The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-12-08
M'KINLEY'S MESSAGE SCORED
CONGRESS URGED TO IGNORE IT AND
ACCORD BELLIGERENCY.
Spanish Autonomous Plans Alleged to
out Sanction of the Cortes.

to express my views as to that part of
the Presidents message which relates to
the Cuban question. Putting aside the ir-
relevant matter by which it is encountered
the substance of the only recommendation
actually made by the executive to Congress
on that subject is that this government
cannot venture to do anything to put an
end to the inhuman strife which during the
last three years has reduced the island al
most to a desert, because there is a pros
pect of settlement between the combat
ants on the basis of a so-called plan of au-
tonomy lately put forth by the sagasta
Ministry. 1 believe Congress should firmly
and scornfully reject such a policy of ir-
resolution and nonaction, because the as
sumption on which it is founded is an emp
ty illusion. The vital question at issue has
not been touched by the revolutionary effort
of Sagasta to end the war by means of
craftily incomplete proposition that carries
with it no constitutional guarantee what
ever.
'All who are familiar with Spanish legis-
lation know that a valid grant of an au-
tonomous colonial system that involves not
only the repeal of all existing laws that
subject. but also the transfer of the con-
troll of a large part of the national rev.
enues of Spain to a colonial legislature, can
uOI D6 ulduc except Dy dl dCl pdSSeQ ny
both houses of the Cortes and approved by
the Queen Regent. The effort just made to
secure that result by mere royal decree,
unsupported by parliamentary action, has,
therefore, been justly denied by Romero
Robledo, late minister OF justice, as a pure
ly revolutionary proceeding in defiance of
the legislature. Only one law looking TO
home rule in Cuba has ever been enacted.
the AbuZza law of 1895, which passed both
houses of the Cortes unanimously because
it was utterly worthless. Two years later
when CanoVas was forced to put forth
scheme of home rule. he resolved to make
it apparently genuine on its face, and for
that reason he well knew the Cortes would
never enact 1t into law. Under such cir
cumstances he invented an eXpedient for
circumventing the legislature by assuming
that the entire legislative power of the
alone R,iies7-' ->''''''''' = $50 = ~
"Sagasta, confronted by the same diff
Guilty, has, III like manner, reSorted to the
unconstitutional attempt to legislate by roy
al decree. Knowing the nation is against
him, he does not dare to state his proposals
tain that If he should assert even his in
complete scheme to the present COrteS it
would be either rejected entirely IRE t,,t SO
Until the Sagasta plan has first been
enacted into law by the Cortes it cannot
rise to the dignity of proposal; from a
legal constitutional point of view it is only
SO much waste paper.
DEFYING THE NATIONAL WILL.
''In one particular the Cabinets at Wash
ington and Madrid are in identically the
same situation. Both are striving with all
their might either to defy or circumvent the
national will as embodied in their respective
legislatures. But even if the Sagasta plan
possessed constitutional validity, careful
inspection of its artful terms must reveal
the fact that, like the pretentious sham put
forth by Canovas, it contains two cardinal
eminent to reduce the whole scheme at any
moment to zero. The autocrat of Cuba has
ever been the governor general, and the
present plan contemplates his continuance
as such with full power to crush by veto
any and every act of the colonial legislature.
The terms of the provision in question are:
a. The supreme authority shall be vested
in the governor general acting for the
crown, to which he shall swear allegiance.
AS representative of the home government
he shall have command of the military
forces and shall act as delegate CO the de-
partmentS of state, war, navy and the
colonies. He is empowered to suspend the
publication of national laws should he deem
such publication inadvisable. AS executive
of the insular government it shall be his
duty to sanction and proclaim the colonial
statutes Should he consider an enactment
OF the insular parliament liable to endangeI
the national constitution or SPANS SOW
ereign interests in the colony he is author
ized to forward said enactment before its
approval to the council of ministers of the
kingdom, who will decide within two
months. Should the home government fail
to decide within the above specified time
the governor general shall sanction and pro-
claim the act of the insular parliament
In plain language, the governor general
can destroy any act of the insular parlia-
ment by refusing to sanction and pro-
Ministry at Madrid, of which he is The
mere agent. The fact that the members of
such an impotent assembly are to be elected
IS OF no Importance whatever.
II have attempted to demonstrate else
where that the primary cause of the endless
conflict is economic. and that that difficulty
can never be removed until Cuba is indie
pendent o possessed of an insular para-
ment that 2an regulate absolutely her own
tariffs. Nothing could be more disingenuous
than the divice employed to obscure the
fact that no such concession is contem-
plated Cuban parliament is to be given
the power to form its own tariff, fixing
both import and export duties. provided the
assent Of the home government can be OBJ
tanned thereto. In case of disagreement,
the point in dispute shall be submitted to
a committee of members of the Cortes. con-
sisting OF an equal number OF peninsulars
and Cubans Everybody knows the Cuban
deputies in the Cortes at Madrid are mere
men of straw returned by the governor gen.
eraI Even If they were independent no
change could ever be made in existing tar
ifs without the consent of the peninsular
Spaniards, who would never listen to such
LONG. COSTLY WAR
cat the end of three years of wholesale
destruction, provoked by Spain, through
unprecedented political and economic op-
preston that has brought death and famine
TO hundreds of thousands the Spanish
crown at last confesses the Cubans are
right and their wrongs should now be re-
dressed by d generous and genuine grant of
home rule. When the proffered scheme is
examined 1T is found to be not only in
definite and illegal. but absolutely wanting
in sincerity on the two vital points at is
suance. Such proposal has been extorted
by the results of a struggle that has so
completely broken the military and finan-
cial power of Spain that conquest of the
island is now hopeless. After Nexpending
$500 OO0,0 600 and after sending over the sea
300 900 soldiers, Spain has a fighting force
revolutionary army now in possession of
the greater part of the country numbers
about So. 900.
who has the right to say that the heroic
men who have maintained I'm Cuba such a
conflict against such odds are not capable
OF self-government? Who will say that all
the fruits that they have won through death
by sword and famine should In the hour Of
victory be surrendered for an empty sham
which means only new bondage under their
Old and ptiless oppressors? And vet this
heartless, selfish message has not one word
Of encouragement or sympathy for this suf-
fering people, now dying and starving bv
cLntcmptuousy denominated as no better
than their prosecutors. Fortunately for the
honor OF this generous, Christian Nation
this message. with cool and serene cyni-