The History of Cuba Volume V Part 31

Thinking men and women, the world over, realize that the hope, security and well being of the future lies in properly educating the children of the present. From an educated community we have nothing to fear.

Mistakes in government policies may occur, but where intelligence dwells, right and justice will soon prevail over wrong. Education to-day is universally recognized as the most efficient and potent safeguard against crime and lawlessness of all kind, and in no section of the world is the need of general education more gravely manifest than in the Latin-American Republics of the Western Hemisphere.

Education in all of these countries, from the beginning of their existence as colonies of Spain, has been, unfortunately under the control of the Church, and with the exception of Cuba, largely so remains to-day. Even in this progressive little Republic, the clerical influence on tuition, from the kindergarten to the university, is more or less prevalent. The influence of the priest and the prelate, exerted in the home, usually through the mother, still casts its shadow over true educational progress, especially among those of the gentler s.e.x.

There are, of course, many well educated women in Cuba, but they are women whose intellectual longings and aspirations could not be held in check.

True, some of the most brilliant men in Cuba have been pupils of church inst.i.tutions, but men of this stamp and minds of this calibre held from birth all the promise and potency of greatness. Their intellectual lights could not be hidden under the proverbial bushel.

In 1896 the population of the Island was 1,572,791, of whom 1,400,884 were unable to read, 33,003 knew how to read but not to write, while 19,158 had received the advantages of what was termed higher education.

Even this paucity of true knowledge was frequently superficial and sadly warped by obsolete tradition.

When, at the beginning of American intervention, that generous and able group of American officers under General Wood took charge of affairs in Cuba, the need of even a rudimentary education among the untutored ma.s.ses was painfully apparent. A report of conditions prevailing was forwarded to Was.h.i.+ngton. Secretary Root referred the matter to President Eliot of Harvard, and as a result Mr. Alexis E. Frye was sent to Havana to establish in Cuba the American school system, or one as nearly like that in vogue in the United States as conditions would permit.

The selection of Mr. Frye was a wise one, and the people have never ceased to be grateful for the admirable and unselfish efforts of that remarkably clever teacher to place public instruction on a firm foundation in Cuba. After going carefully over the ground and studying the situation thoroughly Mr. Frye, working by candle light in a backroom of the Hotel Pasaje, drafted the school law and wrote the rules and regulations that today form the base of public instruction in the island. Soon after, Mr. Frye was appointed Superintendent of Schools.

His salary was $400 a month, but every month's pay check was divided into eight parts and distributed among those schools where it would do the most good. He would accept no recompense whatever for himself.

In the work of establis.h.i.+ng a modern system of education in Cuba Mr.

Frye received valuable aid from a remarkably gifted and brilliant young Cuban named Lincoln de Zayas. Dr. de Zayas was a descendant of one of the most prominent families in Havana. He had been educated in the United States, was graduated from the school of medicine of Columbia University in New York, was a master of some five or six languages, and knew the character of his own people. He a.s.sisted Mr. Frye in solving many delicate problems and in overcoming troublesome obstacles, many of which resulted from the former ecclesiastical control of everything pertaining to education. Dr. Francis...o...b..rrero, a writer, student and poet, was made a.s.sistant director of education.

During the second year of American intervention, Mr. Frye interested Harvard University in the subject of Cuban education. This finally resulted in an invitation from that inst.i.tution to a large body of potential Cuban teachers to come to Boston and enjoy during the summer months special instruction provided for them by the president and faculty of the University. Through Mr. Frye's efforts and those of General Wood, then Military Governor of the Island, the Was.h.i.+ngton government became interested in the school problem in Cuba, and through the War Department furnished pa.s.sage in one of the large American transports for all teachers who cared to visit the United States in the interest of Cuban education. Some 1600 teachers, mostly young ladies, were selected from applicants in various parts of the Island, and conveyed on the U.S. transport General McClellan to the city of Boston, where they were comfortably lodged and cared for during a period of three months as guests of Harvard University.

The direct educational benefit derived by these young Cuban teachers was almost incalculable. A great majority of them had no knowledge whatever of the English language, and knew but little of the outside world. The press of Cuba in those days was limited in its fund of general information or other matter that might be of educational value to the reading public. Nor had education, especially among women, been encouraged during the days of Spain's control over the island.

