him. He was simply a "benevolent despot," intent upon tranquillizing and
rehabilitating that vast eastern province of Cuba by methods of his own
devising. It was a region at once the most unruly and the most
impoverished in Cuba, and it had for its capital a plague-smitten city.
For six months he labored there, and in that short period he so far
advanced the work of reconstruction that thereafter Oriente served as an
example and a model for all the other provinces of Cuba. Sympathetic,
alert, untiring, frank, without vanity or ostentation, resolute,
diplomatic, and always supremely just, General Wood's personality stood
to the people of Cuba for qualities seldom if ever before associated
with the occupant of the governor's palace, while his energy in fighting
disease, relieving distress, reviving industry and maintaining order
revealed to them as the Spanish régime never had done the beneficence of
enlightened government. It would be impossible to estimate too highly
the value of his services during those few months at Santiago, in
commending to Cubans the benevolent purposes and attitude of the
Americans toward them and in disclosing to them the vast material and
moral benefits which would accrue to them through self-government wisely
administered.

He began his work at Santiago in gruesome circumstances. An epidemic of
smallpox and yellow fever was raging, and clouds of smoke hung over the
city from the funeral pyres where were being burned many of the bodies
for which burial was impossible. The city was reeking with filth. Half
the people were threatened with starvation. Lawlessness and complaints
of grievances were rife. He had to be at once sanitarian, steward and
judge. He labored heroically at all three tasks, and performed them so
well that in a few weeks Santiago seemed like a new city. Of course
there was much to do in other places in the province. In Holguin there
were three thousand cases of smallpox, of which he treated 1,200 in
hospitals. He sent thither as nurses 600 thoroughly vaccinated immunes,
not one of whom contracted the disease. Hundreds of infected buildings,
of flimsy construction, were burned, while all others were thoroughly
disinfected, and the epidemic was conquered.

Early the next year General Wood sought a well earned rest in a brief
visit to his former home in Boston, leaving, as he thought, affairs in
Santiago in a securely satisfactory condition. But he was compelled to
hasten back in July, 1899, to deal with another outbreak of disease. On
his arrival he found both the city and his own army camp in the grip of
malignant yellow fever. It was a time for heroic action, and that was
what he performed. In a day he removed his troops to healthful places on
the adjacent hills, and then subjected the city to such a cleansing and
scientific sanitation as neither it nor any other Cuban city had ever
known. The island and the world looked on with interest, to see if thus
he could cope with and suppress the epidemic.

He succeeded. Not yet had the theory of Dr. Carlos J. Finlay, that
mosquitoes were the sole propagators of the disease, been practically
tested and applied, though it had been propounded by that eminent Cuban
physician many years before. That immortal achievement was postponed for
Messrs. Reed, Carroll, Agramonte and Lazear to effect, under General
Wood's subsequent administration at Havana. But even without it, by
means of strenuous sanitation, the epidemic of July, 1899, was
conquered, and Santiago was made clean and sound.

Another achievement of General Wood's at Santiago in the latter part of
1898 proved highly successful and was soon afterward extended to the
other provinces of the island. This was the organization of the Rural
Guards, a force which became invaluable for the policing of the rural
portions of the island; just as Pennsylvania and some others of the
United States are cared for by State Police. General Wood selected for
this service officers and soldiers of the Cuban Army in the War of
Independence who were recommended for their good character and
efficiency. By the end of the year 1898 he had about 300 of these
troopers patrolling the roads of Oriente, in the districts where such
guardianship was most needed, with admirable results. The value of this
service was observed and appreciated by the officers of the other
provinces, and at the beginning of 1899 the system was introduced into
all the provinces excepting Matanzas, where the same purpose was served
by a mounted police force maintained by the larger municipalities. In
the city of Havana the Military Governor, General Ludlow, held a
conference with General Mario G. Menocal, of the Cuban Army, who had
been invited to become Chief of Police in that city under the American
administration, and with him worked out the details of the organization
of Rural Guards in the suburbs of the capital and the rural portions of
Havana Province. They formed a force of 350 men for service there, and
thus quickly made all that region, even in the more or less disturbed
period immediately following the war, noteworthy for its security and
orderliness. When at the end of the American occupation the Rural Guards
were transferred to the Cuban Government, they comprised 15 bodies,
numbering 1,605 officers and men, stationed at 247 different posts.

Meantime American occupation and administration were established
throughout the island. Immediately upon the transfer of sovereignty on
January 1, 1899, John R. Brooke, Major General commanding the Division
of Cuba, and Military Governor, issued a proclamation to the people of
the island. He told them that he came as the representative of the
President, to give protection to the people and security to persons and
property, to restore confidence, to build up waste plantations, to
resume commercial traffic, and to afford full protection in the exercise
of all civil and religious rights. To the attainment of those ends, all
the efforts of the United States would be directed, in the interest and
for the benefit of all the people of Cuba. The legal codes of the
Spanish sovereignty were to be retained in force, with such changes and
modifications as might from time to time be found necessary in the
interest of good government. The people of Cuba, without regard to
previous affiliations, were invited and urged to cooperate in these
objects by the exercise of moderation, conciliation and good-will toward
one another.

The island was divided for administrative purposes into seven
departments, corresponding with the provinces and with the city of
Havana forming the seventh. The commanders of these departments, under
General Brooke, were: Havana City, Gen. William Ludlow; Havana Province,
Gen. Fitzhugh Lee; Pinar del Rio, Gen. George W. Davis; Matanzas, Gen.
James H. Wilson; Santa Clara, Gen. John C. Bates; Camaguey, Gen. L. H.
Carpenter; Oriente, Gen. Leonard Wood. A civil government was organized
on January 12, by the appointment of the following Cubans as Ministers
of State: Secretary of the Department of State and Government, Domingo
Mendez Capote; Secretary of Finance, Pablo Desvernine; Secretary of
Justice and Public Instruction, Jose Antonio Gonzalez Lanuza; Secretary
of Agriculture, Commerce, Industries and Public Works, Adolfo Saenz
Yanez. Later in the spring of that year the provinces of Havana and
Pinar del Rio were united in one department, as were Matanzas and Santa
Clara, and Camaguey and Oriente.

[Illustration: GONZALEZ LANUZA

A distinguished jurist, penologist, and man of letters, Gonzalez Lanuza,
was born in Havana on July 17, 1865. He rose to eminence at the bar and
on the bench, became professor of penal law in the University of Havana,
and was the author of several important works on jurisprudence. He was
an agent of the revolution in Havana in 1895, and Secretary of the Cuban
Delegation in New York. During General Brooke's Governorship he was
Secretary of Justice and Public Instruction, and during President
Menocal's first term was Speaker of the House of Representatives. He was
a delegate to the Pan-American Congress at Rio de Janeiro in 1906.]

The problems which confronted the American military administrators and
their Cuban colleagues of the civil government were manifold and grave.
There was the work of sanitation, which was undertaken on lines similar
to those which General Wood had pursued in Santiago. The city of Havana
had the advantage of the services of General Ludlow, an expert engineer
and sanitarian. Then there was the work of feeding a starving
population. So vast had been the ravages of war, so great had been the
destruction of resources, that one of the most fertile and productive
countries in the world was unable 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
than 76 per cent. Obviously, the borrowing capacity of Cuban real estate
had been exhausted. During the war, with the impairment of industry
which then prevailed, it was impossible for farmers to pay off their
mortgages, and accordingly the Spanish government, in May, 1896, decreed
that all mortgages then maturing should be extended for a year, during
which time all legal steps for collection of them should be halted. In
Oriente and Camaguey, however, the grace thus granted was for only a
month. Successive extensions of the grace carried it to April, 1899,
when the American administration was in control. A final extension was
then granted, to April, 1901.

Still another problem, and one which proved peculiarly embarrassing, was
that of local or municipal government. The island was divided into six
provinces, thirty-one judicial districts, and one hundred and thirty-two
municipalities, and these last named were each divided into
sub-districts and these again into wards. These all had their local
officials and local systems of finance, and these latter were found by
the Americans to be in serious confusion. It was necessary to reform
them, but in the doing of this almost endless friction arose. Such
matters so closely touched the Cuban people that they were naturally
jealous and resentful of alien interference and dictation. At the same
time the Americans considered it necessary to supervise the
reorganization of local government as a basis for satisfactory general
government. Each side became more or less irritated against the other,
with unfortunate results.

An interesting personal factor at this time, whose influence was on the
whole helpful to the American government, was found in General Maximo
Gomez. There is no question that he felt himself somewhat ill-treated by
the Americans, as Calixto Garcia had felt at the surrender of Santiago.
During the first month of the American rule at the capital he held
aloof, remaining at his home at Remedios. But in February he came to
Havana and had such a reception as probably no other man in Cuban
history had ever enjoyed. From Remedios to Havana he proceeded through
an almost unbroken series of popular demonstrations of the most
enthusiastic kind, and at the capital he was greeted as a conquering
hero and as the unrivalled idol of the people whose independence he had
won. The only discordant note came from a small body of politicians
identified with that Assembly which both Gomez and the American
government had declined to recognize, and which Gomez had strongly
antagonized in the matter of paying off and demobilizing the Cuban army.
But that opposition to him did not lessen the affection and reverence
with which the great mass of the Cuban people regarded the grim and grey
old champion of their wars. It is to be recorded, too, that while he was
thus being received by the people, his own attitude toward them was no
less significant. At every place through which he passed on his journey
to Havana, and at every gathering at which he was entertained in that
city, he spoke to the people, tersely and vigorously, as became a
soldier; exhorting them to forget the differences of the past, even
their righteous wrath against the Spaniards, and to unite and work
together harmoniously and efficiently to complete in peace the great
task for Cuba's welfare which had so far been advanced in war.

The result, at least for a time, was marvellous. Cuban and Spaniard,
Revolutionist, Autonomist and Constitutionalist, for a time joined
hands. At one of the chief public receptions given to Gomez in Havana,
the flags of Cuba, of the United States, and of Spain were equally
displayed, and were all three greeted with applause. That spirit did
not, it is true, always thereafter prevail. But it was of incalculable
profit to Cuba to have it so strongly aroused and manifested at that
crucial period in her history.

During the administration of General Brooke the police force of Havana
was completely reorganized, with the assistance of John B. McCullagh,
formerly Superintendent of Police in New York. This was done as promptly
as possible after the installation of American rule, and by the
beginning of March, 1899, the peace and security of the Cuban capital
were safeguarded by an admirable uniformed force of about a thousand
men. Under the command of General Mario G. Menocal as Chief this body of
men rendered Havana as efficient service, probably, as that in any
American city of similar size. Police work in Havana, it should be
understood, differs considerably from that in cities of the United
States, for the reason that drunkenness and its attendant disorder and
petty brawls are substantially unknown in the Cuban metropolis, and
therefore one of the most prolific causes of arrests in American cities
is there non-existent.

When the American administration took charge of Cuban affairs it found
the insular treasury quite empty. The departing Spaniards had seen to
that. But a careful, honest and thrifty management of finances soon
provided the island with a good working income. By the first of
September, 1899, fully $10,000,000 had been received in revenue from
different sources. Major E. F. Ladd of the United States army was made
Treasurer and Disbursing Officer of the customs service, and a little
later he was appointed Auditor and then Treasurer of the island. In
those capacities he showed admirable efficiency and greatly ingratiated
himself with the people; ranking as one of the most successful members
of the American governing staff. His administration was the more
appreciated by Cubans because of the welcome reform of the taxation
system which was at that time effected. The old Spanish tax system had
been abominable, and that of the short-lived Autonomist regime of
1897-1898 changed it chiefly with the result of adding to the confusion.
Early in 1899, therefore, radical reforms were undertaken. An order was
issued on February 10 remitting all taxes due under the old Spanish law
which had remained unpaid on January 1, with the exception of taxes on
passengers and freight which had according to custom been collected and
were held by the railroad companies. All taxes on the principal articles
of food and fuel were abolished, as were also all municipal taxes on
imports and exports. These taxes had formerly been very burden-some and
were a source of much grievance and irritation, and their abolition was
very gratifying to the Cuban people, who began to appreciate what it
meant to have a government whose prime object was to serve them and not
to plunder them.

