The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-07-18
A DECLINING.

About all that can be said of the
correspondence published this morn
ing between the American and the
British departments OF foreign affairs
is that it does indicate a desire on
each side for some method of settling
disputes between the two nations by
arbitration instead of by the appeal
have expressed this so emphatically
that even the cautious and slow-mov-
ing Journalists of the two state de-
partments recognize the fact. Beyond
that point, toward the goal of an &C
tual working agreement, they have
made but little progress. For this is
the period within which, according to
the solemn tomfoolery of diplomacy"
and the immemorial desire and deter
mination of one man to get the better
of another if he can, instead of meet
ing him half way in a fair bargain,
each side must occupy itself in offer
ing something that it knows the other
will reject
When we get down to the heart Of
the matter, it appears that the posi-
ton Of Secretary Olney is decidedly
that Of practical common sense. Lord
Salisburys proposals are so hedged
about with truly British precautions
as to make them hardly worth consid-
ering. For a certain series of petty
disputes, which neither nation would
ever think, probably, of magnifying
into a casus belli, he suggests per-
manent board Of arbitration. But he
desires to exclude from this all dis
putes involving claims to territory;
and, in general, all of such seriousness
that arbitration would be desirable
For these he has an arrangement
which Secretary Olney properly char
acterizes as limitation arbitration"
a form of settlement in which, after
the question has been submitted in
due form to the proper tribunal and
formally passed upon by it, either party
to the dispute can reject the finding
at its pleasure. 1t is, of course, alb
surd for two nations to indulge in such
child's play as this. Neither would
ever, in any case, accept a result hos
tile to it's interests and derogatory of
it's dignity when it could, by a mere
protest, avoid it. And the unwilling
ness of Great Britain to arbitrate on
matters of really serious import is
thus made apparent.
In addition, as to the specific case of
the Venezuelan boundary, she clings
to her preposterous contention from
the first that the invasion and settle
ment by British subjects of terri
tory to which they had no possible
claim gives them some sort Of pre-
scriptive right against any attempt to
GUST them, and also invalidates the
title of the original sovereigns of the
soil in question. All this is, of course,
merely sparring for position Both
Great Britain and the United States
have made up their minds to accept
arbitration in some form as the sol
vent of their future disputes. 1t is
pity that they cannot settle the pre-
liminary terms and conditions with
out these long-winded attempts on the
part Of Great Britain to get the better
Of her adversary; attempts so patent
that they would not deceive a child.
The state department Of any country
is it's true circumlocution Office. 1t is
probable, therefore, that this question
will drag itself through another adj
ministration, and not be agreed upon
finally until after innumerable stately
and verbose communications have
passed from one government to the
other. But after all the really impor-
tant thing is that beginning has been
made. and arbitration has been rec
ognized by the two leading nations Of
the world as the proper and civilized
method of adjusting differences be-
tween them.