The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-05-03
SENATOR MORGAN TALKS.
Views of Leading Democratic Senator
ON the Remarkable Attitude Of the
Present Administration Toward the
Rrifisl Cciznrc 0f NicaraHuan Soil.

Views OF Leading Democratic senator
on the Remarkable Attitude Of the
Present Administration Toward the
British Seizure Of Nicaraguan Soil.
Interview in Washington Star.
John Bull Is the same today, in 1895. as
he was in ITS. Nothing In the meanwhile
has occurred to change the character of
| his disposition. He Is the same grasping,
greedy, clever fellow-always ready to en-
large his territories and his power. He
looks upon America with the same eyes
today that he did when we were a band of
| colonies, independent in every particular
except in fact, and though he is a little
| more cautious in his aggressions In Mica
ragua he is playing the same game that
| he was then. Has the loss Of the Ameri-
can colonies altered him in the least in his
attitude toward them? Not at all. He
has come steadily enlarging his posts,
until he has nearly surrounded the United
States with u chain of British colonies
| and possessions. He has a continent, Aus
| tralia, larger in territory than the United
States. He has taken Cyprus, Egypt,
countless islands. He has squeezed us out
| of territory on our western coast, giving
| him a free seaboard on the western edge
of this continent. He has bulldozed us
out of the value of our seal fisheries in
Alaska He would have taken Samoa II it
| had not been necessary to fight Germany
| in order to accomplish this. He Is even
now trying to increase his dominion over
large part of Venezuela. The president
of the United States tried to give him
| Hawaii, for to establish the British su-
premacy over one island in that group, as
| was proposed by the cable concession,
| would have surely been to give Great Brit
ain absolute control Of the entire country.
| And here, In Nicaragua, and in this day
l.f., ton,
with its record of centuries. a record Of
aggression, despotic squeezing of weak ma
tions, bulldozing, braggadocia, attempting
| to obtain foothold In land where the
interests Of the United States are para
mount. To let Great Britain secure this
privilege now would be to give her control
| Of American commerce and to jeopardize
almost every American interest. I do not
believe that the American people are
ninnies, and cannot see these things as
they really are. l do not think that they
have become arrant asses and are pur-
blind to the commonest principles OF pro-
lection and precaution.
The Flrnsy prctext.
"Nor do think there is a man living in
this country today who can read who does
not laugh to scorn the pretext that Great
Britain Is making today that she has any
thing like case against Nicaragua. The
cause of the present controversy Is shall
low, fiimsy and nonsensical. 1t is SO pal
pably a case where great, big, strong fell
low has deliberately put a chip on his
broad shoulder, and when the little fellow
| has not knocked 1t off has shaken 1t off
| himself in order to pick a quarrel Tho
Nicaraguan government found this man
Hatch fomenting strife among the Indians
and negroes on the Mosquito coast. He
was plain, ordinary citizen. probably an
| adventurer. To be sure, he might have
been British consul, If Great Britain had
appointed him such, which she had not
done, and he might have been recognized
| automatically under those circumstances
If Nicaragua had issued to him an eXequa-
| tur, which she had not OF course there
was within him the possibility of being of
great Importance, which, unfortunately
for the position today, he was not He
| was taken away from the territory where
he was causing trouble, just as this gov
ernment would take him away from n re-
gion where he was fomenting sedition, and
sent out of the territory. He was not pun
ished, he was not hanged, nor was he
treated with any great indignity. His
case presents none of the elements of Sc
verify shown in the case of Mr.. Waller,
who has been sentenced to twenty years
of Imprisonment by a French court-mar-
tial.
British Pride Sadly Hurt.
"Yet this simple act of precaution by
| this weak, defenseless nation has SO
wounded the British pride, has so harmed
the prestige of the great English nation,
and has so besmlrched and bedraggled
the dignity of the empire as to have in
fiicted damages on Great Britain amount
ing exactly to $4,000. Now, this sum Is
merely the amount of the pecuniary value
| Of the injury done to the sensitive Brit
ish feelings. Great Britain distinctly says
that she will put aside for the present, to
be adjudicated later, the consideration of
the damages inflicted on Mr. Hatch and
his property. That, you will mind, is
side issue, an unimportant, insignificant
question. But the nation, however, has
been wounded in pride and spirit $4,000
WORTH and England says to Nicaragua:
If you don't satisfy this claim for an IN
suit under which the entire British ma
ton is bursting with anger we'll seize
your coasts, destroy your commerce, Pill
lage your towns perhaps We'll XIII lew
thousand Of your people incidentally while
we are doing this, but. at any rate, Wen
have satisfaction for this horrible af-
front you have given u.s. Why, do you
know. IL any American citizen were to set
up such a plea as that in any court of the
land he would be laughed at by judges and
by Jury, and would be driven from the
court house with his cause ground to
powder. If the president OF the United
States in his private capacity should thus
automatically set up such a plea for dam
ages to his personal character and dig
nifty he would be sneered at from one end
of the land to the other, just as I know
the American people are today sneering
at Great Britain for its childish, puerile,
weak excuse for a belligerent attitude to-
ward this defenseless country"