The Provisional Government and Cuban Stability 197During the September, 1906, truce negotiations, Taft, the
Liberals, and the Moderates agreed generally that four new
laws were essential if the political parties and government
were to function.^17 As passed on by Taft to the Provisional
Government, the suggested reforms were to establish the
municipal governments on a more autonomous footing, provide
for elections supervised by non-partisan boards, protect minor
ity representation in government, reorganize and free the judi
ciary from presidential control, and create an efficient civil
service based on the merit system.^18 To study, draft and
recommend the new laws, Magoon, on December 24, 1906,
created the Advisory Law Commission.^19 The Cuban member
ship of the Advisory Law Commission was politically balanced
(five Liberals, four conservatives) in order to give the three
American members real control of this rump legislature.^20
These Americans were Colonel Enoch H. Crowder, Otto
Schoenrich (a judge from Puerto Rico on Magoon's staff),
and Major Blanton C. Winship, Judge Advocate General of
the Army of Cuban Pacification.
The working procedures of the Advisory Law Commission
were designed to make the new laws as palatable in Cuba
as possible, but not at the expense of American control. The
Commission divided into subcommittees (electoral law, judi
ciary law, municipal law, civil service law) where the basic
research and drafting were accomplished. The subcommittee
membership worked to give the American and conservative
members the voting advantage. A finished law went to Magoon
for consideration by the majority vote of the full Commission.
Magoon then published the recommended draft for public
comment, and revisions were considered before the final draft
became a decree.^21 While the procedural details worked to
the conservatives' advantage, the Advisory Law Commission
worked under the basic assumption that it could only modify
the law within the provisions of the Constitution of 1901.^22
This restriction, repeatedly invoked by the Liberals and grudg
ingly accepted by the Americans, placed very real limits on
the kinds of reforms the Advisory Law Commission could
accomplish. The Commission described its work in constitu