The record-union., 1898-07-22
VOICE OF The PRESS.
EXTRACTS FROM EDITORIAL
EXPRESSION.
State and Coast Opinions on SUBJ
jects Of Living News
Interest.

New 1ork should conclude to nominate
colonel Roosevelt as their standard
bearer in the coming election, the
Rough Rider of ability and an opposing
political faith may expect to be hunted
down by a Democratic nomination. Sol
dier against soldier will be the demand
of the situation. No other type of
statesman can look for success.
ALL THEY ASK.
San Jose Mercury: All that the Dem
ocrats ask of the Populists is that they
stand on the Democratic platform and
vote to put Democrats in office. That
is the kind of fusion the Populists got
in 1896 and they will get it worse still
this year.
JUST SO.
Santa Barbara Press: 1t is to be
hoped that the 1,600 Spaniards now in
American hands will take some obser-
vations Of the manner in which civilized
countries treat their prisoners of war.
They can then introduce some needed
reforms when they get home.
THE ERA OF GOOD FEELING.
Riverside Enterprise: There are
those who look confidently forward to
an era of good feeling that is to fol-
mean to imply that the various agita-
tions, political and social, which We're
interrupted by the blowing up of the
Maine. have been permanently laid
aside, they are doomed to disappoint-
ment. There Is not a reform which
has not gathered fresh impetus during
this interval of seeming inertia; there
is not a legislative evil which has not
hY~n1 1onf RI bn no
forcibly than ever before, by the events
leading up to and growing out of the
war.
In the first place a spirit of national
ity has been engendered that had no
prior existence save in the embryo Cit
izenship, which was only an abstract
idea to thousands before the Maine was
destroyed, has become something worth
dying for; there has been a complete
and overwhelming change in the rela-
tive values of the facts of life
NOTORIOUS IGNORANCE.
San Diego Union: The statement
that many Spanish soldiers believed
that they would be killed if taken pris-
oners, was received with incredulity
when first made. 1t is now fully cor
roborated. OF course the only explana-
tion is the notorious ignorance of the
Spaniards who serve in the ranks. 1t
is possible, however, that one reason
they thought they would be butchered,
if captured, was that they knew that
they deserved death Soldiers who shoot
surgeons while the latter are attending
to the wounded, and who deliberately
fire on the Red Cross relief parties, are
not worthy of recognition as prisoners
of war. They are guerrillas. But for
all that it appears that those captured
thus far have been accorded all the
privileges belonging to men taken in
honorable warfare.
THE VALUE OF THE EXPLOIT.
Stockton Mail: The value of the ex-
ploit Of Hobson and his men is seen
in the statement of Captain Eulate,
who declares that the Spanish fleet
would have made its dash at night but
for the fact that it was not safe to
pass the sunken Merrimac in the dark.
Had the Spanish fleet run out at night,
the likelihood is that part, if not all,
of it would have escaped. So it seems
that the total destruction of the squad
ron is largely due to the exploit of
Hobson and his men. 1t is unpleasant
to recall that a resolution of thanks
TO these brave men was defeated in
the Republican House of Representa-
tives, because an Administration Re
publican Dalzell of Pennsylvania
fought the measure on the ground that
its passage would give the seamen the
privilege of the floor-a privilege en-
joyed by dozens of pension sharks and
shyster lawyers who infest the legis-
| lative halls and practice at the whisky
bars Of the Capital.
THE AMERICAN HOG.
San Jose Mercury: Considering the
fact that the climatic conditions in Cal
ifornia are so favorable for the hog in
dustry, it is singular that the farmers
here do not pay more attention to hog
raising. The local demand for fresh
pork, ham and bacon is enormous, yet
so small is the supply that nearly all
of the pork consumed in this State in its
various forms is purchased in the East,
from which section we buy also a large
portion of the poultry and the eggs con-
sumed here, Notwithstanding the fact
that in no other State is there a climate
which permits the raising of fowls in
the open air from nine to ten months
in the year. The extreme mildness Of
our climate gives the farmers of Cali
fornia an immense advantage over those
of the East, yet the hog industry con-
tinues to be neglected. Alfalfa makes
the best of pasturage, and grain here is
abundant and cheap.
WHAT WORRIES THEM.
Riverside Enterprise: There are
those who deplore the sudden growth
among us of what they term the spirit
of empire. 1t is pointed out frequently
that in entering upon the war, we de-
MED in express terms any purpose of
territorial aggrandiZement and that by
departing from the letter of our declar-
alton, we are laying ourselves open to
reproach, and the suspicion that our
vaunted humanitarianism was a hoI-
low pretense, cloaking the instincts and
designs of a bandit.
The people who make these charges
are for the greater part actuated less
by morality than by the sort of con-
servatism which loves the known safety
of trodden paths. AS a matter of fact.
the declaration Of which so much was
made concerned Cuba axone, and no
statesman has yet ventured to hint tha
possibility of our retaining a foot of
land in the island. Nothing was said
of the Philippines or of Porto Rico at
the beginning of the war, vet eyerv
thinking man knew that 1t would be
necessary to seize upon territory some
demnity that would form the basis of
the final settlement.
A NEW NATION.