Sacramento daily record-union., 1888-12-01
iner, which swears by the t2e of Mr.. Bay
ards boot, is moved to saw;

iner, which swears by the t9e of Mr.. Bay
ards boot, is moved to say:
Americas gre6t opportunity WIS missed when
our Government refused to sustain General
Greenebaum in proc aiming temporary protec-
itself brilliant success. II proved that the
highwayman's pistol was not loaded When
German squadron of three war ships was about
to depose Malietoa, the sight of the American
flag without a single vessel in the harbor to
back 1t, repelled the attack, and the pirate fleet
sailed away. If the paralyziug traditions of
non interference, inherited from the pacific ad-
ministrations of half century, had not been so
fatally strong at Washington, the Consul would
have been sustained, and Bismarck would have
had TO look for some other field for his coloniz-
ing activity. II is not yet too late to do duty
by Samoa to fulfill our treaty obligations, save
our commerce from destruction at the hands OF
a German monopoly, and rescue from oppres-
sion the people who have trusted US.
The "pacifc administrations would
never have submitted, as did the pres
ent, to such indignities as have been put
upon US in Samoa, and upon the Govern
ment of the Islands which we are bound
to recognize and ought 10 sustain We
needed Secretary of State in 1867 who
would have given Germany to understand
that the friendly Samoans should not be
enslaved, and that people who have
treated us well, conserved our interests,
and in all ways behaved themselves
towards us most seemIy, should be pro-
tected in accordance with treaty stipula-
tions.
The Samoan islands constitute the mid
ocean station between San Francisco and
Australia; their harbors are safe, and in
two we have been freely given excellent
ports and exclusive anchorage and landing
grounds. The chief harbor we control is
the key, in a naval sense, to the Samoan
Islands, and in the opinion of Mr. Coward,
who negotiated our treaty, to Central
Polynesia, and is admirably adapted by
location to the protection of American
commerce. These islands are outside the
hurricane belt, and by situation, produc-
tiOn, friendship of the natives, and harbor
advantages, the most valuable group in
South Pacific waters
German aggression, which has so re-
Gently gone to the extent of having armed
bodies fire upon foreign residents, search
their houses, destroy their property, and
by attempting to close a bridge to shut
them off from the main town and make
their settlement merely tolerated sub
urb, cannot be longer permitted with re-
tention of national self-respect. 1t has
caused members in the English Parlia-
ment to exclaim against American passive
ness and English inactivity, and the
American people to feel that they have
been snubbed and contemptuously treated.
1t is certainly time that Republicans
hand should grasp the helm of State and
give foreign powers to understand that our
American commerce upon the Pacific coast
is not SO far removed from Washington as
to be of no concern to the Government
There must be something radically weak
IN the State Department at Washington
and in the Cabinet in London when it be-
comes necessary for American and British
residents in Apia to meet and issue, as
they did last year, paper imploring their
Governments to compel Germany to with
draw her troops and all her ships, but one !;
that they guarantee the Samoans indie
pendence and impartial Courts that they
each keep ship of war on the station for
twelve-month that whom the Samoars
select by vote to rule them shall be recog-
nized, and that German audacity, reprisal
and political intermeddling with the local
government be forbidden and the decree
enforced, before American and English
commerce are driven from the Samoan
archipelago
Since the foregoing was put in type the
substance of letter from Secretary Bay
ard to the German Representative at
Washington has been made public. 1t is
therein stated the present deplorable con-
ditions are not chargeable to any acts of
the United States, but to the ambition of
the Germans in Samoa to obtain personal
and commercial advantages and political
supremacy" In this very placid and
moderate expression, the Secretary has
struck the root of the evil and indicated
the remedy. 1t remains to be seen if the
United States and England will compel
Germany to apply it.