Washington sentinel., 1898-04-02
Mr.. Phelps as an Authority l..

Mr.. Phelps as an Authority.
Mr.. E. ]. Phelps has written /;
long letter for the New Yorl
| Herald,expressing the opinion tina
it would be a crime to go to war fol
such trivial cause as the murder
OF 400, 600 Cubans and 400 Ameri.
can sailors. Therefore the New
York EVeNixg Post acclaims him
as can eminent Democrat" and a
master" OF international law A
few years ago Mr.. Phelps wrote a
magazine article in which he urged
us to go to war with England TO
prevent the slaughter OF some
thousands of seals. The EVeRing
Posi- did not regard him as a mas
ter Of international law at that
time.
Without taking the radical
ground that the lives OF paeifcos
and sailors are as valuable as those
OF seals, let us examine some OF
the propositions laid down by the
international lawyer from Ver-
mont. Mr. Phelps announces the
principles:
The idea that this country, or any
other, is justified in undertaking moral
or political supervision over the affairs
OF its neighbors, and in correcting by
| armed invasion the faults Of their insti-
tuttonS or the mistakes OF their Admins.
tration, OF administering charity to them
BY force, is absolutely inadmissible and
Infinitely mischievoUs.
1t happens, however, that this
infinitely mischievous" idea is one
that every power in Europe has
followed repeatedly. Not to go
bask to the time when Europe
united to impose upon France
such institutions as it thought she
ought to have, France herself in
vaded Spain in 1923 to suppress
liberal constitution, joined Eng
land and Russia in behalf OF the
Greek insurgents at Navarino in
1897. maintained a standing inter-
vention at Rome through a long
term OF years to keep the Romans
from throwing off the rule of the
Church, and interviewed in Mexico
to overthrow a republic and set up
a monarchy. Russia has inter
vened in behalf Of insurgents in
Turkey and against them in Hun
gary. But the classic example OF
Intervention to promote an insur-
rection is that Of France in favor
of the American colonists IN their
struggle against Great Britain.
PerhaDs Mr.. Phelps calls that a
crime.
There is nothing more amazing
than the pretentious ignorance of
the wise. Here is a person who
vaunts himself as an authority, and
who yet is willing to sign such
statement about the Cuban recon
centrados as this:
Nor can it be maintained that any
grNur l. "a =
by the Spanish Government, or that
their destitution results from any other
cause than the poverty that the civil war
has occasioned, as it generally does,
and the inability of the Government to
relieve 1t fully.
Did Mr.. Phelps read Senator
Proctor's explanation Of the man.
ner in which the reconcentrados
were driven from their homes by
Spanish troops. often with no op.
portunity to gather up their cloth
ing or household utensils, and
then, after the soldiers had des-
troyed their houses and ravaged
their fields, we're herded into
towns and confined within a dead
line, with absolutely no provision
for their subsistence, but with the
assurance that if they ventured
beyond the line they would be
shota II he did not he was guilty
OF objectionable presumption in
attempting to instruct people bet
ter informed than himself. II he
did, we fear 1t is necessary to say
deliberately OF him what the
Psalmist said in his haste Of all
men.
NOTHING could be more touch