Jasper County Democrat, Volume 3, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 May 1900 — Our Disgrace. [ARTICLE]

Our Disgrace.

Indianapolis Sentinel:. In view of recent developments in Cuba the following extract from Senator Beveridge’s imperialistic speech may prove of some interest: Her (Spain's) officialsasa class were corrupt, iadolent, cruel, immcrfal. They were selected to please a faction in Spain, to placate members of the cortes. to bribe those whom the government feared. They were seldom selected for their fitness. They were the spawn of government favor and government fear and therefore of government iniquity. ♦ ♦ • Let no one fear that our party workers will seek to fill these places without regard to fitness. The most humiliating and disgraceful episode of the present administration has come to light in the discovery that a great party in America can cope with Spain in a contest for “corrupt, indolent, cruel and immoral officials;” that we, too, can select scoundrels to “please a faction” and “placate” members of the senate. In the eyes of the world we stand convicted of crime, the mostThfamous, because practiced upon a dependent and helpless people. Senator Hanna scoffing at the dastardly conspiracy is one of the few- instances or a party leader daring to assume indifference toward a national disgrace. Already we are becoming synonymous with hypocrisy among the nations, and the keenest cut of all comes from the Cubans, who smile at mention of American honor. No, Mr. Beveridge; the republican fever of self-aggrandizement which has struck down all our traditions in the name of trade, the integrity of the ballot in the interest of party success, and the civil service in the interest of spoilsmen, will necessarily make an attempt upon the honor of a nation. The party that will subjugate territory and destroy liberty cannot be trusted with public money. This Cuban episode is but a logical outgrowth of the sordid imperialistic program. A nation is but an aggregation of men. And if a nation can steal, deceive and indulge its lust for gold in “criminal aggression,” why should a citizen be held culpable? Next fall the people will have an opportunity to regain their stolen honor by rebuking this administration of crime and corruption. In the meantime let us hope that foreign nations will Walk backward with averted gaze And bide the shame.