The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1933-02-13
CUBA REVEALED
editor & Publisher)

Periodically the intolerable tyranny
of the Cuban censorship of newspapers
comes into public notice. Such brazenness
as was exhibited by the Cuban military in
suppressing copies of American news
papers and magazines was one of the re-
cent acts that has focused attention on the
chaos-ridden Republic. If precedent is fol-
lowed, the objection to President Ma
chado's dictatorial policies will be yocif-
erous and indignant for several weeks, and
then will gently subside. But in the mean
while the incredibly cruel and oppressive
persecution of newspapers in the island
will continue.
For two years the newspapers have
been under the heel of Machado. Editors
submit proofs to the government author
tiles for approval before they are pub
lished. If they fail to do so they often
have to reckon with the secret police, and
they may disappear, or have their plants
damaged by government hoodlums, or they
may be banished. An editor in Cuba
actually puts his life at stake if he has the
temerity to enunciate a principle.
But they are not docile and &C
quiescent, event after two strenuous years.
Editor & Publisher is informed by recent
observers that Cuban editors, gagged in
their own medium, are fighting Machado
tooth and nail in other ways. They have,
in other words, joined the opposition
which, seemingly little organization, seems
bent on the one common object of ousting
Machadc. Instead Of fighting openly in
their newspapers they are reduced to ven
delta activities. It is a pitiable thing to
see an editor fighting without a news
paper. But it is more pitiable to see him
crushed, disillusioned and complacent. AS
long as Cuban editors combat tyranny, by
one means or another, there is some hope
that the tyrant may be flung from his seat
of power
A tendency exists on the part of press
association reporters and newspaper cor
in Latin-Amefican countries to
gloss over the sometimes ridiculously overt
acts of dictators and the retaliatory
measures of the people. Particularly has
this been true in Cuba 1t is as though the
facts were too extravagant to be true, that
the spectacle were opera bouffe, enter
tanning, but not to be taken too seriously.
The Latin-American temperament and the
soft sunshine of Havana may have some
thing to do with it. But the work of Tom
Pettey, of the New York Herald Tribune,
and of Russell Porter, of the New York
Times, whose informative articles on Cuba
were published recently, and of occasional
press association reporters, is perfervid and
pointed. They, at any rate, see the situa-
ton in its grim reality. What they have
had to say will have effect
Cuba is at our national Threshold.
The Plat amendment may be interpreted
as giving us direct power to intervene i'm
Cuba. Observers say that even slight pres
sure of our government on Machado would
dissipate his dictatorial powers. Is not the
stake of free press in itself enough to
warrant the application of that pressure?
The past years have proven that as long as
Machado wields his whip there can be no
peace in his Republic. He has been
touched by the MOON as the Cubans say,
and is possessed with delusions of grandeur.
He should be ousted from power.
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