ble for a time to provide food for its own
inhabitants, although their numbers had been diminished by one-fourth
by the horrors of war. In these circumstances the American government
was compelled to establish a system of food distribution, on very
liberal lines. In Havana alone more than 20,000 persons were dependent
upon it to save them from actual starvation. So well was the system
administered, however, and so vigorously did the Cubans themselves apply
themselves to self-help that within five months it was found possible to
abolish the general system of food supply, and to restrict such work to
such cases of special need as are liable to occur in any community.

In thus redeeming the island from threatened if not actual famine, the
American government undoubtedly did much, but the Cuban people
themselves did far more. Self-help and mutual aid were the order of the
day. All who could do so hastened to secure employment, either upon
their own property or on the land or in the establishments of others.
Planters whose fields had been ravaged and whose buildings had been
destroyed borrowed money wherever they could, when necessary, for
rehabilitation. If they could not raise money to pay their employes,
they pledged them an interest in the proceeds of the coming harvest. The
small farmers, who had lost all their implements and had no money to buy
others to replace them, worked almost without tools, or borrowed and
loaned among themselves so that a single plow would serve for half a
dozen, and even hoes and spades were similarly passed from garden to
garden. In the absence of horses and mules, plows were actually drawn by
teams of four or six men, in such cases doing, perhaps, little more than
to scratch the surface of the soil, though even this was sufficient to
enable the planting of seed.

Reference has been made to the borrowing of money by the planters for
the rehabilitation of their estates. This was no easy task, because of
the extent to which they were already overburdened with debts. Nearly
all the land in Cuba was mortgaged, for a large percentage of its value.
The census which was taken by the American authorities in 1899 showed a
total real estate valuation in the entire island of only $323,641,895.
These amazingly low figures were due, of course, to the depreciation of
values through the ravages of war. But upon that valuation there was an
aggregate mortgage indebtedness of no less than $247,915,494; or more