34 T H E C U B A RE V lEW 



and accepted, as the cocperation of the people and government of Cuba to the United 

 States, the price fixed for their sugar. And so it was that Cuban raw sugar was 

 sold in the years 1918 and 191Q at an average price, for both years, of 5.05 cents 

 per pound, and while the Cuban people relinquished their profits and greatly increased 

 their crops, they were obliged to import from the United States the necessaries of 

 life, as well as other articles, at war prices which were highly onerous, the outcome 

 of this situation being that when in 1920 an economic crisis occurred throughout the \ 

 world, the sugar producers and merchants of Cuba found themselves indebted to 

 American exporters and bankers in excess of $300,000,000, a sum which represented 

 for Cuba the fabulous burden of $100 per inhabitant. 



The average price at which sugar sold in Cuba last year did not reach three cents 

 per pound, and although it was known to us that the price would be ruinous, the 

 people of Cuba had no other alternative but to turn out the crop, by cutting and grinding 

 the cane which had been planted at an exorbitant cost during the war, and so great 

 was their exertion that Cuba produced that year very nearly 4,000,000 tons of sugar, 

 after having refused to reduce its crop to 2,500,000 tons, as urged by American interests. 



Consequently, as a result of the immense effort and sacrifice of the Cuban producer, 

 which have not yet been compensated or even recognized, the people of the United 

 States and of other allied countries did not lack during the war the indispensable 

 supply of sugar at a modrate price, sugar being placed as regards price on the same 

 level as purely agricultural products, although it is really highly industrial; and 

 with the exception of a short period of time, comprising parts of the years 1919 and 

 1920, the American people have since obtained their sugar, either below the cost 

 of production or at fair prices, as is evidenced by the great increase in consumption 

 which has taken place. 



It is well to explain that when toward the middle of 1920, the price of sugar went 

 up to the unwarranted price of 20 cents per pound, which was prejudicial to all 

 concerned, the Cuban producers had already sold the greater part of their crop, the 

 stocks in Cuba at the end of the year being slightly over 200,000 tons, the small 

 portion withheld from the market having been sold afterwards at a serious loss. 



It is to be noted that the present increase in the price of sugar is world wide, 

 and that sugar is not the only article that has developed an upward trend, since marked 

 increases in price have occurred in the case of farm products and raw materials in 

 general, of cotton, wool, pig iron, steel and other commodities; and since Cuba imports, 

 principally from the United States, nearly all articles which it consumes or employs, 

 we are compelled to pay those increases in price and must do so precisely out of 

 the proceeds of our sugar, the profits of which, for this reason, and because of our 

 condition as a debtor country, we receive only to a small extent. The greater part 

 of the profit accrues to the benefit of the American people themselves, to their 

 farmers, laborers and manufacturers, whose products we consume. Cuba is among 

 the three or four countries which rank as the principal markets for American goods, 

 and consequently is among the countries that provide the greatest benefits to the 

 farmers, merchants, manufacturers, bankers, steamship companies, railroads and other 

 American concerns engaged in the export trade, and in this way also to the laboring 

 classes of the United States. 



The Association of Sugar Mill Owners and Cane Growers of Cuba, therefore, 

 appeals to the American people and, confiding in their spirit of fairness, trusts that 

 no mistakes or misunderstanding of causes will interrupt the good relations which 

 have been so firmly established between the two peoples, from which they reap mutual 

 benefits, and which should not for any reason be weakened. This, at least, is our 

 sincere desire. 



Havana, Cuba, May 4, 1923. 



ViDAL Morales, 



President. 



