THE CONDITION OF CUBA
Here is a country, small in extent, it is true, but as rich
proportionally in natural resources as any in the world. It exports over
$100,000,000 worth of the products of its soil annually. Yet less than
half of its productive area is turned to account, and of its cultivated
tracts only a small proportion is subjected to intensive treatment. Bad
government and ill-judged commercial policy have retarded the
development of the country which, under favorable conditions, might
to-day be producing five times its output and supporting a population
five times as great as that which it has. It is importing large
quantities of foodstuff that ought to be raised upon its lands and
paying substantial sums for foreign labor that should be supplied by its
own people.
The economic condition of Cuba is as unfavorable as possible to the
welfare of its population. Foreigners own practically everything in the
country. The Island is exploited for the benefit of everyone but the
natives.
Additional capital is constantly coming in. New enterprises are
continually being floated. In a way these are beneficial to the
community at large, but, with the exception of the official class, they
work little good to the natives. In fact, they decrease the Cuban’s
chances of ever doing anything for himself. Capital and corporations
create wealth, but precious little of it finds its way into the pockets
of the _guajiro_, or the negro. What the country needs, if ever its
people are to become prosperous, is a greater diversity of industries
with opportunities for the little man, and an increase in the small
land-owners. There is a bare possibility of the former condition coming
about; the latter is beyond the bounds of hope. There is no public
domain for disposal to homesteaders. Practically all the land in the
Island is occupied or held for sale at high figures. A very small
proportion of the peasant class own their holdings. Many of them are
merely squatters and others maintain possession on defective titles.
The country that produces one great staple by the agency of slave labor
lays itself under a curse that will be felt long after the conditions
are changed. For well-nigh a century sugar-cane has been the one chief
source of Cuba’s wealth and it has cast a blight upon everything else.
The sugar industry has exercised a detrimental influence upon the
material welfare, morals, and health, and the independence of the people
in general. But for it, blacks would never have been introduced into the
Island in numbers sufficient to affect seriously the general population.
But for it, the larger estates, growing out of the system of
_repartimiento_, would long since have been carved into small holdings,
the homesteads of peasant proprietors with some ambition and some
opportunity to lead a life of manly self-support. The Island might not
have been so wealthy, it might not have afforded such rich pasture for
the professional politician to browse in, nor have yielded such
comfortable profits to American and British stock-holders, but its
people would have been happier and in the way of enjoying greater and
more stable prosperity than the present prospect holds for them.
But this is an idle speculation. Foreigners own ninety per cent. of all
the land in Cuba
[Illustration: SUGAR-CANE READY FOR CUTTING.]
that is worth working, and, since this is the case, the more foreign
capital that comes in, the better for the country. In other words, the
only outlook for the Cuban is to serve as a hired man. If he had any
bent toward the mechanical industries and could command a little
capital, he might make innumerable openings in new directions for
independent enterprises on a small scale.
Cuba should support a variety of manufacturing industries. It has the
necessary materials,--wood, fibres, metal, hides, etc. It imports many
commodities that are made from raw material exported by it. In many of
these cases it would be more profitable for the country to produce the
finished article. Before long, no doubt, the many opportunities long
latent will attract enterprise, and industrial development along this
line will take place. But even so, the Cuban can not hope to play a very
prominent or profitable part in the movement. The extension of education
and manual training may better fit him for mechanical pursuits but lack
of capital will prevent his aspiring to any higher position than that of
workman.
There is little doubt about the future prosperity of the Island along
the present lines of exploitation. There is good reason for believing
that cane sugar will come into its own again, and that before long.
Germany is likely to tire soon of coddling the beet cultivators in the
face of foreign discrimination against them. Improvements in the
cultivation of cane and in the selection of the plant are to be looked
for. Labor-saving devices will be introduced into the fields. The
invention of a satisfactory cane harvester would revolutionize that
branch of industry.
The great future development of the Island will take place at the
eastern end. Oriente is the most promising, and probably the richest,
section of Cuba. Several large corporations have heavy investments in
the Province. Its mineral wealth has hardly been touched. It is an
especially favorable region for the cultivation of citrus fruits and
coffee. These industries will be extensively prosecuted by Americans, of
whom there are already a number located in colonies and individual
plantations.
