Anadarko daily democrat. [volume] (Anadarko, Oklahoma) 1908-191?, 1910-09-27


Justify Americas nttitude IN tho Crbo, ,,,v,,,
Weyler was the best hated man I'm Cuba when
% ue soVernment OF his nation finally recalled him.
lAnis oooK VIII cause him to be cursed the length
and breadth OF the peninsula
wrote IT, he says. ito give all the facts
ADout my conduct general In chief a conduct
admired not only by army officers high and
hoW' VINO wrote lnnmnerable letters but
oy prlVates. who. on their return to the penn-
Hula' spoke OF me with enthusiastic fer.
xor Tor which | can never thank them enough.
various reasons prevented me from doing years
ago (when | could not have freed INV mind
from certain blas) n work which can now
40 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 10 sadden Senior
Sagasta by retelling the story OF our colonial
disasters: neither did feel any pleasure in cen.
surfing the illustrlous Gen. Martinez Campos my
predecessor In Cuba, however uncharitably he
acted toward me after his return TO the capital"
perusal Of the book fails to prove that Wey.
uer kept his promise to treat the subject with
perfect moderation; the generals blood is stil
boiling. and with some Justification for atrocious
as his conduct was In many instances II could
not very well be criticized in Spain by the Span
tab government.
Had Weyler been endowed with the literary
genius Of Marriott a Las CaZes he could have
made a much stronger against Spain and
presented his own actions In much more favor
able light Unfortunately his knowledge OF the
writers craft is deficient as his fund OF infor-
ymEtion touching political economy, general his
kory. national Rnad international politics Is
meager.
Weyler is not a diplomat: the slippery land
of nuRnces and nnuendos is to him terra incog
nitA a primitive brute, with rudimentary ethics
though unnnchingy frank and straightforward
ne 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 a Weyler would have developed into II he
had not been born some 500 years too late clad
In STEEL he had been riding caparsoned mount
-,r-u he had been allowed TO range over Europe
during the Thirty Years war;
General weylers style Is very trying; even
his proclamations vany modelled after Napoleon
Its oratorical gems. rarely sound the note that
makes a people or an army vibrate His rela'
tons Of the Cuban campaign with all the facts
figures names recorded IN haphazMd fashion
day by day, Is well nigh unreadable
But the documents he publishes In support OF
mis- thesis (some OF them Of "A confidential char
acter and which must have been secured through
"diplomatic meansD make II well worth while
VVading through an otherwise dun. shapeless and
Indlgestibe piece OF writing
First OF all we are Inaue 10 realAe NO" nope
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 q pessimistic character OF which
the public and the press were seldom apprised;
tbsir confidential correspondence betrayed heart
rending facts; more than once poor Gen. Mart-
neg Campos had humbly confessed himself beat
on while the cabinet led the Spanish nation to
bai,eve that the war was practically over
Weyler himself, when placed In command OF
the Cuban army was not even given what he was
ent;tIed TO. an honest account Of the situation
awhen | landed In Cuba" he writes. Il did
mt eCe, suspect the terrible conditions that pre-
,suad On the island did not know anything