hen judges were found to be unjust,
corrupt, incompetent, or otherwise unfit to serve, they were removed.
Competent clerks were appointed, and they and all other court employes
were put on fair salaries, the fee system which formerly prevailed and
which was so susceptible of abuse, being abolished. Competent and
trustworthy lawyers were employed at state expense to serve as counsel
for those who were too poor to hire them.

It was under General Wood, in his first year of administration and the
second year of American intervention, that Cuban civil government was
elaborated, that an election system was devised and put into effect, and
that political parties had their rise. The Civil Governors of the
Provinces were now all Cubans: Of Pinar del Rio, Dr. J. M. Quilez; of
Havana, General Emilio Nunez; of Matanzas, General Pedro Betancourt; of
Santa Clara, General Jose Miguel Gomez; of Camaguey, General R. Lopez
Recio; of Oriente, General Demetrio Castillo. It was General Wood's wise
and just policy to fill Cuban offices with Cubans to the fullest
possible extent.

Therefore it was determined in the spring of 1900 to hold an election
for municipal officers throughout the island. An order was issued on
April 18, appointing the election for June 16, for officers to be
installed on July 1 for a term of one year. The officers to be chosen
were Mayors, or Alcaldes; members of City Councils or Ayuntamientos;
municipal treasurers and judges, and judges of the police courts.

The preparations for the election were made and a new electoral law was
drafted by a commission of fifteen members, appointed by General Wood.
Of the fifteen, thirteen were Cubans and two were Americans. The Cubans
were representative of the various political parties into which the
people of the island were beginning to divide themselves. It cannot be
said that the meetings and deliberations of the commission were
particularly harmonious. In the end two reports were submitted to the
Governor, of which he selected for adoption that presented by the
minority. It comprised the new elections law, which he promulgated on
April 18 in the proclamation calling for the election. This law provided
that a voter must be a male Cuban, native of Cuba or born of Cuban
parents while they were temporarily visiting abroad, or a Spaniard
included within the terms of the Treaty of Paris of 1898, who had not
elected to retain his Spanish allegiance; he must be twenty-one years
ol