Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-04-17
PROFIT MARC|ESMALL
Sugar Planter Talks of the
Business in Cuba.
MUST BE ON LARGE SCALE
Most Extensive Interests Owned by
Spaniards.
HOPE FOR AMERICAN CONTROL
Disastrous Uprising Predicted as the
Sequel of the Withdrawal of the
Strong Arm From the Island.
:0PE FOR AMERICAN CONTROL
BY WILLIAM E. CURTIS.

BY WILLIAM E. CURTIS.
special correspondence Of The Star and the Chicago
Record Herald
CAMAGUEY; Cuba, April -. 1907.
At the Jatibonico station on the Ameri-
can railroad almost at the exact geograph-
ical center of the island, and on the bound
airy line between the provinces of Santa
Clara and Puerto Principe is an imnres
slve example of American enterprise in the
form of sugar plantation that was started
about three years ago in the midst of a
tropical forest by Sir William Van Horne
Gen. Granville NJ. Dodge and other large
stockholders in the Cuba Railroad Com
pany. Mr. Dodge's son-in-law, Mr.. Pussy
formerly of Council Bluffs and a son of
Judge Pussy, who represented that district
IN Congress for several years, went into
the wilderness with five or six hundred
Cubans, cut out the. trees cleared the
ground, planted the cane and raised a crop
within fifteen months from the time he
came into the country. In the mea ntime
one OF the largest and the most modern
sugar mills in Cuba was erected at the
station to grind the cane. 1t has been a
great success and serves as a brilliant ex-
ample.
The manager of the Jatibonico sugar es-
tate is Mr. Wilfred Skate of Montreal, who
has become familiar with affairs during his
sugar industry. When l asked him how
much benefit the planters deriving from
the reciprocity treaty between the United
States and Cuba, he said:
1T is very, difficult to say what we are
getting out of it. Up to this year
ceived no practical benefit. because the
sales of sugar have been forced on ac-
count of the needs of the planters for
money~and Cuban sugars have been sell
ing in New York below the parity of beet
sugars on the London market. This year
the planter is getting more benefit because
the market is rising and prices are adjust
ing themselves all over the world. The
price of sugar is fixed in London by the
law of supply and demand, and beet sugar
Is the controlling factor. Germany pro-
duces twice as much sugar as Cuba. OF
course, the sugar trust in New York be-
ing the largest buyer in the world has
enormous influence prices, but it does
not control them by any means.
Narrow Margin Of Profit.
"The wholesale price of raw sugar in
New York today is 81 % per hundredweight,
plus the insurance and duty. That is what
| the planter gets. The average cost of pro-
ducing differs in the several provinces
Large planters and corporations that grow
their own cane and have their own mills
can produce sugar more cheaply than those
who operate on a smaller scale and under
per hundredweight. That is the minimum.
| A margin of 80 cents hundred pounds is
all the slack the best equipped planter
can expect. On the older estates. where
of the cane is bought from outsiders, 1t
costs at least S2.12l2 to produce sugar,
| which leaves a margin of only 12a cents a
hundred. And the profit of the great ma
jority of planters varies from that to moth
ing; -
mo, the planters are not entirely at the
mercy of the trust They can ship to Eu-
rope if they please and get the same
prices that-the trust will pay them, but
the latter is so well organized that it can
handle sugar more promptly and easily
than he EnrnpeaD iS unicl
sure pay, and the natural channel for the
export of Cuban sugar. The trust owns
no plantations. The individual stockholders
may have shares in any number of planta-
ton companies, nobody knows how much.
The shares of most of the sugar COM
panes are bought and sold on the stock
markets in the United States just like
| other stocks and bonds, and there is moth
ing to prevent the officials and stockhold
ers of the trust at New York from buying
and selling, whenever they like, but that is
not done by the companies, and in it's
corporate capacity the sugar trust owns
no plantations. 1t has, however, made a
practice Of advancing money to some of
the large producers to enable them to
make a crop. The business Is conducted
that way. Nearly all the planters and
companies engaged in sugar are compelled
to borrow from banks, commission houses
and other money loaners to carry them
through They give their notes for sixty
days, ninety days or six months and pay
when they realize on their crops. L have
vances were obtained from the treasurer
of the trust in New York, under the
thority of the board of directors But it
controls a comparatively small number of
plantations.
Spaniards the Largest Planters.
The largest sugar interests in Cuba are
owned by Spanards; the native Cubans are
a close second there is very little differ
ence. Americans come next, then the Eng
1iel, md oh
sugar estates on the island, valued all the
way from half million to four million dol
lars each. The largest, called Chaparra,
is in Santiago province, and is controlled
by the Cuban-American Sugar Company, a
New York concern. of which former Repre-
sentative r. II. Hawley of Texas is the
president. 1t has large number of stock
holders in New York and other parts of
the United States and it owns five of the
finest plantations in Cuba and refinery at
Cardenas. The Chaparra plantation pro-
duces an average of $4,000 bags of sugar
annually, weighing 325 pounds each. 1t is
under the management of Mario Menocal,
nephew of Engineer A. G. Menocal of the
United States navy. Don Mario is com
petent and enterprising engineer who was
educated in Washington. He was one of
the most effective leaders in the insurgent
army, is prominent in the liberal party, and
has been talked Of as a candidate for presi-
dent The five plantations and the extra
refinery owned by the Cuban-American
Sugar Company represent an investment of
many millions of dollars.
The United Fruit Company of New York,
usually known as the fruit trust, comes
next in the magnitude Of it, interests. 1t
has two large estates. The Terry family,
who are well known in New York and
Paris, have the third largest interest. Their
estate called the Caracas, is next to Cha
para in size.
There are several other very large Amer
lean interests. They have not been in
creased recently because of the general
anxiety and apprehension concerning the
political situation. There is not much doing
in lands at present The old Cuban families
are the largest land owners, but they are
not selling as readily as they formerly did.
They anticipate peace and better times.
They are confident of American permanent
occupation sooner or later, and as they are
not required to pay taxes on their idle land
they can afford to hold it for rise. 1t is
possible to buy small tracts Of land, how
ever, along the Cuba railroad, but sugar
growing is a large proposition, and the
margin is so narrow that 1t Is necessary to
do a big business in order to pay profits.
Present prices unusually low. Last
year Q9O6r they were still lower. due to
forced market and the eagerness of the
| planters to get their money. Cuba sold
2 1854 .O00000 pounds of sugar to the United
States in 1906 for $50, 1924, 1874. while in 1905