The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-07-11
NOT A WAR OF REVENGE.
Ogden Correspondent Who Believes
In Taking High Gro md.

To the Editor of The Herald:
Henry Norman, whose correspondence
to the London Times is so interesting and
generally logical. is responsible for the
not dispatched the battleship Maine to
Havana the Spanish-American war would
not have occurred. II that observation
were true the war must be characterized
as most uncivilized and harbarous piece
of business. waged and maintained by our
government in a spirit of revenge. shorn
battle cry. Remember the Main>' Ga mt
slogan for Savages. but not Chrstians)
which has enthused the Americans
throughout the land incontestibly car
I'ies with it a vicious spirit of retribution,
calculated to impart motives for the war
not at all founded upon the advanced
principles of liberty and enlightened hu-
mainly
But, fortunately for the interests of hui
manity the war is not being waged in a
distinctive spirit of chastisement to Spain.
for if that We're true. the measure OF re-
venge would lonS ago have been admin
istered under the tropical sun of the
South seas.
The ostensible and avowed purpose of
the war was TO give the Cubans their po-
litcal freedom. by terminating Spanish
rule among them. The sad story of their
long struggles to secure liberty midst
many tears and sorrows and scenes of
desolation of unexampled severity, have
been borne to our shores and have
awakened the emotions and svmDathies
OF a grdte1ul people. ever TeauN TO lenu q
helping hand to the afflicted and OPP
pressed of the human family. But not
wthstanding the deserving appeals of hu-
manit., war should never be INDUCED in
for the adjustment of such conditions or
international controversies until ell other
measures for a pacification have proven
abortive. This unquestionably Is the
modern and more humane doctrine in
theory. however much it may be disre-
garded in practice.
Spain would never have abandoned the
Pearl of the Antilles as a result of any
suggestion or recommendation by this
government. Nothing but the application
OF physical force could accomplish that
object. but it is probable she would have
entertained any reasonable measure look
ing toward a peaceful solution of the
problem. created by the destruction of the
Maine, as the appointment of an interna-
tionaS court of inquiry or arbitration to
fix responsibility for that unfortunate ca
tastronhe OF course, we could not SUBJ
NIT or accede, being so great and proud
and powerful. to the disposition of the
question in that manner. Our national
pride has been wounded. We must
organize our own court, appoint our
own arbiters to conduct and exam
ed in a veil of such impenetarble
mystery, confidently. expecting that the
verdict against Spain would be murder
in the first degree. The announcement of
any other result by the board of ihvesti-
cation would have been characterized as
a deliberate Misrepresentation of the
facts VOCATION OF duty anu would nave
occasioned the social ostracism of its
members and their political extinction.
No rational man ever doubted but that
Spain was directly chargeable and respoE-
sible for the determination of the Maine.
the surrounding circumstances. the atti-
tude 81 the United States towards Spain
at tt,c4 critical time. the presence of our
battleshfp IN Havana harbor when our
relations were so strained. all these facts
point with incontestable force and power
in fixing responsibility upon the naughty
dons, but then no other result would have
been accepted by the great American re-