One tax was greatly increased, namely, the excise tax upon all alcoholic
liquors, and this was made a part of the revenue of the municipalities
instead of the state, thus compensating the municipalities for the loss
of the tax on merchandise. Despite the temperate habits of the Cuban
people, the very general consumption of some form of alcoholic drink
made this impost amount to a considerable sum.

A matter which urgently needed reform, but which unfortunately was
reformed with more zeal than diplomacy, caused much dissension in that
first year of American administration. That was the marriage law. Under
Spanish government marriage was held to be exclusively a function,
indeed, a sacrament, of the Roman Catholic church, and could not legally
be performed by any other authority; though in later years there had
been made a provision for the civil marriage of non-Catholics. But since
to resort to the latter meant to incur a certain social reproach, few
couples ever availed themselves of it. Of course loyal members of the
church could not do so, the religious ceremony being imperative for
them.

With the departure of the Spanish government from the island a complete
separation of church and state occurred, and it was held imperative to
provide a new law of marriage. The old system had become odious, it may
be explained, because of the large fees which many ecclesiastics charged
for performance of the ceremony, and because, on account of those fees,
many couples among the poorer elements of the population, decided to
dispense with the marriage ceremony altogether; a practice not conducive
to social order, and frequently causing serious embarrassment and
litigation over the inheritance of property. Unfortunately in trying to
reform the system the new government went too far toward the opposite
extreme. The author of the new law was Senor Jose Antonio Gonzalez
Lanuza, the Secretary of Justice, and it made civil marriage
compulsory, though it permitted a supplementary religious ceremony at
the pleasure of the parties. "Hereafter," it said, "only civil marriages
shall be legally valid." It fixed the legal fee for marriages at one
dollar.

The intention of the law was doubtless good, and it might be argued that
it should not have caused offence, since it did not interfere with
religious marriage ceremonies. There is no doubt that it was very
strongly favored by a large part of the Cuban nation. When it was
proposed to repeal or to modify it materially the vast majority of
municipal governments in the island, all of the judges of the Supreme
Court, a majority of the judges of first instance, and half of the
Provincial Governors, urged its retention unchanged. The clergy of the
Roman Catholic church, however, opposed it vigorously and persistently,
and it was finally deemed desirable to modify it so as to make either
civil or religious marriage valid. The objection to it had been, of
course, that by invalidating religious marriages it cast a certain slur
upon the church. It is interesting to recall, however, that the law in
its objectionable form was the work of a Cuban jurist, while in its
amended and acceptable form it was the work of an American and conformed
with the law in the United States, where civil and religious marriage
ceremonies are equally legal and valid.

In order to protect the island against undue exploitation by American
speculators and "promoters," a law of the American Congress in February,
1899, forbade the granting of franchises or concessions of any kind
during the period of American occupation and control. It was not
pretended that there was no need of any such grants, but it was
prudently contended that they should wait until the Cubans themselves
had full control of the insular government. The wisdom of this was
apparent, and the law was generally approved, even by those who most
clearly saw the desirability of developing the resources and industries
of the island by the building of railroads, tramways, telegraph lines,
etc. It was better for these to wait for a year or two than to incur the
suspicion that an American administration had granted Cuban franchises
to American promoters on terms which a Cuban government would not have
approved.

A most important enterprise during the Brooke administration was the
taking of a thorough census of the island. This was ordered by President
McKinley on August 17, 1899, and was taken early in the ensuing fall.
The island was divided into 1,607 enumeration districts, and the work of
canvassing was given chiefly to Cubans. Among the canvassers were 142
women; the first women ever employed in government work in Cuba. The
census was not a mere enumeration, but comprised a multiplicity of
details concerning the age, nativity, citizenship, conjugal condition,
literacy, etc., of the people, and also concerning agriculture and the
other occupations in which they were engaged. The populations of the
provinces were as follows, compared with the figures of the census of
1887:

    Provinces                          1899     1887

    Pinar del Rio                    173,082    225,891
    Havana                           424,811    451,928
    Matanzas                         202,462    259,578
    Santa Clara                      356,537    354,122
    Camaguey                          88,237     67,789
    Oriente                          327,716    272,379
                                    --------    -------
    Totals                          1,572,845  1,631,687

These figures are significant. There should, of course, have been a
considerable increase in population in those twelve years. Instead,
there was a considerable decrease. The entire number of normal
increase, plus the 58,842 actual decrease, may be taken as representing
the loss through the war. It will also be observed that the loss of
population was in the three western provinces, where the Spanish most
held sway during the war, and that there was no loss but a considerable
increase in the three eastern provinces, which were largely controlled
by the Cubans. The population by sexes and race was as follows:

    Male                   815,205
    Female                 757,592

    Native white           910,299
    Foreign white          142,098

    Negro                  234,738
    Mixed                  270,805

    Chinese                 14,857

The report of citizenship was:

    Cuban                1,296,367
    Spanish                 20,478
    In suspense            175,811
    Other aliens            79,525
    Unknown                    616

The total number of illegitimate children, of all ages, was 185,030; a
discreditably high number, attributed largely to the former expensive
marriage system. The statistics of education were distressing. The
number of children under ten years of age who were attending or had
attended school was only 40,559, and the number who had not attended was
316,428. The number of persons ten years old and over who could read and
write was only 443,670; those who could neither read nor write were
690,565--an appalling proportion of illiteracy, reflecting most
discreditably upon the Spanish government of the island. The number of
persons of "superior education" in the whole island was only 19,158.

Nor were the statistics of industry much more satisfactory. The
following were the totals for the island:

    Agriculture, fisheries and mining     299,197
    Trade and transportation               79,427
    Manufactures and mechanics             93,074
    Professional                            8,736
    Domestic and personal                 141,936
    No gainful occupation                 950,467

Another supremely important measure which was adopted during the closing
weeks of General Brooke's administration, though its complete working
out was reserved for his successor, was suggested by some of the census
figures which we have just quoted. It was realized that the need of
education was of all Cuban popular needs the most urgent. Accordingly on
November 2, 1899, General Brooke ordered the organization of a new
bureau in the Department of Justice and Public Instruction, at the head
of which should be a Superintendent of Schools. The first incumbent of
that office was Alexis E. Frye, who drafted another order, promulgated
by General Brooke on December 6 and practically constituting a new
school law for Cuba. It provided for the formation of Boards of
Education and the opening of primary and grammar schools in all
communities by December 11, 1899, or as soon thereafter as possible.
That was the beginning of the popular education of the Cuban people.

After these things, General Brooke was on December 20 relieved of his
command in Cuba. He issued a brief farewell proclamation to the people,
calling attention to the progress which had been made in good
government, and toward complete self-government and independence; every
word of which was amply justified by facts. He was a soldier rather than
an administrator, and he was nearing the age of retirement from active
service. His administration had been beset with difficulties; it had
made some mistakes, and it had done much good work. He was charged by
some with having entrusted the powers of government too largely to his
Cuban Secretaries; while others commended him for that very
circumstance. His inclination was toward a bureaucracy, but it was a
Cuban and not an alien bureaucracy. It cannot be denied that he laid
much of the foundation of subsequent achievements and of successful
Cuban government. It was under his governorship that General Ludlow
cleansed the city of Havana, that the Customs service and the treasury
were reorganized, and that provision was made for a comprehensive system
of public schools.

CHAPTER X

General Brooke was succeeded by General Leonard Wood. He had also in a
measure been preceded by him. General Wood had at Santiago been the real
pioneer in American administration in Cuba. He laid the first
foundations there. General Brooke at Havana enlarged upon those
foundations. Then came General Wood to Havana to complete the structure.
It was with the fame and prestige of his great victory over pestilence
at Santiago, and of all his other achievements in Oriente, that he came
to Havana on December 20, 1899, to be Military Governor of all Cuba. He
was received not alone with the fullest measure of formal ceremony and
official salutation, from both Cubans and Americans, but also with such
an outpouring of popular welcome as few men have received anywhere and
as nobody save perhaps Maximo Gomez had ever received at Havana. The
attitude and sentiment of the people toward him were well expressed by
an editorial writer in the Havana journal _La Lucha_, who said:

"General Wood has shown great capacity for government and management
while in command of the eastern end of the island. In that mountainous
and rugged district, where passions and impulsive characters
predominate, in that country where a strong rebellious spirit has been
agitated for a long time, General Wood knew how to calm that spirit, how
to establish moral peace and to cheer the hearts of all. He has been
seen to practise a policy of harmony and ample liberty. We saw him,
first of all, promulgate the habeas corpus in the province he
commanded, and he decreed that constitutional measure when the embers of
the fire of domestic and international war were still smoking. In
material things, General Wood cleansed the eastern cities and
embellished them.... His government will prepare us for a broader life
and give us the blessings of peace and liberty. As a man of clear mind
and solid education, he will know how to study and to solve skilfully
the economic and political problems that circumstances may introduce
into the country. As he is a man of energy, he will be able to withstand
every unhealthy influence. His policy will be eminently liberal, but at
the same time it will be a guarantee for all who labor and produce. He
will not associate himself with agitators but with statesmen."

[Illustration: LEONARD WOOD

Soldier, scientist, statesman, administrator, it has been the fortune of
Leonard Wood to render invaluable services to two nations. Born at
Winchester, New Hampshire, on October 9, 1860, and educated in medicine
at Harvard University, he became first a surgeon and then an officer of
the United States army. After a brilliant career in Indian fighting in
the Southwest he went to Cuba in 1898 as colonel of the cavalry regiment
of "Rough Riders" and did notable work in the battles around Santiago.
He was Military Governor of Santiago and Oriente, and later Military
Governor of Cuba, in which places he transformed the sanitary, economic
and political conditions of the island, and ushered it into its career
of independent self-government. Since then he has served the United
States with great distinction in the Philippines, and as the foremost
officer of the army at home; not the least of his benefactions to the
nation being his great campaign of education and awakening in
preparation for what he saw to be America's inevitable participation in
the World War.]

Such was the just estimate which Cuba placed upon her new Governor. Of
his actual reception the same journal that we have quoted said:
"Although promising nothing, he speaks volumes by his quiet democratic
manner of taking charge of affairs. He has captivated everyone."

The new Governor was welcomed on his arrival at Havana by an
extraordinary and quite unprecedented gathering of representative men
from all parts of the island; such a gathering as Havana had never seen
before. He promptly entered into the fullest possible conference with
them, to learn their views and to impart his own to them, and as a
result of his intercourse with them he was able, on January 1, 1900, to
gather about himself a noteworthy Cabinet, commanding in an exceptional
measure the confidence of the Cuban people. It was thus composed:

    Secretary of State and Government, Diego Tamayo.
    Secretary of the Treasury, Jose Enrique Varona.
    Secretary of Justice, Louis Estevez.
    Secretary of Public Works, Jose Ramon Villalon.
    Secretary of Education, Juan Bautista Barreiro.
    Secretary of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce, Ruiz Rivera.

The selection of these men commanded the cordial approval of the Cuban
people. Said _La Lucha_: "The new Cabinet contains men whose honest
names are guarantees that the moral and material interests of the
country are to be conserved." To this _La Patria_ added: "General Wood
is obviously imbued with the best intentions. Although the council of
Cubans convened by him is not an elected body, it does represent the
wishes of the Cuban people."

It will of course be observed that not one of General Brooke's cabinet
was retained by General Wood. All were new men. Moreover, he increased
their number by two, making a separate department of Education instead
of lumping it with Justice, and making another of Public Works, instead
of leaving it grouped with Agriculture, Industry and Commerce. This
latter change was significant of two things. One was the increasing
amount of actual governmental work that was devolving upon the
administration. The other was the increased importance which, in General
Wood's mind, attached to Education and Public Works. He rightly
conceived them to be the two prime needs of Cuba. The cabinet did not
remain as thus organized, however, very long. On May 1 Ruiz Rivera
resigned the Secretaryship of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce, and
was succeeded by Perfecto Lacoste; and Louis Estevez resigned the
portfolio of Justice and was succeeded by Juan Bautista Barreiro, who in
turn was succeeded in the Department of Education by Jose Enrique
Varona, while the last named was succeeded as Secretary of the Treasury
by Leopoldo Cancio. Finally on August 11 Senor Barreiro retired
altogether and was succeeded in the Department of Justice by Miguel
Gener y Rincon.

