® 
Eee tO BU Age Eun Vin Bre Wi 11 
Rumor had it that paper money was to be introduced—without gold reserve—in 
an effort to relieve the situation, but to date the Cuban Congress has been unable 
to meet, due to the lack of a quorum, and since the issuance of paper money would 
have to be accomplished through this agency just what will be done cannot be pre- 
dicted at this time. The matter had been much aired, however, and adverse criticism 
has been heaped upon those that would seek this unfair method for diverting a 
seeming calamity when the public mind has been furnished enough of the details of 
the present financial situation to realize that banks that were unable to strengthen 
their position sufficiently during the past three or four very lucrative years will 
surely not be aided by the extension of the moratorium nor the introduction of 
unsecured paper money in the present crisis. 
Sugar speculation and inflated real estate values are blamed for the conditions 
that exist today, but this movement of deflation is world-wide and has been felt 
throughout all lands, the main difference between Cuba and other countries being 
that here we were less prepared for the blow when it fell, on account of the extremely 
optimistic turn of the Latin mind. There was not the farseeing, conservative element 
among us to warn against too much indulgence in a fool’s paradise and thus we 
drifted, seemingly unaware that a readjustment had to come. 
SUGAR: With a dozen mills grinding at this time this year as against 100 last 
year, the outlook for the bumper crop that was predicted several months ago seems 
doomed to be a disappointment. Conditions today furnish a marked contrast with 
conditions of six months ago. The price for sugar hovers around four cents, whereas 
large tracts of new land were put into sugar with the expectation of securing a 
price of not less than twelve to fourteen cents per pound. At present prices there 
is little incentive to the producers to harvest the crop as it is heavily mort- | 
gaged in most instances, and if prices do not show a decided improvement during 
the coming months of the grinding, the sugar industry will indeed be hard put to 
meet their obligations—much less pay dividends on the capital invested. 
In conversations with mill owners and cane growers we have come to know 
intimately the inside stories of the methods employed in the financing of some of 
the large deals executed last spring when sugar sold at the highest price in the 
history of the Island. One purchaser related how he had purchased a mill for the 
handsome sum of $6,500,000, paying $1,000,000 cash and the balance of $5,500,- 
000 in notes to mature each year for a term of years and bearing 8 per cent. interest. 
This mill produces about 160,000 bags of sugar which, at present prices, would bring 
less than the interest on his indebtedness. This party told us candidly that he fore- 
saw clearly his ruin and that he would be required to turn the mill back to the 
former owners and lose the million dollars that he had paid as the initial payment 
on the purchase. This million dollars represented a legacy inherited by all the 
members of his family from his parents. Still another related that he had purchased 
a cane colonia at $5,000 a caballeria, whereas present prices would indicate that the 
land is worth possibly $500 per caballeria. 
Another feature that would indicate a low price for this year’s crop is the in- 
crease in the production of North America and Hurope in the beet sugar industry 
of about 86 per cent. over the crop of 1919. This means that the demand in these 
countries is to be lessened by just this amount and, naturally, with a lessened demand 
lower prices result. 
HAVANA TOURISTS: The year 1920-1921 promises to be one of the best years that 
Cuba has experienced in the way of its tourist visitors. Already the steamship lines 
to Havana have reported that bookings are taken full until the middle of February 
and the hotels of Havana have increased their facilities in order to accommodate 
