20 



THE CUBA REVI EW 



CUBA TO-DAY. 



BY THE RT. K.EV. ALBION \V. KNIGHT, D.D., BISHOP OF CUBA. 



The Antiquity of Cuba— The Weakness of the Cuban of To-day — Where the 



Government of Intervention Failed — Great Bulk of Capital Foreign. 



"When Henry Hudson sailed his 'Half 

 Moon' up the river which tooic his 

 name, more than one city in Cuba had 

 celebrated its centennial. When the 

 Puritan Fathers landed on the New 

 England coast, Havana was one hun- 

 dred years old. When the Spanish flag 

 gave place to our flag on the palace of 

 the Governor-General of Cuba, it had 

 been approximately four hundred years 

 since Columbus landed on the site of 

 Havana, only a scanty hundred yards 

 from the spot on which the American 

 flag was raised. But, although Cuba 

 can claim antiquity, it is only within the 

 past ten years that it has been touched 

 by the great march of progress which 

 since the days of the Reformation has 

 marked what we term western civiliza- 

 tion." 



"She remained in isolation, and me- 

 diaeval customs, conceptions, ideals, pre- 

 vailed to within the past decade. Even 

 to-day they have not altogether been 

 removed, although fast giving way to 

 modern civilization. To a lover of his- 

 tory and things antique, it is hard to 

 see many of these older customs giving 

 way before the insistent force of the 

 things of to-day. On the other hand, 

 when one realizes the general uplift to 

 humanity which comes with modern civ- 

 ilization he could wish that the view- 

 point of many of the Cuban citizens of 

 to-day were changed. It is true, the 

 Cuban is beginning to grasp the ideal. 

 and is to a great extent an idealist; but 

 he has not yet come to realize that lofty 

 ideals can only be attained bv the stress 

 and struggle of daily routine. Some of 

 them have been lifted up to the moun- 

 tain top and given the glorious vision; 

 but they do not realize how insecure is 

 their foothold on that pinnacle. They 

 do not yet appreciate that those who 

 have aided them to attain that vision 

 have themselves only reached it through 

 centuries of toil. This is what I would 

 point out as the weakness of the Cuban 

 of to-day. And it is a lack of apprecia- 

 tion of this fact that makes other people 

 too impatient with him. The average 

 American citizen does not understand it, 

 and so misjudges the Cuban and his ca- 

 pacity. That he has intellectual acumen 

 of a high order none who has had any 

 intimate dealings with him will doubt. 

 That he possesses the polish of the Latin 

 mannerisms many realize who have had 

 occasion to live with him. But beneath 

 it all there is an evident desire to attain 



things without the wear and tear neces- 

 sary to reach them. Some of their lead- 

 ers recognize the difticult}' to be con- 

 tended with in bringing the great mass 

 of the people to a sense of the difficul- 

 ties in their way. None realized this 

 more than the late Tomas Estrada 

 Palma, who was placed at the head of 

 the Republic as its first president; and 

 [ believe many in the present govern- 

 ment realize fully the situation, but the 

 leaders are dependent upon the will of 

 the people for the power that they exer- 

 cise, and they know that the will of the 

 people is for an ideal condition without 

 the hardship of attaining that condition. 

 They are, therefore, confronted with the 

 task of bringing about a condition with- 

 out having the people with them. It is 

 here, it seems to the student of Cuban 

 aff'airs, that the recent government of 

 intervention by the American people 

 failed. The two occasions when the 

 United States held the reins '">f power in 

 Cuba gave golden opportunities to 

 teach and train the people along differ- 

 ent lines from those in which I'hey vere 

 trained. During the seven years of our 

 occupancy much could have been done 

 to change the industrial situation. A 

 different system of taxation and land- 

 ownership would have wrought won- 

 ders in bringing about a more contented 

 and stable citizenry. The one would 

 have incurred opposition from the 

 masses, and the other would have been 

 opposed by the capitalists; but our gov- 

 ernment was in such a position that it 

 was not dependent upon either of these 

 classes, and the remedies should have 

 been applied. It is doubtful whether any 

 government of the Cuban people will be 

 able to carry them into effect without 

 losing its power. It is true that much 

 capital has had courage to enter the 

 island because the United States stands 

 as sponsor before the world for the se- 

 curity of things, and this capital has 

 made wonderful changes, and developed 

 many enterprises. The custom house 

 reports show that the exports of the 

 island exceed in value the imports; but 

 it should be borne in mind that the 

 goods exported belong in very large 

 measure to the absent capitalist, and the 

 producing laborers are to a great extent 

 foreigners, who save their earnings in 

 order to return to their homes. This 

 necessarily produces an industrial acute- 

 ness which was aggravated by the late 

 government of intervention when it 



