The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-09-28
BROOKE'S AUTOCRACY IN CUBA.
Complaint that Government There Is
Not What 1t ShOuld BE.
Washington Post

Those who are interested in an honor
able and beneicent solution Of the Cuban
problem continue to wonder at the failure
OF our military authorities in the island
10 introduce for the benefit of the people
az !east the rudimentary ideas of personal
liberty and governmental justice. Fur
5asrmore; they have begun to ask why. if
meet the demands CT modern civilizat ton
IN this respect. the secretary Of war does
not remove him and put in mis- place some
one who VIII redeem the solemn pledges
Of the American people.
General Brooke has been in supreme COM
mand In Cuba for the past eight or nine
months. There has been no one to inter-
fere with him or to say him nay in any,
thing. His authority is absolute. He can
he may think proper. He appoints both
civil and military officials, regulates tax
alton, local government and the admins
reduced municipal taxation to such an ex-
tent that the towns cannot maintain their
financial systems without applying to
him for ala. and he has riveted his domi-
nation by making good-at his own pleas
ure and discretion-the deficit which he
himself created. This he does by taking
taxation, and so becomes an autocrat
more absolute than is to be found outside
the realms of .barbarism. And yet, de-
spite, all this concentration of power and
It's accompanying wealth of opportunity
General Brooke has not yet touched the
work which our government has promised
- Sopo. - iOIS Az VI
stolfd Indifference to the complaints and
protests of American citizens he, some
weeks ago. consented to extinguish the
But the question of the habeas corpus
the very essence of human liberty as it
r : snqsrs'D Hot b a@on even "f broa AhslG-Sa1 Toa
day, as for centuries past. men can be
arrested and thrown into Cuban prisons
on charges however frivolous and vile, and
there Is no power save that of Brooke
himself to release them or to give them a
prompt and honest hearing. For five
days at least the prisoner must lie in his
dungeon, ignorant of the accusation as
of the accuser, and bereft Of every hope
of justice. After that he may have a
and then he returns to his cell TO await
the interminable processes of Spanish law.
If he be without friends. or if. having
with them-and this happens every hour
OF the day--he may remain in jail until he
ia forgotten: until the authorities them
selves are unable to specify the crime or
the allegation of crime upon which he
was imprisoned. Thousands of unhappy
Rican jails to-day. and no one knows
why. II. indeed, any one remembers them
ut all.
Surely the country is warranted in nurs-
ing q more or less resentful anxiety in
this matter. These tyrannical arrests and
imprisonments. these .denials of justice.
these monstrous insults to liberty and
civilization furnished two years ago the
material for our Indignant cutlery against
Spain. We denounced them then as hid
eous barbarities-which they were-and we
called heaven to witness the purity of our
humane purpose in undertaking TO Danish
them from the western hemisphere. Philan-
thropistS rallied, statesmen Numbered, pub
lie sentiment was dashed into a fury of re-
monstrance. We consecrated ourselves to
the task of destroying in Cuba the abomin-
able machinery of cruelty and despotism.
And upon this feverish wave of altruism
the President was f1ung-much against his
Judgment. as we believe-into the abyss OF
war.
Now Brooke sits in the seat of Weyler.
There has been a cessation of the So
called military operations which prevailed
before our occupation, and We have done
and are still doing much to relieve distress.
But so far as regards personal liberty,
so far as regards the restoration Of indi-
vidual rights and the establishment OF
civilized methods of free government,
Brooke has not improved one iota upon
the situation as it existed under Weyler.
Justice is as slow--indeed, inaccessible-as
1t ever was, and the autocracy is as re-
lentless and complete.