Cuban rebels are laying down their arms today as the island nation attempts to restore peace under American supervision. Governor William Howard Taft is moving into the presidential palace in Havana this afternoon, taking direct control as the provisional government works to disarm revolutionary forces. Rebel leader Colonel Asbert declared he believes "the republic will be saved if the Cubans behave well," criticizing Cuba's first president for trying "to make himself a Porfirio Diaz, without any of Diaz's reasons or force." Meanwhile, two battalions of the 27th Infantry and the 14th Artillery are departing Fort Sheridan in Chicago today, bound for Cuba via Tampa and Newport News. Elsewhere, tragedy strikes closer to home as four men died in a horrific industrial accident at the Maryland Steel Company's Sparrows Point works near Baltimore, overwhelmed by "a rush of flaming gas and coke" when a blast furnace coupling failed. In Illinois, a drunken farmer named Alonzo Curtis attacked his wife with a butcher knife before slitting his own throat—both now lie dying in the same hospital ward.

This front page captures America flexing its imperial muscles in the Caribbean while grappling with the brutal realities of industrial growth at home. The Cuban intervention represents the Roosevelt administration's interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine—the U.S. as regional policeman, intervening whenever Latin American nations seem unable to govern themselves. This precedent will shape American foreign policy for decades. Meanwhile, the steel mill deaths underscore the human cost of America's industrial boom. As the nation builds the infrastructure and military might to project power globally, workers pay the price in dangerous factories and mills that fuel this expansion.

• The deployment of troops to Cuba is disrupting Chicago love lives—Lieutenant Ralph McCoy had to rush his wedding to Miss Julian McDonald of Kalamazoo when he got Cuban orders, marrying yesterday instead of waiting until next month
• American tourists are flocking to witness the Cuban disarmament as entertainment, with 'a large number' leaving Havana this morning for Rincon and Pinar del Rio 'to witness the first disarmament'
• The 27th Infantry just received a brand-new Hotchkiss machine gun 'designed to be carried on the back of a mule' only three days ago, and they're already taking it to Cuba
• The Evening Star costs just 2 cents per issue, with home delivery available for 50 cents per month including the Sunday edition
• French police are tearing down anti-military posters in Rouen that urge army recruits to desert and call on mothers to form an 'International society of mothers to resist the despots of the government'

• Governor Taft, who's taking control in Cuba today, will become President in just over two years—and this Cuban experience is giving him crucial executive practice before reaching the White House
• The Maryland Steel Company where four men died today will eventually become part of Bethlehem Steel, which will build the framework for the Empire State Building and Golden Gate Bridge
• That rebel leader Porfirio Díaz that Colonel Asbert mentions? He's been Mexico's dictator for 30 years and won't be overthrown until 1911—Asbert is essentially saying Cuba's president tried to be a strongman without the strength
• Lieutenant Frank Lahm, winner of the international balloon contest mentioned on the front page, will become one of the first military aviators and help establish the U.S. Air Force
• The Fort Sheridan troops departing for Cuba are leaving from the same base that housed Pullman Strike prisoners in 1894—now it's projecting American power abroad instead of suppressing labor at home