The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-01-22
The Hawaiian Revolt.

The Hawaiian Revolt.
Why should the honor of the Ameri-
can flag in a foreign country be a sub
ject of party division among Ameri-
cans? Why should a Democratic con-
grass or a Democratic president, sue
ceeding a congress or a president of
different partisan complexion, feel i'm
PEELED to at once inaugurate a foreign
policy different from that maintained
by the administration just preceding,
irrespective of the abstract merits of
the earlier policy, and solely because
the homie electorate had ordered a
change in their public servants? If we
thought that Republicanism meant
patriotism only when Republicans were
in power, we should say unhesitatingly:
Away with such Republicanism. 1t is
half treason" Why should not honest
and sincere Democrats, Democrats from
principle, say the same with reference
to the false Democracy, the low and
pettish Democracy, to which the Amer
lean nation has been treated during the
period of Grover Celeveland's second
management of the department of
state at Washington?
There is no such fuctuation, contra
diction and factiOnal division in the
foreign policy of Great Britain.
Whether the prime minister be Liberal
or Conservative, the line of party di
vision, of party pickering, of party
cross purposes, ends the moment that
domestic territory. Further than this,
q change in the English ministry does
not, as with us, signify that all the
diplomatic appointes Of the preceding
ministry must pack their belongings
and come home, to make way for
new staff of raw recruits; nor does it
mean that if under one ministry the
rights of British subjects in foreign
lands We're strenuously and aggressive
ly protected and the commercial inter
ests of British tradesmen assiduously
promoted, a change in ministries must,
necessarily, be denoted by direct
reversal of these two strong features
of the preceding administration. The
result of this continuity of a purpose
to protect English rights at any hazard
and under any circumstances Is evil
denced by the fact that the English
flag is respected and feared in every
port in Observation-Disclosures for the
firmness of purpose behind it and
feared for the reason that any trifling
with it has become recognized by those
guilty of such trifling as equivalent to
direct invitation for trouncing.
We cite the policy of England for the
sufficient reason that it is strong pre-
cisely in those features wherein our
own policy is humiliatingly and indie
fensibly weak. No more conspicuous
example of this weakness has been sup
Piled than in the abrupt change OF
policy with reference to Hawaii insti-
tuted by the present Cleveland admins
tration. With the earlier details of
Americas humiliation at the hands of
Cleveland, Gresham and Blount the
public is already familiar. The people
spoke their opinion of them at the bal
lot box last November And now the
nation is presented with new CHAPTER
in the history of this infamy-a chapter
of executive stubbornness yielding alb
jectly after blood had been spilled and
revolution narrowly averted; chapter
Of 'timidity and time-serving by the
nv i'm, 1iat 70
most without past parallel in the an
nails of the department of state; q chan
ter, in short, which in every sorrowful
detail records new shame and new
humiliation. Not the least humiliating
of these new details, because of its in
excusable tardiness, Is the presidents
attempt, after the mischief which his
stubborn policy had directly invited
was consummated in bloodshed and
riot-a consummation eloquently fore
told, six months ago, in the patriotic
report of Admiral Walker, which was,
at the time, pettishly suppressed be-
cause it clashed with the logic of
Grover Cleveland's original blunder-
W siSouilt ulllluut VI tltNtlllI-nOur
penitence and to make a weak show of
impossible atonement by ordering a
warship to Hawaiian waters n full
fortnight after the danger Is over.
What we need in this country is q
sentiment which will not permit any
partisan jugglery with the honor
of our glory and of American rights
abroad; and which will overwhelmingly
condemn that president or. that sec
retary of state who shall so far mis-
take his position as to utilize it's i'm
mense prestige and power In sorry at
tempts to stifle the honest aspirations
of sister republics or put back on rotten
thrones repudiated rulers who have dis
graced and debauched the dignity of
kingcraft.
In Constantlnople dispatch to the
New York Herald yesterday another
Turkish versionof theArmenian trouble
L., Il,