OUTLOOK IN CUBA FOR LABOUR
That the wounds of Cuba will soon heal with the rapid promotion of work,
is undoubtedly true. This is the struggle the United States is now
entering upon, and the employment of the people should be the first aim
of those responsible for the management of affairs. There will naturally
be many disappointments, some disillusioning. The condition of labour in
the Island requires the most serious attention of our Government. A
brief history of it during the present century may elucidate the
existing situation.
In 1815, after the Napoleonic wars, the principal nations of Europe came
together and agreed upon the Treaty of Vienna. An important provision of
this Treaty was that henceforth slavery should be abolished. Spain, in
common with other nations, signed this agreement, but, as is her habit,
kept it not. The horrors of slavery were continued in her colonies, and
in the middle of the present century almost reached the depths of
inhumanity. At this time the population of Cuba was nearly a million
people, and the traffic in human flesh and blood was a prosperous and
profitable business. How long it would have continued is impossible to
say, had not England interfered. After painful delays, much threatening,
and innumerable broken promises on the part of Spain to observe the
Treaty of Vienna, England agreed to give that country two millions of
dollars to compensate those who owned "slave factories" in Havana,
provided the nefarious business was stopped. Spain simply pocketed the
money, told her noble sons engaged in the slave business in Cuba to
look out for British cruisers when bringing slaves, assured them that no
harm beyond the loss of cargo should come to them if caught--and the
plantations of Cuba continued to be supplied as usual with slaves.
Interesting facts in relation to conditions in Cuba during this period,
when British cruisers kept watch of Spanish slave-ships, have been
recently given in a series of articles in the _Century Magazine_,
written in 1859.
According to this chronicle, the Spaniards in Cuba were in open sympathy
with the slave-dealers, and a story is told of a slaver chased by a
cruiser into the harbour of Havana, the shores being lined with people
cheering the slaver. The cruiser would have effected a capture, but the
slaver, dodging into a corner of the harbour, came to anchor, and her
officers told the slaves on board to jump overboard and swim ashore, as
the British were cannibals and would eat them all if captured. The
slaves escaped to the shore, where the Spaniards picked them up and
laughed at the British and the trick.
The same writer notes that by law the British must sell captured slaves
by a mixed commission at fifty dollars each for a seven years' term of
labour. These slaves were known as _emancipados_ and each wore a tin tag
on his neck, showing the date of his sale and the date of the expiration
of his slave service; but _emancipados_, strangely, seldom reached the
end of their terms; the Spaniards prevented that, by taking the tag from
an _emancipado_ whenever one of their slaves died and putting it on the
corpse. This was sufficient evidence that the _emancipado_ was dead, and
the Spanish owner had a new slave. As for the general condition of the
_emancipado_, it was much worse than that of the real slave, for his
master, knowing he must soon lose him, treated him cruelly, by overwork
and starving, and when at last the poor _emancipado_ had his freedom, he
had neither strength nor health to enjoy it.
A Cuban gentleman, now over threescore years and ten, told the author,
in Cuba, that nothing in ancient or modern history exceeded in horror
the slave-trade of Cuba during this period. In spite of England's
watchfulness, it could be made profitable, even if occasional mishaps
sent a shipful of unhappy Africans, chained together below decks, to the
bottom of the sea, or a catastrophe set fire to the load of writhing
humanity, fettered to prevent escape. Naturally a large percentage died
on the voyage, and the condition of those landed was so awful that a
description would be impossible in these pages. It will suffice to say
that upon one occasion a young Cuban, who had been sent down by his
employer to land some of these unfortunate creatures, was so impressed
by the awful spectacle that he shot himself through the brain with a
revolver and died on the spot.
