THE CUBA REVIEW 



13 



General Nunez on Roosevelt, Taft 

 and Cuba 



General Emilio Nuiiez, Governor of Ha- 

 vana in the Palma administration, leader 

 of the conservative Cubans and one of the 

 largest and wealthiest tobacco planters on 

 the island, was in Philadelphia a few 

 weeks, and the Philadelphia Ledger prints 

 the following interview : 



"President Taft is not popular in Cuba 

 the General asserts. Nor does he approve 

 of Mr. Taft in other particulars. Colonel 

 Roosevelt, he declared, was the greatest 

 man in the world when viewed through 

 Cuban eyes, and the worst thing that ever 

 happened to Cuba, barring the Piatt 

 amendment and installation of Charles E. 

 Magoon as Governor General of the is- 

 land, was the appointment of Mr. Taft as 

 head of the commission that Mr. Roose- 

 velt sent to Cuba to straighten out their 

 rather tangled affairs of state. 



"Colonel Roosevelt was the savior of the 

 American armv in Cuba. There were too 

 many gray-bearded lieutenants and age- 

 weakened officers. I guess it is different 

 now. Judge Magoon was not the Gov- 

 ernor General that he should have been. 

 When he took office Cuba was the proud 

 possessor of $22,000,000. When he left 

 we had nothing in the treasury, and owed 

 $2,000,000. 



"Mr. Taft came to Cuba and com- 

 pletely wrecked the Conservative Party, 

 put the worst element of Cuba in power 

 and established General Gomez, the present 

 president, so that he had no trouble in be- 

 ing elected." 



General Nufiez scored the Cuban lottery 

 as the greatest "graft" in the world and 

 finally hoped for the good of all the Ameri- 

 cas that Mr. Taft would not be re-elected. 



Earthquake in Santiago 



An earthquake was reported on June 

 30th at Santiago de Cuba. Early cables 

 exaggerated the force of the quake, which 

 was not serious. There were no fatalities, 

 though buildings were shaken. 



Earthquakes are much less disastrous in 

 Cuba than in Porto Rico or Haiti, says a 

 scientific authority, and are experienced 

 most in the eastern part of the island be- 

 tween Cape Maisi, Santiago and Camaguey. 

 It is believed that there extends towards 

 the regions mentioned some lateral action 

 from the great fissure. 



The question of the most suitable method 

 of constructing buildings in countries liable 

 to earthquake is one that is periodically 

 discussed in technical journals. Buildings 

 of masonry or brickwork are distinctly out 

 of place, and it would appear that only the 

 lightest woodwork should be used, as in 

 parts of Japan; or, where a more perma- 



nent type of erection is needed, some 

 method of monolithic construction should 

 be adopted. This was recently taken up 

 in an article in Concrete and Construc- 

 tional Engineering, where the claims of re- 

 inforced concrete as a suitable material for 

 building purposes in countries subject to 

 earthquake were strongly advocated. The 

 writer states it as his opinion that the use 

 of reinforced concrete in its simplest forms 

 possesses advantages superior to those 

 which result from the employment of steel 

 frames covered by concrete. 



The Scientific American, in an article on 

 the same subject, says that good results 

 may be expected from use of reinforced 

 concrete. The village of Favellani in 

 South Italy was entirely rebuilt in this 

 material after the earthquake of 190.5, and 

 the buildings there as well as several 

 houses in Messina of the same material 

 were found to have escaped the late disas- 

 ter. An Italian engineer, M. Danusso, finds 

 that reinforced concrete buildings hold to- 

 gether longer and fall but slowly, so that 

 the dwellers have time to escape. Cellars 

 should not be used, according to the prin- 

 ciples he deduces for construction, and a 

 smooth cement surface on the soil is best 

 as a platform for building the structure. 

 One or two stories should be the limit. 

 M. Cesare Pesenti, another Italian engin- 

 eer, prescribes separating the building com- 

 pletely, so as to make it independent of the 

 ground platform, resting on it simply, and 

 this with as small a surface as possible of 

 contact between the building and the plat- 

 form, so as to allow for displacements and 

 deaden the vibrations. 



The "Maine" Wreck 



In response to the request made by John 

 B. Jackson, the American Minister, 

 through the State Department, for permis- 

 sion to raise the Maine, President Gomez 

 declared that he would be delighted to give 

 such permission. 



The President added that he would be 

 glad to facilitate in every way the work 

 of the American engineers. 



When it became known that the United 

 States had determined to raise the hulk, 

 the Spanish Government, it was said, was 

 ready to demand a fresh inquiry into the 

 cause of the explosion. It made a similar 

 request in 1S9S, which was refused. 



President Taft sent a message of felici- 

 tation May 20th to President Jose Miguel 

 Gomez, of Cuba, on the eighth anniversary 

 of the independence of Cuba. 



The President extended good wishes for 

 the "continued peaceful development of the 

 republic and for the happiness and prosper- 

 ity of its citizens." 



