The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1911-05-24
CUBA PROSPEROUS
AMERICAN ENERGY AND NATIVE
DociLiTY PROMOTE ISLANDS
DEvEL opMENT.
Politics Not Distributing Factor--Men
Who Could Make Trouble for
susy with Their Factories.

Brooks, Of London, the well-knoWn
English puhlicist who Is now in New
York after spending several months
in Cuba in behalf Of the London
Times. DR.. Brooks, summarizes some
CT his impressions OF the island and
its problems as follows.
What most surprised me was to
find Cuba one OF the cleanest and
healthiest countries have ever come
across. Its death-rate is the lowest
but one in the world and ii was al
most bewildering to be forced to real
ize that Havana, with the terror OF
whose name all Europe and America
have rung for three hundred years, IL
now no longer fever den but one of
the choicest and best patronized
health resorts and tourists resorts in
the West Indies. American energy
and example and Cuban docility and
good sense are to be thanked for that.
II Americans mad never done anything
else for Cuba they would deserve he
lasting gratitude for having put the
fear of dirt into the Cuban people. /
Is not the Plat Amendment ehat
Keeps the Cubans securing and flush
ing their streets and installing water
supplies and sewage systems. 1t is
simply that they have learned tina
such things pay for themselves
thousand times over. Yellow fever
has be- Gle not merely obsolete but
virtually impossible and ! do not be
lieve that any questions of sanitation
will ever again oblige the United
States to take an active interest !,
Cuban affairs.
The island Is prosperous and goinf
rapidly ahead. Mr.. Bryce, the British
Ambassador at Washington declares
a few years ago that no better field TO
the expenditure of capital could b
wished for, and the statement is even
truer today than when it was frs
made. Cuba is one of the most ac
cessibe and potentially one of the
richest spots on earth, yet at the
same time one of the least develope;
and the most sparsely populated. Only
about one.twentieth OF its area is un
der any kind of cultivation and its
people number not fore than two mil
especially-and- it is there that the
agricultural and industrial future 0
Cuba lies--is a. storehouse Of natura
wealth clamoring for men, highway
and capital to unlock it. Its possibl
for any well-organiZed concern to 6,
into what Is now an uncleared wilder
ness, and In five or six years to build
UP a great and prosperous industry Il
sugar, timber and fruit Sir William
VaVn Horne. by driving his railroad
through the heart of the island, has
opened up districts that were pre-
viously as remote from one another
"A as inaccessible as though the
aad been separated by continents In
stead OF kilometers, and it is only 1
question of tie before Neuritas an
Andilla on the north coast and San
tiago on the. south begin to dlspste
the ascendancy of Havana,
AS for politics. the first thing to b.
said of the Cuba of today is that 1t il
absolutely tranquil The few mel
who have 1t in their power to MAX,
trouble are too busy with their mills
and plantations to think of politics
and those who would like to maxi
trouble have not the power. The
country is admirably policed; the fea
OF another American intervention Xix,
that Of 1906 operates MS an abiding re
straint, and pretty nearly everybod,
oho"srCAuihinEut SttBplyi ldubH6Q a.
the suggestion OF revolution. Cub,
has found in President Gomez a ruler
she knows, likes and respects, {
shrewd engaging man Of the people
who thoroughly understands his coun
trymen, who has surrounded himself
with strong and able advisers, and
who will stamp with both feet on The
slightest attempt at instruction. One
hears, of course, a great deal of tall
about corruption and graft; Havana
indeed, talks of little else. But wher
one remembers what Cuba's past has
been, how absolute is her political in
experience, and how ingrained is this
disposition of the Cuban people to sus
pect their rulers and to take II foi
granted that every franchise and con
cession represented bribery in some
form and that every politician is
feathering his own nest, cannot say
that either the gossip of the streets
and cafes or the account of foundation