So long as this traffic continued, and the plantations of the Island
were supplied by the unhappy African victims of man's inhumanity to man,
there was no labour trouble in Cuba. Under such conditions sugar-growing
was a comparatively simple process, and those engaged in it became
wealthy. The day of reckoning, however, was at hand. After repeated
disappointments, England succeeded in absolutely stopping further
importations of slaves into Cuba. Up to the time of the breaking out of
the insurrection of 1868, black labour had been almost exclusively used
on the sugar estates of Cuba. Bad as slavery is at the best, there was
in Cuba probably the worst system ever known. The work was of the
hardest, the climatic conditions severe, and the unhappy victims of
cupidity were ill-treated and brutalised. With such a beginning,
continuing in one form and another until 1885, how could such conditions
produce aught but dissatisfaction and misery at the present time?
The same causes demoralised the Cubans. They were reared in luxury and
idleness and looked upon work as fit only for slaves. The owners of
plantations were rich men, their children were educated abroad, and, as
a rule, spent most of their time in foreign travel. A large proportion
of them were simply alien landlords. Unskilled in business, when the
change took place and the slaves were freed, these people were not
prepared to meet the new conditions which confronted them and to adjust
themselves to a new form of life. Here the Spaniard, who is always
anxious for gain, took advantage of the situation, and at the end of the
rebellion of 1868-1878 the Cuban planters, who were formerly rich, found
themselves impoverished. Their slave labour had been taken from them,
their opportunities for further employment of contract coolies had been
lost, and they found themselves in need of outside assistance. The
Spaniards and some others responded by advancing money to them at the
current rate of interest (twelve per cent.), but the planters,
unaccustomed to economise, could not pay expenses and interest, and year
by year their debts grew heavier. Some managed to continue operations,
but many broke down under their burdens and their plantations went to
satisfy their creditors, chiefly Spaniards. Short of labour, the crops
declined; and to add to their troubles, beet-sugar made its advent. The
European beet-growers, with a clear knowledge of conditions in the
Island, were quick to take advantage of them and push their product
forward to supply the Cuban cane-sugar deficit, and so successful were
they that at the end of the insurrection of 1868, say in 1878, Cuba was
practically bankrupt. Competition with the European beet-growers was
difficult, and it was impossible to induce capital from the United
States to restore the sugar industry of Cuba, owing to a lack of
confidence in the stability of the government of the Island.
[Illustration: CANE CUTTERS.]
During the ten years of rebellion, the planters were able to protect
their property by paying regular taxes to the Spanish Government, and at
the same time allowing a certain amount to the insurgents, who agreed
for this not to destroy the plantations. During this period they
employed slave and coolie labour; but they were then subject to the
Moret law, which was, in effect, that each planter should liberate a
certain number of his slaves each year, and this was to continue until
slavery had disappeared. Before this occurred, however, the treaty of
Zanjon was made, whereby all slaves were liberated. By the Moret law,
numbers were given to the slaves by the municipality, the name and
number of the slave written on a slip, which was put in a box and each
year ten per cent. of the names were drawn out. The owners were then
officially notified that certain slaves, giving their numbers, were
free, and this was published in a local paper. Most of these slaves
remained with the planters. This law had a very good effect.
Returning for a moment to the outbreak of the rebellion of 1868, it is
necessary to refer to another sad page in the history of labour in Cuba;
namely, the introduction of coolie labour from China. In 1869 the
importation of slaves into Cuba was stopped, and then commenced the
traffic in coolies, who were shipped from China, cargoes of them being
landed at Havana. They were brought over under a contract for eight
years by a company in Havana which had its own line of steamers. The
contracts were sold to anyone who wished to buy them, at from four
hundred to five hundred dollars per contract. The conditions of a
contract were that the Chinaman was to serve for eight years. He was to
be paid at the rate of four dollars per month, with rations, and was to
receive two suits of clothes and a blanket. If ill for fifteen days, his
wages were to be deducted and his time lost.
One of the conditions of the contract was that at the end of eight years
he was to be considered a citizen of Cuba with such privileges as were
extended to Spanish subjects. Before the expiration of the eight years,
however, those holding these Chinese contracts were notified by the
Spanish authorities that at the expiration of the contract of any coolie
in their employ they were to deliver said coolie to the authorities of
the locality where they were at work. Here, the authorities placed the
coolie on public land, obliging him to work for the municipality, and
held him there until someone offered to take him under a new contract.
