The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-06-14
CUBANS as RULERS.

There has lately been a noteworthy
absence of dispatches of an alarmist or
dscouraging character regarding Cuba.
Even the disarmament of the native
soldiery has proceeded with smoothness,
though the number of rifles thus far
given up may not be so large as was
hoped for. The question of the right #
Cuban vessels to fly the American flag
has been settled in such modified form
as seems at present possible and the
United States government has under
taken the protection of Cubans resident
abroad. Complaints against the Ameri-
can military regime have been hushed
of late, and it may be assumed that
quiet and something like contentment
prevail.
More significant than any of these
things is the good understanding which
exists between the American officers
and the Cuban civil officials who are
governing under their protection. Ger
tain New York newspapers have found
fault with the governor general and his
assistants for forcing the inclinations
of the Cubans and irritating the people
by imposing regulations Of needless and
tanned in Havana, however, shows that
in every instance the orders criticised
originated with the Cuban officials
themselves and sometimes merely COM
PEELED the enforcement of municipal
laws which 'had been allowed to lapse
under the slackness of the Spanish
regime. Several examples in point are
worth citing. for they show the Cuban
in a new light.
The Cuban civil authorities them
selves suppressed the gambling houses
and established hours for the closing of
shops on Sundays and week days. The
prohibition of smoking in street cars
and theatres is but the enforcement of
an old civic regulation that had been
allowed to become a dead letter for the
convenience of Spanish officers. SINH
larly there was an old regulation for
bidding the appearance in public places
of persons clothed only in undershirts,
and it has remained for the Cubans
themselves to enforce it. An American
resident in Havana, writing of Sunday
observances, remarks that base ball is
not forbidden, but that men and boys
may be seen playing the game in almost
any vacant lot in the suburbs. He adds
that 1.-THE great northern Sunday gama
of golf has not yet reached us"
It is to be remembered that regula-
tons of the sort described have been
devised and enforced by the Cubans
themselves. The governor general, there
is good reason for saying, has scrupu-
lousy avoided interference in strictly
local matters with which the native
officials were competent to deal The
military authority has stood behind the
civil and given it moral support, in
order to give color as far as possible
to the theory that the United States
army is in Cuba for the purpose of
assisting the Cubans TO learn how to
govern themselves. The military gov
errors have interfered upon occasion,
as for example, for the annulment of a
fraudulent contract or the suspension
of pension that remained as a legacy
from Spanish sovereignty. These ex-
ceptions only go to prove the discrim-
mating wisdom Of the American officers.
On the whole, therefore, it would seem
that the Cubans are already participant
ing in government to an extent utterly
unknown under their Spanish rulers,
and, barring political agitators, Of
whom there is more than a sufficiency.
the men in control are making COM
mendable use of their new powers.