History of the United States Volume V Part 20

CHAPTER XIII.

"CUBA LIBRE"

[1898-1902]

As if Santiago had not afforded "glory enough for all," some disparaged Admiral Sampson's part in the battle, others Admiral Schley's. As commander of the fleet, whose routine and emergency procedure he had sagaciously prescribed, Sampson, though on duty out of sight of the action at its beginning, was ent.i.tled to utmost credit for the brilliant outcome. The day added his name to the list of history's great sea captains.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Portrait.]

Admiral William T. Sampson.

Schley had the fortune to be senior officer during his chief's temporary absence. He fought his ship, the Brooklyn, to perfection, and, while it was not of record that he issued any orders to other commanders, his prestige and well-known battle frenzy inspired all, contributing much to the victory. The early accounts deeply impressed the public, and they made Schley the central figure of the battle. Unfortunately Sampson's first report did not even mention him. Personal and political partisans took up the strife, giving each phase the angriest possible look.

Admiral Schley at length sought and obtained a court of inquiry.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Portrait.]

Admiral W. S. Schley

The court found Schley's conduct in the part of the campaign prior to June 1, 1898 (which our last chapter had not s.p.a.ce to detail), vacillating, dilatory, and lacking enterprise. It maintained, however, that during the battle itself, despite the Brooklyn's famous "loop,"

which it seemed to condemn, his conduct was self-possessed, and that he inspired his officers and men to courageous fighting. Admiral Dewey, president of the court, held in part a dissenting opinion, which carried great weight with the country. He considered Schley the actual fleet commander in the battle, thus giving him the main credit for the victory.

Legally, it turned out, Sampson, not Schley, commanded during the hot hours. Moreover, the evidence seemed to reveal that the court's strictures upon Schley, like many criticisms of General Grant at Shiloh and in his Wilderness campaign, were probably just. In both cases the public was slow to accept the critics' view.

Both before and after his resignation, July 19, 1899, Secretary of War Alger was subjected to great obloquy. Shafter's corps undoubtedly suffered much that proper system and prevision would have prevented. The delay in embarking at Tampa; the crowding of transports, the use of heavy uniforms in Cuba and of light clothing afterward at Montauk Point, the deficiency in tents, transportation, ambulances, medicines, and surgeons, ought not to have occurred. Indignation swept the country when it was charged that Commissary-General Eagan had furnished soldiers quant.i.ties of beef treated with chemicals and of canned roast beef unfit for use. A commission appointed to investigate found that "embalmed beef" had not been given out to any extent. Canned roast beef had been, and the commission declared it improper food.

The commission made it clear that the Quartermaster's Department had been physically and financially unequal to the task of suddenly equipping and transporting the enlarged army--over ten times the size of our regular army--for which it had to provide. If wanting at times in system the department had been zealous and tireless. At the worst it was far less to blame than recent Congresses, which had stinted both army and navy to lavish money upon objects far less important to the country.

The army system needed radical reform. There was no general staff, and the t.i.tular head of the army had less real authority than the adjutant-general with his bureau.

These imbroglios had little significance compared with the problems connected with our new dependencies. The Senate ratified the peace treaty February 6, 1899, by the narrow margin of two votes--forty-two Republicans and fifteen others in favor, twenty-four Democrats and three others opposing. But for the advocacy of the Democratic leader, William J. Bryan, who thought that the pending problems could be dealt with by Congress better than in the way of diplomacy, ratification would have failed.

The ratification of the Treaty of Paris marked a momentous epoch in our national life and policy. In a way, the very fact of a war with Spain did this. A century and a quarter before a Spanish monarch had furnished money and men to help the American colonies become free from England.

"The people of America can never forget the immense benefit they have received from King Carlos III.," wrote George Washington. At that time a Spaniard predicted that the American States, born a pigmy, would become a mighty giant, forgetful of grat.i.tude, and absorbed in selfish aggression at Spain's expense. Our change to quasi-alliance with Great Britain against Spain seemed to not a few the fulfilment of that prophecy. Europe declared that we had hopelessly broken with our ideals.

