T H E CUB A R E \- 1 E W 



21 



Cotton Trade Could IJc Larger 



Mr. Graham Clark, special agent of the 

 United States department of commerce and 

 labor, has just returned from an extended 

 trip in Cuba and South America for the 

 purpose of investigation and developing the 

 extension of United States trade with those 

 countries. 



]\Ir. Clark told an audience in Textile 

 Hall, Philadelphia, recently that United 

 States manufacturers had onlj- themselves 

 to blame for not having the trade. Cotton 

 goods to the amount of $120,000,000 annu- 

 alh^ are bought by Latin America. Of this 

 amount the United States get less than ten 

 per cent. 



"Cuba," he said, "lying at our very door, 

 buys less than 14 per cent of her cotton 

 goods of us, the great cotton-growing and 

 manufacturing country." 



!Mr. Clark went on to say that, for ex- 

 ample, we sold assorted lots of, say, eight 

 prints, six of which the Cuban would want. 

 But we refuse to let him have them unless 

 he will take the other two that he does not 

 want. On the other hand, the English ex- 

 change prints for him giving him just what 

 he wants. Again he wants thirtj-yard 

 bolts. We insist in sending forty and fift}"- 

 yard bolts and insist on his taking them 

 or nothing. Still, again he is accustomed 

 to six months' credit, depending on his 

 crops. He gets both the credit and the 

 thirty-yard bolts dear to his heart from 

 England. With us he must pay cash and 

 take the forty or fiftj^-yard bolts that we 

 choose to give him. ]\Ioreover we have a 

 reputation of using those markets as a 

 dumping ground merely when our own 

 markets are slack. 



A Xew Chapter 



Bank clerks at Cienfuegos are to form a 

 chapter of the American Institute of Bank- 

 ing, having obtained a charter from the 

 American Institute. 



The creation of the new chapter at Cien- 

 fuegos comes as a result of an effort on 

 the part of several officers and employees 

 ■of the National Bank of Cuba in that cit}- 

 to organize a school of banking, finance 

 and commercial and banking law on the 

 same basis as that prevailing in Havana, 

 where the main chapter was organized a 

 vear ago. 



A New Bank 



Incorporation papers were signed Janu- 

 ary 7th in . Havana for the Franco-Cuban 

 Credit Foncier, an institution to be gov- 

 erned by the same regulations as the French 

 institution. The bank is capitalized at 

 .$1,500,000. 



Senator Jose B. Aleman is one of the 

 vice-presidents of the bank, together with 

 Secretary of the Treasury- 2\Iachado. Both 



of these prominent men appear also as or- 

 ganizers of the bank, with M. Christian 

 Riche of Paris, PVance, and Sr. Hugo Lou- 

 biere of Havana. 



I 1 e princiraJ business of the lank will 

 l;e the construction of railroads, sugar mills 

 and will also aid in the development of 

 iyri'.u c.rc tntcrpriscs. 



The Territorial Bank Opened 



The Territorial Bank of Cuba opened its 

 doors for business February 1st. It was 

 organized by an act of congress passed 

 last summer for the purpose of promoting 

 agricultural development by lending money 

 on rural properties on easy terms, at low 

 interest. 



Diaz Villegas, ex-secretary of the treas- 

 ur}-, is president of the bank. 



Some modifications of the law govern- 

 ing this bank's concession were approved 

 by the Cuban congress late in January. 

 These modifications were, however, merely 

 matters of detail, important from an ad- 

 rninistrative point of view to the conces- 

 sionaries, and in no wise affecting the 

 beneficient purposes for which the bank was 

 established. 



Havana Terminal Bonds 



There were placed on the London market 

 January 26th, the five per cent debenture 

 bonds of the Havana Terminal Company. 

 The entire issue ($6,250,000) according to 

 reports, was eagerh- oversubscribed. Be- 

 fore the day's trading was completed the 

 bonds commanded a three per cent pre- 

 mium. 



The mone}- derived from the sale of 

 these bonds will be available for the con- 

 struction of the great terminal station and 

 for the other improvements which the 

 United RailwaAs of Havana agreed to 

 make when negotiating the Arsenal- 

 Mllanueva exchange. All these are 

 described and illustrated on other pages of 

 this issue of The Cuba Review. 



The Cuban government owes the Cuba 

 Railroad Company $1,644,000 for the con- 

 struction of 274 kilometers of track to- 

 gether with several steel brid""es over the 

 new branch from ]^Iarti to Bayamo and 

 ]\Ianzanillo authorized by the Railroad 

 Subsidy Act of July 5, 1906. According 

 to the provisions of this act the Cuba Com- 

 pany was to receive $6,000 per kilometer. 

 It is said that the bridge over the Canto 

 River, illustrated in the January Cuba Re- 

 view, is the largest railroad bridge in the 

 island and worth nearly the whole amount 

 of the subsidy. 



The Trust Company of Cuba has declared 

 a dividend of 3 per cent on its stock. 



