The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1898-03-31
After referring to the Alabama award of

After referring TO the Alabama award of
| S15 000,0 900 he says
| ''Is it to be doubted that a much strong
| er piece of negligence could be made out
before a tribunal of arbitration against
our Government in respect to these expe-
| ditions?"
After this patriotic deliverance, he
takes up the question of war for hui
manitys sake" thus:
THE preachers of aggression say that
we must go to war for humanity's sake.
1t has generally been supposed that it
was for humanitys sake that war is
chiefly to be avoided.
| 1t is true that international law
recognizes that a nation may in
/ terfere where, to prevent unjusti-
| fable slaughter and outrage in another
! country, il becomes absolutely necessary.
| But this exception, which has been very
rarely acted upon. applies only in ex-
IRENE and very clear cases. and has no
| application whatever to this case"
Mr.. Phelps does not explain how many
| hundred thousand must be slaughtered
| and outraged in order to admit of the
| application of what he admits to be in
| ternatiOnal law. Evidently three hundred
thousand is insufficient. kbout a million
! and a half. the total population of Cuba
| at the beginning of the war, is probably
| his figure.
|
| the right to put down the rebellion" The
| suffering OF the people of Cuba results
| from their own fault, nor
can il be maintained that any cruelty or
outrage is visited upon them by the Span
| ish government. or that their restitution
! results from any other cause than the
! poverty that the war has occaSioned as
| it generally does
| Referring to the reconcentrados he says
| they are refugees from the ravages of
| the real insurgents thrown upon the pro-
! lection of the Spanish government under
| whose orders they are thereby brought. -
In view of the fact that the reconcen-
| trados have been herded in pens by the
| orders of Spanish officials, on the ground
| that they were friendly TO the insurgents.
| and that they are shot down by Spanish
| soldiers if they venture beyond the dead
| lines; that these facts have been publish
! ed to the world and certified to by scores
| of responsible newspaper correspondents,
! consuls of the United States and not less
| than seven members of Congress, by
what right can Mr.. Phelps claim the
! right to be considered an honest man af-
| ter delivering himself of such willful
/ falsehoods as the foregoing?
The following is his description of the
! Cuban patriots:
They are a body of men of uncertain
numbers, who keep out of sight $
! mere guerriilas and bandits who have
| been carrying on what they call warfare,
! by crimes not recognized as war in any
| civilized country Their force is
made up of Cubans negroes. renegades
| and adventures of all sorts from the
United States and elsewhere
Mr.. Phelps has not one word of criti-
cism or remonstrance against the acts of
Spain in the island.
He refers to the proposition for the
United States to intervene in Cuba as
the cowardly character of an unneces-
| sary attack by this great and powerful
Government upon a comparatively weak
and impoverished nation"
His advice is for the United States to
appropriate money. millions if necessa-
ry'' to feed the starving Cubans and put
stop to the expeditions from our coun-
try, on which the rebellion is fed. Let
it be understood that we shall not frater-
nze with the banditti who have made Gu
ba a desolation, and the conflict and the
crimes that have exhausted it, will soon
come to an end