The Montgomery tribune., 1910-09-23

1ostify Americas attitude in the Cuban mixup.
Weyier was the best hated man in Cuba when
1he government of his nation finally recalled him.
rms book will cause him to be cursed the length
and breadth of the peninsula
"Tote 1t, he says, Ito give all the facts
ABOUT my conduct as general in chief, conduct
admlred not only by army officers, high and
low, who wrote innumerable letters, but
ny prlVates, who, on their return to the penn-
fsula spoke of me with an enthusiastic fer
Vof for which can never thank them enough.
various reasons prevented me from doing years
ago (when I could not have freed my mind
from certain bias) a work which l 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 suffered at
the hands of some men,
Furthermore did not wish to sadden Senior
Sagasta by retelling the story of our colonial
disasters neither did feel any pleasure in CEN
ssuring the ilustrious Gen. Martinez Campos my
predecessor In Cuba, however uncharitably he
acted toward me after his return to the capital"
a perusal of the book fails to prove that Wey.
Ter kept his promise to treat the subject with
Eperfect moderation; the generals blood Is still
sbosing, and with justification, for atrocious
his conduct in many instances, it could
mot very well be criticized in Spain by the Span.
gish government.
Had Weyler been endowed with the literary
genius OF a Marriott or Las Cazes, he could have
made much stronger case against Spain and
presented mis- actions in much more favor
able light. Unfortunately his knowledge of the
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 a diplomat; the slippery land
of nuances and innuendos is to him terra incog-
nita; primitive brute, with rudimentary ethics.
though unfinchingly frank and straightforward,
he never ventures an assertion which cannot be
supported by documents; he never pays any at
yaentien to hearsay but quotes peoples letters in
.-e1tenso.
A fascinating type, after ALL for the observer
blessed with the sense of history; just imagine
what Weyer would have developed into If he
had not been born some 500 years too late; clad
In Steel he had been riding caparisoned mount,
.or if he had been allowed to range over Europe
during the Thirty Years war!
General Weyers style is very trying; even
his proclamations vanly modelled after Napoleon
LIS oratorical gems, rarely sound the note that
makes a people army vbrate. His rela-
rttons of the Cuban campaign with all the facts
figures names recorded in haphazard fashion
day by day. is we'll nigh unreadable
But the documents he publishes in support of
his thesis (some of them of confidential char
acter and which must have been secured through
-diplomatic means) make 1t well worth while
-xrading through an otherwise dull shapeless and
indigestibe piece OF writing.
Fsrst of ali we are made to realize how hope
less the plight of the Spanish commanders had
become in the island when Weyler took the stu
.ation 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 pessimistic character OF which
the public and the press were seldom apprised;
sshefr confidential correspondence betrayed heart
xending facts; more than once poor Gen. Marti-
snez Campos had humbly confessed himself beat
en- while the cabinet led the Spanish nation to
heiieye that the war was practically over.
WeyIer himself when placed In command OF
,he Cuban army was not even given what he was
entitled to. an honest account of the situation.
.sWhen landed In Cuba" he writes. Il did
mot even suspect the terrible conditions that pre-
walled in the island did not know anything