The St. Johns herald., 1898-04-09
wAsm5NGTON LETTER.
The Presidents Policy Regard.
 ing Cuba.

a
 The Presidents Policy Regard ing Cuba.
 l From Our Regular Correspondent
 WASHINGTON, March 2S, 1898.
 War! War!! War!I That has been
 the cry on every side in tones higher
 and higher, since the official report oi
 the naval court of inquiry, confirmed
 the opinion that has been general since
 the day the Maine was blown up, by say
 ing that the explosion was on the out
 side of the vessel, and showing, by evi-
 dence presented, the impossibility of
 private parties beIng able to get 10 or
 put into position explosives powerful
 enough to do what was done in Havana
 harbor without the assistance or conni-
 vance of Spanish officials. Mir. McKin-
 ley knows that war is the only outcome
 of the situation, notwithstanding that
 he persists in talking peace while the
 whole administration is acting war, but
 he has an overwhelming anxiety to have
 Spain make the first open hostile move,
 just as though the blowing up of the
 Maine Ias not hostile act, and as if
 the flotilla of torpedo boats and torpedo
 boat destrOyers now making it's way
 towards American waters, alleged to be
 bound for Porto Rico, was not another hostile act. His reasons for not wishing to begin is fear that Europe may think that he had forced the war upon Spain.
 Mir. Mckinley has a policy which he thinks will force Spain to get out of Cuba peaceably, to declare war against the United States, or to begin fighting us without declaration of war He told leading senators and representatives eoongN of 'his noliH~ hafo-e sending the Maine report to congress tO secure their promises 10 aid in keeping congress from acting ou tie Maine seuor. un,1 this policy can be put into effect, or al least be tried. This policy is to be in- tervention in Cuba, in the name of hu- manity. and under it, the loss of the Maine is to be a side issue, treated as the result of incompetence rather than criminal intention on the part of the Spanish government, and no specific reparation therefor is to be asked, al- though MT. Mckinley indulges the hope that Spain will voluntarily make some offer in that line-a hope not shared by anybody else so far as known. The first official move in this policy will be message from MT. Mckinley to congress asking for an appropriation to be used for the relief of all Cubans who are in need.
 It will not be an easy matter to hold congress down until Mr. McKinley's in tervention policy can be carried out, al- though there is very little doubt that it will eventually bring on war with Spain just as certainly as would declaration of war. But there is an opinion in the minds of many men in congress hat it would be more in keeping with Ameri- "an character to openly declare war upon Spain, regardless of European opinion, than to virtually force Spain to take the initiative in the war, by acting under the cloak of humanity. Repre- Lewis. of the state of Wash ington, voiced the opinion of this ele- ment in congress when oe said: "War is already upon us. We are fools to dis guise it. It is not patriotic to deIude further. A Spanish fotilla is sailing toward our shores Tt is inc duty of the government to intercept that flotilla and blow it from the seas" " And the euthusias ic cheers which greeted lis quotation from a speech made by John Randolph, in the house, in 1922, were signifcant-"As we would not be bullied by the British lion, so we refuse to be frig tened by the Spanish jackall"
 The Secretary of the Interior has asked congress for an appropriation oi more than $8, ,OOO, 900 to meet q deficien- cv in the pension funds for the current fiscal year. The republican leaders m congress prabably knew that this deti- ciency would exist, and that was why they insisted upon making the pension appropriation for the next fiscal year about $1O ,OOO,O less than they know will be required. It is all part of the scheme to keep down the total of appro- priations at this session of congress.
 The democratic flibuster while the naval appropriation bill was being con- sidered by the house, sitting as a com mlttee of the whole, was not made to delay the naval bill, but as rebuke to Representative Payne, of New York. who was presiding, and who tried to out czar the czar himself by refusing to al- low Representative Hartman, of Mon- tana, to complete speech he began, because MT. Hartman, who is a silver republican, dared to satirize the rePub-