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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.