The times., 1898-08-31
HAD TO FIGHT.
We Beat Spain From n Sense of our
Destiny
(From the London Times }

tfrom the London Times)
war, said the Greek historian. often
oreahs out on trivial occasions, seldom
rom Trivial causes Now that the war
oet"eeh the United States and Spain is.
happily, at an end, il may not ha nm
profitable to consider some of its loss Oh
FiouS lessons IL would be unjust 70 the
passionate patriotism of a great nation
10 call the destruction of the Maine a
Trivial occasion But that cafasfronba
mas not yet been proved to have been due
10 an external agency. nor, if an external
agency be- assumed. is there any nrnof
OF completely either on the part of the
central government of Spain or on that
OF the provincial government of Cuba
We may say then that, even If the de-
5truction of the Maine was the immedi-
ate occasion of the war, it was certainly
not Its cause. 1t may have been the
match that fired the mine, but the mine
was laid loEg before in those reciprocal
movements Of national progress and de-
cay which in their mutual reaction con-
stitute the march of humanity
We get stage nearer the cause. but
only a stage, when we say that 1t is to
be sought in the growth of the sea power
of the United States. But this cause
again is not ultimate, nor is ii adequate
in itself to explain the effect. The sea
power of the United States is no craftfly
prepared instrument of vulgar aggression.
but the natural and largely unconscious
expression of the deeper impulses of a
great nation bent upon fulfilling its des-
tiny. Stretching across great continent
from ocean to ocean. born of sea power
in her origin, nurtured by sea power in
her infancy. snatching her freedom from
the conflict of sea power. industrial. COM
mercial, progressive. and adventurous in
his Will izat ha hos
last become conscious that sea power
is her appointed heritage. whether for
veal or for woe. Before that conscious
ness had leavened the mass of her people
q generous feeling of humanity.
native love of order and peace, an Unborn
hatred alike of anarchy and of oppres-
sion-not unmixed perhaps with many less
worthy motives-brought her into sharp
antagonism with power in her imme-
diate neighborhood which had for long
generations abused the privileges of en-
pire and morally forfeited its prerogatives.
From this point of view the war was a
conflict, inevitable in the long run. be-
tween forces which, on any theory OF
the moral government of the world, must
be regarded as good and evil, respectively.
Nothing but a miracle or cosmic catas-
trophe could have averted the ultimate
collision between the growing sea power
of the UniteQ states anu Htiie SiiA-
pire of SPAIN
By sea power alone the transmarine
empire of Spain has been undone; by sea
power alone. by the spontaneous and al
most fortuitous return of maritime race
10 its native element. the transmarine
empire of the United States has been in
augurated The result is lesson to all
powers which either cherish transmarine
ambitions OF set purpose or yield because
they must, as the people of the United
States have found 10 expansive i'm
puIses inherent in their polity and race.
The full import of that lesson can hardly
be discerned as yet The foresight of a
statesman, the insight of philosopher.
even the Imagination of poet might well
be taxed to read 1t Alright; for 1t can
hardly be that the collapse of the historic
empire of Spain and the fulfillment by
the United States of an imperial destiny.
by the genius of her people
to be expansive but not aggressive, will
be unattended by consequences of vital
moment alike to the Old World and to
the New.