e for leaders men of unquestioned
ability, but unfortunately too often of more personal ambition of a
sordid kind than sense of moral responsibility or sincere devotion to
their country's best interests. It will thus be seen that on more than
one occasion men who were intellectually qualified to serve the Republic
in the most efficient manner prostituted their talents to catering to
the passions of the ignorant and idle, and made tools of them for their
own selfish advancement, to the great detriment and greater menace of
the Republic. In this deplorable state of affairs have been the main
springs of most of the troubles which the young Republic has thus far
suffered in its political and governmental affairs.

The Conservative party is confined very largely to the owners of
property, men of good reputation and business standing. In other words,
it consists of men who have nothing to gain through a revolution, and
everything to lose during a period of upheaval which means destruction,
not alone of actual property, but of the assets of the country,
especially its credit and standing in the markets of the world. Small
holders of property in the country districts, farmers, merchants,
planters and stock raisers, are naturally allied with the Conservative
party, or the party of law and order, as are the owners of the big sugar
estates and the mills in which the staples are produced, since the cane
fields become an immediate prey of those elements who wish to depose the
government or bring about an intervention, through which they sometimes
gain in the confusion that follows a change of government. To this party
belong the majority of the professional men, the old Autonomistas, and
those men who have a genuine interest in the welfare of Cuba, not only
in her present, but in her future, and who realize that uprisings,
strikes and all allied movements tend naturally to discourage
investments in property, and to destroy credit and the good name of the
island.

Such, then, in general terms, was the development of political parties
in Cuba which occurred as soon as it was realized that it was worth
while to have them. As long as Cuba was under Spanish domination, there
was no use in parties. So long as there was doubt concerning the
intentions of the United States in Cuba, there was little encouragement
to their formation. But the moment the Stars and Stripes actually went
down from the Palace and from the Morro, the great fact da