The History of Cuba, vol. 4

by Willis Fletcher Johnson

During the first years of the Palma administration, the Moderado and Liberal parties gradually shaped[{261}] themselves into the present Conservative and Liberal parties; organizations which differ in political methods rather than in principles; if by principles we mean fundamental doctrines of political economy or statecraft, such as form the issues of division between parties in most other countries. They also differ largely in personnel. Throughout the agricultural regions the Conservatives prevail. That is because farmers, large and small, care little for office holding but do care a great deal for that tranquillity of the country which is essential to progress and prosperity. They have a material stake in the country's welfare, which is conserved by constitutional order rather than by revolution. On the other hand, in the cities may be found the great strength of the Liberal party; composed of men who own no real estate, and many of whom have no business or steady occupation of any kind, who have nothing to lose from economic and social disturbance but on the contrary may gain something by getting into public employment through a change of government. Such men are numerous in all cities of all countries, and they become the facile followers of designing and unscrupulous politicians. In the United States such men are described as "feeding at the public crib." In Cuba the corresponding phrase, equally expressive, is "nursing at the public bottle"—epitomised in the one word, "botella."

It is not to be inferred that all Cuban Liberals are of this class, or that Conservatives are universally men of substance; but the dominant elements of the two parties are such as we have described. The restless and irresponsible Liberal masses have for leaders men of unquestioned ability, but unfortunately too often of more personal ambition of a sordid kind than sense of moral responsibility or sincere devotion to their country's best[{262}] interests. It will thus be seen that on more than one occasion men who were intellectually qualified to serve the Republic in the most efficient manner prostituted their talents to catering to the passions of the ignorant and idle, and made tools of them for their own selfish advancement, to the great detriment and greater menace of the Republic. In this deplorable state of affairs have been the main springs of most of the troubles which the young Republic has thus far suffered in its political and governmental affairs.

The Conservative party is confined very largely to the owners of property, men of good reputation and business standing. In other words, it consists of men who have nothing to gain through a revolution, and everything to lose during a period of upheaval which means destruction, not alone of actual property, but of the assets of the country, especially its credit and standing in the markets of the world. Small holders of property in the country districts, farmers, merchants, planters and stock raisers, are naturally allied with the Conservative party, or the party of law and order, as are the owners of the big sugar estates and the mills in which the staples are produced, since the cane fields become an immediate prey of those elements who wish to depose the government or bring about an intervention, through which they sometimes gain in the confusion that follows a change of government. To this party belong the majority of the professional men, the old Autonomistas, and those men who have a genuine interest in the welfare of Cuba, not only in her present, but in her future, and who realize that uprisings, strikes and all allied movements tend naturally to discourage investments in property, and to destroy credit and the good name of the island.

Such, then, in general terms, was the development of[{263}] political parties in Cuba which occurred as soon as it was realized that it was worth while to have them. As long as Cuba was under Spanish domination, there was no use in parties. So long as there was doubt concerning the intentions of the United States in Cuba, there was little encouragement to their formation. But the moment the Stars and Stripes actually went down from the Palace and from the Morro, the great fact dawned upon the Cuban mind that what many had scarcely dared to expect or to hope for was actually achieved. Cuba was independent. For that reason her political controversies were thereafter to be domestic, and there was opportunity, even perhaps desirability, of division of the population into parties.

This indeed was well, in principle. There is nothing more stimulating to citizenship or more conducive to good government in a republic than a healthful and amicable division of the citizens into parties, on grounds of principle. In a monarchy, the opposition party is one of protest and revolt. In a republic both parties are devoted to the governmental system, and differ only as to the principles of economics or what not on which it should be conducted. The lamentable feature of the Cuban case was that—chiefly, no doubt, because of antecedent conditions, because of centuries of ruthless repression of all national or civic aspirations—there had been no development of theories and principles of government to serve as bases for party division. It could not be said, for example, that this party was for a protective tariff and that one was for free trade, that one was for state rights and the other for national sovereignty. Such distinctions did not exist, and party divisions without them were therefore on less creditable lines. We have said that there were no questions of principle. But there[{264}] was one supreme question of principle, on which after all the division was made. But that was a question to which there was only one side for a worthy political party to take.

At the beginning of Estrada Palma's administration, as we have indicated, he was not identified with any political party. He was broad-minded, and conceived himself to be not the leader of a party but the chief executive of the whole Cuban nation. He selected for his Cabinet the men whom he thought best fitted for the places, regardless of their political affiliations. He would probably have been glad to go through his entire administration as a non-partisan President, occupying in that respect a position similar to that of a constitutional sovereign, who traditionally "has no politics." Indeed, he maintained this independent and impartial attitude until the spring of 1905. Then he found it impossible to get measures passed by Congress, which he wanted and which the country needed, unless he affiliated with party leaders. The result was that he practically associated himself with the Moderados, or Conservatives as they are now known. This of course gave great umbrage to the Liberals, which was greatly increased when some of that party were removed from office because of their unsatisfactory service and their places were filled with Conservatives. And this was the beginning of the Liberal insurrection which led to the resignation and death of Estrada Palma.

