Page:Dramatic Moments in American Diplomacy (1918).djvu/222

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202
DRAMATIC MOMENTS

arbitrary boundary lines—in which we are the worst offenders on earth.

The Revolution was financed and recruited in large measure from the United States, with headquarters at New York. Maximo Gomez was called from San Domingo to take command.

The war started in at once with the utmost ferocity on both sides. It is impossible at this date to choose between the methods of the combatants. The Cubans were the ones to begin the deliberate work of devastation. Gomez's first act was to issue an order that all plantations should stop their labours, and that whoever should attempt to grind the sugar crop would have his cane burned and his buildings demolished, and would be considered as an enemy, treated as a traitor, and be tried as such in case of his capture. Since he carried out this policy and threat to the letter, it is impossible for any one aware of the facts to weep with the insurgents over the ruin of industry and the destruction of the island.