The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-01-22
THE REPURLIc OF CUBA !
Lx--Building Cood Reads
By Frederic J. Hs.kis.


 Havana. Jan. s1-The United states troops stationed in Cuba since the American intervention in 1906 have Ibeen desisnated officially as the l"Army of Cuban pacification.' The lisland has been pacified and the United IStates is again to withdraw and per init the Cubans to manage their own affairs. But the, real army of pacifica- ltion was not made up of soldiers in khaki. armed with rifles. and support led by. artillery It was composed of linen In overafis,. armed with picks and supported by the most up-tc-iate road building machinery. Building gooi lroads. next to sanitation, was the prin- lcipal business of the Wood administra- ltion. Tn the Magoon regime the con- lstruction of good roads has been the brine consideration. With good roads Cuba will be prosperous. there will be less incentive to. insurrection. and lthere win be a, smaller probability of lsuccessfui revolution. If the system Iof good roads outlined and being con Istructej could be finished before Janu. isry 2s. t might well be said when the Americans leave that Cuba has been entirely pacified.
 Not more than DOT cent of the area lof Cuba Is under cultivation. The Igreatest obstacle to- the agricultural development of the island has been the almost complete absence of roads. Maps of Cuba present a perfect net work of lines which are supposed 70 indicate roads, but as a matter of fact these are nothing more than .unim- Iproved rights of way. In the dry season they are trails which may be gone over with comparative ease. but in the rainy season they are almost limpa ssable. At the, end of a1most four centuries of Spanish rule in Cuba there was little less than 1s6 miles ox highways in Cuba. The work of road lconstruction was begun immediately after the American occupation in 1Ses. was continued under the Cuban Re- public, and has reached it's highest mark under the present provisional government. Tn April, 1907, definite program was adopted. providing for the construction of nearly 1,5oo miles of highways, to be built during three program is not completed, of course. but 1t Is well under way. Much of the work has been done. and the new ICuban Republic will push 1t forward to completion. After that 1t Is the plan to construct 1900 miles of con- meeting roads, at probable cost of 10000 If that supplementary plan is carried through. 1t will mean that within ten years Cuba will have a well-nigh perfect road system.
 The sugar cane producing districts feel the commercial need of improved roads less than the other sections of Cuba. The cane Is cut and hauled In the dry season, and the large sugar plantations are provided with private railroad systems which connect with port cities or with the public railroad lines of the island. The small lana owner suffers most, and Q good road him to compete with the big corpora ttion- owned sugar plantations.
 Experience in every part of the world has proved. however, that cane sugar production requires an enormous capital and that 1t must be undertaken on a large scale to assure good profits The improvement in road sys- tems in Cuba probably will lead the small owners into some other branch of arriculture. more profitable. but now ifnpossible on account of bad roads.
 l Bad roads mean much in Cuba. In l the eastern part of the island, especIal- fly, there are whole sections unculti- vated and depopulated, because of the impossibility.. of transporting the pro- ducts of the soil to the market at q cost which is commercially practicable. The condition of the roads has caused the general use of the "carreta"--or the general use of the ''carreta" has caused the condition of the roads. Some put it one way some the other; the discussion being on the orier of that concerning the disputed priority of the owl and the owls egg.
 | The ''carreta" is a clumsy. high. two wheeled cart. The two wheels arc six Am N10v v. row rims and tires. and are so set on the axle that the outer rim has play or six or eight inches out of the per lpendicular. This wheel skew Is the lactive principle of the carreta. When the wheels get stuck in the mud, con- stant pulling will work the wheel first Ito one side, then to the other, until the rut is wide enough to permit the Jcart to proceed. What such system does to a soft dirt road may be imagin- led.
 | Bun teams are the favorite motive bower. when one of these huge carts with it's two sharp wheels Is loaded with from four to five tons of freight: when six yoke of bulls are hitched Tn front and a hold-back yoke is hitched behind; and the whole business moves off across the trail. the one sure and lcertain result is ruta. If this hypo- thetical case is multiplied by the mum her necessary to transport the whole produce of 8 section in season, and that result is multiplied by three or foun hundred. representing the number +of seasons this system has been Tn force one will get fairly good aritn- metical idea of how bad a Cuban road can be.
 Imagine mud-holes through which the bulls must pull with the muck and mire up to their shoulders. Imagine such mud-holes at frequent intervals with the road between them cut into ruts in which a man may stand and be entirely hidden from the waist dewn. Imagine miles and miles of such roads. and. the entire absence of any other kind of roads. Then, it will not be so difficult to understand why there Is so much rich agricultural land in Cuba which is still wild and free. Nor VIII 1t be so difficult to understand why band of a few natives can make a revolution which is extremely dKfi- cult to deal with from Havana CT from any other center of authority.
 It is this condition of things which the provisional government has sought to change by the construction of good roads. A great highway is being built from one end of the island to the other. from west to east Roads of equal lexcellence will connect the highway with port cities in each province. one on the north and one on the south coast. in each political division of the IIsland Work has begun in the west and the great tobacco producing province of Pinar del Rio has been re- TNaH Htr