n was granted by President Gomez in 1911, against the advice of
the United States government, and against strong and widespread protests
from the people and press of Cuba, by whom it was regarded as a
monstrous piece of corrupt jobbery. While it was in force, this
concession paid millions of dollars a year to its holders, with an
almost undiscernible minimum of advantage to the nation.

Following this came a bargain with the railroads centering in Havana, by
which the arsenal grounds belonging to the Republic and comprising a
large and valuable tract lying immediately on the Bay of Havana were
given to those companies in exchange for two comparatively small plots
which had been occupied by them as a terminal station and warehouse. In
addition the railroad companies agreed to build, or to provide the money
for building, a new Presidential Palace, which President Gomez hoped to
have finished in time for his own occupancy. This exchange was, in
itself, undoubtedly a good thing. It gave the railroads an admirable
site for the great terminal which they needed and which is now one of
the valuable assets of Havana and indeed of Cuba. But the manner in
which the bargain was made, the exercise of political influence, and the
strong and unrefuted suspicion of the corrupt employment of pecuniary
considerations, brought upon the transaction strong reprobation. An
ironic sequel was that the work which was done on the proposed new
palace was so bad that it presently had all to be torn down.

Fortunately there was no relaxation in the maintenance of sanitary
measures for the prevention of epidemics, and while there was little or
no road building or other such public works those already constructed
were generally well maintained. The judgment of thoughtful and impartial
men upon the administration of Jose Miguel Gomez was therefore that it
had contained some good and much evil, and that even the good had been
done too often in an unworthy if not an actually evil way. It had been
the administration of an astute and not over-scrupulous politician, who
sought to serve first his own interests, next those of his party and
friends, and last those of the nation, and not that of an enlightened
and patriotic statesman, seeking solely to promote the welfare of the
people who had chosen him to be their chief executive.

CHAPTER XVII

The fourth Presidential campaign in Cuba began in the spring of 1912.
The Liberal administration had gi