The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1898-09-12
MONDAY SEPTEMBER 12, 1898
SpAIN's DEL UsIHE HOPES.

settlement in the peace commission
at Paris are destined to disappoint-
ment. They will fail for at least two
reasons: Her complete collapse in the
war deprives her of all right to ex-
.pect favors, and the aid which she
looks tor from Russia, France, Ger
many and Austria will not be fur
nished. To certain extent, of
course, the peace commissions en-
vironment is calculated to arouse
false hopes in Spain. Popular senti-
ment in Paris is on the side of Spain,
and the influence of the official class
among the nations of continental
Europe will be eXerted indirectly for
that country, but the pressure which
it expects will be absent. The settle
ment wilt be between the United
States and Spain strictly. No out
side interference will be permitted by
this country. The relative strength
of the com batants as determined by
the war, and the position and the i'm
mediate prospects of each at the be-
ginning of the armlstice are the con
sIderations on which the adjustment
will be based.
That the Spanish commissioners
will make hard fight to retain the
Philippines was to be expected, and
the report to this effect which comes
from Madrid will not surprise any
body in this country. But if Spain
imagines, as the report also indicates,
that the United States will be talked
into an abandonment of all territorial
rights in the islands except for a
coaling station she is woefully blind.
The obligations which the United
States is under toward the insurgents.
whom we induced to resume hostili
ties, and our own commercial inter
ests in the Pacific prevent us from
surrendering any of our claims TO
possession of the whole group. We
already have Luzon by conquest, and
with our navy and the absence of a
navy on the part of the Spanlards we
could bring the rest of the islanGs
under our control in a few weeks if
the war were resumed. These facts
will tell in the commission. Spain's
representatives will quickly be made
to see that we are masters of the
situation, and rather than risk the re-
opening of suicidal war they will
defer to American demands.
1t will be well for Spain to remem-
Der that this is not the first tine that
America has taken part in peace
commission in Paris, and that it is no
stranger to the hostile influences
which may be exerted in that quarter.
The treaty of 1888, by which Eng
land acknowledged the independence
of the United States, was framed in
that city, and the anti-American IN
fiuences on that occasion were far
more powerful and dangerous there
then than they can be now. Both
France and Spain, our "allies' in the
war just ended, tried in the peace
treaty of 1888 to restrict the United
States to the region east of the Al
leghenies, so as to prevent this coun-
try from acquiring a power which
might be dangerous to them in the
future. The victories of George
Rogers Clark, however, over the
British in what is now Indiana and
Illinois in the latter part of the revo-
luton gave US claims which could not
be set aside. England, our recent
enemy, fairer than our treacherous
friends, acceded to our demand that
our Western boundary be fixed at the
Mississippi. The Urited States,
which secured justice when among