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Show 2 THE BEE. ished a necessity for the enactment of any federal apologies. Americans made be crude, they may lack refinement, but they are not fools by a long shot. THE Published Once a Week by The Bee Publishing Company, Application lias boon made for admission to tho Salt Lako matter. City Postolliej as second-class SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, FEBRUARY 19, 1898. ..... TERMS OP SUBSCRIPTION. Any part of the United States, Canada or Mexico, one $2.00 year, postage paid England, France, Uermany, and all countries embraced ' 2.50 in Universal Postal Union, one year, postage paid New Subscriptions may commence atany time during tho year. If the Paper is uot desired bovond tho dato subscribed for the publishers should bo notilied by letter, two weeks or more bsiforo the term expires. Discontinuances Remember that tho pubihors must bo noti lid by letter when a subscriber wishes his paper stopped. All arrears must he paid- - Telephone 651. P. 0. Box THE BEE PUBLISHING COMPANY, Salt Lake City, Utah. 6jo. - NOBLE WARRUfl, JR., - - Editor. In reply to several inquiries of anxious friends The Bee will state that it is Church. no opposed to any church, that it does not intend to criticize the honest faith of any man, that it has absolutely nothing in common with those intolerant sectarian publications which malign each other, appeal to the fanaticism of people and seek to curtail the religious liberty of some other denomination. The Bee is an advocate of civil and religious liberty. It believes in the right of petition and the freedom of the press. It will fight for the right of others to express their honest, untrammelled, unmalicious opinions as it will fight for its own right in that regard . The Bee is neither a church organ nor an organ. It does not concern itself about the creed of anv man or community. It has no desire to change or destroy any ones religious belief. It is not antagonistic to the growth of any church nor opposed to any particular plan of salvation. Those are questions for each man to settle with his conscience in the the way that suits it and him best. The Bee will not contend that a churchman who criticises a federal officer is an enemy to this government; it will hold that any man may call the highest officials of the nation to account, that he may condemn their conduct and still be a friend of the government. But when others criticise or question the conduct of church officials they are not enemies of that church any more than the man who criticises a federal official is an enemy of the government. And this applies to any church. anti-churc- The Be Lome' incident has closed, Trafned according to most authorities, but Diplomats. e8S0U ft has taught should not be lost sight of. It is that good judgment and common sense are worth fully as much as are pedigrees and special training. The experience of this government with Sackville-Wes- t and Be Lome, to say nothing of Baron Fava, go to show that trained diplomats are sometimes trained asses. American Ministers may wear slouch boots, but they hats, short coats and have never yet made such international spectacles of themselves as these representatives of royalty have succeeded in doing. Our Ministers may eat with their knives and pick their teeth with their forks but they know too much to insult the people they go among, they are too sensible to offend the government to which they are accredited, they have never yet been sent home in disgrace nor have they furn- high-heele- The echoes of that explosion last Meek s and which sent one of our best nd Hie Maine. niost 0f pg crew (0 qie bottom, have not yet ceased reverberating. There have been few calamities in naval history more distressing, hone more dramatic. It was a tragedy not alone of death and destruction, but of mystery. It uas a massacre on the high seas as treacherous as ever marked the trail on land of savage outlaws. And whatever the investigation may show', thertS is not one chance in a thousand that the responsibility can be traced to the Spanish government. Individuals wall be compelled to take the blame whether they were acting on their OMn responsibility or not, and the difficulty of locating the assassins will be great ; the Spanish army is full of their sympathizers and in Spain they will not lack for aid and protection. In the meantime the Spanish government will continue its assurances of regret,' it will be lavish in its expressions of sorrow, as the Spanish officers in Cuba were boMTed ia grief at all the funerals of on the rescued bodies. But there is many lips in America ; and future events will be influenced greatly by this sinister work of a treacherous people. war-ship- - Mar-tal- k There is something about the destruction of the Maine, the conduct of her survivors and the coolness of her captain that recalls the naval battles of Young America in the M'ar of 1812 The admirable temper and stern self command of Captain Sigsbee in the face of death were not excelled by Lawrence or Bra j ton. His carefully wrorded dispatches to Washington Mere not unlike those of Perry on Lake Erie. The