Cynics there applied to the United States the Scriptures: "h.e.l.l from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like one of us? ... How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!"

[Ill.u.s.tration: Uniformed officers on parade.]

The New Cuban Police as organized by ex-Chief of New York Police, McCullagh.

The United States did not heed these sneers. Hawaii had been annexed.

Sale tenure of the Samoan Islands west of 171 degrees west longitude, including Tutuila and Pago-Pago harbor, the only good haven in the group, was ours. These measures, which a few years earlier all would have deemed radical, did not stir perceptible opposition. Nearly all felt that they were justified, by considerations of national security, to obtain naval bases or strategic points. Such motives also excused the acquisition of Guam in the Pacific, ceded by Spain in Article II of the Paris Treaty, and that of Porto Rico.

Civil government was established in Porto Rico with the happiest results. The Insular Treasury credit balance trebled in a year, standing, July 1, 1902, at $314,000. The exports for 1902 increased over 50 per cent., most of the advance being consigned to the United States.

The princ.i.p.al exports were sugar, tobacco, the superior coffee grown in the island, and straw hats. Of the coffee, the year named, Europe took $5,000,000 worth, America only $29,000 worth. Porto Rico imported from Spain over $95,000 worth of rice, $500,000 worth of potatoes. The first year under our government there were 13,000 fewer deaths than the year before, improvement due to better sanitation and a higher standard of living. Mutual respect between natives and Americans grew daily.

Touching Cuba, too, the course of the Administration evoked no serious opposition. We were in the island simply as trustees for the Cubans. The fourth congressional resolution of April 20, 1898, gave pledge as follows: "The United States hereby disclaims any disposition or intention to exercise sovereignty, jurisdiction, or control over said island (Cuba) except for the pacification thereof, and a.s.serts its determination when that is completed to leave the government and control of the island to its people." This "self-denying ordinance," than which few official utterances in all our history ever did more to shape the nation's behavior, was moved and urged, at first against strong opposition, by Senator Teller, of Colorado. Senator Spooner thought it likely that but for the pledge just recited European States would have formed a league against the United States in favor of Spain.

December 13, 1898, a military government was established for "the division of Cuba," including Porto Rico. The New Year saw the last military relic of Spanish dominion trail out of Cuba and Cuban waters.

The Cuban army gradually disbanded. The work of distributing supplies and medicines was followed by the vigorous prosecution of railroad, highway and bridge repairing and other public works, upon which many of the dest.i.tute found employment. Courts and schools were resumed.

Hundreds of new schools opened--in Santiago city 60, in Santiago province over 300. Brigandage was stamped out. Cities were thoroughly cleaned and sewer systems constructed. The death rate fell steadily to a lower mark than ever before. In 1896 there were in Havana 1,262 deaths from yellow fever, and during the eleven years prior to American occupation an average of 440 annually. In 1901 there were only four.

Under the "pax Americana" industry awoke. New huts and houses hid the ashes of former ones. Miles of desert smiled again with unwonted tillage.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Slum with sewage running through the dirt street.]

Showing Condition of Streets in Santiago before Street Cleaning Department was organized.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Street cleaners working on dry roadway.]

Santiago Street Cleaning Department.

A census of Cuba taken by the War Department, October 16, 1899, showed a population of 1,572,797, a falling off of nearly 60,000 in the twelve years since the last Spanish census, indicating the loss due to the civil war. The average density of population was about that of Iowa, varying, however, from Havana province, as thickly peopled as Connecticut, to Puerto Principe, with denizens scattered like those of Texas. Seventy per cent. of the island's inhabitants were Cuban citizens, two per cent. were Spanish, eighteen per cent. had not determined their allegiance, while about ten per cent. were aliens.

Eighty per cent. of the people in the rural districts could neither read nor write.

