The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-01-17
TWO ARTHURs.

On the Venezuela controversy we
may say England has her Arthur Bal
four and the United States her Arthur
Wheeler. True, the English Arthur is
politician, first lord of the treasury,
too. in the British cabinet, while our
American Arthur is only professor
at Yale college. Both of the Arthurs.
according to yesterdays dispatches,
succeeded in making themselves
ridiculous in their remarks on the
Venezuela question. According to Mr..
Balfour Great Britain is SO far from
desiring any part Of Venezuela's terri
tory that if the whole republic was
offered to England for annexation the
statesmen of England would decline to
receive it! He ridicules the idea Of
the two countries going to war, affirms
that England had heartily concurred
in the Monroe doctrine seventy years
ago and disclaims for English policy
in either South or North America any
thing like a forward policy, that is. a
policy that seeks to extend the boun-
daries of its American possessions.
The gradual extension of British
claims upon Venezuela territory since
1914 is a sufficient contradiction of the
English Arthur's utterances, especially
when considered in connection with
England's well known aggressive
policy in every other country in the
world where she has colonial possess
sions. The British spirit is not likely
to be different in South America than
it is in other countries There is one
British characteristic that is the same
under all climatic nfuences-British
greed for empire, the ambition to en-
large British territory. That passion
is just the same in South America as
it is in South Africa; and Mr. Bal
four is mistaken when he thinks-if he
does think-that British statesmen
would not annex Venezuela if there
was any opportunity for doing it,
England would annex Venezuela with
her newly discovered gold district as
I quickly as her statesmen would annex
the TransvaaI and its gold fields. But
| Germany stands in the way of the
accomplishment of the latter, as the
United States stand in the way of the
1 accomplishment Of the former. The
English Arthur has most probably
/ taken this into account and declares
England would not have even the
whole Of Venezuela-the English
Arthur has perhaps never read the
fable Of the fox and the sour grapes.
Our American Arthurs failings con-
sist also in a Misrepresentation of
| facts with an offensive manner Of
statement added. The dispatches re-
present him as saying in a lecture at
/ New Haven, Conn, that the Monroe
doctrine was divided into two parts.
The first enunciated by President Mon
roe, and a bogus doctrine developed
/ and perfected by President Cleveland.
/ Of the latter he said: ut is the en-
bodiment of insatiate greed. inordinate
sel1shness and colossal bumptfousness
/ Of a large part of the American peo-
pie" In the course of his lecture he
referred to Henry Clay as a man who
talked like an angel, and acted like a
buccaneer with hemorrhages of elo-
quence." The dispatches conclude the
account Of the lecture thus:
Professor Wheeler said further:
Spain, through the special dispensa-
ton of Pope Alexander, the vice-re-
| gent of the Almighty, became the pos
| SCISSOR of the destinies of three-fourths
| of the world. [ don't know that we
/ have patent from the Almighty IN
less it came lately through Pope Gro
yer II
He declared that the act Of the presi-
dent in shaking his fist under Queen
! Victoria's nose was the act of a bully
and said America need have no adj
| prehension of trouble through contact
with England
Much criticism is sometimes INDUCED
in by the more conservative element
in American communities about the
bombast of political speeches; and
about the Incorporate and over
wrought language of the American
press. But can there be room for
much surprise at this if many of the
professors of our colleges are of the
same reckless temperament as Pro-
fessor Arthur Wheeler? Such remarks
are alike unworthy of New England
and Of a professor of Yale. Professors
Of such standing are supposed to dis
cuss questions of the character of the
Monroe doctrine as academic ques-
tons, in a style alike free from pas
sion and prejudice, and above all free
from the phraseology of the lowest
order of political spouters.
| Professor Wheeler should be taught
a few lessons on the proprieties of
academic treatment of great national
questions, and Yale professors should
set a better example to American
party politicians and the American
press than is furnished in this in
stance.
GOLD-BUG SENATORS.