The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1903-01-12
ABOUT CUBAN RAILWAYS
BUILDER OF Il ROAD TO JOIN
THE TWO ENDS

Of the I.Innd-Nesv Era In Transport
tssiOn-HoV SIR William Van
HOrne's Great En;erprise Was Aided
BY Military Govcrmmemt-TheR tsht
the Americans Aided-To Develop
Farms.
Cuba is entering upon a new railroad
era, writes c. II. Pepper to the Boston
Transcript from Santa Clara, Cuba.
This is best seen here almost in the
center of the island. Sir William Van
Horne and his associates have vast
plans which their grandchildren may
see realized. 1t may even be that col
onization and development in the CEN
trail and eastern part of the island will
move more slowly than has been
thought, for everything moves slowly
in Cuba. Yet the beginning of the de-
velOpment was marked when railway
communication between Santa Clara
and Santiago de Cuba was opened, so
that now it is possible to travel from
Pinar del Rio in the west, through Ha-
Vana and on to the eastern end of the
island. This has been in project for IS
years. The Spaniards in the island,
when George Stephenson first exploited
his invention, were not so slow and so
lacking in enterprise as they became in
subsequent years. They built railway
lines back in the thirties, even when
Lot off IN
New York and Pennsylvania. One line
cut across from Havana in a south
easterly direction toward Guines and
Batano, on the southern coast, which
was the Havana of 400 years ago. An
other short line was built from Puerto
Principe in the very heart of the ISL
and to Nuevitas, on the north coast.
This and the line from Havana to
Guines dispute the claim for first rail-
way construction. AfterWard otter
lines were built, running from interior
points to the coast, but the project for
a backbone from east to west made
Roadway slowly. so that at the begin
ming Of this century the limit Of rail-
way travel directly east from Havana
was 1888 miles to Santa Clara.
French engineers had planned and, as
they thought, secured concession for
building the backbone and even had
celebrated the event by banquet. Full
~ half a century ago the plans We're
lnatured, but they never got further.
One reason was said to be that pow
erful officials in Spain were interested
in the steamship lines and especially III
those which had the monopoly Of the
coastwise trade Other reasons were
simply inertia and Indifference. Once
during the ten years war the Spanish
government built a railway line across
the middle of the island from Jucaro,
on the south, to San Fernandino, on
the north coast. 1t was purely a
strategic route and was known as the
original trocha 1t passed through the
poorest savannas and swamps and the
most desolate belt of land that exists
in Cuba, and even if there had been
purpose of developing the country there
was no country adjoining it which was
worth developing. This line is still in
existence and is leased to the Cuba
company, as the Van Horne syndicate
is known.
At various periods Martinez Campos,
the most enlightened captain general
that Spain ever sent to Cuba, urged on
the home government the value OF
building railways as means OF curb
ing political discomfort. His appeals
were unheeded, though when the last
insurrection broke out he did get au-
thority to make a pretense of building
line from Santa Cruz on the south
coast, to Puerto Principe, with the
promise Of other extensions, but the
country people insisted on joining the
insurrection instead Of working on the
railway at high wages. 1t was a trlte
saving that if Spain had built railways
in Cuba she never would have lost her
sway. This was simply the assumption
that she was capable of giving pro-
eressive and enlightened government,
and so many other things negatiVed
that assumption that the failure to
construct the railways was only comu-
lative proof.
AS railroad construction is u2der-
stood in the United States, it would
not seem a great enterprise to build a
trunk line of $50 miles with branches
in prospect which in three or four
wears might make the total 1000 miles
santa Clara is nearer to Santiago than
ElttSDurS is ~ lIIG LNIiFolo0lPP4 A'f~h'
and the trip from here across the ISL
and is like going from New York to
Buffalo. But in view of the circum-
stances and conditions this railway
construction is really notable.
The lines were begun during the
American military control, 1t is telling
what everybody knows to be true to
say that the project could not have
heen carried out if the war department
in Washington had been hostile. The
Foraker amendment prohibited the
granting of franchises during the
American military occupation A horde
of speculators, Adventures and pro-
moters, who thronged Havana, New
York and Washington, were bitterly
disappointed by its passage They had
countless projects for issuing bonds and
stocks on Cuban franchises and un-
loading these issues on c0Htiding inves-
tors in the United states Some of
them are yet seen around Havana, out
If the elbows and down at the he7ls,
and occupied in dannli"g Senator For
aker.
After the American military control
became fixed several efforts were made
to acquire control Of the existing rail-
way properties Of Cuba, which We're