Mr. Magoon came to Cuba but little known to Cubans and unfamiliar with
what was before him. During this second American intervention there were
some radical changes in the administration, and more public works were
undertaken than President Palma had ventured upon. The consensus of
opinion among American officers, all the officers who had accompanied
Mr. Magoon, was that the Palma administration had made a mistake in
allowing so much money to accumulate in the treasury. It had become a
temptation to those who were not in power, and it would have been better
to have the money expended along lines that would tend to advance the
republic rather than to permit it to accumulate. So it was realized that
if it was not expended during Mr. Magoon's administration, it would be
spent, and probably largely wasted, if not actually misappropriated, by
the Liberals if they should secure control of the government.
The most unfortunate thing in connection with the visit of Mr. Taft, and
therefore with the administration of Mr. Magoon, was that the Liberals
had apparently gained their ends. The majority of thoughtful and
patriotic Cubans had expected the intervention of the United States to
result in the upholding of law, order and justice in the support of
President Palma and his administration. They had expected that Mr. Taft
would take time to investigate the case thoroughly, and that he would
insist at the outset, as an indispensable preliminary to his entering
into conference with them, that the Liberal insurgents should surrender
their arms and ammunition, return the property which they had stolen,
and submit themselves loyally to the constitutional government of the
island; and that after that, but only after it, he would see to it that
justice was done to them as to all parties and all people. That course
was unfortunately not taken. Mr. Taft entered into conference with
unrepentant and defiant rebels whose followers were at the moment in
arms, threatening and preparing to make further criminal assaults upon
property and life. He regarded or at least treated them as no less
worthy of a hearing and of being taken into conference than the
President himself; and despite his protests he concluded the sorry
performance by practically ousting President Palma and his cabinet at
the behest of these lawless insurgents.
The sequel was tragedy. Estrada Palma died, not of pneumonia but of a
broken heart. Nor was that all. Encouragement was given to the lawless
and criminal elements of the island, and to those who resort to
violence, insurrection and revolution as the means of attaining their
political ends, which has been felt ever since and which has repeatedly
given rise to attempts to repeat the performance which then was so
successful. Recognition was given to the Liberals, through what were
doubtless good but certainly were mistaken motives, and the Liberals
insisted upon maintaining that recognition and profiting from it. So
when a Council, or Consulting Board, of eleven members was formed with
General Enoch H. Crowder as chairman, it contained only two
Conservatives and one man of doubtful affiliations. Three members,
Senors Garcia Kohly, Viondi and Carrera, did not belong to the August
revolutionists but were members of the Moderado party, which had
supported Estrada Palma. They acted as "Independents" on the
Commission, though they were intimately associated with the Liberals,
and as "Independents" they participated in the municipal elections. But
later they joined the Liberals outright. All the rest of the Commission,
or Consulting Board, were Liberals who had actually taken part in the
rebellion. No appointment to office could be made without the sanction
of that Board, and the result was that the Second Government of
Intervention was packed with Liberal placeholders. Competent men, who
had served the State well under President Palma's administration, were
dismissed and replaced by incompetents whose sole recommendation was
that they were Liberals. Now the voters of Cuba are as a rule easily
impressed, and do not always appreciate the possibility, through hard
work, of transforming a minority into a majority. They delight in being
at once on the winning side, and therefore pay much attention to
determining not so much which of two rival and contending parties is
really right and deserving of support, as which side is going to win.
The fact that the Liberal leaders, who previously had had almost no
recognition, social, political or official, suddenly came to the front,
and with the apparent acquiescence of the United States, or of the
commission appointed in Washington, were exerting great influence,
seemed a pretty sure indication, or at least was so interpreted, that
the United States had changed its ideas with regard to the government in
Cuba, and was favoring, and probably would continue to favor and sustain
the Liberal party. That was one of the reasons why the Liberals won
their next election. In fact they pointed to it as evidence of America's
moral support, and frequently referred to and displayed an order, said
to have been issued through mistake, which provided that every man who
had stolen a horse, and who confessed his theft frankly, should have
full proprietary title to that horse and need not surrender it to the
owner. The order is still on the statute books, a memento of the
American intervention. That was resented by the better citizens; it
discouraged many people who had had great confidence in the United
States, and it illustrates not the general policy of the second
government of intervention, but some of the unfortunate things that took
place under that intervention, that seemed to the better class in Cuba,
as mistaken.
