The Politics of Intervention

The Provisional Government and Cuban Stability 213

unstable society; the second hinged on a basic disagreement

over the cures for Cuban instability itself. The officers, how­

ever disenchanted they were with the United States Cuban

policy, accepted the fact that Roosevelt would leave Cuba

in the hands of the politicos and exercise control from afar

through economic policy and the Platt Amendment. They did,

nevertheless, within the context of American policy, wish to

continue the programs of national reconstruction begun under

Wood and paralleled by themselves and others in the Philip­

pines and Puerto Rico. They considered their qualifications

for the task superior to most Cubans' and most civilians in

general. The Army and Navy Journal presented the military

assessment of the officers' work:

Under these efficient Army officers, who are again demonstrating the
wonderful versatility of their profession, Cuba is being given excellent
government unquestionably superior to what she had during the period
of the Republic and superior to that of the ordinary state and city
governments of the United States.^81

The weakness in the officers' ambitious plans to better
Cuba (a weakness they recognized) was that there was no
guarantee that the Cubans would continue their work after
the American withdrawal. Yet only Colonel Crowder offi­
cially advocated increasing American control over Cuban
domestic affairs so that sweeping legal reforms could be made.
The officers attempted to preserve their achievements by
increasing the role of the national government in the areas
of their responsibility. The various reorganizations that took
place and many of the new laws published illuminate this
development: the establishment of the Department of Sani­
tation, the enlarged role of the Department of Public Works,
the tightened administration of police and charities in the
Department of Government, the introduction of uniform
accounting and auditing practices in all departments, and
the changes in provincial and municipal government made
by the Advisory Law Commission. The rationale for these
administrative changes, from the officers' viewpoint, was that
they would add to the Cuban government's efficiency and