The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-10-19
THEY ARE TRAITORS.

A Washington dispatch in the Journal of
yesterday was calculated to move patriotic
Americans to indignation and shame. 1t
related to the effect produced among Span
iards by the recent attacks in this country
on the administration regarding the conduct
of the war and the alleged sufferings of
the soldiers, and to the steps being taken
by the government authorities to counterfeit
the impression thus produced The dispatch
stated that information had reached the
War Department that a high officer in the
Spanish army very recently made the
statement that had the Spaniards been
army it's inability to withstand the hard
ships of campaign, it's lack of medical
and other supplies and general inefficiency,
as told in the American papers, the Span
iards would not have given up, but would
have continued the fighting for a long time
to come, fully believing that they would
have been able to prevent the capture of
Cuba by American arms. 1t was also stated
that it was believed by officials in Washing
ton that had it not been for the outcry
made regarding the army and the conduct
of the war that there never would have
been any question raised by the Spanish
peace commissioners regarding the Cuban
debt Finally, as further result of the
false publications referred to, 1t was stated
that the administrator expected to have
much difficulty in disabusing the Spaniards
IN Cuba of the idea that American soldiers
are weak, puny and incapable of withstand
ing hardships. This was an Associated
Press dispatch, free from partisan bias,
and no doubt rejecting the feeling in official
circles at Washington correctly
Intelligent persons have predicted from
the beginning that the course pursued by
fake correspondents and yellow newspapers
would produce among Spaniards such an
effect as that above indicated, and now we
have the proof. The attacks began imme-
diately after the capture of Santiago and
have continued ever since. After the sign
ing of the protocol, Aug. Il, they increased
very much in viciousness as if designed to
break the force of the great victory which
the government had achieved. 1t took few
weeks for the effect of the attacks to be
felt abroad, and now we are getting their
echo in reports of the changed attitude of
the Spaniards. If they do not result in
causing reopening of the war, they will
certainly cause the government serious en-
barrassment by prolonging the peace nego-
tiations and by compelling the government
to make extra efforts to convince the Span
iards that there is no truth in the stories
The politicians and papers which have
been making these attacks are guilty of
treason. Under our law treason against the
United States consists in levying war
against them in adhering to their enemies
or in giving their enemies aid and comfort
The latter is what these trainers and circu-
lators of false stories about the government
the soldiers and the conduct of the war have
done. They have giver encouragement, aid
and comfort to the Spaniards by making
them believe that the government does not
know how to mobilize and equip an army,
that it maltreats and neglects it's soldiers,
that there is no sympathy between them,
that the government does not know how to
make war. that it's soldiers cannot stand
the ordinary hardships of military life, etc.
The effect has undoubtedly been to stiffen
the Spanish peace commissioners at Paris
and increase their demands in the belief
that the United States could not enforce
its own. 1t may even cause a failure of the
peace negotiations. During the civil war
there was class of so-called copperhead
papers in the North that pursued this course
of giving aid and comfort to the enemies
of the government and some of the same
papers are doing the same thing now. 1t is
shame and disgrace to the American
name that any class of citizens can be
found base enough, in time of war or pend
ing the conclusion of peace, to abuse the
liberty of the press and the generosity of
the government by giving aid and comfort
to the enemies of the United States.