Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-12-08

| >AA>S "odiu nave immense advantages
any other nation in the commerce of Cuba
ana their future relations would be as COR
oiai as they would have been had Spain
never INDUCED in these prosecutions Rut
I suppose that II is needless to expect that
SPAN Will ever yield to the dictates of
common sense. Hers is the pride that
goes before fall
The excoriation of Spain. which was in
uuiseu IN py PRESIDENT Grant during the
last ten years war, and was somewhat re-
HeWed. In Geprecatory way, half apolo-
getic. in the message of President Cleye-
land during the present war and has been
repeated ana emphasized in acrimonious
erm by Mr.. Mckinley, cannot produce less
than serious irritation I'm Spain Yet these
PRESIDENTS have said nothing about Span.
ish atrocity in Cuba that the whole world
aoes not concur In. They have stirred the
hearts OF our people with bitter resent
ments, but have smoothed the surface Of
their agitation with the Oil of diplomacy,
regret that the attitude of our govern
ment Is such that our Presidents in defer.
efce TO what they have assumed to be their
duty as to the recognition Of Cuban belIfv-
efency or Independence, should have found
a proper or necessary occasion to rebuke
SPAN IN this extraordinarily severe way
1t would far better comport with the dig
nifty Of the United States and with our
history to have said nothing reproachfuI to
spain or about Spanards IL we had no
right and no occasion for actual interven-
tion in the wars they have waged against
the Cubans. We have seen that these ex-
pressions of disgust at Spanish oppression
and their methods of warfare have only
provoked retaliation upon innocent people
Our scolding has enraged Spain to the point
of moral insanity against the Cuban peo-
pie. prefer course that better comports
with the dignity of the American govern
ment, so that when We have wrongs to-
Complain of we shall also have remedies to
Apply, uniess the wrongs cease. The use
of epthets. IN state papers against a for
elSn government is the worst form Of
jngoism.
"If We had recognized the bclligerency
of Cuba when resolution to that effect
passed both houses OF Congress. it seems
to be beyond doubt that we should have
saved very much of the awful suffering
ttat both the Spanish army and the Gu
ban people have endured in that island.
was then as Lluch impressed with the
disasters that would fall upon Cuba in
consequence CT our hesitating course as
l am now, except that did not imagine
acted in Holland by the Duke of Alva
would be repeated in the nineteenth CEN
tury and aggravated a hurdred-fold in
Cuba. l did not then conceive the thought
that any government would destroy its
oolonists, VINO are natives, to make room
for new set of people.
Il confess that 1 am appalled, to think
that these iniquities have SO deeply af
fectcd the Cuban people, and especially the
women and children of that unfortunate
island, that Gen. Blanco seems to despair
of saving their lives of restoring them
to a condition in which their lives are
worth living.
American Rights in Cuba.
so far as 1 am concerned. 1 have en-
deavored only to do what 1 thought to be
necessary for the protection of the rights
of the people of the United States, both
at nome and in Cuba, against the excesses
Of the brutality of Spanish warfare. In
lnipp I al tod in,
ing the truth as to Spanish barbarities
however revolving it might be. The joint
resolution which passed the Senate at tho
extra session ought TO be passed by the
House, in which event 1t is hardly to be
supposed that the President of the United
States would interpose his veto to do away
with the solemn Judgment of the two
houses recorded in different years. 1t is
the only legal step We can take. unless
we ascend to the height of national re-
spect for the rights of an oppressed peo-
pie that caused France and Holland and
Spain to acknowledge the independence of
our states in the early days of our revo-
lutionary struggle.
Il have not looked very closely into the
scheme of autonomy that Is proposed by
the Spanish cabinet to Cuba, and the Pres
one Yet in all that has been said as to
autonomy there has been marked silence
as to general amnesty toward the Cubans,
and also as to confiscations that will GER
tainly take place when Spain has resumed
her dominion ever the Island of Cuba. AS
to damages against the United States when
it Is alleged by Spain that we have lacked
vigor in the execution of our own laws of
neutrality, / think that Spain could not
riously have decent preteNt for present.
ing such claims. l have not heard that
Spain had set up any claim to damages on
the ground that We have violated the laws
of nations. If war does not exist in Cuba
I cannot see how the laws of nations affect
the relations of the Cubans and the United
States. Our claims against Great Britain
at the close of our civil war were based
upon the fact that public war existed here.
and that Great Britain clandestinely aided
the enemies of the United States. Spain
alleges that she has no public enemies in
Cuba. They are only citizens in a mob. If
peace exists In Cuba, Spain has public
enemies in the islands. and the laws of
war, as they apply to the condition of open
public war under the laws of nations. can
not be applied as between Spain and the
United States. If there Is no war, there
is no room for neutrality, in the sense of
that doctrine in the laws of nations. Our
tons are not laws of neutrality; they are
restraining acts, that the laws of nations
have not anything to do with.
Aid Given Spain.
1--WE have furnished Spain, in violation Of
just neutrality, all of her coal and nearly
all of her provisions. munitions Of war and
horses during the present civil war in Gu
ba. For these services she appears to have
no recognition, in the form of gratitude or
of just consideration of the heavy losses
and wrongs she has caused to our people
and country. I should be sorry IL she
should honestly confess that she had jusI
ground for feeling grateful to the United
States for aiding her in the terrible war in
Cuba, and that she could not have butch
cred the CubaIs without our help; but, In
fact, she owes the government of the
United States that sort of gratitude Spain
recompenses 1t by intimating that at the
close of this war a vast amount of claims
that she has piled up against us will be
pressed for payment I believe that the
patriots in Cuba will relieve us from the
long controversy we may have, otherwise.
over these claims by achieving their inde-
pendence, in spite Of the assistance that
this government has actually given to the
Spanish government in conducting the
war. 1t Is about time that the United
States had faced about. and put in practice
the neutrality which will forbid our further
alliance with SPAIN"