New-York tribune., 1908-02-15
..REgEUBER THE MAINE"

Anniversaries are TO most persons chiefly re-
minders of the flight of time and OF the appar-
emily accelerated rapidity of that flight ana 10
that rule this tenth anniversary or the disaster
of the Maine Is doubtless no exception III Is
ten wears tonight since that warshlp was oe
stroyed in the harbor of Havana, and the event
has long since with its momentous sequences
passed into history. The war with Spain, the
battles at Manila and Santiago. the extinction
of the Spanish empire in the Western Hem
ispbere the extension Of the American dominion
into the Eastern Hemisphere, the erection or the
Cuban Republican, are now as truly accoih
nIisbed facts as the Norman Conquest OF the fall
of Rome The ten years. too, have seen other
epoch making events in other lands-the Boer
War and the consequent merging OF the Boer
states into the British Empire the Boxer war
and the consequent incipient awakening OF
China. the Russo-Japanese War and the com
nlete hahilitation of Japan among the great
movers of the world the approachment between
England and France the separation of Norway
and Sweden. the Hague congresses and Euro
pean recognition of South America the re'oiu-
tions in Russia and Persia, and various other
occurrences any one of them sufficient to be the
theme Of a voluminous history and all COM
pacted within the compass of ten of the most
crowded and strenuous years which 1t has ever
been the lot Of this old earth to know.
Some will excIaim Ten years already, and
others Only ten years." according TO their
patient or preciptous temperaments. But the
most profitable reflection is upon the complete
ness of the processes of these ten years which
have in so short space made the occurrences
of 1895 more truly closed book than IN other
ages events of really less magnitude became IN
ten times longer period. That this is SO may
be an indication or a result of the rapldlty or
living which is imputed to our race in these
b,y-o .fn hfl ora
for that circumstance. To remember Drake at
Cadiz ten years after the singeing of the Span
I ish Kings beard would have meant something
very different from remembering the Maine TO-
day Hatreds endured. Animoslt1eS were
cherished. Whole generations were required to
pass before wounds healed Even within our
own time memory in other cases has retained
emhittered venom for many more than ten
wears Embers of the Lost Cause" were famed
into a baleful glow in our own land when more
than ten years had passed since Appomattox
The rape of Alsace and Lorraine remained a
| living issue for more than one or two decades
after Sedan. The royal family of Hanover has
/ not even yet acquiesced in the subyersion or the
! HanovprIan throne 1t was only a few years
back that Austria so far forgave the tragedy
of Oueretaro as to send minister to Mexico.
century hence may see the Vatican as un-
reconcied TO the INFLAMMATION Of Rome as 1t
was in the reign of Plus TX.
| Today however, may remember the Maine
without touch of bitterness, and there is CRATE
| full assurance than Spain regards with equal
absence of embttered passion the painful occur
rences of 1898. The results of the strife remain
and are accepted by both sides as for the best,
but the conflict itself and its causes and circum
stances are relegated completely and permanently
to the cold calm realm of the history of the past
They may be recalled without resentment and
may be rehearsed without passion. 1t is no ex-
| aggeraton TO say that relations between Spain
and America are to-day more cordial and sym
pathetic than they were before the war of 1898
perhaps than they ever were before. There are
many who eXult in the expansion of the Amer
lean domain which a result Of the war Of
| 1898 There some who deplore the costs and
fhe responsibilities entailed upon us by that
pansion. But there are surely none who are
not profoundly grateful for the buoyancy Of
spirit for the facility of adaptation. for the
recognition of justice for the commanding com
mon sense, or for whatever it is which has SO
| completely and within SO short period ten
years effaced the scars of conflict and restored
peace and good will between the two countries
whose long harassed relations rudely
strained almost to the breaking point by tho
tragedy Of the Maine