The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1898-06-30
THE Politics OF WAR.

There is no Disgusting the fact that war
distracts the mind from all public ques
tons of civic character, and very often
through it's exigencies completely destroys
differences of opinion that in time of
peace are sufficient to keep the people NJ
ray ed against each other IN two political
parties, battling, in peaceful way, with
all the esrnesiness Of contending armies.
We particularly refer at this time to
the tariff question which, ever since the
close of our civil war, has been tie APP
parent bone Of contention between the
republican and democratic parties. So
long as the war with Spain lasts, the re-
publican policy of tariff for protection is
az dead as is the one time question of the
extension of slavery in the territories.
Tariff for revenue, and lots of ii, is the
united policy of all parties. The section
OF the war revenue bill placing duty OF
10 cents per pound on tea came from a
southern populist senator and was unani-
mously accepted by the whole senate
without debate. Even the money ques-
ton, although it holds the alignment of
is partisan followers of 1896 in very
good order, is subserved, to some extent,
by the nations Increased necessities
brought on by the war. The above
named issues are not dead they are only
| carefully lain aside for the one of more
pressing importance-the physical care
and protection OF our nations homer.
The tariff and money questions will re-
vive in all their pristine vigor as soon as
the smoke Of battle clears away. Like
the poor, they will always be with u.s.
But they will not be alone, and it now
looks as though for time they would
not even be allowed to take the lead
Great questions are being brought to the
front by this war with Spain, which
threatens to change all our preconceived
ideas of what was to be our ultimate
destiny as a nation. The fondest dreams
of the American statesman in the past
was to spread republicanism over the
whole American continent; that the
only just government was the one
which gained it's power by the con-
sent OF those it governed; that the peo-
pie had the right to choose their own
rulers and dictate their own laws; that
snch government only should have foot
hold on the Western hemisphere; that
the Monroe doctrine was the code which
should govern all our foreign policy and
control our actions. But little more than
two months of war with a weak foe has
elapsed, when new spirit has entered
orr body polite which seems to have
heated the blood and intoxicated the ma
tional brain, until like Alexander the
Great desire to conquer the world has
taken possession. A political battle cry
has been sounded which has not yet
taken full expression. 1t is against what
is termed "the impending republican
policy of national expansion" or, in
other words. opposition to the republican
policy of national imperialism" 1t is
not probable that the new issue will
have sufficiently developed itself in time
to affect the results OF the next congress
sional election. However, that will de-
pend on the stubbornness of Spanish re-
sistance. If war should cease in the
next sixty days, the terms of peace de-
manded by the administration would in
stantly develop the issue and make the
Philippine question the leading issue OF
this falls campaign.
Many OF the leading newspapers of
this country are already discussing the
question in an earnest manner, and as
the partisan press OF no party is united
on the question at Issue, new alignment
is threatened which, if it becomes as
serious as it now promises, will cause
such disruption oil party lines as to
make every voter halt and ask where
he is at.