ELECTIONS.

The recent municipal elections passed in these provinces without the slightest disturbance to public order. A few weeks previous to the election it was reported to me that in some of the municipalities of Santa Clara the existing municipal authorities and some members of the rural guard of the province had been giving out that certain candidates had been indicated by the Government, following the old Spanish system. This was evidently with the hope that the more timid voters might be influenced in this way. I took occasion to make a trip through the provinces and to visit particularly these localities in which the rural guard and authorities were said to be active partisans in the campaign. All officials were cautioned to refrain from interference in the elections, or from advocating any candidate over another. The rural guard was ordered away from two municipalities where it had been alleged that they had been acting as partisans, but it was not deemed necessary to supply their places by ordering United States troops into the vicinity. The correctness of this opinion was proved later when the elections were held in these towns without the slightest disturbance. The precaution was taken of ordering all municipal guards to confine themselves to their barracks throughout the hours of election, except when going to and returning from the polls, which they were required to do without arms and one at a time. The municipal police on that day were hardly in evidence on account of the necessity for one of them at every outlying suburb where there was a voting place.

The excellent order everywhere preserved was due to the individual effort of the civil authorities and people themselves, who, though in some instances fearing disorder, had determined that it should not come from them or from their party. A remarkable instance of the degree to which this determination to have a quiet election was carried was exhibited in one town where the rival candidates agreed that when a demonstration was made in favor of one, he should appear escorted by leading men of the other side, in order to show the people that though there was rivalry there was no enmity.

The temperate character of the people made election day throughout the department appear more like a Sunday than a day of anxiety. No drunkenness nor disorder of any kind was observed. I had officers observing the election at different points in the department, but they had no occasion to take any action whatever to preserve order. The election seems to have also passed with few or no attempts at fraud, and their results have been frankly accepted as the fair expression of the popular will by the defeated candidates and their supporters. As a general rule in this department the contests were purely personal, there being little or no difference in the principles of the opposing candidates.

It should be observed that one of the first duties the municipalities will have to perform upon receiving full authority to collect taxes and to disburse them according to their own judgment, will be to reduce the number of their officials and employees. Quite a number of these municipalities and barrios are too small and too poor for separate existence. It will require, however, a rude shock to banish the firmly rooted idea that a dying town, like a dying individual, should be nursed back to life. There are many municipalities which have for years been kept alive by the assistance of the insular government.

Their disappearance, or their absorption by the adjoining municipalities, would be beneficial to all concerned, as it will facilitate the formation of counties and the equitable distribution of political power.

No rural guard was organized in the province of Matanzas in the belief that a proper municipal police would subserve all necessary purposes and free the people from the dominating influences of an armed military organization controlled by a central authority. This expectation has been sustained by experience. The province of Matanzas with few more municipal police than the province of Santa Clara, has not felt the need of a rural force. The rural guard of Santa Clara, while an excellent organization and while rendering good service, is felt to be no longer necessary, and though its numbers have been largely reduced, it should be immediately absorbed into the municipal police, as has been repeatedly recommended from these headquarters.

There has been but little yellow fever among the troops of this department. In the month of May the disease made its appearance for the first time in the garrison of Santa Clara, where it was traced to a dwelling that had been used as a pest house. For the reason that our sanitary officers were kept in ignorance of its history, it had received only the regular disinfection, the owners evidently fearing that they would injure its rental value if its history were made known. This outbreak has been checked, and there are now no cases of yellow fever under treatment in the entire department.

I consider it a subject for congratulation that this scourge has not yet appeared at Cienfuegos, Matanzas or the other seaports, although this has been a wet summer, and, according to the natives, particularly favorable to the development of the germ. It is to be expected that in spite of the cleanliness which has been everywhere enforced there will be later in the season, as there were last year, a few sporadic cases, but it is hardly probable that the disease will give serious. trouble this year.

The statistics obtained last year give the area of Matanzas as 3,700 square miles and of Santa Clara 9,560, making the total area of the department 13,260, slightly larger than the figures given in my last report. The population according to the census is, Matanzas 202,444 and Santa Clara 356,536, making a total of the department of 558,980 or about 58,000 more than was estimated. It was found that the ratio of whites to colored is two to one, and this is in accordance with the prediction contained in my last report.

