Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 July 1896 — HOW CUBA’S PATRIOTS RULE [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

HOW CUBA’S PATRIOTS RULE

THE MEN WHO SWAY THE DESTINIES OF THE NEW REPUBLIC. Typical Episodes of the Rebellion—A Crisis Coming— Filibuster Law—What Diplomats Say. Before very long the government of the Cuban Republic will be in a position to ask the recognition of its belligerency by foreign powers from every standpoint of international law. Heretofore, as is weft known, the insurgents have had no capital in the accepted meaning of the word. To be even a belligerent, as the expression is understood in diplomacy, a power must hold at least one seai>ort or metropolis. The insurgents exjieot soon to be in possession of at least two sea coast towns in Cuba. It will then be Impossible for their government to remain unrecognized in either Europe or America. The revolutionary government of Cuba was organized at Camagney, on September 19, 1895. The president of the Republic, Seuor Salvador Cisneros, is the ex-Marquis of Santa Lucia, who formally renounced his title of nobility when he Joined 4 the revolution in 18C8 and lost his estate which was then confiscated by the Spanish government. The secretary of war is Mario G. Menocal, a very young man who was born in the province of Matanzas. He was formerly the assistant secretary of war. Rafael Poetnondo is the minister for forenign affairs, or secretary of state, as we would say. The interior department is under the charge of

Senor Canezaies, a highly educated and much respected native of Remedies. He has written several works on Cuba. Severo Pina lias the difficult treasury portfolio. He hails from Santa Spiritu and has given up a small fortune to the cause. Every officer of this young government is perpetually on the move. Life lias few pleasures for them just now. The Cuban flag contains one star for the island and five bars to represent the departmental divisions. B. J. Guerra, Treasurer of the Junta, lias received several numbers of the first paper published in Cuba in behalf of the independence of the island. It is called El Cuba no Libre (The Free Cuban.

The place of publication does not appear anywhere on the paper, and Mr. Guerra says that the editorial staff and the entire printing outfit are part of Gomez’s army, and that the paper is published at whatever place they may happen to be. One thing seems true, and that is that the course of the United States Government with regard to the Cuban question is destroying its prestige with the Cuban party. The same talk that was reported from Honolulu, of looking to England to take the island under her shield, is heard in Havana. That some strong power willing to give Cuba peace, with wise laws and a popular form of government, must ultimately succeed Spain in power here seems not to admit of doubt. Cuba is resolved to separate from Spain, and the time will surely come when she will carry out that resolution. Her destiny is annexation to the United States, or such political relations with it as will amount to the same thing. Geographical and economic conditions impel irresistibly to this solution, and political and social conditions on the island make It the only wise consummation for Cuba herself. Spain, in her pride, in her sentimental passion for the heirloom which costs her so much treasure and blood to keep, will fight against it in vain. She might as well seek to stay the tideof years. The independence of Cuba, unprotected by the United States, would prove disastrous. Conservative Cubans know' this, and they divide only on sentimental grounds. Part of th£m cling to the Government of their fathers and look to Spain to establish home rule in Cuba. The far greater part, educated in the United States, enamored of Democratic government and convinced of the wisdom of the American system, turn to the United States for the same boon. Even those who honestly seek independence as an ultimate condition know its and would found a republic with limited suffrage In which the ruling class would be determined by educational and property requirements. The danger involved in independence is made clear by these facts: Qf 1,500,000 people there are 500,000 blacks and 1,000,000 whites. The whites are divid-

ed into bitterly hostile classes—an overwhelming majority of native born Cubans who have lived for years in resentful subjection, and a minority of Spaniards, who have dominated and plucked the majority. The political ideas are in extreme opposition. Rancorous politics have engendered bitterness between them. The majority of the white are countrymen, who, whatever may be their native intelligence, are without that education which ought to be at the basis of independent selfgovernment. Very many of them are victims of poverty in a land abounding in the sources of richness. Vast areas of land are in the hands of a few men, who enjoy great wealth. Associated with them in interest are the blacks. A people whose freedom has come to them since the negroes of the United States were set free, there existence here presents practically the same social and political problems that exist in the Southern States. With freedom they have the right of entry with the whites to public places on equal footing, but they do not assert it There is a social dead line between the races in the town. In the country it is not so marked. Their mutual interests draw whites and blacks together. It needs but the statement of these facts to reveal the dangers that beset independent self-government of Cuba. Even the Spanish party would weleom annexation to the hated United States rather than a political state in which they would be placed at the mercy of a people suddenly raised to political power from a condition of political suppression. It is in the power of the United States to determine the future of Cuba. It is

a fair question whether it is not their duty to solve the problem. Spain cannot do it. She may conquer, but she cannot pacify. Her conservatism stands in the way. Her rule has become insupportable to this people. Autonomy at her hands is already a rejected gift Cubans distrust her upon substantial grounds. Separation is incsribed upon the banner of the lone star. The wisdom or unwisdom of annexation to the United States is a serious question. From an economic point of view it seems the wisest course. From the political point of view self-interest appears to militate ngainst sentiment. Hut the objections based on social and political grounds are not so great when viewed at hand as when considered at a distance. The social and political conditions and the governmental questions rising from them do not differ greatly from those existing in many parts of the United States. The people of Cuba are well affected toward the American system. They are Americans in thought and in aspirations. Their intelligence and its possibilities under cultivation are displayed in the accomplishments of those of them who have enjoyed the advantages of edueation.Under the influence of liberal laws, with the estab-

