ervice had learned to
isolate the mosquito, and had expelled the scourge of yellow fever. The
natives formed a constitution which became effective on May 20, 1902. On
this day the United States withdrew from the new Republic, leaving it to
manage its own affairs, subject only to a pledge that it would forever
maintain its independence, that it would incur no debt without providing
the means for settling it, and that the United States might lawfully
intervene to protect its independence or maintain responsible
government. In the winter of 1901-02 Roosevelt urged Congress to adopt a
policy of commercial reciprocity with Cuba. He was supported in this by
opinion in Cuba, and by officials of the American Sugar Trust, but was
opposed in the Senate by a combination of beet-sugar Republicans and
cane-sugar Democrats. The measure failed in 1902, creating bad feeling
between President and Congress, but a treaty of modified reciprocity was
ratified in 1903.

In 1902 the United States became the first suitor to test the efficacy
of the new court of arbitration at The Hague. In 1898 the Czar of Russia
had invited the countries represented at St. Petersburg to join in a
conference upon disarmament. His motives were questioned and derided,
but the conference met the next summer at Huis ten Bosch, the summer
palace of the Queen of the Netherlands, at The Hague. Here the plan of
disarmament proved futile, but a great treaty for the settlement of
international disputes was accepted by the countries present. It seemed
probable that the Hague Court, thus created, would die of neglect, but
President Roosevelt, appealed to by an advocate of peace, produced a
trifling case and submitted it to arbitration. The Pious Fund dispute,
with Mexico and the United States as suitors, involved the control of
church funds in California. The suit was won by the United States, but
derived its chief importance from being the first Hague settlement.

The pledge of the United States for Cuban independence had hardly been
fulfilled when another Latin Republic became involved in trouble.
Venezuela, torn by war, had incurred obligations to European creditors,
and had defaulted in the payments upon them. In December, 1902, Great
Britain and Germany announced a blockade of the Venezuelan ports in
retaliation, and they were soon joined by other Powers with similar
claims. Disclaiming intent to protect Venezuela in defaulting, Roosevelt
urged the European claimant