Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 March 1895 — Cuba’s Farmers. [ARTICLE]

Cuba’s Farmers.

Lippincott’s for March.— 8 ’ Between the condition of planters and of other agriculturists in Cuba a I wide difference exists. The laborer has nothing, never has had anything and is happy in the knowledge that jhe never will have anything. The small farmer, the owner of a few acres, is the most abjectly povertystricken son of tlie soil that I have ever met. He lives in the poorest Habitation known to civilized man, a tree. Beside it the adobe dwelling of the Mexican is a palace. It has one room, a dirt floor, neither window nor chimney; in this the family ■ live like cattle, subsisting upop the j poorest of food, as most that the soil ' produces most go to paytaxes. Chil- ; dren run about, guiltless of the , knowledge of clothes until six or eight years old. Books, education, j the world are things of which they have never dreamed. It is true that there is an intermediate group. Between these people and the planters is a small contingent of thrifty farmers. Here and there through the country may be seen a stone dwelling with red, tile roof that maks the home of one, who, by some rare enterprise, has, become possessed of enough land to become engaged in cattle raising or fruit growing. But the prosperous,, forehanded, middle' class farmer is conspicuous by his absence. It is because there is no such middle class’ and because the country people are. either the owners of great estates or abjectly poor, that it is a mistake to speak of Cuba as a rich country. It cannot be so while the present conditions exist. But with such a combination of soil and climate as she possesses the island is capable ofi great things. Money and enterprise are needed for the development of its resources, and these are not likely to be forthcoming while the present social and political conditions remain. If the island were open to American enterprise as freely as oun own territory is, a decade would suffice for the working of a change. Sir Henry Bessemer, who is in his eighty-fourth year, has nearly completed his autobiography, on which he has been engaged for some time past. It was the custom, years ago, for the Japanese ladies to gild their teeth.