The History of Cuba Volume IV Part 10

General Brooke was succeeded by General Leonard Wood. He had also in a measure been preceded by him. General Wood had at Santiago been the real pioneer in American administration in Cuba. He laid the first foundations there. General Brooke at Havana enlarged upon those foundations. Then came General Wood to Havana to complete the structure.

It was with the fame and prestige of his great victory over pestilence at Santiago, and of all his other achievements in Oriente, that he came to Havana on December 20, 1899, to be Military Governor of all Cuba. He was received not alone with the fullest measure of formal ceremony and official salutation, from both Cubans and Americans, but also with such an outpouring of popular welcome as few men have received anywhere and as n.o.body save perhaps Maximo Gomez had ever received at Havana. The att.i.tude and sentiment of the people toward him were well expressed by an editorial writer in the Havana journal _La Lucha_, who said:

"General Wood has shown great capacity for government and management while in command of the eastern end of the island. In that mountainous and rugged district, where pa.s.sions and impulsive characters predominate, in that country where a strong rebellious spirit has been agitated for a long time, General Wood knew how to calm that spirit, how to establish moral peace and to cheer the hearts of all. He has been seen to practise a policy of harmony and ample liberty. We saw him, first of all, promulgate the habeas corpus in the province he commanded, and he decreed that const.i.tutional measure when the embers of the fire of domestic and international war were still smoking. In material things, General Wood cleansed the eastern cities and embellished them.... His government will prepare us for a broader life and give us the blessings of peace and liberty. As a man of clear mind and solid education, he will know how to study and to solve skilfully the economic and political problems that circ.u.mstances may introduce into the country. As he is a man of energy, he will be able to withstand every unhealthy influence. His policy will be eminently liberal, but at the same time it will be a guarantee for all who labor and produce. He will not a.s.sociate himself with agitators but with statesmen."

[Ill.u.s.tration: LEONARD WOOD

Soldier, scientist, statesman, administrator, it has been the fortune of Leonard Wood to render invaluable services to two nations. Born at Winchester, New Hamps.h.i.+re, on October 9, 1860, and educated in medicine at Harvard University, he became first a surgeon and then an officer of the United States army. After a brilliant career in Indian fighting in the Southwest he went to Cuba in 1898 as colonel of the cavalry regiment of "Rough Riders" and did notable work in the battles around Santiago.

He was Military Governor of Santiago and Oriente, and later Military Governor of Cuba, in which places he transformed the sanitary, economic and political conditions of the island, and ushered it into its career of independent self-government. Since then he has served the United States with great distinction in the Philippines, and as the foremost officer of the army at home; not the least of his benefactions to the nation being his great campaign of education and awakening in preparation for what he saw to be America's inevitable partic.i.p.ation in the World War.]

Such was the just estimate which Cuba placed upon her new Governor. Of his actual reception the same journal that we have quoted said: "Although promising nothing, he speaks volumes by his quiet democratic manner of taking charge of affairs. He has captivated everyone."

The new Governor was welcomed on his arrival at Havana by an extraordinary and quite unprecedented gathering of representative men from all parts of the island; such a gathering as Havana had never seen before. He promptly entered into the fullest possible conference with them, to learn their views and to impart his own to them, and as a result of his intercourse with them he was able, on January 1, 1900, to gather about himself a noteworthy Cabinet, commanding in an exceptional measure the confidence of the Cuban people. It was thus composed:

Secretary of State and Government, Diego Tamayo.

Secretary of the Treasury, Jose Enrique Varona.

Secretary of Justice, Louis Estevez.

Secretary of Public Works, Jose Ramon Villalon.

Secretary of Education, Juan Bautista Barreiro.

Secretary of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce, Ruiz Rivera.

The selection of these men commanded the cordial approval of the Cuban people. Said _La Lucha_: "The new Cabinet contains men whose honest names are guarantees that the moral and material interests of the country are to be conserved." To this _La Patria_ added: "General Wood is obviously imbued with the best intentions. Although the council of Cubans convened by him is not an elected body, it does represent the wishes of the Cuban people."

