American Falls press. [volume] (American Falls, Idaho) 1907-1937, 1910-10-01

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.
II wrote It," he says, ito give all the facts
about my conduct as general in chief, a conduct
admired not only by army officers, high and
low, who wrote me innumerable letters, but
by privates, who, on their return to the PENN
sula, spoke of me with an 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 a certain bias) a 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 I suffered at
the hands of some men.
Furthermore I did not wish to sadden Senior
Sagasta by retelling the story of our colonial
disasters; neither did I feel any pleasure in cen
surfing the i~llustrious 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 SOM Justification, for atrocious
as 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 a Marriott or a Las Cazes. he could have
made a muCn stronger CASE against Spain anu
presented his own actions in a much more favor
able light. Unfortunately his knowledge of the
writer's craft is as deficient as 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
NJ nuances and innuendos is to him terra incog-
nita. a primitive brute, with rudimentary ethics.
though unfinchingly frank and straightforward.
he never ventures an assertion which cannot be
sunported by documents; he never pays any at
tention to hearsay but quotes peoples letters In
extenso.
blessed with the sense of history; just imagine
what a Weyler would have developed into If he
bad not been born some 500 years too late; clad
in steel. he had been riding a caparisoned mount
or II he had been allowed to range over Europe
during the Thirty Years war!
General Weyler's style is very trying; even
his proclamations vainly modelled AFTER Napoieoh
rs oratorical gems, rarely sound the note that
- . neonle or an army vibrate. His reia'
,,ors of TIE Cuban campaign with all the facts'
figures names recorded in haphazard fashioh
dav bv day. is well nigh unreliable
But the documents he publishes IN supper, VI
his thesis (some of them OF a cohndehtiai Ii d
aoter and which must have been secured through
"diplomatic means') make II wen worm ""H
wading through an otherwise oun' snape'e'' anu
,ndieestible piece Of writing
E;rst of all We are made to realize now nope
ri~~t of the Spanish commanders mao
=. :, ~. island when Weyler took the stu
o.,on in nj. the many generals who preceded
hi,UA had been losing ground from day to day;
Ut cables to the Spanish government gave
,ntormation of a pessimistic character OF which
the public and the press were seldom appt hser,.
oorsaential correspondence betrayed heart
~anaing facts: more than once poor Ten. Az
renul narnos had humbly confessed himself beat
ne e while the cabinet led the Spanish nation 10
s believe "e', that the war was practically, ,y 0 c"mnsy, .,
- Cuhan army, was not even given what ne was
entitled to. an honest account OF the situa'. a1 A.,
when l landed in CUBA We that nre.
VS., s,,sDect the terrible conditions Una. ple
10 STAND. | did not kno" any'nink