The record-union., 1898-04-23
FACE TO FACE WITH WAR.

opportunity to know something VI IiAC
horrors Of war which with all possible
Elories attaching to it is still horrid
manifestation of the animal in man.
The maturer men of this day know all
of the terrors of conflicts in arms, since
most of them were witness to the most
gigantic struggle of modern times IN
which the blood Of Americans flowed
upon battle fields as rivers to the sea
This nation has not longed for war. It's
men of thought and prescience have
sought by all wise means to defeat its
necessity by honorable avoidance.
To them it talks of ravaged plains,
And burning towns, and ruined swans,
And mangled limbs, and dying groans,
And widows tears, and orphan SfodAS'
And all that misery's hand bestoWS,
To fill the catalogue of human woes
Not much value can be attached to
the speculations in which our people
may now indulge concerning The
conduct of the campaign on
either side What we can count
upon is our victory We must win.
Our cause has for its grounding com
mon justice intervening in the cause
of common humanity. The flag Of Spain
was once representative of the greatest
of powers whose fleets were invincible,
whose possessions upon our own conti-
nent covered the entire region south Of
the Ohio and west Of the Mississippi;
whose conquesting flag floated over
every foot of South American territory;
whose arms in Europe were dreaded by
all Powers; whose princes boasted that
they were commissioned by God to conf
mand the peace or proclaim the warning
of all the nations of earth; whose poetry,
art and literature were the admiration
Of the world, and whose glories were
dimmed only by the cruelties and 5Tu-
talities Of her merciless conquerors and
unsympathetic monarchs who valued
human life no more than a farthing
rush light.
This once knightly triumphant, con-
questing, commanding, invincible Spain
now sunk to a level whereon none are
so mean as to do her service, is in a
struggle to retain her lastfoothold on the
Western Hemisphere; battling for the
wrong as fully as she ever prosecuted
her piracies and seizures by the cruel
hand of might.
Back of, underlying, and overshadow-
ing also. all the announced issues, is the
greater one of the tug between mon
archy Of the lowest and most retro
gressive type, and republicanism con-
tending for dominance of democratic in
stitutions as the heritage of all men who
claim heirship to them.
To say that we will win in such a
struggle is but to declare that civiliza-
tion is not moving backward, and that
the destiny Of this nation is not yet &C
complished The Spanish flag has been
furled upon and withdrawn from all
other soil on this hemisphere, but that
of Cuba and the other nearby islands
over which it yet faunts itsrampant lion
beneath a tottering crown, on field
of glaring yellow and faded red, and
now it must be withdrawn from the
waters and islands of the Caribbean and
adjacent seas.
What may follow is not now the con-
Eideration. We believe that the Ques-
ton of the capacity Of the Cubans to
govern themselves will not be so impor-
tant a matter. We should scarce eX-
pect Of them the breadth or fitness
which we look for in a self-governing
people, since all of civilization they
have is that given them by Spain. By
blood and tradition they are heirs to her
cruelty of disposition, her naughty as
sertion of might, her ridiculous claim
that she is commissioned by heaven to
command wherever she stretches forth
her arm.
BY Spain Cubans have been taught
that mercilessness is an attribute OF
sovereignty. that in contests of the
sword non-combatants, starving women
and children may be made living breast
works, behind which hireling soldiery
may be cowardly massed. From SPAN
they have learned the lesson Of retail
alton, and been taught the art of the
spirit of revenge. Out of such a people
we may not expect for this generation
that gentleness, chivalry, breadth OF
spirit, compassion, mercy, tolerance and
conception of freedom, which charac-
terize the beneficent system under
which we live.
Let us therefore not hope for too much
in the early future. The first thing i:
to whip the Spanish conceit out of the
Spanish Government. To teach it thai
as it has chosen the retrogressive patti
it shall pursue it so far as we are con
cerned, but that the hour of Spanish
monarchical domination over Cuba IA:
struck Remembering our own wrong:
worked at the hands of Spain least; put.
ting back of us for the moment the ter.
rible accounting to which we viii cal
Spain for the murder-by reason of hel
connivance or her neglect, no matter
which-of our seamen of the Maine, oul
Office is to install liberty upon soil here
tofore tyrannized over by crown, the
right of which to sit upon rulers heat
is Justly challenged even upon th'
Spanish peninsula.
We have exhausted the arts OF persua
sion. wrung dry all appeals for peace
to the last second Of patient time scpgh'