Cuba is growing constantly in favor with Americans as a health resort
and, with the extension of roads fit for motoring, pleasure
[Illustration: AN IDEAL ROAD FOR THE MOTORIST.]
seekers from the United States will travel on the Island in increasing
numbers. There is a tendency among well-to-do Americans to make winter
homes in Cuba and to build residences in the capital and suburbs. All
this will lead to a better knowledge of the country and a great interest
in its industries with consequent additional investment of capital.
There appears to be little room for doubting that ultimately American
money and American management will dominate the industrial and
commercial affairs of the Island.
Only one retarding factor mars the prospect of progress--that is the
deficiency of labor supply. Doubtless a large part will be for years to
come imported from southern Europe, and this of necessity. If these, or
a considerable proportion of them, could be induced to settle in the
country they would form a desirable addition to the population. At
present, few of them display an inclination to remain, but, on the
contrary, make Cuba the means of furnishing them with sufficient money
to set up in a small way of business at home.
The most easily available source of supply is the Jamaican negro, but he
is not a valuable acquisition. His efficiency is calculated by
employers as less than half that of the Spaniard, or native of the
Canary Islands. Negroes from the United States might seek employment in
the Island, but the kind who would be of the most use can always fold
work at home at as good a rate of wages as they would receive in Cuba.
It is not to be assumed that the native will never supply the greatest
part of the labor employed in his country. He would be available to-day
to a greater extent and with greater efficiency if American managers
understood him better and accorded him more judicious treatment.
Dr. V. S. Clark, in a government report, makes such an excellent and
comprehensive statement regarding the Cuban laborer, that an extensive
quotation is justified.
Some of the opinions of Cuban workingmen are given in the following
quotations from the remarks by American and English employers of broad
experience. It is not possible to have perfect agreement in judgments of
this sort, and naturally no attempt has been made to do so. But those
sweeping denunciations of Cuba and everything Cuban that come from
tactless adventurers and from men who have left their own country
because they are chronically out of sorts with the world have been
omitted:
A railway manager: “A Cuban seldom has a real conception of what is
meant by special qualifications. On railways a man might occupy in
succession a dozen different posts, each requiring a special kind of
training. We have an instance where the same man has been station agent,
telegraph superintendent, and superintendent of locomotive power within
a few months’ time.”
A contracting foreman: “In the mechanic trades men are constantly
presenting themselves as applicants for any positions to be had,
assuring us with the greatest apparent candor that they unite all the
qualifications of expert masons, carpenters, painters, plumbers, and
gas-fitters. We don’t employ such men any more. A modest range of
acquirements is one of the best credentials a mechanic can offer us.”
A government engineer: “The labor cost of all kinds of construction is
half as much again as in the United States. But with time and patience
intelligent Cuban mechanics can be trained to keep pretty well up with
Americans on the same job. They will not do this, however, unless they
are paid for it.”
An English railway manager: “After many years of experience in railway
managing in Brazil and other South American countries, I must say that
the Cuban labor is the dearest labor I have ever had under my charge.”
A factory superintendent: “We employ only Spaniards. They equal in
industry and endurance the American workingman and are more steady and
regular in their habits. I have had more than twenty years’ experience
in Cuba as factory and plantation manager, and have seldom found Cubans
efficient in occupations requiring physical endurance or manual skill.
But they make neat and fairly accurate clerks.”
An army officer in charge of twelve hundred men in road construction:
“The Cuban laborer is not as strong physically nor as intelligent as the
unskilled laborer in the United States. He accomplishes about half as
much work in a day as the latter. We bought a number of the iron
wheelbarrows commonly used by American contractors for our work here,
but the men were not strong enough to handle them successfully, and I
had to substitute wooden ones in their stead.”
An electric railway manager: “You can not manage the Cubans with a club.
The amount
[Illustration: AN AVENUE OF PALMS.]
of work you get out of them depends upon the way in which you handle
them. We find our men unusually distrustful because they have been so
often cheated by their past employers. If their paymaster is a little
late they jump at the conclusion that their money is not coming to them.
