Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 February 1898 — WARSHIP TO HAVANA [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WARSHIP TO HAVANA

MAINE IS ORDERED TO THE CUBAN CAPITAL. It Is Simply a Precautionary Measnrc to Protect Americans—Congress Delighted with the Plan, Which in No Sense Is a Provocation to War. No Menace in the Move. The battleship Maine has been ordered to Havana. Other American worships will drop in there from time to time. The warships go to make friendly calls, after many years of staying away for fear of lousing the suspicions of Spain. The police sometimes make friendly calls at houses that are under suspicion, but they are always ready to show their authority if necessary. So it will be with Uncle Sam’s callers at Havana. They go with their best clothes, but the bunkers are filled with shot and shell, and with enough men on board to man every gun. If Spain receives these friendly callers in a friendly manner, they can drink tea, salute and depart. Uncle Sam has not waited for invitations. The warships will call at Havana whether they are welcome or not. They will call as the fight of a friendly power, entitled to enter every port in time of peace. A Washington correspondent says there has been no international reason why our navy should have kept away from Cuban waters for the last two or three years. President Cleveland took extraordinary care hot to offend Spain by allowing warships to appear in Cuban waters without invitation. That policy has been followed until now, and the situation in Cuba has grown worse until to-day not only American citizens and . American officials in Havana are in danger, but Gen. Blanco himself is not safe from his own army. That policy has been changed, ders were sent to Admiral Sicard that the Maine should call at Havana. It will be only a friendly call if the situation in Havana warrants that interpretation. It will be a call for business, if necessary. The reports from Gen. Lee have not been encouraging since the outbreak a week ago. Havana is a smoldering volcano, ready to break out at any moment. Anarchy is the greatest danger, and anarchy produced by Spanish soldiers. Gen. Lee's reports insjlce it alrnort imperative

that warships should be near enough to protect Americans. Strict orders were given not to allow the forces from the Maine to land, unless necessary. They will not go into the city for pleasure. When they go it will be for business. - The New York World’s' Washington correspondent says that the battleship Maine was ordered to Havana in response to a cablegram from Consul General Lee. He asserts that ufter (5 o’clock Monday night three cipher dispatches from Gen. Lee were received at the State Department, translated, and sent to Judge Day, who took them to the dinner given by Judge McKenna. At that dinner all the members of the cabinet except Gen. Alger were present, and a consultation, practically a cabinet meeting, was held to consider the situation in Cuba. After returning to the executive mansion the I’resident ordered direct telegraphic connection between there and Key West. The news that at last nil American vessel is to be stationed at Havana was enthusiastically received in Washington. This move is obviously popular, since it offers protection to our citizens and interests, and puts us iu the field in case events should require the presence there of a strong force of American marines with big guns to hack them. No wellinformed man in Washington expects war as the direct outgrowth of such a trifling thing as the dispatch of a naval vessel to guard American interests in Havana. Nor does any well-informed man believe the Cuban problem is to he solved in any other way than by virtue of the force and pres- j tige of this Government behind a demand that the war stop, the starving be fed and the homeless be sheltered, with the United States as an admitted aud most potent factor iu the reconstruction of the Government of the island. The next move of the United States is likely to take this form.

UNITED STATES BATTLE SHIP MAINE.