We have said that General Brooke was charged with letting his
administration be controlled by his Secretaries. There was an
inclination in some quarters to charge General Wood with exactly the
reverse. He was not autocratic nor domineering. But he was Governor. He
was the actual as well as the nominal head of the government. Realizing
that he would be held personally responsible for everything that was
done,--as he was,--he rightly determined to exercise his authority in
everything that was done. Then, if he was blamed, he would not be blamed
for the fault of somebody else.

The significance which we have attributed to his Cabinet enlargement was
promptly demonstrated. Of the three subjects to which he most devoted
his attention, public education came first. He had deemed it worthy of a
Cabinet Department all for itself. He at once set about organizing that
department _de novo_. Mr. Frye had done good work as Superintendent of
Schools; but he had also done much of dubious merit. He had organized
too many schools too rapidly, and with too little system. Perhaps that
was partly the fault of the law, which bade him on December 6 to get
them all going by December 11, if possible. But then, he was responsible
for the law. He opened hundreds of schools. But most of them were pretty
poor affairs, with no proper text-books, no desks, no equipment and
supplies; they were not graded nor classified, and they were conducted
without proper system or order.

Such schools General Wood regarded as of little value, and he took
prompt measures, though at the cost of a somewhat acrimonious
controversy with Mr. Frye, to improve the system under which they were
being created. On January 24 he issued an order creating a Board of
Superintendents of Schools, instead of leaving the work to one man, and
he appointed as its members Mr. Frye, Esteban Borrero Echeverria, and
Lincoln de Zayas. The Board continued to act under the law of December
6, but applied it in a somewhat different way, with impressive results.
It opened a great many more schools than Mr. Frye had done, and saw to
it that they were better equipped than his had been. Within six months
the number of schools was increased from 635 to 3,313. Indeed, on March
3 it was found necessary to put on brakes, by issuing an order that no
more new schools should be opened for the present. That year more than
$4,000,000, or nearly a fourth of the total revenue of Cuba, was spent
on public schools.

[Illustration: EVELIO RODRIGUEZ LENDIAN

One of the foremost educators of Cuba, Dr. Evelio Rodriguez Lendian, was
born at Guanabacoa in 1860, and was educated at the University of
Havana, where he is Professor of History and Dean of the Faculty of
Science and Letters. He is also President of the Academy of History, and
Director of the Athenaeum. He has written a number of books and has
great repute as a public speaker.]

In addition to primary and grammar schools, which were made universal,
trade schools of various kinds were established. In the principal
cities, especially in Havana, there were free schools of stenography and
type-writing. These latter were designed partly to supply a competent
and up-to-date clerical force to the various government offices, and
partly to promote modern business methods in private concerns. Of course
they provided profitable occupation to a large number of persons who
otherwise might have been out of employment. The creation of the public
schools also provided employment for several thousand persons, as
teachers. These were almost entirely Cubans and, as in the United
States, were very largely young women. Considering the paucity of
numbers of those reported by the census as possessing "superior
education" it was extraordinary that a sufficient staff of teachers
could be obtained. Normal schools for the training of teachers in modern
methods of education were established, and were largely attended by
young Cubans eager to participate in the work of advancing the
intellectual interests and indeed also the social and industrial
interests of their country.

An admirable impetus, of inestimable value, was given to the work of
Cuban education in 1900 when Harvard University, General Wood's alma
mater, invited Cuban teachers to the number of a thousand to spend the
summer at that institution, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where a great
summer school in pedagogy and other sciences was conducted. Recognizing
the immense value of such a visit from many points of view, the American
administration in Cuba agreed to pay each teacher one month's salary for
the purpose of the excursion, and to provide transportation from their
homes to Havana or other convenient ports, whence their further travel
was provided for by the Quartermaster's Department of the United States.
On arriving at Cambridge they were received and entertained during their
stay by a committee specially appointed by Harvard. They were thus
enabled to have without cost an extended and singularly interesting and
enjoyable excursion, such as many of them had never had before, to
receive stimulus, suggestion and instruction in the most approved
methods of education and school management, and--perhaps most important
of all--to come into direct touch with the people and institutions of
the great northern republic with which their own country had and was
destined always to have the closest of relations.

The school system of the island was strictly removed from politics, both
local and general, and was taken from the control of the municipalities
and placed directly and solely under that of the national government.
Thus was assured a fine degree of uniformity in the quality and methods
of teaching. Thus also the poorer districts, which could with difficulty
have maintained any kind of schools at all, were enabled to have as good
service as the richest communities. The salaries paid to teachers were
good, comparing favorably with those paid in the United States.

[Illustration: THE UNIVERSITY OF HAVANA

Cuba is enviably distinguished for providing not only elementary but
higher education, even of the best university grade, practically without
cost to the children of her citizens. The University of Havana, which is
the crown of the whole educational system of the country, was founded in
1728, and formerly was housed in the old convent of Santo Domingo. But
in 1900 under the American administration of General Leonard Wood, it
was removed to the fine site of the former Pirotecnica Militar, near El
Principe.]

There was, it must be confessed, some criticism of this elaborate and
expensive educational establishment. It was urged by some that
approximately one-fourth was entirely too large a proportion of the
national revenue to devote to this purpose, and that it would be to the
greater benefit of the island to spend less money on schools and more on
public works of various kinds. It was also pointed out that the average
cost of educating each pupil in the Cuban schools was more than $26,
while the average cost in the whole United States was less than $23, and
in the Southern States, with which it was assumed that Cuba was properly
to be compared, it was less than $9. Of course there was involved in
these criticisms a triple fallacy. One was the notion that public works
were neglected or sacrificed for the schools. That, as we shall see, was
not so; a comparably great system of such works proceeding _pari passu_
with the development of the school system. Another was, that the cost
was too high. Naturally the cost was much higher in the first year
than it would be after the system was well established. It was in fact
much lower than in those parts of the United States where the schools
were efficient and the educational system was creditable. The third
fallacy was in thinking that Cuba was to be compared with the Southern
States, the backward condition of whose school systems had long been
regarded as a reproach and a disgrace. In endowing Cuba with a school
system it would have been indecent for the United States to take for the
standard its own poorest and most discreditable systems. It was
necessary that it should take rather the best that it had as an example
to be emulated. It may be added that these criticisms were made chiefly
by General Wood's American critics, and by those who ignorantly and
arrogantly regarded Cuba as an inferior country for which an inferior
system was good enough. The Cubans themselves with practical unanimity
gave to the work their hearty and grateful approval.

[Illustration: ANTONIO SANCHEZ DE BUSTAMENTE

One of the most eminent jurists and orators of Cuba, Dr. Antonio Sanchez
de Bustamente, was born on April 13, 1865, and was educated at the
University of Havana. He is a Senator, President of the Cuban Society of
International Law; President of the National Academy of Arts and
Letters; Dean of the Havana College of Lawyers, and Professor of
International, Public and Private Law in the University of Havana.]

There was other work to do for the children of Cuba beside that of the
ordinary schools. The war had been disastrous to domesticity. Thousands
of homes had been entirely destroyed, the parents slain, the houses
burned, the children left to wander as waifs. In that genial clime,
amid that profusion of the fruits of nature, these orphans did not
necessarily starve or perish. Many of them lived practically as wild
creatures of the woods. Many of them also were cared for in some fashion
by the families whose homes had not been destroyed, for it was not in
the Cuban heart, even the most poverty-stricken, to turn a suppliant
from the door. But it was not fitting that these children should be left
as waifs and charges upon the people. Under General Brooke's
administration an excellent Department of Charities was organized, which
gathered up and cared for thousands of them, and this work was continued
during General Wood's administration. The children were partly placed in
families which were willing to receive them, or in asylums and schools.
Seeing that there was among them a certain proportion of defectives and
delinquents, and that many were in need of useful training, correctional
and industrial schools for both boys and girls were opened, and did
admirable work.

The second object of General Wood's special interest was that of public
works. Concerning that, two salient facts must be borne in mind. One is,
that the prohibition of franchises and concessions during the American
occupation materially militated against the making of many improvements;
although it was on the whole a desirable restriction. The other is that
many of the most urgent public works during the first year or two were
those connected with sanitation and the renovation of public buildings,
prisons, etc. During the first year of the intervention, under General
Brooke, heroic work was done by General Ludlow in removing from the
streets of Havana the accumulated filth of years. But that was only a
beginning. In the next two years the work had to be continued and
extended to every city and town on the island. Water supplies had to be
provided, and sewer systems. Above all, there had to be an extensive,
persistent and, in the very nature of the case expensive campaign
against yellow fever and malaria, the two traditional scourges of Cuba.
To these works General Wood addressed himself with efficient energy, and
to them he devoted an appropriate proportion of the public funds.

[Illustration: ALMENDARES RIVER, HAVANA]

We have seen that the total cost of the schools in 1900 was more than
$4,000,000. But as a considerable part of this was non-recurring expense
for buildings, etc., the actual cost of maintenance was much less. The
following figures show the apportionment of expenditures:

    For Education, non-recurring          $   337,460
    For Education, maintenance              3,672,000
                                           ----------
         Total for school system           $4,009,460

    For Public Works construction          $1,786,700
    For Sanitation                          3,029,500
                                           ----------
    Total for Public Works                 $4,816,200

Despite the complaints of American critics that too much money was spent
on schools in proportion to other things, therefore, it appears that
much less was spent on them than on public works. Perhaps such
complaints would have been less numerous and less bitter if General Wood
had been willing or able to give profitable contracts and franchises to
American speculators.

Much attention was paid to port improvements, naturally, in order to
facilitate and promote the commerce which was essential to the
prosperity of the island. The lighthouse service was placed under the
most competent charge of General Mario G. Menocal, who conducted it with
approved efficiency until the needs of his personal affairs compelled
him to retire from public office. A thoroughly organized postal service
was established throughout the island and was so well managed that by
the end of the period of intervention it was within ten per cent. of
being self supporting, or as near to self supporting as that of the
United States had generally been. This was certainly a remarkable
achievement in view of the fact that so large a proportion of Cubans
were illiterate and therefore unable to make use of postal facilities.

For general purposes of public works the island was divided into six
districts. At the head of each district was a Chief Superintendent of
Public Works, with a staff of assistants. The principal undertakings,
apart from sanitation, were the construction of roads and the building
of bridges and culverts, and these were judiciously planned so as to
unite the various districts of the island with improved highways, and to
open up rich agricultural regions with transportation facilities.

[Illustration: OLD TIME WATER MILL, HAVANA PROVINCE]

These undertakings involved General Wood in the disposition of an
unpleasant controversy which had been left over from General Brooke's
administration, which in turn had received it from the old Spanish
government. In 1894 the Spanish authorities of Havana decided to have
that city largely repaved and re-sewered, and asked an American firm
somewhat noted for its political influence, that of Michael J. Dady &
Co., of Brooklyn, New York, to submit plans. A year later it accepted
some of this firm's proposals, payment for the work to be made in bonds
of the City of Havana. But the oncoming of the war caused postponement
of the project, and it was not until December, 1898, just before the
Spanish evacuation, that the corporation of Havana finally accepted the
proposals and authorized the issue of bonds. The American authorities,
however, who were about to take over the control of the city, protested
against being thus saddled with a scheme of Spanish making, and
accordingly the last Spanish Governor, General Castellanos, very
properly declined to approve and sign the ordinance; declaring that it
and all similar projects, which would have to be executed under American
control, should await American approval.

