The President presented his first message to Congress on May 28. He spoke with gratitude of the disinterested intervention and services of the United States, and with confidence of Cuba's ability to fulfil her duties as a sovereign State. He recommended care in the preparation of the budget, and the formulation of measures for the encouragement of cattle-raising and the growing[{255}] of sugar and tobacco. Just then, owing to the great increase of European beet sugar growing the Cuban sugar trade was in an unsatisfactory state, but he hoped to improve it by securing a reciprocity treaty with the United States which would admit Cuban sugar to the markets of that country free of tariff duty. He also promised to promote the building of much-needed railroads. He urged the cultivation of cordial relations and commercial intercourse with all nations, but especially with the United States. As a special act of grace, a number of Americans who had justly been sentenced to terms in Cuban prisons under the Government of Intervention received pardons. These included three men, Rathbone, Neely and Reeves, who had been sentenced for ten years for frauds in the Cuban postoffice, the only serious scandal of the American administration.
Two of the items in the Platt Amendment were soon taken up by the United States government, and were settled in a way eminently satisfactory to Cuba. One was the disposition of the Isle of Pines. It was decided by the State Department at Washington that when the American government was withdrawn from Cuba, control of the Isle of Pines was transferred to the Cuban government, to be held and exercised by it unless and until some other disposition should subsequently be effected. In time Cuban ownership of the isle was definitively confirmed by the government of the United States.
The other point was that of American naval stations. A report was made by Rear-Admiral Bradford of the United States Navy, recommending the establishment of naval stations at Triscornia, in Havana Harbor; and at Guantanamo, east of Santiago; and the establishment of coaling stations at Nipe Bay and Cienfuegos. The[{256}] Cubans were not inclined to object to any of these excepting the first-named, to which their objection was reasonable and convincing. It would not be agreeable, they thought, to have the flag of a foreign power flying right in front of their own capital and at the very gate of the harbor of that capital, so that foreign vessels would pass by it and salute it equally with the Cuban flag. This objection was recognized and respected by the United States government, which waived all claim to Triscornia, and on July 2, 1903, contented itself with land for naval stations at Guantanamo, one of the finest harbors in the world, on the south coast of Oriente, and Bahia Honda, another superb harbor, on the north coast of Pinar del Rio. Of these only Guantanamo has actually been utilized.
The matter of reciprocity between the United States and Cuba was taken up, but it was long before anything was effected. General Wood had urged that a reduction of at least 33⅓ per cent. should be made in the sugar duty in favor of Cuba, as absolutely essential to the prosperity of the island, and President Roosevelt urged upon Congress in the strongest possible manner the desirability of some such action, partly for the sake of Cuban prosperity, and partly for the fulfilment of America's moral duty toward that island. Indeed, such commercial relations had been promised to Cuba, and it was bad faith to withhold them. Of course the commercial interests of Europe, both in sugar and all other wares, were earnestly opposed to any such arrangement, and they had their governments exert all possible influence to prevent its being made. There were also large beet sugar interests in the United States which strenuously opposed any reduction of the tariff on Cuban sugar. President Roosevelt had a long and desperate battle with[{257}] Congress over the matter, before he finally prevailed upon it grudgingly and imperfectly to make a reciprocity agreement, from which the United States would profit much more than Cuba. This was on March 29, 1903. Meantime, because of the American refusal to grant reciprocity, Cuba suffered acute economic depression approximating disaster. The insular treasury had scarcely enough money with which to pay current expenses, and the government was driven to the imposition of burden-some taxes upon many articles to save itself from bankruptcy.
The reciprocity treaty was finally ratified by the American Senate on March 29, 1903. But it did not at once go into effect. There was needed Congressional legislation to make it effective, and this was not supplied. After discreditable delay on the part of the lawmakers, President Roosevelt called Congress together in special session on November 10, 1903, for the express purpose of having it take the needed action for putting the treaty into operation. "I deem," he said, "such legislation demanded not only by our interest but by our honor.... When the acceptance of the Platt Amendment was required from Cuba by the action of the Congress of the United States, this government thereby definitely committed itself to the policy of treating Cuba as occupying a unique position as regards this country. It was provided that when the island became a free and independent republic she should stand in such close relations with us as in certain respects to come within our system of international policy; and it necessarily followed that she must also to a certain degree become included within the lines of our economic policy.... We gave her liberty. We are knit to her by the memories of the blood and courage of our soldiers who fought for her in war;[{258}] by the memory of the wisdom and integrity of our administrators who served her in peace and who started so well on the difficult path of self-government. We must help her onward and upward; and in helping her we shall help ourselves.... A failure to enact such legislation would come perilously near a repudiation of the pledged faith of the nation."
Thus at last through such gallant urging a measure of justice was secured for Cuba. The unwillingness and delay of Congress formed the most discreditable chapter of the history of America's dealings with Cuba. But the real attitude, the real purpose, the real spirit of the United States toward Cuba, were unmistakably set forth not in the paltering and tergiversation of a sordid Congress, but in the lofty and inspiring words of the great American President.[{259}]
CHAPTER XIV
The result of the earnest and efficient work of all departments of the Palma administration, in spite of the fact that the employes had much to learn, and that mistakes were unavoidably made, was that Cuba began almost immediately to establish herself as a nation worthy of consideration, and respected among the other nations of the world. Her commerce and industries were started for the first time on a stable basis, and the general feeling of confidence, not only in the natural resources of the island, but in the protection that had been promised Cuba by her sister republic on the north, all tended to start the new republic along the right lines. In a very short time after reciprocity with the United States was secured funds began to accumulate in the treasury, and by the end of the first Palma administration over 0,000,000 had accrued to the credit of the country, and a large amount of constructive work had been undertaken in various parts of the island. Yet more than $4,000,000 had been spent on public works, and every village with 25 children had a school.
It was the accumulation of this money in the treasury, and the rapid success along commercial and other lines that seemed to attend the republic during President Palma's administration, that served to excite desire and envy among the more or less restless and unscrupulous elements, who did not form a part of the Palma government. Some of these outsiders were men of much ability, and many of them were excellent orators. All of them[{260}] were familiar with the methods in Latin American republics of securing control of the government through revolution, force and violence. It was then that parties began to be formed, although these were divided into many groups, each surrounding its own political hero, who, in these days, was necessarily a man with a supposed military record. They eventually resolved themselves into two groups, the Moderado, who were in many respects the parents of the present Conservative party now in power under President Menocal, and the Liberal, under the leadership of Dr. Alfredo Zayas, an able lawyer and a shrewd political leader.
During the Palma administration and especially at the beginning of the electoral campaign of 1905, another aspirant for presidential honors suddenly appeared in the person of General José Miguel Gomez, a man with no very brilliant record as a soldier, although he had taken part in the Ten Years' War, but who had a strong local following as Governor, under President Palma, of the Province of Santa Clara. General Gomez was an astute, clever, farseeing, active politician, with a considerable degree of originality and ability. Another man intimately connected with the history of Cuba was Gomez's chief clerk when Governor of the Province of Santa Clara, Orestes Ferrara, a gentleman of Italian birth, of somewhat reckless tendencies, who emerged from the War of Independence as a Cuban patriot, and was recognized as such by the Liberal party. Mr. Ferrara was a lawyer, a writer, a finely educated diplomat and an excellent speaker. All of these qualities succeeded in making him an important factor in influencing the destinies of the republic in its early days.