Mr. Magoon spent the larger part of the money found in the treasury on
public works, the building of roads, and various enterprises for the
best interests of the island. It is claimed that in some instances the
contracts became a source of graft, and that the roads were not built
according to specifications. At any rate, they were built, and were
sorely needed, and the results on the whole were excellent. Of the
$26,000,000 left by the Palma administration nearly every dollar was
expended at that time.
Although the second Government of Intervention was theoretically and
nominally, and doubtless meant to be actually, quite non-political and
impartial as between the Cuban parties, the very circumstances of its
origin made it appear to favor the Liberals. It had come into power by
accepting the resignation of the Palma administration, which was
practically Conservative, at the demand of the Liberals. The Liberals
thus enjoyed all through its duration the prestige of victory, without
having to bear any of the responsibility of being in office, or
incurring any of the odium which is almost inevitable to every human
government which has not learned to achieve the impossible task of
pleasing everybody. There was no such foundation work to do as had been
done under the first Intervention, and the American government busied
itself principally with routine matters, and with making it possible for
the Cubans to resume control of their own affairs.
One of the most important undertakings at this time from a non-political
point of view was the taking of a new census. This was not done on so
elaborate a scale as the preceding census of 1899, but was more strictly
an enumeration of the people, for purposes of apportionment, etc. It was
taken under the direction of the American Government of Intervention in
1907, the actual work on it being done by a staff of Cuban canvassers
and statisticians, and it was believed to have been accurately and
comprehensively done.
The work of compiling the new census of Cuba which was taken in 1907 was
continued in the early part of 1908 and was completed and results were
published at the end of March of that year. The total population of the
island was reported to be 2,048,980, and out of this number 419,342 were
citizens and entitled to vote. It was then arranged to hold municipal
and provincial elections on August 1, and a national election on
November 14. These elections would be essential parts of the processes
by which the United States government would bring its second
intervention to a close and restore the island to the control and
government of its own people. The electoral law under which they were to
be conducted was promulgated for the August election on April 1 and for
the November election on September 11, 1908.
This law had three salient and characterizing features. The first was
that it established a system of permanent election boards which were
charged with the work of conducting the elections. In each municipality
there was to be a board of three members. In each department or
province there was to be a board of five members of whom two were to be
representatives of the two principal political parties of the island
while the other three were to be non-political members, officials of the
courts or representatives of the education department. The second
salient feature of the law was a system of compulsory registration. This
provided for the making and keeping by the election boards of lists of
all persons in the island who were entitled to vote. The basis of these
lists was the census of 1907, and it was provided that the lists should
be revised, corrected and amplified by the election boards every year.
The third and perhaps the most important feature of the law was its
provision for proportional representation. This secured minority
representation, giving each of the important political parties
membership in legislative bodies and also in the Electoral College
representation in proportion to the number of votes polled.
Under the constitution of Cuba the right of suffrage is guaranteed to
every adult male in full enjoyment of his ordinary civil rights. This of
course bestows the franchise upon a great number of illiterate persons.
The commission which revised the electoral law in 1908 carefully
considered the question of undertaking in some way to deal with the
illiterate vote so that it would not be, as it seemed on the face to be,
a potential menace to the state. It was finally decided however, that it
would be impracticable and inadvisable to attempt in any way to modify
the constitution. Provisions were, however, adopted whereby alien
residents of the island, although not permitted to vote, were made
eligible for election as members of municipal councils and also as
associate members of municipal commissions.
[Illustration: THE ACADEMY OF ARTS AND CRAFTS
The Academy of Arts and Crafts is one of the notable institutions which
make Havana an important centre of culture, both theoretical and
applied. This great school of technology was opened in 1882, and
occupies a fine building of dignified and impressive academic
architecture.]
The provincial and municipal elections occurred on August 1. There were
in the field three major political parties, namely, the Conservatives,
the Liberals and the Historical Liberals. The latter two were formed by
a split which had occurred in the Liberal party. The principal faction
was led by Jose Miguel Gomez, who claimed to be representative of the
original and only simon pure Liberals, and who regarded the other
faction as an illegitimate schism. The followers of Gomez accordingly
called themselves the Historical Liberal Party, but were popularly known
as the Miguelistas. The other faction was led by Alfredo Zayas and
called itself simply the Liberal Party, being popularly known as the
Zayistas. There was another insignificant faction which had been known
as the National Independent Party but which now merged itself with the
Zayistas. The third party was of course the Conservative.