A few days later the transfer of sovereignty occurred, and General
Ludlow, as Governor of Havana, decided to set aside the Dady proposals
altogether and to proceed with the work himself. This was doubtless an
economical and logical course to pursue. But under the old Spanish law,
which was still in force, Dady & Co. claimed to have certain rights in
the matter. The matter remained in suspense for the whole of General
Brooke's administration, with a succession of engineers from the United
States making and remaking plans for the work and with Dady & Co.'s
interests undecided. Apparently the United States government--for the
whole matter was controlled by the Engineering Bureau of the War
Department at Washington--was reluctant to challenge Dady & Co. to a
trial of their claims in court, and was unwilling to seek a compromise
with them, but was seeking by interminable postponements, changes of
plan and delays to tire them out and induce them voluntarily to
withdraw. But that was something which that astute and resolute
corporation showed no inclination to do. Meanwhile very important
public works were at a stand-still.

This was an intolerable state of affairs, and General Wood in the spring
of 1901 determined to end it after the manner of Alexander's disposition
of the Gordian knot. He paid Dady & Co. $250,000 in satisfaction of
their claims, which was possibly less than the courts would have awarded
them if the case had been carried before them, and then ordered bids to
be solicited for the doing of the work. The only bid received was from
Dady & Co., and the Washington authorities refused to sanction
acceptance of it on the ground that it was too high. The plans were
altered and new bids solicited, and the Havana Ayuntamiento voted to
award the contract to the lowest bidders, McGivney & Rokeby. But before
the contract was closed Dady & Co. on a plea of having misunderstood the
plans offered a reduction of their bid below that of their competitors;
whereupon the Ayuntamiento reconsidered its vote and ordered the
contract to be made with Dady & Co. But the Washington authorities
refused to sanction this change, apparently being averse to letting Dady
& Co. have the job at any figure, and the result was that the whole
matter remained at a deadlock until after the end of the American
occupation.

From some points of view the greatest achievement of General Wood's
administration was that of the conquest of disease, and it was one in
which he as a physician and man of science took peculiar interest. When
he fought and temporarily overcame yellow fever at Santiago, there was
no application of the immortal theory of Dr. Finlay, but it was supposed
that the pestilence spontaneously arose from filth. The same was true of
General Ludlow's subsequent cleansing of Havana; he supposing that by
the removal of filth the sources of infection would be removed. But when
he observed that the dreaded disease occurred where there was no filth,
General Wood concluded that it must have another source, and decided to
give Dr. Finlay's theory a practical test. In 1900 therefore a medical
commission was formed, composed of Drs. Walter Reed, U. S. A., James
Carroll, Aristides Agramonte, and Jesse W. Lazear, who, with the heroic
cooperation of soldiers of the United States army, who were willing to
risk their lives in experiments for the welfare of humanity, undertook
an elaborate series of demonstrations which were epochal in the history
not alone of Cuba but also of the whole world.

Reed took the initiative. He applied to General Wood for permission to
undertake the work, including the conducting of experiments on persons
who were not immune against the fever, which of course was a most
perilous venture. He also asked for a considerable sum of money with
which to reward volunteers who would thus submit themselves to deadly
peril. General Wood did not hesitate for a moment. He granted the
permission, appropriated the money, and entered into the momentous
enterprise with helpful sympathy and untiring zeal.

[Illustration: CARLOS J. FINLAY

Born at Camaguey on December 3, 1833, of English parents, and dying on
August 20, 1915, Dr. Carlos J. Finlay left a name which greatly adorns
the science of Cuba and which occupied a conspicuous place on the roster
of the benefactors of humanity. He was educated in France and at the
Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, and rose to eminence in his
profession. He first of all men propounded the theory that _Stegomiya
fasciata_ mosquito was the active and sole agent in the communication of
yellow fever, and personally, under the Governorship of Leonard Wood,
demonstrated the correctness of that theory and thus freed Cuba from its
most dreaded pestilence and blazed the way for a like achievement in all
other lands. For this epochal service to the world many foreign
governments bestowed distinctions and decorations upon him. Though
technically retaining the British citizenship with which his father
endowed him, he devoted his life to Cuba and filled with high efficiency
the place of chief of the Bureau of Sanitation.]

The scene of the drama--for it was one of the most dramatic and heroic
performances in human history--was Camp Lazear, fittingly named for the
brave man who was a martyr to the cause of health, a few miles from
Quemados, in the outskirts of Havana. Before the work at the camp was
begun, however, two experiments were made by members of the commission,
who thus demonstrated their personal readiness to incur any peril which
might confront the volunteers for whom they were calling. Dr. Carroll
was first. He deliberately caused himself to be bitten by a mosquito
which twelve days before had gorged itself with the blood of a
yellow fever patient. Note that he did this with the expectation, indeed
with the hope, that he would thus be infected with one of the deadliest
of diseases. He sought to prove not that there was no danger in a
mosquito bite, but on the contrary that there was the greatest possible
danger. And his anticipations were fully realized. In due time after the
bite he was stricken with yellow fever in a particularly severe form;
from which, however, he happily recovered.

Dr. Lazear came next. At about the same time with Carroll he made a
similar experiment upon himself. Apparently the insect by which he
caused himself to be bitten had not itself been infected. At any rate
Lazear did not develop the disease. At this he was disappointed, and he
determined to expose himself again. Accordingly he was thoroughly bitten
by another mosquito, in the yellow fever ward of the hospital. He noted
the fact and all its results most carefully, as though he had been
experimenting upon some inanimate object. In due time the disease
manifested itself in its most malignant form. Everything possible was of
course done for him, but in vain. He died of the disease which he had
voluntarily contracted for the sake of saving others from it; one of the
world's great martyrs to the cause not merely of science but of
humanity.

So Camp Lazear was founded and was named after this hero. There were
erected two large frame buildings, one for infected mosquitoes and one
for infected clothing. The mosquito building was divided into two parts
by a permanent wirecloth partition, impervious to even the smallest
mosquito, but of course permitting free circulation of air. All the
windows and doors were securely screened in like manner, so that it was
impossible for mosquitoes to pass in or out. This building was
ventilated in the most thorough manner. Three men entered it and lived
there for a fortnight. One of them entered the compartment which was
infested with fever-infected mosquitoes, and was bitten by them. The
others remained in the other compartment which was free from mosquitoes
but through which the same air circulated and in which all other
conditions were identical with those in the insect room. The result was
that the man who was bitten developed the fever, while the others,
though fully as susceptible to it as he, showed no signs of it. Such was
the convincing demonstration of the mosquito house.

The clothing building was kept free from mosquitoes, but was well
stocked with the clothing and bedding of yellow fever patients. There
were the beds in which men had died of the fever, soiled with their
vomit and other excreta. The room was purposely deprived of ventilation,
so that its air should constantly be heavy with the reek of disease and
death. Into that indescribably loathsome place brave men entered, and
there they lived for weeks, wearing the soiled clothing and sleeping in
the soiled beds of those who had died of the pestilence. But not one of
them contracted the fever. Not one sickened. All emerged from the
noisome place at the end of the experiment in perfect health. Such was
the convincing demonstration of the infected clothing house.

One thing more remained. There was one remote possibility that the men
who had remained free from the fever, in the noninfected room of the
mosquito house and in the infected clothing house, were in some
unsuspected way immune against the disease. To determine this, one of
each of the companies permitted himself to be bitten by an infected
mosquito, with the result that he promptly developed the disease. That
was the final, complete and crowning demonstration which made Camp
Lazear forever famous in the annals of humanity. At a single stroke the
pestilence which had been the haunting horror of the tropics was
potentially conquered. Dr. Reed proclaimed to the world that the
specific agent in the causation of yellow fever was a germ or toxin in
the blood of a patient during only the first three days of the attack,
which must be transmitted by the bite of a mosquito inflicted upon its
victim at least twelve days after taking it from the blood of the first
patient. In no other way was it possible to convey the infection. The
notion that it was conveyed through the air, in the breath of patients,
in their soiled clothing or the discharges of their bodies, was
baseless.

That historic achievement was alone sufficient to make that first year
of General Wood's administration in Cuba forever gratefully famous. Of
course the lesson thus learned was at once put into effect with all
possible thoroughness. War was declared upon the death-dealing mosquito.
In February, 1901, the campaign was begun by Major William C. Gorgas, U.
S. A., the chief sanitary officer of Havana. Every case of yellow fever
was immediately reported, and the patient was rigidly isolated during
the three days in which his blood was infective. All the rooms of his
house and the adjacent houses were closed to prevent the escape of
possible infected mosquitoes, and were then thoroughly fumigated so as
to destroy every insect within them. In this way the spread of the
disease was prevented. At the same time measures were taken to
exterminate the mosquitoes altogether, by depriving them of breeding
places. It was ascertained that the insect required for propagation a
certain amount of stagnant water, in which its eggs might be deposited
and hatched. Steps were therefore taken to drain or otherwise get rid of
all pools, or to apply to them a film of oil which would prevent the
insects from using them, and to screen carefully all vessels and other
receptacles in which water was necessarily kept. These were the same
methods which Major--since Major General--Gorgas a few years later
applied with distinguished success for the elimination of yellow fever
from the Isthmus of Panama and thus rendered possible the construction
of the interoceanic canal.

[Illustration: STREET IN VEDADO, SUBURB OF HAVANA]

Begun in February, 1901, this work in Havana was so vigorously and
skilfully prosecuted that before summer every case of yellow fever had
disappeared from that city and its environs. During the summer a few
cases occurred, but the last of them was disposed of early in September.
That was the last case of yellow fever to originate in a city which for
a century and a half had annually been scourged by that disease. Since
that date the only cases that have been known there have been a few
which were imported from less sanitary ports--at one time Havana had to
establish a fever quarantine against United States ports! Thus the
island which had long suffered reproach as the especial home of one of
the deadliest of diseases, as a veritable plague-spot, which American
life insurance companies forbade their policy holders to visit, became
noted for its freedom from that scourge and for its general salubrity.

A similar campaign was also conducted against another variety of
mosquito which, by a like series of experiments, had been proved to be
the propagating medium of so-called malarial fevers; with highly
gratifying results.

Among the important reforms effected by General Wood was that of the
entire system of law and justice. It began with the penal institutions.
When the Americans assumed control, they found the old Spanish prison
system still in existence. Most of the prisons were antiquated,
unsanitary and inhuman structures, to enter which was ominous for the
body, the mind and the soul. There was no segregation of prisoners
according to age or degree of criminality. Mere boys, sentenced for some
slight misdemeanor, were herded in with adult felons of the most
hardened and incorrigible type. Many had been confined for months, even
years, awaiting trial. They had been arrested, locked up in default of
bail, and then practically forgotten. Of these many were innocent of
any wrong-doing; while some of those who were probably guilty were kept
in confinement awaiting trial for a much longer term than they could
have been sentenced for under the law if they had been tried and found
guilty.

This shocking state of affairs was vigorously attacked during the first
year of the American occupation, and it was thoroughly reformed before
that occupation ended. There was a prompt disposal of all untried cases.
Where it was possible, the prisoners were at once brought to trial. But
in many cases there was nobody to appear against them; perhaps through
lapse of time all the witnesses were dead; and it was impossible to make
even a show of prosecuting them. Such persons simply had to be set at
liberty. The system of jurisprudence was so modified as to assure prompt
trials thereafter. The management of the prisons was made to aim at the
reformation of the prisoners and not simply at their vindictive
punishment. In some prisons schools were opened, to give the inmates
instruction which would conduce to their right living after their
release. Of course the buildings were renovated as far as possible, so
as to make them sanitary and as comfortable as prisoners have a right to
expect their prisons to be.

This led, under General Wood's administration, to a general revision of
the system of courts, court procedure and jurisprudence. In the first
year of intervention, indeed, General Ludlow established a Police Court
in Havana. This was not authorized by Governor Brooke, and was regarded
as of doubtful legality. Nevertheless it remained in operation and
undoubtedly served a good purpose in disposing promptly of most of the
petty cases of arrest for misdemeanor. So valuable was it that General
Wood, on becoming Governor, determined to place its legal status on the
surest foundation possible, by issuing an official order for its
creation and recognition. In this he did not himself escape criticism,
not from Cubans but from Americans. The same people, or the same kind of
people, who had blamed him for paying so much attention to Cuban
education now declared that he had no business to meddle in any way with
the judicial system of Cuba. That was not what America had intervened
for. To such objections little attention was paid. General Wood rightly
regarded it to be his business to do anything in any department of
government that would promote the ends of justice and good government
and the welfare of the Cuban nation.