It has taken time to win their confidence in the company. They do not
understand how to take care of their own interests. Our unclaimed wage
book shows that during the last two years many hundred men have not
applied for all the pay due to them. Probably ten per cent. of the whole
number of common laborers employed thus fail to collect their full
wages. On our fortnightly pay-days fifty or sixty men fail to claim
amounts ranging from one or two days’ pay to as high as $20 or $30
silver ($14 or $21 American). Of course such men are often imposed on,
and a man who knows or thinks he is being cheated by his employer isn’t
going to overexert himself in his service. An intelligent Cuban makes a
good mechanic. He learns more rapidly than an American. It has taken me
less time here to break in motormen than in the United States. In the
last year or two we have trained most of our force of mechanics, repair
men, and our armature winders. They are about as efficient as
Americans.”
The head of an electrical supply house: “Labor conditions in Cuba have
not changed materially since 1890. Cubans make efficient mechanics in
our line of business. We also employ them in contracting work, such as
bridge construction, so that our monthly pay roll is sometimes over
$6,000. They are slower than Americans, but are less independent and
work longer hours. In electric fitting we get about as much service for
the same wages as in New York. A man who has had long experience with
the working people here, and who knows their language and how to treat
them, will not have much trouble with his employees, and will find them
fairly efficient.”
A railway superintendent: “Spaniards are the future laborers of Cuba.
But they will work mostly under the direction of Cubans. The amount you
get out of men depends upon how well you pay and feed them. It is worth
the money it costs an employer to provide and compel his common laborers
to eat a substantial meal before going to work in the morning.”
The variety of opinions here expressed illustrates the fact that the man
in practical touch with the labor question in Cuba usually has some
aspect of the situation in mind which appeals to him from his own
experience. As to labor efficiency, all agree that for manual labor the
Spaniard excels the native Cuban. This is true of factory as well as
field occupations. Cane-cutting must be excepted from the latter, for
here the negro is the best workman; and in the machine shops, and some
mechanic trades, where a certain dexterity of mind as well as hand is
required, the more nervous and intellectual Cuban is at an advantage.
There is practical unanimity in the opinion that the cost of labor is
high, the only exceptions being in some trades requiring much skill and
intelligence and where the men work under the direct control of their
employer.
The emphasis laid upon the fact that the amount to be obtained from
employes depends largely upon the way they are treated and the wages
they are paid is significant, and it accords fully with the other
testimony and with observation in different parts of the Island. At one
place a gang of laborers was just completing what appeared even to the
casual observer a rather scanty day’s work. The foreman looked up with a
half-vexed smile and said:
“Their wages have been lowered 30 per cent., and no driving will get
more than two-thirds of the former amount of work out of them. They
simply shrug their shoulders and say: ‘_Poco dinero, poco trabajo._’
Little money, little work.”
Beneath a most unimposing exterior a Cuban laborer generally manages to
cherish a considerable sense of personal dignity and he resents deeply,
however unperturbed he may appear, the rough way of handling that has
come to mean so little to his fellow-laborer in the United States.
Perhaps the unexpressed contempt with which he is tolerated by some
Americans is resented still more deeply. In any case, the very efforts
put forth by employers and representatives to increase the amount of
work done by employes often have the reverse effect to that intended.
Tactful management is often one of the most expensive assets a foreign
enterprise has to acquire in Cuba. Cuba is one of the most democratic
countries in the world. Nowhere else does the least considered member of
a community aspire to social equality with its most exalted personage.
The language, with its conventional phrases of courtesy shared by all
classes, the familiar family life of proprietor and servant, master and
apprentice, a certain simplicity and universality of manners inherited
from pioneer days, and a gentleness of temperament that may be both
racial and climatic, which shrinks from giving offence by assuming
superiority of rank with others, have all contributed to render class
assumptions externally less obvious in Cuba than in other countries
where equal differences of race, culture, and fortune exist. The Cuban
is naturally self-possessed. It is difficult to fancy him having stage
fright. He is so imaginative and Tarasconese that he frequently
confounds ideals with realities, and as his ideal of himself is usually
an exalted one this disposition does not incline him to diffidence or
humility. He is therefore apt to assume an artlessly familiar air with
his employer, and to try to put their business relations, so far as
their social aspect is concerned, as nearly upon a partnership basis as
possible. With his manual services he bestows the gifts of his own
discretion and judgment as gratuity, and he is thus enabled to amplify
or modify any instructions he may receive to guide him in his work.
