meant that the "best years" in the first quarter century of the republic had already gone their way."7

"The work of Martínez Ortiz (v. at odd points. A number of the volII) remains the best that has yet umes bearing primarily on the subbeen published for this period. ject of the next two chapters are also Though a Liberal and a partisan of useful to some extent here. The EsJosé Miguel Gómez and not in sym- trada Palma administration is still in pathy with Estrada Palma, Martínez need of a monograph, however, which Ortiz has, nevertheless, written an ac- shall avail itself of the Memorias, the count which is remarkably fair. It is Diarios de sesiones, and the Menalso the only attempt at a complete sajes presidenciales, as well as newshistory of these years thus far made. papers and other contemporary eviAll other works touch this era merely dences.

CHAPTER VIII

THE REELECTION OF ESTRADA PALMA

WHAT caused the Revolution of August, as the uprising of 1906 is called? While that conflict was at its height Barbarrosa wrote as follows:

"Two impotent factions are at war in Cuba: the constituted power and the armed revolution. In the background there is nothing more than the interests of parties, ambitions for jobs. The conquest of the twenty millions of the treasury!"1

The evidence to the same effect is so overwhelming in amount that it can hardly be doubted that political and financial considerations far outweighed principles.2 Back of that, however, was the fact that the Cubans were as yet unprepared for self-government, and had something of the turbulence of Hispanic American character, with a none too highly developed understanding of the consequences of their acts. Fortunately, they had an exceptionally good man as their first President, and the excellence of his government postponed domestic strife for more than four years.

In a sense, however, Estrada Palma was a victim of his own "excess" of goodness, in that he could not believe that other people might be swayed by motives so much more sordid than his own, and therefore took no steps to handle

1Barbarrosa, 65.

there was a surplus in the treasury, 'The writer has any number of and the politicians felt that they had statements of the same character a better use for it than employing it from persons who lived through those on Cuba's debts." In this instance times. For example: "The revolution the word "better" was used somewhat of 1906 broke out primarily because satirically.

a possible outbreak of civil war. His public documents are replete with expressions of confidence in the "orderliness" and "good sense" of the Cuban people,-at the very moment that a casual observer might have been more impressed by an opposite tendency. In his message to Congress of November 3, 1902, he said that "the most complete order has reigned," attributing it to Cuban patriotism and love of peace. Referring to the somewhat notorious elections of 1904, he remarked, on April 4 of that year, that there was no disorder, despite political agitation and the fact that there were 658 electoral complaints to the courts. Such was the "good judgment of the Cuban people" and "their obedience to the laws," however, that there was no violence. The Cuban "love of order" in connection with the unchanging "tranquility" of the times, and "the sentiment which generally prevails already among our compatriots of respect for the law and love of our institutions" found their place in messages of November 7, 1904, and April 3, 1905. Even the excitement and violence of the electoral period in 1905, while causing the President several moments of doubt, seemingly failed to shake his belief in "the good sense of the Cuban people," which was able to rise superior to "party jealousies," as he put it in his message of November 6, 1905. As late as April 2, 1906, Estrada Palma was impressed by the "cry of indignation" against those who had attacked the barracks of the rural guard at Guanabacoa, asserting it proved that nobody in Cuba could "promote disturbances of a serious character such as may put our institutions in danger." Not until the revolution of August 1906 did the rude awakening come. An extraordinary session of Congress was called "on account of the serious disturbance of the public order," and in his message of September 14 the Presi'Mensajes presidenciales, I: 15; 73; 105; 125; 139; 155.

dent was under the sad necessity of admitting that "it throws doubt on the seriousness of our institutions," raising up "a lack of confidence in our capacity for self-government" and "putting the independence of the country in danger."

Even before the events in connection with the election of 1905 there were a number of violent disturbances, some of them directed against the government. One of the earliest incidents of this character was the general strike in the capital in November 1902. It began with a walk-out of laborers in some of the tobacco factories. Not realizing the full implications of their acts and intent on gaining popularity, the alcalde, or mayor, of Havana and the national Secretary of Government openly encouraged the strikers, and were backed up in their attitude by a number of the newspapers. Presently there were conflicts between the men on strike and those of other factories who had not gone out. The police arrested some of the strikers most prominent in these incidents, whereupon the mayor dismissed the chief of police and was sustained in his action by the Secretary of Government. This so lowered the prestige of the police and increased that of the strikers that the whole affair soon took on alarming proportions. A general strike was declared for November 24. The strikers decreed that business activity of every sort should stop for that day. This was serious, and the Secretary of Government now found it necessary to call in the rural guards to assist the police in maintaining order. On the 24th there were numerous exciting incidents. Hordes of laborers filled the streets. The street railway company, a foreign enterprise, attempted to run its cars, but was forced to desist. There were a number of encounters between the laborers and the police, in which several were killed and many more wounded. At length Ibid., I, 175.

the government got the situation in hand, but not without difficulty. The offending mayor and the Secretary of Government lost their posts, and the chief of police was restored to his position. So the matter ended, but it had revealed the dynamite in Cuban character.

The earliest of the attempts directed against the government was a plot at Guanabacoa, early in July 1903. This was nipped in the bud," but on the 14th of that month there was a seemingly insignificant uprising at Vicana, near Manzanillo. Four men got possession of some arms, and tried to raise a following on an "immediate pay of the army" platform. The rural guards gave scant chance for this movement to get under way, for they captured one of the would-be revolutionists on the 26th and killed the other three next day. A somewhat more serious affair was an outbreak at Sevilla, near Santiago, on September 13 of the same year. The plan was to raise a band of four or five hundred men, and hold up the President during his visit in that section, exacting from him assurances of an immediate payment of the debt to the Army of Liberation. Some sixty or seventy men got together for this purpose, but by September 22 all had been captured or dispersed by the rural guards, acting in conjunction with the governor of Oriente. Estrada Palma said that the veterans were not behind this move and that it caused a "cry of indignation" in all the island, besides which it was lacking in any just basis, as the government had done a great deal toward getting pay for the army." While the rebels of Sevilla were still out, there was an attempt to blow up the President's train near Palmarito.8 Such incidents as these were to take place with increasing