The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-04-05
Careful mining pays.
The Arbitration Treaty.

The arbitration treaty, In its hnal
form as II awaits the vote when Is
to determine its ratification or reJec-
tion, is a different instrument from
that which came from the pens of Sec
retary Olney and Ambassador Paunce-
fote. Originally II was u wide-open
provision for the arbitration of practl-
cally all differences arising during the
ensuing five years, and subject TO the
decision of a standing tribunal in whlch
the King of Norway and Sweden was
to have the determining vote. Now, IL
provides for separate tribunals Tor
each arbitration, reserves TO the SEN
ate the right to pass on the conditions
of each arbitration: eliminates from
arbitration except by special agreement
all questions of foreign and domestic
policy and the question whether any
treaty, once existing, continue in force
and requires the two governments to
choose an umpire for each occasion.
The pruviso has also been inserted that
no claim of a citizen of Great Britain
against a state or territory of the
United States shall be subject of ar
bitration under this treaty.
Whether these changes have been
wise OF not is a matter largely for the
future to determine. They have been
insisted upon by senators whose pat
riotsm ana Intelligence are not open
to question. and are the fruits of a
thorough discussion covering every
possible phase of the treaty's useful
ness and significance. We have felt,
with many others, that the senate may
have been unduly suspicious of con-
Cealed trickery on England's part; yet
ON the other hand, the senate, of all
places, is the place where the clearest
conception may be gained of England's S
probable purposes in a matter of this
kind. 1t is pertinent so to say, in the
senate's defense, that upon every past
occasion when negotiation for any pur-
pose has passed between London and
Washington, the sleight .of-ha work
has been British and the loser, when
loss has occurred, has been the United
States. So that, if the senate has been
slow to yield to purely sentimental
opinion in the present instance and has
held tenGciously, and even perhaps be-
Nond reason, to the courage Of it's sus-
picions, its course, after all, has been
grounded in a sense of duty whicn
Americans, when they come fully to
understand the circumstances, will per-
force admire.
We have found in Washington, among
the opponents of the Olncy draft of the
arbitration treaty, not u sense of antag-
onism to arbitration as a principle, but
only the conviction that in its original
form this treaty represented a new and
dangerous tribute to England's SUPER
ior astuteness. This conviction per-
vades the senate and is general among
the foreign diplomatists who view the
issue with curious but impartial eyes.
1t is the virtually uudisputed belief in
these circles that the principle of ar
bitration would sustain in the end a
worse defeat in the ratification of such
a treaty, under whose terms the United
States might be bound to odious consa-
quences, than in its utter rejection.
1t is pointed out that the failure of
this one instrument cannot fairly Law
US "peH ~ tne CharSe OF Indifference
TO arbitration, since we have already
made resort to that principle time and
time again, but would rather be inter
preted as a notification to foreign DOW
ers that en- arbitration with us, to be
effective, must be fair.
such' we repeat, is the manner in
Whlch this question is viewed at tn.
capital We have heretofore expressed
other views, and have held contrary
hopes' but visit to Washington has
uispelled the latter and revealed condi-
uohs more plainly. The fact, i'm anv
hght' is that if the arbitration treaty
Is passed at all, it viii be in its present
restricted ana delimited form; and the
longer 1t is considered the smaller
seems the likelihood that it will not in
the end be rejected.