Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1898-08-25
GEN. HOWARD, ON THE CUBANs.

Gen. q. o. Howard wrote from Santiago
to the Outlook, as follows concerning the
Cuban insurgents.
"A reaction in favor of the Cubans is
doubtless going on. and is due to Gen.
Skaters having selected Gen. Leonard
Is. Wood to administer the affairs of the
city of Santiago. He fosters trade; he in
PRODUCES proper sewage; he cleanses the
city; he employs the most worthy of the
impoverished. and encourages Miss Bar
ton and her helpers of the Red Cross So
ciety to extend the supplies OF Congress
to tina starving and the needy. When Gen.
Wood gets the mastery to completion.
Spanish extortion and revenge must cease.
The gratitude of those helped and the APP
probation OF those property owners who
begin to feel a degree of security in their
possessions must soften the asperities of
the situation, and little by little bring the
good-thinking portion of the patriots back
10 us.
Military government always has its
harshness, but eventually a better rule
will come in Yet ! canont help feeling n
strong sympathy for the sad disappoint-
ments OF the Cuban patriots when we
throw them off and treat them with n
show of disrespect There must be some
where common ground of fellowship
and recognition between ourselves and
Our allies, to be held and maintained as
our work advances To despise the Phil
ippine insurgents and the Cuban patriots
and ignore all their patriotic aspirations
would be cruel abrogation OF every
principle for which the advocates of this
war primarily commended.
or one thing l am more and more as
sured, and ,nat 1T, that every Cuban of
intelligence and even a smatterlng of ed
ucation is penetrated by a resolve as
strong as his life that there shall be no
more Spanish rule In the island of Cuba.
The thousands that have clustered along
our coast, at Key West Tampa, Jackson
vile, Pensacola Mobile, New Orleans, and
Galveston as we'll as those more prosper
GUS who have entered the States at least
as far as New York. have been for years
giving constant contribution to the sup
port OF patriotic council who are the
actual leaders in the proposed Cuban re-
public. Their giving has been constant
and systematic. Again they have made
mere costly contribution. a precious
sacrifice; they have sent their able bodied
young men not only from the outside but
more still from the inside of Cuba. Not
withstanding this offer of money and OF
life. believe that large numbers would
be glad OF annexation to the United
states. For the most intelligent. the most
educated, and particularly property hold
ers who have anything left, realize how
thoroughly unframed are tho masses of
the people. which include those Of Indian
blood, Africans like ours of Alabama,
and creoles. half of whom are illterate.
These intelligent thinkers say frankly:
Make Cuba a State in your American
Union and we will DO moro than salts
fed"
1t does not do to gauge our efforts in
behalf of Cuba by our estimate of the
present value of the degraded masses, who
IN their distress. their poverty, and long
oppression by cruel governors present but
u sad view of humanity. We must lift
them up by a generous, n noble, a Chris
tian series of efforts 1t Is our God given
and the whole Christian world
Is watching to see If the great American
republic Is equal to the strain. My own
opinion LIS unchanged, namely, that we
should bind our allies to us by justice
kindly administered, and finally. after
the expulsion OF the Spaniards. foster
genuine republic under a United States
protectorato till a bona flde stability and
prosperity shall be secured for the entire
Cuban people