Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1897-05-27
A Weak and insufficient Course.

weak ana insufficient Course.
Major McKinley's action in asking
Congress TO send provisions and medi-
cines to the sick and needy Americans
on the island of Cuba is humane as far
as 1t goes, but Disappointing It falls
far short of the measure of expectation
he and his Secretary of State have been
holding out to the country for the past
two months.
He went into Office on a platform
pledging the people vigorous foreign
policy wherever the safety of liberty
OF American citizens were involved,
and expressing sympathy for the Cuban
cause. His Secretary of State has been
loud and frequent in declaring that the
rights of every American citizen, no
matter how humble, should be pro-
teeted and upheld, even if the doing so
involved the employment of the entire
military and naval resources of the
United States.
What are the facts? The President
has had them all before him for sever
al days-not only those kept from the
people by Cleveland aud Olney, but
those collected by Consul General Lee
during the past two months, and those
embodied in the reports of American
T1-z,,Ts oil hn
in their information during the last
few days. That part of the recent in
formation bearing on American citizens
in the island shows that many hundred
of them have been reft of employment,
and deprived of the means of even OBJ
tanning subsistence. by the policy of
determination pursued by Weyler, and
that they have been walled around by
armed men in towns and villages where
they are herded with the starving ma
tives to die for want of food or to sue
cumb to the pestilence.
SPANS heartless policy, the moment
it touched with the soulless methods
the comfort, the well-being, or the
liberty of an American citizen. afford
ed abundant ground for the exercise of
armed Intervention. 1t afforded the
amplest occasion for casus belli.
This slow and pitiless starvation of
American citizens has, according to
the reports of our COnsuls, been going
on for months. The information con-
corning the suffering of American citi- |
zens is Inexcusably belated. 1t might |
have been ascertained by Mr.. McKin- !
ley two months ago. Many of those
who looked to the stars and stripes for |
protection have, perhaps, died from
famine, who, save for this dilatoriness.
might still be alive.
Late as the consular reports come.
however, they still disclose the same
excellent provocation for armed inter-
vention against a nation that has
dared to inflict such horrors upon men
to whom this government owes every
protection.
The bread, the meat, the medicines,
hat ship or two may carry over to
alleviate the sufferings of the sick and
amished, will not redress the insult
Ind ignOminy heaped upon the citizen
hip of these sufferers, nor upon the
lonor and prestige of the government
o which they owe allegiance and from
which they expect vindication. =
Major Mckinley will not willingly ,
'ursue the course which all true and
Americans, regardless
# parties, demand. But the signs are l
many and ominous that a storm of pub
ic sentiment will set in ere the year {
5 much older that will force the Re-
publican administration out of the
Geak-kneed and humiliating policy it |
) pursuing with reference to the war
n Cuba. The people will insist that
pain must cease her war of extermi-
alton and make amends with money
nd apologies for the injuries and in
ults heaped upon American citizens,
nd that the Cuban patriots are en-
tiled to the rights of belligerents- X
'. Times.