About an equal proportion of the working population of whites and of colored is engaged in agriculture, fishing, and mining. In each case this is slightly less than one-half the number of the race employed in gainful occupations. The absolute number of whites and of colored engaged in domestic service is about equal, but relatively to the whole number of workers of each class the number of colored in this occupation is as two to one. There are more than twice as many male as female servants in Cuba. There are relatively more colored than whites engaged in trades and manufactures, while the whites greatly preponderate in commerce, transportation, and professional services. Of the 11,022 women whose occupations fall under manufacturing and mechanical industries, 8,329 are sewing women. In proportion to the population, nearly three times as many children under 15 years of age are employed in gainful occupations as in the United States.

The statistics of women engaged in farming, fishing, and mining probably include only paid field hands. Females formerly worked in the Santiago mines. Out of 2,389 miners employed in 1844, 349 were free black women and 284 were female slaves. However, this is a condition of the past. In recent years about 10 per cent of the field workers on some of the plantations have been women and children. Of the 6,866 women engaged in this class of occupations, 4,308 were from the province of Matanzas, where cane planting is the principal industry. As only 145 are reported from Pinar del Rio, the great tobacco province, where the whole family of the small planter is busy in the fields during the weeding and worming season, it is evident that only hired labor has been uniformly included in these statistics.

Considering those occupations which are not necessarily rural, we find the classes distributed about as follows between the city and country population:

URBAN AND RURAL POPULATION IN SELECTED GROUPS OF OCCUPATIONS, 1899.

Habana has 46.5 per cent of the urban population of Cuba and has more than 60 per cent of those employed in trade and transportation, and more than 50 per cent of those employed in manufacturing and mechanical industries in Cuban cities. So it is evident that the proportion of the total population engaged in those pursuits is larger in Habana than elsewhere. So far as manufactures are concerned, this is partly due to the concentration of tobacco manufacture at that city. As 60 per cent of the foreign trade of Cuba passes through Habana, it is natural that the proportion of the population engaged in trade and transportation should be large.

While one-third of the population of Cuba is urban, two-thirds of the skilled workmen reside in the cities. With the exception of two or three suburban villages near Habana, there are no small factory towns in the island. On account of the primitive construction of many houses and the permanent character of more pretentious buildings, the current demand for skilled men in the building trades is small outside the larger cities. Minor domestic industries, like hat, mat, and basket weaving, probably do not appear in these statistics.

An attempt has been made in the following tables to distribute the population engaged in manufacture, trades, and transportation under specific occupations. These figures are only approximate and have a relative rather than an absolute value. They are compiled from occupation tables given in the census of 1899, the only available source of statistics of this character, but for reasons which will be explained later these statistics were necessarily defective and incomplete. Nevertheless, the tables are sufficiently accurate to give an acceptable bird's-eye view of the distribution of skilled labor in Cuba.

NUMBER OF PERSONS IN SELECTED OCCUPATIONS, BY RACE AND SEX, 1899.

NUMBER OF PERSONS IN SELECTED OCCUPATIONS, BY RACE AND SEX, 1899-Concluded.

These tables do not report the full number engaged in many occupations. There is nothing to show that the figures are not reasonably complete for the building and clothing trades. Many men who spend part of their time as shirt cutters are probably reported upon the census schedules as clerks. Under saloon keepers are included only keepers of "American bars," and not the thousands of café waiters and venders of rum and other liquors in small mercantile establishments. This is proved by their small number and by the fact that 54 of the 73 reported are foreign whites. Butchers do not include meat venders and retail-shop cutters and clerks. Among confectioners are not included venders and ordinary operatives in chocolate and confectionery factories. The title of boiler maker and coppersmith is the same from the time when the copper kettle of the sugar boiler was the only apparatus of this kind in the island. In Spanish times all engineers

were supposed to be machinists.

The number of miners appears to be much understated. There are nearly 5,000 men working in the iron, manganese, and asphalt mines of Cuba at present. Probably most of these are reported on the census schedules as laborers. Men employed in this kind of work in Cuba are accustomed to change off to some other occupation for a part of the year, especially during the crop season, and they doubtless stated their regular employment to be field labor. For some reason the number of railway employees is equally understated. The pay roll of one of the five principal public railways of Cuba carries the names of 1,100 regular employees. The entire railway service of the island, including train and track crews on the plantation roads, gives employment

to nearly 5,000 men during the busiest season. Probably in the census figures engineers are reported as machinists, road mechanics under their individual trades, and section men as common laborers. The street railways of Habana, which are not adequately reported, also employ several hundred men.

