Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1920-03-06
o Q Q . Q . o . Q o . o
CHAPTER VI.
Ruillin9 q Nation.
(By Tom KiIlian. }

In these days of struggle for ev-
istcnca, Of the high cost of living
and the many other discomforts at
tendant upon daily life and with
governmental efforts, more or less
minutely effective, 70 cut down the
cost Of food and clothing, n side
light on Leonard Woods work I'm
Santiago, as reported by Joseph
Hemblen Sears, will he of inter
est. nv
Wood, as governor of the city,
found that meat and food dealers
We're profiteering. lie sent for the
principal butcher and said:
How much do you charge for
your meat?"
Ninety cents a pound, Senior
was the reply. .
What does it cost you?"
Meat is very, very dear, your eY~
cellency. a....
How much a pound?"
at costs us very much, and
How much a pound 2"
Fifteen cents, your eXcellency;
but we have lost much money dur
ing the war and"
80 have your customers. Now
meat will be sold at rs cents a
pound, and not one cent morep
And 50 it proved.
This is only an incident of the
way in which Wood stroYe for his
charges, the guileless children Of
cuba, an incident which shows why
they love him like brother-today,
So we'll did Wood conduct the
affairs Of one city that the United
States decided that his should be
the task of building up the whole
of Cuba. He was made governor
general Of the island. with lorder5
to administer it's affairs in such a
way that it could be placed on the
basis of self-supporting, self
governing republic.
TO the American liberators it
looked like a hundred year task to
take these benighted, discouraged,
weary-of-life people ana lift them
onto a plane of civilization and
order with most of the rest Of the
world. But it was a task which de-
lighted the Woodworking soul of
Leonard Wood, administrator and
organizer. ap
President Mckinley gave Wood
n free hand. His only instructions
were: Prepare Cuba as rapidly
as possible for the establishment of
an Independent govealment. re-
publican in form, and a good school
system"
Wood went back to Cuba find
ing first that yellow = fever had
broken out in Santiago. He cleaned
the town up again and banished
the disease. In this connection
there is a sidelight not known to
many persons outside of govern
mental and scientific ranks.
1t is to Wood that the world
owes a debt of gratitude for finding
how yellow fever can be curbed.
When Wood found that would be
one of the biggest tasks in his work
in Havana and Cuba he took the
three best medical experts he could
find ana put them to work on trac-
ing the malignant disease to its
source and learning the best means
to combat it. 1t was a splendid ex-
ample of his ability to surround
himself at all times with the best
men for big tasks. They succeeded
Ia fact largely responsible for our
ability to build the Panama canal
in a zone hitherto fever-laden and
almost uninhabitable for a white
man.
So Wood took charge of the re-
construction of -Cuba--or rather
the first construction, for under
the. old colonial, monarchial style
of government, mighty little atten-
ton had been paid to the welfare
of the island, except insofar as it
was necessary to grind out taxes
from the Impoverished population.
As In Santiago, Wood worked on
the basis of food, work and law,
He consulted Chief Justice White
of the United States court as the
best authority he could get in the
matter of law. Between them they
prepared a code following along
the established line but with much
attention to improved detail in pro-
cedure. 1t still stands and governs
Cuba.
Natives were used almost entirely
for this most important system OF
judicial effort. Native Judges tried
native prisoners arrested by native
constabulars, with a mixed com
Missions selected by Wood, as
overseers of all. Prisons were re-
modelled and cleaned out and SIX
Hundred prisoners, held on politi-'
cal pretexts, We're given hearings
and their freedom
This is not a dtctatGr!" the
Cubans began to say at the cafes
of an evening. He is an adminis-
traitor, liberator."
But it wasn't an easy task, by
any means, to instil confidence in
the. new governor ana in the inten-
tons of his government, in. the
Cuban mind, made suspicious by
centuries of repression of thought
and speech by he Spanish tyrants
Wood next went about letting
TIE people take a hand at govern
ing themselves. He prepared an
election law, within a few months,
rad ballots printed and distributed
and told the people to go abe ID
and elect their own representa-
tiN es.