Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-01-26
Americans Becoming Interested in
Enterprises in Cuba.
THOSE WITH READY MONEY WANTED
Lumber Men Exploiting the Forests
of the Interior.
THE ACCO INDU STRY
Copyright. 1899 by Charles NJ. peppcr.y

From Staff Correspondent
HAVANA, January 20, 1899.
Cuba has at last been struck by an Ameri--
can business wave. The effect is good. For
the first time since the blockade was raised
a wholesome atmosphere has been created.
Coming in from the country yesterday l
encountered it. The change is inviGorating.
Ore breathes easier on finding that the
American commercial influence in the is
land is not to be limited to peanuts, shoe
strings, striped candy and. government con-
tracts Something is going to be done on a
larger scale. The Englishmen have the
railroads and similar properties, and will
keep them. What remains citizens of the
United States are now showing a disposi-
ton to take for themselves.
My first hint that a change had taken
place was when a man who is a capitalist
in a small way boarded the train at Gala
bazaar. You see, I've been out in the coun-
try" he said Calabazar is twelve miles
from Havana. He had been in the city
three weeks scheming to organize COM
panIes of various kinds for the benefit of
his friends. Once when he offered me spe-
cial inducements in one of them ''aS
friend l had demonstrated against making
use of ones friends in that manner.
you can't expect to make money out of
your enemies, was his retort. Probably
business and it need not be made a text
for moraHzing. What interested me was
that this capitalist had finally decided to
risk some of his own money and was going
out into the country prospecting. He had
taken in The bearings of Calabazar later in
the week had planned a journey fifty miles
beyond AT Calabazar there is match
factory which makes the worst wax
matches in the world. They always burn
the fingers. When people began coming
from the United States they complained
of these matches. \ different brand was
manufactured and labeled American
matches They were harder to light the
wax was shorter and the fingers were
burned more quickly. 1 had heard this
man swearing about it, and have a notion
that he Is planning to manufacture
matches.
Real Business Men Coming.
a single small capitalist going out into
the country to make investments would not
work change in the atmosphere. He told
me a good many business men were ar
irving from the states. This was true. The
best of it is that they are real business
men and there are enough of them to crowd
the promoters and the adTenturers to the
rear. Some have come on excursions which
were gotten up for their benefit. They
may or may not take advantage of their
opportunities. Those who have come in
dependently are Of more account. I notice
from the hotel registers that most Of them
are from "Philade.ph L. S. A" They
always put the II. S. A" down. There is
New Philadelphia, a pretty little village,
a the head of the Tuscarawas valley in
eastern Ohio, which was the home neigh
borhood of Quantreil, the guerrilla. There
IS also Philadelphia Junction in northern
New \ DIRK, where cars are changed for the
Thousand Islands. Both these places are
in the United States. SO it is probable that
IN putting the u. S. A. after. their sig
natures the Quaker city business men want
hav III Il Il
phia in old Greece. Nobody from Chicag go
or Denver or kalamazoo puts ~. S. A"
after his signature on a Havana hotel reg
lister They have not come here to teach
the inhabitants geography.
l think, though, that in the end the Phil
adelphians are going to make their town
so well known that they won't have to des-
ignate its place on atlas of the world
They have not yet made extensive new in
VeStments.
Some of them are interested Jointly with
New YORK parties in government contracts
and these are very good contracts for the
contractors. But they are temporary and
afford only Il passing profit How far the
keystone interests in the mines in the east
ern part of the island have been extended
Is better known in Pittsburg and Philadal-
phia than in Cuba. Sugar plantations i'll
santa lara province and III the southern
part of Santiago We're the property of
Quaker city capitalists when the insl1rrec-
ton broke out. They have not changed
hands since then. What is Of more consc-
qucnce now is that Philadelphia capital is
seeking fresh fields of investment 7 do MT
know the details, but an observer cannot
fail to note the difference between pro-
motors and actual capitalists. The Phila-
d"lphians move in an atmosphere of con-
SerNatism which Smacks of mystery. This
does not obscure the fact that they have
real money instead Of prospectuses They
are like the Englshmen and the Canadian
Scotchmen in this respect.
The Lumber Industry.
I have heard a hint that some of the
Pennsylvanians who know something of
lumber have got ahead of the Michigan and
Wisconsin lumbermen who were expecting
to exploit the forests of the interior It is
of no consequence who does it so long as
the industry is developed. a civil engineer.
came to me the other day to ask some
points about reaching a certain part of the
island. He also wanted to know a good
land-ttle lawyer His plan was TO take the
lawyer along and close up purchases of
timber lands at once. The men he repre-
scented must have had money or they would
not have INDUCED in the luxury of lawyer
to accompany them to the WildS of the ia
terror. But their idea was the right one
Their money is in Havana banks. When
they find timber lands which suit their pur-
pose they will buy the tracts instead Of
seeking options and going back to the
United States TO sell these rights. Options
on land are hardly known in Cuba. Nobody
is likely to make money by that means.
Some of the Americans who have been
locking into the prospective development Of
the lumber industry are hesitating and
waiting for the United States to build the
backbone or central railroad through to
Santiago. They need not hesitate on that
account. The English capitalists will ex-
tend the railway system which they now
control rapidly enough to open up the
forests. They would even buy ties out of
the hardwoods in these forests. AS to how
far the woods can be cleared by native
labor l asked the opinion of Major Van
Leer, the government engineer who is su-
perintending the construction of Colonel
Hecker's little military railroad across the
bay at Guanabacoa. He has had expert
ence in South America, in Santo Domingo