The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-02-07
Personal Observations
of Hannis Taylor.
EXTREMES OF OPINION
Between Desire for Absolute Independ.
enee and Protection Under Our Flag.
The Army a Serious Menaee-Neces-
sfty for Paying the Soldiers and En-.
abling Them to Return to Peaceful
Pursuits-Tbey Ask Only a Loan for
Purpose.

Mobile, Ala, February 1.-Hannis
Taylor, ex-minister to Spain, who re-
turned yesterday from a w weeks
visit to Cuba, a given the Associated
Press the following interview on the
Cuban situation:
while in Cuba upon purely private
business, I came in contact with the
leaders of every faction into which
the population is now divided. The ex-
tremes Of opinion are represented on
one hand by Cuban military chiefs, de-
handing immediate and absolute in
dependence; on the other by the pure
ly Spanish element, seeking protection
under our flag. Between the two ex-
tremes are ranged the main body Of
the people, standing in an expectant
attitude ready/to give their approval
to any plan that will re-establish law,
order and material prosperity upon a
permanent basis. Upon n point all
agree-American officers and Cubans-
and that is, that outside of the cities
the country is in a condition Of want
and misery that can hardly be ex-
planned. AS al ~aggravation of that
condition stands the Cuban army, COM
ing with arms in their hands for such
a settlement Of their duties as will
enable them to resume civil life again.
when 1 asked those who had a right
to speak for the army what sum would
suffice for a satisfactory settlement,
they said ten or eleven millions at
least, assuming that would give about
$500 to each man. With that they said
small farmers could procure stock and
live until they could make a crop.
The Cubans neither ask nor de-
sire us to contribute a penny for the
payment of their army. All they ask
is that a loan should be made for the
purpose, charged upon their custom
house, now yielding from twelve to
fifteen millions a. year., the proceeds of
through our military authorities.
Every class in Cuba is now de-
handing that a settlement be made
at once, so that a menacing and con-
Stunning body of idle men may be con-
verted into peaceful producers. In that
way the industrial energies of the
country could be revived and a force
dissolved which, like the army Ct
Cromwell, is not only a military body,
out the dominant pc,nit1cal power in
the island,
x eannof doubt that if the just
claims of the Cuban army are treated
with injustice and contempt, and the
present military regime continued in
definitely, in a short while we would
be hated by the Cubans just as the
Spaniards were, and a condition OF
things brought about that will force
us either to withdraw from the island
or RI crOxJarn there inst as Russia does
in Poland. Wise and humane as our
military governors are, the fact re-
mains that they govern by the sword,
in defiance of the civil power, and the
esult is that impatience and discon-
tent are already clearly manifested on
every hand. The urgent need in Cuba
now is a prompt and satisfactory set
Element with the army Of the revolu-
ton and the establishment, as soon
as possible, of a provisional civil re-
gime in which Cubans themselves a
ave a voice.
1.-THE president should labor unceas-
ingly to attain both ends, and in the
effort to do so he should have the cor
dial cooperation and support of all
patriotic liberty loving men, re-
CARELESS of party.
1--WE should learn from the English
how suicidal it is to carry u party
difficulties into u foreign affairs. The
patriotic instinct or MI. Bryan MT
the mark when he urged the immedi
ate ratification Of the pending treaty
and the settlement Of all difficulties
afterward.
'"The senate should end at once the
present situation, so detrimental to all
our foreign interests, while congress
as a whole should give to the pres
ident every facility necessary to enable
him to settle every foreign question
now demanding an immediate solu-
tion."