The Calumet news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 1907-1938, 1911-05-22
BRITISH WRITER
SAYS CUBA HAS
GREAT FUTURE
Sydney Brooks, Well Known Eng
lish Publicist, After Spend
ing Several Months There
Praises Island
GOOD FIELD FOR INVESTMENT
Declares II Is One Of the Richest Spots
on Earth and One Of Least De-
veIoped and Most Sparse
N Settled.

y Settled.
New York, May IA British View
of Cuba" is given by Sydney Brooks
lof London, the well known English
publicist who is now in New York
after spending several months in Gu
ba i'm behalf of the London Times. Mr..
Brooks summarizes some of his i'm
pressions Of the island and it's prob
lem as follows
Clean and Healthy.
what most surprised me was To find
Cuba one Of the cleanest and health
lest countries have ever come across.
Its death-rate is the lowest but one in
the world and II was almost bewilder-
ing to be forced to realize that Havana.
with the terror OF whose name all
Europe and America have rung for
three hundred years, is now no longer
a fever den but one of the choicest and
best patronized health resorts and
tourists resorts I'm the West Indies.
American energy and example and Gu
ban docility and good sense are to be
thanked for that. If Americans had
never done anything else for Cuba they
would deserve her lasting gratitude for
having put the fear of dirt into the
Cuban people. II Is not the Platt
Amendment that keeps the Cubans
securing and flushing their streets and
installing water supplies and sewage
systems. II is simply that they have
learned that such things pay for them
selves a thousand times over. yellow
fever has become not merely absolete
but virtually impossible and | do not
believe that any questions of santa
tion will ever again obllge the United
States to take an active interest in
Cuban affairs.
Island is Prosperous.
The island is prosperous and going
rapidly ahead. Mr.. Bryce. the British
Ambassador at Washington declared a
few years ago that no better field for
the expenditure of capital could be
wished for, and the statement is even
truer today than when It was first
made. Cuba is one of the most ac-
cessible and potentially one of the
richest spots on earth. yet at the same
time one of the least developed and the
most sparsely populated. Only about
one twentieth of its area is under any
kind of cultivation and its people num-
ber not more than two millions. The
eastern end of the island, especially,
and il is there that the agricultural
and industrial future of Cuba lies--is
a storehouse of natural wealth clamor-
ing for men. highways and capital TO
unlock it. II is possible for any we'll
organized concern to go into what Is
now an uncleared wilderness, and I'm
five of six years to build up a great
and prosperous industry in sugar tim
Der and fruit. Sir William Van Horne
by driving his railroad through the
heart of the island has opened up dis
tricts that were previously as remote
from one another and as inaccessible
as though they had been separated by
continents instead of kilometcrs and il
is only a question of time before Nuer-
itas and Andilla on the north coast and
Santiago on the south begin to dispute
the ascendency of Havana
cuba's Future Assured.
"The material future Of Cuba, in
short. I take To be a thing assured.
There will he moments of comparative
depression, of course-there is one
now. due to a short sugar crop. a long
drouth and low prices-but on the
whole nothing, not even politics, can
stop the rapid upward movement Of
Cuban prosperity Much on the other
hand might be done to facilitate &C.
Men, railroads and highways are the
crying needs; a supply Of cheap credit
is hardly less essential-the normal
rate of interest i'm Cuba today is ten
per cent: means should he found to
break up the unimproved estates that
at present do no good to anyone: titles
are by no means as clear as they
might be; the lottery, i'm my judgment.
Is n source of unmitigated evil; and
the system of indirect taxation falls.
as usual. harder on those who are
least able to bear IL. The social and
political reformer. i'm fact. will hnd
plenty to keep him busy i'm Cuba for
some years to come; but the material
foundations of the islands welfare are
not merely sound but indestructible
and whether reforms come quickly or
slowly will prove in the long run to be
OF little consequence.
Gomez a Wise President.
"As for politics the first thing to be
said Of the Cuba Of today is that IL Is
absolutely tranquil. The few men who
have II in their power TO make trou-
hle are too busy with their mills and
plantations TO think Of politics; and
those who would like to make trouble
have not the power. The country is
admirably policed; the fear of another