The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-08-08
COMMON SENSE IN CUBA.

Our experience in the Orient may be
our experience in the Occident unless d
little more common sense is shown in
the future than has been displayed in
the past. The governor general of
Cuba has undertaken to do by force
and at once what should be done by
education and gradually. He has pro-
hibited games and amusements which,
however Objectionable to the people Of
the United States, are rights and pleas
ures in the eyes Of the Cuban popula-
ton, as sacred and as well established
as education, custom and tradition can
make them.
When their games are stopped, their
amusements forbidden, while yet they
believe in their legal and moral right to
indulge in such pastimes, any people
of any land are apt 20 regard it as an
invasion of their liberties, an act Of
tyranny They regard with aversion
the attempt of another race to fasten
upon them its own code of morals
which, according to their standard, is
quite as Objectionable in some respects
to them as their own is to other peo-
pie.
a little common sense will suggest
TO a rational ruler that the best way
to accomplish the best results is to
keep the confidence of the people to be
reformed, to arouse no unnecessary
antagonisms, to give them no excuse
TO complain of tyranny, to improve
their conditions and broaden their
ho, TO 70
acts of resentment or coerce them to
stubborn sullenness.
a censorship has been established in
Cuba. Editors have been thrown into
prison and newspaper properties have
been confiscated. The offence of these
publishers and editors was TO advocate
the independence of their island; to de-
mand a redemption of the congressional
pledges made at the beginning of the
war with Spain; to denounce the spirit
of conquest which seems determined to
violate those pledges of the nation.
The governor general is an imperial
list If he were not it isn't likely that
he would be allowed TO hold the posi-
ton OF governor general. That he is
the stuff imperialists are made of is
shown by his remark concerning the
soldiers who complained of the nauseat-
ing effects of embaImed beef rations:
Il would courtmartial every man who
made complaint" he said.
This is a peculiar way to teach a
foreign people. a strange race, to look
this way for liberty. It isn't common
sense. Ii viii do more harm tenfold
than all the publications devoted to
the cause Of Cuba Libre." When Cap
tain General Weyler suppressed Cuban
journals that criticized the crown of
Spain and incarcerated editors who
refused TO voice his opinions. nearly
every new spaper in the United States
was overcome with Indignation and
filled with denunciations of that most
worthy representative of imperial
Spain. True, he added butchery and
robbery to his other accomplishments,
but he claimed they were necessary to
preserve order in the islands and kee9
the people in a proper state of sub
5ugation.
There is nothing cruel in our treat
,lent Of the CuDans; nothing dishonest;
but they look upon these drastic meas
ures as the first steps OF the gradual
encroachment Of new masters. Accord
ing TO their standard. measured by
their grasp of men and morals, it is an
injustice TO suppress their national
sports; an abridgement Of their liber-
ties TO confscate their public journals
and imprison their publishers. And
49,, o,,,. or,-,, -
cal reform. 1t isn't the best way TO
enlist the confidence and support of the
Islanders. 1t isn't common sense.