The Politics of Occupation 165volved. Ben Tillman criticized Taft for following a radical policy (i.e,
giving horses to the insurgents) which endangered the right of prop
erty and encouraged Negroes to leave the sugar plantations.
In newspaper interviews, eight congressmen agreed that order must
be kept in Cuba, but were split (4-4) on the advisability of annexation.
They all agreed that annexation would be of questionable popularity.
New York Times, September 30, October 3 and 4, 1906.
- Times (London), October 12, 1906.
- Root to Taft, October 2, 1906, Case 244/269, Num. File, 1906
1910, Vol. XXXVII, RG 59. - The question of Magoon's character is most carefully studied in
Chapman, A History of the Cuban Republic, pp. 230-36, and David
A. Lockmiller, Magoon in Cuba (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1938), pp. 70-78,
213-21. The single most significant source of evidence on Magoon's
personality is the Crowder-Chapman Correspondence, Enoch H. Crow
der Papers, Western Historical Manuscript Collection, University of
Missouri Library. The consensus was that Magoon was an honest man
who remained that way while governor. - Magoon, Report, 1906-1907, p. 9.
- Magoon to Taft, November 29, 1906, Taft Papers; Magoon to
McCoy, December 10, 1906, McCoy Papers. - Taft-Bacon Report, p. 466.
- Magoon, Report, 1906-1907, pp. 16-17. Portell Vila criticizes
Magoon for dealing with Cuban politicians devoid of "true patriotism,"
ignoring men "dedicated to the cause of national regeneration." Portell
Vila, Historia de Cuba, IV, 535. - U.S. Congress, House, Charles E. Magoon, Report of the Provi
sional Governor of Cuba, December 1, 1907-December 1, 1908, 60th
Cong., 2nd Sess., House Doc. 1457, pp. 147-53. Hereafter cited as
Magoon, Report, 1907-1908. The officers were distributed as follows:
Executive branch, Office of the Provisional Governor: 8; Departments of
State and Justice, Election Bureau: 16; Department of Government: 6;
Department of Public Works: 16; Department of Sanitation: 4; Armed
Forces: 8.
This breakdown included acting governors and election supervisors,
public works supervisors, and the officers-in-charge, national insane
asylum and boys' correctional school. Officers were not customs collectors
as they had been under the Military Government. - Mrs. L. L. Beckwith, secretary in the Secretaria de Hacienda
(Treasury), to Gen. Leonard Wood, January 3, 1907, Wood Papers;
also Maj. F. S. Foltz to Col. H. L. Scott, November (?) 1906, Scott
Papers; Portell Vila, Historia de Cuba, IV, 535. - Memorandum, September 27, 1906, drafted by Captain Frank
R. McCoy, listing officers recommended for service in Cuba, McCoy
Papers. - McCoy to Wood, October 18, 1906, Wood Papers.
- Biographical data from McCoy's memo, previously cited, and
Edward S. Holden and Wirt Robinson (eds.), General Cullums Bio