The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-03-22
REAL MEAN
Editor Godkin ON Fellow Editors and
Other "Epileptic DemaEogues."

New York Evening Post.
re The most @it, serious piece Of news In con,
from Naples to-day, that Mr.. w. C. Whit
ney's blood is boiling over it. Now, when
the blood of as cool a man as he is, whose
the age of twenty, boils at the distance of
Naples from the scene of action, and with
little or no knowledge of the facts, how
is peace to be preserved? That is the ques-
ton to-day for the American people. Blood
Is sos also ?, boiling BOIL in the several newspaper Of.
boils more easily than Mr.. Whitney's. In
fact, 1T is kept in a kind of simmer all the
time, and is started up into a full boil on
any sign of an outrage on the flag" 1t
boils, SO to speak, on signal. The blood of
m too. if pd he we're er l mot s s.beiid. "o pnSer 0e an p indjes.
ment. There is nothing like an indictment
for keeping blood off the boil. AS we re-
marked some days ago., in speaking of the
newspaper treatment of rich women. any
body who read it would fancy we were all
servant girls. So also anyone reading the
nation of savages. or at all events semi
barbarians. Any stranger who knew moth
newspaper remarks on war and ..in-
suits would never believe that we, were a
had universities and learned men, numerous
churches. and a large book trade, a free
press and representative institution. oh,
self" The reason of his incredulity would
be this: The intercourse of civilized nations
in time of peace is modelled on that of pri-
vate gentlemen, and has been so from time
immemorial. One of the chief assumptions
Slight IT. is never Intentional. Conseouentlv. It
never can be avenged or treated as inten-
tional until it is acknowledged as such by
the person charged with 1t. We may think
1T is Intentional, and it may make our blood
boil: but until the man avows his intention
who has done SO, either in direct terms or
by refusal to. apologize, we are bound to
treat nd him e n0lifs,y and P esiag r, the i matter deup to
binding when the act complained of Is the
act of an agent at a distance, of which the
Persons who disregard this rule, who treat
all Sights as intentional the minute they
h hear ti 1d th te sxp ana D acre Known oNs o as abulIie nas
'swashbucklers," .blackguards'' and
'.toughs' the world over.
observed in Secretary Gresham's dispatch.
We think a more civil tone would have done
lieved that the Spanish government had
given orders to its cruisers to fire on Amer
lean vessels anywhere off the Cuban coast;
The presumption is all the other way, and
1t ought to have found expression IN MS
message. He was probably goaded into his
peremptory tone by the handful of hare
Drained young fellows who treat foreign
affairs in the newspapers, who would enjoy
a war above all things for the sake OF the
triangular headlines, the tremendous sem
%sations, and the roaring sales. There is
generally a good deal Of volunteering for
but we nave never yet heard of an editor
proposing to serve his country in arms
either ashore or af1Oat. The editors do
nothing but keep their blood boiling and
maze leroeious faces at the enemy, like
the Chinese warriors. AS to the epiliptic
demagogues who are yelling for battle just
now, and say we must have Cuba, we can
only wait till the fit passes over. The
disease is evidently making progress among
them, however, for the commissions recur
oftener and last longer. 1t looks as If they
thought they could get UP an excuse for
Selling Cuba, which would be a far
handler job than settling the currency
question, or the tariff problem, or the
transportation problem. But only the i'm
agination of a humorist of high rank could
give an idea of what Cuba, with it's million
of Catholic Spaniards and half million of
negroes and fifty thousand Chinese, would
be under the rule of Morgan and Lodge and
Cullom, or of PETER and Quay. Nothing but
a permanent court-martia1 would ever make
these wretches familiar with true Amer
icanism.' The opinion the rest of the civil
lied world has of American manners is
not high, our ministers and consuls do such
queer things, and it is a pity our diplomacy
does not do more to raise it. We shall be
in trouble with Italy before we know it il
it leaks out that w. c. Whitney's blood is
boiling at Naples, for Spain will surely de-
mand his expulsion, and King Humbert
will feel bound to grant it, owing to Mr..
Whitney having once been a Cabinet off,
Ger. No such a man, they will say, can let
his blood boil in a foreign country on an
international question without endangering
its neutrality. In fact, the times are out of
joint in every direction, but Lodge is
watching in Washington.