Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1898-02-23
AS VIEWED BY EDITORS.
Opinion of Leading Metropolitan Pa
pers Upon the Maine Disaster.

| perS Upon the Maine Disaster.
Either a great crime has been commit
| ted or there has been an amazing piece
of laundering carelessness.-Chicag Rec
| ord.
If the Maine and $50 Of her men have
been lost through Spanish treachery let
Spain take the consequences.-Cincn
Enquirer.
To attempt to pass judgment on the
Maine disaster with the present informa-
ton would be the height of folly.-De-
| troit News.
The first duty of the country with re-
| gard to the terrible tragedy is to keep
cool, that we may learn the facts.-Bos-
ton Transcript.
There is nothing in the reports to offset
the fearful suspicion that the Maine was
| deliberately destroyed by a Spanish tor
| pedo.-Cincinnati Times-Star.
| No possible explanation can stifie the
voice Of the people calling for Intervention
in the interest of Cuba by our Govern
ment.-Chicago Inter Ocean.
The American people should decide
| whether playing at war is not too expen-
| sive an amusement when it entails such
| a terrible cost.-Chicago Chronicle.
The people believe the burden of proof
rests upon Spain to demonstrate beyond
| cavil that the blowing up of the Maine
was an accident.-CinciDnati Commercial
| Tribune.
Many modern battle ships have been
| wrecked in a similar way and just as sud
denly without any reasonable ground for
suspicion of an attempt at wholesale muir
| der-Chicago Staats Zeitung.
All this occurred in the harbor Of a
friendly nation" Now let the Spaniards
prove their friendship by absolving them
selves from all responsibility for the ca
| tastrophe.-St Louis Republic.
There are scores of possible explana-
tions. each Of which would seem more rea-
sonable than the base insinuations against
| the nation whose hospitality our repre-
sentatives were enjoying. Philadelphia
Record.
The disaster to one OF the finest ships
of our navy and the salfifce of so many
brave lives, not to the formal defense of
the country, but TO a strange and horri-
bic fate, casts gloom over the whole ma
tion.-St. Paul Globe.
The American people are not so callous-
ed by prejudice ar to close their eyes and
ears to the probability that the explosion
was due TO causes with which the Span
ish Government could have no remote con-
nection.-Detroit Journal.
Sober second thought win carry convic-
ton TO all fair and open minded men that
it is better to await the results of an in
vestigation before jumping TO the conclu-
sion that Spanish malice is at the bottom
of it.-St. Paul Pioneer Press.
1t is not surprising that there should be
many wild rumors afoat, for in the pres
ent strained relations between this coun-
try end Spain there viii be a natural ten
dency to attribute the explosion to the
Spaniards-if not to the agents Of
the Spanish overnment-Indianapo
News.
As disastrous things as an annihilating
explosion have bs opened to American bat
tie ships through accident or mismanage-
ment, and the terrible incident in the
Havana harbor may be but another of the
long series Of misfortunes that have be-
fallen our navy in the last few years.
Detroit Free Press.
The very fart that such an accident, IL
accident it was, could happen to an Amer
ican man-Of-war, and that it should shat
ter the peace of mind of the public and
do infinite damage TO every commercial
enterprise from the Atlantic to the Pa
cifc, is Ia itself sufficient warrant for in
tervention, Chicago Journal,