These personal advances and well intended departures from what are
called orders, principally as a matter of courtesy in Cuba, are
received quite differently by an American and Cuban employer. The former
resents them brusquely, often profanely, and thus sows the first seeds
of misunderstanding that result in much concealed resentment and
hostility, and unless he master the situation by great force of will and
character, may occasion more serious damage to his interests. The Cuban
or Spanish employer, understanding his man, contrives to secure his ends
more diplomatically; but he never has a really disciplined force of
employes. Organization and discipline are two of the most seriously
lacking things in Cuban life; and they are lacking because of a certain
timidity, a lack of self-assertiveness on the part of the officers of
industry toward their men. The Cuban is capable of discipline; but so
long as nothing else is required, he naturally prefers discussing
politics and local news or comparing notes about their children with his
foreman to performing more commonplace duties. His friendliness toward
his employer is usually well-meaning, even if unwisely manifested. It is
something akin to the easy, inquisitive, but sympathetic familiarity one
finds in a New England village. Occasionally it can be turned to good
account in securing the loyalty of the men. Two American retail
merchants were interviewed in Habana. One was evidently reserved toward
his working people. He reported that among several employed he had never
had a Cuban he was not obliged to discharge for stealing. Another, who
was conducting a larger business, and who had many Cubans in his employ,
but who stood on terms of greater intimacy with them, reported that he
had no difficulty whatever of this kind. Whether the difference in the
experience of the two merchants was due to the reason suggested or not,
it is certain that the Cuban is peculiarly susceptible to appeals to
ideal motives, whether made directly or only by implication, and that
success or failure in dealing with the workmen of the Island often
hinges upon an understanding of this trait of character.
One desirable outcome of the aspiration toward social equality on the
part of Cubans is their aversion to tips. Employes, who had made some
money sacrifice by leaving piece-work to act as guides about a factory,
refused, evidently with considerable embarrassment, the offer of
gratuity. A poor countryman who had left his field labor for several
hours to show a trail through a tract of forest would only accept
compensation under protest--and when it was turned into a gift for the
children. These same men would have made as shrewd a bargain as possible
and would have haggled for hours over centavos in a matter of trade, but
for a service of courtesy money was no compensation for their sense of
wounded dignity in accepting a gratuity.
With reference to the personal honesty of the Cuban, no unqualified
statement is likely to be just. All people possessing great love of
approbation and an excessive desire to please are apt to be more or less
insincere in social intercourse. Extend the ethics of an afternoon tea
to all statements of fact in business relations, and one has an
atmosphere of reliability or the reverse about equivalent to that in
Cuba. Men tell you things they think you will like to hear. It appears
to strike a Cuban as something akin to discourtesy to bring a painful
fact to your attention, even though a knowledge of it be quite essential
to your business welfare. To save himself the embarrassment of refusing
a request, he will often make a promise that he can not keep, and to
save you from being disquieted by uncertainty he will give you an
assurance as unqualified that ought to be decidedly conditional. His
business statements are like his currency, subject to fluctuating
discount. As in case of money, this is undoubtedly an inconvenience in
conducting a transaction. But, as there is sound money in Cuba, so there
are men to be found whose word in business is as good as their bond.
The upper commercial classes of the Island preserve a conservative
integrity in their dealings and their methods of conducting business as
high as prevails in any country. There are few failures. The
representatives of large American houses report that their losses from
bad debts are less in Cuba in proportion to the amount of business done
than in the United States. In purchasing at retail one has to guard
against overcharging. But this is simply a feature of a very ancient and
still very common way of doing business. There are no settled prices,
and each individual sale is a separate transaction to be settled by
independent agreement, and is not prejudiced in the least by the
precedent of previous transactions of a similar character. Americans,
with little experience outside their own country, frequently bring up
this practice as a main argument to prove the universal dishonesty of
the Cuban. But it is like many other ingenuous arguments of the same
sort--“It is not our way, ergo, it is wrong”--that would result in
making virtue a decidedly local thing in this world if they were
universally applied.
