occupancy the United States was to "advise any government established in the island to assume the same obligations." One of the most difficult matters was the question of the Cuban debt, which had been incurred by Spain very largely as a result of the war in Cuba. Spain wanted Cuba to take over at least a portion of this debt, but the American commissioners were adamant in refusing to saddle it upon them. So Spain had no recourse but to yield. Among non-Cuban features of the treaty were the acquisition of Porto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines by the United States; a payment of twenty million dollars was made for the Philippines. Rati- i fications came later, and the treaty was proclaimed on April 11, 1899, the anniversary of McKinley's message of the year before. Cuba's separation from Spain was now accomplished, but independence was yet to be attained. That was to be a question of the fulfilment of its pledges by the great republic of the north.5 "The materials for a study of the ner, Cuba and the Intervention, 2 war of 1895-1898 are, of course, vast ed. (New York. 1910), 31-49, 66-83, in amount. Trelles, Biblioteca, I, is particularly helpful. Among a 404-478, and II, 1-86, has several hun- number of interesting accounts by dred items on this period alone. In American eyewitnesses are volumes addition, there are quantities of docu- of Frederick Funston (later a disments in United States government tinguished soldier in the American publications, as also, no doubt, in army), Richard Harding Davis, those of Spain and other European Grover Flint, George Clarke Muscountries, to say nothing of papers grave, and Charles Melville Pepper. still existing in manuscript form only. For the American military campaign, For a rapid survey, Johnson, IV, perhaps the best work is Sargent, 1-117, and Latané, John Holladay. Herbert Howland, The campaign of The United States and Latin America. Santiago de Cuba, 3 vols., Chicago, (New York. 1920), 125-136, are worthy of note, and Robinson, Albert Gard 1907. CHAPTER V THE UNITED STATES MILITARY GOVERNMENT, 1898-1902 DURING the closing months of 1898 Spanish rule in Cuba still existed legally, but the only effective work being done was in Oriente, where General Leonard Wood (recently promoted from a colonelcy) was in charge as the representative of the American military occupation. There he had already begun to "make things hum," showing extraordinary energy and efficiency. Conditions in Oriente were very bad. People were dying by the thousands from disease; there was little or no work to do, and starvation was adding its quota to the toll of the dead; sanitation was in an indescribably wretched state; and local government in its various forms-administration, justice, education,-had virtually ceased to function. General Wood's earliest measures were in the nature of what might be called "first aid." He took care of the sick, and fed the starving; made the city of Santiago more habitable; reëstablished the municipal governments and the courts; started a program of public works, especially the building of roads, in part in order to give employment to men out of work; and he saw to it that people of the rural districts were supplied with tools and food and sent back to their farms. Presently he was able to stamp out epidemics of smallpox and yellow fever, to found schools, and put local government on a firmer basis, reinforced by his organization of a body of rural guards. In fine, by the close of the year, the territory under his jurisdiction was, as one of his most bitter critics has admitted, "orderly, peaceable, and self-sustaining." The exceptional character of his achievements in Oriente made General Wood a national figure in his own country as well as renowned in Cuba. In the language of Theodore Roosevelt, he had proved himself a “model administrator." It was certain that his services would be called upon again.1 General Blanco did not remain to the end of Spanish rule, but turned over his command to General Adolfo Jiménez Castellanos, who formally surrendered the government to the American military governor, General John R. Brooke, on January 1, 1899. It was not possible by that date to repatriate all the Spanish troops in the island, but by February the evacuation was complete. In the last few months of their occupation the Spanish authorities, naturally, paid very little heed to problems of administration, and many officials took an interest only in salvaging what they could for themselves, after which they deserted their posts and returned to Spain. Referring to the condition in which they left public buildings one writer has said: "They looted and gutted them of everything that could be removed. They destroyed the plumbing and lighting fixtures. They broke or choked up the drains. They left every place in an indescribably filthy condition. There was nothing in all their record in Cuba more unbecoming than their manner of leaving it." The general situation in Cuba at the outset of American rule was about as bad as it could be, except in Oriente, where Wood's measures had already made themselves felt. The rest of the island was in much the same state as that in Oriente had been in the summer of 1898, except that affairs were even worse off in western Cuba, owing to the greater 1For a vigorous brief account of Wood's services in Oriente, see Roosevelt, Theodore, General Leonard Wood: a model American military administrator, in Outlook, v. LXI, pp. severity of the war in that section. Famine and disease were everywhere. Children wandered about like wild animals, without parents or homes. Referring to the sufferings of the people in the cities, a Cuban writer, Martínez Ortiz, has drawn a gruesome picture: "Those poor people, without any help, had exhausted their resources, and put hands to any kind of food. The most unclean and repugnant animals were devoured with delight, and were hunted for with frenzied zeal. Roots, branches, and herbs were also utilized. Women and hungry children looked in the mangers of the horses in the forces of cavalry encamped in the streets, to find the abandoned grains amidst the dirt in order to eat them raw, and seeds and cuttings of fruits were also gathered as precious discoveries. Frequently, despite the efforts of the police to stop them, they bore away pieces of the remains of animals that had died of contagious diseases. Those unfortunate human beings, thus left to themselves, were the relics of what had once been the country people brought into the concentration camps by General Weyler."' Steps were at once taken by the United States government to alleviate the distress. A method of food distribution was established that proved very effective. It is said that in Havana alone there were twenty thousand people dependent on this bounty to save them from starvation. Nor was this all. There was an utter lack of sanitation. Whole streets were so choked with filth as to be almost impassable, and there was "no public building. in a fit state for use." For example, over twelve hundred cubic yards of rubbish were removed from the custom-house alone. The work of cleaning up streets and buildings was undertaken at once, and good results were quickly obtained. The situation in the custom-house may also serve as an illustration of the disorganization in governmental affairs. The records had been either removed or destroyed, and there was not a stick of furniture in the place. By a personal appeal to his Spanish 'Martínez Ortiz, I, 15. predecessor the United States official in charge managed to get a chair and desk for himself. The personnel was made up of a few Spaniards, but was altogether inadequate, as most of those formerly stationed there had left or resigned. So too with the post-office, in which not so much as a cent of money or a single stamp was found. Naturally, the treasury was bare, but, fortunately, there was scarcely anything owing by the state, thanks to the insistence of the United States that Spain herself should be responsible for the Cuban debt. There was an issue of about two million dollars in Cuban insurgent bonds, and, rather more important, the promises that had been made to pay the soldiers for their services in the war. Out in the rural districts matters were just as bad. Cuba's whole life depends upon agriculture, especially the raising of sugar, but both local and world conditions militated against the economic prospects of the island at the time. Sugar is not a crop that will take care of itself, but requires an expensive equipment in the way of machinery, domestic animals, and labor. Most of the sugar-mills had been destroyed, however, and hunger and the vicissitudes of the war had caused a virtual disappearance of beasts of burden. And just then, too, European countries were paying subsidies to promote the beet-sugar industry, and the United States had raised up a tariff wall for the same purpose. Such was the state of affairs when the United States military government began its work. It was under instructions to prepare the people of Cuba for self-government, bring about conditions which would make the founding of a republic possible, and establish them in such a sound manner as to ensure an orderly and successful maintenance of Cuban rule. The United States assumed "military" control, but not in the sense in which the word had been employed under |