THE 

 CUBA REVIEW 



/ 



"ALL ABOUT CUBA." 



Copyright, 1907, by the Munson Steamship Line. 



LIBRARV 

 NEW YORK 

 BOTANICAL 



QARDEN. 



Volume VL 



JANUARY, 1908. 



Number 2. 



POLITICAL. 



oc 



The latter part of Decem- 

 Palitical ber saw very little political 

 Apathy activity, and the apathy con- 

 Marked. tinued well into the new 

 year until the^ authorita- 

 tive statement of President Roosevelt, 

 fixing the date of the restoration 

 of the Cuban government immediately 

 aroused the greatest interest. Up to that 

 time the two candidates of the Liberal 

 party, Messrs. Jose Miguel Gomez and 

 Alfredo Zayas confined their efforts to keeping 

 their following intact, and to that end made 

 frequent visits to various parts of the island. 

 At many places meetings were held and 

 speeches made by representatives of the two 

 candidates, which were received by citizens 

 everywhere with much enthusiasm. When not 

 engaged in this work the candidates were at 

 the palace importuning Governor Magoon 

 for a pardon for some follower who was 

 at odds with the authorities and had landed 

 in jail, or asking for the construction of 

 cart roads and highways through various 

 inland towns. 



On January 14 General 



Gen. Menocal Menocal in a public letter 



Not a denied that he was a can- 



Candidate. didate for the presidency. 



He said he would never seek 



the office, neither would he stand in the 



way of Cubans forming other political 



groups. He said further that he attended 



a meeting at Senator Sanguily's house a 



few days earlier and met many others who 



desire to unite Cubans and shorten the 



American intervention, which, he declared, 



was hurtful to the Cuban national character. 



At this meeting nothing was said of his 



candidacy. 



A meeting of Miguelistas, as the follow- 

 ers of Jose Miguel Gomez are called, at 

 Cienfuegos on December 20 was very largely 

 attended. The addresses of the orators- 

 were markedly tolerant when referring tc 

 their political rivals. Gen. Loynaz del Cas- 

 tillo predicted Gen. Gomez's ■ 



A Sample election because the country 



Meeting at believed him to be a patriot,. 



Cienfuegos. but warned him that any 

 tyranny over the people would! 

 result in his overthrow. The speaker was 

 heartily embraced by the presidential can- 

 didate, who was evidently impressed by his 

 champion's speech. At the same meeting 

 Gen. Gomez made a promise which he said 

 he would make later in public that he would 

 not accept a second term. 



With the official announce- 



Candidates ment that Cuban self-govern- 

 Not Strong, ment is assured, comes many 

 expressions of doubt as to 

 whether either of the candidates for Presi- 

 dent, and at present there are but two in 

 the field, Messrs Zayas and Gomez, pos- 

 sesses a sufficiently large following or the 

 confidence of enough citizens to make his 

 administration stable if elected. Political 

 conditions are not encouraging. The Lib- 

 erals are still hopelessly divided and the 

 Conservatives and other parties are not or- 

 ganized and have no candidates, and this 

 after fifteen months of discussion. The 

 opinion is expressed that even if Zayas and 

 Gomez could be induced in the interests 

 of general harmony to withdraw, the 

 scramble for the offices which would im- 

 mediately come into life would make con- 

 ditions worse than they are now. 



