The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-03-20


question. Does the righting of this wrong
come within our province? APd on
general grounds Cuba lies as completely
outside of our national responsibilities as
she is outside of our geographical bOun-
diaries. In the case of Armenia, the Eu-
ropean powers had made themselves re-
spOnsible for Turkey, which exists only
under their protection and guarantee
and their responsibility for Armenia was
wholly different from any relation we oc-
cupy toward Cuba.
But such arguments may fall teeDly
upon minds moved by stories OF outrage
and suffering. Let us come TO the ac-
tual case. What would war with Spain
really mean! What is war! We had
nm illustration of it when the Name
blew up and sank with 300 men. war
aims at lust such catastrOphes. The
Maine was built and armed and sailed
for the ultimate purpose Of lnnlctnS
lust such a fate on some other snip.
Only when American and Spanish ships
sink each other instead of Il Worldwide
throb of pure pity and noble sorrow,
there will be fierce eXultatiOn and APP
plause. Who can sink the most ships
and drown the most sailors! Let us
have naval combatS and land battles,
| LET blood flow in rivers, let widows and
orphans mourn by thousands, let Grip
pied men drag aching limbs through
their long after life. The physical horror
and suffering are but the least of it. Far
worse is the enchanting of the tiger in
| the heart of man, the awakeing of the
war spirit. the glOrifcatiOn Of all that i'll
our saner moods we strive against.
1t is a common expression that we are
| drifting toward war. 1t is like saying
we are drifting toward Niagara. Wise
men do not drift into such places. If
they want to go over the precipice, they
go: if they want to keep away from it,
they had better use hands and feet and
| head and heart Before we drift any
farther, let us hook well at what lies be-
| fore us.
The declaration of war would in the
| first place bring confusion and paralysis
| to legitimate trade and business. The
whole commercial system. we have
| learned by dear experience, has intimate
relations to the comfort of every house
| hold. and the commercial systems would
reel and stagger at the first shock of war.
| That slow uncertain return of prosperity
which we are all so eagerly watching,
| so carefully nursing. would give place
at once to Il chaos of deranged affairs.
of spasmOdic activity at a few points, of
diverted and wasted interests. The hard
and homely lessons which adversely has
| been teaching us-thrift, economy, so
| briety-wOuld be counteracted by the
| fierce excitements and passions, the
| swift mutation of events and temper,
which war time breeds.
All that we habitually deprecate and
| oppose finds its opportunity in time of
war. We have seen lately what yellow
| journalism is capable of. How it would
revel and thrive while the war lasted!
| The faults in our people Of which yell
! low journalism is the index-greedy love
of sensation. morbid pleasure in horrors,
disregard of truth and sObriety-all the
baser as we'll as the fierCer side of hui
man nature gets a stimulus from war.
And war means diversion from home
| tasks grave and pressing. We have all
and more than all we can rightly attend
| to. Honesty of gOvermnent--l0ok at the
| Tammany victory in New York. look at
| the corruption half disclosed in the Mas
sachusetts Legislature by the gas mag
Mates The race prOblem-see the Lou
| isiana convention studying whether to
,disfranchise the blacks in body, see
| the difficult and splendid struggle of
Hampton and Tuskegee to raise the ne
gro by industrial education. The rea-
| tions of capital and labOr-cOnSider the
| cotton mill strike, consider the passions
still surging after the I4attimer tragedy.
| The treat ment of our criminals and paul
pers-here are our prisoners shut up by
wicked legislation to ruinous idleneSs,
| here is the call for reform in our whole
system of county jails. On every side
| there are public questions which sorely
| task our best citizenship.
Now, war means distraction from all
these matters. and, worse, it creates an.
infamed temper which lasts long, and
which is wholly unfavOrable to rational
progress. Our civil war, which books
and orators have taught us to look at
mainly on it's heroic side, was in reality
| an awful price even for the great gain
of liberty and union. Part of the cost
was fever in the national blood which
| kept us for twenty yeanS afterwar,l
| from any adequate attention to the real
and hOmely tasks properly belonging to-
| our public life. Just now, when those
| tasks grow constantly more pressing,
! there is some disposition TO launch out
into foreign crusades, to acquire new
territory, to strut and ruffle among the
| game cocks of the world. A war with
SPAIN on whatever grounds begun, could
| hardly fail to immensely increase that
military spirit which is the foe of our
best interests.
War may become a duty. But it can
be such only when it lies in the plainest
path of right doing. Have we any such
obligation to the Cubans that we are
called on to make war in their behalf?
\ negative answer does not imply
any indifference to the responsibility of
our nation as n member of the great
! family of nations. 1t implies no insensi-
bility to the claims of human brother
| hood. Our best service as a nation to
the family of nations, to the human
brotherhood, lies first of all in working
out successfully our own national life
in developing justice and order and
mutual good will and common happiness
among the people of the United States.
Beyond this, we can render no higher
service than to show that peace is a
nobler divinity than war. We are set
by Providence as the natural peace
keeper and peace-maker among nations.
| Our s;tuotiOu incuraS us against inVa-