Seven hundred thousand men followed the Stars and Stripes and the Stars and Bars—to bloody graves. Not one of them would have been killed in war if the common people of each section had ruled each section. The common people never owned slaves. They did well if they owned themselves. And now we come to the Spanish-American War. We believe it was fought to “free Cuba.” We believe it was fought to “avenge the _Maine_.” Don’t take too much for granted. Even Senator Nelson, of Minnesota, declared in the United States Senate in 1912 his belief that the war with Spain was fomented by Americans who held large interests in Cuba. He also declared his belief that the Sugar Trust was trying to foment another revolution for the purpose of bringing about annexation and thus ridding itself of the 80 percent. tariff that is now levied upon American sugar. But there is more to the story. To this day, there is no proof that the _Maine_ was destroyed by Spaniards, Cubans, or anyone outside of her. For fourteen years the government of the United States did not seem to want to know. The _Maine_, with the bones of 200 or 300 workingmen aboard her, was permitted to lie in the mud of Havana harbor where she sank. And, when the wreck was tardily raised, nobody was able to say that the ship was not destroyed by the explosion of her own magazines. Now, the hull of the old ship is down far in the ocean, with no hope that the facts will be known. But the interests that wanted war had no doubt of the facts in 1898. Their newspapers thundered their theory every day. The _Maine_ had been destroyed by Spaniards! We must “Remember the _Maine_.” We did remember the _Maine_, but we forgot ourselves. We forgot to be sure we were right. And, even if we were right, we forgot that the killing of a few thousands of Spanish workingmen would be no fit punishment for the crime of the Spanish ruling class that wrecked the _Maine_. We also forgot to watch what Wall Street was doing at the time. Read some paragraphs from the New York _Tribune_ of April 1, 6, 9 and 20, 1898: “Mr. Guerra, of the Cuban Junta, was asked about the Spanish-Cuban bonds against the revenues of the island. He replied that he did not know their amount, which report fixed at $400,000,000....” “These bonds are payable in gold, at 6 per cent. interest, ten years after the war with Spain had ended....”