The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-07-06

NEEDLESS DREAD OF FOREIGNERS.
The address of the Rev. Mr.. Bright was
an able and eloquent effort, but he was a
little extravagant when he said:
Did we buy Alaska from Russia? And Ii we
did, why does every American man-oi-war that
goes 20 protect the seal fisheries have an English
consortf Are those zeal fisheries within the
limits Of our purchase from the empire of the
ezarf II 20. and IL becomes necessary, let it be
Numbered through iron throats with sulphur
breath, Hands OFT"
We did buy Alaska, but how much of
Boring sea we own outside the three-mile
limit from the seal islands is question of
domain that Congress has been very care
full in its laws not to attempt to define,
and until we can show clear title to all of
Boring sea as a closed sea il would be
neither just nor right 10 thunder through
iron throats" at England or any other
power whose vessels assume the right to
catch seals on that sea. Our rights have
been referred to arbitration, and pending
that arbitration England joins hands with
US to keep the peace: q very manly and
humane course on both sides; worthy OF
two nations that refused to tight over the
Alabama claims.
Mr.. Bright's demand that the foreign
immigrant shall be expected to keep an
American Sabbath is rather indefinite. He
should be expected to obey the laws of this
country, but the laws of this country do
not oblige any man TO observe Sunday as
q religious day at all. in the sense of q
Puritan Sabbath, because under our con-
stitution, which separates church and
state, while We prescribe Sunday as day of
rest We do not attempt to say how any man
shall spend his Sunday providing that he is
not guilty of disorderly action. Under our
form of government the church-goer is
protected from the interference of those
who have no church or belief In creeds:
and the non-church-goer can 60 as he
pleases on Sunday, SO long as he does not
break the peace and order of the day for
others who seek to enjoy it. There is not,
can Sabbath which would compel the
foreigner to adopt the sectarian Puritan
Sabbath rather than the Sunday of recre-
alton, innocent amusement and rest that
is universal in Europe and common in
America.
AS Tor the prospect of England closing
the mouth of the Orinoco, it is absurd.
England owns the Suez canal, but she
doesn't close that to the world, and when
We have built the Nicaragua canal we will
not close that to the world. Why? Sim
ply because the civilized nations of the
earth would not long permit it and we
should know better than to try it. Neither
England, nor the United States, nor any
other nation can afford today to be the
game cock of the world. The United
States is in no position to order any of the
great powers to evacuate any territory
they may hold today in Central or South
America on the plea of the Monroe doc
trine;" We surrendered that absurd posi-
ton long ago, and when We build the
Nicaragua canal we shall be obliged tc
respect the decent rights OF the world &c
its passage just as England does in the
case OF the Suez canal. Nobody need feal
that England viii close the Orinoco: she
wouldn't if she could; for she knows bet
ter, and she couldn't if she would against
the world.
AS matter of fact the foreign elemen,
in America is not half so troublesome a,
present as the native born Americans
who espouse the current financial vagar.
les. The Milwaukee Sentiae! saws that in
Wisconsin we trust almost entirely 10 the
good sense of the farmers of foreign birth
or descent to resist the movement insti.
tuted here by the Butts Phiilips-May
Simpson-Polk combination-men whose
followers are nearly all of American birth
and descent, and that in a state where a
large majority of the farmers are offoreigu
birth" Financial troubles prevail in the
Caroiinas, Georgia and Kansas. where the
foreign-born population ranges from / to
: per cent, but has little currency in Mil.
waukee where the foreign-born population
is over 81 per cent of the whole.