The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-04-18
---------------------- ----------------------------- CUBA MUST RE FREE.

CUBA MUST BE FREE.
 The die appears to be cast. In what ever shape Congress finally unites in action on the Cuban question, whether with or without the recognition clause, the issue is plain and the President will, it is believed, interpose no ob- jection. War in that case is at hand, and before another week is ushered in the struggle will have begun, the Ru- bicon will have been crossed, unless Spain backs down. That Spain will not recede is indicated by the wild temper displayed by the Spanish popu- lace and mobs and by the government as well. The United States has spoken and in her anticipation of what Con- gress will do, troops are being hurried to our southernmost seaboard. The nation is in far better shape for the struggle than 1t would have been had President Mckinley yielded to clamor- ous class for an immediate declaration of war months ago. Every moment of the time that he was seeking to free Cuba by diplomacy and peaceful inter- vention has been most usefully em- ployed in strengthening our navy, and in all other ways preparing for war. Should war come, as now seems inevit- oIoJ a+o la man for the old flag. There will be great rallying around the flag as of yore. There is ample ground for in- tervention by force of arms. The wrongs of Cuba, the devastation in the island by fire and sword, the inhuman barbarities practiced by Weyler, the wrongs done our own citizens, the great expense continually entailed up on this nation in policing Cuba for Spain, the loss of 100000 lives of Gu bans principally by Spain's starvation plan, the victims being mainly moth- CTS and children, the blowing up of the 4hctlll6, Lllto elul lilOlCy JuotiliNo tilC resort to arms in behalf of Cuba. Cuba must be free, as has been well said, in order to re-establish within the borders of this hemisphere the domestic peace that is indispensable to our repose and prosperity.
 It is not a war for annexation, nor for | national aggrandizement. We do not want the island. It is a war to end the centuries of Spain's shocking mis- rule of the fairest and most fertile of the islands of the world, war in be- half of brave men who are fighting for | freedom, as we fought for it in '76. It war of a Christian nation for humani- | ty.
 in the history of nations. History re- minds us of the intervention of France in our own war of the Revolution and at time when, as Bancroft describes 1 it. we were a people without a govern ment, our congress then being a migra- tory body, fitting from place to place and as yet unemployed with power to levy taxes Then there was Great Brit aims intervention in Spain when the British troops aided Spanish insurrec- tionists and drove Joseph Bonaparte, a usurper, from the throne There was also the intervention in Greece in 1927 | by England, France and Russia, by which the atrocities of the Turks in Greece were stopped, and the Greeks, who once more in their history, were fighting against fearful odds" were given the independence for which they were struggling.
 Cuba must likewise be free and inde- pendent
 There is little to fear of help being af- forded to Spain by other nations. There is bare possibility that this week may bring forth new endeavors at mediation by foreign powers but the United States has spoken and her demand is for freedom for the Cubans.
 
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