The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-05-29
Another View of the
Conditions i'm Cuba.
The Island Is Lost to Spain, but 1t is
Time for This Country to Intervene.

An American who has been accus-
toned to spend his winters in Cuba,
having returned from the island, writes
as follows to the Springfield Republi-
can concerning the present condition
of the island and the proper attitude
of the United States toward the insur-
rection:
One cannot comprehend the condi-
tions existing in Cuba without going
on to the ground, and must have had
previous acquaintanceship with the
people of the island, both Spanish and
Cuban, and have studied the political
and commercial conditions. My pre-
vious winters in Cuba and my pleas
ant relations with many of the leading
citizens greatly added me in taking
a comparative view of the situation and
obtaining the real feelings of the peo-
pie. Great changes have taken place
during the last year, say from April,
1885, to March, 1897. An air of uncer-
tainty, anxiety and encouragement
is manifest. Want of employment,
great advance in the necessaries of life,
want of trustworthy information as to
the real progress of the war, insecurity
Of property and life, tightening severity
of police regulations espionage lurking
everywhere and distrust even among
friehds--all these plainly told of the
unhappiness of Cuba. Then business
was in a chaotic state on account of the
paper nancy issue which is accepted
only by reason of compulsory decree.
ApIEehensiveness is visible on every
hand.
The above is true of Havana, where
conditions are supposed to be most fav-
orable. Yet in Havana $4,000 sick Span
ish soldiers crowd the hospitals, and
in the superbs yellow flags proclaim
the smallpox. l counted II of these
flags in two squares. There is some
yellow fever, too. The squalor and
filth of the remote parts of Havana is
indesclibable. Yet under good govern
ment, this would become one of the
thriftiest cities in the world. The
largest ships can ride in its harbor,
Notwithstanding it's SO feet of mud.
This removed, where is it's equal? It's
population now is about 250.000 Give it
proper sanitation and just laws and
1t would double in ten years.
DESOLATION.
But what is the condition of the rural
parts of Cuba? Desolation. Savagery
has done it's work Homeless, fleeing
people wasted plantations, hill-tops
crowned with sentinel-boxes, cross
roads guarded by soldiers, beggary on
every highway, huts occupied by rag
ged women and naked children-these
are the scenes you witness, and this is
called "pacification." You ask, cannot
this carnival of blood and terror be
StnnrAadp TS n, ai1ia
My answer is that reconciliation is
impossible. No proposition has been
made that con templates equality of the
races. None will be made that is not
based upon the supremacy of the
Spaniard and the subordination of the
Cuban and the negro. Then the at
rocities of the war have turned the
hearts of the people into furnaces OF
hate. 1t has become an irrepressible
struggle. 1t is not what we call doing
battle, it is wholesale assassination.
No one may question the validity of
Spaines title to Cuba. 1t is hers by
the same title that Canada belongs to
Great Britain. But her conduct has
been most unpareEtal. Never once has
she governed with a kindly hand. No
appeal has touched her, no argument
convinced. The goaded child now fees
the parental roof, and with clenched
fist, curses the rule that denied sym
pathy and justice. Hatred of Spain
has become an ineXtinguishable pas
sion in the Cuban. 1t has come down
from sire to so2. Unfortunately, Spain
continues the policy of severity and in
justice, and in her savage Wrg tn is do
ing deeds which shook the world. How
can reconciliation come? 1t is the ex-
termination of million people which
Spain now proposes. 1t is resistance
to the bitter end on the part of the
Cubans. 1t is an attempt at arbitra-
ment by the sword of a question which
must at last yield to the enlighten.
ment of the age. 1t is not revolution,
but evolution, that convulses Cuba.
WORTHLESS REFORMS.
The recently proposed reforms are
significant only in that they demon
strate the inability of Spain to rise
to the magnitude of the situation. 1t
is not case OF local irritation to be
treated by salvelI and lotions. 1t is an
upheaval of a great commercial centre
Commerce will not wear fetters, no
matter where forged or by whom riv-
eted. The sword must fail in such a
What, then, can there be in such MINI
ic reforms? Reforms which continue a
judiciary that publicly demands and
receives qualification money from suit
ors and advances or retards causes in
proportion to the bribe received; in re-
forms that continue to install and sup
port at public expense a brothel-t -taint-
ed priesthood which continue to per-
init crowd-appointed officials to appro-
pirate to their own use the treasure of
the PEOPLE and parade their stolen
wealth without rebuke: in reforms
which purify no channels, tighten no
burdens, change no methods, nor give
even hope of wise and liberal aids to
restoration. Futile folly! And yet Spain
proposes to fool herself and the world
by applying such antidote to so-called
pacified districts. where the fields are
quiet, but the hedges whisper and the
darkness strikes.
This is no fancy sketch. could cite
instance upon instance. With an ex-
port duty on everything that Cuba has
to sell and an import duty on every
thing she needs to buy, how can con-
dition be other than unbearable? AT
one time the West Indies commanded
the sugar markets of the world. but
new they have lost them and will new
er regain them. The taxation above
referred to made it impossible for the
planter to produce cheap sugar, and
consequently the cultivation and man.
nfacture of beet sugar began in Eu-
rope, and this industry has so pros
never again compete except under the
most liberal conditions at home. Under