Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-03-21

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the insanitary condition of Cuban cities
has been on the commerce of the island.
Honesty In Government.
Another very important phase of the
Cuban character must always be considered
in dealing with them. 1t is a certain fact
that nine out of ten of the people have alb
solutely no conception of the necessity OF
honesty in government or by individual Of
ficials They come by their views naturally,
as for hundreds of years they have seen,
under Spanish rule, the eXempllncatlon OF
the rule that a public office is private
snap. There has never been the slightest
secrecy about the fact that Spanish officials
made as much personal money out OF their
offices as they possibly could. Bribery and
corruption is their generally accepted idea
of official life and is the policy that nearly
all of the Cubans would undoubtedly pursue
under an independent government. 1t would
be an almost hopeless task to teach this
generation of Cubans any different ideas re-
garding official honesty. They take the
defalca lions in the post office under the
thing and really their only resentment Is
that some of themselves had not been in a
position to do the same thing.
In every city of Cuba full municipal gov
ernments have been organized for some
time and the records of their mayors and
councils have, in practically every case.
been a disgraceful series of corruption and
dishonesty An American official here to-
day could offer to prove to the Cubans
that he had walked across the Bay OF
Havana on the water without getting his
feet wet and they would smile and say
he was a smart man to have the PROOF OF
this; but that, of course, they did not be-
lieye it. They would make exactly the
same reply If he told them he could prove
that he had handled several million dol
lars of the public money and had not
stolen any of it. They would be as ready
to believe one of these as the other, but
their experience and training make 1t inn
possible for them to accept either PROPOSE
ticn.
Need Long Training.
For the above reasons it would seem
that the present generation In Cuba Is I'M
fitted for entire self-government- The next
generation, trained in different school
and provided with different ideals of gov
eminent, could very likely meet the neces-
sary obligations of government with sue
cess; but at present it would be an almost
hopeless task to expect a successful home
government here. The people need a
strong hand over them. They need stiff
supervision and with this they can go far.
Without 1t they would be almost exactly
as are the South American Spanish re-
publics Revolutions would follow revolu-
lions and there would be an absolute
lack of security in property investments.
The inclination and desire for revolutionary
movements has cropped out continually
here in recent days. When the PROPOSE
ton was adopted in the convention allow
ing foreigners who had served ten years in
the revolutionary army to be eligible for
election as president. several OF the radical
papers said that the nationalists, when
T that proposition was adopted, should have
left the convention, and with their friends
taken to the fields. their guns in their
hands
Combined with the idea that the proper
way to fight political battles is with bull
let's the Cubans possess the same tempera-
ment found among the other Spanish
American races. They believe that with
independence Cuba will at once take its
position as a world power, and that in the
affairs Of the world its say will be equally
considered with the United States, England
and other great nations. 1t is perhaps
doubtful whether the intelligent people be-
lieve this in full. but it is certain that the
masses of the people do. and the Cubans
with a little education instill this idea OF
grandeur into the heads OF others.
This educated class is after Office. first.
last and all the time. They have framed
their constitution on lines to furnish as
many offices as possible. In this little
sparsely populated island their constitu-
ton provides full municipal governments
in every village and city; above that five
full state governments, with legislatures
and executives, and above that full ma
Gonal government, with two houses of con-
gress, president and cabinet.
General Woods Opinion.
Gen. Wood told me that his opinion, after
his experience in Cuba, was that IL abso-
lutte independence was granted to the ISL
and, and our troops were withdrawn, the
republic could not last forty days. This is
also the opinion of nearly all the Ameri-
cans here. The belief here is that the
Americans who own Cuban revolutionary
bonds are the people who are Installing into
the minds of the people of the United
States the idea that the island Is prepared
TO. independence, and should be given it at
once.
long protectorate they may have trouble
in collecting their bonds.
In general then, the almost universal
feeling among the people In a position to
judge, and this includes practically all the
business men of the island is that the Gu
bans need firm hand to direct them. II
held with stiff rein they are easy to
manage and docile, but IL given something
to decide for themselves they wrangle ana
good subordinates but bad leaders. In
knowledge OF government they are as chill
dren. 1t would be absurd for the United
States to allow them to deal with other ma
tons for long time. They would inevf-
tably complicate the United States with
some nation IL such power was given them.
They should not be allowed to issue bonds
except under supervision. The United
States should certainly hold most Of the
forts in the island. Otherwise our troops
will be extremely likely to be called on to
take these forts In the near future with