The age-herald., 1898-05-18
The Havana campaiun.

The war with Spain can be indefinitely prolonged to the delight of army con- tractors and spollsmen generally and to the distress and overburdening of the country. or it can be practically con cluded by heavy, sweeping and decisive movement of troops Instead of skirmish- ing all over the world. supreme, con centrated effort is needed against Blanco and Havana itself.
 The war was undertaken for the purpose of relieving the starving in Cuba, aveng- ing the Maine and driving the Spaniard out of America. Thus far 1t has been carried on with little reference to these objects. The brilliant work of Admiral Dewey promises to bring relief to millions that were not considered at all when war was declared. The bombardment of Porto Rico was fruitless. because troops were not ready to support it. The blockade of
 Cuban ports is ineffective for a like reason.
 The people are inclined to be reasonable,
 but they are inclined to think that a war
 undertaken to free Cuba should proceed
 directly to accomplish that object through
 the landing of heavy force on that island under cover of the guns of dominant fleet. Cuba Is almost within sight; one
 hundred thousand men are practically mustered in. and the people think move ment against Havana should be un- dertaken at once. The defeat of Blanco and the surrender of Havana would ter innate Spanish rule in America. It would beyond reasonable doubt be followed by the close of the war. For what else would Spain have to fight for? If an early ending of the war be possible and desirable, it can only be brought about by battles before Havana. A blockade and starvation mean long war. There is a great deal of ter
 ritory behind and beyond Havana. The
 peaceful blockade plan is a deusion.
 ants in Cuba. and it means a prolonga-
 tion of an expensive and demoralizmg
 war. It offers no return. It is not war.
 The nature of the Cuban climate is such
 that not day or an hour should be lost
 The troops must go and come through the gulf ports. If this going and coming be delayed until the heats of the summer are at hand. those ports and the southern country will be again visited by the pesti- | lence that is bred through Spanish indo- lence and Spanish indifference in Havana city and harbor. The health and security and prosperity of the southern section of
 this country, as well as the early closing of the war, are involved in the occupa- ton of Cuba and the expulsion of the Spaniard. This was the declared object of the war, and the people desire move ment as strong, as sudden and as sweeping as the movement of the Germans against the French in 1871. They desire land campaign against Havana. They know it is case that cannot be reached and reme- died from the sea by even Dewey They consider Havana and Blanco's army the real objective point of the war, and no strategy board, no set of politicians, should be permitted to stand in the way. If there are some generals who prefer to do their fighting next winter, let them stand aside. There are men who are ready to lead the armies to battle at once who believe the war can be ended by the delivery of heavy blows against the | very heart of the contest