It will of course be observed that not one of General Brooke's cabinet was retained by General Wood. All were new men. Moreover, he increased their number by two, making a separate department of Education instead of lumping it with Justice, and making another of Public Works, instead of leaving it grouped with Agriculture, Industry and Commerce. This latter change was significant of two things. One was the increasing amount of actual governmental work that was devolving upon the administration. The other was the increased importance which, in General Wood's mind, attached to Education and Public Works. He rightly conceived them to be the two prime needs of Cuba. The cabinet did not remain as thus organized, however, very long. On May 1 Ruiz Rivera resigned the Secretarys.h.i.+p of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce, and was succeeded by Perfecto Lacoste; and Louis Estevez resigned the portfolio of Justice and was succeeded by Juan Bautista Barreiro, who in turn was succeeded in the Department of Education by Jose Enrique Varona, while the last named was succeeded as Secretary of the Treasury by Leopoldo Cancio. Finally on August 11 Senor Barreiro retired altogether and was succeeded in the Department of Justice by Miguel Gener y Rincon.

We have said that General Brooke was charged with letting his administration be controlled by his Secretaries. There was an inclination in some quarters to charge General Wood with exactly the reverse. He was not autocratic nor domineering. But he was Governor. He was the actual as well as the nominal head of the government. Realizing that he would be held personally responsible for everything that was done,--as he was,--he rightly determined to exercise his authority in everything that was done. Then, if he was blamed, he would not be blamed for the fault of somebody else.

The significance which we have attributed to his Cabinet enlargement was promptly demonstrated. Of the three subjects to which he most devoted his attention, public education came first. He had deemed it worthy of a Cabinet Department all for itself. He at once set about organizing that department _de novo_. Mr. Frye had done good work as Superintendent of Schools; but he had also done much of dubious merit. He had organized too many schools too rapidly, and with too little system. Perhaps that was partly the fault of the law, which bade him on December 6 to get them all going by December 11, if possible. But then, he was responsible for the law. He opened hundreds of schools. But most of them were pretty poor affairs, with no proper text-books, no desks, no equipment and supplies; they were not graded nor cla.s.sified, and they were conducted without proper system or order.

Such schools General Wood regarded as of little value, and he took prompt measures, though at the cost of a somewhat acrimonious controversy with Mr. Frye, to improve the system under which they were being created. On January 24 he issued an order creating a Board of Superintendents of Schools, instead of leaving the work to one man, and he appointed as its members Mr. Frye, Esteban Borrero Echeverria, and Lincoln de Zayas. The Board continued to act under the law of December 6, but applied it in a somewhat different way, with impressive results.

It opened a great many more schools than Mr. Frye had done, and saw to it that they were better equipped than his had been. Within six months the number of schools was increased from 635 to 3,313. Indeed, on March 3 it was found necessary to put on brakes, by issuing an order that no more new schools should be opened for the present. That year more than $4,000,000, or nearly a fourth of the total revenue of Cuba, was spent on public schools.

[Ill.u.s.tration: EVELIO RODRIGUEZ LENDIAN

One of the foremost educators of Cuba, Dr. Evelio Rodriguez Lendian, was born at Guanabacoa in 1860, and was educated at the University of Havana, where he is Professor of History and Dean of the Faculty of Science and Letters. He is also President of the Academy of History, and Director of the Athenaeum. He has written a number of books and has great repute as a public speaker.]