It is sometimes stated that while the Cuban, especially of the middle or
lower class, is often lax about keeping his word, he shows quite the
opposite disposition with regard to trifles belonging to other persons.
The experience of foreigners on the Island doubtless varies in this
respect. It is hardly probable that the Cuban has abnormally high regard
for the rights of property. But here is the result of a single personal
experience covering nearly two years, and divided between Cuba and Porto
Rico, where the general moral standards may be assumed to be about the
same. Though the person in question travelled most of this time,
stopping at boarding-houses and hotels, and a guest in native families
where only native servants were employed, though he allowed small
articles of personal property to lie about uncared for, with the same
freedom as in the United States, and habitually left satchels and other
hand-bags unlocked, during these two years not a single thing was
stolen. In Cuba umbrellas and unlocked baggage were frequently left
unchecked in baggage and waiting rooms at railway stations, wharves, at
warehouses, and at hotel offices, and nothing was ever lost in this way.
Articles accidentally left behind in travelling, or when making
purchases, were returned when opportunity offered. At no time during the
two years was any attempt made to pass bad money or incorrect change. He
travelled sometimes all night over rough trails and in the remotest
parts of the Island, with only native companions, with considerable sums
of money upon his person and unarmed, and was never molested.
Large contractors in Cuba report no unusual loss of tools through the
peculations of their workingmen. The owners of retail stores, where
there is such a multitude of petty sales that no record of such
transactions can be kept, entrust practically their whole business to
their clerks. Judging from actual experience with people and their way
of doing business, there is nothing to indicate but that a fair degree
of private and commercial honesty prevails. As a rule, the Cuban has not
a passion for acquisition for its own sake. The question of money is an
ever present and insistent one with the middle and working classes in
Cuba as elsewhere; but when current demands are met, and they are not
excessive, the Cuban is usually satisfied. He is not ambitious to
accumulate. Men in political life, with uncertain tenure of office,
expensive ambitions, and the worst kind of precedents to influence them,
are said not to be trustworthy, but Cuba should not be judged by its
politicians. Considering only the industrial classes, there is no reason
to reproach Cuba with a particularly low standard of commercial and
personal integrity. One will not find there conditions equalling those
in countries where greater intelligence and social discipline have long
prevailed, and where reasonably good government has been habitual; but
the moral standards of the people in the respects mentioned are not such
as to present a serious bar to the industrial development of the
country.
One of the most common and perhaps the most popular charge made against
Cuban workmen by Americans is that they are indolent. Disinclination to
hard physical labor is a widely disseminated peculiarity of the human
race. That is perhaps the reason why it is so confidently brought up as
a defect of one’s neighbors. Foreign immigrants to the United States say
that the American likes to do all the bossing and none of the hard work.
German and Swiss peasants along the Rhine consider the Frenchman’s great
weakness his desire to have clean hands and fine clothes, and that the
Italian is a “lazy beggar.” And the Italian borderer will assure you
that the Germans and Swiss want to “eat and sleep all the time.”
Therefore, in forming a judgment about the working people in Cuba, one
has to allow for this national equation. The climate of the Island does
not encourage long-continued physical labor apart from all question of
race. The American, the Spaniard, the native, and the negro are all
subjected to this influence. But a moderate amount of any kind of work
can be done by any of these under the right conditions. The immigrant
from the North brings with him a fund of physical stamina superior to
that of the native, which runs for life and is not bequeathed to his
successors born on the Island. No statement that can be made is less
likely to be controverted than the oft repeated one that the Spaniard is
superior to the Cuban, even of the first generation as a laborer. But
the climate which withdraws physical vigor frequently compensates by
giving mental alertness. The man of the second and third generation on
the Island is often quicker to comprehend any complex matter than his
Spanish ancestor. This gives him a penchant toward the professions or
the higher mechanic arts. It is not indolence so much as a combination
of qualities of temperament that turns him away from manual occupations.
