CHAPTER XVII

The fourth Presidential campaign in Cuba began in the spring of 1912. The Liberal administration had given the nation a thorough taste of its quality, with the result that there was a strong reaction against it on the part of many who had been its zealous upholders. The compact between José Miguel Gomez and Alfredo Zayas was, however, carried out, the former not seeking re-election but standing aside in favor of the latter, who accordingly received the Presidential nomination at the convention which was held on April 15. Before this, on April 7, the Conservative convention by unanimous vote and with great enthusiasm nominated General Mario G. Menocal for President, and Enrique José Varona for President. The campaign was conducted with much determination on both sides, but in a generally orderly fashion, and the election, which occurred on November 1, was also conducted in a creditable manner. Although the Liberals had made extravagant claims in advance, the result of the polling was a decisive victory for General Menocal, who easily carried every one of the six provinces. This result was due in part to the popular revulsion against the corruption of the Liberal administration, and partly to the immense popularity of the Conservative candidate and his admirable record as a useful public servant in various capacities.

Mario G. Menocal, who was thus chosen to be the head of the Cuban Republic, came of an old Havana family, traditionally revolutionary, and was born in Jaguey Grande, Matanzas, in December, 1866. When his family emigrated, as a consequence of his father having taken part in the Ten Years' War, Mario Menocal began his education in the United States. He was graduated at Cornell University with the Class of 1888 and took his degree as Civil Engineer. No sooner was he graduated than his uncle, Aniceto G. Menocal, the distinguished engineer of the Isthmian Canals, summoned him to his side to work with him at Nicaragua. In 1893 he went to Cuba as engineer of a French Company to exploit a salt mine at Cayo Romano. He was working on the construction of the Santa Cruz railway in Camaguey when the War of Independence broke out in 1895. On June 5 of that year he joined the forces of Commander Alejandro Rodriguez as a private. At the attack on Fort Ramblazo he was promoted to sergeant, and it was not long before his military talents had won for him the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.

When the Revolutionary Government was constituted on September 15, 1895, Colonel Menocal was appointed Assistant Secretary of War, and in that capacity assisted Generals Gomez and Maceo in organizing the "invasion" contingent. He later joined the Third Army Corps under Mayia Rodriguez, and remained with it until the beginning of 1896 when he was called by General Calixto Garcia, who had just reached the Island and who made Menocal his Chief of Staff. Thereafter his name was associated with Garcia's brilliant campaign in Oriente.

Among the many battles in which Colonel Menocal took part were the hard-fought engagements of La Gloria, Bellezas, Moscones, Hierba de Guinea, and the great struggle at Guantanamo, in July, 1896, against two Spanish columns which were cut apart and were obliged to abandon the Ramon de las Yaguas zone. In August the agricultural regions of Holguin were invaded and the Loma de Heirro fort seized, artillery being used for the first time in the war. This feat caused his promotion to the rank of Colonel. He then was active in the Sierra Maestra Mountains to meet Mendez's expedition. In October, Menocal seized Guaimaro, conducting personally the assault on Fort Gonfan, having captured which, he was made Brigadier General.

In November, 1896, he took part in the battles of Alta Conchita and Lugones against Gen. Pando. Later he was present at the siege of Jiguani (April 13, 1897) and at Tuaheque, Jacaibama and Jucaibanita against Vara del Rey and Nicolas Rey, and at Baire he fought at the battle of Ratonera. It was at this time that Gen. Calixto Garcia made him Chief of the 3rd Division of the 2nd Corps, which included the western part of Holguin and Tunas. At the head of these forces he organized the attack and capture of Tunas, which was achieved by Gen. Calixto Garcia, August 30, 1897, Menocal having been wounded in a trench assault.

This strategic success won for him an immediate promotion to Division General. In November, 1897, he attacked Fort Guamo on the Cauto River, one of the bloodiest events of the war, and took part in the battles of Cayamos, Monte Oscuro, Nabraga and Aguacatones, succeeding in this latter in seizing Tejeda's supply train.

