14 



THE CUBA REVI EW 



THE PRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



The National Lottery. 



Tht Cuban national lottery still very 

 generally interests the press of the 

 United States. The Utica, N. Y., Press 

 says, "In some respects the Cuban postal 

 laws were fashioned after those of the 

 United States, but if there was anything 

 therein which prevented carrying on 

 lotteries that has been eliminated." 



The Jacksonville (Fla.) Times-Union 

 discusses the purchase of Cuban lottery 

 tickets in the United States and asks: 



"Why should the government desire to deny 

 its citizens the opportunity to invest in lottery 

 tickets? Not to save them from the dangers of 

 financial speculation, because it has not at- 

 tempted to interfere with gambling in stocks, 

 which is certainly no better investment to out- 

 side parties than a flyer in a lottery. Not because 

 the purchase of a lottery ticket is immoral, 

 because these are still sold at church fairs in 

 this country, and we are now advertising from 

 Washington a lottery of our own, with all the 

 accompaniments and the increased expense of a 

 long journey to a specified place." 



Official CuDa thinks one way, official 

 United States another, says the New 

 York Times. "One could let it go at 

 that," it says further, "were it not for 

 the fact that Cuba cannot run a state 

 lottery without causing us a vast amount 

 of trouble, just as she could not continue 

 to permit her capital to be a breeding 

 place for yellow fever without inflicting 

 vipon our coast cities enormous losses 

 of life and property. Perhaps that does 

 not give us a right to tell Cuba that she 

 must not have a lottery, as we have told 

 her that she must keep free of yellow 

 fever, but it comes pretty near doing 

 so." 



Money earned through the lottery is 

 tainted money, says the Columbus (O.) 

 Despatch. "It is the price of a false 

 standard of money-getting among the 

 people. A few may be enriched in some 

 degree, but by far the greater number 

 will be impoverished, and among all 

 there will be spread the false notion that 

 chance, and not work, is the best means 

 of gain." 



The Columbus (O.) State Journal ex- 

 pects Cuba to "descend into the valley of 

 tumult and trouble" because of the lot- 

 tery, t says: "The idea that it can be 

 prosperous on an income from a lottery 

 is as absurd as the search for perpetual 

 motion. They are parts of the same 

 dream. A person cannot get anything 

 out of nothing and thrive on it. A man 

 must pay for what he gets some way — 

 either in adequate reward or in mis- 

 fortune or trouble." 



Restricting the Sale of Firearms. 



The order of President Gomez that 

 firearms suitable for military use shall 

 hereafter be imported only at certain 

 designated places and under special li- 

 cense, and sold only in limited numbers 

 to persons known to the government, is 

 verv generally commended. The New 

 York Tribune says: 



"There can be no legitimate objection to such 

 an order. It is not infringement of the proper 

 rights and privileges of the people. The only 

 purpose there can be in importing military rifles 

 is that of war, which only the government has 

 the right to wage, or individual manslaughter, 

 which is a crime. Men do not want Springfield 

 rifles for snipe shooting, and for purposes of 

 protection against marauders, if anything of the 

 sort is needed, a shotgun is worth a dozen rifles. 

 So the very possession of military arms, except 

 under government license and supervision, may be 

 forbidden on the ground that their only probable 

 use is one whidi is unlawful." 



The Boston (Mass.) Advertiser thinks 

 the caution of the Cuban government in 

 restricting the sale of firearms cannot 

 be called excessive. It says: 



"While no imminent danger of revolution ap- 

 pears, these precautions offer the "stitch in 

 time." The Cuban government knows the work- 

 ing of the revolutionary idea — it knows that the 

 same forces who defied Spain through so many 

 costly years might be perverted to strike against 

 the republican government in power." 



The Cleveland (O.) Plain Dealer says: 

 "Such precautions are undoubtedly wise. 

 They would be wise in any country, but 

 they are doubly and triply commend- 

 able in Cuba, where the guns and the 

 people behind the guns are likely to 

 explode at any moment." 



Cuba's Favorable Condition. 



The New York Tribune would like 

 to know the source of unfavorable ac- 

 counts of Cuban affairs so very generally 

 circulated. It finds from credible infor- 

 mation obtainable precisely contrary con- 

 ditions. It says: 



"Tlie fact that railroad earnings have mate- 

 rially increased since the restoration of insular 

 autonomy and that prices of all public and 

 corporate securities have risen might be explained 

 by the fact that similar processes have prevailed 

 in this country and generally throughout the world 

 this year. Yet what more can reasonably be 

 askd than that Cuba shall share in the general 

 prosperity and progress of the world? The de- 

 creasing death rate, the smaller number of 

 crimes and misdemeanors, the growth of revenue, 

 the increase of immigration, the execution of im- 

 portant public works, the marked abatement of 

 political animosity and unrest and the general 

 rallying of the various parties to the support of 

 the government, all suggest the groundlessness of 

 the unfavorable views which have been ex- 

 pressed." 



