Van Horne’s method of conducting business in Cuba and the railway’s perceived benefits won over increasing numbers of Cubans to his enterprise. By January 1901, the Cuba Company and its railway undertaking had come to be regarded as a benign, if not positive, addition to the island scene. This good fortune was frequently offset, though, by problems in obtaining clear legal title to properties it acquired. Van Horne therefore recommended to General Wood that Cuba implement the Torrens land registration system then in use in Australia and in two western Canadian provinces. Invented by David Torrens, it is a system of land title whereby a state-maintained register of land holdings guarantees an indefeasible title to all the properties registered in it.
The Cuba Railroad in 1910.
Map by Vic Dohar.
Notwithstanding the relative ease with which the Cuba Company had obtained rights-of-way and land for stations, there was growing offshore opposition to Van Horne’s railway. This opposition originated principally in Washington, where the Cuba Relations Committee received many complaints about it. Some parties charged the Cuba Company with being a monopoly. Other legislators, who had been harassed by aggressive American promoters seeking railway franchises in Cuba, even tabled anti–Van Horne resolutions in the Senate. Most disquieting was a complaint against Van Horne that a New York lawyer forwarded to both the secretary of state and Senator Foraker accusing Van Horne of “flagrantly violating with audacious subterfuges” the Foraker Act and Cuban rights.
There is certainly no validity to the charge that Van Horne was violating Cuban rights. From the start, he sought to build a railway that would aid Cuba’s development without depriving Cubans of their territorial rights and independence. And this he succeeded in doing. But there is also no question that, in constructing a railway on private and federal land, Van Horne resorted to ingenious and audacious means to subvert the intent of the Foraker Act.
What was drastically needed was a clear and simple railway law that embodied the best features of Canadian and American railway laws. Van Horne therefore embarked on a self-appointed mission to convince General Wood of the need to substitute such a law for the Texas Railroad Law that Wood was intending to implement in Cuba — and here he succeeded, too. Accordingly, in the summer of 1900, Van Horne set to work on a railway law designed to govern the organization of Cuban railway companies and the building and operation of their lines. On his frequent visits to New York in these years, he and Farquhar often worked on the law at opposite ends of the large desk they shared in the company office at 80 Broadway.
To lobby for the adoption of this law, Van Horne set off in February 1901 for Washington, where he presented his case to various senators. Unfortunately, all his strenuous lobbying was to no avail. The politicians deeply involved in Cuban affairs were totally preoccupied with the friction that had developed between the American government and the Cuban delegates to the constitutional convention that met at Havana between November 5, 1900, and February 21, 1901.
Underlying the strained relations was a series of American demands on Cuba known collectively as the Platt Amendment. When the amendment was first submitted to the constitutional convention, it was defeated. However, because the U.S. military government would not evacuate from the island unless the amendment was passed, the convention delegates eventually swallowed their nationalist objections and incorporated it in the new constitution. Nine days later the constitution was adopted and, the following May, American troops withdrew from the island. In name, Cuba became an independent nation, though in fact it remained an American protectorate.
Van Horne’s railway law therefore did not come into force until February 1902, after it had undergone several revisions. In the final stages, Van Horne rarely saw the light of the Caribbean day as he and a phalanx of lawyers toiled away in Havana, putting the final touches to the legislation. The time was well spent, for the end result was a model law based largely on Canadian railway law. Before the law was implemented, however, Van Horne was forced to take extraordinary measures to overcome a series of obstacles. Fortunately, his inventive mind produced solutions that allowed railway construction to proceed.
In 1902 Van Horne and the Cuba Company faced a host of daunting challenges. Not the least of these was a glaring shortage of funds, triggered by delays in the delivery of rolling stock and soaring construction costs. Both were largely attributable to Van Horne’s insistence that railway equipment be the equal of those in general use by the best railways in the United States. Cars equivalent of those in general use in Cuba were not good enough. However, to satisfy such requirements, orders had to be placed with the few American manufacturers that could do the work. The inevitable delays threw many a kink into Van Horne’s timetable and produced cash shortages. Indeed, soaring costs swallowed up all the remaining funds for railway construction. In the financial crisis that followed, Van Horne had no choice but to turn to fundraising. He asked twenty-two shareholders to provide additional funding, but not all of them did so. The problem was only temporarily resolved when a British financier came to the rescue. Once the financial squeeze had passed, construction proceeded rapidly, only to be interrupted again by unusually severe spring rains that badly eroded clay embankments and cuttings.
Finally, on November 11, 1902, the task was done. Van Horne made a special visit to Cuba to witness the driving of the last spike on the Cuba Railroad’s main line. While there, he took a ride on the railway from Santa Clara to Santiago and then back to Ciego de Avila, where the company’s principal construction headquarters were then located. All along the line he was enthusiastically received. When he stopped at Puerto Principe, he was feted at a banquet in his honour. At Ciego de Avila he was greeted by practically the whole town, including seven hundred schoolchildren. Never able to resist an opportunity to be with children, he took time out the next day to visit their large school.
Courtesy of Library and Archives Canada, E002107474.
A locomotive employed by the Cuba Railroad.
The spate of public appearances and tributes did not stop there. Further recognition came from a local Spanish club, which entertained Van Horne and subsequently made him its first honorary member. The municipality of Puerto Principe (it adopted the native name Camaguey in 1903) also rose to the occasion. Before the year was out, it conferred on Van Horne the title “Adoptive Son of Camaguey” for all that he had done to encourage the city’s advancement and prosperity.” This honour was well merited because, on the city’s outskirts, Van Horne constructed a magnificent villa, San Zenon de Buenos Aires. Nearby he established a large experimental farm, emulating a large stockbreeding farm he had set up in East Selkirk, Manitoba.
The railway that was generating so much attention was now operated by a separate company, the Cuba Railroad Company, which was established in 1902. Despite an encouraging start, however, it faced challenges in raising funds for expansion and for the construction of sugar mills. From the beginning, Van Horne had envisaged the erection of sugar mills as part of his grand scheme for the development of that part of the island. With that in mind, he embarked on an exhaustive study of the sugar industry. But all his elaborately laid plans began to evaporate when the financial recession of 1903 intervened, drying up funds for both mill construction and the building of railway feeder lines. Only when the end of the recession freed up funding was he able to forge ahead with his ambitious program. In addition to mills and feeder lines, this plan included the construction of hotels, the establishment of a steamship service between Santiago de Cuba and Jamaica, the creation of an agricultural department within the Cuba Company, and the cultivation of extensive gardens on the grounds of each railway station. In time, the agricultural department carried out experiments on Cuban fibres and other products, issued bulletins, and corresponded with manufacturers who were potential buyers of these products.
As town sites sprouted alongside the railway’s main line,
