Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1895-12-21
SECRETARY oLNEY's VIEWS.

GROVER CLEVELAND.
Executive Mansion, December r., 1895.
SECRETARY OLNEY's VIEWS.
He Tells the British Premier the United
States is Sovereign on This Continent and
It's Fiat Is Law.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 18-Accompany-
ing the presidents message in regard
to the Venezuela complication is the
correspondence Cd the subject 1t
starts with Secretary Olney's note re-
opening the negotiations with Great
Britain, looking to the arbitration of
the boundary dispute. This bears the
date of July 20 last and is
addressed to Mr.. Bayard. The
secretary begins by stating that the
president has given much anxious
thought to the su bject and has not
reached conclusion without a lively
sense of it's great Importance as well
as of the serious possibility involved in
any action now to be taken. He then
comments on the long duration of the
boundary dispute, the ''indefnfte"
claims of both parties and 1.-The contin-
uous growth of the underlined British
claims" the fate of the various at
tempt at arbitration of the controversy
and the part in the matter heretofore
taken by the United States He shows
that the British claims since the
Schomb burg line was run have moved
the frontier of British Guiana farther
and farther to the westward of the
line proposed by Lord Aberdeen in
1914. He then summarizes the situa-
ton at the beginning of the year and
the secretary lays it down as
canon of international law,
that a nation may justly inter
pose in a controversy between other
nations whenever what is done or
proposed by any of the parties prima-
rily concerned is a serious and direct
menace to its own integrity, tranquil
ity or welfare" This leads the secre-
tary up to an elaborate review of the
Monroe doctrine and after stating that
the proposition that America is no part
open to colonization has long been
conceded, he says that present concern
is with the other practical application
of the Monroe doctrine-that Amer
lean non-intervention in Europe nee
essarily implied European non-inter-
vention in American affairs, the disre-
gard of which by any European power
is to be deemed an act of unfriendli-
ness toward the United States.
The secretary says that it is mani
fest that rule which has been openly
and uniformly acted upon by the ex
ecutive branch of the government for
70 years must have had the sanction of
congress.
american questions, it is said, are
for American decision" says Secretary
Olney, and then applying this doctrine
in the reverse he says:
If all Europe were suddenly to fly to arms
over the fate of Turkey would 1t not be pre-
posterous that any American state should find
itself inextricably involved in the miSer1es and
burdens of the contest? What have the states
of America to do with the vast armies and
fleets Of Europe, and why should they be i'm
poverlshed by wars in which they can have no
direct concern ?0The moral interests of Europe
adverse from those which are pecu-
liar to America Europe is, with single i'm
portant exception, committed to the monar-
chicsl principle. America is devoted to the
idea that every people has an inalienable right
of self-government Any European control of
our interests is necessarily both incongruous
and injurious and, if the forcible intrusion of
European powers in American politics is to be
deprecated the resistance must come from the
United States, the only power with strength
adequate to the exigency.
The secretary then says:
The people of the United States have vital
interest in the cause of popular self-govern-
ment, which they have secured at the cost of
infinite blood and treasure. The age of the
crusade has passed and they are content with
such assertion and defense of the rights of
self-government their own security and
welfare demand 1t is in that view more than
any other that they will not tolerate the
political control of the American states
by the forcible assumption of a European
power The miSchiefS to be apprehended
from such a course are none the less real
because not Immediately imminent in any
specific case. The United States is to-day
practically sovereign on this continent and
its fat is law. All the advantages of this
superiority at once imperiled If the
principle be admitted that European pow
ers may convert American states into col
onies of their own. The principle could be easily
availed of and any power doing so would inn
mediately secure base of military operations
against and it is not inconceivable that the
struggle going on for the acquisition of At
rica might be TT nsferred to South America
The weaker countries would soon be absorbed
and South America wonld be partitioned be-
tween European powers.
There is then doctrine of American public
law well founded in principle and abundantly
sanctioned by precedent, which entities and
requires the United States to treat as an
Injury to herself the forcible assumption by
European power of political control over an
American state The application of the doc
trine to the boundary dispute between Great
Britain and Venezuela remains to be made,
and presents no real dificulty.
Clothes Set ON Fire.
DALLAS, Tex, Dec. lS.-Ora Harris,
is years old. was fatally burned last
night while lighting a gasoline stove.