THE CUBA REVI EW 



19 



GENERAL NOTES. 



Favors Raising the Maine. 



President Taft is heartily in favor of 

 the plan to raise the battleship Maine 

 from the bottom of Havana Harbor and 

 suitably bury the bodies of the sailors 

 who went down with the ship. 



The President informed Represent- 

 ative Loud, of Michigan, on Jan, 4, that 

 he desired to see the latter's bill, appro- 

 priating money for the purpose, enacted 

 into law, and that he stood ready to 

 offer any sort of support to the proposi- 

 tion that could be suggested. 



Cuban Land Valuable. 



"That Cuban land is well worth buying, 

 perhaps is best shown by the willing- 

 ness with which big capitalists have in 

 vested in large properties," says the 

 Havana Post. "But in Cuba, as in Mich- 

 igan, the wise prospective purchaser will 

 ask to be shown. Having informed him- 

 self concerning the value and possibili- 

 ties of the land, the intending buyer 

 should take account of his own re- 

 sources. Besides capital, he will need pa- 

 tience, industry and thrift to insure 

 success. In Cuba, as in other countries, 

 to make money out of the soil, requires 

 toil and skill and forethought. An orange 

 grove is not secured just by setting out 

 young trees and waiting four or five 

 years. A tobacco crop that will yield 

 $2,500 to the acre is not very apt to be 

 grown the first year by a person un- 

 skilled in tobacco culture." 



Automobile races held at the Almen- 

 dares Hippodrome on January 30th. were 

 a distinct success. A large crowd at- 

 tended. All the cars entered were owned 

 by private citizens of Havana, no man- 

 ufacturing companies having cars entered 

 for prizes and honors. 



The Country Not at Fault. 



It would be just as bad to take a native 

 Cuban, dressed in a jipi japi hat, a thin 

 shirt, a pair of linen trousers, and no 

 other clothing and set him out on a 

 snow drift in Canada in midwinter and 

 told to provide for himself, as to bring 

 an average Canadian, or northerner, who 

 has little or no capital, to Cuba and put 

 him out on an uncleaned place in the 

 woods and tell him to go ahead and get 

 rich. 



That is what is the trouble with the 

 Ocean Beach colony, and it is the trouble 



with several other colonies in Cuba that 

 have not suffered from stormb. Hund- 

 reds of families have no doubt disposed 

 of their small holdings in the north, 

 where they were fairly comfortable, and 

 have purchased land in Cuba, reserving 

 very little after their fare was paid to 

 provide themselves with a house to live 

 in and to purchase food until they could 

 raise crops. They have been told that 

 land in Cuba would raise three and four 

 paying crops a year. They could see 

 no reason wh}^ they could not do the 

 same thing. They arrive here from 

 many sections of the States ana Canada, 

 fail to provide themselves with return 

 tickets, and with the first disaster to 

 which any country is subject, they are 

 placed in such miserable circumstances 

 that the whole country is given a bad 

 name, and good propositions are dam- 

 aged. 



The people in distress are not to blame; 

 the country is not to blame; the govern- 

 ment is not to blame; but someone is, 

 and that someone should be the one 

 to suffer, not the families, the wives and 

 the children of men who have been de- 

 luded by falsifying pictures, and lying 

 descriptions which tend to mislead the 

 unwary. 



Northern settlers have made successes 

 in Cuba, but they have almost invariably 

 been men who have had resources to 

 keep them going until these successes 

 have been assured. Occasionally a poor 

 man has come to Cuba and made a good 

 living for himself, but he has been for- 

 tunate enough to have financial help 

 from someone who has the capital. 



The story of distress of Ocean Beach 

 may be true to a great share and at the 

 same time the same story could be told 

 of dozens of other colonies in Cuba. The 

 saine kind of distress existed in Florida 

 years ago when the real estate boomer 

 was spreading the glories of the Land 

 of Flowers. 



The Atlantic Fleet at Guantanamo. 



The programme arranged for the exer- 

 cises in Cuban waters of the Atlantic 

 fleet of American battleships this Winter 

 is the most varied ever ordered by the 

 Navy Department. Every one of the 

 vessels will be required to run over 

 again all of the speed and other tests 

 that they underwent before the Govern- 

 ment accepted them from the builders. 

 These tests, occupying about fo'.ir months, 

 will be made to determine to what ex- 

 tent the vessels may have deteriorated 

 since they went into commission. 



