The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1898-08-17
CONCERNING THE CUBAN IN
SURGENTS.

Now that a new form Of government
Is to be erected for Cuba we should
suspend Judgment upon the charges
preferred against the Cubans by the
military. The fact is, the Americans in
the late trouble came into contact only
with the Cubans in the field and with
but small part of them. By reason
of the privations they have endured,
the necessity upon them to conduct a
guerrilla warfare-no other method
being open to them-their poverty and
their emaciation for want Of proper
food, the Garcia army made a very
bad appearance, and its conduct was
along lines so very different from those
to which we are accustomed, but lines
proper enough in their resistance of
Spanish methods, that we should make
broad allowance for Garcia's men.
Besides 1T is now clear that we saw
only the worst element in his army. 1t
is conceded that Garcia's soldiers did
render valuable aid, and the Marine
Corps bears strong testimony in favor
Of that soldiery and the material aid
tanamo Bay. In line of battle they
were not serviceable. But the poor
devils know little or nothing of line of
battle. They have been fighting these
three years OH very different lines. In
short, after enduring wrongs and cruel
ties that shocked our sympathy into
war, they became natural product Of
the Spanish colonial system.
But there are other Cubans, large
element that outranks the Spanish in
Cuba in intelligence and courage. They
have large material interests in the ISL
and; they are men who have the ca
pacity education gives thousands of
them-having received their education
in the United States. They are found
in the substantial artisans, the pro-
fessional men, the landed proprietors,
the domestic officials, the manufacture
ers and the agriculturists. All advices
concede that the true Cuban is the SUI
perior in wit, energy and capacity gen.
orally of the Spanish who have domi-
their residence there a permanency, and
have made Cuba merely the means of
selfish ends.
Self-interest, says Herbert Spencer,
moves the world. 1t certainly has
moved Cuba Deep, noble and praise
worthy self-interest led to the insur-
rection, and has sustained it despite
the ragged brigades, the half-starved
Spanish arms have failed TO conquer.
1t is a self-interest so deep and so
backed by the claims of humanity, SO
parallel to the liberties we enjoy, that
look upon It unkindly.
We interviewed in Cuba not to place
the Cuban guerriIlas or their command
ers in power, but to secure to all the
Cuban people the common rights and
mercies Of human beings, and in the
insurgent in arms we find one Of the
very best Qualifications for our inter
position, since he is the natural result
of the inhumanity, mercilessness and
barbarity against which we invoked the
judgment Of the world.
We are told that in fact the regu-
lar troops of the insurgent army are
a very much better class, more manly,
soldierlike, and while not more de-
voted to the cause than the men OF
Garcia's army, they are far more in
telligent. There may be something also
in the statement made by Cuban
official, that the greediness Of Garcia
men in sanpling American army ra-
tons really ought to have excited our
pity rather than our scorn, since most
Of these ragged fellows were carrying
food TO their families starving in the
hills and woods and recesses to which
Spanish cruelty had driven them.
That indeed, may account for the re-
peated charge made by men Of Shat
ter's army that the Garcia outfit
would make off with bags of pro-
visions" Were they striving, after all,
TO save the lives OF the children, the
aged, and the wives Of these wretched,
ragged. fighting men?
But suppose we admit for the sake
of the argument that the conduct of the
Garcia soldiery was contemplate, what
shall we say of the Spanish soldiery
and the Spanish system in Cuba? They,
too. are contemplate in the methods
thew employed to suppress insurrection-
lists. methods which have utterly failed.
ON this subject the Boston Tran
script" which views the Cuban insur-
gent as the legitimate and inevitable
outcome of the Spanish system, says:
we are told that the passions of civil
war reached such pitch that 1t is
not safe to intrust the insurgents with
any of the duty of an army or occu-
ration that they would Immediately
1,roeaed to cut the threats and confis-
cate the property Of the Spaniards.
r,bare are. indeed, many men of the
ins,,rgent army who have endured such
wrongs as drive men mad, and whose
first impulse would naturally be TO
,rrealx revenge for the deeds done 10
those near and dear to them, victims
Of something worse than war: but as a
pUhoIe the, Cubans conducted themselves
with humanity. They held Bayano Tor
nearly two months with their own gar
,,aor,S and we have not heard that the
RAGGED insurgents there failed 70 ave