THE CUBA REVIEW. 



CUBA'S LABOR TROUBLES. 



ACTS of violence on November 19 oc- 

 curred in Havana and many work- 

 men were stoned. In consequence on 

 November 22 the police arrested 213 per- 

 sons who were holding a meeting. The 

 president and secretary of the Federation 

 Committee of Labor, Emilio Sanchez and 

 Feliciano Prieto, were among the prison- 

 ers, who were all locked up, bail being re- 

 fused. 



The officers- mentioned had 

 213 a few days previously been 



Strikers arrested on the charge of in- 

 Arrested. stigating the striking ma- 

 sons to intimidate non-union 

 workmen. Because of these continual com- 

 plaints and that the government's attention 

 had already been called by the Association 

 of Architects and Builders to 275 cases of 

 violence against working masons warrants 

 were issued to arrest all strikers at the 

 meeting on the charge of conspiracy to 

 disturb the public order. The prisoners 

 were representatives of the different labor 

 unions, but most of them were railroad 

 men. There had been nothing done at the 

 .meeting to cause these wholesale arrests, 

 as it had not yet been formally opened, but 

 the police at once proceeded to arrest those 

 present. 



The judge who issued the order of ar- 

 rest believed the Labor Federative Com- 

 mittee responsible for the many outrages, 

 and that at the meeting further disturbances 

 would be planned, hence his prompt action. 

 The president of the Railway Employees' 

 Union was likewise among the prisoners. 

 A few days after a com- 

 No Outdoor mittee of strikers asked per- 

 Meetings or mission to parade in Ha- 

 Parades. vana's streets as a protest 

 against the arrest of their 



comrades. Their request was refused. The 

 attorneys of the Federation of Labor ap- 

 peared before the Supreme Court, Decem- 

 ber 4, and asked that the decree of the Al- 

 calde prohibiting the holding of outdoor 

 meetings be declared unconstitutional. 

 There was no disorder and no action. 



202 of the 213 arrested were released on 

 November 26. The leaders of the strike 

 committee, including Sanchez, the presi- 

 dent, nine in all, secured liberty on bail, 

 which was fixed &t $2,000 each. Warrants 

 were also issued against some fifty other 

 labor leaders and agitators. The charge 

 against those held is for intimidation and 

 conspiracy. 



Governor Nunez, of Havana Province, 

 testimony regarding the strikers' leaders 

 was all in. their favor. He said the recent- 

 ly arrested officials of the Federation of La- 

 bor, Messrs. Feliciano Prieto and Emilio 

 Sanchez, were honorable and hardworking 

 men, and that all the members of the com- 

 mittee have always recommended peaceful 

 and orderly conduct. He held the strik- 

 ing masons responsible for all the violence. 



An attempt was made on 

 Strikers November 29 to bring the 

 urged to numerous strikes to an end. 

 Arbitrate. and a plan was proposed of 

 forming a commission com- 

 posed of a lepresentative of the railroads, 

 another of the Chamber of Commerce, and 

 four men representing different labor un- 

 ions, to be presided over by Gov. Magoon. 

 The last word on December 5 was that the 

 strike was nearing an end, and on Decem- 

 ber 12 many strikers were applying for their 

 old positions on the Western Railway. 



GOVERNOR MAGOON'S GREAT UNDERTAKINGS. 



Colossal Public Improvements Well Under Way. 



"I desire," said Governor Magoon at the 

 banquet tendered him by the Chamber of 

 Commerce on December 2, "to leave behind 

 me a- record of accomplished facts, instead 

 of declared but unexecuted purposes." An- 

 swering the welcoming address of the sec- 

 retary, Sr. Leoncio Varela, he said further : 

 "The government contemplates expending 

 from $12,000,000 to $15,000,000 in public 

 works. Of this money at least seventy per 

 cent, will be paid to the working classes. 

 Ihe workman does not hoard, but spends, 

 and the effect of all this upon commerce 

 can hardly be overestimated." 



Neither can be overestimated the incal- 

 culable impetus to the lasting future de- 

 velopment of Cuba, which is being im- 

 parted by the colossal improvements now 



under way and planned in every province 

 of the island, such as road building, water 

 and sewer svstems for towns and cities, 

 harbor improvements, lighthouses, the deep- 

 ening of numerous channels, besides the 

 construction and renovation of hospitals, 

 correctional schools, the insane asylum and 

 other public institutions. Hundreds of 

 thousands of idle men have been profitably 

 employed since the sugar season closed in 

 making wagon roads, reaching the length 

 of the island and crossed by two north and 

 south roads in each province, extending 

 across the island, opening up Cuba to the 

 markets of the world by providing road 

 communications with the coast. 



These and many others will form a net- 

 work of roads over the island. They will 