A large number of work oxen have been imported in both of the provinces during the past year, though the number on the land is still insignificant compared with what it should be for efficient agriculture. There is no longer any need for the.gratuitous issue of rations, except to the aged infirm, and it has for some time been entirely suspended. The remarkably favorable year for tobacco has greatly helped the laborer and small farmer of the tobacco districts of Santa Clara. The crop now being marketed amounts to 546,122 quintals of 100 pounds each, which at the low prices now offered is valued at $8,191,830, or more than double the value of the crop of last year. The benefit of this crop to the laborer without capital can not be overestimated. It requires no outlay for machinery and little for animals, and after it is gathered it gives occupation to men, women, and children in the various operations of curing, selecting, and preparing it for market.

An experiment, in a small way, has been made with much success in the tobacco region near Sagua la Grande of supplying farmers with oxen and implements at cost price and on reasonable terms of payment, and sending them out from the town to establish themselves in colonies. It was desired to locate them on land where they could eventually buy their farms at fair prices, to be fixed beforehand. It was found, however, that the owners of large tracts were generally unwilling to part with small pieces for fear that they should have the remnants on their own hands. The experiment is, however, entirely successful in its main features. The farmers are all self-supporting and many of them will anticipate the payments upon their cattle and implements. A similar experiment has been made and similar results obtained at Sancti Spiritus under the supervision of Captain Fremont, Second Infantry, aided by Father Castillo, a worthy parish priest of that city. At the urgent solicitation of the civil governor of the province of Matanzas help of the same sort was extended to twenty-two families in the neighborhood of the city of Matanzas, but owing to the lateness of the season and the less advantageous situation of the farmers, the result has not been quite so satisfactory. The cattle were young and unbroken, but have materially improved in value and in several instances the purchasers will be able to anticipate payments due upon them, but for the most part the experiment has not gone far enough to justify the statement that it is entirely successful.

What has been said about small farms applies only to the tobacco country, of which little is found in the province of Matanzas. This province is specially adapted to cane, and even in localities similar in appearance to the best districts of Santa Clara, it has not yielded good results to the tobacco grower. The province of Matanzas is divided. into large sugar estates and sugar-cane farms, and on account of the unusually dry summer and autumn of last year but a very small crop was raised. This province has consequently not felt the stimulus that was expected, but great additions have been made to the acreage of sugar cane, and the growing crop, with average weather, should be a remarkably good one. It is estimated that the output of sugar for the season of 1900-1901 will be double that of last year, or at least 600,000 tons.

While I feel sure that a large majority of the people of the province are in favor of independence and are impatient at what appears to them to be the slow progress that has been made in that direction, yet there are others who, while wanting annexation in its full sense or a dependency in some measure, still feel the same impatience with the existing delay. There are few, principally the owners of large sugar estates, who are urging delay and would delay indefinitely so long as the measures proposed do not lead positively toward the realization of their wishes.

The impatience alluded to above is perhaps natural. Obviously the Foraker resolution, so long as it continues in force, will be regarded by many as standing in the way of prosperity, but in my judgment it should not be repealed until the government of the island is definitely established. Meanwhile no enterprises requiring public franchises can be undertaken.

It will be observed in this connection that the greatest needs of the island are not at present for transportation, street railroads, water and light companies, but for the establishment of such trade relations with

the United States and other neighboring countries as will stimulate agriculture, commerce, and immigration. Many Cubans who have been abroad, on their return to the island after the close of the war, looked confidently for a large extension of railroads, for the reduction of freight rates, and for the introduction of American methods in handling freight and passengers as the surest panacea for the ills under which the agricultural classes at least are suffering. So far none of these expectations have been realized, nor can they come until prosperity has been reestablished, which in turn will most surely be delayed until favorable commercial treaties have been negotiated and local selfgovernment has been established. Beyond slight repairs to the road beds and a little retouching of passenger coaches there is no improvement apparent in the railroads of this department.

