It should not be understood that the work on the line ceased with its construction, but every effort was made to put it in a complete state of repair, which, under the tremendous energy and fine professional skill of Capt. Samuel Reber, Signal Corps, has been carried out with a degree of success that was thought impossible during the rainy season. This is shown by the fact that the latest line reports available for the first twenty-four days of August, 1899, show that the through line from Havana to Santiago was working completely on twenty-three days and was seriously interrupted only on one day. Better work can not be expected from a line 600 miles long, traversing mountainous and forest countries where for miles and miles no habitation of man is visible.

The muster out of the Volunteer Signal Corps in Cuba caused the greatest possible embarrassment to Colonel Dunwoody, as scarcely 5 per cent of the Volunteer Signal Corps men were willing to reenlist. Advantage was taken of the situation by certain civilian operators, who threatened a telegraphic strike unless an increase, impossible for the service to meet, was granted them. Unusual efforts, however, secured the enlistment of a sufficient number of operators to place the Cuban telegraph system on a firm basis and completely under military control. In accordance with his instructions Colonel Dunwoody has used every endeavor to secure the services of native operators and linemen. He says in many cases he has—

employed men of limited skill with the hope that by experience they might improve and be able to maintain the service after the return of the Signal Corps to the United States. As an evidence of my efforts in this direction, I would say that there are employed in connection with the telegraph lines in Cuba 179 natives, 54 Americans, and 80 enlisted men of the Signal Corps, showing that more than one-half of the employees of the telegraph service in Cuba are natives. It is my purpose to increase this number, and I have given every facility to the native operators to improve and acquire the Morse system of operating by opening a school of instruction and giving the free use of instruments to improve all those who might apply and gave evidence of capacity to improve. A number of Cuban operators who have practiced for some time have been given employment in the service, with a view of utilizing their knowledge of the Spanish language at the stations to which they have been assigned.

It was not to be expected that the adoption of modern methods could be brought about in Cuba without causing a certain degree of dissatisfaction. The necessity of adopting modern methods in vogue in the United States should be apparent to every thoughtful person in view of the fact that these are military telegraph lines operated primarily in the interests of the Army of the United States. Criticisms on the efficiency of the Signal Corps operations have been conclusively refuted, as official reports show that the most serious errors in the transmission of dispatches have been made by Cuban operators sending messages in the Spanish language.

Many of the complaints in Cuba have emanated from persons desiring employment as telegraph operators, but who refused to demonstrate their ability to operate, the desire being evidently to continue the defects of the Spanish system, which involved the employment of many managers and operators whose duty consisted mainly in drawing their monthly salaries. Conciliation has been the order of the day, whether with reference to Cuban operators or to railway telegraph systems.

After mature consideration of the question commercial rates were established as follows:

Twenty cents for ten words, address and signature included, for messages passing through parts of not more than three provinces, including that in which the message originates, and an additional charge of 1 cent per word for each additional province.

Special press dispatches are transmitted throughout the island at 1 cent per word.

The free use of telegraph lines in Cuba have been extended not only to all departments of the Government of the United States, but to all civil departments of the Island of Cuba under the restrictions set forth by Circular No. 93, Headquarters Division of Cuba.

In connection with repairs every facility has been offered by railway officials to maintain telegraphic communication. Colonel Dunwoody has established with railway officials such relations as will result beneficially both to the Government and the railway. Railways are per mitted to use the telegraph on a certain class of commercial messages. It is needless to state that the remarkably efficient work performed under Colonel Dunwoody's orders would not have been possible without the hearty cooperation and support of Major-General Brooke, Commanding General, Division of Cuba. General Brooke's knowledge and appre ciation of the importance of military telegraph lines insured his active support in this work.

It is too early to state what will be the annual telegraph receipts of the island. For the five months ending June 30, 1899, they aggregated $13,261.28.

It should be added that there has been spent in the reorganization and operation of the telegraph service in the Island of Cuba during the six months ending June 30, 1899, $64,314.48.

Colonel Dunwoody merits special commendation for the successful manner in which he has worked out many difficult problems. It should be realized that the Army of the United States was occupying, in a foreign country, a territory of 800 miles in length, two-thirds of which was without telegraphic or telephonic communication. Colonel Dunwoody gives proper credit for much of his success to the Volunteer Signal Corps, of which he says:

The personnel of the corps was of high type, having been selected in compliance with the law; a large percentage of the force were either skilled electricians of telegraph operators, and the officers were skilled in the very important duty which they were to perform in their military capacity. They were all, both officers and men, anxious to be assigned to the field of duty, and the most difficult assignment was the most sought after. Every man, with scarcely an exception, performed his duty honestly and faithfully, and with the full measure of his capacity. The work of construction assigned to the various companies was performed successfully and with such rapidity as surprised those most familiar with telegraph construction.

