1 Hti 



BOTANiCAJ. 



CUBA REVIEW 



"ALL ABOUT CUBA" 



Copyright 1923, by the Munson Steamship Line 



Volume XXI 



September, 1923 



Number 10 



Cuban Government Matters 



The Tarafa Bill 



One matter of paramount interest which 

 has been occupying the attention of every- 

 one connected with the sugar industry in 

 Cuba, is the Tarafa bill, which passed the 

 Cuban House of Representatives on Aug- 

 ust 10th by a vote of 89 to 9. 



This bill authorizes the organization of a 

 company of national character for the pur- 

 pose of acquiring all or a majority of the 

 shares of the public service railway com- 

 panies, with a view to consolidating and 

 regulating their operation and improving 

 and lowering the cost of service of railway 

 transportation. It also requires that the 

 company shall acquire shares of three pub- 

 lic service railway companies, two of which 

 must be Cuban, and together must have 

 not less than 400 kilometers of lines in 

 operation, and whose systems must be con- 

 nected. 



A combination of the Cuba R.R. and the 

 Ferrocarril del Norte, the latter built by 

 Col. J. M. Tarafa who sponsored the bill, 

 would meet with the requirements of the 

 bin, and it is generally xinderstood that 

 these two systems, with the possible addi- 

 tion of one other small line, will be joined 

 if the bill becomes a law. 



Upon the creation of such a consolidated 

 system existing freight rates on sugar are 

 to be reduced 20 per cent and charges for 

 the transportation of mails lowered 30 per 

 cent. Private railwavs now in existence. 



or to be constructed in the future, in dis- 

 tricts where the consolidated lines operate, 

 are not to be opened to public service ex- 

 cept through agreement to join the con- 

 sohdation. 



The underlying purpose of the bill, as 

 indicated by the prohibition of independent 

 construction, and by the imposition of 

 heavy taxes on exports and imports mov- 

 ing through private ports, appears to be to 

 create a railway monopoly and to force 

 traffic to move over the lines of the con- 

 solidated system. It is on these grounds 

 that the bill has been objected to by the 

 sugar companies and other industrial in- 

 terests that operate their own ports or that 

 are in position to develop such shipping 

 facilities by building private railway lines. 



Dispensations for export or import 

 through the so-called sub-ports are to be 

 revoked after 90 days from the passage of 

 the bill. Sugar companies and other con- 

 cerns shipping through private ports are 

 to be required to pay a tax of five cents 

 per hundred pounds on sugar. 10 per cent 

 ad valorem on molasses and 2 per cent on 

 minerals, tobacco and other products. In- 

 dustrial concerns to be established in future 

 using private ports are to pay fifteen cents 

 per hundred pounds on sugar, and com- 

 panies utilizing the consolidated lines in 

 the construction of their plants are to pay 

 twenty cents per hundred pounds on sugar. 

 These taxes are to be reduced by 25 per 



