d a quarter before a Spanish monarch had furnished
money and men to help the American colonies become free from England.
"The people of America can never forget the immense benefit they have
received from King Carlos III.," wrote George Washington. At that time a
Spaniard predicted that the American States, born a pigmy, would become
a mighty giant, forgetful of gratitude, and absorbed in selfish
aggression at Spain's expense. Our change to quasi-alliance with Great
Britain against Spain seemed to not a few the fulfilment of that
prophecy. Europe declared that we had hopelessly broken with our ideals.
Cynics there applied to the United States the Scriptures: "Hell from
beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the
dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up
from their thrones all the kings of the nations. All they shall speak
and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like
one of us? . . . How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the
morning!"

[Illustration: Uniformed officers on parade.]
The New Cuban Police as organized by
ex-Chief of New York Police, McCullagh.

The United States did not heed these sneers. Hawaii had been annexed.
Sale tenure of the Samoan Islands west of 171 degrees west longitude,
including Tutuila and Pago-Pago harbor, the only good haven in the
group, was ours. These measures, which a few years earlier all would
have deemed radical, did not stir perceptible opposition. Nearly all
felt that they were justified, by considerations of national security,
to obtain naval bases or strategic points. Such motives also excused the
acquisition of Guam in the Pacific, ceded by Spain in Article II of the
Paris Treaty, and that of Porto Rico.

Civil government was established in Porto Rico with the happiest
results. The Insular Treasury credit balance trebled in a year,
standing, July 1, 1902, at $314,000. The exports for 1902 increased over
50 per cent., most of the advance being consigned to the United States.
The principal exports were sugar, tobacco, the superior coffee grown in
the island, and straw hats. Of the coffee, the year named, Europe took
$5,000,000 worth, America only $29,000 worth. Porto Rico imported from
Spain over $95,000 worth of rice, $500,000 worth of potatoes. The first
year under our government there were 13,000 fewer deaths than the year
before, improvement due to better sanitation and a hi