The summer work at Harvard was a revelation. The educational seed fell upon receptive soil, and the young teachers who were fortunate enough to be selected as guests of that inst.i.tution gave an excellent account of themselves in work that followed during the early days of the Republic.

Incidentally Mr. Frye chose one of these young teachers as his companion through life. After Mr. Frye's departure, Lieut. Hanna, at the suggestion of General Wood, made some changes and additions to the public school system of Cuba, conforming it somewhat to the methods then in vogue in the State of Ohio.

With the installation of the Cuban Republic in 1902 public instruction came directly under the supervision of the Central or Federal Government, and the Secretary of Public Instruction was made a member of the President's Cabinet, adding thus dignity and importance to that branch of work on which the character of succeeding generations depended. Unfortunately for the cause of education it has been found rather difficult to separate the Department of Public Instruction from a certain amount of political interference, which has tended to mar its efficiency and r.e.t.a.r.d progress.

With the beginning of the second Government of Intervention in 1906, Dr.

Lincoln de Zayas was made Secretary of Public Instruction under Governor Magoon, and with his untiring devotion to the cause of true knowledge, as well as his keen insight into the modern or more improved methods of teaching, interest in public instruction in Cuba was greatly revived, and English began to a.s.sume a far more important role in the primary and grammar schools than in former days.

The services of an excellent teacher, Miss Abbie Phillips, of California, was secured as General Superintendent of English throughout the Republic, and under her direction was formed a corps of remarkably competent Cuban women, who accomplished much in a short time towards making the study of English in the public schools more popular than it had been. With the death of Dr. de Zayas the cause of public instruction seemed again partially to relapse into its former desuetude. Yet in spite of the misfortune that thus befell it, the work has proceeded more satisfactorily than might have been expected, owing to the strong desire on the part of the youth of the Republic to learn, and to shake off the fetters that had previously kept them in a kind of a respectable ignorance.

During President Menocal's administration the resignation of the Secretary of Public Instruction gave opportunity for the selection and appointment to that office of Dr. Dominguez Roldan, who has endeavored to inject new life into the cause and to place this important branch of the Government once more in a position that will command the respect, not only of the people of Cuba, but also of the outside world. New school houses, designed expressly for the purpose, are replacing the old and inadequate buildings that were formerly rented. The study of English, that had been discouraged by his predecessor, is being again revived, and many steps in the cause of learning are being taken whose wisdom will become evident in the near future.

In 1913, when Mario G. Menocal a.s.sumed the direction of the Government of Cuba, there were but 262 schools in the island, while to-day there are 1136, showing an increase of 1074; with 335,291 pupils attending. No fewer than 1746 teachers have been appointed and added to the Department of Public Instruction in Cuba. In addition to this two night schools have recently been established, one in Santiago de Cuba and one in Bayamo. Four kindergartens, or "School Gardens," as they are now termed, have recently been established in the Province of Santa Clara.

At the present time, throughout the Republic of Cuba, there is a total of 5,685 teachers in the primary schools. Among these are included 116 teachers who render special service throughout the different sections of the country, 19 teachers of night schools, 118 teachers devoted to school gardens, 40 teachers of cutting and sewing, 26 teachers of English, 21 of Sloyd, and 4 teachers devoted to instruction in jails. In 1915 a normal school, co-educational, was established in each of five of the Provinces. Havana has two normal schools, one for boys and the other for girls.

During the year 1918 a school of Domestic Economy, Arts and Sciences, known as the "School of the Home," was established. The object of this school, as that of similar inst.i.tutions, is to prepare the future wife and mother so that she may be able to undertake in an intelligent manner the direction of the home. Among the subjects taught are accounting, domestic economy, moral and civic obligations, hygiene, the care of infants and of the sick, cutting, sewing, dressmaking, basket-making, and elementary physics and chemistry, which form the base of scientific cooking. In addition to these, gardening, the care of animals, ordinary and higher cooking are taught; also was.h.i.+ng and ironing, dyeing, the removing of stains, and the proper method of cleaning and taking care of shoes. In order to make the school popular and to insure its success, a society of patriotic and intelligent women has been formed, from which much practical benefit is expected in the future.

In order to provide for and to permit the scientific development both physical and mental of the Cuban youth, the Department of Public Instruction has established a separate inst.i.tution, with an experimental annex, for the purpose of studying the eccentricities and apt.i.tudes of Cuban children.

