8 THE CUBA REFIEW 
Havana Correspondence 
April 25, 1921. 
Sucar: The price of sugar has remained about the same throughout the month 
and the market is very quiet. Large stocks of sugars have been accumulated at all 
ports of the Island and the sugar centrals also have large quantities in their private 
warehouses awaiting sale and shipment. The Sugar Commission appointed by President 
Menoeal is working diligently to give relief to the congested condition of the warehouses 
where these sugars are stored but, with a very small demand for sugars in the North, 
it is hard to dispose of the accumulated stocks and maintain a fair price for the product. 
Should the Fordney bill of the Emergency Tariff bill be passed by the American 
Congress in Washington it is deemed that additional hardships will be placed upon the 
Cuban sugar producer which will make the already critical condition of the Island’s 
finances more serious. To us the Emergency Tariff bill is legislation that will work to 
the benefit of the American manufacturer since it will prevent the dumping of cheap 
foreign goods on American markets, but when it is considered that Cuban sugars are 
produced with highly paid, efficient labor it will be realized that the enactment of this 
legislation against Cuba will mean a curtailment of business with the United States and 
consequent losses in business for American manufacturers with the Island Republic. 
During the calendar year, 1920, Cuba purchased from the United States merchandise 
valued at approximately $520,000,000.00, being surpassed ONLY as purchasers of Ameri- 
can goods by the countries of England, Canada and France. Cuba purchases (for a 
population of 2,800,000 people), more goods from the United States than do Argentine, 
Brazil and Mexico, who have a population of over 50,000,000. The largest per capita 
trade of any country in the world is enjoyed by Cuba. Over 75% of Cuba’s impor- 
tations come from the United States, but should legislation against sugar be en- 
acted a large part of Cuba’s purchases are going to be made in other countries than the 
United States. Tariff privileges have always been enjoyed by Cuba in its relations 
with the United States from the inception of the Republic, and Cuban sugar is going 
to find it increasingly hard to compete with sugar production from other parts of the 
world where production costs are lower (on account of low wages paid labor, ete.) and 
where additional advantages in the present rates of exchange are enjoyed. Cuban 
money is American money and there are no discounts to be taken advantage of. 
Then again, the enactment of this legislation is bound to react against American 
capital, since about 60 per cent. of the sugar mills on the Island are controlled by 
American capital and, too, American interests predominate in the shipping, commercial, 
banking, insurance, public service, dock and warehouse, water, electric lighting, tobacco 
and other industries. Therefore, American interests will suffer most from prohibitive 
legislation. Cuban raw products are exchanged for American finished products, which 
accounts for the volume of trade done between the two countries, but with a high pro- 
tective tariff in effect, Cuban raw products are bound to find their way to other countries 
and the exchange for the finished product is bound to be effected with the country to 
which the raw products are shipped. The agitation against the enactment of the Fordney 
bill is evident, we notice, in most Central and South American countries where sugar is 
produced in large quantities and shipped to the United States. 
During the month considerable agitation was worked up against the legality of the 
Cuban Sugar Commission and an attempt was made to discredit it because it controls 
prices at which Cuban sugars are to be sold. The agitation, of course, is at the hands of 
American refiners as they claim that the Cuban Sugar Commission is a foreign organi- 
zation attempting to fix prices in the United States for sugar. It is true that, were it 
not for the Sugar Commission, much sugar would be sold at lower prices than are at 
present demanded but it was just against this feature that the commission was appointed 
by the president. The situation of some of the sugar mills is such that they are almost 
