The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1898-03-24


In an interview in Pittsburg on
Saturday Representative Joseph W.
Bailey, of Texas, is reported to have
said among other things relating to
the Cuban troubles: IF the republi-
can party declare war they will I'M
doubleday beat us-the democrats-in
the next political campaign. If they
do not there will not be enough re-
publicans left in the country to make
a showing There is no doubt that
many other politicians, republicans
and democrats, view the momentous
question of peace or war from the
same low standpoint But as Mr..
Bailey is an extreme partisan, his
advice to the opposition may well be
regarded with mistrust. If he
thought that a war with Spain would
result in the utter defeat of his party
he would be rather chary of his bellig-
erent counsels.
Experience shows that the authors
of a war have often been terribly dis
appointed in regard to its popularity.
The war may be so badly conducted
or its causes so inadequate, as to lead
to the overwhelming defeat of its
originators. After the first efTerves-
cence of martial enthusiasm there
comes speedily the sober judgment of
the people by which the war is sub
Jected TO the most rigid scrutiny and
often to stern public condemnation.
The great evils of war with Spain, if
declared by this government for reas-
ons short of an imperative necessity,
would be very apt to have a most
disastrous effect upon Mr. McKinley's
administration and party in the next
elections. While the opposition to
the republican party by the Baileys
and their political followers would
not be abated in the least by reason
of the war, independent citizens who
hold ssthe balance between parties
would throw their resistless weight in
the scale against the party that
should urge the country into an
armed conflict with a friendly nation
upon any except the most adequate
grounds of justification in moral duty
and public necessity.
Individual politicians in Congress
may refuse to recognize their respon-
sibility in presence of a question of
war, but the government cannot
escape such responsibility, The
times when almost any pretext would
serve for resorting to armed hostilities
have passed away forever. So terri
ble in their destructiveness are the
engines of modern warfare and so
disastrous are the effects of war upon
commerce and industry that every
nation possessing a conscience feels
bound to exhaust every possible
means of maintaining peace, including
arbitration, before appealing to the
cannon as the last argument. If in
diyiduals cannot come up to the high
standard which requires them never
to act toward each other except in
accordance with what they deem fit
rules of universal law, nations must
comply with this standard in their
dealings with the rest of the world at
their peril for it's violation.
Conceding, as all reasonable minds
do, that the Spanish government had
no criminal completely with the de-
struction of the Maine, there is no
cause in this event for war, though
it should be proven that the explosion
was from the outside. In this case
the only question is one of indemnity.
The politicians in Washington who
shout that they are opposed to arbi-
tration in case of disagreement be-
tween the United States and Spain as
to the terms of indemnity simply
betray that they are spelling for war.
What remain then as causes of war
with Spain which so many persons
profess to regard as inevitable, as if
the wish were father to the thought ?
The grant of almost complete self
government by Spain would put the
insurgents into political control of
Cuba if, as they profess, they compose
the large majority of its native popu-
lation. But this would at the same
time leave Spain in retention of sufl