Cuba Worries Washington.

New York Times 100 years ago today, November 3, 1912:
Transports Ordered to be Ready to Send Troops if Disorders Occur.
Special to The New York Times.
    WASHINGTON, Nov. 2.— The result of the elections in Cuba has caused some worry here as to events that may follow before the inauguration of the President-elect on May 20, 1913. There are several phases of the campaign calculated to give cause for anxiety in the United States. It is not believed here that the Liberals will accept defeat with patriotic resignation, and those who know Alfredo Zayas, the Liberal candidate, say that he and his supporters will stubbornly contest the figures wherever there is any doubt as to the count.
    It is predicted here in some quarters that the situation likely to follow the elections of yesterday may compel the United States to intervene again in order to restore order. It was said there was nothing to choose between the Liberals and the Conservatives. The struggle, according to this view, is one of personalities, and is likely to be bitter and pro-longed.
    The army general staff has already ordered four transports in reserve at Newport News to be prepared within four days for instant readiness to carry 2,800 troops to Cuba. This is one of several steps being taken should disorder arise in Cuba demanding intervention. The transports are estimated to convey three regiments, 'and it is believed the soldiers could be landed in Cuba within nine days after an order for their dispatch. The three regiments already designated, and forming part of the so-called "expeditionary force" of 5,000 men, are all in the Eastern Division, and mostly in the Department of the Gulf. They have also received preparatory orders, and the men are packed up and "sleeping on their arms."
    There is a feeling in Cuba that the election law, which is a carefully prepared statute, was violated by the use of troops at the polls in Havana and other cities. This has never been done before in general elections, although elections have taken place when United States troops were present.
    The Cuban election law forbids the presence of troops at polling places or within a distance of twenty-five meters of the ballot boxes. Yesterday the voter was told to move on when he had deposited his ballot. The machinery for trying contests on appeal from the count by the electoral boards is elaborate and well ordered by the law, which was the handiwork of Gen. E. H. Crowder, now Judge Advocate General of the United States Army, and one of the ablest military lawyers in this country.
    It is expected that for a month or more now there will be trials before the central electoral boards and the courts of appeal in the provinces, and the general court of appeals, before the final result is known.
    The meagre returns received here indicate the election of Mario Menocal, the Conservative candidate, who has the moral support of the Taft Administration. He is a man of business attainments, the manager of the Chapparral sugar estate, the largest on the island, and was regarded as the ideal candidate of all the great business interests in Cuba. Gen. Menocal was graduated at Cornell.
    Zayas has for years been ambitious to be President. The apparent desire of President Gomez to obtain another term for himself delayed and irritated Zayas and his party in their efforts to win the prize. Opinion in Washington is that they will charge fraud and make a struggle to prevent the inauguration of Menocal.