The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1932-10-13
CUBAN HUNGER
BLAME IS LAID
TO UNCLE SAM
People Die of Starvation in
Island Developed by
Sugar BaronS.
BY WILLIAM PHILIP SIMMS
scripns Howard Foreign EDITOR

=. WASHINGTON, Oct 13.-People
are said actually to be dying Of
starvation in certain areas Of Cuba,
which ordinarily is land Of milk
and honey.
To make matters worse from
Washington's point Of view. Uncle
Sam is held largely to blame 1t
was he who induced this paradise
of the Caribbean to make herself
a one-crop country because Of this
country's and the worlds demand
for sugar
The island Of sugar now is an is
land Of hunger, disease and death,
according to information from the
Cuban capital
Not only are many of the in
habitants of some Of the more Sc
verely stricken areas dead or dying
Of hunger, but 1t is reliably re-
ported, disease is taking the lives
Of many more.
DR.. Angel Alayo, medical officer
of the health department, reports
more than 1000 new cases of ma
laria in seventeen newly infected
districts, all traceable to Cuba S
tragic economic plight
Stagnant water deplorable sani-
tary conditions in small towns and
poverty Of the inhabitants are cited
as the principal causes of the cpl
demic.
Residents Are Desperate
Scarcity Of government funds has
resulted in a slump in sanitation
activities. it is said, all over the
republic. one of the garden spots of
the world.
According to the Heraldo de Cuba
q government organ, seven workers
of the Almeida sugar central. once
the pride of the island, have died OF
starvation, while families of the
more humble members of the colony
are in a state Of abject despera-
ton"
The claim is made that the mill
has not paid the laborers who made
the 1882 crop" says the Havana
.American-NeWs, in spite of the
fact that all sugars ground have
been sold or taken by the bankers
The mill has been taken over
by creditors and reOrganized. Yet,
despite the best efforts Of the pro-
vincial and federal officials the
wages due for a year have not
been paid
Feed Children on Grass
1.-THE story is too pathetic to tell
or to write, the newspaper con-
tinues. ITO the right and left the
poverty stricken families can be
seen, stretching out their hands
They have no bread or other food
Not a mattress on which to sleep.
They lack everything in the world.
Mothers feed their young loved
ones grass and other things that
can be found in the woods. They
live like wild animals, in mud and
filth
authorities having jurisdiction
over the district have tried in vain
to locate the owners of the mill so
that these poor men who have
earned 20 or 25 cents a day by
working eighteen hours a day, can
get their money, and leave the
dungeon where sooner or later they
will die. 1t is feared the epidemic
of malaria will reach the starvers."
Sugar Industry DemOralized
Though this picture admittedly
is of one of the worst centers of
suffering. it is said that from end to
end of the island the workers are
in a deplorable state. Some of the
sugar centrals are trying to keep
their workers alive by sort of dole
system, but so demoralized is the
sugar situation that even this make
shift rests upon Shaky foundations.
Approximately IS per cent of the
Cuban sugar industry is American
owned or controlled. It dominates
Cuban exports and even imports.
1t has grown to such enormous
proportions that it has dwarfed all
other industries 1t dominates the
stands government, the islands
economics and the very lives OF the
islands people. When sugar is down,
Cuba is down.
Against this background is a
political situation charged with dy-
Mantle. The republic is seething
Machado, upon whom, rightly or
wrongly, all the islands ills are
blamed. maintains himself in power
only by the aid of big and we'll
paid army-well-paid because, with
out it, revolution would break out
over night.
Centuries ago the Chinese were
cooling their rooms in hot weather