10 



THE CUBA R E \' I E W 



PRESS AND INDIVIDUAL COMMENT ON CUBAN 



MATTERS 



The present conditions of Cuba's finances 

 are attracting" seneral attention, and the 

 Nezv York Tribune has the following to 

 say editorially on this important subject: 



"There must be a clear recognition of 

 the difference between the right of this 

 country to intervene in Cuban fiscal affairs 

 and the desirability of doing so. The 

 right is indisputable, from both the legal 

 and moral point of view. Tt is set forth 

 in a law of the United States, in the 

 Constitution of Cuba and in a treaty be- 

 tween the two countries. The Cuban gov- 

 ernment is specifically bound not to as- 

 sume or contract any public debt 'to pay 

 the interest upon which and to make rea- 

 sonable sinking fund provision for the 

 ultimate discharge of which the ordinary 

 revenues of the island, after defraying 

 the current expenses of government, shall 

 be inadequate,' and the American_ govern- 

 ment is empowered to intervene, if neces- 

 sary, for the enforcement of that salutary 

 rule. 



"Having at great cost secured inde- 

 pendence for Cuba, it is incumbent upon 

 this country to afford whatever protection 

 mav be needed in order that independence 

 may not be forfeited or impaired or its 

 blessings lost. Nobody would dispute the 

 right and duty of this country to defend 

 Cuba against the wanton aggression of 

 some foreign and hostile power. But long 

 and unpleasant experience has demon- 

 strated that the fiscal menace is greater 

 than the military. The worst pvil of the 

 republics of that part of the world has 

 been that of disordered finances. It has 

 been in that way, in the great majority 

 of instances, that diplomatic compHcations 

 and military menaces have been incurred. 

 It is well, 'therefore, for this country to 

 guard against the cause of trouble and not 

 merely to combat the effect. 



"But the desirability of intervention is 

 a very different thing. If our right to 

 intervene is indisputable, it is at least 

 equally certain that it is most undesirable 

 for us to do so, save under extreme com- 

 pulsion. Before intervention was so much 

 as seriously thought of, it would be neces- 

 sary to have it shown in the clearest man- 

 ner that Cuba was incurring debts which 

 were beyond her power to pay and which 

 would therefore become a menace to her 

 integrity. So far as we know, that has 

 not yet been shown in the present case. 

 There are hints of 'powerful influences' 

 which are said to be at work toward m- 

 tervention. But our government is not 

 controlled in such matters in that way. 

 It does not conceive it to be its duty to 



pull chestnuts out of the fire for specu- 

 lators or investors who went into foreign 

 engagements with their eyes open. 



"The only questions before it are two : 

 Whether any Americans fail to receive 

 justice in the Cuban courts and whether 

 the Cuban government is incurring debts 

 beyond its reasonable ability to pay. It 

 is to be expected that Cuba vvill cause both 

 questions to be answered in the negative. 

 The pearl of the Antilles does not wish 

 to lapse into the condition of Santo Do- 

 mingo." 



Sydney Brooks in Harper's Weekly again 

 comes to the defense of Cuba and urges 

 that the republic be allowed to work out 

 her own problems without interference. 

 He says : 



"I do not myself regard the experiment 

 of an autonomous republic in Cuba, 

 hazardous as it is and must be, as neces- 

 sarily doomed to failure. Every year that 

 it continues to exist adds something to 

 its chance of longevity and makes the 

 Cubans realize more clearly the conditions 

 that must be observed if its life is to be 

 prolonged. The one thing that will in- 

 fallibly bring about its collapse is the 

 adoption by the American people and the 

 American government of a too rigid and 

 censorious attitude toward the republic 

 they have created. If they judge the Cu- 

 ban government without reference to the 

 Cuban past, if they dwell persistently on 

 its defects and fail to acknowledge its 

 good points, if they expect from the Cu- 

 bans an impossible standard of political 

 efficiency and honesty, if they get into the 

 habit of brandishing the threat of inter- 

 vention in order to secure the removal of 

 blemishes that can only be really eradicated 

 by the action of the Cubans themselves — 

 then unquestionably the difficulties that 

 attend the Cuban essay in self-government 

 will be enormously and disastrously in- 

 tensified, and its final collapse will be only 

 a matter of time. But if Americans over- 

 look much of which they legitimately dis- 

 approve, and give the Cubans the fullest 

 attitude in solving their own problems as 

 best they can, then the Cuban republic 

 may pull through. The Cubans' 'utter in- 

 experience' of self-government is a rea- 

 son, not for condemning or deriding them, 

 but for encouraging and sympathizing 

 with the efforts that they are undoubtedly 

 making to keep an autonomous republic 

 in being. 



"There are plenty of elements in Cuba 

 out of which a stable and orderly state 

 could be evolved. And, in any case, to 

 arraign a whole people as naturally and 



