The age-herald., 1898-12-06

 and independent. thus realizing the bess aspirations of the Cuban people, Spanish rule must be replaced by just, benevolent and>humane government, created by the people of Cuba, capable of performing ali international obligations and which shali encourage thrift, industry and prosperity and promote peace and good will among all of the inhabitants whatever may have been their relations in the past Neither revenge nor passion should have place in the new government. Until there is com- plete tranquility in the island and a stable government lnaugurated military occupa- ton will be continued.
 Foreign Relations
 With the exception of the rupture with Spain the intercourse of the United States with the great family of nations have been marked with cordiality and the close of the event finds most of the issues that neces- sarily arise in the complex relations of sovereign states adjusted or presenting no serious obstacle to just and honorable so- lution by amicable adjustment.
 A long unsettled dispute as to the extend- ed boundary between the Argentine Re- public and Chile. stretching along the An dean crests from the southern border of the Atacama desert to Magellan straits, nearly a third of the length of the South ern American continent. assumed an acute stage in the early part of the year and af- forded to this government occasion to ex- press the hope that the resort to arbitra- tion. already contemplated by existing con- ventions between the parties, might prevail despite the grave differences arising in it's application. am happy to say that arr engagements to this end have been perfected, the questions of fact upon which the spective commissioners were unable to agree, being in course of reference to her Britannia majesty for determination. A residualty reference to the northern bound- ary line across the Atacama desert, for which existing treaties provided ade- quate adjustment. bids fair to be settled in like manner by a ont commission, upon which the United States minister at Buenos Ayres has been invited to serve as umpire in the last resort.
 I have found occasion to approach the Argentine government with view of re- moving differences of rate charges imposed upon the cables of an American corpora tion in the transmission between Buenos Ayres and the cities of Uruguay and Bra gil of through messages passing from and to the United States The matter is com plicated by exclusive concess' 'ons by Urua- quay and Brazil to foreign companies, there is strong hope that good understanding will be reached and that the important channels of commercial communication be- tween the United States and the Atlantic cities of South America may be freed from an almost prohib tory discrimination In this relation I may be permitted to express my sense of the fitness of an international agreement whereby the interchange of mes- sages over connecting cables may be reg ulated on fair basis of uniformity. The world has seen the postal system developed from a congeries independent and exclusive service into a well ordered union into which all countries found manifold benefits. It would be strange were the nations not in time brought to realize that modern civil ization which owes so much of it's progress to the annihilation of space by the elec- tric force, demands that this all-important means of communication a heritage of all peoples to be administered and regulated in their common behoof. A step In this direction was taken when the international convention in 1884 for the protection of sub marine cables was signed and the day is, I trust, not far distant when this medium for the transmission of thought from land to land may be brought within the domain of international concert as completely as is the mail carriage, commerce and corre- spondence upon the face of waters that divide them. The claim of Thomas Jef- ferson Page against Argentina, which has been pending many years. has been adjust ed. The sum awarded by the congress of Argentina was $4,242.35.
 The sympathy of the American people has justly been offered to the ruler and the people of Austria Hungary by reason of the affliction that has lately befallen them in the assassination of the Empress-queen of that historic realm.
 Discrimination by Belgium
 On the 10th of September, 1897. conflict took place-at Lottimer, Pa., between body of striking miners and the sheriff of Lu- zerne county and his deputies, in which twenty-two miners were killed and forty four wounded, of which ten of the killed and twelve of the wounded were Austrian and Hungarian subjects. This deplorable event naturally aroused the solicitude of the Austro-Hungarian government, which on the presumption that the killing and wounded warranted the unjustifable mis- use of authority, claimed repatriation of the sufferers. Apart from th's searching in- vestigation by the authorities of Pennsyl- vana. the federal executive took appropri- ate steps to learn the merits of the case in order to be in a position to meet the urgent complaint of a friendly power The sheriff and his deputies having been indicted for murder, were tried and acquitted after pro- tracted proceedings and the hearing of hundreds of witnesses on the ground that the killing was in the line of their official duty to uphold law and preserve public or der. A representative of the department of justice attended the trial and reported It's course fully. With all the facts in it's possession this government expects to reach a harmonious understanding on the sub- ject with that of Austria Hungary, not withstanding the renewed claim of the latter after learning the result of the trial. for indemnity for its injured subjects.
 Despite the brief time allowed for prep araton the exhibits of this country at the Universal exposition at Brussels in 1897 en- joyed a singular distinction of larger pro- portion of awards, having regard to the number and classes of articles entered, than those of other countries. The worth of such result is making known our national capacity to supply the worlds markets is obvious.
 Exhibt'o 'ons of this international character are becoming more frequent as the ex- changes of commercial countries grow more intimate and varied. Hardly a year passes that this government is not invited to na- tional participation at some important for eign center, but often too short notice to permit of recourse to congress for the pow CT and means to do so.
 My predecessors have suggested the ad- visibility of providing by a general enact- ment and a standing appropriation for &C., ceptng such invitations supervised by a