Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-12-17
'CUBA'S RESOURCES
Destroying the Labor Supply Of the
Island.
EFFECT ON TEE COUNTRY'S FUTURE
What Was Learned in a Visit to
Guines.
DYING IN THE STREETS
Copyright, 1897. by Charles NJ Pepper.)
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.

| GUINES, Cuba, December II, 1897.
Guines Is good place in which to study
| the conditions and prospects of rural Cuba
Here an idea may be had of the resources
which are left for the renewal of the is
| lands industrial existence The natural
| wealth has been added to by the system of
| irrisating bitches, which date back to the
| beginning of the century Guines was the
! garden Of Cuba. In the ravages of the war
1t has been spared entire desolation. Some
appearance Of smiling and productive ma
ture has been preserved when other parts
of the island have been turned into
| charred wilderness. The town had been
| for many years a prosperous one The
! tcwnspeople were in good circumstances
| many of them rich. The neighboring coun-
| try, besides the big sugar plantations, had
| many small farms, whose owners cultivated
( certainty of a profitable yield and a ready
market. The insurgents from weakness or
for other reasons were never very aggres-
sive in either attack or destruction of prop
| erty And though the Spanish troops in
carrying out Weyler's orders destroyed it
was not with the savage thoroughness that
marked the work elsewhere. So something
! of the resources of soil and cultivation re-
| mains to Glines at the beginning Of the
| new era in Spain's colonial government.
| But while Guines has been thus signally
| favored in keeping portion of it's natural
| riches its loss CT other resources has been
equally signal The loss has been in human
| labor. a prodigal soil alone will not re-
store agriculture and trade. Are there peo-
| pie enough left to upbuild the country?
That Is the question which most concerns
Cuba today Whether the future be au-
tonomy, independence or an American pro-
tectorate, an answer must be found to it.
| l came to Guines with the notion that the
Inquiry might be made with advantage
here, without having to say too much of
wretchedness and suffering. That is a
story SO old and often told that the ele-
| ment Of personal feeling or sympathy or re-
sentiment may be left out in trying to solve
| the problem of political economy or of la
Dor supply, which is now the most pressing
| one. Individual cases may obtrude them
selves at times. On leaving the train in
the morning l asked the way to an inn.
Replied the man from whom the direction
was asked: when you reach that corner
where the negro is lying turn to your left
ana go on to the soldiers barracks. The
inn is close by
Dying I'm the Streets.
This answer was given in the most mat
ter-of-fact way, without infection In the
tone which could have been construed as
unfeel1ng or brutal. A little knot uf peo-
pie, dozen or fifteen, were on the corner
The negro was stretched on the pavement
His forehead was bandaged as though a
wound had been bound up. A blanket was
rolled together, which might have served
his head for pillow. had any one thought
OF 1t. Whether he was a presentado q
concentrate. an insurgent, or somebody
else, might be learned later. He had evil
IDENTIFY wandered in from the country 1 III
quired whether nothing could be done for
him. Non, senor, esta unriendo. (No sir:
he is dying)" The people around him
were not unsympathetic, but they have
that the sight, though it is no longer of
common occurrence, does not excite their
emotions.
And one life does not seem so much in the
economic equation which must be solved
with death everywhere the chief and de-
termining factor. In seeking the solution
1t was necessary to hear again the story of
the awful change which WeyIers concen-
tratlon decree had wrought. The people Of
Guines who survive close their eyes in tell
ing of it, but the picture will always re-
main with them. One period they can
not forget. That was the month Of
April, when the deaths numbered / 300 and
the old cemetery WAS choked that
when the trenches would hold no more
new burying ground had to be found. These
graveyards gave Guines a melancholy
fame. BLESSED are those who die in the
Lcrd' is the inscription in Latin over the
entrance to the old one. But It was said
OF those who perished during the time of
plague and hunger when the SMALLPOX and
the starvation fever kept equal pace that
they died in the DEVILS embrace for it
was Weyler who beckoned them. The new
burying ground lies beyond the other 1t
has no walls. When this place of sepulture
was laid out no one thought of placing
bounds and limits on the acreage of earth
that would be needed. The Spaniard who
was then alcalde. or mayor, was heraAled
for his public spirit and benevolence in
giving the ground to the municipality.
Letter 1t was found he was conducting a
profitable real estate speculation by exact
ing payment for every burial. Marquis
Palmerola, who was then governor of Ha-
vena province, dismissed the thrifty alcalde
in disgrace.
The tombstones in these two cemeteries
would not give the information which is
needed to understand the economic pros
pects of Guines and the surrounding coun-
try. Few of those who are buried there
have had monuments erected to them. One
epitaph would answer for all-"Murdered
by Spain's viceroy in Cuba. Don Valeriano
Weyler, Marques of Teneriffe." The facts
are to be had outside the cemeteries from
the civil records and the registry Of births
and deaths.
Destruction of the Labor Supply.
Without any purpose Of taking a census
of the hecatombs, have had the official
figures verified. They show the fearful
vacuum which has been caused in the labor
supply and help to form an idea of the
condition under which the regeneration of
Cuba must be begun.
In January, 1897, the town popula-
tion Of Guines was. aS............. 5000
Increase from surrounding country by
Weylers concentration decree Of
January ....................... 1900
Total population. ................. Is 600 |
Number Of death in Guines from jan
uary 5 to December 1, 1897. =. 66S7
Number of deaths in Guines and sur
rounding country In 1894. 448 |
Number of deaths in Guines and sur
rounding country in 1895. ........ 637
Number Of deaths in Guines and sur
rounding country In 1896. ..... 824
In the last three months of 1895 Weyler's
policy had it's beginning and the increase
In the death rate for that year came in
those months.
The mortality WAS mot 90 fearful In sunae
of the adjoining villages. San Nicoaas, q !
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