The result of the elections of August 1 was the polling of 269,132 votes
or about 60 per cent. of the registration. The Conservatives elected
their candidates for Governor in the three provinces of Pinar del Rio,
Matanzas and Santa Clara. In the municipalities of the island the
Conservatives elected twenty-eight mayors, the Miguelistas thirty-five
and the Zayistas eighteen. The elections were conducted quietly and
legally, no serious charges of intimidation or fraud were made, and the
results were loyally accepted by men of all parties.
The campaign for the Presidential election was then continued with much
zeal. The results of the election of August 1 were taken deeply to heart
by the various Liberal leaders as demonstrating to them that the split
in their party would be fatal to them in the national election unless it
were healed or at least some sort of a modus vivendi were established.
Accordingly Jose Miguel Gomez and Alfredo Zayas "got together" and
agreed upon a compromise of their claims. It was altogether apparent
that Gomez was on the whole the stronger of the two candidates. Also he
was the older of the two men. Therefore it was agreed that he should
have the first chance at the Presidency of Cuba. He should be the
candidate at the coming election of 1908, but if he was successful in
being elected he should not seek a second term but at the end of his
first should step aside and give his support to Zayas as his successor.
With this understanding the party was reunited for the purposes of the
campaign. Gomez was made the candidate for the Presidency and Zayas was
nominated for the Vice-Presidency. The Conservatives nominated for the
Presidency General Mario G. Menocal and for the Vice-Presidency Doctor
Rafael Montoro.
The campaign was conducted with much spirit and earnestness but
generally in a dignified and law abiding manner. The chief stock in
trade of the Liberals was abuse of the former administration of Estrada
Palma, and of General Menocal as the inheritor of its traditions and
policies. There were also many intemperate attacks upon Doctor Montoro
because of his former association with the Autonomist party and the
brief Autonomist Government during the later part of the War of
Independence. How insincere this criticism of Dr. Montoro was appeared a
little later when that statesman was appointed to a very important
office under the Gomez administration.
The election occurred on November 14, under the general supervision of
the American Government of Intervention, and was conducted in a peaceful
and legal manner, giving no cause for serious complaints on either side.
The result of the polling was a decisive victory for the Liberal party.
Of the 331,455 votes the Liberals polled 201,199 and the Conservatives
130,256, there being thus a Liberal majority of 70,943. The Liberals
carried all six provinces of the island, obtaining their largest
majorities in Havana, Santa Clara and Oriente. Gomez and Zayas were
assured of the entire electoral vote, though under the law of
proportional representation for minorities the Conservatives elected
thirty-two members of Congress to the Liberals' fifty-one.
Various reasons were assigned for this decisive defeat of General
Menocal. One was, that the Liberals were in the public eye as coming
men. It was said that as their leaders had never been tried as directors
of the Republic, it was time to give them an opportunity to show what
they could do. The policy which the Liberals had outlined in advance was
very attractive to certain classes of the population. They promised to
abolish the law which General Wood had made, prohibiting cock-fighting.
They even harked back to "Jack" Cade for inspiration, and promised that
when they came into power there should be no necessity for men to work
as hard as they had been doing. In token of these two promises they
adopted as their pictorial emblem in the campaign a plow standing idle
in a weed-grown field without plowman or oxen, and with a fighting cock
perched upon its beam. Their campaign cry might therefore appropriately
have been "Cockfighting and Idleness!" It is not agreeable to recall
that such issues appealed to so large a proportion of the citizens of
Cuba that upon them the election of 1908 was won.
Much of the stock in trade of the Liberal campaign consisted also in
denunciation of General Menocal. The Liberals declared that he was
representative of the class and the régime that had practically been
dismissed by the United States government in the Second Intervention,
namely, the "silk-stocking" or intellectual class, which did not
sympathize with the people and with the real cause of popular liberty.
It was also pointed out as though it were an opprobrious fact that
General Menocal had associated with himself as Vice-Presidential
candidate Dr. Rafael Montoro, to whose character and ability not even
the Liberals ventured to take exception, but who had been an Autonomist.
When this reputed reason for his defeat was mentioned to General Menocal
he declared that he was willing to accept it, though he did not believe
it to be the true one; adding that after having been associated with Dr.
Montoro during the campaign and having intimately exchanged ideas with
him, he regarded him, Autonomist though he had been, as one of the best
men Cuba had ever produced, and would more gladly be defeated with him
than be victorious with the companion of his opponent.
