48 Presidential Addresses 



kept our pledge to the letter, and that we have es 

 tablished a new international precedent. I do not 

 remember (and I have thought a good deal about it, 

 ladies and gentlemen) another case in modern times 

 where, as a result of such a war, the victorious na 

 tion has contented itself with setting a new nation 

 free and fitting it as well as could be done to start 

 well in the difficult path of self-government. Mere 

 anarchy and ruin would have fallen upon the island 

 if we had contented ourselves with simple victory 

 in the war and then had turned the island loose to 

 shift for itself. For over three years the harder 

 work of peace has supplemented the hard work 

 of war; for over three years our representatives 

 in the island (representatives largely of the army, 

 remember I sometimes hear the army attacked; 

 gentlemen, I have even heard missionaries attacked. 

 But it is well for us that when there comes a great 

 work in peace or in war we have the army as an in 

 strument for it), our representatives in Cuba have 

 steadily worked to build up a school system, to see 

 to sanitation, to preserve order and secure the chance 

 for the starting of industries; to do everything in 

 our power so that the new government might begin 

 with the chances in its favor. And now as a nation 

 we bid it Godspeed. We intend to see that it has 

 all the aid we can give it, and I trust and believe 

 that our people will, through their national legis 

 lature, see to it very shortly that Cuba has the ad 

 vantage of entering into peculiarly close relations 

 with us in our economic system. 



