Kansas City journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1897-1928, 1898-04-16
honored president in his hour of great trial.

honored president in his hour of great trial
Prefacing his discussion of the question
at issue, he stated that he would vote for
| the committee resolution. He then char
| acterized as almost criminal the aspersion
made by senators on the floor against the
chief executive.
1.-The popular Glamor. patriotic in the
extreme, has beef unreasonable, and the
condition of affairs as We find it to-day"
he said, lis largely due to a degraded
journalism, indulsed in among those in
I high places. journalism which sought to
plunge the country into war. in order to
sell few more copies OF the newspa-
pers.
Our beloved president, respected by the
people of the United States. has smelled
the smoke Of battle. but through it all he
has shown Christian forbearance, the
same which he has reflected in the hand
ling of this most diplomatic of subjects"
He regretted, he said, that diplomacy ha:
failed to bring order out of the chaos ex-
! isting.
I'VE know not the finesse of this d.
the open. and it is through us that the
president. in his trying position, must be
upheld"
He spoke Of the two phases Of the sit
uation. the condition in Cuba and the de-
struction of the Maine. If the two sub
jects had been separate. he continued. the
necessity of war might have been avoided.
If the awful barbarities in Cuba had
aroused the pity of all mankind. had stood
alone, there might have been a solution of
the problem. For himself he would have
cared little what burden it entailed. He
would have been willing to mortgage ev-
cry citizen, if only peace could be pre-
served. But Spain refused to yield. And
then, when, added to that. came the awful
explosion in Havana harbor. the die was
cast. After that, what could be said? If
even that catastrophe had stood alone pos
sibly war might have been averted, but
not by any methods Spain has thus far
pursued he added. his voice ringing clear
as bell.
No Way to Avoid War.
From the day of the explosion to this.
Spain has done nothing except to make
the most perfunctory expressions of regret.
She has made no attempt to eXculpate her
self or to redress the wrong. If Spain freed
Cuba to-day We would have offered up 266
American sailors upon the altar of her
freedom. War must come or Cuba must
be freed. No other answer will be accept
ed by our people. The honor of a nation
must be inviolable. Defended. preserved.
held sacred. a nation lives on. The loss
of it, the trading of it. the abandonment
cf it makes a nation die and perish from
the earth. This is why. in this hour, good
men, loving peace see no way under heaven
how war can be avoided. 1t is fitting that
we pledge ourselves in advance before the
clean and our cause is just; that the war
is war in the interest of humanity. war
for the suffering and oppressed.
Personally, 1 regret that there cannot
be found in Cuba government We can
recognize. 1 wish We could. For there is
undeniable danger in these days of syndi-
Gates and commercialism that those who
play upon human life as they do on loans
and chattels, for the advancement Of self
ish interests, will seek to glut their greed
here.
in the eyes of every man in Europe, we
must be free from Interior motives" he
went on "if we are to preserve their re-
spect and our own. There is nothing nobler
at the end of the nineteenth century than
nation erect and defiant standing for
human liberty. No concert of Europe can
resolution.
As free people We can hear. but we
must not heed. do not believe it. 1t is a