The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1894-12-03
Permissible JingOism.

B According to the truest available in
formation, our state department has
been guilty of a bad error of judgment
at one point In its dealings with China
and Japan. We are freer to say this
because while we do not sanction par
tisan criticism of any administration
foreign policy, the fault in this instance
appears to be common to both parties
and blemish of long standing upon
American diplomacy; the blemish often
of inexcusable timidity The facts in
the case, so far as known, are these:
When Japan declared war on China.
there We're 1900 Japanese residents in
Shanghai. Our government, through
Minister DENLY, offered these, as well
as other Japanese. its protection and
friendly services in getting them out of
China, to u place of safety. The Chi
nese officials understood this; but
claimed that two of these 1000 were
spies. Consul-General Jernigan COM
municated. through the Pekin legation,
WIN hpNtINidlg tNiltSiltlll anu, dllCI
some delay, received orders to surren-
der the pair. They were seized by the
Chinese, subjected to indescribable tor
ture and afterward beheaded The
fact that while it is reasonable to sup
pose that the two victims were spies,
as was alleged, the United States con-
sul-general was not permitted by the
secretary of state at Washington to
hold a fair trial of the accused men,
but had to take merely the accusation
Of the semi-barbarous Chinese as proof.
In precisely the same manner, China
could, had It been so disposed, have
demanded every one of the 1,500 civil
ized Japanese who had sought the pro-
lection of our flag; and could have shot
them, mutilated them, burned them or
inflicted any other outrageous treat
ment upon them. upon its single, un-
substantiated assertion that they We're
these people would have been on our
hands, and We should, as a nation,
justly have deserved the opprobrious
name Of cravens and assistant assas-
sins. AS it is, we have only the blood
of two men to answer for; and can, as a
| nation. presumably snap our fingers at
criticism, just as Secretary Gresham
does, when confronted with these facts.
In this connection it is interesting to
| follow some remarks of Julian Ralph,
the famous correspondent, who has
| lust returned from Shanghai:
/ am sorry to have seemed to be per-
sonal I'm what | reported from China, but
| | insist that the time has come that our
government learn something outside the
boundaries of this country. If We are 60
ing to NEEDLE in foreign affairs we have
got to make our just pride and power ap-
parent to the foreign peoples. 1t is said
that not many years ago senator of the
United States rose in his place and said
''Mr President, man has asked us TO
| send war ship to Korea | never knew
| there was such a place as Korea until
| this morning. We are told that some
Americans We're massacred there. What
| onearth do Americans want to be In Korea
for when we have the boundless west to
populate and till?" This sort of thing is
what the Europeans tell about in Asia, and
more humiliating 1t is a story of how,
story about their country which is yet
more humiliting. 1t is story of how,
with few grim walls of floating oak
constantly in evidence before China, we
built up mighty trade in that country.
1t is d story of how few cute Yankees,
| bo al hN, MI rinnn nlnplx and
tabllshed the biggest businesses and dis
tanced all Europe in the China trade. 1t
is a story of how, bit by bit, successive
administrations seemed to forget our sue
cesses and our conquests on that hostile
soil, and how they gradually withdrew
American ships and ceased to send them,
and of how our great trades left us and
Z followed British guns until today hun
dreds of merchants, clerks and mission
aries are living there in uncertain peace
and precartous condition under the pro-
lection of any flag and every flag except
our own.
There are persons who meet every
comment of this kind with the con
temptuous word; ''jingoism!" For oui
part, we are not at all ashamed to con
fess that If to put some good, stiff, New
England backbone into our cartilagin
Gus state department be to favor lingo
ism" we shall have to become lingo
lists" We believe the time has come
in the development of this republic
when If we wish to assume any attitude
whatever in foreign affairs, we mus
assume one. Of dignity and pluck, Oily
down-at-the-heel precedents, born foi