THE CUBA REVIEW And Bulletin. 13 



relating to his apportionment. This certificate is henceforth the title-deed to his 

 property, which he may record in :he Registry of Property. He is now no longer a 

 "comunero" — he is an indeJDendent landholder, and for him the "hacienda comunera" 

 is a thing of the dead past. There remains but one thing for him to do which will 

 remind him of that chrysalis stage of his existence. He has yet to pay his share 

 of the costs incurred in the proceedings for the demarcation and apportionment of 

 the property. 



The law provides that the common costs shall not exceed ten per cent, of the 

 value of the property, the costs being appraised by the surveyor after the lawyers, 

 surveyor, calificadores and others have presented their accounts for services rendered 

 in connection with the proceedings. The former "comunero" may pay his quota 

 in five equal annual installments. When, as is generally the case, the party peti- 

 tioning the court for a survey of an hacienda advances the amount of the coinmon 

 costs and assumes the payment of the expenses that arise, these expenses are added, 

 to the costs, and such party becomes a creditor of the other owners, whose holdings 

 are encumbered on the books of the Registry of Property to the extent of their 

 indebtedness until the amount due as their share of the costs- and expenses is paid 

 in full. 



Notwithstanding the admirable character of the provisions of ^lilitary Order 

 No. 62 a marked sluggishness on the part of the comuneros to take advantage of it 

 in their own interests was noticeable. It required persuasive action on the part 

 of the government of Tomas Estrada Palma, in the passage of the "Law for the 

 Demolition of Haciendas Comuneras," enacted in October, 1904, and an extension, 

 a year later, of the period within which applications for surveys could be made in 

 order to secure the benefits conferred bj^ the law, to bring about a general move- 

 ment towards such demolition on the part of the comuneros in eastern Cuba. To 

 use the municipal district of Holguin bj^ way of illustration, there is not one 

 hacienda comunera to-day cf the thirty wiihin its jurisdiction for which application 

 for survey has not been made. In other municipal districts, those of Puerto Padre, 

 Gibara and jNIayari, which, with Holguin, are included within the judicial district 

 of Holguin, the work of demolition has been going on steadily and application for 

 survey has been made in the case of every hscienda comunera. With the recent 

 extension by Governor iMagoon of the period during which a survey may be asked 

 for to May 31, igo8, there is every reason for believing that within the next four 

 years all the lands within this probince of Santiago de Cuba will be held in private 

 ownership. 



The great benefits which will result from the agrarian changes of the next few 

 years in eastern Cuba can hardly be appreciated by northerners, who do not realize 

 the condition of poverty prevailing to-day among the people of the rural districts. 

 iNIany of these have inherited a large interest in the lands around thein, as is evi- 

 denced in titles in dollars of possession which they hold. But most of these lands, 

 amounting to vast tracts in the aggregate, are not under cultivation. The people 

 have no carital, no funds, and can secure none. In a town, a man can borrow money 

 on the house he owns. But a man who holds dollars of possession which entitle 

 him to a large number of caballerias of land cannot borrow money on these pesos. 

 With the completion of the survey he will be able to secure financial help from banks 

 which to-day absolutely refuse to advance money against property in dollars of 

 possession. With borrowed funds the land owner can stock his farm; and by steady 

 industr3% with the np;:ortunities for education which the state now affords his chil- 

 dren, but which were utterly lacking under the Spanish regime, he may enter upon 

 a new era of self-respecting citizenship. 



The foreign capitalist, as well as the man of smaller means, who is looking 

 for profitable investments in Cuba, will benefit also by the change. Greater security 

 will be felt with the recording of all holdings in the Registry of Property, where 

 data concerning any farm or estate may easily be obtained. At the same time it 

 should be said that the opportunities for securing lands at a low price are unequaled 

 at the present time while titles are still in "peso's de posesion." More than once 

 the writer has heard a holder of such a title say, relative to the price of his holding, 

 "As soon as th« survey is completed, I shall ask much more per caballeria." There 

 is no doubt that the prices at which lands can now be bought are at their lowest 

 level. As to the perfect confidence with which a land-looker can purchase titles in 

 dollars of possession, no other proof is necessary than the examples furnished by 

 such organizations as The Nipe Bay Company, with an investment of $7,000,000, 

 and the Chaparra Sugar Estate, which has but recently extended its already large 

 holdings, held in dollars of possession title, by the purchaser of more pesos along 

 the line of the Cuba Railroad. In spite of the tortuous proceedings involved in the 

 surveys, it has been demonstrated beyond cavil that "haciendas comuneras" can be 

 surveyed. As a proof may be cited the haciendas of Dumahuecos, on the north coast; 

 Holguin, Bariay, owned by Sanchez Hermanos, Banes, Rio Seco and ^Nlulas, the last 

 three owned largely by the United Fruit Company of Boston. These have been 



