The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-01-22
Opportunities That Are Presented For En-
terprising Men-Havana Overrun With
Spectators and Schemers.

1t was predicted when the war with
gle ended satisfactorily to the United
States there would be a tremendous in
fiux of American capital into Cuba.
1t required no great foresight to tell
how matters would go once the island
was free from Spanish domination, and
the man who first made this prediction
was not necessarily a seer.
Already American dollars are rolling
that way. They started as early as
last July, when, Notwithstanding the
fact that the war was on, several OK
tensive deals We're made with Spanish
corporations that were anxious to come
in out of the wet.
Shrewd German and English invest
ors We're also busy buying properties of
one sort or another
English money scooped in some of the
big cigar factories and much of The
most valuable tobacco land, formerly
held by the Spaniards, in Pinar del Rio
and the Vuelta ALOHA district. One of
these English concerns, which has a
capital of a million and half of dol
ldls' Ids dCiulIeu SU,ouu acres OIL idnl
in the last named district for which
the price was $1,OO0.000.
English investments in Cuba are said
to be now half those of the United
States. The French also have been &C
tive purchasers of cigar manufactures,
but not to the same extent as the Ger
man and English competitors
Because of the inaccuracy of surveys
the prospective purchasers of Cuban
of caution. This need has been still
further increased by the fact that,
while the war was in progress Spanish
owners of confiscated properties were
doing their best to realize on their ques-
tionable holdings, practice that will
probably cause lively litigation later en-
when the revoutionist claims his own.
There seems to be pretty general i'm
preston that one of the greatest OPP
portunities the island has to offer will
be along the line of electrical develop
ment.
Havana offers a field equal to that of
any American city of it's size, but when
one has said that, for the present, at
least, there is nothing more to say
A Spanish corporation owns the ex-
listing street railway lines; there are
three, having 2S miles of track, of which
seven are operated by steam dummy.
This, by the way is about one-fifth the
mileage of an American city of the
same size would have.
This particular road has been con-
spicuously before the public for the last
three years. Within this time fully a
score of different promoters in New
York city have attempted to get capt.
tai for schemes connected with it that
either contemplated new franchises or
the extending of the old one.
just now a large English syndicate,
one Canadian and two American are
negotiating for it.
Franchises for the installation of cleo
trio roads in the smaller towns are also
being eagerly gobbled up, but the Ha-
vana street railway is the one big
plum. During the war the Spaniards
We're singularly active and accommo-
dating in the matter of franchises. At
the present moment there is a conres-
sion for the installation of the trolley
system anywhere in Porto Rico, Cuba
and the Philippines, floating around
New York for sale This concession is
something between a patent and a mo-
nopoly, and would be enormously val
liable if it We're not so manifestly
worthless. 1t is merely interesting in
showing the thrift of the Spaniard.
These concessions are bound to cause
trouble in the future. No one yet
knows for just what they have been
granted, or how one overlaps the other.
1t Is safe to say, however, that there
is scarcely franchise of the lot but is
so full of ambiguity that it could be up
set and the practice of law will proba-
bly, be one of the leading industries on
the island for the next 10 years.
There are at least score of semi