Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-03-25
Plantations Cover Half a Million
Acres of Land.
CAPITAL OVER $ao,ooo,ooo
Controlled by Boston Millionaires
and Has Made Money From the
Start-Some Big Figures.
BY WILLIAM E. CURTIS
Special Correspondence of The Star and the
Chicago Record Herald.

Special Correspondence OF The Star and the
Chicago Record Herald.
NEW ORLEANS. March %. 1909.
We import about 4O.OOO,OOO punches Of
bananas into this country every year.
which is an average of half a bunch to
every man. woman and child in the United
States. At least so. and probably IS. per
cent of the bananas are imported. trans
ported and sold by the United Fruit Com
pany. better known as the banana
trust whose Offices are 131 State street.
Boston. and whose directors are chiefly
Massachusetts millionaires. This COM
pany produces it's own fruit upon it's own
land has its own agencies at all the large
| commercial centers of the country for its
distribution. and does its own transporta-
tion in its own ships. either built at its
expense or chartered for term of years.
These ships make.regular voyages to and
from Central America. the Spanish Main.
| Cuba and Jamaica. where the trust has
| its plantations wisely scattered in nine
different countries. so that a revolution
| or war cannot interfere with it's trade
| or cut off it's sources of supply. The
largest number of bananas are handled at
| New Orleans: then New York. Baltimore,
Mobile, Philadelphia and Boston are the
chief ports Of entry in the order men,
toned.
In each of these cities and elsewhere a
| good many bananas are handled by In
dependent companies or by ordinary COM
| mission men to whom they are consigned
by the growers or commission houses in
the countries where they are grown.
There are two or three independent steam
ers running across from Mobile and New
Orleans to the Central American ports
which handle good deal of fruit, but as
rule. the banana trade outside of the
trust is conducted like any ordinary bust
ness and the fruit is shipped by the regu-
lar steamers. The total, however. does
not amount to more than three or four
million punches year. or perhaps be-
tween 10 and ID per cent of the business.
Organized in 1898.
The trust is eleven years old. 1t was
organized the year of the war with
Spain. The president is Andrew w.
Preston of Swampscott, Mass; the vice
president is Minor c. Keith of New York,
who is the genius of the enterprise, the
promoter and organizer and the forceful
character In the combination. Mr.. Keith
was originally railway contractor and
went to Costa RIGA to build the line be-
tweer San Jose, the capital, and Port
Limon. While. there he fell in love with
the daughter of DR.. Castro, president of
that beautiful little country, married her
and settled down there. Being man
of energy and foresight. he developed the
banana industry along the Caribbean
coast and acquired large plantations. He
was the pioneer in the trade He taught
the people of the United States to eat
bananas and made what had hitherto
been a valueless fruit, fed only to swine,
the most important product and the larg
est export of Central America. Other
men, seeing what Mr.. Keith was doing.
| initiated his example SO that after
while the northern coast. wherever it was
accessible to schooners, was being planted
to bananas for the American market.
Competition became SO keen that Mr..
Keith began to reconcile and combine
rival interests, and finally. in 1893. with
Boston capital. bought up pretty much
all the plantations that were then worth
having, and has since been improving
and extending them by the expenditure
of nearly a million dollars year.
The other directors OF the company are
bankers, merchants, manufacturers and
retired business men living in the suburbs
of Boston. The stock is pretty well dis
tributed, having been placed upon the
market among 5,9OS persons, and the
average is thirtysx shares for each
stakeholder.