The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1897-12-03
How Clever Yankees Profit by tho
Wreck of Cuban Industry.
IConvrioht 1907

Wreck of Cuban Industry.
Copyright, 1871
Other nations extremity is usually
Uncle Sans opportunity. With his
customary cuteness and foresight he
has availed himself of the distracted
state of Cuba to makemoney in rather
odd way. When the war in Cuba had
been raging for some time and the in
dustries of the unhappy island were at
a standstill it occurred to the astute
manager of the Nassau smelling works
that there was money to be made by
purchasing the wrecked machinery that
lay rusting in the fields and factories
of Cuba while the engineers and plant
ers to whom the plants belonged were
fighting for freedom against the Span
ish soldiers. The idea was acted upon
at once. Six months ago there left for
Cuba an expedition which consisted of
Is men, whose only weapon was an
unlimited credit upon which to draw
for the purpose of buying up the en-
tire machinery of the island at the
cheapest prices for cash.
The Spanish authorities at first looked
upon the expedition with suspicion, and
at one time it seemed as though the en-
tire contingent of peaceful traders
would be arrested and thrown into
MORO castle as flibusterers in disguise.
They succeeded, however, in demon
strating their peaceful intentions, and
forthwith proceeded to scatter over the
island, looking for the owners of the
engines, boilers, plows, tobacco rails
ing plants, and sugar plantation imple-
ments that the Cubans had left to the
care of anyone who happened to take
a fancy to them. The work of buying
up these abandoned relics of Cuban in
dustry proved easier than was antici
pated. Where owners could be found
they were only too willing to sell the
machinery for any sum that the pur
chasers offered. Where no owner could
be discovered, for the reason that Span
ish bullets had left the property owner
less, the Spanish officials were only too
glad to proclaim themselves the right
full possessors of the property and allow
the agents of the smelling works to
carry off the rusting machinery at their
own price.
AS fast as it could be bought up the
machinery was shipped to New York,
chiefly as old metal, and to-day in the
shops and yards of the smelling works
can be seen the remnants of what was
once, in the piping times of peace, the
plant with which the industries Of Cuba
brought wealth to the Golfers of the
planters and manufacturers. 1t is
| curious-looking sight to see the wreck
of Cuban industries in the yards of
in every stage of Generalization and
rustiness; fly wheels broken and bent;
plows that look as though the shells
of the Spaniards or the dynamite guns
of the Cubans had got up Irritation
with them; boilers through whose bat
tered sides daylight peeps inquisitively;
engines that once buzzed and hummed
in prosperous factories, but which are
now fit only for the metal pots; piston
rods without connecting wheels and
wheels without connecting rods; farm
implements that have fairly lost their
identity, and nameless remnants of en-
gines in the last stages of collapse. Ii
there is any vesige left in Cuba of its
former industries, it is certainly not the
fault of the rs men who are engaged in
buying up as old metal the machinery
of the war-torn island.
1--WE have no competitors in the bust
ness of buying up Cuban machinery"
said the manager after he had exhibit
ed the Misunderstanding collection.
Our men have secured the island and
have sent on ship loads of the stuff.
Most of it is fit only to be melted down
and used again as crude metal, but some
of the copper machinery, of which the
Cubans possessed a good deal, we have
been able to furnish up and sell in its
original shape at secondhand prices.
Our men will pursue their search until
the last pound of Cuban machinery has
found its way into our yards. When
the war is ended, if it ever does end.
the Cubans will have to begin all over
again and buy entirely new plants
throughout the length and breadth of
the land before the wheels of industry
will be able to hum once more. Then
Uncle Sam will score again, for the new
machinery will probably be bought
from US. 1t will be a grim joke if the
Cubans, when the white winged dove
of peace returns once more, should
purchase machinery made from the
very material that our men are now en-
gagged in collecting. But all's fair in
love and war, and this is certainly
war"