The problem of a dangerous sugar surplus was just one of many confronting Batista when he came into power in March, 1952, and combined, they represented a great challenge to the administrative ability of the former humble cane cutter. There were national problems, such as a sacked treasury, a national lack of confidence in government because of the prevalence of gangsterism throughout the island, and a defunct, impossible public works program which his predecessor had inaugurated, in bad faith, as a stimulus to his party's vote-seeking campaign for the June elections. Cuba's international relations were in a deplorable state. Soviet
Russia had been using Cuba as a concentration and exchange point for its large crops of spies operating in Latin America; Spain had no ambassador in Cuba and the Prio regime had done its best to create ill feeling between Spain and Cuba. Several other countries had no diplomatic relations with Cuba, and the nation's international trade treaties were in bad shape.

Batista faced up to every problem. He met them head-on and provided solutions, most of which were permanent and satisfactory. His handling of the sugar problem resulted in. an exceptionally brilliant solution to an exceptionally urgent problem. He eliminated the gangsters by direct methods, He readjusted the public works program and by intelligent management completed during his first year in office thirtythree of the one hundred and twenty-four projects which his predecessor had started.

One of the first things Batista did after coming into power was to set up an appropriation of fourteen million pesos to provide the city of Havana with an adequate water system. For a hundred years Havana had suffered a water shortage and a score of politicians had promised to do something about the water problem. None did. But Batista did something about it. The ironic part of the water improvement program was that when Batista's workmen started tearing up the streets to replace the inadequate, broken-down water mains, his political enemies started a campaign against him, charging that he was upsetting traffic by tearing up the streets. I recall an amusing incident in relation to the water problem early in 1953. A New York newspaperman bad come down to do a series of stories on Cuba. He talked with people on the streets, did a considerable amount of research, and climaxed his Cuba visit with an interview with President Batista. The interviewer mentioned to Batista that he had found some discontent with the Batista administration because the streets had been torn up to rebuild the water system. Batista laughed heartily when the reporter asked him what he was going to do about this discontent. "Well," said Batista, "maybe you can help me. If you can find a way to pull out old
water pipes, which are buried six feet under the streets, and replace them with new ones without tearing up the streets, you let me know how it is done immediately. The people of Havana will be grateful to you and so will I."

Under Batista a new tobacco treaty was negotiated with Spain in 1952, which resulted in the restoration of Cuba of one of its principal markets in the Old World. Under previous regimes there had been a tendency to keep alive the memory of the Spanish rule in Cuba which terminated with the end of the Spanish-American War.

It is understandable that this country boy from Banes should maintain his interest in agriculture, and no section of this activity escaped his attention. He imported the finest seed from El Salvador for the purpose of improving the coffee crop, and he distributed large quantities of rice, peanuts, corn, and black beans to assure abundant crops.

The meat shortages which, under previous regimes, had plagued everyone living on the island were solved, and Batista established various centers for artificial insemination throughout the country to improve the breed of cattle. Special attention was devoted to veterinary care and fifteen mobile units were put in circulation to take care of the livestock of the poor farmers.

Batista is a strong advocate of mechanized agriculture. In the spring of 1953, his government acquired a large amount of farm equipment for use throughout the Republic and these machines were rented to the poorer farmers at insignificant rates. The cost of tilling the soil was reduced to one-fifth of its previous figure. Up to that time many of the small farmers had been using the same antiquated methods of agriculture that had been introduced in the country by the Spanish Conquistadores at the beginning of the sixteenth century. Now the machete and the ox-drawn plow have finally given way to modem machines.

The kenaf industry received considerable stimulation under Batista, and it is estimated that the use of this industrialized fiber to make sugar sacks will save the country something like twenty million pesos, which previously were expended in purchasing sacks abroad. Batista is particularly grateful to the United States Department of Agriculture for its assistance in the development of the kenaf industry here.

In the international field, Batista deported Soviet spies from Cuba, thereby angering Soviet Russia to the point where she broke relations with Cuba; he negotiated new and mutually beneficial trade treaties with a dozen countries and re-established diplomatic relations with the several nations which had not been on friendly relations with Cuba for several years.

Cuba is a country with considerably advanced social legislation, and there is no question but that the unilateral manner in which the labor laws were interpreted under previous regimes was responsible for discouraging new capital from investing in Cuba. Strikes were an everyday occurrence and the labor situation could, with justification, be described as a dictatorship of the proletariat.

All that changed when Batista returned to the Presidential Palace on March 10, 1952. Strikes became a rarity, and labor's former menacing attitude became one of cooperation. True, Batista believes in high wages, which enhance the acquisitive power of the worker, as well as other social benefits, but he also believes in, and insists, on a good day's work for a good day's pay.

As an example of how things have changed in Cuba, announcement was made in March, 1953, of plans to build a ten-million-peso hotel in Havana, to be owned by the previously obstreperous, and still extremely powerful, hotel, café, and restaurant workers' union. The hotel will be operated by the Hilton Hotels Corporation of the United States in collaboration with the hotel union. Certainly it was a revolutionary plan, which reflected the new tolerance between capital and labor which has prevailed in the Republic under Batista.

The depleted condition of the national treasury when Batista came into power in March, 1952, made it imperative that new sources of revenue be created in order to pay the normal costs of running the government. Batista and his fiscal experts made a study of the tax structure of the island, and this resulted in the imposition of new taxes. In Cuba, as in almost any other country, taxes are irksome, and the government's efforts to levy new ones and collect past-due ones stirred up considerable opposition, particularly among some of the commercial groups.

Cubans, as well as some of the non-Cubans residing in the country, are not noted for making their tax payments promptly. I have never, in the years I have lived in Cuba, seen the people form queues before the tax collector's window for the purpose of paying their taxes. In Cuba there is nothing similar to the excitement of meeting tax deadlines, such as is found around March 15 each year in the United States.

There are thousands of persons in Cuba who have managed to keep their names off the tax rolls all their lives. This number was reduced at the end of 1952, when the Batista government thought of a unique device for collecting back taxes and getting additional names on the tax rolls. The government offered to forgive all back taxes owed by persons who would voluntarily pay their taxes for the past three years. Thousands took advantage of the offer and made settlements on their 1950, 1951, and 1952 taxes. It was an attractive arrangement from the taxpayers' standpoint because it exempted them from payment of past-due taxes. The government
collected considerable money previously considered uncollectable and added a lot of new names to the tax rolls for collections in coming years.