This was entirely by force and not optional on the part of the coolie.
The conditions of the new contract were for four years more at
seventeen dollars per month, twelve dollars of which were to be retained
by the municipality, and five dollars were to be given to the coolie. At
the expiration of the four years, if the coolie's conduct had been
satisfactory to his employer, then the municipality was to return to the
Chinaman the money it had retained. The treatment of these coolies was
quite as severe as was ever meted out to an African, and when this
condition of affairs was learned by the Chinese Government, a commission
was sent to Cuba to investigate. A report was made to the Chinese
Government, which resulted in the prohibition of further coolie
emigration from China to Cuba.
Confronted by the loss of his slaves and by the prohibition of further
contracts for coolie labour, the Cuban was at a loss whither to turn for
help. His only hope lay with the Spanish peasants and the Canary
Islanders, and these, in as large numbers as could be secured, were
imported. They were much more valuable than the slaves or the coolies,
but jealousies arose among the Cuban labourers, and the newcomers, being
less numerous, were unable to protect themselves and in many instances
were forced into the towns for protection, thus leaving the planters
quite as short of labour as before, and at the same time increasing the
complications of the labour problem.
In this condition we find Cuba to-day. The great problem will be how to
obtain labour for the plantations, for the mines, and for agricultural
purposes, in order to carry on the work of industrial reconstruction.
All sorts of schemes have been suggested, but upon examination of the
conditions in Cuba, it is feared they will prove impracticable. The life
of the labourer, in consequence of the lack of diversified employment,
and the fact that labour in Cuba is the severest kind of toil, has few
attractions. If the Spanish soldiers are willing to remain and take up
peaceful pursuits, it will aid in the solution of the problem. Possibly
Italians may be induced to emigrate to Cuba, if assured of a stable
government and plenty of work. The opportunity (small allotments and
homes) is limited, and the drudgery on large plantations, without family
life, is not likely to attract those from Europe who are ever eager to
seek homes and broader opportunities in the United States.
When in Cuba, the author visited many plantations and talked with many
planters and overseers on the labour question. The extracts from notes
taken on the spot will be found instructive on this point. The following
excellent explanatory account of farm labour was prepared by an American
who has spent the best part of his life on Cuban plantations and is now
working a prosperous colona, or cane farm:
* * * * *
"From the 1st of December to the 1st of June an average of about 350
people were employed; of these ten per cent. were Canary Islanders or
Spaniards, ten per cent. negro women and boys (white women do no field
work), twenty per cent. native whites, and about sixty per cent. negroes
and mulattos. From the 1st of June to the 1st of December an average of
about 150 were employed. Women do no field work during this period.
"During harvest I give the negro women preference and pay them the same
salaries as the best male labour; they are more constant, their work is
usually well done, and each one keeps her man straight, which is an
appreciable item.
"Next I prefer the negro, because he is, as a rule, a more faithful
worker than either the native white or mulatto, the most of whom are
addicted to gambling, and they cannot be depended on from one day to
another.
"For stowing cane on the cars, ploughing, ditching, road repairing, and
railroad work, Canary Islanders and Spaniards are preferable; they are
more used to this kind of work, more constant, and have fewer vices.
"For cane cutting, carting, planting, and cultivating, native labour, in
particular negro labour, is preferable; because the natives, being
experts, work more rapidly, the cane plant suffers less injury, bringing
in more remunerative returns, and its life is prolonged, which is a big
item to the farmer; the natives are also much less addicted to smoking
in the field, and danger from this source is materially reduced. But as
a rule they are dishonest, and untruthful in the extreme, and this is
general and applies both to whites and blacks, the latter being the
champions. Canary Islanders and Spaniards are cigarette smokers and they
are dangerous in the cane fields.
