THECUBAREVIEW 11 



PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS IN ALL PROVINCES 



APPROPRIATIONS OF GREAT SUMS MEANS ACTIVITY IN PUBLIC WORKS 



EVERYWHERE 



Before Congress adjourned July 20th, it passed a bill appropriating $3,000,000 for great 

 public works in all the provinces of the island. The appropriation has been divided, and 

 each province will receive its share according to its needs. Among the many improve- 

 ments in line for immediate attention are the follownig : 

 For the continuation of the Malecon or Avenida del Golfo, Havana, to the old 



Chorrera fort $400,000 



For a state sanitarium near Cienfuegos, Santa Clara Province, for the benefit 



of tuberculosis patients $150,000 



Fur much needed improvements in the !Mazorra Insane Asylum, Havana 



Province $150,000 



For removing the Punta Diamante in Santiago Bay and for the dredging of the 



Harbor $100,000 



For the dredging of the port of Isabela de Saqua, Santa Clara Province $500,000 



For a hospital for children suffering from osseous tuberculosis $100,000 



For aqueducts in San Jose de las Lajas, Guines, Jaruco and Bejucal, all in Ha- 

 vana Province $135,000 



For repairing and enlarging the aqueducts in Jovellanos and Colon, Matanzas 



Province $80,00 



For an aqueduct at Camajiani, Santa Clara Province $75,000 



For completion of the highwaj' from Sancti Spiritus to Placetas, Santa Clara 



Province $40,000 



For completion of Camaguey aqueduct $275,000 



For a bridge over the La Pasada River, Oriente Province $10,000 



Aqueducts at Ciega de Avila and Moron. Camaguey Province, will also be built. 

 There are also numerous bridges to be built, new highways constructed, public build- 

 ings erected and old public edifices reconstructed, all requiring the expenditure of large 

 sums of money and giving work to thousands who are now idle because of the cessa- 

 tion of sugar grinding. 



The Department of Public Works has completed since Februarj^ 1909, almost 300 kilo- 

 meters of macadam roads, besides building bridges, culverts and other structures and 

 repairing many public buildings, and there has been a rapid increase in the number of 

 post offices and telegraph stations throughout the island. 



General Menocal on Cuban Conditions — Independence Not Endangered 



by Bad Government 



General Mario Menocal, the candidate of the Conservative Party at the last election 

 for president of the Republic, in an interview recently with a representative of La Dis- 

 ciis'wn of Havana, expressed himself clearly on Cuban conditions. "He was opposed," 

 he said, "not only to partial uprisings, but also to real revolutions in Cuba, in view of the 

 peculiar conditions under which we enjoy our nationality, for such movements can have 

 no practical or salutary end, as by a change of situation we might go from bad to worse." 



At the same time he did not hesitate to declare it clear and beyond a doubt "that given 

 the general discontent prevailing, it would be easy to foment a revolution that would 

 overturn the present government." 



General Menocal, who is the manager of the greatest sugar mill in the world, that at 

 Chaparra, in Oriente Province, does not share the pessimism that "has seized the minds 

 of so many," because he has absolute faith in the Cuban people and a conviction that 

 the riches of Cuba are inexhaustible. 



"Four years of bad government," he said, "cannot endanger our independence or prove 

 fatal to a country eager for life and progress. Such a period may retard our progress 

 and impoverish us, but, in the end, the disaster having been outlived, our vitality will 

 reassert itself and prosperity will return." 



And in proof he finds Cuba progressing by the sheer force of its productiveness, and 

 overcoming, or at least mitigating, the ill effects of the government's errors. He voices 

 his confidence in the power of political effort to cure the country's ills and urges all who 

 have been neglecting their political duties to change their conduct and to become as 

 energetic as they were slothful before, "thus performing a most patriotic and salutary 

 work." 



