Excerpt from Commercial Cuba: A Book for Business Men But we are now entering upon the far vaster task of reconstruction, and for this mere feeling and sentiment do not suffice. Nothing but cold facts and level-headed ness will enable us to achieve success in this work. An enormous field is about to be thrown Open to American enterprise, and it is of great significance that we should know as much as possible of the conditions with which we are to be confronted. American influences and American ideas are destined to prevail all over the island, to arouse it from its dismal lethargy, and to take its long-buried talent from the napkin and give it to the exchanges. This work of redemption will bring us into close contact with a people whose characteristics are the antitheses of our own. While holding fast and um waveringly to those grand attributes which have made the English-speaking race the hope and promise of civilization and true progress the world over, it is our duty to study and respect the national idiosyncrasies of the less earnest and forceful people among whom we. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.