The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-02-02
CUBANS DESIRE A LOAN
NEITHER ASK NOR DESIRE AM
ERICAN CONTRIBUTIONS.
WISH SOLDIERS GIVEN A START IN LIFE
fhe Senate Should End Present Situation at
0rcp, and the President Should Bend
Every Tre gtto Bring About
Civil Cow rnment.

Mobile, Ala, Feb. 1.-Hannis Taylor,
ex-Minister to Spain, who returned yes
terday from two weeks visit to Cuba,
has given the Associated Press the fol-
lowing interview on the Cuban situation:
while in Cuba upon purely private
business, l 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, demand
ing immediate and absolute independ-
ence, on the other by the purely Span
ish element seeking protection under
our flag. Between the two extremes 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.
Cpon one point all agree. American
officers and Cubans, and that is that
outside Of the cities the country is in Il
condition of want and misery that can
hardly be explained. AS an aggravation
of that condition stands the Cuban
army, composed of at least 10000 idle
men, waiting with arms in their hands
for such Il settlement of their duties as
will enable them to resume life again.
''When | asked those who had a right
to speak for the army what sum would
suffice for satisfactory settlement
they said ten or eleven millionsaak%least.
a sum that would give about 300 dollars
to each man. With that they said the
small farmers could procure stock and
live until they could make a crop. The
Cubans neither ask nor desire us to con-
tribute Il 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 $12,O00,000 to S15.000000 Il year,
the proceeds OF the loan to he paid to
their soldiers through our military au-
thorities.
"Every class in Cuba is now demand
ing that a settlement be made at once
so that menacing and consuming body
of idle men may he converted into peace
full producers. In that way the nd1s-
trial energies of the country could b.
revived and a force dissolved, which
like the army of Cromwell. is not only
a military body. hut the dominant politi-
cal party in the island.
II cannot doubt that if the just
claims of the Cuban army are treated
with injustice and contempt, and the
present military regime continued indefi-
nitclv in Il short while we should be
hated by the Cubans just as the Span
iards We're, and condition of things
brought about that will force us either
to withdraw from the island or to gov
crn there just as Russia does I'm Poland.
ot,I
ernors are the fact remains that they
govern by the sword. in defiance of the
civil power, and the result is that impa-
ticnce and discomfort are already clear
" manifested on every hand. The ureA
ent need in Cuba now is prompt and
satisfactory settlement with the army
of the revolution and establishment as
soon as possible Of provisional civil
regime i'll which Cubans themselves can
have voice.
"The President should labor unceas-
inglv to attain this end, and in the effort
to do so he should have the cordial CO.
operation and support of all patriotic
and liberty-loving men, regardless OF
party.
"We should learn from the English
how suicidal it is to carry our party diff
ticulties into our foreign affairs. lnc
patriotic instinct of Mr.. Bryan hit the
mark when ne urged the immediate rati-
tication of the pending treaty and the
settlement Of all difficulties afterwards.
THE Senate should end at once the
present situation, so detrimental to all
foreign interests, while Congress as a
whole should give to the President ev-
cry facility necessary to enable him to
settle every foreign question now de-
manding an Immediate solution.