Show Lt DAYS Of SP NISU RULE Spanish Officials In Cubit Gathering In All the Spoils fhey Can Lay Their Hands On SpecIal CorresDondence Havana Oct 25Buslness in Cuba Is In a state of suspense of complete stagnation N d progress In any induj trial branch Is to be expected until the political status of the island becomes fixed and stabl Cubans SpanIsh and Americans merchants of all nationalities nationali-ties are simply Waiting for the Spanish Span-ish troops to get out and the Amen can soldiers to come in Meanwhile the era of progress Is beIng postponed by the eternalmanana of the Spanish I evacuation commissIoners The AmerIcan AmerI-can commlsslon find little to do except ex-cept to go fishing and sharkhunting while the patriotic SpanIsq officers of an ranks are trylngto till theIr pockets pock-ets with the loot that is to be carried off when the final manana come around RobbIng the people cheating the gov I ernment stealinpitblIc funds pIcking prIvate pockets fl cjns theap1l1s called call-ed strangers plucliqgtbegeese called prObioterstthesear the6ccupations ot the Spanish military officials of the Spanish civil authorities and of Spanish Span-Ish and Cuban merchants at present FLOUR PASSED CHARCOAL Corruption Is practiced openly even ostentatiously like the charity of the hypocritical If one doubts this he has ony to vttlk down on themachlna the I custom house wharf to find the proof Here he may see as the correspondent I correspond-ent did the other day blacks at work unloading sacks from the lighters The sacks were labeled charcoal but the process of piling them In heaps on the wharf 5catteed a fine white dust This does not mean that white charcoal has been invented for when the correspondent corre-spondent dipped his fingers In the II white dust and tasted It he tasted flour The sacls were conaigned to a Spanish importer in Ianzanllloa I thousand sacks of flour marked as J charcoal The inference was clear that some one was cheatIng the government i out of Import duties or that the custom cus-tom house officials were permitting the government to be cheated Later on presenting a letter of introduction in-troduction to a wellknown Cuban merchant in Havana the correspondent correspond-ent mentioned the flour which had come In as charcoal Tut saId the merchant that is a mere Item That man In Manzanlllo has been receIvIng monthly shipments of that same charcoal char-coal for years The thing is easy You see my neighbor across the street He cables his buyer In New York to ship a thousand tierces of lard The buyer gets the consignment on board ship and malls to Havana a manifest call Ing for one thousand barrels of potatoes pota-toes Here the custom house Inspector allows the Importers drays to haul away the supposed barrels of potatoes a cargo upon which there has been this difference In tariff prices A tierce I ot lard weighs 500 pounds a barrel of I pritatoes weigh only 150 pounds rand the duty Is only 2 cents a pound The I duty on the cargo of lard would have amounted to 25000 but the amount paid for the cargo of potatoes was only 3000 a saving of 22000 In consideration consid-eration of this saving the customs house Inspector of course receives hIs reward INCREASED PORT DUTIES Such is the way business hqe been conducted in Havana for years Robbery Rob-bery of the government has been sos so-s that It has become a 5cI nee With a termInation of this tate of affafrs In sight the extent of bribery flow is almost beyond belIef Iq a stay of a week or so a man who keeps his eyes open can see a score of cases to be explained only on the hypothesis of I bribery of officials The largest and most valuable cargoes dwindle to almost I al-most nothing under the skillful handling of the importers and I the officers of the port The approachIng end of various sIne I cures Is cauflng the participants in benefits accruing from the present system sys-tem to neglect no opportunIty It is a case of steal quickly grab everything In sight for soon we wIll have to cut and run Ieantlm port duties have been trebled obsolete rules have been revived and new rules created Importers Impor-ters who do not or will not stand 1 In with the customs house Inspectors h1ve I been obliged to suspend business For I instance the port duties on a ton of eaoHod I fot hour valued at 10 amounts to 125O A case of a dozen cans of beans valued at SO cents is taxed 230 These exorbitant duties have been imposed Im-posed with the object of excluding as far 1S possIble all shIpments of food the ulterior motive being one of which the world at large is Ignorant namely the disposal of quantities of nrovlsfons In the hands of the military government govern-ment The statement that during the I war the Spaniards in Cuba had no supplies was quIte erroneous As a matter of fact the Spanish military government foreseeing the war made Immense shipments of food to aI parts of the Island stockIng every store and consigning goods to all the importers and jobbers And now with theend of Its domination in sight the panlsh military government has still on hand about 25010 sacks of flour 15000 barrels bar-rels of beans 10000 boxes of Norwe JFan codfish and 1000 Cases of con l 1 1 t I densed milk These goods are offered at prices below cost with the Idea of turning everythIng into cash before the time comes to give an accounting At the same time the stock In the hands of private