Page 289 - Conflitti Militari e Popolazioni Civili - Tomo II

791
aCta
could no longer provide funds for baseball equipment to support inter-regional games. this
61
change effectively meant that only wealthier companies would compete, and served as an
example of how the cutting of funds to the military government in general—especially dur-
ing World War One—damaged some of the progress that Marines had made in the Domini-
can Republic. Dominicans’ acceptance of baseball, then, was much more widespread than
th
their acceptance of the occupation; one Marine official in the 10 Company remarked on
how quickly the love of baseball had spread in a memorandum to the GND Commandant in
August of 1921: He noted six locations where it was being played by the general population
in one town alone, saying “it appeared that all the boys in the neighborhood were there and
taking part.” An officer in a northern region that was experiencing increased resistance,
62
Charles E. Grey, warned the GND Commandant that the Junta Nacional—by 1921 the most
prominent group opposing the occupation—was holding baseball games to raise funds in
protest of the movement. As the Marine and GND-controlled teams fell apart, therefore, the
63
increasing national interest in baseball was channeled to other purposes.
In part, the failure of Marine groups to maintain control over such institutions was a re-
flection of the Dominican resistance to other initiatives that smacked, to Dominicans, of clear
imperialism; the occupation government—often from the central military government but
also from individual Marine commanders—attempted many types of more “moral” reform
that caused a great deal of resentment among Dominicans in general, such as the outlawing
of cultural forms such as cockfighting or, on the western border, “Voodoo dances.” Moral
64
reform was often tied very closely into health reform, as with the controversy over prostitu-
tion, which Dominicans wanted to legalize and protect. But much of the problem was also
a lack of communications and coordination between the military governors and the regional
Marine commanders, so that despite many Marine initiatives that proved successful, such as
in the development of aid to more remote regions, were never adopted elsewhere, or were not
adopted elsewhere until the final years of the occupation—and often could not get financial
support during the earlier and middle years. Lack of support, which also meant lack of sup-
port for GND members and officers, and was sometimes based on budget cuts but often also
based on washed out roads and troubles with transportation, often led to increasing problems
of corruption and violence.

BIBlIograpHy
Primary Sources:
AGN Archivo General de la Nación, Santo Domingo. “Military Government” and “Ejército Nacional”
record groups.
Boston Globe 1916-1924.

61 “Circular #5,” July 7, 1921, “Ejército Nacional,” Legajo 2, AGN.
62 W.L. Balas, “Ejército Nacional,” Legajo 3, 1921, AGN.
63 “Memo for the Commandant,” August 21, 1921, Legajo 3, 1921, AGN.
64 ejército Nacional, legajo 2, aGN.