Arizona republican., 1898-04-17
SPAIN AND THE UNITED STATES.

It is popular pastime just now to revive old war stories, to retell the history of famous naval agements, to discuss the heroes of the past and to compare the resources of Spain with the resources of the United States. These comparisons are of es- pecial interest in view of the possi- bilities of historical events in the near future.
 Spain, without considering it's colo nies-always an expense and bother to the home government-has a popu- lation of 1S,000,000 in round numbers living in an area of 196,173 square miles, The United States, however, has an estimated population of 74,000. GOO of people, while the area of our population is four times as great as the population of Spain and our ter ritory is over eighteen times as great as the territory of Spain proper. But let us make a closer comparison. There are thirteen states that touch the Alt lantic ocean, not considering Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, which have fine ports on the gulf. Then to the thirteen states we can, with pro priety, add Pennsylvania because of it's proximity to the ocean. Thus we find in these fourteen states with an area double that of Spain-3S9,4 ,470 square miles-a population of 23, 116,- 5O4 people. Further, in these fourteen coal and other necessary material for supplying both an army and navy.
 The men of the United States are 1 largely educated and trained mechan
 ics and men of business. while con- siderable proportion of the men of Spain are coarse and ignorant. There could be but one end to a contest of arms between the two countries. While the United States does not possess a navy proportionate to it's coast line and it's population it has the capacity for building what is needed. Of course it takes time to build navy and word comes from Pittsburg that the Carnegie works there are prepared to turn out | inside of two weeks all the plates. | beams, angles, channels, and other material for one hundred torpedo 1 boats. Of course it would take time 1 to assemble the parts, but armies of men could be at work and inside of three months our fleet of torpedo boats would swarm like flies along the coast
 | The resources of this country-both 1 in men, money and materials-are 1 marvellous. They are not realized or I appreciated by the Spanish masses,
 and even the other European powers are only awakening to our latent and
 undeveloped strength and resources. i The country is a unit and once in a fight the world would soon become
 amazed at our capacity. Just as the
 conservative policy of President Mo Kinley and the unanimity of both l houses of congress has created in the
 minds of Europeans sudden respect for our statesmen and proper appre- citation of our power, so will the me chanica1 forces Of this country impress
 the world with our physical char
 acter.
 Even if there should be no war the events of the last eight weeks will at least have served their purpose of i'm pressing the world with our prowess. In addition the people of this country
 themselves have been made to realize 1 that we have been idle too long, that
 we have been too indifferent in the matter of providing means of physical protection, and that the work done
 since congress appropriated fifty mil lions of dollars must go on until we
 are the naval peer of any nation on | earth.