Menocal Will Draw Cuba Closer To Us.

New York Times 100 years ago today, November 3, 1912:
President-Elect Outlines to The Times the Projected Policies of His Administration.
VICTORY NOT SO SWEEPING
Looks Like a Slender Majority — Liberals to Contest Result — Washington, Worried, Prepares for Trouble.
Special Cable to The New York Times.
    HAVANA, Nov. 2.— Gen. Menocal, Cuba's President-elect, declared to The New York Times correspondent tonight that it would be one of his purposes to cultivate close relations with the United States, to which country Cuba was bound by a close debt of gratitude. Gen. Menocal, although so hoarse that he could not speak without difficulty and had been counseled by his physicians to rest, disregarded their advice to comply with The New York Times's request for a brief statement of the policies and reforms planned for his administration.
    "My administration not only must be honest, but must appear so." he said. "Its motto will be strict performance of its duty within the limits prescribed by law. Every one will be required to do his duty. We will regulate the economic life of the State, seeing that all public expenses are included in the budgets. In the preparation of the latter we will see that no public service suffers; but under no circumstances will the State be saddled with expenses which are unnecessary and non-effective.
    "It is absolutely necessary that the tariff be regulated fundamentally, so that the present high cost of absolute necessities be cheapened. To this end we will negotiate an amplification of the present commercial reciprocity treaty with the United States. Every effort that has been made to reform our tariff in the past has been prevented, owing to the demands of a costly public administration, because the State has no other income of importance than Custom House receipts. This work will be impossible without a reasonable reduction of public expenses, the increase of which has been constant, and the reconstruction of our tax system in a way by which other means of income may be found and by which public expenses may be carried more equitably.
    "We will faithfully comply with all our international agreements and duties required of nations. We will try to draw each day closer and closer ties which unite us to the United States, to which country we are bound by profound gratitude, and with which we are joined by special conditions. At the same time we will be jealous defenders of the rights which are recognized as ours by treaty, and which belong to us as an independent and sovereign Stater trying to show by your acts that we know how to fulfill carefully our obligations, and maintain unquestioned the personality and credit of the republic.
    "Special attention must be given to our economic condition in its mercantile, industrial, and financial aspects. I will give special care to our agriculture and industrial development, doing what I can to stimulate immigration and obtain for our products markets that are most convenient for them.
    "We are greatly blessed on account of our geographical location, with 2,500,000 inhabitants scattered over 45,000 square miles of land of unsurpassed fertility. We are at the doors of a nation of 100,000,000 inhabitants, with a different climate and different products. With a proper spirit on both sides a complete interchange of prod-vets to mutual profit could be arranged, which would guarantee our commercial prosperity.
    "To this end I propose to appoint a commission to study our tariff and formulate a general plan for commercial relations with the United States, thus facilitating an interchange of products as complete as possible, with reciprocal advantages to the two countries, and with the least possible damage to our own customs."