The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1899-04-08
OUR DIPLOMACY Is BEST.
IT HAS WON GREATER VICTORIES
THAN THE EUROPEAN METHOD.

L
| We Are Absolutely Frank in Our Deal
ings With other Nations and Do No
Send Our Representatives Abroad t.
| Lie-Dewey Our Typical Diplomat.
At the recent session at New Haven
Conn.,, of the American Economic ani
Historical Association Professor E. A.
Grosvenor, of Amherst College, made
the most enthusiastically received ad
dress of the convention on the subject
american Diplomacy" He declared
American diplomacy to be superior tc
European diplomacy. Professor Gros
! yenor said:
ga few days ago learned lady o.
my acquaintance asked me on what
was to speak here. I replied 'Ameri
can Diplomacy She exclaimed: q
didn't know there was any, Quota
tions might be multiplied that voice
the conviction that the United States
possesses no diplomatists, or at least
none to be compared with those oil
Europe. If the opinion current in
America of American diplomacy be
founded on fact, our condition it pitt
able, even perllous, and cannot fail to
produce in each of us feeling of hui
initiation and shame. The recognition
of American independence by the
Dutch Republic was q memorable
achievement of American diplomacy.
For months John Adams, the Ameri-
can Envoy, had been denied An en-
trance to the States General. The
second treaty with Great Britain, eff
fected by Chief Justice Jay, was hardly
less an American diplomatic victory.
Its stipulations were fair for both the
contracting parties, but the gains were
distinctively our own.
cit would be an agreeable task to
trace the history of American diplo-
macy, decade by decade, down to the
present time. It is not difficult to
prove that there has been no degener-
acy in it since those heroic days.
There is no better training for the
business of European diplomacy than
the school of practical American poll
tics. It is a better training than is
afforded by the inherited blood of an
ambassadorial line or by the Partially
| of prince or by routine from child
hood in the monotony of Office.
'Imake no claim that our diplomatic
service is perfect, or that all American
Foreign Ministers have been saints or
sages. Sometimes we have had inef-
| ficient, sometimes timid, shutting
men, but what General Woodford said
of himself was the record of his COL
leagues: when your Minister reached
Spain he was absolutely direct and
frank in his dealings In scholarly
culture our diplomatic representatives.
have surpassed those of any other
land. No foreign country has sum
moned to it's services such host of
historians, political economists, poets,
orators, journalists and educators of
every class. Any discussion on this
subject is incomplete which does not
recognize the ability in diplomacy dis
played by the officers of our navy-in
1915, Decatur in Algiers; in 1854,
Perry in the Gulf of Yeddo; in 1867,
Farragut in his European visit on the
flagship Franklin; in 1898. Dewey in
Manila Bay.
'The American diplomatist lives in
glass house, where he may not only
be seen, but stoned. The European
diplomatist still inhabits half-medi-
@val castle, almost impregnable TO
criticism and difficult of access except
by the privileged few. In this later
day the nations listen to catch the &C.
cents of that Western State which has
revealed itself to them.
ST am well aware that many are
clamorous for the adoption of the Eu-
ropean system of diplomacy. Does
American diplomacy offer only an UNI
certain title and ;promise nothing of
real accomplishment? The immensely
of its achievement covers the whole
nineteenth century of international
law. It has broken the caste shackles
of birth, has successfully asserted the
right of expatriation, has declared the
seas and straits and continental rivers
Gods Highways destined to be free
for man. 1t has compelled the rights
of neutrals to be recognized by every
civilized State. Now it is building
the scaffolding for achievement no less
great, the exemption of private prop
erty from capture on sea as it is ex-
empt from capture on land.
During 1898 three famous univers-
flies held regatta. One crew rowed
q foreign stroke, one stroke half for
eign, and the third one American. In
ethe van finished the boat propelled by
the American stroke. In honorable
nearness followed the boat with the
stroke half foreign and half American.
The crew taught with the foreign train
ing was left behind. The American
stroke is the stroke for US, whether
on the Thames, the Seine, the Tiber,
the Spree or the Vein. And that not
because of provincial prejudice or ma
tional pride, but because of the facts
of history"
The Right shop.