Life — April 21, 1898 — page 4: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

——s| “While there is Life these’s Hope.” VOL. APRIL 19 West Tairty-First St., N Published every Thursday. $5.00 yearin advance Postage to foreign countries in the Postal Union, $1.04 # year extra. Single copies, 10 centa. Rejected contributions will be destroyed un- tess accompanied by a stamped and directed envelope. ; The illustrations in Live.are copyrighted, and are not to be reproduced without special arrangement with the publishers. tervene 3 let's inter- vene! The Presi- dent says it is right that we should, and beyond question a large majority of us are < to accept his opinion, Interven- tion! There is considerable novelty about it. What is it going to be like? The com- monest example of intervention isin dog fights. If the dogs are little cnough you rab them close behind the ears, yank them apart and hold them atarm’s length, But not if either one of them is a bulldog. In that case they require snuff, and also an exceedingly firm grip Once a man’s big dog got into a fight with another big dog. The man had low spirits and had been thinking very hard, and the disturbance stirred him to sudden irritation. He jumped for those dogs, and grabbed them with such a fury of action and exhortation that they had come apart and were running different ways before either of them fully realized what had happened. The man who did it never got a scratch, but a man who fainted the well; saw it from shock. The ideal way to intervene is with a lariatand windlass. Lasso your parties, and then haul them off. That hurts no one. That is undoubtedly the way the President, and most others of us, would done nearly > LIFE: like to intervene between Spain and Cuba. In this case the lariat is repre- sented by diplomacy, Even now, if diplomacy can separate Spain from Cuba we shall rejoice to see it done. We do not want to hurt Spain. We do not want Cuba for ourselves All we want is peace in Cuba, under a govern- ment that gives fair promise of being permanently satisfactory. For wanting that we have good, honest, creditable and suflicient reasons, which the Presi- dent has set forth in his message. They are reasons that will not down, and can- not justly or safely be neglected. y ¢. UT the Maine! Is not the destruc- tion of the Maine a just cause for war, and a reason for killing as many Spaniards as we can? No! Not yet. It helps to strengthen the argument for intervention, because it has helped to demonstrate the powerlessness of the Spanish Government to protect life and property inCuba, Spain has disavowed and lamented that act, and offers to stand trial as to her responsibility for it. Some persons ought to be hanged for the Maine disaster, but it is not in itself a reason for war, provided we can get full reparation without war. Nevertheless, the destruction of the Maine is very much in the thoughts of our people, and if intervention comes to mean war it will count with territic emphasis, and help to give our inter- vention the vigor requisite to make it swift and effectual. re aa I" will be a nasty job to fight § She is poor and foolish. navy enough to be very troublesome. Her people are brave, and will probably We would like better to let Let us remember for our consolation that her real enemies are not us, but the arrogance, blindne igno- rance and rapacity of her own people, and especially of those whom, after re- peated warnings, she has continued to send to fatten on the loot of Cuba. So faras her relations with Cuba go, s! has known no scruple, shown no sense, and deserves no sympathy, She has foregone nothing that she could extort, fight hard. her alone. cured nothing that she could negicct, let go of nothing that she could hold It is not our fault that it has come to be our business to choke her off. It is hers, It is she who has injured us by mai taining an intolerable nuisance under our hoses, not we who injure her because we undertake to abate What a tragedy her history ist!’ What an illus tration of the inexorable grinding of the mills of the g 2a — ae = HAT is to be the issue of all this stir, and of whatever results from it, to this country? The immediate game docsn’t seem to be worth so much candle. If war comes, we will burn a lot of nice powder which we have just bought and would rather keep in stock; and we will lose a lot of good men, and have our nice, new ships all banged about, and will spend a lot of money for which we shall be taxed. As a mere material in- vestment, probably it won't pay. If there is finally a gain commensurate with the expenditure, it will be a moral gain. The great mass of the people are not in this dispute for revenge, or for fun, or because of Cuban bonds, or from any- thing but conscientious motives We have seen a duty, recognized it, under taken it. It would do us harm to turn our backs on it; it will do us good to execute it, whatever the sacrifice. There will be lessons for us as well as for Spain, and the powder we burn now, if we have to burn any, will save us pow- der in the end. = racist ge tt M ANWHILE, if you meditate any action, not connected with war or peace, which courts publicity, postpone it if possible. If you have any pur pose in view that needs privac: your chance, This is no time for any- thing to happen that does not concern “intervention.” It is a bad time for famous men to die. Mr. Gladstone’ condition would be of surpassing inter- est in ordinary times. If Andree was to be found, the news would hardly gain a place on the front page of the newspapers for more than half a day. Put off dying; put off going to Europe; put off summer plans even, fora week or two, till we sce where we are coming out. Something has got to happen, and happen soon, now is. comicbooks.com