THE CUBA REVIEW And Bulletin. 



II 



The plural vote proposition has been ve- 

 toed by Carrera Justiz. It was favored, by 

 Montoro, Coronado, Crowder, Winship and 

 Schoenrich, but opposed by Sarrain, Zayas, 

 Garcia Kohly, Viondi, Reguferos, Carrera 

 Justiz, and Juan Gualberto Gomez. The 

 Americans were in favor of the plural vote, 

 but they were overruled. 



As noted, two Cuban and three Amer- 

 ican members of the committee favored the 

 proposal, while seven Cubans opposed it. 

 The supporters of the proposal argued the 

 need of giving more influence to the edu- 

 cated and property holding classes in view 

 of the predominance of illiterates in the 

 island. 



Juan Alberto Gomez is strongly op- 

 posed to allowing foreigners to have any 

 voice whatsoever in Cuban affairs, while 

 Rafael Montoro favors the foreign vote. 

 Zayas and Sarrain are also opposed to 

 the foreign vo'-e. They say that grant- 

 ing the vote to foreigners will be a seri- 

 ous menace to their party, as in the city 

 of Havana there are but 29,000 Cubans 

 who would be eligible to vote, while 

 there are 32,000 foreigners who would be 

 eligible, most of them Spaniards, who 

 would form a compact party and give 

 the victory to whoin thcT- chose. 



REVISION DESIRED OF THE ELECTION LAWS. 



As one-half the population of Cuba con- 

 sists of negroes, nearly all illiterate, the 

 necessity of preventing them from getting 

 control at the polls naturally engages the 

 thought of the commission now revising 

 the election laws. 



The proposal to permit plural voting by 

 taxpaying citizens being defeated by the 

 liberal members of the commission — the 

 negroes being their adherents — it was pro- 

 po'sed to permit foreigners who own prop- 

 erty to vote at municipal elections after 

 five years' residence. 



A special cable despatch from Havana 

 shows that clamoro'us opposition to this 

 is made in liberal strongholds throughout 

 the island. The negroes are particularly 

 bitter in opposing this proposal to give 

 foreigners a voice in selecting the local 

 officials by whom their property is taxed. 

 The negro leader. General Estenov, is re- 

 ported as saying: — "If the Americans try 

 to force this on us we will declare war and 

 ask the Japs to help us whip 'em." — New 

 York Herald, March 13, 1907. 



The taking of a complete census of Cuba, 

 has been agreed to by the liberal leader, 

 whose following are in a great hurry for 

 the elections to be held. Liberal leaders 

 are convinced that a census is necessary 

 as a basis to ascertain the qualified voters. 

 None has been taken since the last Ameri- 

 can occupation. As the enumeration is to 

 be thorough it will take several months to 

 complete. 



Gonzalez Lanuza's statement that so far 

 the "Piatt amendment has only served to 

 repress trouble, but should be made to 

 prevent it as well," is the basis of his plat- 

 form, and is approved by the conservative 

 part;^. 



FINANCIAL 



There is every reason to expect heavy 

 investments of foreign capital during 1907. 

 — W. A. Merchant, in Dinero, a Cuban fi- 

 nancial journal. 



CUBAN SECURITIES STRONG. 



It would probably not be incorrect to 

 state that the year 1906 added to the in- 

 trinsic worth of Cuban railway securities 

 as a whole. 



In spite of the poor sugar and tobacco 

 crops railway earnings for the fiscal year 

 ended June 30 showed a substantial im- 

 provement over those of the previous year 

 and since the date mentioned have prob- 

 ably well maintained the increase. 



There have been considerable fluctuations 

 in the price of railway stocks, among the 

 causes contributing to which may be men- 

 tioned : 



The political disturbances in September. 

 Intervention by the United States. 

 Speculative activity. j 



High money towards the year end. ' 



Most of the railway stocks are traded 

 in on one or more of the world's large 

 exchanges. Steps are being taken to have 

 the preferred shares of the Cuba R. R. Co. 

 listed in New ork, London and Havana. 



Bond issues of the railways have fluctu- 

 ated within relatively narrow limits, being 

 mainly affected by the world's monetary 

 stringency. 



The insurrectionary movement did virtu- 

 ally no damage to property, it being more 

 of the nature of a demonstration. The ac- 

 tion of the U. S. Government has given 

 most investors confidence as to the future. 



The possibility of the establishment of 

 a protectorate or annexation lends an ad- 

 ditional speculative value to Cuban se- 

 curities, especially those of the Government. 



CUBA, THE WE.4LLTHIEiST SMALL, CODNTRY IN 



THE WORLD. SAYS EDMUND G. VAU6HAN, 



PRESIDENT OF THE NATIONAL BANK 



OF CUBA. 



"I honestly believe that Cuba is the 

 wealthiest small country in the world, 

 so far as natural resources go. You will 

 observe that despite the many wars and 

 revolutions she has encountered, each 

 time she has regained her feet in an 

 astonishingly short space of time. 



