The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1899-05-04
Those Planned by the United States
Military Government
Applaudad BY All Elements Except The
Spanish Speaking Lawyers.
A Decree in Preparation Which
Will Make the Civil Ceremony
the Legal Proof Of Marriage,
Leaving Optional the Further
Celebration of the Contract Be
fore a Priest or Minister.

NEW YORK, May "a dispatch to
the Tribune" from Havana says:
The legal reforms planned by the
military government are gradually find
ing their way into the official Ga
zette. The decree issued or to be is
sued this week abolishes those features
of the crimina al code which clash more
harshly with Anglo-Saxon ideas of per-
sonal security. Judges are forbidden
hereafter to deny to prisoners the right
of communication with the outside
world. or to Shield accusers from pub
licity. Habeas corpus is also granted
to any prisoner who thinks himself un-
lawfully detained in custody The ex-
animation Of witnesses in criminal
cases will be broadened, but the judg
ment will be left, as before, exclusively
in the hands of the court
These reforms are applauded by all
elements, except, perhaps, the Spanish
speaking lawyers who voted some time
ago to do everything to uphold the eX-
cellencies of the Latin over the English
common law. A decree is also in prep
aration which will make the civil cere-
mony the legal proof of marriage, and
leave optional the further celebration of
the contract before a priest or minis
ter
General Gomez and his assistants on
the committee representing the Cuban
army, having informed General Brooke
that it would be almost impossible to
revise and reduce the lists on which
payment of arrearages is to be made, it
is doubtful whether the military au
thority will pursue its efforts to purge
the Cuban rolls, as the soldiers them
selves are most concerned in seeing JUS
tice done to those who actually bore the
burdens of the insurrection, and their
representatives are indspoSed to en-
courage any critical Investigation The
Government will probably have to dis
burse the S3,O00000 impartially among
the deserving and the undeserving.
The Department of Posts has an
nounced. that hereafter all vacancies in
the inland postal service are to be filed
by Cubans Heretofore the opposite
policy has been followed of retaining
Spanish ex-officials in office. AS the
Spanish service was conducted on anti
quated methods and with great indif-
ference to public needs, no improvement
could we'll be hoped for while former
postmasters and postal clerks were left
undisturbed Far better results win be
attained when these ineffective hold
overs have been got rid Of. The salaries
paid in the postal service, as in most
of the other branches Of the Cuban civil
service, are plainly inadequate, and lit
tie approach to American thoroughness
and accuracy in handling the mail will
be made until more liberal salaries
tempt competent men to enter the lower
grades as clerks and carriers
Two Cubans have been arrested and
held on the charge of sending obscene
literature through the mails. As there
is no Spanish law making such an Of
Tense criminal, the postal authorities
are puzzled just how to proceed. They
will probably have to ask the courts 10
declare the United States postal regu-
laticns binding in Cuba, though such a
View is scarcely sustained by the Gov
ernor Generals declaration that Span
ish laws would continue in force unless
specifically modified
The military government has decided
to return to the United States all ex-
volunteers now serving sentences in
Cuba for misconduct under their terms
of enlistment
The sanitary authorities are enabled
to report that no active cases of either
yellow fever or smallpox exist in Ha-
vana.