12 



THE CUBA REVIEW 



UNITED STATES NEWSPAPER OPINION 



THE SENTIMENT OF THE AMERICAN PRESS- 

 ADVICE 



-CRITICISM, COMMENT AND 



Must Be Politically Tolerant. — Defend- 

 ers of all things Cuban will doul)tless re- 

 ply to any criticism tliat be passed on the 

 people of the young republic, on account of 

 the riot that occurred at Guines recently, 

 that nuK'ii worse riots have occurred here 

 in the United States, which is a much older 

 republic than Cuba and presents supposedly 

 the highest type in the world of free self- 

 government — which is true, no doubt, but 

 the argument misses the point. Political 

 rioting is almost unheard of in this coun- 

 try, the people of all parties being very 

 tolerant, while in Culia politics is the direct 

 cause of most of the riots and other forms 

 of violence, and this is chiefly 1 ecause the 

 Cubans are conspicuously intolerant po- 

 litically. The Cubans will never be wholly 

 lit for self-government until they have cul- 

 tivated and successfully bred a spirit of 

 political tolerance and have learned that 

 brick-bats and pistol-shots are not argu- 

 ment or fit weapons to employ in their 

 politics. — NcTi' York Coimiiercial. 



The Isle of Pines Roiv. — What has now 

 happened illustrates the truth of the saying 

 that nothing is settled until it is settled 

 right. Our government has been derelict 

 in permitting the status of the Isle of 

 Pines to go by default and in tacitly ac- 

 quiescing in the exercise there by the Cu- 

 ban government of a jurisdiction which it 

 does not properly possess. By the terms 

 of the Piatt amendment that island was 

 specifically excluded from the cession of 

 Cuba proper and was reserved to be the 

 subject of a future understanding, which 

 has never yet leen reached. It has been 

 urged that the Isle of Pines belongs to 

 Cuba geographically, although twenty miles 

 or so aw^ay. That is quite immaterial. The 

 Cubans could only take what the United 

 States gave them, and the Isle of Pines 

 was excepted from the grant. Its popula- 

 tion chiefly consists of Americans who 

 took up their residence and invested their 

 money there on the strength of the saving 

 clause in the Piatt amendment, and they 

 have a claim upon this country which ought 

 in honor to be allowed. — Philadelphia 

 ( Pa.) Inquirer. 



Rebels Only a Handful. — Cuba used to 

 be stirred up once in a while much after 

 the fashion of the countries across the gulf 

 to the south of it, but since Uncle Sam 

 made his official visit some twelve years 

 ago things have been different there. 



Sometimes there has been talk of revolu- 

 tion, and it has several times been reported 

 that rei)cl troops were in the held, but 

 nothing more ever came of it, Iiecause al- 

 most invariably the rebel hosts were found 

 to be a handful of men whose circum- 

 stances would never be better under the 

 most halcyon of conditions. — Hartford 

 (Conn.) Post. 



Has a Bright Chance. — "Any young man 

 who can do something well has a bright 

 chance to make a success in Cuba," said 

 Captain T. L. Huston of Havana, Cuba, 

 recently at the Iroquois Hotel. "Those 

 who have no trade or can do nothing 

 should a\oid the island, however." 



Captain Huston and Howard Trumbo of 

 the Huston-Trumbo Dredging Company of 

 Havana have secured a $4,000,000 contract 

 for improving the Sagua la Grande port. 



"Ever}- now and then you hear about a 

 threatened revolution in Cuba. It gives 

 a bad impression of conditions in the is- 

 land," said Captain Huston. "The Cuban 

 government is getting along surprisingly 

 well. There is no trouble and stories you 

 read are mostly romance." — Buffalo (X. 

 \'. ) P.ypress. 



The Republic a Joke. — If order is main- 

 tained during the campaign and at the 

 elections it will onlj' be for the reason 

 that whatever Gomez may be, he is an able 

 soldier and that he has at his command 

 considerable military resources, which he 

 will not hesitate upon occasion to employ. 

 That will be better than such an uprising 

 as the weakness of Palnia precipitated, but 

 every day ii becomes more plain that Cuba 

 as a republic is a joke. One of these days 

 the United States will have to do at last 

 what it ought to have done at first; it will 

 have to take hold and place the island on 

 a territorial basis. — Philadelphia (Pa.) 

 Inquirer. 



inn Settle Dozvn. — The Nexv York 

 Tribune sounds a strong note of confidence 

 in Cuba. "We can see no reason," it says, 

 "for ceasing to hope and to expect that 

 after, and indeed, because of, a period of 

 probation and some tribulation the insular 

 republic will "find itself" and settle down 

 to a stable and prosperous career." 



-At the same time its advice to Cuba is 

 to follow the well-tried and approved ways 

 of other republics, and above all to keep 

 faith and to do justice. 



