They fooled us—didn’t they? They shouted: “Remember the Maine!” That made our blood hot—stampeded us—didn’t it? But we are cooler now—aren’t we? Let us see: Suppose a great ship should sink in a shallow harbor, as the Maine did, and suppose it had on board three dozen young men from the homes of the leading capitalists of America—_millionaires’ sons_. What think you—would the vessel be raised or not? Did you ever think of this? If the Spaniards blew up the Maine with a sunken mine, how can you explain the fact that the Maine’s armor-plate was bent _outward_ and not _inward_ at the points of fracture? _Why does not the United States Government push the investigation to the very limit?_ Why stop the investigation very suddenly just as things get extremely interesting?—just as it seems likely that information is about to come out which would astonish the whole world? Ever think of it? Would it not have been profitable for some American capitalists to have bribed some scoundrel to blow up the Maine from the inside? It _was_ profitable for capitalists in the American Civil War to furnish Union soldiers with rifles so defective that thousands of them exploded in the hands of the soldier boys. Thousands of the guns _when sold to the Government and handed on to the soldiers_ bore the mark “Condemned.” Look this matter up in Gustavus Myers’ _History of Great American Fortunes_, Vol. II., pp. 127–38. Then when you hear some “Remember the Maine” music you will not become so violently excited and eager to enlist. Of course you were told that the purpose of American interference in Cuba was to free the poor, suffering, abused Cubans:—the usual dose of philanthropy, flattery and bombast. Some eloquent speeches were made by Senators and Congressmen, speeches of unusual power and rare beauty. But the beauty and the power and the eloquence did not induce any of the eloquent statesmen to go to the war. Hardly. If the United States Government had promptly recognized the revolutionary Cubans’ right to become a sovereign nation possessing _international rights and privileges_, the Cubans could have freed themselves. France thus recognized the puny, rebellious American Revolutionary government in 1778; and that recognition helped us along wonderfully. American capitalists in 1897–98 were simply searching the world for an opportunity to line their pockets. Excitable young men and boys came in handy as armed hired hands, hired fists; though, of course, these same hired men were left in the lurch, got disease, broken health—and contemptuous laughter.