The evening times., 1898-09-05
HAD TO FIGHT.
We Beat Spain From N Sense of Our
Destiny
(From the Lond n Times.)

CFrom the Lond Times)
War. said the Greek historian, often
breaks out on trivial occasions. seldom
from trivial causes Now that the war
between the United States and Spain is.
happily. at an end. it may not be ua-
profitable 10 consider some of its less OBJ
viOus lessons. II would be unjust to the
passionate patriotism of a great nation
to call the destruction of the Maine a
trivial occasion. But that catastrophe
has not yet been proved to have been due
20 an external agency. nor. if an external
agency be assumed. is there any proof
OF completely either on the part of the
central government of Spain or on that
of the provincial government of Cuba.
We may say then that, even if the de-
struction of the Maine was the immedi-
ate occasion of the war. it was certainly
not its cause. 1t may have been the
match that fired the mine. but the mine
was laid long before in those reciprocal
movements of national progress and de-
cay which in their mutual reaction con-
stitute the march of humanity.
We get stage nearer the cause. but
only a stage. when we say that it is to
be sought in the growth of the sea power
of the United States. But this cause
again rs not ultimate, nor is it adequate
in itself to explain the effect. The sea
power of the United States is no craftily
prepared instrument of vulgar aggression,
but the natural and largely unconscious
expression of the deeper impulses of
great nation bent upon fulfilling its deS-
tiny Stretching across great continent
from ocean to ocean, born OF sea power
in her origin, nurtured by sea power IN
her infancy, snatching her freedom from
the conflict of sea power. industrial, COM
mercial progressive, and adventurous IN
her civilization, the United States has a.
last become conscious that sea power
is her appointed heritage, whether for
veal or for woe. Before that conscious
ness had leavened the mass of her people
a generous feeling of humanity.
native love of order and peace. an inborn
hatred alike of anarchy and OF oppres-
sion-uot unmixed perhaps with many less
n,nr-bv motiyes-brought her into sharp
an-auonism with a power in her ImIne-
dia+e ueighborhood which had for long
e,apara tions abused the privileges or en-
nire and morally forfeited Its pferoSdLVeS-
From this point of view the war was a
conflict. inevitable in the long run oe-
tween forces which, on any theory oi
the moral government of the world, must
no regarded as good and evil. respectively
Notbirg but a miracle or a cesInlc catas-
r,h, could have averted the ultimate
,,IIfsion between the growing sea power
- tho United States and the waning en-
pire of Spain.
By sea power alone the transmarine
,r,nira of Spain has. been undone' DS se'i
mower alone by the spontaneous anu az
post fortritous return of a maritime race
to its native element. the transmarlne
a,,nire. of the United States has been m
o,,e,r.tad The result is a lesson TO ali
nowers which either cherish transmarine
ambitions of set purpose or yield because
they must, as the people of the United
States have found, to expansive I'M
pulses inherent in their polity and race.
The full import of that lesson can hardly
he discarned as yet The foresight of
statesman the insight of a philosopher,
even the imagination Of a poet might well
he taxed to- read it Alright; for it can
hardly be that the collapse OF the historic
empire of. Spain and the fulfillment by
the United States of an imperial destiny.
foreordained by the genius of her people
to be expansive but not aggressive. will
be unattended by consequences of vital
moment alike to the Old World and to
the New.