The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1906-09-27
REMITTANCES;
THURSDAY. SEPTEMBER Of, 1906.
FOR CONGRESS:
George A. Pearre.
INTERVENTION IN CUBA.


Secretary Taft and Secretary Bacon
may be implicitly Il listed to take no
steps looking to intei IGNITION in Cuba
until this remedy is proved to be the
only course which will restore order.
When this time comes the duty Of the
United States is clear, but until this
time comes no step should be taken
which assumes or suggests that the
differences which exist in Cuba cannot
be amicably settled.
President Roosevelt representatives
and President Roosevelt are both de-
termined to secure a peaceful solution,
to maintain the independence of Cuba
and to prevent interference, which may
burden the United States with territory
it does not desire and a task which our
people believe can always be best sci red
by local government when both are pos
sible.
If existing conditions in Cuba appear
to make peace and order difficult with
out intervention, the causes extend far
into the past. The population of Cuba
is sharply divided into three parts; a
Spanish immigration, white population
of Cuban BIRTH and a negro popula-
ton; chiefly laborers. The interest Of
the Spanish immigrants in the domestic
government and order of the island is
small. Many of them come for train
sient stay, banker, planter, small shop
keeper and laborer and the like seeking
Cuba for few years to obtain the
competence which enables them to live
in Spain. The native white population,
two-thirds Of all, is unframed in The
maintenance of order, having for gen
erations left this to the Spanish colonial
authorities. The negro population,
most of it descended from those landed
upon the island within the past one
hundred years, is only two or three
generations removed from the African
Jungle.
Of those three elements in the Cuban
population, the last fu. lished the rank
and file during the war of repression.
The revolutionary bands, whom the
Spanish government was never able to
repress, even when it had from
five to ten soldiers for every square
mile of Cuban territory, were almost
altogether composed of negro plantation
laborers. They were commanded by
Cubans or by men of mixed blood from
Cuba and other islands.
When the Cuban government was
organized four years ago the offices
passed almost exclusively into the hands
of the Liberal party, composed in
great measure Of those who had led the
revolution. Their conduct of affairs
led President Palma and those associat-
ed with him to separate themselves
from the revolutionary element, whose
adm 'nisistration proved either venal or
inefficient, and ally themselves with the
more conservative, the better educated
and the property-holding classes of the
island.
The simple and immediate result has
been that, in defiance of law, the same
fighting force which so long withstood
Spain, composed almost exclusively OF
negroes, has again taken the field. IT.
leaders have undoubtedly valid griev
ance IN their claim that the Septembe~
election for the Presidency was man
ipulated by official influence; but their
real purpose is to seize control of the
government and establish rule such as
exists in most Spanish American cor1t-
rles, having at its head political and
military adventures, and as its support
a fighting force made up of plantation
labor.
This combination dominates most
Spanish-American republics. 1t brings
the perpetual revolutions and the COM
plete lack of order and security which
curse their history. A like rule in
Cuba will bring like results. If those
who appeal to the sword in the island
are not willing to sumit to the orderly
processes of law when representatives
of the United States like Secretary
Taft and Secretary Bacon offer a fair
adjustment of all differences, it is be-
cause they desire, not good government,
but plumber. Should this occur, moth
ing remains but for the United States
to establish again in Cuba the order
which has been destroyed, ready again
to leave the island whenever a govern