The Coalville times. [volume] (Coalville, Utah) 1894-1923, 1910-09-30


Justify Americas attitude In the Cuban mixup
Wcylcr 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.
u wrote IT, he says. TO give all the facts
about my conduct ~ general In chief. conduct
admired not only by army officers. high and
low. who wrote me nnumerabe letters. but
by priyatcs who on their return TO the PENN
sula, spoke Of mo with an enthusiastic fer
yor for which never thank them enough
Various reasons prevented me from doing years
ago (when | could not have freed my mind
from certain blas) n work which 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 sndden Senior
sagastR by rctelling the story Of our colonial
disasters: neither did feel any pleasure In
suring the illustrlous Gen. MartIneX Campos my
predecessor In Cuba however uncharltably he
acted toward me after his return TO the capital"
pcrusal Of the book fails to prove that wcy.
Ter kept his promise to treat tho subject with
perfect moderation; the generals blood Is still
boiling and with some Justification, for atroclous
as his conduct was In many instances. II could
not very well be criticized In Spain by the Span
ish government
Had Weylcr been endowed with the literary
genius OF Marriott or a Las CAGES. bc could have
maze n UuCH hNluuE'I 'Nn' hNdlHA oVdlH NHh
presented mis- own actions In much more favor
able light. Unfortunately his knowledge Of the
writer's craft II as deficient as his fund OF infor
nation touching political economy, general his
tory, national anad international politics ia
meaEer.
of nuances and innuendos IL to him terra ncog
nIta: a primitive brute with rudmcntary ethics
though unnlnchngly frank and straightforward
he never ventures an 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 sense OF history just imagine
what weycr would have developed into II he
had not been born some 500 years too late; clad
I'm steel he had been riding n caparisonod mount
or II he had been allowed to range over Europe
during the Thirty Years war;
General weyers style Is very trying; even
his proclnmnlions vanly modelled after Napoleon
lis oratorlcal gems, rarely sound the note that
makes a people an army vibratc. His rela'
lions Of the Cuban campaign with all the facts
figures, names recorded in haphazard fashion
day by day, is well nigh unreliable 90.
But the documents he publishes In support OF
his thesis (some Of them OF confidential char
acter and which must nave been secured through
diplomatic means') make II well worth while
wadmg through an otherwise duh, shapeless and
indigcstble piece OF writing.
First OF all We are made 20 realize how hope.
less the plight Of the Spanish commanders had
become In the island when Weyer took the stu
alton I'm hand; the many generals who preceded
him had been losing ground from day TO day
their cables to the Spanish government gave
information Of a pesslmislc character OF which
the public and the press were seldom appraised
their confidential correspondence betrayed heart
rendlng facts; more than once poor Gen Martl'
neg Campos had humby confessed himself beat
en- while the cabinet led the Spanish nation to
believe that the war was practically over. : y
Weyer himself when-placed in command q
the Cuban army was not even given what he was
entitled to- an honest account Of the situation.
when | landed In Cuba" he writes, Il did
cot even suspect the terrible conditions that pre-
vailed in The island. did not know anything