The Topeka State Journal

OUR OBLIGATIONS IN CUBA.

Americans whose property has been in peril for many months in Mexico and whose interests there have suffered grievously because of successive rebellions and prolonged disorder and unrest will object to the apparent readiness of the federal administration to make Cuba keep the peace while Mexico is allowed great latitude in breaking down civil government and interrupting the orderly movement of life.

They will demand reasons for making fish of one neighbor of the United States and flesh of the other

That reason is not far to seek. It is found in the fact that this country is under special obligations to prevent any breaking down of law and order in Cuba.

By the creation of an independent state on that island, and still more by the formal assumption of a limited guardianship over the Cuban republic, the United States has been placed in such a position that it cannot let things drift in Cuba, as they have drifted in Mexico.

This is true regardless of all other differences between the two countries and the conditions which would affect American intervention.

It must be remembered, also, that to enforce peace and respect for law and order in Cuba would cost no such price in blood and treasure as would have to be paid for like gains in Mexico. To interfere in Mexico would entail prolonged and difficult military operations and in the end more American lives might be sacrificed and more American property destroyed than would be lost by many years of unending rebellions and internal strife.

Cuba, on the other hand, can easily be handled by the army and navy.

Complete quiet can be insured costly, much less a bloody war.

Both the moral obligation and the material conditions are different in Cuba from those existing in any other country with which the United States is concerned. There are good and sufficient reasons why much sterner and quicker action may be taken there than would be justified in respect to any other state, in Latin-America or elsewhere.