conduct of his men who outlived the shock was above reproach. Those who lost their lives on the Maine died for their country as other soldiers and sailors have died in its defence. They had been sent to where death awaited them and they perished in the line of duty. The survivors proved themselves heroes too and a grateful republic should perpetuate their memory and right their wrongs. great many people are of the opinion that President McKinley will not take a very aggressive stand in relation to Spain. He hopes that the accident theory will be established somehow or other in order to avoid the responsiblity of taking a firm position. But the administration should have learned something by this time. Like the proverbial small boy with a gun that he didnt knoMT was loaded, this government has suffered from its juvenile ignorance. It has lost several hundred sailors and three a fine millions of property. It has shown its inability to conduct a war by its loss in time of peace. If individuals are able to destroy its iron clads what would a navy do with its flotilla of expense? The administration should be careful about r to Spanish waters. It should sending first practice with dummy ships as a matter of economy. A war-shi- p, men-of-wa- d blue-bloode- d number may have decreased considerably since the dogs of war began their baying. But the real hope of this land in a struggle with a military foe is the American spirit which will cause ten millions of men to rise in arms if the safety of their country demands it. This nation is not in the best of fighting trim at present, although Yankee ingenuity has never yet been depended upon in vain. The courage and patriotism of the people are above reproach ; but the financial entaglements of their leaders may not allow these full scope. Our army numbers only 25,000 men, but the raw reserves, the National Guard, number 114,000, according to the latest statistics. However this Artillery will play an important part in the battles of the future and the cities of the coast will suffer most. The improvement of coast defenses is of great and pressing need. This conviction is forced upon congress by the awful possibilities which confront the nation now. The horrors of war have increased day after day with the development of mans inventive genius. Great destruction is accomplished by the rapid firing and long range guns of today, by the pneumatic dynamite guns with which Spain is already equipped. This is a terrible engine of death and its use is prohibited by the articles of the Geneva convention, but who believes that Spain would stand upon the international laws of civilized warfare? The outlook is not encouraging. Our navy is not all that it should be when one of its most expensive vessels sinks from inability to .float and another is scattered to the four winds by a private torpedo. On land, that is, on its own soil, this government would be able to hold its own with any other power. But war now means a fight under other conditions.' In the long run it is The Bees opinion that the United States would win, but it might be an awful long run. . The Herald made an appeal to the prejudice of a certain class of readers the other day when it observed that no Mormon lawyer was being considered by the administration in connection with office of United States attorney. That was an Beuncalled for allusion to past conditions. sides it is none of the Heralds business. And when the Tribune took up its cudgel on behalf of the administration it made the following statement of fact which needs some explanation : Efforts are being made to ascertain who is the Mormon candidate for United States district attorney, so persistently referred to by a contemporary. Thus far no one, Mormon or has been able to even surmise who is meant. Of the three leading candidates. Bishop, Whittemore and Ritchie, none is a Mormon. Neither is Wylie Brown, nor Pennel Cherrington, nor Lindsey Rogers, nor is Dennis Eichnor. In some of the impressions the comma between the first two names was very indistinct, making it read like Bishop Whittemore and Ritchie, as if Whittemore were already a bishop. And some were led to believe that the title referred to both Whittemore and Ritchie. Either of these interpretations makes it appear that the Tribunes article is contradictory or that it constitutes a direct attack on the dominant church. The fact that reference is made to three leading candidates does not materially alter the impression, as Whittemores name is long enough for twTo. But its all the Heralds fault. What does it know about religion anyhow? ' non-Mormo- The Deseret News, very eagerly, it seems, plunges into the discussion of Unseemly Scramble. e rejgion 0f applicants for the United States district attorneyship and rejoices with exceeding great joy that no member of the church it represents is taking part in that Well, the News may feel unseemly scramble. that way about it, and if so, it ought to speak out. But there is only a shade of difference between the real sentiment underlying the News editorial and the demand of the Manti Messenger for a on the supreme representative of Mormonism bench. |