THE CUBA REVIEW And Bulletin. 



23 



CUBAN LAWS. 



William E. Curtis, the special corre- 

 spondent to the Chicago Record-Herald, 

 has been looking into the labors of the 

 Cuban Congress and writes as follows: 

 "I have a list of the laws passed by 

 the Cuban Congress before the begin- 

 ning of its existence in 1902 until the 

 recent intervention in August, 1906. At 

 the first session forty-four laws were 

 passed, at the second thirty, at the third 

 thirty-six, at the fourth ten, at the fifth 

 sixteen, at the sixth sixteen, at the sev- 

 enth twenty-twO', at the eighth, sixty- 

 one. 



"There were liberal appropriations for 

 public works, for the support of chari- 

 ties, for the repair and furnishing of 

 public buildings, and for similar purposes, 

 and $6,000,000 was voted for education. 

 But scarcely a permanent law was added 

 to the statute books and no constructive 

 legislation whatever. 



"Owing to the failure of the Congress 

 to perform its duty the reforms provi^^ed 

 in the constitution of the republic have 

 not been accomplished, although that 

 document was adopted in 1902. The 

 members of the judiciary are still ap- 

 pointed by the president; they can be 

 removed by him at his pleasure, and are 

 therefore subject to his influence. The 

 same is true of the municipal officials. 

 They are the creatures of the executive 

 and he can change them any time he 

 likes. 



There seems to be no desire on the 

 part of the natives to reorganize the 

 courts, although the business interests 

 of the country, and particularly the for- 

 eigners, are exceedingly desirous that 

 it should be done. There is a great 

 deal of complaint as to the administra- 

 tion of justice. There has been no change 

 since Spanish times. 



To do the work which the Congress 

 ought to have done, Governor Magoon 



appointed a legislative commission to 

 prepare five laws of imperative import- 

 ance. This commission consists of 

 twelve members — three Americans, Col- 

 onel Crowder and ]\Iajor Winship of the 

 judge advocate general's department of 

 the army, and Mr. Schoenrich, an emi- 

 nent jurist from Porto Rico, who is fam- 

 iliar with Spanish law and procedure — 

 and nine Cubans. Four of these are 

 members of the moderate party — Rafael 

 Alontoro, minister to England; ^lanuel 

 Coronado, editor of La Discussion; Gar- 

 cia Kohly and Dr. Carrera Justiz, both 

 eminent lawyers. Four are members of 

 the liberal partj' — Alfredo Zayas, recent- 

 1}^ candidate for vice-president; Juan 

 Gualberto Gomez, ^^lessrs. Sarrian and 

 Requioferos, lawyers, and i\Ir. Viondi, 

 another well-Known attorney, who repre- 

 sents the republican party. 



This commission sits several hours 

 every afternoon, and its proceedings have 

 attracted a great deal of public interest, 

 because the future politics of the coun- 

 try are involved more or less in every 

 one of the subjects which have been as- 

 signed to it. There have been some very 

 exciting debates and at times the mem- 

 bers of the Liberal party on the com- 

 mission threatened to withdraw when 

 they found themselves in the minority. 

 As a rule the three American members 

 find themselves voting with the mem- 

 bers of the moderate party on political 

 questions, because of their conservative 

 disposition and not on account of any 

 political alliance or sympathy. For the 

 same reason Mr. Viondi, the represen- 

 tative of the republican party, can usu- 

 ally be counted upon to vote with the 

 Liberal members of the commission, be- 

 cause he is a man of radical views and 

 socialistic tendencies, and is more likely 

 to agree with them than with the con- 

 servatives on every subject. 



NEW PUBLICATIONS. 



El Hacendado 2\Iexicano, of the City 

 of Mexico, issues its annual sugar review 

 under the above title, covering the crop 

 of 1906-1907. It is the eight edition and 

 it has been carefully revised and correct- 

 ed up to date. Several of the larger plan- 

 tations are described in detail. The to- 

 tal crop for the year 1905-6 was 107,500 

 tons of sugar and 79,396 tons of molasses. 

 The estimated crop for 1906-07 is 115,000 

 tons of sugar. Altogether the review is 

 a valuable statistical document. The sugar 

 crops of many other countries are given in 

 ■its pages. 



A VALUABLE PUBLICATION. 



The Central Union of the Beet Sugar 

 Industry of the Austria-Hungarian ^lon- 

 archy, has sent the Cuba Review a year 

 and address book of the sugar factories 

 and refineries of Austria-Hungary. It 

 is the thirty-fourth edition and gives a 

 mass of valuable technical information. 

 Tables, calculations, chemical investiga- 

 tions, comparisons, formulas, etc., cover 

 thirty pages. Then there are most im- 

 portant mathematical formulas, weights 

 and measures, articles on agricul.ure, 

 business helps, labor regulations, taxes, 

 patent laws, sugar trade customs of the 

 ^'^ienna, Prague, London and other ex- 

 changes, and general statistics. 



