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The Cause of Cuba: Cuban

The volunteers in Cuba, now 63,000 strong, are men who serve in the Cuban militia three years to get rid of the conscription for five years in Spain. There is no show for native Cubans in this organization, or in business comparatively, for the Spaniards rush in, and it is boasted that the Cubans are handsomely treated, because they are not coerced to perform military duty. The sharp Spaniards flock to the Island, and take service as clerks, waiters, cabmen, and all the situations sought by active young men, and with the motive of military service in Cuban towns--home guards--they consent to extremely low compensation, crowding out the natives, of course. They go home as soon as their military liability has expired, and, cutting wages in their various Cuban occupations, they are an army for Spain, maintained at the expense of Cuba--preferred to the natives--another drain upon the manhood and healthy life of the Island.

There has been much said about the representation of Cuba in the Spanish Cortes, but it has not efficacy--it is a form, and there is no healing virtue in it. Cuban votes are allowed to count for minor matters only. There is not even the shadow of self-government. The captain-general is the supreme ruler, and he is a military chieftain, whose will is the law, and whose usages are those of martial law, and this is the crowning feature of every one of the vaunted schemes of liberal reform.