The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-04-11
A plea for MagnanimIty.

A plea for Magnanlmlty.
The recent manifesto Of Attorney
Rubens should be considered fairly. 1t
was most ill-timed; it put a weapon at
"A critical moment in the hands of an
element at Washington which up to
that time had been resisting with no
success whatever the attempt to COM
NIT this government to a policy Of
forcible Intervention in cuba. 1t also
eXtinGushed what hope there had been
for an immediate recognition of the
insurgent government. Momentarily it
arrested popular sympathy for the in
sursent cause, but momentarily only.
TO understand Mr. Rubens' frame of
mind We must consider the subject as
well from the Cuban as from the Amer
lean point of view. From the American
standpoint the Rubens manifesto
savored Of rank ingratitude. arrogance
and extreme COnCeit. But the Cubans
have known that for three years the
hand Of the government has been
against them: that in All their en-
country to the insurgent forces they
have had to combat not only Spain but
also the United States that during all
these months and years of agony, while
Spain was butchering their young raw
ishiug their women and practcing hor-
rOrs which no Christian nation with
the power to prevent should have toll
Grated near it's borders for an instant,
the government at Washington. out
wardly at least had until recently been
aCquiesCent and even inclined to
shade its diplomacy to suit Spain's
ticklish susceptibilities. The Cubans
have at all times warmly appreciated
the expressions of sympathy and the
aid which they have received from in
diVidual Americans. But is it to be
wondered at that they should have
formed for the American government.
as a sovernmentin differentiation from
the American people as individuals. a
feeling akin TO distrust? The govern
ment at Washington never appeared to
them to take any serious. cO6nizance of
Spain's unutterable hellishness in Cuba
until it had itself been treated TO a
taste Of it through the blowing up Of
the Maine. Even then an influential
group or senators exhausted every ex-
pedient to hold the government back
from it's duty, and when overruled by
Irresistible public opinion. started at
once to attack the Cuban cause and to
urge the seizure OF Cuba for our own.
1t was in this mood, under this ten
sion produced in large part by false
information but information which
seemed plausible to him from the point
of view just described, that Mr., Rubens
issued his unwise statement Ameri-
cans, not under this tension and hay
ing trueP sense of their own govern
ments purity Of motive and judicial
fairness, were at first astounded and
later grew intensely indignant. But the
reaction has come. They are already
displaying their characteristic magnan-
unity and making allowances. The
representative Cubans themselves i'm
mediately perceived the unfairness OF
the Rubens manifesto. Without excep-
tion every representative Cuban in this
country. from Senor Palma down. has
put himself on record--nOt by recedine
one iota from the demand for uncon-
ditional ndependence-but in affirming
his Willingness and the willingness of
his people to trust Cubas ultimate des-
tiny TO the inherent fairness and high
honor Of the American nation. The
Cubans in this country have for three
years hoped and prayed for official
American recognition of their un-
paralleled struggle for freedom, for an
expression in forms Of law of that ard
ent and generous sympathy which
every true American feels for them in
dividually. The sudden announcement
at Washington that this would he
longer withheld came TO them With the
shock Of an utterly incomprehensible
blow from a supposedly friendly quar-
ter, and for a moment some of them.
already overWrought by the excitement
Of the general struggle lost their heads.
Bur explanations have followed andmis-
Understandings have been cleared M.
These brave and devoted people, the ex-
tent Of whose sacrifices on the altar of
Cuba Libre not one American in a thou
sand fully realizes, are now themselves
again: warm in appreciation of Ameri-
can sympathy, earnest in their will
ingness to lend all possible co-opera-
tion to Americas cause against Spain,
and anxious by later deeds to atone for
| the injustice Of their brief but ex-
! cusable distrust.
Let Americans, then, be as chivaI.
| rous in pardon as they We're quick in