Why more Italians have not settled in Cuba, a country that in many respects resembles some sections of southern Italy, is not easy to determine, although it is probably due to a lack of propaganda on the part of the Republic itself. Occasional commercial houses are found, owned by Italians who have been residents there for many years, and a few of the laboring class, seeking higher wages within the last few years, have made their homes in Havana. Marvellous opportunities in the various fields of agriculture wait the keen witted thrifty Italian in Cuba. The certainty of a competence, if not a fortune, in small stock raising and grape growing, evidently has not been brought to his attention, otherwise more would have come and settled permanently in a country with whose people, in their fondness for music, their religious and social customs, they have much in common. Of the Germans, of whom quite a number came to Cuba within the last thirty years, a different tale is told. The Teuton who roams abroad seems to come always with a definite purpose. He is diplomatic, courteous, observing, hard working, but essentially selfish in his motives, and makes no move the object of which is not to impress on the land he visits, or in which he may become a permanent resident, every custom, tradition and practice of the Fatherland that can possibly be implanted in the country that has given him shelter or social recognition. His club, his habits, his beer, his songs, his language and his precepts of “Deutscher Ueber Alles,” are spread to the utmost of his ability. But the German has been efficient and has catered in all his commercial dealings to the customs, caprices and even to the vices or weaknesses of the people with whom he trades and comes in contact. Hence it is that, up to the outbreak of the war of 1914, Germany certainly had the advantage over every competitor for trade from the Rio Grande to Patagonia. Strange as it may seem, although Cuba is no farther from American territory in Florida than is Philadelphia from the City of New York, there was very little immigration from the United States and almost no citizens of that country, in spite of the attractions of the Pearl of the Antilles, had apparently ever thought of making a home in Cuba, until the Spanish-American War brought an army of occupation to the City of Havana in the fall of 1898. Following this army, as a result perhaps of favorable reports that came from the lips of returning soldiers, quite an influx of Americans, actuated by curiosity or motives of trade, came to Cuba and remained here permanently, many marrying into Cuban families, purchasing farms, or establishing branch houses and independent industries in the Island Republic. Most of these have succeeded socially and financially.