The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-12-06
FOREIGN RELATIONS.
Our Intercourse with All NRtf6ns, Ex-f
nont Snnin Hns Been COrdinI.
NO SERIOUS DISPUTES.

Our Intercourse with All NEtfOns, Ex-s
cent Spain, Has Been Cordial.
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 eventful year finds most of the issues
that necessarily arise in the complex rela-
lions of sovereign states adjusted or pre-
senting no serious obstacle to a just and
honorable solution by amicable agreement.
A long unsettled dispute as to the ex-
tended boundary between Argentine and
Chile stretching along the Andean crests
from the southern border of the Atacama
desert to Magellan straits, nearly third
of the length of the South American con-
tinent, assumed an acute stage in the early
part of the year and afforded to this govern
ment occasion to express the hope that the
resort to arbitration already contemplated
by existing conventions between the parties
might prevail despite the grave difficulties
arising in its application. 1 am happy to
say that arrangements to this end have
been perfected, the questions of fact upon
which the respective commissioners were
unable to agree being in course of refer
ence to her Britannia Majesty for deter
mination, A residual difference touching
the northern boundary line across the Alta
CANA desert for which existing treaties pro-
Vided no adequate adjustment bids fair to
be settled in like manner by joint commits
sion, upon which the United States minister
at Buenos Ayres has been invited to serve
as umpire in the last resort.
/ have found occasion to approach the
Argentine government with a view to re-
moving difference Of rate charges imposed
upon the cables of an American corpora
ton in the transmission between Buenos
Ayres and the cities of Uruguay and Brazil
of through messages passing from and 20
the United States. Although the matter is
cOmplicate by exclusive concessions by
Uruguay and Brazil to foreign companies,
there is strong hope that q good under
standing will be reached and that the inn
portant channels of commercial communica-
ton between the United States and the At
lantic cities of South America may be freed
from an almost prOhibitory discrimination.
INTERCHANGE OF CABLEGRAMS.
In this relation l may be permitted to ex-
press my sense of the fitness of an internal
tional agreement whereby the interchange
of messages over connecting cables may be
regulated on a fair basis of uniformity
The world has seen the postal system de-
veloped from a congeries independent and
exclusive service into a well-ordered union
of which all countries found the manifold
benefits 1t would be strange were the ma
tions not in time brought to realize that
modern civilization, which owes so much
of its progress to the humiliation of space
by the electric force, demands that this all
important means of communication, a her.
itage of all peoples be administered and
regulated in their common behoof. a step
In this direction was taken when the inter-
national congress, in 1884, for the protec-
ton Of submarine cables was signed, and
the day IS, trust net Jar on when this
from land TO land may be brought within
the domain of the International concert as
completely as is the material carriage Of