Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1906-1908, 1906-10-05

/ age S0iulery or Spain.
When at the close or the last century
! the reconcentrado lifted to heaven the
arms w!thered by famine and imploreu
! the great nation that had won peace to
save him and his from destruction and
despair, there was an answer at last III
! the boom Of cannon Brave ships cross
| ed the water. The strong had taken un-
! der the shelter OF his might the weak
and downtrodden. The Cuban flag was
given the right to fly over a free Cuban
| people. Out OF conditions little better
| than anarchy came the stable form Of
order, and they who had struggled for
many a decade found their efforts
crowned with the freedom of their de
! sire. Then the benefactOr withdrew.
leaving to an emancipaUed people the
| problem Of their own destiny. That the
| new republic should not have remained
! quiet is not surprising.
Many Americans know little OF the
| Cuba of fifty years ago. To them the
| Gem of the Antilles has been but a spot
| in the map, made vivid for the first
| time when the United States. Mortified
at continued cruelty, drove forth the
| tyrant. The cruelty was nothing new
In Cuban history; it hau made Cuban
history. Before the climax that lower.
ed the Spanish pride and the Spanish
banner Ia the West, for decades the
| prayer for recognition as belligerents
went UNDECIDED.
Cuba in revolt displayed a concep-
| ton of justice that would have been an
honor to any people. An early move
was the freeing Of the slaves held under
| Spanish rule directly in violation of
treaty. SPANS pretense of emancipa-
ton had been nothing more. BY royal
decree the slave was rreei when he b..
reached his GOTH year. or just wneu
| he would have been helpless to care for
himself. at one time out of GOO,0U0 ne
groes in Cuba 3GSOU0 were slaves, many
of these being natives of Africa. When
the rerolutouists freed them a large
number became soldiers, and some won
their way to important command.
In 1926, but for the veto Of the Unit
| ed States. Bolivar, valiant and futile.
might have won the cause of Cuua. liut
the cause was not killed. The South
American possessions of the Spanish
were permitted to break their allie
! glance. but Cuba. suffering, oppressed.
| crying out with a great voice and with
It's blood sealing the sincerity of its as
pirations, was permitted to anguish in
! thraii.
In lS4S the struggle for independence
took definite form again. At that time
Cuba was recognized as a republic by
Peru, and there was promise of coop
GRAFTON from neighbortug governments,
BIT that of the United States could not
| be won and the promise was not full
filed. Yet with failure, and in the
lace of opposition from those who might
| have been neutral, and of Indifferent, G
from those whose impulses should have
been friendly. the faith of the Cubans
never faItered.
While Thousands Perished.
When $4,000 Cuban lives had been
sacrificed To the fury of falling des-
potism nearly 100000 Spanish had per-
ished on the same altar. At one time
the Cubans overran the island from the
eastern extremity TO Colon on the west
The enemy was shut in Its strongholds,
but the enemy held the sea. The Cuban