Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1898-03-18
WILL HAVE A GOOD EFFECT,

WILL HAVE A GOOD EFFECT.
If the Spanish, o. any other nation,
have been deluded into believing that
the UnitedStates will hesitate to go to
war out of any financial or trade con-
sideration, when the honor of the nation
is concerned, the action of the house
and senate in passing the appropriation
of s5O,00O,00O for national defense will
go far toward setting them right.
Probably never wae there a display of
harmony and patriotism more convlnc.
ing of the union of.the whole American
people, where the honor and safety of
the nation is concerned, than that of the
senate and house of representatives,
when, without a dissenting vote or a
dissenting speech, the appropriation
was passed which gives to the president
of the United States the absolute con.
troll of s5O,0O0,OOO in cash to be expended
as he sees fit for the defense of the
nation.
Spain, with that peculiarly con-
Trajectory sense of honor which permits
the starvation and murder of the
Cubans on the one hand, yet which
recoils with indignation from a PROPOSE
ton of peaceable intervention in the
affairs Of the island by the United
States, with a view to settling this horrid
massacre, and relieving Spain in an
honorable manne from the huge debt
that is being daily added to the already
heavy load of the tottering monarchy,
has been inclined to the belief that the
Americans were too wrapped up in the
pursuit of the almighty dollar, and too
fearful of the loss a war would entail,
to permit the consideration of war. It
has leaned to the impression that at the
worst, the United States would receive
from Spain a sum of cash for the murder
of the brave sailors of the Maine.
1t may have, and it would be we'll for
: Spain if it does have, a salutary effect
upon the government of Spain, to note
that America is preparing for war, and
preparing for it with a unanimity of
purpose and sentiment which reflects
the vigor and determination of the
American people.
There is nc more peaceable people in
the world than the people of the United
States. No evidence Of this is more
conclusive than the fact that the notion
has for thirty years been devoted to the
arts of peace, allowing the arts of war
to fall into a secondary place. Less at
tention than any other nation has the
United States paid to preparations for
war, because war is abhurrent to the
American people. Their attention has
been devoted to the pursuits of peace,
and the genius of the American people
has labored to give to the world inven-
tions and improvements which have
added a thousand fold to it's pleasure,
convenience and benefit. But there is
no nation which has a keener sense of
honor than the United States, and there
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seventy millions of people who will
defend the national honor to the last
dollar of their wealth and the last drop
of their blood. Trained in the direction
of war, the genius of the same people
which has been reflected in the promo,
ton of the arts of peace, would become
a formidable weapon. The same spirit
which has raised magnificent temples of
learning, arts, science and culture, and
which has devised improved methods
for the advancement of social. and
Industrial welfare will build battleships,
enlist armies, erect defenses. and devise
engines of destruction. That the nation
is in readiness is illustrated in the pre-
liminary appropriation of congress.
Spain might for a short time, wage a
nearly equal warfare against the United
States on the sea. But as a nation she is
decrepit, rotten, on the verge of bank.
ruptcy, with a fanatical people who are
as ready to urn upon the government
dAu 1cLu q CuOy diC w ASuGoACAOI1y
The United States is possessed of re.
sources unlimited, five times greater
than Spain in population and a thousand
times greater in civilization, culture.
education, liberality and the other
qualifications which tend to cement a
people into a united body, and in the end
Spain would be practically annihilated.
The first year of the term Of President
Mckinley has ended. Can any reade,
recall a presidential administration ir
which as large a number of promises
made have been fulfilled in a single
year? There was a promise of improve
ment in business, and business has i'm
pr owed. There was a promise that the
financial integrity of the country would
be maintained and that more currency