The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1920-03-27
THEHASKINLETTER
CUBAN LABOR TROUBLES
BY FREDERIC ]. HASKIN.

HAVANA, Cuba. March 27.-There
recently occurred here perhaps the only
case on record in which the public has
interviewed in contest between capital
and labor to save its own interests
A harbor strike was on. Not a ship
was being loaded or unloaded A har-
Dor strike is serious misfortune any
where, but in Cuba it is a catastrophe.
The island lives on supplies which II
gets from the United States week by
week. 1t produces little besides sugar
and tobacco
Hence this harbor strike produced
/ CONSERVATION. Food stocks were run-
ming low, Thousands of pounds Of po-
tatoes and other perishables were rot
ting on the docks. Millions of high
grade Havana cigars. for which smok
ers all over the world We're waiting,
lay in the factory warerooms Thou
sands of gallons of American whisky
anguished in the harbor, while thou-
sands of thirsty American tourists were
waiting to drink 1t. A great tourist
season was on. and the hotels could
not get the American food which was
absolutely necessary for the entertain
ment of their American guests.
In this emergency great crowd of
, Havana business folk went down to the
| dock. pulled off their coats and went to
work. Merchants, bankers, bookkeep-
classes were represented. Several mil
lionaires were to be seen getting an
experience of manual labor, wrestling
with potato sacks and cases Of canned
goods. High officials of tobacco COM
panies discovered for the first time how
hard it is to move case Of cigars. A
good many men were discovered who
could drive a truck. and even a few
who could drive a Cuban mule.
Soldiers and convicts were sent by
| the government to the aid of these
| volunteers, but several thousand bust
ness men worked every day for the
better part of month on the docks,
with the result that only little less
than the normal amount of cargo was
moved, and the island was saved from
! famine.
OF course it is slight exaggeration
an intervention Of the public in a
strike. In effect these business peo-
pie were strike breakers No doubt
the harbor workers called them scabs.
And no doubt being business men,
their sympathies were with the ship
companies, rather than with the strik-
ers. But in telling about it. they en-
phasize the fact that they interviewed
solely to protect their own interests,
and there was even something said
about seeing to it afterward that the
ship companies gave the steVedOres a
square deal. At any rate, these island
ers really had to go down and move
their own freight or else lose a lot of
money and perhaps actually go hungry.
The incident certainly illustrates in
dramatic fashion the fact, which is be-
ing illustrated on a larger scale but
not so APPLY in the United States, that
the three Industrial units of capital.
labor. and the public are not properly
c0-ordinated. with the result that all
three suffer, and much energy is
wasted.
Because the island is small and the
mechanism of its life simple, it af-
fords an unusually good opportunity to
study the industrial travail through
which the whole world is just now
passing
The futile cycle of strike, followed
b. rise in wages. followed by an
other strike, which Is being enacted
repeatedly in the United States with
impressive stupidity, Is visible here
with startling clearness, You cannot
His wages have not risen as fast as the
cost Of living Hence there are strikes
all the time. A short time ago there
was harbor strike and a railroad
strike at the same time, so that for
several DAYS the whole business of the
island was at almost dead standstill.
Last summer the tobacco workers were
on strike for three months. These
strikes are the ghosts at the banquet
Of Cuban prosperity. And they repre-
sent the very human desire Of the
workman to get a share Of that pros
perity which has so far done him more
harm than Eood.
But every thing there Gs q stYike.
rrices go up, not gradually, as in the
United States. where various compen-
sating influences may be at work. but
a'rr ost as instan'lv and surely as n
thermometer registers heat
Perhaps because the inevltability and
futiIity of this process are SO clearly
avuarent, there seems to ha less eX-
element and more apprehension of
the industrial problem here than In
he United states. While we in the
United States are hunting witches to
burn, like our Puritan ancestors, blam-
i'm" our troubles on the BolsheVists one
minute and on the profiteers the next,
the Cubans of the more intelligent sort
, seem to have some real understanding
of the trouble An official of one Of
the largest tobacco companies said
that he did not blame his workers for
striking because their wages had not
risen as fast as the cost Of living,
What can | do?" he asked. II cans
not raise wages 40 per cent unless my
competitors all agree to do likewise.
| And II such an agreement could he
| reached, the cost of living would i'm
/ mediately take another rise, The same
thing is going on all over the world.