In addition to primary and grammar schools, which were made universal, trade schools of various kinds were established. In the princ.i.p.al cities, especially in Havana, there were free schools of stenography and type-writing. These latter were designed partly to supply a competent and up-to-date clerical force to the various government offices, and partly to promote modern business methods in private concerns. Of course they provided profitable occupation to a large number of persons who otherwise might have been out of employment. The creation of the public schools also provided employment for several thousand persons, as teachers. These were almost entirely Cubans and, as in the United States, were very largely young women. Considering the paucity of numbers of those reported by the census as possessing "superior education" it was extraordinary that a sufficient staff of teachers could be obtained. Normal schools for the training of teachers in modern methods of education were established, and were largely attended by young Cubans eager to partic.i.p.ate in the work of advancing the intellectual interests and indeed also the social and industrial interests of their country.

An admirable impetus, of inestimable value, was given to the work of Cuban education in 1900 when Harvard University, General Wood's alma mater, invited Cuban teachers to the number of a thousand to spend the summer at that inst.i.tution, in Cambridge, Ma.s.sachusetts, where a great summer school in pedagogy and other sciences was conducted. Recognizing the immense value of such a visit from many points of view, the American administration in Cuba agreed to pay each teacher one month's salary for the purpose of the excursion, and to provide transportation from their homes to Havana or other convenient ports, whence their further travel was provided for by the Quartermaster's Department of the United States.

On arriving at Cambridge they were received and entertained during their stay by a committee specially appointed by Harvard. They were thus enabled to have without cost an extended and singularly interesting and enjoyable excursion, such as many of them had never had before, to receive stimulus, suggestion and instruction in the most approved methods of education and school management, and--perhaps most important of all--to come into direct touch with the people and inst.i.tutions of the great northern republic with which their own country had and was destined always to have the closest of relations.

The school system of the island was strictly removed from politics, both local and general, and was taken from the control of the munic.i.p.alities and placed directly and solely under that of the national government.

Thus was a.s.sured a fine degree of uniformity in the quality and methods of teaching. Thus also the poorer districts, which could with difficulty have maintained any kind of schools at all, were enabled to have as good service as the richest communities. The salaries paid to teachers were good, comparing favorably with those paid in the United States.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE UNIVERSITY OF HAVANA

Cuba is enviably distinguished for providing not only elementary but higher education, even of the best university grade, practically without cost to the children of her citizens. The University of Havana, which is the crown of the whole educational system of the country, was founded in 1728, and formerly was housed in the old convent of Santo Domingo. But in 1900 under the American administration of General Leonard Wood, it was removed to the fine site of the former Pirotecnica Militar, near El Principe.]

There was, it must be confessed, some criticism of this elaborate and expensive educational establishment. It was urged by some that approximately one-fourth was entirely too large a proportion of the national revenue to devote to this purpose, and that it would be to the greater benefit of the island to spend less money on schools and more on public works of various kinds. It was also pointed out that the average cost of educating each pupil in the Cuban schools was more than $26, while the average cost in the whole United States was less than $23, and in the Southern States, with which it was a.s.sumed that Cuba was properly to be compared, it was less than $9. Of course there was involved in these criticisms a triple fallacy. One was the notion that public works were neglected or sacrificed for the schools. That, as we shall see, was not so; a comparably great system of such works proceeding _pari pa.s.su_ with the development of the school system. Another was, that the cost was too high. Naturally the cost was much higher in the first year than it would be after the system was well established. It was in fact much lower than in those parts of the United States where the schools were efficient and the educational system was creditable. The third fallacy was in thinking that Cuba was to be compared with the Southern States, the backward condition of whose school systems had long been regarded as a reproach and a disgrace. In endowing Cuba with a school system it would have been indecent for the United States to take for the standard its own poorest and most discreditable systems. It was necessary that it should take rather the best that it had as an example to be emulated. It may be added that these criticisms were made chiefly by General Wood's American critics, and by those who ignorantly and arrogantly regarded Cuba as an inferior country for which an inferior system was good enough. The Cubans themselves with practical unanimity gave to the work their hearty and grateful approval.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ANTONIO SANCHEZ DE BUSTAMENTE

One of the most eminent jurists and orators of Cuba, Dr. Antonio Sanchez de Bustamente, was born on April 13, 1865, and was educated at the University of Havana. He is a Senator, President of the Cuban Society of International Law; President of the National Academy of Arts and Letters; Dean of the Havana College of Lawyers, and Professor of International, Public and Private Law in the University of Havana.]

