The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-04-16

However diverse may be opinions as
to what course the United States
should take in the Cuban imbrOglio
with Spain, there is no question as to
the unanimity of the sentiment that
would hail with pleasure the departure
of Spanish sovereignty from this hemi-
sphere. On that we are all agreed. For
this there is ample cause in the his
tory of Spanish dominion on the con-
tinent during all of the four hundred
years since the possibilities of half of
the new world We're blighted by Span
ish occupation. They came not to Gre
ate. but to destroy; not to develop. but
to plumber. Whatever of admiration
the courage and skill of Cortes and Pr
Zarro may stir is overwhelmed by the
narration of their rapacity. their cruel
ty and their treachery. We read the
story Of the overthrow of the Monte
zumas and the Incas and shudder.
though four centuries separate us from
that epoch Of revolving ferOcity.
Supplementing this is that long his
toric memory of the Germanic peoples
of our country. whose traditions carry
memories of Spanish brutality in the
religious and subjugating wars waged
along and across the Rhine; and back
of all lies that inherent, ineradicable
racial antipathy that sources in radical
differences at every point Of view. So
ciologically, economically, morally, at
every point of touch, the conceptions of
life, of the relations of man to man.
of man to government, are so opposite
as to indicate sources of race origin en-
tirely unrelated. Wherever people of
the two races live in proximity there
is no assimilation. A century of con-
tact has not served to make homo
geneous the Germanic and the Latins
The Spanish quarter of New Orleans
and their settlements in that state re-
main the same in thought, motive, life
as they were in the eighteenth CEN
fury. In New Mexico and California
the same segregation exists. They are
not of us or with us, and never will be-
These reasons sufficiently account for
and justify the universal desire to eX-
pei Spain and the Spaniards from Cuba.
But after the rule of Spain is broken,
the Spaniard will remain. 1t must
have struck the most enthusiastic SYM
pathizer with the revolving Cubans
that pro-Spanish sentiment was as
strong in the islands. 1t was not the
soldiery, but the citizen Spaniards, fear
Of whose violence caused the with
drawal Of our conSuls and Americans
resident in Cuba. Gen. Lee estimates
that a third of the population oppose
the instruction. After Cuba is freed
these will remain. The insurrectfon-
lists themselves are Spanish in blood
and in habits of thought. What such
people do when they attempt self-gov-
eminent the history of every Spanish
republic on the continent amply tells
1t is this consideration that makes the
conservative doubt the wisdom of in
volving ourselves in war for the pur-
pose Of expelling Spain. They question
whether the last condition will not be
worse than the first; whether our COM
mercial relations will not be jeopardiz-
ed by incessant revolutions, and
whether the brutalities that have char
acterized every other Of these repub-
lies will not characterize the republic
of Cuba, until some masterful man,
some uncrowned king like Diaz, comes
to enforce order with the strong hand