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MB. MUM ranuAs
I las born la the pristine* of Asturias is the year 1066 The toga
La thigh on. boos Li so small that it does smelt appear on aay nap of
spin. I as about as old as Christopher 'ColusbAs, who diesevered the net,
sir 14 only beamse of the grit of the Mem brothers. Oolubbus vas at a
total lose when his 'somass noodle no lemger garbed idea test isurse.
vent to Ouha than still tery psng. sad was easpletsly &naiad sith
the beauty of this land. It bas a twadorful'fortilitYs yialding three mop*
a year. a thing that no ether land in the vortld ean, equal. And above all
is the hospitality of its people who are allays obsequious, and trying Si
Please. Theme else sea One find these qoalitits; It is a meond nature
in them.
I do not sonata, malt only a speniard. bat a Spanish Awarteas. as
all thump republics in south Minim hare the blood of spain is their
veins. 1b7 are the true daughters of Spain4 we axe not:i.atine. as.nany
in this ocassanity 'maid like to cal/ on. WO MO aU 1PROLOR Aliortaadies gad
that, should not be agy distinction bottoms.. te are all brothers In
blood as tell as in obassotaristiess
Whoa I no. in .v York I had a pinto Washer. Oho goo oho of the
met laarged ma that I have ever had the pleasure of knatine. 'Mb Gould
'speak and write many Imagbages. I roneiber saying to hiss** time. Shot
the Spanish laws& was 00,0 impressive than the taglish. at* be told nes
"bet is thew* sere beautiful than this passage is gnglisk, the
twittering of the birde. Vi. oostinc of the,doiss." Boiever, be said this
with es gash sapressioa that it realix emaged that Pa were hearing the
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birds and the doves.
remember also a friend of mine uho sae a 000lalist. In those days
mixed up in everything. The day previous to the eleetions I wad with him
in a bulidine where there were four speakers.tal4ing for him, eash speaker
in a separate window. It MO raining and thunderinc, but the armed re•.
maimed there listening. I remmined in the building until the corky hours
of the morning. hen the votes were finally counted, he had reeeived
kG,000 votes.
:met before establiehinr our rotatory in Tampa, I went to 'ley West
and remained there eight months. Our factor, iaosano ilendas Co., was
finally estabiished here on :lay lbth, Itt.1, when I was 22 years of age.
I remember thrc, often I eatablished the faotory here, I ,eve employment
to nearly all thn torkers of .ianohne Playa. I have alsays treated the
cigar•makero as human mince, not as antral'. I thoroughly unaorstand
their nature.
I founded :he ;entro ..:spenol de Tal* (Cpanish Ciubj, and although
mober 1 as bon c its Ars% mmmber, I have retired from the club
altogether. They have sent °Gregor** after committee to get me to go
back, but I have a prineip14 in my life. The meson for this action of
minl„,if you must know, is that the :,:entro iapanol gave a reception to
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the former Cuban resident, 7"*. Eamon Orma anloihrtLn• They acted like
does that lick try': hand that whips them.
(1) This resident eeforee, tMO La m in Cuba, whereby L of all
employees had to be Cubans (native). There are a considerable number
or firms owned by laniards whose employees are all :-eaniards, and t*lis
meant that they had to throw out half of the's' employee' and place ',hibans
in their place. There were also several sots of violent)* acainot the
Fletniards dttri014,- the resident): ct Oran.
with reference to th meAcal body. no vas not equal to tho task before
him4 He fell sick and I tools oomplete charge of the matter. hen he
recovered I had already organised the hospital.
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I remember that ono of my cicamsakers was NO. V. M. Balbiatin. HO
was n very bad oicar-mnLer, but he vas a vOry intellioent man. I took a
fancy to him and set him up in a barroom, at which business he made a comp
pieta eaDe08116
rr. J. 170744 V33 raitied in Thor City. 5.s .a boy hoyae altays
among us. 9e has not forgotten his friends. 9s attends all the social
flInctions of the different clubs in nor City. rheas he first ran for
711,yor of Tampa, I as his chief supporter, and I myself placed him as
Mayor of Tamps.
Peter C. Kniilit is anothor one of the "strong ms" in ;lama, oho
visitio all the Latin clubs on Christmas Day, and than sands up by visitiae
me at my hors.
