Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1899-12-11
CUBA IS PHOSPHATE.
ITS FERTILE FIELDS ARE VACANT AND
Its PEOPLE DESTITUTE.

William Willard Howard's Vivid
Description of a Scene of Desola-
tion and Despair--Cuba in All Its
Nakedness.
"After year of peace the island of
Cuba shows practically no progress
toward its own reconstruction The
desolation that war and Weyler
wrought continues almost without
abatement. The fertile fields are va
cant; the farmhouses in ruins. The
destitute and helpless farm folk re-
main in the towns, waiting for as
sistance to return to the cultivation of
their lands. On the outskirts of the
town and on some of the large planta-
tions little attempt has been made to
resume cultivation Of the soil, but the
country as whole is tenantless and
idle. Thousands of Cuban widows are
without homes or any means of sup
port Many, many thousands of help
less orphans beg their bread from door
to door"
| This statement OF the present con-
dition of Cuba was made to the EXecu-
tive Committee of the Cuban Industrial
Relief Fund by William Willard How
ard. general manager of the fund.- on his
return from Cuba a short time ago Mr..
Howard continues:
The improved condition in Cuba
that one now and then sees reported by
casual travellers and others refer al
most wholly to the improvements in
| sanitation and civil administration.
In these two things there has been de-
cided improvements. The adminiStra-
tion of General Brooke and his officers
has been and is "A wonderful object les
son in honesty and efficiency. The
Cubans cannot yet believe that it can
be real, so great is the change from
Spanish corruption and incapacity.
Some day | hope that General Brooke
will receive full credit for what he has
done in Cuba. The relief work that |
have already done In Cuba shows me
how hard is General Brookes task.
Il stood one day recently on the top
of the Pan de Matanzas. the highest
mountain in Central Cuba. The view
covered radius if fifty miles. | could
see from the neighborhood of Havana
to point some distance beyond Car
denaS, nearly a hundred miles east and
west | could see from the Straits of
Florida on the north side to the Car
ribean Sea on the south. In all that
wide sweep of country there was little
to be seen other than wreck and ruin
and desolation. 1t was as though one
looked at desert from which all signs
of human life and activity had been
withdrawn. But life was there, hud-
died in the towns along the railways.
The fields were overgrown with weeds
and tall grass; the ruined walls of
fat ,l.,,, oil Il l,,xr
urious vegetation like skeletons which
nature was trying to cover with
screen of dense vines. One had to look
again and again to find a ploughed
field in all that wilderness of ruin. BY
far the greatest extent of ploughed
land that one could see was two red
blurs on the landscape at Ceba Mocha.
where the Cuban Industrial Relief
Farms are located
Il have never seen more pathetic
sight. One saw Cuba in all its naked
ness. The ruins, the desoation. the
destitution, came home to ones mind
and heart in one wide, sweeping view.
Until | stood on that mountain top |
had not really seen Cuba. had tray
eled through Santa Clara. MatanZas
and Havana provinces on the cars; |
had ridden long distances on horse
back, and, more than that | had
walked perhaps a hundred miles
through the deserted fields and among
the ruined homes: | had lived five
months in the midst of all the desola-
tion and deStitution. but until | stood
on the top of Pan de Matanzas had
not known Cuba"
Mr. Howard believes the ordinary
Nnlnr 10 in.1ina1 t, In l..
pressed with the beauty of the secenry
that he does not properly appreciate
the extent of the destitution. One can
not see Cuba from a hotel piazza. nor
yet know Cuba by riding through its
desolation on the railway. The beauty
of the scenery charms the casual trav-
eler, so that he sees only the noble
palm trees, standing like shafts of
granite topped with ostrich plumes,
and does not realize that the only shell
ter which the poor reconcentradoS have
is the wretched huts which they build
of the leaves and bark of this same
stately tree. They see the beauty of
the trees but not the desolation and
misery that lies at its foot 1t is hard
to realize that country of such great
beauty can hide so much misery.
"Why have the plantations not re-
Sumed operationS"
THAT is easy of answer. We have on
our relief farm, working for five cents
an hour, men who own large tracts of
excellent farming land. | asked one
of them, merely to hear what he would
say, why he did not resume the cultiva-
tion of his land and rebuild his burned
sugar mill, instead of working for us
for forty-five cents day. He looked at
me a moment. AS though questioning
the sanity of my inquiry. Then he held
out his hands, palms upward, and said
That is why His hands were empty"
The bulk of Cuba's agricultural exist
ence depends on the cultivation of
sugar cane. With raw sugar selling
for only 2la cents pound on the sea-
coast in Cuba. there are few capitalists
who will lend money to owners of Gu
ban sugar estates, The interruption in
the sugar industry caused by the war
gave the manufacturers of beet sugar
such an advantage ana such a hold on
the markets of the world that the
!