People's Pilot, Volume 5, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 March 1896 — All Cuba In Rebellion. [ARTICLE]

All Cuba In Rebellion.

and again in the extra session of Congress, 1893, sets forth these same facts, and by taking the amount of wheat and cotton raised in this country each year and the price for which it sold, h 4 shows that the demonetization of silver causes a loss to the American farmer of over one hundred million dollars a year on cotton, and over two hundred million dollars a year on wheat. He figures that the total loss to the American farmer on wheat and cotton alone since 1873 has reached the immense sum of four billions, three hundred and eleven millions of dollars. He also shows clearly that nothing but the free and unlimited coinage of silver in this country at a ratio not lower than 16 to 1 will prevent South America, Mexico, China, Japan and other free-coinage nations from developing their agricultural resources at the expense of the farmers of the United States. Our government by pursuing such a disastrous financial policy is not only each day increasing our debts but is at the same time reducing by one-half our ability to pay. In the light of these facts the demonetization of silver was the greatest crime ever committed against the people of this or any other country. This crime was committed by our own government, by congressmen and senators we voted for, by presidents of the United States who took an oath to see that even-handed justice was meted out between every class of our people and to guard and protect the interests of this country against foreign interference and foreign oppression. The perpetrators of this crime have during the last twenty years destroyed more property, desolated more homes, and caused more hearts to ache and bleed than have all the wars, pestilences and famines of a hundred years. They deserve to be branded with the deepest dye of infamy of all the ages. The above are some of the fruits of a single gold standard. These evils can be remedied by our own government. Let our government furnish a sufficient amount of real money to meet the needs of our increasing population and business, The first great step to accomplish this is to restore silver to the position it held before 1873. The people of the South are studying the science of money. The masses are studying for themselves and will not longer leave it to politicians and so-called financiers. The Soutn knows what it wants and what is best for every honest citizen of our country, and it will never stop the fight until the great producing West and the great majority of wealth-producers, manufacturers, merchants and business men everywhere are joined together in one solid phalanx to rid this country of foreign debt and foreign dictation, and to reestablish prosperity among our own people at home. The South also sees clearly the the only way to secure these results, and that is to elect a president who is an honest man and an American patriot, a man who will be an independent president of the United States, who will guard and promote the interests of our own people and nation instead of one who is a tool and vassal of foreign money syndicates. The South wants free coinage of silver for the same reason that she wanted to throw off the yoke of British oppression in 1776.

Murat Halstead has returned from an extended visit in Cuba and thus expresses himself on the situation: “I suppose that God knows what will come out of this Cuban revolution and that is the profoundest tribute one can pay to Omniscience, for the wisdom of man cannot see further than the rainy season, which begins in a month or six weeks. I have been in Cuba for a few weeks as a commissioner for a New York journal. I think that I enjoyed the confidence of both parties and got a pretty good idea or the situation. There is no disputing the fact that all Cuba is in rebellion just as much as the population of Virginia was during our civil war, and it is a shameful injustice to assert that the revolutionary sentiment is limited to desperadoes and negroes. I met in Cuba ladies and gentlemen as cultivated and refined as you can find anywhere in the world, who are just as bitter and rebellious toward Spain as the men who are under arms, but they lack the opportunity to make a demonstration. I became satisfied, too, that the population of Cuba is capable of self government, but they now sit hopeless, with an equal fear of what may happen if either side wins in the present struggle. “So far as the military situation is concerned,” continued Mr. Halstead, “I see no prospects for a Spanish victory, and the chances of the revolutionists are very slim. The rebels can carry on the work of destruction indefinitely, but they cannot fight a battle, because they lack arms and are almost out of ammunition. They run to the mountains whenever the Spaniards pursue them, and break up into small bands which are almost impossible to capture. The topograhpical conditions of the country are admirably suited to this sort of guerrilla warfare, and 1,000 men in the mountains can resist 100,000 in pursuit of them. “Spain has a splendid army, and if this were a civilized war it would do some fine fighting. But disciplined troops have no more chance with the guerrilla-like jnethods of the insurgents than

our regular army with the Apaches in the mountains. Before the Spaniards can ever subdue the insurgents or extinguish this rebellion their soldiers will have to adopt the same methods and the same kind of warfare. “Gen. Weyler is a great soldier, a man of fine ability and courage, and he has the confidence of the people. He is not the monster tnat has been described in some newspapers, but he is a gentleman, and I believe his administration will be as temperate and judicious as the conditions will justify. But he will fall like Campos, only in a more pronounced manner, because he is a greater man and has a greater ambition and greater energy. After his failure will come the deluge. No man knows who will furnish the ark or where Mount Ararat is located. Ido not predict what policy President Cleveland may adopt, but my visit to Cuba has made me a strong annexationist.” “What sort of men are the military leaders of the revolution?” “Gomez is a mercenary. I understand that he can be touched with Spanish gold. But they say Maceo is a true patriot—a mulatto with an ambition,”