ressive academic
architecture.]

The provincial and municipal elections occurred on August 1. There were
in the field three major political parties, namely, the Conservatives,
the Liberals and the Historical Liberals. The latter two were formed by
a split which had occurred in the Liberal party. The principal faction
was led by Jose Miguel Gomez, who claimed to be representative of the
original and only simon pure Liberals, and who regarded the other
faction as an illegitimate schism. The followers of Gomez accordingly
called themselves the Historical Liberal Party, but were popularly known
as the Miguelistas. The other faction was led by Alfredo Zayas and
called itself simply the Liberal Party, being popularly known as the
Zayistas. There was another insignificant faction which had been known
as the National Independent Party but which now merged itself with the
Zayistas. The third party was of course the Conservative.

The result of the elections of August 1 was the polling of 269,132 votes
or about 60 per cent. of the registration. The Conservatives elected
their candidates for Governor in the three provinces of Pinar del Rio,
Matanzas and Santa Clara. In the municipalities of the island the
Conservatives elected twenty-eight mayors, the Miguelistas thirty-five
and the Zayistas eighteen. The elections were conducted quietly and
legally, no serious charges of intimidation or fraud were made, and the
results were loyally accepted by men of all parties.

The campaign for the Presidential election was then continued with much
zeal. The results of the election of August 1 were taken deeply to heart
by the various Liberal leaders as demonstrating to them that the split
in their party would be fatal to them in the national election unless it
were healed or at least some sort of a modus vivendi were established.
Accordingly Jose Miguel Gomez and Alfredo Zayas "got together" and
agreed upon a compromise of their claims. It was altogether apparent
that Gomez was on the whole the stronger of the two candidates. Also he
was the older of the two men. Therefore it was agreed that he should
have the first chance at the Presidency of Cuba. He should be the
candidate at the coming election of 1908, but if he was successful in
being elected he should not seek a second term but at the end of his
first should step aside and give his support to Zayas as his successor.
With this understanding the party was reunited for the purposes of t