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The National Geographic Magazine 



so that this year, in spite of an insurrec- 

 tion, to which I shall hereafter refer, she 

 will export 1,200,000 tons of sugar, the 

 largest in her history, and as large a 

 tobacco crop in matter of value as she 

 ever has produced. It should be said, 

 however, that the drouth of this year 

 has interfered with sugar planting for 

 future crops, and that it has much in- 

 jured the food crops. The actual loss 

 in revenue to the United States from the 

 reduction of tariff rates by the treaty is 

 certainly not less than $10,000,000 a year. 



AMERICAN INTERVENTION IN I906 



In Ma)', 1903, the United States turned 

 over to the Republic the control of Cuba. 

 During the intervention there had been 

 held elections for municipal officers, and 

 also for the members of a constitutional 

 convention. At the instance of the 

 United States, there was introduced into 

 the constitution what was known as the 

 "Piatt amendment," by which the United 

 States was given the right to intervene 

 at any time in order to maintain in Cuba 

 a government of law and order. We thus 

 secured the right to act in support of the 

 government which we had paid out so 

 much money and so much blood to estab- 

 lish. For three years and a half the Re- 

 public of Cuba maintained itself with 

 great apparent prosperity, but an abuse 

 by the party in control of its executive 

 power in respect to elections brought on 

 an insurrection, which the government of 

 the Republic had not properly prepared 

 itself to resist or suppress, and the island 

 was soon in the throes of a war which 

 bade fair to destroy for several years its 

 agricultural wealth, and to bring about 

 again that awful condition which insur- 

 rections against Spain had produced. 

 Again the United States intervened ; 

 sent first a formidable fleet, and then an 

 army of 5,000 men, secured a disband- 

 ment of the opposing forces, and estab- 

 lished a provisional government. This 

 it did under a proclamation which prom- 

 ised a restoration of the Republic, as 

 soon as tranquillity was restored to such 

 an extent as to permit the holding of a 



fair election and the determination of 

 those persons upon whom a government 

 could be properly devolved. 



The Republic had not complied with its 

 constitution in several important re- 

 spects — it had not made provision for an 

 independent judiciary; it had not pro- 

 vided autonomy in its municipalities, and 

 it had not provided an election law which 

 would secure, as required by the consti- 

 tution, minority representation. A com- 

 mission under the provisional govern- 

 ment is now drafting an election law, in- 

 cluding a law for an electoral census, a 

 law making the judiciary independent, 

 a civil-service law, and a law establishing 

 autonomy in municipalities. It is to be 

 hoped that within seven months we may 

 take an electoral census ; then hold a 

 municipal election, and six months there- 

 after a national election; and then, after 

 a further interval of four months, turn 

 over the government to the persons prop- 

 erly elected. 



In this intervention the United States 

 has already spent about $4,000,000 and 

 will be put to a possible additional ex- 

 pense of perhaps $3,000,000 more. The 

 President is given authority to receive 

 from the Cuban treasury such sums as 

 the condition of that treasury may per- 

 mit, to reimburse the United States for 

 the expense of intervention, but it is 

 quite unlikely that, in the various calls 

 that there are upon the Cuban treasury 

 for works of improvement and for the 

 bettering of the government, any large 

 part of these funds thus expended will 

 be reimbursed to the United States. 



PORTO RICO 



The sovereignty of the Island of Porto 

 Rico passed to the United States on the 

 1 8th of October, 1898, and this with the 

 full consent of the people of that island. 

 On May i, 1900, the military government 

 ceased and a civil government, in ac- 

 cordance with the act of Congress, was 

 inaugurated, and this continues un- 

 changed down to the present. It includes 

 a governor appointed by the President, 

 an executive council appointed by the 



