The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-06-27
THE GOVERNING OF CUBA
WHY 1T SHOULD COME UNDER THE
CONTROL OF THE UNITED STATES.
Able Presentation, by Maurice ThOmp-
son, of the Arguments FavOring
Such POlicy-A Plain Duty.
. the Editor of the Indianapolis journal.


in the future of our country are called upon
to consider the meaning of the phrase
government by the consent of the gov
erned' as they have never before consid-
cred it. Our tradition is that people can
be righteously governed without their own
voluntary consent TO the governmental act.
Upon this theory we have put behind
more than a century of brilliant history.
but, like all other theoriess.it has more than
once proved its correctness by the excep-
tions to its universal applica bility We
have not found the American Indians, as
rule, capable of self-government We have
been compelled to govern them without
their free consent.
In the matter of demonstrating" the
Southern States we demonstrated by some
unfortunate experimenting that there was
limit to the safety of indiscriminate poit-
ical freedom. Politically the experiment
was made along the color line" but, I'M
wise and indefensible as this was, 1t dis
closed the impossiblity of making govern
ment always depend upon the consent of
the governed. The imperious demand of
qualifying ability to consent with intelli-
gence interviewed. 1t was found that before
the rule of self-government could apply to
a people that people must have reached the
stage of intelligence contemplated by the
civilization which established the rule
Let us apply the rule to Spain. Cuba was
part of Spain, as clearly as Indiana is a
part of the United States of America AS
nation of people Spain was conserving"
to the horrible conditions of Cuban govern
ment. Applying our own rule, without adj
hitting any exception to its universally
we should have to say that Spain is politi-
cally right, because the large majority of
her people are conserving" to her methods
OF government. OF course, this is an ex-
IRENE case, but an extreme case is the carl
cature by which the picture is best criti-
cisco. Inc tact projected is that rule
or consent in the matter of government
preSupposes qualification to consent = in
other words, moral and political intelligence
We shall soon be called upon to Apply our
rule OF consent to Cuba and other Span
lsh colonies. How did we apply it to Louis
lana, to California, to Florida, to Alaska?
Napoleon sold Louisiana to us, people and
all. We did not pay the price and then say
10 Louisiana, Build you stable govern
ment and go free-be an independent gov
our Union. l deem Louisiana an excellent
object lesson by which to illstrate our duty
to Cuba. Let us examine a moment.
COMPARISON.
At the time that we made conquest of
Louisiana with money instead of with
cannon) there was controlling Latin civil
ization in that Territory, just as there is
now in Cuba AS TO the readiness with
which that civilization grasped self-govern-
ment, according to American Interpretation,
you have but to walk up Canal street from
the river in New Orleans to comprehend it,
On your right is the Latin quarter where
the French, the Spaniards and the Italians
have always lived. On your left is the
AnglO-American part of the city. The Latin
side is $50 years behind the times; the
Anglo-American side is plump up to date
and peeping over into the future. What is
the explanation of this difference? The
Latin population of New Orleans has not
been oppressed; it has had every advantage
that our freedom could give; yet there it is,
still dreaming the medieval dream and still
looking to France, Spain and Italy for its
nestle habits and it's social sympathy
We cannot justly say that the decay and
practical downfall of Spanish civilization is
due to the influence of the Catholic Church;
such a conclusion would be monstrous The
church did not debauch Spain; but Spanish
civilization did debauch the church every
where within the Spanish domain. Spaniards
have always used the Catholic religion (as
they interpreted it, as a burglar uses jim
peoples. Four hundred years of that civili-
cation has not prepared Cubans for intelli-
gent Judgment of how their island should
be governed. What are the facts? Is the Gu
ban population in condition to warrant
their ability to form and administer a gov
eminent based upon popular intelligence,
virtue and stable character?
| have given long and conscientious exam
ination to this subject Many sources of in
formation differ little as to the state of Gu
ban education. Most of them show that at
least seven-tenths of the people cannot read
or write. About half the population consists
of colored folk recently slaves, or descended
from slaves coolies and mongrels patheti-
cally debased by long and horrible expert
ence of Spanish oppression The other half
of the people is mingled of almost every
grade of intelligence, ignorance and Hitter
acy still greatly predomiEating, even in the
best class outside the controlling Spaniards.
Indeed. how could it be otherwise, in view
of Cuba's history? When the very truth
shall come to us at first hand from our SOL
diers and officers we shall be appalled, by
NOT IMPERIALISM.
There is no question of imperialism in
this connection. Our newspaper men have
seized upon the word as a facile exaggera-
ton. The question is one of democracy, re-
publicanism, safe self-government, which is
to affect our national future more profound
ly than can appear to a casual or careless
observer. We are breaking the chains from
the hands of more that a million forlorner
slaves than ever existed in our Southern
States. Yet hear Southerners (who fought
for slavery now insisting upon the eminent
illness of such people for self-government
The negroes of South Carolina, Mississippi
and louisiana are much filter for the
FRANCHISE that a large majority of Cuban
laborers. They have lived in better COM
pany under more enlightened influences, yet
restriction has been found necessary.
There can be no lodging or beclouding
the responsibility that our act of liberating
Cuba casts upon us. If we remove SPANS
government we must give in its place the
very best that we have to give. We take
the burden; are we to let Cubans decide
what the outcome shall be? The consent
OF the governed" but what If the Cubans
determine to propagate a civilization as bad
or worse than that OF Spain? What about
the consent of the governed then? Sup
hnf of CHI rf n~fn Of sole
rule the consent of the governed, is given
to France or Italy or Spain to take con-
troll of the island? You see where the rule
breaks into glittering and worthless frag-
ments. Cuba cannot possibly be a free
and independent" nation and at the same
ony or territory or state she can be as in
dependent and as free as Indiana or Massa-
chusetts. In that case the United States
government would have the right to control
her civilization and her destiny.
There is a rosy view to take of the policy
of remaining forever bounded by our pres
ent national lines and Tapped in the security
of noninterference- lin the affairs of the
world. An insignificant power can indulge
that dream. Portugal. for example, But
the very weight of our eighty millions of
people is a force to send our commercial,
maritime and fiscal interests into every
nook of the globe; and shall those interests
not have adequate protection everywhere?
Say what we may in the form OF we'll
rounded platitudes about the dangers of
imperialism" our interests everywhere
are sure to clash with those of other powers
great and small; in that clash we shall
break unless our weight and vigor are
equal to the shock. II we wish to make
our country the home of hermit nation
we are unable to do IL.