Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1898-10-20
SPAIN STUDY|NGuP[OMACY,
The American Commissioners Are Civ
ing Lessons

IN THE DIPLOMATIC GAME WHICH
STICKS TO AGREEMENTS, DEALS
HONESTLY AND SHOWS A PUR-
POSE TO BE FAIR-PROPOSITIONS
FOR ARBITRATION WILL NOT BE
ENTERTAINED BY THE UNITED
STATES-IF THE PEACE COMMITS
SION FAILS TO COME TO AN
AGREEMENT, THE SWORD WILL
BE DRAWN AGAIN AND THE
WAR RESUMED-THE PROTOCOL
AGREEMENTS MUST ALL BE
LIVED UP TO AND NO SINGLE
LINE OF VARIATION WILL BE
| PERMITTED
Paris, October 19.-The Spanish peace
| commission was unable TO meet the
United States peace commission at the
joint session arranged for to-day and
| the next meeting of the two commits
| sions has been fixed for Friday next
I Judge Day, president of the Ameri-
can commission, received a communi-
cation this morning from Senior Mon
tero RIOS. president of the Spanish
commission, saying that advices ex-
| pected but not received from Madrid,
made it necessary for himself and his
| colleagues to request a postponement
| of any further conferences until Fri
day next. courteous reply was re-
| turned by Secretary Moore, in behalf
| of the American commissioners, grant
| ing an extension Of the time of the next
meeting as requested.
f! While the deferring of any one con-
| ference for two days is not in itself
an important request, the delay by the
Spaniards at this juncture is something
more than significant The game OF
| diplomacy now progressing here has
| reached a stage which makes it neces-
sary that the next move be made by
| the Spanish commissioners. They are
| confronted by the plain fact of their
evacuate Cuba without 'ifs." lands"
or butts" 1t has become clear here
| that the Spaniards cherished the hope
that they could Internationally cove
nant to follow a given path and ulti-
mately wander elsewhere and do less
or more than was provided for in the
| protocol compact. The American COM
missioners, however. have firmly adj
| hered to the boundary lines already mu-
tually established and within which
they insist the Spaniards, as well as
themselves, shall duly proceed.
| 1t is not too much to say that
SPAIN NOW HAS MORE LIGHT
| than ever before on the integrity and
steadfastness in word and purpose of
| the United States. Nor is it wide of
the fact to say that the Spaniards are
now initially approaching that the Uni
| ted States did not make war on Spain
to acquire Cuba as conquest prize.
OF this Spaniards may not yet be
wholly convinced, but the firm refusal
of Judge Day and his colleagues to
! assume the Cuban debt, because the
United States will not take over the
| sovereignty, has widened Spanish per-
| ceptions and has unquestionably has
tened their convictions. Wherefore it
may, in a sense, be true that having
| for the first time a feeling that Ameri-
can pledges and American /erform-
| ance and co-equal terms, the Span
| iards are now practically on the
threshold of properly lighted negotia-
/ tons.
When Spain approached these nego-
| tiations she was confronted by a wall
| Of fast agreement which she, however,
| regarded as possible Of break or pune
| ture at the point of Castillian diplo-
macy. Thus she poised and has
launched against the protocol structure
| OF seeming solidity the keen lances Of
her finesse. They have fallen broken
| at her feet. The wall of American
purpose and mutual compact has
| proven not only apparent, but real,
and now SPANS commissioners give
pause to their attack On the Cuban
angle and ask time to assure them
selves of their
PREVIOUS MEASUREMENT,
and also to reform their lines or ar
/ range new ones
| The assigned reason for to-days re-
quest for delay is believed to have been
| to allow an interchange of communi-
| cations with Madrid and TO formulate
a final attitude On the Cuban question.
! This attitude of the Spaniards to be
| developed on Friday will be watched
with no little interest. Their alterna-
tives are few but pregnant. They ac-
| cede to the American attitude, them
selves assume the Cuban debt, and go
! forward to consider the next protocol
| point, of Porto Rico and the choice by
! the United States of an island in the
Ladrone group; or they may at this
| juncture formally ask for arbitration,
| or as an extremity which is not likely,
may retire from further negotiations.
The tone, during the last four days
| of the Spanish and French press is
/ Significant of widened condolences by
| the Spanish as to the attitude they
1 have assumed in the negotiations here
! and the recurring assurances of SPANS
J desire for arbitration may have had
/ a meaning The Spaniards may not
| have sought TO promote sympathy but
| had they desired TO lay down basis
upon which TO set up plea to Europe
to prevent what it is sought TO present
| as her ravishment, the surface indica-
tions could not have been more favor
ably disposed for that purpose than
| they have been.
| The American commissioners, after
/ desDatching their acuuiescence IN the