Arizona republican., 1898-04-11
STAINS DESPERATE CASE.

Sagasta's duty and interest are in
 volved in the present Spanish dynasty.
 He is bound to uphold it, to be loyal
 to the boy king whose inheritance is the Spanish crown. He might be will ing to face for himself and his cabinet, yielding to the righteous demands of { the United States. It is true that by granting Cuban independence and ac-
 cepting whatever cash indemnity he
 could get, $2O0,0O0,00O or s10O,0OO, ,0OO,
 he might save his country from a war
 certain to end for Spain in defeat and
 ruin, and at the same time he might save her depressed finances from hope
 less chaos. But if the masses in their
 rage and humiliation should turn on the Bourbons and destroy the throne that is something Sagasta feels him.
 self bound to avert. He prefers to en- ter into unequal war and keep it up
 till his people cry for peace.
 In spite of denials it is fact that the Carlists, who support the preten- sions of Don Carlos to the Spanish
 throne, are ready to appeal to the peo-
 pie to overthrow the present dynasty
 if it surrenders the last valuable rem , nant of Spain's ancient empire in the new world. There was once republic in the peninsula and there are still re-
 publicans who would not be disin-
 clined for change. These things are
 factors in the, case with which Sagasta has to deal
 t Of course Cuba will be lost in. any
 case. Spain's alternative is between
 losing Cuba with a cash indemnity and f losing Cuba without cash indemnity. , That is her predicament. And it 3 would be her predicament even with
 out the intervention of the United
 States. To yield now would be to nit :, igate the loss by an indemnity. To go on fighting means certain defeat and no indemnity.
 1 Before the present revolution began
 Spain was in financial trouble. The Cuban rebellion of twenty years ago
 the Carlist movement extending ur :, to 1876, and the anarchist outbreaks . of 1873 had involved the credit of the
 state so deeply as to lead to defaults
 in payment of interest on the public
 debt and to impose a deficit in the 5 revenues for many years to come. Fol
 twenty years to 1895 the average an nual deficit was some $16,000,0O
 Meantime, resort was had to lotter.
 ies, the farming out of monopolies and
 octroi or local customs taxes, to patel o up the public revenues methods O. taxation peculiarly in many case' adapted to impairing the revenue abil g ity of the state.
 : Thus the country in 1895 encoun T tered the new Cuban rebellion witl
 credit well nigh exhausted, an enor
 nous debt, high taxes and revenue de $ ficiency. Its debt in January, 1893 e was $1,43O, ,OOO,0 900 resting upon 17,000, y 900 people, or nearly double the pres 'e ent funded debt of the United State W resting upon 7O,0O0,OO0 people. Spain le debt is now $1,650, 100000.
 'r With it's bonds selling at 40 pc
 cent below par Spain began the sup
 pression of the present Cuban insurrec y tion. Cuban bonds were then sold til 'i no more could be floated even at Is heavy discount Some advances wer obtained from the Bank of Spain, tn T. state lottery was farmed out to pri H. vate corporations for fifteen year: Ill the salt monopoly for twenty-6v 7! years, the tobacco, stamps and explc
 sives monopolies for various period so from the Rothschilds on an eXtensio GU of the lease of the Almaden quicksilve LII mines, new taxes were levied on nav at gation, and finally loan of 100000 1y 900 pesetas was projected and tf ng railroads were granted an extension ( he certain privileges until 1880 if the
 would cooperate with the governmel
 in floating this new loan.
 on That was about the middle of 189 to and every effort was made to sell u nd proposed loan outside of Spain, u ed most tempting offers being made, b1 g- without avail. Finally 400,000,000 pc all etas of the billion issue contemplate .xt were offered at 5 per cent to hon Ter subscription and sold for an aggrega h. sum of 372,OOO,000 pesetas, or at ch considerable discount. When this la ba loan was made the government Wi la- nine months behind in payments to the army, navy and civil servants nd Cuban account.
 in Spain's sources of financial aid a
 exhausted, her foreign credit brok,