer forces succeeded very shortly after 

 they started their labor in taking away from the different wharves and warehouses 

 on the bay practically as large an amount of cargo as the regular w-orkmen had been 

 taking. At the same time some progress was made in discharging and sailing some 

 of the steamers, a large number of which had arrived, as at the beginning it was not 

 expected that the strike would last as long as it has and sailings from American 



