T H E CUB A RE V I EW 29 



"GoorJs Stock Maintenance. — This shows an increase of £22,765, or 10.6%. Of this 

 increase salaries and wages account for £18,820, the balance being due to increased cost of 

 materials. The remarks under Coaching Stock Maintenance apply also to Goods Stock." 



" Ijocomotive Running. — The expenditure under this head exceeds that of the previous 

 year by £233,913, of which salaries and wages show £109,678. This is entirely due to the higher 

 wages paid to running staff. The increase in fuel is partly due to the fact that coal cost us 

 50% more than the previous year. The conversion to oil fuel allowed us to reduce the con- 

 sumption of coal from 218.280 English tons to 97,694 tons while the consumption of oil fuel 

 increased from 26,452 English tons to 137,594 tons. 



"We were exceedingly fortunate in having our conversion so far advanced at a time 

 when the price of coal was the highest known in Cuba. Had we been entirely dependent 

 on coal, the financial results of the year under review would have been seriously affected." 



"Traffic Expenses. — These show an increase of £89,452, equivalent to 8.61%. The ex- 

 penditure of the Traffic Department suffered from delays in the movement of trains, due 

 to a large numbei of locomotive failures, and to the block in our Terminal and in the 

 traffic for the Cuba Railway, to which reference is made elsewhere. The numbers of staff 

 were slightly added to by the institution of the Commercial Department, whose figures are 

 included under this heading. The main source of increase, however, has been the 10% to 

 15% general rise in salaries and wages given in the first month of the financial year, which 

 applied right through the year, and which increased the annual pay-roll by £106,360." 



General Remarks 



"The past financial year has been a notable one in our history, for it has been crowded 

 with a series of events, all of which affected greatly the present and future well-being of the 

 Company. Of these, perhaps the most important were: the amalgamation of the Cuban 

 Central and Western Railways with the United's System; the Presidential election and the 

 accompanying elections for Congress and Senate; the tragic fall in the price of sugar — the 

 staple product of the country — from 23 cents to less than .3 cents per pound; the declaration 

 of the Moratorium, the going into liquidation of the three largest Cuban Banks; the Boiler- 

 makers' strike, extending over the whole of the first half-year's working; the increase in our 

 Tariffs in December, the passing through both Congress and Senate of the Law derogating 

 same, and the subsequent veto of the Law exercised by the President of the Republic." 



"For the first four months, the country still experienced the wave of prosperity following 

 the production of the 1920 crop of 3,728,975 tons, valued at $1,005,451,080, an enormous figure 

 when compared with the pre-war crop of 1913 of 2,428,537 tons, valued at $106,078,496. With 

 the rapid decline in the price of sugar, the local bubble of speculation burst, and a general 

 lack of confidence spreading resulted in a run on all the local banks, which led President Men- 

 ocal, on October 10th, to declare a Moratorium for 40 days — this period being afterwards ex- 

 tended by the Torriente Law to the 10th of June. The three chief Cuban Banks — the National 

 Bank, the Spanish Bank, and the International Bank — have since gone into liquidatior, to- 

 gether with eleven private banking houses of more or less importance. Fortunately, all the 

 foreign banks stood their ground well, and their strong support in a most grave situation 

 undoubtedly saved the country from a complete financial disaster." 



"This year's sugar crop was, therefore, harvested under the pressure of most difficult 

 financial conditions, but nevertheless the result has been the production of one of the largest 

 crops in the history of Cuba. The latest figures give a production to date from 198 mills of 

 3,898,985 English tons, with four large mills still grinding, which very nearly approximates 

 the figures of the record crop of 1919, of 3,967,094 tons." 



"Our traffic has experienced the same extreme changes as has the sugar industry. Com- 

 mencing the year, we found ourselves with a great pressure of freight and passenger traffic 

 offering, without sufficient rolling stock facilities to cope with it, but from the date the Mora- 

 torium was declared the decline in general goods and passenger traffic was persistent, until, 

 with the completion of the sugar crop movement at the end of May, the bottom seemed to 

 completely fall out of business in the Island, and our receipts for the last three months have 

 been little better than half of those of the preceding year." 



"Traffic movement was carried on under abnormal difficulties for almost the whole of 

 the year. For the first few months, a large number of locomotive failures, due chiefly to the 

 sabotage of the Boilermakers' strike, and which averaged for some weeks from 15 to 20 daily, 

 made the regular movement of our trains quite out of the question. During the same period, 

 our neighbors, the Cuba Railroad, had their own difficulties, which made it possible for them 

 to receive the large amount of goods traffic we had to offer them. The block thus formed con- 

 tinued throughout the first half of the year to such an extent that at times there were on our 

 lines between 800 and 900 freight cars awaiting their reception." 



"As a result of the Moratorium, local consignees were unable to make their financial ar- 

 rangements to permit them to clear the ferryboat traffic through the customs on its arrival 

 from the United States, and from November until March, the Havana Terminals were blocked 

 up with freight cars which could not be moved until the customs duties on their contents had 

 been paid. This block of cars in the Terminal culminated in the month of January, when 



