The Constitutional Status of Cuba

Major General Brooke was appointed Governor-General of Cuba after the withdrawal of the Spanish army. This office he held until the close of 1899, when General Wood was appointed to succeed him. General Wood's Cabinet consisted of the following Cubans: Secretary of State, Diego Tamayo; Secretary of Justice, Luis Estevoz; Secretary of Education, Juan B. Hernandez; Secretary of Finance, Enrique Varona; Secretary of Public Works, Jose R. Villalon, and Secretary of Agriculture, etc., Ruis Rivera.

A NUMBER of radical reforms were instituted. The prisons were overhauled and put into a sanitary condition. Many prisoners were released or had their terms shortened in proportion to the venial nature of their offences. A joint commission was appointed, consisting of American and Cuban lawyers, charged with the task of codifying the laws and insuring prompt trials. Inefficient public officials were removed and a working scheme devised by which civil and military authorities could live in harmony. A census was taken, showing a total poulation of 1,572,797.

The area of Cuba is approximately 44,000 square miles and the average number of inhabitants per square mile 35.7, about the same as the State of Iowa. The areas of the six provinces and the average density of population in each are as follows:

Area Pop. per

Province. Sq. miles. sq. m.

Havana.. 2,772 153

Matanzas.. 3,700 55

Pinar del Rio.. 5,000 35

Puerto Principe.. 10,500 8

Santa Clara.. 9,560 37

Santiago.. 12,468 26

Havana, with the densest population is as thickly populated as the State of Connecticut, and Puerto Principe, the most sparsely populated, is in this respect comparable with the State of Texas.

The President of the United States, in his message to Congress, December 3, 1900, in touching upon the relations of Cuba with the United States, stated that on July 25, 1900, he directed that a call be issued for the election in Cuba for members of a Constitutional Convention to frame a Constitution as a basis for a stable and independent government in the island. In pursuance thereof the Military Governor after citing the joint resolution of Congress April 28, 1898, said:

"Therefore, it is ordered that a general election be held in the Island of Cuba on the third Saturday of September, in the year 1900, to elect delegates to a convention to meet in the City of Havana at 12 o'clock noon on the first Monday in November, in the year 1900, to frame and adopt a Constitution for the people of Cuba, and as a part thereof to provide for and agree with the government of the United States upon the relations to exist between that government and the government of Cuba, and to provide for the election by the people of officers under such Constitution and the transfer of government to the officers so elected. The election will be held in the several voting precincts of the island under and pursuant to the provisions of the electoral law of April 18, 1900, and the amendments thereof." The election was held on the 15th of September, and the convention assembled on the 5th of November, 1900. In calling the convention to order, the Military Governor of Cuba made the following statement: "As Military Governor of the island, representing the President of the United States, I call this convention to order. It will be your duty, first, to frame and adopt a Constitution for Cuba, and when that has been done to formulate what in your opinion ought to be the relations between Cuba and the United States. The Constitution must be adequate to secure a stable, orderly, and free government. When you have formulated the relations which in your opinion ought to exist between Cuba and the United States, the government of the United States will doubtless take such action on its part as shall lead to a final and authoritative agreement between the people of the two countries for the promotion of their common interests. When the convention concludes its labors I will transmit to the Congress the Constitution as framed by the convention for its consideration and for such action as it may deem advisable."

The voters in whose capacity for self-government we are experimenting, number some 140,000 natives, and about 50,000 Spanish citizens. Native whites make up a little more than half the population, the negroes and mixed races being less than one-third.

A system of municipal government has been established, as the safest method of preparing the Cubans for home rule when we hand back the island for administration by them as an independent State. The municipal district is the political and administrative unit in Cuba. There are six provinces, thirty-one judicial districts and 132 municipal districts in the island. A municipal district is the territory under the administration of a municipal council, and may be established, increased, diminished, annexed to other municipal districts or abolished by the Governor-General. It corresponds, in a measure, to the American county or township, and as prerequisites to establishment must contain not fewer than 2,000 inhabitants and be able to meet the necessary expenses of the local government. Each district is divided into subdistricts, and the latter into wards, or barrios. These are further divided into electoral districts, and these again into electoral sections.

Each municipal district has a municipal council and a municipal board. The council governs the district, subject to the supervision of the Governor of the province and Military Governor of the island, and is composed of a mayor, a certain number of deputy mayors, and aldermen taken from the members of the council.