The Lafayette gazette. [volume] (Lafayette, La.) 1893-1921, 1902-07-19
The Rae. Quest:o" in Cuba.

The Race QuSst:O" in Cuba.
New Orleans States.
The race question is coming
rapidly to the front in cuba, and,
is going to give the statesmen
of the young Republic great
deal of trouble. This fact has al
ready been anticipated by the
leading Cubans, who believe
, that the only solution of
the problem and the safety
of the island from race con-
tlict lies in annexation. This
is the opinion expressed by Gen.
Fitzhugh Lee, who is familiar
with the conditions in Cuba and
the character of the people, and
it j.; shared by Gomez who
stated his views very frankly
recently while presiding at Il
mass meeting of negroes at Ha-
vana. The negro leaders are
demanding recognition and equal
rights with the whites in the gov
eminent of the island. In com
menting on their demands the
Boston Herald says:
''lf Cuba is to become what her well
wishers desire, n independent, self-contained
and prosperous republic, it will hardly be
safe to put into offices of responsibility men
who have absolutely education and who
have only the crudest ideas concerning the
conduct of public affairs. The Cuban adj
miIstration needs for some time to come
TO be handled with the utmost care. Need
less waste and incompetency cannot he
tolerated and fitness for service, rather than
the color of the skin, must be the test applied
by the Cuban president in selecting those
who to carry out his commands. even if
in SO doing he has to run risks of negro
insurrcction.'
According to the census taken
by the military authorities of
the United States there were
,O67: 900 people in Cuba in 1899
who were classed as whites al
though some of them were of
mixed blood, and sos, 900 ne
GrOeS, about 100, 900 less than
there were in 1860, showing that
mum Der. AS there are two
whites to one negro the former
should be able to control the
government if the negro pOpula-
in some portions of the island
they are more numerous than
the whites. which. of course,
would enable them to rule those
sections it granted equal pOliti-
cal rights with the whites. The
Boston Herald sees a way out of
the difficulty in recognizing only
intelligence and fitness which
would shut out of Office all but Il
very few negroes, and this plan
will, no doubt, be adopted by
President Palma.
The conditions in our South
ern States arc identical with
those in Cuba, and in some of
them the blacks Outnum Der the
whites and would rule if there
We're not a qualified suffrage
U1le mass OIL
ignorant negroes from the cleo
tOrate, yet because Of the qua
lifted suffrage the Herald has
been dt times savage in it's criti
ciSm of the situation in Cuba,
but its vision becomes distorted
when it looks at the situation in
this section of the country.
The man with a we'll trained
mind is dressed in arnOr for
defense, but he has no offensive
weapon in his grasp. The man
who has only a skilled arm has a
powerful lance, but no armOr for
Self-defense. The man with a
trained mind and also a trained
arm and hand, all acting in
unison, is armed cap-a-pie to
attack and to resist The boy
or girl who has received a brain
education alone is but half pre-
pared for life. But the boy or
girl with the fitting which
modern manual training high
school can and does give has two