In March, 1898, he was appointed Chief of the 5th Army Corps, to join which he marched at the head of 200 select men, among whom were many prominent figures of the war--many still alive--as General Sartorius, Colonels Aurelio Hevea, Enrique Nunez, Federico Mendizabal, Pablo, Gustavo and Tomas Menocal, Rafael Pena, Carlos Manuel de Cespedes, Commander Manuel Secades, Miguel Coyula, Ignacio Weber, Alberto de Cardenas, Antonio Calzades and Domingo Herrera. With this brave contingent, and assisted by the forces of Gen. Agramonte, Gen. Menocal passed the Trocha at its most dangerous point between Ciego de Avila and Jucaro. After a fifty days' march from Holguin, they reached Havana, relieving Gen. Alejandro Rodriguez of his command as Chief of the 5th Army Corps.

Gen. Menocal was in this command when the American Intervention came, and cooperated with the American authorities in maintaining public order in Havana while the evacuation of the Spanish troops took place. Then General Ludlow appointed him Chief of the Havana Police, which body he organized, giving posts under him to the most distinguished chiefs of the Province of Havana. In 1899 he was appointed Inspector of Light Houses and subsequently Inspector of Public Works, which offices he resigned to manage Central Chaparra, in June, 1899.

It is difficult to speak without danger of apparent exaggeration of the incommensurable work of General Menocal at Chaparra, as a true "captain of industry." There what were formerly barren fields have been transformed by something more than the touch of a magician's wand into the greatest sugar-producing establishment in the world. Nor does it consist merely of the gigantic mills. Houses for homes, schools, stores, churches, surround it, forming a city of no fewer than 30,000 prosperous inhabitants, devoted to the manufacture of sugar. Of this unique community, General Menocal was the chief creator and for years the responsible head. Even it, however, did not monopolize his attention, for he organized and managed also great sugar mills at San Manuel, Las Delicias, and elsewhere.

In 1903 General Menocal was appointed by President Palma to be one of a Commission for the negotiation of a loan for the payment of the soldiers of the army in the War of Independence, together with Gonzalo de Quesada and D. Mendez Capote. Three years later he was conspicuous and active in the Veteran movement which strove to avert the necessity of the second American intervention. In 1908, as we have seen, he was nominated for the Presidency, with Dr. Montoro for the Vice-Presidency, but was defeated. Again he was nominated for the Presidency, with Enrique José Varona as candidate for the Vice-Presidency, and was elected for the term of 1913-1917; at the expiration of which he was reelected, with General Emilio Nunez as Vice-President.

Enrique José Varona, who thus became Vice-President of Cuba in 1913, ranked as one of the foremost scholars and writers of the nation. He was born in Camaguey on April 13, 1849, and in early life adopted the career of a man of letters in addition to serving the public in political matters. He was at once an orator of rare eloquence, a philosopher of profound learning, and a poet of exceptional charm. He served, before the War of Independence, as a Deputy in the Spanish Cortes from Cuba; he wrote the famous plea for Cuban independence entitled "Cuba contra España," which was translated into a number of languages; and under the administration of General Wood was Secretary of Public Instruction and of the Treasury. He was once President of the Anthropological Society of Cuba, and was a Member of the Academy of History. He has written numerous books, comprising philosophical disquisitions, essays on nature and art, and lyrical poetry.

Dr. Rafael Montoro, who was refused election to the Vice-Presidency in 1908, has since that date been kept in the service of his country in highly important capacities, and now, as Secretary to the Presidency, is most intimately associated with President Menocal, and exerts an exceptional degree of usefulness in many directions to the national welfare of the Cuban Republic.

