areas where the fleet might have to operate. In
the Pacific the Government obtained Midway and Wake islands in 1900. In
the West Indies, the harbor of Guantanamo was secured from Cuba, and
in 1903 a treaty was made with Denmark for the purchase of her
islands--which, however, finally became American possessions only in
1917.

By her policy toward Cuba, the United States gave the world a striking
example of observing the plighted word even when contrary to the
national interest. For a century the United States had expected to
acquire the "Pearl of the Antilles." Spain in the treaty of peace
refused to recognize the Cuban Government and relinquished the island
into the hands of the United States. The withdrawal of the Spanish
troops left the Cuban Government utterly unable to govern, and the
United States was forced to occupy the island. Nevertheless the
Government had begun the war with a recognition of Cuban independence
and to that declaration it adhered. The country gave the best of its
talent to make the islands self-governing as quickly as possible.
Harvard University invited Cuban teachers to be its guests at a summer
session. American medical men labored with a martyr's devotion to stamp
out disease. General Wood, as military governor, established order and
justice and presided over the evolution of a convention assembled
to draft a constitution for the people of Cuba and to determine the
relations of the United States and Cuba. These relations, indeed, were
already under consideration at Washington and were subsequently embodied
in the Platt Amendment. * This measure directed the President to leave
the control of Cuba to the people of the island as soon as they should
agree to its terms. It also required that the Government of Cuba should
never allow a foreign power to impair its independence; that it would
contract no debt for which it could not provide a sinking fund from
the ordinary revenue; that it would grant to the United States "lands
necessary for coaling or naval stations"; that it would provide for the
sanitation of its cities; and that the United States should have the
right to intervene, "for the preservation of Cuban independence,
the maintenance of a government adequate for the protection of
life, property, and individual liberty, and for discharging" certain
obligations with respect to Spanish subjects which the United States
had assumed in the treaty signed at Paris. After some hesitation the
co