New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1898-06-01
The Meaning
+. of the War. !.
Senator Chandler Discusses the Ultimate
Results of the Present Conflict.
he Thinks It Will Prevent More Disastrous
Wars in the Future.


ings of peace, writes Senator Chandler,
| it is undeniable that war, particularly
| when it, is war waged, as this one is,
for what the nation believes to be lust
and righteous cause, must have an enor-
nous and wholesome tonic influence,
bracing up not merely. the lower and
physical, but the the higher and moral,
life of the nation engaging in it. Sup
pose, if you please, that this Spanish
war were to come to an end now, and
no more fighting we're to be done. It
would have been short conflict, with
no great loss of life, and yet we would
have already made not only great nav
al, but great military, demonstration :;
we would have given ourselves assur-
ance, and, at the same time, shown to
the whole world that we have mighty
reserve power, both on land and on sea.
We have made demonstration some
thing akin to the memorable grand re-
view that took place at the close of our
civil war, and which gave us spectacle
on Pennsylvania Avenue which, as I look
back to it, I feel was splendid object
lesson as to the vital strength and re-
sources of the republic, and was of in
calculable value in its moral influence
upon foreign observers. A similar thing
is now going to happen again. We shall
put our $4,000 militia in line, and,
whether we have to send them all to the
front or not, we shall, by and by, bring
them together in one great assembly
here at Washington, and the moral eff
feet Of that as demonstration of our
latent power as a nation will be great
and valuable. The war may be too short
to use this latent power on which we
have made first call-and the shorter
the war is the better we shall all be
pleased-but even if it ends tomorrow,
this demonstration of our capacity for
war on great scale has been made, and
its moral effect will remain.
Moreover, attention having been called
in a pointed way to our deficiencies in
military organization, in coast defenses
and in naval equipment at various
points, the country will now insist that
they shall be remedied at whatever cost,
so that we shall never at any future time
find ourselves taken by surprise or at a
disadvantage in facing any foreign COM
plication. .>>....
The next broad view which comes to
me is that this war is fortunate war in
many ways. i. comes at a good time
and under fortunate circumstances for
us. tits, in my opinion, going to save
several other bigger wars. If we had
shown pusillanimity now we should
| have taken our place as a second-class
power instead of a frst-class power,
with this extremely probable result :
that other nations, perceiving us to be
second-class power, not willing to fight
even Spain on question involving
American principles and American inter.
ests in this hemisphere, would have tax
en- advantage of the discovery to embark
in various ambitious enterprises of theil
own on this side of the world. Emperor
William might possibly, in such an
event, have bought st. Thomas and St
Croix; other powers might haveeboughi
other American possessions; England
without cenquering Venezuela, Nigh,
have purchased Venezuela, and whole
series of similar acts might have fol
lowed on the part of European powers
in this western half of the world if We
had proved in this exigency that we were
not ready or willing to fight Span fol
good cause. .s
The Monroe doctrine would thus have
been made to disappear, unless we had
been prepared to enter upon an armed
contest to prevent such action by these
great powers, war with any. one 81
which would have been much harder to
fight than this one with Spain. Hence
It is quite clear to my mind that this
war is most fortunate, in this respect,
at least-that it will have the effect o1
preventing larger wars, which otherwise
would have come upon Us, unless we
had been willing. not only to give way
to Spain, but to surrender our Monroe
doctrine as well.
The Monroe doctrine IS only incident
ally touched by our action IN the case 81
| Cuba. The Monroe doctrine haa alwaya
implied the recognition Of existing Euro