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