The order of sequence of public instruction in Cuba, as previously stated, has followed very largely that of the United States. The school gardens are followed by primary and grammar schools, all suitably graded, and the course of studies is more or less similar to that of the United States.

The Inst.i.tute of Havana, located for many years in the old convent building just back of the Governor General's Palace, occupies a place between the grammar school and the University. The course of studies and scope of this inst.i.tution is similar to the average high school of America. New buildings are being erected for the accommodation of the several thousand boys and girls who attend the inst.i.tute, and with its removal to more commodious and congenial quarters, this important seat of learning will be reorganized with greatly increased efficiency.

The National University of Havana was founded under the direction of monks of the Dominican Order on January 5, 1728, and until the installation of the Republic occupied the old convent that afterwards served as the Inst.i.tute. To-day the University of Havana can boast of one of the most picturesque and delightful locations occupied by any seat of learning in the world. It crowns the northeast corner of the high plateau, overlooking the capital of the Republic from the west. Its alt.i.tude is several hundred feet above the plain below, with the Gulf of Mexico close by on the north and old Morro Castle standing at the entrance of a beautiful harbor, that stretches out along the far eastern horizon, sweeping afterwards toward the south. The city of Havana fills the center of the picture, while in the immediate foreground nestle the forests of the Botanical Gardens and the Quinto de los Molinos, or summer residence of the former Spanish Governor Generals, with their beautiful drives sweeping along the front and up to the crest of the plateau.

The broad stone staircase at the entrance to the grounds is quite in keeping with the dignity of the place and the numerous buildings devoted to various departments of learning are harmonious in design and commodious in appointment. A giant laurel, with an expanse of shade that would protect a small army of men, occupied the center of an old courtyard that once belonged to the fortifications commanding the Principe Heights.

To these buildings will soon be added another to be known as the National School of Languages, at a cost of $150,000. This edifice, sumptuous in its appointments, will be dedicated largely to the reciprocal study of Spanish and English. American students who wish to perfect their knowledge of Spanish will be invited from the various universities of the United States to visit Cuba, at stated periods of the year, for the purpose of studying and improving their acquaintance with this language through direct contact with the students and professors of the University. The latter, on the other hand, will be afforded an excellent opportunity to perfect their knowledge of English by mingling with visiting students from the United States, and it is believed that the result of acquaintances and friends.h.i.+ps, formed in this way, many of which will be sustained through life, will add greatly to those bonds of friends.h.i.+p and mutual understanding that resulted from America's a.s.sistance to Cuba in her War for Independence, and that for a thousand reasons should never be permitted to relapse or sink into indifference.

The national or public library of Cuba, located in the Maestranza, one of the most substantial of those old buildings that have come down from the days of Spanish dominion, was founded during the first American intervention by General Leonard Wood, on October 18, 1901. It is open to the public every day of the week except Sunday, from 8 to 11 in the morning and from 1 to 5 in the afternoon, except Sat.u.r.day, when access may be secured at any time between 8 and 12 in the morning.

The library contains at the present time about twenty thousand volumes.

This does not however include a great ma.s.s of pamphlets and unbound ma.n.u.scripts, doc.u.ments, papers, etc., which form a valuable part of the collection. These volumes are largely in Spanish, French and English, and include all of the more important branches of human knowledge. Among them may be found an excellent collection of the best encyclopedias and dictionaries of those languages.

Its collection of American History is extensive; in addition to which may be mentioned a valuable collection of works on international law, given by the eminent jurist Dr. Antonio S. de Bustamante, who represented the Republic of Cuba at the Peace Conference in Paris at the conclusion of the Great War.

Among other gifts to the public library may be mentioned a series of large, beautiful, artistic drawings in colors, that represent all that is known of the Aztec and Toltec life existing in the Republic of Mexico at the time of the Spanish Conquest in the early part of the 16th century. These engravings have been drawn and colored with marvelous care. They are a.s.sembled in the form of an atlas which permits close study and makes one of the most interesting and valuable contributions of this kind to be found in any part of the world. They were presented to Cuba by General Porfirio Diaz, President of the Republic of Mexico.

