Industrial Cuba Part 5

SALARIES

"The average salaries paid by this colona during normal times, that is, previous to the insurrection, were about as follows:

ALL THE YEAR

Administration.........per month, $166.66 gold, and maintenance.

Servant................ " " 30.00 " " "

Overseer............... " " 85.00 " " "

Second overseer........ " " 35.00 " " "

Steward and bookkeeper. " " 50.00 " " "

a.s.sistant.............. " " 25.00 " " "

Carpenter.............. " " 35.00 " " "

Montero................ " " 25.00 " " "

a.s.sistant.............. " " 20.00 " " "

Hostler................ " " 20.00 " " "

a.s.sistant.............. " " 15.00 " " "

Pumping water.......... " " 6.00 " " "

Cook................... " " 30.00 " " "

a.s.sistant.............. " " 25.00 " " "

Night watchman......... " " 20.00 " " "

Mounted field-guard.... " " 30.00 " " "

" " " .... " " 25.00 " " "

DURING CROP TIME

Mounted field guard............. per month, $25.00 gold, and maintenance.

" " " ............. " " 25.00 " " "

Time-keeper..................... " " 20.00 " " "

Waiter for operatives' table.... " " 15.00 " " "

Vegetable gardener.............. " " 20.00 " " "

Bueyero......................... " " 22.00 " " "

a.s.sistant....................... " " 16.00 " " "

" ....................... " " 12.00 " " "

Foreman with cartmen............ " " 30.00 " " "

a.s.sistant....................... " " 23.00 " " "

Foreman with stevedores......... " " 28.00 " " "

Cartmen......................... " " 23.00 " " "

Ploughmen....................... " " 23.00 " " "

Cane cutters.................... " " 21.00 " " "

Cane lifters.................... " " 15.00 " " "

Cane loaders (stevedores)....... " " 21.00 " " "

"During the summer months wages for field labour averaged about $17 per month. Cost for maintaining labour averaged about $7.50 per month in gold; cost for maintaining overseers, foremen, carpenters, cooks, stewards, guards, etc., amounted to about $12 per month.

"Rations for each man per day were as follows:

"Clear beef, one pound, or its equivalent in tasajo or salt fish.

"Rice, one pound, or its equivalent in beans, peas, macaroni, etc.

"Lard, two ounces.

"Coffee, one ounce.

"Sugar, two ounces.

"Bread, six ounces, or instead of bread, sweet potatoes, plantains, or melanga.

"Sweet-oil, bacon, salt, and spices sufficient to season the food.

"During the winter months, cabbage, tomatoes, and turnips are served every day without regard to rations.

RULES AND REGULATIONS

"When a labourer enters his name on the pay-roll he receives his machete or hoe, tin plate, tin dipper, and spoon, the same being charged to him and credited when returned.

"Time-keeper makes his rounds twice every day.

"Away from the batey[10] smoking is absolutely prohibited, and the penalty is immediate dimissal.

"Salaries are paid any day between 11 A.M. and 1 P.M., Sundays excepted, to those who desire the money.

"Except in case of sickness, meals are charged to those who are not at work.

"To the sick such medicines as we have are given free; the most prominent of these is quinine.

"If a man remains in the barracon sick for more than two days he is sent to his home, or to a hospital. If it is an injury received in the service of the colona, he is cared for until able to work again.

"The bell tolls at 4 A.M. for the people to get up; at break of day, after having drunk a cup of coffee, they go to the field; at 11 o'clock they return to breakfast; at 1 o'clock they again go to the field; at 6 o'clock they come in to dinner, and at 8 o'clock the bell sounds silence, after which absolute quiet is enforced. The negro is fond of his music and dancing, and this is permitted at seasonable hours, and sometimes the overseer gives special permission to prolong their amus.e.m.e.nts beyond the usual hour.

"Gambling is prohibited, but the rule cannot be successfully enforced.

"In the dry season (at mid-day) when the people are in the batey, sentinels are stationed on the hills to give timely warning of cane fires.

"Armed guards patrol the fields by day, and guard the cattle at night--this applies to times of peace.

ADVANTAGES OF LARGE COLONAS OVER SMALL ONES

"During my experience in this vicinity I have never known a single instance where a small colona prospered or was able to extricate itself from debt, and this condition is owing to various causes. A colona employing from three hundred to four hundred men can be carried on more economically than one employing from one hundred to two hundred men. The high-salaried men in the one are very nearly the same as in the other, but the small farmers with fifty or two hundred acres fare much worse.

These purchase everything they require at retail, often paying from fifteen to thirty per cent. more than the large farmers, who purchase at wholesale and receive rebate for prompt payment. A small farmer employing ten men requires a cook; the larger, employing three hundred men, requires but two cooks. The small farmer is always cramped for money, has but a limited credit with the central, and outside of that none, except with an occasional country storekeeper, who may consider the risk and accommodate him by charging exorbitant interest. The money which ought to be expended on the cane fields goes to pay this interest, his fields get to such low ebb that the cane no longer pays the expense for harvesting, he can obtain no money for replanting, fails to pay his rent, and the owner of the land takes possession of what remains, resulting in some other poor fellow stepping in only to repeat his predecessor's experience.

"The cost for preparing, breaking up, cross-ploughing, making, furrowing, seed cane, planting, cultivating, wear and tear to implements, and weeding one caballeria[11] of cane to maturity, and doing it well, is from $1400 to $1600, according to conditions of soil, salaries, etc., and under normal conditions will here require from three to four years before the farmer can see any profits, and then only by intelligent management and good soil; soil which requires planting every three to five years will ruin any man.

"The average yield of cane per caballeria in Guabairo for 1895 was about 71,500 arrobas,[12] and the cost per one hundred arrobas for weeding, cutting, carting, and delivering to the central amounted to about $1.84.