Cuba and her people of to-day : an account of the history and progress of the island previous to its independence; a description of its physical features; a study of its people; and, in particular, an examination of its present political conditions, its industries, natural resources, and prospects; together with information and suggestions designed to aid the prospective investor or settler . -hend any complex matter than his Spanish an-cestor. This gives him a penchant toward theprofessions or the higher mechanic arts. It isnot indolence so much as a combination of qual-ities of temperament t
Cuba and her people of to-day : an account of the history and progress of the island previous to its independence; a description of its physical features; a study of its people; and, in particular, an examination of its present political conditions, its industries, natural resources, and prospects; together with information and suggestions designed to aid the prospective investor or settler . -hend any complex matter than his Spanish an-cestor. This gives him a penchant toward theprofessions or the higher mechanic arts. It isnot indolence so much as a combination of qual-ities of temperament that turns him away frommanual occupations. He does not lack industryin his new career. This charge of indolence against the Cubanworkman is sometimes justified by the slow-ness with which they perform their are not nearly so expeditious as Amer-icans. But this is due in part to the system ofindustrial administration. The Cuban brick-layer lays as many bricks as the Englishman inthe same trade. Recently in building the newWestinghouse electric plant at Manchester,American supervision raised the average num-ber of brick laid a day by the British bricklay-ers from less than 400 to 1,800, with a maxi-mum of 2,500 for the plainest work. This illus-trates how large a part organization and super-vision play in creating industrial the same men, the English con-. The Condition of Cuba 143 tractor got only about twenty per cent, as muchwork out of them as did the American superin-tendents. In Cuba a change to Americanmethods and implements, and from oxen tomules as draft animals, has reduced the costof plowing from $ and $ a caballeria(33 1-3 acres), in two specific instances, to$ and $24 respectively. There is reasonto believe that in all industries this factor ofsupervision and administration counts for asmuch in Cuba as it does elsewhere. If so, alarge part of the relative inefficiency of theCuban must be charged off to poor manage-ment a
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookidcubaherpeopleoft00forb
