14 



THE CUBA REVIEW. 



WHAT IS BEING DONE IN CUBA? 



BY CAPTAIN JOHN H. PARKER^ U.S.A. 



Matanzas, Cuba, Jan. lo, 1908. 



To the Editor of The Cuba Review. 

 Dear Sir: 



Your question relates to the economic 

 and industrial side of the Cuban problem. 

 A discussion of the political side is in the 

 January Review of Reviews. In so far as 

 consistent with duty, it is a pleasure to try 

 to answer your question. 



JOHN H. PARKliJU, CAPT. and Q. M. 28th INFT. 



Stationed at Matauzas, and the beautiful Cuban 



pony presented to him by the citizens 



of Colon. 



Your readers are no doubt fainiliar with 

 the $5,000,000 wagon road in progress in 

 Cuba, under direction of the Department of 

 Public Works. The general idea of a great 

 artery of wagon communication from end 

 to end of the island was conceived in the 

 administration of General Wood, but lit- 

 tle progress was found when the present in- 

 tervention occurred. The work was so 

 vital that at the earliest possible moment 

 warranted by the condition of the treasury 

 it was at once begun, and is being pushed as 

 rapidly as possible to completion. The sys- 

 tem adopted is the contract system ; not, 

 perhaps, always the most economical, but 



the system prescribed by the laws of Cuba. 

 This great carretera will cost from $6,000 

 to $8,000 per kilometer, and when completed 

 will open the island to wagon transportation 

 from end to end. As a military measure it 

 is of the first importance, since it insures a 

 base of supplies within less than 40 miles of 

 any point, readily accessible in all kinds of 

 weather by wagon transportation. But its 

 military importance is as nothing compared 

 with its economic importance. It will in- 

 sure access to the markets for all sorts of 

 products, in all parts of the island, many 

 parts of which are now useless because, with 

 the primitive transportation now necessary, 

 products cannot be profitably sold. It fur- 

 nishes work to thousands of unemployed, in- 

 sures the circulation of money among the 

 poorer classes, and has done more than any 

 other one thing to re-establish tranquil con- 

 ditions. 



The reason of this is that Cuba is pass- 

 ing through an economical crisis that can 

 be compared to' the conditions in Missouri 

 and Kansas in the 70's and 8o's. Most of 

 the land was owned in '98 by Spaniards. 

 Most of these returned to Spain, and wished 

 to close out their Cuban interests, which, 

 therefore, are passing gradually into other 

 hands. The Colono is becoming a small 

 proprietor; but to do so he has to dig the 

 price out of the land itself and remit it to 

 the foreign owner, just as the farmer in 

 the West gradually extinguished the mort- 

 gage which was plastered on almost every 

 farm 20 to 30 years ago in that section of 

 the United States. So this class in Cuba is 

 gradually becoming a landholding class ; but 

 the process has thus far kept them very 

 poor as far as .ready money is concerned. 

 As fast as they get a little money ahead it 

 goes out of the country to pay the "hypote- 

 ca," leaving them as poor as before in cash. 

 Cuba achieved her political independence 

 of Spain in 1898; but her industrial, her 

 economic independence, must be achieved by 

 sweat and labor. Revolutions cannot help 

 in this struggle ; they only retard it. That 

 is a discrimination not made by the more 

 ignorant parts of the Cuban people. The 

 peon, the day laborer, does not find his lot 

 much easier than in Spanish times ; some- 

 times he finds it very hard, indeed, for the 

 cost of living is abnormally high in Cuba, 

 due to her failure to reach under advan- 

 tageous conditions her natural market in 

 the United States. This comes from a sim- 

 ple cause. 



By the Treaty of Paris the United States 

 undertook to guarantee to Spain for 10 years 

 the same commercial rights and privileges 

 enjoyed by herself in Cuba; a condition 

 which absolutely prevents differential or 

 preferential discriminations in favor of Cu- 



