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Show ! i Were the Spaniards Responsible? I Were the Spaniards responsible for ' the blowing up of the Maine? is the question of the United States today, j It has been reported, according to news-1 news-1 paper editorials, that the wreck was due to an explosion from within. This report re-port has no doubt been a source of great i j satisfaction to Spain, and even some of j the Americans feel like the war was a j "great mistake" as far as it was a war ! of revenge. But at the same time many j editors are not yet ready to believe the Spaniards innocent. They have gather- j ed from an unofficial report of General i William H. Bixby, chief engineer of j the United States army who was deie- j gated to raise the Maine, that the i mystery is just as much a mystery as before be-fore and will never be solved. Scores of people, expressing opinions after the interview with Gen. Bixby, understood him to mean that .he primary cause of the disaster was the explosion of three magazines, and that being the case it was supposed that the theory of the explosion from the outside was done awav. But it seems that Gen. Bixby was misunderstood or misquoted as he has hastened to correct the first general impression. No one knows but that the first explosion was caused from the outside out-side and as a natural result the explosion ex-plosion followed from within throwing the debris out, thus giving it the present pre-sent appearance. ' 'It is undoubtedly true that the wreck of the Maine, and the idea that the I Spaniards had blown her up, inflamed the public mind of this country to the j point of a feverish desire for revenge. But it is noteworthy that the destruction destruc-tion of the Maine formed no part of the causes alleged by the President for the war. The causes named were four: Our intervention in Cuba was in the cause of humanity, to put an end to barbarities, starvation and the horrible miseries inflicted upon the helpless people peo-ple on duty to the citizens of Cuba to afford them protection: the right to intervene in-tervene through the very serious injury to the commerce, trade and various interests in-terests of our people; and 'the present condition of affairs at Cuba is a constant menace to our peace, and entails upon this Government enormous expenditures. expendi-tures. ' "These, briefly stated, were the official reasons given for a declaration of -war against Spain, and they were sufficient without anyincitementthrou-rh the blowing up of the Maine." |