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COpy COpy -2- CQ?Y whatever it might appear to be at a particular tLme_ It was also apparent that as far as his visit to the United States was concerned his primary interest was -not to get a change in the sugar quota or to get a government Loan but to win support for his policies from American public opinion." It was this almost slavish subservience to p'revai1- ing majority opinion -- the voice of the mob -- rather than his naive attitude toward Communism and his obvious lack of understanding of even the most elementary economic principles which concerned me most in evaluating what kind of a l.eader he might eventually turn out to be. That is the reason why I spent as much time as I could trying to emphasize that he had the great gift of leadership, but that it was the respon- sibility of a leader not always,to follow public opinion but to help to direct it in the proper channels -- not to give the people what they- think they want at a time of emo- tional stress but to make them want what they ocrght to have. I pointed rot that it might be very possible that the people of Cuba were completely disillusioned as far as eLections and representative government were concerned but that this placed an even greater responsibility on him to see that elections were held at the very earliest date, end thereby to restore the faith of the people in democratic processes. Otherwise, the inevitable result would be the sane dictator- ship against which he and his followers had fouqht so gal- lantly. I used the same argument with regard to: :freedom of the press, the right to a fair trial before an imp~al court, judge and jury, and 'on other issues whi~ came up during the course of the conversation. In every instance he justified his departure from democratic principles on the , ground that he was following the will of the peopl.e. I, in my turn, tried to impress upon him the fact t....~a~ W:-~l.e we be- lieve in majority rule that even a majority can be tyrannous and that there are certain individual rights which a majo~ity should never have the power to destroy. I frankly doubt that I made too much impression upon him but ill did listen and appeared to be scme-.r-~t recep- tive. I tried to cast my appeal to him primarily 7n terms of how this place in history-would be affected ~y ~~e courage and statesmanship he displayed at this time. I eIDL=nasized that the easy thing tom was to follow the mob, but ~a~ L~e right COpy COpy COpy