The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-05-29
THE INVASION OF CUBA.

The war with Spain was undertaken
for the liberation of Cuba and not for
conquest For week or so past the
people have been considering the war
and its final results from the stand
point of conquest rather than that of
| the liberation of Cuba. Dewey's vic
tory accounts for this. Now the people
are beginning to turn their attention
to the question of the invasion of Cuba
All of sudden the people are told
that the invasion of Cuba is a very
much larger and more hazardous
undertaking than had been generally
/ believed. II appears also to have been
quite as suddenly discovered that the
insurgent army, of which so much was
heard and of which such great expec-
tations were entertained, is not to be
depended upon for any assistance of
real value, that at best it can do
scarcely more than furnish guides for
our own troops; and this for the very
good reason that the insurgent army
does not exist. This, of course, is the
extreme view of the matter. There is
no question that it has been a source
of great disappointment to the author
tiles at Washington and to the people
of the country to learn that so little
assistance can be expected from the
insurgents as it seems now can be.
It is not impossible that the true
state of affairs in Cuba in the past
may have been exaggerated; it is by
no means impossible that the difficult
at cir
may be very greatly exaggerated to-
day. The prowess and discipline of the
Spanish army in Cuba seem TO have
grown marvellously since the war be-
gan. Before it began it is known that
neither Weyler nor Blanco could sub
due the insurgents and that they were
reduced to the necessity of building a
trocha across the island. Even this
did not prevent the insurgents from
having practical control of very large
part of the island. They may have
been predatory bands carrying on
guerilla warfare, but they were power
ful enough to compel Weyler to adopt
his infamous reconcentrado policy. If
the Spanish army in Cuba is so very
powerful and efficient why did it not
clean out all these predatory bands, as
some call the insurgents, and make the
authority of Spain supreme? This is
most pertinent question. Does any
one with modicum of common sense
believe that the Spanish army in Cuba,
having so ANONYMOUSLY failed to sub
due the Cubans, can make plaything
of an American army of invasion even
though the great majority of the army
is composed of volunteers? Whose
volunteers are not going to run from
the Spaniards as some seem to think |
they will. Before Dewey annihilated |
the Spanish fleet at Manila the people |
had been told how superior the Span |
ish fleet was until they began to think |
that it was something terrible. How
terrible it was was shown in a very |
few hours The same kind of stories |
that were told of that fleet are now
being told of the Spanish army in
Cuba. AS an army it is probably
superior to what the Manila vessels
were as a fleet, but there is no reason
in the world to believe that it is in
or that American soldiers
defeat it: if they cannot then
American soldiers have degenerated
and Spanish soldiers have advanced.
1t is now said that there will be no
effort to invade Cuba until Cervera's
feet is disposed of. What if it should
never be disposed of? 1t is believed
that either SIMPSONS or Schley's
squadron is more than match for it,
If this is so why cannot either of
these squadrons act as convoy to a
feet of transports?
1t certainly looks as though the diff
iculty Of invading Cuba were being
it is surely being used
as an excuse and justification for every
delay and change of plan. Most as
suredly it is going to be no mere holt
lay affair, but on the other hand it can
be such an insuperable task as
many would have the people believe.
And troops at Tampa and Key West !
ire in quite as unhealthy camps as
hey would be in the hills around Ha-
7ana. Cuba should be invaded with as
title delay as possible.