Rocky Ford enterprise., 1912-05-31
ATLANTIC FLEET HEADS SOUTH
ON HURRY ORDERS; CUBAN
SITUATION IS SERIOUS.
WELCOME ANNEXATION
PLANTATION OWNERS ANXIOUS
TO GET SUGAR INTO THE
UNITED STATES FREE.

Western Newspaper Union News Service.
New York.-The armored cruiser
Washington, flagship of Rear Admiral
Hugo Osterhaus. commander-in-chief
of the Atlantic, and four battleships of
the Fourth division. sailed south, sup
posedly for Key West. on hurry orders.
few hours after arrival In port from
Proyincetown, Mass. The battleships
following the flagship were the Ohio.
Missouri, Mississippi and Minnesota.
The gunboat Yankton, accompanied
the squadron to serve as dispatch
boat. The Delaware remained in port
all day taking aboard her complement
of marines and field equipment, and
together with the hospital ship Solace,
is expected to sail Immediately.
The flagship Washington and the
battleships dropped anchor off the
naval station at Tompkinsville, S. l.,
where they are believed to have re-
ceived new orders, for soon residents
of the islands heard the rattle of the
great warships' anchor chains again,
and in half an hour the last of the
five vessels had passed out to sea.
II is understood the battleships have
on board several hundred marines, and
that by the time they reach Hampton
Roads the batt,eships Georgia, New
Jersey and Rhode Island of the Third
Division will be ready to join them.
1t is altogether probable that the
marines ordered to Cuban eaters TO
protect the lives and property of
Americans in Cuba will be landed. If
they are, that will be the last of Cuban
independence.
The United States interviewed, and
took formal possession of Cuba on
January 1. 1899.
After the establishment of a govern
ment with President Estrada Palma at
its head, the United States was forced
to intervene again in August. 1906. and
put down revolution against the
Palma government
In his report to President Roosevelt
in 1906. Commissioner William II.
Taft. then Secretary of War. wrote;
IF the insurrectionary habit per-
sists, If again the Cubans divide into
armed forces, the strong hand of our
at whatever cost to life and property,
and permanent peace should then or
sue, because 1t should be in our own
keeping"
In January, 1909. the United States
troops were withdrawn for the second
time. and the government again
turned over to the Cubans.
The event against which now Presi
dent Taft warned the Cubans is about
to happen.
The Instruction of the Negroes in
Cuba is growing more formidable ev-
cry hour, and when it once gets the
upper hand in any considerable area
of Cuba, the Atlantic fleet will land
the marines, masses of the American
army will be rushed to the islands and
the fleet will enter Havana harbor and
put the Cuban capital into the posses
sion of American soldiers. The fleet
and soldiers will take possession of
the island, and though it may not be
formally announced, they will be
promptly used to subjugate Cuba to
American rule
There is hardly a sugar plantation
In SuDa tndl ISM Teduy 10 IuTtllSu
funds to promote uprisings. They
crave annexation that Cuban sugar
may be shipped into the United States
free. The rebate of twenty-five per
cent of our sugar duties on the Cuban
article only whets the planters deter
mination to make the cane product of
Cuba as free to enter the United
States as American beet sugar is to
be transported from one state to an
other. There are other Cuban inter
ests that would be as greatly benefited
by the annexation as those of sugar.
There is politics also in the move.