The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-03-10
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC j. HAsKIN. Director.
Washington, d. G.
CUBAN LABOR TRoUBLEs,

Habana. Cuba, Feb. 27.-There re-
Gently occurred here perhaps the only
case on record in which sthe public
/ has interviewed in a contest between
capital and labor to save its own in
terests.
( A harbor strike was on. Not a ship
was being loaded or unloaded. A har-
Dor strike is a serious misfortune any
where, but in Cuba il is a catastrophe.
The island lives on supplies which it
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 perisha bles were rot
1 ting on the dockS Millions of high
grade Habana cigars, for which smok-
ers all over the world were waiting,
/ lay in the factory ware-rooms- Thou
sands of gallons of American whisky
languished in the harbor. while thou
sands of thirsty American tourists
were waiting to drink il. A great
tourist season was on. and the hotels
which was absolutely necessary for
the entertainment of their American
guests.
/ In this emergency a great crowd of
Habana business folks went down to
the dock. pulled off their coats and
/ bookkeepers, professional men, and
many other classes were represented.
Several millionaires were to be. seen
getting an experience of manual labor,
wrestling with potato sacks and cases
of canned goods High officials OF
tobacco companies discovered for the
| first time how hard it is to move a
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 a month on the docks,
with the result that only a little less
than the normal amount of cargo was
moved, and the island was saved from
famine.
| OF course it is a slight eXaggeration
| to represent this unusual incident as
an intervention of the public in a
strike. In effect these business peo-
pie were strikebreakers. 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
! strilSers. But in telling about it, they
! emphasize the fact that they inter-
vened solely to protect their own in
| terests, and there was even something
! said about seeing to it afterward that
| the ship companies gave the steve
dores square deal At any rate.
! these islanders really had to go down
and move their own freight or else
lose a lot of money and perhaps
actually go hungry. The incident GER
tainly illustrates in dramatic fashion
I the fact, which is being illustrated on
a larger scale but not so aptly in the
| United States, that the three industrial
units of capital, labor and the public
are not properly co-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 thru
which the whole wo:ld is just now
passing.
| The futile cycle of a strike, followed
by rise in wages. followed by a rise
in prices, followed-by another strike,
which lis being enacted repeatedly in
| the United States with impressive
stupidity, is visible here with startling
c!earness. You cannot blame the
Cuban laborer for striking. His wages
/ nave not risen so fast as the cost of
living. Hence there are strikes all the
| S4'AiO' "A otiOIL llIIiS ago IQere was a
| harbor strike and a railroad strike at
the same time, SO that for several DAYS
the whole business of the island wa g
at almost dead standstill. Last sum.
mer the tobacco workers were on
strike Tor three months. These strikes
are the ghosts at the banquet of Cuban
prosperity. And they represent the
very human desire CT the workman to
get share of that prosperity. which
! mas so lar done HIM
good. '-i' II
But every time there is a strike
prices go up not gradually, as in the
United States, where various comnen-
saung influences may be at work, but
Almost as instantly and sure as a Their
mometer registers heat
Perhaps because the fnevita bflitv
ana utility of this process are so
clearly apparent, there seems TO he
less excitement and more comprehen-
SION or the industrial problem here
than in the United States While We
IN the United States are hunting
witches to burn, like our Puritan an
cestors, blaming our troubles on the
BolSheVlstS one minute, and on the
prof1teers the next. the Cubans of the
more Intelligent sort seem to have
some real understanding of the trou-
BILE. An officia' of one of the largest
tobacco companies said that he did
not blame his workers for striking, be-
cause their wages had not risen SO fast
as the cost of living
What can 1 do?" he asked. "I
cannot raise wages forty per cent un-
less my competitors all agree to do
| likewise. And if such an agreement
could be reached. the cost of living
would Immediately take another rise.
/ The same thing is going on all over
the world. I'm sure I do not know
where it will end"
Another local employer who. takes
a sympathetic attitude toward labor
is Frank Stinehard. president of the
Habana Electric ompany, which en-
pioys about six thousand men Mr.
Stinehart has been president of the
company for thirteen years and has
not had strike in that time. He says
he makes wages depend upon the
earnings of the company. He sets
aside what is necessary to pay upkeep,
| interest, and dividends, and then pays
/ the best wa he is HE He prOvides