Cuba — The Pearl of the Antilles 



539 



were filled with competent, well-trained 

 employees ; the island was free from debt, 

 other than such obligations as were of a 

 current character, and had a surplus of 

 over a million and a half dollars available 

 for allotment; was possessed of a thor- 

 oughly trained and efficient personnel in 

 all departments and completely equipped 

 buildings for the transaction of public 

 business; the administration of justice 

 was free; habeas corpus had been put in 

 force; old prison abuses had been 

 stopped ; police courts had been estab- 

 lished; a new marriage law on lines pro- 

 posed by the Roman Catholic bishop of 

 Havana, giving equal rights to all denom- 

 inations, was in operation ; a general elec- 

 toral law embodying the most enlight- 

 ened principles of modern electoral laws 

 had been put in force, and the people 

 were governed in all municipalities 

 throughout the island by officials of their 

 own choice elected under this law ; trials 

 in Cuban courts were as prompt as in any 

 state in the Union, and life and property 

 were absolutely safe; sanitary conditions 

 were better than those existing in most 

 parts of the United States; yellow fever 

 had been eradicated from the island; a 

 modern system of public education, in- 

 cluding a reorganized university, high 

 schools, and nearly 3,700 public schools, 

 and laws for its government, was in suc- 

 cessful operation ; well-organized depart- 

 ments of charities and public works oper- 

 ating under laws framed by the military 

 government had been established ; a new 

 railroad law had been promulgated ; the 

 customs service had been thoroughly 

 equipped ; the great question of church 

 property had been settled ; a basis of set- 

 tlement between mortgage creditors and 

 debtors had been agreed upon and in suc- 

 cessful operation for a year ; municipal- 

 ities had been reduced from 138 to 82 in 

 number ; public order was excellent ; the 

 island possessed a highly organized and 

 efficient rural guard ; an enormous 

 amount of public works had been under- 

 taken and completed ; ports and harbors 

 had been much improved ; old light- 

 houses had been thoroughly renovated 



and new ones built; Cubans and Span- 

 iards were living in harmony; in short, 

 the government as transferred was in ex- 

 cellent running order; the people were 

 making rapid progress ; beggars were 

 practically unknown ; the courts had the 

 confidence and respect of the peo- 

 ple. * * * 



"The work called for and accomplished 

 was the building up of a republic by 

 Anglo-Saxons in a Latin country where 

 approximately 70 per cent of the people 

 were illiterate; where they had lived al- 

 ways as a military colony ; where general 

 elections, as we understand them, were 

 unknown ; in fact, it was a work which 

 called for practically a rewriting of the 

 administrative law of the land, including 

 the law of charities and hospitals, public 

 works, sanitary law, school law, railway 

 law, etc. ; meeting and controlling the 

 worst possible sanitary conditions; put- 

 ting the people to school ; writing an elec- 

 toral law and training the people in the 

 use of it ; establishing an entirely new 

 system of accounting and auditing; the 

 election and assembling of representatives 

 of the people to draw up and adopt a 

 constitution for the proposed new repub- 

 lic; in short, the establishment in a little 

 over three years, in a Latin military col- 

 ony in one of the most unhealthy coun- 

 tries in the world, of a republic modeled 

 closely upon lines of our great republic, 

 and the transfer to the Cuban people of 

 the republic so established, free from 

 debt, healthy, orderly, well equipped, and 

 with a good balance in the treasury. All 

 of this work was accomplished without 

 serious friction. The island of Cuba was 

 transferred to its people as promised, and 

 was started on its career in excellent 

 condition and under favorable circum- 

 stances." 



THE LABOR QUESTION 



Cuba is entirely dependent upon the 

 products of her fields for her economic 

 prosperity. She does not carry and ex- 

 change merchandise for other countries, 

 nor does she manufacture except to sup- 

 ply certain special and local demands or 