Police courts were therefore established not only in Havana but also in
the other cities. The Department of Justice was moved to examine into
the conduct of all the courts. When judges were found to be unjust,
corrupt, incompetent, or otherwise unfit to serve, they were removed.
Competent clerks were appointed, and they and all other court employes
were put on fair salaries, the fee system which formerly prevailed and
which was so susceptible of abuse, being abolished. Competent and
trustworthy lawyers were employed at state expense to serve as counsel
for those who were too poor to hire them.

It was under General Wood, in his first year of administration and the
second year of American intervention, that Cuban civil government was
elaborated, that an election system was devised and put into effect, and
that political parties had their rise. The Civil Governors of the
Provinces were now all Cubans: Of Pinar del Rio, Dr. J. M. Quilez; of
Havana, General Emilio Nunez; of Matanzas, General Pedro Betancourt; of
Santa Clara, General Jose Miguel Gomez; of Camaguey, General R. Lopez
Recio; of Oriente, General Demetrio Castillo. It was General Wood's wise
and just policy to fill Cuban offices with Cubans to the fullest
possible extent.

Therefore it was determined in the spring of 1900 to hold an election
for municipal officers throughout the island. An order was issued on
April 18, appointing the election for June 16, for officers to be
installed on July 1 for a term of one year. The officers to be chosen
were Mayors, or Alcaldes; members of City Councils or Ayuntamientos;
municipal treasurers and judges, and judges of the police courts.

The preparations for the election were made and a new electoral law was
drafted by a commission of fifteen members, appointed by General Wood.
Of the fifteen, thirteen were Cubans and two were Americans. The Cubans
were representative of the various political parties into which the
people of the island were beginning to divide themselves. It cannot be
said that the meetings and deliberations of the commission were
particularly harmonious. In the end two reports were submitted to the
Governor, of which he selected for adoption that presented by the
minority. It comprised the new elections law, which he promulgated on
April 18 in the proclamation calling for the election. This law provided
that a voter must be a male Cuban, native of Cuba or born of Cuban
parents while they were temporarily visiting abroad, or a Spaniard
included within the terms of the Treaty of Paris of 1898, who had not
elected to retain his Spanish allegiance; he must be twenty-one years
old, and must have lived in his municipality for at least thirty days
immediately preceding registration; and he must be able to read and
write; or own property worth $250 in American gold; or have served in
the Cuban army prior to July 18, 1898, and have been honorably
discharged therefrom. The ten consecutive days from May 6 to May 16 were
appointed as days of registration.

The total number of voters registered was 150,648, which was a little
more than fifty per cent, of the total number of men of voting age,
which had been shown by the census of 1899 to be 297,765. However, there
were some thousands of adult males in the island who had elected to
retain their allegiance to Spain, and therefore could not vote, so that
the number registered was considerably more than one half of the
possible voters. At the election on June 16 the total vote cast was
110,816. There were some protests and complaints of fraud and illegal
voting, and it is not improbable that there were some such abuses; as
there have been known to be in other lands, even in the United States of
America. On the whole the elections were probably reasonably fair and
honest; they were peacefully and quietly conducted; and they gave much
encouragement to the expectation that the people of Cuba would prove
themselves worthy of the opportunity of self-government which was being
placed before them.

At this election there were three parties. The Union Democratic was
composed of the more conservative element, including many of the old
Autonomist party, and it was largely inclined toward annexation to the
United States, or toward a permanent and efficient protectorate by that
country. Its numbers were few, and it took little part in the election.
The Nationals and the Republicans ranged from liberal to radical, and
between the two in principle there was no perceptible difference. These
parties did not long survive, but were transformed and merged into the
Conservative and Liberal parties of later years.

Political parties in Cuba had their origin about the time of American
intervention in the war. That was an assurance that Cuba was to have her
independence and become self-governing, and that made it seem worth
while to form into parties. The full development did not come, however,
until it was seen that the United States intended to keep its word by
leaving the government and control of Cuba to the people of the island,
and that conviction did not come to the general Cuban mind until some
time after the United States entered the war. It first began to arise in
considerable strength when the United States government forbade the
granting of any franchises or concessions during the American
occupation. That certainly looked as though the Americans expected to
get out of the island at an early date. As the administration of General
Wood went on, constantly increasing the participation of Cubans in the
government, the confidence in American good faith increased, and of
course the organization of parties became more complete.

There were then, however, as there are now, no such differences between
the parties on matters of political economy or administrative and
legislative policy, as exist in other lands. They are simply the "Ins"
and the "Outs." One party is in office and wants to stay in. The other
is out and wants to get in. In their methods, however, the two differ
widely. The Conservatives have been consistently in favor of
constitutional and lawful measures, the maintenance of peace and the
safeguarding of life and property. They have always been willing to
accept and abide by the result of an election, even though it were
against them. The Liberals, on the other hand, as we shall more
convincingly see in the course of this narrative, have been in favor of
practically any means which would enable them to gain control of
affairs. They have on several occasions not hesitated to involve the
island in revolution, provided that they would be able to profit from it
by gaining office.

In this first election for municipal officers there was little partisan
rivalry, and indeed that did not rise to any great pitch until the end
of the first intervention and the establishment of a purely Cuban
government. The chief partisanship was really personal. Each important
military or political leader had his own following. Such rivalries were
not yet, however, acrimonious or sufficient to have any material effect
upon the progress of public affairs.

Reference has been made to the reform of the taxation system which
included the abolition of a number of annoying and oppressive imposts.
There followed a revision of the tariff on imports, for the dual
purposes of promoting commerce and industry and of providing a revenue
for the insular government. In December, 1898, the United States had
ordered maintenance of the old Spanish tariff, with certain
modifications, chiefly dictated by the change of relations between Cuba
and the United States. Subsequently other modifications were made from
time to time as the need or desirability of them became apparent through
experience. But on June 15, 1900, an entirely new tariff law went into
effect, framed chiefly by American experts and following pretty closely
the general lines of the American tariff system. Naturally it was
calculated to encourage commerce between Cuba and the United States,
particularly by the admission of products of the latter country into
Cuban markets at a minimum of cost. In view of the scarcity of food in
Cuba and the devastated condition of much of the agricultural lands,
American food products, both meats and breadstuffs, thus gained easy
access to the Cuban market. This seemed anomalous, since Cuba was an
agricultural country capable of producing a large surplus of food for
export instead of needing imports of food. It was obvious, however, that
this feature of the tariff would be merely temporary, and in fact it was
materially modified by the increase of rates on such imports very soon
after the establishment of the Cuban government.

Despite the fact that during the year about three million dollars' worth
of food was imported, the total of Cuban imports was less than in the
preceding year; a circumstance due to the change in tariff rates. At the
same time there was a very considerable increase in exports. It was an
interesting circumstance, also, that there was a decrease in trade with
the United States; a pretty effective reply to the complaint which some
made that the new tariff had been improperly framed so as to give the
United States a monopoly of Cuban trade. It did give the United States
some advantages which that country had not enjoyed before, but on the
whole it was probably as fair and impartial as it could well have been
made. Commercial reports showed that Cuban imports from the United
States were $26,513,613 in 1900 and $25,964,801 in 1901; and that Cuban
exports to the United States were $31,371,704 in 1900 and $43,428,088 in
1901. Thus Cuban purchases from the United States were decreasing
slightly, while Cuban sales to the United States were greatly
increasing, and the balance of trade was growing more and more largely
in Cuba's favor.

CHAPTER XI

The supreme work of the Government of Intervention, from the political
point of view, was to prepare Cuba for complete self-government and then
to relinquish the control of the island to its own people. It was with
that end in view that General Wood filled all possible offices with
Cubans. It was also to the same end that the municipal election was held
in June, 1900, under a new election law. Soon after that election there
came a call for another, of vastly greater importance. On July 25, 1900,
the President of the United States authorized General Wood as Military
Governor of Cuba to issue a call for the election of a Cuban
Constitutional Convention, which should be representative of the Cuban
people and which should prepare the fundamental law of the independent
insular government which was about to be erected.

General Wood issued the call, fixing September 15 as the date of the
election. This call repeated and reaffirmed the Congressional
declaration of April 20, 1898, concerning the purpose of the United
States not to annex Cuba but to "leave the government and control of the
island to its people." It also called upon the people of Cuba, through
their Constitutional Convention, not only to frame and adopt a
Constitution, but also, "as a part thereof, to provide for and agree
with the Government of the United States upon the relations to exist
between that government and the Government of Cuba." That was a most
significant thing. It made it quite clear that the United States
expected and intended that some special relations should exist between
the two countries, apart from those ordinarily provided in treaties.

Comment, criticism and protest were provoked; some temperate, some
intemperate. Most of the unfavorable comments, and by far the most
severe, came from the United States and were obviously animated by
political hostility to the President. In Cuba the chief objection was
based upon the ground that the island was thus required to do something
through a Constitutional Convention which that body was not intended to
do but which should be done by the diplomatic department of the
government; and also to put into the Constitution something which did
not belong there but which should be determined in a treaty. In this
there was obviously much logical and moral force, and that fact was
appreciated by General Wood, and by the government at Washington, with
the result that assurances were presently given that the order would be
satisfactorily modified. On the strength of this assurance, which was
given in undoubted good faith, Cubans generally prepared for the coming
election and for the great work which lay beyond it. They had been so
disturbed by the original form of the order that many had declared that
they would not participate in the election or serve as delegates to the
Convention. The promise of modification mollified them, and thereafter
all went smoothly and auspiciously.

The call for the election was issued on August 11. The qualifications
for suffrage which were prescribed were the same as those in the
preceding municipal election, and were generally accepted as fair and
just. The election was held on September 15, and it passed off in very
much the same fashion as its predecessor. Only a moderate degree of
popular interest was manifested in it, and the vote cast was not a
large one. The candidates were divided among the three parties already
mentioned, but all save one were elected from the two radical
organizations, the Nationals and the Republicans. Just one, Senor Eliseo
Giberga, of Matanzas province, was returned by the Conservative Union
Democrats. There were a few charges of fraud, but they were vague and
general in terms and were not formulated nor pressed, and in the main
the result of the polling was accepted in good part. The number of
delegates from each province had been prescribed in the call for the
election. The roll of the convention comprised the names of many of the
foremost members of the Cuban nation, distinguished in war, in
statecraft and in science, and was well representative of all parts and
parties of the island.

The convention met for the first time on November 5, 1900, at two
o'clock in the afternoon. All the delegates were present, and a great
multitude of the people gathered in and about the palace to witness the
spectacle and to pay honor to the occasion. They were not alone from the
capital, but from all parts of Cuba. Every province and almost every
important municipality was represented. Expectant optimism prevailed.
There was only one note of uncertainty. That was concerning the promised
modification of the order concerning relations with the United States.
The modification had not yet been announced. There were a few who began
to doubt whether it would ever be; but most put faith in the Military
Governor and were sure that he would keep his word.

He did. At the appointed moment, when all were assembled, General Wood
called the Convention to order and addressed it briefly.

"It will," he said, "be your duty, first, to frame and adopt a
Constitution for Cuba, and when that has been done, to formulate what,
in your opinion, ought to be the relations between Cuba and the United
States. The Constitution must be adequate to secure a stable, orderly
and free government. When you have formulated the relations which, in
your opinion, ought to exist between Cuba and the United States, the
Government of the United States will doubtless take such action on its
part as shall lead to a final and authoritative agreement between the
people of the two countries to the promotion of their common good." He
also reminded the Convention that it had no authority to take any part
in the existing government of the island, or to do anything more than
was prescribed in the order for its assembling. In thus speaking he was
in fact reading to the Convention official instructions from Washington;
in which the order concerning Cuban and American relations was
materially modified. There was nothing in the revised version about
making the agreement a part of the Constitution. The Convention was
merely to express its opinion on the subject, to serve as a basis for
further negotiations. General Wood emphasized this point distinctly, and
it was received with entire satisfaction by the Convention and by the
public.

