THE CUBA REVIEW. 



21 



brought about a forced period of pros- 

 perity by dissipating the treasury sur- 

 plus. It left Cuba with an empty treas- 

 ury and with an accumulation of unpaid 

 bills, and contracts not yet completed. 

 This is the condition which the present 

 administration in Cuba has to face. In 

 its desire to appease the people and 

 divert their minds, it gives to them the 

 lottery and cockpit, and bull-lighting 

 may yet return. As La Lucha, one of 

 the influential afternoon dailies, has well 

 said: 'The people have come to think 

 that the government must support them, 

 and not they the government." And who 

 will say that our military government 

 and our provisional government are al- 

 together free from fault in not giving 

 to the people of a different ideal? Had 

 we aimed at instability in the Cuban gov- 

 ernment, it seems to me we could not 

 have directed better. Cuba to-day 

 stands out before the world as a Re- 

 public whose people aspire to a per- 

 manent place among the nations. Upon 

 what does she base these aspirations? 

 one naturally asks. Has she the popu- 

 lation? Has she the country? In the 

 consideration of the problems which to- 

 day exist in the island, and the solution 

 of which means her destiny, one cannot 



ignore the people. The census taken 

 by the United States government under 

 General Leonard Wood showed a popu- 

 lation of 1,560,000, of which about 30 per 

 cent, were negroes and mulattoes. The 

 second American intervention took an- 

 other census in 1907, and the population 

 had increased to 2,028,000, an increase 

 of about 30 per cent, in the space of 

 eight years. This second census, while 

 showing a very large birth rate, indi- 

 cated that a considerable portion of the 

 increase came by immigration. This im- 

 migration was checked by the revolu- 

 tion or 1906, and while it is still a con- 

 siderable item of increase, it has not yet 

 reached the maximum which it attained 

 during the last year of the Palma re- 

 gime. Inasmuch as only one-tenth of 

 the island has been developed, we may 

 expect, when confidence in the stability 

 of things becomes thoroughly estab- 

 lished, the tide of immigration to set in 

 once more with even stronger force. 

 Taking the population of the island to- 

 day, it may be roughly divided into three 

 classes: (1) The native-born Cubans, 

 white and black; (2) the Spaniard, and 

 (3) the representatives of other nations. 

 The mass of the population is native- 

 born, with approximately 10 per cent. 



CCourtesy of The Churchman, N. Y.) 

 The Bishop's Residence, Havana. 



