lives to obtain them.

This is not an imaginary state of affairs, nor are these supposititious
cases. I am writing only of the things I have heard from eye witnesses
and of some of the things that I have seen.

President Cleveland declared in his message to Congress: "When the
inability of Spain to deal successfully with the insurgents has become
manifest, and it is demonstrated that her sovereignty is extinct in
Cuba for all purposes of its rightful existence, and when a hopeless
struggle for its re-establishment has degenerated into a strife which
is nothing more than the useless sacrifice of human life and the utter
destruction of the very subject-matter of the conflict, a situation
will be presented in which our obligations to the sovereignty of Spain
will be superseded by higher obligations, which we can hardly hesitate
to recognize and discharge!"

These conditions are now manifest. A hopeless struggle for sovereignty
has degenerated into a strife which means not the useless, but the
wanton sacrifice of human life, and the utter destruction of the
subject-matter of the conflict.

What further manifestations are needed? Is it that the American people
doubt the sources from which their information comes? They are the
consuls all over the island of Cuba. For what voice crying in the
wilderness are they still waiting? What will convince them that the
time has come?

If the United States is to interfere in this matter she should do so at
once, but she should only do so after she has informed herself