The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-02-06
VAST NATURAL
WEALTH OF CUBA
Resources That Can Endure Unlimited
Oppression.
is NOT A "HOWLlNG WILDERNESS
Her Contributions to the Government
of Her Spendthrin Mother Country
Have Left Her Hidden Riches un-
touchcd--Hc wide Virgin Soil
and Her Minerals.
From the New York sun.

From the New York Sun.
Most recent discussions of affairs in
Cuba have been about the progress OF
the war that the Cuban patriots nave
been waging for their independence.
1t has been asserted frequently by al
most every public speaker that the war
has made the island "a bowling Wild
erness," and that should Spain win
she would have gained nothing but
the continued right to rule and tax a
people already ground down to the
point of starvation, by unjust taxation,
and because of these statements the
questions most frequently asked have
been. why should Spain want to hold
Cuba? Why should she, in her bank
rupt state, spend almost 500 900 in
a single year to subdue people who
hate her rule, who never have sub
mitted willingly to it, who never can be
made to do so?"
In the interest the heroic struggle of
the patriots for freedom has aroused,
sight has been lost of the wonderful
natural resource of the island itself,
of the wonderful fertility of it's soil,
of the millions of hidden wealth that
taxation almost to the point of con-
fiscation, has made it Improbable to
Setult HUN ilS IlulllS DliCG' he
Spaniards know these things. and in
them they see the possibility of further
plunder almost endless and almost linn
itless.
Raimundo Cabrera, in his book
Cuba and the Cubans," says:
"Oh. we are truly rich!
From 1921 to 1926 Cuba, with her
own resources, covered the eXpendi-
dates from that period. We had al
ready sufficient negro slaves to cut
! down our virgin forests and ample au-
thority to force them to work.
by means of our vices and our lux
| ury, and in spite of the hatred of ev-
! erything Spanish which Moreno at
! tributed to us. we sent in 1927 the first
! little million of hard cash to the treas
ury of the nation. From that time un-
! til 1864 we continued 20 send yearly
| to the mother country two and a half
millions of the same stuff. According
| to several Spanish statisticians these
sums amounted in 1864 to $50 107, ,2S9.
| We We're very rich, don't you see;
! tremendously rich. We contributed
more than S5,0O0O00 toward the re-
Quirements of the peninsular war
$5,372, ,205 We paid in great part the
cost of the war in Africa The in
divdual donations alone amounted to
| fabulous sums.
"But, of course, we never voted for
our own imDosts; they have been
! forced upon us because we are so rich
In 1862 we had in state of produc-
ton the following estates Two thou
sand seven hundred and twelve stock
farms, 1,52l sugar plantations, 1872 cof-
fee plantations, 6,175 cattle ranches, Is
| cocoa plantations, 50 cotton planta-
, tions, 22,74S produce farms, 1888 truck
| farms, 1,541 tobacco plantations, 1881
! apiaries, 1853 country resorts, 243 distil-
leries, 46S tile works, 504 lime kilns, 6;
| charcoal furnaces, "a casava bread fac
tories, and 81 tanneries. Today l dc
not know what we possess, because
there are no statistics, and because the
recently organized assessment is 6
hodge podge and a new burden; bu
we. have more than at that time; surely
we must have great deal more.
CONVICT SETTLEMENT.
For a long time we have borne the
expense of the convict settlement a
Fernando Po We paid for the illstarreC
Mexican expedition, the costs of tn,
|
publics of the Pacific. How can we pos
sibly be poor? While England. France
and Holland pay large sums for the re
Quirements of their colonies, Spain doe
, not contribute Il single cent for hers
. We do not need it. We are wading deel
in rivers of gold. If the fertility of ou
soil did not come to our rescue, we mus
perfOrce have become enriched by tn
system of protection to the COmmerc
of the mother country. The four col
, umns of the tariff are indeed of sublim
invention. Our agricultural industrie
require foreign machinery, tools, an
utensils which Spain does not supply
, | but as she knows that we have gold t
r spare, she may make us pay for ther
: | very high, and since our sugar is to b
sold in the United States, never min
q ! what they cost. When there are earth
+ quakes in Andalusia and inundatiOns i
p Murcia, hatred does not prevent on
$ sending to our afflicted brethren larg
y sums. We are opulent? Let US see
= we are. From the earliest times dow
n to the present the officials who com
= to Cuba amass in the briefest space {
= time fortunes to be dissipated in Mad
q rid. and which appear never to distur
their consCiences. This country is Yer