The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-04-07
THE SITUATION THIS MORNING.

In the midst Of the war torrent OF teic-
graphic dispatches which has, during the
last ten days, at least, flooded the cor
umns of Americas newspapers, there
has been a well defined mid-stream
making toward that conclusion which
this morning confronts the people or
the United States.
Mr. Mckinley has pressed toward
peace: Spain has been pressed. The de-
mand for Cuba's independence has been
in so many plain words made by the
blunt-spoken American people; the de-
Law in granting that demand has been
made safe only by the daring and delicate
and deft handling of which old world
diplomacy is master. The people have
wanted TO enforce this demand with
war; Spain has wanted TO withhold this
demand without war. President Me
Kinley has sought by diplomacy to com
pass the demand of America and the
concession of Spain.
1t would seem this morning that such
an end is in sight And yet not al
together SO; for the American mind has
not yet settled down to the ways Of
peace. Beyond the abstract question of
liberty for Cuba on the great grounds of
human freedom, for which this country.
even in sight of the island, stands,
there comes to the American Il poign
ant sense of pain from Il wound which
has not yielded even to McKinley's heal
ing balm. That wound was from n sub
marine mine in Havana harbor. which
Sigsbee, captain of the Maine, says was
put there with the knowledge Of
Spanish officials. The more this is
thought ON, the more it takes the shape
seems a resentment which would in
yolve even the reduction of Havana,
that the assassin nation may see the
Towering of a noble sympathy with
stricken countTymen, of a nobler wrath
at bastard vengeance against our flag OF
peace, while yet De LONE smiled the
poisoned smile of kindness even upon
the hospitabie threshold of the White
House door.
BY the side, then, of the situation this
morning these other things, also. must
he reckoned with. And yet the sky
looks more serene. In this writing we
are dealing merely with the outline,
letting the reader fill in the color with his
own flush of Indignation.
Spain has four times through the de-
vice called autonomy" tempted the in
surgents with more and more alIuring
morsels. These insurgents reply: I'VE
will take independence only" They will
get independence. Through the softer
and softer shades of so-called autonomy
the willy Spaniard has come nearer and
nearer to what he saw was the inevitable
American demand and in the demand Of
destiny. The independence" given may
for time be served out to the clashing
parties of Spain as species of autono-
my. But the insurgents are not clouded
that they cannot see; their vision has
been made sharp in sacrifice and heroism,
and there will be no bogus independence
about the article that is handed to them.
These are some of the main elements
that inhere in the complications.
The American after all this do-about
wakes up this moring kind of worried
that there is to be no fight.
On the score of independence it does
seem that there will not be one.
But the warmth has not yet cooled,
and a terribly difficult problem might at
this moment only be said to have be-
come less difficult. That is ALL