custom houses and quarantine administrations.

The account of these in detail is the same story over and over
again--the building of a state from bottom to top; and the
administration of this state by those people who throughout their
entire lives had known nothing of the sort--much less had any voice in
its management.

Two require special notice because of the tact and judgment required
in handling them and because of the vital importance their
consummation meant in the final settlement of Cuban difficulties.

One was the ending of the long standing war {147} between the Spanish
Government and the Roman Catholic Church upon the question of church
property appropriated by Spain. No settlement had been made since the
concordat of 1861. And when General Wood took command of the Island
the Church came to him and said: "What is the United States going to
do? Is it war, or peace? Give us our property back, or pay us for the
use of it."

With infinite wisdom and tact the Governor-General appointed judicial
commissions to make an exhaustive study of the situation which
resulted in reports showing that the claims of the Church were in the
main just and fair, and a settlement was reached by which the State
purchased most of the property, and rented for five years the rest, so
that time should be given for equitable adjustment. This settled for
all time a century-old trouble which alone would have made the setting
up of a peaceable and effective government doubtful.

The other sound reorganization of a delicate nature was the action of
the Governor-General in revising a law which made marriages only legal
if {148} performed by a judge and ignoring the church ceremony
altogether. The changed law recognized either church or civil marriage
and quieted the most serious of all family troubles in the Island.

Finally a constitutional convention was planned and held, at which a
constitution of the republican form based upon that of the United
States was framed and adopted; an electoral law for elections in the
Cuban republic was also adopted; and the general administrative law of
the land was rewritten and adapted so that the government of the
Island could be turned over to its inhabitants in workable form even
though that form was new to them and they new to self-government in
any form.

Look for a moment at the result of this work. In December, 1899,
Leonard Wood took command of the Island of Cuba. In May, 1902, he
turned