The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1897-02-17
Hung Up.

Congress. Its fate will be
determined by the Senate that will con.
vene after March 4. An amendment
has been proposed, by the unanimous
action of the committee on Foreign
Relations, which requires that all cases
for considerati IN under the treaty
shall be prepared by the President and
submitted to the Senate for its approval
in the same manner as treaties are ne
gotiated and ratified. This amend
ment was in lieu of all other proposed
amendments, excepting the final refer
ence to the King of Sweden, and it
was supposed that it would disarm all
opposition to the treaty. But Senators
expressed opposition to the treaty on
its merits. The life of this Senate is
too short to consider the treaty in the
presence of the disposition of Senators
to engage in unlimited debate. Other
business imperatively demands Senate
rial attention, and the treaty will un-
q~uestionably be laid aside for the pres
ent.
1t is said that hardly half a dozen
Senators are agreed in their interpreta-
ton of the treaty. A similar diver
gence of opinion exists outside the
Senate. The LII DIS, the boards of
trade and the college professors appear
to be about the only people that know
all about the proposed compact, and
these, in strident tones, are demanding
its immediate ratification, withouti so
much as the dotting of an i or the
crossing of a t of the work of the hands
of Olney and Pauncefote. Ex-senator
Edmunds is the great authority of the
immediate and unconditional ratiica-
tionists. But the ex-senator says that
emo claim is arbitral under the treaty
that does not rest upon some right
gained by contract or founded in the
canons of international law" He
argue that neither the Monroe doc
trine nor the Nicaragua canal could be
brought under the authority of the
treaty. He declares further that eff it
should ever happen that either govern
ment should insist upon submitting to
arbitration the question that the other
thought did not fall within the treaty,
it would have the entire and just lib
erty of declining to arbitrate." If the
ex-senator is right, or if the Senate
shall amend the treaty as the committee
on Foreign Relations has proposed, in
either case, the treaty, ratified with
out amendment or with amendment,
appears to be merely a piece of senti-
mental legislation; it will practi-
cally leave the two countries just where
they are now. They will arbitrate a
disputed question, or they will not ar
bitrate it, according as either decides;
and each will determine the matter the
one way or the other, in accordance
with its own ideas of its rights or inter
ests, now or prospectively.
On the other hand, the language of
the treaty makes no reservation as to
the subject matter of dispute, but pro-
vides for the submission to arbitration
of " all questions in dispute (between
the contracting parties) which they
may fail to adjust by diplomatic nego-
tiations." Secretary Olney is reported
as saying to the SenateIcommittee on
Foreign Relations that the question of
the building and control of the Nicara-
qua canal would come under the au-
thority of the treaty. When it is pro-
posed specifically to except, by name
or by equivalent phrase, The Monroe
doctrine and the Nicaragua canal, a
great outcry is made by the advocates
of immediate ratification, or by those
who contend that these questions can
not be brought into the arbitrsl tri-
bunal under the treaty as originally
drawn and sent to the Senate, and with
strange contradiction of logic they
straightway begin to argue that the
amendments will endanger its ratifca-
ton by Great Britain. A jurist, even
much less astute than Mr.. Edmunds,
would be able to show-conclusively to
the average Observation-Disclosures the
latter's analysis of the treaty is not
justified by its language; that when it
is proposed to provide a court for in
ternational causes, it would be absurd
to nullify the scheme by suffering
either party to the international law
suit, at the dictate of a whim or at the
command of self-interest, or for any
other reason, to refuse to appear at the