Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1888-08-25
Talk Is Now in Order
Comment on the Message on
the Fisheries
AT HOME AND ACROSS THE BORDER.

/
mier Mac donald Thinks We Are in Had
Wsy-Other Canadian Views.
WASHINGTON City, Aug. 25-The fish
cries message was the one thing discussed in
the senate yesterday. IL was read as soon as
the senate assembled and referred TO the for
elgn relations committee, and then Elmnnis |
TOOK the floor He said
iii had been five or six years Younger |
than | am l should have been surprised at
that message But am not The peculiari- |
ty OF the situation is that having had a stat
ute providing for self defense, approved by |
the president OF the United States and passed |
by the substantially unanimous vote of both
houses If that made any difference to his
duty III faithfully executing the laws, and
after full consideration of all its points and
bearings. eighteen months have gone by and
we are now informed by the president for |
take it that is what he mesns, although no
word of that kind is In the III 4sSagei, that no
step OF any kind has been taken 10 carry into
execution the plain provisions of that law.
II, IN his opinion, there have been Instances
Of denial of just rights To American citizens
engaged in the business described in the act
of 1887, why is it that the president has not
taken any step IN the exercise of the powers
which the law imposed upon him, aud in the
exercise Of the high duty which the constitu-
ton imposes upon him. of taking care that
the laws are faithfully executed He tells
us that, in one instance, in $50 an American
fishing vessel catching fish outside OF the ten
and iwentv-mle defmIatiou and sailing TO
a port of British North America Tor the pur-
pose of sending her cargo of fish 10y rail TO
tioSton, WAS, hv sweeping orders, denied that
privilege ana excluded
Now, the president saws (and says justify
that that was 81 great and most important
and grievous INJURY to American interests
and American rights. And why has he re-
manned inactive! Doubtless under the patri-
otic advice of the gentlemen who compose
his cabinet and doubtless with the most
patriotic motive. that It might be best to sub
nit to what is now declared to he a gross and
grevouS wrong, and to enter into a dis
ruSson with the wrong-dOer to provide for
new arrangement on a broader basis of Brit
ish territoriality and a new arrangement on
| broader basis OF British free trade
Il must confess my astonishment at such
| a course of action on the part of the pres-
dent of the United States. / must express
my surprise and regret that for more than a
year, with the means in his hands to redress
it, he has failed to take any step and now
sends to us a message asking that additional
powers, bearing las he supposesl on a broader
field of retaliation, and covering other top
les, be given hun.
Mr.. President, it is very Odd-this bust
| ness. Here we find in this a,e discus
sion as to whether the twenty ninth article of
| the treaty of 1871 is in force or not The
| Canadian government has not refused to
| transship fish on the ground that that article
| was not III force. II mas made no such pre-
| tension. 1t has refused to transship fish on
| the ground that that article did not over
| ride the convention Of ISIS, by which an
| American fishing vessel was not to come
within three miles of the land"
After an extended discussion of the point
as to whether the twenty ninth article of the
treaty was still in force, and as to the intent
Of congress in limiting the retaliation la " to
matters connected with the fishing interests,
Edmunds said: when the Canadian author
tiles denied to American fishermen the right
to trausship their fish it was the duty of the
president to inform the British government
that we regard that twenty ninth article of
the treaty as no longer in force because il
| could not be in force on the one side and not
the other side at the same time, and it Is that
which previous presidents and secretaries of
| state have done 10 the honor and benefit of
the American name.
Alas, Mr.. President, think 1t Is an in
| finite pity that in so simple "a case an ade-
| quate and full statute should remain unexe-
rutel and in state OF rnnocuUus desuetuie
until the president may see whether congress
viii not put more ammunition into bis hands
before be fires the first gun"
| ii 'ar said that Canada bad been all this
time violating the treaty of 1871 in regard TO
our use OF her canals and other transparta-
| ton facilities How happened it that the ad-
mlnistration, in negotIatiating the treaty, had
| been dumb during the last two years on that
subject IT, when the representatives Of
| Great Britain were in Washington City, the
| administration had called attention
| to tins breach of faith on the part
| IF Canada, to this wrong, which the
president now said demanded instant
and prompt measures Of retalia-
| ton. and they rejected the demand for re-
dress. how happened it that that part Of the
negotiations had been kept wholly secret from
the senate and the peoplef II, on the other
hand. he did not call this t. the attention Of
| the REPRESENTATIVES Of Great Britain, in what
| IN attitndp d,l ha NOW SaaL, Ia rlsca tho MAO
nIa nj the limited STATES ar how Womb they
nave been placel Int for the rejection Of the
| traoty3 He wnuld have had a long pecotia-
tion with (;rp,t Britain and would have tie
clsred To her that the results were p.rfectly
satisfactory and then the moment the treaty
to which she had consented had been ratified
and accepted. he would have ben prepared
to tnrn round uDon her with this hostile
,1a.snr,. of ratuliat,on
~, i,,f<.,,.,,,s ,t,,, ,,,.,,;1,,,,
- - -. Co.., -,
aiip JUS i''' -, P s"~ e''''i "au'
exact situation IN respect to our relations
with Canada Ranublicar onpositiou to this
whole fishery affair had not been to get the
neonle or government INTO better shane Init
tn eutran the cxarutivr and NM h, , whera
mo vord da the hiding of tbe M
ooritv nj the peanle ranre,4ntel nv the ma
iority ot the s.nate He was pratifiad tn
Know that the president did not feel alarmed
at this at all.
Morgan had not favored retaliation for