Having thus delivered to the Convention its instructions and having
expressed his personal good will and wishes for its success, General
Wood retired and the Convention was left to its own counsels and
devices. Thereupon Pedro Llorente, the oldest of the delegates, took the
chair by common consent as temporary president, and Enrique Villuendas,
the youngest delegate, similarly occupied the desk of the secretary. A
fitting oath of office was administered to all by the Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court of the island; containing a formal renunciation of
all other citizenship and allegiance than Cuban, because several
delegates had become naturalized citizens of the United States and it
was necessary for them thus to resume their status as Cubans. On the
principle that "What was good enough for us when we were struggling in
the field is good enough for us here," the rules of the Cuban
Revolutionary Congress were adopted to govern the Convention. Finally
Domingo Mendez Capote was elected permanent President of the Convention,
and Alfredo Zayas and Enrique Villuendas permanent Secretaries.

There followed the usual experience of such bodies: Divided counsels,
cross purposes, and what not; all gradually working together toward a
common end. A few public sessions were held, at which there was more
speechmaking than work, but after a few weeks private sessions and a
great deal of committee work became the rule. There was no division on
party lines, and there was a lack of dominant leadership; both favorable
circumstances. Much attention was given to studying and analyzing the
constitutions of all other republics in the world, in order to learn
their good features and to avoid their errors and weaknesses. The
constitution of the United States was of course among those studied, but
rather less regard was paid to it than to others, for two reasons. One
was, a desire to avoid even the appearance of making Cuba a mere
appanage to or imitation of its northern neighbor, and the other was the
very practical thought that the constitutions of Latin republics might
be better suited to the Latin republic of Cuba than that of an
Anglo-Saxon republic.

By January 21 the Constitution was drafted in form sufficiently complete
to permit it to be read to the whole convention in a public session,
and thereafter there were daily discussions of its various provisions.
Differences of opinion ranged from mere verbal form to the substance of
the most momentous principles. There was a characteristic passage of
verbal arms over a phrase in the preamble. That paragraph after stating
the purpose of the Convention and of the Constitution, closed by
"invoking the favor of God." When this was read the venerable Salvador
Cisneros, formerly President of the Republic, moved that the phrase be
stricken out. Manuel Sanguilly made a long and dramatic speech, arguing
with much passion that it really did not matter whether the phrase were
included or not, but that it would best be left in, because that might
please some and could hurt nobody. Then the dean of the convention,
Pedro Llorente, made an impassioned appeal for the retention of the
words, to prove to the world that the Cubans were not a nation of
infidels and atheists. In the end the phrase was retained.

Another animated debate arose over the question of religious freedom and
the relations of church and state, which was ended by the adoption of an
article guaranteeing freedom and equality for all forms of religion that
were in accord with "Christian morality and public order," and decreeing
separation of church and state and forbidding the subsidizing of any
church. The question of suffrage was intensely controversial. There were
those who dreaded the result of giving the ballot to tens of thousands
of ignorant and illiterate men. Yet to disfranchise them would mean thus
to debar thousands who had fought for Cuban independence in the late
war, and it was not unreasonably feared that it would also cause
dissatisfaction and resentment which would culminate in disorder and
insurrection. In the end universal equal suffrage was adopted.

The most bitter debate of all, however, was over the qualifications of
the President of the Republic. A strong and persistent effort was made
to imitate the Constitution of the United States by requiring him to be
a native citizen. But that would have debarred Maximo Gomez, who was
born in Santo Domingo. For that reason the proposed restriction was
passionately opposed by all the friends of Gomez, and also by many who
were not his friends and who would have opposed his candidacy for the
Presidency but who felt that it would be disgraceful to put such a
slight upon the gallant old hero of the two wars. On the other hand, the
restriction was urged chiefly for that very reason, that it would debar
Gomez; for, idolized as he was by the great mass of the Cuban people, he
had a number of unrelenting enemies, especially among these politicians
whom he had opposed and overruled in the matter of the Cuban Assembly
and the payment of soldiers at the end of the war. After several days of
acrimonious discussion the friends of Gomez won by a narrow margin, and
the offensive proposal was rejected.

There were many other controversial points, less personal and more
worthy of debate in such a gathering on bases not of personality but of
principle. The governmental powers of the Provinces gave rise to debates
resembling those over state rights in America. The recognition of Cuban
debts was a momentous matter. The method of electing Senators was also
much discussed, as was the principle which the Military Administration
had adopted of having the state and not the provinces or municipalities
control public education. The right of the government to expel
objectionable aliens was the theme of a long and spirited discussion.
With all the animation, sentiment and rhetoric in which Latin debaters
and orators more freely indulge than do the more phlegmatic
Anglo-Saxons, all of these questions were very seriously considered
according to their merits, and were disposed of on that same basis.
There was no haste, and there was no undue delay; while everything was
done "decently and in order." It took the Federal Convention of the
United States four months of secret sessions to frame its Constitution,
and its career was marked with many violent scenes, including the
withdrawal of the representatives of one of the chief states from the
Convention. The Cuban Convention had no incidents so unpleasant as that,
and it completed its work in three months and a half.

[Illustration: AURELIA CASTILLO DE GONZALEZ

Aurelia Castillo de Gonzalez, poet and essayist, was born in Camaguey in
1842, spent much time in European travel, and then settled in Havana.
She first attracted literary attention by her elegy on "El Lugareno" in
1866, and since that time has been an incessant contributor to Cuban
literature in verse and prose. She is the author of a fine study of the
Life and Works of Gertrudis Gomez de Avellaneda, of a volume of fables,
and a number of satires. Her complete works (to date) were published in
five volumes in 1913.]

February 21, 1901 was the crowning day. Ten days before the draft of the
Constitution, as yet unsigned, had been published in pamphlet form. On
the date named the Convention was to give it validity by signing it. The
public was admitted to view the scene, the consuls of foreign powers
were in attendance as specially invited guests, and a fine military band
discoursed patriotic and classical music. The Constitution, finally
engrossed, was read aloud, and then one by one the delegates marched up
to the President's desk and affixed their signatures. When the last name
was written, all stood while the band played the national anthem of
Cuba. The President of the Convention, Mendez Capote, made a graceful
address of congratulation and good wishes; and the Convention adjourned,
its work well ended.

We have said that at the opening session, immediately after his
introductory address, the American Military Governor left the hall. He
did not revisit it, and neither he nor any American officer was ever
present at any meeting of the Convention; nor was any American
representative present at the closing function of the signing of the
Constitution. The purpose of that abstention was obvious. It was to
avoid so much as the appearance or the suspicion of American meddling or
dictation in the work of the Convention. General Wood had told the
Convention that it had nothing to do with his government of the island.
Conversely he wished to show that he and his government had nothing to
do with the work of the Convention.

The Constitution thus auspiciously brought into existence declares Cuba
to be a sovereign republic. The powers of government are much more
centralized than those in the United States. The six Provinces have no
such rights as have the states of America, though they have a liberal
measure of local governmental power. They are not states or provinces,
however, but mere departments--fractions of the whole instead of
integral units. Each has a Governor and an elected Assembly. So each
city and town has a mayor and a council. Municipalities have the power
to levy taxes for local needs. The control of railroads and telegraphs
is a national function, and the judicial system is also national. There
is freedom of speech, of press and of worship. No prisoner may be held
longer than twenty-four hours without judicial process. Congress
consists of a Senate and a House of Representatives. There are six
Senators from each department, elected by the municipalities for six
years, one third retiring every two years. Representatives are elected
from districts by the people for four years, there being one member to
every 25,000 inhabitants. Senators and Representatives must be
twenty-five years old, and if not native citizens must have been
naturalized eight years. The President and Vice-President are elected
for four years by the people through electoral colleges, with a
provision for minority representation, each citizen voting for only
two-thirds of the number of electors to which his district is entitled.
Justices of the Supreme Court are appointed for life by the President
with the ratification of the Senate. The civil law and constitutional
guarantees can be suspended in case of emergency only by Congress when
it is in session, but by the President when Congress is not in session.
The House of Representatives may impeach the President, when the Senate
may suspend him from office, try him, and upon conviction remove him
permanently. Amendments of the Constitution must be voted by two-thirds
of both Houses and ratified by a popular convention specially called for
the purpose.

There can be no question that this was a highly creditable production,
and one which amply merited the qualified approval which was given to it
by Elihu Root, Secretary of War of the United States, when he said: "I
do not fully agree with the wisdom of some of the provisions of this
Constitution. But it provides for a republican form of government; it
was adopted after long and patient consideration and discussion; it
represents the views of the delegates elected by the people of Cuba;
and it contains no features which would justify the assertion that a
government organized under it will not be one to which the United States
may properly transfer the obligations for the protection of life and
property under international law, assumed in the Treaty of Paris."

The first part of the Convention's work was thus done. There remained
the second part, the expression of Cuban opinion as to what ought to be
the relations between that island and the United States. Over this a
most unfortunate controversy arose, chiefly provoked and fomented,
however, not by Cubans but by the partisan enemies of the President of
the United States and of his policy, who did not scruple to intrigue
against him in the affairs of foreign lands. It will be recalled that
this hatred of him, provoked largely because of his insistence on
fulfilling the pledge of Cuban freedom instead of seeking to serve
certain sordid interests by forcibly annexing the island, culminated in
the assassination of President McKinley at the incitement of his
political foes. The opposition to him and to his policy in Cuba was
continued unabated against his successor, President Roosevelt; and it
was most unfortunate for both countries that the establishment of Cuban
self-government and the determination of her relations to her northern
neighbor, had to be effected in such circumstances.

The United States government had to deal on the one hand with those who
insisted that it should have no more special relations with Cuba than
any other country had; and on the other with those who demanded the
repudiation of the Congressional pledge and the forcible annexation of
the island. In those circumstances it was not strange that many Cubans
were disinclined to make any such arrangement as had been required in
the call for the Convention. They recalled that the United States had
declared that "Cuba is of right and ought to be free and independent,"
and they were not disposed to look beyond that declaration.

Three considerations were too much overlooked on both sides, save by the
thoughtful American and Cuban statesmen who finally solved the problem.
One was that the United States had for nearly a century exercised a
certain degree of protection or supervision over Cuba. It had repeatedly
forbidden European powers to meddle with the island, and had for many
years guaranteed and protected Spain in her possession of it. It was
held to be only reasonable that a similar degree of interest should be
maintained in the island in its independent status. The second point was
that in the Treaty of Paris in 1898 the United States had incurred a
certain moral if not a legal responsibility for the future of Cuba. The
third was the much less specific yet by no means negligible
consideration that the United States had intervened in Cuba to put an
end to conditions which had become intolerably offensive to it, and it
was therefore equitably entitled to take all proper precautions against
a recurrence of such conditions.

In pursuance of the requirements of the call for the Convention, then,
immediately after the signing of the Constitution, a committee was
appointed to draft a project concerning relations with the United
States. It consisted of Diego Tamayo, Gonzalo de Quesada, Juan Gualberto
Gomez, Enrique Villuendas, and Manuel Ramon Silva. These gentlemen
conferred with General Wood, to learn the wishes of President McKinley,
and then drafted a scheme which they presented to the Convention and
which that body adopted on February 27. Unfortunately between the
President's wishes and the committee's project there were radical
differences. The President, through his Secretary of War, Elihu Root,
had on February 9 expressed with much circumstance and detail and a
wealth of argument the relationship which the United States government
regarded as essential. It amounted to this: That the Cuban government
should never make any treaty or engagement which would impair its
independence, nor make any special agreement with any foreign power
without the consent of the United States; that it should contract no
public debt in excess of the capacity of the ordinary revenues of the
island; that the United States should have the right of intervention for
the preservation of Cuban independence and the maintenance of a stable
government; that all the acts of the American Military Administration
should be validated; and that the United States should be permitted to
acquire and to hold naval stations in Cuba at certain points.

