ited States refused to ratify this
treaty while Wilson was in the White House, but as soon as Harding
became president they consented to the payment and ratified the treaty
with a few changes in the preamble.

The facts stated above show conclusively that the two most significant
developments of American policy in the Caribbean during the last twenty
years have been the establishment of formal protectorates and the
exercise of financial supervision over weak and disorderly states. Our
protectorate over Cuba was clearly defined in the so-called Platt
amendment, which was inserted in the army appropriation bill of March
2, 1901, and directed the President to leave control of the island of
Cuba to its people so soon as a government should be established under
a constitution which defined the future relations with the United
States substantially as follows: (1) That the government of Cuba would
never enter into any treaty or other compact with any foreign power
which would impair the independence of the island; (2) that the said
government would not contract any public debt which could not be met by
the ordinary revenues of the island; (3) that the government of Cuba
would permit the United States to exercise the right to intervene for
the preservation of Cuban independence, and for the protection of life,
property, and individual liberty; (4) that all acts of the United
States in Cuba during its military occupancy thereof should be ratified
and validated; (5) that the government of Cuba would carry out the
plans already devised for the sanitation of the cities of the island;
and finally that the government of Cuba would sell or lease to the
United States lands necessary for coaling or naval stations at certain
specified points, to be agreed upon with the President of the United
States.

It is understood that these articles, with the exception of the fifth,
which was proposed by General Leonard Wood, were carefully drafted by
Elihu Root, at that time Secretary of War, discussed at length by
President McKinley's Cabinet, and entrusted to Senator Platt of
Connecticut, who offered them as an amendment to the army appropriation
bill. The Wilson administration, as already stated, embodied the first
three provisions of the Platt amendment in the Haitian treaty of 1916.
Prior to the World War, which has upset all calculations, it seemed
highly probable that the Platt amendment would in time be extended to
all the weaker states