The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1899-09-19
IN A PlTIFUL SINE
Instead Of Rainy Season Cuba has
a Drought.
THE CONTINUED DRY WEATHER
Has Not had a Parallel Since 1914.
All small Crops Have Been Ruined.
In the Country tho DcsOlation
Wrought by War aud WcyIer Con.
tInnes Without Abatement.

NEW YORK. Sept. 1s.-wllliam Will
Lis Howard. general manager of the
Cuban Industrial relief fund, and who
has recently returned from Cuba, says:
cuba Is in pltlful state. Instead of
rainy season, Cuba has had a drought.
Not since 1874 has there been such long
continued dry weather during the sum-
mer. The result has been disastrous.
The United States weather bureau re-
ports that all small crops have been
ruined. Sugar cane has been so dam
aged that the crop next year viii be less
than the crop grown this year. The
most distressing feature Of the drought
Is the destruction of the corn crop.
Even under favorable circumstances
the corn crop would have been pltifully
small, for 1t was planted in drlplets
here and there. on the outskirts Of the
towns by poor people who had no means
Of doing any better. The weather Ou-
reau reports show that the best Of the
corn crop in a few favored localities
win Yield not more than fifteen per cent.
on our relief farms we have better
corn than any that have seen in Cuba,
due, no doubt. to the fact that We put
more labor on the growing crop than
anyone else was able TO do. We have
one field that will give a full crop, an
other that win give three-quartsrs of a
crop and third that will produce from
third to a half.
Business in the cities is desperately
dun. The hotels are empty restau-
rants are idle, and all small affairs are
Hfeless. Large business concerns are
scraplng along as best they may, in the
hope that the future OF the island may
be definitely settled. The gradual with
drawaI OF the American troops has ma
terially lessened the amount Of money
in circulation. The hectic flush of un-
real prosperity which many persons
mistook for genuine prosperity has died
out There can be no return of pros
perlty in Cuba until the farmers have
been helped back to their homes.
In the country the desolation wrought
by war and weyler still continues al
most without abatement. The big
planters have been able to do only 4
little toward the rehabilitation of thell
propertleo They have as yet been un'
able to obtain money with which to re-
sumo operations. Money will not bC
Forthcoming until the political condi'
lions are settled. The sugar and tobac'
co growers favor annexation as busi'
ness measure. Free trade with the
United states would serve Just as well
Cuban politicians and office seekers
want independence Any method O.
giving them office would satisfy them
The bulk of the people want only {
chance tc earn n living. Anything otheI
than Spanish rule will suit them.
Any one who denounces the Cubani
as a dirty, lazy, worthless people Il
guilty OF SANDER. Anyone who asserts
that the Cuban viii! not work speak
without knowledge of the subject. Gu
bans came to our relief farms in swarm
to beg for a days work. Our relic
farms are giving support wholly or Ii
part to about $50 persons, of whom
about 600 are dependent women AM
children. We have workers In gu
fields who should be in the hospital
Some Of them have Insisted on working
until they dropped in their track
through sheer fatigue.