10 



THE CUBA REVIEW 



GENERAL COMMENT ON CUBAN AFFAIRS 



WHEN UNITED STATES INTEREST IN 

 CUBA BEGAN 



In ]fi07 President Jefferson advocated the 

 annexation of Cuba to the United States. 

 In 1826 President John Quincy Adams in 

 his message to Congress called attention to 

 Cuba's future relations to the United 

 States, and said : 



"The condition of the islands of Cul)a 

 and Porto Rico is of deeper import and 

 more immediate bearing upon the present 

 interests and future prospects of our 

 union." 



In 1S23, while secretary of state, Presi- 

 dent Monroe (father of the Monroe doc- 

 trine) wrote to the United States minister 

 at Madrid. Spain, calling his attention to 

 the commanding position occupied by Cuba 

 in ree-ard to the Gulf of Mexico and the 

 Caribbean Sea. expressing his opinion that 

 there was no other foreign territory to 

 compare more favorable to the interests of 

 the United States. 



In 1S4R, President Polk, through James 

 P.uchanan. secretary of state, offered to buy 

 Cuba from Spain ' for $100,000,000, which 

 ofifer was refused. In making that offer 

 the strategic position of Cuba was con- 

 sidered. 



During the administration of President 

 Fillmore, at the death of Webster, then 

 secretary of state, the duties of the office 

 were assumed by Edward Everett, whose 

 short term, from 1852 to ]S5?., was marked 

 by his refusal to take part in a treaty with 

 France and England, in which they were to 

 disclaim then and for the future all inten- 

 tion to obtain possession of Cuba, though 

 President Fillmore's last message. Decem- 

 ber 6, 1852, expressed an opinion against 

 the incorporation of Cuba into the Union, 

 stating also that annexation would probably 

 affect in a prejudicial manner the industrial 

 interests of the South. 



In 1854 the "Ostend manifesto" declared: 



"As the island will speedily resort to 

 arms to free herself, the United States 

 should ofifer Spain a sum not to exceed 

 $120,000,000 for Cuba, and in the event of 

 Spain's refusal the United States would be 

 |ta#tified in taking forcible possession of 



' In 1858 President Buchanan referred ex- 

 tensively to Cuba and her command over 

 the mouth of the Mississippi and the large 

 foreign and coastwise trade from the val- 

 ley of that river, marking the danger to 

 said trade in case of foreign possession of 

 Cuba and calling attention to the benefit it 

 would be to the United States. 



There is no nation that has struggled 

 more for its independence than Cuba has. 



The struggle commenced in 1829 and ended 

 in 1898 with the Spanish-American war. 

 After over sixty years of intermittent fight- 

 ing, Cuba became a nation with the help of 

 the United States, which help she had so 

 long and so earnestly expected and solicited. 

 — Hon. R. M. Ybor. Cuban consul at 

 Tampa in the Tampa Times. 



Britain's lost possession, cuba 



Cuba is one of Britain's lost possessions 

 according to the Dublin (Ireland) Express, 

 and it was lost through a mistake as after 

 events have proved. The Express says : 



"The island was captured by the British 

 in 1762 in circumstances of the most ex- 

 treme difficulty. Yellow fever was raging 

 with extraordinary violence, and we lost 

 men at the rate of a thousand a week. But 

 our sailors and soldiers stuck to their task 

 and won. In the British way, we soon be- 

 gan the work of pacification ; and the gov- 

 ernment of the island immediately under- 

 went a great change for the better. But 

 only a year or so later, when peace was 

 patched up between the belligerents in 

 Europe, our statesmen, for reasons of high 

 policy and with no great foresight, handed 

 Cuba back to Spain, and for many long 

 years the people suffered a misrule from 

 which they were freed by the Spanish- 

 American war of the end of last century. 

 Here again Cuba came to be another case 

 of a lost possession, as the .A.mericans 

 honorably fulfilled their undertaking to 

 give up the island when once sound, just 

 government had been established." 



A WESTERNER S OPINION OF CUBA 



Manufactures play a comparatively 

 small part in the island's industries ; it is 

 cheaper to buy them from the United 

 States. 



The merchants are mostly Spaniards and 

 I found them a very courteous and affable 

 body of men with an eye open to business, 

 if you had the goods to show them. It is 

 said that although they are accustomed to 

 demand long time on sales, no salesman 

 can induce them to accept more goods than 

 they are sure of being able to pay for. 



Business, wholesale and retail, is in the 

 hands of Spaniards, most of whom came to 

 Cuba when small boys. The professions, 

 such as lawyers, doctors, engineers, archi- 

 tects, chemists, etc., are all filled by native 

 Cubans. 



The street car system is very good indeed 

 and yet coach hire is so cheap that every 

 one rides, banker, baker and candlestick 



