224 THE POLITICS OF INTERVENTION
Taft decided to retain Alejandro Rodriguez and promoted him
to Major General. Magoon might have replaced him with
Enrique Loynaz del Castillo, but the volatile Liberal general
denounced this possibility with flaming oratory:
Every time I see an American I have contempt for him, and I can
not bear to look at the Stars and Stripes waving unjustly over Cuba. If
some day the Cubans have to fight, it will be with the Americans, and
then only will I accept the chieftancy of the Rural Guard.^9
The Provisional Governor decreed that there would be no
partisanship within the Guard itself. In General Order No.
28 (March 11, 1907) General Rodriguez announced that
participation in political activity would be henceforth a
court-martial offense:
The members of the Armed Forces will not discuss, either publicly
or privately, their political opinions. They are soldiers of the state, and
as such have no right to mix in politics. Their duty is to serve their
government and take no part in its construction: their duty is to obey
its orders.... The welfare of the entire force depends upon its being
free from political combinations.^10
Of course, such an order did not restrain the government
from using its soldiers to carry out political chores, as the
Moderate regime had done in 1905. The order might, how
ever, protect the Rural Guard from public criticism. Profes
sionalization was not really thorough, for political pressure
(particularly from the Liberals) still affected the promotion
or transfer of Guard personnel.^11
To inculcate professionalism in the Rural Guard and to
improve its readiness, Magoon and Bell detailed an able,
experienced group of American officers to advise and train
the Cubans. All but one of the original eight advisers had
served with the Military Government or in the Philippines.
Major Herbert J. Slocum, Wood's supervisor of the Rural
Guard, took up his old post at Guard headquarters. His field
advisers were Captains Powell Clayton, Jr., James A. Ryan,
George C. Barnhardt, Andrew J. Dougherty, Charles F. Crain,
C. I. Crockett, and Edmund Wittenmyer. In the course of the