The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1902-10-21
CONDITION or CUBA
AND ITS PROSPECTS
SUGGESTION THAT ANNEXATION
TO THE UNITED STATES MAY
ULTIMATELY COME ABOUT.

The population of the island is about
a million and a half. One-thlrd, rough
ly speaking, are negroes or mulaJtoes,
and good many more have in them a
strain Of COlOred blood EducauOnally
they are backward for certainly more
than halt--and 1 have, indeed, heard it
said, three-fOurths-a unable to read
and write, while comparatively lew
have received what would be called in
Europe or the United states fair sec
ondary education. They have shown
no great aptitude for COnmerce-the
largest business firms are generally
either Spanish on foreign, and they
are not very efficient as IaDorers, GER
tainiy less efficient than either the
CpaniardS of Old Spain or the Ameri-
cans of the mIudle states. Except
among the pidnters-it indeed, they
are an exception after what has been
said of their depressed condition
there is very little wealth in Cuban
hands. Politically, the people are quite
unframed; for, during the long rule of
Spain there was practically no oppor-
tunity of learning how to work free in
stitutiOns either in local areas or as
respects the country as a whole. Span
ish government was despOtic, just as
Spanish admins tratiOn was bureau
cratic.
So, too, they have had hardly any
means OF learning who are their own
best men, and, in this respect, it is un-
fortunate for them that they did not
achieve their liberty by their unaided
exertions, for in the process Of win
ming it, the men of most natural capa-
city for politics would probably have
been brought to the front. On the 9TH
er hand, it is their good luck to be not
| sharply divided into sections, either by
ecclesiastical or by radical issues. The
| Roman Church, though she stlli hoIds
a good deal of property, does not app
| pear to exert muCn political power,
and religious issues play no conspicu-
! Gus part. AS respects color, though
! the whites deem themselves mucn
above the negroes, they do not assert
! their superiority in offensive ways
partly perhaps, because the Cuban,
are a polite and courteous people; non
do the negroes show animosity agains
the whites. Now and then a littl,
friction occurs-there was a case a
Santiago a few months ago which
reused some disquiet, but, on tn,
| whole, the relations Of the races ar,
friendly, as, indeed. is more often tn,
case in Spanish than in Teutonic cOun
tries. Moreover, the predominance o.
the whites, in number as well as il
wealth and knowledge, removes any
occasion for serious uneasiness on thei
part.
Such, stated in its simplest outline
is the position in which Cuba finds
herself, now that the control of hel
own destiny is to be restored to her
subject to those conditions which Con
gress has thought it to impose. AnC
among the questions she has to decide
the most momentous is that of her re
lation to the United States, her neares
and most powerful neighbOr. The Gu
bans are all agreed in desiring friend
ship, and in desiring to have the clos
| est commercial relations. The admis
sion of their products free of duty tC
the markets of the United States would
be to them the greatest possible boon
But If the boon cannot be obtained eX'
cept at the price of the annexation OF
| their island TO the United States, tn,
question arises whether commercial
prosperity ought to. be purchased a
the price of sacrifice of national indie
pendence and one hears in the islanC
much debate on the suDject.-Nortl
American Review.