New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1898-03-20
AND DOLLARS.
AN ADVOCATE OF STOPPING THE CUBAN
WAR AT ONCE
HE prscLArMs THE TITLE OF LINGO. But
THINKS FORCE SHOULD BE USED
AGAINST SPAIN.

THINKS FORCE SHOULD BE USED
AGAINST SPAIN.
To the Editor OF The Tribune
Sir: I take II that there may be- as believe
there are those who neither write themselves
limoges nor yet hold with extremists. on the
other hand that the most deporable calamity
that can befalI us or any other nation is war.
Let US look at the matter.
fact which should be constantly borne In
mind but which we seem at times 10 be In dan.
ger OF forgetting. is thst ar already exists;
that il is most merciless. inhuman and re-
lentIess war and that it exists by our own con-
sent.
OF course I mean the war IN Cuba with all
IFS misery and wretchedness. with It's all but un-
precedented cruelty and suffering. The seat OF
that war is within less than one hundred miles
Of our coast. Without traversing the bloody
record Of the last three years, one fact sufiices
to place the character OF the warfare carried on
before public attention, and that is the fact
that six hundred thousand reconcentrados.
mostly women and children. have been driven
from their homes under the inhuman Weyler.
and unprovded with shelter food or medicine,
nave been left to starve. OF these the fact 10
automatically certified to that three hundred
thousand died by starvation last year. The
Western Hemisphere has, fortunately. been rid
Of Weyler but so effectively was his work done
that his starvation process yet survives his de-
parture; starvation suffering and death still
go
Now. hope | shall not be written lingo"
II I express the opinion that this war ought TO
be stopped at once, and that the only excuse
and admit It be valid one-why President
Mckinley may refrain from Intervention is the
issue presented by the Maine calamity. which
Il is desirable 70 settle at the same time. In
asmuch as the report OF the Board Of Inquiry Is
expected soon the Administration is justified In
waiting until that report is made public Then.
whether the explosion was from the outside or
the inside Cand 1 entirely dissent from Mr..
Schurzs wish that the explosion may be proved
to be from the inside 10 the reproach Of our
officers. or the constructors, or BOTH the Cow
eminent should interfere soon as possible.
having due regard to military considerations
and put an end TO the conflict.
II 70 DO this means war then let IL be
AT least it will be a humane var, short. sharp.
and decisive war and IL Will end the work OF
desolation in Cuba.
And will any one inform us by what right we
take the Powers 10 task for permitting the work
of massacre in Armenia, while stand with
folded hands and look complacently upon the
butchery going on in Cuba? Have we not
Scripture warrant for the truth that man
liveth to himself? And is it not equally true
that no nation liveth to itself? BY what right
90 permit the denominations 10 go on UNI
checked in Cuba when we might stop them for
ever as | sincerely believe should7
l know there others who look at the mat
ter differently. and these gentlemen are pretty
well understood. They Of that set. clique,
cabal-whlrever you may call them-whose
point of view is the purely commercial. What
curdles their blood and pales their cheeks. and
gives their voices a nerveless tremor, are not
massacre and starvation and the cry OF enact
ated women and children but it is-the depreci-
alton OF values, In this way they condemned
~. ard In
this way they condemned President Cleve-
lands Venezuelan message-a message which
both Senator Edmunds and former Minister j.
A KassOn declared 10 be "a message OF peace
and not Of war: II was that message that kept
an English fleet at home. Yet for this message
these mercantile or financial gentlemen, whose
standard OF National duty and National moral
tty is the stock market. have never forgiven
President Cleveland But / do not propose to
devote more time 20 them.
one OF your contemporaries this morning says
the President will not inaugurate AN unhoy
war" We should not easily forgive him IL he
did But proceedings TO stop the butchery in
cuba would. In my view. he OF the hottest"
OF wars--if war II was-tbat could be naugu-
rated for 1t would be an altruistic war, waged
for the benefit of humanity, for the relief OF
foreign people from unparalleled cruelty and
misery. The President need not fear 10 carry on
such n war assuredly he would have the whole
people behind him.
come from the tngoes and the spirit which they
manifest. rather II comes from the commercial
spirit the d0llar-and-cent spirit. which tests the
action Of Government not by the underlying
motive and the political and Humanitarian ends
subserved. but measures IL BY the standard Of
commercial values.
Lastly. to conclude this too-long letter. we
need 10 take care that We do not put ourselves
under the domination OF the sinister influences
which insist that the maintenance Of monetary
values is the first duty OF government, and that
the claims OF humanity only to have recosnt-
ton when they do not unfavorably affect the
purchases OF John Doe or the speculations OF
Richard Roe, From such domination may
nerciful Heaven deliver US.
MARSHAL II. BRIGHT.
Tarrytown ~ Y. March Il. 1898