The Committee of the Convention reported that in its judgment some of
these conditions were unacceptable, inasmuch as they impaired the
independence of Cuba. So it proposed and the Convention adopted
proposals to this effect: That Cuba should never impair her independence
by any agreement with any power, not excepting the United States; that
she should never permit her territory to be used as a base or war
against the United States; that she accepted the obligations expressed
and implied in the Treaty of Paris; that she should validate the acts of
the Military Government "for the good government of Cuba"; and that the
United States and Cuba should regulate their commercial relations by
means of a reciprocity treaty.

Obviously, there was a wide divergence between the two schemes. It was
unfortunate that the American Congress was about to adjourn, on March
4, and was reluctant to reassemble in special session, and also that the
political passions to which we have referred were raging at so high a
pitch. In more favorable circumstances the matter would have been
settled diplomatically without friction or ill-feeling. There was,
indeed, a very considerable conservative party in Cuba, probably
comprising a majority of the substantial, well informed and orderly
inhabitants, who favored some such scheme of American supervision and
control as that which had been proposed, and if there had been a little
more time for calm deliberation they would probably have won the
Convention and the whole island to their point of view. Unhappily the
government at Washington determined to finish the matter up before
Congress adjourned on March 4, and in the short time which intervened
the passionate voice of faction was much more in evidence man the
thoughtful and measured voice of patriotic counsel.

Senator Orville H. Platt, of Connecticut, one of the ablest and
fairest-minded men in that body, was the Chairman of the Committee on
Relations with Cuba. It was probably he who suggested the modification
which was made in the instructions to the Convention. He now declared
that--which was perfectly true--the United States Congress had no power
to approve, reject, or in any way amend or modify the Cuban
Constitution. Cuba was entitled to establish her own government without
let or hindrance. But he also held that by virtue of the grounds of its
intervention in Cuban affairs the United States possessed certain rights
and privileges in that island above those of other powers, and that it
was in duty bound, for the sake of both Cuba and itself, to provide in
some assured way for the permanent safe-guarding of those special
interests. These views were approved by the best thought of both
countries, and ultimately prevailed.

In accordance with the views thus expressed, Senator Platt prepared as
an addendum to the Army Appropriation bill, on February 25, the historic
measure known as the Platt Amendment. This, consisting of eight brief
paragraphs, embodied the very points which the President had already
made on February 9, with the addition of three more. One of these was,
that the Cuban government should maintain the work of sanitation already
so auspiciously begun, for the protection of its own people and also the
people of the United States from epidemic pestilence; a requirement
which was probably quite superfluous, seeing that the Cubans were as
intent as the Americans upon the elimination of yellow fever and
malaria. The second was, that the Isle of Pines should be omitted from
the proposed constitutional boundaries of Cuba, the title thereto being
left for future adjustment by treaty. This extraordinary demand was a
bad blot upon the measure, and it is difficult to understand how it ever
was permitted to be inserted at the behest of some unscrupulous and
sordid scheme of exploitation. Happily, subsequent treaty agreements and
court decisions defeated its purpose and confirmed Cuba in her title to
the Isle of Pines. The third was the requirement that Cuba should make
this Platt Amendment either a part of her Constitution or an ordinance
under it and appended to it, and should also embody it in a permanent
treaty with the United States.

At this the storm broke. The great mass of the conservative and
thoughtful people of Cuba, while they regretted the need of it,
recognized the necessity of such an arrangement, and earnestly favored
the acceptance of the Platt Amendment, even with the one or two
objectionable features. But the radicals vigorously opposed it, and in
their opposition were greatly encouraged by the factional enemies of the
President in the United States, who broke all bounds of decency, and not
only raged against him there but organized a propaganda in Cuba itself,
to incite Cubans to oppose and resist the United States. In this the
foremost of such agitators were doubly false. They were not only
stirring up a foreign people against their own country, but they were
doing so with the deliberate and malignant hope of precipitating an
armed conflict between the two countries which would result in the
conquest and forcible annexation of Cuba. While pretending to sympathize
with Cuba and to resent the alleged American impairment of her
sovereignty, they were really scheming for the utter destruction of
Cuban independence.

Agitation, discussion, proposals and counter proposals, upon none of
which could the Convention agree, continued week after week. At the end
of March the question arose of sending a Commission to Washington to see
the President. This was opposed violently, chiefly at the incitement of
American emissaries, who busied themselves in Cuba in urging the
rejection of everything that promised a settlement of the controversy.
On April 1 some unscrupulous intriguer caused a message to be
telegraphed from Washington to the effect that if a Commission came it
would not be received; and this was received in Havana just as the
Convention was about to vote to send such a Commission. Naturally, the
Commission was not sent. On April 9, having learned that the message was
unofficial and mischievous, the Convention reconsidered the matter and
by an overwhelming majority voted to send a commission. Again
mysterious dispatches came from Washington, saying that the President
was resolute in refusing to recognize any Cuban envoys, and in
consequence the sending of the Commission was delayed.

Then the proposal was made that the Convention should reject the Platt
Amendment outright, and afterward send a Commission to Washington; and
this was actually carried, though by mistake, some members voting
exactly contrary to the way they intended. Then it was voted to send a
Commission, with special instructions to try to secure the inclusion of
a commercial treaty in the Platt Amendment. With this in view the
Convention on April 15 designated five members of such a Commission.
They were Mendez Capote, the President of the Convention; Diego Tamayo,
Leopoldo Berriel, Pedro Gonzales Llorente, and Rafael Portuondo; but as
Dr. Berriel could not go, General Pedro Betancourt was named in his
place. The Commission sailed for Washington on April 20. General Wood
also sailed on the same day, though on another steamer. The Cubans
reached Washington four days later, and the next day, in contradiction
to the false dispatches which had been sent, they were courteously
received by President McKinley. After a brief interview he introduced
them to the Secretary of War, to whose department Cuban affairs, under a
Military governor, belonged. He received them most cordially. Indeed, he
had strongly wished them to come to Washington for a conference. He told
them frankly that the Platt Amendment must stand, just as it was, and
that it must be accepted and adopted by Cuba before any further steps
could be taken for the establishment of a Cuban government. Then, at
their request, he gave a detailed explanation of what the United States
government conceived to be the meaning, the purpose and the effect of
each of the provisions of that instrument. He especially showed that it
was merely a logical continuation of long established American policy;
that it was intended not for the gain of the United States but for the
protection of Cuba; and that it would in no way interfere with the
domestic self-sovereignty of the Cuban people, or with the rank of Cuba
as an independent nation among the nations of the world.

The Committee returned to Havana and reported to the Convention the
results of its mission, and the Convention resumed consideration of the
American demands in the new light of Mr. Root's exposition of them.
Faction was still furious. Enemies of the President in the United States
went to Cuba or sent word thither, urging the radical element to hold
out to the bitter end against the Platt Amendment, saying that it would
need only a little longer resistance to compel the American government
to abandon it altogether. Counsels were divided in the Convention, and
numerous proposals of substitutes for the Amendment or for parts of it
were made, but upon none of them could the Convention agree. Some of the
most radical members suggested that the Convention adjourn without day.
But on the whole wiser counsels prevailed. The Commission had been much
impressed by Mr. Root's candid and cogent presentation of the case. It
had also become convinced that if the Amendment were adopted a liberal
reciprocity measure would be granted which would be of vast value to
Cuban commerce and industry. Consideration of the subject continued
until the latter part of May. On May 28 the question of adoption of the
Platt Amendment with certain qualifications was presented to the
Convention for a final vote. The Convention divided equally. There were
fourteen ayes and fourteen nays. Thereupon the President, Mendez Capote,
cast the deciding ballot. He voted aye. This caused a renewal of the
storm. Diego Tamayo and Juan Gualberto Gomez were especially outspoken
in their denunciation of all who had voted for the measure, and some of
the former's remarks were so severe that their retraction was required.
The qualified acceptance of the Amendment was not, however, satisfactory
to the Washington government, and the Convention was promptly informed
of that fact. In consequence the matter was reopened, and on June 12,
after a brief and temperate debate, a final vote was taken on
unconditional acceptance and adoption of the Platt Amendment. The result
was sixteen ayes to eleven nays.

That ended the matter. The Amendment had become a permanent addendum to
the Cuban Constitution, and the relations between the island's future
government and the United States was irrevocably determined. There was
little further criticism. The American agitators and speculators who had
been inciting the Cubans to resistance, in order thus to make them
compass their own ruin, abandoned their execrable intrigues for other
ventures elsewhere, while the Cubans who had been their dupes, relieved
of their pernicious influence, soon began to appreciate the
reasonableness of most of the provisions of the Amendment and the very
material benefits which it would bestow upon Cuba.

CHAPTER XII

The concretion of Cuban history is in the Constitution of the Cuban
Republic. In that document are realized the hopes of a patient but
resolute people. In it are embodied the ideals for which Lopez fought
and died; for which Cespedes strove; for which Marti pleaded and taught
and planned; for which Maximo Gomez and Antonio Maceo battled against
desperate odds; for which Estrada Palma gave the ripe statesmanship of a
devoted life. There were provisional constitutions before, drafted in
mountain camps in the intervals between battles, but they represented
aspirations rather than achievements. It was reserved for the time of
triumph, when the Spaniard was forever driven from the Cuban shores, and
the Pearl of the Antilles was no more made to adorn an alien diadem, for
the statesmanship of the island in calm deliberation to frame the
instrument which was to confirm and safeguard for all time that which
had been won with the blood of innumerable martyrs, and which was to
erect the Cuban people into the Cuban Nation.

[Illustration: THE CAPITOL

The Capitol, the new government building at Havana, is one of the great
public works of the administration of President Menocal. It occupies a
fine site in the heart of the city, and will architecturally rank among
the noteworthy government buildings of the world. In the contrast
between it and ancient La Fuerza, its original predecessor, is suggested
the whole span of Cuban history.]

We shall profitably pause for a space in our narrative, to note what
manner of Constitution it was that was thus adopted:

We, the delegates of the people of Cuba, in national convention
assembled for the purpose of framing and adopting the Fundamental Law
under which Cuba is to be organized as an independent and sovereign
State, and be given a government capable of fulfilling its
international obligations, preserving order, securing liberty and
justice, and promoting the general welfare, do hereby ordain, adopt, and
establish, invoking the favor of God, the following Constitution:

TITLE I

THE NATION, ITS FORM OF GOVERNMENT, AND THE
NATIONAL TERRITORY

ARTICLE 1. The people of Cuba constitute themselves into a sovereign,
independent State and adopt a republican form of government.

ART. 2. The island of Cuba and the islands and islets adjacent thereto,
which up to the date of the ratification of the treaty of Paris, of
December 10, 1898, were under the sovereignty of Spain, form the
territory of the Republic.

ART. 3. The territory of the Republic shall be divided into the six
provinces which now exist, each of which shall retain its present
boundaries. The determination of their names corresponds to the
respective provincial councils.

The provinces may by resolution of their respective provincial councils
and the approval of Congress annex themselves to other provinces, or
subdivide their territory and form new provinces.

TITLE II

CUBANS

ART. 4. Cuban nationality is acquired by birth or by naturalization.

ART. 5. Cubans by birth are:

1. All persons born of Cuban parents whether within or without the
territory of the Republic.

2. All persons born of foreign parents within the territory of the
Republic, provided that on becoming of age they apply for inscription,
as Cubans, in the proper register.

3. All persons born in foreign countries of parents natives of Cuba who
have forfeited their Cuban nationality, provided that on becoming of age
they apply for their inscription as Cubans in the register aforesaid.

ART. 6. Cubans by naturalization are:

1. Foreigners who having served in the liberating army claim Cuban
nationality within six months following the promulgation of this
constitution.

2. Foreigners domiciled in Cuba prior to January 1, 1899, who have
retained their domicile, provided that they claim Cuban nationality
within six months following the promulgation of this constitution, or if
they are minors within a like period following the date on which they
reach full age.

3. Foreigners who after five years' residence in the territory of the
Republic, and not less than two years after the declaration of their
intention to acquire Cuban nationality have obtained naturalization
papers according to law.

4. Spaniards residing in the territory of Cuba on the 11th day of April,
1899, who failed to register themselves as such in the corresponding
register within one year thereafter.

5. Africans who were slaves in Cuba, and those "emancipated" referred to
in article 13 of treaty of June 28, 1835, between Spain and England.

