Tapaste....

Summary of the statement of the condition of the different municipal districts which compose the province of Habana.

REMARKS.-In the value of the property of the ayuntamientos we do not include those of Alquízar, Jaruco, Bainoa, Bauta, Catalina, Isle of Pines, Managua, Marianao, Quivicán, Salud, San Antonio de las Vegas, and San Felipe, as they did not make it known, being unable to do so.

We omit the data regarding the Isle of Pines, as none was received at this office. The value of the cultivated as well as the uncultivated land could not be calculated by some of the ayuntamientos. This department, however, has been able to do so by giving each caballería an approximate value of $1,000. We show in the statement in ruled columns the districts to which each term belongs; the manner in which property is transferred, as by contract between the parties and by mutual consent; the manner in which titles to property are protected, by having the originals registered in the notary's office; the system for the registry of same, said titles are bound to be presented in the offices for the registry of property for registry; manner in which state property is managed, according to an order dated December 9, 1882, taking into account that the sales of said property have been suspended by a superior order. We do not give a statement of the changes that have taken place since January 1, because they are numerous and varied, and it would be necessary to give up an amount of time which we can not spare. HABANA, September 14, 1899.

J. RIUS RIVERA,
Civil Governor.

SPECIAL REPORT OF BRIG. GEN. WILLIAM LUDLOW, U. S. V., COMMANDING THE DEPARTMENT OF HABANA.

ADJUTANT-GENERAL DIVISION OF CUBA.

OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR OF HABANA,

September 15, 1899.

SIR: On August 21 the following was received from headquarters Division of Cuba, dated August 18:

COMMANDING GENERAL

Department of Habana, Habana, Cuba.

SIR: In order to comply with the instructions from the War Department, the division commander directs that you forward to these headquarters, not later than the 15th proximo, a special report on civil matters on the following subjects, viz:

(a) A review of the industrial, economic, and social conditions existing within your department upon the assumption of control by the United States. This is to form the basis for the deduction of the results of American occupation.

(b) A résumé of the present industrial, economic, and social conditions, showing the net results of American occupation.

These reports should be full and comprehensive in following along the lines indicated above, so far as practicable, and presenting in detail the results of the adminis tration of municipal and provincial affairs in all their different phases.

Very respectfully,

And in response I beg to submit the accompanying report.

Your obedient servant,

W. V. RICHARDS, Adjutant-General.

WILLIAM LUDLOW,

Governor of Habana.

REPORT.

Habana is both the political and commercial capital of the island, and the greatest point of concentration of population and business interests.

It is the main port of entry and departure for passengers and freights, and its shipping movements and customs transactions far exceed those of all other ports combined.

The Department of Habana includes the municipality of Habana lying west and south of the bay, with a population of about 220,000, and the municipalities of Regla, Guanabacoa, and Santa Maria del Rosario, lying eastward from the harbor, with populations aggregating, within the department limits, about 30,000.

The total population is therefore about 250,000, within an area, between the Almendares River on the west and south and the Cojimar River on the east, of about 55 square miles.

This area is therefore partly a densely populated city, such as Habana and Regla; partly a less concentrated town population, such as Guanabacoa; partly suburban and partly rural.

The suburban and rural areas, as usual in the vicinity of large cities, are mainly devoted, when under cultivation, to pasture, forage crops, and market gardening, no cane or tobacco being raised.

The industrial, economic, and social conditions in the Department of Habana are therefore, widely different from those of the larger departments embracing entire provinces, in which the principal interests are agricultural and the like; whereas in this department general commercial interests predominate, and banking, importing, distributing, and shipping, with local shopkeeping and the innumerable requirements of a large centralized population, constitute the industries and occupations of the people. With the exception of the great tobacco establishments for making cigars and cigarettes, of which there are several, Habana is but to a limited extent a manufacturing city, although in Regla and Casa Blanca are machine shops of considerable importance.

In view of the census now in process of organization, and of which the results are to be recorded within two or three months, it is not assumed that full and definite particulars as to industries, occupations, and values are required for the purposes of this report. The census will furnish the detailed data on these subjects, and the custom-house records, which are not within my official purview, will give the specific and general movement of imports and exports and customs collections.

This report will therefore relate to such matters and considerations as may seem to give a general idea as to the results of the American occupation since January 1, and in seeking to do this in some intelligible manner there are two difficulties encountered at the outset, viz: First, the special status of Habana as the commercial emporium of the island, and, second, the peculiar conditions existing both in Habana and in the island at the beginning of the year.

