Evening star., 1898-12-14
Spain, the Maine and the Messare

Spain demurS at the reference to the loss
| OF the Maine in the Presidents message and
| promises to appeal to the powers to right
a wrong which she claims has thus been
| done to her. She is. as usual. wholly in
| the wrong in this attitude. She should and
| probably will find no sympathy abroad In
/ her complaint. President Mckinley was
| confronted with the task of presenting to
Congress a history of the events of the
congressional year. The greatest item of
that record was the war with Spain and
no view of the case can possibly obscure
the fact that the destruction of the Maine
| in Havana harbor was a factor of first con-
sequence in fastening if not in actually
causing the outbreak of hostilities The
Presidents survey of the facts would have
been grossly incomplete if it had not in
cluded the fact of the appointment of
court of inquiry and it's finding. 1t was
due to posterity that this phase of the af-
fair should have been set forth in it's proper
relation.
That court found, after exhausting all
the means for inquiry at its disposal that
there was overwhelming evidence that the
battle ship had been destroyed by an eN-
plOsiOn from without. The court did not go
further. to ascertain or to guess by what
agencies this explosion was caused. This
item did not really lie within its field of in
qUiry. 1t suttced for the country to know
that the ship was not. as the Spanish au-
thorties claimed, destroyed by an acci
dental explosion within her hull. When
that fact was presented. with proof that
appealed to every mind as conclusive the
nation arose and proceeded to the task
which il had for some time hesitated to
undertake. Unquestionably ninety-nine of
every hundred Americans fully believed
then, as they believe today that the de-
struction of the Maine was n treacherous
crime, committed by persons unknown, but
certainly Spanards.
Spain now contends that the President
has sratuitoUsly insulted her by referring
TO the disaster in his message as an ad-
judicated fact. She proposes d commission
composed of neutral agents who shall in
vestigate the loss of the ship and fix the
responsibility. The objection to this pro-
cedure is that the United States cannot ac-
cept the work of such d board under the
circumstances unless it shall take up the
matter where the court of inquiry left it,
and, acting upon the assumption that the
courts finding was proper, seek to ascer
tain the exact agency which caused the
outside explosion. To submit to a board so
constituted and inspired the initial question
of whether the explosion was exterior or
interior would be to cast discrcdit upon the
body of naval officers whose verdict has
| been accepted by this nation and has been
made by the people one of the causes of
war.
The people of this country are satisfied
| as TO the fact. They would be glad to
! know who pressed the button which eX
| ploded the mine which destroyed the Maine
and killed American seamen and officers.
| They would be glad to know, in addition,
| just how far this deed was countenanced
| by Spanish officials, either personally or
officially. They do not ask for further pun
snment of this crime. But in the name of
justice they would welcome complete ex-
position of the facts. They will not, how
ever, repudiate their trusted Investigators
| by conceding the right of any body Of neu-
| trails, however constituted, to inquire into
| the question which they have answered so
| enphdticdlly.