The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-04-15
AND THERE'S THE MAINE.
Senator Fairbanks Reminds the Sen
ate That That Matter is Still
Unsettled

Washington. April 15.-senators Fair
banks addressed the senate on the Gu
ban resolution yesterday as follows:
Mr.. President I have not been for
either peace at any price, or war at
any cost. 1 have been steadfastly for
peace if it could be maintained honor
ably, and for war if the national dig
nifty and honor required it.
The war that has been waged on the
island of Cuba has been in disregard of
the universally recognized principles of
a counterpart in it's brutalities and it's
destructiveness; and the moral sense Of
the civilized nations has been shocked
and aroused as never before.
In view of our relations to the island
we are morally bound to put an end to
the wrongs. the outrages, the evils
which flow from Spanish misrule. We
have repeatedly rendered to the Span
ish cabinet our friendly offices to
end the war in Cuba and to restore
peace. Our offers have uniformly been
rejected. Many of the concessions we
have demanded, however. have been
granted to the insurgents"
Coming down rapidly to the situation
as Mr. Mckinley found it on assuming
the presidency, Mr.. Fairbanks said:
The presidents policy was an open
one known to the world; it was peace
with honor above and beyond all else,
and war with honor, only as the last
dread emergency.
Continuing, the senator reviewed the
acts of the administration in securing
the release OF Americans from spanish
prisons, the withdrawal of Weyler and
the resembling of the recommendation
order, but he said this relief had come
too late, and that upon the Spanish
people was the blood of the two hum
dred thousand victims of Weylers
rule Turning to the Maine disaster,
he declared that the SpaniardS were re-
sponsible too, for the lives of those
American sailors who persisted with the
ship. Spain had made answer of dis
avowal, but that was not enough The
American people had weighed all the
evidence and no doubt remained in
their minds but the massacre of our
sailors was the foul work of Spanish
treachery. For this grave act Spain
must make due amends. and our own
interests demand that the mighty pow
er of the government should be inter-
posed to stop the carnival of crime and
suffering and restore peace to the island
of Cuba, until some suitable govern
ment be formed which which shall be a
guarantee to us and to the other nations
of the earth that it will at all times in
the future be ready and willing and
able to discharge it's domestic and in
ternational obligations
Continuing Mr.. Fairbanks said:
I'VE desire and hope to see the indie
pendence of Cuba secured, but am not
prepared. at present to favor the recog-
milton of the independence of the pres
ent so-calIed republic of Cuba. We
know but little about it. 1t is too ne
BILIOUS, too mythical to be invited into
the family of nations by our potential
act. There are dOuDIleSS among the
citizens of the island those capable of
forming and establishing a government
which will be stable and secure and
which will be a guarantee that the Gu
ban question is settled for all time to
come 1t seems to me, therefore, that
the first imperative duty resting upon
US is to establish tranquility in the is
land, relieve the suffering and dis
tressed, and then enable the citizens of
the island to deliberate and form a gov
eminent upon such lines as their high
est and best interests may require. The
air is too full of rumors to the char
acter of the present o-called Cuban re-
public and as to the bonds which have
been floated in its name in this country
and said to be in the hands of specula-
tors, to justify US in any hasty act of
recognition. We must intervene and
let the majority rule"
Intervention. Mr.. Fairbanks declared
would be in the name of humanity, to
stop the fragrant misgovernment, the
barbarisn, the wrongs, the outrages
that have shocked the civilized world
We need to make no apology, he said
for elaboration and delay before for
chilly intervening, for no self-respecting
nation could afford to do less than ex-
haust the resources of diplomacy before
a resort to arms, and in this connection