Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1898-03-31
A Timorous Citizen.

vi INC plCNdiCub otutlliiOit III mo oNh
country. Such people are rare at
present and "Citizen" must be aware
that he represents but an insignificant
fraction of our citizenship. He finds
that the Maine incident involves no
question of national honor, though the
board OF inquiry, after what every true
American believes to have been a full
and fair investigation, reports in eff
feet that the ship was blown up by a
mine fixed by an enemy. Has this
country nothing to say when five
million-dollar naval vessel and 266
lives under the protection of its flag
are hurled into eternity without a
moments warning, under circumstan-
ces which prove conclusively to every
fair mind that Spanish treacheryl.was
at the bottom of the plotP Have we
no national honor involved in such a
dastardly act2 OF itself it is sufficient
justification for war and would so be
considered by any other nation.
But this is not all. Citizen berates
the .'mendacious and mercenary cor
respondents of wickedly sensational
newspapers" for their tales of Cuban
suffering. The time has passed for
pronouncing any tale of Cuban suffer
ing ''mendacious. Investigation by
authorities whose credibility is beyond
question proves that the half has not
been told concerning the awful tor
lures to which the non-combatants of
Cuba are subjected by the Spaniards.
Has Citizen right to question men
MS truthful as himself who have studied
the situation on the specimen like
Senators Proctor, Thurston, Gallinger
and others who cannot be accused of
mendacity?
"Citizen" claims that whatever Spain
is doing in Cuba, we have no right to
interfere. Indeed Is our blood so
cold or our fear of the consequences so
dreadful that we must sit by with fold
ed hands while the starvation of help
less women and children, guiltless of
all wrong, goes on by the hundreds of
thousand and their wall is borne to
our ears by every breeze that blows
from the south? While our valuable
commerce with Cuba is destroyed and
our government put to enormous ex-
pense in patrolling our coasts Spain
has had every opportunity to quell the
revolt by civilized methods and has
failed. Have not nations the right to
interfere when the rights of humanity
and the rules of war are flagrantly vio-
lated? Had Russia no right to stop
the Bulgarian massacrcs because gthey
were on Turkish soil? Had the ma
tons of Europe no right to prevent the
Turks from discriminating 1.-THE Greeks
half century ago, or the Armenians
recently?
Shame on any man living under the
American flag who will attempt Ito
| Justify or excuse the conductgof the
Spanish in Cubal His weak heart is
to be pitied if it does not tell him THAT
it is not only the right, but the duty,
of this country to interfere and either
cause Spain to pursue civilized modes
of warfare or withdraw from the
island.
Citizen castigates the '.jingoesn
numerically. Now if he means to in
clude all who favor early Intervention
he has taken big contract, for ninety
nine out of every hundred American
citizens demand that the Cuban
struggle shall cease its horrors, even
lift requires a strong hand to bring it
about
War is dreadful and not to be light
" considered, but with the awful facts
before us and the history of the Cuban
struggle for liberty fresh in our minds
the American people are, almost to a
man, ready for the consequences that
may follow the command to Spain,
.'Stop this unholy and mhuman
slaughter of the innocents y Ameri-
can blood is no dearer in the sight of
God than that of any other race Gre
ated by His hand.
Once more we say, shame on any
man whose regard for his own COM
fort or pecuniary welfare is stronger
than his feelings for an outraged peo-
pie. helpless before the rapacity of a
race whose record is that of savagery
and Slaughter His blood must be
buttermilk.
Everybody says so.