After making allowance for all accounts in suspense, General Brooke turned over to his successor in office, a sum which, in round figures, amounted to $2,000,000. As given by Collector of Customs Bliss, in his report for 1902 (Tables 28 and 37), the statistics of foreign trade for the year 1899 appear as follows: Total imports (including bullion) Total exports $74,845,186.00 49,327,724.00 Of the imports, $37,188,597 came from the United States, and $37,656,589 from all other countries. Of the exports, $34,381,738 went to the United States, and $14,945,986 to all other countries. CHAPTER IX THE SECOND YEAR OF OCCUPATION GENERAL JOHN R. BROOKE, the first American Military Governor of Cuba, was a soldier with a soldier's training. He was approaching the year of his retirement, and had grown gray in the service of his country. His only ambition was that of the true soldier to do the work to which he was assigned according to the best of his ability. He had no special interests to serve and no special axes to grind. Although often severely criticised during the year of his incumbency, many a Cuban wished, afterward, that he were back again. It was remembered that, whatever his failings, he never broke a promise. General Wood, his successor, was a younger man, with an ample endowment of personal ambition. The new Military Governor of Cuba was not in full accord with the views expressed in the proclamation of his retiring predecessor. In his report, after reviewing the organization of the insular administration, General Wood says: "The country was, generally speaking, tranquil. There were in certain sections small groups of bandits. General conditions were improving throughout the Island. A large tobacco crop and a small sugar crop were in prospect. "A new school law, somewhat rudimentary in character but believed sufficiently complete for immediate needs, had been published in order to permit the preliminary establishment of schools, the efficient operation of which would cost several hundred thousand dollars per month. The schools were practically without school furniture and the amount of supplies and materials was very small. "The crowded condition of the jails, filled with untried prisoners, indicated only too clearly an inefficient administration of justice. Generally speaking, jails and hospitals were all in need of refitting and repairs. In the Department of Public Works, a systematic and well-defined plan of operation was needed in order that the main lines of communication might be opened with as little delay as possible. . . . All municipalities were in debt and without revenues sufficient for their maintenance, necessitating monthly allotments from the treasury of the Island.” With the opening of the new administration, the Secretaries of the former government tendered their resignations, which were accepted. An order of Jan. 1, 1900, filled the vacancies, as follows: Secretary of State and Government. Secretary of Justice. Secretary of Agriculture. .Diego Tamayo. Enrique José de Varona. .Luis Estévez. Juan Ruis Rivera. Juan Bautista Barreiro. ...Jose Ramon Villalón. This, by the division of two of the former departments, established six secretaryships in place of four. Various changes were made during the year. Señor Rivera resigned on May 1, and was succeeded by Perfecto Lacoste. Señor Estévez resigned on the same date, and was succeeded by Señor Barreiro, whose place in the Department of Public Instruction was filled by the transfer of Señor Varona. Leopoldo Cancio was made Secretary of Finance vice Señor Varona. Señor Barreiro's resignation, on August 11, made place for Miguel Gener y Rincon. Many changes were made in the sub-secretaryships and various minor offices. By these changes, an effort was made, in theory at least, to counteract the tendency toward that governmental centralization which had marked the experience of the former Cabinet. It can hardly be contended that the effort was notably successful. So actively did the new incumbent concern himself in the details of administration throughout the Island that the change was rather one of form than of fact. It substituted autocracy for bureaucracy and made the bureau the instrument of the Military Governor. The Civil Orders issued during the second year about doubled in number those issued by General Brooke. The special activities of General Wood were exercised in two directions, with a third only less prominent. These were education and sanitation, with legal reform for the third. He became dissatisfied with the somewhat diffuse methods of Superintendent Frye, who was establishing schools at an amazing rate throughout the Island, but after a method which was at least unsystematic and lacking in proper regulation and record. For the confusion which followed, Mr. Frye disclaims all responsibility, and alleges interference and unfaith on the part of the Military Governor. Out of the experience there has grown a somewhat acrimonious dispute which might be called the Wood-Frye controversy. While the affair is somewhat complicated, the evidence which has appeared, official and non-official, points clearly to a conclusion that Mr. Frye was acting under a duly promulgated school law, and that he acted entirely within the provisions of that law. It also appears clearly that the Military Governor failed to support him by carrying out the further provisions of the law in departments which did not come within the scope of Mr. Frye's duties and responsibilities. Testifying under oath before the Senate Committee on Military Affairs, on Dec. 9, 1903, Mr. Frye preferred severe charges against General Wood, and supported them with documentary evidence. Among others, he made the following statement: Q. That is what you claim he was doing- destroying the schools? A. I do not say he was destroying them deliberately, but the effect of his orders was to destroy them, and, personally, I think it was simply to create the necessity for the new school law to be published by himself, and thus throw discredit upon General Brooke. Whether or not Mr. Frye was justified in thus assailing General Wood's motives, two facts remain. One is that somewhat more than ninety per cent of all the schools in Cuba were organized and established under the Brooke law of Dec. 6, 1899, and the other is that this law was superseded by another issued by General Wood on June 30, 1900. This contained certain provisions which are the basis of other charges made by Mr. Frye, and was in its turn followed by a revision which was issued as Order No. 368, on Aug. 1, 1900. This continued as the School Law of the Island for the remainder of the term of American occupation. It was drafted by Lieut. Matthew E. Hanna, of the Governor General's staff, and was based upon the laws of the State of Ohio. To Lieutenant Hanna is due great credit for the systematizing of the entire school work of the Island. Monthly reports were required from every school, and an efficient system of tabulation enabled one to see at a glance just what was being done in each and in all. So much stress has been laid upon the educational work of the American Government during the years 1900 and 1901 that an incorrect impression has been left upon the public mind. Contrary to a widely prevalent idea, a school system existed under the Spanish Government. That it was both |