The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-09-07
Te aq1ehita 4aily Eagle Saturday goruimo Spber 1885

General Campos to ask little Of his
soldiers just yet but scouting and gar
rison duty. The large cities and the
railroads are guarded, the main in
terror routes Of commence kept open,
an occasional blow struck at some too
audacious band of raiders, but that is
about all for the present Next month
will see sharper and more decisive
work.
That this policy Of Campos's is we'll
understood and approved in Spain is
clear No great results are expected
of him for some weeks yet But he
is confidently counted upon to drive the
rebels promptly from the open field
as soon as general movement can
be made against them. He will doubt
less do so. With all parties in Spain
even the Spanish Republicans-ready
to vote him unlimited men and money.
it would be strange indeed. if he could
not speedily make himself master Of
all the settled parts Of the island
The rebels themselves expect as much.
But they do not at all admit that this
will put an end to their hopes. They
expect TO go on with their guerilla
warfare. They expect to compel Spain
to maintain an army Of $4,000 men In
the island. They expect to make
life and property unsafe. to heap up
taxation, and to discourage or bank
rupt Spain at last into letting Cuba
go. They kept up such struggle
unavailingly for ten years after 1S6S.
but now say they will keep it up for
twenty years or until successful.
If sufficiently resolute, they can I'M
doubtedly attain a measure Of sue
cess. They can force the mother
country to keep up large and per-
manent military establishment in
Cuba, as was necessary from 1858 to
1873. They can make Spanish rule
even more odiOus and burdensome
than it is now, and drive property
owners and taxpayers into crying out
for relief at almost any cost. Econ
omic causes have great deal to do
with the present outbreak. The de-
pressed condition of the sugar IN
dustry has ruined many owners OF
plantations and thrown thousands of
laborers out of employment. Cuban
exports fell off from $1OO,0O0.0Oo in
1891 to $4,000, 600 in 1894. Then the
Spanish tariff and taxation laws are
ingeniously devised to burden and ex-
haust Cuba for the benfit Of Spain.
Some reforms have been promised,
some have actually been enacted Into
law. But there is nothing so deadly
to reform laws as Spanish admins
tration Of them, and the system which
reserves all higher offices in Cuba for
Spaniards, which renders the public
service there almost synonym for in
efficiency and corruption, makes the
Cubans despair. Even with the best
disposition on the part Of Spain to
grant reforms to Cuba, how can they
be conceded in the face Of a rebel
lion, how can they be put into execu-
ton with an army in the field? Spain
is undoubtedly disposed to give Cuba
great reforms, but how to do 1t, how
to make them effective with her
wretched civil service. which Is, as
Lowell observed, the purest instance
of the spoils system on earth, 1t Will
pass her wit to decide.
On the other hand, what would be
the outlook for independent Cuba: A
by ignorant negroes and
OF the total population
of 1.63O,OOO, fully one-half is negro.
Fully 76 per cent of the population
can neither read nor write. In the
whole island there is but one school
for every 2,1O5 inhabitants. What
chance is there of basing a republican
government on such a foundation:
No chance, say the hOme-rule tAuton-
Cubans. They dread indie
pendence. with its inevitable clash
ing between whites and blacks. with
its equally inevitable sequel OF wild
political corruption. A large measure
of elf-governmcnt. such as Canada
enjoys, is what they ask Spain TO give.
is, they say, the only solution OF their
difficulties. Whether they will ever
get it, whether 10 will work well II they
do, are questions which the wiseman
will not undertake 10 answer. But 1t
seems safe to argue almost anything,
however pessim!sic, from the phe-
nomenon OF accelerating Spanish de
cadence. Spain keeps a desperate
clutch on "thc pearl OF the Antilles"
like a bankrupt descendant Of noble
house clinging 10 the hast symbol OF
departed grandeur. Whether she may
not. by her very exertions. make her
final fail and collapse only the more
speedy and disastrous. is a question TO
which the best that can be said. even
from the Spanish point of view, il that
IAN equal poise OF hope or fear doth |
arbitrate the event" ,
Early in the spring the Eagle pro