Gomez Defies Bryan; Signs Amnesty Bill.

New York Times 100 years ago today, March 8, 1913:
Despite Our Protest, the Cuban President Approves Measure Freeing Criminals.
INTERVENTION ISSUE RAISED
Wilson May Have to Take Forcible Action if the Measure Is Not Repealed.
Special to The New York Times.
    WASHINGTON, D.C. March. 7.— The news comes to-night that President Gomez of Cuba has signed the amnesty bill, by which hundreds of political and other criminals are to be liberated with the exit of the Gomez administration in May, and the entrance of the Menocal administration, and it has created great surprise and causes much worry.
    By the act of President Gomez relations between this Government and Cuba have reached a stage that again suggests intervention. It was learned only to-day that last Wednesday, within a few minutes after he had become Secretary of State, Col. Bryan had sent a protest to President Gomez against the enactment of the amnesty law. The Amnesty bill having passed both houses of the Cuban Congress, was before President Gomez when the protest was sent, and it was believed by President Wilson and Secretary Bryan that the effect of the action thus taken would be to deter President Gomez from giving the measure his approval.
    That any Government should act so promptly in defiance of the formally expressed wishes of a neighboring nation seemed hardly credible to officials here. Those familiar with the conditions in Cuba and the history of the events leading up to the passage of the Amnesty act unhesitatingly said that President Gomez had no other alternative but to approve the bill. His doing so was necessary, it was asserted, in order to protect himself and his associates in the present Government from future responsibility for many acts in public administration that were in the nature of graft and corruption.
    A high official, who has an intimate acquaintance with the relations between this Government and Cuba, said to-night that he doubted whether or not the protest sent by Secretary Bryan had reached President Gomez promptly. He thought it had been delayed and probably had not yet reached Gomez in the due course of official transmission.

Intervention Issue Raised.
    There was a fear that President Gomez, or the eve of retirement from office, would be disposed to defy the right of this Government to interfere in such a matter and would sign the bill in spite of the protest. President Wilson thus appears to have the alternative of authorizing a third intervention by military force in Cuba or of demanding that pending diplomatic inquiry in regard to the matter the act of amnesty be suspended and no prisoners liberated, and the act promptly repealed by the same legislative body that enacted it.
    It is certain that the President will proceed just as far as he can without resort to the employment of an armed force in Cuba, but it is contended by men in a position to know that it is none the less certain that he will compel obedience to the demand of this Government.
    This American protest was made because the bill proposed to liberate from the jails and prisons of the island not only all political prisoners but all criminals. It provides also for granting pardons in advance of trial to all persons who may have been indicted for any criminal offfense or who may be indicted for any criminnal act during the Gomez Administration. To the Latin-American mind such a sweeping amnesty it was said in official circles to-day would be regarded as reasonable and wholesome. But to President Wilson, when the facts of the proposed wholesale mockery of justice were explained, the proposal was no less than appalling.
    As there had been necessarily many days' delay in the State Department before the transfer of the Government from the Taft Administration. Col. Bryan was obliged to make a prompt decision when the matter came before him late on Wednesday. He decided that the protest should be made even if on later investigation it should be shown that the scope of the amnesty was not so dangerous as it now appears to be.
    To-day the Secretary of State remained after the Cabinet meeting and conferred with the President in regard to the situation. He was able to lay before Mr. Wilson such facts about the actual application of the amnesty that the imminent peril to Cuba involved in the scheme was at once demonstrated. It was pointed out by Col. Bryan that the Gomez administration was aiming to avoid investigation of the many activities of various interests and individuals in Cuba who have obtained large and valuable concessions from the Government practically without consideration or advantage to the Government or the people of Cuba.
    With the sweeping provision that anticipates the possible indictment of those who have been guilty of bribery or malfeasance in office and gives a blank petition to every rascal in the island, it would be absolutely impossible for the Menocal Government, when it comes into control in May, to prosecute even the worst criminals who may have plundered the Government.

Platt Amendment Clears Way.
    At first it was regarded as doubtful that the United States had any right to intervene in a matter that on the face of it was so distinctly domestic to the government of Cuba. An examination of the Platt amendment, which is in a sense the Magna Charta of Cuba, made it quite clear, however, that there was ample ground for action by this Government. The Platt amendment, so called because it was drawn and offered by the late Senator O. H. Platt of Connecticut, was incorporated in the Cuban Constitution in compliance with the demands of this Government. Later it was included in the treaty between the United States and the Republic of Cuba, so that it has a three-fold intrenchment in the organic law of the island Government.
    In the third article of the Platt amendment it is provided that the United States may intervene in Cuba for any one of three reasons. The first is to preserve Cuban independence; the second for the "maintenance of a Government adequate for the protection of life, property, and individual liberty," and the third to carry out the terms of the Paris Treaty, by which Cuba gained her independence. It is contended by officials that this Government has the right under the second ground to insist that the criminals who have been convicted and those who might be convicted must not be turned loose on society, because they would become a menace to life and property. There have been many appeals to the President and to the State Department to prevent, if possible, the execution of the amnesty plan. The New York Life Insurance Company has placed before Secretary Bryan a statement in regard to one case that comes under the proposed amnesty, and has asked that this Government take steps to protect the people of Cuba, from the evilly designed legislation.
    The New York Life Insurance Company was defrauded a few years ago in an aggravated case of insurance swindling involving a murder. In consequence of this swindle three men were sent to prison for long terms. The amount involved was $8,000 and the company spent $96.000 to prosecute the swindlers and murderers. There are several other similar cases, but not so aggravated.
    Mr. Beaupre, the American Minister at Havana, informed the State Department that the protest had been presented to the Cuban Minister for Foreign Affairs, but no reply was made by President Gomez.

Cuban Minister Protests.
    The Cuban Minister here, Señor Martin-Rivero, before he had learned of the signing of the Amnesty bill by President Gomez, sent a cable to Havana late today protesting against the measure. This act was on his own initiative, it was said at the legation, because of the Minister's personal objection to the measure.
    The Minister called at the State Department to-day, accompanied by William Patterson, Assistant Secretary of State of Cuba, and Dr. Paul Desvernine, law professor in the University of Havana, to arrange for a call on President Wilson to extend Cuba's greeting. The Cuban Minister's cable of protest followed his visit to the State Department.
    President Wilson, when the Cuban special mission, composed of Señors Martin-Rivero, Patterson, and Desvernine, called on him later, expressed the hope that the relations between the two countries might be more than friendly and become fraternal. A dinner in honor of the visiting Cubans was given by the Minister.