Rafael Montoro was born in Havana on October 24, 1852. He received his primary education in Havana and in his tenth year was taken to Europe and to the United States. He was a pupil of the Charlier Institute in New York until 1865. Having returned to Havana he took up his preparatory studies at the school of San Francisco de Asis. In 1867 he returned to Europe with his family, which settled in Madrid. Here he spent his youth until 1878, devoting himself to literary and intellectual activities; he contributed to various periodicals, was editor of the "Revista Contemporanea"; second secretary of the Ateneo de Madrid; vice president of the Moral and Political Sciences Section of that institution; second secretary of the Spanish Writers' and Artists' Association, etc. On his return to Cuba he took an active part in constituting and organizing the Liberal Party, which seized the first opportunity to uphold the cause of Colonial Autonomy, calling itself the Autonomist Liberal Party. In 1879 he was elected a member of the Central Junta of the party and in the first elections after Cuba had been granted the right of representation at the Cortes took place, he was elected a Deputy from the province of Havana. Later he continued working for his party as editor of its organ _El Triunfo_, which became _El Pais_, and as an orator in meetings and assemblies. In 1886 he was reelected Deputy to the Cortes from the province of Camaguey and yearly went to Spain during the period of the Legislature, being a member of the Autonomist minority headed by Rafael Maria de Labra. The Sociedad Economica de Amigo del Pais appointed Dr. Montoro a Special Delegate to the Junta de Information which met at Madrid in 1890, the principal economic institutions of Cuba having been previously invited by the Spanish Colonial Department. The purpose of this Junta was to report on the tariff regime of the Island and on the proposed commercial treaty with the United States, as suggested by the famous McKinley Bill of 1890. Towards the middle of 1895 he returned to his activities in Havana as editorial writer of _El Pais_ and member of the Central Junta of the Party.

When autonomy was granted in 1898, he formed part, as Secretary of the Treasury, of the Cabinet organized by José Maria Galvez, the head of the party since its foundation in 1878. When Spanish rule came to an end, as a consequence of the war and of the American intervention, and the Autonomist Government ceased, Dr. Montoro retired to private life. In 1900 and 1901 he was appointed to but did not accept the professorship of philosophy and history in the University of Havana. He was a member of the Committee which was to undertake the reform of the Municipal suffrage legislation under Governor Brooke and of the Committee charged by General Wood with the revision of the legislation on the importation tariff.

In 1902 Dr. Montoro was appointed by the Palma administration as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of St. James. In 1904 he was appointed also Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary in Germany, which caused him to reside alternately in both countries until 1906 when he was appointed with Gonzalo de Quesada and Gonzales Lanuza a delegate of the Republic to the Third Pan-American International Conference held at Rio de Janeiro. In the same year he was confirmed in both his posts, at London and Berlin, by Governor Magoon, as were the other members of the diplomatic and consular corps, but later he was appointed a member of the Consultive Committee on Laws. In 1907 he was one of the founders of the National Conservative Party, of which he was appointed second vice-president, and was nominated as the Party's candidate for the Vice-Presidency of the Republic, with General Menocal as Presidential Candidate.

When General Jose M. Gomez took possession of the Government as President, Dr. Montoro was confirmed in his posts as Minister at Berlin and London, returning to Europe to remain there until 1910, in which year he was appointed by President Gomez a delegate to the Fourth Pan-American International Conference, which took place at Buenos Aires. At this Conference he was elected to preside over the seventh section of Consular documents, Tariff regulations, Census and Commercial Statistics.

In 1910 and 1911, respectively, he ceased his posts as Minister at Berlin and London to become Diplomatic Advisor of the State Department. In 1913 he was appointed Secretary of the Presidency under General Menocal to which post he gave an importance which it had lacked theretofore. In this capacity he still is an assiduous and valuable collaborator of the Menocal Administration.

Of Dr. Montoro's writings the following have been collected in book form: "Political and Parliamentary Speeches; Reports and Dissertations" (1878-1893), Philadelphia, 1894. "Elements of Moral and Civic Instruction" (1903).

Dr. Montoro is a member of the National Academy of Arts and Letters of which he was elected Director in 1812. He was President of the Executive Committee at Havana of the 2nd Pan-American Scientific Congress (1915) and was a member of the High Committee for Cuba of the Pan-American Financial Congress (1917) and of the American Institute of International Law (1916).

President Menocal gathered about himself a Cabinet of representative Cubans, selected for their ability rather than on grounds of personal favor or political advantage; two of them, the Secretaries of Justice and Education, being members of the Liberal party. The places were filled as follows:

Secretary of Government, Cosimo de la Torriente. Secretary of the Interior, Aurelio Hevea. Secretary of the Treasury, Leopoldo Cancio. Secretary of Health and Charities, Enrique Nuñez. Secretary of Justice, Cristobal de la Guardia. Secretary of Agriculture, Emilio Nuñez. Secretary of Public Works, José Villalon. Secretary of Education, Ezequiel Garcia.

