The History of Cuba, vol. 4

by Willis Fletcher Johnson

No less remarkable than his energy in war was the President's magnanimity in dealing with his vanquished enemies when peace had been restored, though sometimes against the will of many of his foremost advisers. He led the movement of opinion favorable to harmony and reconciliation, which was finally confirmed by a law of congress granting full amnesty to all civilians who participated in that ill advised insurrection. Instead of using persecution, bitterness and vindictive oppression against his enemies, President Menocal restored good will through the Island by his magnanimous generosity and abundant acts of grace.

We have already spoken of President Menocal's admirable course in pointing out where the duty of his country lay in the great crisis of the European war, and in confirming the traditional friendship between Cuba and the United States by making the insular republic an ally of its great northern neighbor in that world-wide conflict. His recommendation of a declaration of war was immediately and unanimously adopted by the Cuban Congress, and thereafter the policy of the republic, under his direction, was one of close cooperation with the United States, and of placing all the resources and energies of the Island at the disposal of the Allied cause. It is worthy of record that the French Government showed its appreciation, not only of his spirit and purpose[{362}] but of his actual achievements in the war, by conferring upon him the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor.

During these last few years the agricultural, industrial and economical resources of Cuba have been developed to an extent hitherto unknown and undreamed of in the history of the country. Industries have been immensely stimulated, great new enterprises have been created, and an expansion of foreign trade has been attained which makes Cuba in proportion to its size the foremost commercial country of the world.

EUGENIO SANCHEZ AGRAMONTE

Bearing a name which has been identified with many high achievements in medical and other science, Dr. Eugenio Sanchez Agramonte has added new lustre to it by his own achievements for the health of humanity and for the welfare of his fatherland. He was born in Camaguey on April 17, 1865, and had already attained enviable rank as a physician and sanitarian when, still a young man, he entered the War of Independence. His chief services were rendered as Director of the Sanitary Department of the Army of Liberation, in which place he had the rank of General. He was also Director of the great Casa de Beneficia. After the war he took an active interest in civic affairs, and became the president of the Conservative party. With the election of General Menocal to the Presidency of the Cuban Republic, General Agramonte was elected president of the Senate, which position he held until 1917, when President Menocal appointed him Secretary of Agriculture, Commerce and Labor.

According to recent data the foreign trade of Cuba is $800,000,000. Reckoning the population of the Island at about 2,700,000, that means a 96 per capita. In the year immediately preceding the outbreak of the European war, and before the great disturbance of commerce caused by that conflict, the foreign trade of the United States of America amounted to only $39 per[{363}] capita, and even that of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland to only $170.

Before the enraptured vision of Columbus, Cuba baffled appreciation. To the more discriminating vision of to-day, her future equally baffles while it piques imagination. Louis Napoleon, meditating upon the possibilities of an American Isthmian canal, once said:

"The geographical position of Constantinople rendered her the Queen of the ancient world. Occupying, as she does, the central point between Europe, Asia and Africa, she could become the entreport of the commerce of all those countries, and obtain over them immense preponderance; for in politics, as in strategy, a central position always commands the circumference."

Then he pointed out the similarity of position of Nicaragua, where he hoped to construct a canal, and argued that it similarly might obtain a like status in the Western World. It needs little suggestion to point out that Cuba fulfils those conditions in a supreme degree. It was not vainly that Spaniards centuries ago called Havana the Key of the Gulf, of the Caribbean, of the Indies, of the Western World. The position of Cuba is unique and incomparable, with relation to the United States, Mexico, Central America and South America, and the two enclosed seas which form the Mediterranean of the American Continents. Of old the treasure fleets of Spain passed by her coasts, and visited her harbors. To-day she is similarly visited by the fleets which ply between North America and South America, and between the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans. Reckoned by routes of traffic on the charted seas, she is the commercial centre of the world.