Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-10-26
BEVERIDGE ON CUBA
REFORMS OF ROOSEVELT AND
THE OPPOSITION.

Senator Albert J. Beveridge addressed
mass meeting at the Coliseum in Terre
Haute, Ind, yesterday. large audience
listened to him. He said:
| The other day Mr.. Haveberer, the
master of the sugar trust declared in
Colorado that If American authority is es-
! tabl:shed in Cuba permanently, or If we
have any closer relations with that island.
the beet sugar interests in this country
would suffer. Therefore the sugar trust
| is against continuing American authority
| in Cuba as a matter of national honor"
| against Cuban annexation and for keep
| ing our plighted word
| There are many in this country who
sincerely believe that the nations honor
| requires US never to raise the flag again in
Cuba. For these men 1 have the profound
! est respect and regard. But when the prac-
| tical question finally comes up for set
Element of what to do with Cuba. It will
] not be these honest. sincere and patriotic
I men who will make most of the fight in
| favor of setting up one opera bouffe Cuban
government after another in that island
| for an indefinite time to come. 1t will be
the powerful sugar and tobacco kings who
! scheme to increase their already swollen
| fortunes" as President Roosevelt calls
| them. that will wage the hardest contest
against the establishment Of permanent lib
| erty In Cuba under the American flag.
| 1t Is always so In every great measure
| for the peoples good. in every great plan
| for human welfare. President Roosevelt
has not proposed single reform which
| has not been combated by some powerful
| interest. No single proposition for the well
| fare of the nation and the good of the
! masses advanced in the last five years
| that has not been resisted when the bat
| tie was on by some vast financial interest
whose improper practices we were striving
| to end.
| For example, the pure food law was re-
sisted and was for years delayed and al
! most defeated by the combined adulterated
| drug and food interests Of the country. The
| meat inspection law was fought with saw
age ferocity by the beef trust. The state
hood law was resisted by the great mining
| trust OF Arizona, owning over $1,OOO.oOO0O0
| Of property, upon which they pay practi-
! cally no taxes.
| And when the great questions con-
| corning Cuba shall come up for final an
| swer 1t will not be the earnest. honest and
| sincere men who think, as a matter both
| of policy and honor, that we should have
| nothing to do with Cuba, who will most
effectively resist permanent solution of
| these questions No, it will be the mighty
sugar and tobacco interests of the repub-
| lie, which, in the name of Cuba libre,"
will oppose it. say that it will be in the
| name of Cuba libre,' in the name of ma
| tional honor and with every possible
| high-sounding phrase that the sugar and
tobacco trust will oppose the continuance
| of American authority in Cuba. For Mt
| must never be forgotten that when any
great financial interest opposes any reform
| or any step in the building of the nation 1t
| is always done upon apparently the highest
grounds.
Our Position in Cuba.
| Understanding some of the complex
| tiles of this question, let us examine it
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exhaust every resource to make the Cuban
government again going concern. I said
| this in Chicago, in Minneapolis, in Des
Mones, in Lincoln, in Cincinnati and in
| Boston. I say 1t now and l have never
said anything else. But when we have
again set up a government In Cuba and
| when silly revolution again overthrows 1t,
| as is absolutely certain, and when once more
| in the name of liberty and civilization we
| are compelled to take charge of Cuban af-
fairs, it must be for good and ALL When
we are forced once more to raise the Amer
lean flag from Santiago to Havana. 1t never
must be hauled down again.
What are the exact facts about our re-
| is geographically a part Of the United
| States. She is only ninety miles from this
country. She is physically part Of Flori-
da Her ports command the entrance to
watch over the routes that lead to the
| Mississippi river, to the Panama canal and
to all our southern ports
Commercially, she is part of US. Cuba
| Is the natural market for the products of
| our factories and farms and this country
| is the natural market Of the products of
her forests and plantations. If the sover
| eighty Of the world were today to be re-
arranged upon geographical and CONNER
cial lines, Cuba would be made American
by the judgment of every government on
| earth
In the next place. 1t 10 the traditional
policy of the American people that Cuba
| shall ultimately be American. This policy
| sprung from no statesman's plan but from
| the common thought of the people. It Is
| older than our government itself. 1t began
| before our revolution 1t was the common
thought and purpose of the colonists who
petitioned King George to let them make
| Cuba American; King George rejected that
| petition and is the first great opponent of
the policy Of linking the destiny Of that
cally a part King George9was the first
great opponent of Cuban annexation.
First uban Annexationist.
The first American statesman to voice
| the manifest destiny of Cuba as a part Of
! this republic was Thomas Jefferson, whose
| argument was then and is now unanswer-
able. The next to favor it was John Quincy
| Adams, one of the wisest Presidents the
| United States ever had. Then followed Will
| liam L. Marcy who is one of the three
| greatest Secretaries of State in our history.
/
| ward Everitt and Louis Cass and even
| William L. Seward. These men belonged
| to different political parties. wish 1 had
time to read you what they said upon this
| subject.
| An American destiny for Cuba was in po-
| litical platforms down to the civil war
I Cuba would have been American a genera
! ton ago had not the slavery question and
/ the war between the states interfered. So
| we see that Cuba a part of the United
| States is the historic purpose of the Ameri-
| can people-as much so as the Panama
canal, as much SO as the building of the
| nation itself.
| When the inevitable conflict with Spain
| occurred-a war which was bound to come
| from elemental causes no matter what the
| immediate reason for it might be-Cuba in
| fulfillment of the settled and historic pur-
pose of the American people beginning when
| we were colonists and steadily and increas-
| ingiy held until the present, should have
| become American and would naturally have
| become American; and that would have
| meant the real liberty of the Cuban people
| and the actual ongSing of civilization in
| Cuba, instead of the semi-anarchy that will
| always exist under pretended Cuban gov
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