little room for doubt that the administration followed the

latter plan.

The notably weak point in our relations with Cuba lay in our failure to work directly and definitely toward the fulfilment of our pledge as expressed in the Teller Amendment. The strong point lay in the fidelity with which individual representatives of the Government of Intervention discharged the duties which were placed in their hands. One fact in the work of this first year has been unduly overlooked. It has become the custom to give the credit for our accomplishments in Cuba to the successor of General Brooke. The fact is that the broad foundation, and no small part of the main structure of our work in Cuba, was laid and built during the first year of our occupation. To the untiring energy of General Ludlow the credit is really due for the cleansing of Havana. General Brooke began the establishment of schools. Bliss, in the Custom House; Ladd, in the Treasury; Greble, in the Department of Relief Work; and a score or two of efficient men in other and in subordinate departments in Havana and other cities, all had their work in excellent running order at the close of the year 1899 when General Wood succeeded General Brooke as Military Governor of Cuba. The new incumbent reversed the system which developed under his predecessor. General Brooke's Cuban appointees made a tool of their chief. General Wood made tools of his Cuban appointees. General Brooke's Cabinet established an elaborate bureaucracy. General Wood essayed autocracy and met with notable success in his effort.

A readily comprehensible statement of the finances for the year is not easily to be made. The bookkeeping of the first six months was not notably systematic, but there is no ground whatever for even a suspicion of irregularity of any

kind. Certain measures were imperative. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of lives were at stake, and it was no time to stand on special methods or processes. Red-tape was cut and the needful work was done, and it was done honestly and effectively. In the statement for the year, the "Receipts from all sources," from January 1 to August 31, are given as $10,373,786.16. By that time, the machinery was in better running order, and the statement for the year, up to the date of General Brooke's retirement from the island, December 15, stands as follows:

Receipts January 1 to August 31

Receipts Customs, September 1 to December 15 ..
Receipts Postal Service, September 1 to December 15.
Receipts Internal Revenue, Sept. 1 to Dec. 15
Receipts Miscellaneous, Sept. 1 to Dec. 15.....

Total

.$10,373,768.16

4,709,358.65

57,152.25

238,278.04

113,302.83

.$15,491,859.93

The expenditures for the same period are given as $13,327,380.79. Among the purposes to which this sum was appropriated, there appear the following:

Barracks and Quarters (principally for the occupa

tion of American troops)

$1,137,404.22

Sanitation

3,035,404.80

(Of this sum, the City of Havana rec'd $2,020,937.85)

After making allowance for all accounts in suspense, General Brooke turned over to his successor in office, a sum which, in round figures, amounted to $2,000,000.

As given by Collector of Customs Bliss, in his report for 1902 (Tables 28 and 37), the statistics of foreign trade for the year 1899 appear as follows:

Total imports (including bullion)
Total exports

.$74,845,186.00

49,327,724.00

Of the imports, $37,188,597 came from the United States, and $37,656,589 from all other countries. Of the exports, $34,381,738 went to the United States, and $14,945,986 to all other countries.

15

CHAPTER IX

THE SECOND YEAR OF OCCUPATION

GENERAL JOHN R. BROOKE, the first American Military Governor of Cuba, was a soldier with a soldier's training. He was approaching the year of his retirement, and had grown gray in the service of his country. His only ambition was that of the true soldier to do the work to which he was assigned according to the best of his ability. He had no special interests to serve and no special axes to grind. Although often severely criticised during the year of his incumbency, many a Cuban wished, afterward, that he were back again. It was remembered that, whatever his failings, he never broke a promise. General Wood, his successor, was a younger man, with an ample endowment of personal ambition.

The new Military Governor of Cuba was not in full accord with the views expressed in the proclamation of his retiring predecessor. In his report, after reviewing the organization of the insular administration, General Wood

says:

"The country was, generally speaking, tranquil. There were in certain sections small groups of bandits. General conditions were improving throughout the Island. A large tobacco crop and a small sugar crop were in prospect.

"A new school law, somewhat rudimentary in character but believed sufficiently complete for immediate needs, had been published in order to permit the preliminary establishment of schools,

the efficient operation of which would cost several hundred thousand dollars per month. The schools were practically without school furniture and the amount of supplies and materials was very small.

"The crowded condition of the jails, filled with untried prisoners, indicated only too clearly an inefficient administration of justice. Generally speaking, jails and hospitals were all in need of refitting and repairs. In the Department of Public Works, a systematic and well-defined plan of operation was needed in order that the main lines of communication might be opened with as little delay as possible. . . . All municipalities were in debt and without revenues sufficient for their maintenance, necessitating monthly allotments from the treasury of the Island."

With the opening of the new administration, the Secretaries of the former government tendered their resignations, which were accepted. An order of Jan. 1, 1900, filled the vacancies, as follows:

Secretary of State and Government..Diego Tamayo.

Secretary of Finance.

Secretary of Justice.

Enrique José de Varona. .Luis Estévez.

Juan Ruis Rivera. Juan Bautista Barreiro. . Jose Ramon Villalón.

This, by the division of two of the former departments, established six secretaryships in place of four. Various changes were made during the year. Señor Rivera resigned on May 1, and was succeeded by Perfecto Lacoste. Señor Estévez resigned on the same date, and was succeeded by Señor Barreiro, whose place in the Department of Public Instruction was filled by the transfer of Señor Varona. Leopoldo Cancio was made Secretary of Finance vice Señor Varona. Señor Barreiro's resignation, on August 11, made place for Miguel Gener y Rincon. Many changes were made in the sub-secretaryships and various minor offices.