There was other work to do for the children of Cuba beside that of the ordinary schools. The war had been disastrous to domesticity. Thousands of homes had been entirely destroyed, the parents slain, the houses burned, the children left to wander as waifs. In that genial clime, amid that profusion of the fruits of nature, these orphans did not necessarily starve or perish. Many of them lived practically as wild creatures of the woods. Many of them also were cared for in some fas.h.i.+on by the families whose homes had not been destroyed, for it was not in the Cuban heart, even the most poverty-stricken, to turn a suppliant from the door. But it was not fitting that these children should be left as waifs and charges upon the people. Under General Brooke's administration an excellent Department of Charities was organized, which gathered up and cared for thousands of them, and this work was continued during General Wood's administration. The children were partly placed in families which were willing to receive them, or in asylums and schools.

Seeing that there was among them a certain proportion of defectives and delinquents, and that many were in need of useful training, correctional and industrial schools for both boys and girls were opened, and did admirable work.

The second object of General Wood's special interest was that of public works. Concerning that, two salient facts must be borne in mind. One is, that the prohibition of franchises and concessions during the American occupation materially militated against the making of many improvements; although it was on the whole a desirable restriction. The other is that many of the most urgent public works during the first year or two were those connected with sanitation and the renovation of public buildings, prisons, etc. During the first year of the intervention, under General Brooke, heroic work was done by General Ludlow in removing from the streets of Havana the acc.u.mulated filth of years. But that was only a beginning. In the next two years the work had to be continued and extended to every city and town on the island. Water supplies had to be provided, and sewer systems. Above all, there had to be an extensive, persistent and, in the very nature of the case expensive campaign against yellow fever and malaria, the two traditional scourges of Cuba.

To these works General Wood addressed himself with efficient energy, and to them he devoted an appropriate proportion of the public funds.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ALMENDARES RIVER, HAVANA]

We have seen that the total cost of the schools in 1900 was more than $4,000,000. But as a considerable part of this was non-recurring expense for buildings, etc., the actual cost of maintenance was much less. The following figures show the apportionment of expenditures:

For Education, non-recurring $ 337,460 For Education, maintenance 3,672,000 ---------- Total for school system $4,009,460

For Public Works construction $1,786,700 For Sanitation 3,029,500 ---------- Total for Public Works $4,816,200

Despite the complaints of American critics that too much money was spent on schools in proportion to other things, therefore, it appears that much less was spent on them than on public works. Perhaps such complaints would have been less numerous and less bitter if General Wood had been willing or able to give profitable contracts and franchises to American speculators.

Much attention was paid to port improvements, naturally, in order to facilitate and promote the commerce which was essential to the prosperity of the island. The lighthouse service was placed under the most competent charge of General Mario G. Menocal, who conducted it with approved efficiency until the needs of his personal affairs compelled him to retire from public office. A thoroughly organized postal service was established throughout the island and was so well managed that by the end of the period of intervention it was within ten per cent. of being self supporting, or as near to self supporting as that of the United States had generally been. This was certainly a remarkable achievement in view of the fact that so large a proportion of Cubans were illiterate and therefore unable to make use of postal facilities.

For general purposes of public works the island was divided into six districts. At the head of each district was a Chief Superintendent of Public Works, with a staff of a.s.sistants. The princ.i.p.al undertakings, apart from sanitation, were the construction of roads and the building of bridges and culverts, and these were judiciously planned so as to unite the various districts of the island with improved highways, and to open up rich agricultural regions with transportation facilities.