Operations in Cuba have been conducted, as a rule, without detri ment to the health of a Signal Corps command save in the province of Santiago. Second Lieut. James B. McLaughlin, one of the most valuable and promising officers of the semipermanent force, died of yellow fever, and Second Lieut. Frank W. Dunn, was killed by acci dent in the line of his duty near Baracoa, having lately received his commission which enlarged his sphere of usefulness.

DEPARTMENTS OF HAVANA AND MATANZAS.

The important departments of Havana and Matanzas have been in charge, respectively, of Maj. George P. Scriven and Capt. Samuel Reber as signal officers. These officers have labored with very great difficulty in reorganizing telegraphic, telephonic, and other kindred matters which have fallen within their respective domain. Their work has not been alone confined to the limit of their respective depart ments, but has entailed cooperative work in connection with the signal officer, Division of Cuba, in the labors of establishing and maintaining

telegraphic communication throughout the island of Cuba. Major Scriven's report forms Appendix No. 2 and Captain Reber's Appendix No. 3 of this report.

In addition to other special duties not pertaining to his department, Major Scriven acted as signal officer, Division of Cuba, during the temporary absence on detached duty of Col. H. H. C. Dunwoody, from May 19 to June 24, performing the duties with which he was suddenly charged with a degree of efficiency and success in keeping with his previous high reputation as an officer.

Captain Reber has also acted at times as general superintendent and inspector of all the telegraph lines of the island. He brought to this work a wealth of practical knowledge and professional ability, which, conjoined to his wonderful activity, wrought phenomenal results. The fact that the reconstructed Cuban telegraph lines have not only worked through the entire wet season, but continued to improve, is the strongest evidence of the character of the work done by him. It must be understood that affairs in the Department of Havana as elsewhere were very unsettled when first occupied by the Signal Corps. Captain Reber has also compiled a brief but valuable summary of information relating to the organization by Spain of the telegraph lines of the island of Cuba, which is attached to this report.

The Chief Signal Officer of the Army, realizing the difficulties which would environ the military forces occupying the Department of Havana, made arrangements for the early dispatch to that point of an officer of the Signal Corps, Captain Martin L. Hellings, who reached Havana December 6, 1898, and made arrangements for receiving on the part of the United States the Government telegraph lines in Cuba which the Signal Corps was to hold in trust. On December 14, 1898, Lieut. Col. Joseph E. Maxfield, with several companies of the Volunteer Signal Corps, took station at Camp Columbia, near the village of Buena Vista, 7 miles from Havana. He carried with him a full complement of Signal Corps supplies and used them with such dispatch that within twentyfour hours Camp Columbia was in telegraphic communication with the city of Havana. Under his direction a complete system of military telegraph and telephone lines was built, almost entirely under the personal supervision of Captain L. D. Wildman, Volunteer Signal Corps. The military telephone exchange at Camp Columbia, which was set up and operated entirely by the enlisted men of the Volunteer Signal Corps, was the center of ten separate lines, aggregating 200 miles in length. The greater part of these lines was operated by telephone, there being forty-four separate stations, while the rest was by telegraph, of which there were nine stations. Through this military system, which was constructed under many difficulties in the briefest possible time, intercommunication was had with every important official or office, among others the commanding general of the division and the two departments, post-office, collector of customs, chief quartermaster, chief commissary, medical headquarters, sanitary officers, the hospitals, fortifications of Cabanas and Morro, and others eastward to Vedado, at which point the commanding general of the division had taken quarters. In addition ten separate lines were constructed and put in operation in the city of Havana, bringing every military headquarters or civil office or important point in communication with and under the supervision of the commanding general.

In illustration of the difficulties under which the American lines were originally maintained, the official reports show that the Cabanas cable in Havana Harbor was cut no less than eleven times within two

weeks. The intervention of the police, offering of rewards, posting of warnings, and establishment of guard have materially reduced the frequency of these operations, and no injuries of the kind have occurred for several months. Similar malicious interferences with military land lines were sources of grave annoyance in Havana (and other cities, it may be added) for a considerable period. Doubtless many interruptions were due to accident or ignorance, the greatest difficulty resulting from the immense number of wires covering the city. Many of these are dead, while others swinging loose are alive and harmful, especially those of the Spanish-American Light and Power Company, which are old and weather-worn to such a degree that these high-voltage wires are, in many places, without any insulation whatever.

CUBAN TELEPHONE CONCESSIONS.

In Cuba, Porto Rico, and the Philippines the telephone, equally with the telegraph, is a function of the Government. Most fortunately, under Spanish law telephone concessions are for a limited period. The con cession is sold at public auction to the highest bidder, and the property reverts finally to the State.

