The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-12-20
MLTM mM ] JUSr 0EANRNE.

iA''' ' v Es II ~ t9 I HI fCit 1 iy
 And Does it Gall for Wur"~The Ca c sum
 med Up From the Auii-jlUgo Standpoint. George s, Merriam in hc Springfield Rcpuh-
 licanl
 England and Venezuela have long, standing dispute over @ boundary line between the latter country and the Eng fish colony of Guiana. Our country has acted as a friendly mediator and pro- posed arbitration on the whole contro- versy. England accepts arbitration as
 to q part, but says that on the other part she is so clearly in the right that she will go before no outside court. Thercupon President Cleveland advises that the United States pass upon the whole question by a commission of it's own appointment, and require England to accept the verdict under penalty of our open hostility.
 Of course England will not submit to any such decision in the matter. And declining to accept arbitration she could not with dignity or self-respect GlllDF tue 1lllltNl hlLstlN9 NO letNt Lilt oNt- clement into it's own hands. If the com mission is appointed, and if it's ind ing should be unfavorable to England, we are committed and England would be committed to settle the question by arms. To-day we are at the parting of the ways; if President Cloveland's coun- sel is followed we choose a road from which retreat becomes most difficult, and whose issue may be a war be- tween the two great English speaking peoples.
 Such a conflict would be an inGonCeiv- able disaster to civilization. But the president says, and with the weight of conviction and character behind his words, that even before peace come justice and honor, This is the first question-should we be taking up a just quarrel? If so, next it must be asked, is this quarrel grave enough to justify 'suCh 9 war?
 The presidents claim is that this na- tion has a right to interposa as final and absolute judge in a territorial dis
 pute between England and Venezuela. What gives us that right? Because SO SutDS Sldli llGIJ iIllS tue Glciklil--fl Ett of informal protectorate over the west ern continent as against Europe belongs by right to the United States. But surely that protectorate, if such exists, is of very limited and partial extent, On some portions of this continent Eng lands rights are as good as the rights of the United States within its own ter ritory. Canada, for instance, is no more within our jurisdiction than the Isle ot Wight--British Guiana is as truly Brit ish soil as Canada or Australia or Ja- maica. By government population, laws. and universally accepted title, it is a part of the British dominion. Nen- ezuela stands on her own territory, Britain in Guiana stands on her own territory; the boundary question be- tween them is a fence-line question be- tween independent neighbors; and the United States can scarcely claim to come in as supreme judge simply be- | cause all three nations have footing on the western continent
 But it is said that the United States
 is the natural protector of free Ameri- can republics against European mon-
 archies. Let us not be cheated by words England and her colonies are far nearer to our type of self-govern-
 men than any South American repub- lie. The British colonist in Guiana en- 1 joys the benefit of equal laws, of a set | tied social order of a practical voice in
 the commonwealth, far beyond the in habitant of tulnultuous, revolutionary, | half-civilized Venezuela. The question 1 which England refuses to arhtrate is whether a territory inhabited by 10000 | Inglishmcn is under English or VeneZ- uelan jurisdiction. The question should | be settled by the title-deeds the maps, l the history and the equity of the case i But for the United States 10 claim for i itself 8 final authority on the matter | because Venezuela as an American re- | public is our ward and fosterchild as against q European deSpotism, is very l hollow. The 'Nionroe doctrine which
 in any wide interpretation never had | authority given to it by our own con- gress or admitted by other nations--Was S
 substantially Q stand-off to Spanish | tyranny. with possible backing from some "Holy alliance" against the eman-
 cipated South American peoples. Its | principle was justly invoked against | the attempt to sUbjugatc Mexico by 9 French army to a German prince. But
 the claim of jurisdiction in all territo-
 rial disputes on the continent which l fCOntinupd On tho Tifth PappO