The record-union., 1898-05-30
EASTERN PRESS EXPRESSION
WHAT LEADING PAPERS OF
THE EAST SAY
On Matters of First Importance
The Wharf.-The Battle
Flags.

New York Tribune: The assistant
Spaniards who are trying to shove this
country into a new debauch of paper
currency should amend their measure
so as to have their money printed on
yellow paper striped with red.
GOOD THINGS TO ADOPT.
Louisville Courier journal: I'm the
first place Cuba must be free. Second,
Spain must answer, and answer to US,
for her ,treachery and inhumanity.
Third the world must be taught that
the United States of America is a ma
ton with the biggest kind of a capital
N" Those would be good resolutions
for the Board of Strategy to adopt.
WAR WITH A WEAK NATION.
New York Herald: Few thinking off,
GERS failed to gauge the results of war
with a weak naval nation. They recog-
nized that in a contest with a strong
maritime power the struggle would be
confined to coast defense, and, as an
irritant, to that commerce destroying
which is as futile in real war making as
is a wastefui raid or a sporadic and re-
vengeful bombardment. They knew, on
the other hand, that in a campaign
against a country so impotent as Spain
war meant something further reaching.
It implied the capture of outlying colo
nies, the institution of effective block
AIDES the bombardment of fortified
places and the search for squadrons
which in their weakness would be in
trusted with a mission more political in
intention than destructive in essay.
When the potency of sea power was,
however, demonstrated by the success
at Manila, by the international de-
mands inherent on the conquest of
Cuba and Porto Rico, and by the ac-
knowledged efficacy of the Cape de
Verde squadron in interrupting an ac-
cepted strategy, the country suddenly
stumbled into the belated knowledge
that our navy must be as offensive in
practice as it was defensive in theory.
The elusive tactics of the enemy's ar
mored cruisers appealed to the popular
Imagination, as they did to a somewhat
wavering professional opinion, and the
conclusion, Irresistible at the moment,
is that we are hampered by the lack
of just such types.
A FRANK CONFESSION.
Albany, N. Y, Journal: The Hon.
Champ Clark of Missouri made an in
I0T6SLlnS duIIIlSSlOn III tie I1OOSC VI
Representatives the other day when
he said: cit is our war, not yours.
My Republican friends, we took you
by the scruff of the neck and dragged
you into it, and that will be the YER
dict of history"
This was received with rapturous ap-
plause on the Democratic side, which
seems to indicate that Mr. Clark spoke
of something that was known pretty
generally to all the members Of the
party.
Now having brought the country into
a condition of war is It the purpose of
the Democratic leaders to withhold war
supplies in order to embarrass the Ad-
ministration and bring the Republican
party into disrepute because a country
so large, powerful and resourceful as
our own cannot successfully prosecute
a war against a third class, moribund
Power like Spain?
The secret of success is success, and
if the war, through Democratic ma
chination, should not be brought to a
speedy termination. our Democratic
friends naturally think that the party
in power would be held to strict ac-
countability.
POSSIBLY I0lS WOuIQ De II1e case were
it not for the very frank admissions OF
the distinguished gentleman from Mis-
souri,, who elegantly declares that the
Republican party was taken by the
scruff of the neck and flung violently
into the war by long-headed and de-
signing Democrats.
VOLUNTEERS AND CONSCRIPTS.
Chicago Record: Should Our Vol
unteers Be Raised by Conscription?" is
the paradoxical title of an article in
the May number of the North Amer
lean Review" In it Captain James
Parker of the United States army
holds that the exigencies of a great
war would make the National Guard of
the States a necessity at home for the
prevention Of civil disorders. Then,
taking the history of conscriptions
during the civil war in the United
States, the Captain says: "It is evi
dent that in case of a great war we,
like the nations Of Europe, will be, as
in 1868. obliged to resort to conscrip-
ton" Which unquestionably is an un-
fair assumption. since in the Cos the
aspects of civil war SO deranged the
sentiments of a divided people. that
when the first rush to arms was made
it left the non-martia1 and the unde-
cided to waver until conscription
should determine for them. As against