The spirit in which the new President began his work, and the spirit which animated his associates in the government, was admirably expressed by him soon after his election and before his inauguration, in a frank, informal but very serious personal conversation. "What," he was asked, "does Cuba need? And what do you expect to accomplish as her President?"

"Cuba," replied General Menocal, "needs an honest administration of its governmental affairs; and that is what I can give it and will give it. But more than that, Cuba needs more citizens anxious to develop its marvellous resources and fewer citizens anxious to hold office. I was not elected as a politician, and I have no ambition to succeed as a politician."

Reference being made to the menace of revolution, President Menocal said, with emphasis:

"There will be no revolution under my administration. There may be outbreaks headed by disappointed politicians or military adventurers, but they will be crushed and their leaders will be punished. The day is past when men of this class can arrest the orderly processes of government. I shall have back of me not only a loyal army, but also a loyal people who are determined to show to the United States and to the world that Cuba realizes her responsibilities and is capable of self-government. I shall appoint honest men, and will guarantee that they honestly administer their duties. I shall urge the passage of honest taxation laws, and have faith that the people will respond by electing men who will assist me to make Cuba worthy of the favors which God has lavished upon her."

With such purposes and with such expectations he entered upon his great work. Unfortunately there was not a majority upon which he could depend in Congress to enact the measures which were needed for the welfare of Cuba. Indeed, there was a hostile majority, as we shall see, which deliberately set itself to embarrass and thwart him in his undertakings. But that had merely the effect which obstacles usually have upon men who are really brave and strong. It indeed made his work more difficult, but it did not turn him from his purpose nor defeat his efforts. Rather did it give him all the greater credit and honor, to have achieved so much in the face of so much opposition.

General Mario G. Menocal became President and Senor Enrique Jose Varona became Vice-President of Cuba on May 20, 1913, the tenth anniversary of the establishment of the independent Cuban Government. The President delivered his first message to Congress on the following day. It was an eminently practical, statesman-like and businesslike document, in which he modestly promised a wise and prudent administration of his office, and especially an immediate reform of the finances of the Government, which was notoriously much needed. As a small beginning of this reform, he offered to do away with the usual appropriation of $25,000 for Presidential secret service. Many debts had been left over by the former administration and he purposed to address himself to the liquidation of these, so far as they had been honestly contracted. The notorious Dragado concession was repealed on August 4, and a commission was appointed to investigate the methods of the company. As a result of this and other investigations, the former Secretary of Public Works, and Auditor were indicted for misappropriation of public funds, and various other officers were prosecuted.

The President desired to obtain a loan of $15,000,000 with which to pay off the debts which had been left to him by his predecessor, and also for urgent road work, and the paving and sewering of the streets of Havana. This was, however, refused him by Congress, and that body, under the domination of the Liberals, refused to pass any budget whatever. President Menocal was therefore compelled to declare the budget of the preceding year still in force, pending the adoption of new financial provisions. Hoping to persuade or to compel Congress to perform its constitutional duty, he called that body together in special session in July and again in October, but on both occasions the Liberals all absented themselves and thus prevented the securing of a quorum. These, it will be observed, were similar to the tactics which the same party in Congress had employed against President Palma in their malignant campaign for the overthrow of his administration. But President Menocal was not thus to be overthrown. When the Liberals in October, a second time, refused to perform their duty he issued a manifesto in which he seriously criticized them and made it plain that no such methods would be permitted to interfere with the legitimate work of Government. Rumors were indeed current that he would resort to compulsion if persuasion failed. The Liberals attempted to reply with a countermanifesto protesting against his action as a usurpation of congressional authority, declaring their opposition to the making of the proposed loan, and pretending that it would be illegal to hold the special session which he had called for October.

The President exercised patience and waited until November 2, when the regular session of Congress opened, and the Liberals took their seats. At this time the Liberals practically stultified themselves by agreeing to discuss and finally to approve the loan project which they had formerly opposed. After transacting this and some other business, Congress adjourned in December.

