The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-10-15


extent financially interested. Neither
could we overlook tho obligation inn
posed upon IN by the Treaty Of Paris TO
protect the lives and property Of Spanish
and. ~inferentiAlly Through the operation
OF the most favored nation clause In
other treaties). other foreign subjects
residing in Cuba.
Whatever we might wish to do, how
ever, for their and our protection, II was
needful TO bear in mind the limits Of the
Plat Amendment, which was made an
appendix to the Cuban Constitution, not
straining the powers conveyed by IL. or
using them so as to justify the unfriendly
prediction that il was intended to afford
a pretext for annexation. In addition,
moreover, TO the difference which at all
times we should show and do show to
international opinion, there was a special
reason for wishing at this time to allay
suspicion of our motives, when Secre-
tary Roof had just been sent on a mis-
sion to South America for the purpose
Of ~reassuring Latin American Republics
with respect 10 the intentions Of our
Government in the Dominican affair.
Amid the whirl and stress Of so many
divergent and ~perplexing considerations
il might well have seemed impossible to
many observers for Secretary TAFT so
TO conduct the Intervention as to give
no just cause of complaint in any quar-
ter and to bring about almost universal
tranquility, confidence and content.
We say almost universal" because
amid the general chorus Of satisfac-
ton and approval may be heard a few
murmurs Of dissent from certain Office
holders who hoped for results from u
interference which they have not, and
should not have, obtained; and who, in
their disappointment and chagrin, are
disposed to look upon themselves as vic
Tins. We refer, of course, to President
PALMA, Vice-President CAPoTE and the
members of the defunct Palma Cabinet,
who, az has been shown by the corre-
s~pondence which passed between Havana
and Washington in the week preceding
our first overt step toward in~terposition,
had repeatedly and earnestly requested
military and naval assistance from the
United States, expecting it TO be applied
to the maintenance Of themselves in
office, and for the subjugation Of their
opponents. That, evidently, was their
construction of our duty under the Plat
Amendment, and we can see that
had We accepted it we should have
aroused against ourselves the implaca-
BILE animosity Of a large majority Of the
Cuban population.
From the outset, however, our Gov
eminent made it clear that il 1t inter-
fered at all it would do SO without any
prejudgment Of the merits of the case
Of either party TO the controversy which
the commander of the first American
war vessel which reached Havana sent,
in compliance with the urgent request
of President PALMA, a detachment OF $50
sailors to guard the residence of the in
sular Executive, than he received from
the Navy Department a peremptory
order to withdraw his men. The order
was characteristic of the impartial atti-
tude which Secretary TAFT was to as
INT From the moment of his arrival
in Cuba until he departed he made it
plain that he was there in the interest of
no clique or party, and that not even the
~entreaties of foreign residents and Of
many native agricultural and manufac-
turing interests would avail to sway him
a hairs breadth from the line Of duty
imposed on him, which was to reestab-
lish peace and order for no other purpose
than to enable the Cuban people, at the
earliest practicable moment, to enter
under favorable auspices on a second
experiment in self-government. That
this, and this only, is the true and high
significance Of our interpretation in Cuba
is now as patent to every onlooker in
Mexico, Central and South America as
it is to the Cubans themselves. We
submit that the spectacle of altruism
thus offered to the world is one Of which
Americans may well be proud.
The Unwritten Code.