"At the present time labour is very poor and very much demoralised. Many
of the abler men are in the insurrection, a great number of those
remaining have seen mothers, wives, and children dying a lingering death
from hunger; some could obtain work for their food, while others earned
a salary of from six to eight dollars per month in depreciated Spanish
silver. Provisions were high, and the Government increased taxes on
meats and other necessaries, until these poor ignorant people, bent down
by great sorrow and seeing no help for themselves, gave up in despair
and became indifferent.
"During the past crop, as well as at the present time, I employ a
considerable number of Asiatics, but many of these are opium smokers and
much debilitated, and we calculate on sixty per cent. only being at
work, while forty per cent. are resting in their barracon.[9]
SALARIES
"The average salaries paid by this colona during normal times, that is,
previous to the insurrection, were about as follows:
ALL THE YEAR
Administration.........per month, $166.66 gold, and maintenance.
Servant................ " " 30.00 " " "
Overseer............... " " 85.00 " " "
Second overseer........ " " 35.00 " " "
Steward and bookkeeper. " " 50.00 " " "
Assistant.............. " " 25.00 " " "
Carpenter.............. " " 35.00 " " "
Montero................ " " 25.00 " " "
Assistant.............. " " 20.00 " " "
Hostler................ " " 20.00 " " "
Assistant.............. " " 15.00 " " "
Pumping water.......... " " 6.00 " " "
Cook................... " " 30.00 " " "
Assistant.............. " " 25.00 " " "
Night watchman......... " " 20.00 " " "
Mounted field-guard.... " " 30.00 " " "
" " " .... " " 25.00 " " "
DURING CROP TIME
Mounted field guard............. per month, $25.00 gold, and maintenance.
" " " ............. " " 25.00 " " "
Time-keeper..................... " " 20.00 " " "
Waiter for operatives' table.... " " 15.00 " " "
Vegetable gardener.............. " " 20.00 " " "
Bueyero......................... " " 22.00 " " "
Assistant....................... " " 16.00 " " "
" ....................... " " 12.00 " " "
Foreman with cartmen............ " " 30.00 " " "
Assistant....................... " " 23.00 " " "
Foreman with stevedores......... " " 28.00 " " "
Cartmen......................... " " 23.00 " " "
Ploughmen....................... " " 23.00 " " "
Cane cutters.................... " " 21.00 " " "
Cane lifters.................... " " 15.00 " " "
Cane loaders (stevedores)....... " " 21.00 " " "
"During the summer months wages for field labour averaged about $17 per
month. Cost for maintaining labour averaged about $7.50 per month in
gold; cost for maintaining overseers, foremen, carpenters, cooks,
stewards, guards, etc., amounted to about $12 per month.
"Rations for each man per day were as follows:
"Clear beef, one pound, or its equivalent in tasajo or salt fish.
"Rice, one pound, or its equivalent in beans, peas, macaroni, etc.
"Lard, two ounces.
"Coffee, one ounce.
"Sugar, two ounces.
"Bread, six ounces, or instead of bread, sweet potatoes, plantains, or
melanga.
"Sweet-oil, bacon, salt, and spices sufficient to season the food.
"During the winter months, cabbage, tomatoes, and turnips are served
every day without regard to rations.
RULES AND REGULATIONS
"When a labourer enters his name on the pay-roll he receives his machete
or hoe, tin plate, tin dipper, and spoon, the same being charged to him
and credited when returned.
"Time-keeper makes his rounds twice every day.
"Away from the batey[10] smoking is absolutely prohibited, and the
penalty is immediate dimissal.
"Salaries are paid any day between 11 A.M. and 1 P.M., Sundays excepted,
to those who desire the money.
"Except in case of sickness, meals are charged to those who are not at
work.
"To the sick such medicines as we have are given free; the most
prominent of these is quinine.
"If a man remains in the barracon sick for more than two days he is sent
to his home, or to a hospital. If it is an injury received in the
service of the colona, he is cared for until able to work again.
"The bell tolls at 4 A.M. for the people to get up; at break of day,
after having drunk a cup of coffee, they go to the field; at 11 o'clock
they return to breakfast; at 1 o'clock they again go to the field; at 6
o'clock they come in to dinner, and at 8 o'clock the bell sounds
silence, after which absolute quiet is enforced. The negro is fond of
his music and dancing, and this is permitted at seasonable hours, and
sometimes the overseer gives special permission to prolong their
amusements beyond the usual hour.
