The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-09-18
Trnnaiatnhle Fact. About Cuba.

IA order to understand the problem
now confronting the Palma Govern
lnent one must have made a carefully
3observant tour of the populated and Gull
Affvated parts Of the island. Even at
THAT the traveller would be better able
EIto appraise the situation accurately
were he informed by some previous
military experience.
To the mind of such a person it would
nk once occur that Cuba had been
lphysically arranged by an ~inscrutable
Providence for the express purpose OF
facilitating the operations of bushwhack-
era and brigands. The arabic lands lie
almost invariably within easy reach OF
the hills, where marauders can conceal
ltdemselves indefinitely and whence they
fcan descend upon villages and plan
4tations to replenish their commissariat
for TO levy blackmail, as the case may be.
They can loot country stores, or rob
farmhouses, or burn railway trestles,
fof destroy plantations at their leisure,
land in perfect safety by an exercise Of
Tho measures of vigilance; and, as they
never fight save for purposes OF escape
and can always detect pursuing parties
miles away, the task of suppressing their
bnotfvities lie one of astounding difficulty.
Avery beggarly array Of seasoned jay
NkaWkers, divided into small bands OF
twenty or thirty each, could battle twenty
IItf7es their number and successfully
.pf6seCute the obliteration Of civilization
on the instalment plan.
III pleased the Americans some years
Hnxo to visit their sneers and denun-
Citations upon the Spanish Captain
General, WEYLER. They laughed at
his "trochas," mathematical his con-
centrado policy, and held him up
10 e~xecration as a monster of callous
l~tcfneIty. Nevertheless, he was slowly
Ilbut surely breaking down the bandit
.Isystem of the insurTectos and as surely
discriminating the bandits themselves.
During the latter half of 1897 Cuba was
WAITED by at least two citizens Of the
Ilf5nited States who, after personal in
v~rstigation in the interior, reported ia
lkMk MCKINLEY their fixed belief that the
llxnscalled war of liberation" was nothing
more t an a struggle between sociaI
order and professional hrigsndage-s
Etruggle which would inevitably end in
lkhe triumph of civilization within a very
lew months. Neither knew Of the others
.mlkficn, yet they made identical reports
MOI he Pre- ident. Our soldiers who went
"a Santi go in June, 1898, would have
Been prepared for disillusion ent hac
Iktbey overheard those two revelations
III President MCKINLEY's private sitting
room at the White House.
Now, the most bitter and incurabl'
lqSynic must Re entirely content will
1.-THE epectacle of his Exoellency, Dor
ToMAs ESTRADA PALMA, playing victim
Ia flhe very melcdrama which he himsel
tpxrloited at the expense Of WEYLEl
lnine years or so ego. And it is n curious
X coIncidence that the methods employed
.against him to-day are faithful repcti
lFtfons OF the methods he inspired from
the luxurious quarters Of the revolu
l6icnary junta in Washington. Nor
than that, neither the personnel nor tn
grievance nor the object Of the presen
uprising differs in any essential respec
,frpm It's predecessor.
And wouldn't il be the very apothe
steis Of the ironical If the United State
nhould some day find its elf reduced 20 a
kAraltation Of WEYLER's tactics in orde
Las keep its compact with the civilize
kWDrld?