became a source of graft, and that the roads were not built
according to specifications. At any rate, they were built, and were
sorely needed, and the results on the whole were excellent. Of the
$26,000,000 left by the Palma administration nearly every dollar was
expended at that time.

Although the second Government of Intervention was theoretically and
nominally, and doubtless meant to be actually, quite non-political and
impartial as between the Cuban parties, the very circumstances of its
origin made it appear to favor the Liberals. It had come into power by
accepting the resignation of the Palma administration, which was
practically Conservative, at the demand of the Liberals. The Liberals
thus enjoyed all through its duration the prestige of victory, without
having to bear any of the responsibility of being in office, or
incurring any of the odium which is almost inevitable to every human
government which has not learned to achieve the impossible task of
pleasing everybody. There was no such foundation work to do as had been
done under the first Intervention, and the American government busied
itself principally with routine matters, and with making it possible for
the Cubans to resume control of their own affairs.

One of the most important undertakings at this time from a non-political
point of view was the taking of a new census. This was not done on so
elaborate a scale as the preceding census of 1899, but was more strictly
an enumeration of the people, for purposes of apportionment, etc. It was
taken under the direction of the American Government of Intervention in
1907, the actual work on it being done by a staff of Cuban canvassers
and statisticians, and it was believed to have been accurately and
comprehensively done.

The work of compiling the new census of Cuba which was taken in 1907 was
continued in the early part of 1908 and was completed and results were
published at the end of March of that year. The total population of the
island was reported to be 2,048,980, and out of this number 419,342 were
citizens and entitled to vote. It was then arranged to hold municipal
and provincial elections on August 1, and a national election on
November 14. These elections would be essential parts of the processes
by which the United States government would bring its second
intervention to a close and restore the island to the control and
government of its own people. The electoral law under which they were to
be