"Gambling is prohibited, but the rule cannot be successfully enforced.
"In the dry season (at mid-day) when the people are in the batey,
sentinels are stationed on the hills to give timely warning of cane
fires.
"Armed guards patrol the fields by day, and guard the cattle at
night--this applies to times of peace.
ADVANTAGES OF LARGE COLONAS OVER SMALL ONES
"During my experience in this vicinity I have never known a single
instance where a small colona prospered or was able to extricate itself
from debt, and this condition is owing to various causes. A colona
employing from three hundred to four hundred men can be carried on more
economically than one employing from one hundred to two hundred men. The
high-salaried men in the one are very nearly the same as in the other,
but the small farmers with fifty or two hundred acres fare much worse.
These purchase everything they require at retail, often paying from
fifteen to thirty per cent. more than the large farmers, who purchase at
wholesale and receive rebate for prompt payment. A small farmer
employing ten men requires a cook; the larger, employing three hundred
men, requires but two cooks. The small farmer is always cramped for
money, has but a limited credit with the central, and outside of that
none, except with an occasional country storekeeper, who may consider
the risk and accommodate him by charging exorbitant interest. The money
which ought to be expended on the cane fields goes to pay this interest,
his fields get to such low ebb that the cane no longer pays the expense
for harvesting, he can obtain no money for replanting, fails to pay his
rent, and the owner of the land takes possession of what remains,
resulting in some other poor fellow stepping in only to repeat his
predecessor's experience.
"The cost for preparing, breaking up, cross-ploughing, making,
furrowing, seed cane, planting, cultivating, wear and tear to
implements, and weeding one caballeria[11] of cane to maturity, and
doing it well, is from $1400 to $1600, according to conditions of soil,
salaries, etc., and under normal conditions will here require from three
to four years before the farmer can see any profits, and then only by
intelligent management and good soil; soil which requires planting every
three to five years will ruin any man.
"The average yield of cane per caballeria in Guabairo for 1895 was about
71,500 arrobas,[12] and the cost per one hundred arrobas for weeding,
cutting, carting, and delivering to the central amounted to about $1.84.
"During the crop time we employed from one hundred and fifty to two
hundred Chinamen; of the balance of the labourers, probably there were
more negroes than Spanish, with the white Cubans in a distinct minority.
The Chinamen we have here now make very steady workmen, but they are
weak, and not able to do as much work per day as either a negro or a
Spaniard can do in the field. The best workmen we have, if we can get
enough of them, are the negroes. One negro in cutting cane, can do as
much as two of any other class; but I do not think this country is
adapted for the American negro, from what I have heard of him, as he
would have to put up with hardships here, and a style of eating and
living which, I imagine, is not as good as he has in the southern part
of the United States. The immigration of Chinese is prohibited, although
a few manage to get in at a time. I do not know of any other
restrictions on immigration. I do not believe the Jamaica negro would
make a good workman; for, from what I have heard of him, he is very
lazy, and would not be at all a desirable labourer. Thus our only hope
for labour is to retain here the Canary Islanders, because they are
harder working and can stand the climate better than others. They are
men who can save money here, and that in itself is proof that they must
be steady workmen, because they earn so little. Galicians are also good
workers, but so far as I know of the men working here, the Canary
Islanders are the best. The white men are mainly employed as stevedores
in the batey, though they are also good labourers in the field.
