The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-07-03
PROBLEMS BORN OF THE PRESENT WAR
PERPLEX THE WISEST OF STATESMEN
Cuba Will Be "Run' By Syndicate and the Philippines
Will Be Annexed.
BY HENRY NORMAN.
Especial Commissioner of the London Chronicle2

By the greater issue mean simply
the Philippines All the rest is as fixed
as fate There is no doubt that Ha-
wall will be annexed. Cuba will be
given an opportunity an oppor-
tunity, by the way, unlimited, either
in time or scope-to govern herself, the
idea being that SO great an influx of
Americans, especially from the south,
and of American capital, will take
place that the elements of disorder and
corruption left by Spanish misrule will
speedily be showed under" and that
Cuba will bear the same relation to the
United States as the Transvaal would
have borne to Great Britain if the
Jameson raid had succeeded. One
West Indian republic" is administered
today by syndicate of New York CAPT
talists, and there are plenty ready to
run" Cuba. If these calculations,
however, prove erroneous, Cuba will be
annexed out and out. Porto Rico will
be annexed in any case, and q, strong
naval base formed there. With the
West Indies thus practically divided
between the United States and Great
Britain, the American government con-
siders that a safe and satisfactory sit
uation in that part of the world will
have been reached.
These coming events constitute, of
course, a vast change from anything
America has hitherto done. But of
themselves they do not of necessity i'm
ply any sweeping change of policy.
Cuba 1bre" means an act of human
ity, while Hawaii and Porto Rico are
the naval bases in a new scheme of
national defense. Obedience to the
teachings of Washington's farewell adj
dress may remain intact, though Porto
Rico comes under the same principles
of government with a different prac-
! tice) as Cuba on the one side and Hayti
on tie other, and though the chorus Of
''Hiki mai neiika ha liza qua kea" Of
my memory serves mel is sung by fair,
frail Hawaiians under the stars and
stripes. But the Philippines are very
different matter. With Admiral
Dewey's victory sealed, and General
Merritt installed as military governor,
| the United States becomes a nation
with colonies, reaping all the advan-
tages and mourning all the RESPONSE
bilities that colonies, like children,
bring with them. Then, in truth, the
! farewell address ceases to be the COM
pass of the statesman and becomes the
curio of the historian.
This is destined to be the new issue
| in American politics. When the house
of representatives voted the annexation
Of 90 no.
Of Republicans voted with the Demo-
cratic minority, and 80 Democrats, Sill
verites and Populists, with the Repub-
| lican majority. When it was announc-
ed from the chair that Mr.. Speaker
Reed, the Republican, would have
voted no if he had been present, the
Democrats applauded loudly-an Incl
dent without parallel. Thus the great
new issue is crossing and confusing the
old party lines. The Democratic party,
which has added almost all the terri
tory to the Union, is as a whole against
the colonial policy. Mr.. Bryan de-
nounced it on the same day that 80 of
! his former followers voted for it, and
/ one Of the leaders of the Democratic
party assured me a few days ago that
if ever the nation were committed to
it he would retire from public life. Mr..
Cleveland was justly described by
friend who returned from visiting him,
as passing his time in fishing and
growing" The newspapers are similar
ly divided without the usual party al
| legiance. New York, I should say, is
divided in opinion Boston, of course,
I is against it, but the Boston line of
! argument is calculated rather to help it
along. For example, at a meeting of
protest the other day, the following
resolution was passed:
Resolved, That our first duty is to
cure the evils in our own country, the
corrupt government, of which New
York and Pennsylvania. afford only
/ conspicuous examples; the disturbed
relations between capital and labor, our
disordered currency, our unjust system
of taxation, the debasing influence of
money at elections and on legislation,
and the use of offices as spoils, and
when we have shown that we can pro-
tect the rights of men within our own
borders, like the colored race in the
south and the Indians in the west, and
that we can govern great cities like
New York, Pennsylvania and Chicago,
it will be time to consider whether we
/ can wisely invite distant population of
/ alien race and language and of tradi
tons unlike our own either to become
our subjects and accept our rule or
our fellow citizens and to take part in
/ governing US.
The independent, the leading reli-
/ gious weekly, is Of the opinion that
/ "a nation which would give back the
Philippines to Spain would hand back
to tiger the little lamb wrested from
/ it's grasp" This, remarks the New
York Evening Post, is sickening. But