The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-07-05
The Day We Celebrate.

The suggestion has been offered, and
II seems to us an appropriate one, that
Americans, while commemorating the
one hundred and twenty-first anniver-
sary of their own independence, give
heed to the struggle for n similar free
dom which is now in progress in Cuba.
Let us look at this struggle with eV-
cry wish to be fair Let us concede
that it has not been "a contest of OPP
posing columns, drawn up i'm convcn-
tional battle array that its progress
on the other hand, has been marked
by many Irregularities and some bar
barities on both sides, the natural in
cidents of a guerrilla war; and that
there is some reason to doubt whether,
should they gain their independence,
the insurgent Cubans would at first
know how to us Il.
To be JUS, we must likewise consider
the inequalities of tho combat and the
causes OF the unprerarednesa of
the Cuban people for the respon-
sibilities OF government. When
our own revolution broke out,
the patriots who formed its mainstay
were well schOoled in the principles
of republican government and had had
more than two centuries of experience
in the art of taking care of them
selves. They had had the benefits of
q very general education both of mind
and morals: and the pioneer conditions
of their situation in the new world
had ingrained into their natures a
Eranite-like self-rehance. But turning
10 Cuba we perceive a people who for
almost four centuries have been kept
in literal bondage-a people of whom
only a small percentage has had the
luxury Of ar education; a people whose
clergy upon the whole have been il
liberal if not licentious; a people whose
knowledge of government has been de-
rived through its injustice, it's perfidy
and its prolonged and horrible cor
ruption. That they have at last revolt
ed from such a tyranny commends
them to our admiration; and that they
are as yet poorly qualified to assume
the power they seek should augment,
rather than decrease, the volume of
our sympathy.
Taken as a whole, the odds in our
Revolution were in point of numbers
but slightly in favor of our oppressors;
nevertheless it required the aid of
France to effect the final discontinue
of the British. We fought them on
land and on sea, having battle field
on which to move the size of twenty
Cubas, yet today 10000 Cubans, with
the crudest ideas of discipline and
the poorest possible equipment, with.
out navy and confined to the noun
tain Businesses of an area not as large
as the commonwealth Of Pennsylvania,
are holding at bay 25OOOO of the picked
soldiery of Spain, and have done this
for more than two years. In their crude
way they have established a govern
ment, ordained a constitution. chosen
president, cabinet and subordinates.
and installed a postal and revenue
system, and though we are told by the
college professors that to make a flaw
less case of belligerency they must
capture and hole a seaport, we think
1t is proof of mighty line quality of
belligerency that they have been en-
abled, against such odds, to keep their
heads and bodies joined
Is it not one of the corollaries of
the Declaration Of Independence that
the pioneer experiment in popular gov
ernment should do what is properly
within it's power in aid of other peo-
pies striving to gain their liberation?
Ought we not to learn in the example
OF France duty OF our own to suf-
fering Cuba? Is it not time for Amer
lean patriotism, gaining the courage
OF It's selfish interests no less than its
convictions, to say in imperious voice
10 spain; THE knell of tyranny in this
hemisphere, struck by the founders of
the American republic, sounds now for
cuba, and DEGREES its release?"