In December, 1899, Governor Brooke retired in favor of General Leonard Wood. A splendid object-lesson in good government having been placed before the people, they were, in June, 1900, given control of their munic.i.p.al governments and the powers of these somewhat enlarged.

In July Governor Wood issued a call for a const.i.tutional convention, which met in November. The fruit of its deliberations was an instrument modelled largely upon the United States Const.i.tution. The bill of rights was more specific, containing a guarantee of freedom in "learning and teaching" any business or profession, and another calculated to prevent "reconcentration." The Government was more centralized than ours. The President, elected by an electoral college, held office four years, and was not re-eligible twice consecutively. The Senate consisted of six senators from each of the six departments, the term being six years.

One-third were elected biennially. The House of Representatives consisted of one representative to every 25,000 people. One-half were elected biennially. Four years was the term of office. The judicial power vested in a Supreme Court and such other courts as might be established by law. Suffrage was universal.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Governor-General Leonard A Wood in the Uniform of Colonel of Rough Riders.

In his call for the convention, also in his opening address before it, Governor Wood mentioned its duty to determine the relations between Cuba and the United States. Jealous and suspicious, the convention, believing the United States bound by its pledge to leave the island to the unconditional control of its inhabitants, slighted these hints.

Meantime, at President McKinley's instance, Congress adopted, March 2, 1901, as a rider to the pending army appropriation bill, what was known as "the Platt amendment," so called from its author, Senator Platt, of Connecticut.

This enacted that in fulfilment of the congressional joint resolution of April 20, 1898, which led to the freeing of Cuba, the President was to leave the government and Control of the island to its people only when a Government should be established there under a const.i.tution defining the future relations of the United States with Cuba. The points to be safe-guarded were that Cuba should permit no foreign lodgment or control, contract no excessive debt, ratify the acts of the military government, and protect rights acquired thereunder, continue to improve the sanitation of cities, give the United States certain coaling and naval stations, and allow it to intervene if necessary to preserve Cuban independence, maintain adequate government, or discharge international obligations created by the Paris Treaty.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Large group on men.]

Judge Cruz Perez Gov. Gen. Wood.

General Maximo Gomez. T. E. Palma.

Governor-General Leonard A. Wood transferring the Island of Cuba to President Tomaso Estrada Palma, as a Cuban Republic, May, 1902.

From copyrighted stereoscopic photograph. By Underwood & Underwood. N. Y.

A week before the Platt amendment pa.s.sed, the Cuban convention adopted a declaration of relations, "provided the future government of Cuba thinks them advisable," not mentioning coaling stations or a right of intervention, but declaring that "the governments of the United States and Cuba ought to regulate their commercial relations by means of a treaty based on reciprocity."

When the convention heard that the Platt amendment must be complied with, a commission was sent to Washington to have this explained. Upon its return the convention, June 12, 1901, not without much opposition, adopted the amendment.

The first President of the Cuban Republic was Tomaso Estrada Palma. He had been years an exile in the United States, and was much in sympathy with our country. His home-coming was an ovation. In May, 1902, the Stars and Stripes were hauled down, and the Cuban tricolor raised. The military governor and all but a few of his soldiers left the island, as the Spaniards had done less than three years before; yet with a record of dazzling achievement that had in a few months done much to repair the mischiefs of Spain's chronic misrule.

Cut off from her former free commercial intercourse with Spain, Cuba looked to the United States as the main market for her raw sugar.

Advocates of reciprocity urged considerations of honor and fair dealing with Cuba, where, it was said, ruin stared planters in the face. The Administration and a majority of the Republicans favored the cause. Not so senators and representatives from beet-sugar sections. The "insurgents," as the opponents of reciprocity were called, urged that raising sugar beets was a distinctively American industry, and that to sacrifice it was to relinquish the principle of protection altogether.

The so-called "Sugar Trust" favored reciprocity, being accused of expending large sums in that interest. Against it was pitted the "Sugar Beet Trust," a new figure among combinations.