Cuba — The Pearl of the Antilles 



5 6 7 



refinement, logical faculties, artistic tem- 

 perament, poetic imagery, high ideals, and 

 courtesy of the Spanish race. 



THE TREMENDOUS FORCE OF SPANISH 

 CIVILIZATION 



One must know the history of these 

 colonies to realize the tremendous force 

 Spain exerted in civilization and prog- 

 ress. The great public works Spain 

 erected the world over testify to her pa- 

 tience and enterprise in the centuries 

 when the Anglo-Saxon world was strug- 

 gling with something much less preten- 

 tious ; but the civilization of Spain was 

 founded on the idea of contral by one 

 man or a few men in the state, and that 

 idea has ceased to have force in the 

 world. In the Anglo-Saxon world the 

 principle was early brought to the front 

 that those who had education enough to 

 know what their interests were were more 

 safely to be trusted with determining 

 how those interests should be preserved 

 than one man or a few men. Because 

 in that respect and in the development of 

 that idea we have the advantage of 200 

 years of education in self-government, 

 we plume ourselves with superiority in 

 the matter of knowledge of government. 



Now we have arrived at a stage where 

 the attention of the world is being di- 

 rected toward the tropics, and along with 

 this attention comes the movement 

 toward popular government. Cuba, es- 

 tablished as a republic four years ago, 

 made such rapid progress as almost in- 

 toxicated those of us who believed in 

 popular government. It was very much 

 like the growth of a tropical plant that 

 needed, possibly, to be cut back in order 

 that the stem gain strength. It was per- 

 haps necessary that this people should 

 have warning, sad as the warning was, 

 that the foundation upon which popular 

 self-government must be laid must be 

 broad and solid rather than high and con- 

 spicuous. 



Tt was sad to me to be called to this 

 island (it was still sadder to my chief. 

 President Roosevelt, who was so identi- 

 fied with the liberation of this island), to 



be here at a time of a stumble in progress 

 toward self-government. But, however 

 that may be, it has given us an oppor- 

 tunity, which I am now glad to be able 

 to take, to assure you in the name of 

 President Roosevelt and the American 

 people that we are here only to help you 

 on, with our arm under your arm, lifting 

 you again on the path of wonderful prog- 

 ress you have traveled. 



I am confident that we will be able 

 again to point with pride to the fact that 

 the United States is not an exploiting 

 nation, but only has such deep sympathy 

 with the progress of popular government 

 as to be willing to expend its blood and 

 treasure in making the spread of such 

 government in the world successful. 



ALL CLASSES MUST TAKE AN INTEREST IN 

 POLITICS 



Your difficulty was that you were 

 brought up under the fifteenth and six- 

 teenth century ideas of government, the 

 government of one man or a few men, 

 and that you were taught to look to some- 

 body else for the responsibility of govern- 

 ment. You exercised only the function 

 of criticism, and most of your people, es- 

 pecially those of the wealthy and educated 

 classes, trained themselves to occupy a 

 position not of indifference but of inactiv- 

 ity with reference to political and govern- 

 mental matters. 



Now it seems I find here a relic, al- 

 though the reasons for it have disap- 

 peared, of that condition, and I find the 

 law committed one class to medicine, left 

 another class to commercial interests, a 

 third class to political matters. I venture 

 to suggest that all classes did not take an 

 active part and insist upon exerting their 

 influence in politics. 



The question naturally arises. What 

 was the necessity for changing your form 

 of government ? The theory of popular 

 government is that all classes shall exer- 

 cise decided political influence. Now I 

 have discovered, it seems to me, that your 

 ideals were too high, so high as to reach 

 beyond the real. Ideals so high that thev 

 are beyond the reach of the real are not 