The various provincial and municipal officers who had been elected on
August 1 took office and the new provincial laws went into effect on
October 1, 1908. Because of the persistent failure of the Cuban Congress
hitherto to enact new municipal legislation these were the first local
officials chosen by the people since the municipal elections which were
held under the first American Government of Intervention of 1901. Since
1901 all vacancies occurring in municipal offices had been filled either
by the votes of the municipal councils themselves or by appointment of
the national government. This was because no provision had been made for
their election by the people. Naturally this state of affairs gave great
dissatisfaction and repeated demands were made by the Liberals for the
removal of the holdover officials. It was also contended by the Liberals
that the election of members of the provincial councils in 1905 had
been illegal. Under the old law provincial governors and councilmen
were elected for four years and half of the council was renewed every
two years. Thus half of the council was elected in 1903 and these
members took their seats in 1904, and half were again elected in 1905
and took their seats in 1906. The contention of the Liberals was that
this latter half, of 1905-1906, were illegal. On April 6, 1908, the
terms of councilmen elected in 1903 and seated in 1904 expired, leaving
in office only those who had been elected in 1905 and seated in 1906,
whom the Liberals affected to regard as having been illegally elected,
and who in any case were not sufficient for a legal quorum. The Liberals
demanded therefore that all seats be declared vacant and that the powers
of the provincial assemblies be vested for the time in the Provisional
Government of Intervention. This was done, and the provincial governors
were also required to resign. These latter vacancies were filled
temporarily by the appointment of United States army officers, who
served until October 1, 1908, when they were succeeded by men elected by
the Cuban people.
There was undoubtedly great need for a thorough revision of the laws of
Cuba. Those existing at this time were for the most part a legacy of the
old Spanish government and it was quite obvious that laws which had been
enacted by a despotic government for the control of a subject colony
were not suited for a free and independent republic. They were certainly
not in harmony with the constitution which had been adopted. It was an
anomalous state of affairs that after the adoption of the constitution
Cuban municipalities should continue to be governed under the Spanish
provincial and municipal code of 1878. This code gave the Central
Government not only intimate supervision over but practical control of
all municipal affairs, even to the smallest details, and naturally was
very unsatisfactory to the people who were desirous of local home rule
as well as of national independence. In fact the efforts of the national
authorities to enforce these laws were regarded with displeasure and
actually caused strong local antagonism to the national government.
Under the second government of intervention, therefore, a commission was
organized in 1907 consisting of both Cubans and Americans, the former
being the majority, for the purpose of drafting elaborate codes of
electoral, municipal, provincial, judiciary and civil service laws. This
commission completed its work but all its recommendations were not
adopted. Its provincial and municipal codes were however put into effect
on October 1, 1908.
The general condition of the island during the second American
intervention was excellent so far as the maintenance of law and order
was concerned. This was largely due to the efficient work of the Rural
Guard, the operations of which were directed by a number of American
officers detailed for that purpose. While brigandage was not wholly
suppressed, it was much diminished and held in check.
One of the chief controversies with which the government of intervention
had to deal was that with the Roman Catholic church over various
properties formerly belonging to it which had been confiscated by the
Spanish government. There was some such property in the province of
Oriente, a part of extensive estates once held by certain monastic
orders. It had been taken by the Spanish government during the Ten
Years' War, and at the end of that conflict the government refused to
return it, but instead of doing so agreed to make an annual
appropriation for the benefit of the church. Upon the separation of
State and Church under American intervention in 1899 these
appropriations were discontinued, whereupon the church claimed that the
property should be restored to it. The validity of this claim was
recognized by the American government, but instead of complying with it
by actual restoration of the property that government purchased a part
of the property from the church at a price mutually agreed upon as
satisfactory. It was over the remainder of this property that the
controversy was renewed, and it was settled by a similar purchase in
1908. Another such controversy arose over valuable property in Havana,
which had been taken from the church by the government for the custom
house and other public offices; and it also was settled by fair purchase
on July 12, 1907.
After the installation of provincial and municipal officers on October
1, 1908, and after the successful conduct of the national election on
November 14 following, the American Government of Intervention busied
itself chiefly with preparations for withdrawing from the island and
returning the control and government to the representative of the Cuban
people. This was finally effected on January 28, 1909, when Governor
Magoon retired and Jose Miguel Gomez became President of Cuba. The total
cost to Cuba of the second American intervention was estimated at about
$6,000,000.
The general feeling of the responsible people of Cuba concerning the
second American intervention was one of extreme disappointment, owing to
the fact that they compared it with the intervention under General Wood,
or rather with the conduct of affairs under him. That first intervention
was under the control of military officers, and when they made up their
mind that a thing should be done, it was done, and as a rule well done,
and the example which was set in directing affairs of the government,
organizing public works, schools, in sanitation, and in auditing, made
the second intervention suffer by comparison.