The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-05-04

rotary HOOt-Americau Enterprise
Checked by the Foraker Act.
American Missionaries and the
Administration.
BY George Eugene Bryson.
Copyright 1901
Havana, Cuba. April 20.-"The Cuban
Company" otherwise known as the Van
Horne-Thomas syndicste-engaged in the
survey Of a projected line of railway, to
connect Havana and Santa Clara ports
with Puerto Principe, Bayamo and San
tiago de Cuba-are blocked, the insular
secretary of public works here having de-
MED them permits to cross public roads
and highways or 10 sink a spade upon
any ground not already their own by pur-
chase. The concession to construct rail-
road between Santa Clara and Santiago
is held by another company-an American
syndicate, headed by Gen. A G. Green
wood, whose grant of authority came
originally from Spain (thro' an old
Frenchman's concession), being confirmed
by the Cuban revolutionary government
as well as by Gems. Lawton and Wood
the United States authorities at Santi-
ago (both military and civiD before the
Foraker resolution ever became a law
But when the latter went into effect
Greenwoods men were advised to post
pone making any survey pending its re-
vision; the suggestion was taken into
consideration, and, in consequence, all
work inaugurated was susperAed But
what was their surprise, a few weeks
later to find that, an English" syndi-
| cate, headed by Sir William Van Horne,
OF Canada, who never pretended to have
a charter to build a railroad in Cuba,
was making a survey of a line of road
to connect the same points mentioned in
the Greenwood concession! The Canadian
and his American associates in the enter
prise are understood 20 have boosted
that being English" capitalists and
| counting upon the British foreign
| Office to protect their investments, neither
| the Cuban insular authorities, the militia
ry governor of the island nor the War
Department at Washington would dare
block their work; intimating that, the
Foraker bill could only be regarded as af-
| fecting Americans seeking concessions in
| Cuba. Gen. Greenwood protested against
the Van Horne engineers as "trespassers''
| upon the line which his company had pro-
| jected, and as violating his rights under
concession ante-dating the passage of the
measure introduced in Congress by the
Senator from Ohio; but apparently his
protests were not altogether effective.
! The Canadian Anglo-Americans leased the
| Santiago and ST. Louis Railroad beading
westward from Santiago from the Penn
! sylvanians owning the line, and have ac
quired in some way, as yet unexplained,
the Jucaro, San Fernando and Ciego de
Avila Railway-a government military line
| along the old Spanish trocha dividing the
provinces of Puerto Principe and Santa
Clara and crossing the central portion of
Cuba from north to south; and, through
the purchase outright of strips of land
required along the route selected have
been for months engaged in grading sec
lions of their projected road, in open def
ance of the law. And where Cuban labor
could not be had, Jamaica negroes have
/ been imported by the boat-load for the
/ work, Notwithstanding the protests rails
| ed by the press and public throughout
Cuba against the bringing in of any but
white immigration, or the engagement of
foreign labor by contract, when thou
sands of natives are without employment
and their families in want But, the re-
fusal of the civil governor of Principe
province and that of Santiago to
allow the Van Horne survey par
ties to either cross public highways or
private property in pursuing their work,
having recently been approved by Cover
nor General Woods Secretary of Public
Works-the work is virtually blocked; and
Sir Williams more recent application to
Secretary of War Root, at Washington,
for an order directing authorities in Cuba
not to in any way interfere with his en-
gineers and survey in future, would APP
pear to have been denied-despite the
charge made by Gen. Greenwood in the
Havana newspaper, "El Diario de la Ma
rina" that the President aud cabinet,
thro' Hon. Robert p Porter, are largely
interested in the success of the Anglo
American syndicate Van Horne heads
and directly responsible for the failure
of his own all-American syndicate to be-
gin work constructing the line of pro-
jected railroad, between Santiago and
Santa Clara two years ago! The validity
OF the alleged lease of the United States
Military Railway ton the Spanish trocha)
to Van Horne's British Company" is also
questioned; yet the same Canadian syn
dictate are reported to be negotiating for
the Triscornia Military Railroad, which
Col. Hecker caused to be built at scanda-
lous cost to the Cuban treasury, for the
transport of American troops from Ha-
yana Bay Opposite the capitaD to Guiana
bacoa; and intersecting switches of the
various railways centering here-the OBJ
ject being to get the sodiery into the SUI
! burban towns where American garriSOnS
were located, without letting them pass
through the City of Havana, then sup
posed to be irremediably infected with
yellow fever and other contagious dis
eases. Half a million dollars and more
was squandered in the construction of a
line which should have been built for less
than $4,000; yet, the road has never been
used in any way-the English managers
of the railway lines of Cuba already in
operation fatty refusing to allow the
United States military line even a
switch connection with their system. And
they finally compelled the chief quarter
master to lease one of their old sugar
warehouses and dock way up in the bite
of the harbor, upon which supplies for the
Army of Occupation have since been land
ed If Van Horne gets control of the
Triscorna Railroad, Greenwoods friends
assert that the Englishman will turn his
option over to the British cagitalists
owning the other Consolidated" lines
centeriug at this port; pocketing a hand
some profit for his trouble in the nego-
tiations.
The Havana Electric Company's new
street car system connecting this capital
by trolley lines with all the leading SUI
burbs, including Eel Vedado Guanabaeoa
the Cerro and Jesus del Monte is now in