lishment of public schools, upon the American plan with the burden of taxation to support an extravagant government removed,with the disestablishment of the church, unhampered trade with the United States, and the Incentives which wise government holds out to Industry, one can hardly picture too roseately the prosperity possible on this island. It is marvellously fertile. Until now its exports have been great in proportion to its productive population, notwithstanding adverse conditions. To-day, while diplomacy hesitates and dickers and proposes impossible

things, the island falling Into ruin as the resut of a conflict which of necessity cannot end except with the ending of the conditions which have bred it. The situation in Pinar del Rio ProI vlnce is appalling. In addition to the horrors of barbarous warfare waged by Spain, famine and pestilence threaten. San Cristobal is overcrowded with people who have fled from the country. Families in the town share their homes with these refugees. One man had eight families under his roof. People are living in corridors and even under the trees in the plaza, while some are building palm leaf shelters wherever they can find a few feet of vacant ground. A commission was sent to Havana to seek Government assistance for these poor people, but the commission has returned, bring word from Gen. Weyler that the government can do nothing for them. Day after day Maceo’s bands have been riding through the country, driving the people from their homes and applying the toureb. “To the trenches or to the mountain*!” is the cry. “This land must remain clear. You must be with us or with Spain. By “the trenches” is meant the towns in actual possession of the Spanish. On the southern coast of Pinar del Rio the Spaniards hold but six towns, which are surrounded by fences of iron rails and ditches, with forts at intervals. Nearly all the other towns have been burned, some actually wiped out of existence. Some thirty have been destoyed by the insurgents, while a few smaller towns have been destroyed by the Spanish troops on the same plea the insurgents urge—that they offer shelter to the enemy. A Spanish column came into San Cristobal a few days ago bringing a load of Singer sewing machines and some bags of clothing. The troops claimed to have captured an insurgent camp. As the Spaniards made no boast of any combat the general Impression is that they raided a town.

The Spanish columns are in action In Pinar del Rio all the time. Gen. Serano Altamia returned after a five days campaign, with a great many of his men missing. A farmer going on horseback to his potato patch, near Santa Cruz, fell in with a squad of insurgents. Being ordered to tell where he was bound, he said he was going after some sweet potatoes, which was the truth. He was told to go on, and the insurgents continued their way. For some reason the farmer became frightened and turned back, again meeting the insurgents. When asked if he had not come from San Cristobal, he replied that he had. Then some one recognized him as the man who a short time before said he was going for potatoes. He was denounced as a spy and a hasty trial was held. The frighten man failed to give a clear account of himself and he was hanged. These, in brief are typical instances of the present state of things in unhappy Cuba. In an elaborate publication issued by the War Department regarding the military strength of the powers of the world, a chapter is devoted to Spain’s forces at home, her army of operations in Cuba and her military resources. Some of the attaches of the Spanish Legation in Washington take excepton to a chapter in regard to the army of operations in Cuba and it may be that when the publication Is received and considered in Madrid, the Spanish Government may have something to say about it to the United States. According to the publication, Spain has now In Cuba 118,730 men, of whom .20,000 sailed from Spain on February 12, 1806, and composed the ninth expedition. The eighth expedition consisting of 6,317 men, sailed in December last.

The total number of Spanish troops in the island on December 1, 1895, was 92,413 divided in this way:—lnfantry, 82 battalions, one disciplinary brigade and Borne independent companies, 79,000 men; cavalry, two regiments of the Cuban establishment, with 18 squadrons, furnished by certain designated regiments of the home army, 7,000 men; artillery, one fortress batallion raised in Spain for Cuban service; one mountain artillery regiment raised in Cuba and six mountain batteries raised in Spain, 2,300 men; engineers, 1,658; transport companies, 1,055; sanitary brigade, 700; local guerillas, 700. Now, a word as to our obligations in the matter of filibustering. In the first place the report that Spain would demand the extraditions of filibusters who fit out expeditions from this country to help the cause of Cuba excites only amusement in diplomatic circles in Washington. We have no extradi-

tion treaty with Spain which covers political offences. The nearest approach to anything of that sort, are certain provisions in the treaty of 1877, as modified in 1882, which deal with murder, attempted murder, and piracy ; but these would require so violent a stretching to make them cover the most flagrant of filibustering cases that probably no foreign secretary or diplomatic agent would care to make himself ridiculous by attempting it In the second place the filibusters who give so much trouble to Spain are not Spanish subjects committing crime

on Spanish soil and fleeing to this country to escape the penalties of the Spanish law, but American citizens bent on helping forward a revolution of Spanish subjects. They are subject to the domestic neutrality laws of the United States, and to them alone. To illustrate the difference, take the case of a man named Morton, who is now in Cuba awaiting trial for some offence committed against Spanish law, but whom the authorities of this country want extradited so that they can punish him for a heavy forgery by which he victimized an American business firm. The Spaniards have refused to give him up on the ground that he is a Spanish subject and not an American citizen fleeing from justice in his own country. As long as the Spanish government makes this point on Morton it' will not stultify itself by demanding the extradition of any American filibuster.

RAFAEL PORTUONDO, Foreign Affaire.

SALVADOR CISNEROS, President.

SANTIAGO GARCIA CANIZARES, Interior.

SEVERO PINA, Treasury

MARIO O. MENOCAL, War.