The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-03-31
DO Something for Cuba.

The annals of American legislation
| than the senate's recent treatment of
| the Cuban issue. Each day of addi-
| tional delay is a day of shame for the
| senator's who. after dangling before
| the Cuban belligerents the hope of rec
ognition and moral aid, suddenly
| snatched 1t away because the hucksters
and jobbers who measure patriotism
| by the fluctuations of the stock ex-
change took fright at the antics of
the Spanish hotheads and set up a
howl for retreat.
1t is asserted in the dispatches from
Washington that although the house
conference committee has agreed to ac-
cept the Cuban resolutions as they or
members of that committee refuse to
| call the subject up until there shall
be lull in routine business, which
! may or may not be for weeks. In the
meantime. the monster who has charge
of SPANS armies in Cuba, gaining
courage from congress- dalliance, pro-
claims anew that he will henceforth
treat all captured insurgents as incen-
diaries and bandits, which means that
they will be butchered at sight. Yet
In the face of this official pronounce
ment. General Weyler has the unblush-
ing effrontery to give out, at Havana,
Pecksniffian interview. i'm which he
declares that he has all along had con-
the American people, and expects them
yet to applaud his resort to the tactics
of the middle ages in the attempt to
forge in blood new fetters upon long
suffering people.
Smallwonderis it that "many members
of congress" quote from Wash
ington letter to the Philadelphia Press
ARE disgusted with the way the Gu
ban question has been managed in the
house." We may well believe that "a
very large majority of the members Of
the house." representing, as they do,
the overwhelming sentiment of their
constituents, "are anxious to pass the
senate resolution" and that speedily.
All the more urgent is the necessity for
final action in view of the news from
Havana that crisis in the Cuban war
for independence is at hand. With Cen
eral Maceo and a force of $4,000 WELL
armed insurgents moving through the
provinces of Havana and Pinar del Rio.
toward the $4,000 Spanish troops that lie
within the limits of the same territory,
decisive battle may at any moment be
fought. The point for Americans to
consider is whether it shall be fought
before the American nation shall have
gone on record in behalf of the cause Of
Cuban freedom in is hour of extreme
need. or whether our action shall be de-
ferred until it can neither do Cuba any
real good nor Spain any actual harm.
II any fact is plain beyond mistake it
Is that Spanish sovereignty in the An
titles, with its unbroken record of ra-
pine. extortion. cruelty and bloodshed,
is an anachronism and an outrage. The
time has come when the descendants Of
the revolutionary fathers can without
violation of treaty obligations strike a
strong and telling blow i'm behalf of
struggling nation which is seeking as
our sires once sought to free itself from
an odious tyranny. Such a blow might
disorganize the New York Stock ex-
change. 1t might excite the gamblers
H.. III
might anger the hotheads of red-handed
Spain. 1t might worry the sissies ana
cause perturbation among the mug
wumps. But 1t would be an act which
would win the cordial and undivided APP
proval Of every founder of this repub-