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Show r . i 5 " TTT - -- r" - fTT i ' CTta London Spectator, considering Cuban affairs, ' issts that Gen. .Wood be put in charge of Cuba Tc tsa.years. Evidently the Spectator is not able to fully comprehend com-prehend the status of tbe United States toward Cuba, The United States has no desire or. deposition deposi-tion to do anything in Cuba except that it shall es-. es-. tablish a stable government of its own and manage its own affairs. V . Secretary Taft has been careful to leave the Cu-! Cu-! ban flag in place, and tq avoid anything that looks like a disposition to encroach in the "least upon the political v rights ..of that island. Many pa pers look - for grave consequences should there be a collision be-, be-, i tween United States troops and the insurgent troops oi uuoa. . v e.apprenena no sucn collision, y -An old story is told of Col. Bowie, that he kicked a man out of a hotel in St. Louis, and a few days later saw the same man that he had fired out of the hotel in St. Louis,-kick another man out of a New Orleans note! , Tapping him on the shoulder Bowie said: "Did I not have the, pleasure of seeing you leave a hotel' in. St. Louis rather quickly the other day,t" The man looked at Bowie a minute and said, "Col. Bowie, you and I know, who to kick." It is the same way in Cuba. These insurgent 1 know who to fight,' or, rather, they know that if they i go up against United States soldiers it will mean j real business. They are not a bit anxious for that ' Of course, we know nothing .about Secretary Taft's inside plan, but the probable course that he. will take will be to call together some strong men, insur- gents and anti-insurgents and business men, and . prepare something which, in this country, would be called a platform. Then have these men make the nominations, then" call an election, count the votes, have the men elected installed in office and then come home. The occupation of Cuba was made an unavoidable . necessity, that occupation will be continued con-tinued no longer than is absolutely necessary. - There will 'be nothing done that will givethe malcontents through all Spanish-America the idea , ; ; that the United States has anything like conquest in view: In all his speeches in South America Secre-, Secre-, tary Root insisted that the United States' did not . , want one .more, acre of land ; that it did not. wish "anything of Spanish-America except to see it prosper on the most enlightened lines under the control of its own people, and that declaration will be kept to the letter. ' It is not strange that anEnglish newspaper cannot can-not comprehend that so rich an island as Cuba, when once in the grasp of a strong power, will not be retained re-tained But that is not the way of the United ' States. There is no hunger in our country for foreign for-eign territory; rather the thought is that we should get on such terms with the South Land that our people will always be welcome there, that American enterprise may be fostered there, and that the final conquest of American influence will be a peaceable . one. . . ' |