Seery year I mike substantial onations to all worthy charitable
onuses. Iowever, I never give a .ant to the ,alvation Army or some of
those other oharitieo rhich keep salaried men. hen I give my money, I
must :no that it goof; straicht to the needy persons, not to somobody's
pocket.
'lima Vie terrible storm that destroyed the entire town of ants Crus
del Aire Aiba, I immediately set a movement on foot to succor those people.
I woe afterwardo offered a certificate in recognition of my act, ohidh I
still hold. I also pay the quotas of many members of the Clubs, who are
(1) rr, 3altr,ntin hao almlys been a man of great prestige in the Latin comp
mnnity. At rAwo time he came to the rescue of th7! panisih Club, when it was
in financial straits by putting thru the (told Bonds of the Club, and sold
to the members. It booms, there fore, an internal debt.
out of work. Cn1,y last week I gave a shook for 71.6.00 for this purpose.
I have been in many mooting' of the Cubsn Jlub* and very many o the
onss.attendinc these mestincs are :laniards. At one of these meetings I
brought up the motter of eendinc a committee from the Cuban Club to the
officials in Tampa. Not a sfncle ono wanted to co; they were afraid. o
I appointed mysolf the Committee and went there myself. It is absurd to
be afraid of voicing your rights before those who eame here after we had
founded a atty.
oinos tho first omieties were formed* the doctors hers have been
oarryinc on a most brutal ear against them* very at Liar to ohat the
doctors have been doing in CUD& against the "quintets". They are nothing
but a bunch of shameless rascals. /AA meeting I olaoed mo: sentiments
into words* and told them plainly what I thought of all the doctors. I
stated that at laast life, of the people buried in the cemeteries* were
killed by them.
I was aftoroards told that I. Nelms* a very good friono of mine* had
taiani offense at this stateoont of-olne. at another meeting I went
straight up to rr. Helms* and told him that I took oseeption with hilly as
them are exceotions in all cams* rhea I commit an error with a friend,
I promptly rectify it. I an not afraid to go up to him and acknowledge
my error* 7owevor* my aocusatioa holds good for all the rest of the
doctors.
rhea my left are was broken at the Joint* the doctors here said it
was a dislocation. They placed the Joint oaok together* but not -ale brokaa
bones. It conmonoed çtving mn pain* and the arm began to swell. I thou
left for %vans* Ouba* and had too bad luck to go 'with the president of
the Centro Asturian° of Havana to his "quints" or oanatorium "Oa Covadonge.
lb took nn to the best specialist of the :mnatorium. This specialist told
ma that Mr arm nmeda.1 maseace. 1 left that )lame in bad humor, and told
that specialist several thinille
1 then met a friend of mina oho vat) not a "big shot", Like the
president of the ;entre Asturiano. HO took ms to the "Golegio Bolen",
where they had an Way apparatus, and Clich I believe vas the only one in
Aavana. At that time the Way had not boon perieoted. Theme vas not
a sIngle on in Tampa. Although this Way at the Coloico Delon eau not
a verb poverfUl one, yet it ohoved clonrly that the bons vas'broken.
1 took this .01tay photo to that spocialist of the Centro Aaturiano,
and shoved it to him. He then cold it clearly fooved that the bono vas
broken, and it vas necessary to operate and place the sone bao1: together.
I told him that it certainly needed an operation, but be was not the one
that vas going to operate on ne. I also told him that the arm use worth
more than he and the thole -anatarium.
4 fAend then took me to another doctor laic) operated on me. As
soon as my vire kneu that I had to undergo an operation, she promptly
left for Havana. Half an Wow after the boat docked, she loos at my bed-
side.
1Ihile in %vans I sav a very strong, happenini:, and it was this; A
full blooded Imntard had coos to Juba then very younc. rip married a
Ouban cirl. as raised n family of eicht children, all born in Cuba. One
day he arriOed at his hone feelinc very dad as he had lost his position.
Rs vas talking to hie wife of how bad condition& vere cottinc, rhea his
eldest son cot up and amide "aallogo, co back to "'pain there you Dolan&
le don't vont you in Cuba." The father cave hio son suah a terrible
blow VILA he had to be carried to the 3mercenoy Hospital. A feo hours
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later the father wee on a.ship oound for pain, istivine the vhole family
behind.
