The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-08-29

Never Yet Converted Them to
Right Thinking - Begging the
Question.
Mystic, Conn. Aug 2s.-The principal
speaker at the annual meeting of the
Universal Peace union was William
Lloyd Garrison, who devoted his time
to vigorous denunciation of war in
general, and the late war in particular.
He said i'm part:
"The late war with Spain was work
ed up with the unspontanety of lab
ored drama. 1t was not called for by
the people, was earnestly opposed by
disinterested thinkers who had the pub
lie ear. and the aversion of the evident
ly sincere president and secretary Of
the navy gave hopes of a peaceful set
tlement.
"A remarkable series of fortuitous
events strengthened the hands OF the
yellow journals and the jingoes In con-
gress, beginning with the theft of the
Spanish minister's private letter from
the mails for publication, the still un-
explained explosion which destroyed
the Maine, and the carefully worked
up speech of Senator Proctor, ostensi-
bly, in behalf of the starving recon-
centradoes who were soon to rue the
senator's friendship. All contributed to
fire the heart of the nation and force
the unprepared administration to in
slant war.
WAS WITHOUT JUSTIFICATION.
Like the Franco -Prussian war. ini-
To h,r 60
with Spain were hurried regardless of
truth or national honor. In the light
Of today's knowledge of the Cuban in
surrection and the real character of
the insurgents. of the eagerness of
Spain to avoid fighting by generous
concessions, Of the brutal and blind
declaration of war by congress re-
gardlcss Of preparation or season, the
verdict Of history must pronounce the
inception of the struggle to be without
| justification.
Behold a country that has had its
century of dishonor with the Indians
and its infamy with the negro, prating
| of it's new-found duty to swarms of
| people of whose nature and needs il
knows nothing! Admire the assurance
of people which shuts its doors
against foreign commerce, proclaiming
| the necessity of conquest for the sake
! of trade! Note the anxiety of nation
| that bars out the Chinese, hurrying
| to annex whole populations of Asiatics
| Think of a republic which jealousy
warns off foreign nations from the
| American continent. yet now claims the
right to hold dominion in the Philip
| pines because Admiral Dewey destroy
| ed a Spanish fleet in the harbor OF
Manila. What spectacle is present
| ed by a democracy perplexed at its
own miscarriage of self-government
| undertaking with jaunty confidence tc
govern hordes of people in the tropics
| alien in manners, traditions, and
| habits to all that Americans hold dear!
| TO enter upon such a career as
| our jingoes picture we must renounce
| the principles which have made the
country great. Imperial rule abroad
| necessitates imperial rule at home. Nc
| nation can have adjustibe ethics, ap.
| plicable alike to freedom and to the
| government of subjugated races. If il
is right to deny suffrage to the govern.
| ed people in the Sandwich islands il
| VIII not be long before, under the plea
| of necessity, suffrage in the United
| States will be curtailed and the right
| of the governed to choose their repre-.
| sentatives denied. Already the Su.
| preme court, feeling the trend of i'm.
| perial ideas, decides that the crime OF
| Mississippi in disfranchising it's citi.
| zens under false pretenses is unconsti.
| tutional, thus disarming the criticism
that we are defrauding our new Ha.
| waiian fellow-citizens of their right tc
| the ballot.
| THE war itself has settled no prin.
| ciples. They always remain to be set.
| tied by reason. Shooting men never
yet converted them to right thinking
Our young men and the conscriptet
sons of Spanish mothers have been try,
ing to blow each other out of exis
tence We ask, as Carlyle asked wher
Englishmen and Frenchmen fought
Had these men any Quarrel?' and We
adopt this reply: Busy as the devi
is, not the smallest. They lived ia,
enough apart; were the entirest stran,
| gers; nay, in so wide a universe ther,
was even, unconsciously, by commerce
some mutual helpfulness between them
How then? Simpleton! Their COVER
nors had fallen out, and instead o.
shooting one another had the cum
ming to make those poor blockhead.
shoot
| EVIL LEGACY OF CIVIL WAR.
Let those who hold that the civil
war settled the right of the black men
in this country to equal civil and po-
litical liberty test the Southern atmos.
phere on the race question. Indeed, a
stranger might infer that the South
triumphed, so general has been the ac-
quiescence Of the North in the social
and political lettering of the blacks by
the shotgun and state legislation.
Moreover. the present aggravated
ills of the country are the direct Jega.
cy of the civil war. Without il the
protective tariff would long since have
given way to the English system OF
revenue, towards which II was rapidly
tending. The greenback and silver
controversies would never have beer
born. The plutooracy which has as
sumed such alarming proportions had
it's genesis in army contracts, inflated
prices and special privileges so easily
obtained unnoticed amid the clash OF
| arms.
"NVhen one assumes that the revolu.
tionary and civil wars were good ones
because certain benefits resulted, the
question is begged. IT is so easy e
point to the seen and ignore the un.
seen. Moncure ID. Conway has wei
said that without the revolution this
country would inevitably have attained
fun political freedom without blood.
shed. Today. if one is asked where tn
best constitutional government exists
/ In as=
Gus, life securest, and justice most Ger.
| fai Of