240 CUBA 



women were similarly treated. This process is still in force, not- 

 withstanding the recent assertion that liberal autonomy has been 

 granted to Cuba. The following extract from the New York Sun 

 of April 5, 1898, as I write this article, shows that the force of 

 this despotic decree has not at all been ameliorated by the pres- 

 ent farcical autonomous government : 



" Many arrests are being made in the city among members of the best 

 families for political causes. Magdalena Peiia Redonda, a well-known 

 Cuban lady, was put in jail this morning upon a charge of conspiracy 

 against the government. 



"Alfredo Herrera, a young man of an aristocratic family, was arrested 

 this morning in a house in Industria street upon a charge of rebellion. 

 It is said that he was leading a band of insurgents near Habana a few 

 days ago. 



"Pablo Larrinago, Juan Romero, Candido Villaneuva, and others, all 

 well known persons, also have been arrested, charged with conspiracy 

 and rebellion." 



The'right of free speech on the part of the individual citizen 

 has not only been restricted, but the rigorous press law of 1881 

 requires every editor or manager of a paper to send, duly signed 

 by him, two copies of each issue to government headquarters and 

 two other copies to the district attorney as soon as printed, that 

 it may be seen whether any objectionable remarks are contained 

 therein. Nearly every publication in Cuba has been suspended 

 at some time or other, and its editor fined, imprisoned, or de- 

 ported to the penal colonies. 



The American who undertakes to investigate the history of 

 the Spanish government in Cuba inevitably finds the details too 

 revolting to be described. Greed, injustice, bribery, and cruelty 

 have been practiced with such frequency that volumes could be 

 filled with their horrible details. Above all these, however, 

 stands the fact that Spain has thrice endeavored to wipe out by 

 butchery and starvation the entire native population. The first 

 of these attempts, practiced in former centuries upon the abo- 

 rigines, was successful. The second attemj)t was made during 

 the ten years 1 war by Valamaseda, who wrote : 



" Not a single Cuban will remain on this island, because we shoot all 

 those we find in the fields, on their farms, and in every hovel. * * * 

 We do not leave a creature alive where we pass, be it man or animal. If 

 we find cows, we kill them ; if horses, ditto ; if hogs, ditto ; men, women, 

 or children, ditto. As to the houses, we burn them. So every one re- 

 ceives what he deserves— the men with bullets, the animals with the 

 bayonet. The island will remain a desert." 