During one of the strikes here in Thmpa, I went bask tow hone tom
in Fpain, thinking of masinr all my old friends and relatives. -hen I
arrived there I found that I knew no one. There was an entirely new
generation. The only one that I recognised was my sister.
I remember that upon my return, an old mulatto man who had been
working at my factory for may years, died. I attired myself in a tight
fitting omit, and a tali top at. It sakes me lauch to thinL of bow
eas dressed when I went to tAs iuneral.
In those days I woe alone here, without my family to look after or
anything, so you can be sore that I wasn't too good. I did as I pleased*
The Union of 1%We:stupors here is composed of pirates of the industry.
They are not humans they can only think o; new ways of equmpolog the cigar
makers more and owe. All the ru/ee wed regulations are antequatd.
Regensburg is not one of then, le only cooperate vith them.
At one time certain rumors cot about that I had said sinethinc about
one of the manufacturers. This vas completely false, an it made La see
red. At one of the ranufacturerle meetings, I ot up, and very loudly
said that whoever had oaid mash a thing about me was an "apostolic* hijo
de perra", or if you could prefer to have it in ,tngliehs a etinkinc son
of a no one got up to contest this.
CI' St. Aavie of chwab aavie Co., I can't pay emoh. It is beet to
icnore him altogether. 70 wanted to have the clear...rakers produee the
"Panotelas" at l'13.00 per thousand, and Ul ucht he could do it by threatening
than. now little he knows the nature or the eiggr-makerei I told him
thnt he °cull sooner kill the cigar -linkers' ot hangar, before they would
.submit to any threat.
70st of the strikes in Tampa had been oricinated by the "Internationnl".
In tt!e fleet atrike that started an jam ftth, 1910# the eicarimakers de-
manded the revocation of the international. I headed the manufacturers
in %No strike which lasted seven months.
This strike was finally ended on January 28th. 1911, and althoudh the
cigar-malLere lost they still had hopes of forcing recoOnition. Al April
20th, 1-920, the cirarmemakers arsin went on strike, demanding renugnitInn
of the name This strike lasted ton swaths, and L completely destroyed
the "International" for all times.
Another one of tho thinrs that wee causing many of the etrikee in
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Tempe was the tribunes. advised the manufaoturers to take out the tribunes
and there would be no more strikes. These tribunes were entirely eliminated
from the factories throuch c efforts.
The cigar makiu macilinec are ruinint4 not only the cigar -makers, but
the manufacturers as well. he factories muet oompete tith other factories
in the 4:tuntry. This competition is ruinous. They are even producing a
very large siee of at an to retain at tuo for Obl. hen some are producing
a real small cigar in imitation of its, igarettes.
The cigarettes are also doing a great deal of harm to the cigar industry.
Their production her jumped by leaps and bounds .since the war. :hey are
harmful because they have too much niv,Aine and opium, yet you sec little
Ads about the streets smoking eigarettes.
(1) The tribunes at the cigar faotorles were the platforms where the readers
stood. and read 2101018, newspapers, etc. to the oicarwmakers. In some
instances the oigar-mahers veuid stand here and voice their dr:Avow-es.
At one time the factory 0: DegensJurg alone was producing ,ver eighty
million cigars in oni year. Today this former promotion is only a
pleasant memory.
The young generation is gradually leavinc Tampa.. 1'ome are leaving for
Nem :rears, where they are no. wanted. There are four factories there
that are doing a very good business. ktherc are leaving for Mew York,
Philadelphia' New Jersey, and othwr parts. unly last meek over 60 perl:ons
Left -aspa. A remo4y sh.vld be found that will remedy hi13
I do not intend to leave, however. f..r. 1 have lived here praotloally
all my life and I intend to die with the cigar industry in Tampa. Of
the very first settlers' most of then are today in their graves5 and that
is the only place where I osuld go to see thus. tmly yesterday I went to
the Myrtle 1111 :lemetery to attend the transfer of thn armor of an old
friend of mine. Only three or four of the real 014041m/ors are left Livia(
today.