The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-04-10

q century in politics, and a member OF
cabinets. he has never yet had a policy
about any public question. He has no
policy now, except to stay in office with
his crowd Inc get what he can out of
poor. bankrupt. ruined Spain. One
forecast may be risked in comparative
certainty: II Sagasta sees he is about
to go out Of power, he will let Spain
go to war with the United States. He
well knows that IL he were conducting
a war for Cuba. he would not be de-
throned until Spain was beaten and
ruined. Then-well. he could do as
others have done-go to Paris and en-
joy his ~ill-gotten millions in the few
years he has left him.
OF all prime ministers Spain has ever
had, Sagasta has been the most merci-
less n unreliable. 1t was because OF
his direct action in 1873 that the infa-
Americans in n day. and four days
thereafter shot Captain Fry. General
Ryan n IS more. Previous to this
Wholesale killing was the execution of
Lopez and his companions (and 20 years
before that. the murder of that gal
liant young Kentuckian, Crittenden.
and his friends) by Captain General
Concha. Truly. Concha reeks with
American blood. As minister for the
colonies. Sagasta promised everything.
and, S~panish-like, did nothing. For
example, had the treaty or armistice
of San Jose-which ended the out
break of October. 1S6s-been carried oil
by Spain. it is not at all probable that
the present revolution would have been
attempted. In fact. SO fair was it to
the Cubans that Canovas, who made 1t,
never dared submit 1t to the Spanish
cortes for approval and ratification.
He went out of Office for making ii, and
Martinez Campos, who succeeded him,
by dint of his personal popularity and
good working majority in the cortes,
managed to have Ii ratified. Campos
bluntly said, in his amous speech to
the ~cortes. in favor of it's r~atiication:
II offer this bill because 1t Is the lesser
of evils, for we must either institute
the reforms l ask for in governing
Cuba, or exterminate the entire native
population of the island!' This was
the first hint of that policy of extermi-
nation which Marshal Weyler so sue
cessfully carried into effect. 1t was blu
the repetition of the duke of Alvas'
policy in the low countries, where 300,-
900 human beings-over one-half women
and children-died by the knife. by
fire, by every conceivable method of
kin human life that was inhuman
and appealed to the lust for cruelty,
that seems inherent in the Spanish ma
ton.
But there is one dark cloud in Sa-
gasta's political horizon. 1t is true that
it is not as yet very large, but ii is
growing. When Sagasta relieved Cap
tain General Weyler and put Blanco
in his place as captain general of Cuba,
he made a most unwise move for his
own interest. But while he stated to
the queen and the cortes that it was
done upon the expressed wish of the
United States, which demanded a diff
ferent policy toward the native popula-
ton of Cuba, Sagasta was simply set
thing an old score. Weyler and he have
clashed for years. Finally, when Sa-
gasta became premier, his opportunity
came. and Valeriano Weyler was
fired" But Weyler was too much of
the slow-moving Dutch blood of his
father to act without discretion. So he
watches and waits. He and De LONE
have Joined hands, for De LONE, too,
has a bitter grievance against Sagasta.
1t is hard to say which of the wo-De
LONE or Weyler-hates America the
most. Even now Weyler is coquetting
with the Carlists. as his praise in Ell
Correo, the Carlist journal, clearly
shows. This may, in some degree, ac-
count for Sagasta's newborn zeal in
favor of the legitimate sovereign"
which he demonstrated lately by having
annulled certain arrests made in Cata-
lonia and Biscaya of leading gentlemen,
who were said to be preparing for a
Carlist rising. 1t is an odd thing to see
an ancient liberal, then an advocate of
Amadeo's kingship, now a royalist, and
premier of "the Austrian woman" as
he denominated the queen regent.
What will he do next? Precipitate his
country into a hopeless war to serve his
own ambition. Nous verrons.
w. II. r..