Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-05-03

IN CUBA
1t Permeates the Whole
Island.
PRESIDENT PALM A
AGRICULTURAL PROSPERITY THE
KEYNOTE.
In That Lies the Hope of the New
Republic-Some Expressions
of Public Opinion

gress is certainly better than was the con-
! stitutional convention of a year and half
| ago. because it is more representative. This
! is the judgment / have formed from seeing
members in their homes. Many of them
are new men. This was bound to be the
case where all is new.
l should say that the deputies members
| of the house are likely to be less extreme
| than the senators. They will be the really
| popular branch of the congress. This is be-
| cause the Cuban people are less radical
| than the ambitious leaders, and the ambi-
| tiouS leaders, most of whom are profession
al politicians, naturally sought the senate.
| This first Cuban senate will pe a compact
group, and as the term is eight years. 1t
appealed to the instincts of the men who
| like to be power in the state.
STEPPED in Politics.
Whatever the ambitions or the policies Of
public men, government in function means
politics, and Havana is the seat of all,
being the capital, it will be stepped in with
| politics. The office seeking will be no worse
| than in Washington at inauguration time.
| But since everything else is new and 1t is
| rot merely change of administration, the
political discussion is certain to overShadow
| other topics. So, while still in the country
| Is the best time to analyze things seen,
heard and felt, in order to judge their effect
! on the incoming government 1t is easier
| to think calmly and clearly than in the
! overcharged atmosphere of Havana
In the last five weeks L have been from
| one end of the island to the other; from
| the purple hills of Pinar del Rio to the
| blue mountains of Santiago, across the
| great central sugar plains and valleys and
| through the forest wilderness. Scattered
letters have given the impressions formed
in the different localities Sometimes of
the physical aspect of the country, some
times of contrasting characteristics of vari-
regions and their nj a
they appear. | do not know whether or not
a grouping of these impressions will be
consistent with what was written in one
place or another, but that is the only way
to reach a final judgment
The memories of former trips ALWAYS
nave been with me. What was seen then
was seen again in imagination. Once it
was OF blazing cane fields and cracking
guinea grass. Later there were trips when
the quiet of death was over all, and the
stlIlness of a de-peopled country oppressed
the senses. Afterward following the
American occupation, was the gradual re-
covery the cultivation of the fields, the
slSht OF oxen, people and crops.
Keynote of Palma's Policy.
1t is the crops 1 have thought most of
during this last Journey This is the kew
note of President Palmas policy. After his
landing in the eastern part of the island he
began his speech-making by telling the
country people that his great aim would be
to encourage and develop agriculture The
farm is the basis of the future Cuba
Whether it be the cane farm, expended into
the last sugar plantation, the cafetales or
coffee groves on the mountain Sides the to-
bacca vegas between the hills, the fruit
fields, the vegetable gardens or the nor
trero grazing lands it is all farming
Forests and mines, important as they are
are only incidents to the Cuban agricuI-
ture.
This impression sinks deeply. whether on
glanclng from the window n vic ha
landscape, or taking the closer observation
which may be had behind a mule team. or
on horseback. Cuban politics is going to be
dominated by the products of the soil. and
chief of all will be sugar
The cuban politicians cannot save them
selves from this. Nor can the politicians of
the United States. The cane stalk is not
a specter. 1t is a live giant with flesh and
bone and marrow. Without reference to
pending questions and assuming that both
Cuba and the United States may get a
breathing spell, through some measure of
reciprocity, this will be a breathing spell
and nothing more. AS an economic force
sugar cane has the power of a dynamo AS
political factor it may have in it dyna-
mite.
am not going to enter into anv criti
cism or discussion of American policy, or
of Congress- in this letter. All that is to be
said has been said. The present picture of
the great central provinces of Santa Clara
and MatanZas has to have MANY dark
shades or it would not be a true one The
sugar depression is a pail on the rejoicings
over the coming Of independence. Back of
1t is cloaked grave anxiety.
What Sugar Means.
What sugar means was shown to me
when 1 went through some of the Cardenas
warehouses. In one of them sugar bags
were stored, reaching to the roof. This
warehouse contained 125.OO0 sacks. Others
were choked almost as badly. Unlike Glen
fuegoS and most of the other sugar ports
Cardenas has not been shipping. At pres
ent $4,000 tons are said to be stored here
and a few weeks will bring the quantity up
to nearly 100000 tons. The life of this
whole region is in cane raising. In time
this industrial condition is sure to become
potential in the politics of the island gov
eminent
Foregoing further analysis of industrial
and economic conditions in my trip through
the island l have been entertained, if not
instructed, by the variety of opinions which
are held of the experiment on which Cuba
is entering. Some of these are "head-on"
opinions-that is, they run squarely into
one another. In all likelihood the perplexi-
ties of the situation would be too much for
a committee of Congress The inexpe-
rienced observer finds himself in a Moorish
maze. If he seeks solid ground for an hon
est judgment he is likely to become mired
in a morass of conflicting statements
Prejudice, preconceived opinions, selfish in
terests, personal resentment, all enter into
the explanations given him. .
More than this. there is downright ig-
norance of what the future may bring An
army officer who was closing up the bust
ness of the United States in a remote re-
gfon told me that after three years he was
all in a puzzle in his own mind. In nv
section" he said, they have said there
was anti-American sentiment 1t was
hardly that; but l did find marked incom
patibility between the Cubans and the
Americans Only within a few months has
the incompatability worn away, and now
it seems pity when that is happening
that We are going. I have talked with
everybody about-the time the new govern
ment will last, and their views range from
six months to five years. On my own part /
don't venture to guess, but it will run along
for few years, anyhow"
View of New Government.
A Cuban who is outside the Havana
sphere of influence. but who is identified
with the supposedly radical element said
to me that Cuba was entering on its sec
| ond ten years experience 1--WE had the
ten years war;" he said. which was meant
to prove to Spain that she never could keep
this island. Now we are entering on ten
years of experimental independence at the
end of which, believe by g process of evo-