The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-12-21
HARDLY A cAsus BELL.


The editor of the Northwest Maya
zine discusses in the December num-
Der, "The Seal Controversy" AS
he has been recently in Washington,
was there when Sir Wilfrid Laurier
came there on his bootless errand and
interviewed him, and also obtained the
views of our de facto secretary Of
state Mr.. John w. Foster, especially
charged with the manipulation of this
prolonged controversy, his article
may be taken to reflect the
administration views and pur-
poses. He is hardly exact in
saying that, in insisting upon the
right of pelagic sealing Canadians
lean upon Great Britain to support
this claim" We laid before the Paris
tribunal to whose arbitration the diff
ferences were submitted the claim
that, as the seals were land animals
for breeding purposes, and as such
were the property of the United States,
our property right followed them when
they went to sea for feed The deci-
sion went against u.s. and the tribunal
held that our jurisdiction did not ex-
tend beyond the three-league limit, and
the seals when beyond that became
common property. 1t is upon this
right that the Canadians lean"
Having submitted this claim to the
judgment of an international tribunal,
and judgment having gone against us,
there is but one other course open,
and that the Northwest boldly advo-
Gates. I'm view of these pretensions
of Canada Ghe right to pelagic seal
ing) it looks as if the time is close at
hand when the United States must
draw off the gloves of diplomacy in the
seal controversy and show the mailed
hand of force. We must send
gunboatS and armed revenue cutters to
capture their poaching vessels" This,
of course, means war We came near
st when we sent our gunboats and reve-
nue. cutters there and captured their
vessels and conffscated them and il
was only the arbitration of the diff
Guilty that averted it. England may be
bully. and all that she is represented
by the jingoes to be, but she is very
tenacious of her rights and Of those of
her citizens; and the right of pelagic
sealing having been awarded them In
our suit, she will hardly surrender it
TO our mailed hand" We have seri-
Gus doubts whether this administration
will go beyond the bluff and buster
point and "show the mailed hand of
force" Mr.. Mckinley is eminently
man Of peace. He lacks the backbone
that man must have who would send
this nation into such a war as would
ensue. He has not behind him the ira
ditional policy that Mr.. Cleveland had
when he offered England the alterna-
tive of arbitration or fight in the Vene-
zuela case. He is polite man always
and everywhere, and before he made
pelagic sealing a question Of war he
would undoubtedly ponder long the
policy, the effect on his party, of invit-
ing the tremendous consequences of u
war with Great Britain for the sake Of
preserving to the North American
Commercial company the monopoly Of
catching seals in Boring sea.
We question also very much the
policy of fostering this truculent feel
ing towards our neighbors on the
north. 1t would seem as if the COM
mon sense Of ordinary commercialism,
setting aside higher motives, would
make this Northwest unanimous in
support of the cultivation not only Of
the friendliest feeling but Of the closest
trade relations. Instead of joining the
Weyerhaeuser syndicate in putting up
q barrier against Canadian lumber, or
the Tawneys in barring the admission
of Canadian barley and meat, every in
terest here demands that every barrier
to the interchange Of products be re-
moved. What you'd it not mean to
the merchants and manufacturers or
our cities could their goods find unre-
stricted admission to the provinces
northwest of US? How much of the
present dullness in trade would be re-
Neved could that be done? What would