Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1896-12-26
SPAIN DEFENDED.
One Diplomat Who UphoIds
Her Cause in Cuba.
The Parent Country, He Says, Was
Intending to Institute Reforms
As Rapidly as Were Justifed-Sh Will Never
Give Up Cuba.

situation in Cuba is not correctly I'M
derstood by large portion of the
American people, according to prom
inent member of the diplomatic corps,
who has given considerable attention
to the subject.
This gentleman, in a frank conversa-
ton with a correspondent of the New
York Times. was far from asserting
that Spanish rule in Cuba has been
conducted under ideal conditions to
ideal results, but he maintains that
political liberty has been given to the
islanders as rapidly as they were pre-
pared to use it wisely. and that the
economic prosperity of the island has
far exceeded, under, peaceful Spanish
rule, the progress ofmany of the South
American republics, which have en-
ployed their freedom as asNcense for
perpetual war and revolutions. He
said
1t is a great miseonception. but it
seems to be "a common one among the
masses of the American people, that
Cuba has been governed by species
of military despotism. without respect
for private property, civil law, or per-
sonal liberty.
The more truthful and intelligent OF
the rebels would not seriously make
such claim in discussing the subject
with any one who understood it, but
they have permitted false impressions.
to spread among the American people
in order to promote their personal
aims. 1t might be argued that there
would he no revolt if there were not
real grievances
THE difficulty is that the insurgents
are not willing to accept the methods
of remedying grievances which are
acccptedby those people who are capa-
bile of orderly self-government'
1T is 4 fact of peculiar significance
that the wealthy and cultivated classes
in Cuba and the two most advanced
provinces-Havana and Matanzas-
are loyal to the government
When | say they are loyal. / do not
mean they are blind adherents of the
existing order. but simply that they
propose to seek political reforms in the
same manner as the people of the
United States-by orderly political
agitation and through the ballot box
The people of Cuba are not without
the means of accomplishing important
results under their existing legal sys-
TEN. to say nothing of the broad re-
forms recommended by the Queen
Regent and adopted by the Spanish
Cortes just before the breaking out of
the revolt in the spring of 1895.
Those who understand the power
and methods of modern self-govern-
ment are satisfied that it requires only
the patriotic union of the Cuban peo-
pie to obtain all that they can reason
ably ask from the parent country.
IF reforms have advanced slowly
in Cuba, and the Spanish Cortes has
been tardy in granting new legisla-
ton. it is because the Cuban people
have neither been united at home in
support of a definite policy nor have
had the political skill to seek the sup
port of one of the political parties in
Spain in carrying out their plans.
In other words. that portion of the
Cuban people which is now in revolt
is the least fitted of all for carrying on
constitutional government 1t is be-
cause they have not known how to
seek constitutional reforms by political
means that they have taken up the
sword.
1T is question worth considering
by the American people whether the
creation of Free Cuba would not be-
followed by such series of internal
revolutions as have DESTROYED the
security of life and property and re-
aarded the economic progress of San
Domingo and some of the South
American republics during their early
experiments in self government.
IF the whole of the Cuban Deonle
Including the wealthy and cultivated
classes of the western part of the
island. We're giving their support to the
present revolt. the facts might consti-
tute a prima facie case against Spain.
But this is not the case.
Spain has not been the brutal
tyrant in Cuba pictured in many i'm
aginations. but has been a kindly ana
loving mother. making mistakes per-
haps like other mothers. but endeayor-
ing always to extend to Cuba the re-
forms which We're suggested by her
own state of political development.
Cuba has been treated SO essen
TALLY as q part Of Spain that the Spap-
ish Peninsula is not alluded to IN The
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