The evening times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1902, 1900-08-31

NEW YORK. Aug, S1.-senor Salvador
Cisneros Y Betancourt, twice President Of
the Cuban Republic, has issued in this city
an appeal TO the American people for
immediate freedom for the Cubans,
The appeal is also prepared in Spanish
and is now on its way 10 Cuba, where It
will figure powerfully, Senior Ctsneros be
lieves. III the approaching election OF dele
gates to the constitutional convention. In
conversation as well as in the appeal Senior
Cisneros declares that the present state OF
things in Cuba cannot be endured much
longer.
If they treat Us as Filipinos and do not
withdraw the troops within reasonable
time" he said. they can only expect the
same state of afairs-revoIuuon and
bloodshed-in Cuba as now prevails in the
Philippine Islands,"
Senior Cisneros says the military govern
ment of Cuba. even under the control Of
such a man as Gen. Leonard Wood. is an
instrument of tyranny and oppression. The
Cubans believe he states. that General
Wood will either procure subservient
constitutional convention, which VIII place
the land in a position of suzerainty TO the
United States, or viii dissolve il and con-
tinue the military occupation of Cuba.
This may Cubans believe is the pro-
gramme mapped out by the Administra-
ton.
AS TO the authority with which Senior
Cisneros speaks, his friends declare that
the Cuban people have offered to elect him
a delegate to the convention from any dis
trict in Cuba that he will name, and they
have also offered to elect him for the third
time as President of the republic
The appeal issued by Senior Cisneros
says in part:
During a struggle for independence of
fifty years the people of the island unani-
mously looked TO the United States for
moral support and confidently relied
the sympathies of its liberty loving peo-
pie. Under this leading idea large poT-
tion of the youth of both sexes Of Cuba
was sent to receive education in the Unit
ed States. Mutual commercial interests
immensely strengthened these close rela-
tons.
by the intervention of the United States
In the late war such an Invaluable service
was rendered 10 the cause Of the independ-
ence OF the island as can never be effaced
from the memory Of its sons No fear,
then. that any Cuban, true TO his country
and to himself when discussing the pres
ent and the future relations between Cuba
and the United States may be unfair and
still less hostile. and the writer certainly
would not be the exception. This appeal
10 free men, ready to help those who
would and deserve to be free, will then be
made with confidence and without malice
and without fear.
The system of military government
was established. and while it may have
had some advantages il has certainly Oc-
casioned great evils and threatens to cause
still greater ones. The people of the Unit
ed States must be informed that the mill
tary authorities in Cuba have been arbi-
trary in their proceedings; that they have
disregarded the right of the people of
Cuba: that they only too often act and
have acted as conQuerOrs in a conquered
land rather than as the Representatives of
free people helping those who had strug-
gled for freedom.
In utter ignorance of the language, Gus
toms and traditions of the people, they
have deeply wounded their feelings and
dignity; they have unIawfully discrtmtnat-
ed against the Cuban people and in favor
of fayorite adVenturers, 'carpetbaggers.'
and employees, natives Of the United States
with which the island is oyerTun-
They have used patronage a tde eX-
pense of the public treasury 10 gain sup
poTters, either for political or worse pur-
poses, and under such d baneful system
grave frauds have been and are being daily
perpetrated- 1t is a fact, however humiIf-
ating its admission must be to both Gu
bans and Americans, that a great deal less
has been done by the military government
in Cuba to repair the ravages of the war
and restore TO the country its lost pros
perity than was done by the Government
of Spain during the same period of time at
the close of the bloody and destructive ten
years war, so that industry and enterprise
languish and misery prevails throughout
the greater portion of the island
The independence of the island and the
weifare-nay, the very eXistence-of its
PEOPLE are gravely threatened today all
o. which has produced such general alarm
and just discomfort that ii has taken the
constant effort Of the more sober minded
and temperate leading Cubans 10 prevent
an outbreak which would repeat in Cuba
the disastrous scenes we have witnessed
in the Philippine Islands"
Senior Cisneros then specifies many oc-
CuTrences ON which his charges are based.
He mentions the postal frauds, for which
Nelly is now awaiting trial. Other charges
are the award of contracts for public work
in Havana to favored contractors without
competition or advertisement; frauds in
the construction of the TTicornia Railway;
the unlawful favOring of merchants from
the United States in the custom houses, TO
the detrlment of Cuban merchants; blum
ders at the municipal elections under mill
tary direction; insolent conduct of Army
officers in the arbitrary closing of grocery
stores to prevent soldiers buying LIQUOR
there; the appointment of Americans on a
commission TO frame the electoral law of
Cuba, and the approval of their minority
report by General Wood when they dis
agreed with the Cuban commissioners: the
Vetoing of the charter of Havana by Gen
eral Wood and the use of patronage by the