Evening star., 1899-03-02
Americans in Cuba Surprised at the
Lack of It.
INDEPENDENCE SENTIMENT DOMINATES
Causes That Have Brought About
This Condition.
REACTION WILL COME
Copyright 1899, by Charles NJ. Pepper)

Cuba are surprised at what they call the
rack of annexation sentiment business
man from a western city said to me: I'VE
thought at home that everybody except
those Cuban generals wanted annexation.
Down here l don't find anybody for it. How
is that?' Other newcomers are asking the
same question. They are all puzzled. The
answer they get to their questions common
ly is that there was an annexation move
! ment, but that it has disappeared. Ameri-
can officials who have been here for months
talk of this disappearance as something
mysterious and phenomenal. They tell how
everybody they met their arrival wanted
Cuba to be part of the United States, and
how nobody wants it now They are won
dering what has happened to cause such
revulsion in feeling
l have not been able to share their rer-
pleXity, because / was naver able to find
the strong annexation sentiment which was
said to exist. 1t always eluded my search
The movement now going on is not an
anti-annexation movement. 1t is simply the
crystallizing of the sentiment for inde-
pendence which was obscured for a time
Ihls sentiment is strengthened by the en-
couragement 1t receives from two distinct
and widely separated elements which in
the beginning were not pronounced in their
desire for an Independent government
Ihese elements are the Spanish classes and
the blackS-the race of color' as the term
is. Such positive hostility as is manifested
to annexation comes from these. y few
months ago they were not aggressIvely hos
tile. The discovery of the present feeling
is what has led Americans to think that a
revolution in popular sentiment has taken
place. There has been no revolution he
cause the mass of the Cuban people wanted
independence in October Just as they want
IL today. The probability is that for few
months the agitation will BE- so pronounced
that nothing else than Immediate and COM
plete independence will be talked. Afte! a
period of this agitation the reaction will
come. 1t may not be in favor of anneXa-
tion, but 1t will cause earnest and sober
reflection on what is best for the future of
cuba. Out of that may grow a definite
plan for an Independent government under
an American proteCtorate.
Possibly Some DisapDOintment
Possibly there will be disappointment in
the United States that the tendency is not
more strongly toward annexation. There
need be none. An understanding of the
economic and other problems which must
be worked out in Cuba would not encour-
age haste in taking an Antillian state into
the Union and there is no prospect that
even fraction of the people would ask
annexation except a state. Military men
who came to Cuba in the fall did not under
stand this fact. Their perceptve faculties
do not seem to have been of the best and
their ability to discriminate was not of the
owners and sugar planters anxious for the
shelter of the American flag. They met
leading professional men who told them
that Cuba was thinking only of annexation
Havana business men said that nobody eX
cept few adventurerS among the insur-
gent generals wanted independence, and
these only because they could have the
offices to themselves. When one man pre-
sented the same set of views six times
the army officers became confused in their
minds and thought six different men had
given opinions.
AS for the masses no account was taken
of their existence and of their influence.
one day an American official was telling
me that the sentiment among the Spanards
was unanimous for annexation. | asked
him if he had inquired about the bodegueros
Who are the bodegueros?" was his reply.
The bodegueros are the men who own the
grocery stores which are located on every
corner and in every block in the city. They
are all Spaniards. They dominate the
tail trade and politically they are the most
compact and powerful influence in Havana.
At the time of this conversation some of
them were painting their stores the Cuban
colorS in order to keep their customers, and
all of them were showing hostility to the
American military occupation and to the
United States. Just after the signing of the
protocol they had been fierce in their hatred
of the Cubans and had wanted immediate
annexation. The American military officer
thought he was giving correct information
when he said the Spaniards were unanimous
for annexation. Somebody had told him so,
IL
existence of bodegueros he could not know
of their changed attitude and of the in
fluence which they might exert And that
was a sample Of much of the information
which was gathered.
Civilian and Military DeIusion.
American civilians shared the delusion of
the military officials. In November a young
man who was establishing himself in Ha-
vana came to me to inquire about certain
wo a
only met three Havana merchants" he
said. "and they all want independence
How are Americans going to do busi-
ness here if they go on that way?' / sug-
gested that as long as he had customers
for his goods he need not specially concern
himself with political probabilities. A fort
night later he showed me q letter he was
writing home. In it he told of four mer-
chants with whom he had business associa-
tions and all of whom We're enthusiastic
for annexation. He had added a line say
ing, Everybody here wants to be an Amer
lean citizen" 1 asked him about the three
merchants he had met earlier and who IA
vored independence. He had forgotten
them. But they were probably for annex
alton, only they didn't want to say So"
he added, a trifle douLtinely. So his letter
went and in small way probably did its
share toward misinforming Americans re-
garding the probabilities in Cuba. This
young business man would not make a
good newspaper reporter, because he re-
htCteu Oily lHe VIEWS Oh lNe persons he
talked with last. And he had the bad habit
of assuming that those whose opinions did
not agree with his own ware lying when
they gave utterance to contrary views D,l-
plicity is a marked Latin trait and il lacks
the robust self-confidence of Anglo-SaXon
hypocrisy, yet. while there is some living
IN the utteranceS on Cuban independence
or annexation, 1t is most unwise to assume
that everybody who says he is for indie
pendence is in reality for annexation
American officials have been amazed at
what they describe the change in senti-
ment among the Spanish classes Hostility
to the United States which was latent after
the signing of the protocol has developed.
and they mistake this for change in SEN
timent. Some change has >tsken place and
this is due to variety of causes. The fear
of intolerance from the supremacy of the
Cubans has gradually lessened 1t has not
wholly gone, because the ground for it has
not entirely disappeared. But Maxine
Gomez can do more to protect the Span-
iards from Cuban resentment than 80 900
American troops can do, and they feel it.
He has not healed the breach completely
and 1t cannot be healed within a twelve
month. Yet in a few months infinitely
greater progress has been made in bring
ing the two classes together than was made
toward conciliating the people of the north
and south for years after the civil war