and plainer words, Cuba had no representation whatever in the
Cortes.

The cities of Cuba were hopelessly in debt and they were not able to
provide money for any municipal services.

There were no funds to keep up the schools, and in consequence they were
closed.

As for hospitals and asylums, they scarcely existed. There was only one
asylum for the insane in all the island, and that was wretchedly
managed. This asylum was in Havana. Elsewhere, the insane were confined
in the cells of jails.

The public debt of Spain was something enormous, and Cuba was forced to
pay a part of the interest on this which was out of all proportion.

Perez Castaneda spoke of this in the Spanish Cortes in the following
terms:

"The debt of Cuba was created in 1864 by a simple issue of three million
dollars, and it now amounts to the fabulous sum of one hundred and
seventy-five million dollars. What originated the Cuban debt? The wars
of Santo Domingo, of Peru and of Mexico. But are not these matters for
the Peninsula? Certainly they are matters for the whole of Spain. Why
must Cuba pay that debt?"

Again, Senor Robledo, in a debate at Madrid, after speaking of the
fearful abuses existent in the government of Havana, said:

"I do not intend to read the whole of the report; but I must put the
House in possession of one fact. To what do these defalcations amount?
They amount to twenty-two million, eight hundred and eleven thousand,
five hundred and sixteen dollars. Did not the government know this? What
has been done?"

In 1895 it was alleged that the custom house frauds in Cuba, since the
end of the Ten Years War, amounted to over one hundred millions of
dollars. It is enough to make one hold one's breath in horror. And,
remember well, there was absolutely no redress for the suffering Cubans
by peaceful means.

One more quotation. Rafael de Eslara of Havana, when speaking of the
misery of the island, thus summed up the situation:

"Granted the correctness of the points which I have just presented, it
seems to be self-evident that a curse is pressing upon Cuba, condemning
her to witness her own disintegration, and converting her into a prey
for the operation of those swarms of vampires that are so cruelly
devouring us, deaf to the voice of conscience, if they have any; it
will not be rash to venture the assertion that Cuba is undone; there is
no salvation possible."

Taxation on all sides was enormous, the two chief products o