Arrangements have been made to catalogue the volumes of the library. For this purpose experts have been secured and the s.p.a.ce amplified, and when this work is completed, while the library will not offer the luxurious quarters of inst.i.tutions of its kind in other countries, it will be useful and accessible to those who wish to avail themselves of its services.

CHAPTER x.x.xV

OCEAN TRANSPORTATION

Transportation is the handmaid of production. Where transportation facilities are faulty, exchange of commodities is necessarily restricted to local demands, and commerce with the outside world is practically impossible. Good harbors are among the first essentials to foreign trade, and with deep, well protected bays, Cuba has been bountifully supplied. Every sheltered indentation of her two thousand miles of coast line, from the days of Colon, has been an invitation for pa.s.sing s.h.i.+ps to enter. The wealth of the island in agriculture and mineral and forest products, has made the visits of these ocean carriers profitable; hence the phenomenal growth of Cuba's foreign commerce.

In spite of the stupid restriction of trade enforced by Spain in the early colonial days, contraband commerce a.s.sumed large proportions during the 17th century, and when England's fleet captured Havana in 1763, the capital of Cuba enjoyed a freedom of foreign exchange never before known. Quant.i.ties of sugar, coffee, hides and hardwoods, large for those times, demanded transportation during the second quarter of the 19th century. Foreign trade, too, was greatly stimulated in Cuba by conditions resulting from the Civil War in the United States. The rapid development of the sugar industry following this war soon called for more permanent lines of ocean transportation.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, HAVANA

The Chamber of Commerce is one of the oldest civic organizations in Cuba, which even under the repressive and discouraging rule of Spanish Governors did much for the material progress of the Island. Under the Republic its activities and achievements have of course been immensely increased, and it is now appropriately housed in one of the finest public buildings of the capital. A certain resemblance to the famous Cooper Union building in New York has often been remarked, though the Havana edifice is the more ornate and attractive of the two.]

The interdependence of produce and transportation is well ill.u.s.trated in the early history of what is now known as the United Fruit Company. In 1870, Captain Lorenzo D. Baker was in command of a small, swift coasting schooner en route from Jamaica to Boston. On the wharf at Kingston lay some 40 bunches of bananas, a few of which were ripe, others lacking 10 days or more in which to change their dull green coats into the soft creamy yellow of the matured fruit. Captain Baker was fond of bananas, and ordered that the lot be placed on board his schooner, just before sailing. Fortune favored him and strong easterly beam winds brought him into the harbor of Boston in 10 days, with all of the bunches not consumed en route in practically perfect condition. Many friends of Capt. Baker, to whom this delicious fruit was practically unknown, got a taste of the banana for the first time. Among these was Andrew W.

Preston, a local fruit dealer in Boston, who was greatly impressed with the appearance of the fruit, and the success which had attended Captain Baker's effort to get the bananas into the market without injury.

Mr. Preston reckoned that if a schooner with a fair wind could land such delicious fruit in Boston in ten days, steamers could do the same work with absolute certainty in less time. This far sighted pioneer and promoter of trade realized that three factors were essential to building up an industry of this kind. First, there must be a market for the product, and he was confident that the people of Boston and the vicinity could soon be educated to like the banana and to purchase it if offered at a fair price. Next, a sufficient and steady supply must be provided.

Third, reliable transportation in the form of steamers of convenient size and suitable equipment must be secured, in order to convey the fruit with economy and regularity to the waiting market or point of consumption. True, he at first failed to interest other fruit dealers in the project. "It had never been done and consequently was a dangerous innovation that would probably prove unprofitable." But Mr. Preston had visualized a new industry on a large scale, and with the faith of the industrial pioneer he finally succeeded in persuading nine of his friends to put up with him each $2,000, and to form a company for the purpose of growing bananas in the West Indies, of chartering a steamer suitable for the transportation, and finding a market for the produce in Boston.

The details were worked out carefully and the first cargo purchased in Jamaica and landed in New England proved a decided success. During the first two or three years the accruing dividends were invested in fruit lands in Jamaica and everything went well. Not long after, however, it was found that a West Indian cyclone could destroy a banana field and put it out of business in a very few hours. More than one field or locality in which to grow bananas on a large scale was necessary to provide against the possible failure of the crop at some other point.

