Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1902-07-19
WOODS CUBAN VIEWS
HIS STORY OF CONDITIONS
AMONG SUGAR PLANTERS
Laborers Are Preparing to Steal to
Keep Body and Soul Together
Reduced Acreage Follows
Reciprocity Failure.

Albert Halstead. Washington cores
pendent for the Brooklyn Standard
Union writes as follows on the Cuban
situation under date of June "a
General Leonard Wood is still devot- .
ing much time to supervising his last
report as Military Governor of Cuba |
1t will be a most exhaustive document, !
covering with great detail and com.
pleteness the work of the military gov.
eminent of intervention in Cuba to tho
very last day of occupation.
In the midst Of this work General
Wood finds himself the target of parti
san assault. AS an army officer he has
held himself in readiness to reply to
any queries or to welcome any investi
CATION by a committee of Congress. The
mere fact that no such effort has been
made indicates that the opposition Ia
conscious that II can find no solid ba.
sis for its criticisms. and that no cam
paign material can be manufactured
out of formal inquiry.
Perhaps no man feels more keenly,
unless II be the President himself. the
present failure of securing commercial
reciprocity with Cuba through direct
Hesitation than does Cen Wood. In re.
nlv IN n question ne 10 the effect of this
failure upon industrial. social and poll.
teal conditions in the island. Gen
Wood said recently:
"In the first Mace. there will he no
Black Friday in Cuba. BY that mean
there will be no general and sudden
financial collapse. This is because tho
Cuhan banking firms and commercial
bouses which hold the hulk OF the mort.
cages upon the plantations are solvent,
and are able to carry for considerable
neriod tho credits thev have extended.
Tho nlanters themselves are barely ablo
to nav the interest on these loans. Many
Of these loans were increased last year.
because il was necessary to borrow
more money 70 nav for the machinery
and labor reouired for the larger acre.
ape nlanted In cane which accounts for
the large crop OF sugar this year.
"Tbe real sufferers will be the own
ers of large plantations, and the great
mass OF the laborers whom they have
employed. The first result of low
nrlrpS of SuGHr. die 10 the maintenance
Of the nresent customs duties on impor-
tations OF the United States. will be no
new planting OF sugar next year As.
suming that cane will continue to be
productive for an average of five years,
this would result in only n slow and
gradual reduction of the total acreage
Reduced acreage means, OF course. q
smaller crop. 1t will mean also less
empIoyment for labor. That will mean
n progressive decrease in the amount Of
money expended for labor n decrease
in purchasing power. a lessening OF
importatIons and the effect of that will
he n falling off in customs receipts.
"Thus il becomes apparent that the
denial of reciprocity to Cuba Is like q
two-edged sword-it will cut both
ways, striking both the Insular Gov
eminent through a decrease in its rev.
enues. and the humblest peasant
through n decrease of earning capacity
Conditions of disorder in Cuba always
depend upon the number of unemploy,
ed among the mass of Its population
I At this very time large numbers of la
borers ought TO be busy under norma
Industrial conditions, breaking grount
for an increase of the acreage to b.
planted in cane. Instead of that. It i;