Camas Prairie chronicle. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1901-1917, 1906-12-21

Atherton BrownelI contributes an ar
ticle entitled The Commercial Annex
alton Of Cuba" to Appletcn's Magazine,
the facts and figures in which are OF
special significance In the present Gu
ban crisis. It shows that the interest
Of the United States in Cuba is differ
ent in the year 1905 from what 1t was
in 1898 Up to the earlier year Amer
lean interests had invested in Cuba
about SS000O,0OO, principally In sugar
and tobacco. As much more has been
invested since the war, so that now the
American capital invested in the island
amounts to $160,000,O00 About 1901
GOO acres Of land in Cuba, about Is per
cent Of the whole area Of the island,
or a much larger percentage of the
land under cultivation, belongs to
Americans. Three fourths Of the $40,-
100000 worth Of cattle on the Island be-
long to Americans. one-third of the
money invested In railroads, $24,5oO,-
600, Is Am lean, as against $48a81,-
600 Cuban and British. American cap
!tal Isane2oIIzes electric transpOrta-
ton, Telegraph. and telephone sgss4SssiI tens
in Cuba. The bonds Of the Cuban re-
public were bought by a New York
house American capital has given
new life to the island, and our inter
est is no longer merely sentimental
one. The Cuban market is the only
one in the world where the United
States sells as many goods as all other
nations combined. Cuba's buying power
is about $1OOO00,O0O annually, and
one-half of this is spent in the United
States, Chile, Peru, Uruguay, Bolivia,
Argentina, Venezuela, and Brazil to-
gether do not buy as much as Cuba.
Its 100000 people, If there are that
many there, buy from us more than the
100000 people of Japan and China.
Cuba has an open door. Americaniza-
ton of Cuba will be slow task, If not
an impossible one, If by that Is meant
the substitution Of Anglo-Saxon habits
of thought in social relations or In
business interests for the Spanish type.
Amerlcanization in the sense Of max
ing the United States the dominant fac
tor in the material prosperity Of the
island and in the value Of the inter-
ests as represented there has pro-
crossed a long way since the last
Spanish governor general sailed away.
American occupation, temporary though
1t was, freed Havana from the. yellow
fever pest and taught lessons of santa
ton which have made the island a fit
place for Americans to live in, and the
number Of colonlsts who have gone
there from the United States Is not
Insignificant Anterior Brownell, IN
Appleton's Magazine, sums up the stu
alton by saying that Sin the four years
since the Intervention period a move
ment quietly has been going on that is
rapidly tending toward practical COM
mercial annexation" Under whatever
form of government develops In Cuba.
provided that it preserves order, fur
Their injection Of American capital is
inevitable. The future of Cuba aud
that of the United States are linked
together by ties of mutual advantage
and as the natural resources Of the is
land develop the time will soon come
when a majority of the people Of Cuba
will be of American birth and allie
glance, and a majority Of the wealth
will be an American possession. Then
the Cuban problem will have disap.
peared.