The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1897-02-26

even down to this century wnen In louo tuo
royal family in Spain were deposed by Ma
poeon every member of the C0hilda (the
governing body in Cuba) took oath to pre-
serve the island for the deposed monarch.
This being the history and the loyalty OF the
Cubar to Spain, what you ask has wrought
the change? For answer 1t might be enough
to catalogue the various kinds of taxes i'm
posed upon the island as given In Britannica.
There are ''the Crown revenues OF the
island, including duties on imports, exports
and tonnage, and the local OF municipal du-
ties levied at some OF the custom houses.
There is the tax on home manufactures, the
sale of stamped paper. the Profits derived
from the lottery, and the impost on cock
fights. There are the imposts known as
the royal ninths and the consolidated fund,
the sinking fund. the annual and monthly
revenues of the clergy, personal deductions,
such as from the pay of public functionaries
and the price of exemption from military
service; miscellaneous receipts, as the pro-
duce of the sale of royal lands, the rents of
vacant livings and of unclaimed estates, the
produce of vendibe Offices; and casual re-
cpipts, including deposits, confscations, do
Il rltions, and the recovery OF arrears"
Previous to the outbreak of the insurrec-
ton beginning in 1868 the total revenue of
the island had reached to S26 100000. OF
which So. 600, 900 went direct to Spain and
the other twenty millions met the expense
of the army, navy and civil service of the
island. Mr.. Pierra in the Forum for Feb
ruary says that previous to 1895 the most OF
the planters ''were paying the taxes and
the Spanish official blackmail-for the two
things always went together in Cuba-not
out of their yearly net income, but out OF
their capital. Such was the case of all those
who had no ready money OF their own
about 80 per cent of the whole class-and
had to depend upon the merchant for ad-
vances VIII, rewth to carry on the operations
of their estates. Money was worth on an
average 1S per cent per annum Those who
enjoyed the best credit could not obtain it
pay for it even &c per cent. All the mer-
chants and money lenders with very few ex-
ceptioDs were Spaniards. The planters to
the extent of about 80 per cent were Cubans.
1t has been estimated that in order to meet
the fiscal demands male upon them, the
planters of Cuba during the last twenty
years have been drawing upon their pre-
viously accumulated capital to the extent of
six or eight million dollars annually"
When a country is thus made up of a
ruling and alien class which is sapping the
life blood of the native and subject peoples
to the extent of these millions of dollars an
nually over and above what they can pro-
duce, the causes for an outbreak are not
very far to seek. Besides the island has
been plunged into debt away beyond any
possibility of ever liquidating the debt.
As result of the other war from 1868 to
1878 waged by the Cubans for their liberty,
the Spanish government has multiplied its
unjust measures to wiring money out of the
Cubans. For instance, number of years
the annual budget OF taxes assessed to Cuba
were forty.six millions and over. Each
year the outside limit that could be extorted
from the island was about twenty millions
short of the budgets, and these millions
all went to increase the debt until up to last
year the debt Of Cuba was S295, ,707, 264-or
considering its population. the debt of Cuba
is more than that OF all the other American
countries, Including the United States.
There is no shadow of justice In at least
two-thirds or three. fOurths of the debt. II
has been trumped up from every quarter.
A former deputy to the Spanish Cortes says:
'In it are included debt of Spain to the
United States, the expenses incurred by
Spain when she occupied San Domingo,
those for the invasion of Mexico in alliance
with France and England, the expenditures
for her hostilites against Peru, the money
advanced to the Spanish treasury during ITS
recent Carlist wars and all that Spain has
spent to uphold its dominion In Cuba and to
cover the lavish expenditure of its admins
tratlon since 1868" Not cent of this
money has been spent in Cuba. 1t has not
built public highway or established a
school. 1t has been going to line the pockets
of Spanish officials with salaries ranging
from $50, 900 OF the governor general all the
way down the list, and to pay SPANS bills
incurred out in the wide world. Besides
the senseless policy of Spain has destroyed
the trade of the island. Spain has insisted
upon carrying exports in Spanish bottoms,
she has put heavy duty upon all imports
from Cuba to Spain and taken off all duties
on articles sent from Spain to Cuba. The
island has been left to shift for ITSELF few
schools, no literature, or newspapers, ex-
cept three or four that are put out under the
strictest espionage by the ruling Spanlards
Now, this is Washington's birthday, and
it seems to me that our fathers had little
trouble with England about certain taxation
without representation. 1t also seems tC
me that in my school days learned some
thing about some peopl1 down in Bostor