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steamers, in cafés and hotels. There can be no doubt that they attributed to the provisional governor all the failings of venality and corruption which were attributed, and correctly attributed I believe, to General Weyler in his day. Governor Magoon was pleased and thanked me for my candour, and he said slowly:

"From some quarters I have not expected justice, much less gratitude-indeed, I counted not upon it from any quarter, but I must say it has been lavished upon me in a far greater measure than I have deserved. There is only one of these charges that I could deign to answer, and that is as to the exercise of the pardoning power which some of these critics find excessive and for which they ascribe venal reasons. They say I have pardoned nearly eight hundred men out of prison. I believe these numbers are approximately correct, but all the rest of the yarn is invention. I have always borne in mind, and I think my critics have not, that I succeeded Judge Taft as provisional governor of the island when opposing factions of the people were at each other's throats and the conditions for more than a year had been approaching anarchy. You must also take into consideration-I certainly thought I should-the turbulent and disorderly political conditions which had prevailed for fully ten years previous to our intervention. Now my critics say that many-that, in fact, a great majority of those who have benefited by my exercise of the pardoning power had been convicted of offences which had nothing whatever to do with politics. Well, I answer them flatly, they are wrong. I do not pretend to know everything about Cuba-I only wish I did but there is one thing I do know, and that is that nothing has happened in Cuba during the last ten years that was wholly foreign to politics. Every case that came before me had a political complexion evident or latent; there were men who had been sentenced to prison by courts that did not sit in a judicial atmosphere;

it was a time when party hatreds and rancour ran high and personal feeling and party ties actuated, unconsciously I have no doubt, but none the less truly and wrongfully, many judges in the land. Many of these sentences seemed too long, many absolutely unjust, and the bitterness which they engendered doomed to failure in advance all our plans for pacification. My rôle, you see, was to pacify, to assuage the angry passions that had been aroused. I think the results have justified my merciful action in almost every instance. The talk about half the men whom I have pardoned out being back in jail is simply an outrageous falsehood. I can only remember two instances of this, but I can remember fifty instances of men whom I pardoned and who, although they have only been at liberty a few months, have already rendered extremely valuable services to Cuba."

I take the liberty of giving this conversation in full because I think it answers very successfully the only substantial charge, in a shower of slander, that was brought against the provisional governor. I also give it because it discloses an intimate view of a very remarkable man who, under trying—almost intolerablecircumstances, showed administrative talents of a high order, which have not been generally appreciated.

The official bond that binds us to Cuba is the widely known but little understood Platt Amendment.* It is a very important piece of legislation, and yet wherever mentioned, whether in Washington or in Cuban official circles, there ensues a gravelike silence. I for one propose to break this conspiracy of silence, if such it be. It seems to me that, if not already too late, the time for frank speaking has come.

*The text of the Platt Amendment is given in Appendix A, Note II, page 404.

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The Platt Amendment is not only hated but held in abhorrence by the great majority of Cubans. It was only accepted and so became a part of their constitution and public law because their political leaders believed that our evacuation of the island would otherwise have been postponed. It was not accepted in good faith by the Cuban Congress and every attempt to disregard the spirit, if not the letter, of this law is praised as patriotic. At times I think it is as well to be emphatic. No man in public life to-day in Cuba would dare to openly approve the Platt Amendment as a fair and equitable adjustment of the peculiar relations that exist between the Cuban and the American people.

There is nothing to choose between the attitude of the liberal and conservative leaders in this regard. In politics, Menocal, who received his education, his early training, his start in life, everything that he possesses from the United States, is as anti-American as is Gomez or Zayas, who are more distinctly Latin types. This unhappy state of affairs is not due as some think to any constitutional want of character and reliability on the part of the Cuban people, but simply because they have been taught to believe by their natural leaders and teachers that the passage of the Platt Amendment by our Senate was a gross breach of faith which justifies any form of reprisal, open or covert.

Upon the stump and in the coffee-houses a noisy orator before a densely ignorant audience can ring very convincing changes upon this subject, and yet as a matter of fact the hated Amendment only puts into concrete form our attitude towards the island of Cuba which has been invariably maintained ever since Jefferson recognised that Cuba commanded the mouth of the

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