The Politics of Intervention

136 THE POLITICS OF INTERVENTION

winging down flooded streets. Down came Camp Columbia's
tent city; down came the Havana telephone and power lines;
and partially down went two transports in the harbor, drown­
ing two hundred Army mounts. For Cuba the hurricane was
as great an economic disaster as the August Revolution, but
the Army of Cuban Pacification quickly repitched its shelters,
restacked its supplies and went on with the occupation.
By December, 1906, the Army headquarters staff was
caught in the business-as-usual problems of military adminis­
tration. The Judge-Advocate juggled court-martial percent­
ages to prove that Marines were more unruly than soldiers;
the Chief Quartermaster worried about the semi-monthly
supply ship from Newport News and the distribution of
$200,000 in stationery and blank forms (triplicate). The Chief
Commissary struggled to find refrigeration for the frozen
beef sent from the United States (cost: nine cents a pound),
hoping that the price of Cuban beef would drop. The Medi­
cal Department dealt with periodic yellow fever scares and
fought the more immediately dangerous typhoid. As a medi­
cal commentary on Cuban-American relations, it should be
noted that medics treated nearly 10 per cent of the command
for assorted venereal diseases, which had a higher incidence
than diarrhea-dysentery. In January, 1907, company venereal
disease inspections began on a weekly basis.^40 Then, having
interfered with one off-duty diversion, the Army acted further
to protect the troops' health:

Respectfully referred to the Commanding General, Army of Cuban

Pacification, with the information that the views of the Surgeon General

are concurred in by the Acting Secretary of War, who directs that the

sale of Coca-Cola by the post exchange be discontinued.^41

At Camp Columbia the occupation had a style rare in the
other garrisons. There the men were comfortably quartered,
well fed, given excellent medical attention, and barred from
many of the Havana fleshpots. The officers could join the
American Club of Havana as non-dues-paying members and
officers' families could have hotel accommodations and fares