The herald., 1898-12-06
FOREIGN RELATIONS
Reasonably Pleasant With All Ma
tions but Spain

FOREIGN RELATIONS
Reasonably Pleasant With All Ma
tions but Spain
With the exception of the rupture with
Spain, the intercourse of the United States
with the great family of nations has been
marked with cordiality and the close of the
eventtul year finds most of the issues that
necessarily arise in the complex relations OF
sovereign states adjusted, or presenting no
serious obstacles to just and honorable
solution by amicable agreement.
A long unsettled dispute as to the ex
tended boundary between the Argentine
Republic and Chile, stretching along the
Andean crests to the southern border OF
the Atacama desert, the Magellan straits
nearly third of the length of the South
American continent, assumed an acute
stage in the early part of the year and af
forded this government occasion to eX'
press the hope that the resort TO arbitration
tions between the parties might prevail
despite the grave difficulties arising in its
application. | am happy to say that ar
rangements to this end have been perfected
the questions of fact upon which the re-
spective commissioners were unable to
agree being in course of reference to her
Britannia majesty for determination.
ern boundary line across the Atacama desert
for which existing treaties provided nc
adequate adjustment, bids fair to be settled
in like manner by joint commission, upcn
which the United States Minister at Rut-
nos Ayres has been invited to serve as UNI
pire in the last resort
l have found occasion to approach the Ar
gentine government with a view 10 remov'
ing differences of rate charges imposed upon
the cables of an American corporation in the
transmission between Buenos Ayres and the
cities of Uruguay and Brazi. of through mes
sages passing from and to the United States.
Although the matter is complicated by eN-
elusive concessions by Uruguay and bust
ness to foreign companies, there is strong
hope that a good understanding will be
reached and that the important channels
of commercial communication between the
United States and the Atlantic cities OF
South America may be sreed from an al
most prohibitory discrimination.
In this relation, | may be permitted to
express my sense of the fitness of interna-
tjonal agreement whereby the interchange
of messages over connecting cables may be
regulated on fair basis of uniformity. The
world has seen the postal system devel.
oped from congeries of independent and
exclusive service into well-ordered union
of which all countries found the manifold
benefits.
1t would be strange were the nations not
in time brought to realize that modern civ
ilization, which owes SO much OF Its pro
gress to the annihilation OF time by the
electric force, demands that this all.import
ant means of communication, heritage
of all peoples. to be administered and regu
lated in their common behalf. A step IN
this direction was taken when the interna
1ional convention of 1884, for the protec.
ton of submarine cables, was signed, and
I Of far n he
this medium for the transmission OF though!
from land to land may be brought within
the domain of international concert as com
pletely as in the material carriage OF com
merce and correspondence upon the face ot
the waters that divide them.
The claim of Thomas Jefferson Page
against Argentina. which has been pending
many years, has been adjusted The sur
awarded by the Congress of Argentina wa;
S4242. .35.
ASSASSINATION AND RIOT
The sympathy of the American people
has Justly been offered to the ruler and the
afhiction that has lately befallen them II
the assassination of the Empress-queen o
that historic realm.
On the 10th of September, 1897
conflict took place at Lati
mer. Pa. between body of striking miner
and the Sheriff of Luzerne county and his
deputies. in which twenty-five miners wer
killed and forty-four wounded, OF whom
ten of the killed and twelve of the wounded
were Austrian and Hungarian subjects
This deplorable event naturally aroused th
solicitude of the Austro Hungarian Gov
ernment, which, on the assumption tina
the killing and wounding involved the un
iustifiable misuse of authority, claimed
rieparation for the sufferers. Apart from
the searching investigation and the peremp
tory action OF the authorities of Pennsyl
vania, the Federal executive took appro
pirate steps to learn the merits OF the cas-
in order 10 be in position to meet tn
urgent complaint of friendly power. Th
| Sheriff and his deputies, having been IN
dicted for murder, were tried and acquitted
after protracted proceedings and the hearin
of hundreds OF witnesses, on the ground tha
| the killing was in the line of their offlcia
| duty to uphold law and preserve public OF
der in the State. \ representative Of tn
| Department of Justice attended the trial
and reported its course fully. With all tn
| facts in its possession, this Government eS
poets TO reach harmonious understandin
on the subject with that of Austro Hun
gary. Notwithstanding the renewed clair
of the latter after learning the result of tn
trial for indemnity for its injured subjects
INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITIONS
Despite the brief time allotted for preps
ratiorr the exhibits of this country at tn
universal exposition at Brussels in 1897 Ell
joyed the signal distinction of larger pro
portion of awards, having regard to tn
number and classes of articles entered, tha
those of other countries. The worth c
such result in making known our natons
capacity to supply the worlds markets
| obvious.
Exhibits of this international characte
are becoming more frequent as the eXchang
of commercial countries grow more intimat
and varied. Hardly a year passes that tn
/ Government Is not invited to national pa
ticipation of some important foreign cente
but often on too short notice to permit c
recourse to Congress for the power an
suggested the advisability of providing b
a general enactment a standing appropria
tion for accepting such invitations and fo
representation of this country by comm
sion. This plan has my cordial approval
trust the Belgian restriction on the in
portations of cattle from the United State
originally adopted as a sanitary precautiol
will al an early date be modified as to the
present and future of hardship and di
elimination, so as to admit live cattle und,
due regulation of their slaughter after lant
ing. | am hopeful, too, of favorable chang
in the Belgian treatment of our preserve
and salted meats. The growth of dire
trade between the two countries, not alor
for Belgian consumption and Belgian pro,
ucts, but by way of transit from and I
other continental States, has been both el
couraging and beneficial. No effort will