me that there was great error in this respect. Investments in Cuba, he said, were safe enough, and had always been safe enough if managed properly. Although there had been for decades a condition of uncertainty as to land titles, and although in many cases it required as much as 20 per cent. of the purchase price to have a

transfer of land recorded, there were other ways of securing loans than by giving and receiving mortgages. In the old way, when a man loaned money on any commodity the lender became the actual owner of the property until the money loaned was paid. Of course, in the hands of unscrupulous men, such loans were frequently

used in oppression and fraud. Nevertheless, in a wellestablished form of business a general respect for the methods adopted was absolutely necessary, and the element of fraud in this line was not large. A favorite form of collateral was railroad stock. The railroads in Cuba had no bonds, but the stock was large and well distributed, and it was not difficult to secure it for the purpose of loan-making.

The North American Trust Company established a modern bank of exchange and discount. It also began to receive accounts subject to check. The merchants were slow to adopt such a serious change in their business methods, but not a day passed in the early part of the year when accounts were not opened. There was some difficulty at first in making out deposit slips, because it was necessary to keep two distinct accounts for every man. One was an account in Spanish gold, to which all Cuban money deposited was reduced, and another was in American currency. What is known as the Spanish five-dollar gold piece, the centen, had a value of $4 89 in American money at the time of my visit. The value of exchange was fixed by brokers who were accustomed to seek business in that form of buying and selling.

Another improvement in banking methods, early established by the trust company, was to open safe-deposit vaults-something that hitherto had been unknown in Cuba. There was under contemplation, at the time of my visit, the establishment of a savings-bank departOne wonders how the island ever got along under the old régime. It did retard business life, and

ment.

in certain lines crippled it, but the merchants got on somehow, at the expense of that confidence and satisfactory means of exchange of commodities so necessary to the existence of modern business life.

With reduced rates of transportation on railroads already in sight-because Spanish robbery and taxation equal almost to reprisal have been removed-and with modern facilities of exchange already established in the island, it would seem that the business outlook for Cuba must brighten at once, even while the people are waiting to know what kind of a permanent government is to be established. If it shall really be a stable government, vouched for by the American people as represented by the national administration, capital is bound to go to Cuba with a rush, and the laborers to put that capital into full play will follow, and the result must be, it would seem, according to ordinary reasoning, that the island in good time will become, what many of the Cubans are fond of calling it, "a cup of gold."

Gold is a talismanic word in Cuba. With all its troubles Cuba never wavered in its devotion to the gold standard. An artificial premium was put upon gold to keep it from going to Spain. A great transformation in its money system early in the year was coming over the island. The American invasion of peace had practically established a new standard, the American gold standard-not the artificial and slightly varying Spanish gold standard. Our money was in free circulation all over the island in February last. Merchants, ticketsellers on the railroads, and cashiers in other places knew just what to do when American money was given

to them in payment for value received. There would be invariably a lot of figuring on a pad-figuring that I could never pretend to comprehend-but one always received his change accurately in Spanish or American money, as the case might be. The people preferred American money, not so much because it was goldstandard money as because it had an absolutely fixed value. It became the standard, and Spanish gold was adjusted to it day by day. It was driving Spanish

money out of general use rapidly.

With honest taxation and the honest collection of taxes, with a modern and firm banking method upon the basis of the American gold standard, with the introduction of honesty in official methods, with the purification of the cities, with the consequent investment of large capital, it seems entirely reasonable to say that the recovery of Cuba from the disaster of war must be certain, and even more fruitful than is customary when the ways of peace have superseded those of the sword and the torch.

CHAPTER IX

AMERICANS IN CUBA THE DESCENT UPON THE ISLAND AND ITS RESULTS

T

HE peace protocol between the United States and

Spain had been signed only a few days when the American descent upon Cuba began. To use a military figure, the first of the Americans who hastened to the island were the scouts, or skirmishers, of a new force or army-that of commercial occupation. The main body of this force did not arrive in Havana until after the Spanish army had gone home. It was a motley mass. There was no coherency or order about this new army. It was a case of every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost. Without being too literal in the application, it may be said that the devil not only took the hindmost, but a good many of the foremost of the arrivals. By the 1st of February Havana was filled with Americans, and there were a good many who wished they had not come.

It was interesting to study this secondary American army. Its members seemed to outnumber the real American army of occupation - the military. There were thousands of men who really had legitimate business on the island; there were hundreds who were mere