dealers is spoiling for want of purchasers at even reasonable prIces And the government as long as it has a pound of food left will continue to undersell the dealers Thus the expulsIon of a rotten government gov-ernment is being marked by an epoch I I of shameful intrigue of underhanded dealing and of wholesale lying and cheating Individuals are following the example set bJ the government and many a merchant in Havana honest till now will never be honest again No one asks questions and each simply pockets the money that comes hIs way MONEY FROM STARVATION The feeding of the reconcentrados i J t I i 1 S I j ± L gLr l ij < < f = prn misrniu rn USE A1 B TflB WALLS OP WHIcH ARE RENTED POE SIGNS has been a source of gain to nearly all who handled the money contributed for the purpcs Durins the blockad anti Up Co the present time enough money has been contributed in havana ha-vana alone to feed every one of the I citys 20000 reconcentrados three SCluare meals a day For instanceS instance-S cents a day bus enough food for each hungry one It is sufficient to give each a quart of soup and half a ound of bread daily The money was contrIbuted by private subscriD t1ons gatheied by the governments agentsenou money to spend 2400 daily In giving the 0000 poor theirS their-S cents worth of food But instead of a quart of soup and half a pound I of bread daily the reconcentrados received I re-ceived a quart of soup and a half pound or bread weekly In other word the I S cents for each starving one was exended once every seven days Instead I In-stead ot every day The balance which was a magnificent amount was I pUt down as exJense This matter will probably never be investigated I although there are reliable witnesses in the citY 1 who will testify that one I merchant alone has made 75000 as his share of the profits of feeding the poor I Officials who were In poverty before the war are now buying city real estate es-tate I Gambling houses are wIde open in all the principal streets With the interpreter inter-preter from the Inglaterra hotel the I correspondent visited seven of these I houses in one evening all within gunshot hot of Blancos palace The principal I patrons of the tables are Spanish army officers These gambling houses were given license at the beginning of the I war and were made to pay a heavy I tax which was to swell the fund for feeding the starving Within the past few clays the government has ceased I feeding the starving but the gambling I houses are still doIng business and still paying the heavy tax ODD BUSINESS WAYS I Business methods in Havana have always been peculiar Counting out I the retaIlers the merchants arc dlvid cd into two classes the importers and I the wholesalers There are four importers im-porters arid 23 wholesalers The wholesalers do no importing but buy everything of one of the four importers im-porters the reason beIng that Cuban merchants or rather merchants in Cuba long ago ruIned their credit with the outside world Of recent years It has become the custom to refuse re-fuse to sell to wholesalers in Cuba unless un-less the house makIng the purchase has a reDrcsentative banker In the uort from hich the shipment is made Thus the four importers of Havana able to place money on deposit at the ports of shipment control all the trade wIth the outside world Among all the Havana merchants business methods are characterized by a looseness that Is astonishing to an American A merchant for example wishes 5000 cash to pay for a consignment con-signment of goods He sends a clerk with a verbal message to another merchant mer-chant wno promptly hands over the money Then the borrower having finished some transaction that was pending during the day sends back the cash to the lender There Is no note no memorandum ThIs is goIng on all the time These are merely cash loans of convenience based upon word I If honor and their security Is the certain cer-tain knowledge that sales will be effected ected to make possible theIr redemption redemp-tion There seems to be plenty of floating currelcy in the city but rates of exchange ex-change are peculiar An Amertcan fivedollar bill is worth eIght Spanish sIlver dollars but a Spanish paper dol lIar the currency of the Bank or SpaIn Is worth only 9 cents In our mosey The prices of the most ordinary articles arti-cles are still exorbitant For a bottle of mucilage sold f9r 5 cents in New York One pays 40 cents In silver here A paper of pins ia 55 cents a siphon of seltzer 60 cents New York and ChI cago daily newspapers sell here for 40 cents each The retailers who sell these articles are if nothing else polite po-lite The correspondent asked a notion da1er of whom he bought some pIns to direct him to the office of the Eng lisle consul The polite dealer promptly came from behInd his counter and personally per-sonally conducted the correspondent to the cpnsulat seen blocks away lear r Ing hIs shop open to all who might come presumably expecting his customers cus-tomers to await hIs return When the evacuation of Cuba by the Spanish armf Is complete the island will not have more than 1000000 Inhabitants In-habItants Of these the proportion will be > 00000 peninsular Spaniards 300000 blacks anI 400000 Cubans This population will certainly be inadequate to the proper development of Cuba There Is room here for 9000000 additional addi-tional people and work for nIl GILSON WILLETS |