St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1894-04-05

have grown if Great Britain had
been frmer a the outset. 1t seems
that Chief Justice Ide IS no improve
ment on his predecessor, if the inju-
dicious conduct which led to the
latest outbreak is to be accepted as
evidences of his capacities. The
chief justice may have been right,
but in Samoa everything is guided
| by compromise, and the sooner it is
superseded the better it will be for
| the Samoans and Samoa.
GERMANY DOWN ON MR.. IDE.
A Berlin dispatch says that pri-
vate informa ton from Samoa says
that there is every reason to believe
| of King Malietoa and the native
chiefs is by no means ended. Even
the arbitrary chief justice, Mr.. Ide,
has given evidence of his aPprecia-
ton of the gravity OF the situation
by inviting II of the disgruntled
chiefs to a conference for the pur-
pose of discussing their grievances.
A GOOD WORD FROM THE NEW YORK
SUN.
Our Vermonter, Mr.. Henry c. Ide,
who succeeded Chief Justice Ceder-
krantz, the Swedish lawyer, is ac-
cused of causing the current out
break. Cederkrantz, it will be re-
membered made himself enormous
ly unpopular. 1t is said he knew
too little English, took too long va
cations, rendered decisions that
showed his incompetency, refused to
pay duties on the liquors he import
ed, and secured large fees for his
clerks. Whatever the truth as to
these matters, such general relief
was felt at the appointment of Mr..
Ide in his stead, that it is a surprise
to find the latter now accused of
fomenting a war by his conduct. 1t
is said that he fined some of the
chiefs for disorderiy conduct and, in
their lack of funds for paying the
fines, compelled them to work them
out as imprisoned convicts in road
building. Now one of the greatest
needs of Samoa has been good
roads; but this method of securing
them outraged Samoan ideas, and
war resulted. Malietoa defeated
the malcontents, probably having
great advantages in weapons, and
there are stories Of atrocities per-
petrated upon the vanquished.
1t is very doubtful, however,
whether the conduct attributed to
Mr.. Ide was not an incident, or at
most the occs sion of the outbreak,
rather than its underlying cause.
Several months ago the dissatisfied
n q ~ wa al l.
up arms, and Chief Justice Ide's
tlrmness and skill, it is said, restrained
them. Pehaps he may have had
evidences of treason and intended
outbreaks on the part of some of
them, IN which case Imprisonment
and working on the road could
hardly be called excessive penalties.
Certain it is that the enormous
powers given to the chief justice
would be likely to make him
prominent figure in any such trouble.
But back of the immediate diff
Guilty, whatever it was, we may
count upon finding the chronic
trouble based upon the abnormal
this unfortunate group of islands by
the Berlin compact.
THE ST. JoHNsBURY VIEW OF IT.
People here believe that Judge Ide
will come out all right and that he
is not in as much danger as the dis
patches indicate. 1t is for the in
terest of the British and Germans to
lay all the blame upon an American
chief justice and a London cores
pondent suggests annexa ton to New
Zealand. Judge Ide is not rash and
impulsive, but cool and deliberate in
his decisions. The native chief that
was sentenced nine months for at
tempted murder threatened to make
trouble and he has evidently sue
ceeded. In due time we expect to
hear that Judge Ide did the best
thing for the interests Of the Sa-
moan governments. 1t is certain
ly unfortunate that United States
warship is not at Apia, but as this
is the season of severe storms no
warships are in the harbor. Trade
is therefore dull at Apia and the
foreign merchants have supplied the
native chiefs very literally with
firearms.
n