The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1896-01-26
WHAT TO FIGHT.
Sam Jones on Wars and Rumors o
Wars"

y
/ hope the Cubans will lick the crowd
that is trying to keep them in subjec-
ton. And then Germany and Great
Britain are getting their horns in the
mud and paving dirt, and old Uncle
Sam is shaking his fist at somebody
Turkey is gobbling little, and Russia
is mewiDg like a cat, and Canada is hiss
ing at the stars and stripes in pub
lie theater. ct cetera. It seems that the
whole business wants to fight, and they
may get up sort of general fracas.
Some one has said the way to keep
down civil war is to keep up a racket
and have an occasional war with q
foreign country. AS long as men are
selfish and proud and mean there are
going to be rows and fuses. Great
Britain is proud and dogmatic and stub
born, and will tote off anything she
can put in her pocket. But she can't
put America in her pocket with Ven
ezuela, and doubt IL she tries to put
Venezuela in her pocket. Talk about
our being of one blood, and all that
sort OF thing. Don't brothers fight
Haven't brothers murdered each other?
They say family row is the worst
sort of row.
But while many in this country and
perhaps in other countries are talking
about wars and the Monroe doctrine,
etc, our financiers seem to be looking
after their pockets. 1t is said that this
country will not go TO war with Great
Britain, for our flnanciers will not let
us. 1t In avarice that got up the
trouble; and they say the hair of the
uog Is good for bite, maybe avarice
can keep 1t down. lam much more con-
ccrned about our financial and COM
mercial conditions than l am about the
war with England, or whether the
| Cubans will lick the Spaniards, or
whether England will steal Venezuela.
This financial question comes closer
home to us all. 1t gets the creditor
and the debtor both on their metal.
| When things get so the creditor can't
! collect his money and the debtor can't
| pay it, things arc in bad shape. Issu-
ing bonds isn't going TO help US, for the
treasury reserve is now down to $780,
| 100000, or less, and after IL has been re-
| plenished can be brought down again
TO any point the avarice Of the depletcrs
dictate. Some say tho remedy is in
! bimetallism. A silverite told me the
| other day that bimctallism was the
cure for the whole business, but I re-
marked to him that England is cred
itor country and we are debtor coun-
try and England could bankrupt us.
He replied: Then let's 20 into bank
ruptcy" Yes, but" / replied. "nll of
us don't want to SO in it, All you fell
lows whose stock in trade 10 wife and
brush, you arc ready to go into bank
ruptcy; but fellow that has any as
sets outside of those,lyou muster in
your inventory isn't quite ready to go
In" Many blame Mr.. Cleveland, some
curse Carlisle; but a fellow that is
obliged to cuss and has some cussipg
that he ought TO dispose of by rights,
let him turn his cussing machinery loose
on congress. ] have a thousand times
more respect for Mr.. Cleveland, who de-
cides what he ought to do and does it,
than for congress that can't agree
upon anything and can't pass anything,
even a saloon.
But don't believe there will be much
fighting done, and don't believe there
will be much financial disaster. The
wisdom and prudence, the resources
and rational views of men who can and
will lead in these matters will keep of,
at least for years to come, the crash
which will bring wreck of fortune
and ruin of commerce.
II we should get up a general row and
fight we have got about 100000 OF
men in the United States out of a ioh
who thirst for martial glory, and there
are enough of us peaceably disposed TO
stay at home and work and keep the
country in bread and meat. Wars are
costly and cruel, but then they are
lessons; and some lessons men learn in
no other way. What was the use of ouI
civil war? The north could have bought
every colored man in the south on the
block and moved him back to Africa on
the money they spent in licking us, and
thereby averted the bloodshed and ruin
the war brought on. But some aboli.
tionists and some pro-slavery men had
rather have q licking and give up what
they have than to dispose of 1t profit Ia.
bly, and have a surplus and sound hide
instead.
We are 80 odd years removed from the
battlefields of our civil war, and yet
the old gray-headed soldier boys of the
blue and the gray seem to be the ones
who are itching most for n fight and the
readiest for the fray. The average hu
man being don't carry lesson so years
without forgetting largely all that thery
was in it. The average fighting fellow
has to be licked OF to lick somebody
oftener than every 30 years or he will
muster himself out of service on thai
line. But l think a war every 1,oot
years would suit me best Fame and
honor of that sort is all in my eye. 81
had rather be home guard private
than a brigadier come home TO die
The conquests of common sense found
ed on the golden rule are the only con