ART. 7. Cuban nationality is lost:

1. By the acquisition of foreign citizenship.

2. By the acceptance of employment or honors from another government
without permission of the Senate.

3. By entering the military service of a foreign nation without the said
permission.

4. In cases of naturalized Cubans, by their residence for five years
continuously in the country of origin, except when serving an office or
fulfilling a commission of the Government of the Republic.

ART. 8. Cuban nationality may be reacquired in the manner to be provided
by law.

ART. 9. Every Cuban shall be bound:

1. To bear arms in defense of his country in such cases and in such
manner as may be determined by the laws.

2. To contribute to the payment of public expenses in such manner and
proportion as the laws may prescribe.

TITLE III

FOREIGNERS

ART. 10. Foreigners residing within the territory of the Republic shall
be on the same footing as Cubans:

1. In respect to protection of their persons and property.

2. In respect to the enjoyment of the rights guaranteed by Section first
of the following title, excepting those exclusively reserved to
citizens.

3. In respect to the enjoyment of civil rights under the conditions and
limitations prescribed in the law of aliens.

4. In respect to the obligation of obeying the laws, decrees,
regulations, and all other statutes that may be in force in the
Republic, and complying with their provisions.

5. In respect to submission to the jurisdiction and decisions of the
courts of justice and all other authorities of the Republic.

6. In respect to the obligation of contributing to the public expenses
of the State, province, and municipality.

TITLE IV

RIGHTS GUARANTEED BY THIS CONSTITUTION

SECTION FIRST

INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS

ART. 11. All Cubans are equal before the law. The Republic does not
recognize any personal prerogatives.

ART. 12. No law shall have retroactive effect, except when penal and
favorable to the defendant.

ART. 13. Obligations of a civil nature arising out of contracts or other
acts or omissions shall not be nullified by either the legislative or
the executive power.

ART. 14. The penalty of death shall in no case be imposed for offenses
of political character, said offenses to be defined by law.

ART. 15. No person shall be detained except in the cases and in the
manner prescribed by law.

ART. 16. Every arrested person shall be set at liberty or placed at the
disposal of the competent judge or court within twenty-four hours
immediately following the arrest.

ART. 17. All arrests shall be terminated, or turned into formal
imprisonments, within seventy-two hours, immediately after the delivery
of the arrested person to the judge or court of competent jurisdiction.
Within the same time notice shall be served upon the interested party of
the action taken.

ART. 18. No person shall be imprisoned except by order of a competent
judge or court.

The order directing the imprisonment shall be affirmed or reversed, upon
the proper hearing of the prisoner, within seventy-two hours next
following the committal.

ART. 19. No person shall be prosecuted or sentenced except by a
competent judge or court, by virtue of laws in force, prior to the
commission of the offense, and in the manner and form prescribed by said
laws.

ART. 20. Every person arrested or imprisoned without the formalities of
law, or outside of the cases foreseen in this constitution or the laws,
shall be set at liberty at his own request or that of any citizen.

The law shall determine the form of summary proceedings to be followed
in this case.

ART. 21. No one shall be bound to testify against himself, neither shall
he be compelled to testify against his consort, nor against his
relatives within the fourth degree of consanguinity or second of
affinity.

ART. 22. The secrecy of correspondence and other private documents is
inviolable, and neither shall be seized or examined except by order of a
competent authority and with the formalities prescribed by the laws. In
all cases matters therein contained not relating to the subject under
investigation shall be kept secret.

ART. 23. Domicile is inviolable; and therefore no one shall enter at
night the house of another except by permission of its occupant, unless
it be for the purpose of giving aid and assistance to victims of crime
or accident; or in the daytime, except in the cases and in the manner
prescribed by law.

ART. 24. No person shall be compelled to change his domicile or
residence except by virtue of an order issued by a competent authority
and in the cases prescribed by law.

ART. 25. Every one may freely express his ideas either orally or in
writing, through the press, or in any other manner, without subjection
to previous censorship; but the responsibilities specified by law, when
attacks are made upon the honor of individuals, the social order, or the
public peace, shall be properly enforced.

ART. 26. The profession of all religions, as well as the practice of all
forms of worship, is free, without any other restriction than that
demanded by the respect for Christian morality and public order. The
church shall be separated from the state, which in no case shall
subsidize any religion.

ART. 27. All persons shall have the right to address petitions to the
authorities, to have them duly acted upon, and to be informed of the
action taken thereon.

ART. 28. All the inhabitants of the Republic have the right to assemble
peacefully, without arms, and to associate with others for all lawful
pursuits of life.

ART. 29. All persons shall have the right to enter or leave the
territory of the Republic, to travel within its limits, and to change
their residence, without necessity of safe conducts, passports, except
when otherwise provided by the laws governing immigration, or by the
authorities, in cases of criminal prosecution.

ART. 30. No Cuban shall be banished from the territory of the Republic
or prohibited from entering it.

ART. 31. Primary instruction shall be compulsory and gratuitous. The
teaching of arts and trades shall also be gratuitous. Both shall be
supported by the State, as long as the municipalities and Provinces,
respectively, may lack sufficient funds to defray their expenses.

Secondary and superior education shall be controlled by the State. All
persons however, may, without restriction, learn or teach any science,
art, or profession, and found and maintain establishments of education
and instruction, but it pertains to the State to determine what
professions shall require special titles, what conditions shall be
required for their practice and for the securing of diplomas, as well as
for the issuing thereof as established by law.

ART. 32. No one shall be deprived of his property, except by competent
authority, upon proof that the condemnation is required by public
utility, and previous indemnification. If the indemnification is not
previously paid, the courts shall protect the owners and, if needed,
restore to them the property.

ART. 33. In no case shall the penalty of confiscation of property be
imposed.

ART. 34. No person is bound to pay any tax or impost not legally
established and the collection of which is not carried out in the manner
prescribed by the laws.

ART. 35. Every author or inventor shall enjoy the exclusive ownership of
his work or invention for the time and in the manner determined by law.

ART. 36. The enumeration of the rights expressly guaranteed by this
Constitution does not exclude other rights based upon the principle of
the sovereignty of the people and the republican form of Government.

ART. 37. The laws regulating the exercise of the rights which this
Constitution guarantees shall be null and void if said rights are
abridged, restricted, or adulterated by them.

SECTION SECOND

RIGHT OF SUFFRAGE

ART. 38. All Cubans of the masculine sex, over twenty-one years of age,
have the right of suffrage, except the following:

1. Those who are inmates of asylums.

2. Those judicially declared to be mentally incapacitated.

3. Those judicially deprived of civil rights on account of crime.

4. Those serving in the land or naval forces of the Republic when in
active service.

ART. 39. The laws shall establish rules and methods of procedure to
guarantee the intervention of the minorities in the preparation of the
census of electors, and in all other electoral matters, and its
representation in the House of Representatives and in the provincial and
municipal councils.

SECTION THIRD

SUSPENSION OF CONSTITUTIONAL GUARANTIES

ART. 40. The guaranties established in articles 15, 16, 17, 19, 22, 23,
24, and 27, section first of this title, shall not be suspended either
in the whole Republic, or in any part thereof, except temporarily and
when the safety of the state may require it, in cases of invasion of the
territory or of serious disturbances that may threaten public peace.

ART. 41. The territory in which the guaranties mentioned in the
preceding article are suspended shall be ruled during the period of
suspension according to the law of public order which may have been
previously enacted. But neither the said law, nor any other, shall order
the suspension of other guaranties not mentioned in the said article.

Nor shall any new offenses be created, or new penalties not established
by the law which was in force at the time of the suspension, be ordered
to be inflicted during the same.

The executive power is hereby forbidden to exile or expel from the
country any citizen thereof, or compel him to reside at any other place
farther than one hundred and twenty kilometers from his domicile. Nor
shall it detain any citizen for more than ten days, without delivering
him to the judicial authorities, or repeat the detention during the time
of the suspension of guaranties. The detained individuals shall be kept
in special departments in the public establishments destined for the
detention of prisoners charged with common offenses.

ART. 42. The suspension of the guaranties specified in article 40 shall
be ordered only and exclusively by means of a law, but if Congress is
not in session, it can be ordered by a decree of the President of the
Republic. But the President shall have no power to suspend the
guaranties more than once during the period intervening between two
sessions of Congress, or for an indefinite period of time, or for a
period longer than thirty days, without calling at the same time
Congress to meet. In all cases the President shall report the facts to
Congress, in order that it may act as deemed proper.

TITLE V

THE SOVEREIGNTY AND THE PUBLIC POWERS

ART. 43. The sovereignty is vested in the people of Cuba, and from the
said people all the public powers emanate.

TITLE VI

THE LEGISLATIVE POWER

SECTION FIRST

THE LEGISLATIVE BODIES

ART. 44. The legislative power is vested in two elective bodies, to be
known as the Chamber of Representatives and the Senate; the two together
constituting the Congress.

SECTION SECOND

THE SENATE, ITS MEMBERSHIP AND ITS POWERS

ART. 45. The Senate shall consist of four Senators for each Province, to
be elected in each one for a period of eight years by the provincial
councilors, and by double that number of electors forming with the
councilors an electoral college.

One-half of the electors shall consist of citizens paying the greatest
amount of taxes, and the other half shall possess the qualifications
required by law. But it is necessary for all of them to be of full age
and residents of the Province.

The election of electors shall be made by the provincial voters one
hundred days before that of the senators.

The Senate shall be renewed by halves every four years.

ART. 46. No one shall be a senator who has not the following
qualifications:

1. To be a Cuban by birth.

2. To be over thirty-five years of age.

3. To be in the full enjoyment of civil and political rights.

ART. 47. The Senate shall have the following exclusive powers:

1. To try, sitting as a tribunal of justice, the impeachment of the
President of the Republic, upon charges made against him by the Chamber
of Representatives, for crimes against the external security of the
State, against the free exercise of the legislative or judicial powers,
or for violation of the constitutional provisions.

2. To try, sitting as a tribunal of justice, the impeachment of the
secretaries of state, upon charges made against them by the Chamber of
Representatives, for crimes against the external security of the State,
the free exercise of the legislative or judicial powers, violation of
the constitutional provision, or any other crime of political character
determined by law.

3. To try, sitting as a tribunal of justice, the impeachment of the
governors of Provinces, upon charges made against them by the provincial
councils or by the President of the Republic for any of the crimes named
in the foregoing paragraph.

When the Senate sits as a tribunal of justice, it shall be presided over
by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and shall not impose any other
penalty than that of removal from office, or removal from office and
disqualification from holding any public office; but the infliction of
any other penalty upon the convicted official shall be left to the
courts declared by law to be competent for the purpose.

4. To confirm the nominations made by the President of the Republic for
the positions of Chief Justice and Associate Justices of the Supreme
Court, diplomatic representatives and consular agents of the nation, and
all other public officers whose nominations require the approval of the
Senate in accordance with the law.

5. To authorize Cuban citizens to accept employment or honors from
foreign governments or to serve in their armies.

6. To approve the treaties entered into by the President of the Republic
with other nations.

SECTION THIRD

THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, ITS MEMBERSHIP AND ITS POWERS

ART. 48. The House of Representatives shall consist of one
representative for each twenty-five thousand inhabitants or fraction
thereof over twelve thousand five hundred, elected for the period of
four years by the direct vote of the people and in the manner provided
by law.

The House of Representatives shall be renewed by halves every two years.

ART. 49. No one shall be a Representative who has not the following
qualifications:

1. To be a Cuban citizen by birth or by naturalization, provided in the
latter case that the candidate has resided eight years in the Republic,
to be counted from the date of his naturalization.

2. To have attained to the age of twenty-five years.

3. To be in full possession of all civil and political rights.

ART. 50. The power to impeach before the Senate the President of the
Republic and the cabinet ministers, in the cases prescribed in
paragraphs first and second of article 47 corresponds to the House of
Representatives. But the concurrence of two-thirds of the total number
of Representatives, in secret session, shall be required to exercise
this right.

SECTION FOURTH

PROVISIONS COMMON TO BOTH HOUSES OF CONGRESS