He does not lack industry in his new career.
This charge of indolence against the Cuban workman is sometimes
justified by the slowness with which they perform their tasks. They are
not nearly so expeditious as Americans. But this is due in part to the
system of industrial administration. The Cuban bricklayer lays as many
bricks as the Englishman in the same trade. Recently in building the new
Westinghouse electric plant at Manchester, American supervision raised
the average number of brick laid a day by the British bricklayers from
less than 400 to 1,800, with a maximum of 2,500 for the plainest work.
This illustrates how large a part organization and supervision play in
creating industrial efficiency. Employing the same men, the English
[Illustration: STREET SCENE, HABANA.]
contractor got only about twenty per cent. as much work out of them as
did the American superintendents. In Cuba a change to American methods
and implements, and from oxen to mules as draft animals, has reduced the
cost of plowing from $97.50 and $76.50 a caballeria (33 1-3 acres), in
two specific instances, to $39.16 and $24 respectively. There is reason
to believe that in all industries this factor of supervision and
administration counts for as much in Cuba as it does elsewhere. If so, a
large part of the relative inefficiency of the Cuban must be charged off
to poor management and a wasteful industrial system.
When regularly employed the Cuban works long hours. A chart of the
street-railway traffic of Habana shows that during the shorter days of
the year the registered number of passengers carried per hour in the
whole city is nearly one-half the maximum by 6 A.M., and that it reaches
its maximum at just 6 P.M. Considering only those lines running into the
city from suburbs occupied by the working classes, the traffic before 6
A.M. is nearly or quite two-thirds the maximum. For most of these men,
therefore, twelve hours, with the noon rest deducted, is the usual term
of daily labor. On the plantations the eleven-hour day is still the
rule. In riding through the country at earliest dawn one sees workers
already in the fields. The independent country laborer usually protracts
his noon-day rest until the heat of the day is over, and some of the
apparent idleness of Cuba is due to the fact that the hours of work are
divided by this interval of repose.
In some trades the men work slowly or short hours in order to limit
production. Where payment is by piece-work, as in the cigar factories,
they do so at their own expense. But this is usually during the slack
season, and the motive is to keep as many men as possible employed.
One weakness of the working people of Cuba may be charged in part to
indolence, but it is equally due to their love of pleasure and
excitement, and to a feeling of irresponsibility as to the future so
characteristic of tropical nations. Unless pressed by necessity, the
Cuban takes frequent vacations. This is his form of dissipation, his way
of going on a spree. The excitement of strong drink does not appeal to
him as much as the gentler attractions of more protracted recreations.
He is often a gambler, he delights in music and dances and in the
little festivals of his neighborhood; he regards scrupulously all the
observances of the Church that give promises of sufficient
entertainment, especially those of a gala-day character. Weddings and
christenings and funerals are important events in his calendar. By dint
of a close and constant study of the situation he can usually find a
valid excuse for indulging in the relaxations of leisure whenever it is
not absolutely necessary for him to labor for his support.
The Cuban is therefore neither thrifty nor frugal. As a workman he
responds only to the incentive of necessity. The Spanish laborer in Cuba
usually works with the aim of accumulating a competency; not so the
Cuban. The one produces and consumes little; the other produces only
what he may consume. The Spanish laborer has few and simple ideals, but
they are fixed and permanent; the Cuban stores a new fancy in his head
every few days, and forgets it. He becomes impassioned over a carnival
mask or a polka-dot tie; a month later it has passed out of his
remembrance.
This is one principal reason why employers so greatly prefer the
Spaniards in their service; they are not necessarily more honest, more
active, or more intelligent, but they can be depended upon.
The Cubans are not criminally inclined. Under Spanish rule there were
four times as many Spaniards as native whites in the prisons of Cuba in
proportion to the total number of inhabitants of each nation in the
Island. The Chinese and Spaniards both showed a larger percentage of
criminals than the native Cubans of either race. Among the higher class
Cubans, especially in the remoter towns, there are many evidences of
physical degeneracy due to close intermarriage. Little scrawny men with
big bony hands and almost no head at all, are characteristic of this
class. But this type is not usually found among the rural or laboring
population.