Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1896-12-17
UNREASONABLE SPANISH PRIDE
Blind Prejudice the Governing Force
Among the Nations RuIrrs.

AS4uAAte AnG NEGFNEHfRE Force
Among the Nations RuIrrs.
Europe presents no spectacle more ex-
traordinary than the contrast between
the nerve OF the Spanish people and
their incapaeity in action. For Is
months they have endeavored to con-
quer reyolted colony 1000 miles
away, and have in the effort used and
consumed resources such as ii was hard
" believed outside of Spain that they
could have called up even to resist in
vasion.
They have actually forwarded to Cuba
100000 regular troops, sufficiently
equipped, q force nearly three times as
great as that with which this country
met and Guelled the Indian mutiny OF
1851, and more than three times as
great as the white garrison which holds
the Indian empire. The army. sufficient.
one would think. for a defensive war
against France, accomplished nothing.
but the Spanish statesmen lose neither
heart nor hope. They are wholly I'M
cheered by victory. they know that
their soldiers die like flies, and they
are told every week that the rich is
land is becoming u desert, that three
fourths of it is going out of cultivation,
that the settlers are quitting in thou
sands, while those left behind are JOIN
ing the insurgents, that the whole ex-
penSes of the island must be borne for
years by Spain, and that every month
increases the chance that the American
republic, with it's limitless resources
Tor war, will intervene: ana still with
tenacity which Englishmen cannot
but admire, they refuse to relax their
hold. BE the results what they may,
they viii make no terms till the rebels
have submitted Internationally
The tissure between parties in Spain
is deeper than a political fissure ever
was in this country, but upon this sub
Ject the parties act together, scarcely
differing even as to means. Pitt was
never tirmer than Senior Canovas, and
never better supported by a packed
parliament, which nevertheless repre-
sents the dominant feeling of the coun-
try. If the conscripts die, the Spanish
premier sends more conscripts. If the
peasants or the city mobs object to
their dispatch, both are silenced by
an unhesitating appeal 10 the military
law, which makes resistance to the con-
scription one of the most deadly of of
lenses. If the Philippines rise in in
sulpection, the premier offers TO send
an army there also, even an army of
cavalry, if that will be the army most
required. If the people of the United
States mutter or threaten interference,
the premier ransacks the world for
cruisers ready built, or builders who
will build quickly, giving enormous
prices, in two cases $75O,000 per ship,
for the needed vessels. If the treasury
is harassed, he sells everything that is
aVailable-monopolies to the Roths-
childs, privileges to the railways, pref
erences to the dealers in bonds. He
even ventures to leave the troops in the
island unpaid, and for four months no
soldier there has seen the color of coin,
and has been fortunate if bread and
garlic have been served with any regu-
ariiy. The one thing which Senior
CGnovas will not do is to listen to pro-
posals for compromise, the time for
which, indeed. has now at length passed
ayVrV- i.ncIOn SpeptatOr