All that can be fairly said against the governing class in Santo Domingo is that they have not been strong enough to establish an orderly government in roadless wilderness inhabited by an illiterate and almost barbarous people. Nor can it be said that they do not care for and believe in the future of their country. They are like all other Latin peoples, patriots and idealists. They have simply lacked the wisdom and the moral and material strength to realize their ideas.

The majority of the Dominican people are as if they had a chance to plant a crop with any certainty that some one would not appropriate the harvest. They may squat upon the land, but they cannot acquire ownership. There are no industries for them to work at except agriculture, and trade is taxed to the utmost.

The Dominican people, by reason of the wealth of their country, can live easily and as they please, but it is very difficult for them to acquire property, a place of security, a place and status of the same of life, or any of the other things that develop in men and national consciousness. 