CHAPTER VII

SANTO DOMINGO OUR FINANCIAL PROTÉGÉ

THE Coast line of that eastern portion of the island of Hispaniola, most unfavourably known in the Caribbean world as the reef-bound frontiers of the Dominican Republic, is by no means as impressively beautiful as the highland shores of Hayti to the west. Some of the interior views, the stretches of hardwood forests and the wonderful river reaches enlivened by the presence of the graceful egret bird, however, reminded me of scenes in Java and Sumatra and Ceylon. Certain it is that nowhere can the peculiar beauties of the tropical world be seen to better advantage. Once the respect for life and property, which at present is lacking in a small but powerful fraction of the population, has been instilled into their minds; once a greater security and a little incentive to endeavour is given, the Dominican Republic cannot fail to become one of the most wealthy of tropical countries.*

The recent history of the Dominican Republic is a sordid story of bloodshed, rapine, and corruption. Its population is perhaps 600,000, though no census that inspires confidence has ever been taken. There are many families in the country in whose veins flows the best blood of Spain and of France, but the mulattoes and

*A fuller description of the geographical situation of the Dominican Republic and its agricultural and mineral resources is given in Appendix C, Notes II, III, and IV, pages 418–424.

the blacks, taken together, are numerically superior. During the reign of the infamous dictator, Ulysse Heureaux, race animosity ran high, and, as in Hayti, many hundreds of people were butchered simply because they had white skins. In view of these internal conditions and in appreciation of the fact that we needed a West Indian naval station, President Grant sought, with great determination and foresight, in 1870, to bring about the annexation of the republic to the United States, or in any event to declare some form of protectorate. It is impossible to estimate what would have been the effect of this step, had it been carried out at the time. It is certain, however, that the unhappy islanders would have been spared that miserable sequence of revolution and anarchy, now and again interrupted by ruthless and blood-stained dictatorships, which has been their lot ever since.

From 1871 to 1882 Cabral, Baez, Gonzales, and Luperon alternated in control, each, as he disappeared from the scene, leaving his people deeper in the abyss of economic ruin and lower in the scale of social demoralisation. In 1882 Ulysse Heureaux came to the fore and the story of the next seventeen years is that of his uncontrolled dominance. It was an era of merciless terrorism and dictatorial lawlessness, and the resources of the country were squandered by prodigal commissions and in the reckless contracting of debts which served no purpose except to provoke international complications. As was natural, after the assassination of the dictator in 1899 (the credit for this good action is generally given to, though not claimed by, the present constitutional President of the country, General Caceres), things grew no better. Five men, one after another,

succeeded each other in rapid succession in the presidential chair, and the resulting situation was well described by Professor Hollander of Johns Hopkins University, who has twice visited the island on missions entrusted to him by the State Department.

"The ordinary crimes of the political decalogue became commonplace, the country was laid waste, the people crushed to hopelessness, the treasury left to stew in utter bankruptcy, and a host of creditors-foreign and domestic-after tightening their hold upon the future, became more and more insistent in the present."

This anarchic system of government, which until recently prevailed, was of such a simple character that I am tempted to describe it. Here were none of the complexities to be met with in other Latin-American countries. Here the policy of to the victor belong the spoils was enforced in the crudest manner possible. It was, as one American observer, who for many years had watched the civic commotions of the country, remarked to me, 66 a plain open and shut game." Revolutionary practices had become as deeply ingrained with the Dominicans as electioneering campaigns with us, and that they should have been so suddenly turned from their bloodthirsty and costly pursuits is a miracle in which as yet many, who know the land and the people, refuse to believe.

The changes of government came about at frequent and unstated intervals in this wise: A dictator, or supreme chief, is in power, having been installed by the usual I might say the inevitable-agents and the usual machinery, say a half-dozen feverish and fluent talkers, the convulsivos who are responsible for so much

that is evil in Latin-American politics, with a few score barefooted or straw-sandalled followers, and last but by no means least the Patron, generally a man of finance, often a foreigner and not infrequently, I regret to say, an American. Immediately this man is installed, the Patron of the revolution, if a broadgauged man, accustomed to the handling of all kinds of money, would immediately recoup himself for his expenditures by floating a loan in some foreign country on terms exceedingly favourable to himself and correspondingly disadvantageous to the ultimate tax-payers, in the last analysis the victims of the foreign bondholders. If the Patron was a small man, he would secure repayment of money advanced and about ten thousand per cent. increase by simpler methods. The Dictator would give him free entry to all his importations, and in a very few weeks he would control the trade of the country and monopolise its resources. Of course, such a state of affairs was as unpleasant to the other men of business enterprise in the country as it was profitable to the Patron, and they were generally not slow in setting the wheel of fortune in motion for another turn; a new supreme chief, willing to save the country for a consideration, is sought for; the convulsive orators, the barefooted bandits, are not difficult to find; and then the business man, tired of the meagre return of orthodox business operations and ready for a revolutionary speculation. Soon the revolution is in full swing, the banners under which the battles are fought bear highsounding legends and lofty devices, but under them every law of humanity and of a civilised war code is outraged; "all guarantees are withdrawn " is the phrase with which the era of murder, slaughter, and rapine is

inaugurated. Under these circumstances it was natural that gradually the custom-house, the source of governmental wealth in the country, should come to be regarded as the root of all evil. In anticipation of its illegal favours, speculators advanced the sums strictly necessary, and out of the proceeds of the same customs the successful revolutionists were repaid, not only in cash and by favourable appraisement, but by the disturbance of every other stable business interest in the country.

This revolutionary see-saw continued until the country was bled white and practically all trace of trade and industry had disappeared. There was no money to carry on the government, and the demoralised customs service did not supply sufficient funds to pay the interest on the foreign loans, which amounted, on face value at least, to thirty-five million dollars. Of this sum it is estimated, I believe conservatively, not thirty per cent. ever reached the island, and that less than ten per cent. was expended on public works. As the outlook became more hopeless and the defaults on the foreign loans more frequent, the bondholders set in motion the machinery of the collecting warships. In seeing to it that the Dominicans got fair play and that not an acre of near American" soil fell into the hands of the hated European, our extra naval expenses were, it is estimated, about a million a year for many successive years.

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The resulting turmoil was about to become the normal state of affairs in Santo Domingo, when, suddenly, a bright mind hit upon a solution of the problem in its national as well as its international phases, which has lasted five years, and may prove even more durable. In 1907 the good offices of the United States, which had