There are many reasons that excuse the incompleteness of these statistics. When they were gathered, in 1899, industrial conditions were still unsettled as a result of the insurrection and recent war. To a certain extent they were pioneer statistics in this particular line for Cuba, though the previous Spanish enumerations included some data. with reference to occupations. A principal reason, however, why any classification of employments must be exceedingly inexact is that trades and occupations are not differentiated in Cuba. The Cuban mechanic is often a jack-at-all-trades, and all classes of salaried men and wageearners are constantly changing their business. With a varied list of occupations in which he considered himself equally expert, the Cuban workingman probably returned upon the schedule the one which best suited his tastes or seemed to him most dignified.

These tables contain the most accurate information available, however, and allowing for all errors they still remain valuable for purposes of comparison. They show that the trades whose object it is to shelter men employ nearly two-thirds of the skilled labor of Cuba. Nearly one-fourth of her trained workmen are employed in building, and not quite one-half are engaged in the preparation of clothing. Even omitting launderers, as perhaps we should, from this class of occupations the pursuits mentioned engage 44 per cent of those employed in manufacturing and mechanical industries. The only industry that gives work to & considerable number of factory operatives is the manufacture of cigars. The tobacco industry employs more men than any other group of skilled occupations. Leaving out of account the quasidomestic occupations of laundry and sewing women, which are conducted largely in private homes, the cigar factories use the services of more female help than any other business. It is in this industry also that the largest percentage of children are employed.

Over one-half of the tobacco workers are native whites, about oneeighth are foreign whites, and the rest are colored. Foreign whites constitute more than one-half of the mercantile population, and also of the sailors and miners. They furnish about one-fourth of the bakers, tailors, blacksmiths, machinists, and cabinetmakers of the island. In proportion to their numbers they contribute a much larger percentage to the population of skilled workmen than do either the Negroes or the native whites.

Few new industries have been introduced into Cuba during the last 50 years. Those that already existed have undergone little development, if we except sugar and tobacco, and there has been less improvement in processes and machinery than elsewhere. Specialization and

division of labor have not been introduced. So the condition of skilled labor has been almost stationary. Occupations have not multiplied as they have in other countries. Therefore the classification of employments given above is practically exhaustive.

INDUSTRIES AND OCCUPATIONS.

AGRICULTURE.

The condition of agricultural labor in Cuba, so far as hours of labor, standard of living, and methods of culture are concerned, does not vary greatly throughout the island. But there is a considerable variation of wages in different localities and at different seasons of the year. The question of labor supply is the most important problem that the rural proprietor has to meet. He is faced by two embarrassing conditions. His profits will not justify him in employing permanently more than a fraction of the field hands required during the crop season. There are no other local industries to carry the labor supply needed over the dull period of the year and leave it free for employment in the fields during the time of high wages. He is therefore obliged to pay a higher price for these temporary employees than the general conditions and the standard of living prevailing in the island demand. In addition, the fact that plantation hands are not assured permanent employment throughout the year leads them to depend upon the products of garden patches and other small holdings for their subsistence and to limit their needs to what these can supply. They thereby become in a measure independent of the landed proprietors in the matter of employment, and so afford a less reliable source of labor. Wages are determined by custom and tradition, and do not adjust themselves readily to economic necessities. Moreover, this tendency of rural labor to become attached to the land lessens its mobility. It does not respond to general market demands. An over and an under supply of workmen may exist permanently in two adjacent districts. So, wide variation of wages, accompanied by great uniformity of social conditions, characterizes the rural labor of Cuba.

There is no trait more marked in the Cuban workman in every employment than his preference for contract or piece work over a regular wage. The former seems to appeal to a speculative tendency in his nature that adds interest to his occupation. It also flatters a certain sentiment of self-esteem. He feels himself more independent, more his own master in the former instance. Perhaps there is a prejudice against hired service that has come down from the days of slavery and contract labor. There are few workmen harder to drive and easier to lead than the Cubans. Whatever the reason, employers all emphasize the preference of the people for contract work.