The Reconstruction of the Cuban Armed Forces 231suasions found a regular army attractive. There were many
reasons, not the least of which was suspicion of the American
ized Rural Guard. On the other hand, Americans and other
aliens in Cuba (soldiers and civilians) backed the Rural Guard
increase and opposed the creation of a regular army. El
Mundo, speaking for the Liberals, and La Discusion, of the
conservative press, hailed the Permanent Army as the guar
antor of stability, adding, with perhaps double meaning, that
a new army precluded other American interventions.^30 In a
conference with Magoon on February 19, Pino Guerra told
the governor that Cuba needed a regular army, not more
Guards. The weak response of the Rural Guard gave his
guerrillas the illusion of victory, Guerra said, which rallied
the people to his cause. A determined, trained force would
have scattered the Constitutional Army in forty-eight hours.^31
The Army and Navy Journal reported that the "ignorant and
radical classes" wanted only an enlarged Rural Guard; the
Permanent Army was the Cuban conservatives' idea. General
Bell further elaborated that conservatives found conscription
and a universal military liability extremely distasteful.
32
In
the face of such confusing evidence, it is little wonder that
Roosevelt wanted to go slow on the problem, though Taft
said the President was more worried about economy than
militarism.^33
The American opposition to the creation of the Permanent
Army was focused on three arguments: the Army would be
a giant swindle economically, it would be worthless militarily,
and it would be political and social disaster for Cuba. The
Havana Post believed the army would not only be wasteful,
but dangerous to Cuba's domestic tranquillity:
The proposition of an increase to 10,000 of the army of Cuba will
be as full of peril to Cuba today as it would be to arm the Moros of
the Philippines with modern firearms. It will mean war and bloody riot.
It will mean not the survival of the fittest as some contend, but it will
mean, if it means anything, an empire of arms. If they undertook to
increase the Army of the United States in proportion it would make
an army in the United States of 240,000; would the people stand for
such a thing? Let the Congress try it and see.^34