New-York tribune., 1902-01-02
PRESIDENT OF CUBA.

Good wishes for happy new year are to be
given cordially and with some degree of CON
tidence to the people of Cuba. They closed the
old year we'll We might have wished them TO
do so Detter-mght have wished there were to
be no such dispute over the election as that
which Mr.. Pierra set forth III our columns. and
no resentful abstenticn of faction, however
small from the polling. But it might have
been so much worse! AS il is the little unpleas-
antneSs will pass and only the good of an
orderly and lawful election will remain. 1t is
to be expected that the result of that election
will be Loyalty accepted by the Cuban people.
and will prove bencticent to them all.
While the election was for various officers of
government, chief interest attaches to the sue
ccSsfal candidate for the Presidency-the man
who is be the first real President of Cuba
There are those of us who remember Cespedes
and other nominal presidents. who were merely
titular heads of a rebellion striving to become
a revolution. Indeed, Tomas Estrada Palma
himself once held such place But these were
not in any effective sense Presidents of Cuba
The first such dignitary will take office early in
the present year. AS for his personality it may
be said that he is well known to Americans
we'll known in the senses of both widely and
favOrably known. He is remembered by many
as the stern revolutiOniSt of the Ten Years War,
urged TO the conflict by the double desire to lib
crate his native land and to avenge his mother,
who had been starved to death by brutal Span
ish jailers: the nominal president of the
Cuban Republic, and prisoner in a Spanish
Jail BY others he is remembered as a high
officer of state in Central American republic,
being then in exile from Cuba. TO all he Is
known the foremost representative and advO-
cate of the Cuban cause in this country during
the last war. He was not merely the head of
the Junta; he was the Junta. Never did a revo-
lutiOnary cause have Il representative more
faithful, more efficient or more universally
accepted. Five years ago il would have seemed
absurd to question the conspicuous fitness of
Mr.. Palma to be the chosen head of the Cuban
people. We know of nothing which has occurred
since then to impair that fitness or TO diminish
the confidence and esteem in which he was held
by his countrymen. 1t Is therefore to be be
lleved that in choosing hm-as they have prac-
tically dOne-the CubanS have done we'll 1t is
well that he is a man of ripe years and long
experience. 1t is well that for many years past
he has been identified with civil rather than
with military affairs for Cuba has no more
need of fighting. 1t is well that he knows and
is known to the United States and is inclined to
remain in close and cordial relations with it,
The choice OF Cuba'S first President is thus 10
be regarded as an auspciousl one Perhaps
however, it will be not amiss to remind our
selves again OF the fact that the realization of
Cubas hopes depends in large measure upon
the United States. Speaking on Tuesday to
The Trbune's correspondent. Mr. Palma's first
words were a declaration that the Cuban Repub-
lie must first of all aim At the most friendly rea-
tions with the United States and then he added
that il should also seek to secure from this
country such commercial concessions as will
save the island from ruin and assure Il pros
perity. That is the sist of the whole matter
In all her Instructions Cuba was fighting pri-
marly for commercial and industrial relief
Now. in the day of her newly dawned indie
pendence, she must have such relief ii indepen-
dence is 10 be more and better than mockcrv.
With Mr. Palma for her first President and
with trade reciprocity with the United States
Cuba may confidently expect happv new
year and many of them. And I'm that rpci-
procity the United States will find its own best
profit and the best reward for its intervention
in behalf of Cuba