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The panic turned Businessman Machado's bent to government. He decided that only state regulation could save the sugar industry. In 1924, to the surprise of many, he was elected President of Cuba. Within 20 months his Government had paid off a fifth of the foreign debt. Before his term was half over he seemed to have done as much for Cuba as Mussolini has for Italy, whipped Government services into shape, pushed roadbuilding at an unprecedented rate, fostered school and hospital construction, put through salutary sugar legislation. The price of sugar rose.
But as the end of President Machado's four-year term neared, he determined to remain in office. This was flatly contrary to the Cuban Constitution, to the platform on which he had been elected, and to his personal pledge, "I will never seek re-election!", a pledge he had made to mass meetings throughout the land.
Nothing can extenuate the fact that Sr. Machado is still President of Cuba today —except the fact that he was re-elected as the candidate of all three political parties in 1928, having outmaneuvered all opposition.
Despite this proven skill at "dirty politics," Director Machado is probably less corrupt, certainly much more able, than any previous Cuban President. He is fighting now not a political battle (he could win that) but a long-drawn economic struggle, a campaign to suppress nation-wide unrest due primarily to the world fall in the price of sugar—a collapse too titanic to be stemmed by a single nation or statesman. Besieged by a revolutionary mob some years ago the Dictator bluffed them successfully, roared: "What, me resign? Never, never!"
Cuban Navy officers startle visiting officers of other navies thus: "Nearly every night our President sleeps in Havana Harbor on a warship."