Evening star., 1897-06-05
Murat Halstead Urges Caution in
Dealing With Cuban Affairs.
Mr.. CALHOUN SHADOWED BY SPIES
Criticises the Character of Key
West News.
BELLIGERENCY RESOLUTION


rious obstacles to the immediate attain
ment Of their freedom and independence.
They seem to have been in error when they
started the policy of burning the sugar and
trampling the tobacco fields and destroying
the property. Of the planters generally.
They did 1t, Of course, to cut off the re-
sources Of the Spaniards, but the eighteen
million people on the Spanish peninsula
have found men and means to carry on the
war, and the Cuban destructiveness has
made an impression that Cuba was to be,
If the insurgents succeeded, larger San
Domingo, and that the revolt was a negro
rebellion. This view has been cultivated
with assiduity by the Spaniards. In all
their cartoon papers the negroes are repre-
sented as monsters brandishing torches. 1t
Is false story, and misleads michievousy.
1t Is in the glare and smoke of the burn
Ing cane fields that the Spanish policy CT
burning villages, which Is SO frightful and
ccerces the peasantry Of the island into the
famine and pestilence camps, Is to some
extent obsc ured, and the immeasurable ter
rors OF the Spanish warfare become less
Odiously manifest.
There is no doubt about it that the Cuban
cause is good one; that the grievances of
the people of the island are excessive and.
indeed, intolerable. The Cubans must fight
1t out, and will win; and they ought to
have the sympathy and support of the
United States according to the obligations
and the dignities of the dominant power
On this continent
The Cuban cause has, however, been NOR
ally damaged by the policy Of the torch,
and by the literary bureau at Key West
which has been run In exactly the wrong
way, to counteract the Spanish official fcti-
tfous reports, because it is a competition in
Misrepresentation.
Character of News.
hov diStip
to beat the Spaniards at their own game
Of fabricating news. and they have over
dcne it. No one now pays any heed to
those via Key West dispatches. which cele-
brate victories without battles and con-
stantly promulgate the impossible
II the G lban dispatches had been from
the hrst soberly and severely truthful, the
cause Of liberty and independence in the
island would have been far advanced be-
yond the present marks. Such has been
the infatuation of the falsitiers that the
truth is not believed. There are so many
obvious lies that the facts are in a fog
The Cuban revolutionists have had
wild idea for two years that Senator Nor
gan OF Alabama vas their greatest and
most formidable friend, and engaged in
carrying our country with him for them.
Now, we respect Senator Morgan. More
than once of late years he has spoken elo-
quently sound and high-toned American
doctrine, but in the Cuban matter he has
DeeH lHnOueFate, ana, therefore, not so In
huential as he might have been.
The belligeI ency resolution recently forced
on and through the Senate was revived
and rushed when it should have been
pigeonholed. 1t was a foolish notion that
Mckinley might be stampeded and driven
with whip and spur into war for Cuba
against Spain. making enormous sacrifices
with nothing in sight as compensation for
us except Cuban government. possibly
very capricious, and an apprehension that
We had taken the wrong road.
Sugar Industry. -
The sugar crop of Cuba has been very
largely destroyed, and this has taken from
the supply Of the world nearly one million
tons a year, and yet the price Of sugar has
not increased. Indeed, it has slightly de-
clined. Simply, the beet sugar industry
has been Augmented, and the visible wealth
Of Cuba, upon which the securities of an
independent government would rest, has
ceased to appear. This is rather cutting off
the resources of Cuba than of Spain.
And this beet sugar competition with
cane sugar would have to be considered IL
it should come to pass that we could buy
Spanish rights In Cuba, for, say, 500, ,00O,-
900. What should we get for that money?
We would get the Incompatible soil of
Cuba, the precious, priceless forests, the
immense mines of iron and quarries of
marble, a territory large as the state
of New York. in the tropics; an island
ments would depend, as in California upon
the immigration of Americans and the in
vestment Of American capital-in a word
the Americanization Of the island; and we
have as security for the money put in and
the ultimate splendor Of Cuban civilization
far above and beyond the dreams of the
Spaniards, the fact that not one-sixteenth
of the area of the island has been highly
cultivated. In f1fteen-sixteenths of the
land the soil and the forests are awaiting
labor and order with liberty to be con-
verted into opulence,
This means more than Cuban independ-
ence, however. Above all its significance
is the annexation of Cuba, and those who
win the prize will have warrants for i'm
mortality.
The Presidents Search.
The belligerency resolution meant, so far
as those whose agitation was really re-
sponsible for 1t are concerned: 1. The
shadow of a credit for Cuban bond sales
2. The getting out of privateers. 3. The
search Of American ships by spaniards as
provocation of war. 4. The tumble of
our country to the silver basis
This was especially inopportune, as Pres
ident Mckinley lost no time in seeking in
formation as to the actual state Of the is
land, and 1t takes one who knows q good
deal about the affairs Of the island to know
how difficult it is to find the truth The
policy of President Mckinley has been dis
closed to this effect:
/. To appeal to all the representatives. Of
this government of ours on the island for
confidential official reports, and the re-
sponses came swiftly freighted with the
real news.
(Now 1t would be ruinous, not to say
murderous. to the consuls If the consular
reports were published, and 1t would put
an end at once to the value of their COM
munications in the future. OF this delicate
and critical and most important considera-
ton the Senate did not display a symptom
of consciousness)
2. There Is no doubt there are other and
various agencies than those known in de-
tail by the public through which the Presi-
dent. without notoriety-not inviting the
cooperation Of the Spaniards or Of the
revolutionists-is obtaining authentic In
side views Of Cuban conditions.
3. There. is one source Of information
open to the State Department Of which lit
tie il generally known, and less said In the
newspapers. 1t is that which may be gath
cred through the business men directly in
terested in Cuba-especially those Cubans
who believe In neither the Spanish nor The
Cuban governments.
A Cuban's Views.
Here we quote the very words of q Gu
ban Of honorable distinction: 1.-THE Spanish
CONTINUED on Third Page.)