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Show The Maine And The War With Spain ON THE supposition that the full exposure ot the wreck of the Maine in Havana harbor , will show that it was destroyed by an internal in-ternal instead of external explosion, a great many newspapers are assuming that the destruction destruc-tion of the Maine caused the declaration by our congress of war against Spain, in retaliation and that the proot that the destruction of the j ship and the lives of the brave men that 1 we down to death in her, was not the fault of the Spaniards at a'l, is a great humiliation to us, and that It should' be a lesson to us not to be carried away In a fit of passion over a supposed wrong. All of which seems quite unnecessary. The destruction of the Maine may have ha:tened tho declaration, though it was many weeks after the ship was destroyed before the declaration came, I but people forget that even before President Cleveland's term of office expired, he was strong- 1 ly disposed to interfere in Cuban affairs and de- J clared that if the outrages there being perpet- ! rated, were not soon stopped, to interpose would be the duty of the United States. The then Captain General had set to work to destroy all who were In arms against Spanish authority au-thority and to starve to death the old men and women; wo-men; and the children of those who sympathized with the insurrectos; that when our forces finally invaded and captured the island, they found tens of thousands of those starving wretches whom they Jiad to feed and nurse back to health. And almost as brutal Avas Spa n's rule in the Philippines. Philip-pines. The truth is, our government had been i trying for a year and a half to avoid a Avar with j Spain and had been urging that country to stop i the atrocities in Cuba. But Spain Avas not only indifferent, but Avas all the time almost imperti- I nent. She believed that in case of war her ileet j could sink ours, and that If any of our forces J landed in Cuba she could treat them as she treat- ed tAvo or three little flllibustering expeditions of Americans. She being all ready to be destroyed, j "the gods had made her mad." I The entire unselfishness of the United States I Avas made clear by the pledge which congress 1 made Avhen the declaration Avas issued, guaran- j teeing Cuba, in case of the success of our arms, ! to the Cuban people, which promise Avas fulfilled, just as soon as order could be restored and the t island put in a position to maintain itself. J Finally, Ave expect that it Avill be demonstrated that all the Maines magazines Avere exploded. j But Avhat set them off except an explosion from the outside? |