The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1898-01-29
gailu Eagle
M NJ nKIRnnCK Editor.
1NFANTA MARIA TERESA.

Yesterdays Washington dispatches
indicate some trepidation upon the
part of the heads Of the administra-
ton because of the fact Of the an
. nouncement that the Infanta Maria
Teresa had been ordered to steam up
for an American port. as a bluff to the
Maine incident. The Teresa is an ar
mored cruiser of 1000 tons and 500 men,
carrying big guns, two of which are
eIeven-inch bore.
Poor old Spain, aesthetically ana
sentimentally considered, is entitled to
the sympathies of the world. TINS
country of castles and romance, or tor-
rner chivalry and power, is lettering
into ruin while still surrounded by ma
tions of splendor and in an age mark
ed by growth and progress everywhere,
all of which but accents her decrepIt-
ude and decay. At one time Spain pos
sessed all of South America, a great
mart of North America and all the
islands in the West Indies. Nothing
of these enormous possessions remain
TO her except Cuba and Porto RICO
The Spaniards cannot govern colonies;
they can only Cypress them. The in
stinct OF freedom, natural to every
self-reliant people, revolts against
Spanish methods Of government. Ihe
collapse Of SPANS dominion in the
western hemisphere began in 1921 she
has held on to Cuba with a desperate
grasp. To retain her hold she has ex-
pended millions in money, and the sac
rifice of human life has been almost
beyond conception. SO the finger OF
destiny points to the freedom OF CUBA,
its loss to Spain. The cost of the last
rebellion before the present one cost
Cuba. seventy millions of dollars, IN
which war it is said that $4,000 Span
iards yielded up their lives through
disease and by the sword. The present
revolution has cost double the amount
of the rebellion, for the present revolt
will prove revolution. No kingdom
can stand the strain to which Spain
has been put in attempting to retain
Cuba, and the sending of a warship to
the waters of the United States is but
child's play.
1t is useless to deny that the United
States is interested in Cuba, interested
not only financially and commercially,
but politically. It's position in our own
gulf renders the fact undeniable. The
island belongs to and is a part of this
continent, and the United States dom
mates the continent. AS late as 1925
Spain practically offered to cede the
possession of the island to this country
But this country was too young and
out. President Folk subsequently Of
fered Spain $1,000 900 for Cuba, but
the offer was rejected. Afterwards
came instructions and now practi-
cal revolution, in which Spain must in
evitabIy lose the island. The present
struggle can only result in one of two
ways. either in annexation or in indie
pendence, in either of which events
Cuba will be lost to Spain. Either an
nexation or independence may come at
the end of a war with the United
States, but one or the other is inevita-
BILE. Cuba would make a very large
state, being 700 miles long and seventy
five miles wide, and containing as
many people, or more than Kansas.
The only thing against independence is
the ignorance of her mixed race of
masses. The same objection holds
good against annexation. Her people
would not assimilate with us nor take
the proper interest in our national af-
fairs.
OF the episode involved in the order
ing of the Maine to Havana and the
Infanta Maria Teresa to New York
the people of this country will hear
further. While Spain must lose Cuba,
the people of this country do not desire
that it shall be at the expense of the
United States in the way of open war.
The movements Of these vessels con-
stitute the first steps to open rupture.
Yet trouble may not follow. That
there is serious apprehension in diplo-
matte circles our dispatches Of yester-
day morning only too plainly indicate