The Fragile Republic 35tion and road-building program in Santiago. Brooke soon
demanded that all customs revenues (Wood's source of
funds) be collected and distributed by his headquarters. Dis
gusted by this episode and others, Wood used his political
contacts and a favorable press to discredit the Military Gov
ernor. Moreover, Wood thought that Brooke's inability to
escape the evils of Spanish colonial administration threatened
voluntary annexation by placing the American government
in a bad light.^30
Consistent with his view that clean government and new
moral standards represented the best America could offer
Cuba, Wood advocated that the Cuban economy be devel
oped through private capital, especially American investment.
Though he recognized that Cuban agriculture needed diversi
fication and rehabilitation, he believed that this was not the
business of the Military Government. Such paternalism would
stifle individual responsibility, one of the new values he was
inculcating. Rather than accept Wilson's loan program, Wood
believed that private agricultural banks should make loans,
"at good rates of interest," which could be as high as 10 per
cent. In addition, as he pointed out in the section of his 1899
report entitled "Opportunities for Investment," foreign capital
was desperately needed, and Cuba was rich with opportuni
ties for enterprising Americans. Such views represented the
economic phase of Americanization.
Before the end of 1899, events altered American policy
toward domestic reform in Cuba. The first was the appoint
ment of Elihu Root as Secretary of War. A distinguished
lawyer and a philosophical skeptic, Root began a systematic
analysis of America's colonial problems. In light of his subse
quent influence on American policy, it is necessary to examine
Root's views on Cuban society and the proper context for
its reform. Root's assessment of the Cuban people did not
differ from Wood's, but his concept of change varied. The
Cubans, Root wrote President Charles W. Eliot of Harvard,
"have no experience in anything except Spanish customs and
Spanish methods which have grown up for centuries under