The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-07-14
EEw HAVEN MORNING THURSDAY JULY IA ls

ests' in Manila. while an American ad- miral bombards that city, and with the spectre of revolution in Spain itself standing silent but expectant behind it all' the area of the war and of it's con- sequences is widening fast.
 one thing is very curious, indeed, in all this matter, and that is the scanty evidence of American opinion which reaches Europe. What do all those quiet millions of work Ing freeholders and industrious cit lzens who live away fro newspaper correspondents think about the pro- sress of the war? Are they aware that their country stands at the parting of the ways; that her external policy must be radically modified that she Is engaged in a war which may develop that 1t will occupy years, create na- tlonal debt, and leave the United States with a powerful army and the second fleet in the world? Do they think of peace, or have they made up their minds that there shall be no peace until Spain begs for it and sur renders her colonies as measure of conciliation? Above all, have they thought of the possibility of the war extending and of what, in that case, they will order their government to do? So far as Europe knows, there is no answer to these questions. A little is known-very little-of what the Ameri- can government thinks, a little more can be gathered from the votes of con- gress, and a little more still from the press of the seaboard cities; but of the real opinion of that vast silent de- mocracy, always producing, always storing up power nothing whatever is from the evidence afforded by national character, and by the history of the great war of 1S60-64, and so guessing, they arrive at this conclusion.
 The Americans will go on fighting with ever-increasing energy and vol ume of sacrifice until they win, and are able to dictate terms of peace to their antagonist, which again will be terms proportioned to the duration of the war. They will repel all interference, whatever suffering or loss such a re- pulse may involve, and they will in future insist on a great fleet and the skeleton of powerful army being re-
 garded as part of the national machin- cry, no more to be neglected or abol- ished than the lighthouses or the of- fees for paying the interest on the debt. They will be very reluctant to be involved in future wars; they will pay attention for the future to diplo- macy, probably creating a diplomatic service, and they will regard alliance aa sueful, though cumbrous and costly, forms of insurance. That is to say, they will adopt as regards the external world precisely the attitude which cen- turies of experience have forced upon the "effete" nations of Europe. Wheth- CT they will be the happier for so great a change we do not know, but we do know that they will be much the wiser. Their present difficulties, which may soon be serious, are all traceable to want of experience-that is, to the ab- sence of powerful rivals on their own continent, the absence of jealousies di- rected against themselves, and the ab- sence of burdensome armaments, all things on which they have hitherto privately and publicly, without ceas- ing, congratulated themselves and their nstitutions.-London Spectator.