Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1909-02-04
THE FUTURE OF
NEW REPUBLIC
If Cuba'S Second Experiment at Self
Coz ernmelt Is a Failure Thero'll
Not Be Another Trial.

Washington, February There is
springing up in Congress q Cuban an
nexation party. Despite the apparent
ly auspicious circumstances under which
the new Cuban government was launch
ed, there are many Senators and Repre-
sentatives who have little faith in its
permanent stability.
That their misgivings are not without
foundation was evidenced by the fact
that before the new government was
forty-eight hours old President Gomez
and Vice President Zayas were fighting
over patronage, with the Vice President
threatening to resign.
1t is solemnly declared that if the Gu
bans fail in the present attempt at self
government they will never get another
opportunity, that public sentiment, both
in the island and in the United States,
will demand and compel annexation.
There always has been a strong senti-
ment in Congress that the resolution
passed at the outbreak of war with
Spain declaring it was not the purpose
of the United States to acquire Cuba
was a mistake.
The annexationists insist, however,
that now the United States has done
everything good faith requires of it to-
ward establishing a stable Cuban gov
ernment, and that should the present
attempt fail this government will be re-
leased from its pledge of eleven years
ago. For our own protection in a ma
tional sense, and for the protection of
the vast American and other foreign in
terests in Cuba, it is pointed out, there
must be a stable government in the
island, and if the Cubans will not fur
nish one there will remain nothing to do
but for the United States to furnish it
for them.
Since the very beginning of the Re-
public there have always been eminent
Americans who believed that Cuba
properly should be a part of the terri
tory OF the United States. The ques-
ton Of annexing Cuba occupied the
thought of our earliest statesmen, and
Overtures to Spain for the purchase of
the island were made before the war
between the North and South.
Even those who would prefer to see
Cuba an independent republic realize
how impossible it would be to have it
so if it is to be typical Latin-American
one. Lying as the island does right at
our southern door, continuous state of
revolution there, inviting the interven-
tion of European powers, would proper
ly he regarded as a menace to the
United States. This was our excuse
for terminating Spain's misgovernment
of the Island, and the excuse would be
Just as valid in the case of a So called
Cuban government which failed to gov
ern.
On one thing there is agreement of
opinion. The United States cannot af-
ford to be always intervening to save
the Cubans from themselves. It's too
expensive proceeding. The millions
of dollars already spent in setting to
rights affairs in Cuba would come in
pretty handy just now for other pur-
poses. While the money expended up
TO date has been paid out with good
deal of cheerfulness, good deal of q
growl likely would go up if further
heavy outlays were demanded.
Officials of the administration re-
sponsible for starting Cuba a second
time on a career of self-government are
hoping for the best, but they are not
overly sanguine of the outcome. This
is discoverable by a careful reading of
the messages which President Roose-
velt and Secretary of War Wright sent
President Gomez on the occasion of his
Inauguration.
They bid the new republic God-speed
and were nice and polite as could be,
but they didn't burn any bridges behind
them. 1t is simply an experiment-the
second one-and there isn't likely tc Ne
a third. If this experiment should fail
and the United States should step in and
possess herself of the island it Is not
likely that even Spain would accuse this
government of bad faith.