The Hawaiian gazette., 1900-03-30
rnR rRnpnsEp cIBAN RAILWAY.

Recent news from WASHINGTON u"
ciudes an account OF an ambitious and
elaborate project for opening up and
exploiiing the Island OF Cuba by means
of an all-embracing railway system
Almost ever since the surrender oi the
Spanish forces there have been rumors
about an inter-provincial railway
which was to run through the middle
of the six provinces OF Cuba, connect
Ing the cities OF Pinar del Rio, Colon,
Santa Clara, Puerto Principe, Holguin
and Santiago, with branches here and
there through fertile but uncultivated
regions to harbors along the northern
or the southern coast. The project
has always been attractive to persons
well informed about Cuba and inter-
ested In It's development; for 1t Is OBJ
yioue that 1t would accomplish Won
ders under an intelligent system OF
management including equitable
freight rates, 1t appears now that the
scheme has taken definite form.
Sir william Van Horne, recently
president and general manager OF the
Canadian Pacific, proposes to build
this road, and has gone to Washington
to lay the plan before the President
and the Secretary of War. He has $25,-
900 900 in capital at his disposal for the
work. The money was subscribed by
himself and Messrs. Pierpont Morgan,
John Rockefeller, ID. o. Mills, Flagler,
John w. Mackay, Granville M. Dodge,
Samuel Thomas and a few others, to
whom he unfolded his plans. These
gentlemen propose first to buy and con-
solidate all the existing railways These
have total length Of about l,2OO miles,
and are confined chiefly to the western
end, which is also the narrowest and
the most open part OF Cuba-the sec
ton where most OF the people live and
the only portion at present under any
degree of cultivation worth mention
ing. This region includes the little
provinces of Matanzas and Havana
and the western half of Santa Clara, In
which sections the Spanish soldiers
we're sufficiently active to prevent the
insurgents from laying waste the whole
country, and confined them to depreda-
lions which did not altogether prevent
agriculture on large scale, and saved
the sugar mills from destruction. There
Ia also a line running from Havana to
Pinar del Rio, the chief city OF the
westernmost province, which does
something towards affording the prod
ucts OF the finest tobacco country In
the world a chance to get to market.
But the whole of he rest OF the ISL
and, including considerable portions OF
these provinces, the great cattle plains
of Santa Clara and Puerto Principe
and nearly all the sugar and tobacco
plantations and the enormous forests
of Puerto Principe and Santiago (the
largest and widest province of alb are
at present absolutely uncultivated and
unproductive. Probably computa-
ton of all the land in Santiago which
is in any sort OF use, including the
cities and villages, would show that 9S
or 80 per cent of the province Is land
with which nothing Is being done. 1t
is as idle as If 1t were dense forest, as,
indeed, much of it Is. Only about one
fourth of the island Is or ever has been
productive. Taking account OF the
cattle ranches on which there are no
cattle, of the sugar plantations that
are abandoned because the mills have
been burned and there are no oxen to
haul cane, even If the mills were disable,
and of overgrown and ruined coffee
plantations and farms, it would be
quite within bounds to say that nine
tenths of Cuba is unproductive of any
thing save mosquitoes, malaria, and
land-crabs.
Spanish misrule and incompetence
were the reasons why this vast region
was not cultivated in former times
Then the insurreCtion made develop
ment still more impractcable. Since
the war, uncertainty as to the per-
manenCe of American control has dis
couraged every one OF the hundreds of
Americans who have gone to Cuba with
the idea of taking up land and develop
ing it, and they have done nothing.
The almost total absence of highways
or roads of any sort except bride paths
renders it impossible to get products
to market, so far as most of the island
Is concerned, There is practically no
communication between different parts
of the island away from Havana, Ma
tanzas and Cienfuegos, except by sea.
Two things, then, are absolutely req
uisite before the island can be deyel-
oped; assurance of American control In
future. without which, as has been
clearly shown, capital will not enter 1t,
and transportation facilities. If the
present scheme is put into effect, 1t may
be taken to mean that the promoters
have been told that Cuba will not be
turned over to Its inhabitants to run