ice and Public Instruction, at the head
of which should be a Superintendent of Schools. The first incumbent of
that office was Alexis E. Frye, who drafted another order, promulgated
by General Brooke on December 6 and practically constituting a new
school law for Cuba. It provided for the formation of Boards of
Education and the opening of primary and grammar schools in all
communities by December 11, 1899, or as soon thereafter as possible.
That was the beginning of the popular education of the Cuban people.

After these things, General Brooke was on December 20 relieved of his
command in Cuba. He issued a brief farewell proclamation to the people,
calling attention to the progress which had been made in good
government, and toward complete self-government and independence; every
word of which was amply justified by facts. He was a soldier rather than
an administrator, and he was nearing the age of retirement from active
service. His administration had been beset with difficulties; it had
made some mistakes, and it had done much good work. He was charged by
some with having entrusted the powers of government too largely to his
Cuban Secretaries; while others commended him for that very
circumstance. His inclination was toward a bureaucracy, but it was a
Cuban and not an alien bureaucracy. It cannot be denied that he laid
much of the foundation of subsequent achievements and of successful
Cuban government. It was under his governorship that General Ludlow
cleansed the city of Havana, that the Customs service and the treasury
were reorganized, and that provision was made for a comprehensive system
of public schools.

CHAPTER X

General Brooke was succeeded by General Leonard Wood. He had also in a
measure been preceded by him. General Wood had at Santiago been the real
pioneer in American administration in Cuba. He laid the first
foundations there. General Brooke at Havana enlarged upon those
foundations. Then came General Wood to Havana to complete the structure.
It was with the fame and prestige of his great victory over pestilence
at Santiago, and of all his other achievements in Oriente, that he came
to Havana on December 20, 1899, to be Military Governor of all Cuba. He
was received not alone with the fullest measure of formal ceremony and
official salutation, from both Cubans and Americans, but also with such
an outpouring of popular welcome as few men have received anywhere and
as nobody save perhaps Ma