"As a rule the labourers are not married. The families of the married
labourers live in the villages in the neighbourhood. The men must sleep
in the batey at night. Sunday they work half a day, and get paid for a
full day, provided they have worked five full days during the week;
otherwise they only get half a day's pay. The men sleep in large rooms
called barracones; sleeping in hammocks, and not taking their clothes
off. Many of them possess but one suit, and on Sundays, after breakfast,
they go to a stream, wash their clothes, lie around until they are dry,
and then put them on again. For the better class of workmen, employed in
the factory, the machinery helpers, etc., we have bath-houses. These men
have rooms, and as a rule they are unmarried. Most of the labouring men,
if they have families, when they are paid off, go away for a day, or a
day and a half, and take their money to their families, and then come
back to work. Those who are not married, keep on working or stay off a
few days. It is quite uncommon to find a labouring man who can read and
write. Their chief vice is gambling, the Cuban and Spaniard being
similar about this, though we try on this estate to prevent gambling as
much as possible. The Chinese gamble and smoke opium. The bell rings at
8 P.M., at which time the men are supposed to be in their barracones,
and are not supposed to walk around the batey, this rule not being
enforced except during the last two years.
"The price of labour, in 1895, for cutting cane, etc., before the
insurrection commenced, varied from fourteen dollars to twenty dollars
per month, Spanish gold. This has fallen off to from twelve dollars to
fifteen dollars, Spanish silver, paid during the past crop for the same
labour--in American gold about fifty-five per cent. of this. The
maintenance per month per man is nine dollars, Spanish gold. This fall
in wages was necessitated by the fall in the price of sugar, and by the
fact that but few plantations in the neighbourhood were able to continue
working."
* * * * *
Labour seeking employment in Cuba must face these conditions. That the
field will prove sufficiently attractive to tempt immigration in large
numbers, even from the poorer sections of Europe, is doubtful. Still,
with more prosperous times, the Canary Islanders may try their fortunes
in the future as they have tried them successfully in the past; and so
with Italians, Spaniards, South and Central Americans, and even the
Southern negro of the United States, despite the fact, as stated above,
that the American negro will not come to Cuba because the work is too
hard and the food and accommodations too poor. But the American negro
will, unwittingly, no doubt be the pioneer of a new labour era in Cuba.
With the coming of the new order and new people, will come higher ideas
of labour, and that which has ennobled labour in the United States will
have its elevating influence among the labouring people of Cuba. Herding
labourers in barracones like so many cattle, sleeping them, feeding
them, bathing them, with less care than is shown to fine cattle, ruling
them with whip and spur, making no provision or allowing no time for
their mental or moral improvement, regarding them merely as so much live
stock, but of less value than cattle, because when too old to work they
cannot be slaughtered and eaten, it is small wonder that the crying need
of the sugar-planter for two centuries has been sufficient and efficient
labour. When the planter, under the newer influences which shall soon
prevail, learns that by education, by the adoption and enforcement of
sanitary regulations, by the establishment of homes, by the observance
of the decent amenities of life, by the liberalising of religious
belief, by the recognition of human rights, and by the general uplifting
of the sentiment of work, a sufficiency of labour may be easily secured,
and its efficiency guaranteed, the problem so long unsolved will be made
as clear as day, and Cuba will enter an era of prosperity for all
classes that will astonish and attract the world.
There is at this time a steady increase in the demand for labour on
plantations and, in Santiago Province, for the mines. While in Cuba the
author received one cable despatch calling for fifteen hundred labourers
for the mines, while three large planters stood ready, among them, to
employ a thousand men to work in the sugar fields. In the neighbourhood
of the sugar plantations all the able-bodied men had either been killed
in battle, died of disease and starvation, or were still in a state of
practical destitution, hidden away in the insurgent camps. Those who
offered themselves for employment were, as a rule, too weak to endure
the hard labour. Three years of privations and lack of food had
destroyed their stamina. To be sure, there is surplus labour in
Havana,--able-bodied labour,--but those who applied there had no means
of transportation to the localities where they could obtain work.
Through a suggestion made by the writer to an enterprising American
concern, four hundred of these Havana labourers were sent to Santiago.
It is estimated that at least three thousand additional labourers could
be well employed in these mines at once, if it were possible to send
them from the spots where starvation stares them in the face to the
localities where work can be obtained for those able to endure, as
already indicated, the hardest toil under trying climatic conditions.
Many Spanish soldiers desire to remain in the Island. They have formed
alliances in Cuba; some of them have married and have families there.