[Ill.u.s.tration: OLD TIME WATER MILL, HAVANA PROVINCE]

These undertakings involved General Wood in the disposition of an unpleasant controversy which had been left over from General Brooke's administration, which in turn had received it from the old Spanish government. In 1894 the Spanish authorities of Havana decided to have that city largely repaved and re-sewered, and asked an American firm somewhat noted for its political influence, that of Michael J. Dady & Co., of Brooklyn, New York, to submit plans. A year later it accepted some of this firm's proposals, payment for the work to be made in bonds of the City of Havana. But the oncoming of the war caused postponement of the project, and it was not until December, 1898, just before the Spanish evacuation, that the corporation of Havana finally accepted the proposals and authorized the issue of bonds. The American authorities, however, who were about to take over the control of the city, protested against being thus saddled with a scheme of Spanish making, and accordingly the last Spanish Governor, General Castellanos, very properly declined to approve and sign the ordinance; declaring that it and all similar projects, which would have to be executed under American control, should await American approval.

A few days later the transfer of sovereignty occurred, and General Ludlow, as Governor of Havana, decided to set aside the Dady proposals altogether and to proceed with the work himself. This was doubtless an economical and logical course to pursue. But under the old Spanish law, which was still in force, Dady & Co. claimed to have certain rights in the matter. The matter remained in suspense for the whole of General Brooke's administration, with a succession of engineers from the United States making and remaking plans for the work and with Dady & Co.'s interests undecided. Apparently the United States government--for the whole matter was controlled by the Engineering Bureau of the War Department at Was.h.i.+ngton--was reluctant to challenge Dady & Co. to a trial of their claims in court, and was unwilling to seek a compromise with them, but was seeking by interminable postponements, changes of plan and delays to tire them out and induce them voluntarily to withdraw. But that was something which that astute and resolute corporation showed no inclination to do. Meanwhile very important public works were at a stand-still.

This was an intolerable state of affairs, and General Wood in the spring of 1901 determined to end it after the manner of Alexander's disposition of the Gordian knot. He paid Dady & Co. $250,000 in satisfaction of their claims, which was possibly less than the courts would have awarded them if the case had been carried before them, and then ordered bids to be solicited for the doing of the work. The only bid received was from Dady & Co., and the Was.h.i.+ngton authorities refused to sanction acceptance of it on the ground that it was too high. The plans were altered and new bids solicited, and the Havana Ayuntamiento voted to award the contract to the lowest bidders, McGivney & Rokeby. But before the contract was closed Dady & Co. on a plea of having misunderstood the plans offered a reduction of their bid below that of their compet.i.tors; whereupon the Ayuntamiento reconsidered its vote and ordered the contract to be made with Dady & Co. But the Was.h.i.+ngton authorities refused to sanction this change, apparently being averse to letting Dady & Co. have the job at any figure, and the result was that the whole matter remained at a deadlock until after the end of the American occupation.

From some points of view the greatest achievement of General Wood's administration was that of the conquest of disease, and it was one in which he as a physician and man of science took peculiar interest. When he fought and temporarily overcame yellow fever at Santiago, there was no application of the immortal theory of Dr. Finlay, but it was supposed that the pestilence spontaneously arose from filth. The same was true of General Ludlow's subsequent cleansing of Havana; he supposing that by the removal of filth the sources of infection would be removed. But when he observed that the dreaded disease occurred where there was no filth, General Wood concluded that it must have another source, and decided to give Dr. Finlay's theory a practical test. In 1900 therefore a medical commission was formed, composed of Drs. Walter Reed, U. S. A., James Carroll, Aristides Agramonte, and Jesse W. Lazear, who, with the heroic cooperation of soldiers of the United States army, who were willing to risk their lives in experiments for the welfare of humanity, undertook an elaborate series of demonstrations which were epochal in the history not alone of Cuba but also of the whole world.

