The History of Cuba Volume IV Part 26

[Ill.u.s.tration: FRANCISCO DOMINGUEZ ROLDaN SECRETARY OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION]

Shall we take public health as another measure of progress? In the half dozen years just before the War of Independence the death rate in Havana was 33 to the 1,000. By 1902 it was reduced to 22, or only a little more than in New York. To-day, under President Menocal, the death rate for all Cuba is only 11.2. In the registration area of the United States it is 14. In the United Kingdom it is 14.2, and Britain vaunts herself upon its lowness. In France it is 19.6; in Argentina it is 21.6; in Chili it is 31.1. There are only three countries in the world with lower rates of mortality than Cuba; and they are New Zealand, with 9.5, Newfoundland with 10.5, and Australia with 10.6.

Again, consider what is still the chief industry of Cuba. Before the administration of President Menocal, these were the yearly sugar crops, in tons:

1908 961,958 1909 1,513,582 1910 1,804,349 1911 1,480,217 1912 1,893,687

Compare or contrast those figures with these, under the administration of a President who comprehends his responsibilities:

1913 2,429,240 1914 2,596,567 1915 2,583,845 1916 3,006,624 1917 3,019,936 1918 3,444,605 1919 4,000,000

No less impressive and significant are the figures which indicate the volume of trade between Cuba and the United States. The imports of American goods into Cuba in 1903 were only $23,000,000; in 1908 they were $48,577,000; in 1917 they were $189,875,000. The exports of Cuban goods to the United States were in 1908 only $78,869,000, and in 1917 they were $225,275,000, and in 1919 more than $500,000,000. The balance of trade is thus heavily in Cuba's favor. Small as Cuba is in comparison with some of her neighbors, her commerce with the United States far exceeds theirs. Thus in 1917 the commerce, in both directions, of Brazil with the United States was $180,000,000; of Chili, $205,000,000; of Argentina, $305,000,000; of Mexico, $248,000,000; and of Cuba, $415,150,000.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BONEATO ROAD, ORIENTE

No country in the world, probably, is more amply equipped with good road--for both industrial and pleasure purposes, than Cuba. Radiating from the capital and other important cities splendid automobile highways give access to all parts of the island, leading not only to cities and ports but also for hundreds of miles through enchanting scenery. Of such highways the Boneato Road, winding through the mountains of Santiago, in the Province of Oriente, is a superb example.]

Financially, the administration of President Menocal is to be credited with the cancellation of the heavy and largely unnecessary debts which were left to it by the preceding administration; an achievement which contributed greatly to the improvement of Cuba's international credit.

The foreign claims of Great Britain, France and Germany, which had been an embarra.s.sing problem for several years, have been so satisfactorily adjusted that their complete settlement will be effected at a time convenient to all parties concerned. The grave fiscal and economic crisis which followed the beginning of the war of 1914, in practically all the markets of the world was avoided in Cuba by the Economic Defense Bill, and the establishment of a Cuban national monetary system has facilitated exchange and all manner of transactions in Cuba, and has redeemed the country from the reproach of being ridden by and dependent upon foreign coin as its medium of exchange.

[Ill.u.s.tration: JOSe A. DEL CUETO PRESIDENT OF SUPREME COURT]

The sanitary redemption of Cuba was indeed effected under the administration of Leonard Wood in the first American Government of Intervention. But the fortunate condition then attained has been not only fully maintained but constantly and materially bettered through the activity of the public health department of the Menocal administration. New problems in sanitation have arisen, only to be met with promptness, thoroughness and success. One of the most severe tests of the efficiency of the organization against disease occurred when the dreaded bubonic plague was imported; and that efficiency was amply vindicated by the complete eradication of that pestilence within a few weeks.

[Ill.u.s.tration: DR. FERNANDO MeNDEZ-CAPOTE, SECRETARY OF SANITATION]

[Ill.u.s.tration: GEN. JOSe MARTI, SECRETARY OF WAR]

Shortly after his accession to the Presidency, General Menocal effected a complete reorganization of the military system. It was not his purpose to burden the country with unnecessary armaments, but he realized the necessity of a certain degree of militant preparation for emergencies and therefore provided it with a small but efficient army and navy, commensurate with the necessities of the country, and entirely subject, of course, to the control and direction of the people through their civil government. The efficiency of this arm of the Government was well demonstrated at the time already described in these pages when, early in 1917, a widespread revolution was attempted for the purpose of overthrowing the const.i.tutional and legal government of the country. At that time the President showed the same triumphant ability as a military strategist that he had displayed as a civil administrator, in directing the movements of the Government troops from the Palace in Havana. It was due to his vigilance and energy in directing the campaign, as well, of course, as to the able a.s.sistance of his staff, that the rebel forces were promptly surrounded and captured and thus a death blow was struck at what we may hope will prove to have been the last attempt at revolution in Cuba.

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 partic.i.p.ated 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 friends.h.i.+p 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 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 l.u.s.tre 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 foreign trade of more than $296 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 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 ca.n.a.l, 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 circ.u.mference."

Then he pointed out the similarity of position of Nicaragua, where he hoped to construct a ca.n.a.l, 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 pa.s.sed 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, HAVANA]

It is not with ambition for conquest or for political ascendancy that Cuba exults in that proud position, but merely that she may in the words of her President "show herself worthy of the favors which G.o.d has lavished upon her," and make herself a joy unto herself and a convenience and a benefaction to the peaceful world. It is into such an estate that she has now found the sure way to enter, and is indeed confidently and triumphantly entering, through achievements which, though embraced in only half a dozen years, are worthy of a generation of progress and are auspicious of immeasurable generations of progress yet to come; achievements toward which her present Chief of State has greatly and indispensably contributed.

The story of Cuba is from Velasquez to Menocal. That is the story which we have tried to tell. But that is by no means the whole history of Cuba. Even of that portion of it we have been able here to give only an outline of the essential facts. But surely the span of four hundred and seven years must not be reckoned as a finality. It is only the beginning of the annals of a land and a people whose place among the nations of the world in honorable perpetuity is now a.s.sured as far as it can be a.s.sured by human purpose and achievement.

These pages are, then, in fact, merely the prologue to records of progress and attainment which shall honor the name of Cuba and adorn the story of the world, "far on, in summers that we shall not see."

From Velasquez to Menocal. The span is tremendous, in character as well as in lapse of time. It is a span from the fanatical and ruthless conqueror seeking only his own and his country's advantage, selfish and sordid, to the broad-minded and altruistic statesman and philanthropist, seeking the advantage and the advancement of his fellow men. It is a span, in brief, from the Sixteenth Century age of force to the Twentieth Century age of law.

Nevertheless, the span and the contrast involve a certain a.n.a.logy. It was the work of Velasquez, masterful man of vision that he was, to begin the transformation of a land of aboriginal barbarians into at least a semblance of civilization; the transformation from the primitive, scarcely more than animal, existence of the Cuban autochthones, to the strenuous if sophisticated life of Spain. It has been and is the work of President Menocal and his accomplished and patriotic colleagues to induct the land and people from the discredited remnants of a false colonial system into the clearer light, the fuller life and the immeasurably more s.p.a.cious and elevated opportunities of a free and independent people who "comprehend the responsibilities inc.u.mbent upon the founders of nations."