Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-12-08

A CABINET CRISIS
Cuba's First Experience Of
the Kind.
WHAT IT HAS SHOWN
THAT THE UNITED STATES CABI-
NET WAS A GOOD MODEL.
There May Now Be Party Of Oppose
ton, the Line Being the Plat
Amendment.
Special Correspondence Of The Evening Star.

NOiNeQ upon one party. lie piSsiuSHt
cabinet is not. or was not mere family
| circle. in which nobody doubted that the
executive sat at the head of the table. In
| the circumstances under which President
Palma took control he had to start off
| without any basis of political division. He
has had no such rivalries as those which
vexed President Washington between Ham
ilton and Jefferson. yet there have been at
his cabinet board rivals who also repre-
| scented different political tendencies.
Now the trend toward party government
| has come with rush. In the midst OF the
confusion the administration joys along
| quite steadily. 1t is more than likely that
President Palma for a while will keep up
| the experiment Of having different politica!
! groups represented in his cabinet But the
| representation will be in name rather than
| in fact The party of the government and
| the party of the opposition are forming
| with distinctness l shall try to state the
| DEVELOPMENTS without intruding personal
opinion or comment.
Party of the Opposition.
The nationals have become the party of
| the opposition. Their leatlers say it was
! better to become so frankly than to remain
! prisoners of the administration" Perhaps
| 1t was, for the atmosphere is clearer. They
know where they stand and the admnistra-
tion knows where it stands. The train of
circumsta nces has been swift. The Sc
quence was in this order. The mayor of
the city removed the chief Of police for
combating a strike too vigorously. DR..
Diego TamayO. secretary of government In
President Palmas cabinet. approved this
action publicly. Boodshed and riotlng fol-
lowed. though there was no destruction OF
property. Public opinion in large degree
charged this responsibility on the secretary
of government and on the alcalde, or
mayor.
H. Carlos Zaldo, the secretary Of state
and justice, who represents the repubn-
can group In the cabinet also charged that
DR.. Tamayo was responsible, and had put
the administration in danger. DR.. Ia
nayos defense was that he had discharged
his duty and that the condition would have
become much more serious had 1t not been
for the course he took. But he offered his
resignation The common talk was that
If Secretary Tamayo did not leave the
cabinet, Secretary Zaldo would leave 1t.
Whether this Is so not, Tamayo Is out
OF the cabinet The nationals, whose rep
resentatve he was, insist that his forced
withdrawal was a declaration of hostility
to their party by President Palma's ad-
mlnistration Thy took up his cause, held
a public meeting in which they applauded
him, and made known their sentiments to
the country by means of a manifesto. tx
Secretary Tamayo for the time being is the
hero of his party or political group. But
he is out Of Office and party martyrdom
carries with it no salary.
" 4dt tuC SdOAAVt SAASAS A4c@o hAAO" H.
In some ways this cabinet crisis has
shown that the members of the constitu-
tional convention acted with very good
sense in their provisions for the executive
department. Some of them wanted the
English parliamentary system. with cabi
net ministers having seats in the congress
and responsible to that body. Others want
ed to go little further and have the priv
ilege exercised by the French of turning
ooh innt III
like it..
In the end the United States system was
adopted. The congress has not yet passed
an organic law carrying out the provisions
of the constitution for the executive de-
partment, and the cabinet now consti
tuted is inheritance from the American
military control. But when such law is
passed it will be simply to defle the differ
ent departments and their functions, and
not to change the existing form. 1t turns
out happily for the Cuban government that
in its experimental stages the congress can
not bother individual members of the cabi
net, except by such general criticism
often Is heard in the Congress of the
United States. There be upset which
would make 1t imperative on the President
to reconstruct his cabinet so as to satisfy
one or another group in either the House or
the Senate
The Line of Cleavage.
1t may be said that the line of cleavage
Platt amendment. This may prove partly
true if President Palma gets in sympathetic
touch with Washington and opens a clear
path for his administration by proposing
the measures to congress this winter TO
make effective Cubas acceptance of the
Platt amendment
The nationals in a manner have had as
plank in their party platform the modifica
ton. they call it, Of this law. Their pro-
gram, as explained by them. has been by
moral suasion to get the United States to
| modify the law, while they on their part
revised the appendix which contains it out
| of the Cuban constitution. The plan as
| Endorsed by them was to secure their end
| "by evolutionary and diplomatic means
| consistent with the polity of the new Cuban
nationality.
AS against this declaration the republican
| party accepted the Plat amendment and
| deprecated agitation for it's revision, though
| the republican leaders were not enthusiastic
| cally jealous for the legislation which is
| to make the amendment effective. But III
| spite of their lukewarmness. in the public
| eye they stand for the integrity Of the Platt
amendment.
DR.. Tamayo May Change.
| It happens that DR.. Tamayo from the
| time the question was up in the constitu-
tional convention. of which he was mem
Der, also being in General Woods cabinet,
! was one of the most earnest workers for
this legislation. Further, he stood for 1t
while identified with the Palma administra-
! ton. Now as one of the opposition. his
views may change. Yet the Cuban public
will not give them the same weight that
| 1t gives to the opinion of the radical ma
| tionals who from the start have been
| straight anti-Plattists.
| A circumstance which raises further
| doubt as to the vitality of anti-Platt ten
denotes as a cardinal principle of the OPP
position was the recent action of the ca
| mara, or house in voting down the bill
| for the law establishing a department Of
| war and navy. The radical national coali-
ton had gained control of the house or
ganiZation. This bill was advocated by
many of the leaders admittedly for SEN
timental instead of practical reasons
Speeches, lasting whole afternoons, were
made in support of 1t. Its passage was de-
| clared to be necessary in order to yindicate
| the symbol of sovereignty.
Since it was known that the Senate would
| not agree to the bill the pres,,mntinn was