CUBA— THE SUGAR MILL OF THE ANTILLES 



21 



and then drawn tight enough to keep him 

 from backing out of it or creeping 

 through it. 



The horses one sees in rural Pinar del 

 Rio are between the Texas and the Shet- 

 land pony in size and so thin that one 

 wonders that they can make a shadow. 

 The white splotches all over their bodies 

 are eloquent witnesses to the countless 

 times that saddle and harness and spur 

 have laid bare the raw flesh. Though the 

 ground will grow two crops of corn a 

 year, the Pinar del Rio pony never sees 

 an ear of it and must be content to sub- 

 sist on the grass in the plot of which his 

 tether is the radius. 



Milch goats, which are the cows of 

 Pinar del Rio, seem to be the one species 

 of animal able, as a class, to look fat and 

 sleek. 



Havana Province is more prosperous, 

 looks half American, and seems like 

 southern Florida and cane-growing Lou- 

 isiana in one. Crossing the boundary 

 into Matanzas Province, one gets deep 

 into the sugar belt. Vast areas as flat as 

 a floor are covered with sugar-cane. On 

 every horizon the green of the growing 

 cane meets the blue of an arching sky, 

 with a huge sugar central — a sugar mill 

 and radiating railroad — in every land- 

 scape. 



IX THE EASTERN PART OE THE ISLAND 



Santa Clara Province lies next to the 

 "east, and one finds here, as one travels to 

 its eastern border, the sugar industry 

 gradually yielding place to the cattle- 

 growing business, which in turn reaches 

 its high tide in Camaguey. This latter 

 province has wonderful areas of guinea- 

 grass and other pastures on which cattle 

 get as fat and sleek as if feasting on en- 

 silage and cotton-seed meal on an Iowa 

 farm. 



Camaguey is a little larger than Ver- 

 mont, while Santa Clara is about the size 

 of Xew Hampshire. 



Oriente is the Texas of Cuba, the larg- 

 est and the newest of the bonanza lands 

 within the Island Republic. A few years 

 ago the soil of Oriente was thought unfit 

 for sugar-growing, but today it produces 

 more than any other province, and its 

 development is only well begun. The 

 largest centrals in the whole island are 

 located there. 



Cuba's principal iron deposits also are 

 in Oriente. At Daiquiri, on the south 

 coast, is a veritable mountain of hematite 

 ore, which, under the sway of the Amer- 

 ican steam-shovel, has been terraced until 

 it seems to be a vast pyramid. 



On the north coast are large deposits of 

 ore-bearing mud, which, when sufficient 

 drying facilities are installed, promise to 

 yield millions of tons of iron ore right at 

 deep water. That Cuban ores will com- 

 pete with Minnesota and Michigan ores 

 at the eastern furnaces, in the yeais 

 ahead, is the belief of those who know 

 the situation. 



ENGLISH IX CUBAN SCHOOLS 



Cuba has just begun an experiment 

 fraught with many possibilities in Latin- 

 American relations. Many forward- 

 looking Cubans have come to realize that 

 Spanish is no longer the chief language 

 of commerce, and that the inability of the 

 people to speak English is a barrier to 

 progress, since most of the business of 

 the Republic is done with English-speak- 

 ing people. 



Therefore, experimental schools in Eng- 

 lish have been established, and the prog- 

 ress being made justifies the hope that in 

 a generation or two Cuba will place her- 

 self in linguistic accord with the peoples 

 with whom she has to deal. 



I visited one of these schools, and the 

 work being done was both a revelation 

 and an inspiration. The teacher was a 

 young woman of Cuban extraction, born 

 and educated in Xew York. Her class 

 had in it a score of typical Cuban boys, 

 sons of small merchants and work-a-dav 

 folk. 



The teacher was a born instructor. 

 "Now I sing and laugh with joy. What 

 do you say of me when I do that?'' she 

 queried. 



"You are happy,'' responded the chorus 

 of youngsters, their voices as much "in 

 step" as a West Point cadet company. 



"Now I bury my face in my hands and 

 the tears flow from my eyes. What do 

 you say I am doing?" 



"You are crying," they responded as 

 one. 



"What is the subject and what the 

 predicate in the sentence, T cry' ?" she 

 queries. " T is the subject and 'cry' the 

 predicate," they respond. " T is a pro- 