Under the Spanish royal decree and order of May 12, 1888, a private corporation, the Red Telephone Company, purchased at public auction, through one Fermie Verdie, at Madrid in September, 1889, the telephone concession for Havana, the price paid to be 22 per cent of the gross receipts of the company, while 5 per cent of its instruments were to be furnished gratuitously for Government service. There was a further proviso that the company shall be exempt from taxation and that its concession should expire in 1909, at which date the entire plant, instruments, lines, etc., should pass without compensation into the pos session of the Government. This concession was transferred in April, 1890, to Señor Zorilla, who organized, on July 16, 1890, the present company. The legal rights of this company and its obligations to the Government have been duly considered, and under existing orders Maj. George P. Scriven, United States Volunteer Signal Corps, signal officer, Department of Havana, is the designated inspector of the Red Telephone Company, of Havana, with power to require, on the part of the officials of the company, a strict compliance with the terms of the concession under which the company was organized and to make a monthly report thereon to headquarters Division of Cuba. Under the orders of the assistant secretary of finance, dated April 12, 1899, taxes collected from this company are transferred to the municipality of Havana. It was decided later that the telephone tax should be collected by the General Government to April 20, 1899, and thereafter by the municipality of Havana. The quarterly statement of the Red Telephone Company for the three months ending March 1, 1899, showing its receipts, list of subscribers, and various other matters, forms a part of Major Scriven's report. While the construction is generally substantial, the wire used, No. 14 galvanized iron, deteriorates rapidly. The telephones in most general use are a combination of the Ader transmitter, French make, carbon type, and for short distances answer well enough with a single metallic circuit. There are two exchanges— a main office and a branch. The former is fitted with an old-fashioned switch board with 1,000 drops, while the branch office has 700 drops. Improvements, however, are being gradually made. On July 1, 1899, there were in use 1,435 telephones, of which 49 were gratuitously furnished to the Government. The city police have 4 telephones, for which

an annual charge of $72 each is made. The telephone charges against the fire department are simply enormous, amounting annually to $16,776, which, deducting Government charges, would represent 6 per cent interest on a capital of $218,000. Among these charges is one of 133 telephones used by Bomberos del Comercio, a private company, for which, on grounds not made quite clear, the Government pays a tax of $9,576. It should be said to the credit of the telephone company that its officials have shown a desire to meet the Government requirements, and have spent over $600 in stringing special wires for the use and convenience of the present Government.

Similar telephone concessions exist in the cities of Matanzas and Santiago.

CUBAN CABLE CONCESSIONS.

Concessions of various provisions are connected with every cable landing on the island of Cuba. These companies are

First. The International Ocean Telegraph Company, with cables between Havana and Florida, two landing at Punta Rassa, on the west coast, through Key West, and a third at Miami, running via Key West. Second. Cuba Submarine Telegraph Company, which has three cables on the south coast of Cuba, two extending from Batabano to Cienfuegos and thence direct to Santiago, while the third extends along the south coast, touching at Trinidad, Tunas, Jucaro, Santa Cruz, and Manzanillo. Third. The West India and Panama Company, which has two cables connecting Santiago and Jamaica.

Fourth. The French Telegraphic Cables Company, with a cable connecting Mole St. Nicolas, Hayti, with Guantanamo; thence partly by land line and partly by cable to Santiago.

Questions involving the rights and privileges of these companies have been repeatedly raised, both in Cuba and the United States, and have been the subject of consideration by the Secretary of War and the Attorney-General of the United States.

A demand made by the Cuba Submarine Company upon the United States for payment of the annual subsidy granted it by Spain has been unfavorably reported upon by the Chief Signal Officer of the Army. The Peace Commission declined to protect the interests of this company. The suggestion that the United States should pay this subsidy because of the military occupation of Cuba seems unreasonable. It is a matter which should receive the decision of the highest courts of Cuba as to whether that island should pay the obligations contracted by Spain, or whether this subsidy remains in a manner part of the Cuban debt of Spanish obligations. Spain laid, through the intermediation of the Cuba Submarine Telegraph Company, a cable about 5 miles in length across the harbor of Cienfuegos in May, 1898, and the company, failing to receive pay from the Spanish Government, now claims this cable as returned to them by Spain in payment of Spanish obligations.

By direction of the Secretary of War, the chief signal officer of the department has been ordered to take possession of this cable in the name of the United States, and hold it until a legal decision shall have been rendered in connection therewith.

DEPARTMENT OF PORTO RICO.

Since the occupation of Porto Rico the operations of the Signal Corps have been under the charge of Lieut. Col. (now Maj.) W. A. Glassford, United States Volunteers, a captain of the regular corps. Under WAR 99-PT 2-47