Evening star., 1898-12-21


SO thoroughly appreciated. The questions
of the future relate to the degree to which
these two races will SHAPE their own deS
tiny in this island and to what degree it
will be shaped for them willingly or un-
willingly. The men of Latin origin who are
thinking of these things are in doubt. The
American who came to Havana a month
ago-or it may have been six weeks-has
no doubts lie is going to have the natives
taught Engl.Gh. SO that they may under
stand the American political institutions,
which they will either adopt or have the
United States adopt for them. Everything
els9 is mere detail. The Latin race goes
to the wall, but it won't be abused when
stood up against that wall. So the newly
arrived American says.
The Race Problem.
This is going at a rapid gait. 1t might be
called solving the race problem on the gal
lop. To draw the check-rein on these self
confident fellow-countrymen might indicate
an unpatriotic distrust of the national ca
pacity. 1 shall not do that, but shall con-
tent myself with a few statements What
may be called the working classes of Cuba
both in the towns and in the country are
of the Latin race, whether they call them
selves Spanards or Cubans. The negroes
form Il large element, but they are not in
the majority. The country people of the
island the 'Suarijos,' or peasants, are as
hardW Orking the peasants of Italy,
France or Spain. / do not profess to know
the phenomena by which the European
peasantry allow their industry to be frit-
tered away by corrupt and imbecile govern
mentS until the philosophers have begun TO
write the epitaph of the Latin nations
The phenomenon does not exist in Cuba.
The insurrection had the support of the ed
uCated classes, the Cuban professional men,
but il was the work of the 1aborers on the
sugar and tobacco plantations and of the
small farmers. They had not reasoned out
the various stages of Latin decadence; they
were not thinking of its historical aspect;
but they grasped deep truth. Latin deca-
denCe as reflected in Spanish government
meant oppression and corruption, which
could not be cured until they forced the
government of the island from the grip of
the Spanish mailed hand. They went into
the field and remained until the United
States was compelled to interfere That is
the history of the struggle for Cuban indie
the status of Spanish working classes be-
cause these were kept loyal to Spain
through their prejudices and through their
ignorance.
Maxine Gomez and the other insurgent
leaders always talked that their fight was
against the Spanish government and not
against the Spanish people, either in the
peninsula in Cuba, Since the war has
closed they have been profuse and un-
queStiOnably sincere in saying that all
classes were henceforth brothers. Never
theleSs, the fraternal spirit between Gu
bans and Spaniards is not marked as yet.
H.
faint signs of it begin to show in the coun-
try districts. The Spanish peasant classes
| have dim perception that the Cubans
were fighting for them also, and that they
Will be of more account under a different
government in the future than they were
when blindly Upholding Spanish sovereign
ty. They hf We the common tie of language
and of customs. They will gradually draw
Eearer together. Some change to the coun-
try people of Cuba will come from contact
with the United S ates. 1t Will be a help
full change, and viii be for the better. But
| in this generation they will not cease to bs
Latin in their speech and in their habits.
1t may also he said that the blacks who IN
the past have been affected by Latin as
sOciatiOns vii. not cease to be influenced
by that association. 1t has been better for
them than has been the Anglo-SaXon tutel-
| age in the United States.
The Latin Business Man.
| The Latin business man is type by
| himself. He will easily mold himself to
| whatever political conditions arise in the
| future, because it will be business for him
| to do so. New enterprises will naturally
| be controlled by American capital This
/ does not mean that the Latin business man
| Will be dslodged from what he already
| possesses. The Spaniards are n tenacious
| race, as has been shown by the stubborn
| ness with which they cling to the right to
| misgovern their colonies. The methods of
| the Spanish merchants in Cuba are anti
\
| ground in the change that must come the
| loss will only be a temporary one. They
| will hight skillfully and persistently to keep
| all that is now theirs.
| In the larger transactions of commerce
| the Latin merchants seem able to hold
| their own without tutorship. 1t might be
| said that they understand the principles of
| international commerce better than do
| some merchants in the United States who
| engage in 1t. Their mastery of the trade
| ventures is notable. And on the specuia-
tive side they might wander up and down
| Wall street without being once mistaken
for lambs. In this climate the wool drops
| naturally from the back of the sheep with
| out the need of clipping. There may be
| something in the analogy which keeps the
| human kind from being fieeced when they
| go out among strangers or when strangers
come among them. Possibly this national
| instinct of gambling has something to do
| with the boldness of the Latin spectators.
| No one would ever charge them with timid-
ity.
Hold Their Own as SpecuIntors
The opportunities for speculation are not
| such as occur where it is possible to corner
the worlds supply of wheat or corn OF
pigs feet. Such as they are the Latin
| spectators improve them. / once knew a
| Chicago financier who centered the atten.
tion of the financial world upon himself