The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1897-12-08
TAYLOR DOES NOT LIKE II.
THE Ex-MIyIsTER TO SPAIN CRIT
ICISES THE MESSAGE.
He Recites the Wrongs Of csba I'm
Eloquent Language and Insists
That the Spanish Proposals for
Autonomy Are Intended ~ Blinds.

MOBILE. Ala. Dec. T.-Ex-Minister 10
Spain Hon. HannEs Taylor gives cut the
following:
THE Associated Press has requested me
10 express my views as 20 that part or sha
presidents nessage. waich rsaAies 10 the
Cuban question. Putting ASIDE tae irreie-
want matter with which IL Is incimDefeo.
the 81 os1apca or the only Recommendation
made by the executive 20 congress upon
tAls SUBJECT is, that THIS government can
not venture TO do anything TO put an end
10 the inauman strife. which. during the
last three years has reduced the asand al
most 10 desert because There Is q pros
pect OF a settlement between the combat
ants upon the basis of a so-ealied plan OF
autonomy. lately put forth by the SasasIa
ministry.
Il believe congress should firmly and
scornfully rejec, such policy OF irreso-
luton and nol-action. because the aSssun,p-
ton upon which il is founded is an empty
Illusion. The vital question a. issue has no.
been touched by the revolutionary effort OF
Sagasia 10 end the war by means or Il
Crafty incomplete proposition that car
res with IT no constitutional guarantee
whatever.
Knowing the nation is against him, he
does not dare TO state his proposals clearly
upon the matter IN question. and II Is GER
tain that II he should assert even his in
complete schemes 10 the present corteS, Il
would be either rejected entirely or 50
Until the Sagasta plan has first been en-
acisd into law oy the eortes, It cannot rise
10 the dignity of a proposal.
AT the end OF three years OF wholesale
destruction, provoked by Spain through I'M
precedented political and economic oppres-
sion, that has brought death and famine 10
hundreds OF thousands, the Spanish crown
at last confessed the Cuhans are right and
thelr wrongs should now be redressed by a
generous and genuine grant OF home rule.
After expending three hundred millions of
dollars and after sending over the sea 100000
soldiers, Spain has a fighting force in the
island or less than 10000, while the revolu-
uonary army, now in possession of the
Seed.
Who has the right to say that the he
roc men who have maintained such con-
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 bond
ors?
And yet this heartless, selfish message
mas not one word of encouragement or
sympathy for this suffering people, now
dying and starving by thousands at our
very doors. In 1t they are contemptuous-
prosecutors. Congress Is politely told to
attend To its own business; that If the
recognition of belligerency shall become
necessary in the future. the executive
power will act without congressional in
terferenee. 1t is generally understood that
THIS deliberate conspiracy to thwart the
viii VI tHS Is TO De carried out
through an appeal to the speaker OF the
house of representatives. who Is to SO
manipulate the rules as to prevent the
passage of the pending belligerency reso-
luton, which the senate has already APP
proved.
The house of representatives is either to
be muzzled or called on to declare that
this revolutionary government. which has
virtually crushed the power of Spain In
Cuba. has no such de facto existence as
viii authorize a recognition of a war be-
tween the contending parties. That alb
surd contention becomes more grotesque
when we remember that Spain has expend-
ed. without effect. against such revoiu-
tionary government. far more money and
men than Great Britain employed during
our entire Revolutionary war.
There are limits even to the patience
OF the American people: and the time has
now come when the executive power should
be made TO feel through public demonstra-
ton that the nation will no longer permit
Its sovereign viii In righteous cause TO
be entirely set aside In the interest of a
tremulous. selfish, short-sighted policy"