In the last days of President Palma's first term of office it was discovered that José Miguel Gomez had Presidential aspirations. He not only stated to the Moderate or Conservative party that he wanted to be President of the Republic of Cuba, but he declared that he proposed to succeed President Palma as such. This privilege was[{265}] refused him on the ground that the President, owing to his fair administration of the government during the four years of his service, was entitled to a second term. To this argument, General Gomez replied that if the Conservative party to which he had pretended to belong would not make him its Presidential nominee, he would go to the opposition and seek the nomination. This he at once proceeded to do, and with the assistance of Mr. Ferrara he persuaded the Liberals that, controlling the votes of the Province of Santa Clara, he held the balance of power. He also prevailed upon Dr. Alfredo Zayas to retire as a Presidential candidate, and to acquiesce in his running for election on the Liberal ticket; promising at the same time that, no matter what the result of the election might be, Dr. Zayas should have the nomination and his support four years afterward. It is interesting to observe that this promise was never fully kept, and that the two Liberal leaders have ever since been bitter enemies.

The Presidential nominees of the two parties, in November, 1906, on the part of the Conservatives, were Estrada Palma, the President of Cuba, and on the part of the Liberals, José Miguel Gomez, ex-leader of the Moderados of the Province of Santa Clara. The Liberals, a few days before the election, feeling apparently that it would go against them, began the old tactics so prevalent in some South American republics, and practised by Maso's followers in 1901, of proclaiming proposed election frauds on the part of their opponents, then in control of the government, and predicting all manner of illegal practices and intimidation.

At ten o'clock on the morning of election day, telegrams, announcements, and orders from Liberal leaders were posted at all voting places in the various cities and[{266}] country districts, directing members of that party to keep away from the polls, on the ground that the election frauds which had been arranged by the Conservatives could not possibly be overcome, and that the correct thing to do was to refuse to vote, as a protest against the government in power. These were obviously issued with a view of discrediting in advance an election which the Liberals could not hope to win. The Conservatives, of course, voted, and, as might be expected under those circumstances, the Palma government succeeded itself, with a few changes in the Cabinet, and everything seemed to promise well for the future.

Within a year, however, threats of coming trouble, whispers of discontent, and reports of incipient uprisings could be heard in the cafés and public resorts throughout the island, and the agents of the secret service warned President Palma that a serious crisis was impending. This the President refused to credit, staging that there could be no possible reason for a revolution. The island was prosperous, work was plentiful for all who cared to labor; there were no conditions present to justify a revolution or uprising, and suspicions of anything of the kind must therefore be unjustified. In spite of President Palma's confidence, however, the plotting went on almost openly. His confidence in the people was known to all the Liberals, and they took advantage of it. The first real outbreak occurred before the slightest preparation had been made to deal with it. One night in the month of July, 1905, a group of thirty armed men suddenly appeared at the barracks of the Rural Guards, shot a dozen of them to death as they lay sleeping on their cots, seized their arms, ammunition and horses, and fled into the country, shouting the cry of "Revolution against the Palma government!" General Alejandro Rodriguez,[{267}] a tried veteran of the War of Independence, and chief of the Rural Guards, gave an immediate order that they should be captured, dead or alive, and before ten o'clock the next morning nearly all of them had been taken and confined in the jails of Havana, where afterwards they were tried and convicted. These men in their defense claimed that the president of the Senate, Señor Moru Delgado, a prominent Liberal leader, had promised to meet them at daylight, on the morning of the assassination, with a body of three hundred armed and mounted Liberals, who were to start a revolution against President Palma; but did not fulfill his promise. The men who had been convicted were permitted to remain in jail until, as is too often the custom in some Latin American countries, they were freed by a general amnesty bill which had been forced through Congress by the Liberal party. The tendency to revolt against the Palma government apparently subsided with the arrest of these first disturbers, but, during the following January, 1906, reports of trouble in the extreme western portion of the island came to the notice of the officials. The leader was Pino Guerra, who, through his popularity as an accordion player at country dances, had secured election to the House of Representatives; and who with his taste for games of chance, at which he was generally unlucky, had got into debt to the amount of $7,000. His creditors in these debts were persistent, and this fact was given by him in a letter to General Fernando Freyre de Andrade, President of the House of Representatives, as an excuse for the revolution which he started. Pino Guerra indeed intimated that if someone would extend to him a little personal loan of $7,000 he would refrain from causing any trouble to the government. General Freyre de Andrade, being a politician who believed in[{268}] compromise and that even a poor end would justify the means, suggested to Guerra that he knew of $3,000 that had been appropriated for some purpose and not used, which might possibly be turned over, if his creditors would take it on account. "General" Guerra, as he called himself, consulted with his creditors, and they concluded to accept the offer, if they could get the cash. So the embryo revolutionist was conducted to the presence of the President, where the whole matter was explained by General Freyre de Andrade. To their surprise, President Palma promptly refused to have any of the treasury funds used to buy—or to pay blackmail to—a revolutionist. So "General" Guerra retired to nurse his resentment and to plan mischief; until some six weeks later when he started the uprising that was locally known as "Mr. Taft's picnic," because the leaders asserted that the capturing of the Palma government would be nothing more than a picnic, and assured Mr. Taft on his arrival to straighten out affairs that they really had not intended to assassinate President Palma, although three or four distinct plots had been made for that purpose; that they only meant to capture him, put him on the government yacht, and carry him to some remote part of the country and give him just a "pleasant picnic."