THE CUB-A REVIEW And Bulletin. 



MAGAZINE AND NEWSPAPER COMMENT. 



The economic welfare of almost every 

 one of tlie West India islands is in direct 

 proportion to its intercourse with the 

 United States, says Lewis R. Freeman in 

 the Review of Reviews, and yet the Ameri- 

 can flag floats over but one of them. The 

 writer describes the conditions he finds at 

 each of these islands and suggests the peace- 

 ful annexation or purchase of the British 

 West Indies as a good thing for all con- 

 cerned. Mr. Freeman has also decided opin- 

 ions about Cuba and says that not excepting 

 Java it is the most productive island in the 

 world. Sugar and tobacco have made phe- 

 nomenal increases, and the railroad mile- 

 age has nearly doubled since the war, there 

 being now in the vicinity of 1500 miles of 

 broad guage lines on the island in addition 

 to hundreds of private lines which serve 

 the sugar plantations. The island cannot 

 make the showing it is capable of during 

 the present unsettled conditions, and these 

 make American and foreign investors in 

 Cuba unreservedly in favor of annexation, 

 or at least a permanent protectorate. This 

 feeling is probably thoroughly understood 

 in this country, but the writer states that a 

 belief that annexation with which they are 

 in full sympathy must come is held bj- near- 

 ly all the Uritish and foreign officials in 

 tilt West Indies. He quotes the Hon. Hugh 

 Clifford, C. M. G., the colonial secretary 

 of Trinidad, as folloT\s : "Your govern- 

 ment will have to annex Cuba in the end, 

 v.hether it desires to or not." He finds the 

 ravages of the serious drought, from Novem- 

 ber, 1906, to May, 1907, almost as severe as 

 that wrought by years of warfare, and sees 

 the necessity for irrigation systems every- 

 where. Should this be done, "the uncounted 

 millions of damage that has resulted from 

 the drought need not be checked up as 

 total loss." 



Undoubtedly there will bo 



Cuba Pros- great prosperity if the island 



f>erous Uvderh not given a setback by the 



American establishment of another in- 



Occupation. dependent and unstable Cu- 

 ban government, says the Chi- 

 cago Tribune. During the kst year of 

 American occupation there has been a 

 marked growth in Cuban trade, and the 

 growth will not be checked as long as the 

 occupation lasts, and every day that it en- 

 dures adds to the certainty of its indefinite 

 continuance. 



President Roosevelt said in his last mes- 

 sage that the provisional government which 

 had been established in August would ad- 

 minister the island "for a few months until 

 tranquillity can be restored, a new election 

 properly held, and a new government in- 

 augurated." Nearly eleven months have 

 elapsed and nothing is being done toward 

 inaugurating a new government. Instead, 

 sanitation, road building, and other perma- 

 nent improvements are being looked after. 



The siluatiun satisfies i^erfectly the prop- 

 erty owners and taxpayers of Cuba, both 

 iiptive and foreign. 



The New York Sun says 

 Business the lines of least resistance 

 in for the United Stales, com- 



Cuba. mercially, unquestionably run 



north and south, rather than 

 east and west. It says further that in the 

 lands south of the United States are mar- 

 kets which could be profitably cultivated, 

 yet we hear more about trade opportunities in 

 the Far East than about those which lie at 

 our door, notably Cuba. It is a matter of 

 record that exports from this country to 

 Cuba are much below the imports of Cuba 

 from all other countries, and that the im- 

 ports of the United States from Cuba are 

 very much larger than Cuba's exports to 

 other countries. American merchants, says 

 the Sun, might increase their sales indefi- 

 nitely by the simple process of going after 

 the business in a businesslike way. 



The real development of 

 Cuba's Cuba has been internal, says 

 Internal the Nashville Tennessean, 

 Dcvelopnieiit. and its foreign trade rela- 

 tions is but an imperfect in- 

 dex of the island's industrial growth. The 

 augumentation of her natural industries, 

 such as raw sugar, tobacco and its manu- 

 factures, agriculture and fruit productions, 

 have been very noticeable. The importation 

 account has been swelled by such articles 

 rs iron and steel products, machinery of 

 various kinds, provisions and many other 

 staples, which all express the effort of new 

 capital entering a country in which material 

 progress and increase in the laboring popu- 

 lation has begun. Manufacturing for ex- 

 port and local consumption is also begin- 

 ning to develop in the right direction. 



It is utterly uncertain when 

 XeiK' Talk in the American troops will be 

 Washington withdrawn from Cuba, says 

 of a the Washington correspond- 



Protcctorate. ent of the New York Globe, 

 and there is muc'h warrant 

 for the belief that an American protectorate 

 will eventually be established. There is but 

 little annexation talk. It does not think the 

 tabulation of the census returns will be 

 finished until May, 1908. It will conse- 

 quently be near- the close of that year be- 

 fore a president can be elected. Then will 

 come a wait of three months for the inau- 

 guration, and i' will be well into 1909 with- 

 out unforseen delays before the re-estab- 

 lished Cuban government is under way. 

 American officials have not an overserious 

 expectation that thines will run so smoothly 

 as to see all these matters finished within 

 the time stated, or that whatever party 

 wins, it would prove strong enough to give 

 Cuba a stable government without the back- 

 ing of the United States. 



