New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1897-02-18
WISE LIuITlTIONS or THE WAR POWER.

WISE IINIT1TIONS or THE " AK row TX.
Ii is fortunate on the whole, that in dis
tfibuting and assigning their various powers to
the several departments of the Federal Govern
ment the trainers of our Constitution omitted to
intrust the warmaking power absolutely and
without restrictions to the coordinate branch OF
the Government administered by the press and
is correspondents. 1t might have been other
wise perhaps. had the Fathers foreseen the con-
difjons which now exist; and that the time
would come when one or two powerful news
uapers would have private wires connecting
with ROYAL and imperial palaces and Cabinet
chambers. within touch of kings. emperOrS and
Cabinet minister's and that special correspond
en;s of great wisdom and unbounded word
power would he kept in the public service at an
enormous expense for the sole purpose of pro-
noting peace or giving the signal for hOst
ties TO begin when their patience is exhausted
and they have made up their minds that the
comfort and happiness of a Great People will
be best promoted by a war that calls for head
lines and large type and pictures of battles and
full-length portraits Of the able persons who de-
scribe them. But it is. after ALL better as it is.
Wars are fewer; and though we have for that
reason a duh sort of time, we do save life and
may find some compensation in the fact that the
headlines and large type are made to do service
in the exploitation of crimes and the diffusion
Of scandal
We do not by any means disparage the we'll
meant efforts Of newspaper correspondents to
earn their salaries when we say that. on the
whole. ii is fortunate for the country that they
do not have the absolute and unrestricted power
10 declare war For although they have tran
scendent abilities in their own sphere it has TO
be confessed with some reluctance that they
are human and fallible, and under the tempta-
ton of headlines. large type and pictures might
declare war upon a sudden impulse when the
country at large could get along very comfort
ably without il. Here, for instance, are the two
representatives of what our neighbor, The New
York Press" so felicitously calls yellow jour
nalism": one OF them would declare war against
Spain because one of its cOrrespondents-who
wasn't doing anything to Spain except main
tanning communication and confidential rela-
lions with the Cuban insurgents with whom
Spain is at war-has been arrested by the Span
ish authorities and held for trial; the other would
also declare war against Spain because one Of
its highest-priced, and consequently most trust
worthy, correspondents discovered that a woman
related to one of the insurgent chiefs was
stripped and examined three times In the pres
ence Of men by the Spanish authorities the third
time on an American steamer. picture Of the
performance was presented with the correspond
ents letter 10 fire the American heart
Had II not been for the omission Of the franz
ers OF the Constitution to clothe the press with
the warmaking power We should by this time
be revealing in war and rollicking in headlines.
Fortunately. we had to wait for the action of
the coordinate departments Of Government. 1t
now appears that the correspondent Of the senior
yellow has suffered no indlgnties beyond the
formalty Of an arrest, and that as soon as 1t is
made to appear that he was only exercising his
proper functions Of communicating with the
enemy and contributing to his success in the
promotion Of legitimate newspaper enterprise he
will be released. 1t also appears by letter