The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1910-02-18
IN CUBA.
OUR FORMER TOWNSnAN, Il. A
WOOD, WRITES HIS IMPRESS
SION OF CUBA FROM A RE-
CENT VISIT.

SION OF CUBA FROM A RE-
CENT VISIT.
The following communication
to the Santa Cruz (Cal.) Sentinel
fir ON Mr.. G. A. Wood, who made
u business trip to Cuba when he
left here last fall, will be of in
terest TO many of our leaders,
who wish to know Of business
and social conditions in that
tropical island:
Ed. "Sentinel'':-I am asked by a
number of your staff about Cuba as q
place for investment. While eve in
my short visit on a little matter of
business, l was enabled to get some
idea ST the condition of affairs in Cuba
I am afraid my knowledge would not
be of much practical value to anyone
contemplating IN investment there,
and yet even a casual observer may
learn many things in a general way.
Cuba has a population of some two
million people, perhaps, fifty thousand
Chinese, six o. seven hundred thOus-
and blacks and the remainder whites,
including a few thousand Americans,
Canadians and Europeans. To dis
criminate more closely, there are in a
general way four classes, the Spain
iards, with all the traditions OF Spain
hanging about them, the native born
Cubans, blacks and mulattos. The
| Spanish are considered among the
very best citizens, and with the white
! Cubans, hold the offices and places of
preferment and do the business of the
island. Travelling through the South,
| one notices the color-line carefully
drawn-in the depots, street cars and
public places the colored people have
their places apart from the whites
not so in Cuba: there is no color line
there, but whites and blacks mingle in
a perfectly natural way, they sit side
by side in the churches, street cars
and public places without the least
sign of prejudice.
Like larger geographical divisions
, on the Western continent, Cuba is a
land of mountains, hills. rivers and
valleys. The mountains are fairly
we'll covered with mahogany, ebony,
rosewood, cedar, live oaks and palms.
The island has fairly good railway
| accommodations, a main line the length
| of the island, and lateral branches
which cover the settled portions fairly
we'll. Sugar and tobacco are the two
great industries of Cuba, there are
some two hundred sugar mills, en-
plOying an army OF men and an enor-
nous capital and occupying large
acres of land. The largest plantations.
and most up-to-date sugar mills are
owned by American capitalists.
| Grinding commences the last OF De-
cember and continues until the X
| September, when the mills will shut
down and be made ready for the fol-
lowing December, thus giving the
managers of the American mills OPP
portunity t o 90 back to the States for
their vacation, in the meantime the
mills are put in order for the COM
ing grinding season. 1t will surprise
many of your readers, as it did me, to
learn that while the poorer and older
lands require planting every two or
three years, the newer and richer
lands require planting only every fiji
teen or twenty years. The cane crop
is considered very good this year and
both the sugar n tobacco Interests
promise large returns on the money
invested in them. The tobacco plant
reaches great perfection in the climate
and soil Of Cuba. This, with the
cheapness of labor, makes the island
an ideal place for that industry 1t is
estimated that in Havana alone TWEEN
ty-eight thousand persons are engag-
ed in making cigars.
Besides the tobacco and sugar in
dustries, there is a large amount OF
American capital invested in railway.
street car, telegraph and telephone
1:-~, ho~l. ~cfit,fiOrS onI in
building and road making machinery
and appliances. American n Can,
adian capitalists have secured control
of large tracts of land with the view
of laying them off into five, ten and
twenty-acre lots, and securing settlers
from the United States and Canada.
Within a few years they have secured
quite q number of people from the
United States and Canada, attracted
by the mild climate, the richness of
the soil, and the quick returns, as set
forth in the inviting literature of the
real estate dealers; but the result has
been great disappointments to the set
tiers. In talking the matter over with
the American consul he seemed out of
patience with the real estate dealers
for inducing SO many people OF small
means to come to Cuba. He says that
those who have come, depending upon
getting q living from q small ranch of
from five to twenty acres, have, in al
most every case, been greatly disap-
pointed; that it is almost impossible
for a family to get q living from a
ranch of that size, or, II possible in
some exceptional case, 1t was only af-
ter some years of experience; and that
if people are bound to come to Cuba
to live they ought not to depend upon
what they can raise upon those small
ranches under at least four or five
years; that it is not safe to come to
Cuba without means to live independ-
ent of what can be raised there, for
that length of time. He sighted as an
example the unhappy condition of a
colony Of Canadians who had come !
there with just ean enough to buy a
few acres of land and build a place
to live in. They are unable to make
ANYTHING like a 1ivinu and the Cop.