Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1892-09-08

| the Britishers we have nothing to do
England can assert her own rights, and
she may be depended upon to do il.
What we want the Harrison admins
tration to do is to assert the rights of
American citizens on the high seas, and
with view of arousing Mr.. Harrison's
ardor we quote the report given by one
of his organs, as follows:
The 81 men and officers who were
made prisoners join in a statement of
the outrageous treatment they received
from the Russian officers. They were
landed without food, cooking utensils,
or bedding, and the only shelter they
could get was an Out-building swarm
ing with vermin and reekiug with in
tolerable stencil and smeared with the
filth of man and beasts. The weather
was foggy all the time, and most of the
men, preferring to sleep out of doors,
are now crippled with rheumatism.
The Russians robbed their prisoners
of everything of value. They rihed the
pockets, the valises, bags and boxes of
the captains officers, and they stole
money from their purses, small articles
of jewelry, collar buttons, studs, raZ-
Ors. combs, brushes. towels and soap.
oilskin coats, gum boots, whole suits of
new clothing, and as to the underwear
that was their particular weakness: they
took nearly all the new or clean I'M
dcrshirts, drawers and socks they could
find, and they were good judges of the
quality Of these articleS-the better
they were the more certain it was that
they would be transferred to their
thievish clutches. Had it not been that
the bark Majestic luckily came along to
pick the prisoners up there is no know
ing how long they might have had to
stay there.
This, we submit, constitutes a cause
OF action. Here is a case where Amer
lean sea-men were seized on the high
seas on the deck of an American vessel
lying the American flag, taken to a
foreign territory controlled by their
captors and there subjected to great
cruelties and indignities. A Demo
won a foreign war in defense of the
rights OF American vessels and Ameri-
can sailors on the high seas. The Dem
ocratic party has never boosted of ga
vigorous foreign policy" Beyond the
ance of the Monroe doctrine it has
never had use for a s.fOreign policy as
part of American craftsmanship.
But it has never, in an emergency,
failed to assert and vigorously main
tain the rights of American citizens.
What we want of Mr.. Harrison is an
assertion of the old American doctrine,
sanctioned and established by inter-
national and maritime law, that all
waters outside three miles OF any ma
tional coast line constitute open seas.
IF he has made different contention
with England in his anxiety to enrich
Steve Elkins and the American Fur
Seal Company. so much the worse Tor
him. If he has abandoned the Amer
lean doctrine, the doctrine still lives
and will outlive him and his admins
tration If he has submitted to arbi-
tration question ofright which Amer
lean Democrats have never submitted
to anything but trial of strength, he
has proved himself unworthy the Amer
lean name. Arbitrations which will
serve the purpose of jingoism until af-
ter the election are not what the peo-
pie want. We want an assertion of
American rights against the Russian
Gar. We want an ultimatum. RE
lNOiio,