Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-06-03
BRAzIL,s MILITARY GOVERNMENT.

The latest news from Brazil-and it is one
of the most remarkable features of that
alleged republic that all news that conveys
any information must come by private let
tiers. the telegraphic censorship having
practically abolished the transmission of in
telligence by cable-is not reassurIng to
those who hailed General Da Fonseca's
government as a temporary prelude to the
establishment Of free institutions. The ad-
vices by mail report that it is the general
belief, based on recent incidents there, that
the Constitutional Convention will be a
farce; and there is even a doubt whether
it will be permitted to meet for the purpose
of voting for or against the constitutional
scheme which the military Government
now ruling Brazil has framed. The pre-
diction is made that the constitution which
will be proclaimed this summer will be
solely on the authority of decree by General
Da Fonseca and his colleagues.
This may, of course, be an erroneous opin-
ion; and it is to be hoped that the Provis-
ional Government will prove the good faith
of its republican professions But its course
since Dom Pedro's Government was over
thrown is such as to justify the suspicious
stated above. In the first place, the Cohsti-
tutIonal Convention was postponed for near
ly year on the prete1t that it would take
that time to reach the inhabitants of the
northern and northwestern provinces. But
these regions are almost exclusively inhab-
ited by Indians; and the Government has
shown that this excuse was pretext by an
nouncing that in the constitutional scheme
now in preparation under its orders these
very provinces would be left in the same po-
sition as our Territories. Universal suffrage
has been proclaimed, but after six months
the inhabitants have not been permitted to
exercise it for the election of either execu-
tive or judicial officers. The constituent
assembly has been abolished, and even the
local legislatures of the various provinces
have been dissolved; and all power, legis-
lative, executive or judicial, has been con-
centrated in the hands of the Provisio nal
Government and its appointees.
This is certainly straying long way from
free government. When to these features is
added the fact that the liberty OF the press is
suppressed, and that even liberty of speech
must be exercised under the danger of re-
moval to Rio Janeiro and trial by q military
tribunal, which is the sole judge of whether
any language obnoxious to the Government
is seditious or not, it must be recognized that
all the signs of military dictatorship, far more
tyrannical than Dom Pedro's mild and en-
lightened reign, exist in Brazil to-day. THE
DISPATCH has from the first pointed out
that the revoIutionists had it in their own
hands to make good their claim to the title
of the republic. If the reports referred to
are not wholesale lies, and they are SO far
without contradiction, it must be said that
they are establishing exactly the opposite
character for their new Government.
1t will be humiliating for the q nited
States, after warmly welcoming Brazil to
the sisterhood of republican Governments,
to discover that it has set the stamp of its
Endorsement on the most complete and ir-
responsible tyranny west of Russia and
Turkey. Such blunder is greater for this
country than for the Brazilians. We ought
to know what constitutes free and represen.
tative institutions. The Brazilians can be
pardoned for waiting under the yoke of the
army until the arbitrary nature of the self
created Government becomes so oppressive
they did the rule of Dom Pedro I. or as the
present military adventures did with Dom
Pedro II.