openly stated that if they did not succeed a revolution would
follow. The judges of the courts, excepting the chief justice of the
Supreme Court, Senor Pichardo, had been appointed by Gomez, and
naturally great pressure was brought to bear on them to "save the
constitution," as it was called, for the Liberals. In the decisions that
followed, the Conservatives stated frankly that they believed this
pressure was producing manifestly unfair decisions, but made at no time
any attempt to ignore them or set them aside.

The court decided that in two districts, Victoria de las Tunas, in the
province of Oriente, and another town in Santa Clara, new elections must
be held. In the first one the Liberals had, at four o'clock in the
morning previous to the day of election, set fire to the town hall,
burning all of the electoral lists, so that an election was absolutely
impossible. This was probably due to the fact that Victoria de las Tunas
held General Menocal in great esteem, since, owing to his personal valor
in leading the charges against the Spanish army, when in command of that
town, the Cubans had been victorious. In the city of Santa Clara
province, the frauds claimed by both sides rendered it so impossible to
determine the true result of the election that a second election was
deemed necessary. According to the records of the Liberal party, the
vote of these two towns, or possibly either one of them, would determine
the election, and Dr. Alfredo Zayas felt quite confident that he would
be the successor of General Menocal, and openly so stated.

The Conservatives, on the other hand, said, "We can only await and abide
by the decisions of the courts, and will surrender nothing until such
decisions are handed down." The supporters of Dr. Zayas stated that the
soldiers, who had been sent there to maintain order, had been sent there
for the sole purpose of preventing the Liberals from approaching the
polls. At this General Nunez, the Vice Presidential candidate, invited
Dr. Zayas, the Liberal leader, to accompany him thither and to point out
any Liberal in that district who wished to vote, promising that he would
furnish a machine and any protection that might be necessary to see that
he and every Liberal in the district deposited his vote, and that they
together would witness the count.

Dr. Zayas never had an opportunity to bring this matter to a decision,
owing to the fact that General Gomez, who hated Dr. Zayas bitterly, an