The Dalles times-mountaineer. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1882-1904, 1898-05-17
Contributed 2Q1zlcles

cOnsciences alone cost $54S.694 pei
annum.
1t is marvellous that for three-quarters
of century Cuba has been in almost
constant rebellion, one war following
another in rapid succession and still
the spirit of freedom lives in the hearts
of her people. Her own Institution of
slavery prevented the Uuited States
from interfering in behalf of her slaves
or her people. So from the time John
Quincy Adams took the presidential
chair, up to today. we have lived neigh
Dor to atrocities practised by Spain,
only equalled by her own barbarities in
former ages.
The present revolution is one of
the people, it is common cause with
the principal Cuban families and the
plain people, and they are all desperate
ly in earnest. The present outbreak
was caused by an. offer from Spsin to
make certain reforms in the government
of the island. The old revolutionary
leaders, fearing that the promise of
these reforms might satisfy the Cubans
and that they would cease to strive for
complete independence, started the the
revolt, Another cause which precipita
ted the revolution was the financial de-
preston of 1894 which closed the sugar
mills all over the island. Had Spain
been protector instead of prosecutor
of her provinces, she mi ght then have
issued loan that would have kept her
people employed in industry-the
greatest preventive of war. Starvation
rather than battle is the policy of Spain.
Little forts are thrown up all over the
island making its plains look like fields
of hay-cocks. 1t is remarkable how
closely the line is drawn around every
town and city in Cuba. 1t is impossi-
BILE for anyone to pass either from the
inside or outside, so stranger in Cuba
is prisoner and on " permitted to leave
by train. From the towns daily raids
are made into the country, the troops
in time for supper.
By order of General Weyler, all dis
loyal subjects of Spain were compelled
to move into the fortified towns while
their huts and crops were burned by the
Spanish soldiers. The result of this is
the herding together of hundreds of
people without food, without clothing,
without shelter, simply huddled together
IN the bare ground, with no thought
out how they could live another day.
These are mostly women and children
The men having escaped and joined the
rather than starve. The
object of this order was to starve out
;he insurgents, but it has proved BOOM
erang that has brought swift and terri
ole suffering to the adherants of the
government. SO cruelty is this law en-
'orced that man steals out to dig po-
5atoes from and adjacent field he is shot
lown. The beautiful and fertile island
IS simply waste, every growing thing
having been cut down and burned. To
realize this we need ouly remember the
act that from one small province there
was shipped to the United States in 1894
eleven millions of dollars worth of
sugar, in 1895 it fell to eight millions
and in 1896 did not reach one million.
1t may be very well for the United
States to avoid entering into foreign
war but this is not war, it is a slaugh-
ter of innocent women and children
carried on at our very doors. President
Cleveland stated in his message to con-
gress, that when the war in Cuba ''has
into a strife which is moth
ing more than the useless sacrifice of
human life, our obligations to the
sovereingnty of Spain will be superseded
by higher obligations which we can
hardly hesitate to recognize and dis
charge We find the struggle has de-
generated into not only a useless sacri-
fee of life, but a wanton sacrifice of
life, property and decency. Is it the
the money power that is holding back
the protecting hand of our president?
Can any power hold back our people
I a. ~, -