226 THE POLITICS OF INTERVENTION
location of the Guard posts and to allow a quicker concen
tration of troops if rebellion threatened, Rodriguez and Slocum
pushed the construction of phone lines to all posts. The com
munications net was completed by the end of 1907. Magoon's
road-building program also increased the Guard's coverage.
The Rural Guard's primary tactic for subduing incipient
rebellion was active patrolling. Unfortunately its police duties,
which included serving and executing court orders and investi
gating the numerous rural fires and accidents, prevented it
from patrolling as much as its advisers would have liked.
The Rural Guard, however, used its patrolling procedures to
increase its reputation for trustworthiness. To insure that a
patrol completed its mission, a post chief assigned every party
a specific route. The patrol, as it passed through each property,
would then have the owner or manager sign a form to verify
the patrol's presence and good behavior. The goal was to
increase mutual confidence, and the Americans were satisfied
that this was attained.^16
The Artillery Corps was also placed under American super
vision. It was stationed in Havana, received primarily artillery
instruction, and served the Provisional Government by provid
ing troops for a show-of-force in the 1906 railway strike. The
Americans equipped one company with pack howitzers and
also created a machine gun company armed with ten Colts.
The Rural Guard, coaxed and cajoled by its American
advisers, served the Provisional Government well in its con
stabulary role. In terms of military efficiency, it was vastly
improved. Some success followed the American attempt to
professionalize it, for many of its officers were still committed
to the ideals of the Wood regime; some, indeed, wished for
the return of the Puritan general.
17
In addition, American
supervision of recruiting and commissioning was close.
The political sum of the American reform of the Rural
Guard, however, was to model it on American values: the
sanctity of person and property, prompt and strict law en
forcement without regard to personal influence and station,
and political neutrality. These were the ideals toward which
the Americans pushed the Rural Guard. If, in fact, its advisers