THE CUBA REVIEW 



15 



THE RACES IN CUBA 



In no other country and in no other age 

 has a black, brown or yellow race been so 

 well treated by the white race as the men 

 of Spanish blood in Cuba have treated the 

 men of African blood since the republic 

 was established. Even before, from the 

 time when emancipation was finally com- 

 pleted in 1886, negroes received great con- 

 sideration. If the Spaniards at times 

 cruelly treated them it was not because 

 they were negroes, but because they were 

 in arms against the Spanish crown. White 

 insurgents were treated in like manner. 



It is strange that no one has ever pre- 

 sented a study of the unprecedented race 

 relations in Cuba, the yielding of full po- 

 litical equality and almost full social 

 equality by a white element comprising a 

 fraction of over 70 per cent of the popu- 

 lation to the minority statistically returned 

 as "colored." It is only in statistics that 

 any distinctions of race are made in speak- 

 ing of Cubans. All — blacks, whites, browns 

 and yellows — are Cubans. Or have been. 

 For negroes, by their own choice, have 

 been settling themselves up as a distinct 

 element, marking themselves off from the 

 whites by the drastic process of making 

 war upon them because they are whites. — 

 The Chicago Daily News. 



On the same matter the Macon (Ga.) 

 Telegraph says : 



"The Spanish-Americans have ever been 

 more tolerant than English-Americans of 

 negro equality in both a political and per- 

 sonal sense. Cuban negroes have received 

 more recognition in both ways than the 

 negroes of the United States. In Havana, 

 when Cuba was still a province of Spain, 

 a member of the Telegraph's staff noted 

 evidences of a closer personal relation be- 

 tween the races than has ever been wit- 

 nessed in this country. Once, among the 

 spectators at a public cock-fight, for ex- 

 ample, a young white man and a young 

 negro were seen with their arms thrown 

 familiarly over each other's shoulders." 



CUBA S CONTROL LIMITED 



"Far more serious than Cuba's financial 

 tangles is the uncertainty whether the Cu- 

 bans can hold on orderly election and then 

 abide loyally by the will of the majority," 

 says the Phiadelpliia Ledger. "This has 

 been the crucial test upon which so many 

 of the Latin-American republics have 

 failed. It was the total inability of the 

 defeated minority to accept the verdict at 

 the polls w^hich brought about the first in- 

 tervention, and if we must again take Cuba 

 in hand it will probably be for similar rea- 

 sons." 



"Cuba's unstable conditions are the in- 

 evitable consequence," the Ledger further 

 says, "of the limited control exercised by 



the Cuban government over its own desti- 

 nies. The knowledge that there is a 

 greater power, bound by its own policy 

 of self-preservation, that is always ready 

 to interfere and apply paternal correction 

 and guidance, is a perpetual temptation to 

 those who believe that the only hope of 

 stability for Cuba lies in closer union with 

 the United States, and that this desired 

 result will be hastened by the exposure of 

 the political incapacity of Cuba's chosen 

 representatives. 



"On the other hand, this knowledge de- 

 prives Cuban officials of that sense of re- 

 sponsibility which is essential to the highest 

 efficiency. There is no apparent escape 

 from these conditions, but those who would 

 render the best service to Cuba must make 

 it clear to the people of the island that 

 annexation is the last thing desired by the 

 United States, that that is an alternative 

 which will never be adopted voluntarily by 

 this country until every other resource fails, 

 and until every effort which patient and 

 prudent statesmen can devise shall be ex- 

 hausted in the task of guiding and encour- 

 aging Cuba to stand alone." 



CUBANS DO NOT HATE AMERICANS 



Dr. Frederico Torralbas, chief sanitary 

 inspector of Havana, when interviewed re- 

 cently at Washington declared that "any 

 so called anti-American feeling does not 

 exist among Cubans." 



"I am glad to have the opportunity to 

 make this statement," added Dr. Torralbas, 

 "for I have observed that few American 

 newspapers have printed dispatches giving 

 the true conditions in Cuba. If there have 

 been expressions against the Americans 

 they have come not from Cubans, but 

 from the Spaniards who are not national- 

 ized, and who hate America and Ameri- 

 cans. This is true with regard to some 

 of the newspapers owned or controlled by 

 Spaniards. 



"The Cuban people, high and low," he 

 said further, "are not only friendly to 

 the United States ; they are deeply grate- 

 ful to the country, for had it not been for 

 the Americans we should not now have 

 our independence." 



Dr. Torralbas, while in Washington, at- 

 tended the International Congress of 

 Hygiene and Demography and the con- 

 vention of the American Association of 

 Public Health, of which he is first vice- 

 president. , 



It is w^ell known to the United States 

 government that Cuban officials of high 

 rank have been guilty of gross corruption 

 and betrayal of their country's interests. 

 The evidence in the hands of the De- 

 partment of State is overwhelming on this 

 point, says the Washington (D. C.) Post. 



