The Detroit times., 1910-07-22
WILL !. S. FLAG FLY
OVER CUBA AGAIN :?
American Capital Is Ready To Back
Insurrection Which Would Pre-
cipitate Intervention.
sY ROBERT wlckLIFFE wooLLEY

BY ROBERT WickLlFFE WOOLLEV
Cuba faces a financial crisis. but II
Is still possible for the United States
10 steer her safely over the shoals and
breakers and. after az, keep the
pledge so solemnly given IL years ago.
VIII she do IL?
No one In Havana who has observed
the course OF recent events believes
she will. No one I'm Washington who
is at all familiar with the intentions
of President Taft and his advisers
doubts for an instant that within q
year the Stars and Stripes Will be un-
inrled over MORO and Cabannas cas-
Ties, never to be hauled down again.
True, President Gomez has succeed.
ed for the time being In quelling race
troubles, but the blacks are reported
TO be organizing with greater dill
gence than ever before.
IL is generally agreed that when the
time TO strike does arrive there will
be plenty OF funds TO finance the
revolution and that these will come
,ro mthe United States. There are
men In Cuba In position to know
whereof they speak who will tell you
the names of certain capitalists and OF
certain interests that are ready to
furnish them on short notice
Corruption Is rampant. In Cuba the
coat Is the symbol OF graft. The Span.
In word for goat is "chivo." which
word Is also the Cuban slang for cor
rupt scheme. For months the papers
OF Havana have teemed with cartoons,
the principal figure of which is the
"chivo."
disagreement has been the rule
and insurrection has been in the air
from the day that Gomez was inaugur-
ated. Why, when the ships bearing
the American troops sailed out OF Ha.
vana harbor. Immediately following
that event bets were freely made in
the leading hotels and cafes that they
would be called back by wireless be-
fore arriving In New York!
Prior TO the intervention OF 1898
comparatively few citizens of this
country owned any property whatever
in Cuba. Today they lead the Span.
iards.
From the date of the Spanish evacu.
Gtion TO the present, Cuba has been
Going business largely on borrowed
capital. Practically all the railways
ere owned by British and Canadians,
none OF whom reside on the islands.
In addition TO her great bonded indebt-
eaness, all OF which Is controlled by
Speyer a Co., OF New York. Cuba
owes this country $6,I02,956 for the
second intervention.
Probably no better summary OF the
situation In Cuba today could be givet
than that delivered by Senator San.
Guilly, at banquet rendered him last
February, just after he had become
secretary OF state. In part he said:
Impoverished by wars and corpora
tions, losing each day the fertile lands
which, for lack OF association and
through necessity they have not been
able to keep, surrounded by very pow.
crfm foreigners who owe their eco
nomic pre-eminence to an accumula-
ton of fortuious circumstances. slowly
invaded by irresistible capitallstic
companies and audacious syndicates,
which daily increase production, yes,
hut contribute chiefly to the wealth
hat goes out of the country--the ma.
tive population is being dislodged
from its possessions. many with final
ruin, until now there remain to the
Cubans only the public Offices ard
theis heroic banner. outward and pal
pable signs OF their national existence
md sovereignty"