Among the reforms which President Menocal promptly undertook to effect was the abolition of the national lottery which had been established during the Gomez administration. In his messages and through the influence of all legitimate presidential influence he strove to abolish this form of legalized gambling. His arguments were that the low price of the tickets, only 25¢, and the appeal which was thus made to the poor and ignorant, to servants and working women as well as to men, had caused great injury and had brought about a certain degree of moral decline among the masses of the people. It had induced many individuals to borrow money and even to steal in order to purchase lottery tickets, in the delusive hope of winning one of the large prizes, which ran up to $100,000, and thus exempting themselves from the necessity of work for the rest of their lives. The lottery, it is true, yielded a considerable revenue each year for the government, but General Menocal regarded this as far more than counter-balanced by the social and moral evil which it wrought, and by the reproach which it brought upon the good name of the Republic. He was unable, however, to persuade Congress to abolish it, partly because of the popular love of gambling which so largely pervades Latin American countries, and partly--perhaps chiefly--because the privilege of selling tickets at wholesale, at a handsome profit, was farmed out to many members of Congress.

At the beginning of his administration, President Menocal found all the Government offices crowded with the appointees of the former administration. A great many of them were entirely superfluous and a great many of them were also entirely incompetent to fill their places. There was, therefore, a considerable clearing out of placeholders. There might have been, of course, what is known in America as a "clean sweep," and this was urged by a few of the President's friends. But General Menocal would listen to no such proposition. A Civil Service law had indeed been formulated by the Consulting Commission presided over by General Crowder, and had been in force since 1907, and while an unscrupulous executive might have evaded its provisions, General Menocal was a believer in the merit system, and in secure tenure of office for men who were doing their duty. He therefore refused positively to remove a single man merely because of his political affiliations. So far as placeholders were dismissed, they were dismissed because of incompetence or dishonesty, or because their services were superfluous. As a result of this enlightened policy, it is true, President Menocal was compelled to conduct his administration through the agency of a staff, the majority of which was composed of his political opponents. He even appointed two Liberals to his cabinet, while nearly all the foreign ministers and consuls and important officers of the various departments were members of that party, holding over from the Gomez administration. It cannot be said that this policy was in all cases appreciated by those who personally profited from it, for some of these officeholders did not scruple to engage in intrigues against the President whose generosity retained them in their places.

The United States Government retained a certain supervision over some of the acts of the Cuban Government. Thus, as hitherto stated, in March, 1913, an amnesty bill had been passed at the instance of the Gomez administration, which would have set at liberty several hundred political and other prisoners, but it was objected to by Mr. Bryan, the Secretary of State of the United States, and was accordingly vetoed. It was again posed in a modified form on April 25, and was again similarly vetoed. In November, 1913, it was once more taken up and revised so as to extend the pardon to those who had participated in the negro insurrection, and to some former officeholders of the Gomez administration who had been indicted. It was also intended that it should extend amnesty to General Ernesto Asbert, Governor of the Province of Havana, to Senator Vidal Morales, and to Representative Arias, who had been indicted for the murder of the Chief of Police of Havana, General Armando Riva; a tragedy which occurred during a police raid on a club, on the evening of July 7. This attempt to extend amnesty to these men caused an acute and prolonged controversy. But on December 9, 1914, the bill was finally passed in a form which granted amnesty to General Asbert, but not to Senator Arias. In this form the United States Government sanctioned its enactment because of the belief that the real burden of guilt rested upon the latter rather than upon the former.

This controversy over amnesty to General Asbert meanwhile had serious political effects in Cuba. For a time the so-called Asbert faction of the Liberal party allied itself with the Conservatives in Congress in support of President Menocal and thus gave him a majority in that body. But in the summer of 1914 this faction became reunited with the rest of the Liberal party, and Conservative control of Congress was lost. The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Senor Gonzales Lanuza, a Conservative, resigned and was succeeded by Senor Urquiaga, a Liberal, on August 31. When at last in February, 1915, the act of amnesty for General Asbert was completed, and he was released and fully rehabilitated, there was a great popular celebration of the event in the City of Havana.

The first attempt at insurrection in President Menocal's administration occurred on November 9, 1913, when Crecencio Garcia, a mulatto, undertook to lead a revolt in the province of Santa Clara. It was promptly suppressed by the Rural Guard in a manner which augured well for the promise which the President had made, that there would be no revolutions during his administration; and there were no more such attempts until the great treason of ex-President Gomez.