The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1910-09-23

Justify Americas attitude in the Cuban mixup.
Weyier was the best hated man in Cuba when
the government of his nation finally recalled him.
This book will him to be cursed the length
and breadth of the peninsula.
Il wrote it," he says ito give all the facts
about my conduct general in chief conduct
admired not only by army officers, high and
low, who wrote me innumerable letters, but
by prlvates, who, on their return to the PENN
sula, spoke of me with an enthusiastic fer
vor for which 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 men.
Furthermore l did not wish to sadden Senior
Sagasta by retelling the story Of our colonial
disasters; neither did l 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"
A perusa 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
as his conduct was in many instances, it could
not very well be criticized in Spain by the Span
ish government.
Had Weyler been endowed with the literary
genius of Marriott Las Cafes, he could have
made much stronger case against Spain and
presented his own actions in much more favor
able light Unfortunately his knowledge of the
writer's craft is as 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-
nita primitive brute, with rudimentary ethics,
though unfnchingy frank and straightforward
he never ventures assertion which cannot be
supported by documents; he never pays any at
tenton to 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 caparsoned mount
or If he had been allowed to range over Europe
during the Thirty Years war;
General Weyers style is very trying;
his proclamations vainly modelled after Napoleon
is oratorical gems, rarely sound the note that
makes people or an army vibrate. His rea-
tons of the Cuban campaign with all the facts,
figures, recorded In haphazard fashion
day by day, is we'll nigh unreliable.
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 it well worth while
wading through an otherwise dull. shapeless and
indigestble piece Of writing.
First OF all we made to realize how hope
less the plight of the Spanish commanders had
become in the island when Weyler took the situ-
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 a pessimistic character Of which
the public and the press seldom appraised:
their confidential correspondence betrayed heart
rendng facts; more than once poor Gen. Marti-
nez Campos had humbly confessed himself beat
en-, while the cabinet led the Spanish nation to
believe that the war was practically over q
Weyler himself. when placed in command of
the Cuban army. was notteven given what he was
entitled to- AN honest account of the situation
when landed III Cuba he Wr3tes% Il did
not even suspect the terrible condit0ns that pre-
vailed in The island Isdfd not SKfiUw anything