The record-union., 1898-08-08
CONCERNING PEACE.


The dispatches are conflicting con-
cerning the negotiations for the set
tlement of peace terms. There is every
reason to believe that the war will be
closed within a few days by Spain
Z yielding completely to our terms; still
it is stated on precisely as good au-
thority as any other transmitted un-
officially that the Spanish Cabinet pro-
poses to insist upon the United States
guaranteeing the so-called Cuban debt.
This the Administration will not think
of doing for one moment.
Whatever that debt may be it is not
a Cuban obligation. Spain is the prin-
cipal to it, and that in issuing bonds
she pledged Cuban revenues amounts
to nothing, since that meant revenues
under Spanish administration. Spain
cannot saddle this debt upon the event.
ual Government of Cuba, no matter
what it is Should our Government
yield this point of contention it will
blaclen the entire record of the Admin
istration, to this date so highly cred
liable to itself and the whole country
in the prosecution of the war.
1t is, however, to be said that there
is at this writing no official commune
cation in the hands Of the Government
from Spain upon the subject, and we
therefore discredit even the suggestion
that President Mckinley will give it
any attention if the debt proposition
is advanced by the Spanish Ministry.
We have not the power, to say nothing
of the right, to impose the debt upon
Cuba; we assuredly Will never become
guarantor for that which is the result
of Spanish mal-administration, tyranny
and oppression, the causes which led
the United States into the war of in
tervention.
AS for Porto Rico that is ours by le-
gitimate conquest of war, and no Porto
Rican debt to which Spain is principal
will be recognized by US.
To sum up and put it in a nutshell, it
is simply question of accept or fight
for Spain. Our terms are mild; in some
3
unanimous, or else our justification for
the war was weak and insufficient.
Spain must acquiesce in our terms or
fight it out We are not an aggressive
or a pugnacious people, but being in a
fight we have proved to the world our
capacity to bear 1t out manfully and
valorously When it comes to terms
of peace we must show that we can be
magnanimous to the enemy without be-
ing unjust to our own people.
In a memorandum prepared by DR..
Bond for the Jenner Society of Eng
land, he declares that the history of
epidemics Of smallpox show conclu-
sively that revaccination is necessary
If communities are to be protected from
the recurrence Of the scourges, which
are increasingly frequent; that vac
cination in infancy is not enough, but
that as long as communities believe
they are, that long will we continue
to have epidemics of smallpox. He
holds that on entering school every
child should show that 1t has been sue
cessfully vaccinated, and that on leav-
ing school life 1t should be again
yaccinated. He adds that it is
to the revaccination Of her
adolescent population that Ger
many owes her remarkable immunity
from epidemics of smallpox The paper
at some length gives supporting rea
sons and testimony for these assertions
1t places far less reliance upon infant
vaccination than upon that preventive
treatment at school age and later re-
vaccination On the other hand there is
a large and powerful society in Eng
land, the aim of which is to discourage
vaccination altogether and not a few
physicians are members of it, though
1t remains to be said that they con-
stitute but an exceedingly small per-
centage of the entire faculty, the great
mass of which adheres to the value of
vaccination, and probably a majority
Of whom favor vaccination.