The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1909-04-02
VENEzUELA's TROUBLES PROB
ABLY NOT YET OVER

WIN ex=President Castro on his
way back to Venezuela, critical times
are looming up for the country. The
excited enthusiasm that hailed the
overthrow of the tyrant and the ad-
vent of President Gomez and his cab
met has given place to desire for ev-
licences of real reform and real pro-
gress.
In January a few thousand poems
were placed at work paving the
streets; prisons were thrown open
and there was a mild spasm of bust
ness revival in Caracas, owing to the
influx of office-seekers and their de-
mands on commerce. Newspapers
sprang up like mushrooms and bab-
bled of the grand new era that was
now in the full flush of a glorious
dawn after the night of CastrO's Op-
preSsive dominion.
Today the optimism is a little lad
ed. The glorious colors of the dawn
are turning to a sicklier tint.
The revolutionary factionists, exil-
ed and harmless under Castro, have
returned and are clamoring for their
share of the profits of patriotism.
In every direction the present ad
ministration is facing demands for
prosperity, graft and political prefer
ment.
The settlement of the Asphalt
Trust claim has caused a serious
breach in the Gomez cabinet. The ar,
arrangement was procured by a scant
majority vote engineered by leopold
Baptista, the secretary-general. The
trust pays to the Venezuelan treasury
100000 as indemnity for eleven
months of a bloody campaign and
1 $4,000 a year royalty for the priv
Iege of re-operating its concession.
It is rumored that a very much
larger sum of money, one more nearly
approximating the equities of the case
is involved. but that the government
treasury will not receive it. Two bid
ders were in the field for the asphalt
concession each unsuccessful, though
each offer five times the accepted
amount.
Alcantara, minister of the interior
and a graduate of West Point acad-
envy. led the opposition to the As
phalt Trust, but under the new ar
rangement the company enjoys great
er privileges than under its original
concession. Alcantara and Baptista
are the leaders of opposing factions
in the cabinet, the first to fall out
The other four claimants, on whose
behalf the United States government
/ has presumably been interested dur
/ ing the past four years of Castro's
domination, have not been so fOrtu-
nate as the Alphalt Trust. High Com
missioner Buchanan seems to have
concentrated his energies on the one
lcorporation. The others are very
much disgruntled.
The representative of the French
Cable Company has been received in
/ Caracas with every mark Of friendly
approval. II was this company that
was thrown out by Castro on the
/ charge that its operators and lines
were used in helping the revolution
|,spoused by the Asphalt Trust.
! Newspapers that have discussed
political and economic conditions
with greatest freedom have jeer
warned by the new regime. 1t is APP
parent that freedom of the press vii
be unrestrained only so long as i
cordially approves of the administra
ton.
No imitatOr or successor has ap
Ipeared for Gumersindo Rivas, editor
of the extinct FL Constitutional, will
Its fullsome hattery of the Castro
government. GumersindO himself il
d enjoying life in Havana, while il
! Caracas his affairs are being wOunC
iup by creditors. 1t was his laundry
II stationery store and printing ofiC,
/ that were the first objects of wrath o
! last December'S mObs. They wer,
completely wrecked and the machin
cry carted through the open street,
under the complaisant eye of the new
T government.
Il Cas-ro's return is the subject o
. considerable interest not UnmiXe,
with apprehension. 1t is doubtful
. whether he viii land in Venezuel;
and considered likely that he vii
stop al Port of Spain. Trinidad, o
. some other West Indian city unit
. The present Venezuelan situation de
yelopS or crystalizes.
+ Whatever Casro's representation.
may be as TO his sole capacity as {