The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-09-19

5 Special Corresponds of the Standard.
5 The home coming Of Dewey will be
5 Of more than national interest. 1t will
5 be a great historical event. 1t cannot
s be- compared with any incident in
s American annals, but only with few
spectacles in the chronicles Of the older
{ nations. In its career of 1913 years the
United States has fought many wars
and paid tribute to many heroes. 1t
has celebrated many victories and has
welcomed on a vast scale it's trium-
{ plant generals and men, but never has
{ there been such a union of remarkable
occurrences and at the same time such
an absence of those features which tend
to sadden or make solemn a victor's
: triumph.
In the war Of the revolution the 10
I colonies were exhausted long before
) the seven weary years of conflict were
{ over, and the honors of success were as
: much due to the veteran battalions Of
s France as to the ragged Continentals.
In the war of 1912 the advantage was
5 to neither party. We had defeated and
{ been defeated. We had driven back
I England's fleets and armies, but had
lost our own capital and seen our brav-
est regiments repulsed amid terrible
slaughter.
5 The war with Mexico was one sided
from beginning to end and was pre-
} cipitated and carried on against the
will of nearly one-half of the American
people.
Communication and locomotion were
slow so years ago and the victorious
march Of the American soldiery against
the poorly trained and armed levies Of
Mexico did not possess the interest
which characterizes a world drama.
The many Indian wars, though fierce
and sanguinary, were looked at as
foregone conclusions. while the great
est war of our record, the civil con-
flict, was so vast. terrible and deadly
that it's termination came more as
relief than a triumph. 1t was sadden-
ed by the consciousness that it was
the crushing of one brother by an
J other, the injury and destruction Of
s ourselves and the gaining OF an end
at a cost of nearly equal value.
} How different it Is with the immortal
victory of Manila!
I One of the great battles of the world.
5 one in which the power Of the Span
ish monarchy in the Far East was
shattered and annihilated with a sim
gle blow, one which changed the politi-
Z cal and commercial geography of the
IS globe, one which made ridiculous all
: the predictions of European critics and
: prophets and, strangest of all, one in
5 which no American life was offered
: upon the red affairs of glory!
IS No reading can be more interesting
( and amusing to a patriot than the lit
! erature of Europe in the year of Our
Lord 1898 prior to the firing of the first
I gun by an American cannon at Span
ish ensign. The mildest opinion printed
Spain above the United States as a
military and naval power. A leading
5 English publication summed up the sit
uation as they viewed it in few brief
; words and figures. THE United States
has an inferior navy Of about go YES
sells, several of which are worthless,
) manned by 5000 men; Spain has 125
steam war vessels, many of them the
! best products of British ship yards,
s manned by $4,000 men. The American
army is $4,000 strong, every soldier OF
I ,1io re "a Tn.
dams and criminal classes; Spain has
100 900 men at home under arms and 8
5 colonial army in active service of 300,00C
men. In the event of conflict it is
probable that the United States would
s eventually win on account of its great
wealth. numbers and mechanical in
genuity, but it will not be until they
have lost many battles on sea and land
: seen their shipping disappear and theil
seaports bombarded and burned"
This was about the mildest opinion
; passed by our European friends. There
were others which read to-day more
like the rawlings of madmen or the
dreams of an opium smoker than tbs
}utterances of sanity. A French journa
| prophesied the capture of New York
| followed by the occupation of Washing
| ton by a Spanish army, while Span
5 ish journal sketched with bold hand the
| Handing of 200, 900 trained warriors upon
| 5 the Florida coast and their swift con-
s quest Of the great republic.
II The opening of the war by the vic
5 tory at Manila was a thunderbolt to the
outside world. 1t made every cabinet
| revise the plans which had been hal
| 5 lowed by years of complacent belief
| 1t destroyed at a single blow the fet'
III ; ishes Of the great powers. They saw
u s clearly that it was not the number Of
| ships, nor the thickness of thu armor
| nor the size or power of the arma'
| ment, nor the number of the crew, rol