Union County courier. [volume] (Elk Point, Union County, D.T. [S.D.]) 187?-1913, 1895-08-08
SPANS Cuban Possession.

The "L0nd0n Times" dissuccess the
surrender Of Cuba by Spain as though It
were something more than q mere posisbi-
lily. But to the St. Paul Pioneer Press
there appears to be nothing in the present
situation to justify the belief that the Span
iards will voluntarily surrender the sole
relics of the immense possessions In the
New World, when the Spanish power was
the greatest In the world. They will not
think for q moment OF granting indepen-
dence to the islanders. They avow with
the utmost solemnity that they will ex-
pend the last dollar and the last man In
defending the island against an enemy;
they vehemently ave- that they would not
sell 1t for any amount OF money. The re-
senble q OF those sadly decayed old
families, whose members dwell in great
mansions, handed down from better DAYS.
- world too wide" for their shrunken re-
sOurces-with their tattered ~hangings and
crumbling walls aud sinking foundations
q mOldering heritage OF grandeur, which
they cannot repair, and yet, from a vain
n pompous. yet pathic. pride of family,
will not sell They sit In the midst Of
furnished grandeur, holly resenting the
faintest tntimatiOn. no matter how sym.
pathic, that there is any tarnish. 1t is
magnificent, but It Is not common sense.
That Is the sentimental side. but there
is also a very practical side. Financially,
Spain i the pauper of Europe. The coun-
try is in the rags and tatters of the
lowest poverty. Its annual average deficit
for 25 years has been about 90 per cent.
Indeed, the finances are so bad that no one
is allowed to know how bad they really
are. There have been no accounts pub
lished of revenues and expenditure s since
1870, and the parliament has no approved
any public accounts since 1868. Cuba has
been a source of cost and trouble ever
since the passion for independence broke
out among the Spanish American people
in the early years of the century. Whether
it IN from the example of this, country
is in the very air of America, indepen
dence has been the aspiration of every
American colony. Even Canada has been
granted in fact II not in name, or she
would long ago have been in rebellion.
1t is one of the strangest political pheno-
mena that this decayed old hidalgO insists
keeping the iron collar around the neck
of his serf. and at such cost. Only about
Is years ago Spain succeeded In putting an
end to q Cuban rebellion which had con-
tinued for ten years, during which Spoin
has sent more than . hundred and forty
thousand soldiers. of whom only about ten
or twelve thousand survived. She was
then told that she rebellion was not dead,
it had only lain down. to rest and
into aotivaty again rs soon as it
Its breath. The outbreak now Is
only the continuation of the struggle of
ten years ago-a struggle that will be re-
newed again and again until Cuban indie
pendence is won.
The rebellion cost Spain the lives of
more than q hundred and twenty-five thou
sand soldien There is no reason why
this one should not cost just as many,
unless successful in less tiase, for with
imbecility Incredible Spain is not a whit
to meet such an exingency than
she vas thirty years ago. There is no
reason why she should try to hold on to
the island, except a vain, empty. half
half pathic pride.