Santo Domingo: A Country with a Future

Produced by Charles Aldarondo, Keren Vergon, Michael Lockey
and PG Distributed Proofreaders
1918
It is remarkable how little has been written about the Dominican Republic, a country so near to our shores, which has for years had intimate commercial and political relations with our country, which is at present under the provisional administration of the American Government, and which is destined to develop under the protection and guidance of the United States. The only comprehensive publications on the Dominican Republic, in the English language, are the Report of the United States Commission of Inquiry to Santo Domingo, published in 1871, Hazard's Santo Domingo, Past and Present, written about the same time, and Professor Hollander's notable Report on the Debt of Santo Domingo, published in 1905. The first and the last of these publications are no longer obtainable; hence, Hazard's book, written almost half a century ago, is still the chief source of information.
These considerations prompted me to indite the following pages, in which I have essayed to give a bird's-eye view of the history and present condition of Santo Domingo. The task has been complicated by two circumstances. One is the extraordinary difficulty of obtaining accurate data. The other is the fact that the country has arrived at a turning point in its history. Any description of political, financial and economic conditions can refer only, or almost only, to the past; the American occupation has already introduced fundamental innovations which will shortly be further developed, and a rapid and radical transformation is in progress. Santo Domingo at this moment is a country which has no present, only a past and a future.
My personal acquaintance with Santo Domingo and Dominican affairs is derived from observations on several trips to the Dominican Republic and Haiti, from friendships formed with prominent Dominican families during a residence of many years in Latin America, and from experience as secretary to the special United States commissioner to investigate the financial condition of Santo Domingo in 1905, and as secretary to the Dominican minister of finance during the 1906 loan negotiations.