In the meantime another broad minded and determined pioneer in the world of progress, Minor C. Keith, a youth of 23, was trying to build a railroad some 90 miles in length from Puerto Limon to the capital, San Jose, in the highlands of Costa Rica. The greater part of this road was through dense jungle and forest almost impenetrable, with nothing in the shape of freight or pa.s.sengers from which revenues could be derived until the road was completed to the capital. Mr. Keith had a concession from the Costa Rican Government, but the Government had no funds with which to aid the builder in his enterprise, and this young engineer, through force of character and moral suasion, kept his two thousand workmen in line without one dollar of money for over 18 months. Food he managed to sc.r.a.pe up from various sources, but the payday was practically forgotten. In the meantime, some banana plants were secured from a plantation in Colombia, and set out on the virgin soils along the roadway through which Mr. Keith was laying his rails. These grew marvellously, and not only supplied fruit for the Jamaica negroes engaged in the work, but soon furnished bananas for export to New Orleans, and thus was started a rival industry to that of Mr. Preston, on the sh.o.r.es of the Western Caribbean.

It was not long before Mr. Keith, who struggled for 20 years to complete his line from the coast to the capital of Costa Rica, came into contact with Mr. Preston. These captains of industry realized the advantages of co-operation, and in a very short time organized the United Fruit Company, which is probably the greatest agricultural transportation company in the world to-day. Its various plantations include lands in Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala and Jamaica. Large plantations of bananas belonging to the company were until recently on the harbors of Banes and Nipe, on the north coast of Oriente, in the Island of Cuba, but these were subjected to strong breezes from the northeast that whipped the leaves and hindered their growth. Then too, it was soon discovered that these lands were better adapted to the cultivation of sugar cane, hence bananas of the United Fruit Company disappeared from the Nipe Bay district, to be replaced by sugar plantations that to-day cover approximately 37,000 acres and in 1920 will reach 50,000 acres. Over 200,000 acres on the coast of the Caribbean are devoted to the cultivation of bananas. About 30,000 head of cattle are maintained as a source of food for the thousands of laborers, mostly Jamaicans, who are employed in the fields of the United Fruit Company, which comprise an aggregate of 1,980,000 acres; while 743 miles of standard gauge railway, together with 532 miles of narrow gauge roads, are owned and operated throughout the various plantations.

In the year 1915, 46,000,000 bunches of bananas were s.h.i.+pped by the United Fruit Company from the sh.o.r.es of the Caribbean to the United States, while the sugar plantations owned by the Company on the north coast of Oriente Province, in Cuba, produced sugar in 1918 that yielded a net return of $5,000,000.

In order to provide transportation for this enormous agricultural output this company to-day owns and operates one of the biggest fleets of steams.h.i.+ps in the world. Forty-five of these s.h.i.+ps, with tonnages varying from 3,000 to 8,000, especially equipped for the banana trade, and with the best of accommodations for pa.s.sengers, have an aggregate tonnage of 250,000; while 49 other steamers were chartered by the company before the war, making the total tonnage employed in the carrying trade approximately half a million.

Nearly all these steamers, which connect the coast of the Caribbean with New York, Boston and New Orleans, touch, both coming and going, at the City of Havana, thus giving that port the advantage of unexcelled transportation facilities, and connecting Cuba not only with the more important cities of the Gulf of Mexico, New York and New England, but also with Jamaica, Caribbean ports, and the South American Republics lying beyond the Isthmus of Panama, along the western sh.o.r.es of that continent.

No steams.h.i.+p line perhaps has been more closely related to the commercial development of Cuba than has the New York & Cuba Mail Steams.h.i.+p Company. This line had its origin in a carrying trade between Cuba and the United States started by the firm of James E. Ward & Co.

The members of the firm were Mr. James E. Ward, Mr. Henry B. Booth and Mr. Wm. T. Hughes. The Company was incorporated under the laws of the State of New York and formally organized in July, 1881, with Mr. Ward as President, Mr. Booth as Vice President and Mr. Hughes as Secretary and Treasurer. When first organized the Company had only four s.h.i.+ps, the _Newport_, _Saratoga_, _Niagara_ and _Santiago_, with a gross tonnage of 10,179. Between the date of its organization and its transfer to the Maine Corporation, or during a period of 26 years, the company acquired 19 vessels, with a total gross tonnage of 84,411. In addition to the above the company has operated under foreign flags eight other s.h.i.+ps aggregating a tonnage of 26,624.