The Lamar register. [volume] (Lamar, Colo.) 1889-1952, 1910-09-21

Justify Americas attitude In the Cuban mix-up.
Weyler was the best hated man In Cuba when
the government of his nation finally recalled him.
This book will cause him to be cursed the length
and breadth of the peninsula
Il WROTE IT, he says. Ito give all the facts
about my conduct as general in chief. conduct
admired not only by army officers high and
low. who wrote me innumerable letters. but
by privates. who. their return to the penin-
sula, spoke Of with enthusiastic fer
vor for which can thank them enough.
Various reasons prevented me from doing years
ago when I could have freed my mind
from certain bias) n work which I can now
do In perfect peace of mind. thanks to the
time that has passed. and which has soothed
the irritation due to the injustice I suffered at
the hands OF some
Furthermore did wish to sadden Senior
sagasta by retelling the story of colonial
disasters; neither did feel any pleasure in cen
surfing the illustrious Gen Martinez Campos. my
predecessor In Cuba however uncharitably he
acted toward me after his return to the capital"
perusal Of the book fails prove that wey-
Ter kept his promise to treat the subject with
perfect moderation; the generals blood Is still
boiling and with some Justification. for atrocious
his conduct was In many instances. 1t could
not very well be criticized In Spain by the Span
ish government.
Had Weyler been endowed with the literary
genius OF Marriott or a Las Cazes. he could have
made much stronger against Spain and
presented mis- own actions in a much more favor
writer's craft is deficient his fund of infor
nation touching political economy. general his
tory national anad international politics is
meager.
Weyler is not n diplomat; the slippery land
OF nuances and innuendos Is to him terra ncog
nta: primitive brute. with rudimentary ethics
though unfnchingly frank and straightforward
he ventures assertion which cannot be
supported by documents: he never pays any at
tention to hearsay but quotes peoples letters in
extenso.
A fascinating type. after ALL for the observer
blessed with the of history; just imagine
what Weyler would have developed into IL he
had not been born some 500 years too late; clad
in steel, he had been riding caparisoned mount
or II he had been allowed to range over Europe
during the Thirty Years war!
General weyler's style is very trying:
his proclamations vainly modelled after Napoleon
LIS oratorical gems rarely sound the note that
makes people or an army vibrate. His rela-
lions of the Cuban campaign with all the facts.
figures. recorded in haphazard fashion
day by day. is well nigh unreadabe.
But the documents he publishes in support of
his thesis (some of them OF a confidential char
acter and which must have been secured through
diplomatic means') make 1t well worth while
wading through otherwise dull. shapeless and
indigestible piece of writing.
First of all made to realize how hope
less the plight of the Spanish commanders had
become in the island when Weyler took the stu
alton in hand; the many generals who preceded
him had been losing ground from day to day:
their cables to the Spanish government gave
information of pessimistc character of which
the public and the press seldom appraised;
their confidential correspondence betrayed heart
rending facts; more than once poor Cen Mart
Campos had humbly confessed himself beat
en-, while the cabinet led the Spanish nation to
believe that the war was practically over.
Weyler himself. when placed In command of
the Cuban army, not given what he was
entitled to. an honest account of the situation.
han L la.l f,, I,..a
not even suspect the terrible conditions that pre-
vailed in the island did not know anything