The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1898-06-04
Not q War Of Conquest.
The Salt Lake Herald goes ate
Uncle Sam as follows:

The Salt Lake Herald goes after
Uncle Sam as follows:
Some time ago this government de.
clared war against Spain for the express
purpose of compelling that decreplt
tenth-rate power to evacuate Cuba. Il
was not to be war of conquest; 1t was
not to be waged for any other cause than
that of humanity; it was not to be pros
ecused for the relief of any other people
than the Cubans; it was not to drive the
Spanish army from any other province OF
colony. The declaration was plain.
It was to be war of self sacrifice. in
the interest of suffering humanity; IT was
to be pushed for the relief Of starving
Cubans; for Intervention to save the lives
of men and the honor Of women ID Cuba
to Danish tyrannicai Spain from the blood
soaked island of Cuba and end forever
the wantnn, willful sacrifice OF life and
property which has been going ON for
years: it was to be campaign of relief to
dying families, of rescue for the doomed.
The declalat was emphatic.
Instead OF driving Spain from the DC
cident preparations are being made to
drive her from the orient. Instead OF
sending an army ninety miles to Cuba we
are sending one seven thousand miles to
the Philippines. Instead OF taking Ha
vana we are moving on Manila. Instead
of landing an army at Mantanzas we
purpose to land one at Cavite. We started
out to wave the stars and stripes above
the tax-burdened, priest-ridden, famine
stricken women and children Of Cuba,
but the administration finds it necessary
to send forty or fifty thousand men to
Porto Rico first. And all the time we are
protesting that this is not war OF con.
quest, not fight tor supremacy, not a
test of strength, but an effort to succor
starving Cubans. No wonder European
powers are skeptical of American disa
vowa.s and pretensions.
This government should not lose sight
of its declaration. Nothing but prompt
invasion OF Cuba will accomplish the Oh
ject and purpose of the war. The ''peace
full blockade" inausurated by the admin
istratiOn branded the avowed aim of this
government as false, for no effort to starve
the Spanlafds into submission would re-
lieve the hunger of the famished natives.
And the disposition of this country to
capture or invade every Spanish colony
in reach or in sight, except Cuba, makes
the declaration under which the war was
begun read ridiculous.
Administration apologists claim that
men should not be sent to Cuba because
of the climate, because they are unaccus-
toned to the heat of the tropics. Yet
we are sending thousands to the Philip
pines, which are nearer to the equator
than is Cuba; we are about to send forty
or fifty regiments to Porto Rico, next
door to Cuba, with the same heat, climate,
diseases and dangers, and farther from
the Florida coast.
There is something wrong with the war
department. President Mckinley. upon
whom the responsibility rests, ought to
dismiss the weaklings with which, in
time of peace, he surrounded himself.
when the prospect of war was remote,
and finish this undignifed, long winded
contest for points at once-this sparring
between an able bodied, civil
I'D power, and a bantam BLACKBOARD
with age, and rotten with inter
nal corruption.
1t is time to quit playing politics and
commissioning political supporters; it is
lime to do something for Cuba. The
army that is being prepared for Porto
Rico should be landed at Matanzas.