The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-08-13
SOUR WASHINGTON LETTERS
An Impartial Review of Doings at Our Seat of Government

to convince the world that the univer-
 sal language is invaluable from many
 standpOintS. If successfully forced forward it will mean a revolution in business methods and make interna-
 tional trading, the Esperantists claim, a simple work.
 In a commercial way, they claim, 1t
 is of practical advantage to all doing
 business beyond their national bord-
 CTS. scientifically by offering oppor-
 tunity for an international version of
 all the great scientific works of the
 world. For travellers, they state, it
 is an immeasurable blessing, eliminat-
 ing the inconvenience of having to
 contend with so many foreign tongues.
 Last year Secretary Reed travelled
 from Northern France to Barcelona,
 Spain, speaking nothing but Esperan-
 to.
 With the full establishment of this
 international language, it is claimed,
 will come greater amount of inter
 national communication and a conse-
 quent fuller understanding of the
 true brotherhood of man.
 Reports of outbreaks in Cuba, which
 are of the intermittent and unceas- ing variety, are but the reflection of
 problem which threatens the new
 republic with the most serious conse- quences according to the experts who are in touch with affairs in the is land. This problem is the race ques- tion, and the situation is more acute than in the United States.
 It Is for this reason that the gov ernment at Havana takes no chances with small outbreaks Troops are at once rushed to the scene as soon as disturbance is reported. In every in- stance so far the disorders have been suppressed but the difficulty of which they are but a manifestation is not materially diminished. At the time Of the war of liberation when the island undertook to lift the yoke Of Spanish dominion fully sixty per cent of the army came from the province of Santiago. large portion or this army was made up of negroes whether or not they were given
 the whites beside whom they fought or promised a share of the public of fees under the new government the negroes have that impression. So far they have not received any of the
 offices, and their privileges are in fact
 not so extensive as those of the white element of the population They feel | that they have not been treated fair ly and since the establishment of the present government, there have been numerous small outbreaks of a reyo-
 lutlonary character - disturbances
 Wnlcn presage more serious revolu- | tion later ii conditions do not change
 Until recently the outbreaks have
 been led by negroes themselves. The last affair of this sort, which wac promptly suppressed, was led by Gen eral Miniet, a discontented white of hcer- Under white leadership the ag- ltation becomes much more serious. The danger becomes greater as the number or malcontents and agitators increases. The negro element of Santiago has been trained in military experience. It is very numerous. All | it needs to become a serious menace | is the leadership of competent white | offlcers. The prediction is freely made that trouble originating from this source will lead to the overthrow of the republican government. and ne 1 cessitate the third interference of the United States in the affairs of the | island.
 Military experts of the War Depart- ment nave under consideration a plan l to add the dirigible balloon or air
 ship to the equipment of the signal corps. A strong plea will be made to Congress during the coming session 1 for an appropriation sufficient to en- able the department to purchase one or two airships of the Zeppelin type and to build a plant necessary for l the maintenance of these aerial mon sters.
 This means that the army is not | ready as yet to adopt the aeroplane
 as part of the military equipment l for national defense. The experts
 are of the opinion that the dirigible has been perfected, while the aero plane is still in the experimental stage. Recent accidents to aeroplane | operators have accentuated this point making trips with a high degree of