The age-herald., 1898-03-27
TECHNICS FROM
 CURRENT TOPICS

snarling and barking make the air vibrant with ominous excitement, there still Is to be found a patriotic element that is con- servative enough to oppose war with Spain. unless further pretext is furnished.
 In the blaze of pyrotechnic eloquenee almost the entire country is fired with a patriotism which demands that national honor shall be sustained at the mouth of cannon and by the sacrifice of perhaps thousands of valuable lives, not to speak of the destruction of millions of dollars worth of property. For the present. sentimental ity has possession of the people, and senti- mentality never counts cost.
 To no section of the country will war with Spain mean quite so much as to the south, and no section Is so poorly prepared for further disaster and misfortune.
 Thirty-three years have proven all too brief time for the recuperation and re- mobilization of the southern states after the close of the civil war. The people are barely beginning to surround themselves with the comforts of life again, notwlth- standing their unremitting labor and honest endeavor for more than quarter of q een- tury. Many of the most fertile regions of the south are still in measure desolate; and disheartened farmers find It no easy matter to feed and clothe their wives and children. Thirty-three years have not been long enough yet to adjust the people of the south thoroughly to the altered condf- tions. They have been forced to solve problems in social political and financial economy. with poverty, like a hungry wolf, barking at their doors. In case of war 1t is the south that will furnish the field for mill itary operations. And yet, with senti- mentality, ever fresh and buoyant, the great majority of Americans are calling for war. Speedy war! And for what?
 
 The philanthropist answers, "For hu- manitys sake" That the sick and starv- ing Cubans should be fed either by Spain, America or any other nation so generously inclined, every humanitarian will agree. But when did it become the duty of the United States to regulate outside nations and to decide the treatment they shall &C., cord to their dependents? Send food to the Cubans by all means; protect the lives and property of American citizens in Cuba-or elsewhere, but in the name of the highest and best form of humanity, are the poor, pitiful Cubans worth the sacrifice of hun dreds, perhaps thousands of young Ameri- cans in their defense? If war is declared it signifies the death of hundreds of south erners, who are essential to the upbuilding of their own country. Their life-bfood will crimson the coasts and the incoming and outgoing tides in order to.free few thous- and dagoes and half-breeds!
 Humanity" is a catchy crusade cry, but while the battle rages for the rights of miserable Cubans, strong, brave young Americans will be masaered and sent to untimely graves
 The most peace-loving southerner is im- pelled by national pride to desire that the Maine horror shall be resented in accord- ance with the highest demands of na- tional honor The most belligerent repre- sentative of this any other section, must admit that the new role of public regulation of foreign internal policies now being played by the United States is both unnecessary and unbeceming.
 Senator Thurston's speech in congress has been like the throwing of great pieces of fat pine upon already dangerous fire. Speaking with the memory of a re- cent aff1iction uppermost in his mind and that aff1iction incidentally connected with the question, he succeeded in presenting his views of the with pathetic elo- quence which touched every heart, whether in accord or not with his demand for speedy retribution.
 The sentimentality of this crisis found an appropriate climax in Senator Thurston's speech. In the intensity of his emotions, Senator Thurston declared that only the money changers are opposed to war, be- cause of mercenary reasons. In this he is grievously mistaken. large percentage of southerners object to this war, and very rightly They do not love Cuba less than their brethren in other parts of the coun- try but they do love their own land more and they hold that interference in behalf of the Cubans means the slaughter of thou sands of young Americans, whose lives outweigh those of the dagoes ten to one!
 Senator Thurston made another serious blunder in his impassioned oration on Thursday; one that was unfortunate and inexcusable, as he was speaking for the whole country to hear. He said: Force saved the nation, k6't the stars in the flag, and made the niggers' men. The time for Gods force has come again." This glimpse of the threadbare old bloody shirt political trick offensively marred an otherwise remarkable speech. If the war with Spain is to be fought with the same old methods as those employed to arouse the north against the south in 1861; with the same old hypocritical war cries, and the same old appeals to ignorance and prej- udice, it is time that southerners shall grow even more indifferent and obdurate than the money changers themselves It seems almost impossible for a. republican politician to resist the temptation to give the south slap in the face, whenever an opportunity offers. Apparently overcome with the loss of his wife, Senator Thurs ton forgot not in his anguish to Haunt be- fore the country the part played by his party in freeing the slaves of the south. He estimated the two causes, the enamel patton of the negroes and the freedom of Cuba-as one and the same. If they are, there is absolutely no reason that the men