The Idaho Springs siftings-news., 1910-09-24

Justify Americas attitude in the Cuban mixup
"eyler was the best hated man in Cuba when
the government of his nation finally recalled him.
This book VIII cause him be cursed the length
and breadth of the peninsula
i wrote it.. he says. TO give all the facts
about my conduct as general in chief conduct
admired not only by army officers. high and
low. who wrote innumerable letters but
by priVates, wno on their return to the penin-
sua, spoke of me with enthusiastic fer
vor for which l can never thank them enough.
Various reasons prevented me from doing years
ago when | could not have freed my mind
from certain bias) work which 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 l suffered at
the hands of some
Furthermore l did wish to sadden Senior
Sagasta by retelling the story of our colonial
disasters; neither did l feel any pleasure in cen
suring the illustrious 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
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
1sh government.
Had Weyler been endowed with the literary
genius of Marriott or Las Cazes. he could have
made a much stronger against Spain and
presented his own actions in a 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 diplomat; the slippery land
of nuances and innuendos Is to him terra incog-
nta; a primitive brute. with rudimentary ethics
though unfinchingly frank and straightforward.
he ventures assertion which cannot be
supported hy documents; he pays any
tenton hearsay but quotes peoples letters in
extenso.
fascinating type. after all, for the observer
blessed with the sense of history: just imagine
what Weyler 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 Europe
during the Thirty Years war
General Weyler's style is very trying;
his proclamations vainly modelled after Napoleon
is oratorica gems, rarely sound the note that
makes a people army vibrate His rea-
tions of the Cuban campaign with all the facts.
figures, recorded in haphazard fashion
day by day, is well 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"l make it well worth while
wadng through an otherwise dull. shapeless and
1ndigestible 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 pessimistic character OF which
the public and the press were seldom apprised;
their confidential correspondence betrayed heart
rending facts; more than once poor Gen. Marti-
Campos had humbly confessed himself beat
en-. while the cabinet led the Spanish nation to
believe that the war practically
Weyler himself. when placed in command OF
the Cuban army, not even given what he
entitled to- an honest account of the situation.
When I landed In Cuba" he writes. Il did
not even suspect the terrible conditions that pre-
eailed In the island did not know anything