The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-10-09
RIVER AT 8 A. M.


Mr.. John w. Foster, ex-secretary OF
state. general international factotum,
special representative of the North
American Commercial company in the
Mckinley administration, and secretary
of state for seals, is trying with des-
perate zeal to wriggle out of the trap
which he set for Salisbury and into
which he himself has fallen. He wrote
the dispatch to Ambassador Hay of
last May, to which John Sherman's
name was affixed and he is now in
spring the dispatches sent out from
Washington designed to cover up his
, failure. Ever since he bungled the
presentation of our case before the
Paris tribunal he has been trying to
commit England to a further agree
ment for the preservation of the seals
for the North American Commercial
company That award settled certain
controversies about jurisdiction and
provided means to prevent the destruc-
ton of the seal herds. 1t also cast the
United States in damages for the il
legal seizure and confiscation of Ca
madam sealers. The damages have not
been paid, and England quite natural
ly declines any further negotiations
until the bill is paid.
Meantime pelagic sealing has con-
tinued to the diminution of the profit of
cur seal monopoly A question of We
racity arose as to whether this kind of
sealing was not destroying the herds.
The experts differed The note of May
charged England with bad faith in her
experts A conference was arranged
for this month of these experts to get
at the facts. Meantime Foster fancied
he could dragon Salisbury into ne
gotiating further provisions for the
benefit of his client, the seal monopoly.
if he could give this conference Of the
experts an international aspect. So
he posted off to Japan and to Russia,
whose coasts are frequented by seals,
and got them to send representatives
to an international convention. Having
obtained their assent, he causes Eng
land to be advised of it, the bad faith"
dispatch being intended as a lash to
drive her into the trap. The repre-
sentatives OF the powers would come
authorized to make agreements for joint
action for preserving the seals. But
Salisbury made it very plain in his
note of July IS that the understanding
did not contemplate any such conven-
to lNo
of the experts to settle certain disputed
facts preliminary to any further nego-
tiations; probably to settle the matter
of bad faith"
This puts Mr.. Foster in a very NOR
tifying hole, and ne is trying to wrfg-
gle out Of it, He now claims that Eng
land has backed out at the command
of Canada. He indites a press dis
patch asserting that this cannot be
too strongly insisted upon" He is con-
fronted with an awkward dilemma
The representatives of Japan and Rus
STA are coming to negotiate an interna-
tional agreement relative to seal catch
ing They have little or no interest in
SNe'A'NA-NNSA
courtesy to this country, which, with
England is interested. He also has a
conference of experts on his hands to
ascertain whether his accusation of
bad faith on the part of Salisbury is
correct or not. He wants the confer
ence, turned into a convention, and
England says no; one thing at time.
Mr.. Foster is, what Prof. Elliott terms
him, a bungler, and is what he has
shown himself to be, an international
busybody He should subside. The
government should also retire from
this sorry complication in which its
partnership with as rapacious monop-
oily as ever existed has involved it.
All the seals that swim the seas or
mate on the Pribyloff islands are not
worth the international disturbance
that has been occasioned. They have
brought enough humiliation upon US