The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1895-04-08

| times"
MUGWUMPERY AND PATRIOTISM.
From the local morning newspaper
we quote with pain the following senti-
ments referring to the Venezuelan situa-
| ton and our Governments attitude
toward it:
"The difficulty is a very considerable one,
and IL is evidently anything but easy for the
| State Department TO decide whether IL all
| reaffirm the Monroe Doctrine In unmistakable
| terms or formulate a new policy TO III the ex-
| igencies Of the case.
"A howl will of course go up from the lingo
| press If the Secretary fails TO endorse Mr..
| Munroe's famous declaration, but how can
our ships compete successfully with those of
Greoi Britain If they are put to the test9"
We reproduce this paragraph, not alone
because of the matter To which 1t i'm
mediately refers, as because it is an ex-
ponent of the spirit of mugwumpery.
The mugwump disease is insidious
aud is not confined to politics.
Once it has seized upon its victim it, step
by step, robs him of every noble faculty,
turns to ashes the fire of ambition,
makes of the patriotic soul craven and
malodorous lump. That it over
loads its victim with self conse-
quence is of minor importance by con-
trast with the more terrible afllic-
tions which it brings about in his
nature. To the mugwump everything
hat Ia Ia al ba i,i, bot
far removed have any health in them.
The earth is musty decayed slab-sided
sort of globe. The balance of the
planets are bodies of transcendent
beauty. Regulations are Of no account.
Claims and promises are to be
worshiped Familiarity breeds con
tempt in the emugwump spirit. What Is
strange, and new, and fantastic, alone is
worthy of emulation and admiration. The
mugwump poison once injected into the
veins shortly affects the whole system,
resolves the heart into hunk of clay,
turns the blood to water, robs the eye
OF its lustre, paralyzes the brain and
makes its victim mental and moral
dyspeptic who fears his own shadow,
knows no JOY save the keen delight
of scofiing at the brave, the chival-
rous, the strong and the wholesome in
his surroundings and associations.
We have given little study to the
Venezuelan matter, but we do not under
take to pose as an authority on this
case which is likely to offer a
| problem of real seriousness to our
Government. 1t looks to us quite plain,
as we pointed out the other day, that
! England, in her conduct toward Vene-
| zuela, is acting in manner entirely un-
| warranted, as she ever acts toward far
weaker nation, and as she would not act
| toward nation anything like her size.
But waving any opinion on the matter,
| if it should prove to be the fact, as we
| believe it is the fact, that England
is encroaching on territory that
does not belong to her, there
is no question that situation will con-
front us of the kind that President Mon
ROE had in mind when he made his fa-
nous declaration as to the attitude this
country should take under certain con-
tingency.
President MONROE declared in his an
nual message to the Eighteenth Congress
assembled Dec. 1, 1928, referring to the
governments on this hemisphere which
had declared their independence and
maintained it, that "we could not view
an interposition for expressing them
or controlling in any other manner their
destiny, by any European power, in any
other light than as a manifestation of
an unfriendly disposition toward the
United States" and that 1--WE owe it to
caudor and TO the amicable relations
existing between the United States and
the allied powers to declare that we
should consider any attempt on their
part to extend their system TO any por-
ton of this hemisphere as dangerous to
our peace and safety"
Now, waving opinion but admitting
the contingency, let us note what the
victim of the mugwump poison suggests.
1T Is evidently anything Dut easy Tor
the State Department to decide whether
it shall reaffirm the MONROE Doctrine
in unmistakable terms or formulate
new policy to fit the exigencies Of the
case" We blush with shame for the
author of that sentence and for
the newspaper that printed it.
To what denths of poltroony must the
craven spirit OF mugwumpery have sunk
them. Imagine the Government of
the United States abandoning princi-
Pile that has stood inviolate, notice to
the world, for nearly three-quarters of
century, to formulate something ''to fit
the exigencies of the case!
Aud why the suggestion? Why this
disgusting emanation of the mind dis