212 



CUBA. 



Feb. 21, 1901, as a part of the organic law of the 

 Cuban Republic. He read a message from the 

 President of the United States declaring the 

 American occupation at an end, and then lowered 

 the American and raised the Cuban flag. 'The 

 United States garrison had been gradually with- 

 drawn, and the remaining troops left with Gen. 

 Wood, excepting 800 of the coast-artillery, left 

 to care for three batteries on the coast until these 

 should be replaced by a Cuban force. The Cuban 

 "Congress met and proclaimed the Constitution as 

 soon as the Government was installed. President 

 Palma in his message to Congress on May 28 

 said that the motive of the United States in 

 siding with Cuba in her fight for independence 

 was purely disinterested and that Cuba is capa- 

 ble of fulfilling all the obligations and promises 

 she has contracted. The budget, however, should 

 be prepared with care. Cattle-raising ought 

 to be encouraged and agricultural stations 

 established to improve the methods of culture of 

 sugar and tobacco, and agricultural industries 

 of various kinds should be introduced. The crisis 

 in the sugar industry was due to the excessive 

 production of beet-sugar in Europe. An im- 

 mediate remedy would be the reduction of the 

 American tariff charge on sugar, to obtain which 

 he would devote his efforts. The Government 

 would also devote attention to education and 

 encourage the construction of railroads, at the 

 same time protecting the capital already invested 

 in them. Cuba must cultivate cordial relations 

 with all nations and secure favorable treaties of 

 amity and commerce, and must also take special 

 care 'that her relations with the United States 

 are of the friendliest character. The new Cuban 

 Government pardoned all convicted Americans, 

 including the post-office officials Neely, Reeves, 

 and Rathbone, sentenced for ten years. On Aug. 

 10 Senor Terry offered his resignation as Secretary 

 of Agriculture. The State Department at Wash- 

 ington decided that the Isle of Pines passed under 

 Cuban control when American authority over 

 Cuba was withdrawn and must remain so until 

 the question of its ownership is settled by treaty. 

 American settlers, who have obtained half the 

 grazing ground that constitutes the chief wealth 

 of the island in dispute, petitioned for the pro- 

 tection of the United States Government because 

 the Cuban Government neglected to exercise any 

 authority or jurisdiction. Rear- Admiral R. B. 

 Bradford, who inspected sites for naval and coal- 

 ing stations in the West Indies, recommended 

 that one naval station be established at Triscor- 

 nia, in Havana harbor, opposite the capital, and 

 another at Guantanamo, and that coaling sta- 

 tions be located at Nipe Bay and at Cienfuegos. 

 By means of these the United States could con- 

 trol the passes leading to its coasts from the Car- 

 ibbean Sea. The Cubans were not inclined to op- 

 pose these selections except the one that the 

 American naval expert considered the most im- 

 portant of all, the one in Havana harbor, com- 

 manding the Bahama, Florida, and Yucatan 

 channels and the entrance to the Gulf of Mexico. 

 Although it insures the Cuban capital against 

 attack without cost to Cuba and provides em- 

 ployment and remuneration for many individual 

 Cubans, they would chafe to see the United States 

 flag flying in Havana harbor, to be saluted equally 

 with the Cuban flag by foreign ships as they enter. 

 It would seem like an emblem of American 

 suzerainty and a sign of their vassalage, and ap- 

 peared to be unnecessary, since without such forti- 

 fied station the United States could use Havana 

 as a naval base in case of war. The Isle 

 of Pines, having no good harbor, is valueless for 



a naval or coaling station. While the American 

 settlers and some of the other inhabitants peti- 

 tioned for annexation to the United States, others 

 asked that it be permitted to remain attached to 

 Cuba. It is claimed by Cuba as an island adjacent 

 to the coast which was under the administration 

 and jurisdiction of the Spanish colonial Govern- 

 ment. The claim of the United States is based 

 on the cession of Porto Rico and all other islands 

 belonging to Spain in the West Indies by the 

 treaty of peace acknowledging the independence 

 of Cuba. 



Reciprocity with, the United States. The 

 oppression of Spain from which Cuba was freed 

 by the intervention of the United States was 

 mainly a financial and commercial oppression. 

 Spain, however, gave Cuba a preferential market 

 for her products. This market was closed as a 

 result of the war, and as a condition of with- 

 drawing the military Government and permitting 

 the Cubans to set up an independent republic 

 the United States Congress, in the Platt amend- 

 ment, imposed a restriction on their independence, 

 denying them the right to seek a market in any 

 other country by granting preferential tariff rates 

 that should not be shared by the producers and 

 exporters of the United States. The sugar and 

 tobacco on which the livelihood of the Cubans 

 depends could find a market nowhere save in the 

 United States; yet they were excluded from that 

 market by the prohibitive duties of the Dingley 

 tariff. The Cuban planters were holding their un- 

 marketable sugar by the aid of money borrowed 

 at 2 per cent, a month, awaiting the opening of 

 United States ports by a removal of the tariff 

 barrier. Although reciprocal trade relations were 

 generally believed to be conducive to American, 

 as they were essential to Cuban prosperity, a 

 strong opposition to effective reciprocity was 

 shown by the American beet-sugar growers, whose 

 entire crop has till now reached only 77,000 tons, 

 and by growers of tobacco for cigars, in whose 

 behalf the Protectionists opposed a reduction of 

 tariff sufficient to afford relief to Cuba. A bill 

 for reciprocal trade relations introduced by the 

 Committee on Ways and Means in the House of 

 Representatives provided for a reciprocal reduc- 

 tion of duties equivalent to 20 per cent, ad 

 valorem, conditional on the enactment by Cuba 

 of the same immigration and exclusion laws as 

 those of the United States. Gov. Wood's opinion 

 was that a reduction of not less than 33 J per 

 cent, in the United States sugar tariff was ab- 

 solutely necessary for the welfare of the island. 

 The merchants of Europe were very desirous that 

 there should be no operative reciprocity between 

 Cuba and the United States. Representatives of 

 various commercial interests in. England and 

 India prayed their Government to use any pos- 

 sible means to prevent it. Mr. Roosevelt, in his 

 message to Congress of March 27, said that the 

 commercial and political conditions in the island 

 of Cuba while under the Spanish Crown afford 

 little basis for estimating the local development 

 of intercourse with this country under the influ- 

 ence of the new relations which have been created 

 by the achievement of Cuban independence and 

 which are to be broadened and strengthened in 

 every proper way by conventional pacts with the 

 Cubans and by wise and beneficent legislation 

 aiming to stimulate the commerce between the 

 two countries if the great task we accepted in 

 1898 is to be fittingly accomplished. Even the 

 measure of reciprocity contained in the bill before 

 Congress was strongly opposed by a section of the 

 Republican members, who refused to be bound by 

 the decision of the party, pronounced by a major- 



