196 THE POLITICS OF INTERVENTION
come close to the amounts claimed, the total cost of the
revolt ($8.6 million) and the amount granted for private
claims ($1.3 million) was an added burden to the Treasury.
The claims were adjudicated by two commissions, both con
trolled by American officers. The first, the Cuban Claims Com
mission, which settled private claims against the government,
was headed successively by Major Francis J. Kernan and
Captain George W. Read. Two of the three board members
were always Army officers. Another commission, headed by
Captain Charles F. Crain and dominated (4-3) by Americans,
investigated and settled expenses and contracts incurred by
Estrada Palma in fighting the rebellion.
The Provisional Government was conservative in awarding
settlements. Aliens, who asked $436,000, received $179,000 in
damages. Claims for lost horses brought $296,508 to their
owners, who wanted $653,000. Miscellaneous claims for dam
ages totaling more than $1 million were settled for $441,000.
The costs of mobilization to the Cuban government depleted
the Treasury far worse than did private claims: for guns and
ammunition, $777,000; for horses, $416,788; for pay for, and
upkeep of, the men added to the armed forces, $3.2 million.^16
The comparison of damages to mobilization costs amply
demonstrates an integral part of the Liberal strategy: bank
rupt the Cuban Treasury (a sure way to get an American
response) without hurting too much private property. Taft
and Magoon were sure that the financial drain of the revolt
on the Treasury would discourage the Cubans from rebelling
again; more probably it was an incentive for the American
government to prevent another intervention of the 1906 type.
Legal Reforms and the Advisory Law Commission
The Provisional Government gave highest priority to a
limited revision of Cuba's constitutional system. The goal of
this reform, which was to be accomplished through the adop
tion of new laws, was to insure peaceful elections, representa
tive government at all levels, and an honest, secure judiciary
and civil service.