The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-07-06
A Moral DUTY.

At intervals there are Americans who
express sympathy for Spain and who
think it would hardly be a chivalric
thing for our government to take ad-
vantage of Spains weakness by send
ing to her shores powerful Ameri-
can squadron. These are persons whose
sympathies have got the better of their
judgment. Let us, therefore, view the
matter from a number of standpoints.
In a military sense the beginning of
war, whether the belligerents be
evenly or unevenly matched, presup-
poses that the war will be prosecuted
until its purpose shall be accomplished.
Otherwise there would be no conceiv-
able reason Cor going to war. War is
the alternative when moral suasion
fails. 1t cannot be mixed with moral
suasion by either belligerent, because
all the resources of moral suasion are
supposed to have been exhausted ere
the arbitrament of arms is to be in
Nhked. In war, the object of all activ-
lty is quickly to weaken the enemys
power of resistance and bring him by
of thinking. When this nation told
Spain to get out of Cuba it also au-
thorized the use of the American land
and naval forces to put her out. We
have right to choose how and where
we shall use those forces for this pur-
pose. whether in Cuba itself, in Spains s
other colonies or at the pennsula's own
doors. The method which offers the
hest promise of effective results at the
lowest cost in blood and treasure is
obviously the one which good general
ship should choose. We struck Spain
at santiago simply because Spain had
heet there. A Spanish fleet anoat
ana undestrnyed constituted a menace
to American security which had to be
met al the earliest possible moment
Dewey and Sampson having put these
menaces out of our way we are now
ready To- take the aggressive. A blow
at Spain at home by means of our navy
VIII cost less and scare Spain more
than a general invasion Of Cuba at this
unreasonable time, hence it will be
stuck just as soon as the ships can
strike il. 1t will be a peace move, an
economy in life and suffering; and it
will greatly hasten Spanish evacua-
tion of Cuba.
But even from the moral point Of
View, it is false doctrine that the United
states SHOULD let up because Spain is
weak. Weakness in numbers and
money constitutes no excuse for ma
tional immortality; and Spain as gov
erned today is an awful example Of
administrative immortality. The lies,
the steals. the hypocrisy, the moral
cowardice upon which Spain rests
makes her not only proper subject for
punishment but so great a menace to
the worlds welfare that the United
states, having been reluctantly forced
to take up arms for the cause Of hui
manity. should consider It a duty to
pull this rotten structure over and dis
infect II. The cry OF humanity arises
In Spain almost as rlaintively as it did
In Cuba-from peasants cheated, ca
joled. kept ignorant; from honest yoe-
manry ground down and kept down
beneath the worst government claim
ing Christian kinshlp that the records
mention We may not feel called up
on TO do for far-off Spain so much
as we DO for the nearby inhabitants
OF Cuba; in a sense they are outside
our sphere of influence; but at least
we should vindicate ourselves before
the gulled population of Spain from the
false charges that spain's lying rulers
have brought against us. by showing
them up among their own people as the