Since Habana is the heart and center of movement, of which the island generally is the body and members, it results that the prosperity of Habana largely depends upon the vigor and life of the provinces; so that while a certain energy of movement and an apparent condition of activity could exist temporarily in the city, these could not be maintained and strengthened unless the provinces were thriving and their vitality deepening and expanding. A consideration, therefore, of the existing conditions and immediate prospects of the general interests of Cuba could alone be relied upon to form a judgment as to the real conditions, industrial and economic, existing in the metropolis and presently to develop either into an augmented vigor of investment and commercial uses of money or into a depression that should look to a general rehabilitation of industry and returns for its determinate and sustained prosperity.

The second difficulty above referred to is that commercially there can be no comparison properly between the circumstances at the beginning of the year and those of the present. The conditions existing in December and January last have been set forth in my annual report recently submitted, to which I beg to refer for considerable detailed information which would be of value in this connection.

There had been three years of warfare, the city had been blockaded for several months, it was heavily garrisoned by Spanish troops, and the civil governmental and administrative methods and requirements were, and for a long period had been, subordinated to military needs and purposes. All general business, investments, imports, even that of food, had been impracticable for the greater portion of the The year. Spanish in evacuating the city left it bankrupt and prostrate, with an empty treasury, the city administration a wreck, and the population perishing by wholesale. The commonest and most imperative requirements of a city government were

abandoned; to clean the streets, rescue the dying, even to bury the dead. The local machinery was broken and paralyzed, lacking essential parts, and even the initial power with which to get itself together. Within thirty days of the American control all this had been amended. No one was starving or abandoned; with nourishment came strength to work and work was given. The streets were cleaned, refuse removed, sanitary and hygienic laws and regulations enforced, the hospitals and charitable institutions equipped and put in operation, the ailing and homeless provided for, a complete city government of new material established and set in effective and economical running order; a police force-mounted for the rural area, and metropolitan for the city-created, drilled, and put at work; financial affairs regulated, salaries and employments reduced, simplified, and organized. Everywhere cleanliness inculcated and enforced; honesty and disinterested service established as standards; investigations set on foot to study financial conditions, methods of collection and accounting, and means to augment revenue and diminish expense.

For the first time probably in its history Habana had an honest and efficient government, clean of bribery and peculation, with revenues honestly collected and faithfully and intelligently expended. And this with native material, men who had no previous experience in public administration, and relying for the results of their labors mainly upon their own integrity and intelligence, with the aid, advice, instruction, and encouragement of the American authorities.

These conditions have endured to the present, with constant betterments and no backward steps or lapses. It is true the city is still practically bankrupt, inasmuch as it has to obtain from the customs revenues large sums monthly for the engineering and sanitary work which is made imperative by the neglect of centuries, and in which not only Havana alone but the entire island and the United States as well are vitally interested.

The results are of record in the health statistics, of which the details are given in my annual report. A general death rate, already below the average, exclusive of the war period of frightful losses, and still falling rapidly until it has reached substantially the normal point of large cities in the United States.

A yellow-fever record unexampled for its low mortality in the history of a century, and with daily endeavor persistently and energetically directed toward the elimination of an endemic disorder that has made Habana a terror to other cities doing business with it. So that now Habana is taking precautions to protect itself against the importation of yellow fever from Gulf ports of the United States, as well as from other Cuban and Mexican ports.

There is no means of estimating how many thousands of lives have been saved during the period of the American occupation, partly by outright rescue with food and medicines, partly by giving work and employment to the destitute, and partly by the reduced death rate from improved hygienic and sanitary conditions affecting the entire population. And these conditions would in part at least remain even if the administration and control were to end at once. For it is probable that the most valuable result attained is the demonstration to a people quite uninstructed in such matters of the methods and principles according to which a proper civil administration must be conducted, and of the value of intelligence and integrity in public affairs as directly affecting their own lives and interests and those of their children. They are quick of apprehension, these people, and prompt to perceive in such matters what is to their material interest to observe. The initial impulse that has been given would continue for a long time and continue to bear fruit, even were the original force and energy withdrawn, if only it could be so arranged and ordered that the practical direction of affairs should be permanently and reliably vested in the serious and responsible elements of the community. In this contingency, however, lies the deep-seated peril of the political situation, upon which all other questions, economic, commercial, and administrative, ultimately depend. There is a great amount of illiteracy in the island, and there are likewise elements, even less trustworthy, who have individual interests to serve or certain political views to forward, which have no practical basis either in commercial prosperity or the stability of the insular government. It is the interests of the civilized world at large that must determine the future adjustment of these fundamental considerations and not the views or opinions of theorists or sentimentalists. With these excluded, and the disorderly and selfish elements suppressed, the task of establishing the industries of the island and maintaining a stable and orderly government would be the simplest possible, or otherwise be made impracticable.

It may therefore be held that, aside from commercial or industrial considerations merely, the object lesson given by the administrative and physical rehabilitation of Habana that has been effected within a few months constitutes in fact an enormous moral force, the results of which are to a greater or less extent permanent and of incalcula