obtained from the production and refining of cane sugar, includes similar products made by beet and corn sugar manufacturers and by processors of citrus fruit. Blackstrap molasses is an important source of livestock feed and large quantities are needed in the production of industrial alcohol which is used in the manufacture of synthetic rubber, explosives, solvents, and many other commodities. The United States imported about 187,000,000 gallons of blackstrap molasses from Cuba in 1950, about 70 per cent of the quantity produced in Cuba that year. Chapter Nine. Cuba and Its Sugar Industry Cuba in Relation to the United States The Republic of Cuba came into existence as an independent nation on May 20, 1902, a little over three years after the end of the war with Spain in which the United States helped Cuba gain its freedom. Cuba was discovered by Columbus on his first voyage in 1492 and colonization began in 1511, almost a century before the establishment of Jamestown, first permanent English settlement in what is now the United States. Until the end of the war of independence in 1899, Cuba was ruled continuously by Spain, except for a period of about one year in 1762-1763 when it was under English control. From 1899 to 1902, while conditions were being stabilized and an autonomous government set up, the country was administered by the United States. Because of these historical circumstances, and significant factors of location and economic interdependence, relations between the United States and Cuba have always been particularly close. Cuba has leased to the United States an important strategic naval base at Guantanamo. Since 1903, Cuba and the United States have granted preferential tariff rates to each other. Cuba, the first nation to enter into a reciprocal trade agreement with the United States under the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act of 1934, has continued since that time to cooperate with the United States in encouraging trade between the two nations by amendments to the original agreement and by a new agreement which became effective January 1, 1948. Cuba declared war on the enemies of the United States in both World Wars and rendered important aid in these emergencies. The desirability of close economic and political ties with Cuba was recognized by the United States even before Cuba became an independent nation. John Quincy Adams, while Secretary of State under President Monroe, pointed out that: "Cuba, almost in sight of our shores, from a multitude of considerations has become an object of transcendent importance to the political and commercial interests of our Union. Its commanding position with reference to the Gulf of Mexico and the West India seas; the character of its population; its situation midway between our southern coast and the island of San Domingo; its safe and capacious harbor of Havana, fronting a long line of our shores destitute of the same advantage; the nature of its productions and of its wants, furnishing the supplies and needing the returns of a com、 merce immensely profitable and mutually beneficial, give it an importance in the sum of our national interest, with which that of no other foreign territory can be compared, and little inferior to that which binds the different members of this Union together." President Theodore Roosevelt, in his first annual message on December 3, 1901, observed that: "Cuba has in her constitution affirmed what we desired, that she should stand, in international matters, in closer and more friendly relations with us than with any other power; and we are bound by every consideration of honor and expediency to pass commercial measures in the interest of her material well-being." In August, 1902, President Roosevelt further stated: "Cuba must always be peculiarly related to us in international politics. She must in international affairs be to a degree a part of our political system. In return she must have peculiar relations with us economically. She must be in a sense part of our economic system." President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in requesting approval of a new treaty with Cuba on May 29, 1934, said: "Our relations with Cuba have been and must always be especially close. They are based not only upon geographical proximity, but likewise upon the fact that American blood was shed as well as Cuban blood to gain the liberty of the Cuban people and to establish the Republic of Cuba as an independent power in the family of Nations." President Harry S. Truman, in addressing a joint session of Congress on April 19, 1948, the fiftieth anniversary of Cuba's liberation, said: "I believe that few nations of differing languages and cultures have drawn so closely together during the last 50 years, freely and without duress, as have Cuba and the United States. . . . Trade between the two nations has increased steadily in volume and importance. . . . Although our two countries are separated by only ninety miles of water, and vary greatly in size and strength, they collaborate harmoniously on a basis of equal sovereignty and independence of action. This relationship provides living proof of the ability of nations great and small to live in peace and to enjoy the full benefits of commercial and cultural exchange." Cuba's Strategic Location-The Republic of Cuba consists of the island of Cuba, the Isle of Pines and numerous smaller islands. Cuba, largest of the West Indian islands, has an area of 44,164 square miles, about the size of Pennsylvania, and at its nearest point is only 90 miles south of Key West, Florida, as indicated in Chart XXII. Cuba's location, only 90 miles south of Florida, is important to the United Long and narrow, extending 760 miles from end to end, Cuba is only 25 to 100 miles wide. The eastern end is 50 miles from Haiti and less than 600 miles from the mainland of South America, while the western tip is only 130 miles from the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. Cuba is in a strategic position for the defense of the United States. It lies squarely across the entrance to the entire Gulf of Mexico and also across the northern approach to the Caribbean Sea and the Panama Canal. People and Resources-The population of Cuba on December 31, 1949, was 5,380,255, or an average of 119 persons per square mile. The principal occupation is agriculture, about half the employed population being farmers or farm laborers. Manufacturing, merchandising and transportation are the other occupations employing the largest number of people. Cuba's principal natural resource is an unusually fertile soil. In 1949, the latest date for which figures are available, about 5,000,000 acres of land were under cultivation, as shown in Table 21. Originally, forests covered almost the entire land area, and Cuba was an exporter of lumber. However, forest resources have been depleted to the point where Cuba has become an importer of lumber, most of which comes from the United States. Cuba has deposits of a number of minerals. The most important are manganese, chromium and copper. Iron, gold, barytes, silica, asphalt and others are produced and exported in small quantities. However, mining is a minor industry and minerals normally account for only 3 or 4 per cent of the total value of exports. By far the most important industry in Cuba is the production of sugar and related products such as molasses, cane sirups and industrial alcohol. Sugar alone accounts for about three-fourths of the value of Cuba's total exports. Other manufacturing enterprises using primarily domestic raw mate 3 Represents about 82 per cent of the estimated total cultivated area. rials produce various tobacco products, rope and twine, dairy products, canned fruits, furniture, cement, brick, tile and sponges. Manufactured products made principally from imported raw materials include paint, soap, perfume, toilet preparations, shoes, hats, hosiery, other clothing, knit goods, cotton piece goods, blankets, towels, paper and cardboard, tin cans, aluminum ware and matches. Most of the articles manufactured from imported raw materials are produced only for consumption in Cuba and many of them in such small quantities that additional supplies have to be imported. A few manufactured products such as cigars and canned fruits, produced from domestic raw materials, are exported, although the value of such exports is small compared with that of sugar. |