The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-06-22
JOHN BULL IS DISGUSTED
The Defeat of the Arbitration Treaty Cuts
Him to the Quick
(From the London Spectator.)

(From the London Spectator.)
The American senate has refused, by a
vote of 43 to 26, to ratify the arbitration
treaty between this country and the
United States. That the senate should
have taken this curse is a subject for the
deepest regret. What We deplore is not
so much the loss of the particular treaty
as the evidence that the United States
has taken up and means to maintain an
unfriendly attitude toward this country
That this is the explanation which must
be placed on the action of the senate is,
We fear, beyond denial. No doubt there
was, and is, a large section of opinion in
America sincerely anxious for the ratif-
cation Of the treaty, but the fact that this
section was unable to influence the people
shows, we fear, that the mass of the peo-
pie did not want to do away with the pos
sibility of war with England over frivol-
Gus or ~uniTnpOrtant matters. This is a
grave fact, and one which must be faced
as much by those who still cling to the
nope Of an ultimate understanding among
the Anglo-Saxon race as by those who be-
lieve that the Americans are hopelessly
estranged from their kinsmen over the
sea.
The causes which have led the senate of
the United States to come to the conclu-
sion that it is not to the interest OF their
country to conclude a treaty providing for
the arbitrament of war require careful
examination. Before considering them,
however, we must dismiss as utterly alb
surd Senate Chambers allegation that
the thing which tended more than any
thing else to defeat the treaty was Eng
lands action in having Joined the pow
ers in bombarding Crete. That is, Of
course, a mere excuse, and worth nc seri-
Gus attention. Americans may feel, as
we do, great sympathy for Crete; but they
you'll 10 hoy n r~nf11ca1 TO n hor on
pOrtunitieS fer war with us on trivial dis
puteS on such a ground any more than we
should have refused to make the treaty
because America has allowed Spain to put
down the Cuban inSurrectiOn, and did not
intervene in the interests of humanity.
Senator Chandler was simply trying to
find an excuse for the unfriendliness Of
the senate, and, seeing no other one
handy, pOunced upon Crete.
The real causes, we fear, lie far deeper
than any trivial disagreement with Eng
lands policy in regard to a particular
phase of the eastern question. We believe
pie of the United States draw back from
the treaty at the last moment was what
we may call the Authoritarian of the
American people. There is a strong Puri-
tan element in the United States, but
there is also a far stronger cavalier ele-
ment-the element that likes a fight and a
flourish, that hates moderation and So
briefly and prudence, and cannot tolerate
the notion of the fate of the country being
in the hands of the ~clergymen and the
professors. the lawyers and the philan-
thropists. This Anti-Puritan element loves
the excitement of war, and would not
willing cut itself off from the luxury of
being able to make war. But to agree to
the Puritan demand for ar arbitration
treaty with England seemed to the Anti
PuritanS like nothing so much as closing
the door to all chance of ever showing
hat Americans were the best soldiers and
sailors in the world. England is practi-
cally the only country with which
America can fight-MexicO does not count
for it is the only great country which
has a land frontier with the United
States. Therefore to make a treaty of
arbitration with England was to close the
only possible road to military glory.