Reed took the initiative. He applied to General Wood for permission to undertake the work, including the conducting of experiments on persons who were not immune against the fever, which of course was a most perilous venture. He also asked for a considerable sum of money with which to reward volunteers who would thus submit themselves to deadly peril. General Wood did not hesitate for a moment. He granted the permission, appropriated the money, and entered into the momentous enterprise with helpful sympathy and untiring zeal.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CARLOS J. FINLAY

Born at Camaguey on December 3, 1833, of English parents, and dying on August 20, 1915, Dr. Carlos J. Finlay left a name which greatly adorns the science of Cuba and which occupied a conspicuous place on the roster of the benefactors of humanity. He was educated in France and at the Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, and rose to eminence in his profession. He first of all men propounded the theory that _Stegomiya fasciata_ mosquito was the active and sole agent in the communication of yellow fever, and personally, under the Governors.h.i.+p of Leonard Wood, demonstrated the correctness of that theory and thus freed Cuba from its most dreaded pestilence and blazed the way for a like achievement in all other lands. For this epochal service to the world many foreign governments bestowed distinctions and decorations upon him. Though technically retaining the British citizens.h.i.+p with which his father endowed him, he devoted his life to Cuba and filled with high efficiency the place of chief of the Bureau of Sanitation.]

The scene of the drama--for it was one of the most dramatic and heroic performances in human history--was Camp Lazear, fittingly named for the brave man who was a martyr to the cause of health, a few miles from Quemados, in the outskirts of Havana. Before the work at the camp was begun, however, two experiments were made by members of the commission, who thus demonstrated their personal readiness to incur any peril which might confront the volunteers for whom they were calling. Dr. Carroll was first. He deliberately caused himself to be bitten by a mosquito which twelve days before had gorged itself with the blood of a yellow fever patient. Note that he did this with the expectation, indeed with the hope, that he would thus be infected with one of the deadliest of diseases. He sought to prove not that there was no danger in a mosquito bite, but on the contrary that there was the greatest possible danger. And his antic.i.p.ations were fully realized. In due time after the bite he was stricken with yellow fever in a particularly severe form; from which, however, he happily recovered.

Dr. Lazear came next. At about the same time with Carroll he made a similar experiment upon himself. Apparently the insect by which he caused himself to be bitten had not itself been infected. At any rate Lazear did not develop the disease. At this he was disappointed, and he determined to expose himself again. Accordingly he was thoroughly bitten by another mosquito, in the yellow fever ward of the hospital. He noted the fact and all its results most carefully, as though he had been experimenting upon some inanimate object. In due time the disease manifested itself in its most malignant form. Everything possible was of course done for him, but in vain. He died of the disease which he had voluntarily contracted for the sake of saving others from it; one of the world's great martyrs to the cause not merely of science but of humanity.

So Camp Lazear was founded and was named after this hero. There were erected two large frame buildings, one for infected mosquitoes and one for infected clothing. The mosquito building was divided into two parts by a permanent wirecloth part.i.tion, impervious to even the smallest mosquito, but of course permitting free circulation of air. All the windows and doors were securely screened in like manner, so that it was impossible for mosquitoes to pa.s.s in or out. This building was ventilated in the most thorough manner. Three men entered it and lived there for a fortnight. One of them entered the compartment which was infested with fever-infected mosquitoes, and was bitten by them. The others remained in the other compartment which was free from mosquitoes but through which the same air circulated and in which all other conditions were identical with those in the insect room. The result was that the man who was bitten developed the fever, while the others, though fully as susceptible to it as he, showed no signs of it. Such was the convincing demonstration of the mosquito house.

The clothing building was kept free from mosquitoes, but was well stocked with the clothing and bedding of yellow fever patients. There were the beds in which men had died of the fever, soiled with their vomit and other excreta. The room was purposely deprived of ventilation, so that its air should constantly be heavy with the reek of disease and death. Into that indescribably loathsome place brave men entered, and there they lived for weeks, wearing the soiled clothing and sleeping in the soiled beds of those who had died of the pestilence. But not one of them contracted the fever. Not one sickened. All emerged from the noisome place at the end of the experiment in perfect health. Such was the convincing demonstration of the infected clothing house.