Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-12-10

pendent citizenship consecrated to liberty.
This age is not an age OF retrogression.
The world of today is not welded to bar
barism in order to perpetuate tyranny or
relieve tottering 6ynasties
Cuba Lost to Spain.
1.-The logic of the insurrection means lib
erty for Cuba, that the nation where the
inquisition found a cSfgenial home, and
where the so-called Holy Brotherhood was
established for the crushing out of life and
liberty, and where manhood and woman
hood were made the playthings Of brutal
might-shall it be that the incoming CEN
fury will chronicle a longer Continuance of
such power almost within sight of the un-
furled stars and stripes? An Almighty God
reigns still in the universe. All the petty
subterfuges Of princes and mobiles, of kings
and tyrants,. will fail them in the day of
Il repeat that Cuba is already lost to
spain Were the struggle to stop now,
the incom. to Spain from the enormous
exactions she has always levied upon Cuba
would be lost for some years. Many thou
sands of young men of the flower of SPIN
lsh manhood have been sacrificed to MAIN
tain the power of dynasty Many thor
SANDS of honest, sincere and loyal bows
have left their homes in Spain, never to
return Many mother weeps unavailing
tears for the lad who left her side a year
ago and who now sleeps in the fever
sWampS of Cuba.
LAS recent writer says: The story OF
Cuba is tragedy Yes; that is true. and
history of wrong. of deceit, of murder,
of every sort of crime and outrage known
to man, unequaled on the earth. When the
great discoverer proclaimed Christi anity
upon that peaceful and beautiful shore,
could he have foreseen that for four CEN
turtles a constant and never-ceasing wall
Of despair and suffering and death were to
follow-had Columbus known then what We
know now, that every foothold of the new
0~i1 0lt -;n L,, 10
scene of the most fearful villainies, the
most awful and most unheard of outrages-
he would have foresworn his religion and
expatriated himself The history Of SPAN
ish colonial domination has every where
and always been the same.
A Political Question.
The American people are coming to the
consideration Of the Cuban situation, as
they have already in certain other cases,
as a great political question. continental
question, If you please And being poli:i-
cal continental question, it will be decided
ultimately by the continent whose inter
ests are most clearly involved. Geographic
cally considered, Cuba cannot belong to
Spain. A line drawn from the south Flor
ida headlands to the mouth of the Grin oco
places Cuba on the American side The
great Antilean sea- which surrounds Cuba
and other islands is but an extension OF
the Mexican gulf, and geographically CuDa
belongs, as pOltlcdHy III ought 10 DelO0S,
to the American continent of republics,
and not to Spain Europe. Geogr aphl-
cally Cuba is in American waters and po-
litically it is entitled to statehood in the
continent Of American republics.
This great continental question, there
fore, when stripped of all it's complications.
becomes, in plain and simple language,
Shall Cuba be free? This country will nevel
consent to the transforms ton of Cuba INTO
a slave pen for the holding in servitude OF
the captured patriots and insurgents who
are fighting for the dearest rights of men.
We will not permit that island. lana
which has the brightest possibilities for
people of int lgence and enterprise, to be
made the abiding place of death and De
struction. She lies too near our land OF
freedom to remain the military prison OF
the most cruel and unrelenting policy On
earth. This war now being waged is avow
eddy a war Of extermination, or utter
crushing out of liberty on Cuba's 5000
square miles of territory.
AnnfhiIntion of Commerce.
Think of it! An island which in ordi
nary years exports more than million
tons of sugar and many millions OF dollars
in value Of other products. Has the
United States no interest in our own trade
and commerce with an island from which
we receive fully 80 per cent of the vast
sugar product, and much the larger part
Of all her other productions? The inter-
ests of the United States, counting all
things passing between the two countries
reach perhaps $lOO,OOO,OOO annually, ana
already this trade has been practically
wiped out. The Cuban exports OF sugar
alone have fallen during the current year
lS96-from above million tons to less than
a hundred thousand. The tobacco trade -
dead. Neither will revive until the war
stops and the Spaniards get out Of Cuna.
That Is the only solution of the trade prob
lem.
1T is about time that this free country
ceased to be a police establishment Tor the
aiding of the most outrageous warfare
against a struggling people. The Spanish
government three weeks ago bought ana
shipped for Gen. Weyler numbers of mules
and horses raised in this country and pur-
chased in Missouri and other western
states Under present stringent rules as
applied by our government, every federal
official is a spy to inform against afy at
tempt to convey arms or clothing or sup
plies to Gen. Gomez Or Gen. Maceo or the
Cuban army. Men are now under arrest In
the United States for attempting to succor
their friends and relatives in Cuba.
Treatment of Americans.
HAS Spain any sympathy for our friend
ship with this country? Americans have
been imprisoned and punished in Cuba for
even expressing sorrow for the poor young
medical students who were cruelty shot
and murdered in Havana a few years ago.
There is not family Of any standing in
Cuba which has not lost one or more of its
members by arbitrary arrest and sui rise
murder by armed troops, who marched
their victims to the place Of blood and shot
them in the back. 1t is stated by the Gu
bans that during the revolution of 1868. in
the five years between 1868 and 1873, there
were 1927 prisoners executed, and from
March, 1869, to November, 1873, more than
4,670 persons were reported captured and
never heard of again.
I'm the present war. which has lasted
about tweaty-one months, Spain has vast
ed over a hundred millions, and has put
into the field possibly 2)0.0O0 men and boys.
Spain is beGgared today, and Unless she
can continue her grasp upon Cuba she will
show to the world the end of the worst
governed country known in two thousand
years. AS l have before inti5nated, be-
lieve it to be the duty of the United States
to use the great power attaching to the
nation to declare and to maintain, as a
prerogative Of right, belonging generally to
republicanism. and specifically to this repub-
lie, that no charnal house OF ruin shall be
continued in the West Indian waters, whose
waves break at our very front gate, any
longer than the time 1t shall require to
break it up. And il the duty Of Suppress
Ing this damntns blot and erasing it for
ever from sight shall fall alone upon the.
United States. SO be It. The effort cannot
fail.
Not for Acquisition