The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-01-23
THE REPUBLIC OF CUBA
:, -cuba's Great Sugar Industry.
By Frederic J. Haskin.

Havana, Jan. 22.-The biggest thing in Cuba is the sugar industry. Sugar makes two-thirds of the total exports of the island and is the controlling factor in the commerce of the re- public. Sugar gains more by political peace and suffers more from war than any other thing. Sugar not only con trols commerce, but 1t is supreme in politics and dominent in society.
 The last sugar crop, with the by products of molasses and rurn was worth more than s75,000,000. Practi- cally1 all of it was exported to the United States. Since the Cuban recip- rocfty, treaty has been in effect, giv-
 ing Cuban sugar the benefit of re-
 duction of 20 per cent on import du- ties into the United States. more than 99 per cent of the Cuban crop has gone to America. American capital controls many of the largest planta-
 tions, and the holdings are being ex-
 tended from year to year.
 For three centuries Cuba has been one of the leading sugar producing countries of the world. The increase in the consumption of sugar in the last century Is one of the most strik . ing evidences of the extension of the use of luxuries to the masses or the people. The increased demand has cauSG0 0 WOn0GE4uk G4Y6AA6SOA OA SUI 1 far producing territory and improved methods Of agriculture have multi lIplied the yield of every acre. Great as the increasS has, been, and despite the fact that sugar has become an ab solute necessity to almost every civ ilized Ahuman being. the business of making sugar has not materially changed. It is now, as 1t always has
 been, a business requiring large capi- tals for it must be worked on large scale. The small cane farmer may eke out an existence, but he will never be prosperous. The greater the acreage. the bigger the mill, the more number of employees, the better 1t Is for the profits and the better 1t Is for | the consumer.
 Almost S5O,00O acres of Cuban land are devoted to the cultivation of SUI | gar cane. Yet there are only 1S6 plan- | tations in the island. Their average acreage is about 4.50O,| although some are much smaller and some run up into tens of thousands. But from the tinfest of all the Ingenio QuiJano at
 Marianne, at the city gates of Ha- yana, to the great Central Chaparra | in the Orinete, each sugar plantation Is the center of aaffaIrs of its particu- lar section.
 . The plantation is called a "central' (pronounced almost as in English ex. cept that the accent Is on the last
 svilable1, or an "ingenfo," which is
 akin to the English word .engine'
 and refsr more directly to the mill
 The "centra" is, in very fact, the cen ter of all activity of its neighborhood
 The Cuban peasants, guajiros, look to the ''central" for their livelihood. the Chinese coolies regard it as the foun-
 tain of all authority, the maYorals, or overseers, acknowledge It's supremacy
 and the social life of the community
 is guided by its .edicts.
 The greater plantations have private ateam railway systems running through their lands to convey the cane
 to the sugar mill, but in many in-
 stances the bull teams and the two wheeled carts are depended upon for transportation. The Overseers, wear ing the wide >sombrero and the gay
 colors of authority, ride over the fields
 directing the work of the men much
 in the same fashion as before the
 Emancipation. /