The Fragile Republic 31assumptions was the belief that law in Cuba was intrinsically
a part of the country's social structure and reflected at least
the tacit consent of the Cubans themselves. He realized, im
perfectly, that Spanish law had some relation to the economic
and social exploitation of the colonial government, but he
believed that cultural-traditional factors worked against hasty
reform.^19 Brooke had greater faith in government-by-law than
did the Cubans, who were well aware of the inadequacies of
Spanish rule and who had made civil disobedience a national
way of life.
The immediate tasks of reconstruction, however, seemed
to demand an authoritarian government, under whatever stat
utes. Reflecting on American rule in Cuba in 1899, one of
Brooke's officers in Havana, Hugh L. Scott, believed conditions
called for centralized power:
A military government is the only kind fit to cope with such con
ditions [as existed in Cuba]. ... as soon as a military intervention
is proclaimed with force to back it, everything falls immediately into
place. Foreigners and natives alike learn at once their status, and there
is a legal basis of government. The will of the commanding general is
supreme.
The Cubans themselves were no help in suggesting policy,
Scott stated, for "they will usually tell you that they are
partida de la reforma, blinking at you like an owl, but of
what sort of reform they have not the vaguest conception."
20
Throughout 1899, Brooke commanded a conservative, care
taker government designed primarily to maintain public
order. He did little to institute domestic reform. He gave
little attention to Cuba's ultimate well-being or its relation
ship to the United States, believing these questions beyond
the scope of his duty. Brooke's values in government were
efficiency and economy for their own sake; his major admin
istrative accomplishments were to discharge flagrantly corrupt
employees and to collect customs revenues honestly. Although
these measures were improvements on Spanish rule, they
were hardly calculated to produce long-term reforms. Yet
they were legal, and Brooke valued legitimacy rather than
innovation.