These men have come before American officials and entreated them to aid
in finding them employment of some kind, either as Civil Guards, in the
mines, or on the plantations. As a rule they make industrious and
faithful labourers. Attention is called to an extract from a letter
written by a prominent business man of Havana,--the man, in fact, who in
October was employed to send the four hundred labourers from that city
to Santiago:
"I advertised for labourers in the Santiago mines in our principal
newspapers, and, in consequence, have had for the last three days
at least one hundred and twenty men calling at my office for
situations. They are willing to accept the price offered, but not
one of them can pay the passage from this port to Santiago.
"Lots of soldiers, lots of labourers, many of whom have already
worked in the Santiago mines and know all about the work, living,
and everything else, but were taken away from there as guerrillas,
volunteers, and soldiers of some kind, are willing to go; but, as
you will understand, the people here have been without work and the
soldiers without any pay, and therefore nobody can pay the passage.
"While I have been writing these lines several men have called on
me, but it is the same thing over and over again; they need work,
and are willing to work, but they have not got one cent to save
their souls."
It is believed this indicates clearly and without exaggeration the
present conditions in Havana as regards would-be labourers and their
suffering for want of work. During fifteen years' experience in
operating iron mines in Cuba, those who know say, the labour question
there has always been the unsolved problem, as never during that time
have they been able fully to supply their wants in this direction. If
the number of labourers has not in normal times been sufficient to
satisfy the requirements of all industries in Cuba, how much will it
fall short under the new conditions? The only hope for the renewal of
prosperity in the Island is, first, the rehabilitation of the sugar
industry; second, a revival of work on the tobacco plantations; and
third, a full complement of men in the mining districts. These
industries are the basis of the prosperity of the Island. A better
distribution of labour will aid somewhat, and if this is accomplished
intelligently by the United States Government, employment can be found
for thousands whose presence in Havana without work is a menace to the
city. It should be borne in mind that the Cuban harvest is in the winter
months, and therefore plans should at once be inaugurated by which those
who want work can be immediately brought to those anxious to give them
employment. A small expenditure of money in this direction now will save
a large expenditure in the future in some other and less desirable ways.
It is useless to try to create new industries until the old and strong
industries of the Island are re-established. If it is difficult, after
the Spanish soldiers leave, to secure the necessary labour for the
plantations, producing, as they will this year, a maximum of 400,000
tons of sugar for export, where are the labourers coming from to produce
the high-water mark of 1,100,000 tons of sugar? The process of
industrial reconstruction will necessarily be slow and depend in a large
degree upon the stability of the Government and the rapidity with which
the people settle down to work. There is no possibility, however, of a
surplus labour supply. Work can be found for all capable and willing to
perform hard labour now that the affairs of the Island have passed into
the hands of the United States military authorities and the new customs
tariff has gone into force. From this time the work of repairing the
dismantled sugar plantations should go forward and thousands of
labourers will be required. Whatever may be the future of Cuba, the
present must be provided for and life and property and the right to
labour be protected.
The disposal of the insurgent troops is so intimately interwoven with
the labour problem that it is difficult to separate the two. Some of
the insurgent troops should be, and probably will be, utilised as Civil
Guards, supplementing the United States forces; but those who are not
needed for this purpose should be systematically aided as far as
possible in any endeavours they may make to secure work. Men with hardly
clothes to cover their nakedness, who have existed for three years on a
diet that would kill the ordinary American labourer in three weeks, and
who have practically foraged for their daily existence, must be helped a
little before they can stand alone--helped at least to the extent of
food and raiment and transportation to the locality where there is work
in abundance.
Lastly, in this connection, the need of homes in Cuba is one of the most
pressing. The condition of those who labour on the plantations is truly
deplorable. They literally have none of the necessities of civilisation.
A complete state of savagery would be preferable to the condition of
those employed on the sugar estates, who toil from early sunrise to
sunset on rations of the plainest sort, and live in huts built of the
bark of palm trees and thatched with the palm leaf.