New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1895-12-30
| Now. that In simply the Monroe Doctrine IN an

Now. that Ia simply the Monroe Doctrine in an
English form.
what is It that the United States asserts re-
speeding the American continent? 1t says that
its interests important there that Euro
pean Powers must not interfere with them.
There is the frontier between Venezuela and
Guiana which England has not been willing to
submit TO peaceable arbitration. The United
States cannot allow England to be changing
boundaries and extending its territories toward
the Orinoco every decade. and attempting to
bully a feeble little republic. And what is the
interoceanic canal question? The United States
asserts that If any canal be constructed at
Darien or in Nicaragua 1t must be under Amer
lean control. Why? Because the United States
has the largest material interests on the Amer
lean continent. and because the canal. If opened,
would connect the Pacific, Gulf and Atlantic sea-
boards o. the Union. and its control would be in
dispensable from a military point of view. 1t is
your practical instinct which we Americans have
inherited with our English blood. What you
call imperial interests we define the Monroe
Doctrine; but 1t is far more benevolent in its
scope. You conquer and rule and are constantly
extending your dependencies. We simply be-
friend the sister republics which have copied
our institutions"
This quotation. it must be repeated, is not
introduced because it is in any sense au-
thentic explanation Of the Monroe Doctrine. but
merely because 1t served to satisfy the perplexed
Englishman, who was anxious TO understand
what Americans meant by asserting some form
Of supremacy or protectorate in the affairs OF the
western hemisphere. He understood this cx-
panation and remarked that it seemed English
and sensible, and that Americans had after all
the common blood of the old stock. Possibly If
the Monroe Doctrine were more frequently pre-
scented in equally practical way-or better
still, If less attention were paid to the tradi-
tional phrases and more stress laid upon the
material interests and paramount Importance of
the United States in the American sphere Of ac-
tion-it would be more Ineligible to Europeans
generally.
LF-INSTITUTED ARBITRATION.
But there Is one thought which the English
man even in his most reflective mood absolutely
refuses to entertain, and that is the possibility
OF having any frontier of the British Empire
established by dictation from another Power
under threat of war He will not consider 1t
even for the sake Of the argument. 1t is mat
ter of Indifference to him whether this is the old
Monroe Doctrine or the Cleveland Doctrine;
he will not tolerate assumption which he con-
siders degrading to n self-respecting State. If
President Cleveland appoints a Commission and
1t assumes after mature deberation to dis
cover the rightful frontier. England VIII pay no
attention TO the judgment If any portion or
British Guiana be found on the wrong side or
that boundary when discovered. an American
army will have to be sent to the swamps OF the
Orinoco and the Essequibo to dispossess the
occupants Force will have to be employed and
war declared in order to give effect to that judg-
ment Arbitra ton which is self-instituted by
the United States will be resented angrily as
arbitrary dictation. and 1t will amount to MOTH
ing unless followed by war on land and sea
That is the English position as explicitly defined
by every important journal In London and the
provinces 1t is easily understood. 1t is likely
to remain unalterable and to receive permanent
European sanction. Americans ought to UNDER
stand the English attitude respecting President
Cleveand's Arbitration Commission, even II
their own Monroe Doctrine Is not ineligible to
the English themselves
For It is true that the English do not under
stand the Doctrine itself nor appreciate Amer
lean feeling respecting 1t. They have read Lord
Salisbury's reply to Secretary Olneys dispatch,
and utterly fail to appreciate the intense irrita-
ton which his cynical and contemptuous treat
ment of the Monroe Doctrine has inevitably
caused in America. For seventy years since 1t
was first proclaimed European Powers have
been extending their conquests and multiplying
their colonial dependencies in Asia Africa and
the South Seas, and during that period, with the
single exception Of the British encroachments
upon Venezuela, not one Of them has Increased
its territorial holdings on the American CONT
nent The Monroe Doctrine may not have mad
the force OF international law, but 1t has been
respected as an American tradition, and has
been silently operating to maintain and perpetu-
ate republican institutions in the New World
Yet Lord Salisbury deals with II as though II
had long been an extinct Yankee notion instead
of n vitalizing principle in the progress OF the
western hemisphere; and every English journal
prouounces his treatment of the subject mastery
and unanswerable. English insensbiity 10
American feeling is a proof that nations may be
Of one blood and have a common language ana
literature yet be incapable of understanding
each other. Az
HARRY s. PAGE IMPROVING.
PHYSICIAN SAYS |