interview at the Palace, in Havana, between General Wood and General Maximo Gomez. The report of this interview was given to representatives of the American press by General Wood, and was duly telegraphed by them to the United States. That report, as sent and published, was as follows:

"HAVANA, February 26.

General Gomez visited Governor General Wood this morning, and assured him that the stories of unrest and dissatisfaction at the continuance of the United States intervention were false, and that he had been misrepresented in statements to the effect that he favored an immediate withdrawal of the United States troops, and giving Cuba absolute independence. If they withdrew now he feared bloodshed, beyond doubt. Within sixty days, the Cubans would be fighting among themselves. General Gomez added, ‘If the Americans were to withdraw to-day, I would go with them.' . . . General Gomez had no objection to the outline of the future relations between the United States and Cuba as recommended by the United States Senate."

American legislators have stated that this message was either a determining factor or a strong influence in their vote upon the Platt Amendment. Lacking, admittedly, an adequate personal familiarity with the subject, they accepted this alleged statement of General Gomez as the expression of a qualified Cuban opinion. Gomez was known as the head and front of Cuba's struggle for national independence, and it is natural that his statement should be accepted without question. The matter turns upon the accuracy of this submitted report.

In Havana, nothing was known in regard to it until the arrival of the American papers, on the 29th. Those contained the report from which the above extract is taken. A copy was shown to General Gomez at his house and the matter translated to him. [In a rage of indignation, he

denied having made any such statement, and declared the expressed opinions to be entirely contrary to his views. A local paper (La Discusion) sent a reporter to interview General Wood. That official declared that there had been an error in the reports of the correspondents. Yet both of those who sent the matter obtained their information at the Palace, and both sent practically the same statement. As they represented rival bureaus, collusion of any kind is improbable. Gomez refused to make any statement. He stood upon his dignity, smote his breast, and declared that he was "Maximo Gomez. I do not need to deny such a statement." This attitude was quite consistent with the general character of the stubborn and somewhat irascible old gentleman. But the matter was not, has not been, and and probably never will be quite cleared up. That it had the effect of influencing American votes on the Platt Amendment is decidedly more certain than the origin of the report.

The measure known as the Platt Amendment was submitted to the United States Senate, as an amendment to the Army Appropriation bill, on February 25. The Senate adopted it, on the 27th, by a vote of 43 to 20. The House signified its concurrence, on March 1, by a vote of 159 to 134.] The text of the bill is as follows:

["That, in fulfilinent of the declaration contained in the Joint

Resolution, approved April 20, 1898, entitled 'For the recognition of the independence of the people of Cuba, demanding that the Government of Spain relinquish its authority and government in the Island of Cuba, and withdraw its land and naval forces from Cuba and Cuban waters, and directing the President of the United States to use the land and naval forces of the United States to carry these resolutions into effect,' the President is hereby authorized to leave the government and control of the Island of Cuba to its people so soon as a government shall have been established

in said Island, under a Constitution which, either as a part thereof or in any ordinance appended thereto, shall define the future relations of the United States with Cuba, substantially as follows:

"(1) That the Government of Cuba shall never enter into any treaty or other compact with any foreign Power or Powers which will impair or tend to impair the independence of Cuba, nor in any manner authorize or permit any foreign Power or Powers to obtain by colonization or for military or naval purposes, or otherwise, lodgment in or control over any portion of said Island.

"(2) That said Government shall not assume or contract any public debt, to pay the interest upon which and to make reasonable sinking-fund provision for the ultimate discharge of which, the ordinary revenues of the Island, after defraying the current expenses of government, shall be inadequate.

"(3) That the Government of Cuba consents that the United States may exercise the right to intervene for the preservation of Cuban independence, the maintenance of a government adequate for the protection of life, property, and individual liberty, and for discharging the obligations with respect to Cuba imposed by the Treaty of Paris on the United States, now to be assumed and undertaken by the Government of Cuba.

"(4) That all acts of the United States in Cuba during its military occupation thereof are ratified and validated, and all lawful rights acquired thereunder shall be maintained and protected.

"(5) That the Government of Cuba will execute, and as far as necessary extend, the plans already devised or other plans to be mutually agreed upon, for the sanitation of the cities of the Island, to the end that a recurrence of epidemic and infectious diseases may be prevented, thereby assuring protection to the people and commerce of Cuba, as well as to the commerce of the Southern ports of the United States and the people residing therein.

"(6) That the Isle of Pines shall be omitted from the proposed Constitutional boundaries of Cuba, the title thereto left to future adjustment by treaty.

"(7) That to enable the United States to maintain the independence of Cuba, and to protect the people thereof, as well as for its

own defence, the Government of Cuba will sell or lease to the United States lands necessary for coaling or naval stations at certain specified points, to be agreed upon with the President of the United States.

"(8) That by way of further assurance the Government of Cuba will embody the foregoing provisions in a permanent treaty with the United States.'

Notwithstanding the fact that the Cubans had every reason to anticipate some such step, there is no question that the adoption of this measure produced widespread dismay among them. The first impulse was submission through sheer hopelessness of opposition to the power of the United States. From this they soon recovered and began that protracted struggle which ended in reluctant acceptance by the Constitutional Convention. Nor was the struggle and the protest which followed confined to Cuba and the Cuban Convention. The American press was filled with a vigorous controversy. The originators of the bill were forced to become its defenders, and the best that can be said of the defence is that it was illogical. Not a few who, at the time, asserted that the provisions of the bill were a guarantee of Cuban independence, were obliged, later, to admit its limitation of Cuban independence, and its establishment of an indefinite sort of American suzerainty over the Island of Cuba. It became necessary for the defenders of the bill to explain its meaning in terms for which its opponents could find no basis in its phraseology.

The argument of the supporters of the bill rested, in some cases, solely in political partisanship. In others, it was based upon a groundless belief that the peace which had existed for nearly three years in the Island, was due to the presence of the American troops, and that a state of anarchy would follow the withdrawal of the United States forces.

In an article in the Independent, Senator Platt stated that "In no instance has it been necessary to call upon our troops to repress disorder, but it has been because of their presence there that the necessity has not existed." While it may be admitted that the presence of an armed force was desirable during the chaotic period of the first six months of the year 1899, the general tenor of Mr. Platt's comment is as inaccurate as it is unjust to the Cubans, who had shown no more disposition toward turbulence or disorder than had the people of any State in the Union.

Again, in the World's Work, Senator Platt expressed a similar opinion. He said: "With no army to repress disorder, it is certainly within the limit of reasonable probability that the revolutionary and turbulent party may attempt the destruction or confiscation of Spanish and Cuban property which the new government would be utterly powerless to prevent." It is most unfortunate that Senator Platt and those who followed his line of reasoning, and supported his bill, should have been so lacking in competent information regarding the Island and its people. To those who knew, all this was mere bugaboo, baseless and unwarranted. There had not been for two years prior to the period of this discussion any sign of either "revolutionary or turbulent party," and the American authorities were doing no little boasting with regard to the thorough efficiency of both the municipal police and the Rural Guard of the Island. These together made an armed force of, approximately, 2,500 men for the suppression of disorder. The great need of the Island was not troops to maintain order, but industrial prosperity which would enable people to live without taking that which was not their own, or to indulge in rioting or strife as a result of hunger and distress. The argument of potential menace to the peace of the Island, and the necessity