The highways which have been undertaken by the department of public works have made but little progress, and the poorer people who were accustomed to bringing their produce to market on the backs of sumpter animals feel but little necessity for better roads, which can come only with such a degree of prosperity as will justify the people in taxing themselves sufficiently to pay the expenses of the highways now so loudly called for in some localities.

Our experience and observation for the year and a half of occupation has shown that the expense of covering the island with a network of good wagon roads, passable at all seasons with loaded teams, would be such as could be borne only by a dense and prosperous population. The nature of the soil and the presence almost everywhere of loose bowlders or ragged coral rock just below the surface, together with the terrific washing of the tropical rains, destroys and renders useless any road not thoroughly drained, macadamized, and provided with substantial bridges. After the first rain a dirt road, however well built, is cut up by the wheels of carts and wagons, and when dry is as rugged as though it were rock. The next rain enlarges the ruts, and practically obliterates the road.

In conclusion, I invite attention to my previous reports and their accompanying appendixes, calling attention to the fact that every statement as to existing conditions, every inference drawn therefrom, every expression of opinion based thereon, and every recommendation and prediction I felt called upon to make has been fully justified by the course of events in this department during the official year just closed. I predicted that the elections would result in the selection of the same men then in office, or of men of similar character. This prediction has been fully verified, and it is to be noted that in every instance the mayor and councilmen elected are revolutionists who either actually served in the field, or actively aided the insurgents with their money and influence.

In leaving the scene of my labors of the past year and a half, my cordial thanks are due and are rendered with great pleasure to Gen. Pedro E. Betancourt, civil governor of the province of Matanzas, and to Gen. José M. Gómez, civil governor of the province of Santa Clara, for their uniformly loyal and cordial support in the work of adjusting and modifying the government to suit the conditions that have been changing from day to day, and have often given rise to annoyances and vexations, which have always been satisfactorily disposed of through their intelligent cooperation.

To Gen. José de J. Monteagudo, chief of the rural guard of the province of Santa Clara, my thanks are also due for his active and untiring efforts in preserving order and restoring confidence of the agricultural population in the province of Santa Clara. Nor can I forget to thank Capt. Frederick Rasco, of the guard (his secretary), for the intelligent and soldierly manner in which he has always placed his remarkably fluent command of the best English and Spanish at the disposal of the military authorities. My thanks are no less due to Mr. J. Bernardo Junco, for his constant and intelligent attention to the duties of his position as official interpreter at these headquarters.

Whatever success has attended my efforts in behalf of the Cuban people and the maintenance of peace and the promotion of the general welfare is due largely to the cordial and intelligent support which has been extended to me by the military and civil officers whom I have mentioned in this report.

With the completion of this report at noon of this date, July 23, the Department of Matanzas and Santa Clara ceases to exist. A telegram just received announces its consolidation with that of General Lee, under the name of the Department of Western Cuba, with headquarters at Quemados.

In conclusion, I feel it my duty to say that, with a continuance of the good and successful management of insular affairs by the representatives of the intervening government, aided, as they have been, by the tranquility, patience, and tractability of the Cuban people, I do not doubt Cuba will become at an early date a rich, independent, wellgoverned country.

Very respectfully,

JAMES H. WILSON, Brigadier-General, U. S. Volunteers, Commanding Department.

REPORT OF BRIG. GEN. FITZHUGH LEE, COMMANDING THE DEPARTMENT OF WESTERN CUBA.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF WESTERN CUBA,

Quemados, Cuba, August 23, 1900.

The ADJUTANT-GENERAL UNITED STATES ARMY,

Washington, D. C.,

(Through Headquarters Division of Cuba.)

SIR: I have the honor to submit the following report concerning the administration of department affairs for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1900:

LIMITS OF DEPARTMENT.

Until May 1, 1900, the provinces of Pinar del Río and Habana, excepting the city of Habana and immediately surrounding country, constituted the limits of the department. The city of Habana formed the Department of Habana, and its extent was fixed and published in General Orders No. 4, Headquarters Division of Cuba, 1898.

On May 1 the territorial limits of the department were extended, pursuant to the following orders: