14 



THE CUBA REVIEW 



PRESS AND INDIVIDUAL COMMENT ON CUBAN 



MATTERS 



Apparently the new Cu1)an '"crisis" is 

 only a recurrence of an old story — that of 

 a superabundance of office seekers and an 

 insufficiency of offices, says the Galveston 

 Neivs. These outbreaks are recrudescent, 

 and usually they expend themselves in the 

 cafes of Havana. The novel feature of 

 this latest story seems to be that the civil 

 service law, which we imposed on the Cu- 

 bans before turning over the control of 

 their political affairs, is given as the par- 

 ticularly provoking circumstance. The 

 existence of a civil service law evidences 

 rather an advanced state of political de- 

 velopment, and it may well be questioned, 

 on purely philosophical grounds, whether 

 it was altogether wise to impose such a law 

 on a people so little tutored in the art of 

 self-government. But it is also to be ques- 

 tioned if the repeal of this law, as is now 

 being attempted, will have the placating 

 consequences which President Gomez is 

 said to hope for. Such of the malcontents 

 as get in as a result will doubtless become 

 very conservative citizens, but the larger 

 number who must inevitably have their 

 hopes disappointed will probably feel that 

 the civil service law was not the occasion 

 of their grievance, after all. 



"It is impossible to understand just how 

 attractive Havana is without visiting it," 

 said Mr. J. L. Meek, passenger agent of 

 the Southern Railway, recently. "Every 

 visitor who goes over is sure to return an 

 active booster. 



"It is hard to realize that in such a 

 short and convenient journey it is possible 

 to reach a city thoroughly foreign and 

 with all the attraction which this means. 

 Despite the foreign atmosphere, Havana 

 affords all the conveniences to which the 

 American tourist is accustomed, and no 

 trouble is encountered in finding one's way 

 about the city and to the hundreds of 

 places of interest which surround it." 



The suggestion that the wreck of the 

 "Maine" be sold at auction and carved into 

 bits for sale as souvenirs was about the 

 most ghoulish idea that ever found utter- 

 ance in Congress, is the editorial opinion 

 of the New York Sun. We can all be 

 thankful that the proposal received the 

 stinging rebuke it deserved and that a sea 

 burial for the old ship is now assured. 

 Certain portions of the hull will be dis- 

 tributed throughout the country as public 

 memorials. The rest will be towed to sea 

 and sunk with fitting ceremonies. 



The bleaching bones in Havana harbor. 

 the Sun says further, have been a monu- 

 ment to that peculiar heartlessness which 



has come to be regarded as an attribute 

 of a republic. Apparently the finer emo- 

 tions of the people are as slow to develop 

 as the coarser are swift to overwhelm. 

 We must make the most of the belief that 

 our national emotions are deep and abid- 

 ing, for all their slow, dumb beginnings. 

 Let us hope that when the guns of our 

 fleet boom over the "Maine," falling into 

 her deep grave, there will be a nation- 

 wide ceremonial proceeding from lips and 

 li arts. 



A recent statement by General Emilio 

 Nunez, president of the National Council 

 of Veterans, has caused much surprise. He 

 said : "I am not speaking now as the presi- 

 dent of the veterans, but I will say that we, 

 the veterans, will not permit any party 

 to get into power which will be hostile to 

 the veterans. The spirit of self-protection 

 would not permit us to allow the reins of 

 government to get into the hands of those 

 who were our obstinate enemies ; we would 

 go further by not even permitting that the 

 government should be in the hands of those 

 who make pacts with the 'guerrilleros' and 

 traitors." 



The Cleveland Plain Dealer says that 

 the attitude of the veterans is bigotry, and 

 must be a tremendous draw-back to the 

 nation. It says : 



"Men who honestly sympathized with 

 Spain when the Spanish government was 

 struggling to subdue colonial insurrection, 

 but who have since been loyal to the re- 

 public and proved themselves good public 

 servants, should not be punished for the 

 rest of their lives." 



The Superior (Wis.) Telegram believes 

 the action of the veterans, who have fought 

 the wars of Cuba, to permit only friends 

 of free Cuba to get into office, will receive 

 plenty of applause from the free men of 

 the United States. 



On this same subject the Cincinnati 

 Times-Star says : 



"It is very well to tell the Cubans that 

 they are not pursuing the course of wisdom 

 and to lecture them accordingly. Yet their 

 course is one that has been followed in 

 other countries which have gone through 

 periods of revolution. It may not be wise, 

 it may not be right, but it is very natural. 

 'To the victors belong the spoils' is a very 

 old and very widely accepted theory. The 

 remarkable thing about its present appli- 

 cation in Cuba is that it should be put 

 into effect thirteen years after the revolu- 

 tion achieved success." 



