THL 

 CUBA RLVILW 



"ALL ABOUT CUBA" 



Copyright, 1914, hy the Munson Steamship Line 



Volume XII 



AUGUST, 1914 



Number 9 



CUBAN GOVERNMENT MATTERS 



HOW CUBAN SENATORS ARE ELECTED— CUBAN IMMIGRATION- 

 POLITICAL GOSSIP 



Senators are now elected for 



The Cuban terms of eight years, half of 



Senate the total number being chosen 



every four years. Twelve of 

 the present Senators were elected in 1908, 

 and, therefore, their terms expire in 1916; 

 the remaining twelve, chosen in 1912, hold 

 over until 1920. A proposed new law would 

 provide for the election of two, instead of 

 fom", representatives in each province by 

 dn-ect popular vote, and this provision would 

 come into operation in 1916, when but six 

 senators would be elected in place of the 

 twelve whose terms would then expire; the 

 same course would be pursued in 1920. In 

 the meanwhile, it is proposed to elect, in 

 1915, for terms of four years. Senators repre- 

 senting special bodies or associations. 



At present the Cuban Senate is organized 

 more or less upon the lines of the United 

 States Senate, its twentj'-four members (four 

 from each of the six provinces), not being 

 chosen directly by the voters, but indirectly 

 by means of electors. However, the Cuban 

 provinces, mere administrative divisions, 

 cannot for a moment be compared with 

 our sovereign States, and in point of fact the 

 people, in voting a ticket of senatorial electors, 

 cast their votes just as directly for a given 

 senatorial candidate whom the electors are 

 bound to select, as they do for any member 

 of the lower house. Hence the two bodies 

 are composed of practically the same class 

 of representatives, for the most part profes- 

 sional politicians, pure and simple. 



The general material development of the 

 island during the past twelve years has been 

 veiy marked, and in other ways, especially 

 in what concerns hygienic conditions, the 

 advance has been surprising; but the pro- 

 fessional politician still exercises his spell over 

 the electorate and is still successful in per- 

 suading voters that he is only working for 

 ■Cuba's prosperity, although his sole and only 



aim is liis individual enrichment, or at best 

 the gratification of a narrow personal 

 ambition. 



A possible remedy for this state of things 

 has been seen by some in a reform of the 

 Cuban Senate. That it shall become a 

 "Corporate Senate" is the solution proposed 

 by Senor Jose Antonio Ramos, who has re- 

 cently expressed his views on the subject in 

 Cuba Contemporanea. He says: 



However little an individual can accomplish acting 

 as a mere political partisan, we can easily see that 

 as a manufacturer, a merchant, a scientist or a pro- 

 fessional man, he will have a special interest in what 

 advantages the particular group to which he belongs. 

 However blindly a citizen might vote as a partisan, 

 however careless he might be as to the qualifications, 

 other than political, of his representatives, he would 

 be much more critical and circumspect if he were 

 choosing a representative entrusted with the defense 

 of his special interests. An artisan will now vote for 

 a Mr. Smith as his representative, without knowing 

 who he is; but if he were asked to choose a fellow- 

 artisan to represent his aspirations and his interests, 

 this man would not throw away his vote, but would 

 take pains to find out what any ^Ir. Smith had already 

 done to qualify himself for the particular task. 



The writer proposes a tentative plan for 

 the gradual transformation of the Senate in 

 this direction. — Review of Reviews, New York. 



Political 

 Gossip 



Conservatives 



A contemporary in Havana, 

 not a negi-o organ, complains 

 of the fact that out of forty 

 candidates nominated by the 

 to represent the party in 

 Congress, the provincial council, city board 

 and board of education, none are negroes. 

 It assures its readers that Generals Pedro 

 Diaz, Colonel Galvez, Sr. Clemente Rodri- 

 guez or the popular colored politician, Sr. 

 Pablo Herrera, are worthy and stand for 

 more within the party than any or a large 

 number of those designated. 



Another Havana newspaper saj's that 

 this indifference to the claims of negroes for 



