Page:Senate Reports 1892–’93.djvu/787

{| Senator. You would make, then, an average of about eight weekly sailings?
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Mr. . Yes; at least that number of the regular ones.

Senator. Say thirty-five per month from Havana, besides those from other ports?

Mr. . Perhaps so.

Senator. What do you have from other ports of Cuba?

Dr. . On the south side there is the Ward line running from New York to Cienfuegos twice a month, I think. That line also touches at Nassau in the winter.

Senator. Probably, including the tramps, there will be forty or fifty a month.

Dr. . Yes; fifty.

Mr. . In the crop season there are that many.

Senator. I would like to ask if the conditions relating to immigration from European countries to the United States should be changed so that the intending immigrants find it difficult to come by the usual route through New York, it would be likely that there might be any considerable immigration to the United States through Cuba by way of Havana.

Mr. . They might do that. I do not know of any law to prevent it.

Senator. Have there been any conditions to warrant the apprehension that it might occur?

Mr. Williams. Not heretofore.

Dr. . You remember that the German line used to stop here on the way to New Orleans; and English steamers have gone through here not very long ago with emigrants from Spain and different ports of Europe.

Mr. . Those intended for the Western States?

Senator. Anywhere in the United States. I ask if it has been the case and might be again?

Mr. . Oh, yes; but those passengers are not emigrants from the West Indies; we are now on the subject of the West Indies.

Senator. Is the passenger travel between here and the States on the increase?

Mr. . I should say it had been on the increase. When the insurrection broke out it took a sudden start, and after that it became more established; more settled.

Senator. It is still going on as rapidly as ever, and, in your opinion, more so?

Mr. . Yes, for the reason that Cuba is becoming more and more identified with the commercial system of the United States. Cuba is to-day commercially a part of the United States, and naturally you must expect that communication will be more active and constant.

Senator. Tell us what you know about the character of the emigrants.

Mr. . They are generally laboring men who go to the United States to earn their living. They do not go there and live as paupers or throw themselves upon public charity at all.

Senator. What proportion should you judge go to Florida and what to Northern ports?

Mr. . The largest portion I should think go to Florida, because, in the first place, there are a great many Cubans coming from families which formerly lived in Florida; they are descendants of old Floridians. When Florida came under the flag of the United States