Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1898-06-11
OF THE ANTILLES.
THE STORY OF CUBA. HER PEOPLE
AND HER RESOURCES.

, ignorant of the scene of these struggles
as if they had occurred in the viewless
air. And yet, in the comparatively
small compass Of it's watery bounda-
ries,. there is concentrated a greater va
riety of natural %resources than are to be
found in any other island, state, prov
ince or country beneath the sun.
This may sound ~extravagant, but the
statement IS verified by all reliable sta
tistics and unprejudiced witnesses. And
when thos' who oavil come to reckon
up it's advantages-its millions of acres
Of soil, richer than any in the United
States, that will grow anything from a
potato to \ pineapple; it's abundant
yields of sugar and tobacco; it's ire
mendous forests Of mahogany and other
precious woods; its uplands, upon which
is grown every product Of the temper
ate zone, and its fertile valleys, from
which luxuriantly spring the most lus-
cious fruits Of the tropics; it's mines Of
iron and copper and manganese; its
hundreds Of beautiful and excellent
harbors, and the soft, healthful atmos-
phere Of perpetual summer that forms
the setting for this peerless "Pearl''-
their doubts will be swallowed up in
conviction.
A Complex Study.
A study Of this wonderful island is
complex from any standpoint. The geog-
rapher, with the best map in his pos
session, will find new inlets, the natu-
ralist will add to his collection, and the
m~ineralogist will revel in novelties, and
even the blase cosmopolitan will recover
in Cuba the zest which had gone out of
his life. And all this is merely to say
that a great deal Of the accepted data
with reference to Cuba is either inexact
or wholly faulty. This, of course, like
everything else that works injury to the
island as to its relation to the rest Of
the world, is due to the autocratic and
ignorant methods of the Spanish author
tiles, the tendency Of whose "disci.
pline' is toward handicapping every
public spirited enterprise and retarding
everything that is not done directly in
the interest Of the honor and glory and
revenue Of the power across the sea, for
whom this poor, downcast people have
been working out what has heretofore
appeared to be a life subsidy.
Notwithstanding all these difficulties,
the enterprise Of Americans and others
foreign to the soil has led native indus
try in the right direction, and it's COM
MERGE has grown in the teeth of riot and
insurreotion. The normal population,
1900, 900, composed Of something near
1000, 900 persons of Spanish descent,
. 1000 foreign whites, 43, 900 Chinese
and 500, 900 negroes and colored people,
is not a busy throng. The lettering Gu.
ban Of today can hardly be recognized az
the descendant Of those sturdy pioneers
Of the sixteenth century who fashioned
the gigantic bastions Of Ell Castillo de
la Fuerza-the Castle Of Strength-but
still he car be brought to bestir himself
If a sufficient financial inducement is
offered. To be entirely just, it should be
said that enterprise is not wholly want
ing, even among the laboring classes.
And SO capital, which was at first large
ly American, was put to work, and az
q result cities have sprung up, large
plantations have been put under cultiva-
tion, mines have been opened up, and
sugar, tobacco and the hundreds Of 9th.
er valuable products Of the island have
been made to enrich it. AS is we'll
known, a large and usurious part Of the
annual revenues Of planters, miners and
manufacturers has been taken for taxes,
and at length it has found it's way into
the ever depleted Golfers of the home
government at Madrid. And still traffic
increased until the beginning Of the rev.
olution in 1896, when there commenced
the devastation which has cost Cuba SO
dearly.
The chief products of the island are
sugar and tobacco, and the amount an
nually realized from these products dur
ing the years just preceding the last up
rising has been, on the average, So, 000,-
600 pesos (dollars), and the revenue from
mineral sources has been grossly esti-
mated at 8, 500, 900 pesos. The amounts
derived from other sources ~(including
cotton, Of which a good deal is pro-
duced) we're considerable, but these
were the most important. And just
here, as an instance Of the slumbrous
apathy that has resulted from years Of
hopeless subjugation and practical serf-
dom, the opening up Of the iron mines
In the province Of Santiago de Cuba, at
the eastern end Of the island, may profit
ably be cited: These valuable mines,
though discovered nearly a century ago,
never felt the blow Of q pick until 1883,
when a party Of New York capitalists
determined to make an effort to pur-
chase and develop them. Negotiations
with the Spanish government were at
once commenced, and in 1885, after two
years Of persuasion, concessions were
obtained and work was commenced.
Stock companies were organized in New
York and Philadelphia, and bonds were
floated. These companies were the Ju;
ragua, the Spanish American, the Signe
g !