The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-03-11
Gomez on the Names Fate.

Gomaz on the Names Fate.
To a correspondent of the New York
Sun who in the latter part of February
informed him of the destruction Of the
Maine. General Maxine Gomez, after
expressing his sympathy and asking
that it he conveyed to the American
people, said:
II am not surprised at the general
belief in Cuba that a new crime has
been committed by Spain. We know
too we'll what Spain is capable of doing
to destroy a foe. A people capable of
sending to Cuba as captains general at
the end of the nineteenth century such
q man as Weyler and of honoring him
after his criminal deeds as a national
hero is capable of anything. 1t would
not shrink from the idea of massacring
200 American sailors in the harbor Of
Havana. after it had killed by starva-
ton 200, 600 defenccless women, children,
and old men, and had eXterminated
40C, 900 more -combatants by fire
and sword or by the utter destruction
of their homes and the inhuman
that, it cannot have any pity for the
fate of 200 American sailors, regarded
by Spain, with or without reason, as
her enemies, when it has had no pitv
for it's own 100000 soldiers, poor and
ignorant Spanish peasants, driven from
their homes in Spain by proud, rap
acious, and murderous government, and
sent to certain death in Cuba from the
bullets of a hostile army and the raw
ages of hostile climate, in vain at
tempt to conquer a country which is
fighting for it's freedom.
II cannot avoid the sad reflection
that if my letters, addressed to Presi-
dent Cleveland and to President Nc
Kinley. and the reports of the Cuban
government to the American govern
ment through our representative.
Tomas Estrada Palma, had been heed
ed by the United States, that nation
would not have suffered the loss of
100000, 900 of Cuban commerce, the
constant annoyance due to the danger
of foreign complications and the pres
ent loss of its cherished sailors and of
one of it's best men of war, besides
all the troubles that may result from
this terrible incident, and Cuba, poor
Cuba, the heroic island that is fighting
alone without resources, without navy,
against a European power, would not
have been the prey of a Weyler and
now the victim of the hypocrisy of a
y n h.N hiCn
pointments of my life is the knowledge
that there are in the United States per-
sons who believe that our just repre-
sensations, asking only for the recogni-
ton which we have the right to re-
quest, were made for the purpose of in
volving the United States in a war
with Spain because we could not cope
alone with the SDaniards. We had
fought the Spaniards ten years. Now
we have been fighting them three years
more, and no honest man can doubt
after what we have done that We are
resolved to die rather than surrender.
l have been thirteen years in the sad
die, and Spain has sent against me,
across the Atlantic, 800, 900 men. have
needed no help to do that much, for
with me We're the 10000 Cubans who
died In the last war, and today the
whole Cuban army is ready to die for
the principle we maintain. 1t is a
gross injustice, therefore, to charge us
with hypocritical and dissembed inten-
tions when we ask the great nation of
Washington to grant us the same
rights they give to Spain, and not to
use against us and in favor of Spain
their navy and police
There are few Americans who do not
share these opinions. But the past
cannot now be recalled. Only the fu-
ture remains. That is bright with the
promise Of speedy liberation for Cuba.
-
1t Is said that the Womens Christian
Temperance Union has discovered the
presence of true alcohol in root beer,
and proclaims that the fluid when TAX
en- into the system produces alcoholic
sensations. This announcement will
probably cause many persons to take
an interest in root beer who have hith-
erto preferred "bock" as a spring med
icine.
With the cessation of hostlities the
war correspondent can very gracefully
turn to the conventional springtime