Show DWINDLING SPAIN it has come to the surface that the spanish have been exchanging prisoners with the cubans and if this be the case the claim of the spanish government that its contest is one for the overthrow of a band of rioters vanishes into thin air at once to exchange prisoners of war is a function of war a complete recognition of the militant footing of the enemy and thus disappears one more reason urged by the home government why the united states should not give the cubans full recognition it is not to be supposed from this however that there are not others fo for there are and additional to the ones which have been in existence from the beginning of the outbreak besides recently general garcia the right arm of commander in chief gomez and the worthy successor of antonio maceo captured the city of victoria situated about midway between the atlantic and caribbean coasts or to speak more understandingly between the north and south sides of the island another of the reasons offered by the spanish government in opposition to recognition was that the cubans had not taken and did not hold a fort fortified gifted town they have now taken and since held the one spoken of which con bains about inhabitants and is surrounded by a cordon of forts several in number this is a matter of the utmost importance contributing so greatly as it does to the humiliation of the spanish forces and the embarrassment of the spanish government it must now be patent even to the madrid cabinet that spain Is unequal to the task of overthrowing the insurrection and that the longer the withdrawal of all hostile forces in cuba is postponed the greater will be the dilemma which is already of frightful ul proportions in one sense spain Is a subject of the most profound commiseration hopelessly bankrupt credit exhausted internal resources curtailed through the two rebellions it has had to oppose and the consequent withdrawal of men from their regular pursuits the cuban uprising merged into a regular war with the advantages chiefly with the cubans and no present hope of a sue successful outcome add to all these misfortunes the greater one it if possible of a false pride which is permitted to hold sway over the judgment and the picture becomes a sorrowful one indeed and when the seemingly inevitable shall come and peace without power to spain shall prevail in the gem of the antilles it will be without recompense or compensating circumstances almost at any time the spanish government might have had enough for cuba to have replenished its depleted exchequer and placed it on the way to national standing again but it would have none of it and now it can contemplate the spectacle of homes made desolate a people immersed in humiliation and threatened with despair a rule enfeebled and made insecure not a dollar in possession all the resources of the nation unequal to its outstanding obligations and the probable loss of the island besides what a difference between this and the which generva general grants administration was ready to pay for the islands release when one thinks of it all the feeling of pity to is well nigh overcome by that of contempt especially when it to is considered that for no natural reason has spain any right whatever to own and control cuba |