Middletown transcript., 1920-05-15

LEONARD WOOD
RULER OF CUBA
Receiver, Teacher and Doctor OF
Island After Four Centuries
Of M,sruIe by Spain.
BY JOHN D. HoLME,
Author Of 1.-THE Life Of Leonard Wood"

v.
When the Americans arrived In Cuba
there were no public schools on the Is.
land. All education was left to private
schools, and only the wealthy or we'll.
TODD could give their children any ed.
ucation whatever. No sooner had Gen.
eial Leonard Wood cleaned up San.
tiago and established order there than
he began his distinguished service for
education in the island. He founded
Cuha's modern system Of public schools
while !c was military governor Of Sam
tiago. He established the first public
schools the island had ever known.
When his jurisdiction was extended to
include all Ok the province occupied
by the American troops he applied in
each community the same measures OF
civil rehabilitation which he had pushed
through in Santiago. and In the wake
of these reforms casne the little school.
houses
Wood had to wc~k against strong
distrust in Santiago. for the Cubans
feared we would an,p>x the island, but
in a few months he managed to win
the respect and confidence of the peo-
pie, and when he left for a brief visit
to the United States IN 1899 the citi-
zens of Santiago press nted him with
an illuminated scroll in Spanish, read.
Ing In part:
''The greatest Of all Iour successes
is to have won the confidence and es-
teen Of people in troubls."
Harvard University, his Alma Mater,
conferred on him an honSrary degree
Of IL. D., while his Cover ument pro-
NOTED him to the rank Of Major-Gen-
eral of Volunteers. On December Il,
1899, Elihu Root, Secretary Ct War un'
der Mckinley, appointed hin Cover
nor General Of all Of Cuba
Cuba a Business job
Cuba, at the time Wood became Gov.
ernor. was first of all business prop
osition. He could not really establish
a selfgovernment on the island with
out making it self-supporting.
Cuba was bankrupt, her commerce
disorganized or destroyed, her as1!cul-
ture-the chief industry-half ruined
by war and ham-strung by lack OF c''m-
munications. The customs service ana
tax system were for all practical pur-
poses non-existent. Cuba had no ado
uuate hospitals, no asylums for the In
sane, no orphanages for the thousands
and thousands Of war orphans, plenty
of dungeons, but no correctional or Pc
nal institutions fit for a civilized coun-
try. The administration Of justice was
haphazard, the judges, prosecutors and
other court officials depending on fees
for their services. The railroad serv-
ice was insufficient, and the postal and
telegraph systems were in embryo
stages of development. DOckage and
harbor facilities fell far short OF the
demands of the island. An agricul-
tural country, Cuba had no highways
worthy of the name land Of tropical
epidemics. Cuba did not possess even
rudimentary sanitation laws nor did
her people understand the simplest n.y.
gienic principles to combat filth dis
eases, to say nothing Of fighting the
plaques which periodically devastated
! the island.
Wood became, in fact, receiver, busi-
| ness manager, teacher and doctor OF
Cuba. He filled these positions for
two years and a half, and at the end Of
that time he left Cuba starsding on her
own governmental feet, managing her
own affairs, prosperous and happy.
During these two years and q half
Wood worked night and day for Cuba
and, as Roosevelt said Of him "he de-
voted his whole life through those
| years thought Of nothing
! else. did nothing else, save to try to
| bring up the standard of political and
| social life in that island, to teach the
people after four centuries Of misrulc
that there were such things as govern
mental righteousness and honesty and
| fair play for all men on their merits as
men,"
Reoraanized Railroads.
He established a sound fiscal sys-
! ten, organized on thoroughly modern
business the customs service and built
up an equitable system of taxation.
To encourage agriculture and stock
raising he imported modern imple-.
ments and the best breeds Of cattle,
hogs and horses, which were sold at
cost and on easy terms.
All agriculture, especially the sugar
industry, was dreadfully handicapped
by lack Of communications. Not only
were the railroads in run down con-
dition, but the laws governing their
operations were hopeless. They were
taxed 10 per cent on gross income
from passenger traffic, per cent on
gross freight revenues and AZ per
cent on their dividends Naturally the
nrblic paid. It cost so cents to trans
port a 800 pound bag of sugar from
plantation to seaport, while the sea
haul from Cuba to New York, twelve
times the distance, was from IS to 20
cents
Wood found American railway ex-
merits to rewrite Cuba's railway laws
and interested foreign capitalists to
repair and extend the lines. Thus the
railway systems around Havana and
Santiago we're connected, an inestima-
hle benefit to the island. The gross
income tax was abolished, the net tax
was increased per cent. and an equi'
table freight system was established,
under which the Cuban railroads