CHAPTER XII

THE END OF THE INTERVENTION

THE opening days of 1902 found the Island of Cuba upon the threshold of a new life. The conditions under which the United States proposed withdrawal had been accepted. A national election had been held, and although another election was required for full determination, the personnel of the new government was generally known. On February 24, the second election was held, and Tomas Estrada Palma was formally chosen as Cuba's first President, with Luis Estevez as Vice-President. The elected Senators included some whose names had been made familiar to American readers by their participation in the military operations of the revolution, and the political operations which followed the termination of hostilities. So far as Cuba was concerned, nothing remained except the official organization of the various elements. May 20 was announced as the date of American withdrawal and of the definité establishment of the Cuban Republic.

Economically and industrially, the Island was in a state of suspense and unrest. The struggle for tariff concessions in the United States was in active process. This will be treated in another chapter. Notwithstanding the fact that the generally predicted industrial disaster did not occur, there is no doubt that the situation was seriously menacing, and that a real ground existed for the wide-spread apprehension that was both felt and manifested. That the

disaster did not fall is in no way due to any act of the United States. Its aversion was the result of other influences.

Any consideration of the proceedings of the Government of Intervention during the year 1902 is necessarily subject to the individual view of America's justification for the policy which had been adopted in the matter of "sovereignty, jurisdiction, and control" over the Island. This applies throughout the entire experience, but especially to the closing days. Notably from the beginning of the Wood régime, there was shown an increasing tendency to ignore the declaration of the Teller Amendment, and a manifest purpose not only to administer the present affairs of the Island, but as well to essay regulation of its fundamental laws and governmental processes. Technically, this can only be regarded as a flagrant violation of a national pledge. The point was not broadly raised in the United States, and the American people, hearing no vigorous outcry of protest, assumed Cuban acquiescence and approval from the mere fact of Cuban silence. The Cuban point of view was that protest was useless. They were in the hands of a stronger power which, having adopted a certain course of procedure, was undoubtedly disposed to stand by its actions. The power, of course, existed. The moral or the legal right to exercise that power is distinctly open to question.

In his report for 1902 (p. 271) General Wood says: "The work called for and accomplished was the building up of a republic, by Anglo-Saxons, in a Latin country where approximately seventy per cent of the people were illiterate; where they had lived always as a military colony; where general elections, as we understand them, were unknown; . . . in short, the establishment, in a little over three years, in a Latin military colony, . . . of a republic modelled closely upon lines of our great Republic." This appears to have

been General Wood's interpretation of the only authoritative policy ever announced by the United States regarding its control of Cuban affairs, a policy declared by the American Congress in these words: "That the United States hereby disclaims any disposition or intention to exercise sovereignty, jurisdiction, or control over said Island except for the pacification thereof, and asserts its determination, when that is accomplished, to leave the government and control of the Island to its people."

There is neither statement nor intimation here that the work called for or to be accomplished was the constitution of a republic, "by Anglo-Saxons," for those of an alien race, upon Anglo-Saxon lines. At no time during the preceding three years had there been manifested so definite a purpose as that shown during the months of 1902, in the adoption of autocratic monarchical methods for the establishment of a republic in a foreign land. In the issuance of official orders, during the preceding period, those orders were prefaced with the statement that "The Military Governor directs the publication of the following order." In numerous cases, in 1902, this was changed to "I, Leonard Wood, Military Governor, by virtue of the authority vested in me, direct the publication of the following order." At no previous time had interference with established laws been so direct and flagrant.

On February 7 and on March 3, there were issued railroad laws which instituted an entirely new order in Cuban railway matters. The primary object of the law of February 7 was, undoubtedly, the definite legal establishment of the new railway from Santiago to Santa Clara. The law, in itself, has much to recommend it. It is a good law, and its operation will in all probability make for the general welfare of the Island. Nevertheless, the establish

ment of such laws belonged properly to the Cuban Government which was so soon to be inaugurated. On April 28, only three weeks before the installation of the new government, another law was issued which regulated in detail the rates for both freight and passenger traffic on all the insular railways. The general railway question is treated in another chapter under a special heading.

On January 24, Civil Order No. 23 abolished about onethird of the existing municipalities of the Island. This was distinctly a matter which concerned the Cuban people and the Cuban Government. In his report covering the period, General Wood states that "Shortly following the publication of the decree of suppression (of these municipalities) a considerable number of complaints and protests were received concerning the advisability and the fairness of the distribution as made. Some of the protests seemed to be well grounded and the modifications suggested were embodied in subsequent orders. .. Considering the number of interests involved, political and material, the large number of persons concerned, the gravity and the perplexity of the question, the general acceptance of the order, with a comparatively small number of protests, was remarkable.”

This statement of the Military Governor certainly warrants an opinion that the re-districting of these municipalities was done without due and proper consideration and investigation. Suitable opportunity should have been given for the entry of complaints and protests before the matter was acted upon, and the step, if to be taken at all, should have been final. It is precisely upon such issues, and upon his frequent retraction of previous steps and rectification of previous errors, that General Wood made the mistake which cost him the confidence and the esteem of the Cuban people. It has been generally supposed that he possessed both. As

a matter of fact, he held neither. He acted upon a supposition of his thorough comprehension of Cuban character. The Cubans realized his failure in that respect and quietly bided their time knowing that his control of their affairs could be no more than temporary. General Wood misinterpreted Cuban silence. Where protest appeared, it was his custom to denounce it as the unjustified complainings of the disaffected. But the Cuban people had been trained in self-repression by many years of life under Spanish military autocracy, and the influence of that training remained. A few might protest, but the many kept silence.

An important law, of doubtful justification under the circumstances, was issued on March 5. This related to a question known as that of the Haciendas Comuneras. It involved a matter of boundary lines and undivided estates. During the earlier days of the Spanish settlement in the Island, land grants were made by the government. These were made in circles from some more or less well defined central object, a tree, a rock, or a special formation of land. Surveys were most loosely made, and there were many instances in which these circles overlapped and gave rise to disputed ownership. Land sales, transfers, and successive inheritance had left titles to numerous areas in a state of utter confusion. These were determined by the law of March 5. Properly, the determination belonged to a Cuban government and to Cuban courts, and General Wood's action was, in reality, a usurpation of prerogatives not rightfully his, although the technical work was done under the control of the Secretary of the Treasury.

On April 12, 1902, there appeared the following official announcement:

"I, Leonard Wood, Military Governor of Cuba, by virtue of the authority vested in me, order publication of the following: