Page images
PDF
EPUB

All these republics, owing to their Spanish training, have been of one mind as to customs tariffs, and have made commerce bear all the burdens it could possibly carry, both for the purpose of producing revenue and for the advantages this system gave to those who had an opportunity to evade the exactions of the customs collector. An honest and efficient customs administration cannot be found in any Spanish country on earth. “Entre los amigos no hay ley"-among friends there is no law is one of the proverbs of the Spanish people, and it would not be a bad inscription to place over the portals of their custom houses.

Not only are customs assessed upon goods entering the country, but there are also state or provincial tariffs, as well as municipal tariffs; so that a shipment of merchandise to an interior city must pay a federal tariff, a state tariff, and a municipal tariff. This, of course, calls for a large civil force, and the expense of collection is by no means small. The new Cuban constitution has no provision for the free interchange of commerce between the provinces of the island; and should they follow the lead of other countries of like origin, an effort will be made to secure funds for provincial and municipal expenses by means of local tariffs, which will operate against the development of the island, and add enormously to the cost of the administration of government.

Unlettered people have never been successful in guarding their liberties, but have become the prey of ambitious leaders who have ruled by passion or force. The masses of the Spanish-speaking people of America are not educated, and their high percentage of illiteracy is a sad comment on the lack of interest taken by the respective governments in the education of the people. This was originally an inheritance from Spain, where illiterates are in the majority. Cuba, having been so long under the rule of Spain, has about the same record, which is not very different from the condition of other Spanish-American countries. In the republics already established the difficulty was originally chargeable to the mother country; but now, after they have been independent for almost a century, with no marked advance in the direction of general education, the conclusion is that a true conception of the importance of education has not been grasped by the rulers of these lands. The truth is that these countries are making a ghastly play at government. General education is not necessary in a despotism, whether royal or military. By these people any general scheme of public instruction is looked upon as an ornamental adjunct of government, rather than a necessary part of it.

While prolific of constitutions the Latin republics of America allow none of them to endure long enough to acquire a respectable age. In the adoption of the fundamental laws of other lands they are inclined to seize upon what is superficial and spectacular rather than upon those principles which lie at the basis of liberty, security, and order. The desire to rule makes the brave Latin-American follow many a Don Quixote, as did Sancho Panza, upon the promise of an island to govern. The very bravery and daring of the Spanish character, prone to act without counting the cost or foreseeing results, are breeders of revolutions.

If the natural wealth of a country were a measure of its stability there would be hope for Cuba; but Cuba was rich before the revolution. The exports per capita in 1897 were $63.10, far larger than the exports of any Spanish-American republic. Uruguay exported $41.00 per capita, Costa Rica $25.00, the Argentine $24.20. The per capita exports of Cuba outranked those of Great Britain, and Great Britain outranked all other civilized countries of the world. Cuba under Spanish control had a greater wealth per capita than the States of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, or Arkansas; but this very wealth, actual and potential, is an element of danger rather than security for the stability of the future republic, for it has been productive of prodigality rather than prudence.

According to the census of 1899, taken under the direction of the United States, the rural property of Cuba was valued at $184,724,836, on which rested a mortgage indebtedness of $106,897,249. In other words, it is mortgaged to about 60 per cent of its full value. The town property makes even a worse showing. It is valued at $138,917,059, and is mortgaged for $100,729,943, almost 80 per cent of its full value. With the relinquishment of United States control in Cuba, one of the first problems the new government will have to face will be to make some arrangement for paying, scaling, refunding, or repudiating this enormous indebtedness. Owing to the distress and disturbances caused by the war, mortgage foreclosures and even interest payments thereon have been stayed by military orders. This cannot be continued any longer; but foreclosure proceedings now entered upon can be continued under some of the many recursos provided by Spanish legal procedure until Cuban legislators, Cuban courts, and Cuban executives dispose of the question of mortgage indebtedness. As the money was loaned chiefly by foreigners and borrowed by Cubans, it is the creditor rather than the debtor who is walking the floor and wondering where the money is to come from to repay the legal and just debt.

Spanish people, as has been remarked, have always been inclined to place the burden of government on commerce. No just or equitable system of land tax has ever been enacted or enforced by them. Their tendencies have been to tax necessities, and bear lightly upon luxuries. The customs tariff, as made and collected by the United States authorities in Cuba, is producing a revenue of about $15,000,000 per annum, from which provision is promptly and easily made for the expenses of government, the public school system, sanitary measures, and public improvements. With the change that will follow complete independence many additions to the annual budget will have to be made.

It will be necessary to pay salaries to a President, a Vice-President, Cabinet officers, collectors of customs, a diplomatic corps for Cuba will want a minister at every important capital — and a consular service. Cuba will have to provide also for a Senate and a House of Representatives, as it has been arranged by the new constitution to have four senators from each province of the island and a representative for every 25,000 of the population. The school system ought to be extended; and as there is almost a dearth of school-houses, the bulwarks of a republic, large expenditures should be made for such buildings. The Army of Liberation" will clamor at the doors of the Cuban Congress for back pay, bounties, and pensions, calling for an amount which no man can estimate. The bonds issued by the Cuban Junta during the revolution, the amount of which has never been made public, will demand recognition, together with their unpaid interest coupons. With the general government, the provinces, and the municipalities free to grant concessions, to make loans, and to contract debts, and with a very natural desire to have some ready cash, it is to be feared that obligations will be assumed the total amount of which will reach a startling sum.

The first steps of a new government are of supreme importance to the future welfare of the country. A man brave and successful in the field is not necessarily a wise statesman; and there is nothing in the recent history of Cuba that leads her thoughtful friends to indulge the hope that the successors of such men as Felix Varela, Escobedo, Domingo Delmonte, Pozos Dulce, José M. Heredia, José de la Luz Caballero, José Antonio Saco, Morales Lemus, Echeverria, and J. M. Mestre either live in Cuba to-day, or that, if there be such, they will have part in the councils of the new republic.

As already stated, the tariff produces about $15,000,000 annually; but this large income reaches the treasury of the island through American administration of the customs. When the new republic takes hold, it

is to be feared that even under the same tariff rates nothing like such a sum will reach the treasury. Spanish training militates against spotless integrity in the administration of the customs. The new constitution fails to make any provision forbidding the establishment of customs duties between the different provinces of the island, or even between the cities of the same province; in fact, the constitution rather invites and anticipates the establishment of provincial and municipal custom houses as a means of raising revenue for the expenses of those political divisions of the country. This is the practice of nearly all Spanish countries; and the result in Cuba will be to make the cost of imported merchandise so great that consumption will be reduced to a minimum, to the serious detriment of the federal or insular revenues. In this manner the fiscal conditions attendant upon the exercise of sovereignty by the new republic will be further complicated.

It is to be feared that Cuba is not in hearty accord with general education to the extent of devoting the necessary sum for its support. The sanitary measures which have been enforced, and which, according to Article V of the Platt amendment, Cuba promises to continue and to extend, do not receive the conscientious support of the Cuban authorities. A perfunctory compliance with sanitary and quarantine regulations will invite ante bellum conditions, and may give rise to differences between Cuba and the United States.

The rock on which it is most likely that Cuban independence will be wrecked is the solemn promise not to contract or recognize any debt beyond the ability of the resources of the island to meet. It is a wellknown fact that a borrower is optimistic as to his ability when seeking a loan, and pessimistic when interest accrues and notes fall due. Cuba lives, moves, and has her being in sugar and tobacco. Without a market these products are worthless. The rapid development of the beet-sugar industry is making it more and more difficult to find a market for the tropical cane product. Cuba can no longer look to Europe for a market for her sugar. She therefore turns to the United States. A prenatal cry of the Cuban republic is for reciprocity arrangements between the two countries which will insure for her sugar an American market on terms more favorable than are granted by the tariff at present existing. For any such arrangement to be genuinely reciprocal and this is a matter of business, not charity-Cuba would have to admit on very favorable terms a volume of American goods sufficient to offset the advantages secured by the admission of her sugar and tobacco. This would make a serious cut into the customs revenues of

the island, and would tend to widen the gap between the budget and the receipts.

There is grave danger that the experiment of the independent government of Cuba by Cubans will have the following results: The revenues will decrease and expenses will increase; projected improvements, absolutely necessary for the development of the country, will languish; schools will be neglected; sanitary measures will not be intelligently prosecuted; and the country will retrograde. These things may now be predicted with some degree of confidence without assuming that rival parties will raise the standard of revolution, as has so often happened in every Spanish country in America. The latter possibility has been scarcely mentioned in treating of the Cuban question, as it is a matter which time alone can develop; but as every one of the fifteen Latin-American republics has had many domestic revolutions, the conclusion is reasonable that Cuba is not free from the same tendency, and may in the near future appeal to the bayonet rather than the ballot to decide presidential contests. The President, under the Cuban constitution, will have almost supreme power in the distribution of patronage, even in the provinces. The government will be a central one, and the provinces for governmental purposes will have a nominal rather than a real existence. Conservative

Cubans, with large interests in the island, urge the speedy establishment of independence, not because they have confidence in its permanency, but because they see that the trial must be made; and they look upon it simply as a necessary step to final annexation or control by the United States.

The joint resolution of Congress will withdraw the American forces from Cuba, but the Platt amendment will sooner or later send them back with more serious problems to solve and a large debt to provide for. It is the custom among nations for the conqueror to impose an indemnity upon the conquered, as was done recently by the Western Powers in the case of China; but the United States, the conqueror in the late war, paid an indemnity to Spain, returned her soldiers to their native land, clothed the naked, nursed the sick, and assumed the payment of the losses of her own citizens which arose from the war, asking no money indemnity from either Spain or Cuba for the enormous cost of the Cuban campaign. Neither has Cuba expressed any sense of financial indebtedness to the United States for the expense incurred in driving the saffron flag of Spain from American soil and American waters. The end is not yet. EDMOND WOOD.

« PreviousContinue »