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National Geographic : 1920 Jul
Contents
CUBA-THE SUGAR MILL OF THE ANTILLES hour-fiction that makes "Dare Devil Dick" seem a "piker." After the cigars are finished they are placed in old seasoned cedar bins, where they get a little touch of the cedar aroma, while any surplus moisture in them evaporates. When ready for mar ket they are assorted according to the color of the wrapper and packed in the boxes we see at the cigar stands. Each cigar-maker usually smokes cigars of the grade he makes, and it very often hap pens that one of these men smokes better ci gars than many Amer ican millionaires. The Cuban factories in 1919 produced 157,ooo,ooo cigars for export. Placed end to end, they would reach from the Straits of Magellan to Sitka, Alaska. The profits of the tobacco and cigar busi ness in Cuba bring in from the outside world a great toll. It is only when consid ered in comparison (0 Underwood and Underwood HAVANA'S PUBLIC REPOSITORY FOR UNWANTED BABIES: CUBA This foundling asylum has a door where the mother of the un wanted baby may go in private, place it in a cupboard in the wall, then shut the door. On the other side of the wall a Sister of Mercy opens the cupboard, and the ill-starred child finds a home where with the sugar trade loving hearts are o that these profits ap pear relatively small. There are many other industries which would almost certainly become sources of great wealth to Cuba were there less op portunity of making big money in sugar growing and tobacco-raising. Cuban sisal might rival that from Yucatan; Cuban cattle might compete with those of Argen tina and Australia; Cuban fruits might claim their place in the world's markets alongside those of Florida and California. But the Cuban planter feels that of all men he can best afford to let well enough alone and stick to his two staple crops. pen to its misfortune. From whatever angle one views Cuba, it is a land filled with interest, a land that in twenty years has passed from gnaw ing starvation to overflowing plenty. From one of the most wretched of com munities to one of the richest of peoples is the transformation that two decades have wrought; and if the island shall be a beacon light, guiding the ships of state of other American nations into the har bor of permanent peace, the altruism of the United States will be justified and external guarantees of internal peace will receive a rich vindication.
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