The age-herald., 1898-03-31
TECHNICS FROM
 CURRENT TOPICS

l the Cuban question savers more of the con- seryatism of a statesman than of the pu- sillanimlty of coward. To stand stead fast while the waves of popular sentiment
 beat against him indicates degree of nor
 al courage hitherto unsuspected in Mir. Mo- Kinley's makeup His ability to keep at bay the overwhelming importunitles of a pugnacious constituency has elevated him in the estimation of a large proportion
 of his political opponents There can be
 but little doubt that MT McKinley's con- servatism Is due to his love for his coun- try; to his patriotic desire to further the best interests of the entire republic, and not to any collusion with the money changers of the east.
 Every view of the Cuban question has been so colored with the red flre'' of patri- otic sensationalism which has been burning for several weeks, that 1t Is well-nigh im- possible for the average American to dis cern the true condition of affairs There has been such a lurid glare over the entire political landscape since the destruction of the battleship Maine, that men and matters have become distorted and from one end of the country to the other comes the cry for "war warp
 With material sentimentality rampant, one Is apt to lose sight of that patriotic
 contingent which desires that the honor of
 the nation shall be upheld, yet demands
 that peace shall be preserved if possible. q.
 The accounts which come from Washing ton tellingsef the haste of lobbyists to fur
 ther the schemes of contractors who are
 already absorbing the fifty millions voted
 by congress to put the United States on
 war footing, puts a period to the argu-
 ments advanced by war advocates of the
 good to come to the south by the expendi-
 ture of large sums of government moneys.
 Perhaps few brick masons, and other day
 laborers on the coast may receive increased
 wages, but the south as section would gain almost nothing from the fifty mill
 lions. As usual, she would do the fight
 ing; furnish the battle-ground, and re-
 ceive in return for her sacrifice and her
 patriotism increased poverty and greater
 calamities and disasters. Perhaps the senti-
 ment of the sections would be reversed If
 the fighting was to be done in the harbor
 of New York, or along the coast of Maine.
 That a positive majority of southerners
 living in the cities is in favor of declaring
 war with Spain, speedily. and without fur
 ther pretext, there can be but little doubt;
 but that there is a large and influential
 minority opposed to 1t every one must ad-
 init, who is familiar with public opinion. The press of the country Is committed to
 war, but the people at large on the farms
 and in the villages are not in sympathy
 with the war-like sentiment.
 An eminent lawyer who has just returned
 from attending court at Columbiana, says
 that he failed to find in that locality a
 single man in favor of war with Spain. He
 investigated as far as possible the opinion of the people of the country, and to a man
 they objected to war. Alabama, if boiled today, would be on the side of peace and
 there does not live a human being who is familiar with the history of the state, of her record on the field of battle, and
 in reconstruction times, who would brand
 Alabamians as cowards! It Is because they
 are brave and true, because they have been
 magnificent fighters, and because they have
 suffered that they can count the cost of
 war, and, counting, hesitate to bring upon
 their section all the calamities and devas-
 tation that follow in the wake of battle.
 Alabamians still bear upon their bodies
 the scars received in battles, and into their
 memories are scared as with red hot
 iron, stories of time when they endured
 hardships not unlike those inflicted by
 Spain upon Cuba.
 When Sherman marched to the sea it
 was along a blazing highway. Homes were
 pillaged and burned; women and children
 were left roofless to die of famine and hun
 ger; cattle were slain, or driven along with
 the victorious army, and wherever Sher-
 mans battalions marched there was left
 barren waste to tell of the barbarites
 of war.
 Some Alabamians still remember Sher-
 mans boast that he would so devastate
 the Shenandoah valley. would so destroy all life and vegetation that @ crow in fiy-
 ing over it would be compelled to carry its own rations." Men who have these memor
 les still fresh In their minds, and who re- call that many a. regiment of southern
 soldiers subsisted for weeks on limited measurement of parched corn, are not so aroused by the crusade cry of "Humanity's sake" That the cultivated people of the south did not reach the condition of ab feet poverty, now suffered by the dagoes In Cuba, was not due to a lack of effort to reduce them to 1t, by such men as Sherman, Wilson and Sheridan. part of the nation seems to have grown marvelously sympa- thetic and pitying in the last quarter Of century eelored skin appears to be the essential factor in arousing the tender sensibilities of that portion of the republic north of Mason and Dixon's line.
 One of Alabama's distinguished repre- sentatives at Washington, thus epitomises the policy of the peace party of the south: q cannot see any good to come to our country from war. and I certainly see no good for our cotton producing section. War now with Spain, as war always is. would be wasteful, cruel and bloody. Who can tell how many of the flower of our young manhood may die of yellow fever, if our soldiers are sent to Cuba at this time, when and where yellow fever and death will soon hold high carnival. I would not give one white-faced, straight-haired, blue eyed boy of Alabama for all the half breeds in Cuba But our interests and honor should be defended, whenever and