New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-04-23
OUTSPoKEN AMERICINISM

There is something inyigoratlng IN MI
| Nimmo's outspOken Amercanism. His letter
on the Treaty now pending before the Senate
| is the most caustic and cogent contribution TO
the literature of this subject which has appeared
anywhere in the press. Ii is an uncomproms
ing presentation Of the American case against
! England and Canada from the point of view OF
a recognized expert on commercial law. his
criticism of the State Departments diplomacy
| is destructive because he demonstrates the I'M
reasonableness of every concession that has
been made to Great Brtain's arrogant demands
| and the facility with which American rights can
be defended and the dignity of the nation vim
dictated by common sense methods of retalia-
ton. No more effective reply to Mr.. Chamber
lains speech at the Canadian dinner has been
made than this letter contains in its closing pas
sages. The argument throughout is mastery
one, and supported as it is by Mr. Nimmo's high
reputation as a statistician and his authority on
matters of commercial law, it cannot fail to have
great weight in determining the action OF the
Senate in rejecting the Treaty.
There are two points in this letter on which
we desire to lay much stress. The first is Mr..
Nimmo's contention that the Treaty Of 1878
did not discriminate against fishing vessels, but
in their favor and that all the privileges of
maritime reciprocity now enjoyed by British
and American vessels were conferred subse-
quently by Joint action of the Governments.
A few months before that Convention was ne
gotated Retaliation Act was passed by Con-
gress closing American ports against Canadian
vessels, on the ground that American vessels
were denied commercial privileges in Canadian
ports. The Treaty was ratified under condi-
tions of non-intercourse between Colonial and
American ports, and fishing vessels were armed
with privileges which commercial vessels did
not then have. Since 1918 the whole status OF
maritime commerce between Canada and the
United States has been changed by the statu-
tory enactments of the two countries. Each
has opened to the other the privileges of trad
ing in its ports the transit trade has been reg
ulated by reciprocal action and American fish
ermen are entitled by international comfy to
every right and favor which Canada with Sec
rotary Bayards consent withholds by the new
Treaty until the tariff shall be changed in re-
Spouse to its importunate demands. What the
Secretary and Mr.. Chamberlain have done is to
ignore every principle of maritime reciprocity
which has been put in practice during the last
fifty years and to interpret the old Treaty in the
narrowest possible spirit, as the only law bear
ing on the subject. Mr.. Nimmo's argument
against determinations between fishing and
commercial vessels is unanswerable. There is
no distinction between them known to Ameri-
can law as Secretary Manning himself stated in
positive terms in his official reports to Congress.
They are entitled by international comfy to
every privilege Of which commercial vessels
are in undisputed possession.
The second point to which we direct atten-
ton is the contrast which Mr.. Nimmo draws be-
tween the petty privileges of which American
fishermen are deprived by the new Treaty and
the immense concessions which are made to
British merchants in this and other ports, and
also to Canadian railway corporations. An
American fisherman, under Article XIV, cannot
transship his cargo in Canadian port from his
own deck to that of another American vessel
nor can he land that cargo and send it under
bond by rail to Portland or Boston At the
same time, British steamer arriving in New
York harbor can transfer any part or the whole
Of its cargo to another vessel, without payment
of duty, for shipment to any part of the world.
or the goods can be stored in a bonded ware
house without customs dues for year and
withdrawn at any time for shipment by rail to
any point in Canada. No nation profits so
enormously by these warehousing and trans
shipment privileges as Great Britain, and no
railroads in the world have so much business
put in their way by foreign Government or
so many valuable transit privileges granted to
them as the Canadian roads. Yet with unpar-
alleled meanness and greed England denies the
right Of transshpment by rail or vessel to the
American fisherman in her ports, and cOolly
calculates that the indignity will never be re-
sented, and that British vessels and merchants
will always be allowed to do what they like in
American ports. Mr.. Nimmo very properly de-
Scribes this method of diplomacy as sheer bull
doing, and insists that it should be met with
sharp retaliation by the withdrawal Of ware
housing privileges and railway facilities until
Canada shall have learned the obligations of
good fellowship in commercial intercourse.
Mr.. Nimmos response to Mr.. Chamberlain's
nonchalant reference TO Canada's advantages of
geographical position must not be passed over
in silence. The British Commissioner is bluntly
reminded that there are geographical advanta-
ges on the south as well as the north side Of the
dividing line that the United States can lay
a practical embargo upon the foreign trade Of
Montreal for nearly half year. and paralyze
the Canadian railway system by depriving for
eign corporations Of the privilege Of partici
pating in internal commerce; and that this can
be done simply by recourse to the unjust and
ungenerous expedients to which British states
men and their American dupe in the State De
partment have had recourse That is to say if
diplomacy in the last analysis be merely a mat
ter Of geographical position, America can give
Mr.. Chamberlain all he wants of that doctrine.
GIN TAR PUCoEII,C pOoITION