The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-05-07

a few months ago the people of two
continents were interested and united
as they have rarely been over the pro-
posed arbitration agreement between
the United States and Great Britain.
A treaty on noble and generous lines,
fair to both parties and containing no
possible menace to the free action OF
either of them, had been negotiated by
Mr.. Olney with the Salisbury govern
ment 1t was triumph for humanity
and civilization. 1t met with the unan-
imous and enthusiastic approval Of
both nations. Mass meetings We're
held in the great cities in both coun-
tries to rejoice over it and to urge its
immediate adoption. This same treaty
has t.ist been defeated in the United
States senate, and the event creates
scarcely ripple of interest in the pub
lie mind. How can an event so uneX-
pected and a change SO pronounced be
explained?
Two influences account not only for
the fate of the treaty, but for the ap-
parent Indifference with which it has
been received by the public. The first
is the work Of the lingo savages of the
senate, who saw to it early that the
treaty should be so emasculated as to
be made both worthless and ridiculous.
A part of these people were animated
by personal hatred to Mr.. Cleveland
and a determination to defeat, at any
public sacrifice, a measure, however
admirable, that bore the stamp of his
administration. These same men had
also resolved to use the arbitration
treaty and the peace Of the world as a
club Wherewith to force consideration
of their pet steal, the Nicaragua canal
bill. There were others, who We're
playing to the galleries in the belief
that to fight anything to which Eng
land might agree would be popular
with the American voter. No small
part was played by the free silver SEN
ators, who argued, in some mysterious
way, that to shut out the United States
from the benefits of an arbitration
agreement, surely as desirable to it as
to England, would be a fit punishment
for the leading supporter of the gold
were strong enough to secure changes
in the treaty by the senate committee
that deprived it not only of value, but
of meaning. The treaty, as reported
to the senate, was a tumble of empty
words, which, if adopted, could have
had no more efficacy and no more rela-
ton to the settlement Of differences by
arbitration than the motto on a cam
paign button. From the moment that
1t appeared that the treaty would take
such shape, interest in it died out on
both sides of the Atlantic 1t was prob
able that Great Britain herself would
refuse to parley with such folly, ard,
for ourselves, it was not worth a mo-
ment's thought.
All this, however, would not have
changed the interest Of the American
people in what they justly regarded to
be the most important movement of
this generation had not the British gov
eminent stirred to it's depths Ameri-
can repugnance to the British spirit.
1t appeared clearly, in the vote of our
senate, that many who would other
wise have favored the treaty are adj
verse to entering into any agreement
with nation that is capable of the
enormities perpetrated by the English
government in its relation to the dis
turbances in the East. The attitude of
Great Britain toward Greece, and her
tacit participation in the frightful out
RACES upon Turkish subjects every
where, have created a powerful revul-
sion Of public feeling abroad, as well as
at home. We cannot deny that the ar
gument drawn from this has great
force. The G o b has been from the
first an ardent advocate Of the arbitra-
tion treaty, and believes today that it's
ratification. as originally agreed upon