e
shall hereafter see, in assurance that the Liberal party would be
retired from power in May of the following year, and that the government
of the island would be confided to the hands of those who had striven to
uphold the wise and patriotic administration of Estrada Palma. In the
few remaining months of his administration President Gomez pursued
substantially the same policy that had marked the preceding years. In
March, 1913, Congress enacted an Amnesty bill which would have meant a
general jail delivery throughout the Island, and which President Gomez
was strongly inclined to sign. He was restrained at the last moment from
doing so, however, by the energetic protests of the United States
government, which indeed were tantamount to an ultimatum; and instead
returned the measure to Congress with his veto, and with a
recommendation that it be revised so as to avoid the objections of the
United States--though he did not directly mention the United States--and
then repassed. This was done and the modified bill became a law at the
middle of April.

In addition to the general extravagance of the Gomez administration, the
overcrowding of all government offices with superfluous and incompetent
placeholders, and the expenditure of more than $140,000,000 within two
and a half years, there were several specific performances which
provoked severe censure. One of these was the installation of the
National Lottery, which was done by vote of Congress at the dictation of
the President. The pretext given for this was that Cubans loved to
gamble, and that if they had no lottery of their own they would send
their money to Madrid, for chances in the lottery there; and it was
better to keep their money in Cuba than to have it sent to Spain.

Another act of the administration which incurred strong censure and
which was ultimately repealed by the government of President Menocal,
with the approval of the courts, was what was commonly known as the
"Dragado deal." This was the granting to a speculative corporation
composed chiefly of Liberal politicians and called the Ports Improvement
Company of Cuba, of an omnibus concession for the dredging of harbors,
reclaiming of coastal swamp lands, and similar works; for which the
corporation was authorized to collect port fees, including a heavy
surtax on imported merchandise, of which a small proportion would go to
the government and the remainder to the coffers of the corporation. This
concessio