The Politics of Intervention

198 THE POLITICS OF INTERVENTION

tional terms as "democratic" and "decentralizing," but in reality
the laws it passed did not significantly alter the President's
powers and, in some places, increased those of the national
government.^23
The work of the Advisory Law Commission, while it satisfied
Magoon and Taft and did not arouse the politicos, did not
meet Colonel Crowder's standards for meaningful reform. In
his first report for the Department of Justice, Crowder recom­
mended that the legal reforms be truly revolutionary, that
they reach into all phases of Cuban life.^24 Crowder recognized
that the Provisional Government was following a "conservative
policy of revision" because it did not have the mandate to do
more. Simply to rectify the political laws was a challenge, for
they were an incongruous maze of Spanish colonial codes,
Wood's decrees, acts of the Cuban congress, and decrees by
Estrada Palma and Magoon. Within this system the minimum
change, Crowder felt, should be to curb the President's powers.
He argued, however, that it would be necessary to go far
beyond revision of the political and administrative laws to
bring Cuba's "monarchical" system into harmony with the
ideals of the Constitution. To truly free the Cubans from
authoritarian habit patterns, changes should be made in the
civil codes, penal codes, criminal procedural codes, and civil
procedural codes.^25 Crowder wrote:

The legislative action above recommended is first in importance
among the reconstructive measures which confront the Provisional Gov­
ernment and the work involved is one of great magnitude.... Under­
taken and conducted in Cuba under most favorable circumstances, this
work, in which the beginning has hardly been made, would protract
itself over a period of several years. The Republic should, I think, be
re-established under adequate guarantees [italics added] that this work,
so essential to the maintenance of orderly and stable government, shall
be prosecuted to as speedy a conclusion as possible.^26

While Magoon agreed with Crowder that the sweeping
changes the Colonel advocated were essential if Cuba was
to progress, he did not recommend that the United States
assume any more responsibility than it already had for