File No. 27/228–229.
The new Congress, which assembled in special session on the 20th ultimo,
adjourned on the 2d instant.
On the 1st instant Gen. Cáceres took the oath of office before the
Congress. Copy and translation of the inaugural address are herewith
inclosed.
The address contains a careful statement of the economic and political
situation of the country. It announces that the present administration
will bend its especial efforts toward the encouragement of agriculture
and immigration, the improvement and extension of ways of communication,
the building of irrigation systems and betterment of the system of
public education. The President sounds a note of warning against
granting, out of impatience to hasten development, concessions, which
may become burdensome to the country.
[Inclosure.—Translation.]
Address of the President of the Dominican
Republic before the National Assembly, July 1, 1908.
Citizen Representatives: When I swore to
respect and to cause the constitution to be obeyed, my mind,
reverently bowing before the fatherland, proclaimed the obligation
contracted with the Dominican people to labor strenuously for their
progress and for their glory.
The presidential period which has just ended has been an era of stern
struggles and of successful experiments, whose results form the
triangular stone upon which the political and economic work of the
future will be builded. We have opened up a way, and we are going to
pursue it with a resolute spirit and with the faith of conviction.
The vote of the citizens has approved the acts of that period, and
this approval is also an imperative command to persevere until the
work is crowned with success. The present hour is one of those
solemn hours of history which mark the rennaissance of a
nationality. There will never be another moment so propitious for
the extirpation, root and branch, of the causes which produced the
past errors, to ennoble the passions, and purify ambitions, and,
binding in one strong union the wills of all, to direct them
systematically to the removal of all obstacles which have delayed
the coming of civilization in the Republic.
The present is not without its dangers, and the greatest of all, the
results of which would be almost irretrievable, would be that the
fear of the past would start us impetuously on a false path, wasting
thereby fruitlessly time and energies. Reflection, careful study,
scrutiny of each act, and a wise distrust of our ardent enthusiasm
will be the efficient means of discovering the right road and of
traveling it guided by science.
Before taking the first step it is necessary to store up a good
supply of patience, because the work is not one of those which are
completed in one year, nor in one presidential period; it needs the
aid of more than one generation in order to be beneficial. The
impatient are wont to repeat many times the same task without
results or they arrive too early; but it is helpful that the
dreamers sow the ideas in the public mind and invigorating them so
that they take root and become indispensable to the people; that
ideas come in contact with realities, thereby acquiring the vital
conditions which enable the statesman to transform them into
progress. It is not well to forget that inertia is a force, and much
less to forget the importance of its effect in our situation.
Until to-day, citizen representatives, my care has been for peace.
Now order reigns, without which liberty is a fiction, and it gives
me satisfaction to know that my name has gathered Dominicans in
amity about the electoral urns, to grant me the most honoring proof
of confidence. In the future the administration over which I preside
will devote itself, principally to the encouragement of agriculture.
It is my most firm conviction that only the development of our
agricultural resources will make the peace lasting. In agriculture
lies the welfare for which we long.
My initiatory actions will be directed toward the substitution of
scientific methods for routine, the increase of production by means
of intensive cultivation, and the value of products by improving
their quality; awarding success; aiding efforts putting in
circulation the existing riches and those which are unexploited. But
we must carefully try new methods and improvements and the manner of
increasing workmen by immigration, when the census has revealed to
us the social and economic forces of the country; when we know
exactly the advantages which we can offer to the immigrant and the
advantages in blood and ideas which he brings to us and his capacity
for advancing civilization in our climate. And at the same time with
equal diligence shall I see to the establshment of public education
within the reach of all and adapted to the preparation of useful
citizens; impartial justice; the guarantee of moral and material
interests; a vigilant police; means of communication; railroads,
wagon roads, and ports; irrigation and drainage of lands. But before
we lay a rail we must reckon its results. We need railroads to
transport the wealth which already exists and railroads to develop
regions unproductive in spite of their fertility and wagon roads for
the easy and cheap transportation for the small farmer. Impatience,
the desire to quickly attain the commonweal, may counsel us to grant
concessions which if at the time appear of little importance are in
reality burdens for the future. Railroads which are constructed by
private enterprises ought to be subjected to the watchfulness of the
[Page 258] administration in
order not to put into the hands of foreigners with these mighty
civilizing agents the power of regulating the progress of the
Republic.
If the Dominican soil does not contain in its bowels sufficient
elements to nourish an intense industrial life, it does have in
exchange forces sufficient to fill the needs and luxuries of a dense
population and to send an excess to the markets of the world. The
possession of all the gifts which the earth offers us will
strengthen independence; it will make us a peaceful and cultured
people who will maintain order in its house and inspire friendly
respect beyond its frontiers; the international relations of the
Republic will be perpetuated by the feelings which arise from the
community of interests; the soldier will be the champion of the law;
the credit of the State will rest upon a firm base; and utilizing
the nature of our coasts and our privileged geographical position we
shall receive the abundant benefits which our proximity to the most
frequented commercial route offers us when the waters of the two
great oceans mingle in the Panama Canal.
Citizen representatives, I make no other promise than that of sowing
day by day with sincere faith the good seed. We Dominicans ought to
give to the soil for each drop of blood shed in fratricidal strifes
two drops of sweat; work alone offers to us a life worthy and
prosperous such as is fitting for freemen. By discharging our duty
of exploiting the riches which our indifference has kept inactive
and by scattering them throughout the world we shall lay the
foundation for the progress and the glory of the fatherland.
R. Cáceres.
Santo
Domingo
,
July 1,
1908
.
