Abstract

Exit Machado

Not that there is reason to regret the inglorious end of a man who has made a shambles of an island where nature ordained so much of loveliness. Not that. But after all what business have we to tell the president of a sovereign neighbor to get out? Americans are helping Cuba clean house, because the mess is partly of American making. Gerardo Machado's presidency was made in American counting houses. He was kept in power by the willingness of the Chase bank to pay his bad debts. Americans must confess their share of responsibility for the bitter years of Machado's tyranny. But that is not enough. Having lent a hand in ousting Machado, Americans cannot rest nor cry all's well until we have lent Cuba a hand in clipping the wings of those American financial interests which have created an effective slave state in a Cuba which seeks to be free.