The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1898-08-26
sANTIAeo's RICH MINES.
The Difficulties of Working Them Under
Spanish Rule.

Spanish Rule.
D. T. Denton and Captain @. D. Dick
Inson Of Duluth, and Captain b. Nor
com of Tower, were for several years
In charge of the mining and railway
interests of the Juragua Spanish-Amer-
lean and Sigua Iron companies at San
tiago and Baiquiri.
.sThe Spaniards," said Mr.. Denton,
"steal everything. At Santiago there IS
q little plaza, about block square,
and it is all laid out in walks and
trees, is set round with settees, and has
a fountain in each corner. One year
while we were there the government
had appropriated $4,000 for the I'M
provement of this plaza, and all that
was done was to fill up some little
holes in the walks with crushed stone,
and that work was all done by the con-
victs at no cost. Every cent OF the
money went into the pockets OF the OF
ficials. Every man has to pay 4
cent tax on the meat he eats, for the
government puts that tax on all deal
ers. The officials get all that, every
body says. There was an import duty
of cents a pound on flour when we
were there. though no flour is ground
in the island. The government used to
send out arsenal supplies, powder, etc.,
and it frequently happened that we
used government powder, steel, and
other supplies. for which we had to pay
the officials. Our supplies were in the
arsenal and they shipped us what we
needed impartially from our own stores
or from those of the Spanish govern
ment, but they made us pay we'll for
the privilege of using stolen goods.
We were not able to complain. II we
had, there would have been action that
would have ruined our business.
az recollect one time when man
was killed on the tracks of the Juragua
road by some accident not connected
with the operation of the railroad. His
body lay partly on the rails. The dep
uty coroner refused to let the company
move the man and sent up to Santiago
for the coroner and his staff, and the
road was blockaded till that official ar
rived and made an inquest. By the
time they were through there were sew
enteen trains waiting on either side of
the body, and operations at the mines,
on the road, and at the docks, where
an ocean ship was loading, were all
brought to an absolute silence. When
we first went there we had assurance
from S. P. Ely of Cleveland, who was
at the head of the enterprise, that ev-
cry possible contingency had been
looked out for, that the government
had agreed to permit the import and
export of all articles intended for the
mines without duty, and that our OPP
erations would be unimpeded. The
government had assured him of this.
We went to work and had stripped
off the dirt from the little mountain
on the side of Baiquiri harbor, with the
intention of tumbling down the rocks
by blasting to make a breakwater for
our ships and dock. We were all ready
to begin blasting and were in hurry,
for the bad season was coming on,
when one morning an officer and a
lot of soldiers appeared and read us
long paper all decorated with seals,
which proved to be an Injunction. We
had to stop or be shot. We stopped.
If we had thrown one stone into the
water there would have been trouble.
We went to Santiago and got down
the commander and made big dinner
for him with plenty of wine and gin,
and Jose Ferrara, who was the local
manager of the enterprise, made a
speech full of patriotism and with ref
erences to the discovery of America by
the Spaniards and all that sort of thing.
The commander reached over, signed
his name to dissolution of the injunc
ton and told us that we could do any
thing we wanted It was by this sort
of delays and official acts that we
might have been materially delayed or
stopped entirely if we had not con-
formed to the custom of the country
in the matter of theft and bribery.
For a long time we supposed the
Spanish soldiers at Santiago were we'll
drilled troops and were good body of
men. But we found that instead of be-
ing at the barracks or drilling, they
were driven out to the mines of the
Juragua company, where the company
built a lot of big barracks for their
accommodation, and that there they
worked right along in the mines. They
were paid so cents day by the mining
company, and the officers took half
of this, leaving the rest for the soldiers.
"They had locomotive inspector at
Santiago who was supposed to come
out and overlook every engine and
piece of machinery we put in. His
fees were $40 day, and he was sure to
make a special trip for every machine.
He would come down, stay to dinner,
which was made especially fine for
him, drink all the afternoon. and go
back the following day, having collect
ed his $40, and not having seen the
machine he had come to inspect That
was the regulation way of all officials.
At one time the local officials Of the
province ordered us to widen the cuts
of the railway from the river to San
tiago, where it was very narrow and
steep. It would have been an expen-
sive undertaking and the company was
not prepared to carry it out if dinner
would do as well. So we sent to Fer
rara and he said, Send for the gov
ernor-general at Havana That was
before Weyler's time We went around
fo Havana ahollt 911 miles and asked