Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 February 1914 — IT'S SIXTEEN YEARS SINCE MAINE WAS SUNK [ARTICLE]

IT'S SIXTEEN YEARS SINCE MAINE WAS SUNK

Era of Marvelous Progress Since United States Battleship Went Down in Havana Harbor. It was Feb. 15th, 1898, when the world was horrified by the sinking of the United States Battleship Maine in Havana Harbor. The conflict which that act brought about has wrought marvels in shaping" the destiny of peoples and has brought the United States to greater responsibilities and developed us to discharge them with the highest honor.

Cuba, down-trodden by years of Spanish oppression, was given its liberty under the protectorate of the Atars and stripes. That fertile isle that was oppressed with the hand of tyranny, also was headquarters for yellow fever and typhoid and other diseases that brought death to thousands of people annually. The United States army and its medical officers restored not only peace but health and prosperity to Cuba. It did the same to Porto Rica and, put industry on a stable footing in that once troubled isle.

The United States secured the Philippine Islands, where fierce, semi-civilized tribes under Spanish abuse had been taught no lessons of development. These sixteen years have witnessed a start of civilization that is the grandest achievement of air history and has justified the claim that the United States has no equal as a developer of nations. The acquisition of the Philippines and of Puerto Rico made necessary the Panama Canal and this greatest of all engineering feats was undertaken, by the United States. It might not have been

taken had it not beeil for the sinking of the Maihe. If that 'vessel was sunk as a conspiracy of the Spanish government, as seems more than probable, it had the effect of making the United States take a great forward step among the powers of the world and at the same time prove the most expensive little junket that Spain ever indulged in. On every battleship in our navy the flags will be half masted in honor of the crew that lost their lives, while in the islands that have profited by the guardianship of the U. S. A., will be rejoicing at the development that these few years have wrought In their civilization.