the American flag came down from the Palace
and the Morro and the flag of Cuba Libre rose in its place; and then,
with tear-suffused eyes, exclaimed, "It can't be; but it is!" Never
before in the history of the world had such a thing been done, but it
was done and it was well done.

There followed a fourth service, which we may hope has now been
definitely completed, but which in the very nature of the case is a
potentially recurrent service, which may--_absit omen!_--be needed again
and again; and which the United States may be trusted to perform, if
necessary, as faithfully and generously and efficiently as it has
already performed it. For we shall see that after the Cuban government
had been established and had vindicated its existence by great good
service to the island, sordid and treacherous men unlawfully conspired
against it and sought to overthrow it by violence and crime. Their
success would have meant ruin for the island. Their partial success--for
such they had--meant immeasurable loss. But fortunately the United
States intervened as readily against Cuban crime as it had against
Spanish oppression, and the republic was saved, though "as through
fire."

It is this service, following the others which I have named, which
differentiates the Cuban Republic from most of the other states which
have been formed from the Spanish Empire in America. Of the two states
which at one time planned to wrest Cuba from Spain by force and make her
a part of their community of nations, Colombia was for half a century in
a chronic condition of revolution, and Mexico through the same evil
processes has given the word Mexicanize to the political vocabulary. It
was the intention of the United States that Cuba should not fall into
that category; but it is by no means certain that she would not have
done so had it not been for the guardianship of that country.

* * * * *

Our history will disclose more than all these things. These are the
records of achievement. But there are other records, even those of
conditions as they exist, and as they have been made to exist by virtue
of these achievements. Marvellous indeed shall we find them. The story
of Cuba's development from a neglected and oppressed colony to an
independent nation is stirring and impressive, adorned with the names
and deeds of brave men. The story of her development in civilization,
from a backward rank to the foremost, is no less impr