For four years the experiment of Cuban independence has been on trial. Its first revolution has overturned the government with scarcely an effort on the part of the government to sustain itself. It has failed to stand its first practical test as against the innate spirit of unrest that imbues the people, and which was so long cultivated during the years of chafing under Spanish misrule. The following statement by a correspondent of the New York World gives some interesting facts that help to explain the situation:
“To understand the present revolt and the strong feeling against Palma and his administration, one must go back to 1902, when Palma was first elected president of Cuba. The occupation of the United States had been tedious, and to the Cuban mind Palma was the Washington government's choice for president of Cuba. Had all his acts been Solomonic in their wisdom, he could not have escaped Cuban resentment of what they felt was the imposed choice of an alien power. His services in the ten years' war of the '70s against Spanish dominion, his capture in 1876 and imprisonment in Morro Castle, and then the final confiscation of his properties and banishment from Cuba for life, were forgotten. A new generation had arisen which knew nothing of all this. For twenty-four years he had been an exile in an obscure village in the United States, and Cuba had lost touch with Palma and he with Cuba. Any other man under these conditions would have been as heavily handicapped. Palma is the most bitterly hated person in Cuba. The rebels against Spanish rule have no recognition in his administration, no hope of relief through elections. Palma, an ultra-conservative, is surrounded by the old pro-Spanish influence. His own private secretary was, up to the Spanish evacuation in 1898, judge-advocate in the army of Spain—the man who prosecuted the Cuban patriots in the field. Their lives and liberties were in the hands of this Spanish prosecutor, and to-day no old Cuban fighter can gain access to the president without permission of this man. Imagine the feeling of these hardy, bitter old campaigners as they seek permission from the man who has ordered their comrades out with a file of soldiers at dawn or turned the keys of the dungeons of Morro.”
What shall we say of the politics of this great republic when two men in the greatest of the states hold the power to decide which one of the two shall name the candidates of a popular party for the dignified positions of judges of the various grades of courts? Then one of the two has to yield to the one whom he had but recently denounced in his paper as everything that is corrupt, socially and politically. And the privilege of naming the candidates for high judgeships is yielded to this bold, bad man because his influence was deemed necessary to the political success of the one who had so denounced him. In another great state it is conceded that one man virtually controlled the nomination for governor in the conventions of two different parties. He had one nominated with a view to his election, and the other for the purpose of defeating a third candidate by dividing a certain party vote. And the masses sing the praises and fawn at the feet of men who are capable of doing such politics. Yet some Christians talk of the duty of going to the polls, that good men may be elected to office. But when at the polls, they can vote only for some candidate set up for them by political gamblers. A vote for a candidate not on a regularly certified and registered ticket would not be counted. So the franchise privilege of the people is merely stock in the hands of office brokers. And all this passes for republicanism in “the land of the free!”
Of all modern public utilities, the railroad is deemed the most valuable, yet it involves a cost in the United States that receives very little public attention. A statement has just been issued by the Interstate Commerce Commission that the railroad entails a yearly cost that can not be computed in dollars and cents. For the year ending June 30, 1905, the number of people killed was 9,703, while the injured numbered 86,003. Inasmuch as this was a considerable increase over the previous year, we may reasonably expect that when the account for the past year is in, it will show further increase. And this is only one item in the great daily sacrifice of human life on the altar of money-getting—“covetousness, which is idolatry.” Modern machinery, coupled with modern rush and recklessness, is a wanton destroyer of human life.
The Department of Botany of the University of California has been presented with the very valuable Brandegee Collection of botanical specimens together with the Brandegee Library of some three thousand volumes of botanical works, and the furniture and fixtures for the care of the Herbarium. This gift is a most important one to the department for the reason that the Herbarium contains over 100,000 specimens of plants gathered principally in Southern California, Arizona, and Mexico, a region which is but little covered in the original collection of the University. The University Herbarium is now one of the largest and most valuable west of Harvard.
The character of Russian justice is indicated in the following press despatch: “Two hundred Jews arrested at haphazard during the massacre at Siedlce are being tried by field court martial, their judges being the same officers that participated in the disorders, and are therefore likely to condemn the accused in order to justify the massacre of their brethren. A committee of British Jews have issued a strong appeal to civilized nations to prevent such a crime against civilization. But such an appeal will hardly avail, for the reason that the Jew, as a Jew, has no national friend.
That high license does not help the temperance cause, is shown by the following press despatch from Chicago: “There are 8,000 drunkards in Chicago, and they are causing the police, hospital authorities, reform associations, and even the saloon men, a lot of trouble. While temperance workers have no authoritative statistics on the number of drunkards in the city, they are confident there is no decrease in sight, and are viewing with alarm the widespread use of intoxicants that permits so many saloon-keepers to stay in business, despite the $1,000 liquor license ordinance.”