ts. At least it made Cuba into a republic, and so enriched
or burdened us with colonies that our republic changed into something
like an empire. But I do not urge that. It will never be because San
Juan changed our foreign policy that people will visit the spot, and will
send from it picture postal cards. The human interest alone will keep
San Juan alive. The men who fought there came from every State in our
country and from every class of our social life. We sent there the best
of our regular army, and with them, cowboys, clerks, bricklayers,
foot-ball players, three future commanders of the greater army that
followed that war, the future Governor of Cuba, future commanders of the
Philippines, the commander of our forces in China, a future President of
the United States. And, whether these men, when they returned to their
homes again, became clerks and millionaires and dentists, or rose to be
presidents and mounted policemen, they all remember very kindly the days
they lay huddled together in the trenches on that hot and glaring
sky-line. And there must be many more besides who hold the place in
memory. There are few in the United States so poor in relatives and
friends who did not in his or her heart send a substitute to Cuba. For
these it seems as though San Juan might be better preserved, not as it
is, for already its aspect is too far changed to wish for that, but as it
was. The efforts already made to keep the place in memory and to honor
the Americans who died there are the public park which I have mentioned,
the monument on San Juan, and one other monument at Guasimas to the
regulars and Rough Riders who were killed there. To these monuments the
Society of Santiago will add four more, which will mark the landing place
of the army at Daiquairi and the fights at Guasimas, El Caney, and San
Juan Hill.

But I believe even more than this might be done to preserve to the place
its proper values. These values are sentimental, historical, and
possibly to the military student, educational. If to-day there were
erected at Daiquairi, Siboney, Guasimas, El Poso, El Caney, and on and
about San Juan a dozen iron or bronze tablets that would tell from where
certain regiments advanced, what posts they held, how many or how few
were the men who held those positions, how near they were to the trenches
of the enemy, and by whom these men were commanded, I am sure the place
would reconstruct itself and would breathe wi