The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1912-02-24
by HON. JOHN W FOSTER,
EX.Sccretary OF State.

bitterness and hate engendered by the
fearful contest never hive been Great
ed.
The war with Spain possessed some
Of the characteristics Of that Of 1912
with Great Britain The President
was strongly opposed to a resort to
arms and struggled for peace to the
last, but the feeling in Congress and
the agitation in the press called loud
ly for hostilities. ! entertain no doubt
that the Spanish government would
have granted at the end of the negO-
tiations the demand of our govern
ment for the complete colonial auto
nomy of Cuba and practical independ-
ence such as Canada enjoys. But the
/ ill-timed catastrophe of the explosion
of the Maine in the harbor Of Ha-
vana seemed to cause our people to
lose their reason and led the President
to intrust the issue to Congress-,
where it was hastily decided.
The cause of the destruction of the
Maine has not yet been accurately
ascertained. The Spanish government
proposed that the question be submit
ted to an international court of in
quiry, but our government declined
the proposal, preferring to rely upon
the report of our own navy officials.
From my acquaintance with the Span
ish people I have never been able to
bring myself to believe that the Catas
trophe was caused by Spanish Off
Gals. or with their knowledge. There
has been an almost criminal neglect
on our part to raise the Maine whose
wreck lies as an unsightly obstruction
in the harbor of Havana, with the
fostering bodies of many scores of
gallant men denied a soldiers burial.
From my conversation with officers of
high rank in the navy, | am inclined
to the belief that our delinquency in
this respect is occasioned by the fear
that it would be found that the de-
struction was caused by an internal
explosion, and that the war was pre-
ciptated by an event for which the
Spanish government was in no wise
responsible.
The Maine disaster was not the de-
clared object of the war, but the in
dependence of Cuba; and diplomacy
to that end had not exhausted its
resources when Congress took action,
President Taft has recently declared it
to have been n altruistic war That
is true, but how far one nation is
justified in imposing upon anCJlJ
through its army and navy it's IDEAS
of political morality and government
is an open question. Our experience
with Cuba, Porto Rico, and the Philip
pines in the last ten years has pre-
scented to us inna new light some of
the embarrassments Spain had to con.
tend with in the government of those
islands, and has created a division Of
sentiment among us as to the wisdom
of assuming responsibility for their
government. But it is historically
correct to assert that the war was
forced upon Spain by us, and that it
might easily have been avoided with
honor.
The Spanish War has demonstrated
the evil effects of an aggressive war,
entered upon without proper delibera-
= ton, under the whip and spur of un-
due public excitement. If before that
war was declared Spain had offered to
transfer to us the island of Porto
Rico for one fourth or one fifth of the
cost of that war, we would not have
accepted the offer We would have
said that the island was of little or
no strategic importance, and would be
an element of weakness rather than
strength to our continental territory;
that the people We're without expert
enCe in government, without sym
patty with our institutions, of differ
ent race, language, and religion, very
ignorant and of a low grade of NOR
ality, a people whom it would require
generations of time to assimilate with
us; that, so far from shedding one
drop of American blood for their &C
QUESTION, we would find the island a
constant expense and incubus, and we
should have declined even its free
gift. Much less would we have ac
cepted the Philippines on the other
side of the globe, if offered us before
the war, for one half of the hundreds
of millions which it cost us, with a
population even more Objectionable
than that of Porto Rico, largely pagan
and Mohammedan, territory which
would be an element of weakness in
time of war and a heavy expense in
peace.
So, too, it might have cooled the
warlike ardor of many an American
taxpayer to have been told that the
war upon which we were about Ia