maintenance of a government adequate for the protection of life, property, and individual liberty, and for discharging the obligations with respect to Cuba imposed by the treaty of Paris on the United States, now to be assumed and undertaken by the government of Cuba.

"IV. That all acts of the United States in Cuba during its military occupancy thereof are ratified and validated, and all lawful rights acquired thereunder shall be maintained and protected.

"V. That the government of Cuba will execute, and as far as necessary extend, the plans already devised or other plans to be mutually agreed upon, for the sanitation of the cities of the island....

"VI. That the Isle of Pines shall be omitted from the proposed constitutional boundaries of Cuba, the title thereof being left to future adjustment by treaty.

"VII. That to enable the United States to maintain the independence of Cuba, and to protect the people thereof, as well as for its own defense, the government of Cuba will sell or lease to the United States lands necessary for coaling or naval stations at certain specified points, to be agreed upon with the President of the United States.

"VIII. That by way of further assurance the government of Cuba will embody the foregoing provisions in a permanent treaty with the United States." 1 In order to allay the doubts raised by certain 1 U. S. Statutes at Large, XXXI., 897, 898.

members of the convention in regard to the third clause, Secretary Root authorized General Wood to state officially that the intervention described in this clause did not mean intermeddling in the affairs of the Cuban government, but formal action on the part of the United States, based upon just and substantial grounds. With this assurance the convention adopted the Platt amendment, June 12, 1901, and added it as an appendix to the constitution.

The last act of the convention was the adoption of an election law providing for a general election to be held December 31, 1901. On this date governors of provinces, provincial councillors, members of the House of Representatives, and presidential and senatorial electors were chosen. The electors met February 24, 1902, and chose Tomas Estrada Palma as president, and Luis Esteves Romero as vice-president. A month later General Wood was instructed to provide for the inauguration of the new government, for the withdrawal of American troops, and for the transference of authority to President Palma. On May 20, 1902, the new government entered on its independent career, with the cordial good-will of the United States."

The work done by General Wood and his associates in the civil administration of Cuba during the period of military occupation was remarkable both

1 Senate Docs., 58 Cong., 2 Sess., No. 312, p. 12.

Documentary History of the Inauguration of the Cuban Government, in Sec. of War, Annual Reports, 1902, App. A.

for its scope and thoroughness. The only governmental machinery in existence when they took charge was that of the municipalities, and they had to organize a complete system of insular government in all departments. They established order, relieved distress, organized hospitals and charitable institutions, undertook extensive public works, achieved notable success in the reorganization of the system of public schools, and put Havana, Santiago, and the other principal cities in first-class sanitary condition. Streets were cleaned, sewers opened, cesspools and sinks emptied, and water supplies improved. The sanitation of Havana was the marvel of the age. No such popular demonstration of the truth of modern scientific theories of health and sanitation has elsewhere been given to the world. In the course of bacteriological experiments conducted at Quemados in the summer of 1900, Major Walter Reed, a surgeon in the United States army, established the fact that yellow-fever is transmitted by the bite of a mosquito. This discovery is justly regarded as one of the great achievements of modern medical science. Sanitary measures based on the work of Major Reed were subsequently adopted and put into effect by the health officers of Havana, with the result that the city was rendered free from yellow-fever for the first time in one hundred and forty years. The total amount expended for sanitation

2

1 Military governor of Cuba, Report, 8 vols., 1901.

Sec. of War, Annual Reports, 1901, I., pt. i., 39, 40.

in the entire island under American occupation was nearly ten million dollars. The customs service, which furnished the principal part of the public revenues, was administered by General Tasker H. Bliss. The total receipts for the entire period were $57,197,140.80, and the expenditures $55,405,031.28, leaving a surplus of $1,792,109.52 in the treasury.1

While there had been a definite understanding before the withdrawal of the American troops as to the political relations that were to exist in future between the island and the United States, there had been no agreement on the subject of commercial relations, and Congress had failed to make any concessions to Cuban products. The principal agricultural product of the island is sugar. This industry was almost entirely destroyed by the insurrection, and its restoration was hindered not only by the fact that the plantations were heavily mortgaged and their machinery destroyed, but also because the uncertainty regarding the future government of the island and its trade relations with the United States made it difficult for the planters to raise the capital to restore their machinery. This doubt as to the future market for the sugar output was the main hinderance to industrial development. Entirely new methods of production on a large scale were necessary to enable Cuban sugar to compete with the bountyfed beet-sugar of Europe, and with the sugars of

1 Senate Docs., 58 Cong., 2 Sess., No. 312, p. 31; Sec. of War, Annual Reports, 1902, App. B.

Porto Rico and Hawaii, which were now admitted to the American market free of duty. As the United States was the great market for Cuban sugar, it was evident that the future of the sugar industry depended upon the willingness of the United States to arrange for a reduction of its tariff in favor of the Cuban product.

The president had hoped to settle this question with Cuba on a basis of reciprocity before the withdrawal of American troops, and in his annual message of December 3, 1901, urged that considerations of honor as well as of expediency made it incumbent upon Congress to provide for a substantial reduction in the tariff duties on Cuban imports into the United States; but a powerful opposition at once made itself felt, and succeeded in thwarting for two years the efforts of the administration to do justice to Cuba. The opposition was organized by the American beetsugar interests of the North and West, which were combined in a sort of trust comprising all the factories in the country and known as the American Beet Sugar Association. With them were allied the canesugar planters of Louisiana, and they succeeded in gaining the active support of various farmers' associations, on the ground that they were fighting for American agricultural interests, whereas as a matter of fact the farmers had much to gain from reciprocity. They appealed also successfully to the high tariffites, urging that a concession to Cuba would strike a blow at the principle of protection; that the